So this is it, guys. The final chapter. I hope you liked the story. And thanks for reading it. I have to admit that I love the Christmas song 'First Noel' that's why. Even of it is late. Again thank you!

T73

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Jane was in the kitchen and inspected the contents of the fridge while she wiggled like a happy dog with her butt.
At least she could compete with Jo Friday.
She flinched and hit her head when the doorbell rang."
"Jane, open the door please.", was Maura's voice to be heard from the upper floor of the house.
Jane rolled her eyes and trudged slowly to the front door. Even with with instructions, her wife still sounded politely.
She opened the door and drew her eyebrows together when she saw Frankie in an overall and a six-pack of beer in the hand. "Wrong address. The plumbers are needed down the road.", she said and wanted to close the door again.
Frankie grunted and pushed the door open. "Very funny. Maura has called and said that you need help with the painting work."
Jane's shoulders slumped and she sighed. "I've got everything under control.", she looked to the stairs and frowned. "You hear that, woman?", she yelled. "Everything is under control!"
"Everything would be alright if you would start with the painting instead of thinking about what you can eat next.", Maura yelled back.
Frankie opened a beer and drank from it, choking.
"I shouldn't think about what I eat next if we wouldn't living only healthy and vegan.", Jane grumbled.
"What did you say?", Maura wanted to know.
"I love you!"
Frankie looked long at her and started to laugh amused.
Jane admonished him with her eyes. "Shut up!"
Frankie followed his sister as she walked up the stairs and gave her a nudge. "That bad, huh?", he chuckled.
Jane growled and looked at him. "I say it again. Shut up!"
Frankie entered the soon to be nursery and frowned.
Absolutely nothing was done.
Sealed boxes stood around and the protective sheet on the floor was demolished already.
"You've got to be kidding me."
Jane looked at him and frowned deeply. "What? I was busy with trying to solve a case."
Frankie glanced at her. "Sure. The Wilmore case was closes only two months ago."
Jane rolled her eyes and punched his arm.
The roundish Maura came in a comfortable dark yoga pants and a blue sweatshirt to them and smiled broadly. "Hello, Frankie. Are Frost and Vince here too?"
Frankie sipped his beer and shook his head.
Jane drew her eyebrows together and looked confused at her pregnant wife. "Did you invite the half of the precinct?"
Maura looked innocently at her and tilted her head to the side. "No, only our friends and your brothers."
Jane growled and put her hands around Maura's face. "If you wouldn't be pregnant, I would strangle you.", she said and gave her wife a smooch.
Maura giggled and took Jane's hands into her's."Let's wait for the others downstairs."
Frankie sighed and rolled his eyes. "I'll never understand the two of you."
Jane looked over her shoulder and grinned . "Marriage, bro, marriage."
Frankie chuckled and shook his head.
The three came together back to the first floor and were already awaited by Angela.
Her eye began to shine when she saw the pregnant blonde and she beamed like the Cheshire cat.
Jane saw the next act of her mother and stood protectively in front of her wife. "Don't!", she said warningly and Frankie chuckled.
Angela's shoulders slumped and her smile faltered a little. "You look even prettier than usually, Maura.I'm glad that you two finally look a little more outside the box.", she glared at her daughter. "That Jane is finally growing up."
Jane rolled her eyes and walked to the fridge. She couldn't take it anymore that her mother repeatedly accused her that she wasn't grown up enough.
She took a beer out of the fridge and opened it. "If it were up to you then I would have been married with twenty and would have a whole bunch of kids by now, Ma. And so I wouldn't have got the opportunity to date and marry the most enchanting creature on this planet.", she walked to the blonde and wrapped her arm around Maura's waist. "It just took a little longer than expected."
Maura smiled, stood on her tiptoes and kissed the Italian softly.
Jane smiled back at her wife, looked at Angela and furrowed her eyebrows. "And I would be most likely heartbroken because I couldn't have Maura."
