Author's note: thank you for all the reviews and messages, I really appreciate the fact you're all taking your time to write me a little something.

Chapter Thirty-Eight

"A trip to the Bahamas!"

Jane winced in mental pain and started shaking her head. She should have never listened to Maura. Thus, she would have not gone to check the table tennis tournament first prize. And nobody would have known that she had missed a chance to win a trip to the Bahamas.

To the Bahamas, for Christ's sake.

Maura landed I-told-you-so eyes on her partner and heavily sighed. She understood Jane's frustration though she could easily rectify it.

"I can take you to the Bahamas any time, you know." The confession embarrassed Maura a bit. She rarely talked about her financial situation with Jane and never really bragged about it either. Of course Jane knew that she had money but it wasn't a reason to be loud about it. It wasn't how Maura had been raised, besides; not at all. "I mean, you know, if this is a destination you fancy then I suppose we can try to..."

Gutted, Jane shook her head and grabbed another cookie. She was in full food compensation mode but couldn't care less right now. The situation had been reversed: a couple of hours earlier, she had been the one cheering up Maura after her loss but now it was the exact opposite.

She had missed a chance to win a free trip to the Bahamas. Her mother would kill her if she ever learned about it.

"It's Gloria Estefan's fault, anyway. I swear if I ever hear 'Conga' again..." Jane clenched her fists in anger and reduced to pieces the cookie she was holding. "This song is officially banned from my life, Maura. Banned! Anyway, it's an old one."

As much as Maura loved Jane, she didn't really believe her partner on this point. Jane couldn't have lost because of a song playing loudly in the background. It was too ridiculous; way too ridiculous.

"Do you really think it has more to do with Gloria Estefan's songs than with the policies of Hidden Beach?"

A smirk played on Maura's lips as she preferred to keep for herself the fact that the trip to the Bahamas included another nudist resort anyway. Something told her that Jane wouldn't have liked it much. She had already a very hard time dealing with her first experience in Mexico so would she eagerly sign up for another nudist resort?

Certainly not.

But since the rhetorical question bruised Jane's ego with more or less subtlety, Jane snorted instead of nodding and immediately opposed herself to Maura. She wouldn't let her partner win this battle. Never ever.

Even if it wasn't entirely impossible that Maura's argument might have been a potential reason to Jane's loss.

"As far as I know, Martin doesn't look like Brad Pitt soo I'm pretty sure I didn't get hypnotized by his awesome body..." Jane leaned against the French window of the villa and observed the lazy river outside. The sun was peacefully sliding on the water. "Nah, I'm fine with the whole nudity thing."

It was a blatant lie and Jane knew it. Five seconds before accepting to take part in the tournament, she was still debating the nudist part in her head. She wasn't being very honest with Maura right now but the situation was harmless.

They were simply bickering, after all.

No big deal.

"Oh, really? How interesting." A peaceful smile curled up Maura's lips as she crossed her arms against her chest and looked at Jane defiantly. "Then how come you're still wearing clothes if you feel oh so comfortable with nudism?"

Jane held back a growl. Maura's question was the exact reason why she regretted her semi-lie. Of course, Maura wouldn't have missed the opportunity to push her a bit further. It was entirely deserved, besides. Jane had exaggerated when she had said that she was fine with it.

Karma. It was, one more time, nothing but karma.

"Oh..." Jane forced a laugh but her sudden casualness fell flat. She was too nervous to sound relaxed. "I'm fine with the idea of people being naked. That doesn't mean I have to do it myself. It's different."

It was a poor excuse, a very unbalanced and fragile argument. But what could she say? Maura had taken her aback and she, Jane, hadn't had time to prepare their harmless verbal fight.

"Hmm."

Jane gasped and pointed an index finger to Maura. She widened her eyes, shocked, and shook her head in disbelief. This wasn't good at all.

"Don't 'hmm' me! I know that's what you say when you don't believe a word the person you're talking to is sayin'!"

That was true and Maura had no choice but to admit it. That being said, she had absolutely no issue to recognize that she didn't believe Jane's poor arguments right now. She had only drunk one cocktail so far, for lunch, so she was still enough sober to get when her partner was not being entirely honest.

"If you're really as comfortable as you say it then you wouldn't have any issue and you would do it too, Jane. But it's okay, you know." Maura shrugged, very matter-of-factly. "Everything can't be as cool as nudist people."

