A/N: Here is chapter 2. THANKS to my beautiful beta! She did awesome work on helping me fix up mistakes and grammar. Please review, I would truly appreciate the feedback and it will inspire me to update quicker.

Disclaimer: Only own the kids and an officer. (C) Sasha. Rizzoli

Jane arrived at the crime scene after kissing both Maura and Charlize on her way out of the apartment.

Hearing about the frightened little girl tore at Jane's heartstrings. Even though Charlize was only two months old, she couldn't help but think of her little girl. The thought of her baby daughter orphaned, without herself or Maura to guide her through life, scared her to no end.

"Detective, the girl is hiding behind that couch," the young, tall, blonde beat cop informed Jane as soon as she entered the house, surveying the crime scene. The small living room was a disaster zone. It was trashed more then when Hoyt and his apprentice had trashed her own apartment back when he took her the second time.

She shook her head, taking herself out of her thoughts. "Have you been able to get the little girl's name, Officer Harmon?" she asked the officer before he could walk away to go back to doing his job.

The young man shook his head sadly. "Sorry, Detective, but no. No one can get near the poor little thing," he informed her softly. He had a toddler of his own and it broke his heart as well to see this scared little girl.

Nodding, Jane replied, "Okay, Officer, thank you." She slowly walked around the couch and squatted down beside the girl, who was still rocking back and forth, shaking. Her head tightly tucked to her knees.

The usually tough, bad-ass detective was shocked but was figuratively floored by the little girl's trust in her without even her having said a word.

With a sniffle, the tiny, undernourished child slowly and cautiously climbed on to Jane's lap. The entire time looking into Jane's compassionate, loving brown eyes.

"Hi baby, I'm a detective. You can call me Jane. What's your name?"

She wiped her button little nose on the sleeve of her dirty and hole ridden pajama top, which was about a size too small. "Hi Jane, I knowed you'd come for me... I know you but you not know me. I Hope Mackenzie Tanner. I's five. My mommy sayed I was 'pose ta go ta Kindergarten but she no want me to go. But I knows you'll love me and takes care of me," the girl whispered, a sad smile plastered on her face for Jane.

Listening to her, Rizzoli furrowed her brows in disbelief. "H... How do you know who I am, sweetie?" the detective asked curiously. There was something about this child, something different but she couldn't quite put her finger on what it was.

"I just do." The girl shrugged.

Jane, not knowing how to respond, just nodded. "I know that this is hard, baby, but did you see what happened to your mommy?"

At being asked the question, Hope slipped her thumb into her mouth and began to suck on it as she leaned back to rest her head on Jane's shoulder.

Jane rubbed the little one's back, in an attempt to soothe her. "Hope?"

"N... No, I... I d... Didn't," Hope sputtered, suddenly even the sad smile disappeared, as she looked away.

"Hope?" Jane tried again, her voice soft but firmer then before. She didn't want to scare her though.

Hope immediately got up of off Jane's lap and walked away.

Jane couldn't see where Hope was going until she stood up herself and saw the child walk over to her mother's lifeless body covered in blood. She ignored the medical examiner, who was taking over for Maura while she was on maternity leave.

Standing behind Hope, Jane suddenly heard the former tiny, timid voice become strong and angry as she kneeled down beside her mother's body.

The Medical Examiner just stopped his work and watched the small child.

"You hurt me, mother! You pwomised that you wouldn't! You lied! You hurted me bad! I hate you," she yelled, only to whisper the last sentence but both Jane and the doctor still heard her.

Jane sighed, a tear falling from her eye as she watched the emotional scene play out in front of her. "Hope!"

In the blink of an eye before anyone could react, Hope, in the midst of a sobbing fit, lashed out. She hit her mother's body over and over again.

"Hope, come here, sweetie," Jane cooed as she gently picked Hope up.

Hope fought against her at first. "She pwomised she wouldn't hurt me, Jane! She not keep her pwomise! She bad mommy!" she cried before finally settling down in Rizzoli's comforting embrace.

"It's alright, sweetie. Have you got any family to go live with?"

Hope shook her head with a sniffle. "No, me and Mommy comed here after my daddy went away..."

