Author Notes: THANK YOU so much to each and every one of you who has shown an interest in this story - comments, alerts, favourites, etc. they're all so very much appreciated. We've come to the end of this story now... *sheds a tear* but as quite a few of you have said a part 3 might be appealing to you, it's probably not the end of this world. I hope you enjoy the last chapter, and...well...who really knows what's going to happen in the next part? I certainly don't, yet. We'll see if my brain can come up with something. I'd really like to carry it on, but it does depend on whether I can get a solid enough idea to last more than a chapter.

Ashley's fingers were cool in Jane's hands. She fought back the lump that settled in her throat and ignored the incessant worry creeping up on her. This shouldn't have happened. She shouldn't be sitting there again, at Ashley's bedside, praying to a God she didn't know she believed in that she would be okay.

Too much had changed over the last couple of years. She craved a simpler life. Whatever happened to working almost every day, watching the game and drinking beer? When did she become a family woman? When did she become a mother? When did she become someone who had spent far too long at someone's bedside?

The squeeze of her shoulder pulled her out of her thoughts. She glanced at the fingers wrapped around her upper arm. Then on up to the beautiful face staring down at her with curious, yet sad eyes. To the child in her other arm his own equally curious eyes demanding answers to questions he couldn't yet ask.

That was why.

They were why.

She leant forwards. Her elbow on the edge of the bed as she ran a hand through her tangled mess of hair. She wanted to close her eyes and wake up back in the blissful world she'd had for the briefest of moments before Ashley showed up.

But then she wouldn't have her daughter.

She felt Maura's arm wrap around her shoulders, her head rest against the side of her neck, the dribble of Toby's mouth on her bare skin. She laughed. A distant sound that couldn't possibly be attached to herself. Her shoulders dropped and she gave in to the heavy weights resting there.

"I can't do this anymore," she said, though her voice was equally as unfamiliar as her laughter.

"What can't you do?"

She said nothing. She didn't know how to explain.

"I'm here, Jane," Maura whispered. The beauty of such few words reached directly into her heart and pulled her happiest thoughts back up.

"I loved being a cop. I've done it for twenty years. It's a lifetime…it was my identity. I was a cop before I was anything else."

"Was?"

She squeezed Ashley's hand and watched her chest rise and fall. Her heart ached. "I don't want to be a cop if this is what you have to go through every time I get injured."

She sat up taller and let go of Ashley's hand. Jane turned in her seat and reached out for her, clutching at the back of her dress as she wrapped her arms around her and listened to the gurgling of her empty stomach.

At some point the early afternoon had turned to night. The windows provided only a wall of darkness.

She looked up at Maura. "I love you too much to break your heart."

Lowering Toby down onto the floor, Maura reached out and cupped Jane's cheeks. Her smile small, yet bright. Age was growing on her face, but every line had become something so familiar that Jane couldn't help but love them all. Her vision blurred, her cheeks grew damp. Maura brushed away her tears and brushed her lips with her own.

"You love being a cop."

"I love you more. Toby, Ashley, I don't want to die because some bozo with a stupid haircut gets trigger happy when I'm trying to arrest him. I don't want to make a mistake and leave you alone. Not now, not ever."

"What are you saying, Jane?"

"I don't know what I'm saying. There's got to be something more. Maybe we could try to have another baby. Maybe I could be a stay at home mom to Toby. Maybe we could sell the house and travel around the world until we grow old. Maybe we can just be together without worrying that I may not come home."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes. No. I've waited too long for this. For you. I don't want to waste it on petty criminals."

"Are you sure this isn't adrenaline talking? You've been through a traumatic incident. The doctors said Ashley is going to be fine. She just needs to rest up, and not strain herself again."

"I don't want you to go through this. Not because of my job."

"You said yourself it's always been more than just a job."

"I don't care anymore, Maura. Something needs to change. Maybe I'm making a rash decision because of today, because of Ashley, but maybe it'll be the best decision for us. For our family."

"Mom?"

Jane froze. The lump in her throat ached. She turned back around. Ashley lay with her eyes wide open.

"No, sweetie, it's Jane."

Ashley rolled her eyes. She wondered if that was what she looked like when she did the same. "I know."

