Author's Note: I don't have cable and haven't seen any of season 5 of Rizzoli & Isles yet. Yes, I know what happens to Frost, but otherwise, I know nothing. Please ignore any possible conflicts with season 5. This story is set after season 4.

Jane waited on Maura outside her office. With Frankie borrowing Jane's car, Maura was her ride home. They had planned to get a late dinner at the Dirty Robber, but at the rate Maura was going, the bar would be closed by then.

"Maura, what are you doing?" Jane asked, a slight whine to her tone. "I'm starving!"

"What? I was just freshening up my make-up," Maura said as she joined Jane. She looked drop dead gorgeous as usual.

"We're just going to the Dirty Robber. Are you expecting to meet the future Mister Doctor Isles tonight?" Jane joked.

"I hardly think any man I would marry would take my name," Maura said with a scowl as they started on their way out of the building. "And I wouldn't take his. I already have a reputation attached to my name. What about you? Would you take your husband's name?"

"Well, I was gonna be Jane Jones. Sounds like I'd belong on one of those bad TV talk shows where everybody's cheating on everybody and trying to find out who the baby daddy is," Jane joked. She grimaced. "I know who my baby daddy is."

"Have you decided what you're going to tell Casey?"

"No, I haven't. What the hell do I say?" Jane replied. She leaned against the back of the elevator and folded her arms over her chest. "I know when I tell him, he'll want to come back. Then he'll either resent me for getting pregnant and forcing him to leave the army, or he'll try to force me to stop being a cop. Back to square one."

"You know what you could get me for my birthday?"

"Lessons on how to tactfully change the subject?" Jane asked as they stepped out of the elevator into the lobby.

"You can decide what to do about Casey," Maura said. "It's driving me crazy."

"I'm so sorry my unplanned pregnancy and canceled engagement are bringing you down," Jane said, not going easy on the sarcasm. "I'll see what I can do about that."

Maura chuckled and they headed out the front of the building.

"Hey Rizzoli!" Jane turned to see an officer poking his head out the front door of the building. "Cavanaugh's looking for you."

Jane sighed and rolled her eyes. She turned to Maura, who looked sympathetic.

"I can wait."

"No, go," Jane replied. "I have no idea what Cavanaugh wants. It could take a while. I'll have Korsak give me a ride home."

"Okay, see you tomorrow."

Maura walked across the street toward her car. Jane turned to head back in the building but checked her messages first to see if Cavanaugh had tried to text or call her. As she reached for the door, the explosion ripped through the relative silence outside. The shock wave threw Jane up against the door of the building and she fell to her knees. When she turned, she saw destruction everywhere and Maura's car in flames.

"Maura," she said as she pushed herself onto her feet, trying to overcome the shock. Then she instinctively hurried toward the car and screamed, "Maura!"

When she was halfway across the street, a second explosion erupted from Maura's car. This time Jane was thrown backward to the ground with nothing to catch herself on. Her head hit the pavement and her world went black with the sounds of people screaming and a car burning ringing in her ears.


Jane awoke in the hospital. She was lying alone on a bed in the emergency room. She recognized it. She had been there more than once due to the hazards of her job and the hazards of growing up a girl with two younger brothers in a blue collar family in Boston. Her head was pounding and it only took a minute to remember why. The memory of Maura's car exploding flashed in her mind's eye in vivid detail. Tears welled in her eyes as she realized that her best friend, the closest thing she had ever had to a sister, was dead.

"Oh god, Maura," she said as she choked back a sob. She closed her eyes and took deep breaths, trying to keep herself together. The last thing she wanted to do was break down alone in the emergency room. She wanted to leave. Jane didn't know very many details about what happened yet, but her gut instinct told her that this was a homicide. Maura would chide her for guessing. Guts didn't solve cases; science and evidence did. She closed her eyes as she heard an old conversation with Maura in her mind.

"The next reddish brown stain, you call blood before the labs come in."

"You want me to lie?!" Maura asked, appalled at the suggestion.

"No, I want you to state the obvious."

