Janie?" Frankie's voice drifted into her sleepy mind. What time was it? It was still dark outside and Maura who had fallen asleep in her arms was snoring gently. The brunette tried to untangle herself without waking her up.

"Give me a sec." she whispered to Frankie while padding to the balcony. She realized that Nairobi at night was breathtaking while telling her brother to speak. Her heart made a summersault when she heard Marcella babbling in the background.

"Sorry to wake you up." He said. "But I have someone who wants to talk to you." The warmth spread through her body when Frankie held the phone to Marcella whose voice was clear and loud now.

"Hey baby." She whispered and tears were streaming down her face. It had been a week since she had heard her daughter. Marcella giggled when Jane began to sing Itsy bitsy spider. It didn't take her long to fall asleep though. The soft snoring reminded her of Maura, and she chuckled.

"Ma went out tonight and I volunteered to take care of her." Frankie whispered because he didn't want to wake the toddler. "Ma is watching her with eagle eyes. It took me quite some effort to convince her that she was safe with me."

"How is she?" Jane whispered back.

"Marcella or ma?" Frankie chuckled.

"Marcella. Well and uhm Ma I guess." Jane smirked.

"They are both fine. Ma is furious about you though. Tommy and I tried to talk some sense into her, but she's really pissed. I'm sorry Jane."

"Thank you. I really appreciate that you try to help." Jane replied.

"So, you and Paddy Doyle's daughter huh?" Frankie asked and Jane could hear his warm smile.

"Not really. I mean neither of us wants a relationship." Jane bit her lips. "I'm married and I will have a lot of stuff to deal with when I come home. I feel like it would be best if I would be alone with Marcella for a while to set up my new life."

"Who and what would give me the right to mettle with your love life? Besides, that's what we have ma for. You know it's actually funny. I never liked Gabriel, but I can only imagine how it must nag on him that you met Paddy Doyle's daughter. He told ma everything." Frankie chuckled. "As for the rest. You are the only one who can decide what's best for you. But it sounds reasonable to me. What does she say? Do you love her?"

"She's great and we are a good team. Workwise but also else. I like her." She bit her lips again. It was the first time she confessed her feelings about Maura to someone, and it felt incredibly good.

"I'm really glad for you, Jane." The brunette nodded to herself and glanced at the skyline again. It was time to hang up and go back to bed because it was getting really late and she needed some more sleep. The next day would bring more work. And hopefully a gun.

She made one more time sure that the door was safe against any unwelcome guests and went back to bed. There was a soft smile playing around her lips when Maura moved back into her arms in her sleep and Jane welcomed her comforting feeling that came with the closeness.

R&I

Jane told Maura about Frankie's call while they got ready for the trip to a place of worship from an ancient tribe. "I finally got to talk to Marcella." The smile was splitting her face and got shared by her friend right away.

"Oh Jane. That's great!" then Maura's face slightly faltered and Jane wondered what was wrong.

"Hey, you're okay?" she asked and padded over.

"Yes. No. It's just that I cant have children. And I always wanted some. I'm glad that you have your daughter. I can only imagine how wonderful it is by seeing your happy face." The blonde averted her eyes briefly, but Jane still saw the tears which were threatening to fall.

"Do you want to see some pictures?" Janes tone was soft, and she gently took Maura into her arms. "Later? I think we have to go now because we are already late." Maura looked up and Jane cupped her face with both hands, using her thumbs to wipe away some tears. "Kay." She whispered and left a tender kiss on Maura's forehead.

But to her surprise the supposed soothing gesture only elicited more tears. "Hey, You're not going to cry on me, will you?" Jane nudged her gently.

"Its just that…" Maura began and then paused to look up to the ceiling. "Its just that no one has ever been so nice to me before." She finally said and averted her eyes again. Jane who realized that she had never been so gentle to an adult before blushed.

"We should go before I start to cry to." She tried to crack a joke, feeling own tears stinging her eyes. Hazel eyes came up to meet hers. Jane gave her a reassuring smile and showed her dimples. Then she simply took Maura's hands and led her out of the room.

