Punishment

"Dr Maura Isles," Maura said into her cell with a humph of displeasure at being interrupted.

"Is this Maura Isles?" a soft voice asked.

"Yes, this is she. Who's calling? I'm in the middle of am autopsy." Maura was making her annoyance obvious, but that was about to change quite quickly.

"This is Sandra Denton, Massachusetts General ER. Are you the emergency contact for Jane Rizzoli?"

Maura couldn't answer for a few seconds, and the nurse asked the question again. "Yes. I am Detective Rizzoli's emergency contact."

"Were you aware that Detective Rizzoli has also named you her medical power of attorney?"

Dumbfounded, Maura replied, "Yes, I'm aware of that. What's happened?"

"You need to come to Mass Gen as soon as possible. Detective Rizzoli is in critical condition."

Maura staggered backwards away from the slab, and found herself falling to the ground. She was about to answer the nurse when the autopsy bay doors were slammed open and Frankie bolted in. "Maura, it's Jane. You gotta come, now."

She mumbled something at the ER nurse, and looked up at Frankie. He extended his hand, and pulled her upright. She tried to go into her office to change out of the bloody scrubs she was wearing, but Frankie stopped her. "I got your bag, Maura. You don't have time to get changed," he said as he pulled her out of the autopsy suite. He didn't give her a chance to do anything other than keep pace with his hurried steps. When they reached the black and white, he yanked open the door and all but pushed her into the passenger seat. He vaulted over the hood of the car and seemed to get in, start the car, put his seatbelt on and speed off in one motion.

Maura gathered her wits, and asked, "What happened to Jane?"

With tears in his voice, he replied, "She was shot three times." Maura gasped, and he continued. "Twice in the chest, once in the head." Now the tears started down his cheeks, and he chanced a quick glance at his passenger. Maura was sitting stock still.

She took a breath, and asked, "How is she?"

Frankie took a deep breath, and on the exhale he said, "They don't expect her to see tomorrow morning."

Maura sank back into the seat, and tried to focus on what had happened, and if there was any hope at all.

###

Maura ran through the ER doors shouting for Sandra Denton. At the positive response, she identified herself, and Denton began to escort Maura back through the ER when an angry voice stopped them.

"YOU! You shouldn't be here! This is YOUR fault!"

Maura turned to see Barry Frost approaching her at a dead run. She put her hands up to try and protect herself from the irate detective when another body stepped in his path.

"Frost!" said Vince Korsak as he grabbed the younger man's shoulders to stop his headlong dash. After a brief struggle, Frost pushed Korsak away. He looked at Maura, disgust marring his handsome features.

"You see this reddish-brown stain, Doctor?" Maura nodded once as Frost held his jacket up to her face. "This is my partner's blood, you bitch! It's your fault! This is your fault! Would it have killed you to answer any one of the forty-six phone calls she made? How about the fifty-five texts, each one begging for your forgiveness?" He turned and started pacing around Maura, all the while ranting at her. "What about the emails that she sent you? I lost count after the first sixty!" Frost stopped pacing and looked directly at Maura. She started to tremble, and for the first time in her friendship with Barold Frost, she was terribly afraid of him. He looked as if he was going to hit her, but he took a step back, looked her up and down and said, "You're not worth my badge." He looked away, then back at her. "Where do you get off punishing Jane for doing her job, huh?"

Korsak tried to pull Frost away from Maura as the nurse started tugging her in the direction of the elevators. Frost pushed Korsak off him again, walked over to a chair and threw himself into it. As he sat, his tears started, and he finished his rant with, "You don't deserve Jane Rizzoli, Doctor."

Maura's own tears began in earnest as Ms Denton pulled her away from the waiting area. "People say things they don't mean when they're angry, Dr Isles. Now," she said as they went behind the curtains, "these are Detective Rizzoli's doctors."

Maura took a deep breath, and asked, "What are we dealing with here?"

The ER doctor took Maura's arm and ushered her into the elevator. "Detective Rizzoli is about to have surgery for the two gunshot wounds to her right chest, both through-and-through. There is also a single gunshot wound to her right temporal area. Thankfully, it's a graze. She has, however, lost a lot of blood, and her prognosis is grim." The small group of doctors stepped off the elevator at the surgical floor. Maura started to ask another question when a familiar voice broke in.

"Maura! Thank goodness you're here!" was all that Angela Rizzoli could get out before she burst into tears. "They won't tell me anything!" she sobbed. "Janie told me months ago that she'd made you her emergency contact and her medical power of attorney. I was glad that she did, but now they won't tell me anything, and I'm her mom!" she ended on a wail.

Maura took Angela's arm, and walked her over to the bank of chairs along the wall. She sat Angela down, and asked the doctor to repeat what he had told her. He obliged, and then said to Maura, "We need your consent to operate."

"You have it. Just fix her up."

The ER doctor nodded at the surgical clerk, who handed Maura a sheaf of papers to be signed. She took the proffered pen, and paused. "I'm the Chief Medical Examiner for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Can you get me in to the OR?"

"It's not really procedure,"

She interrupted him. "Please? I need to see for myself what's happened to Jane."

He walked over to the surgery suite doors and entered. Less than two minutes later, he came back and beckoned her. "You can scrub in and observe. That's all Dr Simmons will allow."

"Thank you," she breathed. Turning to Angela, she handed off the paperwork. In the 100 or so seconds the doctor had been gone, Maura had flown through the paperwork, signing wherever she needed to. Angela nodded at her, and took the paperwork in a death grip, as if the papers would keep her connected to Jane.

###

Five minutes later, Maura was in the OR, watching as the surgeons began to do their best to save the woman who she had considered her best friend up to two weeks earlier.

AN: This is my first foray into R&I. If y'all think it's worth continuing, please let me know.