Even if you haven't read the entire series...this chapter will be much better if you jog back and read chapter 39 (it's labeled 39, but it's actually 40...it begins with the line: "Maura it's so busy here"). I know some of you were wondering about Lukas, and if he'd be back. He is. I think there's a lot that the R-I kids can learn from him.

happy reading,

tc

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...


...

"Mommy!"

Both Jane and Maura turn to look at the little boy, and with a jolt of surprise, and then of suspicion, Jane notices that he is reaching out to her girlfriend.

She realizes everything about him in a millisecond. He is too small, too skinny, his eyes too wide and frightened. She looks up at the man with him, and sees that he is already disengaging, already preparing to run. They lock eyes for the space of a heartbeat, and the detective inside of her bursts into life. Every instinct she has kicks in.

"MAURA!" she yells, pointing at the little boy, and when the man turns and runs, she takes off after him, thanking the heavens that she'd had the good sense to put her badge in her back pocket that morning.

.

The kid waiting for her at the precinct is Lukas. Or at least, he says he's Lukas. Jane has not seen him in nearly sixteen years, and the man who comes up to her as she enters the bullpen is broad shouldered and handsome, nearly six feet tall, with wide green eyes and a smattering of freckles that seem like out of place leftovers from his childhood.

"Jane!" He says, and his hug nearly lifts her off her feet.

"Lukas?" She hugs him back, surprised at how normal it feels to embrace someone she hasn't seen for more than a decade.
"It's me!" He says standing back and holding his arms out. "You recognize me right? Don't mom and dad send you a Christmas card every year?"

Jane laughs, leading him over to her desk, gesturing that he should sit down. "Well, yeah, but somehow the photos did not do justice to just how tall and how grown up you are."

"You haven't changed one bit," he says, grinning.

Frost snorts into his coffee at his own desk, and Jane throws him a glare.

Lukas laughs. "Where's Maura? Is she here?"

Jane shakes her head, leaning back in her seat. "She's home with our kids...I told her I would bring you her love." Jane squints at him for a moment, and the smile on his face falters. "Lukas, what are you doing here?"

He sobers at once. "It's the kids in Springfield," he says, and when Jane shakes her head in confusion, he looks at her, astounded. "The kids in Springfield, Massachusetts, who are disappearing and dying?"

"Ah," Jane says. She remembers hearing about that on the news, though not in the precinct as SVU is not her department.

"It's Graves, Jane," Lukas says now, and his face is pale and determined. "I know it is."

.

"Kieran Graves. Thirty Four. Wanted in Pennsylvania, NY and Connecticut for three counts of public lewdness, one drunk and disorderly, and six counts of attempted kidnapping."

Jane leans against the pillar in front of the food court. "Looks like he succeeded this time," she says, glancing over at where Maura is standing with the little boy, trying to get him to let her go.

"We need to get the missing kid info from all those states."

The officer nods, gesturing to her shoulder. "You took him down pretty hard. You okay?"

Jane reaches up to rub her shoulder, frowning at the pain. "It's fine," she says curtly. "It's worth it to catch this bastard."

The officer nods. "You know… you probably saved that kid's life. His parents, if they're out there are gonna be wicked happy to see him. Even if he's only been gone an hour."

"Well they aren't in Boston, or we'd know by now," she says, turning away from him and heading towards her girlfriend. "Thanks Rosario, I'm gonna go see what I can get from him. You phoned the captain?"

"Yeah. Ten minutes ago. He says it's just like you to do some hero work on your day off."

Jane chuckles. "Beats shoe shopping."

.

"They all look like me, Jane. Their pictures could be my brothers. And Graves got let out less than three weeks before it started happening.. Nothing like this was going down before he got free. Come on," Lukas leans forward in his chair. "You have to believe me!"

Jane holds up a finger to tell him to wait, and listens to the phone ringing in her ear.

"You'd better hope your parents didn't realize you disappeared from school, although...knowing what they've been through, I'm gonna go with a hunch and say they're out of their minds."

"It's been a day," Lukas grumbles. "I'm nearly nineteen."

"You're the baby they almost lost," Jane corrects him sternly. "And you missed your morning and nightly call with them, you just said."

"Didn't want them to hear the bus."

Jane rolls her eyes. "Yes, heaven forbid they know you're okay...hello?"

The line picks up and a frantic female voice comes on the other end of the line.

"Hello? Lukas? Is that you?"

"Katherine?" Jane can hear the panic in the other woman's voice. It seems to travel the length of the phone line and pierce her in the chest.

"Yes. Who is this? Who am I speaking with?"

