Author's note: thank you so much for all the reviews and suggestions. Also no worries, nothing will be atrociously dramatic in this story either.

Chapter twenty-six – Avant-gardist

And fail. One more time, she had gone too fast and soon lost her grip on the clay; her mishap resulting into a rounded shape vase turning into an approximate... Well, nothing. Jane made a face. It looked like nothing. A bit embarrassed, she cast a furtive glance at Guadalupe's own work. The artist was peacefully focused on her own vase, her fingers sliding smoothly around the clay as if it were the easiest thing ever created.

But the detective's quick glance turned into a long observation and soon caught Guadalupe's attention. The girl looked down at Jane's work – bit her lips – and shrugged. "Yours is very... Modern."

Jane raised an unconvinced eyebrow. "You shouldn't be nice when there's no reason to, you know. I suck and it is definitely okay to say it. Pottery isn't my thing. But I will have tried."

"You need to slow down your wheel and not push on the clay with your hands. It's like... A soft caress. You follow the movement, the pace you give to it. Your hands have to play a protective role on the object you shape. Strongly yet softly. Like when you take Maura's hand, for instance."

The unexpected comparison made Jane blush. Guadalupe giggled at her reaction and quickly pushed away a strand of hair from her face - leaving clay on her forehead – before putting her hand back on her vase.

"You're very sweet with Maura. Imagine it's her body you're shaping."

And then what? A remake of Ghost? Jane politely nodded – embarrassed by the suggestion – and looked around at the other vacationers.

Of course, the most into New Age stuff had signed up for the pottery workshop. Freaks who didn't eat meat and only accepted organic food into their bodies after a three-week detox in the mountains surrounded by sheep. Or something close to it, Jane was certain of that.

Back to her lose attempt to create a vase. At least Maura wasn't there to witness the disaster. If Jane had taken it badly at first, she was finally glad that the medical examiner had had to cancel for a last-minute Skype session with the lab that were dealing with a tough case and needed her advices.

That and the repairman she had called for after breaking one of the speakers as the first notes of a bachata had woken her up around 7.30am. Apparently, Jane's trick to stop the music had only worked for a while.

And Maura was really good at aiming at ceiling corners with flying objects like heavy books and plastic bottles.

Note to yourself, Riz': don't piss Maura off if there's anything she can grab and throw at you within a second. She's short but strong. Must be yoga.

"Where is Lisa, by the way? Wasn't she supposed to be here too?" Casual tone. Calm, innocent enough. The art dealer's absence had immediately caught Jane's attention but she had done her best to wait for the right time to ask for an explanation.

Guadalupe pursed her lips and straightened up on her wooden stool. "Last-minute change of plan. We... We argued."

The brunette made a face and repressed a strong desire to roll her eyes. What had she done to deserve that? There was nothing more annoying than a couple fighting and being in the middle of it forced to give a reassuring speech of some sort when you simply sucked at relationships. It wasn't selfishness but being realistic. Jane had never been good at this and most of all, had always hated it. Girl talks were a nightmare.

"Oh, I'm sorry to hear that. You're a sweet couple, I'm sure it's nothing." At least you mean it, it's a start. Right?

Except Guadalupe didn't smile nor nod in return. She simply shrugged and slowly stopped her wheel before her eyes focused on details she would have missed on her pottery work.

"I don't really know, to be honest. Lisa... She hid stuff from me. Big stuff. I found about them by myself, today. A newspaper she hadn't thrown away. I feel betrayed."

Was she talking about Smith, Lisa's ex? What else could she have discovered in the press? Jane frowned and tried to remember the day the art dealer had found out that Mabel had been arrested. Now she could see her hide the newspaper when Maura and Guadalupe had arrived but by then she had simply assumed that it was because of Maura.

Fair enough from both sides. As much as she could understand Guadalupe being upset, Lisa had her reasons to have remained silent over Mabel Smith. Obvious reasons.

"She stayed in our room. We're supposed to go to the spa together this afternoon but I'm not sure anymore if it's a good idea."

