Already past five o'clock, the relentless August sun seemed to bestow no reprieve on its Boston friends. Those trotting around the soon-to-be-closed Franklin Zoo wiped at their brow and wrangled in their children. Some were easier than others – many of the children were passed out in wagons or strollers, but there were some (the kind that had just a bit too much sugar) that were still on their rush of excitement. Tired parents called after them, their patience reaching a low boil.
Among the crowd was Aiden Barker. His seven year old daughter Caidence tugged eagerly at his arm, dragging him along at her own pace with her friend Ashleigh jogging to keep up. Her eye was set on a stand of frozen lemonade. She looked up and smiled at her father, her thin face stretching out into a smile to reveal two dimples on each of her cheeks.
"Can we get some?"
Aiden looked at his watch and then to the ever growing line of people. "And ruin your dinner for your mother?" he asked, then his frown turned into a cheeky smile. "Gladly. Pink lemonade or regular?"
"If one of us gets pink lemonade and one of us gets regular, we get both." Caidence said wisely to Ashleigh. Ashleigh nodded, her own smiling mirroring Caidence's. Aiden laughed and shook his head a bit.
"Both it is."
A stand of toys caught both girls' eyes. Aiden watched them walk towards the stand, it only being a few feet over from where he stood himself, waiting for their lemonade. He tapped his foot in impatience. He was supposed to have Caidence back to her mother by six. Finally the line progressed and he stepped forward to pay, pulling back only a minute later juggling his own lemonade as well as the girls.
"Here, girls – " But Aiden stopped dead in his track. Instead of seeing the back of Caidence's thin blonde waves next to Ashleigh's dark, almost black, pin straight hair, he saw only Ashleigh. He looked to the left of her and to the right, but nowhere did he see his daughter. His heart pounding against his chest, Aiden grabbed Ashleigh and spun the surprised girl around, his face contorted in only a way that a terrified parent's face could. "Where did Caidence go?" he demanded. Ashleigh did just as he had; she looked to her left and to her right, then turned back to her friend's father in surprise.
"She was just here... just'a second ago, I promise."
"Caidence!' he screamed, ripping through the crowds. "Caidence!"
But Caidence was already gone.
"It was so nice of Frankie to offer to finish your paperwork for you guys," said Maura as she hung her jacket on the coat rack. Korsak, Frost and Jane followed her example, eyeing each other humorously. Frankie hadn't necessarily offered so much as Jane played the if you want to be a detective... card. But Jane kept her mouth shut, knowing Maura wouldn't appreciate her taking advantage of Frankie, especially on Maura's birthday. The four walked into the living room, lured by the smell of garlic.
Angela was in the kitchen already cooking, not to the surprise of anyone else.
"You didn't have to cook, Angela." Maura said sweetly, gazing over the kitchen counter where a variety of ingredients were spread out. Angela clucked her tongue and waved them all away.
"Nonsense, you're family." Maura couldn't help but smile at the word. "Dinner'll be done in a half hour. Janie, why don't we let Maura open her presents while we wait?" This surprised Maura and she went to protest, surely to say that there was nothing she needed, but Angela gave her a stern motherly look and Maura pressed her lips back together firmly. Jane saw it all and smiled to herself. It felt good to see that she wasn't the only person, besides Frankie and Tommy, that Angela could frighten into shutting up.
Jane grabbed the first present, something flat and square and wrapped in the shiniest purple wrapping paper any of them had ever seen. "This one is from Ma." she set it on Maura's lap and sat back down. "Obviously." Jane added as an afterthought, which earned her a scowl and nudge from her mother.
In the same precise manner that Maura did everything in her life, she slowly unwrapped the present, taking great consideration into pulling the tape from each corner, so gently that it didn't rip the paper itself. She finished one side and flipped the gift to begin on the other.
"Maura," said Jane slowly as she watched Maura. "It's not a bomb. You don't have to figure out which wire to cut. Just rip the paper open."
Maura frowned and looked up at Jane. "That would be rude. Your mother went to a great deal of effort to wrap this for me, and the paper is very beautiful. I wouldn't want to ruin it."
"Okay, well. I give you full permission to rip my present apart because I... wrapped it with newspaper." Angela gave a soft gasp and glared at her daughter. "What? I didn't have time to go to the store! We've been working on the Heurtos case!" Jane turned back to Maura. "Just open Ma's present, would you?"
Conceding to Jane's wishes, Maura finally pulled the last piece of tape off the package and slid the present out in a way that the wrapping paper kept its form. It took everything in Jane to hide her eye roll, but nothing could stop the sharp intake of breath when Maura finally revealed what Angela had gotten her.