Maura could be so infuriating sometimes. It was infuriating, but it was also one of the things Jane loved about her. So precise and meticulous. That particular nature helped them secure the evidence they needed to find their killers. This time they would have to rely on someone else to find the killer. Knowing their usual back-up medical examiners, Jane dreaded who they would be stuck with. She needed to get out of the hospital to hopefully minimize the damage someone like Vladimir Popov could do. Maura deserved better than that.

Yet Jane didn't leave because someone else was on her mind—her baby. She found the call button and hit it repeatedly hoping to get someone's attention quickly. Quickly didn't quite describe the response time of the young ER doctor who finally responded to her. He grabbed her chart to review why she was there.

"Detective Rizzoli," he greeted her. "How do you feel?"

"Like someone played basketball with my head, but I'm not really worried about that," she responded. "You probably didn't know this, but I'm pregnant."

"No, I didn't know about that," he responded. "How far along?"

"About four weeks," she replied. "But an explosion could cause me to miscarry, right?"

"It's possible, if you were close enough," he said. "We'll check things out and see if the baby's okay."

Jane laid back and waited. Once they had checked on the baby and determined it was fine, she was ready to leave. The doctor tried to convince her to stay for more tests.

"Doc, you're going to tell me I have a concussion and that I should rest, which I'm not going to do because I need to solve my friend's murder," Jane explained. "So lets save a lot of time and money, and please just check me out of here so I can get to work."

The doctor sighed and grabbed her chart. "Fine, but I'm noting that you're going against orders."

"Fine. I'm used to it. I do it all the time."

It took another 30 minutes before she was able to get out of the hospital. Even though her clothes were dirty and rumpled, she didn't bother going home. She went directly to headquarters in order to find Maura's killer. Maura spoke for the dead. Now Jane had to speak for Maura.


Frost had checked the crime lab and the autopsy room, but he hadn't found who he was looking for yet. He paused in the autopsy room briefly when he saw the two CSRU staff bringing in the black bag that held the body of Maura Isles. All he could do was watch as they rolled the gurney toward cold storage. The autopsy wouldn't be done immediately, not until a new medical examiner was assigned. After the body bag was rolled out of sight, he continued his search.

He was surprised when he noticed Susie sitting on the sofa in Dr. Isles' office. He was quiet enough that she didn't notice him, having her back turned to the door. She was crying, tissues in hand. Frost stepped in the doorway and cleared his throat. She turned quickly in surprise and wiped at her tears with a tissue.

"Susie, I'm sorry," he said, apologizing for what he perceived as an intrusion. "They just brought Dr. Isles' body in. I know you're not the ME, but is there anything you can do to get a jump start on the autopsy report?"

She sniffed and cleared her throat, trying to contain her emotions.

"There are some preliminary tests I can do," she replied. "I don't know how helpful they'll be."

"I'm sure they'll be a good start," he said. She didn't look very confident in that belief as she looked to the floor, sadness clear on her face. "Susie, Dr. Isles couldn't stand incompetence and expected nothing but the best. You were on her staff for a reason, and I'm sure she wouldn't want anyone else as senior criminalist investigating her murder."

"Do you think so?" Susie asked, her confidence bolstered a little bit.

"I know so," Frost said. Susie stood and smiled slightly. "You can do this."

"Okay," she said. "I'll see what I can do."

Frost smiled as she passed by him in the doorway, and then he headed back up to homicide to begin his own work on one of the most important homicide investigations he had ever worked.


Two hours after the explosion Jane walked into the homicide unit, much to the surprise of everyone else.

"Rizzoli, what the hell are you doing here?" Cavanaugh asked. "You're supposed to be at the hospital getting your head checked."

"I left. I'm not wasting hours at the hospital when I should be here finding Maura's killer," she said. She didn't mention the relief she felt when she was told her baby was okay. No one had the nerve to argue with her reasons for leaving the hospital, and she looked to Frost. "What do we know?"

"Bomb squad and CSRU are still working on the car. Replacement ME is on his way to do the autopsy," he replied.

"We're still waiting on the surveillance footage," Frankie continued. "Uniforms are interviewing witnesses."

"Which includes you, Rizzoli," Cavanaugh said. "What did you see?"

"Nothing," Jane said, a hint of disappointment in her voice. She sat at her desk, slouching in exhaustion in her chair. "My back was turned when the first explosion happened."

"What about before the explosion?" Korsak asked.

