Happy holidays everyone!

Chapter 6 -Christmas

December 2023

In which there is a ballet recital, and Eva has a few seasonal doubts

It started back in the fall.

In many ways, it was a normal Saturday morning. Maura took her two daughters to their ballet class and waited in the hallway with other parents. She brought with her a box filled with title pages for her soon-to-be-released book. Her publisher was doing a special offer in which the first 100 pre-orders would come signed, and had sent just the title pages to Maura to sign her name on. She sat busily autographing while her daughters were in class, chatting idly with a few of the other parents. As usual, Jackie Holder sat as far away from her as possible. None of the other moms liked Jackie. She had moved to Boston a year ago from Oklahoma after her husband's job transferred him, and she seemed to absolutely hate it. She was madly overprotective of her son Nathan, who was Eva's age and desperately loved ballet. She seemed torn between wanting a manly son and wanting a happy son, and her compromise had been to sign him up for lessons and then bug the teacher about making sure he danced in the most masculine way possible. Her eyes had nearly popped out of her head when she met Jane and Maura, who were certainly not the only lesbian couple bringing children to this dance school, but seemed to be the only ones she'd met, not just here, but anywhere. When Jane brought the girls to their class, she got a kick out of doing things like "accidentally" bumping into Jackie or knocking herself out to try and strike up a conversation with her, watching the woman squirm as she tried to get out of it without seeming too rude. Maura preferred to just ignore her.

Today was not just an ordinary ballet class, however. Today the kids would find out what parts they had been assigned in the ballet school's annual junior performance of The Nutcracker. Last year Charlotte had played a mouse and had been completely adorable, enjoying the mischief she got to create in the battle scene. This year Eva would be in it too, and Maura couldn't wait to see what parts they would each play.

When class was over and children began spilling out in their leotards (or shorts and t-shirt, in the case of Nathan, whose mother would never have let him wear a leotard), Maura packed up her title pages and looked for her own girls. Charlotte appeared first, looking dejected.

"What's wrong?" Maura asked her. "Did you get your part?"

"Yeah, I'm a toy soldier," the seven-year-old told her, sitting to pull off her ballet shoes.

"So why do you look sad? That's a good part for you."

"I wanted to be a party guest. Party guests get to wear pretty dresses and twirl around. The soldiers look like boys, and they don't twirl around. They march."

"But you get to defend the house from the mice in the battle scene."

"I was in the battle scene last year. I wanted to be in the party scene this time."

Just then, Eva came bouncing out, looking thrilled. "Mommy, I'm a cookie!" she announced happily.

"A cookie?"

"A gingerbread cookie!" She grinned up at Maura, green eyes filled with glee. Maura remembered a couple early dancers performing as gingerbread cookies last year. They'd worn foam costumes, complete with a cookie head that completely hid each child's face. Maura wouldn't even know which cookie was Eva. However, Eva seemed excited, so Maura would be excited for her.

"Well, that will be fun," said Maura, pulling the five-year-old onto her lap and taking off her ballet shoes. "You like to eat gingerbread cookies, so I'm sure you'll enjoy being one."

"The mice will try to steal me in the battle scene, and the soldiers will save me!" Eva continued breathlessly, taking the tennis shoes Maura handed her and pulling them on.

"Well, Charlotte is a soldier, so that means she will save you! Charlotte, you two are in the same scene."

Charlotte pulled on her jacket and picked up her bag. "I'd rather be in the party scene," she grumbled.

"Nathan, what part did you get?" she heard Jackie saying behind them as they gathered their things to leave.

"I'm a gingerbread man!" he told her.

"A gingerbread man! Oh, how sweet! We'll have to tell Daddy."

Maura groaned inwardly. Nathan was the other gingerbread cookie? That meant she was going to be snapping pictures of him during the performance because she would have no idea which one was him and which was Eva.

"I'm happy that we're in the same scene, Charlotte," Eva said as she and her sister were buckling themselves into their booster seats in the back of Maura's Mercedes. "It'll be fun."

"We're both going to look like boys," said Charlotte sullenly.

"I don't care, it's just a costume," said Eva. "Gingerbread girls can wear pants. And girls can be soldiers, too."

"They weren't back in olden times!" Charlotte informed her.

"You know, your Mama said the same thing about wearing her police uniform," Maura told her as she started the car. "She didn't want to wear it because she thought it made her look like a man."

"I thought she didn't have to wear a uniform because she was a detective," said Charlotte.

"She didn't wear one to work, but when they had special events like ceremonies to honor officers and detectives who did something particularly brave, they all wore their dress uniforms to that. Once your Mama got a medal for doing something brave, and she didn't want to put on her uniform for the ceremony."

"What did she do that was brave?" Charlotte asked, her eyes wide.

Maura thought back to that day, one of the most frightening of her life, and found the memories were still difficult to think about. She couldn't possibly tell the entire story to small children. "Some scary men came into the police station and shot your Uncle Frankie. He almost died. Your Mama caught their leader, but she was shot in the process, and she almost died too. But they both got better, and that man never hurt anyone ever again. So they gave her a medal for being so brave."