Angela grinned and went to the kitchen island to put the kettle on the stove. But the she looked again at Maura and frowned. "Maura, sweetheart. You should slowly start to think about your maternity leave. I mean, you're surrounded all day by hazardous chemicals. That can't be good for you and the baby."
Jane groaned and sipped her beer.
Frankie laughed and walked to the front door when the doorbell rang.
Maura took a tea cup from the kitchen cabinet and took a deep breath. "In this regard, you don't need to worry, Angela. I have limited mainly to my office. I only perform one or two autopsies in a day. And most if the lab work I let do by Susie. I have taken adequate precautions."
Angela took the cup from her daughter-in-law and shrugged. "I still think you should slow down."
"For heaven's sake, Ma.", Jane interfered. "Maura knows exactly what she can do. And, moreover, she's only in the fifth month pregnant."
"Five months and three quarters.", Maura tossed in.
Jane turned her head to the blonde and furrowed confused her eyebrows. "What?"
Maura licked her lips and shrugged. "I'm in the twenty-third week of pregnancy, Jane."
Jane made a puzzled face. "Really?"
Angela growled and rolled her eyes. "Unbelievable."
Jane opened her mouth to reply something as Frankie came with Korsak and Frost to them. "What's the matter now?", the younger Rizzoli wanted to know.
Jane looked annoyed at him. "Ma has her 'You should work less' phase again."
Korsak had two bouquets in his hands and walked to Maura. He handed her one of them and frowned. "Normally, I would have brought you a bottle of wine. But given your circumstance, I thought it would be inappropriate. So I bought you flowers."
Maura smiled broadly and took the bouquet of flowers. "That wouldn't have been necessary, but thank you."
Korsak nodded, walked to the kitchen island and handed her the other bouquet. "And flowers for the other lady of the house."
Angela beamed broadly. "Thank you, Vince."
Jane smirked and sipped her beer. "Your boyfriend won't be happy."
Angela huffed. "At least my boyfriend won't be jealous just because another man bought me flowers."
Maura walked to her wife and put an hand on Jane's shoulder. "Score one for your mother."
Frost clapped his hands and looked at each of them. "All right, guys. Where do we start?"
Jane frowned deeply. "I have a plan if action. Frost, Frankie and I will paint the walls. Korsak, you do assemble the furniture. When Tommy gets here, he'll help you. Meanwhile, Maura can unpack the baby toys and the baby clothes."
"I'll take care if the food.", Angela tossed in.
Jane looked at her and smiled. "Of course."
Korsak took off his jacket. "Well then, let's go to work."
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Frost ran thoughtfully the painter roller along the wall and frowned. "How could you convince Maura to buy mint green color for the nursery?"
Jane looked at him, raised her eyebrows and ran the back of her left hand over her forehead. "Uh ..."
Frankie instantly stopped with his take and stared at his sister. "Really? Maura doesn't know about it?"
"Oh, shit.", Frost laughed.
Jane's shoulders slumped. "What? If it would be up to Maura, then we would have to paint the whole room in pink. That color is ... neutral."
Frost snorted and continued his task. "In general, pregnant women know in advance what they'll get."
Jane looked at him and sipped her new beer. "And you know this because?"
"Every idiot knows that.", Frankie replied and laughed when he saw Jane's face. "Maybe you should have listen to Maura."
Frost chuckled and grabbed his own beer. "When exactly is the due date?"
"End of December.", Jane answered and couldn't help the smile.
"Cool. Nice Christmas present.", Frankie said with a smile. "Does Ma know?"
Jane frowned and shook her head.
"Jane, do you know where the spare battery for the ...", Maura said and walked into the nursery. She stopped as she saw the color of the walls. "electric drill is?"
Jane got pale and panic came over her. "Um ... uh ... isn't it in the garage?"
Maura's mouth hung open and she shook her head.
Jane frowned worriedly and cleared her throat. "Listen, I know that we have agreed to an neutral color. That's why I bought mint green. Please don't be mad."
