Her first instinct was to reach for her gun, but then, she had to remember with a flash of fear that she had left it upstairs, in the guestroom; and thus, she did the only thing she could – she froze, holding as still as possible, breathing harshly through her nose as the hand still clamped down on her mouth, her attacker standing so close to her that she could feel the warmth of their body and the hot breath on her cheek.

"Don't scream", a strangely slurred voice mumbled into her ear, sounding as if the owner spoke through a mouthful of mud, "I don't want to hurt you, but I will if I have to. Alright?"

As far as the grip the attacker had on her, Jane nodded, trying not to let her surprise show – even though the voice had been deep and the odd sound had distorted it somewhat, it still had been recognizable as clearly female, and her mind ran wild as she tried to figure out who this could be.

"Alright", she heard the woman mumble behind her, then the hand vanished from her mouth; she gulped in a big breath, then almost had to bite down on her tongue to keep quiet, the cold object still against her throat, held at an angle which didn't allow her to see what it was, but she didn't need much imagination to guess that it was some kind of knife.

"You're working the gangbanger case, aren't you", the woman now demanded to know, earning another weak nod; for a few moments, there was silence, then she spoke on, and Jane was surprised to hear not only anger in her voice, but a deep-seated despair as well. "Back off. They're getting what they deserve. Back off and let me finish and no one else will be harmed. Only them."

"You know I can't do that", Jane almost whispered, squeezing her eyes shut as she almost anticipated the pain of having her throat cut, but finding herself unable to say anything else, knowing that agreeing wasn't an option, "but we can help you, no matter what happened, we can figure something out…"

Again, there was silence, just long enough to give Jane a tiny spot of hope that maybe, she had gotten through to the woman; and then, the assailant responded, the anger now fully gone, and only the despair left.

"No one can help me anymore", she told the detective, the cold thing vanishing from her throat moments later, "so don't bother. Back off. Let me finish. And take care of your… friend in there."

And then, the presence behind her vanished, and immediately, Jane spun around; she called out "Hey!" after the retreating figure, the baggy clothing making it impossible for her to tell anything about their figure, the pulled-up hood of the sweater keeping her from even seeing the hair colour or hair style of the retreating woman, "wait! Stop! We can help you!"

To her dismay, the woman didn't even react the slightest, but kept running, and soon was out of sight; with an annoyed huff, Jane gave up, knowing that chasing after her without a weapon or even proper shoes would be useless, her heart racing up to her chest as she turned and hurried back into the house, her moments of fear already forgotten as her mind raced, trying to figure out what to make of this and how it could be used to solve the case.


"Yes, I'm sure she's the one", Jane told Frost on the phone not even ten minutes later, after having woken Maura to tell her what had happened and then ringing the detective out of his dreams, "she told me to back off and that we can't help her, and that they'll get what they deserve. She didn't exactly threaten me, but she did say that she'd hurt me if she had to."

"Well, we can't back off", Frost gave back while Maura scooted closer to her friend on the couch and gave her a worried look, afraid for her stability after this happening to her so shortly after the nightmare, "so what do we do? Do you think she'll come after you again?"

"I don't know", Jane sighed, running her free hand through her hair, "she might. She could have killed me out there, but she didn't, and you should have heard how she sounded. Not pissed or something, not after a while, she just sounded… sad. Depressed."

"Now we know for sure it's personal", Frost mumbled, sounding as if he was talking more to himself than to his partner, "with all that talk about giving them what they deserve…"

"Yes", Jane agreed, briefly glancing at Maura when the medical examiner put one hand on her arm and giving her a small smile, signalling that she was okay, "first thing tomorrow morning, we'll look up if any women reported being attacked by those guys. Perhaps one of them decided to fight back."

"Sexual assault", Frost nearly blurted out in reply, making the detective flinch with how loud his voice had been; a questioning noise came from her, and quickly elaborated, prompting Jane to raise an eyebrow as she had to admit that his theory was making sense.

"The castration", he stated, all tiredness gone from his voice now, "perhaps it's someone they raped, you know that both victims had sexual assault among the offenses they were reported for, but they weren't locked up, so maybe, she's taking justice in her own hands."

"Possible", Jane agreed, "okay, we'll check this tomorrow. Keep it in mind, write it down if you have to, I got the feeling that we are really close to cracking this case now."