"Wow," said Charlotte.

"Did you get her to put on the uniform?" Eva asked.

Maura couldn't help smiling at that memory. "She wouldn't do it. So I just started pulling off her clothes, and then I tried to put the uniform on her until she fought me off and put it on herself. She realized I wasn't playing around."

"That's what you did to me when I wouldn't get dressed for school on the first day," Charlotte noted.

"That's right, because I had practice doing that to someone much bigger than you. You were silly to think you could get by with refusing to go."

"It was worth a shot," Charlotte shrugged. "Did Mama look like a man in her uniform?"

"No. She looked beautiful and dignified. You will too, in your soldier costume, and you'll get to fight with a wooden sword. It'll be a little like fencing."

Charlotte pondered this. After years of admiring Maura's fencing skills, she was now taking lessons herself, and was very good at it. "I am the only fencer in my ballet class," she noted. "I would probably be the best at sword fighting."

"I'm sure you would."

"And you get to fight to save me from the mice!" Eva said gleefully.

"Maybe it's not so bad being a soldier," Charlotte conceded. "But I hope I'm a party guest next year."

~R&I~

When they got home, the girls couldn't wait to tell Jane about their parts. They found her reading the paper on the living room couch, with Charlotte's black cat Chewy curled up on her lap (Sally, Eva's Siamese cat, had greeted them at the door as usual and was now in the diminutive blonde's arms).

"Mama, guess what! I'm going to be a toy soldier!" Charlotte told her. "Which is kind of like being a cop, isn't it?"

Jane grinned. "Yes, it sounds a lot like being a cop. You get to arrest the mice."

"I'm a cookie," Eva said excitedly, struggling to hold onto Sally, who looked huge now compared to the little girl. "A gingerbread cookie! The mice are going to try to eat me!"

"Mmm, I love gingerbread cookies," said Jane. "You better be careful in that costume or I might try to gobble you up!"

Eva squealed with laughter. "Mommy said you didn't want to put on your police uniform and she had to make you."

"Mommy did do that," said Jane. "That's what I love about your mommy: she's the kind of woman who knows what she wants and just goes after it. And she loves a woman in uniform. She has a picture from that night in her study, on the desk."

"I'm going to go look," said Charlotte, darting down the hallway.

"Me too," said Eva, putting down her cat, who scampered after her.

Jane looked at Maura. "Eva's the cookie? We won't even be able to see her face."

"I know." Maura shrugged helplessly. "She's excited about it, though."

"Charlotte will make an adorable soldier, but all the cookies look the same. How can they put that beautiful little girl in a cookie costume?"

"I know. I haven't even told you the worst part. There are two cookies, and you'll never guess who the other one is."

"Not the little boy with the bigoted mom?"

Maura nodded reluctantly. "We're just going to have to take pictures of both of them during the performance and ask Eva later which is which."

"She'll know," Jane acknowledged. "She's weird about that stuff. She always knows."

The girls came running back into the room, bearing the framed picture of Jane's medal ceremony in 2011. Jane stood in uniform, hair up, smiling reluctantly for the camera with her arm around Maura's waist. Maura was wearing a black dress, smiling quite proudly. She had been so proud of Jane that night, and so honored to be her "date."

"You looked good in your uniform, Mama," Charlotte said. "And Mommy was pretty too."

"You both looked so young," Eva observed.

"We did," Maura said softly, memories flooding her mind. She wished she could go back to that night and kiss Jane right in front of Casey Jones and Dr. Byron Slucky.

"We've only gotten better with age," said Jane, kissing Maura on the cheek.

~R&I~

So the rehearsals for the program began. At first, preparing for a Christmas performance seemed out of step with the fall weather outside, but soon the weather grew cold, leaves fell off the trees, and Thanksgiving dinner came and went, and then they were decorating their house for Christmas. Carols were in the air as the two little girls bounced around the house each day, practicing their own dances and even dances they weren't in. The four of them decorated their biggest Christmas tree, the one in the living room, together, Jane and Maura hanging breakable ornaments on the upper branches while Charlotte and Eva hung the less fragile ones on the lower branches. This was always Maura's favorite part of decorating – they always sang carols as they did so, wearing their Santa hats and probably looking ridiculous, but it was fun and felt like the kind of warm family Christmas Maura had always wanted to be part of. Nevertheless, she still liked to decorate her own tree in the parlor, and this one looked like the kind of elegant tree she'd grown up with. She had a lot of expensive ornaments on this tree, and the kids knew not to touch this one. The colorful, chaotic tree in the living room was the one they'd be getting presents under. The parlor tree was just for looks, and Maura always arranged the ornaments herself, using a mathematical formula she'd devised to space them perfectly.