"Katherine, it's Jane...Rizzoli," She supplies when the voice on the end of the line doesn't respond. "He's here. He's here in Boston, sitting in front of my desk, looking sheepish." She listens as Katherine lets out a strangled sort of sound, and then moves her mouth away from the receiver to call to her husband.

"Mike! Mike it's Detective Rizzoli, She says Lukas is there...in Boston."

Jane hears Mike rumble indiscernibly, and then Katherine says, "Is he hurt?"

Jane glances at Lukas, who looks back at her with a half defiant, half fearful grin. "No," she says calmly. "But I'd be happy to rough him up a bit for scaring you."

Katherine's laugh is more like a sob. "God...I'm just so relieved...I could kill him," she breathes into the phone. "Is this about those little boys over in Springfield?"

Jane nods automatically. "Yes, it appears so."

"I told him to let it go. I told him that the police would do their jobs and he just has to let them. But would he listen? I told him to focus on school. To put it from his mind."

Jane spins her chair so that she's facing away from Lukas and drops her voice. "You know that's not possible," she says quietly, "right?"

There is a pause, and then a deep sigh. "Yes," Katherine responds. "But it doesn't stop me from wanting him to."

Jane smiles sympathetically at the floor.

"How'd he get there?" Katherine asks. "We called and his roommate said he hadn't seen him in 24 hours, and he didn't go to the class they shared…"

"It looks like he took the bus," Jane says, spinning back to see Lukas nodding. "Yep. The bus."

"That's 10 hours," Katherine sounds shocked. "Goodness. Why didn't he just come to us? We would have…" but she trails off here, realizing that what they would have done would not have satisfied her son.

Jane smiles again. "I can turn him around and send him back," Jane says, holding up her hand as Lukas leans forward to protest. "But let me suggest something else."

Katherine pauses. "Okay…"

"Let him stay the night. I'll feed him, make him sleep on the couch, and hear him out on the Springfield case. He'll be on the train back to Lehigh by tomorrow afternoon."

Jane hears Katherine discuss this with her husband, and glances at Lukas. He is grinning from ear to ear. She covers the receive and glares at him. "You are not off the hook yet, pal."

The smile drops from his face.
"Jane?"

She puts the phone back to her ear. "Still here."

"Can you still rough him up?"

Jane laughs. "With pleasure."

Maura is waiting eagerly by the door when they arrive home. She'd listened to Jane's story and then agreed breathlessly that of course Lukas could stay, and to "get him over here right now! I bet he's enormous!"

The house is loud and warm and smells like chicken when they push through the front door, and Jane slips by Maura as she runs towards Lukas, heading down the hall into the dining room, where she is greeted by an entire herd of children.

She stares around at them all at the dining room table, Isabelle between Sofia and McKenzie, T.J. and Noah at the far end, Levi on the other side, barely stopping to chew his food.

"When did we open up a restaurant?" She asks, turning back towards the hallway, but Maura hasn't heard her.
The doctor still has her arms around Lukas, and from the way her shoulders are shaking, Jane can tell that she is crying. The brunette turns fully, leaning against the doorway, smiling at Lukas' bewildered face.

"Maura," she says gently. "Stop crying. That's the only shirt he's got, honey."

Maura pulls away, wiping at her eyes with one hand and swatting at her wife with the other. "Oh...I'm sure something of Levi's will fit him...God, you're so tall and handsome!"

Lukas grins at her, and Maura gets teary again. "And how dare you do that to your parents!" she bursts out suddenly. "How could you worry them like that?"

Jane reaches out to slide an arm around her wife. "I read him the riot act all the way home, Maura...I promise."

"Those little boys are disappearing and dying, Maura," he says, sobering at once. "And no one in Springfield is even doing anything about it. Graves got out seventeen days before the first abduction, and they said he's not even a prime suspect. They haven't even questioned me about what happened, or what I remember. Nothing!"

Maura glances at Jane meaningfully before reaching out for him. "That does not mean you worry everyone by leaving and not telling anyone," she says firmly and when Lukas goes to argue with her, she shushes him and leads him past the detective and into the dining room.

"Ladies, gentlemen," she says, guiding Lukas to a seat next to Levi. "This is Lukas Brody, he is the reason you are all here in this house today. Please let him have some of the food, and do not ask him embarrassing questions."

Sofia looks up from her plate. "You're the one that got abducted?" She asks bluntly, and Jane rolls her eyes.

"Didn't Mommy just tell you not to ask embarrassing questions?"

"What's embarrassing about that?" Isabelle pipes up. "He got saved right? An embarrassing question is like...Do you sit down to pee or stand up?"

