Author's note: thank you very much for all the reviews!

Chapter five: Pastries, Ducks and Pictures

"Maura?" Jane waited for a few seconds and only once she was sure her friend paid attention to her did she ask her a question. "What are these called again? I always forget."

Maura leaned on her tiptoes to check the plate.

"The chocolate ones are pains au chocolat."

Jane nodded and whispered the word again before grabbing one of the homemade pastries. She was about to bite into it when Maura pushed her away from the counter immediately and landed angry eyes on her.

"Can't you just wait for Margot to be here? Give it back to me. Come on! Give it back to me." She held out a hand and tried to look menacingly at Jane.

Complete fail. The brunette laughed and made a sideways step to escape from her friend but Maura was fast enough to pin her against the kitchen counter. Roles reversed. She smirked.

"I won't repeat it twice: put this pain au chocolat down immediately or..."

"Or what?" Jane raised a mischievous eyebrow. She was in the mood for some challenge and it seemed like her friend had just brought her one on a silver plater. Or a ceramic plate as it happened. Whatever. Perfect way to start a 'family' weekend, anyway. "You will spank me?"

Maura made a step forward and stood so close to Jane that she could feel the heat of her body on hers, the way her chest moved up and down following the pace of her heartbeats. She carefully leaned her hands on both sides as if to secure the area – to get Jane trapped in her arms – and came closer to her friend's face; her lips so close to Jane's that she could feel her breath coming by waves against her mouth.

"Good morning! I... Oh my god!" Margot put a hand in front of her mouth and raised the other one in a gesture of apology. She then made a step backwards, her giggles filling the kitchen warmly. "I didn't mean to interrupt you. I can... I can come back."

The remark made Jane and Maura frown – look at each other – then suddenly take their distance as they realized what the adolescent meant. They rushed separate ways.

"Hey, do you want a pain au chocolat? Maura... Maura baked them!" Jane grabbed the plate with the pastries on it and held it out to Margot.

"A what?"

The Italian looked down at the viennoiseries with perplexity.

Had she got it wrong again? Unless it was her quite approximate pronunciation? She pointed out the plate and began to stutter, too afraid to repeat the word in French. Maura thankfully stepped in to get her out of this linguistic nightmare.

"Pains au chocolat?"

"Oh!" Margot grabbed one and walked to one of the stools. "These are chocolatines where I live but nice try, Jane! If I were from Paris, I would have understood. Your French is good."

Jane put the plate down on the kitchen counter. She looked a tad upset. For once she made an effort and spoke French, she had got it wrong. Because of Maura. She shot a death glare at her friend.

"Aren't you supposed to know that? Your parents have a house near Bordeaux. Do you never go to the bakery when you visit them?"

"You don't go to France with Maura?"

Since the medical examiner had only shrugged away her comment, Jane turned around and looked at Margot. Butter knife in hand, the adolescent was smiling at her obviously waiting for a reply.

"What do you mean?"

Margot chuckled. Her big green eyes studied Jane from head to toe as if she had lost her mind or spoken Greek to her but before the detective's honest confusion, the French girl looked at Maura in need of an explanation.

"You don't spend your holidays together? You're married but you don't... You don't do that?!" Her perplexity made her voice raise an octave.

"Oh that. Oh well... Yes, of course we do. It's just... Ahem... Maura?"

That was low but the truth was that Jane hadn't found any excuse yet. It was too early in the morning for her brain to work out properly and elaborate evil schemes about a so-called married life.

"You are right, Margot. You are... Right." Maura put the coffee pot on the counter - very slowly - and nodded at the girl. "I never had a chance to take Jane to Dordogne yet but... Hopefully, I will. You know... One day."

"Maura's parents' house out there is going under works anyway. Nobody puts me on an eight-hour flight to go camping in... In the South of France."

Lame excuse but at least she had found one. More or less satisfied of it, Jane grabbed back her pain au chocolat and finally bit into it.

...

Boston Common turned out to be packed in spite of the low temperatures and the icy wind that was blowing a bit too hard for Maura's taste.