She was in the middle of hanging ornaments when she heard Jane creep into the room and stand behind her. "You're holding mistletoe over my head, aren't you?" Maura said.

"How do you know?"

"Because every year when you find the mistletoe, you sneak up behind me and hold it over my head until I kiss you."

"Well, are you gonna?"

"Of course." Maura turned around and slid her arms around Jane, giving her a sweet, slow kiss. "Although, you really don't need a fake plant to get me to kiss you," she remarked when she was done.

"I know. But what can I say? I'm a romantic."

Maura chuckled. "Did you know mistletoe has been a symbol of fertility since long before Christmas existed? Some say the white berries resemble semen."

"Gross. Now I'm never going to look at this thing the same way again."

Maura kissed her again. "Well, you can just think of the sperm we bought so we could conceive our two beautiful daughters."

"Yeah, I guess," said Jane. "I'll go hang it up."

"Excuse me." Maura looked around to see Eva standing in the doorway, holding a piece of paper.

"Hey," said Jane. "Did you write your letter to Santa?"

"Not yet." She stepped into the room. "I have some questions."

"Okay, what kind of questions?" Jane asked her.

Eva bit her lip. "Is Santa from another planet?"

Jane looked at Maura and back at their daughter. "Um, I guess he could be. Why do you ask?"

"Because he does things people can't do on this planet. Is his sleigh a spaceship?"

"Maybe it is," said Jane.

"But reindeer can't fly. They don't have wings, their bones aren't hollow, and their shape isn't aerodynamic."

Even Maura had to admit that the word "aerodynamic" sounded funny coming out of such a small child's mouth. However, she surreptitiously resumed decorating her tree. She was going to let Jane handle this one.

"Regular reindeer can't fly," said Jane, "but magic reindeer can. Santa has magic reindeer and a magic sleigh."

"That means they can do things that are physically impossible?"

"Well, yeah. That's what magic is: doing the impossible."

"But, if you can do it, then it is possible."

"It's impossible for most of us, but not for Santa."

Eva pondered that for a minute. "But are you sure magic is really real? None of my science books talk about it."

"Science books are about science, not magic. You have other books that talk about Santa."

"Yes, but they're all fiction."

"They're fiction because Santa's mysterious and nobody knows much about him, but we know he gets your letters because he brings you wonderful presents every year. So go write your letter."

"Okay," Eva said uncertainly, going back upstairs.

Jane turned around and looked at Maura. "She's only five. How can she be having doubts about Santa already? Charlotte's seven and she's never had them."

"Charlotte loves fairy tales, so it's not hard for her to believe in a magical man who comes down the chimney and leaves gifts. Eva's a more logical thinker."

"Which she gets from you. There are two of you now."

"You said you wanted a child from one of my eggs so you could have a 'little Maura.'"

"I did say those words," Jane admitted. "I didn't realize it meant ruining the fun of Christmas for her at a young age, though. It's like she's losing her innocence, and she's just a baby!"

"It won't ruin her fun," Maura promised. "I don't think she's ready to stop believing yet."

"How can you tell?"

"Because I was standing right here, but she directed all her questions at you."

"And she knows you can't lie." Jane rubbed her face. "Am I lying to my own kid?"

"You're telling her a myth that serves as a metaphor. Santa gives without expecting anything in return, and he's mysterious. He embodies the spirit of this time of year. In a sense, he is very much real."

"Is that what you'll tell her if she asks you?"

"Maybe," said Maura. "But for now, she's asking you."

~R&I~

As December got underway, the Rizzoli family was constantly busy. The girls had rehearsals, Jane and Maura had Christmas shopping, and there were activities for everyone. The weekend before the junior Nutcracker performance, they took the girls to Boston's annual gingerbread house design competition, where they got to see same familiar Boston landmarks in gingerbread form, and then they took them to see a department store Santa. They had on matching silk dresses, Charlotte's in red and Eva's in gold, matching bows in their hair. Maura thought they looked darling.

"Is this the real Santa?" Eva asked while they were waiting in line.

"The store guy? I don't think so," said Charlotte. "Santa can't come to all the stores in the world, and anyway, he would be busy in his shop right now."

"Well then who is he?" asked Eva.

"He works for the real Santa. So you can still tell him what you want, and he'll tell Santa. But you have to talk to him like he's the real one or it might hurt his feelings."

When the girls' turn came, they went up and sat on Santa's lap, one on each knee. Maura smiled to herself as she remembered the first time they'd brought them both to have their picture taken with Santa. Eva had been six months old then, and Charlotte was two and a half. While Charlotte had eagerly sat down and started talking Santa's ear off, Eva had cried in terror at being held by a stranger, and Maura had quickly snatched her away. While some might take pictures of crying babies on Santa's lap and laugh at them, Maura was afraid of traumatizing the child. Once Eva was calm, they had taken the picture with Maura holding her and standing next to Santa. Not until the age of three had she agreed to sit on Santa's lap, and even then she'd been dubious about the whole thing.

