Author's note: thank you all for the reviews!

Chapter Twenty-Eight: Career, Dead Fridge and Twins

Caitlin pursed her lips – frowned – and swept away the questions with a gesture of the hand before rolling her eyes in exasperation. "Oh, who cares about me? My sister is pregnant. I want to know it all about it!"

A polite smile played on Maura's lips. She blushed – looked aside – and shrugged. Stop tearing down this poor napkin, Isles. It hasn't done anything to you. Stop it. Now. "What do you want to know? I am due in May although I have chances to give birth a little earlier... Everything is going just fine." Trying to focus back on the young woman, Maura bent over the table and pressed Caitlin's hand. "Come on, I want to talk about you... You are about to leave for Australia, for a whole year. You must be thrilled."

"Why do you have chances to give birth earlier?" Pause. Caitlin's eyes suddenly widened as her mouth formed an "O" of surprise. "Crap, you're getting twins! Oh my God... I'm right, aren't I?" But before a very uncomfortable Maura had a chance to reply, Hope's daughter had already resumed her monologue and was now on the verge of hysteria. "Boys or girls? I knew you were showing a lot for just one baby. You're slim and fit, it had to be twins! I mean, look at you."

Maura raised a perplexed eyebrow but chose to ignore the underlying remark of her step-sister about all the weight she had put on. What to do, now? They wanted to wait for Thanksgiving to break the news.

But then Caitlin would already be in the Outback.

Dilemma. The scientist bit her lower lip, trying desperately to put back into place all the scenarios that were now bumping into each other in her head. "Yes, we are going to have twins." Caitlin shrieked but Maura stopped her right away. "Don't tell it to anyone, please. Nobody knows but you."

"How about the sex? Or sexes? Are they fraternal twins?"

As much as she tried to remain calm, the brunette's excitement was too much to contain for Maura. She nodded in defeat. "It wasn't very clear but they have chances to be. As for the sex, you will know it like everyone when I give birth."

Caitling gasped and shook her head. She looked offended. Almost hurt. "Don't do that to me! I won't be here when you deliver, this is unfair. Hey, I'm going to be their aunt so I want to know. Come on, please tell me... I swear I won't say it to anyone else!"

Focused on her donut – the third she was eating – Maura sighed loudly and made a face. She was not only gorging herself on way too many calories but Caitlin's argument was fair enough. To an extent. A truck passed in the street and honked, taking her back to reality. End of her daydreams. "Fine... I hope you are trustworthy because it is really important for Jane and I."

Hope's daughter nodded, on the edge of her seat.

"I wasn't even supposed to know about it but I happened to sneeze during the ultrasound picture and I turned my head by accident towards the screen while doing so. Bad timing." Pause. Jane would kill her for revealing it. "They are girls. We are going to have baby girls."

…

What was it with students that they looked younger every year? Maybe it is just because you look older actually, Isles. The inner comment made her straighten up and swallow back a growl. Rule #1: a smile. The group of fifteen looked terrorized to have made it to the morgue for the week. She had to reassure them.

Somehow.

That would only work if Jane – Korsak – and Frost didn't show up to do the exact opposite just for the sake of it. That wouldn't be the first time. They loved scaring newbies.

"Welcome to my office. Since there is no autopsy scheduled for the day – and unless we are called on a scene to pronounce ourselves on a death that could be suspicious, I am going to introduce you to all the other tasks you will have to face if you happen to embrace a forensics career."

Not bad at all. Then she really started getting used to it. When was the first time she had welcomed at the morgue medical school students? Three years ago? Hopefully these ones would be more interested in the job itself than in the annual salary or the paid vacations and social benefits than the previous and oh so memorable last group had been.

"So my job as..." Her eyes stopped on a pile of parenting magazines left opened on her desk. Right on the lingerie section she had been leafing through before her assistant had come to tell her that they had some visitors waiting for her. Red as a brick, she leaned against her desk – trying her best to hide them – and motioned at the door with her head. "How about we start with the lab? There are many things to see out there. A lot more... A lot more than in my office."

