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

November

Chapter Twenty-Six: Like An Echo

It started by a timid smile to finally melt into a grin but just as Maura was starting to feel its warmth spread to her heart, Jane frowned and shook her head.

"What? What is it?" Panic mode: activated.

Uncertain, the brunette shrugged and bit her lower lip. "I don't know, there is like an echo."

"An echo? There is no echo in my uterus, Jane. What you hear is probably the fetus' movements mixed to the heartbeats." Silence. Yes, that was panic she was beginning to feel. "You do hear the heartbeats? Tell me you do." Impatience. Restraining the urge to grab the fetal doppler from her wife's hands to go and check by herself, Maura smiled nervously and waited for a reply.

They had received the device an hour earlier – rushed to try it – and after an endless fight to know who would turn out to be the first one to hear the fetus, Maura had lied down on the couch as Jane had sat by her side on the floor; doppler in hand.

"Yes, I can. Relax. It's... It's awesome." Grin. Tears in her dark eyes. Yet pout. "But there's an echo. Maybe it has the hiccup?"

Maura frowned and shook her head. "We got the best doppler on the market. The sound is supposed to be perfect. Perhaps it is still a bit early in my pregnancy and you mistake the heartbeats for... Yes, I am sure you mistake the movements for the heartbeats." Who was she trying to reassure? Jane or herself?

"I know you aren't used to listening to your patients' heartbeats but you're a physician so you must still be able to tell. Here. Take it."

With shaking hands, Maura grabbed the doppler – took a deep breath – and focused on the sound.

She was barely three-month pregnant. Nothing at all and yet so many changes. The embryo had evolved in a fetus and within a week they would have the first real ultra-sound picture while the sex might turn to be very clear.

If until then she had had the feeling to float in a dream she couldn't reach, everything had slightly begun to take the shape of reality. Or as Jane would have said, shit was getting real.

"Alright. Let me see." With the precision that only experience could bring, she turned the device on her stomach slightly to the side to get a better sound and closed her eyes. The heartbeats pierced in her ears with the sweetness of the strongest reassurance. The odd taste of realization.

And then... Gasp. She opened back her eyes and stared at the ceiling for long seconds. No, it couldn't be it. Oh my God.

"What is it? Does the baby have the hiccup? Maura, it's like you've just seen a ghost. What the hell is going on? "

Jane. She had forgotten her. Swallowing hard, the honey blonde shook her head and finally locked her eyes with her wife's as she leaned up on her elbows. "This isn't an echo."

…

"Weren't we supposed to meet next week?"

Embarrassed, Jane and Maura looked at each other and sat in silence; not knowing where to start nor how. After the doppler incident, the honey blonde had called her OB/GYN office to get an emergency appointment before realizing it wasn't really an emergency. But she needed to be reassured. And Jane too.

"I think we might be facing a multiple pregnancy." There. She had said it. Immediately, Maura looked down at her lap and ran her tongue over her lips. Her heart was beating fast, too fast.

"Is it because you have some strange cravings or your stomach is growing in a specific way more than another? Listen... Don't pay too much attention to all these urban legends. Sure you have a chance to... To have twins – or even triplets – but only a ultra-sound picture will be able to tell."

Maura shook her head then raised a hand in the air to stop the physician. "We have bought a... A fetal doppler. We just assumed that it would be nice, if only for Jane to be able to enjoy this pregnancy as much as I would but... But when we tried it the other day, it turned out there were two distinctive kinds of heartbeats. Jane thought it was an echo so I listened to it myself and... And here we are."

Look at her. Look at the distress in that poor woman's eyes. She thinks you are crazy. A medical freak. Who buys a fetal doppler for fun? She thinks you are hypochondriac. Fabulous.

"Ah. Well... How about we check it? Have you talked to your biological parents about it?" The woman stood up and - all smiles - headed to the exam table before motioning it to an anxious Maura who reluctantly began to take her pants off.

"No, I... I forgot."

Nod. "Jane, do you want to approach too? You missed the last one. I know this isn't the first ultra-sound picture for the two of you but believe me, this one is going to be very different. As for the possibility of twins... As long as they are healthy, where is the problem? You will get it, no worries."

