Title: Dreams

Rating: T

Summary: Almost everyone has some sort of psychic ability, and Jane is no exception. Usually her dreams are restricted to Hoyt, and most of the time they're fuzzy, unclear, with no real details. But what will Jane do when she has a dream that is very vivid... and shows Maura Isles dying? Heavily implied Rizzles.

Disclaimer: Not mine, never will be, blah blah blah

Authors note: ummm... hi again! Yes, I know, I'm supposed to be working on the next instalment to the Diary 'verse and I am! I promise! But I kinda hit a stale patch with that, and this story popped into my head, so... here you go. *offers fic*

R&IR&IR&I

In a lot of ways, the dream was like a regular dream. It didn't follow any sort of real life timeline; it leapt about here and there without any thought to actual time keeping. But it made Jane Rizzoli toss and turn in her sleep; it made her jerk awake with a scream of anguish caught in her throat. Because even though the dream was not set in linear stages, even though it felt like the dream it was, it also felt real. It felt like Maura had just died in her arms. Jane stared down at her hands in the darkness, quickly reaching over to turn her bedside lamp for the light needed, more than half expecting to see them caked in blood: Maura's blood. Her hands were clean though, albeit scarred, and still Jane could not stop herself shaking.

She groaned out loud in frustration, and was only mildly surprised when she rubbed at her eyes and her hand came back wet.

Truth was: Jane was no stranger to death. She had seen more of it than most people did in a lifetime. She had seen people at the edge of it; hell, she had even killed a few people herself. And she had been on death's doorsteps more times than she liked to think about. But when she thought about death, had she allowed herself to think about death when it came to Maura, she would have naturally assumed that she would die first. After all, her job was far more dangerous than Maura's: she put herself in harm's way on a daily basis. She never allowed herself to think of the 'what if's'... what if Maura died first, what if Maura got very sick, what if, what if, what if. She simply pushed the possibility aside as a highly improbable scenario and got on with her day.

But now she found herself considering the possibility.

After all, it wasn't that highly improbable at all. Maura testified at hundreds of murder trials; even though she was not the person to slap the cuffs on, she was often the one to find the incriminating evidence that pointed out the killer, and Jane was sure that there were loads of perps out there desperate to get their hands on her. Maura's biological father was also a mob boss, with plenty of enemies who would not think twice about hurting or killing Maura to simply send a message to her father.

Jane forced herself to think about what she would do, if Maura died first, and the answers that came to her weren't pretty.

There were several options. One: that she would throw herself into work to such an extent that sleep and food became annoyances rather than necessities, eventually ending in getting herself and possibly also someone else killed because of her recklessness, or

Two: She fell into a bottle. Not so hard to believe; she had been known to indulge in too many drinks before when emotionally distraught and she had found the alcohol to be almost exquisitely soothing, not to mention the fact that there were problems relating to alcoholism in her family. There was also option

Three: where she simply went home after the funeral, put her gun in her mouth and pulled the trigger.

Jane didn't feel this one was as likely as the others though. She was less likely to commit suicide deliberately than she was to commit it by sheer idiocy and stubbornness. She vaguely considered option

Four: where she mourned for a while, then moved on with her life and eventually found a new best friend but always remembered Maura fondly. This option was almost immediately tossed aside however. She simply could not imagine, even hypothetically, ever moving on with her life after Maura's death. Sooner or later she knew that Maura's death would result in her own. Jane groaned again, throwing her head back to look at the ceiling, and she wasn't surprised when her feet and body seemingly decided to move without her consent, pulling on her jacket and shoes, grabbing her keys and her bag and taking her down to the car. She sat behind the wheel for a moment, wondering if she should just go back upstairs, when a flashback of the dream hit her, making her gasp. Mind made up, she turned the key in the ignition and her car roared to life, taking her over to Maura's house.

2am in the morning, and Jane was ringing the doorbell, almost crying by that point. It took a few minutes, but eventually Maura opened the door, her hair mussed up as she stared at Jane in abject confusion.

"Jane? Is everything okay?" she asked quietly, and Jane walked forward, wrapping her up in a warm hug.

"I had a nightmare," Jane murmured into her hair, and she felt Maura nod against her just once.

"Come inside," she whispered, taking Jane by the hand and leading her into the darkened house. They walked in silence to the kitchen, where Maura flipped on one soft light, just enough to see by. She gestured to one of the seats and Jane sat down, rubbing her eyes wearily and then dropping her head onto her folded arms as Maura set about making her a hot chocolate. "Do you want to talk about it?" Maura asked softly, as she waited for the drink to be ready.