Maura looked around and raised her eyebrows. "I ... I ... I like it."
Jane's eyebrows shot up. "Really?"
Maura looked at her wife, smiled and nodded. "Yes."
Jane sighed in relief and smiled too. She walked to the blonde and missed her gently.
Frost grinned broadly and looked at Frankie.
Frankie drew his eyebrows skeptically together. "What? Do you want to make out with me now?"
Jane gasped and pulled away from Maura's lips.
Frost rolled his eyes and shook his head.
Maura chuckled amused.
Jane wrapped an arm around the smaller woman's waist. "You already act like an old married couple. It wouldn't surprise me when the two of you would come out."
Frost glared at Frankie and huffed. "You're such an asshole."
Frankie smiled a little and shrugged.
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Christmas time ...
Jane came in a white sweater and blue jeans in the festively decorated living room and looked up from her phone that she held in her hand.
The last few months have flown by.
Her mother had been right.
At some point you couldn't take it slow anymore during a pregnancy.
Actually Maura should have given birth to their child but it had a will of its own.
The delay distressed Jane enormously but Maura had assured her that something like this was completely normal in a first pregnancy.
It still didn't calmed Jane.
Three days delay was a cause for concern in her world.
Actually, the baby should be born already on December 21th.
And today was December 24th.
Christmas Eve.
That would be a sensation when their child would be born on Christmas Eve.
She walked into the kitchen and frowned when she saw that Maura rolled her head in her neck and that her hands were on her lower back. "Is everything alright?"
Maura looked at her and smiled weakly. "Yes, I just have a little back pain. If the baby don't come to the world soon, then I perform myself a c-section."
Jane went to her, stood behind the blonde and massaged her back gently at the place where Maura's hands were before. "You've almost made it."
Maura braced herself with both hands on the work surface of the kitchen island and hung her head. "I feel like a balloon that is about to bust. I mean, the baby could actually be from you. At least its as stubborn as you."
Jane raised her eyebrows and shrugged while she continued her task. "Well, we have used my egg."
Maura sighed in relief as Jane hit the right spot. "Right there. Oh God, don't stop, Jane. Oh God, yes."
In the same moment the back door opened a little but it came to an halt immediately.
"Should I come back later?", Angela asked.
Jane rolled her eyes but still massaged Maura's back. "You can come in, Ma. We do nothing shocking."
Angela came into the main house, beaming broadly when she saw the women, but then she frowned deeply."Is everything all right?"
Maura looked up and frowned slightly. "I only have a little back pain."
"Back pain or contractions?", Angela wanted to know and walked to the fridge.
This simple question let Jane turn into a pillar of salt. She waited for her wife's answer and frowned when none came. "Maura?"
Maura closed her eyes to listen inside herself. "Just back pain."
Jane drew skeptically her eyebrows together. Something was wrong. "Sure that these are no contractions?"
Maura straightened up and nodded. Then she waddled over to the couch and sat down with a sigh.
Jane looked questioningly and helplessly at Angela.
Angela smiled and shrugged. "Maura's the Doctor in the family."
Jane sighed and rolled her eyes.
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For the family dinner the usual suspects came by.
This meant Frankie, Tommy, Lydia, T.J, Cavanaugh, Frost and Korsak.
Hope and Cailin wanted to spend the evening together.
Constance and her husband were probably on their way from Europe to Boston.
Normally, Jane and Maura would have spend Christmas Eve in a romantic togetherness too, but since Maura was overdue, they could forger the plan this year.
Thus was Angela's plan.
Even Frost's mother would show up with her family on Christmas Day.
Camille and Robin at least also belonged to the family.
Frost of course was uncomfortable with the idea and wanted to disinvite them again.
But Jane had answered in the negative, just like Maura.
The only question was where they should put the whole guests.
Jane had proposed in fun to stack them.
The joke found little recognition.
Angela had done again a miracle for the evening by conjuring a simple but yet very tasty dish.
Well, simple lay in the eye of the beholder.