"Oh! Oh. Angela, it's... lovely." It was anything but. In Maura's hands was the largest, most grotesque piece of artwork that Jane had surely ever seen, and since becoming friends with Maura, she had seen a lot of ridiculously hideous art. Jane wasn't entirely sure what it was meant to be. The first word that came to her mind was vomit – lots and lots of vomit. The colors did anything but complement each other; dark, putrid green, a slimy, salmon pink and faded yellow swirled together in what looked like a cloud of hideous color. There was absolutely nothing artistic to it whatsoever, but Angela stood behind Maura looking all too pleased with herself. "Is it one of yours?"
"I call it A Swirl of Springtime." said Angela proudly. "I thought these colors just screamed springtime, you know? The green of the grass, the bright yellow sun, pink for easter. Janie told me spring is your favorite season."
"It probably isn't anymore," muttered Jane under her breath, only loud enough for she and Maura to hear.
Maura covered her laugh up with a cough and she smiled up at Angela. 'It's wonderful, really. I'll be sure to find a nice home for it."
"Yeah in the garbage." Jane said quietly, but this time it earned her a sharp kick of the leg by Maura. "Here, Maura. Open mine." Jane handed Maura a small box that, sure enough, was wrapped in Sunday's newspaper.
"Oh Jane, you shouldn't have. You know how much I love current events."
"You're hilarious. Open the box."
Laughing quietly to herself, Maura unwrapped the box – this time with a bit more enthusiasm to appease Jane – and slid the top of it open. Jane grinned all the while, waiting eagerly. The reaction was even better than Jane had hoped for. Maura, stammering, turned to look at Jane and then back down to the box, repeating this several times before finally she slammed her mouth shut and shook her head.
"But how?" she demanded to know.
"Being a detective has its perks." Jane responded cooly.
Maura turned to look at Jane seriously. "Jane, this show has been sold out for weeks."
"The department gets tickets to everything. We have a whole filing cabinet of crap. Normally they're used to compensate certain situations, but I put in a word with the guy down there and he owed me anyway,"
"These are – Jane," Maura looked back down at the tickets she held in her hands. "These are excellent seats. Oh, Jane." It took Jane off guard, but Maura's arms were wrapped around her before she even knew what was happening. It was almost childlike glee, with Maura's arms wrapped firmly around her middle and squeezing. Then she lightened her grip, but the remained linked together, and slowly it was Jane who pulled away first, a bit sadly.
"So you like?"
"Do I like? Jane, I've been wanting to see Wicked for years! My mother got tickets to a show a few years ago. We were going to go together but she had a client that she needed to take instead, at the last moment. It was disappointing. You're coming with me, right?"
Jane nodded. "I promised I would let you take me to a show, so here's your chance."
"This is wonderful!" squealed Maura. "I – " She paused to allow Jane to answer her ringing phone, and when Jane finally hung up, she cast Maura a sad look. "There's been a murder?"
"Cavanaugh wants to see us. Frost, Korsak and I. Not you, you're fine."
"Oh but dinner will be done soon." said Angela.
"How about you finish dinner up and put it in the fridge, and you and Maura go out? We'll have a family dinner tomorrow night."
Angela looked to Maura. "How about it?"
"That sounds wonderful."
"So explain to me again why we're on this case?" asked Frost as he and Jane exited her car. Jane pulled on a pair of crime scene gloves and flashed her badge to two detectives at the front gate. A crowd had gathered just inside where several detectives were looking through buggies, strollers and wagons. She eyed them carefully – a missing child was not to be taken lightly, but she had been to the zoo before. There were more exits than she'd ever even walked through, and the chance of the child still being in the park was very slim. Even more, the chance of these beat cops recognizing the sign of a suspicious suspect was even slimmer. Most of them looked like straight from the Academy rookies.
"Cavanaugh said it was a favor to an old friend. Knows the kid's dad's dad. I don't know. But I sure as hell didn't go into homicide to do missing children's cases. They're depressing."
"And homicide isn't?"
"At least you already know your victim is dead." said Jane grimly. "With a missing kid? You don't know what you're gonna find. That's gotta be the dad." she pointed straight ahead to where Aiden Barker was standing, one hand clamped over his mouth and his eyes squeezed shut. Korsak had already been briefed by Cavanaugh over the phone and had headed straight to the scene. Jane and Frost had orders to stop at the station beforehand. Korsak stood talking to Aiden, his gaze shifting immediately to his two coworkers as they approached.
Jane held out her hand. "Detective Jane Rizzoli. This is my partner, Detective Barry Frost."
