By the time they'd finished lunch and returned home, Wyatt was fast asleep in his carrier, and Jane was just about another yawn away from collapsing on the ground she stood on. Maura pulled the last paper bag of groceries from the car and straightened to look at the sleepy detective, smiling fondly to herself at the way Jane's eyes drooped and swayed on her feet as she juggled Wyatt on her chest and a paper bag on her hip.
The Medical Examiner stepped around the car carefully, shutting the door with a nudge of her hip. "Sorry," she said after, when the door slamming jolted Jane from her haze. "That's the last of it."
"Cool," Jane mumbled, leaning over to take the paper bag from Maura. The blonde protested of course, but Jane had merely grunted at her in her sleepiness and shifted the two paper bags in her arms. "Get the door then," she said mildly, when she saw Maura glaring at her petulantly. Jane smirked at her crookedly as Maura huffily brushed past her, watching the pretty blonde go before fishing out the car keys and hitting the locks.
Obviously, she had driven.
"Jane," Maura chided the lanky woman, as Jane ambled up the driveway; nearly teetering off to one side from the weight of the bags she was carrying coupled with the weight of Wyatt on her chest. Maura's hazel grey eyes frowned at the detective as the woman came up to her, shaking her head and reaching for a paper bag. "You're going to hurt yourself or Wyatt if you keep on like this. You're half awake!" she insisted, sliding her hands between the gaps of Jane's lean arm, but the woman merely hugged the bag tighter to her.
The Boston detective rolled her eyes at the ME, grunting under her breath as she tugged the bag tighter to her and shifted Wyatt slightly to the side. "Hands off," she muttered sleepily, and through her half-lidded eyes managed a glare in Maura's direction as she brushed past the woman into the house. "It's bad enough that you paid for them – I swear the next time we make a grocery run like this, we're leaving your cards at home."
Maura huffed at her mildly, watching Jane's back disappear down the hall of her home. "You paid for lunch," she countered, the benevolent exasperation in her voice was more endearing than irritable. "It's the least I could've done." She shut the door behind her and secured the lock, trailing after Jane as the Italian woman began to deposit the bags of goods on the kitchen counter. She approached the counter and pulled one of the bags to her, removing its contents as she rolled her eyes at Jane still.
"You can't keep paying for everything, Jane. You'll be broke by time Wyatt is six months old!" She began to neatly align the necessities by use along the counter; baby formula in one neat pile, diapers in another, and the baby bottles last. Amidst the basic pile of necessities was the one thing Jane had to bed Maura to let her buy – a baby bib in the colors of Google, but said 'Googoo' instead. Of course, to reciprocate, Maura had purchased one with the most grotesquely frilled edges with 'mommy's little angel' on it.
Jane was not amused.
She scowled when she caught sight of the bib again, pulling Wyatt out of the carrier and gratefully unstrapping the contraption as Maura swept Wyatt into her arms and rocked him back to sleep. "Burn that thing," she told the blonde darkly, but only scowled deeper when Maura simply rolled her eyes at the detective over her shoulder.
As she opened her mouth to sass at the woman more, Jane found herself yawning like an overgrown cat instead; loud, unabashed, and unapologetic when Maura tsked at her about manners. Jane grunted at her, waving the woman away as she trudged over and slid Wyatt from her hold. "I'm taking a nap," she husked, and she stepped back to give Maura a lopsided smile as Wyatt settled into the crook of her elbow. "We're taking a nap, so you can go on with your organizing of the stuff but don't you dare think about redecorating the guest room yet." She wagged her finger at Maura firmly.
"We're doin' that after we figure out who Wy's Daddy is and after I'm unconscious for a good hour or two."
Huffing yet again, Maura rolled her eyes as she watched Jane continue trudging down the hall to the master bedroom, shaking her head with an indulgent smile as she heard the woman murmuring quietly to the baby about the Medical Examiner's OCD tendencies.
"You think that's bad, you haven't heard about the time Maura got into my closet and organized the pantsuits by color and design…."
It was two hours later when Maura came striding into the bedroom in a hurry; Wyatt's snuffling cries had gone unanswered after five minutes, and Maura had come to realize that Jane was down for the count. When she walked into her bedroom, she smiled to herself when she realized just how 'down' Jane really was.
The brunette was sprawled on her stomach, spread out across the bed with a pillow tucked under her chin; her arm nested underneath it for leverage. Quiet, low rumbles came from Jane's parted mouth, and so did a thin trail of drool that pooled on the skin of her arm and settled there. It was endeared Jane to Maura even more so than usual, and it also made the petite honey blonde a touch guilty at knowing she was the reason Jane was so sleep-deprived.