Unless they wanted to discuss pregnancy clothing and bra sizes. Luckily, the students nodded – turned around – and began to exit the room in silence. In a very fast movement, Maura put the magazines in a corner and walked to the corridor herself adjusting her white coat in the process. Had she put on weight in her arms? It seemed tighter.

"Dr. Isles-Rizzoli?"

The call of her name surprised her. Most of her colleagues kept on calling her "Isles" only, out of habit. A short blonde – notepad in hand – had waited for her by the door of her office. Was she really twenty years old? She looked like she was sixteen. Stop with the age card already!

"Yes... Meryl?" What a good idea they had had to invest in name tags, this year.

"Who is going to replace you when stop working?"

Maura frowned and somewhat slowed down her steps as they were now headed down the corridor to the lab. Her hand came to rest on her stomach, out of an odd instinctive reaction. "I am not plannning on quitting my job nor putting it into parenthesis for a while."

"Oh, that's not what I meant. I was more talking about your maternity leave. Do you have a substitute when the chief medical examiner is absent? Obviously, you aren't going to give birth here between two autopsies then resume your job in the second."

Her blood turned icy. Her heartbeats sped up. Her mouth got dry. If she had to be honest, it hadn't really crossed her mind until then. When thinking about life after the birth, she simply pictured herself going back to her professional activity while the twins would go to a daycare. Unless Angela wanted to look after them. How come? How come she hadn't thought about the gap between this moment and her real maternity leave?

She would be home. Alone. With two babies.

"I err... There are other medical examiners working here and err... They are all well trained. My role is to choose one of them to replace me while I am... While I am nursing. The same happens when I attend a convention. I am not always at the morgue."

Alone. With two babies. This wasn't panic she was experimenting. No. This was a tsunami of terrible feelings.

"Hey, Maur'! Why don't you answer your phone? I've tried to call you a zillion times!"

Uh oh. The group of students stopped and turned around to look at the person who had just showed up to yell out loud from the other side of the corridor, troubling the peaceful silence of the morgue. Was it too late to save their poor souls? As soon as Jane learned they were students, she would do her best to scare them.

And she had got it. The smirk playing on her lips as she approached and looked at the small group said it all.

"Ahem... Okay. Let me introduce you to Homicide Detective Jane Rizzoli... Rizzoli-Isles, sorry." The honey blonde cast a glance at her wife, asking her in silence to be nice. "She works for the crime unit and we have collaborated to her cases for a long while now." And hopefully she won't try to freak you out as she is capable of doing.

But against all expectations, the students didn't seem to mind much about Jane's smirk. They were now simply looking at them both with great perplexity as if trying to decode something. In silence. A heavy, uncomfortable silence. What was going on, exactly?

"Okay... Awkward." Mumbling between her teeth, Jane turned back to Maura. "I wanted to know how much glycerol we needed to mix with the potassium stuff. You know, what you did for Halloween."

The scientist blinked and took a deep breath. Hands in the pockets of her white coat, she quinted her eyes at her wife. "Why are you asking me such a thing?"

Shrug. "Oh, for nothing. The guys upstairs are just conducting a little experience..."

"You have nothing better to do?" Fair question. Bad timing though. A couple of students stifled a laugh in her back. She ignored them; as much as it was possible.

"C'mon it's raining and we're on a break. A bit of fun won't kill anyone." Pause. Pout. Before Maura's angry gaze, Jane decided to not insist. She was learning every day that sharing the life of a highly hormonal person required tact and compromises. Like now.

She had never been a fan of the cold treatment.

"Alright. Never mind. See you later." She turned out her heels – walked back to the elevators – and just when Maura had assumed that the brunette had spared her students, Jane raised a hand in the air and added. "And don't eat the cheese, guys. It comes from the dead fridge."

Of course. Take a deep breath, count until three. And back to reality. Maura smiled. Unconvincingly as she noticed the horror on the students' face. Thank you, Jane. Really. "She was joking."

"Is your sister always like that?"

The question made her laugh. She hadn't expected that at all. "Jane isn't my sister but my wife. Don't you read the tabloids? One of them published a so-called article I never gave my agreement upon that comes back on my sexual life. Very detailed." Pause. Sarcastic much? "Well, let's focus back on the lab."