A/N: Mention of stillborn death
Oops, I Did It Again – Chapter 28
Jane and Maura met with Nick the next evening for dinner. He explained what course of action his team was taking and that he would update Jane via email whenever he had new information. Maura liked him and they talked a little more about genealogy.
Maura told Nick, "I am thinking about looking up information regarding birth parents after this case is closed."
"I would be able to assist you if you decide to pursue the matter." Nick informed her.
The identity of Maura's birth parents continued to be on her mind. When she and Jane were lying in bed later that night, Maura couldn't sleep. She was snuggled into Jane with her head on Jane's chest. Jane was fast asleep and she was wide awake, just thinking and listening to Jane's heartbeat. Jane must have sensed that something was wrong because she woke up. "Maur, what's wrong?"
"I was just thinking." Maura quickly replied.
"I know babe, I could hear your big brain in my sleep." Jane smirked as she said it. She was still half asleep but she couldn't resist telling a little joke in that situation.
"Jane, that's not possible. My brain doesn't make any noise that is …" She was silenced by Jane's lips on hers. Maura repositioned herself so that she could deepen the kiss. She loved kissing Jane as much as Jane loved kissing her. All thoughts about her biological parents left her brain and thoughts of making love with Jane took over. They spent the next few hours making love and then fell asleep wrapped up in each other's arms just like they both loved.
When the alarm went off Jane didn't fuss. She knew she needed to get up and take a shower. She was surprised that Maura joined her. Maura knew that Jane couldn't keep her hands off of her but Maura made sure they didn't spend too much time in the shower, as they both had to get ready for work.
Once they were dressed, they went downstairs and decided they would go to their favorite coffee shop and get coffee and a quick bite to eat. They knew it would be another long day. Every day was a long day as they worked on details of this case.
Two weeks had passed. Jane and Maura went to Sunday family dinner and both times it was a pleasant dinner. They promised to keep attending. Frank seemed to smile more and engage in conversation a little more. Jane and Maura continued to only hold hands and did not kiss in front of Frank. Angela was happy that things seemed to be progressing.
Nick had emailed Jane that he had sent the reports via overnight mail and she should receive them soon. Jane looked at the time the email was sent. It was dated yesterday so she should receive the reports that afternoon. He sent them to her work address knowing that they would arrive during business hours.
Maura didn't have any autopsies, so when Jane received the reports, Maura offered to go through them with her. They looked over the death certificate for the twin boy first. The death certificate listed his death as 'term stillborn.'
The document was official and after Maura examined it thoroughly, she determined that it was not fabricated. They knew that his birth parents were told that their baby had died right before birth. So, this death certificate didn't surprise them. They also knew that after the twin boy was identified as deceased his body was cremated a few days later.
Jane asked Maura what a 'term stillborn' was. Maura said, "there are three types of stillborn deaths: early, late, or term. Early stillborn occurs between 20 and 27 weeks of pregnancy, late between 28 and 36 weeks and term after 37 weeks. One in 160 births in the United States are stillborn."
"Thanks, Maur, his parents must have been so shocked."
"Yes, from the interview that I read, they were. The twins had been healthy throughout her entire pregnancy. They thought that they would be going home with two healthy babies. They were quite surprised when they were told that their little boy had died right before birth."
"I think we need to look closer at the entire delivery staff from the hospital. Something doesn't fit. I mean how does a baby supposedly die but then show up years later alive. Somebody at that hospital is in on this." Jane commented.
Maura reiterated, "The death certificate has not been manipulated in any fashion. The typeset is the same. The depth of the typed letters seems to be the same. This death certificate is not a forgery."
"It would have taken more than one person to pull this off. We need to reevaluate the entire delivery staff. One or more of them had something to do with the twin boy's death." Jane was sure of this. This case was getting more complicated each day.
The couple's daughter was born healthy with no complications and until her recent murder, she had been healthy. She was an honor student in high school and graduated top of her class from Harvard Law. She had just been hired as a prosecutor for the DA's office.
At the time of her death Jane had thought that maybe all the victims were lawyers or worked in the court system but the second victim was an elementary school teacher. But then a fourth victim was killed and that victim was a college student, studying economics. Jane couldn't find any similarities between the victims.