She sat quietly now, listening to her older sister chatter on about the toys she wanted. Charlotte kept adding to her list, which was typical for her; Eva, on the other hand, usually had a short and very precise list that she never wavered from. She also typically had one thing she wanted most of all, and her parents always made sure she got that thing, whenever possible. This year she wanted a cardboard rocket ship she'd seen in a catalogue. It was big enough for a kid to climb inside, and the outside was made so you could color it in however you wanted. Unbeknownst to Eva, this item was already in the attic, folded up and waiting for Jane and Maura to set it up after the girls went to bed on Christmas Eve.

Finally, Charlotte stopped talking long enough for Santa to turn his attention to her younger sister. He asked her if she'd been a good girl, and she told him she had. He asked what she wanted, and she repeated her list exactly as she'd written it down. Then she told him she had a question.

"I looked at the North Pole on Google Earth, and I couldn't see any buildings," she told him.

"Ho ho ho!" he chuckled, sounding exactly the way you would expect Santa to sound. "I had to talk to the engineers at Google when they started Google Earth to make sure they didn't show my village! If people could figure out where it was, they'd show up all times of the year, trying to find out what they were getting for Christmas. My workshop has to be kept top secret."

"So they hid it on the map?" Eva asked hopefully.

"They had to! Just like with some secret government buildings."

"So it's really there?"

"Of course it is!"

"I told you!" said Charlotte. "She keeps asking a lot of questions about how reindeer fly and how you can tell if we've been bad or good."

"Having doubts already?" he said, scrutinizing the smaller of the two girls.

"My science books don't talk about magic," Eva said. "Only fiction books do."

"So you want to be a scientist?" he asked her.

She nodded. "I'm going to be an astronaut."

"You want to fly through the skies too. I understand that. But let me tell you, Eva, there's a lot science doesn't understand yet. That's why NASA needs more astronauts, so they can't study things we don't understand. You can still believe in something even if it's not in your science books."

Eva nodded thoughtfully. "Can I tell you one more thing I want? It's something I haven't told anyone."

"Of course," he said, and she whispered into his ear.

Maura and Jane exchanged a look. This was unexpected. How were they supposed to figure out what she was asking him for? And if she didn't get it, she would know Santa was just a fairy tale, even as her older sister continued to believe. Or maybe the entire experience would wreck Charlotte's fun as well. They had to find out what Eva had asked for.

But there was no chance of discretely asking the store Santa. The girls smiled for the camera as the photographer took a few shots of them, and then the next children in line quickly moved up to take their spots on Santa's lap. They were given a couple prints on the spot; Maura had filled out a form with her email address so she could be sent digital copies as well. They had no choice but to walk away, the children begging to visit the toy department.

"Eva, sweetie, what did you ask Santa for?" Maura asked.

"I can't tell you," said Eva. "It's only for Santa."

"We're just curious," said Jane.

"It's a secret," Eva insisted. "He can tell the real Santa what I asked for, right?" she asked Charlotte, clearly deciding the adults didn't know enough about the subject.

"Of course," said Charlotte. "It's always worked for me. He never brings me everything I ask for, but he brings the most important things."

"Everything you ask for would be a whole toy store," said Jane. She smiled at Maura. "Don't worry," she whispered into her ear. "I'm a detective. I'll figure out what she asked him for."

~R&I~

But as it turned out, Jane's detective skills were better for tracking down drug lords and murderers than they were for figuring out a five-year-old's Christmas wish. She tried approaching Eva with different types of questions, but Eva wouldn't budge. She tried grilling Charlotte, but Charlotte couldn't get it out of her either. She paged through catalogues to see if Eva had circled anything. She mentioned random items she thought Eva might like to get a reaction, but nothing worked. She even tried going back to the store to ask the Santa herself, but she quickly learned that you couldn't just go to the front of a long line of eager children when you didn't have a badge anymore. By the night of the junior Nutcracker performance, they still had no idea what her secret request was.

"I have an early Christmas gift for each of you," said Maura that night. They had just finished eating an early dinner and were about to leave for the high school where the performance was set to take place. Both girls were excited to get up onstage, which would be a first for Eva.

"Yay! Thank you, Mommy," said Eva, neatly removing the tape so she could take the wrapping paper off her present.

Charlotte just ripped through her wrapping paper. "A soldier nutcracker! Thank you, Mommy!" She stepped forwards and gave Maura a hug. "You were right. It is fun being a toy soldier."

"You're my favorite toy soldier ever." Maura gave her a kiss.

"A gingerbread nutcracker!" Eva squealed, finally getting into her present. She held it up, showing a baker nutcracker in a gingerbread-colored suit holding a little plate, on which stood three gingerbread men. "It has little gingerbread cookies, just like me! I love it!"

"You better be careful when you're wearing that costume, or I'm really going to gobble you up!" teased Jane. Eva squealed with laughter.

