Yes this is a Rizzoli and Isles story, no I do not own Rizzoli and Isles (don't I wish), they belong to TNT and Tess. So now that we got the legal issues out of the way I hope you enjoy the story.
The story got a little longer than I had anticipated, hope it doesn't bore you.
What She Doesn't Know Won't Hurt Her…Or Will It?
Chapter 1
They were all standing behind the wall as Maura talked to Kevin Flynn the firefighter who had set the fire then tried to kill Maura and her mother. Jane was seething that this jerk was willing to kill to prove to the city that they needed more firefighters. Everyone knew it but it just wasn't in the budget, hell they were cutting cops from the force too. When he pulled the gun on Maura Jane moved instinctively and yelled for Dean not to shoot but he did anyway. Doyle raised the gun again and Jane fired and hit him in the left side. They all watched as Doyle staggered backwards and fell through the flimsy railing and hit the floor below. Maura ran to him with Jane following close behind.
Jane was surprised by Maura's reaction and the venom in her words. "Don't touch him! No I mean it! Don't you dare touch him." The look in her eyes said it all. She blamed Jane for Doyle being shot. Jane wasn't sure she wasn't right. At that moment Maura hated her. She stood and staggered away from Maura.
She walked by Frost and stumbled at the doorway. Frost ran to her side. Jane brushed his hand away. "I'm fine, go help Maura. See if Doyle is going to make it. Check on Dean too ok? I can't do it right now." She staggered out to the sidewalk in front of the building, then leaned against the building and lowered herself to the ground.
This was how Frankie found her when he and Korsak came running around the corner. "Jane, you ok?" The concern evident in his voice. Korsak looked down at her trying to decide whether to stay with Jane or go inside. Jane gestured for him to go inside so he left.
Jane looked up at Frankie with vacant eyes. "I think Doyle shot me. Tell Maura I'm sorry ok?" She looked to her left as they wheeled the gurney out of the building to the waiting ambulance. Maura walked beside the gurney and took one glance at Jane and Frankie then climbed into the ambulance without a backward glance. "I had to shoot him." She said as she watched the ambulance pull away.
It was then that Frankie saw the blood in Jane's hair. "Jane where are you hit?" He reached up to see if he could find the source of the blood. He moved her hair out of the way and immediately felt the stickiness on his hand. "Korsak!" Frankie screamed for Jane's ex-partner. "We need another ambulance, Jane's been hit. Come Jane hang in there. You're going to be fine. We're going to get you to the hospital."
Jane reached up and grabbed the front of his shirt. "Do not tell Maura about this. Nobody tells Maura. Promise me you will not tell her and make sure no one else does either. She blames me so she doesn't need anything else on her plate right now. Both her mother and father are in the hospital I think that's enough. Promise me you will make sure no one tells her." She said it almost desperately.
Frankie felt her hand slipping from his shirt so he grabbed it with both of his and looked Jane in the eyes. "I promise and I will make sure Ma doesn't either." He watched as Jane's eyes rolled back in her head and she passed out. "Come on Jane don't you dare give up on me." The ambulance arrived and they loaded Jane onto the gurney and took her away. Frankie turned to Frost. "How come she was out here by herself? Why did you let her sit out here bleeding?"
"She said she was fine, there was no outward sign of an injury and we had three people shot in there." He pointed to the building. "Two were dead and one is on his way to the hospital. Agent Dean is dead, so I was kind of busy. I hate that I didn't check her better myself, I should have known but she told me to help Maura and check on Dean. What was I supposed to do Frankie?"
"Stay with your partner." He said as he turned to leave and head to the precinct to pick up his mother before she heard about it through the grapevine. When he walked into the diner his mother looked up and smiled but the smile disappeared when she saw the look on Frankie's face.
"No! Do not tell me. I don't want to hear it." Angela screamed.
Frankie walked over and led her to one of the tables. "Ma she's alive. She was conscious until just before they loaded her into the ambulance. She was shot in the burned out building, you know that fire her and Maura were investigating? Let's head over to the hospital ok?"
"She's alive? Are you sure?"
Frankie smiled down at his mother. "Yeah Ma she was ok when I left her in the capable hands of the EMTs." He help her up and led her to his cruiser parked out front and sped to the hospital. When they arrived at the emergency room they were alone. Frankie wondered where Maura was, probably in her mother's room. He walked to the nurse's station. "My name is Frankie Rizzoli and I'm here because my sister, Detective Jane Rizzoli was brought in with a head wound. Can you tell us how she's doing?"