She had cooked a game stew with cranberries, ribbon noodles and cream sauce.
During the evening, the incident in the morning was long forgotten.
There were good laughs, they ate and drank. And old childhood memories were exchanged.
Work was completely irrelevant that evening.
There were no Lieutenants, Sergeants, Medical Examiner or Detectives.
Just family who laughed and enjoined each other.
Maura stood up and wanted to get the dessert when Tommy offered her his help.
In the kitchen he looked at her and smiled. "You look great."
Maura smiled too and blushed a little. "Tommy, my wife and your girlfriend are sitting in the dining room at one table. You shouldn't be flirting with me. The last time went very bad for you."
Tommy chuckled and raised his eyebrows. "I wasn't flirting with you. I just gave a compliment to my sister-in-law."
Maura still smiled and opened her mouth to reply something but then she suddenly froze.
Tommy looked down at the floor and frowned. "Uh ... Maura, where does all the water on the floor come from? Is a water pipe leaking? After the holidays, I can take a look at it if you want me to."
Maura grabbed the edge of the working surface and looked with big eyes at the youngest Rizzoli sibling. "Tommy, no water pipe is leaking. I ... I think my water broke."
Tommy looked long at her and laughed amused. "That was a great joke. You get used to it."
Maura looked at him and pressed her lips together.
Tommy became serious again and lowered his eyebrows. "It was a joke ... right?"
Maura shook her head and writhed in a strong contraction.
The youngest Rizzoli began to panic immediately. "Jane!", he yelled loud.
Jane ignored her youngest brother and talked vivified with Frankie and Cavanaugh.
Probably about baseball or football.
"Jane!", Maura and Tommy yelled in unison.
"What?", Jane yelled back and glared at them.
"Maura's water broke!"
"My water broke!", Maura and Tommy said again in unison.
The buzzing and humming in the house ceased immediately.
Jane's eyes went huge and she literally jumped up from her chair.
She within a blow on full alert. "What?"
The very calm Angela stood up and smiles. "Calm down, girls. These are just slight contractions. No need to panic."
Maura braces herself on the work surface again and gasped with a pained face. "I don't think that these are false labors.", she whimpered. "These are expulsive pains."
After that statement chaos broke loose in the house.
Jane tried to sort her thoughts and ran to her wife. She rubbed Maura's lower back and looked with a deep frown at Frankie. "Do you think you still can drive?"
Frankie frowned and nodded as he understood the question.
Jane nodded to herself and supported the blonde. She looked at her mother and pointed at the stairs. "Ma, we have an emergency bag, under the bed. Take it and follow us."
Angela nodded and sprinted up the stairs.
Jane looked at Maura and beamed from ear to ear.
But as soon as the blonde painfully grimaced and started to pant like in the birth class, Jane was drawn back into action.
That was no birth at the precinct. This was no birth, that would affect in the negative way.
This was planned. This was wanted.
Frankie walked to Maura and supported her with a grin.
Maura smiled back and squeezed his arm hard with the next contraction.
Frankie made a face and led the blonde with his sister to the door. "Ow, ow ow! Damn, you are strong!"
Jane smiled proudly and opened the door.
"Yoga!", Maura panted.
Frankie made a face again and stepped out of the house.
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Jane sat in the labor room on the stretcher behind Maura and supported her wife as best as she could. At the same time, she was the stable backrest.
Maura was in the middle of the process of birth. Sweat ran down her face and she clung to her knees while the gynecologist stared between her legs.
Jane frowned and laughed. "I'm not thrilled that a stranger looks at you there."
Maura relaxed and leaned her head back against the Italian's shoulder. "You're welcome to change places."
Jane smiled and kissed Maura's temple. "I see from here enough."
Maura laughed and whimpered immediately. "Since when?", she gasped.
The gynecologist chuckled and looked up at them. "You're doing well, Maura."
Maura breathed hard and looked over her shoulder at Jane. "Oh, yeah?"