Jane's cheeks ached. Her eyes filled with tears. An overwhelming emotion flooded her and she didn't quite know what to do with it.

"How are you feeling?" Maura asked, noticing Jane's show of emotion. She always knew how to take care of her.

"Sore."

"The good news," Jane said. "The doctors say you can come home again tomorrow."

"Is Sean gone?" she asked.

Jane ran a hand across Ashley's forehead, brushing her hair back across her head. "He's gone."

x

"The little pig said to the big pig 'whatchu lookin' at?'" Jane said, putting on a silly voice.

From the kitchen, Maura watched her reading. Toby sat on her lap, giggling at her voice and pointing at the pictures as Jane held the book out in front of him. The little baby she'd struggled to bond with was gone. He was a little boy now, growing every single day, learning and seeing the world differently as he learnt to navigate his way in the world. Time passed by so quickly.

Before she thought she'd never get the family she always wanted. Now they'd expanded from herself and Toby, to Jane and Ashley, as well. Who knew what would come next.

The way Jane was talking at the hospital worried her, if she was completely honest. She feared the dangers of being a cop. More so since she'd given birth. Being on the outside of it as the Medical Examiner always gave her enough distance that it didn't bother her as much. Now Jane was her son's other mother. He deserved his whole family to be around to see him grow up and deep down she'd felt everything Jane had vocalised the day before at the hospital. Maybe it would be better that Jane didn't risk her life to apprehend suspects?

The only problem was that her thoughts were selfish.

Jane couldn't give up her career. Her career was everything to her. Maura couldn't ask her to do that. She couldn't be responsible for Jane's loss of identity. Nor did she want to lose a part of Jane that made her fall in love with her in the first place.

"And they all lived happily ever after...the end!" Jane closed the book and placed it on the coffee table. Toby wriggled off her lap and walked himself around the table before falling down onto his butt and crawling across the floor to a pile of toys.

"You'd get bored," Maura said, walking across the room and sitting down beside her. Jane looked up, her eyebrows creased. "You can't give up your career for me."

"What if I gave it up for me?"

"You said yourself, Jane, you'd do it because you don't want me to hurt if anything ever happened to you. You could just as easily get hit by a bus tomorrow."

Jane signed. "I thought I'd never want this, either. But I do. I don't want to do it anymore."

"But what will you do instead? You would get bored. You will spend a week alone with Toby and by the end of it you will bring him to BPD and try to help me with a case."

"Not if I'm distracted with something else."

"What something else, Jane?" Maura asked. "I want you to be happy. But I know you. You don't rest. You don't do nothing. You won't survive without stimulation."

"Maybe I'll go back to college."

"What would you study?"

"I dunno...yet."

"I can't let you do this unless you have a plan. It'll only end in tears, otherwise."

Fear overwhelmed her. Not the fear of losing Jane to a shootout. Not watching Jane die at the hands of a criminal. Fear of watching her fall apart without something to hold onto. She tried to get Jane to take vacations in the past and never had she survived more than a few days without needing some kind of stimulation. Maura stared at Jane, her dark eyes staring back. She tilted her head to the side. Maura creased her brow. She didn't look like her usual self. There was something about the way she stared back at Maura that unsettled her.

"I want to have a baby, Maura."

She didn't want to believe what she was hearing. The words had caught her attention at the hospital but she didn't think Jane really meant them. Why would she? She threw them out there alongside wanting to give up being a cop. Everything Jane said the evening before was some kind of worry-filled delusion.

"Are you sure?"

"I thought I didn't want to have children. When I got pregnant with Casey I didn't know if I could do it. Who was I to have a baby? I was a mess. Then Toby came along, you came along, and everything changed. Why wouldn't I want a baby with you, Maura? Toby and Ashley mean everything to me. I feel as much Toby's mum as I think I ever could. It's not that I don't see him that way. But he didn't start out mine. I want to have that. I want to bring a life into this world, with you. You and me. Let's make a baby."

"Jane..." she tried to speak, but the words wouldn't come. She didn't know how to say the things running through her mind.

"You don't have to agree right now. If you want to think about it, that's fine. I'll have to keep working for a few weeks anyway. Maybe we can talk about it again when I've worked my notice."

