Jane was half-back in BPD for three months now and it was great. She realized just how much she missed the job, the rush, the fun with her colleagues and the visits in morgue and flirting with Maura over dead bodies.
"Hey, Jane," Korsak called from his desk. Jane just lifted her head and looked at him.
"Doesn't little Dylan have birthday the next month?"
Jane smiled widely, pleasantly surprised that he remembers such thing. "Yeah, she does. It's incredible how fast she's growing."
"I hope I am invited to the party, because I have a gift picked out already." Vince smiled. He adored the little girl and enjoyed playing with her from time to time when he paid them a visit.
"Only because you're my boss," Jane teased with a smirk "And because you give me discounted beer forever."
Vince laughed it off and turned back to his computer.
Nina overheard their exchange and only grinned.
"Uhm, Nina, would you please go to Mau- Doctor Is-.. Maura, and ask her for the autopsy report file again? I wanna take a look at it again..."
"Yes, of course," Nina walked towards the elevators, when Jane stopped her.
"Please give her this," she gave her a little folded paper.
Nina smiled knowingly and nodded, but as soon as she was out of sight, she sighed and rolled her eyes with a smirk. Becoming a carrier-pigeon for their love letters definitely wasn't part of the original plan.
She stepped out of the elevator and walked through the glass door to the lab, where she spotted Maura.
"Hello Maura."
"Oh hello Nina, what can I do for you?" Maura smiled and took off her gloves.
"Uhm, Jane sent me for the autopsy report file, because she wants to go through it again. And she wanted me to give you this." Nina smirked a little and handed over the note.
Maura felt a bit embarrassed, but she took the note and hid her blush by reading it.
"Hey Maura, Vince invited himself to Dylan's birthday party (seems like we're having one), would you invite Nina?
P.S.: Roses are red,
violets are blue,
I'm bored as hell here,
can't wait for night with you!"
Maura laughed at the Post Scriptum, because just the day before Jane explained her what the deal with Roses are red, violets are blue poem is.
She put the note in her pocket and walked to her office, motioning Nina to follow. She took the right file from her desk and handed it over to Nina.
"Here you go."
"Thank you." Nina smiled and turned to walk away.
"Wait, Nina? Dylan's going to have a birthday party next month, would you like to come?" Maura smiled sincerely, waiting for an answer.
"Oh. I'd love that. I could… I could bring along a three year old girl, if you wanted somebody to play with Dylan?" Nina asked self-consciously.
"That would be great! But where do… Where do you know that girl from, if you don't mind me asking?"
"That's the deal, I would have to bring somebody else along…"
Maura nodded with a smile, wanting to show that she doesn't mind, and gave Nina time and space to express herself.
"My girlfriend has a little daughter and we see each other on weekends, so if I could take them with me?" Nina said after a while of hesitation.
"That's a great idea! I hope they want to come. I will let you know, or Jane will, when it's going to be held."
"Thank you-"
"Not at all."
"No, thank you for caring, you know, I don't have that feeling around many people. I'm glad I will have someone to know about her and someone to maybe talk about her with from time to time? Because she really is spectacular." Nina beamed proudly and tilted her head shyly. "So thank you, it means a lot."
Maura went in for a hug. "Anytime. We are friends, remember?"
"Yeah," Nina sighed and wrapped her arms around Maura. "We are."
Jane sat down on the couch and pulled laptop on herself. She connected the camera with it and started copying the photos to the computer. She pulled her hair into ponytail as she waited, and watched Maura in the kitchen.
Maura was cleaning up last dishes after the birthday party, humming to herself.
"Honey? The photos are in the computer, can you?" Jane called after a while.
"Oh. Of course, I'll be right there," Maura swiped the kitchen counter, threw the cloth into sink and joined Jane on the couch, cuddling to her side.
"You took hell lot of photos," Jane chuckled, scrolling through the file.
"I wanted to capture the moment and the atmosphere?" Maura smiled and pointed her finger to a group of pictures on the screen. "I didn't take those – you were taking pictures too?"
"Of course, I needed some pretty pictures of my pretty girlfriend with our daughter." Jane smirked and earned herself a kiss.
"Flattery will get you everywhere, Detective Rizzoli."
Jane opened the first picture. It was her greeting Frankie with a half hug.
"I like the next one better," Maura smiled and switched to the next picture, where Jane was hugging Frankie and Dylan ran into the picture to greet her uncle.
"She's gonna be the best photobomber in the world," Jane laughed at the expression of her daughter – pure excitement, but her face was blurry from how fast she ran into the pic.
