"I didn't sign up for this," Jane groaned.
Maura rolled her shoulders back from beside the taller woman, posture perfect as ever as she lowered into a half downward dog. She straightened her leg out elegantly and turned to look at Jane. "Exercise is good for you," she said simply, hovering expectantly in the position. "Especially with a new baby in the house. Yoga especially helps stimulate blood flow and focuses the mind from emotional stressors; it's a good practice for preventing late onset postpartum depression."
She paused and looked at Jane pointedly.
Jane grumbled as she dropped down into a similar pose, albeit a great deal less gracefully. "Yoga gives me depression," she mumbled sourly, glaring at Maura petulantly. "Especially when you do it this early in the morning."
Really, she could be asleep still, perfectly unaware of the world and just about as happy as Wyatt was - tucked up in his bassinet and dreaming baby dreams while she and Maura bent, flexed, and tangled themselves into pretzels in the middle of Maura's 'meditation' room. She glanced up at the clock on the wall and groaned again at the numbers.
"You didn't have to do it with me," Maura said serenely, exhaling slowly as she twisted her body over into a bridge. "I didn't force you out of bed."
She pushed herself into a sharper arch and let her eyes flutter shut, humming at the stretch of her muscles and let her head drop down. It certainly was early, but finding sleep again after the previous night's dream had been difficult - especially with the way Jane had been wrapped around her, snoring quietly into her hair and her hand slipping habitually along her waist, fingers splaying over the skin where Maura's tank top had risen.
Of course, as soon as Maura had tried to squirm out of her hold, Jane was wide awake beside her.
Jane grunted in reply, but said nothing more as she watched the svelte line of the blonde's body under the tight racerback and yoga pants. Her eyes wandered unabashedly for a long moment before she blinked hard, shaking herself before dropping into child's pose with a loud thump.
Stop that! You can't keep eyeballin' Maura like some sleazebag on the street!
Jane groaned, thumping her head hard against the padded yoga mat. Why did the ME have to be so damn beautiful, anyway? She was a walking, talking, real life Pantene and Maybelline commercial, and really was it Jane's fault at all that she liked touching Maura's soft, sweet-scented skin? They were friends! Friends held hands!
And slept in the same bed….
And…cuddled…and spent about 20 hours a day together….
Right?
Jane let out a strangled noise and slammed her head back down into the mat. Ow.
Maura startled, and glanced worriedly at her before abandoning her workout entirely. She tucked her feet up under herself and reached out to lay a soft hand on Jane's shoulder.
"We can stop," she told the detective gently, smiling warm and indulgently when Jane peered back at her over her arm. "I'll make us some coffee."
"Please," Jane breathed, and felt Maura's hand drift down over her arm down to her wrist, and then the ME's slender fingers were pressed into her palm, weaving between her own fingers. It wasn't anything out of the ordinary - they held hands, took hands, moved each other, but somehow in that moment, every surface of Maura's skin of hers put a spark in her veins. Her eyes met Maura's and lingered there for a long moment.
Maura tilted her head, smiling sweetly at her. "Jane?"
She opened her mouth to speak, but did nothing more than flinch when a loud, shrill wail crackled from the baby monitor on the floor beside Maura. Her shoulders sagged slightly, but Jane gave her a lopsided little grin as she slipped her fingers through Maura's and heaved herself up. "Guess coffee's just gonna have to wait."
Being away from work didn't always mean they were away from work - certainly not for the Chief Medical Examiner of the Boston Commonwealth. There were emails to read, cases to reassign, and reports to write; all of which Maura was determined to do even with Wyatt dozing contentedly in the carrier strapped to her chest. She swayed idly in place, alternating foot-to-foot with one hand braced against Wyatt's small back and the other scrolling through her email. Jane had immediately commandeered the stove as soon as she'd downed her first cup of instant (to the scandalized disapproval of Maura), and Maura watched her from across the island counter as Wyatt burbled and cooed in his carrier.
"Frost just sent an email about Lydia's BOLO," she told Jane, sharing a look with the woman briefly before reading through the email carefully. "He said a patrol saw it parked outside of a grocery store in Fenway, but the woman driving it didn't match Lydia's description."
Jane huffed, plating up a heap of something and sliding it across the counter to Maura. "Probably her mom, then. I'll get Frankie to swing by her mother's place and check," she said, and made a small flourishing movement with her hand at the plate. "Voila. Breakfast."
Maura peered down at the plate with intrigue. "Egg whites?"
"With tomatoes and mushrooms and that pecorino cheese you like," Jane added proudly, moving closer to lay one hand over Wyatt's head and bending down to nuzzle his cheek. "C'mere, little man; let's let Maura dig in and check on that diaper of yours."
Maura's eyes were warm and soft as she let Jane slip Wyatt out of his carrier, watching the woman with a quiet, almost thoughtful look of adoration as Jane cradled the baby in her arms, babbling low, infantile croonings at him. Watching Jane with the baby revealed an entirely different side of the detective; sweet and soft and tender in the way she held the boy, as naturally as she held her gun. Jane met her gaze expectantly, glancing from the plate to her face, and Maura dutifully sampled a bite.