"Are you sure you want to do that?"

"Talk about it again?" Jane asked. "Yeah."

"No. Quit your job."

"I've made my decision."

Maura nodded. She reached out and grasped Jane's hand. "Then I'll support your decision."

x

"My daughter grew up with brothers, so she's always been tough. The hardest, strongest woman I have ever met. I don't think anyone could catch Janie in races at school, she played all the sport she could, and then she trained to be a cop. Am I glad she's given it up? Of course I am, I didn't want her to get killed, but I'm also really proud." Angela stood up straight, her eyes a little damp as she held a glass up in front of her. "I thought Jane wouldn't ever have the happiness she's found with Maura. Even if I am angry that they got married without telling anyone. But I'm glad they let me throw them this party. I love you both so much. To Jane and Maura."

The room filled with a chorus of voices. "Jane and Maura."

Jane squeezed Maura's hand and smiled at her through watery eyes. She nodded to her mother and raised her glass to her. She sat back down beside Jane. Then Jane stood up.

"Thanks, Ma. The last couple years of my life everything changed. If you'd asked me before if I saw myself marrying a woman, or at the very least the love of my life, I would have laughed." Jane glanced around at Maura. Then her eyes moved around the room from family member to friend to family member. "If you'd told me I'd have a son, I'd have probably rolled my eyes. If you'd told me my daughter, who I gave up twenty years ago, would find me and want me in her life, I'd have doubted every word that came out of your mouth afterwards."

"I still can't get over it," Korsak said loudly.

Jane laughed and smiled at Ashley. "My whole family means the world to me. So I want to thank you all for being here at our wedding celebration. You are our family. You are all the people we care about most in this world. My brothers, Ma, my nephew. Maura's parents. Maura's birth mother. Thank you all for sharing with us this moment. We wouldn't be here without your love and support. To everyone."

She raised a glass and watched as everyone else raised their glasses and repeated her sentiment.

Once the fuss had died down, and the waiters brought out the desserts, Jane sat down, her fingers still interlinked with Maura's as she leant in and brushed her lips with her own. Maura reached out and cupped her cheeks, holding her there for a moment longer. When she pulled away briefly, Jane stared back into her eyes.

"Let's make a baby," Maura whispered.

"Let's make a baby," Jane repeated, wrapping her arms around her and holding her tight.

"What are you two whispering about?" Angela asked.

"Nothing, Ma," Jane said. "Finish your cheesecake."

"I don't like cheesecake."

"Yes you do. You love cheesecake."

"Strawberry cheesecake. This is vanilla."

"It's the same thing, just without the strawberry goo."

"It is not the same thing," Angela said. "I'm right, aren't I Ashley?"

"Don't look at me!" she said, running a finger across her plate and licking her finger.

"Maura?"

"Cheesecake is not something I have much knowledge about," Maura said. "I imagine the strawberry coulis influences the flavour somewhat."

"I told you, Janie."

"You did not just do I told you so on my wedding day."

"You didn't get married today," Angela said. "Somebody got married weeks ago without even inviting their own mother."

"Do you have to?" Jane asked. "Maura and I are trying to enjoy a nice dessert with our family and you're trying to play the not invited to the wedding card?"

"Maura," Frankie said, walking over with Toby in his arms. "I think we have a code brown."

"Code brown?" Jane asked. "Are you five? Deal with it yourself."

"I don't have his diaper bag."

"Yeah, yeah," Jane said, reaching out to Toby and picking him up as she stood up. "I'll sort it."

"Ooh, cheesecake," Frankie said, quickly sitting down in Jane's seat.

"Get your own! Mine had better still be there when I get back." She shifted Toby from one hip to the other. "Maura, don't let him eat my cheesecake."

"Frankie, don't eat Jane's cheesecake," Maura said, smirking as she took her spoon off her empty plate and scooped some of Jane's cheesecake into her mouth.

"Hey!" Jane said.

"What's mine is yours, what's yours is mine," Maura said.

"It's a good job I love you so much," Jane replied, leaning down and kissing her briefly, before carrying Toby off to the restrooms.

THE END

(Note: any ideas/prompts that could help for part 3 would be welcomed...)