She sighed to herself as she moved around the bed to the bassinet, lifting Wyatt from his bed as he flailed his little fists about and snuffled thinly at her. Maura cooed at his tiny displeased moue, stroking a slender finger down his soft cheek as she hushed him gently. "It's okay, sweetheart, it's alright." She bounced him gently in her arms as she walked the room. "Do you want your bottle now? Or are you in need of a diaper change?"
Lifting the band of his diaper slightly, Maura deduced that little Wyatt Rizzoli-Isles was in fact, in need of a diaper change, and so she took the baby outside to the kitchen counter where Jane had left the changing mat. "Alrighty, mister; let's see what you've got for me under there," she drawled, laying Wyatt down and smiling at the gurgling baby's babbling. Unsnapping Wyatt's diaper, another at the ready, Maura lifted the flap…
…and was rewarded with a jet of yellow water.
"Wyatt!" she yelped, darting away from the stream of pee while simultaneously holding the diaper flap over the baby's lower area. Wyatt gave a sighing gurgle of relief as he peed, kicking his legs out excitably as Maura came back to glare at him benevolently. If he could smile or giggle, he would've at that moment.
Maura huffed at him, wagging her finger at the baby as she slid the diaper from underneath his bottom. "We won't be tolerating any more of that, young man," she chided him, wiping gently with a wet wipe and sliding a new diaper under him smoothly. "Urinating on people is highly frowned upon."
Wyatt's response was to blow her a spit bubble.
The ME chuckled and lifted Wyatt back into her arms, smiling with satisfaction at her handiwork before wrapping Wyatt back into the baby blue swaddling cloth. Wyatt yawned, snuggling into her warm chest, where he curled his tiny fist into the collar of her shirt and began to root hungrily for a meal. It was several hours since he was fed – the boy was hungry!
"Oh." Flushing slightly, Maura grabbed the bottle of formula from the fridge and moved to the kitchen sink. "We'll have your lunch ready in a second, sweetheart. Just let me heat this up for you." She slid a bowl under the hot water tap, filling the bowl to a decent level before placing the bottle inside it. As it heated, Maura bounced Wyatt gently, humming a tune absentmindedly at the baby while her brain drifted off idly to thoughts and considerations.
There were things she needed to discuss with Jane; firstly, they needed to conduct a DNA test on Wyatt to compare to the Rizzoli family tree. Secondly, they needed to discuss living arrangements with Wyatt – would they have to alternate weeks wherein Wyatt would stay with her for two weeks of the month and then with Jane for the other two?
Would they alternate weeks?
Wyatt gave another demanding whine, and Maura jolted back to her responsibilities in the current time – namely feeding him. "Sorry," she murmured sheepishly, but Wyatt didn't care much for apologies; he just wanted milk. She grabbed the bottle out of the bowl, testing its warmth in her hand as she grabbed a towel from the pile she'd made on the counter and draping it neatly under his chin. Impatiently Wyatt's mouth began to root, and laughing, Maura guided the nipple into his eager mouth.
"Well, at least now we know you really are a Rizzoli," she quipped teasingly. "Impatience is a hereditary behavior."
"I resent that remark."
Whirling with a gasp, Maura found herself face-to-face with a drowsy-eyed Jane; the detective was smirking at her crookedly as she reached out and grasped Maura's elbow to prevent the woman from reeling back to far. "Rizzolis aren't impatient; they're dedicated," she retorted, glancing down to where Wyatt was suckling away greedily. "Hey, hey, hey, Junior – slow it down before you choke yourself." She reached down for the bottle, curling her hand over Maura's as she pulled the nipple out of Wyatt's mouth briefly until the baby settled.
"That's a boy," she murmured soothingly, sliding the nipple back into Wyatt's mouth as the baby began to suckle again, slower now. A dimple appeared on her tan cheek as Jane smiled down at the baby, glancing up at Maura. "Guess you were right about him doublin' his size in six months, huh."
"Well, I wasn't guessing, Jane, I was making a statement," Maura told her, and together they finished feeding Wyatt and put the baby back into his bassinet for his mid-afternoon nap. Tucking the little sleeping infant back under his swaddling cloth, Maura placed a loving kiss on his forehead before straightening with Jane to admire Wyatt for a moment. They stood together; Jane's arm wrapped loosely around her waist and pulling her back against her lean figure as they watched the baby sleep for just a moment longer.
