Okay so here it is. I was hesitant to upload this but I've finally decided to do so. I really like how this is starting out and I hope you think so too. So thank you for reading, please tell me what you think and as always enjoy.

Chapter 1: Jane

Present Day….

Maura walked down the blinding white hallway of the hospital to room 316. Her expression was pained, not from any physical aliment but from an emotional one from spending nearly every day sitting next to that hospital bed. She was alone today none of the detectives had offered to come with her, not because they didn't want to but because things had suddenly picked up and they were busy chasing down leads. Maura hoped that the leads would bring them closer to finding the man who did this.

She held her breath as she pushed open the door to the hospital room hoping beyond all hope that today she would find the woman that lay still wide awake. When she finally crossed the room to sit by her longtime friend her heart sank a little, there was still no change. Not that she expected there to be, not with the condition her friend was in. The only constant thing was the steady beeping of the heart monitor off to the left side of the bed. Maura did what she always did when she came to visit; she pulled the plastic chair close to the bed and took her friends hand in her own before lightly kissing her cheek.

"Jane… I'm here Jane," she said softly.

Jane didn't respond at all to Maura's voice, she hadn't responded to anything since she had first ended up in a coma nearly a month ago. Maura always ended up in tears as she waited for Jane to respond in some way to her presence, whether it be Jane squeezing her hand or a low moan. But all Maura was ever greeted with was the heart monitor. It was always easier when someone else was here with her like Angela, Korsak, Frost or even Zach; they at least were someone who would respond to her. Maura knew that a person in a coma could sometimes hear everything going on around them and would be aware of it, but with Jane she never knew she could only hope Jane was able to hear her it was the only comfort she had.

"Korsak and Frost wanted to visit you today sweetie… but something came up, they're following a lead that will bring them closer to the end of this case… They said they would bring a stop to this guy for you no matter how long it takes them… Angela came by the other day to check on me; she's just as worried about me being alright as I am worried about you being alright… I promise I'm managing at home, but I need you to wake up Jane it just isn't the same without you there next to me every night. Remember that detective I was telling you about? Zachary? He's a lot like you, driven and dedicated. He spends a lot of time here with you for some reason…"

Maura trailed off suddenly self-conscious as if someone else was listening to her. But of course when she turned to see if anyone had come in no one else was there. She sighed to herself before pulling her chair closer to the bed so she could rest her head on her arm. Maybe she was hoping someone (like a doctor) would come in and tell her Jane would come out of it soon, which was what the concerned partner side of her was thinking. But the doctor part of her knew that that was highly unlikely and that Jane's condition would remain the same for a while. Maura's phone rang pulling her from her grim mood, the ID read Zach.

"Hey Dr. Isles sorry to pull you away from the wife but we got a crime scene for you," Zach's upbeat voice came through the receiver.

"I'll be right there," Maura told him. "Tell Korsak and Frost to wait for me to get there, no one touches the body."

"You got it boss, see you in a few," Zach hung up.

Maura dropped her phone back into her bag before kissing Jane's cheek again. She really didn't want to leave but she had to.

"I'll be back in a little sweetheart..." Maura said as she released Jane's hand. "I love you Jane."

XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxX

60 days before the incident…

Jane hooked two fingers around the handle on the precincts door trying to open it with a coffee in on hand and a bagel in the other. Maura had left an hour earlier to finish up a preliminary autopsy report on a body from another precincts unit. Jane wasn't real sure why the body had been brought to Maura's attention that precinct had their own ME assigned, by Maura herself no less. She shook her head as she walked up to the guard for security check and somehow she managed to flash her badge without dropping any of her breakfast. For the first time in weeks the elevator wasn't over crowded with uniformed officers, detectives from different units, or just suits that happen to be around, today it was only her.

Up in brick things were no different, things were slow and only four detectives were there including Jane herself. Korsak and Frost sat working on some security footage from an apartment complex that the latest victim of a serial killer had shown up. The media (thanks to random luck of some kind) hadn't caught wind of the new killer so had yet to dub him with any name. We were beyond lucky at this point, another serial killer in Boston would cause a panic, and that was one thing we didn't think we could handle.

"You guys find anything?" she asked taking a large bite out of her bagel.

"There's a man who entered the building around the time Dr. Isles placed the victims time of death and he exits the building about an hour later but he keeps his face out of view of the camera," Frost replied rubbing his eyes.

"So we can't run facial recognition then," she sighed.

