* I own nothing of Rizzoli and Isles I just have the privilege of playing with the characters for a while.

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Angela was in the kitchen starting to make food for everyone who was going to make Maura's living room a squad room. It wasn't there normal gathering event but she decided that she wasn't going to allow everything going on with Susan and Father MacKaye to steal her girls Christmas spirit. With that in mind she decided that fudge and Christmas cookies were in order along with her special spaghetti sauce.

Jane walked into the house with one end of a white board while Frankie had the other. Frost and Korsak came in with a box of files and laptops behind them. "Ma it smells wonderful in here." Frankie said as he sat the board down and went over to the pot on the stove to taste what he was smelling. "What are you cooking?"

"That's for dinner. Now get away. I put snacks out on the table over there for you fellows." She said turning him away from the stove and towards the table.

"Thanks Angela." Korsak said as they started over to the table too. Everyone except for Jane, she started pulling files out of the boxes.

Maura heard all the voices and made her way into the living room from the yoga room. She went and found three dry erase makers and went to the board. Everyone just remained quiet knowing this wasn't normal for the woman to do so. She made a line down the middle of the board. On the top of one side she wrote Herald Hickey and on the other she wrote Susan.

On the Herald side she wrote DOD 12-3 around 11 pm. On the Susan side she wrote interrogated 12-4 in the afternoon. Jane watched and caught on to what her girlfriend's train of thought was and where she was going with it. They let Maura finish her information since she was on a roll before adding all the other facts that had came in to hers.

When they were through they all sat and looked at the board. It was apparent that the two events had to be related but that one piece of the puzzle that would connect them together alluded them at the moment. The cell phone that had made the 911 call was from the school but it was in a desk drawer in a office space used by many. It wasn't assigned to anyone and there weren't any finger prints on it. All the school employees had easy access to it.

Jane looked at the board hard and Korsak saw the wheels turning, "What are you thinking Jane?"

"Before we knew that Susan was missing I was thinking that this guy had to have been murdered by someone close. If it were me, twenty five stab wounds means I've pissed someone off really bad and the only ones that can make me even close to that mad is someone who knows me and lived with me for a long time like family."

"Jane Rizzoli you better not stab me!" Angela said becoming mock indignant.

"I said you make me mad enough too ma, not that I would."

"Okay...you make me mad too sometimes." She said half smiling.

"I know ma but I love you." She said and went and side hugged her mother. "Frost does this guy have any close family?" She asked trying to stay focused on her train of thought.

"He was married and had two sons Daniel and Michael. His wife died shortly after the birth of Michael and Daniel ran away at fourteen."

"Where's Michael now?" She asked as she looked at the picture of the man on Maura's autopsy table.

"He went into foster care at the age of thirteen when Herald was arrested on several drunk driving charges and had a wreck with Michael in the car with him."

"Was anyone else involved in the wreck?" Korsak asked getting into the conversation.

"No...only an unlucky Elm tree."

"Okay...what about siblings? Let's go back further. This guy has to be a key of some kind."

"Hasn't anyone called about Susan on the tip line?" Angela asked out of the blue.

"What?" Jane looked at her mother puzzled.

"I was just wondering why no one has seen Susan yet?"

Everyone looked down not wanting to answer that question. "We are not sure Angela but there is always hope." Maura answered for the exhausted detectives. They had manned the phones for hours as every nut job in Boston called with a Susan spotting tip but nothing panned out and now the phones were dead. They were just praying that Susan wasn't too.

"Hey...Hey...I'm sorry I didn't mean to bring everyone down." The woman said as she noticed the saddened faces.

"It's okay ma...we are all just concerned and tired. Maybe some of that spaghetti and Christmas cookies are what we all need." Jane said trying to ease the tension in the room.

"I could eat!" Frankie said excitedly.

"You could eat anytime!" Angela said laughing at the hungry man.

Maura passed on the dinner and poured herself a glass of wine and went and sat on the couch with her legs up underneath her. Jane stood in the kitchen as the woman took a sip of her wine and watched as her head drop down and wiped a tear from her cheek. Jane went into the living room letting the others eat feeling the need to find out if her girlfriend was okay.

"Maur..."

She looked up and Jane saw it all in the woman's eyes. Maura was slowly losing hope that the chaos would stop and that for some stupid reason was feeling responsible for the little girl running away. She reached out her hand in a request and Maura took it as she stood and followed the woman into the yoga room away from the eyes of others. She slid the door shut and turned pulling the woman into a hug. "We are not at fault for Susan running away."

"I know," was said in a sad voice.

"If we let this into us it will destroy us Maur. I've seen it a thousand times with parents of kids who go missing."

"I know...but all I can see is that beautiful innocent face and..."

"Shhh...I know. It's getting to us all but I still believe she is alive."

"I'm trying to Jane."

"Look Santa didn't let us down last year and he won't this year either." she said trying to lighten up Maura's thoughts to something positive.

"But he was quicker about it last year."

"Give the man a break there Dr. Isles, he deals with elves and reindeer everyday. That's thousands of short people in green and red suits running around high off of cookies and lollipops, it's got to be like working at night court on a Friday night. You know how crazy and how fast that can be." She said with an upturned eyebrow.

Maura laughed and pulled her into a tighter hug needing the security of Jane's warmth for a moment. "I still believe Jane but I would like just a glimmer of hope to go with it, that's all I'm asking for."

Jane's phone rang as they both looked at each other like "that was fast."

"Rizzoli..."

okay I have gotten some comments about sending my work to a beta before posting. I respect the betas and their skills. I also apologize to the ones that my errors cause distraction to. But these stories are based on a day to day posting when I can fit in writing them and I try to deliver on my promises.

When I write like this chapter of 1270 words it takes around an hour and a half then I go through and edit it on the fly and it's up usually within two hours. I do reread and edit again most of the time even after the chapter has been posted when I can. With all that said... to hit the time lines promised within the flow of the hours I work, I will still have to do it this way and beg your patients with me. I do however appreciate the feed back because it does help me look for things I repeatedly do.

Now concerning the comment about Frog Pond...This is a sequel and Frog Pond is where the girls first ice skated with each other. You might want to read "Yes Maura There is a Santa Claus" it will give you more insight on this story.

Now the rest of you buckle up because it's going to start to get interesting from here...promise. :)