Season 6 Once Upon a Time

Chapter 17

"How come Jane isn't here with you?"

Maura looked at the empty seat next to hers. The question would have made Jane feel very proud because she was extremely invested in Maura's pregnancy and she liked it when people noticed it. The reason of her absence to Maura's medical appointment was very simple this time though.

"She had to attend a trial." As a matter of fact, Maura had to attend it as well but only in the afternoon. "This isn't the kind of things you can turn down."

Jane had tried to postpone her presence at the trial but the judge had turned down her request. She wasn't the one who was pregnant, thus the medical appointment was not enough of a reason for Jane to ask such a thing.

Dr. Whitman nodded. She picked up Maura's medical file and opened it in order to check the latest notes that she had written down in it. Maura took advantage of it to take a sheet of paper out of her purse. She had promised Jane to give it to her OB/GYN. She has hesitated until the last second but Jane would have been mad at her if she hadn't given it to her medical doctor.

"However..." Maura said.

She waited for Dr. Elsa Whitman to look up at her.

"She has a full list of questions and she would appreciate it if you could..." Maura shrugged, very aware of the ridiculousness of the current situation. "If you could answer each one of them."

The medical doctor grabbed the sheet of paper. She raised an amused eyebrow as she went through Jane's questions. A matching smirk played on her lips.

"I've rarely met friends who were so invested into a pregnancy." Dr. Whitman laughed lightly. Yet since she was focused on the questions Jane had written down, she missed how her remark caused Maura to blush. "No problem. I will write an answer for each one of them. She doesn't listen to you, does she?"

She finally looked up at Maura.

"As a medical doctor yourself, you must know most of the answers." Dr. Whitman said.

Maura rolled her eyes. She would gladly admit to anyone that Jane's Italian roots were showing a lot, these days. As a matter of fact, Jane sounded more and more like her own mother. Of course this was something that Maura couldn't tell her friend unless she didn't fear a potential outburst.

Jane was a mamma bear. She would vehemently say the opposite but it was the truth and everyone could see it. Maura found it to be sweet.

"You have no idea..."

Dr. Whitman laughed anew. Then she stood up and motioned the medical table. It was now time for Maura's medical checkup. Maura obliged. She felt fine in spite of a few contractions she had earlier in the morning.

The low temperatures accentuated her back pain too. Sometimes when the wind was particularly chilly, she had a hard time walking a reasonable distance.

But it was perfectly normal. Thus she didn't complain much about it.

"How have you been feeling? Tired? I can't believe you've managed to deal with the strong smells of autopsy rooms for so long. You're very stubborn, Maura."

"I prefer the word 'determined'..." Maura lays down on the medical table. She casts a glance at the ultrasound machine. She wouldn't get to see her daughter, today. The checkup was just a regular one. "You get used to the smell."

You get used to everything.

Maura had spent more time in autopsy rooms and morgues - in company of dead people - than with patients who were still alive. Death had become part of her life to the point that she now embraced it fully. She wasn't afraid of it. On the contrary. She found the connection she had with dead people to be immensely powerful. Very few people could understand how she felt when among the dead. It was where she had to be. She felt at the right place there.