Jane smiled and took the blonde's hands in her own. "Squeeze my hands."
Maura frowned deeply. "I can't."
Jane intertwined her hands with Maura's and smiled. "Yes, you can, Maura."
"But you already have from time to time problems with your hands.", Maura protested.
Jane slowly but surely lost her patience. "For heaven's sake, Maura. Right now I have other worries than my fucking hands."
With the next contraction Maura had thrown all her good intentions overboard and squeezed Jane's hands painfully.
Jane drew her eyebrows together and opened surprised her mouth. "Ow, ow, ow! I'll take it back! Let go of my hands!"
"Don't be a wimp, Jane!", Maura grunted and fought for air. "You have no idea what pain is."
Jane looked at her and furrowed her eyebrows. "Really?"
The gynecologist looked up and smiled encouragingly. "You're doing very well. Just push a few more times, then it is over."
Maura whimpered and rested exhausted her head against Jane's shoulder. "God ... I hate you!"
Jane frowned but smiled. "God has a little to do with that, honey."
"I hasn't meant God but you.", Maura hissed through clenched teeth.
Jane smiled and kissed the blonde's temple. "I can live with that."
The woman between Maura's legs looked up at the Italian. "Jane, are you ready?"
Kane wriggled out from underneath her wife and looked deeply into hazel eyes. "I'll be right back. Hold on."
"Do I have a choice?", Maura replied, gasping.
Jane smiled and walked to the gynecologist.
The red-haired woman looked briefly at her. "You have a strong stomach, huh? Not many can bear that sight."
Jane looked between Maura's legs and tilted her head to the side, grimacing. "I work in Homicide. I've seen a lot worse."
The physician looked up to Maura. "The worst is over. Only one strong push, Maura."
Maura did under painfully screaming as she was told and dropped back limply.
She gasped for air and closed her eyes.
But instantly she fell panic overcome her when she heard no cries of a baby and her eyes shot open.
Jane was standing with her back to her, but she had the feeling that something was absolutely wrong."Jane, what's going on. Why can't I hear the baby cry?"
Jane didn't respond and didn't turn around.
Maura panicked and sat up. " Jane?"
Finally a strong baby cry filled the labor room.
The Italian turned with a smile on her lips to her wife, which even surpassed the Cheshire Cat.
In her arms was a small bundle, which floundered.
Maura's heart jumped at the sight and tears shot in her eyes.
Jane couldn't stop grinning and walked to the exhausted blonde, the baby was still crying.
She placed the bundle in Maura's arms and chuckled as she watched Maura's surprised face.
The baby stopped crying and smiled at his mother.
"Look at that, Maura.", the so tough Italian said with tears in her voice. "This is our son.", she kissed Maura's head lovingly and a tear ran down her cheek. "You did very, very well. I'm proud of you."
Maura still looked amazed at the newborn.
All the pain and hours of torture were suddenly like wiped out.
Big hazel eyes met for the first time a new pair of big brown eyes.
The boy still looked a little crumpled but Maura immediately fell in love with him.
If she hadn't knew it better, then she would have sworn that Jane herself had impregnated her.
He looked like an copy of a Rizzoli.
Maura began happily to sob. "He's so beautiful."
Jane beamed and kissed her wife's head. "Yes, he is. Just like his Mommy.", she looked at the newborn in Maura's arms . "He's the were best Christmas gift.", she looked at the clock at the wall and laughed. "And we haven't unpacked him too early."
Maura looked at the clock too and frowned. "Oh, my goodness!"
Jane beamed from ear to ear and nodded. "That's right!"
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Maura was in the patient's room and was fast asleep while Jane was rocking their newborn son on her arms and walked up and down in the room as Angela stormed into the room first.
"Where is it?", she almost yelled and Maura stirred. "Where is my grandbaby?"
Jane turned to her and admonished her with her eyes. "Sssssh! Maura is sleeping!", she hissed.