The police reports had shown that the adoptive parents were in a single car accident. According to the report, from the skid marks it appeared that one of their tires had blown and sent them straight into a tree. The car caught fire and both passengers perished.
When the police attempted to notify the family, they discovered that there was no family to notify. They were both only children with deceased parents. The case was labeled an accident and no further investigation took place.
This case was stressing Jane out. She was thankful for Nick's help as she wasn't sure they would have been as far along in the case if she hadn't contacted him. She was thankful that Lt. Cavanaugh had agreed to hire Nick to consult on the case. This case definitely had a great number of pieces.
Jane began to question herself and the facts of the case. Was this all connected or were the seven victims random. She then remembered that Maura said that each victim had a marking that tied them together. Victim one had '1/7' tattooed on the inside of the right foot. Victim two had 2/7. Each of the seven victims had this numbering on the inside of the right foot, but what did it mean.
Jane was hoping that the seven meant of seven so that there would be no more victims but she wasn't sure about that. At this point she wasn't sure about any of it, except that there was a connection between victim three and the DNA that was left at the scene of victim seven. She prayed that Nick and his team found out something about the twin boy, man now, as he would be almost 30 years of age.
Lt. Cavanaugh ordered Jane, Maura, Frost and Korsak to take the weekend off. He needed them to be rested. They would function better if they had sleep. Jane hated taking time off during a case like this. The media was still hounding her and she and Maura had pretty much shut themselves into their house each evening. They visited the coffee shop occasionally and other then the Dirty Robber and Sunday family dinner they ate in.
They turned their cell phones off and just spent the weekend at home. They barely got out of bed. Jane and Maura both enjoyed this time together. They hadn't had very much time to enjoy making love to each other lately. They had made love but it didn't have the intensity that this weekend had brought them. They always seemed to have to make sure they were getting enough sleep so their love making was quick, enjoyable but quick.
This case had been going on for months now and the more they worked the more they discovered. It was like a giant puzzle and they were trying to put all of the pieces together without the picture of what the puzzle should look like.
Frost had tracked down the list of employees from the hospital during the time of the twin boy's death and was able to figure out which doctors and nurses were present for that particular birth. Now that he had the names, he could track them down. It had been almost thirty years ago so they may or may not be alive. He discovered one nurse had quit within a week of the birth so he moved her to the top of the list of staff to check out.
Frost informed Jane before they went on their weekend break. He figured that was a positive step to go on the break with. Jane, of course, didn't see it that way, she wanted to check the lead right away. She fired off a series of questions to Frost. Are you running her financials and phone records, or whatever information you can pull from thirty years ago. Frost continued to listen to the questions. He was busy writing them down. Once she paused, he reminded her. "Jane, don't forget we are on break for the weekend. I will check on all of this on Monday when we come back. You know what, I will have Frankie start working on answering your questions."
"Thanks, Frost. Yeah, we better enjoy our weekend and catch up on some sleep." Jane shared as she grabbed her gun, blazer and keys.
Frost nodded and Jane went downstairs to get Maura so they could go home. On their way home that night Maura reminded Jane, "Don't forget my parents will be here in two weeks."
"I sure hope we have this case wrapped up by then." Jane replied.
"Me too. So, two whole days off, what ever should we do?" Maura asked with a smile on her face.
Jane smiled back and said, "I have a few things in mind besides sleep, which I must say I need very much. Let's eat dinner and sleep tonight and when we wake up in the morning, we can make plans for the weekend. To keep Cavanaugh happy, we must be well rested when he sees us Monday morning."
"I will try and let you get some sleep this weekend, can't promise how much but I have missed being able to spend quality time with you." Maura admitted, she really had missed spending quality time with Jane.
"I know what you mean. I like to just lay in bed with you and make love and not have to rush off somewhere. So, let's do things slow this weekend. We have Sunday dinner but that is the only thing planned. We can simply enjoy the rest of the weekend in each other's company."
"That sounds great."
With that thought in their minds they snuggled up and went to sleep.
