Author's note: thank you everyone for the reviews; if you have suggestions/things you'd like to see inserted in the story, feel free to let me know.
September
Chapter Sixteen: Test One Two Three
"Test. One, two, three. Test. I repeat: test. One, two, three."
Focused on the book she was reading, Maura nonetheless frowned at her wife's statement and dared a look over the pages.
"Jane, what are you doing?"
The brunette had laid across the bed and settled by Maura's stomach, her lips brushing the skin there whenever she talked while one of her hands was resting by the scientist's bra that appeared now that she had lifted up her top.
"I'm talking to your epidermis." A smile began to appear on Maura's lips, making Jane roll her eyes. "I'm talking to the baby, you giant nut! They're supposed to hear us and all, no?"
The honey blonde started giggling but Jane stopped her right away. "Don't do that! You're causing spasms to your body. What if they eject the baby? It must feel like you're trapped in some washing machine when you do that to someone who's inside you."
"Laughing hardly cause any kind of miscarriage, Jane. Have you skipped your sex education classes at school that you believe such a thing?" Maura frowned. Hopefully her wife was just kidding and nothing more. "My body spasms are stronger when I have an orgasm. It did not seem to bother you much until now..." Smirk.
Not reassured the slightest bit, Jane opened wide eyes in panic as if Maura's words had hit her for the first time. Which was the case. She hadn't thought about it at all. Not like that.
"I know it's stupid and it's not how it works but... A fetus is tiny. It looks fragile." Passing long fingers on her wife's stomach, the Italian shrugged away her comment and leaned over to plant a kiss on the smooth skin.
"It is a lot stronger than you can imagine. I definitely have to take care of it but I don't have to stop living either. Laughing is very healthy, there is nothing wrong about it. It won't do harm to it. And... Well... I am barely three-week pregnant, the fetus can't hear you yet. Although I have to admit that you trying to converse with it is very cute."
Jane bit her lips. She knew that too. It was too early for it to recognize voices. "I just want it to know I'm here too."
As her comment hit the air, it got embraced by a blurry whirl of untold feelings. Subconscious ones. Jane wasn't pregnant. She wasn't carrying the child. Biologically, she was a stranger and was not linked at all to it. Perhaps a tiny part of her didn't like that.
Sensing the weight of the remark, Maura finally abandoned her book aside and grabbed her wife's hand instead to hold it tight. A peaceful smile – sincere – lit up her features. "I am sure it does know it and he – or she – will grow up knowing that your role is as important as mine in the making process of our family."
Timid nod. Not very enthusiastic at the prospect of keeping such conversation up, Jane went back to focus on the stomach. Well shaped, firm. She had kissed it – caressed it – more times than she could remember. She knew its scent, how soft it felt against hers. Its warmth and the way it moved up and down when her gestures became more intimate and intense. She loved it, even more now that it was sheltering a child-to-be. Their child.
Her kisses resumed but soon gained strength and vigor as she slowly began to head down to a more private part of Maura's body that her clothes still fully covered. The scientist's giggles vanished and – little by little – melted into sighs, deep breaths as she closed her eyes to relax against the pillows; her legs spreading slightly, instinctively.
The ringing of their respective cell phones put an abrupt end to the intimate moment. Visibly annoyed, Jane growled and sat back up to grab the electronic device as Maura shook her head to come back to reality before taking the call.
"Rizzoli?"
"Isles?"
Within a second Jane nodded and put an end to her phone call but stopped in her tracks – on her way out of the bed – as she overheard Maura's very own conversation.
"Fine... I suppose I can be there within twenty-five minutes if the traffic isn't too dense. I have to..." But before she had a chance to finish her sentence, Jane interrupted her waving her arms like a mad woman.