"I can try but the best I could do is maybe a 45% match and we all know that isn't enough to make an arrest," Frost informed me.

"Crime scene guys didn't lift any prints besides the victims either," Korsak chimed in. "And Suzie got the results back from the substance you found near the victim it was printer ink."

"That doesn't really help us does it?" I asked almost sarcastically.

"No it doesn't," Korsak agreed. "We can match it to certain printers but there isn't much of a chance we'll find who it came from. Dr. Isles hasn't found anything useful either."

Taking a large sip of coffee Jane sighed and asked, "Who the hell is this guy?" Korsak and Frost both shook their head not having an answer for her either. Jane sat down in a chair adjacent to Frost and watched as he froze the frame that had the most exposure on the man's face for he could try for facial recognition which wouldn't give them much but maybe whoever it lead them to (if anyone) would give them the start they needed. The processor revved up as face by face in the database was compared to the still leaving the three detectives to sit and wait until they got some type of match. It could take hours or days to even get a slight match.

XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxX

Present Day…

Maura pulled her blue Prius to a stop at the curb of the address Zach had sent her. Police cruisers and the ME van encompassed the area surrounding the home, keeping interested pedestrians and the media back. She was greeted at the edge of the yellow tape by Zach's wide grin. Somehow even though he was dealing with death he managed a smile even in the worst possible situations. Zach lifted up the tape for Maura and walked with her towards the front door of the house. He was tall, muscular and definitely in shape, his hair was short and brown and his eyes were a vivid green something that wasn't very common to come across. To the team he was pretty much a mystery except for the fact he came from Kentucky in the Lexington area and had no living relatives. He had an exemplary background in the police force with hundreds of cases solved under his belt and not a single reprimand. Maura found his presence comforting but he was no Jane.

"Sorry again to pull you away from the hospital doc," he apologized. "But it looks like the Ripper has claimed his eighth victim."

"If you don't catch him soon we'll have a mass hysteria on our hands," Maura sighed.

"Don't we know it," Zach agreed. "The damn media vultures aren't helping at all either."

"How bad is this one?" she asked, passing a crime scene tech.

"Pretty damn bad," Zach replied. "Lot of people lost their breakfast today. Korsak, Frost doc's here."

The older of the two detectives, Korsak, with grey hair looked up at Maura, offering a small smile before straitening up and walking over to her. Frost followed behind him, looking as green as a person could get. He had never been very good around dead bodies, especially during an autopsy, but this was the first time Maura saw him this sickly looking at a crime scene.

"Hey doc," Frost greeted her. "It's bad in there."

"Cavanaugh is going to have a hell of a time keeping this out of the media," Korsak told Maura. "It's one of the worst scenes I've been on."

"Let's just get to work," Maura had no doubt this scene would cause some trauma to her after the incident but she had to remain focused.

Maura realized Korsak hadn't been wrong when she walking into the room where the DB was. She had seen hundreds of crime scenes in her career, some with dead bodies and some with survivors barely hanging on, but this was definitely one of the worst. For a moment she paused to close her eyes and take a deep breath, she had to work the scene like she had done hundreds of times before. She collected herself and kneeled down next to the body to examine it. There was no doubt in her mind this was the Ripper. The victim (a young male) had been tortured with a knife among other instruments before his neck had been broken. Maura shook her head, she was making assumptions again an autopsy was needed to prove cause of death as well as the instruments used in the torture. Jane seemed to be rubbing off on Maura more and more everyday she remained in the coma.

"How's Jane doing Dr. Isles?" Frost asked keeping his distance from her and the body.

"She's hanging in there…" Maura replied with a sigh.

"Any change in her condition?" Frost continued.

"No," Maura said shortly. "But it's better to have no change then a bad change so we can't give up hope she'll wake up soon."

Frost nodded even though he knew Maura wasn't looking at him. Jane had been his partner for nearly three years and over those three years they'd grown to be good friends. He hated seeing her lying there completely still in the hospital bed, unaware of the happenings outside that room (if she was even aware to those either). After the incident Zach had been brought in from Kentucky in order to bring in more man power and give Frost a temporary partner until Jane made a full recovery. Frost liked Zach just fine, he was a hard worker and was basically another Jane, the only problem was Zach wasn't Jane and he never would be. And then there was always the possibility that Jane would never wake up. Frost hated that just as much because he was worried about Maura. He had been Jane's best man at her and Maura's wedding and he knew the two were happy together. Jane staying comatose for God knows how long would put Maura in the position of deciding whether or not she wanted to wait just hoping Jane may wake up or if she would move on. Frost didn't want to see that happen.