"How many pimples do you have on your back?" Noah pipes up.

"Why do you have Britney Spears on your ipod?" Levi chuckles as he lifts his fork to his mouth.

Jane snorts. "Thank you all, for making him feel welcome," she says sarcastically, but Lukas is laughing heartily.

"Yes," he says. "I am the one who got abducted, and I was saved by your mothers. I stand up to pee, I have not counted my back pimples lately but last month it was seven and listen, you're only a man if you can admit that Britney is a quality artist."

Everyone at the table laughs, and Levi and Lukas slap hands quickly before Levi reaches over and spoons potatoes onto the empty plate in front of their guest.

Maura looks at Jane, exasperated, and the brunette shrugs and turns away from the scene, heading back down the hallway and into the living room. She sinks down on the couch and throws an arm over her eyes, so she only feels the doctor sit down next to her.

"He's so big," Maura says, leaning her head against Jane's shoulder. "I remember the way he fit against my shoulder perfectly. He was so small and light."
Jane makes a noncommittal sound to show she is listening and hasn't fallen asleep.

"Had you heard about Springfield?" Maura asks after a moment. "Did it cross your mind?"

Jane nods, then shakes her head, trying to gather her thoughts. "Yeah," she says. "No..I mean...come on Maura. I think about Lukas every time there's a report about an abducted kid within a 150 mile radius. Boy or Girl."

Maura waits, but when Jane doesn't go on, she says, "Do you think it could be Graves?"

Jane moves her elbow and looks up at the ceiling. "I don't know," she says. "I don't know enough about the boys or the way they were found. Lukas was Graves' third victim, but the killings were much more spread out, chronologically and geographically. I'd have to look at the files to know."

Maura pauses again, and Jane knows what she wants to say. "Who's in Springfield?" she asks, and she can feel Maura smile.

"It's Popov," she says. "I just reassigned him there."

Jane groans. "The only thing he can properly autopsy is a donut," she says darkly.

"Yes...but getting the records from him would be rather easy," she responds.
"Why can't we just clone you, Maura? You'd have already found something to catch this creep."

Maura kisses Jane's shoulder, "Then we'd have to clone you too, Detective. You know I'm nothing without you."

Jane closes her eyes, smiling, until a new thought occurs to her. "But you gotta raise clones from babies, don't you? They don't just pop out fully formed humans with experience and memory."

She sees Maura bite her lip out of the corner of her eye. "Well, as the woman who carried two of our children, I would like to suggest that they come out plenty formed." Jane laughs and snakes her arm around Maura's waist as she continues. "But yes, you're correct. We would have to raise our clones in order to ensure they behave the way we'd like them to."

As if on cue the voices from the dining room rise, making it sound as though there is a little flash mob happening down the hall.

Jane pulls Maura onto her lap and buries her head in the doctor's neck. "Nope," she says, squeezing her eyes shut when one of the girls shrieks. "Nope...no more kids. Seriously, when did we become a rest stop for teenage vagabonds?"

Maura sucks her teeth. "Besides Lukas, whom you brought home, that is your nephew and your daughter's girlfriend in there. They are hardly vagabonds. Your nephew is barely old enough to spell that word."

Jane pulls back, frowning. "Where are his parents? Did they at least drop him off this time?" As the days go by, she is becoming increasingly upset with her youngest brother's inattention to his son.

Maura makes a sympathetic face. She knows how much this upsets the detective. "Lydia did, and she packed a bag this time...but she forgot toiletries and underwear and a couple of other things."
Jane opens her mouth to swear, but Maura cuts her off, putting a finger over her mouth. "I got them already, darling, so there's no need to get upset about it. We can afford it, certainly, and Noah likes having him here."
But Jane shakes her head. "Both of those things are beside the point, Maur," she says, wrapping her arms tighter around her wife. "They should just get a divorce and be done with it. He has to remember what it was like to listen to parents fighting all the time."

Maura leans down to kiss Jane on the side of the head, and when she answers, her voice is inflected to show that she understands that this is a sensitive subject.

"I think," she says gently, "I think what he remembers most is how much he wanted his father to stay."

…...

But ultimately, Jane has to admit to herself that she loves how loud and chaotic and happy her children sound, even Levi, who avoids her eyes when he comes into the living room, but seems to have no problem pouncing on his brother and sisters, joining the fight for the TV remote.

"What if your mother and I wanted to watch a documentary?" Maura asks, leaning away from somebody's elbow as it whizzes through the air. "What if we wanted to have an evening of culture and academic conversation?"

