Hello wonderful readers!

I am so sorry that I have neglected you all the last wee while, I know it's the old excuse now but life really has just been a bit crazy lately between working, studying, training and a whole host of other bits and bobs. So, without further ado, if you're still out there and willing to stick by me, here's another instalment. I wonder how our intrepid ladies are faring?

Chapter Seven

"Katie, have you seen Jane yet tonight?" Peggy's voice rung out over the general clatter of the bar. It was already well into the evening by this point and well past the time that the Rizzoli-shaped outlaw would normally have made an appearance by.

"No, Margaret, I'm sorry, I've been wondering the same thing" replied Maura. A few weeks had passed with not much further activity and Maura was beginning to question her whole raison d'être. Yes, the town was a touch rough and ready, its inhabitants raucous with little sense of shame or inhibition but they were not bad people nor did Carefree feel exactly like some sort of hotbed of crime and sedition. Still, Maura had begun to settle into her new routine and she had to admit, she found her new life, that was, Katie Beauclerc's life, quite…stimulating, in many new and unexpected ways.

Lately, she had taken to calling Peggy by her full name of Margaret, initially in a manner of tongue-in-cheek though Maura insisted that it lent the young woman an heir of sophistication.

Still, the matter of Peggy's question was concerning.

For weeks now, Jane had made a regular habit of making her presence felt in The Dirty Bandit right before Maura's first set of the night, would linger in the company of other regular patrons she presumably knew enough from her outlaw days to make a few well-placed enquiries then settling in to hear the doctor's melodic tune-making before trailing a path up the stairs to Peggy's waiting bed.

Try as she might, Maura could never quite manage to dampen down the sting of jealousy that would always twist her gut into knots at that last thought. God only knows why! She would remonstrate with herself, she's an outlaw for heaven's sake!

Anxiously, she glanced around the thronging crowd. The familiar tall frame that radiated such a sense of security and authority was nowhere to be seen. Usually Maura would be able to sense the woman's presence without her needing to search for the dark curls that she could only imagine would cascade all the way down her back if only she could dare release them from the tight loop at the back of her head. It would sound a strange thing to say out loud but nevertheless, the instant the brunette stepped into the bar, the atmosphere would among the other patrons would change. A respectful hush would break out for a moment as if everyone were waiting to discover what kind of mood the fiery woman was in before being granted permission to continue in their jollity.

It truly was astounding to Maura, even with all of the freedoms she had hard-fought from her conservative Boston upbringing and the derision of her Washington colleagues that a woman, out here on the frontier, could command such respect. The idea captivated the doctor in awe until eventually she would snap herself out of her reveries and remind herself that she was there to help capture said woman, thus conveying her to the proper authorities for trial.

It was befuddling in the extreme however, for though Jane appeared to Maura a tortured soul who had clearly survived extreme hardships and held herself aloft from the normal conventions of even this wild society through sheer necessity, she did not sense any badness in her either. She had clearly seen and perhaps even done some terrible things but the ways I which she showed she cared, the gentleness she displayed towards these girls whom were offered no protection from any other corner went against everything the blonde had previously learned of this renegade from law and order.

"Hey, you! You gonna just stand there staring all night or you gonna get yourself up on that damn stage and earn what I'm paying ya!"

Maura jumped as Crowe's gruff voice penetrated her inner monologue.

"Uh, yes! Sorry Mr. Crowe!" cried Maura, shuffling as quickly as her long skirts would allow up onto the stage.

"You alright there Maura? You looked like you were miles away" grinned Sammy from his customary place at the piano, appearing very dapper as always in his brown checked suit complete with matching bow tie and bowler. She smiled back at him warmly. Aside from Peggy and Jane, Sammy was the only one in the Bandit who ever seemed genuinely pleased to see her;

"I'm fine Sammy, thank you."

"Don't worry, Jane'll be here soon, I'm sure of it" he said, offering her knowingly pointed look.

Goodness, am I that obvious? Maura pondered as Sammy plunked away at the first few bars of her set.

XXXXX

As Maura's melody began to float through the heady air Crowe hunkered over the bar, keen to hold the attention of one of his most important customers but the thankfully his Eastern songstress was doing a fine job at advertising her merits all by herself.

The mayor of nearby Phoenix grunted as he pulled his sleeve off the sticky bar top.

