Author Notes: Thank you to everyone who commented/faved/followed the first chapter of this story and I'm sorry it's taken a while to get back to it. Some stories inspire and motivate me all the way through, and others become more problematic. It took a while to get over a block I was having, but I'm finally here and ready to keep at it.

I will, of course, be carrying on writing Lullaby and Rookie, as well as planning some other stories I am so keen to write. Apparently I want to write all of the fics, but alas, I have two more weeks of full time work to contend with.

A man's face imprinted itself on the backs of her eyes. Maura lay down, her eyes closed, covered. She'd been sat in the hospital for a couple of hours. Her eyes had been cleaned out, as much as feasibly possible, and she had been instructed to rest. She couldn't. Behind the bandages, she could see his face. The man who blocked her way, the man who contributed to the crime that followed. The fingers wrapped around her hand slipped away, a chair scraped across the floor.

"Jane?" Maura could hear the quiver of her voice. She coughed a couple of times, her chest ached. The sounds were outside of herself. She reached out, her fingers collided with the plastic edging of the bed. Panic filled her. She sat upright, her voice cracked under the pressure. "Jane?"

"I'm here, I'm here," she whispered, wrapping her hands back around Maura's. She clutched her arm, desperate for the physical contact.

Tears left her eyes, quickly soaked up by the bandages covering them. A finger trailed across her palm, dancing across her shaking skin.

"Shh," Jane said. Maura could feel the weight of her sitting on the edge of the bed, the shift of her body weight as she pushed her to one side. Her arms wrapped around Maura's shoulders. She sunk against her embrace, comforted by the pressure of her fingers tucked around her skin. "I'm not going anywhere."

"I'm scared," Maura said, barely audible against Jane's clothes. She breathed in the sweet scent of Jane's body, so familiar, and instantly calming.

"I know," Jane kissed her lightly on the forehead and held her tighter. "You're not alone. You'll never be alone."

x

Maura woke. She didn't know what day it was, what time it was, all she could see was the darkness on the backs of the bandages covering her eyes. She could hear movement outside the room, a trolley or gurney being transported across the corridor. She could hear people talking. Closer, she couldn't hear anything.

"Jane?"

"I'm here," she replied, her hand instantly wrapping around Maura's wrist. She clung to her again, desperate to feel safe. "Korsak's here, too."

"Hello, Vince."

"I'm sorry we didn't stop this, Maura."

"It's not your fault. I shouldn't have brushed it off as less significant." She leaned back against the bed. "I was thinking about the reporters. The case was minor, there shouldn't have been reporters. When the woman asked me a question I thought nothing of it, the amount of times I've dealt with them on the courthouse steps. I should have realised."

"It's not your fault," Jane said, squeezing her hand. She lowered her voice.

Maura squeezed back. "Do you have any leads?"

"I spoke to the local media outlets and not one of them was at the courthouse," Korsak said.

"So they were fake?"

"Nina's been looking through CCTV footage earlier in the day. The crowd of people outside the courthouse were gathered round long before you arrived. We suspect they were working together."

"I should have taken you in another way."

"It's not your fault, Jane. There should never have been such a crowd, there shouldn't have been that level of danger."

"But there was. You'd been threatened and we didn't take it seriously enough. At the very least, I should have had hold of your arm. We shouldn't have been separated."

"The crowd pushed you out of the way, you couldn't do anything about that." Maura sighed. "If not then, somewhere else. If they were serious enough about stopping me from getting into that court room, they could have done it a thousand different ways. No amount of protection would have stopped them."

"We could have done more."

"No."

"Yes."

"Regardless," Korsak said. "We believe it was staged. Nina's working on ID-ing the reporters. So far we have one person, he's a trained actor. Nina spoke to his agent an hour ago and we're working the angle that maybe some of the people were hired to be there."

x

"Long-term medical consequences of incest, rape and molestation," Jane paused. "Why am I reading this?"

"Because you want to help me," Maura said.

"But this?"

Maura smiled, she rested her hand on Jane's wrist. "I like to read everything that's available in the journal. You don't have to read it if you don't want to. I can ask the Pastor who comes round on a Friday to do it instead."

"I'm not letting a man of God read this to you," Jane said. "I'll read it, but you read some depressing shit."

"There are many things that modern medicine is still lacking in knowledge about," Maura said. "It's not like we have a great number of incestuous couples banging down the door of medical science asking to be studied."

"Can we re-read the one about the puppies?"

"That study has been repeated several times," Maura said. "I have no interest in re-reading a slightly varied version when it's practically identical to studies I've read from Denmark, Sweden, Australia and Hong Kong."

"Spoil sport."

Maura leaned back against the bed. "When I get out of hospital it might be worth looking into getting a service dog."

"You don't need a service dog," Jane said. "You've got me."

"You can't be with me twenty-four seven."

"I can try."

"You have work." Maura reached for the medical journal and closed it, resting it on her lap. "I mean it, Jane. You've taken enough time off to come and see me."

"Okay."

The silence that followed continued until Maura sighed. "Why did you accept that so quickly?"

"I've already moved into your house."

"Why?"

"What do you mean why?" She took the medical journal off her lap. "Someone needs to be there in case you need help."

"I can employ someone."

"A stranger?" Jane scoffed. "They don't know you. It'll take too long to teach them everything they need to know. Between me and Ma, we can make sure you're okay. We're already removing as many hazards as possible."