R&I

They both rolled their eyes when they heard some people whisper: "See, they are a couple." Jane had a hard time resisting to set them straight. But the words resonated in her mind for a while until she realized that they indeed behaved like a couple when just being close friends.

This day, both kept their eyes on the entire group. Everybody was behaving as usual. I'll be damned" Jane muttered under her breath to Maura. "Look at them! They still look so innocent, yet they are devils with walking sticks and toupees."

The blonde grabbed her hand and their fingers intertwined. "We still have no proof, Jane." She whispered into the brunette's ears which made the brunette shiver slightly. "What are you talking about? They ransacked our room. They tried to kill you. Who else would do that? Who else would have a motive?"

Maura swallowed hard. "You are right. But we need…"

"Proof! I know." Jane whispered squeezing the warm hand which lay in hers reassuringly.

Maura who found the site interesting obviously had a hard time to focus on the observation. Jane smiled at the docs antics while she watched her walk around. The blonde kept peeking out from behind several carved stones which made her giggle.

"You're pretty obvious." She said when catching up with Maura.

"I'm not trained to be a detective or do some detectives work." The blonde huffed.

"I know. But you have to try and be more subtle." Jane cleared her throat and winked at her.

"I am…" the doc protested like she always did before admitting that she wasn't.

"I thought we might use the couple thing as cover up. Maybe we are less suspicious then." The brunette mumbled while peeking over Maura's shoulder from behind the stone. Everybody was gathered around the tour guide, listening to his explanations.

Both jumped when Maura's phone began to ring. She immediately recognized one of Mozart's symphonies which she used to play on the piano when she was younger.

"I have to take it." Maura showed Jane the caller ID. It read Dr. Nasari and Jane nodded. "I'll keep watching them." She stated, feeling Maura moving out of her personal space.

"Bingo!" Maura exclaimed in a low voice upon her return from talking to the local ME. Her cheeks were red as she told Jane that the test result for arsenic had come back positive. "It's a very mean stuff. It gives you nausea and then your organs start to fail." The blonde informed her friend who replied: "I told you. These are mean old people. We really must be careful. Cavanaugh said that he will send me a weapon to protect us. We will have to… uhm… I mean… we better stay together from now on." She whispered.

"Jane, we are already together all the time." Maura pointed out.

"Fine! Just wanted to say so Mrs. point Dexter. Jane teased her. "Whatever Mrs. Smarty-pants."

They briefly exchanged a glare and then chuckled.

"What are we going to do if we have to split in order to follow them?" Maura suddenly asked, looking worried.

"That's not going to happen." Jane sounded surer than she was when she replied the question.

R&I

"Have you ever shot someone?" Maura asked once they were settling in for the night. Jane who had been reading a message from Frankie looked up. She saw how Maura put some cream onto the back of one hand and how she began to massage it into her skin. No wonder her skin was always soft Jane thought irritated.

"Yes. I had to shoot someone in self-defense." She replied, getting a weird look from Maura.

"Why is this important?" she asked Maura who shrugged.

"I'm just curious. That's all." The doc said while sliding into the sheets.

Jane was glad when her phone buzzed with an incoming message. This was the perfect deflection to a topic she didn't really want to talk about further. She glanced at the display and read a short text from Frankie which was followed by a bunch of heart melting pictures of Marcella.

"My brother sent me some pics of Marcella. Do you want to look at them together?" she asked, and Maura instantly scooted closer to her to have a better look at the screen.

The first one showed Marcella grinning happily and satisfied into the cam with a food smeared face. Another one showed her as she was trying to walk. One with her only two teeth.

"She's so sweet." Maura said, touching the screen as if to touch the girl. "She is cute right?" Jane said proudly. Both were sitting close grinning at the pictures until an incoming call from Frankie startled them. Jane noticed how Maura moved away to her own side again and instantly missed the Closeness

"Hey Janie. How's it going?" They talked for a while with the toddler babbling in the background. Jane hitched a breath when she suddenly heard her say the first understandable word. "Ma-ma."

"Did you hear that?" she excitedly asked her brother who laughed softly. "Has she said it before?"

