Thanks for the continued support peeps! Here's the next chapter!

Finals week arrived sooner rather than later for the two girls. Jane had had a lot of difficulty with some of her classes, especially the one where she and brad were in charge of working on their project alone. They'd tried to arrange meetings with the other two of the group to no avail and as a result ended up doing everything themselves. The professor had indeed questioned the lack of participation from the other two and Jane's assessment of her group mates. She'd insisted and showed proof with e-mails and texts that she'd tried to contact the other two and hadn't received response so he didn't question it further after that.

Jane and Maura barely saw one another during finals week. Maura was taking a larger course load than her girlfriend and had two more finals than Jane did. Jane on the other hand, had difficulties arranging her work schedule to fit her school schedule so she still had to work for two of the 5 days she had finals and she hated it. It took away from her studying and she was afraid that it would show come test time. She was incredibly stressed and it showed with her mood. Maura tried not to get in her way throughout the week, knowing well that Jane's behavior was due to school and work combined. Hopefully they would get back on track once finals were over.

"Thank God that's over and done with! We're free Maur!" Jane yelled the second she set foot in the apartment that Friday afternoon after her last final.

"How was the last test bébé?" Maura asked as she greeted Jane at the door with a kiss.

"Surprisingly, it went better than expected. The good thing is that all my professors post grades once they're finished grading the finals so I shouldn't have to wait too long to find out how I did. How was your last final?" She asked the blonde as she walked into the apartment and headed straight for the refrigerator.

"It went really well," Maura replied. Half my professors will post grades at the last possible day and the other half I should find out within a couple of days," she said.

"I have a good feeling Maur… I think we did really good. Maybe we should think of a way of celebrating! It's been a really rough semester!"

"Yes bébe, I think we did really well," Maura agreed. "Shouldn't we wait until we get our grades to celebrate though? I wouldn't want to jinx anything."

"You're right Maur, good thinking," Jane replied quickly. "Have you thought about what we're going to do during break? You're not going back to Paris are you?"

"No, mother and father had made plans that will take up their time for the remainder of the year I'm afraid. There really wouldn't be a point in going to Paris."

"Well then that's great, you get to stay here with me," Jane said as she wrapped her arms around Maura from behind. "The only bad thing is that you have to put up with my family during Christmas, but I'm sure we can manage. You have once before," Jane said with a smile.

"I was actually thinking about that Jane… what do you think about possibly hosting Christmas dinner here? Do you think your mother and brothers would like that? We can take over the cooking for a change so that your mom can take a break. What do you think?"

"I think that's an excellent idea baby. I'm sure mom will like that as well, even though it will be hard to keep her out of the kitchen. I'm sure she's still going to want to help out in some way. Maybe we can just talk her into making her famous cannoli… we can take care of everything else."

"That's settled then. Talk to your mother and tell her of our plans. We can go out tomorrow and get ourselves a Christmas tree and decorate it along with the apartment this weekend so that it will look festive enough for the celebration!" Maura was clearly getting excited.

"I'll do whatever you want if it gets you to smile like that," Jane said sincerely.

The next day was spent Christmas tree shopping. They'd gone to several lots until they found one Maura deemed good enough for the apartment. Once they'd managed to get it inside, they went about getting it in its base and making sure it had water before leaving again to buy decorations and ornaments.

Jane had called Angela and the older Rizzoli had thought it was a wonderful idea of the girls to host Christmas dinner. She had put up a fight regarding dinner, but in the end agreed to make dessert and offered a hand if anything got too complicated for the young women.

Jane and Maura started cooking Christmas cookies and pies the day before to go along with Angela's cannoli. They'd opted to change the typical Italian dinner in exchange for a dish served around Christmas time in France: brandied roast goose. Jane had at first seemed skeptical about the change in dish but Maura had found a restaurant that served the dish and had made Jane try it. Once Jane had given her definite ok, they'd purchased everything necessary for the dish.