"He's kinda cute, ain't he?" Jane murmured lowly, her voice a delicious timbre resonating through her chest and vibrating into Maura's back. It sent an involuntary shiver up Maura's spine, and the woman couldn't help but lean a little bit deeper into her best friend.
She hummed at Jane, cheeks flushed mildly. "He is," she agreed, and then turned slightly to meet Jane's eye. "I thought we might want to talk about living arrangements."
Jane pulled back slightly, brows furrowed as she frowned out of the corner of her mouth at the ME. Her mind was foggy somewhat, but she was a quick one on her feet, and Jane felt the cogs whirling in her head as she blinked at Maura. "Why?" she asked warily, eyeing the way Maura shrugged at her innocently. "What kind of living arrangements?"
"Well," Maura began, gesturing between them. "I was thinking perhaps it's best if you came to live with me for a little while – at least until Wyatt is settled."
Jane's forehead furrowed harder, and Maura began her well-prepared argument. "Staying here would make it easier for you to spend time with Wyatt, plus you and I go to work together anyway – it would be more cost-effective for us to just start leaving from one destination. It would completely cut out the need for us to drop Wyatt back and forth between your apartment and my house; we do need to avoid displacing Wyatt at such a young age.
And it would be easier for us to take turns with his feeding and changing schedule." Maura turned to Jane with a confident nod, beaming at her own logic.
"But Ma's here 24/7; she can help when I'm not around," Jane sputtered insistently. As tempting as the idea of living in with Maura was, Jane didn't think she could live with the idea of giving up her apartment and having to spend nights in the same bed as Maura. Maura was a cuddler, (and maybe Jane was a little bit of one herself, but y'know…that was irrelevant) and sometimes Jane found it painfully, painfully hard to keep her hands off her best friend. Though she had to admit – Maura had very relevant points behind her reasoning.
"I can't stay with you, Maur," she said plainly, impulsively. "God, I don't think I'd be able to survive it." And then Jane rolled her lips inwards and bit down hard when she realized what she'd just said.
Damn it.
Maura was making that face at her again. The 'my-amygdala-and-my-lacrymal-glands-have-a-connection-I-can't-control' face; complete with quivering lower lip and watery hazel grey eyes.
"I didn't know you found me so repulsive to be around," she uttered stiffly, though she sniffled and pouted petulantly at Jane. "I'm sorry I made the offer then."
"Aw, babe, that's not what I meant!" Jane grasped Maura's arm and pulled her back to face her, squeezing the ME's hands tight in hers as she stared into Maura's watery eyes apologetically. Her own dark eyes implored Maura to forgive her; that she was a great big giant asshole who didn't think about how anyone else felt and that she was so sorry she would get on her knees for Maura. "I – I – I didn't mean it like that – I just – I'll do it, okay?"
She squeezed Maura's hands in hers, smiling weakly in defeat. "I'll do it," she repeated, slower then, clearer. "I just didn't want you to have to handle me and Ma bein' around you all the time!"
Maura huffed, pulling her hands away from Jane's. "If I didn't want you around, Jane, I wouldn't have offered it," she told the detective flatly, shrugging. "Besides, you and I spend almost 20 hours a day with each other as is – there'll be no difference if you and I share a bed." Briefly Maura found her mind drifting very inappropriately to Jane and her doing more than just sharing her bed.
She flushed pink, clearing her throat awkwardly. "You wouldn't want to be a part-time Dad, would you?"
Jane blinked, abruptly pulled from her wonderful daydream of morning cuddles and nighttime fun times in bed with Maura. "Part-time – WHY AM I THE DAD?" she sputtered indignantly.
"Because -."
"Because you think I'm butch?" she challenged Maura, and she held the woman's gaze for a long, stubborn moment before Maura rolled her eyes at her benevolently.
"Because, Jane," Maura said, exasperated. Really; you make a lesbian dating profile on a job ONE time! "I can't teach him how to steal base, pitch, or swing a bat." She smirked softly at Jane, poking a finger at Jane's toned stomach smugly. "You can, and that's what a father does."
Shoulders slumping in defeat, Jane glared at Maura darkly for a long moment, smacking Maura's finger away from her stomach as she flailed her hands about in frustration. "Alright, alright, fine!" she huffed, setting her hands akimbo on her hips as she fixed Maura with a dirty look. "We'll try it out for a month, and we'll see how it goes. But -." She held up a finger and glared at Maura sternly when the pretty blonde broke into a brilliant grin.
"He is not calling me Daddy."
