Tik.

Another second goes by...

Tok.

Another water droplet hits the window.

Tik.

And another...

Tok.

And another...

Tik.

Again...

Tok.

And again...

If you sit in silence long enough you can go insane. But there is no silence... there is always a clock that ticks, rain and hits the windows, car that speeds down the road, loud voices of your colleagues chatting away about something their kid did on the weekend that was absolutely adorable and embarrassing at the same time, there will always be something to fill that silence. Whereas someone might complain about the constant noise around them, Jane was grateful for it. It left less room to be left alone with her thoughts and day dreams and more time to concentrate on the last bit of paperwork she had to do, unless they landed another case. With her luck that will happen sooner rather than later.

It felt good to be home. It felt safe. It felt familiar. But why did it feel so wrong? Jane made a quick sweep of the room, trained eyes evaluating everything going on around her.

Korsak sat to her right behind his desk, pretending to be doing his paperwork, and it would have looked convincing if his eyes did not make their way up to his screen every few minutes and if a little chuckle did not escape his mouth every time they did. Cat videos, Jane figured. She took a moment to just look at him. Neatly trimmed gray hair was a refreshing change from a bush she was used to seeing everyday for as long as she could remember working with him. A trade mark trimmed goatee was covering the area around his mouth that would break into a smile every now and then. Little wrinkles next to his eyes were expected at his age, but somehow they did not make him look older, they just added to an overall image that is Vince Korsak. He was wearing his brown suit with a white shirt and tie that he no doubt spent an awful amount of time picking out. He hasn't changed much, deduced Jane and sends a warm smile his way when her former partners' eyes met her for a brief second before both looked away, Korsak to finish his "paperwork", Jane to her next mark.

Barry Frost, his desk joined with Jane's, was so busy laughing at something Frankie said to him a moment ago, that he did not even notice Jane looking at them, with eyes that at the moment bore only one function: Evaluation. He looks good, Jane thought, older, but still good. Though there was light trace of hair on his head the adjoining trimmed moustache somehow balanced it out and made him look quite handsome if Jane was to judge. On was his trade mark white shirt with his favourite red tie. Jacket from his gray, nearly silver suit, hung from the back of the chair he was currently sitting in while cracking up wholeheartedly at something Frankie said. There were no trace of age on his face, yet somehow he matured out in the past years that Jane has not seen him. Gone were the gagging sounds he made at next to every crime scene, and in were the good ideas that more often than not helped them in their cases. She always knew kid had potential, it was only a matter of time that he showed it. Moving her eyes a little to the right, her gaze stopped at her little brothers back.

Frankie? There was not much to tell about him. He was her copy, just male and a little more chilled out. He was still wearing his uniform, indicating that he still did not make detective, but from the conversations Jane and him had he just said that he is more than content with his current job, plus he was not looking to replace Jane just because her spot was open. That immediately made a flash of guilt pass through Jane's body, as she once again took in the scene in front of her, catching Frankie saying something to Frost that made him double over in laughter yet again, Jane thought "may be, I just don't belong here anymore?"

But before Jane could dwell on that any further all three detectives phone vibrated indicating a new crime scene that was waiting for them out there.

Groaning, detectives plus Frankie made their way down to garage to take a car to the crime scene. Just as they made it down Jane heard Frost sing-songing,

"Jaaaaanie, can I pwease drive to this one?" rolling her eyes good heartedly she threw the keys at him and playfully scolded him

"Jesus, are you sure those licence are not fake? I coulda sworn you're underage to drive! And I don't want to have to call your parents Barry!" Frost groaned, while the other three occupants of the car just chuckled and patted him on the shoulder playfully.

"That's cold, Vanilla" Frost smirked when he saw horror on Jane's face at the old nickname Rondo gave her all those years back.

"Just shut up and drive the damn car Frost, I have a headache anyway" she grumbled and buckled the belt on the passenger seat.

"I will not be silenced" exclaimed Frost in his best Stewie Griffin voice. The look of utter disbelief all three of his friends gave him was enough for him to mumble a quite "too much, I get it" and start driving.

Closing her eyes, Jane let herself relax a little, hoping to catch a quick nap before they get to the scene.

