Chapter 2
Jane could feel the alcohol resting in her stomach. She'd lost count of how many beers she'd downed in the last 4 hours but she had no desire to do anything else. How could she have gotten things so wrong? The answers didn't seem any clearer each time she reached the end of a bottle but at least oblivion was getting closer.
She was so tied up in thinking about her next bottle that she didn't see Korsak coming up, nor see the looks between him and the bartender as he gestured towards a very drunk Jane.
"Jane, I think maybe it's time to get you out of here, get some food into you." Korsak said in the softest, most caring, voice he could manage. He'd never seen Jane this way before and to be honest, it scared the life out of him. When everything had happened with Hoyt, Jane had closed down and shut herself off from people. When Bobby had forced her to put a bullet through herself to end the stand-off, she stayed away with her pain. But here she was, in public, drunk and looking distinctly like she might burst into tears at any given moment.
"Nah, thanks tho Korsak. Think I'll grab another beer instead. You draw the short straw in coming to talk to me?" Jane slurred slightly as she responded. What good would food do her? She'd long lost her appetite with Maura no longer around to tell her that her diet consisted of too many 'starch carbohydrates and saturated fats' and not enough 'fibre and minerals'.
"C'mon Jane, this won't do you any good. This wasn't your fault and the doc? She's just pissed at the moment cus she's hurtin', once she's calmed down she'll speak to you and everything won't seem so bad anymore." Korsak tried to soothe her but the minute he mentioned Maura, he could see Jane's body tense and the tears that had threatened a moment before started to flow.
"She said she wished she never met me." Jane whispered in a broken tone. There. It was out there now. The words that had been haunting her for 3 days and she'd spoken them. It didn't do any good though, just seemed to make the situation seem more real, and she couldn't help the tears that rolled down her cheeks.
Korsak gestured to the bartended for a couple of shots and waited until there was two glasses of bourbon sitting in front of them. "I know I might seem like a dinosaur to you considering the newer model you traded me in for…" "Korsak", Jane interrupted. "No Jane, let me finish. I may seem like I'm slowing down and sometimes that I'm oblivious to things but anyone would have to be deaf, dumb and blind not to notice the chemistry between you and Maura. She's your best friend and I bet right now she's missing you. She thinks the world of you. I've seen her face when you come into a room and it lights up. Yours does exactly the same. Right now, she's hurt and she's hurt badly. She's lashing out and it makes sense to do that to the person closest to you regardless of who fired the shot." He sighed, sliding one of the glasses over to her and picking up his own. "You're no good to her when you're like this and you're no good to anyone else. As a detective you're one of the best there is but jeez, put an emotional problem in front of you and it's like all logic goes out the window."
Jane sat for a while, starring into the bourbon and hoping for any kind of answer. She let Korsak's words sink in and tried to understand what they meant to her. She missed Maura but she didn't want to cause her any more hurt. She thought back to the hospital and it seemed to her that Maura had only been angry; she was the one who'd gotten hurt. Making a decision, she knocked back the bourbon and turned to Korsak, "Take me to the hospital please."