Maura switched to another picture and beamed. It was a picture at the door, Jane welcoming Tommy with a hug, Lydia next to them smiling at the sight of little TJ hugging his cousin by the example of his daddy. The next picture was Angela hugging Tommy as if they haven't seen each other for years even though they paid her monthly visits with TJ.
The next photo was obviously taken from kitchen and it was the arrival of Korsak, with the following pictures of Dylan running towards him and Dylan being carried on Korsak's shoulders.
"I love this one." Jane said about the last one. "They adore each other."
"Hmmm, they really do," Maura smiled and tilted her head slightly. "It's a shame he doesn't have children of his own."
"Yeah. But he has his adoptive son. And me?"
"True, you are worth for three."
"Excuse me Doctor Isles?" Jane looked scandalized and sneaked one hand to Maura's side and started tickling. "I hope you didn't think you're getting out of this easily."
Maura was laughing and trying to squirm away, but Jane wouldn't let her.
"Okay, I apologize!" Maura surrendered and kissed Jane, knowing this always worked. Jane indeed calmed down and returned her concentration to the screen.
"So, where were we." she said casually, trying to ignore her tingling lips from the kiss.
"I put the camera down when Susie came-"
"I took over." Jane clicked and showed Maura a photo of Susie smiling brightly at Maura in the doorway. "Chang adores you."
"I think she just shows appreciation of my hard-working nature, that lead me so far-"
"Yeah, you're her hero, you know that."
"She's a good friend of mine-"
"Have you ever been to a nudist beach with her?" Jane raised one eyebrow, but kept her voice steady.
"What? Jane, no!" Maura turned to Jane to see her expression, only to find out that Jane masked her teasing with serious tone again. So Maura nudged her to her ribs again and turned back to the screen.
The next photo showed her greeting Nina and her girlfriend, who was carrying her little baby girl in her arms. "She was nice." Jane pondered, looking at the photo.
"Yes, she was very nice, but also very nervous."
"Well, I can't blame her, you know what kind of nutballs we are and she was supposed to come with her child and girlfriend to meet us? That's the true bravery!"
Maura laughed and nudged Jane into ribs. "Your family isn't that terrible!"
"Isn't it Maura? ISN'T IT?"
"I-"
"No, even you can't make up enough arguments."
Maura sighed with a faint smile. "Okay. I'm not saying it wasn't brave of Trisha to come meet her girlfriend's friends. I know how difficult it was for me to meet new people who would care… But she was really lovely and little Lilly too, she was just adorable!"
"Yeah and she seems to get on well with Dylan, so finally we have a friend for her! I hope."
"I hope so too." Maura smiled and clicked to the next photo. It was Angela with a birthday cake she made – she already decided that it was going to be a tradition that she bakes birthday cakes for her grandchildren and she decided she had to outdo herself every year.
"Ma did really amazing job with this cake."
"It was really delicious!" Maura agreed, then paused. "Honey? Do you know what your mother said to me after I complimented the cake to her?"
"No but I think I have a pretty good idea. I still can guess right? Or does dating you come with no guessing rule as well?" Jane teased and Maura kissed her quickly, just a fierce clash of lips and the kiss was over.
"You can guess." Maura said, placing emphasis on the 'you'.
"Because you love meeeeeeee!"
"Yes, because I love you." Maura rolled her eyes but smiled tenderly.
"Ma offered you a wedding cake didn't she?"
"You know her really well." Maura laughed and kissed Jane's shoulder. "Yes she did."
Jane sighed. "That woman is a disaster."
Jane clicked through next photos – most of them were pictures of Dylan with Lilly, playing with the new gifts.
At that Maura looked at the further end of the living room, where there still were the gifts lying around. A doll house from her grandma, little tent for playing in the garden, a wooden toy dog on wheels which could be dragged by a string, a wooden train set from Tommy and Lydia, an easel with markers for Dylan's room and kid's kitchen from her moms.
Jane clicked on the next picture.
"This one is perfect Maura! You caught the excitement she had on her face as she ran from gift to gift, wanting to play with each one of them." Jane chuckled and watched the current photo glowing on the screen. "You're really good with a camera, you know."
"Thank you, Jane." Maura smiled and kissed Jane's cheek, cuddling back close to her.
They scrolled through the rest of the photos, beautiful moments captured by Maura or Jane or Tommy, who offered to take few pictures of Jane with Maura too.
"I can't believe she's two already." Jane sighed when they finished going through the photos and she switched the laptop off.
"Yeah, me neither. The time is running so fast."
Jane brought Maura even closer to her with the arm she wrapped around her.
"I love you."
"I love you too."