"We might be", Frost gave back, a bit more cautious about it than his partner; she let out a snort in reply, then told him to get some more rest and ended the call, looking at Maura afterwards, her next words making the medical examiner raise an eyebrow.

"Those cuts in their cheeks", the detective started, "this is a long shot, but… If you got such cuts, and survived, would it affect your speaking?"

"That would depend on how deep they are", Maura gave back, once again skilfully avoiding it to guess, "if the nerves and muscles have been damaged enough, it's quite possible. Why do you ask?"

"She sounded… strange", Jane let her know, briefly frowning to herself as she tried to recall the exact sound of the woman's voice, "as if she's, I don't know, talking through a mouthful of jelly. Could having such cuts, or scars, make a person sound like that?"

"If they went deep enough, yes", Maura confirmed, to the detective's relief not trying to avoid a direct answer this time, "as I said, if enough damage has been done to the tissue…"

"They cut her up", the black haired woman mumbled, letting out a heavy breath, "Frost was right, this is about sexual assault, but they cut her up, too… Probably left her to die and she didn't do them the favour and now she's out to kill them."

"Jane, this is very much guesswork", Maura chided, more in an attempt to hide how disturbed she was by the thought than for real dismay about the guessing, "we can't know if…"

"I know", Jane interrupted her, sinking back into the couch and running both hands through her hair as she took in a deep breath, fighting hard to collect her thoughts, "I know we can't know, Maura, but it makes perfect sense. They raped her, so she castrates them, as Frost said, and they cut her up, so she does the same to them."

"Perhaps", the medical examiner evenly gave back, earning a dark look from her best friend – before the taller woman suddenly came to her feet, stretching and once more running her hands through her hair, sounding determined and confident when she spoke up again.

"We better get some rest, too", she told Maura, "we have a lot of work ahead of us… tomorrow…"

And that was when the realisation of how close she had been to getting killed set in at last, her voice faltering, then breaking at the last word; she fell silent and swallowed heavily, suddenly feeling the cold of the knife against her throat again, the attacker's hot breath on her cheek, heard the hoarse voice as it mumbled into her ear, telling her to back off and to take care of her friend, something which might have been a genuine piece of advice – or a threat, implying what might be done to Maura, should she not do what the assailant had demanded.

"Jane", Maura said in alarm, having noticed how rapidly her friend's face was paling, "are you…"

She didn't even need to finish her sentence, at once realizing that it was useless to ask if Jane was alright; instead, she hurriedly came to her feet as well and wrapped the detective in yet another hug, holding her tight, once again feeling the taller woman stiffen momentarily before she accepted the gesture, even going as far as hiding her face in Maura's shoulder, a shaky breath escaping her yet again.

"I won't let her hurt you", she then pressed out, before Maura could come up with any encouraging words, "she told me to take care of you, and she might come after you if we don't back off, but I won't let her hurt you…"

"I know", Maura reassured her at once, rubbing her back soothingly again, "I know you'll always protect me, you always have so far…"

In response, Jane pulled back from the hug just enough to be capable of looking at the smaller woman; their eyes met, and within the span of a single second, everything around them was forgotten, each woman only capable of focusing on the other, Maura's breath hitching in her throat when Jane reached up with one hand and ran the tips of her fingers down her cheek, with a touch so light and careful, as if she was afraid to break her, should she touch her too harshly.

"Jane", Maura breathed, just loud enough to be heard by the taller woman, her heart hammering up to her throat as she, without even noticing fully what she was doing, started to lean closer to the detective; and a second before their lips touched, Jane suddenly cleared her throat and moved back, not even a full step, but enough to break the mood and destroy the moment.

"We should get some rest", the detective repeated her earlier words, her gaze slipping away from Maura's and studying the all at once very interesting carpet between her feet, "there's a lot of work and digging waiting for us tomorrow."

"…yes, of course, sure", Maura agreed almost mechanically, finding it hard to believe that this really just had happened, that she had been this close to kissing her best friend and then it hadn't happened, "you're right…"

She didn't move though, remaining perfectly still where she was; Jane gave her a brief, helpless glance, looking as if she wanted to say something, but then clearly deciding against it, just nodding before she turned and walked off without another word, not even looking back to see if Maura was following her.

Looking after her, the medical examiner remained where she was, until the detective had vanished up the stairs; and then, she sat down heavily on the couch and buried her face in her hands, asking herself why Jane hadn't let the kiss happen after all and if there was anything she had done wrong, or could have done to make the whole situation end differently.