"Yes. No. I don't know," Jane mumbled into her arms. Finally, she lifted her head and peered at Maura as she moved about the kitchen comfortably. "Do you believe that dreams can sometimes come true?" Jane asked suddenly, almost wincing at the abrupt way the question erupted out of her mouth.

Maura tilted her head on the side. "What do you mean? Are you talking about aspirations for the future, or..."

"No," Jane replied, and drew in a deep breath, "I mean actual dreams. You know... the ones you have at night."

Maura was silent for a few minutes as she pushed and pulled seemingly random buttons and levers on her coffee maker, but eventually she leaned against the counter, crossing her arms against her chest. "Foresight in dreams has long been disputed among many of the top scientists in the world. Many of those aforementioned scientists are of the belief that dreams that appear to be foretelling the future are merely shadows of your subconscious, playing over problems and then portraying them to you in your sleep, thereby creating the 'real' feeling of the dreams. They argue that when these dreams appear to come to fruition in real life, that the subject may simply be tweaking their memories of the dream unconsciously to match real life events, thereby claiming that they had dreamt the entire scenario prior to it occurring."

Jane looked down at her hands. "What do the other scientists think?"

Maura pulled out the steaming mug of hot chocolate from the coffee maker, grabbed a spoon and started stirring it slowly. "They accept that the world is a vast and sometimes mysterious plane. They argue that in the case of several famous psychics, such as Alison Dubois and John Edward for instance, that there is simply too much evidence for them to accept that, in rare cases, foresight does not exist."

"So what do you believe?" Jane asked, looking up at Maura and trying to capture her gaze. Maura seemed reluctant to gain eye contact with Jane though, continuing to look down at the mug of steaming liquid.

"I am a scientist, Jane, as well as a doctor. I believe in facts..." she started, and Jane interrupted.

"I know, Maura, and I know you hate venturing a theory without evidence to fully back it up, but I'm not asking you to say whether it definitely, conclusively exists... just what you believe." Maura bit her lip and didn't answer, so Jane whispered: "Please?"

Maura's gaze whipped up at that, and she stared into Jane's eyes. "I..." she swallowed heavily before continuing, "I believe that actual, genuine foresight in dreams can exist. I cannot share any theories as to how the subconscious manages to portray visions of the future to us when we are at our most vulnerable, but I do believe that, in rare cases, it is possible."

Jane smiled fondly. "Do we need to work on your yes/no answers again, Maura?"

Maura shook her head, huffing out a laugh. "Yes. I believe in it."

Jane smiled at Maura and Maura smiled back, but suddenly Jane lost the smile on her face and her head drooped. "I have dreams sometimes," she muttered softly, and Maura lost her smile too. She reached out hesitantly, almost touching Jane's hand before pulling back slightly.

"I know," she whispered, and Jane grabbed the hand that was still hovering near her own, squeezing it and relishing the comfort that that small touch brought.

"Do you think my dreams are... do you think that sometimes..." Jane stumbled over the words, hesitating in her efforts to get them out. Eventually she stopped and just looked at Maura, trusting that she would understand.

"Jane... I..." Maura shook her head and shrugged her shoulders. "I don't know. You're the only one who can really answer that question."

"How do I answer it?" Jane asked quietly, desperately, not feeling the tear that gently slid down her cheek. Maura reached out with her free hand and gently wiped it away, biting her lip as she did so.

"Maybe... maybe you just need to take some time to think about it. It may be beneficial for you in the future to keep a dream diary. I..." she shrugged helplessly, "...I don't know what else to suggest."

Jane was silent for a moment, rubbing her thumb over the back of Maura's hand. "I dreamed that... that someone close to me was killed."

"That is a fairly common dream actually," Maura started, lighting up as she always did when about to reveal one of her random tidbits of knowledge. "Dream researchers tend to believe that dreams about death of a loved one can mean that there is something lacking in you that this person embodies. It can also mean that this person has no part in your life anymore..."

"Definitely not the case here," Jane interrupted quietly, and Maura continued.

"Meanwhile, death of a parent or sibling means that your relationship is changing..."

"It wasn't one of my parents, and it wasn't Tommy or Frankie."

"Who was it then?" Maura asked, with innocent curiousity. Jane stared at Maura for a while. How could someone who had been through as much as what this woman had been through, still maintain that innocence, that sweetness and charm? Jane shook her head slowly, finally pulling her hand from Maura's and recrossing her arms on the table, laying her head down on top of them once more.

