HEy there:)

New chapter is already finished and I hope you'll like it. It's a bit more easy going (in some ways;))

So have fun:)

Disclaimer: Rizzoli&Isles are not mine (more details, see Prologue)


Chapter 7

Rizzoli Household…

"It's eight, Frank. Jane should be home already."

Angela's voice wasn't raised but there was a slight tremor of worry in it, which made her husband frown.

"It's not the first time she disregarded our rules, honey. She'll show up eventually." With that he wanted to go back to his newspaper, that he hadn't been able to read for the whole day. Just when he was about to unfold the paper, a hand crumbled the top of it and forced it down into his lap.

"Frank. I told you she took off after this girl. I think I should have followed her. Nora hadn't been too friendly while telling me about her and I think she got scared."

"So? It's not our problem, Angela. The girl ran home for sure."

"She looked rather wealthy." Angela commented as an afterthought.

"Well then she will get a pony for her scare and all tears and thoughts about it will be wiped clean. Problem solved." Frank shrugged and tried to rise his hands with the newspaper again, but this time his wife ripped it out of his hands. Frank could only sigh.

"Angela…"

"Frank! Our daughter is out there, maybe alone, maybe with a scared girl and you know how Jane is. She won't leave this poor girl…."

"Don't dramatize Angela." Frank huffed and jumped up from his seat.

"Dramatize?" Angela threw her arms over her head in irritation while she started to pace in front of her husband. "Do you have any idea what could have happened to them? What if they ran onto the street and are somewhere in a hospital after being crushed under the tires of a car."

Frank rolled his eyes and sighed in resignation. He knew his wife loved to dramatize and that it mostly was out of worry for the people she cared about but he had to admit that what she said made him slightly queasy this time. Though it was true that Jane often enough had been disregarding the set curfew, she never had been gone without telling them where she was or what she was doing.

"What was the girl's name?"

Angela, now satisfied that her husband was starting to take her seriously, tried to remember what Nora had told her when she had come running into the kitchen.

"I think…Nora said that Jane called her…wait…Monika? Nooo…." Angela let herself fall onto a chair and scratched her head in deep thought. "Maybe Marlena?" For a seond she was silent when suddenly she slapped her flat hand on the wooden surface of the table and let out a loud "HA…", making Frank jump.

"It was Maura!"

"Well…" Frank nodded. "Maybe we should start calling some people then."

In the Park…

The wind seemed to howl when it blew in-between the dark branches, making them sway eerily from side to side as if they were pointing at something or beckoning someone to come to them. What would happen if someone actually would go to them? Maybe they would tell them a story about how they have seen decades upon decades of history unfolding in front of them. But maybe they would grab them and force them to stay with them, so that they wouldn't be so alone anymore. Not able to move an inch from their position, they must be so lonely although hundreds of their own surrounded them.

Maura shivered and chided herself for those dark thoughts. They were highly illogical and completely unscientific. She was in fact sure that her fear of the dark was as illogical and childish as those thoughts but in contrast to those, she just couldn't turn off the fear. Maura turned onto her other side and scrunched up her nose when a particularly sharp broken branch poked her into the soft skin of her bare arm. She felt as if there were thousands of eyes observing her from the dark and she could feel herself getting claustrophobic. Not being in such a situation for the first time, Maura started to regulate her breathing, just as her psychologist had taught her. When she heard a low groan, she jumped in fright, but relaxed when her brain reminded her that Jane was lying only a few feet away and was fast asleep. Obviously the girl had been sleeping outside before, cause she hadn't seemed disturbed by any of the foreign sounds or the darkness at all. She didn't even seem to mind their clothes being dirty and ripped at a lot of places. Maura shivered again and she couldn't deny the fact that she could almost feel Jane's body warmth radiating towards her. Though normally avoiding body contact, the cold and her instincts begged her to shuffle closer to the source of warmth.

For a moment she listened harder, making sure that Jane was asleep. Reassured by the dark haired girls even breathing, Maura heaved her body from the ground and after looking around without any particular reason, she slowly made her way to Jane's side. Stopping immediately when she heard Jane shift onto her back, Maura tried to keep her teeth from chattering and keeping her breathing calm and quiet. When Jane quieted and seemed to be comfortable again, Maura took the remaining steps towards her and quickly laid down next to her, albeit with still a fair distance between them. When Jane shifted again, Maura held her breath until the other girl quieted again. What would she do if she woke and found Maura so close? Maura bit her lower lip and closed her eyes, feverishly trying to remember when her mother or father had given her a hug or simply cuddled with her. Maura didn't like contact with others because it reminded her too much of the fact that she couldn't remember her parents ever doing such a thing.

From exhaustion and with tears on her cheeks, Maura finally fell asleep.

Rizzoli household…

Frankie and Tommy sat on the stairs and held onto the banisters with cramping hands and listened to their mother's cries.

"I told you we should have searched for her earlier. It's all your fault we waited so long." Angela obviously had wanted to say more but the sob cut her off, giving her husband a moment to squeeze in his own thoughts.

"Oh really? Maybe you shouldn't have let her run away?"

Angela gasped and Tommy and Frankie winced.

"So you are saying this is my fault? That our daughter is out there, alone in the dark, obviously not able to come back home?" Again, sobs wracked her body and Frank sighed.

"Ang…listen…I'm just saying that…"

"I don't wanna hear it, Frank. I am home alone all day cause you are out working. We have three children, Frank! And all the house work and upbringing has been dumped on me! I can't have my eyes everywhere and if I had run after her I would have left Tommy and Frankie alone at home. Would you have wanted that?"

"Angela…"

"I told you I don't want to hear it!" Angela shouted, making every Rizzoli in the house flinch. She walked up to her husband, poked him with her index finger into the chest and glared.

"I will not talk to you until you bring me my baby back, is that clear?"

In the park, one hour later…

Somewhere between dreaming of ice cream and gnocchi's, Jane felt a penetrating warmth at her left side, which brought her out of her dreams. Wanting to turn around, she slightly panicked when she felt a heavy weight on her chest and shoulder, but before she could scream and jump to her feet, Jane felt something soft tickle her nose and her movements ceased and her panic morphed into curiosity. Peering down, Jane could make out blonde hair on her shoulder and a pale arm winding around her waist with a fist tightly attached to her pullover.

Jane smiled softy. Maura reminded her of her brother Frankie right now, but she knew that Frankie wasn't scared of people, he was simply too attached to Jane. Maura on the other hand…if Jane would have to guess, she would say that Maura didn't have any friend, maybe never had had any and her parents were teaching her to be very…independent. Poor giri, Jane thought and sighed inwardly. She needed to get to the bottom of this. Maura was polite, sweet and obviously smart and Jane couldn't understand why anyone wouldn't want to play with her or have her around in general. She also couldn't imagine what could have happened to her in the past to make her say that the bruise wasn't the worst she'd ever had. Jane suddenly started to worry. What if…

Her thought was cut off by a snap of a branch in the distance. Involuntarily Jane's muscles tensed, which seemed to disturb Maura's sleep since Jane could feel the girl's hand tug at her clothes.

"Shhh…." Jane calmed the girl, at the same time trying to keep her as quiet as possible.

Jane knew the sounds in the woods. The trees moving, branches rubbing against each other and night birds moving around. She also knew the sounds of footsteps. So either they would get a visit from a deer or boar in a short while or there was someone walking around in the woods.

tbc...


Let me know what ya think:)