The nurse came from behind the station and took Frankie's arm. "Let's go to one of the private rooms."
"Oh that can't mean anything good." Angela said from behind Frankie.
"Come on Ma let's go hear what she has to say. Now give her a break she's just the messenger." Frankie took her hand and pulled her along with him.
The nurse led them to a private room and motioned for them to sit. "At first it looked like it could be a glancing blow but then the doctor looked at the x-rays and they showed that the bullet is still lodged in the brain cavity. The doctor felt it was imperative to get it out of there immediately so she's on her way to surgery now to remove it. You can stay in here if you'd like. Is there anyone else that you want me to send in here.
Angela turned to Frankie. "Where's Maura?"
"It was Patrick Doyle that shot Jane and it looks like Jane was the one that shot him. I'm not sure of anything more than that but Jane told me to make sure that no one tells Maura so we have to respect her wishes." Frankie then turned back to the nurse. "Detective Sergeant Korsak and Detective Frost may show up and I'll call my brother Tommy so it would probably just be the three of them. Oh and maybe the rest of the Boston police force." He smiled slyly up at her.
"Do you think we should call your father?" Angela asked as if the idea alone was repugnant.
"Let's wait and see what happens first." They sat back to wait.
About 20 minutes later Frost entered the room and pulled up a chair. "Mrs. Rizzoli I am so sorry about this. I should have been there for her but I wasn't and I'm sorry."
"What the hell happened in that building Frost? How is it that 4 people got shot?" Frankie did not hide his anger towards Frost.
Frost turned to him. "I don't blame you for being angry Frankie but you weren't in there. You know how things can happen in a split second and that's what happened today. Maura went in by herself to confront Flynn and when he pulled a gun on Maura Doyle shows up defending his own. We weren't expecting that then Dean shoots Doyle. Then he swung the gun towards us and that's when Jane shot. Maura chose Doyle over Jane, she yelled at Jane to not touch Doyle and the look in her eyes said she blamed Jane for everything. Jane just turned and walked out of the building. She looked like she had lost her best friend, which I guess is the truth."
"So you're saying Maura's biological father was the one who shot Jane and Maura took the side of a murderer over that of her best friend?" Angela could hardly believe that would happen.
"That's the way it looked and that's what Jane believes. But she still told us to take care of Maura and like I said she showed no outward sign of injuries. She walked out of the building and I thought she just needed time to deal with what had just happened. I had three other people to deal with, two of which turned out to be dead and the other one was responsible for those deaths. Doyle is in surgery but will be transferred to the prison ward as soon as he is stable enough. He's not getting away this time."
"I still can't believe Maura blames Jane." Angela had a confused look on her face. "Maybe if she knew her father shot Jane she would look at things differently."
"Ma you can't! I told Jane I would make sure everyone, especially you, didn't say anything to Maura. I know how hard it will be for you to do that but it's what Jane wants and we have to honor that."
"But Maura is like my own daughter. How can I turn my back on her?"
"Because your real daughter wants it that way."
"Ma, Maura has both a mother and a father fighting for their lives, do you want to be the one to add more for her to worry about? We can tell her when Jane's out of trouble and deal with the fallout then ok?"
"Ok I will do my best." She looked up as Korsak entered the room, he hurried over and took a seat next to Angela. "Vince how could this happen?"
"If Dean hadn't followed Jane to the building I'm sure the rest of us could have dealt with what happened. Dean jumped the gun and shot Doyle, then Doyle shot him and I think at that point he felt cornered and wasn't sure what the rest of us were going to do. Jane, Frost and I have had a few dealings with Doyle, things you don't want to know about but I don't think we would have shot him if it had just been the three of us. Dean wanted Doyle and he used Jane to get to him and it got him killed. What have they told you about Jane?"
"She's in surgery, the bullet is lodged in her brain cavity and once they take it out they'll let us know what will happen after that. I guess we just sit and wait." Hour hours later they were still sitting and waiting.
Each had taken their turn going to the nurse's station bugging them for an update which of course they couldn't give them.
About 20 minutes later the trauma nurse came into the room and all eyes turned to her and they listened with rapt attention. "She's still in surgery. The bullet nicked an artery and blood has been gathering between the brain and the brain cavity and it's putting pressure on her brain. They are installing a shunt to drain the blood but they are still trying to find the bleeder to stop the bleeding. I'll try to keep you updated when I can. She strong and we haven't encountered any other problems so it looks good so far."