The performance went well, even if they didn't have the faintest idea which gingerbread cookie was their daughter and which was the son of some highly unpleasant woman. Maura snapped dozens of pictures of the battle scene, making sure to get both cookies, as well as Charlotte being a toy soldier. When it was all over, the couple headed backstage in search of their children.

"Did you like it?" Eva said, running awkwardly towards them in her gingerbread suit. She had removed the head and was carrying it between her cookie-hands, with difficulty.

"I loved it," said Jane. "You were the best gingerbread cookie I've ever seen."

Eva beamed, oblivious to the fact that her parents hadn't really known which cookie was her.

"Mama! Mommy!" Charlotte ran up behind them in her toy soldier costume. "Did you see me? I got all my steps right. I didn't make any mistakes."

"You did perfect, sweet girl," said Maura with a smile. "I'm really proud of you."

"Well, we'd better get home. It's getting late," said Jane. She turned around and picked up Eva, who had put her cookie head back on. "Come on, my tasty little cookie! I'm gonna take you home and gobble you right up!"

"We have to get the girls back into their regular clothes first," laughed Maura as they made their way down the hallway. "I don't think Eva would even fit in her booster seat in that costume."

"She'll certainly be warm, though," said Jane. "All right, to the dressing room then. But when we get home, I'm eating some gingerbread cookies!"

They walked into the classroom that had been designated as a dressing room. Jane set Eva down, pulled off her cookie head, and gasped in horror.

It wasn't Eva.

It was Nathan Holder. His face was frozen in terror.

"Uh oh," said Charlotte. "You picked up the wrong cookie."

"Yes I did," admitted Jane.

Nathan looked up at her, and his lip began to tremble. "I want my mommy," he said tremulously.

"We'll find her," Jane assured him. "She's probably got Eva." She took his cookie hand and led him back out into the hall, Maura following close behind with Charlotte.

The crowd in the hallway was terrible. There were parents and children everywhere, and half the kids seemed to have been energized by the performance instead of worn out. They were spinning, leaping, and skipping all over the place, some still in costumes and some back in their street clothes. Other parents were frantically searching for their own children in the chaos. Then they spotted Jackie Holder, talking worriedly to Nancy, the dance teacher.

"Mommy!" Nathan cried, and then his tears began to flow freely. He ran towards her as fast as his cookie legs would carry him.

"Nathan! Where were you?" demanded Jackie, scooping him up.

"I was coming to find you, but then she picked me up," said Nathan tearfully, looking back at Jane. "She kidnapped me!"

"I didn't kidnap him," Jane insisted as Jackie turned to her with an accusing stare. "I thought he was my daughter Eva, the other cookie. Have you seen her?"

"No, I haven't seen her," Jackie snapped. "Where I come from, we keep track of our own children, unless strangers snatch them up and carry them off."

"It was just a misunderstanding," Maura assured her.

"She said she was going to take me home and gobble me up!" Nathan wailed.

"It was just a cookie joke!" Jane said quickly. "Eva would have laughed."

"Really, what sort of thing is that to say to a child!" snapped Jackie. "If he ends up traumatized, I will be pressing charges."

"Really Jackie, I don't think a crime was committed here," reasoned Nancy. "Ms. Rizzoli, where was the last place you saw Eva?"

"Right over there," said Jane, pointing to a spot where Eva clearly wasn't. "She was still in her costume, but she'd taken off the head. When I turned around, I thought she'd just put it back on."

"We lost Eva?" exclaimed Charlotte. "Right before Christmas?"

"We haven't lost her. We just don't know where she is right now," reasoned Maura. "We're going to look for her."

"Maybe she's in the dressing room," said Jane. They went back to the dressing room, but it was even more chaotic in there, and no one had seen Eva.

"Perhaps she went back to the auditorium," said Maura. So they went back to the auditorium, but there was no sign of her in the house or on the empty stage.

"She could be in the wings," suggested Charlotte, seeming to enjoy the chance to show off her theatre vocabulary even in the middle of a crisis.

There were a few kids lurking around the wings, but none had seen Eva.

"I feel like the worst mother ever," muttered Jane.

"You're not," Maura assured her. "Anyone could have made the same mistake."

"I can't believe you lost my sister," Charlotte said, looking at her parents accusingly. "I'm going to be an only child now."

"You are not going to be an only child," Maura told her quickly, but she couldn't help exchanging a worried look with Jane. What if they couldn't find her? What if someone had taken the opportunity to grab a small, lost girl? Some pedophile could have attended the performance for exactly that purpose, knowing it would be easy to sneak a kid out in the after-performance chaos. This otherwise happy night could be the moment when their worst nightmare came true.

Jane reached for Maura's hand and squeezed it. "We'll find her," she whispered.

They went back out to the hallway, where more parents, having finally caught their kids and gotten them dressed, were ushering them out into the cold. As soon as she spotted Nancy, Jane marched over to her, face full of resolve.

"We need to seal this building," she announced in her cop voice. "We have a missing child. Nobody goes in or out until we find her."

