A/N: The next chapter will be up as soon as I finish it which should be by tomorrow morning. Hope you all enjoy the holidays!

XXXXX

It was a normal morning in the Isles household. Angela and Maura were at the table drinking their coffee before work.

"So, uh…" Angela started hesitantly. "I didn't want to have to ask you this but… I've been looking everywhere for a Christmas gift for you and have come up with nothing. What's something you want?"

Maura laughed. "You don't have to get me anything."

The older woman frowned. "But I want to! Help me out, Maura, please? What's something you want most in this world?"

Maura paused as something came to mind.

She saw the look. "You thought of something?"

"Yeah but… it's impossible."

"It's hard to find?"

Maura smiled. It was probably the least hard to find thing as she almost always knew where it was. "Nope. But there's only one."

Angela frowned as she tried to think of what it was. "I… I don't understand."

The scientist shook her head. "Never mind. It's impossible."

The woman just shot her an ever optimistic smile. "Nothing's impossible on Christmas!"

That caused Maura to laugh. "This is. Trust me."

She frowned again but gave herself a mental note to try again later as now they had to leave for the precinct.

As soon as they got there, Maura had to leave again as there was a murder nearby. With a wave to the oldest Rizzoli, the two best friends headed out.

They arrived at the scene and met up with Korsak and Frost, who had just gotten there as well.

As soon as they entered the building, they noticed something a bit different than other crime scene.

"Whoo! Why's it so hot in here?" Jane asked, walking into the house that was uncomfortably warm.

A nearby officer shrugged. "I don't know." He answered. "It was like this when we arrived. "

"Isn't it supposed to be cold?" She complained. "You know, chilling murders."

The other three just shook their heads at the lame pun before going about their jobs.

There was not much to do, however, considering they were in a small space, so Jane just stood and watched Maura do her job. The police officer who responded to the scene stepped up next to her.

"So what are you two doing for Christmas?" He asked, nodding towards the woman by the body. He, like most everyone else in the precinct, assumed they were together.

"My family is going to Maura's parent's house."

"Oh. That's nice. It's better to let the family's get to know each other before the big day, huh?" He laughed.

"What 'big day'?" She asked, eyeing him warily.

"Uh… I mean, uh… I need to go – do something over there." He pointed vaguely in the other direction and walked out of the room.

She watched him go and sighed. Their little rouse with Giovanni might have gotten out of hand, it seemed. After she walked over to the M.E. she squatted down next to her.

"There was a puddle of clear liquid next to the body." Maura said without looking away from the dead man.

"You mean sweat?" The detective tugged at her shirt to let the air circulate.

"I can't be sure without testing it."

"Of course you can't." She laughed. "Anyway… I think some people are getting the wrong idea about us."

That caused her to look up. "What do you mean?"

Jane laughed. "That cop thinks we're together."

"And you didn't tell him otherwise?" The doctor said, trying to hide her reddening face. While the cops were afraid of bringing something like this up to Jane, she had gotten more than her fair share of questions. Some of them she wasn't able to outright deny – not helping the rumors die down.

"N-no…" She actually didn't think of that. "Sorry."

"Don't be." Maura smiled. "It's not like we have our eye on any of the men we work with."

"Y-yeah…" Jane said, laughing with slight nervousness.

Within the next hour, pieces of the crime scene were all packed up and on the way to the station.

"You wanna grab some coffee before you get started on that?" Jane asked, pointing to the body when she joined her best friend in autopsy.

"Sure." She responded.

They went down to the café and put their orders in.

"So how bad is it this time?" Angela asked, referring to the murder.

"Not at all. Guy was shot and there are fingerprints on the knife. Pretty cut and dry." Jane responded.

"So you're not too busy to talk for a few minutes?" She looked at her daughter.

She signed but responded. "Fine, Ma. What about?"

The older woman handed the two their coffee. "Uh… something." She made a motion with her head towards the M.E. and hoped the hint was taken.

"Maura, how about I meet you down there?"

"Alright." She said, unfazed by being dismissed. She figured they just needed some mother-daughter time and left.

As soon as she was sure the doctor was out of earshot, Angela spoke. "I talked to Maura this morning."

"Good for you. So did I."

"Really? Isn't that rule one of gift giving?"

"I was stuck, okay! And anyways, she wouldn't tell me."

"Of course not. She has everything she needs. If there was anything she wants then I would already know about it."

Angela let out a defeated sigh. "So you don't know then…"

"What do you mean?"

"She said there was something. I was hoping you knew what it was."

