Author's note: thank you for the reviews; as for the guest review, you can find the pronounciation of Haumea on the web (probably better explained that I would be able to explain it myself) - as for the dialogues, I don't think it is my "strength" when it comes to writing, I guess I am "better" at descriptions.

Chapter Fourteen: Marcel and Chantilly

"Here it is." Her curiosity piqued, Jane put down on the bed the cardboard box Maura had asked her to go and pick in the walk-in closet and settled back next to her wife; grabbing two gummy bears in the process. One of the positive sides of Maura's insemination: she turned in Miss Sweet Tooth after it. "What is it?"

With an amused smile, the medical examiner opened the box and took out of it two old teddy bears. A white one and a brown one. Jane frowned and stared at Maura as if she had lost her mind.

"Are these..."

Nod. "Jane, let me introduce you to my very old friends: Marcel and Chantilly. Brought to this world in 1978."

The Italian grabbed the white one – inspected it – and sniffed it. "It has your smell."

"Of course, it does! They have always accompanied me in my life. They are part of who I am. My parents didn't want to buy them thinking it would create an emotional dependency but I apparently cried my eyes out until they gave in and... Here they are."

"Marcel and blah-blah-y. I see." Grabbing the fake paws, Jane made the bear improvise some sort of a dance but her brutal gestures made Maura wince in pain.

"Chantilly, not blah-blah-y. And be careful with them, please. They are old. Very old." Maura approached one from her nose and let the scent go to her head bewitchingly.

They brought a thousand memories to her mind, some happier than others. A patchwork of events that had shaped the path of her life. She hadn't taken them off the cardboard box since she had moved in there, in Beacon Hill. And all of a sudden, it seemed like an eternity.

Her stomach cramps made her move and find another position in bed. The insemination had gone smoothly but just like for their first trial, the pain that followed had pushed her to stay in bed for the rest of the day.

Maybe the hormones were talking and that was why she felt so happy to touch and smell Marcel and Chantilly again.

While eating gummy bears. You are in full regression, Isles.

"You didn't have a cuddly toy as a child?" As much as it seemed incongruous, Maura asked the question before her wife's perplexity before the presence of both bears.

The brunette seemed to hesitate, shrugging and pouting as if debating the words she should be using to not sound ridiculous. "I had a goat named Ernie."

Maura blinked – turned her head around to face her wife properly – and frowned. "A goat? A real one?"

Deadpanned, Jane ran her tongue over her lips and nodded. "Yeah, a real one. It used to be in our backyard and so we didn't have to use a lawnmower..." Eye roll. "No, Maura. Ernie was a cuddly toy as well."

Sarcasm. As much as she was getting used to it, the honey blonde always had a slight delay of acknowledgment when Jane used it. But not really bothered by it either, she focused back on the confession.

"Do you still have it?"

"Nah. It ended up in the oven. One summer, I thought Ernie was too pale so to make sure it would be suntanned, I put it in the oven. I let you imagine how it ended."

Maura burst out laughing. It felt good to do so in spite of the circumstances. As much as she knew that it wouldn't help, she didn't stop comparing the time being to the past. They were on repeat. Except she hadn't laughed at all the first time around. She had simply laid in bed, abandoned to her wife's arms. Against all expectations, she felt less tense now.

Eager to enjoy the day no matter what.

"Alright. Before such admission, I would appreciate it if you gave me back Chantilly. Now. And slowly. Don't do harm to this poor old bear that hasn't done anything to you in the first place."

The honey blonde's light tone made Jane smile and she obliged only to grab Marcel instead. Maura protested. For two seconds.

"You know, I have always refused other children to play with them or even other people to actually touch them. But... But I would give them to our child in a heartbeat. As a matter of fact, I want our child to play with them. I want these bears to be his, or hers. They mean a lot to me. They really do. Just like this child..."

The Italian paused – her gaze going from the teddy bears to Maura – before she decided to lean over to kiss her wife.

"That's the best present he or she will ever have." Pause. "And hopefully this child won't be influenced by the Rizzoli Methods or else you can say goodbye to Marcel and Cha-Cha-y."

