Author's Note:: Yes, I had a dream one night, this was it. I played Maura's daughter...it was weird.

Disclaimer: I own nothing. Enjoy.

FOUR

Maura looked up at Jane from where she sat on the bed next to her daughter Jemima and she swallowed softly, fearing what she had hoped wouldn't get out to Jane for some time. However, she knew that she would probably have to tell Jane at least, but off the record. Maura, although she had not been brought up in the best family environment with her adoptive parents never home and attending boarding school in Paris until she was eighteen, the Medical Examiner had grown wise to family life was she'd met the father of her daughter, Jemima.

He had raised his younger brother, he had an idea of what it was like to look after someone. He had been the one. The one who'd taught her that freedom was so much more than it had cracked up to be, the one who she'd fallen desperately in love with, and then one who had impregnated her within only a few weeks of meeting. Before he had become part of her life, Maura didn't have the foggiest idea about motherhood, but she now knew that she had to whatever she could to protect her child.

She looked to Jane still, only now realising she'd been staring at the Detective and she moistened her lips, biding herself some time before she spoke up. Jane was waiting for her to speak up and tell her what Jemima had done, Maura just didn't know how to say it. It was when Maura was about to speak up, she heard her cellphone ringing out from the living room, she brushed past Jane who was still standing, leaning against the doorway of her bedroom, looking in on Jemima and wondering what that child of six could have done that was preventing Maura from telling her.

"Isles." she answered her cellphone curtly. She took a seat and swallowed, "What? I can't talk now." she spoke into the receiver, looking up as Jane came to join her, watching for anything that might have given away who she was speaking with, "Tomorrow." she said finally and hung up, looking down to the phone in her hand, shaking her head and exhaling calmly.

"Who was that?" Jane questioned.

Maura lifted her head and looked to Jane with a troubled expression, "My father."

"The sperm donor?" she corrected Maura.

"Jane, he knew what was happening, he was on his way to save us. Jemima and I." Maura sighed, "He...he got held up with something..."

Jane scooted along the couch to Maura then and rested her hand on the Medical Examiner's shoulder, "Maura, what happened back at your house? What did Jemima do that you don't want anyone to know about?" Jane didn't know if Maura hadn't heard what she'd asked or if she was just ignoring it and trying to keep of the subject but she spoke up.

"I always wondered about him...if he knew he was grandfather." she whispered a little and bit her lip, looking to Jane, "He knew the entire time. He knows about my life, Jane. He was at all of my graduations; Kindergarten, High School, Medical School...he knew I'd been married and divorced..."

"He knew about Victor? Why didn't he do something to stop him! That jerk gave you such a hard time, Maura..."

Maura sighed shakily, "So did Garrett..."

Jane looked at Maura, frowning deeply, "Garrett? Fairfield?"

"Yes."

"Maura, I-I don't understand."

Maura took a moment to prepare herself for what she was about to tell Jane, something only she knew now. Running her tongue over her lips, Maura then swallowed, "Garrett...was Jemima's father." she sighed and looked away.

"Mau-what...?"

"When I first moved back to Boston from San Francisco, I went to see Garrett, I'd missed him after so many years. He was the first man I ever loved, Jane. He was special." Maura nodded slowly before she continued, "We...saw each other a few times before Victor followed me. He proposed and we were married within a few weeks...I didn't tell Victor I was...pregnant."

"Oh?"

"By the time I told him, it was safe enough to let him assume that the baby was his, and it wouldn't matter if she were born early." Maura said softly, "When Garrett found out about Victor and I, he tried to tell me I'd made a mistake and married the wrong man, that his family were crazy about me."

"Maura, I knew you could've been a Fairfield but, I didn't know any of this, I had no idea." Jane sat, shaking her head in shock.

Maura raised her hand to Jane, telling her politely to cease, "By the time he found out I'd given birth, he wouldn't stop calling. He spent a lot of money hiring Detective's and Lawyers to try and fight me. Why do you think he went bankrupt?" she said to Jane, a tear in the corner of her eye, "Still, he continued to call. Victor wanted us to move back to San Francisco. It had gotten so bad, Jane. He made me decide; him or stay. Victor didn't deal very well with Garrett calling all the time, I think he got wise to Jemima not being his biological daughter." she commented miserably.

Jane placed her hand onto Maura's knee and gave it a comforting squeeze, looking into her best friend's eyes and seeing years of pain there, behind the usually smiling soft hazel, "Maura, you don't have to tell me, I didn't realise..."

"Jane, I want to." she sighed, "I have to..."

"When Garrett's father passed away, Garrett saw it as the perfect opportunity to murder Adam, the half-brother. Garrett needed the money to try and storm me and take Jemima from me. He didn't know that Victor had left me, but he also didn't know who my father was...and neither did I, not at the time anyway."

"So, what happened?"

"Garrett broke into our house a few times, we'd argue...he hit me once or twice. Made Jemima watch once, she was still so young, she didn't understand who he was or what he was doing." Maura swallowed and sniffled, "I just remember seeing her face, tears streaming down her-her cheeks when he hit me..." she shook her head, "Whenever he would come and 'visit' us, I wouldn't see him again for weeks after. I often wondered what happened until he was arrested for Adam's murder. He told me everything."

"Everything?" Jane questioned.

"How my father would find him and beat him, like he'd done to me. Garrett knew my father before I even did, just not a name."

"Maura, the guy's not your father! He just happens to share your DNA. He didn't raise you...like Garrett didn't raise Jemima." Jane tried to reason with her.

"Neither did Victor." Maura shook her head, "Jane, Patrick Doyle is more of a father to me than my father. My...adoptive father. Yes, he didn't raise me, he didn't see me growing up like my father did, but he did...just from afar." Maura told Jane, "Yes, Victor nor Garrett raised Jemima, but you can't compare my situation to hers, that's not fair."

Jane tried to lighten the mood then by saying, "Hey, she's got a killer aunt though!"

"An aunt who's personality is killer, or she is actually a killer...?"

Jane furrowed her brows then and looked to Maura before she swallowed and replied, "Both...?"

"Then she takes after you."