Flashback

Everything hurt, starting with her head and ending with her toes. Every single spot on her body was going through what felt like different kinds of pain. Her head felt heavy and the banging sensation in her left temple, she was sure, will kill her sooner or later. Her back felt like it had been set on fire, and the smell of burning flesh that surrounded her did nothing to let those thoughts go. Her legs just felt like cotton wads, it felt like the blood flow was cut off of them but at the same time the pressure that was on them felt like too much. Jane wanted to scream but she did not have enough air in her lungs to be wasting in on what probably will not get her anywhere. She opened her eyes to see dark blue sky and way too much smoke for her to wake up somewhere at a campsite. She tried to sit up but the pain in her back and ribs was unbearable so she just stayed laying down, watching the sky, praying for some kind of miracle. She closed her eyes.

Just when she thought that the pressure on her legs will surely end her for good, she felt something shift, and then her legs were freed. Her eyes shot open when she heard someone mutter something in a langue that was foreign to her. That's when her alert orbs came in contact with concerned hazel ones, she was not getting fooled however, she has been through too much in the last two days and it was too good to be true to be found by someone who was willing to help her after this blast. What the hell were they doing in this area anyway, no sane person would just go and investigate a blast site unless they were looking to get killed. Just as she was gathering all of her strength up to push her "saviour" off of her, said person gently grabbed her shoulders, as to hold her on the ground, and said in the weirdest accent she has ever heard

"Whoa there, calm down Rizzoli, we're on the same side here okay? I'll get you outta here and into a hospital ASAP, we don't want no rebels finding you, that will not go well for you. I see it in your eyes that you don't trust me, I wouldn't either, but right now you have no choice" there was something in the intensity of the stare directed to her that made her believe this person. She just nodded her head, even though it looked like her head barely moved an inch her "saviour" understood her and nodded too.

"Good, good. Now I'm gonna have to put you on your stomach so I can at least know what damage we are dealing with here." She had no strength to reply, she just hopped that her eyes spoke for themselves and that the message in them was clear, "I trust you". When she was gently put on her stomach she heard a muttered "fuck" behind her and knew that it looked as bad as it felt. She had no time to dwell on that however because the next thing she knew she felt sharp paint shot through her lower back and left side. That's when the scream left her mouth and she regretted it instantly because all she got in return was a mouth full of dirt when she opened it. She wanted to curse out whoever that fucking asshole was that just made her go through that pain but thought better of it when she felt the sand mixed with ash in her mouth.

"Shit, sorry about that friend, but I had to get it out so I can carry you to the car. Now take a deep breath, imma pick you up and get you to the jeep, alright." Jane took a deep breath as instructed and groaned when she felt herself carefully placed on her "saviours" shoulders and carried to what she presumed was their getaway vehicle. Just before she was placed in the back seat though, she tugged on the flask that was tied to her new friends belt until said friend got what the problem was and sat her on the seat before carefully giving her some water to drink.

Jane gulped selfleshly at the water; only to have it taken away from the mouth.

"Easy there big girl, we have quite a trek to make and you need to take sips and not gulps, copish?"

Nodding weakly, Jane finally found enough strength to ask

"where are we goin?" as hoarse and groggy as that sounded Jane did not care. All she knew is that she needed a medic and she needed one NOW!

"away from here that for sure! Now before we get the hell outta here, there is one thing we need to do. We need to get rid of your dog tags, alright?" the look Jane gave this mystery saviour of hers could of killed a whole platoon of soldiers, if looks really could kill and they weren't in the middle of a war zone that proved that theory wrong.

"Now before you say anything just hear me out okay? This is nothing bad, you will be given new ones soon as we are in the hospital, you only need to get rid of those, so the people who knew you were inside that building think you're one of those corpses, with me?" After running it through in her head Jane agreed that it was a reasonable thing to do so she simply gave a nod and watched as her tags were removed by S (that's what she decided to call her mystery saviour for now) and watched as S ran and placed her tags around what she could only guess was a woman that died in the blast.

Jane took a moment to finally look at her saviour somewhat closely, she couldn't tell if it was a woman or a man so far, they were wearing a cap tilted backwards, a khaki sweatshirt with a Kevlar vest over it, there was a desert scarf over the bottom half of their face, no doubt to stop all the sand going into their mouth, a pair of khaki cargo pants tucked into a pair of dirty cream army shoes. There was a pistol holster strapped to her saviours left leg which held a side arm that she could not make out at this distance, next there was what looked like a tool belt around their waist, but it held water flask, flash light, handcuffs, and a few spare magazines for a side arm. And that's only on one side that she got to see. There were only a few pockets on the front of the Kevlar vest however, and that made Jane wonder. Normally if you are regular soldier your vest is packed with all kinds of stuff, and that makes moving in them quite hard unless you have had experience and training. The gear on this person however was more of a, scout look. And that's when the rifle strapped to the back of S Kevlar caught her attention. And everything fell into place. The lack of gear, light vest and most importantly the rifle. There it was, a beautiful M- 40A1 sniper rifle.

