Check Chapter 1 For Disclaimer.
A/N: Based on TV series, not the books. I have yet to read any. And I still need to get a hold of the characters. Much like the show, I'm scrambling for ways to put or two favorite characters in situations together. I realized something after posting the first chapter. I probably going to be loaded down with research. Not looking forward to that.
Chapter Two:
Jane's left hand jumped for her gun. A blast of heat swept through her head, followed by a dull throb. She grabbed her head. Gauze looped from her left temple down the back of her head and around. From the feel of it, it was wrapped more than twice.
Around her machines buzzed and whine not helping the pain scorching through her head and settling behind her eyes. The walls were bare except for a clock and a erase-board and some more appliances she had no interest in learning about. She peeked into the room, squinting as the light from the window glared down on her face.
"Ma?" Jane went to rub the back of her hand, finding a cast on her right arm. A rustle, someone hung off a chair to the left of her bed. "Ma?"
The figure moved and stirred the air as it fiddled with its covers. Jane shivered from the slight breeze and pulled the soft blanket over her. She brought it up to her nose and breathed in deeply. That smell is familiar. "Hospitals are really upgrading."
"Not anymore than usual." Maura said as she folded her covers and tossed them down in her place. "Certainly not when it comes in sufficient furniture. At least you're comfortable?"
Jane blinked. She watched Maura step forward into the light slicing in through the curtain. "Is that my sweater?"
Maura smiled, her dimples seemed to brighten up the room. "Swap, my blanket for your sweater, for a few days?"
"Sure why not." Jane yawned. "So you're to blame for this?" She pulled the blanket higher, and wrapped it around her shoulders.
"I couldn't let them compromise your recovery." Maura sat beside Jane, not pressing against her. "I'm not so sure about their linens."
"Speaking of linens, you don't look too goofy in mine." Jane tried to get her mouth to work some more but as she moved her lips, a sudden dryness attacked her. "Wah..wah..water?"
"I'll have to ask the doctor, in fact we need to get him now."
Jane sat, a bit taken back that calling the doctor hadn't been Maura's first impulse. Maura pressed the button near Jane's bed taking the opportunity to fiddle with the hospital gown. "So unappealing."
"Jane Rizzoli I see. Doctor Flint." After a few moments, her doctor strolled in with her chart and went about checking her vitals. She let him check her eyes, and everything else. After a few glances at the machines he nodded. "Everything looks right. But I bet you're thirsty."
"Yeh." Jane's throat felt like someone doused it in gasoline and lit it on fire.
"I'm afraid It will only be a few ice chips. Until we know that everything is back in order." Dr. Flint put the chart down on the table and noticed Maura standing in the background. "Still here I see. Now Jane do you feel comfortable with this charming young lady listening in while I update you or..."
Jane grabbed the cup on the table and sighed when she found a few chips in them. She knocked them back like they were pain pills. "It's fine. She'd have found out eventually."
"You were shot three times. One of the shots, grazed the left side of your head, but most of the pain you're experiencing is from the fall. Your head hit the sidewalk hard."
Jane bit her lip and gestured for him to go on.
"One shot cut through your lower right arm, the bullet impacted the bone. Anyway the other shot lodged itself in your pancreas. You were in surgery for a good portion of your first day here."
"...First … day." She'd wouldn't let the pain get to her. Even though her back, front, top, and bottom ached like crazy.
"You've been in and out for three days." Maura stepped in. "You really don't remember?"
"Where's Ma?"
"Jane."
"Where's my mother, Maura?" Jane kicked the blanket off of her. "Why isn't my Ma here, knocking Dr. Flint's bedside manner?"
"Breathe."
"Don't tell me to breathe; tell me where my family is."
Maura caught Jane's arm and pushed it down on the bed. "They're fine. They're safe. And once you let the doctor finish I'll tell you all about it."
"We'll need to keep you here a few days." Dr. Flint collected the files. "Observational reasons."
"Yippee. This is so relaxing." Jane pulled her pillow up behind her and massaged the fingers sticking out of the cast on her right arm. It tickled. Well, her nerves weren't shot.
"Here's some more ice." Maura closed the door behind the nurse and dropped a tiny pink plastic pitcher on the table. She poured it into a new cup that came with it. "This should make you feel a bit better."
"Wait, this is just ice right. This isn't some fancy ice imported from Greenland or Russia or someplace?"
Maura dropped her hand and put the cup on the table. "You think I don't feel bad about this?"
"Wah?"
"Don't you think that I know if I had just brought you some normal, bland, everyday coffee that you'd still be okay?"
"Wait, Maura. No I..." Jane ignored the jolting pain in her gut. She leaned forward and tugged on her friend's hand. "Look at me. Come on."
Maura looked up. "I know it's not logical to take blame for some random incident but I can't help-"
"You're right, it's not logical. Maura, your fruit coffee didn't put me in this hospital room. Some idiot with a vendetta did. And I'd probably still be in this hospital eventually."
"You don't blame me?"
"For the coffee, yeah I do." Jane laughed when Maura gave her a huge smile. "Come on, give me some of that fancy ice. It feels like somebody karate chopped my voice box."
