The whole family gathered around the table. Sophie felt much better after sleeping almost the entire day and tried a small piece of the lasagna.
"Can we go and play?" Julia asked upon swallowing her last bite. Maura glanced at her watch, then at Jane and nodded. The couple chuckled as the girls dashed down the floor to disappear into Sophies room.
Jane took a sip from her orange juice and wiggled with her eyebrows towards Maura before they finished their dinner in a comfortable silence.
"Remember the man I was looking at when you came into the morgue?" Maura asked when they did the dishes. Jane nodded and waited for the blonde to continue.
"At first, everybody thought that he died of natural causes. He was already 85 after all. But it turned out that he was poisoned. I almost missed this. I just had a gut feeling so I took a closer look."
"I thought you don't listen to your intestines?" Jane asked surprised and teasing at the same time.
"That's my point. You must have rubbed off on me." Maura chuckled. "I'm glad that I did listen to that feeling. I start to like it."
Jane joined the chuckle, turning away from the sink to wrap her wet hands around the blonde who started to giggle. "Your hands are wet, Jane." She said but didn't move away, which Jane interpreted as invitation to kiss her. "Shame that the kids are still awake." She mumbled against Maura's mouth.
"Good thing is that they are going to sleep soon." The blonde replied cheekily. But both knew that usually they wouldn't pick up this thread later. This evening was no exception. After putting the kids to bed they settled onto the couch. Jane watching a game while Maura reading a book.
"Maur?" Jane finally asked after thinking the whole thing through again.
"Yes, honey?" the blonde looked up from her journal.
"You asked me a question a few weeks ago…" Jane started and watched the blonde searching her mind. Then, when the face lit up, she knew Maura had found what she was talking about. Brownie choose that moment to jump down from his scratch tree to hop into Janes lap. Her hands went to stroke his silky fur automatically.
Her hands were shaking from being a bit nervous and excited.
"I have given it another thought today. If you still want to have another baby, I would be in."
Maura's eyes widened in surprise. "But what about we will be 65 when the child is 18?" her wife asked insecure, putting her journal onto the coffee table.
"Weren't you the one who told me that 65 is the new 45?" the brunette chuckled softly.
Maura nodded. Still in disbelief. "I would love to have another child with you, Jane." She whispered.
"Then I see no reason why we shouldn't do it." Jane smiled. They moved into a hug and a long kiss. Jane sighed. Making Maura happy was one of the best feelings on earth. After Maura had recovered from the surprise she started to talk about their possibilities. Both agreed to take a test first, if they were still good for carrying a child. If they weren't, they only had the option of fostering or adopting left. But if they were, they had to decide who was going to carry the child.
R&I
Jane hated hospitals, doctors and everything which came with them. She nervously glanced at the nurse who was preparing a needle for the blood test. Whenever she was nervous, she used to be sarcastic and joked. Today was no exception.
Maura raised an eyebrow at her antics. The nurse didn't find her comments about old ladies becoming mothers funny. She didn't find any comments of Jane funny at all. The blonde chuckled silently when following the scene. The brunette whined like one of the girls, when the needle got pushed into her and demanded a frozen plaster.
"As you were very brave today, I'll buy you some ice cream." Maura joked when walking out of the hospital towards their car.
Jane who was still whining immediately lit up. "Uhh, okay. But we must be back at the precinct in after this. Your old mans case causes many problems. We weren't even able to determine a motive yet."
The blonde nodded and drove them to their favorite ice cream dealer close to the precinct. It was only 10 am. They would probably both spent lunch time at their desks. Maura down in the basement, Jane at the 5th story of the building. Therefore, they tried to make the best of their time off now.
They slowly walked through the park holding hands. Jane could feel that Maura was a bit nervous about the results.
"Its going to be fine." She said and gave her wife a reassuring smile while squeezing her hands. Maura relaxed. If life had taught her something, then in was that Jan was usually right.
"No matter what the tests say, we are going to have our baby." She added reassuringly, stepping out of the way to let an old couple pass. Her eyes followed them for a while in silence as they walked down the path holding hands too. This was how she pictured herself and Maura when they were old and a happy smile tugged at her lips at this imagination.
Maura wrapped her arms around her slim waist from behind, also following the couple. "I always thought I would end up alone." She said, kind of sadly. "But then you crashed into my life." Now a grin was spreading on both faces.
They took up their walk to have their ice cream, still grinning happily. When Janes phone rang, she first ignored it. But when it rang a second time, she flipped it out of the holder at her belt and picked up.
