Author's Note: A quick Thanks to all of you who put this on story alert - it gives me quite the warm and fuzzy feeling that so many people are interested in this :) I hope you'll enjoy the following chapter!
While the crime scene unit team was working in Thorne's apartment, we got a call informing us that Sullivan was found at his place as well, on the bed, headless, clad in his pyjama; of course we still need to wait for confirmation that it's really them, but we're all quite convinced that this is the case, even Maura.
Since there is nothing else we can do now at the scene until the unit got done, we head back to the station, and I go down to the morgue with Maura, it's not like I have anything else to do right now.
"Hungry?" she asks me when we arrive there and then, oh God, she moves to the dead people fridge and gets out her lunch, obviously she'd be willing to share it with me, but… no. Just no.
"Not if it comes from the dead people fridge", I tell her and grimace; she shakes her head and tells me that cold air is cold air, as she does every time I complain about eating food from there, not letting my obvious disgust stop her from eating.
"You should get some food, too", she advises between two bites, "you need the energy."
"Not hungry", I mutter, and the tone of my voice makes her put her fork down and give me a concerned glance.
"Are you sure you're okay?" she then asks, putting her food aside and getting up so she can move to my side and again put one hand on my back; my initial response is a grunt, then I shake my head and give her a look, unable to keep the light hint of desperation out of my voice when I answer her.
"Why is it always me, Maura?" I want to know, and from her confused expression I can immediately tell that she has no clue what I'm talking about.
"This is the second psycho serial killer guy who's apparently in love with me", I thus clarify, "why do I attract these guys? Is there some vibe I'm giving off which is appealing to them, or what?"
"Well, I'm attracted to you", Maura tells me, giving me a smile which is probably supposed to calm me down, "and I can assure you I'm not a psycho serial killer guy."
"You're not a guy at all", I point out to her, "and, well, you like to cut open dead people. Some might say that this is a bit… peculiar."
"You don't", Maura shrugs, "and I have to correct you, I don't exactly like cutting up dead people. I do it though make the world a better place by helping to solve the crimes which put them on my table. And it doesn't make me a psychotic killer."
"I know that", I mumble, if she's trying to cheer me up, I have to say she's really not doing a very good job with it. Apparently, she notices that too, since her hand starts rubbing my back soothingly, and her voice is much lower when she goes on, making me look at her again.
"Remember when Hoyt said that I'm like him and how I got upset about it? You talked to me then, calmed me down, and convinced me that he's wrong. Now, I want to do the same for you, but you know I'm not much good with such situations… I'll give it a try though… No, no, no!" she cries out when I open my mouth, "don't interrupt me, just let me talk."
Figuring I might as well do just that, I shrug and give her a curious look, and after a few moments of sorting her thoughts, she finally continues.
"It's not your fault", she starts, holding my gaze the whole time, and I see nothing but sincerity in her wonderful eyes. "You're not giving off any… vibe or something similar which might attract such men. You are the only woman in homicide though, at least currently, and very good at your job. Not to mention the press time you got when you shot yourself to stop that corrupt cop."
She grimaces at the memory, and I do too, my hand automatically moving to my side where I can feel the scar tissue through the fabric of my shirt, and simultaneously, Maura's hand slides to my back, where the bullet went back out and left an even bigger scar.
"So the fact that I'm the only woman in the homicide unit is what attracted that guy to me?" I want to know, even though I'm perfectly well aware of what she said, I just wanna win some more time so I can come up with a proper response.
"Might be", Maura shrugs, "or the fact that you are an extraordinary and strong woman. Depending on their psyche, a certain type of killer is attracted to that kind of woman. The ones who are looking for a mother figure."
"Oh jeez", is all I can say in reply to that, that really didn't cheer me up now, and I let my head drop forward so it comes to a rest on my arms which I folded on the table in front of me.
"I'm sorry", Maura sighs out after a moment of silence, "I told you I'm not very good with such situations…" Her hand moves up to the back of my neck and starts caressing me there, and even though her try to soothe me with words didn't work so well, this surely does.
"No, I'm sorry", I tell her after just enjoying the neck rub for a few moments, "I know you're no good with such… stuff, so I shouldn't have pressured you into it."
"You didn't pressure me", she reassures me as once, "and also, this is my, well, calling it duty would not be fitting, but something I should do, considering I'm your…" She trails off, and I once more wonder if this "No Labels" thing has been smart; before I can say something about that though, someone clears his throat at the door, and we practically jump apart, I wince as I'm quite sure Maura took along some hairs when she jerked her hand away. So much about not acting any different.
