Korsak loved Jane.
No, not that way. He was no fool.
He saw the age in his face every time he looked into the mirror for his morning shave, felt it in his body every time he had to take the stairs and found his breathing come just that little bit harder than it had done the year before.
He had been her mentor. Then friend. And nothing ever more.
And, truthfully, he was more than okay with that.
He knew Jane needed a certain kind of heart to hold hers and he was honest enough to know that his had never been it. Oh, he had a good heart, he knew that. Just not the strong one she needed. Which was why he'd always known that even if he'd been her age, it wouldn't have worked between them anyway.
Because the scars in her hands weren't the only ones Jane bore.
Which is why Korsak also had known, someplace deep inside, that it wasn't going to work out with Casey.
That one had wanted something Jane couldn't give and might never be able to.
He knew her as a passionate, driven, kind woman. But he hadn't truly known her. He didn't know the defiant, fiercely independent, deeply feeling, scarred Jane. And he had no idea that what Jane did wasn't a job to her but a cause.
It hadn't been all his fault, either. He had his own demons, his own cause.
And Jane often hid the truth of herself from the outside world. Whether she loved them or not, whether she meant to or not. Perhaps it was just part of what she did to feel safe.
But it had left their relationship weakened from the beginning and it had collapsed slowly, tiredly, under the weight of fear and grief like a dying sigh.
Korsak had worried about her more then.
And more each horror or tragedy she'd survived, rather than less-as if he was afraid her luck would run out somehow or something.
Then one day he'd been signing forms and happened to look up from his desk and he saw the shadows in her eyes ease back as if from the sun. Maura had been laughing at something, her hazel eyes bright and Jane had suddenly smiled. The first truly genuine smile he'd seen from her in a long time.
In that moment, he'd known Jane had at last found a heart that was strong enough for hers.
Maura had her own scars. Her own horrors and tragedies. And she had survived them somehow, too.
And somewhere along the way, amid all the arguing and misunderstandings and chaos, the two women had managed to become that nameless old beautiful thing between absolute friends and sisters.
Now he found he worried about the both of them.
Because Korsak just added Maura to his love of Jane.
And he was, truthfully, more than okay with that.