"Dr. Isles what do you think caused these ligature marks around his neck?" Zach asked standing behind Maura, pointing at a thick black and blue mark on the victim's neck.

"It's too early for me to give you an answer," she said. "But I will say it's too thick to be wire, so perhaps some type of rope, maybe a belt."

"You're starting to guess Dr. Isles," Korsak said looking up from his notes.

"I'm not guessing," Maura defended herself as she moved the victims head slightly. "I was simply giving my educated opinion."

"Uh huh, sure," Zach laughed backing away from Maura.

"I want to get the body back to the morgue and start the autopsy as soon as I can," Maura said, not feeling like laughing.

XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxX

60 days before the incident…

Jane had seen a lot of blood in her years as a detective; she'd seen a lot of crime scenes and a lot of dead bodies. Never before had she seen such cruelty inflicted on one person, it was sickening. The victim was missing part of his ear; there was a deep gash on his face splitting open his lip, abrasions on his legs from being dragged or throw on the ground. There was a hell of a lot more but Jane couldn't stomach it right now the coffee she had for breakfast was churning in her stomach. The smell of decomp wasn't helping her keep down her caffeinated breakfast either. When she was first in the homicide department she had lost her lunch only once before she learned how to handle it, she wasn't about to lose it again, not when she had been here for that long.

"How long to you say he's been here Maura?" Jane asked crossing the room.

"Judging by the rate of decomp I would put time of death around two to three days ago," Maura replied.

"I know you hate guessing but how much to you think he suffered?" Jane already knew the answer; this man had gone through unimaginable pain before he finally lost his life.

"He suffered a lot Jane," even Maura didn't want to say it. "Cause of death was most likely a broken neck but I won't know for sure until I get him back to the morgue."

"Anything else you can tell me here?" Jane asked.

"He was stabbed multiple times, part of his ear was removed, he might have been strangled…" Maura shook her head. "Let me do an autopsy and I'll have more answers for you Jane."

"Hope it gives us more answers then questions," Jane said heaving a sigh. "I'll have them transport the body back you can ride back with me Korsak and Frost have this handled."

Jane and Maura stood over the body of the victim that lay on the slab. Maura had concluded her preliminary examination and had determined the victim had been stabbed twenty times but never bled out, the part of his ear had been removed by something with a serrated edge, and the gash on his face was jagged and wasn't caused by a sharp blade. She was also positive that the cause of death was caused by the victim's neck being snapped.

"The media is going to have a field day with this," Jane said shaking her head. "They'll tell everyone Boston has another serial killer on their hands."

"I hate to say it but we probably do Jane," Maura said as she started the Y-incision. "Someone with this brutality doesn't stop until someone stops him."

"Then we better catch him," Jane declared. "We don't need another Hoyt on our hands."

"Jane this guy is worse than Hoyt already," Maura hated to admit it but that's how she felt. "What kind of monster would do this to a person?"

Jane didn't have an answer, but she wished she did. It was easy for her to tell that Maura was scared. It was unlikely that this killer would come after Jane, but they didn't know the victimology they had no idea if he was brave (or stupid) enough to go after a cop. Jane felt certain that they would catch him before it escalated to that, he was very sloppy so they had a chance to get him after just one murder. But Jane didn't want to give Maura any false hope.

"A sick one Maura…" Jane's voice was low, uncertain.

"Be careful on this case Jane," Maura said suddenly after a brief silence. "I'm not about to lose you."

"You won't," Jane offered a smile. "We'll get this guy, promise."

XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxX

Present day…

Maura used the forceps to remove a fiber off the victims hand and placed it in an evidence bag tagging it for processing later. She was meticulous about the preliminary examination, not wanting to miss a thing and risk having it destroyed she made sure she looked over every inch before moving onto the autopsy. Finally satisfied she had collected every shred of evidence left on the body she took note of the injuries, wanting to take casts on the puncture wounds so they would have something to compare a weapon to later on. It would set fairly quick but she had five different instruments used to torture him with. She had already concluded that all of the puncture wounds had been caused ante-mortem along with the ligature around the throat. The broken neck had been the cause of death. But as Maura was examining the ligature marks waiting for the molds to dry she noticed something odd about the victims mouth, the cheeks were slightly puffed out as if swollen. She placed on hand on the man's chin and the other on his nose and opened his mouth. Inside was a large amount of blood that somehow never made its way out of the man's lips during his death or on the transport to the morgue. But what disturbed her wasn't the blood- it was what had caused the mass amount of blood.

