Author's note: thank you for all the reviews!

Chapter Thirty-Five: Seventeen Years Old

Pleasantly surprised, Maura passed the door of her office – walked into the room – and planted a warm kiss on Alba's cheek. The visit was completely unexpected, especially at this time of the day. It had been a few years now that her daughters objected to stopping by the BPD and the morgue.

"How are you? Is everything alright?" Maura smiled, brightly. When her assistant had told her that Alba was waiting for her, she had been slightly apprehensive. If the adolescent only came on rare – if not just exceptional – occasions then she must have had a delicate reason to do so now. But Alba seemed to be in one piece and rather joyful.

"Yeah, perfectly fine. Sorry if I worried you." The young girl sat back on the couch and accepted the mug of tea that her mother held out to her. She took a sip – in silence – then looked all around.

"Great!" Maura nodded enthusiastically. Hard to believe that her daughter had only stopped by with the intention to say hi. Obviously, there was something else; something she didn't dare to say. "How did it go in French?"

Alba shrugged rather casually. "Oh, fine. It was just a regular test. No big deal."

Silence. An uncomfortable one. Maura took a sip of her own tea and – before her daughter's doubts – sighed heavily. "What is going on?"

The adolescent made a face – seemed to hesitate – but finally took a sheet of paper out of her bag. "I need you to sign this." She cleared her voice and looked at the floor.

Maura frowned before grabbing the paper in question. "Are you in trouble? What have you done? I hope this isn't school related. You know how Jane and I are..."

But as she cast a glance at the text – recognized the logo on top of the papersheet – the medical examiner froze; swallowed hard.

"I need... I need your authorization to see if I have a chance to know who my father is. The clinic is asking for it because I'm a minor."

Maura's blood turned icy, hurting in her veins; wrapping up her heart of a painful embrace. And the tears, flirting with the edge of her eyes. She took a deep breath.

"You don't have any father. You have two mothers."

The honey blonde's sharp tone of voice didn't pass unnoticed. Blushing, Alba nodded and ran a hand through her hair.

"It's not what I meant. Biological... Genitor...? It's not against you and it won't change anything – I got the whole lecture from The Kids Are Alright you made us watch over and over – but... I want to know."

It was a shock for Maura. At no moment had the twins felt the urge to know anything regarding this. She and Jane hadn't hidden the procedure. On the contrary. Right from the beginning, they had tried to explain it to their daughters but still, such request – now – hurt the scientist.

"Have we done something wrong? Do you... Do you have anything you would reproach to us that... All of a sudden, you show such a strong desire to know about this stranger?"

Alba shook her head, barely repressing a chuckle. "Of course not! You two are great moms, really... It's just we did this family tree thing at school and... I don't know. Now I'd like to know this side of my life. He's not my family – you and mommy are – but still, I wouldn't be here without him." The young girl shrugged, not knowing what to add. "Do you see what I mean? Haumea met the guy Guadalupe had chosen. I don't see why I couldn't."

The worst of all was that Alba's request was fair enough but for some reason, Maura felt threatened by the idea. And worried. Haumea's biological father had turned out to be nice but what if it weren't the case, here? What if...

Uncomfortable – barely noticing the way she was clutched to her tea mug – the blonde frowned. "It might go wrong... First of all, he might have chosen to remain anonymous and I guess he was." For Christ's sake, Isles. You don't remember such detail? "Or maybe... What if he passed away? I don't want you to be disappointed, honey. And I have to talked about it to Jane first. I am sorry but I will not sign this without letting her know about your request."

Last year of high school. Within a few months, Lucie and Alba would go to college. If Maura had – indeed – imagined that the road leading to such big change wouldn't be peaceful, it hadn't crossed her mind that it would go like this. Not at all.

"How about your sister? Is she also eager to know about him?" Maura squinted her eyes at Alba. If one of the twins had felt the urge to investigate then she knew for a fact that the other one wasn't far behind.

"She's divided but mostly because she doesn't want to piss you off."

Maura raised an eyebrow. "Whereas you don't mind about it, obviously." Unconvinced, she looked down at the sheet of paper and bit her lips. "I will talk about it to Jane. We will see."

"What made you choose this one more than another?" Alba settled further on the couch and locked her eyes with her mother's. Now she was at ease, and focused.

"His I.Q." She marked a pause and shrugged. "Alright... And his physical description. Jane was way too scared that you might have been red-headed little girls so we made sure this wouldn't happen."

Alba burst out laughing. "How shallow is this!"

...

Feverishly – casting a glance here and there to make sure that nobody had followed her – Jane held her breath and turned the computer on. It was way too slow, she should have chosen her tablet. Not even able to organize herself the slightest bit. That was sad.

But as she managed to log on Facebook, everything was forgotten and she let a smile of victory – a large one – play on her lips.

Spending the evening with Charles

She raised an eyebrow, her senses in alert. And then read the note under the status notification.

It's a dog, mommy. Thank you for stopping by and spying on me nonetheless.

Oops. Jane chuckled, out of nervousness. At least nobody would know that she had actually had a chance to read this. For once, she had managed to remain somewhat discreet.

"N°9 At The Park, 8.30pm. Please make sure to wear your... What are you doing?"

And busted.

Maura approached – wrapped in nothing but a bath towel and widened her eyes in sheer terror. "Oh my God. You are spying on Alba again. Will you ever stop doing that, Jane? She is in Europe for a couple of months, with her sister. At my parents'. For the summer... You are obsessed. Do you know who you look like when you do that? Your own mother."

The attack was tough but fair enough. Jane had turned into one of these possessive and protective – to say the least – mothers. Next thing the scientist knew, her wife would requisition the kitchen and push everyone out of it for holidays. Maura hadn't forgotten her very own turkey incident a couple of years earlier when she had dared to suggest to Angela to pour a bit of white wine on the poultry. She had officially been blacklisted, that day; Jane accused of having corrupted her in the way.

"Oh come on, Maur'. They don't talk to us anymore about their life. I don't really have a choice. We barely got to know Lucie and Madeline broke up. Alba is so, so quiet now. Remember when pretty much all our dinners revolved around her crushes? Well now we have to be geniuses to get a word from her."

The honey blonde smiled and passed an arm around Jane's neck before planting a stolen kiss on her temple. "They were pre-teens. Now they are secretive, like all the adolescents of their age. The last months have been hard for them. You know it. Leave them alone, honey."

Jane pouted. Maura was right. Lucie and Alba had experienced a huge disappointment after learning that their sperm donor had decided to remain anonymous. They would never get to know him unlike Haumea. The Italian had never said it out loud but she found it weird to see that their maternal choice – an important one – had cruised for seventeen years on peaceful waters before hitting a storm.

Just when she had assumed that everything had been sorted out.

"Blame the fact we're stuck in Boston for work. If we were on vacation, I would piss everyone off for other reasons. This sucks." Arms crossed on her chest, Jane shook her head and sighed.

"We are going to Italy at the end of August..."

Scrolling Alba's Facebook wall absentmindedly, Jane raised an eyebrow and murmured some vague affirmative reply.

"They are seventeen, dammit. Gosh we're so old, Maura."

"But still young enough to do plenty of things..."

Jane didn't miss the implicit suggestion. Smirking, she turned around to properly look at her wife and shook her head. "Sex doesn't solve it all, you know."

The honey blonde burst out laughing. "No, indeed. But it surely helps the medicine go down." With fluidity, she sat on Jane's lap and passed her arms around the brunette's waist.

"If you say so, Mary Poppins."