Just then, a woman came through the front door carrying a toddler. "Excuse me, is this someone's child?" she shouted. "I found her in the parking lot by herself."

Maura looked around and saw her own little Eva, fully dressed with her coat, hat, scarf, and mittens, dance bag over her shoulder, arms wrapped around the gingerbread nutcracker she'd insisted on bringing with her.

"Eva!" Maura shouted, running towards her daughter and lifting her into her arms. "Where were you?"

"I went to get dressed, and when I came out, I couldn't find any of you. I thought maybe you were already in the car, so I went out to check."

"You know better than to go out to the parking lot by yourself!" said Jane, running over to wrap her arms around her daughter.

"I thought maybe you forgot me," Eva said.

"We could never forget you!" Maura promised her. She held her daughter tight and kissed her head while Jane kissed her from the other side. Charlotte hugged her feet, since that was all she could reach.

"Okay, but why is everyone hugging me so much?" Eva asked.

"You scared us!" Charlotte said. "We thought you were lost forever! I thought I was going to be an only child and have no one to open presents with on Christmas morning!"

"We didn't think that," Jane said quickly. "But still, never run off on us like that again."

"Okay," said Eva. "Can we go home now?"

Maura smiled at Jane, who finally stepped back. "Yeah, we can go home," Jane said.

Once the kids were safe in their beds, Maura sat down to type an email to Nancy to make sure she had the full version of events that night, just in case Jackie Holder caused any trouble (though Maura suspected she was all talk). But first, she noticed that she had a new email from the department store where they'd taken the kids to see Santa. She was surprised by this, since they'd already gotten their digital copies of the pictures, but she opened it anyway.

Hi, I'm Chris McKennitt, otherwise known as Santa. You brought your two daughters in for a picture with me last weekend. I just got your email address from the files, and I wanted to let you know that your younger daughter whispered a secret wish in my ear that day. She said she wanted a star necklace in her stocking. She wasn't specific other than that; she just wants a star necklace. She said she wasn't going to tell anyone else, so I thought I'd better let you know.

Maura breathed a sigh of relief. "Jane," she said. "You didn't need to do any detective work after all!"

~R&I~

Maura walked into the parlor with two glasses of wine, handing one to Jane. It was Christmas Eve and they'd just tucked the girls into bed, but they couldn't put any presents under the tree until they knew both children were sound asleep, so they had some time to relax first. They needed it, since all the Rizzolis had been at their house that day for the family gift exchange, which always meant noise and chaos and fun.

"This is one of my favorite parts of Christmas," said Jane, putting an arm around Maura's shoulders as the blonde settled onto the couch next to her. "My family's gone, the kids are in bed, and I get to just enjoy some quiet time with my hot wife next to the Christmas tree." She kissed her tenderly. "You're like the gift I get to unwrap every year."

Maura giggled, and then she heard a creak on the staircase. "We might not be getting that quiet moment just yet."

Eva appeared in the doorway, wearing her red and green plaid flannel pajamas and her snowman slippers, carrying a plush gingerbread girl Angela had given her that day. Sally the cat walked in behind her and sat down at Eva's side, looking around protectively.

"What's wrong, angel?" Jane asked her. "Can't you sleep?"

Eva shook her head. She took a few steps forward and looked straight at Maura. "Is Santa really for real?" she asked her.

"Eva—" Jane began in alarm, but Maura stopped her. Setting her wine down on the end table, she knelt in front of her daughter and took her hand.

"Yes," she told her. "Santa is real."

Eva's eyes widened in surprise. "He is?"

"He's just as real as Christmas. He's as real as our family." She placed Eva's little hand over her heart. "Sometimes we make things real, just by believing in them."

"But he really comes and brings us presents?"

"He brings presents to children all over the world, for real." She pointed to her neck. "See? No hives."

Eva lit up. "So he's really going to come here?"

"He will, but not until you're asleep!"

"Okay!" Eva grinned. "Can you tuck me back in?"

"Of course." Maura picked the little girl up and carried her upstairs, tucking her into bed. Sally immediately curled up beside her. "Now both of you need to get to sleep. When you wake up in the morning, you'll both have treats in your stockings." She kissed Eva's head, and then kissed Sally's too for good measure.

"How did you do that?" Jane asked when Maura came back downstairs. "Why don't you have hives?"

"Because I told the truth," said Maura with a smile. "The concept of Santa is very real, and he is definitely bringing our children presents. I just didn't mention that we happen to be him."

Jane chuckled. "So what would you have said if she asked if he was really coming down the chimney?"

"Then we would have been in trouble."

They settled back down on the couch and snuggled up together. "In a way, I'm surprised it even mattered to you that Eva was doubting the existence of Santa," Jane remarked. "You told me you never believed as a kid."

"Yes, but I was jealous of the kids who did. They had a fun experience that I didn't have." She took a sip of her wine. "And I think it might be good for kids to believe in magical things they can't see, at least for a while. It might prepare them for other experiences later in life, things they can't understand now."