"On the contrary! It's probably just what you need: a sweet and relaxing moment together. You know, to make peace." God you sound cheesy. Isn't it Frost's stifled giggles you can hear right now?

"What do you do when you argue with Maura? You're married so you must have found balance. What's your secret so to speak?"

Oops. Images of a tough and delicate past to explain rushed to Jane's mind. She couldn't talk about any of it. Yet these were the only times when she and Maura had really argued. The rest was bickering, nothing serious. Long seconds passed by during which nothing but the sound of potter's wheels broke a peaceful silence.

Disarmed, Jane looked down at her lap. "I don't really know. After a while, we're back to normal. Naturally. We can't be mad at each other for very long. It's... It's too painful."

Painful. The adjective passed underneath the brunette's skin and reached her heart. Yes. That was exactly how she had lived their previous arguments; when she had shot Paddy, when Maura had hidden from her FBI's investigation over Tommy. It had hurt. All along, she had suffered from their sudden coldness and terrible lack of communication.

Jane looked up and searched for Guadalupe's eyes before nodding with self-confidence. "I can't live without her. I'm not myself when she's not around. So I can't be mad at her for too long. That wouldn't work."

…

For the fifth time within a minute, Maura looked at the object freshly painted – raised her eyebrows – and bit her lips; nervously scratching her earlobe and dancing on her tiptoes.

"It is very contemporary, even maybe – if I dare to say it – avant-gardist."

Stomp of the foot. Eye roll. Sigh. Jane growled and grabbed her pottery to throw it away in the paper basket. "It is awful, say it! Even a kid of three would have made something better."

Maura rushed to the paper basket to retrieve the object and put it back on the desk immediately. She cleaned it, looking offended by the gesture and rather amused by the comment.

"It's not that, Jane. No... It is just that... An ashtray? Really? We aren't smokers... What happened to the vase? I thought it was today's theme."

Annoyed, Jane grabbed the plastic soccer ball she had compulsively bought at the Club boutique on her way back from pottery and began to play with it. A rainbow one, of course. Apparently, all the other colors had disappeared from the surface of the island for three weeks.

"My subconscious decided to be anti-conformist so it turned out I was incapable of shaping a vase properly. But who cares? You have plenty of them already, anyway."

And score. Right in the wooden structure that separated the bed from the living-room area. The ball bounced and hit back Jane's face. "Ouch!"

These plastic – light – beach balls were a lot more dangerous than what she had assumed them to be in the first place.

"You made it for me?"

The question didn't stop her but Maura's tone of voice - all soft and shaking - did. Ball under her foot, she looked up and frowned with confusion. The medical examiner was smiling at the ashtray, her fingers sliding on it slowly.

"Yeah...?" Shrug. "I wanted to... Tortoise shape it but it wouldn't work either."

New silence. New funny face from Maura. Jane swallowed hard, completely lost.

"What's happening? I'm sorry it looks like shit, I swear I tried. Obviously, I'm just not good at manual activities."

Without a word, Maura approached – kicked the ball aside – and passed her arms around the brunette's waist before locking her hazel ones into dark ones. She smiled, ran her tongue over her lips rather suggestively.

Sultry voice: on.

"I can assure you that you are very good at manual activities..."

Jane laughed and looked down as she felt a wave of heat rush up her cheeks. Her fingertips brushed Maura's soft skin, played with the hem of her bikini bottom before passing under it.

"Do you ever think about something else?"

Hot skin against hot flesh. Maura swallowed hard, gasped as she felt the Italian's hand going down between her legs. She knew that Jane didn't consider herself as bold but it wasn't true. Or else she would have never been able to hold her gaze while drawing playful circles suggestively on her pelvis as she was now doing.

"Not really, no..." Loud kiss against Jane's shoulder. Another one. Then a third. "One has to live her honeymoon to the fullest, no?" Giggles. "Making provision for all the times I won't be able to when in Boston... My patients might be dead, I can't interrupt my autopsies every single time you pass the doors to visit me for another kind of manual activity."