"I would say pleased to meet you, but I'm not." replied Aiden thickly, ignoring Jane's outstretched hand. "We need to find my daughter."
"We'll find her. Can you tell me what happened here?"
He took a deep breath. "I turned away. For one second, I turned away. I was just getting them some lemonade. I just – " Taking a moment to gather himself, he turned away then came back, his eyes brimmed with tears that had not yet fallen. "When I went to bring them back their treats, Caidence wasn't there."
"Them. Who is them?"
"Caidence and her friend, Ashleigh."
"Is Ashleigh still here or have her guardians come to pick her up?"
"She's right there." Aiden pointed to where the dark haired girl had perched herself on the sitting edge of a fountain. A patrol officer was next to her. Three cartons of unopened frozen lemonade were melting at her feet on the cement. "She said Caidence was right next to her the whole time, that she had just been talking to her. How is that possible, detective? How could my daughter go missing so fast?"
Jane edged over to Frost, dropping her voice a few levels. "Why don't you go get a statement from the kid? I'll – " She couldn't finish her sentence. The crowd waiting to be searched parted and a woman, her cheeks red either from the heat or from whatever she was feeling or possibly from both, came flying through, tearing her way and making a beeline directly for Aiden Barker. She flung herself at him, her balled up fists wracking havoc on his shoulder. Their brash and throaty yells mixed together in an unrecognizable language. Jane grabbed the woman's arms and yanked her back, Korsak doing his part with Aiden.
"Hey!" screamed Jane. "Who the hell are you?"
It took a moment for the woman to compose herself, during which time fresh, angry tears sprung from the corners of her eyes. A man, who had gotten stuck wrestling through the crowd, appeared behind her, his hands reaching to squeeze her shoulders.
"I'm Caidence's mother. I'm sorry, I – " She wouldn't look at Aiden. Her words caught in her throat and she bowed her head. "How could you lose her? Why weren't you watching her?"
Aiden seethed, "Lose her? I looked away for a second. You don't think I'm torn up over this? You don't think – "
"Okay, okay. Ms. Barker, how about we – "
"Ford." said the woman abruptly. "Aiden and I were never married. I'm sorry, I didn't introduce myself. Caitlyn Ford. This is my husband," she pointed to the man standing behind her. "Charles."
"My name is Detective Jane Rizzoli and I've been assigned to your daughter's case. Has this ever happened before? Has your daughter ever run off by herself?"
Caitlyn shook her head. "No, no. Nothing like that. Caidence has always been independent but she knows not to run off like that."
"Could your daughter have saw someone that she knew and taken off to go talk to them, perhaps having left with them?"
"No. She would never do that, she would never – " Seeing that Caitlyn was getting worked up again, Jane placed a gentle hand on Caitlyn's wrist to stop her.
"I just had to ask. We're doing everything to find your daughter, Mrs. Ford. I promise. We have officers canvassing the entire zoo and all the exits have been blocked off. Nobody is leaving this zoo unsearched."
"And if she already left the zoo? What do we do if my daughter is already miles away from me?"
This was always the hard part for Jane. Whether her victim was dead or alive, looking into their loved one's eyes and trying to answer questions that she didn't have the answers to... it tore her apart. It is the definition of a gut wrenching moment – you can't lie when there is so much uncertainty dwelling between the question and answer, and you can't tell the truth for the same reason. So what do you say? Tell them to have hope? To pray? To put their faith in Jane, in her fellow officers? To believe in the system that already had failed to protect their beloved?
Jane fought to bring the words to her lips, but she was captivated by Caitlyn in a new way entirely. When Jane looked in Caitlyn's eyes, she saw a reflection of inexplicable familiarity. Aside from the pain and anguish that plagued her, Jane knew that these eyes would and could never leave her. She had seen their pain before. Felt their pain before. Longed to ease their pain before. Something about Caitlyn Ford struck Jane in the oddest, most peculiar way.
Shaking her thoughts from her head, Jane swallowed the curiosity creeping up her throat and answered Caitlyn as best she could: "I'll do my best to find her."
Hello again, everyone!
So here we are again. I'd just like to take a moment and say something, if you would give me a few more moments of your time.
This story will be taking a few liberties with season three. It's not so much that I'm doing a complete rewrite, but what I include and what I completely, utterly ignore will be easily spotted.
For now, let's just pretend that season three has not happened at all. I think that's the best plan.
This story will have a very large focus on the investigation, but there will also be a focus on our leading loves and their love for each other, so don't worry.
Anyway, I do hope you'll join me for this story as many of you did for Battle, and I look forward to hearing from you again!
Review and let me know what you think. :)