**DISCLAIMER – I do not own the characters, they belong to TNT and associated bodies. **
It will Rain.
(Authors note: this fic is set after the finale of 2.15. Personally, and I believe I'm one of few; I'm really glad they've got something that they have to deal with and get through. Which ultimately means more Jane and Maura screentime and less Agent Beardy McWho-again? getting in the way.
I don't normally write one-shots, so I thought I'd give it a go. Hope you title belongs to Bruno Mars.)
As Jane wandered through the wards of the hospital, her mind kept flickering back to the previous evening. She had one hand perched on her left hip, now light of it's gun which she had handed into hospital security for safekeeping. She gnawed at the thumbnail of her right hand, biting hard on the nail, teasing down the cuticles biting the rough skin. Her eyes were cast on the floor, not moving; her body not needing their use as she glided slowly around the corners of the hospital she had spent so much time in.
"I told you to leave," Maura seethed as Patrick Doyle was loaded into the ambulance.
"Maura," Jane pleaded. "Maura, please; don't do this." She touched the Doctor's arm, garnering a look of fury. "Maura what I meant to do? I signed up to serve and protect, I was trying to protect you!"
"I didn't need protecting! He would never have hurt me, unlike you!"
Jane stood in despair as Maura climbed into the back of the ambulance, not so much as glancing back as the doors closed.
Rounding the corner of the Reception, back to the Emergency Room; she raised her eyes to the young doctor approaching.
"Detective Rizzoli?" He asked shyly.
"Yes," Jane whispered before clearing her throat, dry and hoarse from the sobs that had wracked her for over an hour after Maura had left the crime scene. "Yes, I'm Detective Jane Rizzoli."
"Maam, Patrick Doyle has been moved to the High Dependancy Unit. His surgury went well, considering the extent of the wounds and damage of the fall. We're going to monitor him over the next 48 hours. We'll have more news on the paralysis as soon as we can enduce him out of the coma and conduct some more tests. That's all we have for now," he smiled kindly as he walked back into the E.R.
Jane processed the news, rubbing her forehead. She knew entering Doyle's room was risky. If Maura didn't scream at her again, then her own officers would tell her to leave for her own safety. Almost killing an Irish mob boss wasn't a crime that would go unpunished and she knew it. Despite her better judgement, Jane found herself climbing the stairs to the second floor, her tired mind unconciously registering the room number from the patient board in the nurse's station. As her hand touched the cool metal of the door handle, she let out a small breath; raising her eyes to the sight of a weary Maura raising her head from the bed in the direction of the Detective.
Finding no malice in the green eyes, Jane raised her left hand.
"I havn't come to make a scene, or to fight," she spoke hoarsely. She closed the door gently behind her. She ran a hand through her hair, trying to find the courage to speak again. "Maura I just have one thing to say and I need you to hear me out, I need you to listen," her eyes saying more than the words. Struggling, she touched the scars on her hands.
"Ok," Maura whispered, nodding that it was alright to continue.
Jane took a deep breath, hazel eyes tired from crying, searching eyewhere in the room apart from the eyes now focused on her own.
"Maura I would never have hurt him," she barely spoke.
"Not intentionally, not without provocation. I know what he's done in the past, but I also know . . ." she bit her lip, as betraying tears broke her temporary mask of courage.
" . . .I also know, that despite all of that; he's half the reason you're here. I would never bring harm to someone who is your family, whatever the depth of the relationship. But I would, I have and I would again . . . Maura I will harm anyone who I thought was going to harm you. I would take a life to protect yours," she was hoarser now, barely managing to make the words audiable.
Finally looking up, she glanced at the M.E who was now openly crying, albeitly silently. With a small nod, she opened the door slowly, looking back just before stepping outside.
"Maura I would give my own life to protect yours, and I need you to know that."
The next thing Maura heard were two loud pops. Gunshots are a strange sound, not a sound Maura was unfamiliar with, but not one that sounded the same everytime; after the initial bang there always seems to be a small sense of hope that it's just a child bursting a bag of chips, or something falling off a desk onto a tiled floor.
Sometimes however, when that utter dread filled her veins; when life moved in slow-motion, when she felt the chill of the silence that would follow; she would know. She would know that it was a gun, that it had been fired, fired at someone; and that someone was hurt. She had heard that sound too much in the last twenty-four hours she had experienced.
Gripping her father's hand, her mouth roared the name of the woman now slumped outside the door.
The clip-clip-clip of the boots on her heels followed, her ears not hearing the screams of the people outside the room.
Opening the door, Jane's battered body fell into the room, her eyes rolling in her head; her left arm coming out instinctively to shield the M.E despite the fact she was barely concious.
Maura pressed her hands onto the two gaping holes in the Detective's right shoulder, holding her from behind; looking up to find the gun now pointed directly at her.
She shut her eyes.
"Hey," Maura smiled as confused dark brown eyes searched before finding their match in glistening green orbs.
"You're ok?" Jane wheezed out, clawing at the oxygen mask in her way; her hands sleepy and heavy.
"I'm ok," she smiled; tracing little patterns on the brunettes forehead. "And you are going to be just fine," she pushed out as a tear made it's little journey down her stained cheeks.
"I remember talking to you, then opening the door and then it all goes fuzzy," she scrunched up her nose, frustrated at not knowing what had happened.
Maura bit her lip, using her index finger to smoothe out the little wrinkles of frustration.
"Well . . . you sat up, and you said . . ." she looked deep into the weary brown eyes. "You said, 'You will have to shoot through me until there's nothing left before you harm her'. And you put your hand on my leg, and you propped yourself up in front of me. And then that's when help arrived."
"But you're alright? Promise me you're ok."
"Honey, I'm just fine. And Patrick is doing ok," she beamed, touching Jane's cheek. "He left last night for some place a little less . . . arrestable, shall we say. Very cloak and dagger, but that's just his life."
"How long have I been in here?" Jane asked confused.
"Four days. Fourteen hours, twenty-three minutes." Maura moved her eyes back from her watch. "That doesn't include the seven hours you were in theatre. Which might I add, were the longest seven hours of my life."
"I told you," Jane wheezed slowly, bringing her left hand up to her face to link fingers with the M.E. "No-one will ever hurt you without having to go through me first, and if I can't use my gun to protect you then I'll have to use what's left of this body. But I will never stop trying, not until this old heart stops beating."
"Don't say that Jane," Maura whispered. "You're not allowed to leave me here alone, you get that? It is not an option; ever. Don't ever put me through that."
"I'm not willing to commit to a promise I can't keep," Jane forced a small grin. "But I'll try to not get myself killed, again." She smiled broadly now.
"You know," she finally managed to free herself of the oxygen mask. "One of these days, if I'm not trying to pick up some new scars; we should have dinner."
Maura had that adorable puzzled look on her face.
"Jane we have dinner all the time?"
Jane sighed, before once more taking Maura's hand in her own.
"I mean dinner . . . dinner. As in a date dinner, but we're each other's date. Maura, I don't wanna die without ever knowing if it could've been worth risking a chance on us. I'm done messing about. This year's been enough to kill me, literally; multiple times," she laughed coarsely, watching as Maura tried not to smile. "I think I'm finally ready to live a little, if you'll have me?"
Maura smiled fully now, raising herself over the Detective to plant a gentle kiss on her forehead.
"I'll have you," she stared at the brown orbs, turning golden as happiness finally overcame the pain that always seemed to inhabit there. "I'd have you all my days for the rest of my life, if you can find a way to not make me worried all the damn time!"
"Doctor Isles . . . cursing! What next!"