Jane frowned. "No. She hasn't mentioned anything." Though she doubted that the tea of the month certificate she got for her was it.

"Oh. Well thanks anyway. I'll talk to her about it later, then."

"Well if you find out what it is can you let me in on it? My gift's kinda lame."

"Couldn't you find out what she wanted on your own? I thought you were supposed to be a detective, Jane."

"I am! But finding a killer and picking out a gift are two very different things and, to be honest, the second one is way more intimidating."

Angela laughed. "You've never been good at gift giving. Remember that frozen pizza you got me when you were ten?"

"I'm well aware of how bad I am, Ma. You don't need to rub it in." The detective grumbled.

She just chuckled at the memory. "The worst part of it was that it stayed under the tree for a week."

Jane sighed. "I wanted to you to be able to have a break from cooking. It was supposed to be thoughtful."

"It was, sweetheart." She said, kissing her daughter on the forehead. "It was."

"Whatever." The offspring said, breaking away before waving her off. "I have work to do." She walked away towards her the elevators where she would investigate the few leads they had in the case.

Angela worked at the café for hours until another one of her children came by. "Hi Frankie!"

"Hey Ma."

As she started getting his usual coffee order filled, a thought came to her. "Hey sweetie?"

He narrowed his eyes at her, knowing he was about to get roped into something. "What?"

"When you get the chance, can you send Maura up here?"

His brows furrowed. "That's it?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well… usually when you say something like that you… never mind." He shook his head, not wanting to go on lest she ask for more. "I'll go down now." He paid for and then grabbed his coffee before heading to the elevator and pressing the down arrow, causing it to light up.

Downstairs, Jane walked into the lab. "How's it going?"

"Well… the crime lab found the fingerprints that were on the knife belonged to the victim so no help there."

Jane sighed. "Great. I really didn't want one of these cases two days before Christmas."

Frankie walked in and noticed both women turned to look at him.

"Find something new?" Jane asked hopefully.

"No. Just that Ma wants to talk to Maura."

"Really? What about?"

He shrugged. "Dunno. She didn't say."

Maura joined the conversation. "Well I'll be down after I stitch him up." She said, pointing to the corpse on the table that had just gone through a thorough examination to find out that the stab wound, was indeed, his cause of death. While she enjoyed talking with the woman, she was somewhat hesitant as she didn't want to bring up the topic from earlier. Nevertheless, after the last stitch was threaded she put him into a refrigeration unit and headed downstairs.

"I think you know why I asked you down here." Angela said when she locked eyes with the woman.

She sighed and nodded. "I really don't want to talk about it. It's not something you can get me anyway."

"Well I'll be the judge of that. And even if I really can't, I'm curious."

The M.E. shook her head again. "I don't want to cause any tension in your family."

That caused the older woman's eyebrows to furrow as her brain worked to figure out the puzzle she's been given. After a few moments of nothing coming to mind, she whined – quite an odd thing for a woman of her age to do. "Why won't you tell me? I'm starting to think it's something bad."

"It's not – well… that depends on… never mind." She sighs. "I'll tell you." Maura conceded, though not happy about it. "I want Jane."

"What?" This thoroughly confused the woman. "Is that some brand of shoe? Cause I know you don't mean – "

"No." She interrupted. "I – I'm in love with your daughter."

Angela's face nearly split in two from her smile. "Then Santa is gonna work hard to make sure you get what you want for Christmas, sweetie." She bounded away as the wheels in her head were turning furiously – mischievous little plan coming together.

Maura stood there in stunned silence as she watched the woman practically skip into the back room of the café. After a few seconds she went back down to her office and was grateful that it was currently vacated as she collapsed in her chair and let out a long, needed, sigh.

XXXXX

The day was spent working on the case. There were many people to talk to so Jane and Maura did not have much time to spend with each other. No matter how busy they were, though, they still found time to chat.

"Hey Maura. Have you noticed how strange my mother's been acting?"

"Huh? Oh. Maybe… maybe she's acting like that for a reason."

"Maybe." The taller woman shrugged. "Anyway. You still okay with us going to Christmas at your parent's this year?"

Maura smiled. "Of course. The Rizzoli's are like family to me. I want to spend this time of year with you as much as I do my own family."

The detective returned the smile. "You are pretty much part of the family, Maura." She laughed. "With as much time as you spend with us I'm not surprised about what people are saying." She frowned as she thought of something. "Maybe that's why Ma's acting weird. Maybe she caught wind of it." A sigh escaped her lips. "God, I don't even want to know what she would do if that's the case."