Maura tore off her latex gloves and her surgical apron and ran to the elevator, pressing the button repeatedly feeling no patients as she waited for the metal doors to finally slide open. When they finally did she stepped in and slammed her finger on the floor the homicide department was housed on. This information wouldn't do the detectives much good but Maura knew how sometimes when interrogating a suspect they would sometimes slip up and give information that wasn't released to the media or the detectives never mentioned. What Maura had found would give them something at least if they needed it. But even though it would give them an upper hand it was a disgusting detail and Maura felt sick to her stomach. She had never seen anything like that done to a person before.

Zachary saw Dr. Isles making a fast pace towards the three detectives desks before Korsak and Frost even noticed. Knowing he had case files on his temporary desk that she wouldn't want to see he quickly slid them underneath a newspaper and a couple magazines he just happened to have laying around. He wondered what had gotten the doctor out of her whole and upstairs, and why exactly she was walking towards them looking like she was going to strangle one of them. Zach, being the gentleman he was, stood up and greeted Dr. Isles like he had always grown to do, but instead of greeting him back she dropped her hands down hard on Korsak's desk, causing him to jump slightly. Zach wanted to know what she found, because it was obvious she had found something to get her going like this, so he walked over so he stood next to Korsak.

"You find something Dr. Isles?" Zach asked trying to read her expression.

"Yes, I did," she replied.

"That's good we need something to get us on the right track," Frost said, but his celebration was premature.

"No it's not that kind of help," Maura said grimly. "While I was preforming my preliminary examination I noticed something in the victim's mouth. When I went to examine the cause of the swelling I found blood in his mouth, and a lot of it."

"What caused that amount of blood in his mouth?" Korsak asked. "Hard blow to his face?"

"There was no bruising to indicate he was punched in the face," Maura replied. "Upon farther examination I found that our victim's tongue had been removed ante-mortem…"

"The Ripper removed his tongue?" Zach's response was in pure disgust. "What the fuck is wrong with this guy?"

"Great…" Korsak muttered. "Talk about heat being put on us now. We're fucking screwed if the media gets ahold of this."

"Who's going to tell Cavanaugh?" Frost asked shooting a glance at Cavanaugh office. "He won't be very happy."

"I'll tell him," Maura said. "It's my job anyway…"

There was a momentary silence before Maura spoke again, "I'm going to visit Jane later tonight, would any of you like to come with me?"

"You know I would Dr. Isles but I'm probably not going to get out of here until late," Korsak told her. "I was planning on going out tomorrow before I came in."

"I'll probably be stuck here with Korsak too," Frost said. "Sorry Maura."

"I can go for a little as long as Korsak and Frost don't need me," Zach chimed in. "I know I don't know Jane real well but I'd still like to visit again."

"Thanks Zach that means a lot," Maura said managing a smile.

Zach had left almost an hour ago but Maura still sat by her wife's bedside, holding Jane's hand in one of hers and with the other Maura caressed Jane's cheek. Maura had cried hundreds of times in the past month Jane had been in a coma, this time was one of those times she knew she would break down again but she wanted to refrain from it as long as possible. She had been saying meaningless things for most of the time she was here, telling Jane how she was doing and what was happening at home, much like she did earlier that day, but she needed to talk about the case. She needed to let Jane know what was happening even though it wouldn't matter.

"Jane, sweetheart I need you to listen to me… The Ripper claimed another victim the scene was just as gruesome as the others but this time he did something different… he's escalating Jane... he removed the victims tongue, no telling what he'll do next…"

Maura felt the words catch in her throat and tears welling up in her eyes but the continued.

"I'm worried Jane that we won't arrest him in time… and I'm scared that if he ever feels trapped that he might go after one of us. We need you Jane but you have to wake up. Please I need you now more than ever. I need to wake up to your smile in the morning, feel your hot touch again... Please Jane wake up…"

Maura had hot tears streaming down her face as she finished speaking. She needed Jane so badly to wake up and hold her, to tell her everything would be alright, but it wasn't about to happen and Maura knew that. Jane would want her to stay strong to fight through it and bring the sonofabitch down for her. Maura wasn't so sure she would be able to do that. Not with the love of her life, her rock, in this condition. She cried harder into Jane's arm. She had no idea what to do.

"I love you Jane… I love you so much…"