"Thank you for coming and letting us know. I really appreciate it."
"With all those cops wandering around outside this room I have a feeling someone would come crashing into the OR if I didn't keep you updated. I'm sorry it's taken so long but I wanted to wait until we had something." She reached in her pocket and pulled out a small plastic jar. "Here's the bullet."
Korsak reached up and took it from her hand. "Thank you, this will come in handy." Korsak left the room and grabbed the first cop who passed by. He pulled a sheet of paper from his notebook and signed it as having received the bullet then had the officer sign it. "Now take this to the lab and have them compare this to the bullets from Flynn and Dean. Make sure they sign for it to maintain the chain of custody. I don't want to screw this up." He returned back to the room. "This way we can prove it was Doyle's gun that did most of the damage. We can put him away for life if they match."
"How do you think that will affect Maura?" Frankie asked the questions they were all wondering about. "Until today I thought she would be happy to have him put away but maybe blood is thicker than water." The anger and disbelief came through in his voice.
"I still can't believe she turned her back on Jane." Angela said dejectedly.
"Believe it Ma. I was sitting with Jane right outside the door when they brought her dad out and she didn't even stop to see if Jane was ok when she looked at us. She turned and climbed into the ambulance. The look on Jane's face broke my heart."
"I'm going to see if I can get an update." Korsak hurried out of the room.
"He hates to see Jane hurting." Frankie went and sat next to his mother. "He feels helpless and deep down he's a softie. At least when it comes to Jane and it worse when he can't do anything about it. He's like you, she's your baby but you can't help her get through this part of it. She's on her own, she has to want to fight." One thing he kept to himself was if Jane thought she'd lost Maura will she want to fight or will she just give up? He knew how she felt about Maura, even if she wouldn't admit it to herself, he could see it in her eyes. He was afraid she wasn't going to want to fight, he'd seen the look of hopelessness in her eyes when Maura ignored her and it scared him almost as much as finding the blood on her head.
The other cops brought in some food and they had to force Angela to eat something by telling her she was going to need her strength to force Jane to fight when she comes out of surgery. She ate and even took a nap. About two hours later the door was opened by a man they assumed was the surgeon. "My name is Doctor Cutter and I'm a neurosurgeon and I performed the surgery on Jane." He looked around the room pointedly at Korsak and Frost. "Is it ok if I speak freely in front of them?" At Angela's nod he continued. "Half way through the surgery Jane slipped into a coma and we put her on a ventilator after the surgery."
"Oh my god do I need to call in our priest or anything?" Angela finally let the tears fall that she had been keeping in all day. "Why is that machine breathing for her?"
The doctor actually smiled. "The Medulla Oblongatais the portion of the brain that controlsthe breathing and it was compromised due to the blood build up and she's having a few problems breathing on her own but that will be ok once the blood is drained. I don't think it will be necessary to contact your priest right now but if it will make you feel better then by all means do it. We did a CAT scan and that's when we discovered the bleeding around the brain as the nurse already told you and it was putting pressure on her brain we are hoping once that blood drains through the shunt the pressure will be relieved and she'll wake up. It may take awhile for the draining to be complete so we can't predict when she will wake up. She'll be in recovery for about a half an hour then she'll be moved to the ICU. I'll have someone let you know when she's been moved and you can visit. I'm going to leave it up to you to tell the guys in the hall that they should go home because they can't visit her in the ICU." He smiled as he turned to leave.
"You know it won't do any good right?" Angela smiled up at him.
"I'm sure as the mother of a cop you know how to handle them."
"The mother of two cops and I know they'll listen to me so I'll have a go at them. But there's still no guarantee they'll leave."
"I'll talk to you later when I come in to check on Jane. We'll do another CAT scan tomorrow to check on the bleeding and hopefully there will be improvement. So I'll see you tomorrow. Feel free to have the nurse page me if you feel the need ok?"
"Thank you Doctor." Frankie stood up to shake his hand. Frankie turned back to Angela. "Ma I think it's time to call Pops."
"Yeah, I think it's time. Did you call Tommy?" Frankie nodded. "I wonder where he is."
"Probably working on some get rich quick scheme. He's always trying to find a way to avoid having to get a real job."