Her serious face is undermined by Jane, who pretends to fall asleep behind her back, and the fighting begins again as the doctor leans over to swat the detective.

McKenzie and Lukas hover on the outside of the sibling pile, and T.J. climbs up onto the couch next to Maura, leaning into her as she slides her arm around his shoulder.

"Alright, darling?" she asks, bending to kiss his head.

He nods, but doesn't say anything, and Jane feels a pang of sympathy and a prickle of anger. She loves her nephew and her wife together, loves how Maura seems attuned to the little boy's desire for attention while also understanding that he has a proud streak not unlike his father and aunt. She wonders briefly how understood he is at home, and then tries to push the thought, and the nauseous feeling of foreboding away. She does not doubt that Tommy and Lydia love their son. There is more than one way to raise a child.

Jane ducks suddenly, as the remote flies over her head, and four sets of surprised and guilty eyes turn to look at her.

"Children!" Maura sputters, sounding so scandalized, and so...Victorian, that Jane bursts into laughter. Maura tries to look stern, but soon she is laughing along with the rest of them, and even Lukas is chuckling along.

Only McKenzie remains solemn, looking around at them all with an expression that is mostly curious, and might even border on envious.

"This is your family always?" McKenzie asks as Isabelle comes to sit next to her in the overstuffed armchair where it she is perched.

"Yeah," Isabelle says, leaning against her. "It's okay to laugh."

McKenzie turns her wide eyes on Isabelle. "To laugh at your mother?" she asks, like this has never occurred to her. "Or the remote?"

"Both," Bella says, shrugging.

McKenzie looks around and catches Jane's eye, and she freezes for a moment, looking terrified.

Jane tries to smile a comforting, encouraging smile, and is about to say something to support her daughter's statement, but Maura has retrieved the remote, and she changes to the discovery channel, settling back down beside the brunette.

"Well, if you're going to throw it at us...this is what you get," she says, and all of her children moan except for Sofia, who shoves Noah out of the way so she can have the prime seat on the floor, against Maura's knees. "Shh!" she says as Maura runs a free hand through Sofia's dark hair.

"It's about the solar system."

Jane makes a note to talk to Maura about McKenzie later.

.

But when the doctor slides down next to her in bed, wrapping her arms around Jane's waist, pressing a kiss to the base of her ear, she is lost in new thoughts.
"I can practically hear you thinking," Maura says quietly. "Do you want to share? Keep yourself from short circuiting?"

Jane smiles despite herself. "That's not possible, doctor," she grins, turning into her wife. "Tsk, tsk."

Maura grins into her wife's neck. "No...I mean, that's not what it's called, but it is completely possible to lapse into catatonia as a result of overwork and multiple stress-"

"You know what Korsak said today?" Jane doesn't realize she's interrupted until she's spoken, and she shrugs her shoulders sheepishly, a little apology.

Maura chuckles. "Tell me what he said," she murmurs.

"He said that we're an unfaltering symbol of safety and stability."

Maura pulls away to lean on her elbow, studying Jane's face. "Did he?"

"Yeah," she says, and Maura holds out her arms, and Jane tucks herself into the doctor's side, sighing contentedly. "He said that we're proof."

"Proof of what?" Maura asks.

Jane Grins and presses her lips to the corner of Maura's mouth. "Just proof," she murmurs, and Maura smiles, running her hands up Jane's back.
"That's...a wonderful compliment...Jane!" Maura breathes as Jane's hand grips her hip, pulling her closer. "We are, quite literally, in a house full of children."

But Jane growls and bites Maura's ear. And she knows her wife so well, that she is there to press her lips to the doctor's when she gasps.

….

….

She wakes up before the sun, unable to remember her dream, but knowing that it was about Hoyt. Her hands are throbbing dully, and her chest hurts like she's been sobbing, even though her eyes are dry. Her throat is parched, burning. She sits up rubbing her face and then letting her hands tug through her hair. Maura's hand finds her arm, even though the doctor's eyes do not open.

"Not even sun," she mumbles, and Jane leans over to kiss her temple.

"Keep sleeping," she whispers, and Maura's brow creases, eyes still closed.

"Okay?"

"I'm fine," Jane assures her as she slides out of bed. "I'm thirsty. I'll be back."

"Better be," Maura says, rolling over. By the time Jane has pulled her sweatshirt on over her tank top, Maura is breathing evenly again. She makes her way down the silent hall and towards the stairs, but when she gets to the top landing, she can hear muffled thunks and bangs coming from what sounds like the living room.

She freezes, listening, on the stairs, and has almost made the decision to go back to her room and get the baseball bat that's leaning behind the door when she hears the unmistakable voice of her eldest son.