"So it has to be a guy" Jane thought to herself eyes still lingering on the riffle. Just then S turned around and jogged back to the car. "Only his collar bone is too defined and his chest bounces a little too much even in the vest he is wearing. " Jane's inner voice said.

"Aaaaalrighty, all set, let's get outta here shall we?" voice was muffled by the scarf, great, that did not help at all... but Jane merely nodded, what's left of her adrenaline was wearing of and she knew that the pain will show itself soon enough. S grabbed her feet and carefully put them in the car so that Jane could be all buckled in. Just when S bend down to get her legs, Jane had a chance to sneak a peek down "his" vest and what she saw there surprised her. This was not a HE at all! In fact it was definitely a woman. Boobs and gentle hands. Those say it all.

"Nice rack.." Jane found herself mumbling, she would have face palmed herself had she the energy for it and if she was sure that it would not result in more throbbing in her head.

"Uuuh, yeah... let's get you to the hospital shall we, looks like you might have a serious concussion there!" there was no mistaking it now. This was definitely a woman. She giggled. GIGGLED. Boobs, gentle hands and giggles. This was a woman, Jane have never been so sure in her life. But what was a woman doing with a sniper rifle in a hot spot like this? There were no women snipers in the military, of that she were sure. Fuck it! Might as well go on and ask. Just as she opened her mouth to ask, S shut her door and ran to the driver's seat of her jeep. Disposing of her rifle on to the passenger seat, she raved the engine to life and took off to what Jane guessed was a hospital.

"You are a sniper" Jane said,

"Very observant of you my friend" S said, even in her near coma state, Jane could hear a hint of sarcasm in that statement and she was sure that if she took that scarf of she would see a smirk on the woman's lips.

"How? Women don't make snipers, not in the military anyway!" Jane was starting to breathe very heavily, the pain was attacking every living cell of her body and it was hard not to scream, especially when the road was not as bump free as Jane had wished it would be.

"Look, it's best you don't talk right now, okay? I promise to answer any questions you have once I get you all checked in to a hospital, alright? But right now just save your strength and take even breath got it?" damn this woman to hell for making reasonable requests, were Jane's thoughts.

"Ah shit, alright, but you promised, so you better answer when I ask next" Jane grumbled and pressed her head again the window. She barely heard a muttered

"I always keep my promises" before Jane closed her eyes and relaxed, she knew she shouldn't sleep in her state, because if she goes to sleep she might never wake up, but she was tired, very tired. She was trapped in the state where she was neither awake nor asleep. Too tired to move, yet too tired to fall asleep either. Even if her eyes were half open she could not concentrate on anything that was moving outside of her window, nor did she really care. She did not know how long they've been driving, but it had to be a while now, the throbbing in her head returned with a force times 10. Her back was itching like crazy and aching from the pressure she was putting on it right now. Just when she was about to voice her suggestion on laying down on her stomach, the car stopped and S hopped out and made her way to Jane's side of the car.

"Wake up partner, were here!" said S

"Rizzoli! We are here!"

Present

"Wake up partner, were here!"

"Rizzoli! We are here!" Frost said as he nudged her shoulder.

"What? Where is here?" Jane was disorientated to say the least.

"Eh... the crime scene, ring any bells?" Frost had that "are you crazy?" look on his face and Jane just had to play it cool, she could not afford to be the butt of his jokes for the rest of the day, what with the headache that she had.

"pssssh I knew that Barrold, I was just trying to remember where I left my old handcuffs, you know?, was it on your mom's night stand or the living room coffee table? Ask her the next time you visit? Will ya? Those were some great cuffs" the look of absolute horror passed through Frost's face as he choked on what Jane suspected was his own saliva.

"That was horrible. The mental image is there forever now Jane, I HOPE YOURE HAPPY!" he was shouting while jogging to catch up with Jane who was in the middle of a full blown laughing fit.

Check. Mate.

Now to get through the rest of the day...