Author's note: thank you very much for all your reviews and messages (I screwed my back on Saturday so I'll reply to the PMs later on)

Chapter nineteen: Happy Birthday

Maura stepped out of the bathroom – mischievously winked at Jane – and trotted towards the bed to settle next to her wife. She slid a leg between hers and let her hand run on her stomach. A kiss on her shoulder, another one in the crook of her neck. The message couldn't be clearer.

"Who is now going to have a very private birthday party?" It sounded cliché but she couldn't care less; she had basically been waiting for it all day long.

Gutted, Jane shrugged then grabbed a book on her bedside table. She opened it, ready to resume the reading. It was a good thriller but she surely had hoped for another kind of late-night activity. It was her birthday, after all.

"Someone lucky but this person won't be me."

It took Maura a while to realize what her wife had just said. It is only after the third kiss – this time on her jaw – that the scientist frowned.

"Why are you saying such a thing?" Brief glance at the book. "Why are you reading this novel now? It is your birthday, Jane... And we haven't argued. There is no cold treatment, tonight. I am ready to party wild."

"Yes, there is one." Jane looked at Maura and pouted. "Bad time of the month."

Oh. Maura reluctantly sat back on her side of the bed and stared straight in front of her. They could postpone it. After all, they had just had a very long day and she was a bit tired herself. Over fifteen people had come to celebrate Jane's birthday. Everything had gone smoothly but it had been rather stressing too. Unless... She bit her lower lip, uncertain.

"You know..." Tracing invisible patterns on the blanket, she timidly shrugged. "It is okay. I can... I mean... It doesn't necessarily have to stop me."

"Ew!" Horrified, Jane shook her head before taking some distance with her wife. "Now this is gross, Maura. Don't... Don't do that. Please. Besides, I have cramps anyway so I'm really not in the mood." Back on her novel. "Sorry."

Maura didn't reply. She got up instead and left the bedroom only to come back a minute later with her tablet. Jane cast a brief glance at it and frowned.

"What are you doing? I thought we weren't supposed to bring any kind of screen to bed because it screwed up our sleep pattern."

Jane's remark made Maura smile. She was glad to see that her wife had one more time listened to her. Sometimes, she had the sensation to basically talk to herself. Or to a wall.

"You are eight days early. This is a lot... Have you been tired more than the usual, lately? Perhaps you should see your OB/GYN. Your cycle isn't regular anymore."

And happy birthday, Rizzoli. Not only are you unable to have sex to celebrate the fact you got older one more time but your wife actually also keeps track of your uterus activity on her iPad. This is really – but really – terrifying. Good thing she got you these four days in Monument Valley as a present.

"What?! Maura!" Of course, her offended tone of voice didn't have the expected effect on Maura. "It's perfectly okay to be a few days early or late. I'm not on the pill so it can't be... Damn, why are we talking about this?"

"Sure but an eight-day difference? It is quite a lot, Jane. I am a bit worried. Are your cramps more painful than they usually are?"

Jane rolled her eyes. She didn't want to talk about her period now. Everything was perfectly normal. It wasn't really a new situation for her. She knew how to deal with it.

"There's nothing to worry about, Maura. I'm fine." Her cycle was irregular and so what? Work had been stressful and then there was the possibility for them to have a child. The last weeks had been emotionally heavy. "But if you want to really please me... Could you bring me a hot water bottle?"

Maura didn't insist. She nodded – planted a kiss on top of Jane's nose – and left the bedroom again. Relaxing in bed, Jane grabbed her wife's tablet and absentmindedly checked the different dates. It was nothing but stress. She knew it.

Stress and the worst timing ever. They had overslept in the morning – had thus skipped any chance to spend some more time in bed – and the rest of the day had been crazy.

It's not the end of the world, Rizzoli. You'll have other birthdays. Plenty of birthdays. And it's not like you need it to be your birthday to do it.

Maura made it back to the bedroom and put the hot water bottle on Jane's lower stomach. She took her in her arms and planted a comforting kiss on top of her head.

"What's the post-it for?" Intrigued, Jane took it off the hot water bottle and read the message on the small sheet of paper. "A coupon for a delayed birthday present? Really?" She laughed. "You're one of the craziest person I got to meet! This is... Yeah well... I don't know."

Maura winked.

"I saw this in a lifetime movie the other day. The story was extremely bad..."

"Lifetime movies are rarely Oscar worthy. Since when do you watch this kind of thing? I thought that if it wasn't an Iraki movie subtitled in Mandarin, it didn't make it to your list!"

"Margot wanted to watch it. Anyway – as I was saying before you interrupted me – the scenario was very poor but I liked this moment a lot. The couple has just had a child and they both know their life is going to follow a very different pattern for a little while so the woman gives this coupon to her husband."

Jane frowned. Perhaps the detail hadn't caught Maura's attention but it had for her. Breathing loudly, she bit her lips and tightened her grip on the hot water bottle.

Why did she have to be apprehensive? She always was when someone alluded to something personal. She hated it.

"Is it something you'd do if we had a child? Would you give me a coupon too?"

If they openly talked about the different options to have a child now, it was the first time that one of them gave in and played the fantasy game. Jane was the first surprised by her own boldness.

"I don't know..." Maura smiled, amused by the idea. "Why not! After all, I already do it to postpone your birthday celebration. It could almost become a running gag between us."

"Yeah. And something nobody else would know about. I like that." Jane laughed lightly. "I'm sorry we're not celebrating right now. Looks like we've hit the married life dark side. Goodbye dear sexy times and hello shitty reality."

Maura grabbed the post-it and stuck it on her bedside table before focusing back on her wife. She cuddled against her.

"There are more important things, Jane. I am not with you just for sex, you know that." Taking advantage of a short moment of inattention for Jane, Maura stole the novel from her hands and read the back cover a bit absentmindedly until her eyes stopped on a word. "Juliet?"

Jane immediately understood what she was referring to.

"You like it? I kind of do. The same crossed my mind the first time I saw it in the book. Juliet... It's cute for a girl. Juliet Isles-Rizzoli... Juliet Rizzoli-Isles."

Maura blushed. Did the fact they talked about baby names already mean that they had finally taken their decision? At least indirectly? They officially hadn't come to any conclusion yet, though.

"I like it, yes. It is a classic name..." The delight turned short as a darker thought suddenly invaded Maura's mind. "But what if people spend their time asking where her Romeo is? This is terrible."

"Juliet could have a Juliet instead of a Romeo."

As much as the remark was sweet, Maura discarded it right away.

"Except Juliet is heterosexual in the play so I hardly doubt people would make such allusion. We can't choose a name that has chances to be the source of many jokes."

Fair point.

"Then how about Margot?"

This time, Maura leaned up on her elbows and locked her eyes in her wife's dark ones to make sure that Jane wasn't mocking her.

"Margot like in... Margot? Our Margot?"

The use of the possessive adjective elicited a smile on Jane's lips. Yet she completely agreed with Maura: Margot was their Margot; on many levels.

"Yes. We owe her everything, after all. The name is cute – Margot Isles-Rizzoli or Margot Rizzoli-Isles sounds good – and I don't see what kind of jokes people could make about it."

Maura pondered the question for a few seconds then finally nodded.

"But what if it is a boy?" The fact that she hadn't formulated a hypothesis but a strong possibility by using the present simple made her blush. It had been a Freudian slip but still... She had basically let Jane understand that she gave the green light to maternity. "I mean..."

Jane shrugged.

"If it's a boy?" She blinked, wrinkled her nose. "Then back to the store because I have no freaking idea!"