"Okay." Maura grasped her hand, smiling. "Thank you, Jane. I appreciate everything you're doing."

x

"Get your clothes on," Jane said.

Maura sat up, confused. She followed the sound of Jane's shoes as she moved across the room. "What's going on?"

She placed some clothes on the bed, Maura reached for them, frowning. "I'm taking you out."

"Doctor Pip said I shouldn't leave until the bandages come off." Maura unbuttoned her pyjama shirt. "He said it'll be two days. I can wait two days."

Jane grasped the edges of her shirt and helped her pull it away from her arms. "We're not going far, but you said yourself, you've been cooped up in this bed for days."

Following her orders, she fumbled with fabric, fighting to remove it from her body. She felt like she had arrived home after a late night at the office, and had opted to get dressed in the dark. She knew her way around her body, but buttons didn't quite meet holes, and she was conscious of Jane standing so close.

"Do you mind?" she asked.

Jane sighed, her shoes tapped across the floor. "I helped you to change last week."

"That's beside the point."

"I don't see how. I've seen your tits, you didn't care."

"Are we going far?"

"We're going for a walk to the garden," Jane said. "It's not far but it's all I could persuade the nurses to accept. They said the honeysuckle is flowering."

"I love honeysuckle," Maura said. "It smells amazing at this time of year."

x

Doctor Pip slowly removed the bandages. Maura's heart raced in her chest, fighting her body for freedom. She clutched Jane's hand, thankful for the comfort of her fingers wrapped around her skin. She swallowed the lump in her throat.

"Okay, Maura," Doctor Pip said. "In a moment I'm going to ask you to open your eyes. Take it slow, they've not been exposed to light for a while. Just take your time. Pretend you're waking up after a long sleep. I know we've talked about it, but remember to be prepared. We don't know what level of vision you'll have."

She tightened her grip around Jane's hand as she slowly opened her eyes. She could see light. Her heart thrummed against her rib cage. She knew it was premature to hope she'd be able to see again, the chance was slim. But the amount of light in front of her filled her with possibility.

"Can you see me?" Jane asked.

Maura turned to where her voice came from. Her heart sunk. The dark splodge in front of her brought tears to her eyes. "Not really."

"Oh."

"What can you see, Maura?" Doctor Pip asked.

"I can see light," Maura said. "Blurry shapes. Nothing's in focus."

"I see." He rested a hand across her forehead. "Look straight ahead for me, please."

The dull colour changed to a bright white. "Is that light?"

"It is, can you follow it?"

The light moved, Maura searched the blur in front of her until she found the light again.

"I think we're going to need to do some more tests." Doctor Pip said.

"I'm not going to get my sight back, am I?" she asked, her hands shaking. Jane's fingers wrapped tighter around her hand.

"She will, won't she, Doc?"

"It's too early to give you a categorical answer," he said. "But at the moment it looks like the damage could be irreparable."

x

"How bad is it?" Maura asked, running her fingers across the damaged skin on her face. She could feel the bumps, the ridges where before there was smooth skin. It had healed enough to touch it without flinching.

Jane reached for her hands, perched in front of her on the edge of the bed. She held them between them, squeezing her fingers as, Maura could only assume, she analysed the damage. Being unable to see more than a few blurry spots in front of her, she'd come to rely on Jane to be her eyes.

"It's not so bad."

She could hear the break in her voice, the sadness that seeped into her every word. Maura lowered her head, her hair slipped across her skin. Jane cleared her throat and cupped her chin, lifting it back up. She leaned in so close that Maura could feel her breath on her cheek.

"You are still the most beautiful person I know. No amount of scars will change that."

Tears flowed down her face, pooling on the edges of the scars, caught by the small dips in her skin. She hunched forward, her shoulders shook. Jane wrapped herself around her. She could smell her, she could feel her warmth. She closed her eyes and pushed her face against Jane's neck. All she could do was cry.

"At least we've caught the guy who did this," Jane whispered.

Jane stroked her back, circled her hand across the nightgown. She cherished the comfort, but deep down rage burned in the pit of her stomach. She lifted her hands to Jane's shoulders and pushed her away.

"I want to go home."

"The doctors want you to stay for one more day."

"No."

Maura reached out for the plastic edging of the bed. She slid her legs across to the side and slipped off it with ease. Then she froze. She reached a hand out but there was nothing in front of her. She opened her eyes but it was a haze of pale colours, and she couldn't make out what was what.

"Maura," Jane said, her voice cracked again.

Maura hated to listen to the sympathetic sounds of her voice. "I'm not an invalid, don't talk to me like that."

"Like what?"

"Like you pity me."

Jane sighed, her footsteps tapped across the floor until they came close by. Maura let her pull her into her arms. She sunk against her body again, clutching the fabric of her jacket.

"You are the bravest person I know, Maura," Jane said. "You are beautiful, and you are brave, and this doesn't change that."

"But I have changed," she said, wiping at the tears on her cheek. She pulled her hand away, hating the feel of her own skin. "I'm not me anymore."

"Yes, you are."

"I don't feel like me."

Hands wrapped around her cheeks. Maura's eyes welled up, fresh tears skirted down her cheeks, disappearing. She lifted her hands and covered Jane's, feeling her wet, salty tears on her fingers.

"I'm sorry," she said.

Jane leaned her forehead against Maura's. "You have nothing to be sorry about."