*****WARNING: CHARACTER DEATH******

Characters aren't mine. They belong to Tess Gerritsen, Janet Tamaro, Turner Broadcasting, Warner Brothers, and other assorted important people. I gain nothing from writing these stories but the fun of doing it. Please don't sue me.

"She's… dead?" Jane's gaze slowly blurred as she pulled her eyes from Chang to Korsak. "What do you mean she's dead?"

"The bullet, it…" Korsak cleared his throat a few times, "Jane, she was hit by a stray bullet."

The younger detective's head began to shake back and forth in the negative. "No, that's not right, Korask. That can't be right. She was in the van with Susie. I told them both to stay in the van until it was safe."

"Dr. Isles left." Chang's reserved voice was barely a whisper. "There was a young boy who had run into the street, and he was in danger." She wiped at her eyes, smearing her makeup. "I think he was too scared to move, and everyone was caught up in the gun fight. Dr. Isles noticed him before I did, and, before I could stop her, she was running out to pull him to safety."

"The kid's okay," Korsak finished for Chang, whose words seemed to be stuck in her throat. "But," he shook his head. "She died a hero."

"She shouldn't have died at all," Jane roared back. "Why didn't she stay in the van? Why didn't she tell one of us he was in danger? That's my job, not hers. She's a doctor, not a cop. She shouldn't be risking her life like that, Korsak." Slowly, she backed up, away from the sympathetic eyes, only stopping when her back hit the cool metal of the coroner's van. "Where is she?"

Korsak's frown deepened. "Are you really sure you want to see her like…"

"Where is she, Korsak?" The brunette's emphatic tone left no room for bargaining.

With a nod, he stepped back to motion behind him. There, in the middle of the street surrounded by a hive of people all quietly working to preserve the evidence while being reverential of the body of the woman they had come to respect, lay Maura's body.

Jane wiped the back of her hand across her mouth as she pushed past Korsak and Chang. With heavy, deliberate steps, she made her way to the taped off scene until she was only a few feet away.

Maura's body lay, eyes closed and mouth slightly open, in a pool of cooling blood. It was difficult to tell from the stains seeping across the deep emerald silk, but there may have been more than one bullet to hit. Legs at an inhuman angle beneath her body and hair sticky and matted with her own blood, Maura looked almost like an abused doll some evil child had tormented by rolling it around in the dirt until the pretty face and perfect hair had been worn to rags.

The body in front of her wasn't Maura. It was a reminder. Jane's whole life was dedicated to protecting and serving, yet she had done neither for one of the few people that really should have mattered to her, and she would never have the chance to make it better. While she was on the front line, center stage, taking what she thought was all the fire and all the danger so she could make the streets safer by taking down the bad guy, Maura had been quietly working in her shadow actually saving a life and losing herself in the process.

Maura was gone.

Jane was still there.

Nothing would ever be the same.

The detective could feel herself sliding to her knees on the warm pavement. She shut down. Nothing made sense, nothing computed, and nothing worked. Her body was a mess of conflicting and misdirected feelings.

Maura was gone.

What would she do now?