"I don't know," Jane replied. She rubbed her forehead, trying to will the ache away, both physical and emotional. It was hard to focus when a large part of her just wanted to go somewhere alone to mourn the death of her best friend. "Maura and I were going to go grab dinner, but Jenkins stopped me and said you wanted to see me, Lieutenant."

Cavanaugh looked confused and Jane sat up, more at attention.

"I didn't tell Jenkins that I wanted to see you," he responded. "Frankie, go find out who told Jenkins to stop her."

"You think it's important, Sean?" Korsak asked.

"Maybe," he replied. "If Jenkins hadn't stopped her, she'd be lying down in the morgue right now, too."

"You think our bomber didn't want to take anyone but Maura out in this," Jane said, catching on to what Cavanaugh was thinking.

Frankie stood and headed for the door to find Jenkins when he almost collided with Susie Chang. It was obvious she had been crying earlier, but the look on her face said she found something exciting, something that might turn the case around. She didn't even worry about apologizing for almost running Frankie over. She slipped past him and went directly to Jane.

"The woman who died in the car bomb is not Maura Isles," she said, unable to suppress a smile.

Jane stood and looked confused. "You looked at her right?"

The others looked uncomfortable and finally Korsak spoke up.

"The fire from the bomb was extremely hot, Jane," he said, a sympathetic look on his face. "She was burned beyond recognition."

"Still, I saw her getting in her car. How is that possible?"

"You said your back was turned," Frankie commented. Jane thought for a moment and nodded her head.

"Yeah, I turned away before she actually got in the car," she replied. "Susie, what do you have? Dental records or something?"

"No, we don't have dental records yet for Dr. Isles," Susie replied. She handed Jane a file folder. "I can only do so much until the substitute ME gets here, but I started preliminary tests including blood typing. The blood type of the victim from the car bomb is A negative. Dr. Isles' blood type is..."

"AB negative," Jane said. She didn't read it from the file and she explained how she knew that. "She mentioned it when she donated her kidney to Cailin. Apparently it's rare. So you're saying there is no way that the dead woman downstairs is Maura?"

"Exactly," Susie replied. "I typed the victim three times just to be sure. It is not Dr. Isles."

The others were shocked and confused. Jane leaned against her desk and scoffed. "So where the hell is Maura?"


The smelling salts jolted Maura awake and the searing pain in her head nearly made her pass out again. She cringed and tried to open her eyes, but the light in the room was swimming and she felt nauseated. Yet she realized that she was being forced to breathe through her nose. Her mouth was covered with tape. If she threw up, she would suffocate on her own vomit. She kept her eyes clamped shut, hoping that the nausea would pass and she would soon be able to look at her surroundings. Until then she focused on sounds. She heard footsteps from soft-soled shoes on cement. She heard breathing, slightly heavier than normal. She wanted to focus on smells, but the smelling salts had burned her nose somewhat.

"Hello, Dr. Isles," a man said. Thick Boston accent, low vocal register. She mentally filed that away in case she needed it later. She tried to open her eyes again, but still couldn't ward off the nausea. "Sorry about the headache. Had to get you out of there without you screaming to your friend, Rizzoli."

Maura was going to say something but remembered the tape. She grunted, hoping he would remove it. The nausea wasn't passing, and suffocating on vomit was far from her first choice of ways to die. She grunted again and forced her eyes open. Involuntary tears streamed down her cheeks. The pain and nausea was horrible. She couldn't go so far as lifting her head. She could see a pair of black New Balance tennis shoes. She also noticed the feet of a tripod, possibly for a camera.

"Okay, doc, I need you on board here," the man said. He crouched down in front of her, but she still didn't see his face. He was wearing a black ski mask. He had brown eyes. "You're going to help me take care of some business, and I need you to look at the camera. Think you can manage that?"

She grunted again, but it was pretty clear the tape wasn't coming off. He was waiting for her answer patiently. Cooperation; that was how she would get out of this alive. She nodded her head. He smiled and patted her knee with a gloved hand before he stood and moved toward the tripod.

"I knew I could count on you, Dr. Isles. You've got a reputation for reliability."

She looked up just as the red recording light on the camera came on. She didn't know what else to do.