"What'd I tell ya Mister Mayor? Ain't she somethin'? An' not even been touched once!" grinned Crowe lasciviously, exposing the yellowed few teeth that yet remained in his head.

"Yes Mr. Crowe, you did," said Mayor Jenkins, waving his arm dismissively, "how much are you asking for her?"

"Well, er…" Crowe hesitated for a moment.

"I want that girl Mr. Crowe. For once, I cannot accuse you of exaggerating your merchandise, now I could make good use of that tight, juicy peach for myself," he continued, lowering his voice confidentially, edging closer to Crowe over the counter before thinking better of it on catching a whiff of the man's foul breath, "and I'll pay you damn good for her. After I'm done with her you can toss her to any damn passing cowboy you want but she's mine first, understand?Now, name your price."

Crowe licked his lips, his eyes popping from his head making him resemble some kind of lizard.

"Well, y'see sir, I brought you down here to take a look at her, sure but I already put the word out that I was gonna auction her off later tonight, after she finished her first set…" he said nervously, obviously fearful of incurring the mayor's wrath and thus losing such a potentially highly profitable sale.

Jenkins considered the idea for several moments, his fingers stroking thoughtfully through his goatee;

"Alright Mr. Crowe, we'll do this your way, just make sure that I win" he said, his eyes gleaming with barely restrained arousal and Crowe grinned conspiratorially. He was well aware that Jenkins' tastes were as vile and despicable as his own under that refined coat and topper. After all, was that not the beauty of buying a whore in the first place? He could only imagine what Katie Beauclerc's introduction to the world of masculine desires would bring and the prospect made him tremble.

XXXXX

Maura's first segment had been a hit as usual, the bustling crowd singing along with energy. It never failed to leave her feeling on a high as, laughing, she pushed her way through a seething mass of well-wishers to the bar for her customary glass of water though tonight, the lack of Jane's comforting presence provided more than a slight dampener to her usual sense of triumph.

"Katie!" called Crowe, waving his hand over for her to join him and a rather well-dressed, older gentleman at the far corner. "Katie, c'mere, I'd like ya to meet Mr. Reginald Jenkins, Mayor of Phoenix" he said with befitting flourish although it came across more as though her were attempting to introduce a debutante at a tramp's ball.

"Why! Mr. Jenkins, it's a pleasure to make your acquaintance! I know you by repute, of course" said Maura, offering her hand politely.

"So well-spoken too!" exclaimed Jenkins to Crowe with a great guffaw. "The pleasure is indeed, all mine, Miss Beauclerc" he replied with the customary kiss to the back of her gloved hand but though his words were genteel, there was something in this man's eyes that Maura found extremely distasteful and she felt her hackles rise accordingly.

"Wonderful!" cried Crowe, clapping his hands together before throwing Jenkins a conspiratorial wink, "let's get this show on the road, shall we?"

Maura spun around in confusion as Crowe immediately hopped up onto the bar, addressing the assembled crowd who now craned their necks to stare up at him.

"Now then gentlemen," he said wryly, "most of you know why we're here tonight and most of you already got your bids in so can I start the bidding puh-lease at $10, do I see $10? Yes, thank you, sir!"

The bidding continued up and up, her head spinning between the multitude of male hands, the cackling of Rita and Donna to the repulsive smirk of Jenkins behind her. Her faced paled and she tried to flee as realisation dawned but Jenkins grabbed her wrist and pulled her to his body, she could feel the throb of his desire prodding most unwelcomely at her thigh.

"Now, my dear this will go much better for you if you do not try to fight me" he murmured into her ear.

She wriggled fruitlessly in his grasp;

"How do you know?" she gulped, "you might not even win!"

"Oh, I will, young Katie, I will…" he chuckled, making Maura's stomach lurch.

Where is Jane? She thought frantically, Or even Frost? Please, if you can hear me, somehow, somebody? Anybody? She pleaded frantically in her mind, desperately biting back tears at the scene unfolding in front of her. Finally, the price rose high enough for Jenkins to make his move with a finality that would bring an end to it.

"$150!" he called over the racket.

Crowe turned to him, stunned, his jaw flapping wildly changing him from looking like a lizard to more of a gasping cod.

"One….hu-hu-…do I have any advance on $150?" he said, turning back to the crowd who breathed a collective groan at the inevitable, holding a half-empty bottle aloft, "going once, going twice-"

"$500!"