"Oh, man, I totally beat your ass just then!"

Jane frowns, and creeps down a couple more stairs. "You wait, shithead," Lukas' voice says a moment later. "When I meet you in the Portal of Endless Tomorrows, you are going to eat those words!"

"Not if I make you eat this sword!"

Now in the hallway at the bottom of the stairs, Jane inches forward and peers around the doorframe into the living room.

The two boys are sitting cross legged on the couch, game controllers in their hands, both staring fixedly at the TV, and the video game that's playing there. As Jane watches, one of the figures on the screen executes a perfect double flip over his opponent, turning to stab a dagger into his back.

"HAH!" Lukas cries triumphantly. "What did I say!"

"Shhh," Levis says quickly, "I'm not allowed to play when Noah's around, and he has like a sixth sense for when I'm having fun without him."

Lukas chuckles as the screen goes dark and then resets, asking them to play again. "Wish I had a kid brother," He says after a second, and Levi glances at him.

"Yeah, but...you're an only child," Jane hears her son counter. "That must be totally cool."

"It's boring," Lukas admits. "And now that I'm off at college, I feel bad for leaving my parents all alone...I know they miss me a ton."

There's an awkward silence, and Jane watches the backs of the boys' heads, waiting.

"Were you really abducted by a pedophile?" Levi asks finally.

"Yeah," Lukas responds.

"And my moms saved you?"

Lukas answers with a quick jerk of his head, and Levi waits for a second and then, "They saved us too. Me and Noah."

"Yeah?" Lukas sounds interested. "Like from a pedophile?"

Levi considers, "Nah...I think that he wasn't going to like...abuse us on purpose. Mom told me later that he'd lost his brothers a long time ago, and we reminded him of them. She said he was sick, and so he didn't really know what he was doing."

"What happened to him?"

"He died in the shootout when we got rescued," Levi says tonelessly, and Jane wonders if her son knows the full story until he says, "actually, Mom shot him because he was gonna kill Ma...She still visits his grave sometimes."

Lukas nods again. "You go too?"

"I go with her sometimes to the cemetery...but I visit my other parents instead."

More silence. Jane watches as Levi leans over and hits the reset button, but this round of fighting does not seem to inspire the same enthusiasm as before. It ends quickly, with Levi coming out victorious. And when the game asks if they want to play again, Levi turns to Lukas.

"I got a racing game," he says after a second, "It's kind of lame...like Mario Kart or something but…"

"Yeah," Lukas says quickly. "Cool. I'm tired of beating you at this anyway."

Levi smirks, but pops the new game out of its case. "Hey," he says, settling back on the couch. "You really think the same guy who took you is doing it again?"

Lukas looks down at his controller and then back up at the screen. "Yeah," he says finally.

"What can my Ma do that those other cops can't?" Levi seems to be genuinely asking, but the question makes Lukas mad. He turns to the younger boy, eyes flashing, Jane steps back a ways, so keep out of sight.

"Dude, seriously?" Lukas asks incredulously. "Your moms are like…" He falters here, trying to figure it out. Levi lets him think.

"Look," Lukas tries again. "When you got saved, or whatever...the police took you to the hospital, right?"

Levi nods, looking uncomfortable.

"And then you went home with Jane and Maura, right? When you got better and cleared? They just took you home?"

Levi thinks for a second, and then nods again, and Lukas nods with him. "Yeah," he continues. "No foster care, no trial homes, no separating you and your brother…" He pauses to see if Levi is understanding him. "Do you know what kind of lucky you are?"

Levi doesn't answer, but something seems to be dawning on him for the first time. He looks down at his controller and shakes his head.

Jane turns back to the hallway, trying to fight the burning in her eyes.

.

"Jane?"

"yeah, buddy."

"You gonna rescue other Lukases from bad men?"

"Well, it's my job to help people in trouble."

"Oh…" the bowing of a little blond head, the creasing of a tiny brow.

"But you know what?"

"Whut?"

"Not one of them is going to be another Lukas."

.

Maura's hands around her waist make her jump and spin, barely managing to keep her cry of shock in her throat.

"If you leave right after breakfast," she whispers, "you can be in Springfield before lunch." She grins up at Jane, and there is nothing left to do but kiss her. This all seeing, wonderful, brilliant, beautiful doctor, who knows Jane better than she knows herself.

So Jane kisses her, and then, because it feels so good, she kisses her again, and then the two of them sneak back up the stairs, and slide back under the covers together, intent on spending the next forty five minutes before their younger children wake up wrapped in each other's arms.