A/N: So, I have this professor who makes us write her an email every day we are in class and for whatever reason that quote "Sometimes all you need is twenty seconds of insane courage," you know from We Bought A Zoo, popped into my head and became the subject of my email to her. Then this bolt of lightning struck me for this story while sitting in class from that quote. Here's the thing, I'm not too sure if it's really a good story or not though. This is just chapter one of it and there would be at least one more chapter if y'all wanted me to continue it. So, read on and hopefully enjoy!

She rolled over and looked at the clock. It wasn't late, but it wasn't as early as she normally got up either. Everything going on seemed to be taking its toll and she found herself needing more and more sleep lately. Though she hadn't had any morning sickness yet so she supposed she could handle feeling a little more tired than usual.

Maura climbed out of bed and made her way downstairs to the kitchen. She sat at one of the chairs at the island and looked around. The holiday season was now in full swing. Today she needed to get all of the Christmas decorations out and up. Usually they would have been up by now, but Angela had decided to host Thanksgiving so she had procrastinated on getting it done.

The fact that Angela hosted Thanksgiving was a blessing in disguise really. By having the party somewhere other than her own home she was able to make it through the day without drinking and no one paid any attention. That and the fact that she had been so busy at work and she had been so tired she wasn't sure if she would have been able to get the decorations up in time.

The fact that she was pregnant at near Christmas also helped to hide all of the things she was already buying for the baby. To Jane and Angela it just looked like she was buying Christmas presents for everyone. Now though, she was getting near the end of her first trimester and she was going to have to tell everyone soon.

She'd never intended on keeping her pregnancy from anyone, least of all her best friend, but things had spiraled out of her control. She and Jack had decided they weren't going to work out. Their relationship had become just a physical one and she didn't want to continue with it. She was pretty sure she was in love with someone else and had wanted to be able to explore that possibility more. Then, she was surprised a few weeks after her breakup with Jack when she missed her period. They'd been careful every time they were together, but tests at her doctor's office confirmed the home pregnancy test she'd taken.

Maura had been so concerned with trying to start getting ready for all the changes that would take place in her life, along with hitting one of the busier times of the year for the homicide department and the exhaustion setting in that she just hadn't found the right time or way to tell anyone yet.

Twenty seconds. Just twenty seconds of insane courage was all she would need to tell them. Twenty seconds of insane courage would have been all she needed to tell Jane that she was in love with her too, but so far she hadn't found the ability to do that either. Now she wasn't even sure if she would ever get the chance to tell Jane how she felt; or see if there was any possibility to find out if Jane could ever feel the same.

She knew she wanted to tell Jane first. She needed to find out from her if things would be alright between them when she found out before she told the rest of the Rizzoli family and her coworkers. She had thought long and hard about how she would break the news to Jane. Finally though, Maura thought she had found just the way to do it; a way to bring about her twenty seconds of courage. First though, she would need to get Jane's help decorating today.

Even though she knew Jane liked to sleep in Maura was confident that the detective would be awake. She grabbed her cell phone and punched in the numbers before hitting the send button and waiting to hear the ring at the end of the connection.

The voicemail box was about to set in when Maura heard the click of line as Jane answered and a 'hey' that sounded a little sleepy. The she started to wonder if she had woken Jane up and started to feel guilty about the possibility of that happening.

"Maur?" she heard from the other end of the line. She'd gotten so caught up in her thoughts of waking Jane she had forgotten to say anything.

"Jane."

"Yeah, morning. What's up?"

"I'm sorry, did I wake you?" Maura couldn't help but ask.

"No, not really," Jane replied. "I was just laying here on the couch with Jo watching some highlights on ESPN. So are you going to tell me what's up or am I going to have to ask again?"

Maura could hear the smile and teasing in her voice, "Well technically you did just ask again." She knew that was the response Jane had been waiting on and she could almost feel her best friend smiling broadly at the other end. "To answer your question though, I was wondering if you could come over and help me with my Christmas decorations today?"

"Uh, yeah sure. I'm a little surprised. I thought you would have had them up by now, but I'll be there in a half hour or so if that's okay.

"Sounds great Jane, I'll see you then. Thank you."

"No problem," she heard Jane say just before the small click and beep that signaled that she had ended the call.

And yes, I know it's pretty short (at least by my standards anyway. But this is what I had written so far.) So, I need your help. If you would be so kind as to click in that little box right down there and type in what you thought about this so far I would greatly, greatly, greatly, appreciate it! Thank you so much for reading!