A/N: Don't worry. I'm still working on Here to Assist, I just couldn't get this out of my head. I literally paused the TV after that scene and daydreamed this for like thirty minutes while my friend stared at me...R&R.

"Oh, no."

Her eyes. That's what got me. On the ride over here I tried to convince myself that it wouldn't be this hard. I pep-talked myself into actually believing that doing this really wouldn't matter in the long run because she would be proven innocent. But now. I can barely look into her eyes.

"I'm so sorry…Maura Isles, you're under arrest for the murder of Brad Adams."

She just stares up at me. I had expected to see betrayal. How could her best friend arrest her? But what I saw completely shattered my soul. She looked lost. I could see her slipping away. Maura was falling into the darkness and my feet were cemented to the ground. She glanced back up to me with a glazed over look.

"Jane…"

She breathed out my name, barely a whisper. It reminded me that she was counting on me. Maura needed me. I've always been able to save her before, so why should this be any different. I can do this. With a new found assurance that I could prove her innocence I squared my shoulders and looked her in those hazel eyes.

"Maura, I need you to turn around."

This is not a big deal. All I have to do is find the evidence and she'll be free. My Maura will be just fine. Just do it Jane. Do it. I reached around to my handcuffs on my belt. With confidence I opened them. I tightened one cuff around her right wrist and she flinched at the cold metal. I froze. My eyes stuck on her delicate wrists. My limbs seemed to have been paralyzed. Hell my entire body was paralyzed. I tried to dust off my brain. Bring it back to life but I couldn't.

I was arresting my best friend. The woman who spent so many nights on the phone with me after waking up with sweat soaked sheets, and an imagination filled with pain and fear. The same woman who had soothed me with the word "sweetheart" when I tried to explain my dream, but couldn't because of the sorrowful sobs I was choking on. The same woman who said nothing of it the next morning. The woman who always seemed to know when my hands hurt. Who, without a single word, waited until we were alone to message them, because she knew how much I treasured my pride. The woman who saved me so many times and who I now couldn't save.

"Jane, if you can't…" I hear Korsak from behind me, but it doesn't really register. I attempt to tighten the other cuff but when I feel Maura's warm skin beneath my fingertips I almost faint. I ground myself with a shaky breath. I can't arrest the one reason that I am still alive and not locked away in some insane asylum.

"Vince…I ca-can't…I-"

"It's okay." He grabs me by my elbow and pulls me away from her. He slowly takes the left cuff out of my hand as if prying a loaded gun away from a child. I continue to stare at the ground.

"It's okay Jane. I got it." And he does. He cuffs her left wrist and walks her toward the door. I silently follow after Frost with my head hung low. I can't help her. I can't be the hero she needs. The hero she already thinks I am. What if I never get to hug her again? What if I never get to hear that laugh again? That glorious voice brings me out of my thoughts; only now it's not melodious. It's broken.

"Wait. No, Jane I thought…No, I want you to take me. Please!" I look up to see the cop car that Maura is going to be transported to processing in. Somehow my feet find the vigor to move up to Maura. And my hands search for hers, but settle for her shoulders when they realize that her hands are restrained.

"Maur, you have to go with the officer. I can't…I can't take you."

"But you said it. You said that…that you wouldn't leave me. You told K-Korsak that you wouldn't leave me." I think back to that day when we were trapped in that car with water rushing all around us. I wouldn't leave her, I had said. Just like that day, Maura's life now depends on me. Tears are streaming down her face and I have to squeeze her shoulders to keep my own tears behind my eyes.

"I'm not. I'm not leaving you."

"Jane…please. Just don't leave me. I need your help. I need you to h-help me, please." The pleading in her voice makes my heart strain against my chest and I pull her sobbing form into me. I can't let this woman crumble. I have to protect her. That has been my job from the day I met her. I must protect Maura Isles. I tangle one had deep in her hair and pull her by the small of her back even closer to me. I turn my head toward her and just breathe in her scent for a moment.

"Maura, you listen to me," I say only loud enough for her to hear. "Are you listening?" The tears have come to a stop and she gives a feeble nod of her head.

"I will always protect you. No matter the price…no matter what. If I have to commit a crime and go to prison for the rest of my life just to be there to protect you I will, okay? I will never leave you…I love you." I feel her fall further into me and I tighten my grip around her.

"I'm sorry Detective Rizzoli, but we have to get going." I pull back from Maura and bring my hands up to cradle her face. The wind is knocked from my lungs by what I see. The light. It's small, but it's there. Right around the iris of her eyes. Hope. Love. I take my thumbs and wipe the tears away from her face.

"Do you trust me?" She nods her head.

"Yes, Jane. I do. I trust you." Without another word and with the knowledge that others are watching me, I pull Maura closer and place a tinder kiss on her cheek and then another on the top of her forehead and hold my lips there.

"I'm gonna get you out of this." I whisper into her hair.