Chapter 1

As Maura knelt over the body to begin her examination, her brain registered the sound of a shot and a spear of sharp bright light before everything went black.

Jane had been searching a field near where their victim had been found when she heard a loud cracking sound come from somewhere behind her, a rifle shot. She registered it in an instant, and as she turned to make sure Maura was safe, her heart froze in her chest. All she saw was Maura's head bloom red.

Jane couldn't believe what she had seen, couldn't accept it. She had to get to her, had to see her smile at her, and tell her that it all had been a dream, nothing more. All around her was complete mayhem, but above that a ferocious growling could be heard, she soon realized that it was coming from her own throat. She saw frightened faces staring at her, but she ignored them. People dove out of her way. Her vision narrowed to a stream of misting red, like blood- no, not blood. She would get to her and find that this all was some huge mistake, that what she saw was a lie her own brain had put together, nothing more than that. When she finally broke through the last wall of people, she found Korsak and Frankie huddled over Maura, trying to stem the flow of blood.

Jane stared down at all the blood streaming down Maura's face, matting her hair to her head. She was lying on her side, completely still, and Jane was afraid in the deepest part of her that she was dead. She couldn't breathe, couldn't think. She was afraid to touch her, afraid that when she pressed her fingers against her throat there would be no pulse, there would be nothing, and it would mean that she was gone. Her fingers hovered, then finally touched the pulse point in her neck, pressed in. She felt her pulse. Yes, she was alive. Jane took off her blouse, leaving her in just her tank top, and pushed Frankie out of the way. Then she pressed down on the blood streaming from her head. Jane's hands were steady and strong, but her brain was a jumbled mess, it was in complete chaos. Maura was alive and nothing else mattered.

Jane could vaguely make out Korsak and Frankie yelling to her that the paramedics were close, but it was outside of her, not important, only Maura was important in that moment. She could see that she was pressing on a deep gouge that the bullet had made along the side of her head. But how deep? There was so much blood with a head would, too much. She pressed down harder on the wound and put her fingers from her other hand against her bloody neck to find her pulse, to reassure herself again that it was there. She touched her hair and let it curl over her hands, wet with blood.

Jane leaned close to Maura's bloody face. "It's okay, Maur, you're going to be fine. You've been shot- well, let me say it's more than a graze, but still, the bullet didn't hit your beautiful brain." She pressed her cheek against Maura's bloody hair and thanked God the shooter's aim was off. Then she wondered for only a second who the shooter was, and why she had not listened to Maura a mere 20 hours ago.

Soon EMT's were rushing in all around her and Maura. One EMT, a Daniel Green, lightly touched Jane on the shoulder. "You all right, Mam? Yes, okay I see now it's her blood. You need to let us take care of her now."

Jane raised her face to a man she had never seen before in her life. "She's going to be all right."

"Yes, Mam, yes, she will,"Daniel said, and turned to direct two other EMT's to bring a gurney.

Frankie pulled Jane to her feet. She watched them lift Maura onto the gurney. She looked nearly lifeless. No, she would live, she had to. Jane had so much to tell her, so much to apologize for. It was funny how quickly she could see all the mistakes she had made when life, or the possibility of no life left, is brought to the forefront of her mind.

"We'll find who did this," Frankie said, as Jane climbed into the ambulance with Maura and they shut the door.

It was slow going getting through the traffic, but finally the ambulance pulled onto Boylston, on the way to Boston General.

Jane held her hand between hers, never looking away from her face.

"I know it's a lot of blood, Mam," Daniel said, "but head wound's are nasty like that."

"It's Detective, not Mam, and yes I know," Jane said. "I've seen them before."

Jane watched as the EMT checked her pupils again and looked at her head wound. He prepped her arm and slid a needle into a vein near her elbow. "My name is Daniel. The bleeding from her scalp has stopped. She needs this IV in case we have to give her medication. She is getting saline now, nothing more."

Jane nodded. "My name's Jane, Detective Jane Rizzoli. Can you give me an alcohol pad so I can wipe the blood away?"

Daniel wanted to say No, you shouldn't touch her, but he saw that this woman was desperately trying to keep control. "Sure, here you go. But stay away from the wound; we don't want it to start to bleed again."

He watched Jane lift up her hair and wash it with sterile dressings that he had soaked in saline from a plastic bottle. She was being so gentle with her. After several dressings, Jane had got most of the blood cleared from her hair.

Daniel handed her another dressing. "You need to wash your face as well, detective."

Jane did as he had asked. So much blood, she thought, as she wiped her face.

Thank goodness, Daniel thought; the wound wasn't as bad as he had feared. It was a deep gouge along the side of her head. But was her skull fractured? Her brain injured? Was she still bleeding inside her skull from a lacerated artery? Daniel did not know, but he did know the bullet had passed only a few millimeters away from exploding her head open. Daniel swallowed. The important thing now was for her to wake up, and soon. The sooner she woke up, the better the chance that she was still the same person she was. HE said aloud what he was hoping for. "It isn't fatal, but she needs to wake up. Is she a detective also?"

"No, this is Doctor Maura Isles, the Chief Medical Examiner for the Commonwealth of Boston, and my best friend, my family, my everything."

Daniel nearly fell over backward when she said that.

"You're kidding? This is The Doctor Isles. Wow, I am new to Boston, been here only a month. I am going to college to become a Doctor and well let's just say she is a legend at BSU, I had hoped to meet her one day, but not like this. She will be okay, I promise."

Jane only shook her head. She listened to the ambulance siren blare loud and insistent as traffic pulled over in front of them. Odd, but she hadn't heard the sirens before now. She wiped a streak of blood off, that she had missed, off her face. She was pale, nearly as white as milk. She looked horrible and it nearly broke Jane.

Maura's eyes opened. She looked dazed, like a boxer who had gone too many rounds.

Jane leaned in close, her hands squeezing hers. "Maur?"

She blinked, licked her lips. "Why are you up there, Jane? Or why am I down here? What happened?"

"You don't remember? It doesn't matter. You were shot, but you'll be fine."

She looked confused, as if she hadn't understood what Jane said. "Jane, my head really hurts."

"I know, but we're nearly to the hospital now. You had a small accident—nothing, really—only a small hit."

"A small hit?"

Daniel said, "That's right. Try to stay awake. That's right, can you focus on my face Dr. Isles? What color are my eyes?"

She didn't say anything, simply closed her eyes again.

Daniel saw Jane's face go blank and said quickly, "She woke up, she was herself, she knew who you were, and that's an excellent sign. Three more minutes and we will be there. She is not going to die, detective."

For the first time, Jane registered the face of the man beside Maura. He was in his mid twenties, on the scrawny side, with deep brown eyes and a reassuring smile, but most important, as he spoke, she saw no doubt in his eyes.

Daniel cleared his throat, "Who shot her?"

"I don't know," Jane said. "I don't know much of anything except that she received a package that she felt was a death threat, but I blew it off. I told her it was nothing, a practical joke. I allowed myself to be swayed by someone else's opinion. I let my best friend down. I allowed her to think she was safe. I allowed her to think she was overreacting. I guess you could say I am to blame for her getting hurt. I can only hope she can forgive me. This is the second time, in all the time that I have known her, that I have put her second. The last time almost ended our friendship. I cannot let that happen again."

Maura jerked, took a hitching breath.

Jane felt her hand tighten briefly around her fingers before she let go again. She clasped Maura's hand tighter, and her own breath hitched. Jane was terrified.

She felt Daniel's Hand on her shoulder. "We're here, detective."