An achingly familiar rasp reached out over the exasperated mob.

"Jane!" screeched Maura, pulling against Jenkins' grip on her wrist with all her might, not caring how desperate she sounded.

"What?" sputtered Jenkins and Crowe simultaneously. "You can't do that Rizzoli?" retorted Crowe.

"Oh? And why's that Crowe?"

As Jane moved closer through the shifting light, Maura could see the shadows of several cuts and bruises marring the other woman's flawless olive skin.

"That why you sent your boys after me tonight? Keep me away from your little shindig? Yeah, they learnt their lesson real good" snarled Jane, "so alright, I'll play this your way, that's the way you want it?" Anger flooded every syllable as she stalked her way towards Crowe's feet. "You wanna keep the high and mighty folks happy old man, I get that," she said, pointing her gun in the mayor's direction without even deigning to profit him with her gaze, instead, her brown eyes that were currently filled with steel remained train on the slimy specimen still stood on the bar top, "well just you remember, this place wouldn't be worth shit without me and you know it. Now the way I figure it, you owe me. You owe my bigtime and if that don't work, well I'm sure as hell you wouldn't want a civic mayor bein' killed in your establishment, 'm I right Mister Crowe?" she asked with unerring politeness before firing a warning shot over Jenkins' shoulder, making the old man squeal as the bullet smashed through the termite-ridden wall panel behind him.

"Now, I suggest you take my five-hundred and you do somethin' real useful with it like run outta town and take your fancy pants best bud here with ya, 'cause y'see, I been hearin' reports," she said, now turning to Jenkins who quickly withered under Rizzoli's fiery stare, "I been hearin' what some of the women back in Phoenix have to say about you. Now sure, the word o' one whore ain't gonna matter too much but I been scarin' up a whole lotta folks who got somethin' to say about you Mister Mayor."

Jane stepped dangerously closer and closer, almost shoving Maura out of her way, making the blonde stumble over the stage steps but glanced up just in time to see the raven-haired outlaw press her trusty Colt into Jenkins' belly.

"Crowe, I suggest you tell this patron where to go or I'll find you both a new home where the two of you can get real cosy."

Crowe thought for only a moment or two before his greed got the better of him;

"What about the five-hundred?"

Jane rolled her eyes.

"The five-hundred's yours on the condition that this piece of filth never sets foot in this neck of the woods again and Katie's mine…and she stays mine. Ain't no one else touches her but me. Y'understand?"

"Agreed" said Crowe quickly enough, "hell, $500's more'n any whore'll make for me in a lifetime! Fine, she's all yours Rizzoli."

Crowe watched on in dismay as Jenkins was practically rolled out of the bar by several burly customers. This could be bad but then he had been caught between a rock and a hard place. Local government were always helpful to have on-side should the need ever arise to grease a few palms and he had no doubt that the law would soon be paying him some very special attention now that Jane Rizzoli had revealed herself to someone as powerful as the Mayor of Phoenix but equally, pissing of Jane Rizzoli definitely carried more immediate consequences. Not only could she, herself, rain down a hellish wrath upon his head but every outlaw in the South-West would soon be out for his blood too. Casting one last look at Katie Beauclerc he just hoped that the damn girl was worth it all.

Jane reached down a hand to help the blonde to her feet from where she remained splayed on the stage steps, her skirts hiked all the way up to her garters providing a more than tantalising glimpse of creamy thigh but much to Maura's surprise, the outlaw merely turned her gaze politely until she had regained her feet and a little composure. Just as she was beginning to find her balance, however, she heard the taller woman mutter a quick Sorry about this in her ear before she found herself roughly propelled up the wooden staircase with a firm hand to her gluteus maximus while Jane shouted a rather loud and uncharacteristically gruff, get on up those stairs, woman! C'mon!

The laughter of the maddening crowd followed them all the way up to the landing where Maura was grateful to finally find some quiet…but then what?

Well folks, I know that might not have been the turn of events you were quite expecting but Jane had to come to Maura's rescue, right? Not sure I'm 100% on the flow of this chapter but at least our girls are okay. Now that Maura's safe for the future could this be the chance our girls have been waiting for? Plus, let's face it, it is the Wild West where women really did have it tough. I think it was important for Maura to experience just a little of what he colleagues are being put through but without any permanent damage.

Love and light all and thank you for reading!