"I'm sure she would be fine with us being in a relationship if, hypothetically, we were in a relationship." She supplied, trying to be helpful.

"Oh, I already know that."

Thin, sculpted eyebrows drew together. "You do?"

"Yeah… she's told me time and time again she would be okay with me being with a woman. I think she just wants her chances of grandchildren to be doubled." She laughed. Noticing Maura's rigid posture, she figured she was getting sick of personal things being discussed during a case. "Anyway, anyone who was an obvious suspect has an alibi during his time of death."

"That makes sense."

"Why's that?" Her befuddled expression just reinforced her confused tone of voice.

"Well… I've been thinking of the circumstances we found him in." Maura said, and then started listing off things using her hands. "Knocked over chair, puddle of what we determined to be water, high temperature setting on the thermostat, lack of defensive wounds, and only his prints on the knife. It kind of adds up to one thing."

Jane's face indicated she wasn't following the M.E.'s train of thought.

"A suicide, Jane! Though, contrary to popular belief, this time of year results in a decreased amount of suicides. The number actually peaks in the spring and fall seasons."

An eyebrow quirked up. "Really? You think this guy offed himself?"

"Not think, know. The angle and depth of penetration of the knife seemed odd to me and I didn't understand why until I took everything at the crime scene into consideration." She reached over and picked up a folded piece of paper. "And I found this!"

Jane took it, unfolded it, and groaned. "You're just now showing me this?"

"I wanted to be sure. Planted suicide notes are sometimes found at murder scenes. You know that as much as I do."

She nodded, remembering a few instances that has happened. "Well I guess I better go talk to Korsak and Frost. Meet you at home?" She stopped and stumbled over her words. "I – I mean your house." Though with as much time as she spends there it might as well be her home too.

"Yeah." She watched the detective walk out and spent a few minutes cleaning up before she went to her car in the parking garage.

Upstairs, Jane was stopped by her mother.

"Hey Ma. Finished with work?"

"Yeah. Stanley just let me have tomorrow and Christmas off too." She said, happy that she didn't have to miss out on anything.

"Alright then. I'll see you at Maura's." She started to walk away but was stopped by a hand on her shoulder.

"Actually… I wanted to talk to you about something."

She turned around and raised her eyebrows, indicating for the other woman to continue.

Angela had thought all day about how to do this without having Jane involved but came up with nothing so she decided to recruit her in her planning. "Maura told me what it is she wants."

"Oh yeah? What?" She figured it was a new pair of boots or something. Hopefully not those Air Jordan's that caused riots this morning. She laughed internally at the thought of Maura wanting a pair of sneakers for Christmas.

"You."

"What?"

"Like that song! All I want for Christmas is you!" She sung the comparison that just now came to mind. "Oh, how sweet!"

"Ma! You must have heard wrong!"

Said woman frowned, expecting a different reaction. "No… she distinctly said she was in love with you." Her expression turned back to a grin. "Won't it be a wonderful surprise? You, declaring your love on Christmas morning?"

"You're missing one crucial part of this."

"What?"

"I'm not in love with her!" She shot back, a little tense at the new development.

Angela watched her daughter storm off and grimaced. Looks like she wasn't getting the doctor what she wanted. She went back home and entered the main house, finding only Maura present.

Since it was the eve of Christmas Eve, they had all decided to have a nice intimate dinner, just the five of them.

"Where are the others?"

"Well… Tommy's still working and Frankie's on his way. Jane… I don't know if Jane's even going to make it."

That caused a gloomy look to appear on the M.E.'s face. "Why not?"

"I… I may have said something to upset her."

"Oh." She wasn't surprised, knowing how smothering the woman could be.

Just then, there was a knock on the door. Angela went to go welcome her sons waiting outside.

"Tommy, Frankie!" She exclaimed before bringing them in for a hug.

The three walked into the main area of the house and the two male guests greeted Maura. After a few minutes of waiting, the doctor sent a text to her best friend.

Where are you?

It didn't take long for an answer.

Home.

Maura sighed and typed quickly.

Why aren't you here like you promised?

Minutes passed without a reply. Just as the other three were just about ready to sit down for dinner, Maura grabbed her coat.

"I'm sorry. Go ahead and start without me. I'm going to go see if Jane's okay."

Angela smiled at the devotion the woman had for her daughter. "We'll wait. The sauce could use a few more minutes anyway."

With a grateful smile to the Rizzoli trio, she left and, a few minutes later, she arrived at Jane's apartment complex.