She would have preferred to go to Cambridge or to see an exhibition but Margot had insisted and – since she was their guest – she had got the last word on their Saturday afternoon activities.

"You are going to scare these ducks, Jane. Leave them alone." Maura's laugh rose in the sky as she approached her friend and shook her head at her.

Jane had squatted by the pond and was now so focused on the ducks at her feet that she didn't pay attention at all to the loud frenzy around her: children playing with a ball, families and joggers passing by.

"I guess one of them has a broken leg, Maura."

The scientist bent over and – her curiosity piqued – squinted her eyes at the animals. Too late. She barely had time to feel Jane's arms grab her waist that she was lifted in the air just above the rather cold waters of the pond. Margot burst out laughing somewhere on her right.

"Jane! What are you doing? Are you crazy? Put me down immediately!"

"I don't know, sweetie... I kind of like the idea of watching you go for a swim. What do you think, Margot?" Jane winked at the teenager and tightened her grip on Maura. "Will you stop kicking me in the legs? What kind of wife I got, exactly?"

"Put me down! How dare you... Put me down, I tell you! Put me down or..."

Second threat of the day. The first one had been followed by awkwardness and a lame explanation to the reason why Jane didn't know Maura's parents' house in Dordogne. They couldn't repeat their morning scene now.

"I don't know what you think, Margot, but I guess it's the perfect time to see if Maura handles one of my infamous tickle attacks."

"No! No, no, no, no, no! Not that! Jane! Don't..." Her friend barely had time to let her fingers run on her sides that Maura burst out laughing and kicked harder. She cast a glance at Margot. "You are not making a video, are you?"

"Oh no!"

Maura smiled of relief.

"I am taking pictures."

Smile: gone. Same for her laugh as Jane started making her swing back and forth above the waters. She wasn't going to do it, was she? But Maura didn't have time to complain anew. Her friend made one step backwards and lost her balance. They both fell on the floor; on top of each other.

"Fantastic, Jane. Really." Yet unable to remain serious and angry, Maura laughed lightly. She stood up and helped her friend to do the same. People were looking at them. She raised a hand at their audience. "We are fine, thank you."

Fine but humiliated.

Furious - and yet extremely amused - Maura turned her back at her friend.

"Jane Clementine Rizzoli, I hate you."

The Italian adjusted her clothes in silence. Her hair was a mess and her cheeks were red. Without any warning, she passed a hand on Maura's waist to bring her a bit closer and murmured to her ear.

"Watch out. You're gonna break into hives."

Fair point but Maura didn't say it. Instead, she decided to have a look at the pictures that Margot had taken. The French girl was still laughing. At least she and Jane were entertaining; in their own way.

"You're the cutest couple ever! Look at this one. Come over here, Jane. Have a look. You both look so in love on this pic!"

The comment made both women freeze.

Margot didn't do it on purpose but she hadn't stopped with these embarrassing allusions and it was becoming really hard for Jane and Maura to face them without an ounce of guilt and shame. Although there was something more, this time.

Something that none of them wanted to hear.

"It is a nice picture, you are right." The medical examiner straightened up and motioned the path on their right. She didn't want to stay in Boston Common anymore. She needed to go away and now. "Hot chocolate, anyone? I am dying for one myself."

She had seen the picture; the way she and Jane were looking at each other on it. And for this exact reason, she was desperately seeking for some distance with it. The discomfort it had stirred up plunged her in a blurry silence made of hesitations, incomprehensions. What was going on?

You can thank Jane again. Look at her. She is taking care of Margot when you are unable to say the mere word. You owe her so much, Isles. So much.

Maura smiled at them as they both looked at her. She envied Jane for being able to pretend as well as she did.

The Italian didn't react dramatically, unlike her. She knew how to take distance with things. Maura was too litteral. She had always been. And nobody could imagine how much she was suffering from it.

Come on. Go. Do it.

She approached Jane without a word and took her hand in hers to hold it tight. The gesture made Margot smile.