It was Frankie who told her that they needed her at the precinct. Reluctant she told Maura and they walked back to the car. "I'll buy you ice cream another day." The blonde stated once they were back in the car. "I promise." Her smile was warm, and Jane fell into her eyes, as she did often since they had become a couple.
R&I
"So, how did the doctor's appointment go?" he asked, looking mischievously at the plaster on her arm. They hadn't told him or Nina that they were trying to have another baby. Jane had just mentioned that she would be late because she had an appointment to check something.
He laughed when she started to whine again. Both were standing alone in the bullpen. It was a busy day for the homicide division. There were always plenty of murders to investigate in NY. And most of the detectives seemed to be at crime scenes right now.
"Why did you call me in?" she quietly asked, changing the subject.
"The old man's case." He whispered. This is what they called it. She nodded, waiting for him to elaborate. "Nina found something."
Instead of sitting down to her desk they walked to her sister in law, whose fingers were literally flying over the keyboard in front of her. Frankie closed the door behind them as Jane greeted her.
Nina smiled at her, becoming serious when opening some files on the screen. At first, Jane was clueless. But the more she read, the more she understood what the secrecy was all about. the old man appeared to be Casey's father. And while so far, everybody had thought that he was just a nice man the pity disappeared quickly when reading what he had done.
Janes mind was racing while her eyes flew over his record line by line. She had gone to school with Casey. They had even been romantically involved at one point, but she had never met his father. Nor had Casey ever spoken about him.
"How did you find out?" she asked, nibbling at her thumb.
"At first I tried to find some relatives to notify. But the search was unsuccessful. This made me wonder… therefore I asked some lab techs to take some fingerprints. But there were none. He must have used acid or something to make them go away. Therefore, I decided to run his DNA through the data basis. First the civil one, then the convicts and finally the military. And boom! There it was. This is how I learned that he was the father of Casey Jones."
Maura was not the only person she knew now whose father was or had been a gangster boss Jane thought. "We have to talk to Casey. Tell him that his father is with us." A knot started to form in her intestines as she didn't like the idea of facing her former boyfriend. Especially not when recalling how things had gotten out of hand when he had one day appeared at her doorstep in NY, claiming that he wanted to have her back. He had almost raped her, but she had been able to grab her gun and make him leave. Son of a bitch she muttered under her breath.
"Can you do that Frankie?" she asked. Her brother who knew about the story nodded." I'll go with Randy." Randy was his partner and they got along very well. Jane was just relieved that she wouldn't have to face Casey and nodded.
"They might pull you from the case if they find out that he is your ex-boyfriend." He stated the obvious, knowing that Jane was intrigued by the story and wouldn't want that to happen.
"We'll see." She mumbled after clicking her tongue.
The drive down to the morgue was a good opportunity to calm down. Maura was sitting at the desk in her office and looked surprise when Jane walked into the room, closing the door behind her.
"So bad huh?" the blonde asked when seeing Janes face, walking around her desk to sit with Jane on the couch. "Tell me what happened." She asked and took the brunettes hands into hers.
"The old man from yesterday? It is Casey's father." She whispered. "He was a mob boss."
The face across from her got a bit paler and Jane could see memories popping up in Maura's mind. Then she saw an raised eyebrow. "Sorry, I shouldn't have…" she said, her voice trailing off. "I didn't want to remind you off…"
"Its okay, honey." Maura's voice was calm, her thumb started to caress one of the scars Hoyt had left behind what appeared to be so long ago that it was in another life time. Jane knew that Maura was not fond of Casey. She had once said so when they had talked about old times. The blonde had never liked how this man had treated her. Jane recalled her using the words: he played you like a doll. One moment he was here, the next moment he was gone. And he always expected you to fulfill his needs when he was here.
It had taken her a long time and some therapy sessions to come clean with the fact that Maura was right. Or better said to accept that he was not the good man she had always believed him to be. Today Jane felt ashamed for making up excuses for Casey's behavior.
"I told Frankie to talk to him. I don't want to see him." she said and relieve crossed Maura's face.
There was only the ticking sound of the clock on the wall for a while. Maura trying to give Jane comfort and peace to process.
"I need to go back to my desk." Jane said after a few minutes, standing up with a sigh. "Thanks for being here for me."
Maura nodded, pulling her wife into a hug. "Always, Jane. Call me if you need me." The soft smell of lavender still tickled her nose after Jane had left.