Thanks for the reviews!

Getting all those reviews motivates me to write more.

Happy belated birthday to the original Maureen, Idina Menzel!

Surprises

Joanne's POV

Time flew by fast and before I knew it the holidays had come around. This year the holidays meant so much more to me then ever before because I could have easily not been alive to see them. Maureen and I were busier then ever with holiday preparations. Maureen was being very secretive these days and I wondered if she had some big secret that she was hiding from me. I began to get more suspicious of this on Christmas Eve when my parents invited me to dinner without inviting Maureen or the kids. This was strange since they usually invited my whole family out and they usually spent Christmas at Palm Beach. Before we left the apartment, my mother slipped a bandanna over my eyes.

"Mom, what are you doing?" I asked

"You'll find out soon enough, now come on or we're going to be late" she replied

"Late for what?" I asked

"You'll see" she told me

My parents led me out to their car and then we were off to this secret place they were taking me. After a while I felt the car stop and heard my mom open the car door. They led me out and then led me into a building and removed the bandanna. I found myself in a dark room with my parents standing next to me. Suddenly, the lights were flipped on and I could see that I was at the Life and that all of my friends and family were there. The restaurant had been decked out in Christmas decorations and all of the tables had been pushed together. I noticed that the stage was set up for a concert and I wondered if Maureen was going to be singing tonight.

Suddenly I heard someone say. "Hey Joanne, smile!"

I turned to see Mark next to me, camera in hand. I quickly hugged him and said hello to his wife.

"It's so great to see you!" I told Mark.

Then I went over to Maureen who had been talking to Rich and took her out into the alley. Once we were out in the alley, I gave her a long passionate thank you kiss. As we pulled away, I felt something cold hit my shoulder and I looked up to see that it was snowing out. I kissed Maureen again and then we headed back inside to continue partying.

Maureen's POV

As soon as we walked back in, we brushed the snow off each other and then kissed again only to hear someone shout "get a room!" at us. Then we sat down to eat dinner and catch up with all our friends. After dinner had been cleared away, it was time for my next surprise. The lights dimmed and the stage curtains were pulled away to reveal a movie screen. We then saw Angel's face on the screen; Angel was out of drag and in the hospital so I knew that this must have been part of the footage that Mark had shot of each one of our deceased friends leaving messages for the survivors during their last days. . Mark had edited the footage of their messages for Joanne together to create this film. After the movie ended and the lights were back on, I could see that Joanne had been crying. But I could tell her tears were happy tears because she smiled at me and then hugged Mark to thank him for the video.

Mark then took the microphone announced that I was going to do a special performance of my protest song " Over The Moon" since this was the anniversary of the day that I originally sang it. I didn't really know if I could still do it after all of these years, but for my pookie, I gave it a try. Joanne handed me a cowbell and I headed up to the stage to begin. The words came naturally to me and it was actually easier then I thought. After I had finished, Joanne came up to the stage and kissed me again and then thanked me for planning the party and everyone for coming. After that, the music was turned up and the dancing started. Before we knew it, we found ourselves dancing on the tables again. We partied long into the night and my parents took the girls home so that we didn't need to leave early or anything.

We left the party slightly drunk but very happy. The apartment felt unusually quiet and we decided to take advantage of the child free evening. After we had finished with some last minute preparations for tomorrow morning, we cuddled up on the living room couch in front of the fireplace. When our kisses began to get more passionate, we decided to move to the bedroom so we wouldn't run the risk of getting carried away and being found in a less then flattering state by the girls and my parents the next morning. We made love slowly and passionately that night with all of the love that we felt toward one another coming out. After we had finished, we got up and threw on some pajamas knowing that Joanne's parents were going to bring the girls home in a few hours and that the girls might wake us up by barging into our room like they had every Christmas morning since we could remember. We finally fell asleep snuggled up to each other after one of the best days of our lives.

Liked it? Hated it? Review please!