"Yeah? Like what?"

Maura kissed her. "Like falling hopelessly in love with someone."

Jane grinned. "It is pretty magical, isn't it?"

"It's the closest thing to real magic I've ever experienced. And if you think about it, what makes a group of people a family isn't blood or legal documents. It's simply believing you are a family. You make it real by believing it. When we took our vows, we believed we were a family now, and believing it made it true. There are other people who take the same vows and yet can hardly be called a true family."

"That's true," Jane agreed.

"And Christmas is only a holiday because people agreed that it should be one. It doesn't matter if you're celebrating the birth of a baby you believe to be your savior, or the return of the sun after the longest night, or just celebrating for the fun of it. The point is that millions of people all over the world decorate trees this time of year, and put up colorful lights, and gather together with loved ones, exchanging gifts and eating big feasts, and we all feel something when we do it."

"The Christmas spirit?"

"Yes, you can call it that. It's a real feeling, and a real holiday, but only because we made it that way. So I decided it was the same way with Santa. There's not really a bearded man flying through the skies tonight, but kids are still going to get presents from Santa. This fictional character has come to symbolize the spirit of giving and wonder at this time of year. He may not be real the way Charlotte and Eva imagine now, but he's real in other ways that they're too young to understand. So I felt I could say he was real truthfully, and that's why I don't have hives."

Jane finished her wine. "Well, since we are Santa right now, shall we go see if the kids are finally sleeping?"

Both girls turned out to be sound asleep, so Jane and Maura got on with their annual parental duty, hauling brightly wrapped presents from their hiding place in the basement and arranging them around the living room tree. They had fun setting up Eva's cardboard rocket ship – Jane had to get in it for a minute as soon as it was up – and they also set up a ride-on unicorn on wheels for Charlotte. Then they filled the stockings with candies and fruit and a few small toys. To each one, Maura added a small, wrapped package containing a child-sized necklace. Eva's had a crystal star pendant, while Charlotte's had a crystal unicorn. Everything was perfect.

"Do you want any of these cookies?" Jane asked with her mouth full.

"I'll take one," said Maura, smiling. "Do you remember the year when Charlotte was four and she got up to see if Santa had come yet and found you eating his cookies?"

"She was so mad at me!" laughed Jane. "She made me get more to leave out for Santa, and she gave me this long lecture on why I couldn't eat them. I mean, she really told me off."

"She was truly appalled that you would do such a naughty thing," laughed Maura. "And then when she went back to sleep, we had to go back and eat the new cookies."

"Yeah and then we went to bed with stomachaches from eating so much."

"The things we do for our girls," said Maura with a happy smile. "That reminds me, I have to fill the cat stockings too." The girls had insisted that Santa should come to see Chewy and Sally as well, so they now had two paw-shaped stockings hanging from the fireplace alongside the others. Maura tucked a few red and green toy mice inside each and sprinkled in some catnip. Then she heard Jane sneaking up behind her and turned around to see that she'd taken the mistletoe down and was now holding it over her head again.

"I want to unwrap my favorite present," Jane said, smiling hopefully.

Maura kissed her. "Go up and start a fire in the bedroom. I'll make sure the house is in order."

Once she'd made sure the doors were locked and everything was reasonably tidy, Maura went upstairs and looked in on each of the girls again. They were still sleeping soundly, each girl with a cat at her side, so Maura went into her own bedroom and shut the door.

Jane had a lively fire going in their bedroom fireplace and was kneeling in front of it in just her robe.

"You seem eager," said Maura with a wry smile.

"This is my real favorite part of Christmas," Jane told her, eyeing the cozy winter outfit Maura was still wearing. "So you gonna take any of that off?"

"I might," said Maura teasingly.

"Come on, it's Christmas."

"Well, since it's Christmas…" Maura flashed a grin and slowly peeled off her sweater as Jane watched hungrily. Even after all these years, she's always excited to see me naked, Maura thought. She slowly unbuttoned her jeans, sliding them down her hips and stepping out of them with excruciating care.

"Maura, come on, we don't have all night!" Jane hissed. "The kids will have us up at the crack of dawn!"

"Fine, is this what you want?" Maura unhooked her bra and started to slide it off, but couldn't resist pausing right at the moment when her breasts were about to be revealed.

"Maura Isles!" said Jane, standing up. She reached out and grabbed the bra, yanking it off. Then she hooked her thumbs over Maura's panties and unceremoniously yanked them down.

"I assume you've got nothing on under this," giggled Maura, untying Jane's robe.

"You assume correctly. I don't play around, not at Christmas."

Maura slid the robe off Jane's shoulders and let it drop to the floor. Now they were both naked, their skin aglow in the firelight. Jane pulled her wife close and kissed her soundly, hands freely roaming the blonde's body. Maura took her time exploring Jane's body. She'd been working out, and her muscles were nice and firm. Maura found it to be a huge turn-on. Sometimes she still couldn't believe that this incredibly sexy woman was all hers.