"No, you can't be there within twenty-five minutes because it's your day off. Your day off, do you hear me?" Coming as close as possible to her wife's cell phone, Jane yelled in it to be sure Maura's interlocutor would hear her properly. "It's her DAY OFF. She'll stay at home because she needs to rest. She needs..." This time, she grabbed the phone and spoke directly in it. "To rest. My wife needs to rest and I don't see why she'd screw her day off when there are other nerds at her workplace who can do her job." Pause. Jane turned livid and finally noticed how Maura was silently pleading her to stop. Too late. "Oh... Good afternoon, senator."
…
"What are you staring at, Frost?" Revising a few reports, Jane raised an eyebrow at the young man sitting opposite her desk and frowned. He had been looking at her for way too long now to not make it look creepy.
"You look ecstatic."
Korsak laughed, shook his head. "She got married a few months ago only. You bet she looks ecstatic. They're still in the honeymoon phase, not much spending their night catching back on sleep."
Jane looked up and made a face at the sergeant. Now that was a disturbing comment from a colleague. Not necessarily untrue but still disturbing. Korsak alluding to her sex life was very, very wrong.
"I have been dealing with paperwork since this morning. I hardly doubt I look ecstatic right now."
"No, he's right, Jane. You're... Glowing... Kind of like when my wife was..." Korsak stopped, suddenly realizing what he was about to say.
Frost seemed lost. "When your wife was what?"
The oldest man blinked and looked at Jane from head to toe before daring to speak again. "Are you pregnant?"
If she had assumed that she had already experienced in the past the notion of blushing, Jane realized that she hadn't. Nope. Because she had just reached a point of no-return in the art of turning red right now. So red she might actually end up purple.
Frost gasped, making it all worse.
It was too early to say anything about Maura's pregnancy. Not even a month had passed by. She had had a first ultra-sound picture just to confirm the blood sample test results but a ton of things still remained uncertain. If only because of her age. She was thirty-nine years old. It implied more risks for the fetus as well. Complications could show up at any moment.
"What?! I am not pregnant! Are you implying that I put on weight?"
The silence that followed made Jane gasp. Offended, she glared menacingly at both of her colleagues. "I let myself go lately and am trying to get fit again, okay? Now if you'll excuse the whale, I'm off... I'm off... To the morgue. A paper's missing in the Halliwell Case."
She stormed out of the office – carefully avoiding a glance at her reflection in a mirror by the corridor and walked to the elevator. Her heart was speeding fast, too fast. Not a single paper was missing from any case whatsoever but she hadn't found any other way to get herself out of such situation either.
Great. And now what? She entered the elevator, pressed the button to the morgue floor. Maura wasn't there. She had sent her a text message an hour earlier to let her know that she was off to Cambridge to meet an acquaintance susceptible to help her in some medical thing Jane had naturally zapped out.
And if Maura wasn't there then she had nothing to do in the morgue herself.
Feeling slightly ridiculous for showing up there with no excuse whatsoever, Jane walked down the corridor and entered her wife's office, closed the door behind her. The room was empty; tidy. Neat. Welcoming in that weird Maura way.
After a quick checkup of books and statues put here and there, the brunette let herself fall on the couch. Feet up on the coffee table. Smirk. At least this time, Maura wouldn't be able to tell her to not do that.
That's when she noticed it. There, just by her feet. A small red notebook that she knew way too well for Maura always carrying it around. Had she forgotten it? Out of curiosity, Jane grabbed it and had a look at the page it had remained opened on.
A smile played on her lips.
It was typical Maura; the handwriting, the neat line dividing the page in two columns. And the different colors used according to her own preferences, following a precise scale. Amused, Jane went through the list, pouting here and there in reaction. She scoffed as reaching #10.
"What?! Ah no... No, no, no, no, no. No, Maura... We will never name our child Seraphine. Not as long as I am alive. You can scratch that one."
She grabbed a pencil and drew a line under the name before adding a comment next to it on the page.
Have you lost your mind? I'm okay with a French name but not that one, DORTHEA.
Clementine.
Baby names. They still had a lot of time – plenty of it – and she hadn't really thought about it herself but seeing that Maura had warmed up her heart. The scientist was putting things into perspective. For their child.