Author's note: thank you very much for all your reviews, it's a pleasure to read them.

January

Chapter sixteen: An Impromptu Visit

Two minutes of work, ten minutes of daydreams.

Maura sighed.

She couldn't concentrate. As much as she tried, the words kept on dancing in front of her eyes in a hypnotizing way. Then they took her far, very far from the morgue. Too far.

It didn't happen often but when it did, the scientist felt all the frustration of the world press on her shoulders. And with the frustration came stress. And with stress, a headache. The same bloody scheme she couldn't stand.

If you cannot concentrate then it means that your subconscious is trying to tell you something, Isles. Be honest with yourself. You already know that.

"We need to talk."

Jane's irruption in her office made her jump in surprise. She hadn't heard her come in as her brain had been focused on a non-exhaustive list of countries that she would like to visit. A bit too enthusiastic at the prospect of having now a good reason to postpone her work, she put down her pen on top of the file she was supposed to review and smiled.

"About what? I told you that I wasn't angry. I mean it, Jane. This is the kind of thing that could happen to anyone. You just picked up the wrong detergent. It isn't a crime." Too harrassing. She softened her voice and forced herself to really calm down. "I don't like the smell of the one you got but I am not holding it against you."

Domestic arguments. Her favorite. Not.

Ironic thumb up from Jane. Obviously, she wasn't very convinced. She went to lean against the desk and grabbed a pencil. Maura's warning in one, two, three...

"Don't chew on it. I already told you about the amount of bacteria you are putting into your mouth when you do that."

Eyeroll. Pencil back on the desk.

"I didn't come to talk about detergents."

"Good...?" Maura swallowed hard. She wasn't sure that she liked this improvised conversation. She wasn't prepared for it. But then who was prepared for something improvised? "What... What do you want to talk about, then?"

All of a sudden, Maura thought about the conversation she had tried to start back in December. Margot had just left them and they had walked for a while in the streets of Cambridge but just as she had asked the question to Jane, a phone call had put an abrupt end to it. Then she had given up, out of cowardice.

Maternity.

Why would Jane feel the urge to talk about it now, in the middle of the day? She was working on a case. Babies and what-ifs didn't fit much. No. Maura shook her head. It had to be something else.

"Leo's parents."

See, Isles? Nothing to do with children. Well, not really unless you consider Margot as your lovely daughter and we all know that you don't.

"Now?" She didn't mean to sound cold but she was almost certain that such topic could wait as well. "Don't take it badly but is it really an emergency?"

"They are at the Division One Cafe right now and want to see us."

Okay.

It was an emergency.

...

"So you're meeting them next week?" Cailin raised a very unconvinced eyebrow at Maura but didn't add anything.

She didn't need to. Her facial expressions were explicit enough. She grabbed her glass of wine and briefly cast a glance at Jane in the process.

"They're super nice. We couldn't turn them down! They came to the BPD and all... Hopefully, this... Little dinner... Will not be all about Margot." Jane's voice betrayed her lack of confidence, though.

"I think it's kind of cool you accepted to play along. Completely immoral and you're flirting with the limits of it right now. You also need to learn how to say no to Margot - you need to set limits here - because as much as you are not really her parents, it's the role you're sort of playing now; like guardians. You're her adult reference. Her parents are on the other side of the ocean. She needs role models so you have to play it fair... But then she just wanted to impress the guy she likes. Not in the smartest way but who hasn't done that? Or pretend we liked something when it wasn't true...?" She smiled. "We're all guilty of this. I'm sure you have done it with each other."

Jane and Maura exchanged an anxious look and frowned. Cailin was very talented at putting them in uncomfortable situations like this one since she had majored in psychology. Jane saw it as a Guinea pig moment, Maura as a simple conscientiousness trick.

Either way, they both agreed on saying that it wasn't pleasing.

"Of course not!" Jane chuckled but immediately hid herself behind her bottle of beer and noticed it. Time to save up her lovely ass. "Maura knows what I like and what I don't. Maybe – and I say maybe – I tried stuff just to please one of her odd hobbies... But that's what couples do! It's couple compromises."

"This is very true, Cailin. I never cheated with Jane. Anyway, I would have a hard time doing so as I cannot lie. I... No..." Maura shook her head and looked at her wife. "No, I don't think I ever did that with Jane. I never tried to fool her..."

Hope's daughter snorted. The kind of snort that made Jane clench her teeth because she knew what it meant. Cailin was about to go all therapy on them. She was about to analyze every single detail – with more or less precision and fairness – then would let them soak in their shock for the rest of the evening.

"You are a very lovely couple but I can't believe that. You turned so nervous that you hid behind a bottle, Jane. And you – Maura – you tried to use an argument that we all know we can't really take for granted as you have perfectly managed to pretend to be Margot's mother until now. You're good at playing on words."

Jane rolled her eyes. She wasn't in the mood for a Freudian evening.

All she wanted was to have a nice little moment with Maura – and maybe with Cailin too – but nothing that would point out she might not have been as sincere as her subconscious would like her to be.

"How's the love life?"

Jane's question took Cailin aback. Only for two seconds, though.

"Trying to change the subject?" Cailin laughed lightly. "It's going very fine, thank you for asking. Jay and I are doing just fine."

And failed. Jane forced a smile. She had hoped for a more constructive reply, something that would at least fill the next five minutes which was the required time for Cailin to forget that she had two potential subjects here to analyze.

"Will I get a nephew or a niece any time soon?"

"I could return you the question..." Cailin winked at a mortified Maura. "Shouldn't you be the first? I'm only twenty-seven, after all."

Maura made a face. Perhaps she shouldn't have talked in the first place.

Cailin was not the first one who made baby allusions – Angela practically did it every day – but it was a delicate matter lately and she didn't know how to face it. Her own mother had sent her a mail a couple of days earlier – from Tokyo – asking her whether she had finally had the guts to talk to Jane about it.

It wasn't the right moment. She had a lot of work at the morgue and Jane was still on this cold case that brought daily doses of stress. High doses of stress. It would have to wait.

Again.

Cailin's cell phone rang. Saved by the bell. The young woman stood up and excused herself before walking to the kitchen to take the call. Jane and Maura remained on the couch. Staring straight in front of them.

"Did you cheat with me, Jane? Did you ever do this? Did you ever try to fool me?"

Jane closed her eyes and took a deep breath. This was the exact reason why she didn't like it when Maura's sister used her psychologist skills on them. It always raised questions that had no reason whatsoever to be.

"What?"

"You heard me. Did you ever pretend to like something just because I liked it?" Maura bit her lower lip. "Cailin is right. I saw you hide behind your beer. This is not something you would have done if you hadn't felt guilty one way or another."

"Man...! You gotta be kidding me. Maura... Can you think of a time when I didn't make clear that I didn't like what you liked?"

"No, not really." Jane was right. She always made sure Maura got it when she didn't like something. This was even the reason why she was grumpy on an almost daily basis. "But I wouldn't take it badly... Of course I prefer honesty but it is okay to feel the urge to impress the person we love. It is only human, after all."

"I'm not enough of a genius to do that. Look at how long it took me to admit to myself that I didn't just see you as a friend. It took me years to realize I had feelings for you. And by the time I did... It was too late to try to impress you."

Jane's reply must have been convincing enough because Maura cupped her wife's face in her hands then leaned over to plant a delicate kiss on her lips.

"Oh... Believe me, you tried to impress me! More than once... And you succeeded. You definitely did."