Hope everyone had a good holiday! Expect some more drama after this chapter, and not the same kind of drama as last time, this time it might not be fixable. O_O dun dun duuunnn.
Maura's hands were folded and resting under her belly as she waited patiently for the elevator to reach the precinct floor.
When the doors finally opened an she stepped out, the first person she saw was Frost. He glanced up from his desk when he heard the ding of the elevator, and gave her a smile and a wave. She returned it and, upon noticing that Lieutenant Cavanaugh was preoccupied in his office anyway, decided to go talk to Frost in the meantime.
"Hey doc, what brings you in today?" He asks when she takes a seat in Jane's empty desk chair.
"I came to talk to the lieutenant actually, but he seems pretty busy at the moment. Do you know where Jane is?"
"She went with Korsak to follow up on a lead."
"Why didn't you go with her? Aren't you her partner?"
Frost chuckles lightly, "yeah, but their both completely lost when it comes to computer encryption's which is what I'm stuck doing."
"I see."
Maura sits in silence for a moment, sliding her feet out of her heels and kicking them under Jane's desk. She barely fit into them anyway, and should probably switch to flats now, but she couldn't resist buying a the pair of Dior pumps while she was shopping for strollers online two weeks ago.
"Barry, can I ask you something?" She asks quietly. He can tell by her use of his first name, and her now serious tone, that the matter of her question is personal. He puts down his pen and turns his chair to face her, offering his full attention.
"Of course, what's up?"
She bites her lip before leaning forward and scooting her chair closer to him. "Can you, um...can you just keep a closer eye on Jane for me? I'm not implying that she needs to be taken care of, it's just, make sure she doesn't try to be a hero, more of a hero than she already is, anyway. I know it sounds selfish of me to ask you this, but I'm worried about her...more than I used to be."
Frost stands up, walking over to his partners desk and leaning against it, right next to Maura. "The mama bear in you is already coming out," he jokes. "I can't wait to see Jane take up that role."
Maura smiles, "I can't wait either."
"I get where your coming from. She's the mother of your child, you love her, you don't want her risking her life any more that she already does on a daily basis."
Maura sighs heavily, "exactly."
Barry places a comforting hand on her shoulder, and it sags a bit underneath him. "Hey, don't worry about it, I'll keep her safe. I'll...I'll start kicking down the doors from now on, and going in first."
Maura offers a sincere smile and places her hand on top of the one on her shoulder, "you be careful too, Barry. It's not the kicking down doors that worries me the most anyway, I just...you know how Jane is. She would willing lay down her life for anyone, shoot herself to save her brother! Maybe it's my irrational, pregnant mind that constantly comes back to these past fears-"
"I worry about her too sometimes," Frost admits. "She's a good person who lives to protect, she puts her life on the line in more ways than one." He gives her shoulder a gentle squeeze before standing up, "don't worry doc, I got your back, and I got Jane's too.
Maura grins happily and leans forward to get up, but faces another problem. "Uh, Barry, one last thing." She says, and he turns back to face her as he was walking back to his desk.
"What's up?"
She looks at him timidly and shrugs, extending both her hands, "can you help me up?"
He lets out a bark of laughter, but nods, and taking her hands in his and gently pulling her into a standing position.
"Thank you," she breathes and pats his cheek affectionately.
"Don't mention it."
She hears an office door squeak open and turns around to see that Cavanaugh is available. She says goodbye to Frost and slides her shoes back on before making her way over to his door, knocking gently on the door frame before stepping inside.
"Lieutenant?"
He looks up from his desk, a smile momentarily flashes across his face, a pregnant Maura seems to have that effect on everyone. "Doctor Isles, what can I do for you?"
She walks up to the opposite side of his desk before pulling an envelope out of her purse and handing it over to him.
"What's this? I hope it's not your resignation."
"No of course not," she subconsciously takes the opportunity to sit down. Ever since the scare they had at thirteen weeks, she has been trying to sit down as much as possible. "It's a letter from the board of Medical Examiners stating that I am temporarily resigning from field work, but I will remain in the lab and still perform autopsy's." She and Jane had talked about this for a long time, and ultimately decided that the majority of her stress comes her field work. She was much safer and much more relaxed in her own environment.
The lieutenant opened the document and scanned the top page before nodding, "alright, looks good doctor. Thank you for dropping this off."
Another knock on the door turn both their attentions to the new body in the room. "Oh, Jane. I was just talking to Lieutenant Cavanaugh about my temporary leave."
The lanky detective strolls in and stands behind Maura's chair. "Great, I was wondering when you were going to get around to that. Are you ready to go?"
"Yes, thank you for understanding, Lieutenant." Maura says in his direction, before holding her hands out to Jane, who immediately recognizes this gesture, and helps her to her feet.
"Not a problem Dr. Isles."
Jane keeps a hand on the small of her back as they make their way over to the elevators. "Are you excited?" the brunette whispers as they wait for the doors to open.