"And?" Jane prompted, swaying in place beside Maura.
"Delicious," Maura assured her, and it was. "The pecorino complements the sweet of the tomatoes and the umami of the mushrooms."
Jane smirked, lowering herself into a dramatic, mocking bow. "I am honored to have the good doctor's approval." She grinned when Maura rolled her eyes, but leaned closer when Maura held out the next forkful to her. "Could use some hot sauce," she said mid-chew, just as the backdoor of the house sounded.
Angela bustled into the kitchen, barely even hearing the two women's greetings to her before she had Wyatt in her arms. "Oh Janie, you're puttin' him in too many layers! He's so warm!" She unraveled the swaddling blanket and gently removed the cap from his head. "It's sixty degrees outside!"
"Ma, he's not yet a week old," Jane said. "He doesn't even know how to uncross his eyes yet."
"Infants do need help regulating body temperature," Maura added, turning to watch Angela bounce and rock the baby as she bustled around the kitchen. "Newborns tend to lose their body heat up to three to four times faster than adults do."
"Yeah, and by the looks of you two, he's makin' you lose more than your body temperature." Angela glanced pointedly into her daughter's face, taking in the way Jane's deep-set eyes were that much deeper from the bags under her eyes. Even the usually perfectly coiffed Medical Examiner seemed a little wearier than usual, though from the low, distant look in Maura's eyes, Angela didn't figure it was just the baby keeping her awake. "Why don't you two take the afternoon off? Relax some. Sleep in."
She gave the baby a gentle squeeze and kissed his little forehead. "I can take care of this little fella for the day."
Maura and Jane shared a look. As tempting as it was to crawl back into bed, sleep in for four hours, they knew it just wasn't how it would be. Jane stepped closer to the counter and to Maura, as if only to let the honey blonde's fingers graze the skin of her wrist. "Uh, well - Maura and I were thinkin' of headin' back to BPD after breakfast. To check on our case."
"I thought Lieutenant Cavanaugh let you have the week off?" Angela looked accusingly between them, noting the way Jane and Maura shared the same guilty look they always did when their phones went off near-simultaneously. "Oh, c'mon - you got a baby now! Work takes the backseat to family!"
Jane's eyes flashed at her mother indignantly, a retort ready on her tongue about the fact that said baby was a joint effort now thanks to Tommy Dearest, and for however much she wanted him to be, Wyatt wasn't theirs, they weren't married - but Maura caught her wrist and squeezed. She looked down at the ME with her eyebrows high on her forehead.
"It's too early to bicker," Maura murmured wearily, and Jane sighed.
"Look, just - watch Wy for a couple hours while we check up some things, alright?" Jane said, and urged Maura out of her seat. Her hand slipped easily over the curve of Maura's waist and settled along the small of her back, and Jane walked with her towards the stairs. "Couple hours, tops. Promise." She gave her mother a quick kiss on the cheek.
"Check on your brother while you're there!"
"Does this dress clash with these shoes?"
"Depends - you think blood's gonna clash with those shoes when your feet bleed out after walking in them?"
"What about this one?"
"How do you breathe in that?"
Maura sighed in exasperation, lowering the dress from her body and glaring at the woman slumped on the floor of her wardrobe. "You are being very contrary today."
"I'm being subjected to a mid-morning fashion show against my will," Jane groaned, pushing herself up and marching over to the closest row of clothes to her.
The ME huffed. "Well you've never complained before."
And she was right. Jane loved her fashion shows; gave it every ounce of her attention while doing her best to appear as miserable and disinterested as possible. She knew the way each cut of dress fit Maura, each shoe that accentuated the length and shape of her legs, knew the ones that made her wonder how Maura could possibly be wearing anything underneath. But Maura didn't need to know that.
"I wouldn't mind if I had a pot of coffee shoved into my arm via IV," Jane muttered, rifling here and there through the neatly folded (color coded) outfits, until she pulled out a pair of jeans and a suspiciously familiar shirt. She pulled it close to her face. "Is this mine?"
Maura shrugged elegantly. "Well, you left it here, and you've never said anything about it all the times you've seen me wear it."
Probably because I like you wearing my clothes, but I would probably like it more when I was undressing you outta those clothes - stop! Jane shook her head jerkily, shoving the deep green henley at Maura. "Okay, so fine. Wear it." She made a shooing motion with her hands at Maura, nudging the woman towards the bathroom. It wasn't much longer before Maura reappeared out of the bathroom, clad in her usual figure-hugging designer jeans and Jane's henley.
"Isn't it a little too casual though?" Maura peered down at the shirt and jeans, making a small twirl around, completely oblivious to the way Jane's eyes raked over her almost dazedly. Her curves were nothing new to the detective, but somehow for all the times Jane had seen Maura in that particular henley, she couldn't get her eyes off the way the cut of the top framed her body.
Jane snapped back up to look at her flatly. "Maura, we're not headed to the ballet, we're just makin' a quick stop at the office to check on Lydia and the case." She grasped Maura's arm and manhandled the woman out of the room.
"Can we stop for lunch at Ostra on the way back?"