"Are we going to know about the sex of the baby? Babies...?" Timid, clumsy question. Blushing, the Italian tried to force a smile but it didn't work out quite well and she ended up making a face instead.

"Why it depends... It might already be clear, indeed. Do you want to know about it? I thought Maura didn't want to."

Oh. Jane looked down at her wife who was now laying on her back. As a matter of fact, they had not discussed it. Fantastic, Riz'. Way to show to the whole world how communication is the base of your freaking marriage.

"I... I don't know...?" Facepalm.

...

An hour later – out from the OB/GYN office and sat at the table of a small pastry shop – none of them dared to break the heavy silence that had fallen over their shoulders since the physician had confirmed their doubts.

Maura was expecting twins.

"I guess we will have to say goodbye to the yoga room."

The honey blonde finally turned out to be the first one to articulate a whole sentence not addressed to one of the waitresses but to Jane. Straight on the subject. THE subject.

"I hope they're fake ones. Gosh I don't want clones, Maur'. You know me. I won't be able to dissociate them. I'm so gonna mistake one for the other." Jane winced in pain and shook her head before daring a very timid look towards her wife. She was terrified. She wouldn't say it because obviously the woman sitting by her side wasn't doing any better but deep inside, she was scared to death.

"Monozygote twins are very rare, Jane." And so what? You are still expecting twins, Isles. Twins. Two for the price of one. Trying to not think too much about what it meant for the pregnancy itself, Maura forced a smile and nodded with determination at the Italian. "I don't want them to share a room but I had assumed we would simply transform the guest room into a nursery yet... The yoga room isn't up... To any nursery standards. What are we going to do? I don't want to move out. I love this house."

Jane frowned. How could Maura have such a sense of practicability? She couldn't herself think about anything else but the image of two fetus growing inside her wife's uterus in silence. She couldn't see that far in the future, even less think about room matters.

"I'm not sure we'll have time to practice any kind of yoga while raising twins anyway, Maura... So we can easily sacrifice this spare room and move the Buddha statues to the living-room." Alright. She did have a sense of practicability when needed. Surprising.

"I have to call Hope. And see... And see him. I need to know." The way she had alluded to Paddy did not pass unnoticed and – slightly ashamed – Maura looked down at the cupcake she hadn't touched yet.

She hadn't visited him in jail and hadn't planned on doing so. Well, looks like you will have to change your plans, Isles...

"You don't have to, you know." Before the obvious delicacy of the moment, Jane grabbed her wife's hand and pressed it tight. "Who cares if there are twin cases in your family? You are having twins and everything goes fine. They are healthy. You heard your OB/GYN. She didn't even think you needed an amniocentesis but you requested one. Who cares about the rest, Maur'?"

"We shouldn't have bought this fetal doppler."

Jane chuckled. "Like it would have changed something." Pause. "Look. This is definitely not what we had planned but it's part of the game. It's not a tragedy. We... We will get it. Your doc is right. We aren't stupid... Damn, you have a PhD. These babies have no Rizzoli genes. They won't be little tornadoes..."

"A PhD doesn't make of me a good mother, Jane. I have very little experience with newborns. Two of them at the same time... Even less. I..." And panic. Hyperventilation. No. This pregnancy was not at all going as planned.

"Hey, you seem to forget a very important thing here. You aren't alone. I'm here. I'll be by your side all along. I might not carry them but I take my responsibilities as their mother too, Maur'. Look at me."

The honey blonde obliged through a curtain of tears that threatened to explode within a second. Why was she reacting like that when Jane wasn't losing it in spite of being as terrified as she was? Unfair. Annoying.

Focused, Jane cupped Maura's face and locked her eyes into the honey blonde's with determination. "We should be celebrating instead of flipping out. We wanted a family, no?" Timid nod. "Well we're having it, dammit. Being parents isn't easy but we'll be the best. Trust me. And you know why?"

"No...?"

Grin. "Because we're as weird and dysfunctional as parents are supposed to be."