"Ecstatic, are you?" Maura smiles, and takes the momentary opportunity of privacy to place a late hello kiss on Jane's lips.
"Yup, still sure you want to know the sex?"
Maura nods and places a hand on Jane's chest, "I need to know everything." She answers quietly.
Jane kisses her head as they step out of the elevator and make their way to the car.
"So, don't take this the wrong way or anything, but is it me or are you bigger than last time? I mean, your only nineteen weeks but I have never seen you this...round, before." Jane says, steeling a glance in the blonds direction.
Maura rolls her eyes but smiles, "yes, the baby is growing a little on the large side, but everyone is different."
Jane takes her right hand off the wheel and places it on Maura's protruding belly, "We got a big bubba in there, don't we?" She says affectionately.
Maura giggles, she loves when she sees this side of Jane, soft and sweet and a total ball of mush.
"Any movement yet?" Jane asks with the same loving tone.
"Not yet," Maura answers.
"Well then we have a bashful bubba, my genes must not have won." Jane laughs.
"I'm sure they did, just not in the social aspect. It did say in the donor's file that he was slightly introverted," Maura shrugs.
Jane takes Maura's hand and kisses it, "I'm fine with that, makes him more like you."
Maura smiles and reaches back into the pouch on the back of her seat, pulling out a vanilla colored file with, "Donor #477" written on the front.
"You keep that in your car?!" Jane snorts.
"Of course I do! Sometimes I like to better acclimate myself with the donor by reexamining the file and factoring in your genetic identity to to better estimate what the baby will look like."
Jane just laughs and shakes her head, "whatever you say google-mouth. What'd you find out so far?"
Maura beams at Jane's interest and flips open the file, pulling out the picture of the donor and propping it up on the dashboard. He was actually quite handsome, with strong facial features, stunning green eyes, and light blonde hair in a JFK style cut. "Well, we know that he's an oncologist, and he studied at Princeton. Also his hobbies include swimming, playing the cello, and painting. I hope some of his artistic abilities were passed on to the baby, can you imagine? Our little Picasso." She rubs her stomach and looks at Jane.
"I hope so too, I can't even draw stick people." The brunette laughs as they pull into the doctors office.
"Hm, that's strange." Maura muttered as Jane cut the engine.
"What's strange?"
"I-I don't know how I didn't notice this before. The section of the forms that holds the patients genetic history and abnormality tests is blank. Hm..."
Jane quirked an eyebrow, "so, that means, what exactly?"
Maura shook her head once and closed the file. "I'm not sure, we'll have to ask when we get in there. Help me out?" She opened the car door and swung her legs out, but remained seated until Jane came around to lift her steadily to her feet.
The detective placed a tender kiss on her lips before taking her hand and walking towards the building.
...
"Jane, can you tie this? I can't- I can't get my arms around."
Jane looks up to see her girlfriends arms flailing around behind her back in an attempt to tie her gown, she chuckles and replaces the struggling fingers with her own just as the doctor knocks once and steps in.
"Hello again, how are we doing today?" Harrison asks.
"Were good, now that her ass isn't flapping in the wind," Jane jokes.
Maura gives a tiny gasp and smacks Jane's hand away. "It was not flapping in the wind." She argues, "I'm still wearing pants, Jane. If anything it would be my spine that was-"
"You know what I meant, babe."
The ME hoists herself up onto the table and lays back, lifting up the gown and sliding down her pant to just above her pubic line.
"You are 19 weeks, correct?" Harrison verifies.
"Twenty on Tuesday." Jane answers, the excitement in her voice evident.
"I understand you are interested in knowing the sex?" The doctor asks as she squirts on the ultrasound goo.
"Yes! And also, before I forget," Maura reaches for her purse and pulls out the donor file. "I was reviewing this and I noticed that the genetic history section has been left blank. Do you know why that would be?"
"Hm," the doctor says, taking the file from her patient. "That is strange, I don't know why that would be. I'll have it looked into immediately."
"Thank you."
A moment passes and Jane is drawing lazy circles on Maura's arm, leaving behind goosebumps that make her giggle.
"Alright...here's the baby." Dr. Harrison says, and both women's head snap up to the screen.
Maura's face softens, "oh, sweetie, he has your chin!" She giggles happily
Jane squints her eyes and looks closer, "yea, kinda. He's got your head though, look at that thing, it's huge!" They all laugh.
The doctor moves the ultrasound lower, and Maura gasps, her hand flying to her mouth and tears brimming her eyes. Dr. Harrison gives a soft smile and looks up at her patient. "You see it, Dr. Isles?"
Maura nods once, her eyes wide and still glued to the screen.
"What? See what?! The sex?!" Jane babbles. "Oh, you know don't you! Tell me, tell me!"
Maura tears her watery eyes away from the image of their baby, takes Jane's hand in both of hers and blows three kisses on it. "Baby, we're having a..."
I'm an awful person, I know.
