Author's Note: This came into my head the second I saw that amazing scene where Jane hugged the best friend near the beginning of 1x04, and I had to write it. It's only short, and I'm not sure how happy I am with it, but it'll do for a first attempt at this fandom. Let me know what you think in a review? Good or bad. (Although if it's bad... be nice about it, yes?)
I can pinpoint the moment I got emotionally involved with this case. The moment I crossed the line into caring too much. It wasn't when Ma got sickened by the age of this girl, it wasn't when her father broke down, it wasn't when I realised the drastic measures she'd taken. It was the moment her best friend broke down in front of me. That girl stood next to me and I took her in my arms and I felt her cry. She lost her best friend that day. And she lost a piece of herself.
I never would've understood this before. But standing there, despite feeling completely out of place, and like I'd missed out on an integral part of life, I held this crying girl, and saw my own best friend at the bottom of the steps with hers. I thought about the parallel. Me, standing up here with the living, Maura, below with the dead. It sums us up perfectly. Although Maura would know how to deal with the emotional, the survivor, she'd rather avoid it. I deal with the raw emotion, she deals with the cold hard fact.
This is the root of my involvement. In that moment it hit me. If I lost my best friend, if somebody were to hurt her, I'd want them to pay. I'd want to know that they would spend the rest of their life regretting it. I hope that he regret it in his last moments, for her sake. Knowing that these two girls went through so much, they went through hell together gives me a strange kind of comfort. At least neither one of them felt alone, right? At least they always had someone to rely on. That's what friendship's all about, as far as I'm concerned.
It's about sticking together. It's about thick and thin. It's about overcoming all differences, all problems. It's about the most intelligent person I could think of, being best friends with somebody without even a college education. Somebody who doesn't understand half the words that come out of her best friend's mouth, and secretly Googles the terms she hasn't understood at the end of each day. It's about going through hell, and coming out the other side. This bastard never let them get to that point. They never got to put the past aside, and stick together.
Maura says working on a live victim is exhilarating. Trying to catch a bad guy is, too. The greatest part of every case is the end. When we've caught them. When we've brought justice. When we've brought peace. Knowing I've done it with her. Knowing we'll always have this link, even if we had nothing else. I feel bad for even thinking it, but this case made me grateful. Grateful that I never had to do anything so drastic. Grateful to have never been ashamed of my actions. Grateful to have never had to hide anything from my parents. Grateful to still have my best friend by my side.