"No, that's the first time." He replied and praised the girl. He also held the phone to the girls ear that Jane could also praise her. Maura looked sad but grinned at the same time. She was happy for Jane, but she was also sad that she would never experience it for herself.

"I hope she waits with her first steps until I'm home." Jane told Frankie who took a deep breath. "You might hurry up then, because she is already close. You have no idea how many times I started recording to catch the first steps on video. But so far she was always only close."

Jane smiled proudly and he chuckled softly. Before ending the call, Jane sang itsy bitsy spider to put the toddler asleep and then thanked Frankie.

R&I

After hanging up, she found Maura standing on the terrace. A soft breeze was messing up the blonde hair and it reminded Jane of the night when they had slept with each other. It had been a week ago and it already seemed as if it had never really happened.

She wanted to ask Maura if she was okay. But it seemed to be the stupidest question possible. She simply walked up from behind and placed her long fingers on the tense shoulders in front of her and began to give her a massage.

Maura gave a humming sound of appreciation. "I'm happy for you Jane." She said in all honesty. "the firsts are always monumental. And I'm glad that you allowed me to be part of it and hear her first word."

Jane didn't know what to reply. Therefore, she gave in to another impulse and bent down to kiss Maura's neck. Part of her was expecting to be rejected, but when she wasn't she continued to cover the silky skin on the neck with gentle kisses.

Her hands left the shoulders and trailed down alongside the arms to entwine fingers with the doc who gave another sound of appreciation. Jane took a step forward and kept kissing the blonde's elegant neck until she reached Maura's left ear.

"I want you." She whispered and felt the goosebumps raise on Maura's arms. The blonde whimpered and pushed herself back into Jane whose mouth had moved on to kiss her cheeks.

Maura pulled their entwined hands to her belly and Jane could feel the muscles tense under her touch. Her fingers reached under the fabric to pull the blonde impossible closer.

"Do you want me too?" her mouth was back at the left ear. Her breath making little hairs stand up on both bodies. "Yes, Jane. I want you too." The blonde whispered after swallowing a moan when Janes hand reached her breasts.

The brunette's long fingers knew what they had to do in order to work the doc up. She listened in amazement to all the sounds that escaped Maura's lips which were turning her on.

"Take me to bed Jane." The doc asked gently when Jane felt that she was close. Her hand found the blondes and she walked ahead back into the room. Maura laid down and she moved to straddle her. They had undressed each other on the short way from the balcony to the bed and giggled.

Everything became serious again when Jane leant down to kiss Maura. It seemed as the more often they kissed the more tender the kisses became. It was strange but the brunette liked it.

"I want us to come together." She said while looking into curious hazel eyes. She placed on leg between Maura's and made sure that one of Maura's was between hers. They soon fell into a rhythm which led them to climax at the same time.

"You sure you never did this before?" Maura asked Jane and pulled her hand through dark curls. Their eyes met and Jane allowed Maura to study her for a long while. She bit her lips and then grinned. "I swear." She simply said. Her mouth found the tip of Maura's nose and she placed a kiss onto the spot.

"Why do you think we keep doing this?" the blonde asked from underneath her.

Jane thought for a moment about the question. She was torn between cracking a joke or staying serious. Her eyes wandered down to meet Maura's. "Because we like each other?" she suggested feeling a shiver run down her spine.

Maura gave her a pensive look. "Don't you think that its some sort of stress relief?"

"Maybe." Jane stretched out her words. She couldn't say why, but it sounded much better when the reason was that they liked each other. Stress relief sounded terribly impersonal and a lot like using each other. But that's not how it felt to her when she slept with Maura. Not at all.

It occurred to her, that they might have different motives or intents for sleeping together. It was possible that Maura saw it as stress relief while it was different for Jane. That's why you shouldn't do that! Janes inner voice scolded. You are adding more chaos to the existing one.

She knew that her inner voice was right. Hence, she took a breath and stole one last kiss from Maura before slipping out of bed to go shower.

"We cant do this again." She stated seriously upon returning to the room. Maura gave her a long pensive look and agreed. This was helping none of them. Maybe they should even stop flirting Jane thought. This wasn't only about her but Jane also didn't want to drag Maura into the mess which was her life right now.