"Now is not the time to discuss this Frankie. You and Jane only see the bad side. He's got a good side too." She turned away and effective cut off anything Frankie could say. Jane was moved to the ICU later and Angela and Frankie entered the room warily. Angela's knees almost gave out from under her when she saw all of the machines Jane was hooked up to. Frankie caught her and helped her into the chair next to the bed. "She looks so…" That's all she was able to say before she started crying. She laid her head down on the bed beside Jane and cried. She looked up at Korsak and Frost and they both looked as bad as Angela felt. "Why don't you two go home and get some rest and come back tomorrow?"
"I'm staying right here." Korsak said as he settled into the chair he have confiscated from another room. As he was talking his phone rang and he held up a finger towards Angela. "I'm going to take this call out in the hallway." He listened then hung up the phone and returned to the room. "We got him! All three bullets match Doyle's gun. He killed Flynn and Dean and shot Jane. Dean's a federal agent maybe we can get this bumped up there and they can execute the son of a bitch."
Angela could never remember seeing Korsak this upset but he did think of Jane as his daughter and she could see that this has hit him hard. "Vince do you really think that's the answer?"
"Right now I do. Once I cool down I may not feel the same but right now I do." He sat back in the chair and sulked.
"Barry you're awfully quiet. What's going through your mind?" Angela thought she knew what was on his mind but she wanted to hear it from him.
"I should have been with her. If I had been I would have noticed she was hurt and got her here faster. Maybe she'd be ok if I had just followed her out of the building." He looked like he was close to tears.
Angela stood up and walked over to him and stood directly in front of him and looked up into his eyes. "She told you she was ok, how were you to know she wasn't? She was just dealt a blow by her best friend so she would have been obviously upset and if she told you to take care of Maura then that's what you should have been doing. I do not blame you for what happened to Jane, not one part of it. And I'm sure Frankie knows that too." She gave Frankie the patented Rizzoli glare.
"Hey I know how pushy Jane can be, I was just blowing off steam and you were there. I'm sorry I blamed you Frost. I know you wouldn't abandon Jane and I know you were just doing what she told you to do. It's not your fault. I know you're probably still going to blame yourself but we don't."
"Thanks, but you're right I can't help but blame myself and it's going to take time for me to deal with it so just let me deal with it in my way ok?" He said it quietly without any anger. "But I do appreciate your vote of confidence."
They all settled back until the nurse came in. "Some of you are going to have to go. I've broken every rule in the book today by letting all of you in here at the same time. So for tonight I'm going to send everyone home that isn't related by blood." She pointedly looked at Korsak and Frost. "So you two scoot and we'll see you tomorrow." She walked over and changed one of the IV's. "This is going to make her more comfortable, it's a mild pain killer. We never know how much a person in a coma can comprehend or feel so we do everything the same for them as we would for any other patient." She turned and saw that Korsak and Frost were still standing there. "I thought I told you two to go get some rest?"
"We heard you. We were waiting for you to leave so we can say good-bye. Now scoot so we can say good-bye." Korsak smiled at her.
"Checkmate, I'm out of here and I had better see the two of you leaving shortly." She turned and left the room laughing.
Korsak walked over and bent down and kissed Jane on the forehead. "Hey kiddo I'll be by tomorrow to check in on you ok?" He straightened up and looked towards Angela. "Do you need me to pick anything up for you when I come back tomorrow?"
"Not right now, if anything comes up I can send Frankie. But thank you. Go home and get some rest, maybe we can set up shifts or something so someone is always here with her. But for now we're ok." She stood up and walked around the bed and gave him a hug which he returned. Angela knew how much he cared about Jane and she wanted him to know it was ok to hurt and worry.
Frost didn't say anything as he walked up to the side of the bed and leaned down and whispered so no one else could hear him. "I'm sorry partner. I promised to always have your back and I let you down. It will not happen again. That's one promise I will not break." He rested his hand on her shoulder for a second then turned and looked at Angela. "I'll be back tomorrow." He turned and walked out of the room.
"Give him time, he'll be ok. He just has to come to terms with it in his own way. Go with him Vince, make sure he goes home, I want him rested for his turn tomorrow." Angela kissed him on the cheek, turned him around and pushed him towards the door.
"G'night Frankie, see ya tomorrow." He waved as he left the room.
Both Frankie and Angela returned to the bedside and each took one of Jane's hands. "Jane you better wake up, who else am I gonna beat at basketball?" Frankie wiped at the tears in his eyes.
Angela reached across and rested her free hand on top of Frankie's. "It's ok sweetie let it out. She's going to wake up in a while and she'll be fine. You'll see, she'll be fine." Then both looked up when someone cleared their throat at the door. "Frank, how are you?"