Chapter Thirty-Nine: Nineteen Years Old

Epilogue

"It must be weird but we actually never really celebrate our wedding anniversary. No. For us, it's not the most important date on the calendar. Ours is March, 23rd. This is when Maura and I went... Somewhat different in our relation and the coincidence wants that a year later, she gave birth to our daughters; Lucie and Alba. So this is when it all started. This is why we're all gathered tonight and not in a few months. It's been twenty years that my life started making sense. Twenty years that we changed it all. For the best." Jane raised her glass of champagne – a bit clumsily – and smiled at the few people gathered on the beach. "Thank you all for being here, today. Actually, thank you for all the things you did for us since the very beginning. Our life wouldn't be as bright as it is if you had not been around. To our friends and relatives!"

Relieved that the attention had finally faded away from her own persona, Jane rushed to Maura who was standing a bit further on the Dominican beach and sipped half of her drink to forget about what she could only see as a ridiculous speech.

"Considering the amount of times we have come back to the Club Med, the last thing they could do was to privatize half of the resort for our twentieth anniversary..."

Jane nodded and joyfully passed a gentle arm on her wife's waist. "And they did! Mind you, I'm so glad everyone could join. It was not the cheapest anniversary they could take part in."

Maura smiled back and looked how their daughters were already dancing by the pool with Haumea, another 'Club Med' child. Twenty years had passed by since their special mission to the Dominican Republic but if she closed her eyes, the honey blonde had the feeling that it all had happened only a few days before.

She remembered everything; from the waltz of her feelings to the hurricane alert; Marina's angry eyes when Myriam's daughter had come accross her by accident once.

And then their kiss. The real one.

"We haven't taken a merengue class since forever... Do you think that you would still be able to go and dance one with me?"

The blonde's question got welcomed by a scoff from Jane. If this was a challenge then it had to be a very pitiful one. Gulping down the rest of her champagne, the Italian nodded and headed straight to the swimming-pool area where she had watched – once – Maura dance with another woman to the point it had ached.

Genuinely surprised – it wasn't every day that Jane accepted to dance in front of people they knew – Maura let her wife lead her to the dancing spot and as if they had never stopped dancing, resumed the steps they had clumsily made once out in the streets of Bavaros. After a couple of beers, among locals.

"I think we are embarrassing Lucie and Alba."

Her curiosity piqued, Jane turned her head around – following Maura's motion – and smirked at the twins who were staring at them in disbelief; a Coco-Loco in hand.

"Like it's the first time we humiliate them!"

Maura burst out laughing and – in a challenging mood – got even closer to Jane; suggestively. The gesture didn't pass unnoticed. Frost and Frankie whistled at them; thumbs up. She winked at both in return.

They had arrived two days before to a perfect sun – a blue sky – and a quiet sea. The truth was that the resort had become – throughout the years – their second home. They had come back regularly – with the girls – and Lisa and Guadalupe. They knew the island by heart as well as the excursions; a few local expressions. Perhaps one day they would invest and buy a small apartment there.

The symbol of Punta Cana was too strong to ever let go of it completely.

"When did you realize that you were in love with me?"

Jane's question took Maura aback. Her wife rarely gave into such things; barely talked about these. But eager to play along, the honey blonde squinted her eyes and shrugged; brought a hand to Jane's lower back before whispering to her ear warmly.

"The first time we met, at the Division One Cafe."

Jane's smile disappeared into a mock of incomprehension. Obviously, it wasn't the answer that she had expected. Not the slightest bit.

"What?!"

A bit too loud. Half of the guests turned around to look at her; surprised. Alba rolled her eyes. "Oh boy. Here comes the domestic scene." The young woman headed straight to the bar to get a refill.

And chat for a while with the gorgeous bartender. It couldn't do any harm.

Somewhat embarrassed by her own confession, Maura bit her lower lip and looked down; vanishing behind a curtain of blond curls.

"Well... Yes, I guess so. You made my heart beat faster and I am pretty sure that my pericardium..."

Jane raised a hand in the air to stop her. There was no need to lose Maura to a medical lecture right now. Not after the amount of cocktails and champagne she had had.

"Why thank you for only telling me now about it... Really, Maur'!"

The medical examiner offered a pale smile to apologize. "Why? Did you think that I had realized it once here, pretending to be your wife? During our mission? You can ask Guadalupe. I guess I had made a few things clear regarding my feelings for you after the wicker workshop."

Oh. For some reason, Jane remembered this day perfectly. She had gone for sport with Lisa in the hope to get information – anything – from the art dealer who at the time was still suspected of more than one murder and a complex drug traffic.

"When did you realize that you were in love with me?" Maura smirked, raised a playful eyebrow – waiting for an answer – while the music came to an end and they stopped dancing.

Jane frowned. It was ridiculous but she had actually no idea. She had never known, never been able to put a finger on a precise moment and say that it was this. Then. And not any other time.

"Err... Excuse me?"

Lucie's voice rose from a microphone, soon followed by her giggles. Saved by the bell, Riz'. Maura and Jane turned around to look at her; mimicking the gesture of all the guests.

With her hair up in a loose bun and her cheeks softly colored by the sun of the previous days, Lucie looked a lot like Maura; even in her way of expressing herself.

Physically, the twins were the spitting image of their mother but there was something in Lucie that went beyond the looks and features; body shape. Something in her voice, in the way she stood.

And obviously the way she couldn't hold Coco-Locos. Jane frowned as she saw her daughter lose vaguely her balance. How many drinks had she had, exactly?

"No worries, mom and mommy bored us all to death with their speeches so it's not like Al and I are about to throw in a third one just to motivate you even more to go back to bed at... What time is it? Ah yes, 10.15pm... But obviously this is an important day for our family and our moms who rock it like nobody else does. We haven't always been the easiest daughters around but I guess Alba won't disagree with me if I say you're the best parents we could have had. Anyway... You must wonder – especially you, mommy – what kind of present we got you this year. Twentieth anniversary. Wow. Obviously we had to make it big. I have to say it took us a loooooong time to find the perfect gift and months of research on the web. But here it comes..."

As Lucie winked at her sister, Jane and Maura understood that they were screwed. Just that and nothing else.

Lucie raised her arm in the air. "Mom, mommy... Here's a big memory of Punta Cana minus twenty years for you... I hope you haven't forgotten the moves... Be ready for... The Couscous Dance!"

"Oh boy." Jane swallowed hard and froze. The Club Med crazy signs. This moment of utter shame she had lived and lived again thanks to her colleagues who had watched the video on the website of the club the day after.

The first notes of the atrocious song rose up. She got tense.

"Why? Why did we have children again, Maura? Why? Must have been your idea. Obviously, not mine. No way I would have accepted to go through that."

Snap on the back of her head.

"Ouch!"

Maura smiled, satisfied of the effect of her last gesture. "And who insisted on coming back here – every year – with the girls to, I quote, make sure that they know about family traditions? They got raised and grown up carried by crazy signs. It is as much your fault as it is mine."

Jane looked at Lucie and Alba dancing along the stupid song; showing everyone how to do, helped by Haumea who knew the Couscous Dance as well.

The Italian sighed. "Yes, fair enough." She smiled.

Maura 1 – 1 Jane

The End

Author's note: and here comes the end of the Punta Cana series... Thank you very much for all your reviews and messages. I'm really glad to see that you all enjoyed it to the point you didn't want it to ever stop (!).

Tomorrow, I will post the first chapter of a brand new fic; obviously Rizzles oriented. Stay tuned!