Disclaimer: I own nothing. All characters and stories belong to TNT, Tess Gerritsen (fan of her work- it's an author thing), and Janet Tamaro.

A/N: This is a series of post episode one-shots. I'll update every time I watch an episode or think of one for a post episode timeline. In the first one, post See One, Do One, Teach One, the details from her attack I got from Tess Gerritsen's novel The Surgeon (the book is awesome. If you haven't read it, you should.)

Bloody Maries and Bloody Memories

Jane and Maura sat down at the counter. Jane ordered a couple Bloody Maries. She wanted to talk with Maura about what ever. She didn't know what Maura would ask her. Maura's line of questioning was a little unpredictable at times. There were fine lines that she didn't want to cross. Maura took a sip of her drink and turned her gaze toward Jane. "You okay?" she asked.

"Want the honest answer or the lie?" asked Jane.

"Honest would be nice," she answered. Jane laughed a forced, expected laugh.

"I feel like shit in more ways than one," she responded to Maura's expectation.

"Jane," said Maura, "if you need to get it out, you can do it now or when you're more comfortable…"

"What's more comfortable than talking to your best friend about traumatizing events?" asked Jane with a note of sarcasm in her voice.

"Let's skip the sarcasm," said Maura. "Let's go straight for the story." Jane stared into her drink. She turned her right palm over. Maura gasped, choking on the sip of her drink she just took. When she composed herself, she looked at it, tracing it with her index finger. "He did this to you?" Jane nodded. "How? When?"

Jane knew this would happen. That's why she avoided talking about it and had her palms covered. She didn't want Maura to worry. "Last summer," she whispered. "I was following the Surgeon…er…Hoyt on a trail to his target, Catherine Cordell. When I got there, I found her too easily. She was locked away. She was bleeding, but still alive. My first instinct was to check on her, not the area, which it should have been. He hit me on the head with a wooden board hidden away in the in the barn where she was kept. I fell unconscious and the next thing I know, I wake up and he's got my hands pinned to the ground with spikes. He tried to kill me, but before he could do it, sirens grew close and I was being loaded into an ambulance." Jane turned her face to the table.

Maura leaned down, trying to get a good view of her face. But that was impossible. Jane was hiding herself so well, that Maura was confused. She wanted Jane to tell her everything that happened. Jane just sat there, lost in what she thought was the admiration of the Bloody Mary. "I was so scared, Maura," whispered Jane. She choked back a sob. "I honestly thought that he was going to kill me. If he hadn't left to check on his apprentice, he might have…" The tears became real. She couldn't stop them. It was almost as if they ran like water from a faucet. She wouldn't let anyone see her like that, so she kept her face down.

"Jane," began Maura, unsure of what to say. She turned her barstool around and made Jane face her. She could see the burns from the flare and the bandage from the slit that Hoyt made on her neck. "You survived. That's all that matters right now. The rest will fall into place." She grasped Jane's hands like it was a reflex. She never expected it to happen, but it did.

"Maura, how do you know all this?" she asked. "How do you know it'll all be okay in the end? Because it won't." Maura clasped Jane's skinny, shaky frame and held it tight. Jane accepted it.

"I just have a hunch. You're strong, you're unbreakable, and you never back down. You fight until the end." Maura continued the embrace. It was Jane that pulled back. "You're gonna need a place to stay for the night," Maura reminded her.

"My apartment's fine," groaned Jane, wiping away unwanted tears. Maura sighed.

"You are not staying in that rats nest you call an apartment." Jane began to take offense, but then realized what she meant. The two men they were chasing ransacked her apartment before she was captured.

"Alright, but for one night only," Jane agreed. Maura smiled. She knew that it wouldn't be the only night that Jane would stay there. She had a feeling Jane would be back.