Angela ignored the objection and marched to her daughter. She looked in the baby blanket and melted immediately. "Oh my God.", she whispered euphoric. "It's a boy."
Frankie grinned and held out his hand to Frost.
Frost rolled his eyes and slapped the hand away.
Angela began to beam. "He's beautiful."
Jane looked at her proudly and raised her eyebrows. "He is, isn't he?"
Angela eyed the gurgling baby more closely and turned to her sons. "Has one of you ..."
"No!", said all three Rizzoli siblings in unison.
Angela still wasn't convinced. "I could swear ..."
"Maura and I just have picked out the perfect donor, Ma.", Jane interrupted her mother.
Maura stirred again groaned.
Jane sighed loudly. "Great!"
Maura slowly opened her eyes and saw them all.
Frankie and Tommy. Angela and Cavanaugh. Frost and Korsak. Hope and Cailin. Camille and Robin.
The only one who were missing were her adoptive parents. Once again.
Maura felt the disappointment grew bigger.
Jane walked to her and places their newborn son in the blonde's arms and kissed her gently. "Hey, sleepyhead."
Jane looked lovingly at the newborn and frowned. "So it wasn't a dream?"
"No.", Jane chuckled. "It wasn't."
"How do you feel?", Hope asked softly.
Maura looked at her and smiled. "Exhausted but happy.", she ran a thumb over a small cheek. "The exertions were worth it though."
Hope smiled broadly and looked at her daughters. "I can understand that."
Cailin went to Maura's bed and frowned. "May I?"
Maura beamed and handed her the baby. "Of course."
"If you break him, you buy me a new one.", Jane said and furrowed her eyebrows.
Maura chuckled but swatted Jane's arm.
Cailin grinned at the baby boy and rocked him gently. "Hi, baby. I'm your auntie Cailin. And these guys are your uncles. We were waiting for you, sweetheart."
The boy looked with big eyes at her and smiled toothless.
Suddenly a heavy-breathing Constance came into the the room, followed by a white-haired man. "Have we missed something?"
Tears shot to Maura's eyes and she shook her head, negative.
Constance looked worriedly at the blonde. "Maura, darling. Why are you crying?"
Maura sniffed and looked at her. "You are here."
Her father, Benjamin Isles, smiled gently at her. "Of course we are, baby."
"We only were delayed because of this blowing snow.", Constance explained.
Maura wiped the tear away that ran down her cheek without permission.
Jane beamed broadly and took the blonde's hand. "See? There's always an explanation, Maura."
Ben walked to Cailin and looked with childish eyes at the boy. "Is that him? Is that our first Grandbaby?"
Cailin smiled broadly and handed him the boy.
Ben lifted him carefully up and pursed grinning his lips.
Constance almost burst with proud. "He's just as beautiful as Maura, isn't he?"
Ben smiled broadly and kissed the baby's cheek.
Angela beamed and looked at her favorite couple. She walked to Maura's bed and kissed the blonde's cheek. "See? You're loved,sweetie.", she cleared her throat and frowned. "How will you name him? We can't call him all his life baby."
Jane looked at Maura and frowned.
Originally, they wanted to name their first child either Daniel or Danielle.
It depended on the gender.
But originally their son even shouldn't be born on Christmas Day.
The circumstances had changed immensely.
The couple looked at each other and smiled.
The decision was made.
"Noel.", they said in unison.
Hope smiled and raised her eyebrows. "Born on Christmas Day. A very sweet and wise decision."
Jane took their son from her father-in-law's arms and grinned broadly at the baby. " Hi, Noel. I'm your Mama.", she placed the boy in Maura's arms. "And this is your beautiful Mommy."
Noel gurgled happily and snuggled up to Maura.
The blonde beamed and looked up to the Italian.
Jane leaned down and kissed her wife gently. "I love you.", she whispered. "Both of you."
Angela watched the whole scenery and wiped a tear from her cheek.
She thought that she would never witness this in her lifetime.
Jane sighed with a frown.
Maura and she finally had arrived.c
They were whole!