Maura slightly squinted her eyes as she wondered if she had gone too far. She knew that Jane didn't particularly like her body and that she had been raised in a religious environment which complicated even more the whole thing. Maura simply hoped that the gestures of attention she had had towards her partner these past few days were helping Jane one way or another. Little by little.

"Is this your way to tell me I'm uptight?!"

Jane's high-pitched voice amused Maura. Sometimes it was even too easy to provoke Jane a little bit. She, Maura, didn't have to look for a thousand ways to get to it. Their game of teasing was an old trick now. A very old trick.

"Fine." Jane hissed. If there was something that she didn't like then it was when people told her that she was uptight. She wasn't uptight at all. Nope. "Then..." She checked her watch: 4.55pm. "Look at that, Miss I-know-it-all."

Without thinking twice about it, Jane began to undress in front of Maura. Defiantly. Her heart was beating awfully loudly and her hands were shaking but she wanted to prove her that she had the guts to do it. Besides, they only had one day left at the resort: it was now or never to go out of her comfort zone if only for an hour.

Entirely naked, Jane turned on her heels and left the villa by the bridges that connected each apartment to the swimming-pool bar.

Maura blinked. Alright, she hadn't expected it to happen. Or at least not like that. Surprised but nonetheless proud of her partner, she went to pick up Jane's clothes from the floor. She folded them on the couch and grabbed her cell phone before going out to make sure that Jane wasn't hiding behind a palm tree somewhere.

Maura was about to leave the villa when she got an alert on her phone. She looked at the screen and frowned, not at the alert but at the time.

It was 6pm.

Her heart suddenly started beating very quickly. She swallowed hard. Hadn't Jane checked the time on her watch before getting undressed? People were supposed to be fully clothed by 5.45pm.

"Oh my god..." Maura rushed out of the villa. "Jane! Jane, come back!"

…

Maura dared a timid look at Jane for the thousandth time within the last minute but not a single word passed her lips. What could she say anyway? She knew that they would laugh about it at some point but not just yet.

Oh no, not just yet.

"I guess this group of vacationers from Germany got the rules now, right?" Jane tried to smile but ended up burying her face in her hands. "Oh boy..."

Somewhat reassured by the fact her partner had finally managed to speak, Maura approached a hand from Jane's shoulder and tried to quietly comfort her.

She, Maura, had found Jane by a packed swimming-pool bar where a group of freshly arrived vacationers were celebrating their vacations. Of course everyone wore clothes. Everyone but Jane.

"There's still the possibility for me to sue SWATCH. I mean, it's their fault if my watch stopped working, right?"

The question caused Maura to smile. She was surprised but nonetheless glad to see that Jane was trying to joke about the situation instead of locking herself up in tragic scenarios.

Besides, nobody had made fun of her. The German vacationers had simply stared at her with great perplexity before resuming their party as soon as Maura had grabbed Jane by the wrist to rush back to the villa.

"I'm proud of you." Maura sat on the bed next to Jane and planted a kiss on her partner's neck, her laugh vanishing against the olive skin. "I'm proud of you because you dared. Okay, it didn't turn out to be the greatest success either because of err... Logistic problems... But look at you: you dared to do it nonetheless. I'm so proud of you, Jane."

Jane remained quiet for long seconds. She needed to ponder Maura's words. She needed to make sure that her partner wasn't making fun of her. Though to be honest, Maura hadn't laughed at the situation yet. She had been very supportive until now and Jane greatly appreciated it.

Needless to say that if it had happened with one of her colleagues or her brothers, she would have heard about it until 2070.

"Yeah well..." Jane focused on the bedsheet. She didn't have the courage to properly look at Maura right now. "We're all more or less the same in the end, no?"

That was it.

Maura grinned. She couldn't be happier right now. She cupped Jane's face and loudly kissed the corner of her lips. Jane's insecurities weren't gone, it wasn't that simple, but she was on the right path and she would get to accept the way she was.

"Hmm... To be honest, you're the hottest one in the area."

The comment caused Jane to laugh. This wasn't very objective from Maura who insisted on saying that bodies were all equal, no matter what. Jane understood that her partner's sudden comparison was just her own way to tell her that she was the one though. Maybe that was the reason why it made her feel so warm.

"I proved that I could do it... At the wrong moment but I still proved it." Jane nodded, more or less convinced by her words. "Though don't take it badly if I never do it again. What has happened earlier was fate telling me that I am not made for nudism. Really."

They both burst out laughing.