Author's Note: Halloween On Repeat got reported so I adapted it to the holidays since we're now closer to Christmas than to Halloween. In other news, my novel is now available in English on Amazon: it's "Forty-Three Hours and Fifteen Minutes" by Agathe Rigault. I'd be honored and touched if you read it.

The Strange Case of Maura Isles' Christmas Eve

Chapter One – Morning I

A loud bang woke Maura up abruptly. Heart beating fast in her chest, half-asleep brain trying to understand what was going on. Pale morning light piercing through the curtains of her bedroom. She could see the sky from her bed. She could guess how low the clouds were. A gray landscape. It would snow, that much she was certain.

Sputters caught her attention. It came from downstairs, from her living-room. From the kitchen, maybe. Then she remembered: the loud bang.

She got up, put a woolen shawl on her shoulders and hurried outside of her bedroom in order to solve the mystery of her sudden waking. She wasn't scared though. Who would be in the heart of Beacon Hill? Her curiosity was simply piqued. And her mood so-so. She had the day off. She had hoped for a smoother morning.

Besides, today wasn't like any other day. Today was the day. Her day. Their day. She had planned everything, every second of every minute. There was no room for unexpected events.

Her steps led her to the stairs. She took them down and stopped, perplexed, as she spotted her friend rummaging around in the Christmas tree that they had bought and set up together three weeks earlier.

"Jane?!"

Jane turned around at the call of her name. A golden tinsel in hand. Jo Friday hidden under one of the expensive cushions of the sofa. Surprise showed on her face. Unless it was guilt? Maura wouldn't have been able to tell. Either way, something was wrong and she had walked in on it catching her friend in the act.

"It's not ruined, Maura. I swear it's not. Look!" Jane showed the tree. "I've put it all back already."

"What are you talking about?" Maura made a few steps towards her friend. If only Jane knew how she, Maura, couldn't care less about the Christmas tree. If only she understood that all Maura could see was the delicate red shade of her cheeks. The sparkle in her eyes. Her voice, her smile. "I don't understand."

Jane sighed. Heavily. Dramatically.

"Jo Friday messed up with it. The moment we walked in, she went straight for the tree and made it fall down. I'm sorry."

"Oh."

Maura cast a glance at Jo Friday. The dog was still hidden under the cushion, obviously aware of what she had just done and how wrong it was for it made Jane angry.

"But everything's back into place now. See?"

Maura gave Jane a nod but she barely looked at the tree. She walked to the kitchen instead, smiled as she noticed a box of pastries probably bought by Jane and she proceeded to make coffee. She checked the alarm on the oven: 7.30am. It was still early. Too early.

Yet Jane hadn't overslept. No. She had got up even earlier instead and she had gone out in the cold just to buy them pastries. Just so they could have breakfast together. So they could spend the whole day together. Such thought made Maura blush. Her heartbeats sped up.

It was a sign: today was their day. It had to be.

"It snowed..." A smile played on Maura's lips as she looked out of the window and noticed the thick layer of white that was now covering her patio. "That's why the city is so quiet."

The remark made Jane chuckle.

"Beacon Hill has always been quiet. I mean except when the gluten-free coffee shop at the corner got launched, of course. Then the hood turned mayhem."

Snarky comment. Harmless though. Maura had learned how to handle them. How to spot them, how to make them hers. How to fall in love them for they were so Jane. Her Jane. That tall dark-haired woman who was now walking to the kitchen island to share a coffee with her on what seemed to be a quiet and lovely Christmas Eve.

"Ma' called. She says hi."

"It's weird to not have her around for Christmas." Maura filled two cups of coffee. She gave Jane one and set the pastries in a plate. "Just as it's weird to know that mine is in town."

She would have lunch with Constance on the day after. On Christmas day. As much as the date was nothing but a pure coincidence, it made her dysfunctional family look almost normal. For once. It wouldn't last though. It wouldn't turn into a tradition. Maura knew it. Thus she made sure to not hold hopes over it. She didn't want to feel hurt, to end up disappointed. She had made that mistake too many times in the past to not be careful now.

"Yeah well enjoy the quietness her absence brings 'cause it's not gonna last!" Jane took a sip of her coffee and gave Maura a mischievous wink. Just to make sure. Just to make sure that Maura understood that she was kidding. "She'll be back in no time. If it weren't for the snow, she'd already be here stuffin' turkeys and such."

But instead Angela was stuck in New York City. At her sister's. A blizzard had fallen over the city forcing the airports to close. So Jane's mother had postponed her trip back to Boston.

Maura missed Angela. She missed her presence, her words. Those moments both shared when Jane wasn't around. But she had to admit that it would make things easier for the rest of the day. Because Maura needed to be alone with Jane in order to tell her what she had to tell her.

Feelings. A zillion things she had hold back for too long. An ocean of doubts and hopes. Exhausting emotions. Maura had to let go. She had to take a deep breath and say out loud all these things she had only murmured alone in bed. In the darkness of the night. She had to because it now weighed too much on her heart.

"By the way, do you think we..."

A loud bang interrupted Jane. She turned around and looked at the door. Why had someone knocked so vehemently? A second bang echoed the first one. It made both Jane and Maura jump.

"What the hell is going on..." Jane put her cup of coffee down on the kitchen island. She cast a quick glance at Maura before walking to the door with a strong determination. Heart beating fast though for she didn't understand what was happening now. "What is..."

She barely had time to open the door that a snow ball hit her straight in the face. Children's laughter echoing in the distance. Their hurried steps muffled by the snow.

Maura's gasp of surprise somewhere on her left.