Maura picked up the cup and Jane took two bites before she grabbed her stomach.
"Is it a sharp pain like a knife or does it feel like needles. A throb maybe? Do you think you can describe it?" Maura practically tossed the cup down by the pitcher and squeezed Jane's shoulder. "Do I need to call the doctor? Morphine?"
Jane held up her hand to call off the impromptu interrogation. "When's lunch?"
"No time soon."
The clock on the wall read 2:30 PM. Jane toss her friend a look. "Are you kidding me?"
"You just had a surgery. They're not letting you eat until your body proves they put you together properly."
"Put me..." Jane pinched her the bridge of her nose. "What, I'm Humpty Dumpty now? What are you talking about?"
"You have to display appropriate gas...distribution."
Blank Stare. "Umm...gas...distribution. What? I have to burp, is that what you're telling me?"
Maura sighed. "Or another physical response. A natural physical response."
"They're waiting for me to fart." Jane wiped her mouth. "That's sexy."
Maura paused on her trip to get more ice. "No it isn't."
After giving Jane a few extra chips to compensate for no meal Maura put the cup down and pushed the table away.
"This sweater is actually quite comfortable, what kind of blend is it?" She pulled Jane's hoodie off and still managed to keep her hair flawless. She studied the tag. "Cotton 60%, Rylon 40 %. Hmmm."
"Look, Doc is gone. Can you tell me what's going on?" Jane let the blanket pool on her lap. "And why am I really wrapped in your 'linens'?"
Maura let the hoodie fall down into her chair. She sighed. "Three days ago, some hired guns attempted an assassination on your family."
No. Jane felt the fear bunch up at the bottom of her heart heavy and bloated. It felt like a leak had sprung in her chest and was slowly sinking her down against the bed. She blinked. Maybe she shouldn't ask. "...did they...did they..."
"Succeed? No."
Jane exhaled the breath she didn't know she'd been holding. "Hopefully, you've got some more good news."
"Frankie was with your parents and was able to spot the shooters; he got your parents out but took a few shots himself." Maura checked the IV bag. More as something to do than from any real concern. This was not her morgue. She had no jurisdiction here. "He was up and out in a few hours. They moved them in quickly enough."
They were safe. Frankie would have a few battle scars to impress his police buddies. And her mother would live to annoy her another day. She couldn't wait.
"Moved them in?"
"Undisclosed location." Maura arranged the blanket so that it was neatly folded and square over Jane's lap. "The threat was bigger than the department first thought."
Jane nodded. "And I'll be joining them."
"No."
"Excuse me?" Jane leaned forward and grabbed hold of Maura's wrist. "What do you mean?"
"I mean you won't be joining them." Maura sat down, her eyes lingering on Jane's fingers wrapped around her arm. "You can't."
Jane loosened her grip and rested their hands on the bed. "There must be some way."
"They want the situation to improve before they take you. They don't want to...risk it."
"So where am I staying?"
Maura's eyebrow shot up and she gave Jane a smirk. "I suppose this is a good time to go over house rules."
"No. Uh uh, It's not happening." Jane tried to cross her arms but her cast hindered her; so she settled for grabbing her chin while shaking her head. "I don't see that working."
"Bass loves you."
"The turtle loves me. Great." Jane carefully navigated the IV line as she swept her hair back. "Well there's too much to even consider."
"As in?"
"Stuff? Stuff! My stuff at my apartment. The stuff I keep there. Jo Friday. My dog stuff."
"Stuff that Korsak and Frost already helped me to obtain." Maura floated off the bed and toward the chair where she pulled up the hoodie. "Where I got this. Comfort clothes to help you deal with the misery initiated by your incident."
"The incident of being shot?"
"Yes."
"Well, maybe you didn't get the right stuff?"
"Well I was a bit overwhelmed, but I had such a nice conversation with your neighbor."
"Neighbor."
"Nice girl. Attractive. Expressive Eyes."
Jane felt her eyelids droop. Her breathing became deep and slow. "Marisa. Yeah."
"Marisa. Often thought to be a combination of Maria and Luisa. Spanish, Italian, Portuguese."
"You're just a veritable encyclopedia."
"Again, yes."
"So, there were no problems at my place. No break in or anything."
"I couldn't tell you from the condition it was in, but we decided to have all your clothes checked for bugs and tracking devices. None were found."
"Well that's good."
"No cameras. No suspicious new people in the building."
"Strange." Jane turned on her side and pulled the blanket back over her. "We'll have to see into that."
"I found it odd as well."
"What's with the blanket..." Jane blinked out. She fell into a deep sleep.
"Just easing you into it. Life at my house." Maura decided to read over some medical journals while she waited for Jane to get a few hours of sleep.
Korsak and Frost would take a while to secure her house. They needed to 'set up camp' in a few of her spare rooms, being that they were the duo assigned security detail. She wouldn't tell Jane about the folder of pictures they found in the would be assassins' motel rooms. Or that no place would be safe for the Rizzolis as long as this grudge was still had. At the moment Jane didn't need to know that this was just the beginning of what Maura was certain would be the family feud of the decade. But it was a relief that she was examining the sleeping patterns of her friend, and not examining the entry wounds of her friend's corpse.