"Went away where, baby?"

"To be with God," came Hope's tiny answer.

"He went to heaven?" asked Jane to clarify.

Hope nodded, mid yawn.

"Oh, sweetheart, I'm sorry... Want to go with this nice officer?" Jane rubbed her little back and went to pass her to Frankie.

"No!" Hope squealed, clenching tightly on to Jane.

"He's a nice officer, I promise, baby. He's my brother," the detective tried to assure her.

Refusing to release her surprisingly powerful grip on Jane, Hope shook her head, her greasy sandy brown hair swaying side to side with the movement. "Don't care. No leave me, Jane."

"Okay, baby. Try get some sleep," Jane whispered, sadly, still rubbing soothing circles on Hope's back. She could feel herself getting attached to her, she couldn't help it. Jane knew that Hope would need a lot of love and help but she was determined to give it. Hopefully Maura would be all for it too.

Still scared of everyone in the house, except Jane, Hope slowly drifted off to sleep in the safety of the compassionate Detective's arms.

Once certain the girl was asleep, although a restless sleep, Jane squatted down beside the working pathologist and took a good look at the body. "So, what can you tell me, Doctor Stern?"

"Caucasian female, aged late 20's to early 30's, who didn't take very good care of herself. Was stabbed at least thirty times with a dull object. Also appeared that she was choked," he replied, not removing his eyes from the body.

Sighing, Jane ran through a hand through a hair.

"Sorry, Detective, there's nothing more I can tell you until I do the autopsy."

"When will that be?" Jane asked, slowly standing up, careful not to wake Hope.

"Well I have other bodies before her, so probably not till mid afternoon."

Frustrated, Jane groaned inwardly and turned to see a woman from social services walk in.

"Detective Rizzoli. I'm Edwina Hayes from Social Services. Who's this little one?"

"This is Hope Tanner. It seems she's taken a liking to me."

Ms Hayes nodded. "It seems so... Well that could be a good thing."

"How so?" asked Jane, tilting her head slightly in curiosity.

"Well we currently have a major shortage in foster homes and caregivers at the moment, Hope will need to go into a home. It could take weeks before I find her a suitable home... Unless you want to take her in, Detective?"

Jane nodded. "I do but I will need to talk to my fiancée first. I will take her with me tonight though. She won't let go of me anyway," she laughed slightly.

The social worker searched her folder for a form and when she found it she passed it to Jane, "if you decide you want to foster her until family can be found, fill in this form and bring it to me by closing time tomorrow. I'll get your contact information from the station, in case I need to contact you," Ms Hayes said with a smile. She knew of Jane, having read news articles about her and really liked and admired her.

Jane smiled back. "Okay. Thank you... I'm going to take her home now."

Looking up from breastfeeding little Charlize, Maura saw her fiancée carry in a sleeping five year old, only this child was much tinier then a normal child her age. It was obvious that she was malnourished.

"Jane, who's that?" she asked softly, a small smile on her face.

Jane sat down on the couch beside her lover with a sad smile. "This is Hope. Her mother was the victim I had to see... She's grown attached to me and well... I can't deny it, I've grown attached to her too..."

Looking into her lover's eyes, Maura could easily see the love. Jane already loved this little girl and Maura couldn't bear to hurt either one of them. Plus the little girl was really cute and it was easy to see that she really trusted Jane. "I was thinking of fostering her... And if they can't find any family for her, maybe we could adopt her?"

She gently patted Hope's back as she whimpered in her sleep. As soon as Hope woke, Jane was going to give her a much-needed bath.

Maura lifted Charlie up to her shoulder to burp, as Jane fixed her top for her. "Thanks, baby..." She smiled. "I'm all for fostering her, but Janie, let's wait on thinking about adopting, okay? If they can't find any family then we'll talk about it then, she's welcome here and looks like she needs a lot of things. We'll go shopping after you give her a bath," she told Jane and kissed her on the lips, just as the baby burped. "I'm going to give Charlie a bath."

Watching Maura walk toward the bathroom, Jane smiled as she rubbed Hope's back. She felt content.