"Chantilly, Jane. Her name is Chantilly."

"Yeah. Whatever."

…

Shirt: checked. Although next time, she would have to choose a different program because the washing machine had shrunk it.

Jeans: zipped. With difficulty when the last time she had put them on, the waist had been a tad loose on her stomach.

"What the hell?" Mumbling between her teeth, Jane cast an evil glare at the scale on a corner of the bathroom and touched it with her tiptoes as if to make sure that it wouldn't bite her or anything. "Hmm..." Eye roll. She stepped on it – waited – and took a look.

Gasp.

"Maura!"

First floor to kitchen: twenty seconds. A record for the Italian. Too bad it had been driven by a sentiment of panic. The scientist was sipping her tea – leafing through a magazine – up on her stool. Quietly. Peacefully.

Utter contrast with the fury that had just stormed in.

"I have put on weight. I have put on 6lbs since I have moved in here. Stop whatever you are feeding me with."

Suggestive smirk, glance at Jane. "You don't like what you eat?"

The brunette restrained a smirk – not missing the innuendo the slightest bit – but didn't give in. She couldn't. The situation was serious, here.

"Very funny." Pause. "I mean it, Maur'! I have put on 6lbs... I'm supposed to be fit. It's one of my job requirements. If I put on 6lbs within a few months, imagine how much it'll be by the end of the year."

"You will have put on 18lbs. It is quite basic mathematics." Not really bothered by the scene Jane was throwing at her, Maura moved to the fridge and grabbed a yogurt. She was hungry. "You cook as much as I do in this house, Jane. And something tells me that my quinoa salads and vegetable pies don't weight as much as your lasagna and pizzas in the whole thing. You have adopted quite a sedentary way of life these past few weeks, refusing to go to the gym or to yoga with me and preferring instead to sit in front of television with a beer."

Jane crossed her arms against her chest in a vain gesture of defense and scoffed. Okay, it was true and so what? Shrug. "But that's the kind of life I've always had and I didn't put on so much weight like that!"

"You are getting older. Your body assimilates more easily the grease and has a tougher time to eliminate it."

Loud scoff. "Oh, grand. So now I am fat and old?"

Amused, Maura finally looked up and shook her head in disbelief at her wife. Sometimes she wondered if Jane's colleagues knew this side of the detective. For the honey blonde, it was a lot more funny than anything else. So far from the "bad ass" image that the Italian wanted to give to everyone.

"Your BMI obviously stands around 20,5. From a medical point of view, you are not over-weighed."

Eye roll. Again. "Don't go all medical on me. This is reality and reality tells me I can barely zip my pants. Not cool."

Trying to not lose her patience, Maura nodded and joined her hands together. "Fine. You want to be on a diet?" Shake of the head. "You want to go for a jog?" Menacing clouds in the sky: shake of the head. "Then assume your extra pounds just as you told me to assume mine."

"But this is different! Ugh. You had hormonal injections. The only daily injection I have is my dose of caffeine. I'm not supposed to put on weight like that."

On these words, Jane walked to the fridge and opened it angrily.

"What are you looking for?" Maura's question betrayed a certain amusement.

"What do you think I'm looking for in a fridge? Something to eat. I'm hungry." With a smile of triumph, she turned around; ice cream jar in hand.

"You do know that a soy yogurt would be healthier for you, don't you?"

Shrug. "It would mostly be tasteless and what's the point of food if it has no taste? You got me on kale and quinoa. Don't go all soy on me now."

Jane sat on a stool – grabbed a spoon – and was about to start eating when her gaze stopped on Marcel and Chantilly. Maura had taken them downstairs to repair their eyes that were on the verge of falling down.

Frown. "Your teddy bears are judging me, Maura."

"They aren't alive, Jane. They can't judge you. This sentiment comes from your conscience."

The Italian pondered her wife's words – cast a look at the ice-cream – then shook her head as the first spoonful made it to her mouth. "Nah. They're judging me."