"It was you," she murmured softly, so softly that Maura had to lean forward to hear her. "You died in my dream. I watched as you got shot, and I couldn't reach you in time. There were too many wounds, and I couldn't stop the blood flow." Jane lifted her head, looking down in vacant surprise at the moisture on her arms, tentatively reaching up to touch her face. Her fingertips came away wet. She stared at them blankly as she continued talking. "You died in my arms, and I couldn't protect you. I couldn't save you."

Maura pulled her into a tight hug and Jane buried her face into Maura's neck, breathing in her sweet scent deeply. "It was a dream, Jane. It was just a dream." Jane nodded into her neck, sniffling quietly. "You want to stay here?"

"Yes," Jane breathed almost inaudibly, feeling Maura's shiver as Jane's breath skated over her neck.

"Okay," Maura replied, pressing a chaste kiss to the top of Jane's head before she pulled away completely. Jane wiped at her face quickly, vaguely wondering why she didn't feel ashamed of her moment of weakness. She didn't think about it too much though, and the next few moments passed in comfortable silence as Maura finally placed the cup of hot chocolate in front of Jane. She sipped it slowly. It had long since cooled to a comfortable drinking temperature, but she found that she didn't want this moment to end too soon so she took her time with it. Maura busied herself for a little while, wiping down the bench and cleaning the top of the coffee machine, but eventually she sat down opposite Jane, leaned on the table and rested her chin on her folded hands. Jane watched her as she moved, only dropping her eyes when she felt Maura's own gaze move to meet hers. Searching for something to do, Jane lifted the mug and took several deep gulps of the beverage inside, lowering the now empty cup slowly to the table and finally meeting Maura's eyes. "You ready for sleep now?" Maura asked softly, and Jane shook her head.

"No. But I'll try."

Maura smiled, took her mug and rinsed it, leaving it in the sink. She came back to Jane's side and held out her hand. Jane took it, relishing the strength it gave her and pushed herself to her feet, following Maura back upstairs. Jane didn't let herself think as she was led, simply stared at the back of Maura's pyjamas and reassured herself that Maura was indeed alive and well. She hesitated briefly outside Maura's guest room, but Maura shook her head slightly and kept walking, her grip on Jane's hand not slackening. Jane bit her lip and followed; a sudden whoosh of air escaping from between her teeth sounded almost like a whistle and Maura turned her head curiously as she walked.

"Can I stay with you tonight?" Jane murmured: the question was a formality at this point as they stood inside the doorway to Maura's bedroom, but Jane knew she wouldn't feel right without asking.

Maura's gaze dropped to their clasped hands. "You can stay with me," she answered, and Jane didn't think she imagined the forever that floated after the words like a ghost. Her eyes searched Maura's face desperately, waiting for their eyes to meet so that she had her answer. It took a while, but finally Maura lifted her gaze.

"Okay," Jane said and held onto Maura's gaze with all of her power, letting her know every single one of the million words behind the one word uttered. Maura's gaze searched her own beseechingly, hopefully, and slowly a smile broke out on her face.

"Okay," Maura repeated. They walked into Maura's bedroom together, hands still clasped together and Jane mourned the loss when Maura finally pulled away to sit on her side of the bed. Jane looked at her for a moment before heading into the bathroom to find her toothbrush and brush her teeth. When she came back in the room, Maura was gnawing a thumbnail absently, but when she saw Jane her hand dropped and she opened her mouth. Jane lifted up a hand and shook her head.

"Don't. Please. Let's just... let's just go to sleep." Maura hesitated briefly before nodding, reaching over to turn down the covers for Jane and hopping out of bed to turn the light off. She waited until Jane was settled before submitting the room to darkness and Jane felt herself waiting with baited breath for the mattress to dip with Maura's familiar weight. When it did, she let out a sigh and turned slightly in that direction. Maura's right hand fell to her hip and rubbed hesitant circles there, while her left reached up and started blindly tracing Jane's face. Jane closed her eyes and let her tears fall.

"Shh," Maura whispered and Jane breathed out slowly, feeling her breath hit a warm shield: Maura's palm. Maura's hand faltered in its random patterns and Jane heard her suck in a breath of air. "Jane..."

Jane turned on her side, facing away from Maura. She waited. Maura sighed.

"Maura. Please," Jane breathed and suddenly Maura was there, wrapping her arms around Jane from behind. "Thank you," Jane murmured, and as she teetered on the edge of sleep and wakefulness, she felt a soft, warm kiss between her shoulder blades.

"Forever..." Maura sighed, and Jane smiled.

Forever.

She could deal with forever.

END

I would like to extend on this one at some point but for now it's just a one shot. So please review and let me know what you think :-) And while you do that, I'll get back to my next Diary story :-)