Christmas Eve morning came and that got the two girls in the kitchen early to start with the prep of side dishes and the main one as well. They'd invited Angela and the boys over at 3 so they had a few hours to make sure everything was perfect.

Frankie and Tommy had at first exchanged a look when Jane told them what she and Maura had prepared as the main dish. They were hesitant to try it until a stare down from Angela got them to take a bite; it was hard to stop them after that.

"Girls! This was an incredible feast! I didn't know you were such a great cook Maura!"

"Hey! What about me? I helped too!" Jane cried, pretending to be insulted.

"Jane, I know you are a good cook but I also know that getting you to help around the kitchen is like pulling teeth!"

Maura laughed out loud along with Jane's brothers. "I can assure you Mrs. Rizzoli, Jane was a very willing participant this time around. She was the one behind most of the desserts and we did the side dishes together."

"I'm quite impressed then," Angela commented.

"Yeah Janie, you in the kitchen? What a surprise!" Frankie said with Tommy nodding enthusiastically.

Angela insisted on taking care of the dishes since the girls had done the cooking so the four teenagers went into the living room and started a movie.

"Hey ma! When can we open presents?!" Tommy yelled out.

"In a minute! I have to finish dishes young man! No more yelling!" Angela yelled from the kitchen.

Everyone laughed.

"Thanks for having us over Maura and Jane, this has really been a lot of fun! And that goose… man that was good!" Frankie stated.

"Yeah, I thought it was going to be really bad but it was delicious!" Tommy agreed.

"I'm glad you two liked dinner," Jane stated. "And you guys know that you're welcome over here whenever you'd like."

"Of course you are," Maura filled in.

Present time came around the living room was soon filled with colorful wrapping paper. Tommy and Frankie exclaimed their surprise when they received opening day tickets to the Red Sox from Jane and Maura and wrapped the two girls into a huge hug in thanks. Maura had gotten Angela a very complete French cookbook and the two sat and discussed certain dishes as they flipped through the book. Jane had gotten her mother a new purse and wallet since she knew Angela seldom bought things for herself. Angela in turn had gotten Jane a new pair of tennis shoes and Maura was given her own homemade Rizzoli family Christmas ornament with her name and year engraved on it.

"You've been family Maura, but it was time that I gave you one of these. We all have one that goes on the tree back home, though next year we'll decide where to put them," Angela stated with a smile at the blonde.

Maura was trying hard not to cry but had been completely overwhelmed with emotion. "I don't know what to say Mrs. Rizzoli; thank you! It's a wonderful present.

"You're welcome dear. I think it's time you start calling me Angela."

Maura gave Angela a small smile. "I'll try, Angela."

Once Angela and the boys had gone, Maura and Jane were left to give each other their presents. They'd already exchanged their 'big' gift that morning: they'd gone to a jewelry store together and bought each other matching promise rings which they proudly put on each other's finger. Now Maura handed Jane over her gift.

"I know you've been talking about wanting to go, so I figured we could go together," Jane said as she handed a thin wrapped box to Maura. The blonde opened her gift to find two train tickets to New York and opening night tickets to the MET Opera.

"Jane! This is wonderful! We get to go see 'La Traviata?!' That's one of my favorite operas! Thank you bébé!" Maura exclaimed as she wrapped her arms around Jane tightly.

Jane enjoyed Maura's arms around her for a couple of minutes before Maura let go and gave Jane her gift. "It seems like we thought alike when getting each other gifts," Maura said.

Jane opened her gift to find two tickets to the Patriots' first playoff game. "Maura! How did you get these?! They've been sold out for weeks! They're amazing! Thank you!"

Both girls hugged once more before kissing one another passionately.

"Merry Christmas Jane," Maura said as she brought her lips to Jane's once more.

"Merry Christmas amore."

I know the girls have had a relatively easy time so far... wondering if I should mix things up a bit... thoughts anyone?