Suddenly, without a word, Jane spun her around and pulled her close so her back was leaned against Jane's front. Jane wrapped her right arm around Maura, right under her breasts so she was touching them both, and let her left hand travel downwards, fingers lightly touching Maura's stomach and leaving behind a trail of goosebumps. Maura drew in her breath as Jane finally reached her folds, parting them slightly so she could stroke her clit. Maura leaned her head back against Jane's shoulder, closing her eyes so she could focus her mind on the sensations Jane was creating for her. Jane stroked slowly, than faster, then slower again, fondling her breasts with the other hand, until Maura felt herself getting close to the edge.

"I need to feel you inside me," she whispered to Jane.

"Not a problem," Jane whispered back. "We need to rearrange, though. I'm getting tired holding you up like this."

"Do whatever you want," Maura gasped. She might as well have been a ragdoll at this point. Jane could have done just about anything with her.

Jane slowly knelt on the rug in front of the fire, bringing Maura down with her, and turned the blonde sideways so she was partially on Jane's lap, cradled in Jane's right arm. Then she entered her.

Maura kept her eyes closed, but she was still keenly aware of the crackling fire beside her and its warmth on her bare skin. She was much more focused on her wife, however, and on her own body as she thrust her hips to meet each thrust of Jane's fingers. Soon she felt the release she sought and her whole body seemed to soar as she let out a soft, sweet cry.

"I will never get tired of making you come," Jane said in a low, raspy voice as she caressed Maura's body.

"Nor will I, and I believe it's your turn," said Maura, sitting up. "What would you like me to do?"

Jane blushed a little, or maybe she was just flushed from working so hard right in front of a fire. "Would you mind doing a little tongue action?"

"I would love to." Maura guided Jane down onto the rug, then smiled mischievously. "Would you mind making it mutual?"

"Not at all." Jane chuckled. "You really are insatiable."

"Anyone would be with you." Maura curled onto her side, facing Jane, and kissed her way along the inside of an exquisite thigh until she found the prize she was after.

Eventually, their merry lovemaking had to come to an end, as they knew the children would be up as early as six wanting to open presents. So they put on their pajamas – a necessity when you know you're going to be awakened by excited children in a few hours – and snuggled up under the covers, feeling completely relaxed and satisfied.

"Merry Christmas, beautiful," Jane whispered as she closed her eyes.

"Merry Christmas," Maura whispered back, and then she drifted off to the sound of Jane's heartbeat.

~R&I~

It felt like they had only just gone to sleep when the bedroom door burst open and two little girls came running in.

"Mommy! Mama!" they both yelled. "Wake up! It's Christmas!"

"And it's snowing outside!" Eva added happily.

"And Santa was here!" Charlotte shouted gleefully. "He left all kinds of presents, and filled our stockings, and even the cats' stockings!"

"How do you know?" groaned Jane, rubbing her face.

"We went down and just peeked through the living room doorway to see. We didn't touch anything," Charlotte promised.

"Charlotte was going to, but I told her she'd better not," Eva said sharply.

"You are such a tattle tale!" scowled Charlotte.

"You two had better not start fighting on Christmas," Maura said sternly, reluctantly extricating herself from Jane's arms.

"We won't," the girls chorused.

"Can we go down now?" Charlotte added.

"Yes, but don't open anything until we say to." Maura got out of bed, then went around the other side to drag Jane out as well. Then the two girls bounded down the stairs, their mothers staggering along in their wake.

It was a bountiful Christmas for the two children. They both got a few new dolls and books. Eva got a new astronaut costume, since she was getting a little big for the one she had, and a NASA Lego playset with little Lego people modeled off real women astronauts. Charlotte got another princess dress to add to her dress-up trunk, as well as a toy bow and arrows set with soft, harmless arrows, although they still cautioned her that they would take it away if she pointed it at any living being, including her sister.

When she'd finished opening her presents, Eva was ready for her stocking. Maura took it down and handed it to her, noting the thoughtful look of resolve on the little girl's face. This was it: the real moment of truth. She pulled out an orange first, then a candy cane, and then she noticed the little wrapped box. Maura smiled in anticipation as the little blonde opened it, revealing her star necklace.

"Oh!" Eva gasped. She looked up, her eyes shining. "I asked Santa for this! The store Santa! He's the only one I told!"

"I told you he could get messages to the real Santa," said Charlotte around a mouthful of chocolate.

"I guess he did," said Eva in awe. She looked down at her necklace. "It's so pretty."

"Here, I'll put it on you," offered Maura.

Eva held up her hair so Maura could fasten on the necklace, and then she climbed into her cardboard spaceship and told Charlotte she was going to fly in space on Christmas Eve and see if she could spot Santa's sleigh.

Maura sat back down next to Jane, who discretely offered her fist. Giggling, Maura bumped it.