"Yes?" Maura regains her composure much quicker than me, even though I notice she fumbles for the guy's name for a second, "…Craig? Can I help you?"
"Um", Craig says in reply, his gaze darting back and forth between Maura and me, man, I do not want to know what is happening in his head right now, "the results are here… for the last homicide… Just wanted to give them to you." He holds up the thin folder as if to hide behind it, and Maura gives him a charming smile to calm him down while she gets up and moves over to him, then takes the folder from him and thanks him in her most friendly tone, apparently she noticed as well how freaked out he is.
"You're welcome", he mumbles, then turns and hurries off, and I swear I can see him blush; I shake my head to myself while Maura returns to my side, already opening the folder and peering into it.
"Even if no one noticed anything so far, it'll be all over the precinct tomorrow", I tell her, gaining her attention again, and from the way she raises an eyebrow, I can tell at once that she has no clue what I mean.
"Didn't you notice the look on his face?" I thus want to know, finding it hard to believe that she didn't, and she shrugs, then looks at the folder again, not sounding disturbed the slightest when she replied. "I did, but I'm not sure he jumped to the conclusions you think he jumped to, Jane. He seemed quite peeped out, this is correct, but maybe for other reasons."
"Freaked out, Maura", I correct her, man, peeped out? How does she come up with that stuff? "It's called freaked out."
She just smiles at me, then shrugs again and tells me that, from what she has observed so far, Craig isn't the gossipy type and that he's mostly keeping to himself, not having much contact with the other people in the lab.
"Ok, fine, whatever", I decide to ditch the subject, "it's not like I'd care if anyone would know, not right now. I'd rather have them talk about me and you than about me and crazy psycho serial killer guy."
"That's the right attitude", Maura beams at me, and I only roll my eyes at her in reply; her smile impossibly widens even further, and then she leans over for a quick kiss before she focuses on the lab results at last while I remain where I am, not wanting to go back upstairs now, feeling the need to be close to her, to the woman who means so much to me and who understands me so well just by looking at me – even if sometimes, she might have a hard time to make anything of that understanding.
Unfortunately, I can't hide away in the morgue for the rest of the day, but have to go back upstairs when Frost pages me; I make Maura promise me that she'll call or text me the moment she finds anything, and after a quick look around to make sure no one's watching and the subsequent stealing of a kiss, I make my way to the bullpen, where Frost is sitting at his table, drinking coffee and waiting for me.
"The crime scene unit got done at the homes of our victims", is his greeting to me, and from the look on his face I can already tell what they found, but just to make sure, I ask anyway. "Let me guess, nothing?"
"Nothing", Frost confirms with a sigh, putting his coffee down on the table, "but if the guy really is one of us, it'd make sense, he'd know how to avoid leaving any prints." I make some agreeing noise, and moments later, Frost visibly brightens, proudly holding up another piece of paper and sounding quite happy as well when he goes on.
"I got something else though", he lets me know, waving the paper in my face, "they found the one who's responsible for hacking our database."
"So it was hacked? That could be our guy", I ponder out loud, taking the paper from him and looking at it, but all it is to me is a bunch of techno-babble, so I give it back and look at Frost again, who knows me well enough by now to start explaining again.
"Could be", he agrees, "I have the IT guys working on tracing the IP right now. If it works out, we'll soon know where to find this guy."
"Shouldn't being a hacker include avoiding that?" I want to know, I don't know much about that stuff since it's never really interested me, but I know that Frost has some knowledge about it, even though, at least as far as I know, he never did any of that stuff himself.
"Yup", Frost confirms, "and if the guy's good, we won't find him. But maybe we'll be lucky."
"We'd deserve some luck", I grumble, and he immediately nods his agreement; he looks at his piece of paper once more, then adds it to the folder of papers we have accumulated about the case by now, a folder which was quite thin at first, but has considerably thickened since I received the second head.
"I'll page you the moment they tell me anything", Frost promises me, distracting me from the thickness of the folder; for a moment, I feel tempted to ask why he thinks I won't be around once he gets any information, then I just shrug it off and nod.
"You do that", I agree verbally as well, and for a moment, he looks as if he wants to say or maybe ask something else; then, he remains quiet though, and I get back to my desk to go through the files of Sullivan and Thorne once more, even though I've done that about a hundred times by now, but that doesn't stop me, I need to make sure that we didn't miss anything – and I need to pass the time until the techie guys got something for us, so maybe, they'll tell us where to find that hacker and thus, if we're really lucky, the one who killed those two guys so he'll be stopped before he can murder anyone else.
