Only ever seen clips of this show but an idea popped into my head and I went from there,

Something to come home to.

Chapter 1

Jane smiled as she spotted Frankie walking into the office; however her smile quickly dropped as she saw the look on his face. Jane stood up and braced herself as Frankie came to her desk, straight away she asked what was wrong, asked who it was.

"Padraig called earlier," Frankie explained ignoring the questioning look from Korsak and taking hold of his sister's hand. "Janie you should sit down." Frankie half asked half insisted but Jane just stood there frozen waiting to hear the next words out of her brother's mouth. "Niamh's missing presumed dead." At those words the world seemed to start spinning, the pain in her hands from her recent torment fading away was the words sunk in causing her to sit down in shock.


"And you are going to write to me?" A teenage Jane Rizzoli asked her best friend Niamh Romano as the latter finished zipping up her holdall and sitting down on the bed in the tiny bedroom.

"I promise," Niamh said nodding as Jane came and sat down next to her.

"And no matter what you'll keep writing to me?" Jane asked cautiously, she couldn't believe her best friend was leaving, Jane couldn't begin to imagine leaving Boston but her best friend was determined to see the world.

"Always, but you've got to write back." Niamh added and Jane smiled, she'd be looking forward to telling her friend just how much her mother was annoying her.

"And you've got to promise to always come home." Jane instructed, "In one piece and when you're meant too."

"I promise." Niamh replied and Jane held out her hand for her friend to take.

"All for one and one for all. Janie and Niamh wiping snot on their sleeve." The pair said in unison before pretending to wipe their noses on their jumpers and hugging one another.


One year later

Jane was at a scene listening to Maura's explanation of the strange position of the latest body when the twilight zone started to play; as usual she ignored it and continued listening. Angela tried 8 more times before giving up and Jane breathed a sigh of relief, this case was going to keep her busy for a while. Five minutes later the ring tone told her that Frankie was calling her and again she ignored it choosing to send the call to voice mail and listening to it as they left the scene. Maura was chatting when Jane held up her hand to silence her so that she could clearly listen to what her mother and brother were saying. Jane's expression changed a few times before she hung up the phone and picked up her pace towards her car dialling a number, leaving Maura standing there with a questioning expression on her face.


Maura was a little disappointed not to see Jane at all again during the day, she dealt with Frost with regards to their case, when she'd asked where Jane was she'd been told she was taking personal time, when she'd tried to call her there'd been no answer and she'd left a few messages asking the detective to call her. A little before 11 Maura was at home when there was a knock on the door, Maura wasn't surprised to see Jane stood there looking completely exhausted. Without speaking she led Jane into the kitchen and made her sit down before asking if she'd eaten, at Jane's headshake Maura started preparing a sandwich, neither woman spoke until Jane had taken her first bite.

"I erm, thanks." Jane said sounding exhausted. "I'm sorry about today, I just needed to ... You know." Jane sighed but Maura simply didn't have a clue what she was going on about. "I erm... what I mean is my friend's been found, the missing Marine, they found her." Jane said finally and Maura nodded slightly aware of the story. From what Maura knew a few months before she'd arrived as the ME a good friend of Jane's had been in Afghanistan and had gone missing, Korsak had told her that Jane and the missing Marine had been very close and until that moment Maura had assumed it was a guy, even a high school sweetheart.

"How is she?" Maura asked once Jane had finished the sandwich.

"I don't know." Jane admitted, her deep voice full of worry, "her brother's know as much as I do, that's where I went." Jane said. "To her brother's house with Ma. She's close with Ma, Niamh almost lived at our house when we were kids, and I didn't want her to be on her own. We just wanted to be there to see if anything new would come through, I ... we ... needed to be with them in case ..." Jane reached in her trouser pocket and pulled out an envelope handing it to Maura. "I was given a letter the first time she left Boston to go away to do her basic training, and each posting I've gotten a new one. I never ever opened the letter until Frankie told me she was missing; there was part of me that wanted to know what she'd say. I thought it would help me deal with where she was, or if I was ever going to be able to see her or talk to her." Jane admitted, she'd promised back in high school when she'd gotten the first letter that she'd only open the letter when she died, and part of her felt guilty for opening it.

"And?" Maura asked unable to grasp exactly how Jane was feeling and feeling like the letter was too personal for her to read. Whilst she and Jane were close she didn't know about the detective's eldest friend, and she wasn't going to invade someone's privacy even if it would help with some of the confusion she was feeling.

"I opened it but can't read it." Jane replied, "I was worried that if I read it she'd die, and when we didn't hear anything I..." She trailed off and Maura pulled her friend into a hug, "I feel like I let her down, I promised it'd only be opened it she died and she..." Finally Jane let the tears fall that she'd been holding off for most of the day.


Jane woke up the next morning in Maura's spare bedroom feeling drained; Maura was asleep next to her on top of the covers, the unread letter at the side of the bed. Jane kept on looking at it trying to work out what she should do with it, part of her thought she should just bite the bullet and read it but the other part of her thought she should just give it back to Niamh when she next saw her. She was interrupted from her musings by the sound of her mother's ringtone.

"Ma?" Jane asked sitting up, Maura now stirred and placed a comforting hand on Jane's. "She's alive?" Tears fell from Jane's face which was now full of relief. "How bad is she?" Jane asked as Maura got out of bed and headed to the kitchen leaving Jane to speak to her mother.

"Alive, not giving much away in terms of injuries but apparently she's in a bad way, the word torture's being bandied about at the moment." Jane sighed taking the cup of coffee that Maura handed to her; both knew what Jane though of when the word torture was mentioned. "Tommy's going to be with her brother's today, he's close with Padraig." Maura didn't ask for an explanation to that, she just assumed he was the Marine's brother.

"Anything I can do?" Maura asked, Jane's response was that she was already doing enough by putting up with her, unless she had contacts within the Marine Corps. Maura shook her head wishing there was more that she could do to help her best friend, all she could do was be there for her.