Before and After: On The Run VIIb

Rizzoli & Isles

Pairing: Jane Rizzoli/Maura Isles

Author: myIllusion

Rating: NC-17

Disclaimer: I do not own the characters-no copyright infringement intended.

I'm getting close to the end now so I will be updating every few days. This story sort of turned into a snowball - rolling very fast down hill and it's almost at the bottom. I hope you all continue to read and enjoy.

Korsak, Peterson & Kelso

"Looks like a bulk carrier, handysize - some folks call em handymax, but it's the same difference - five holds I'm guessing and she's old. Been outta the water a long time by the looks of her."

Kelso's voice was low but the tone it carried was earnest, intense with just a hint of excitement that could threaten to get out of control. Korsak was grateful Eddie knew so much about boats because they would need to know what this monster looked like inside.

"How big are the holds on that boat Eddie, and are they all connected together with doors?"

"Ship."

"What?"

"It's a ship, not a boat."

Korsak shook his head in frustration. It was 5:00 a.m. in the morning and the only thing keeping him from pounding on Kelso was he didn't want to make any noise. They were hidden on a slope above the dockyard, sharing the view through Jane's night vision binoculars.

"Fine...how big are the holds on that FUCKING SHIP Eddie?"

"Probly fifty meters each with five hatches. The hatches can be removed though, to make any single hold bigger. Won't know til we get in there...the cranes on top are all junk and rusted - that ship is never getting back in the water. Ya know Vince, this is a perfect place for Big Mouth's operation. Close to port...easy to pick up his girls and his coke, everything all in one place. And, this ain't no normal dockyard. I only see two ships that look like any work is being done on them. It's more like a graveyard for ships or a salvage yard. Big Mouth probly owns this whole set-up or has some kinda hold on whatever poor bastard does own the place."

Korsak sighed. Eddie Kelso loved to talk.

That was why Frankie had been grabbed in the first place. According to Pepper Peterson, who hoarded his words like a miser and uttered them only when asked a direct question.

"What happened?" Korsak had asked Peterson first, not wanting to wait through a long babbling explanation from Eddie.

"Kelso was talking."

"And?"

Kelso blurted, "let me tell him Pepper, it's all my fault so I should be the one to spill."

Nod.

"The kid was in the bar all night - we were outside waiting - drinking coffee and beer. We both had to piss at the same time...so we went out back behind the drugstore 'cross the street. I thought it would only take two minutes so...no harm. We should have gone at separate times but it wasn't worth fighting with Pepper, we really had to piss... all at once the coffee and then the beer, ya know Vince... the older ya get the smaller your bladder becomes..."

"EDDIE!"

"...Okay, okay... I...uh started to tell Pepper about this new hottie I met and I... sorta made up a bunch of sexy stuff just to see if I could get him to lighten up...and, anyway we got carried away with the conversation. By the time we got back on watch - the bar was closed, the lights were out and Frankie's car was still parked where he had left it. Then I saw something under the back tire. A syringe. That's when I knew we had really blown it Vince. You can pound on me if you want to... I would want to pound on me if I was you."

And that was how they came to be squatting on a slope: behind scraggly bushes, in the dead of winter, freezing there asses off; spying on a boat (ship) that belonged to Big Mouth Stone.

He picked up the binoculars and scanned the scene again.

"I see two guys on the deck, um... no three, one of them is sitting up top of that crane in the middle." "Wait, what's going on down there by the ramp..-"

Eddie yanked the binoculars out his hand to take a peek.

"Oh boy...looks like they're bringin' in some new girls... they got em all chained together... there's a van pulled up over in that shadow see..."

He handed the binoculars back to Vince.

Korsak grunted.

"Two of those guys on deck are going with the girls, that guy on the crane is the only one on watch... what do you guys think?"

He asked them both knowing what he was really asking them. This was quite a risk. The weapons those goons had were SMG's (submachine guns) the firepower far outweighed what Korsak, Kelso and Peterson were carrying.

Vince did have one little advantage though. He still had Jane's Beretta and the Silencer she used on that night of Maura's kidnapping. He never tossed it away like he had told her. He couldn't even explain to himself why he had hung on to the thing, but he just couldn't make himself dump it somewhere. He thought there would be an opportunity to use it again and so he kept it hidden at his house under the floor in the kitchen pantry. Until now.

Kelso and Peterson nodded together. Pepper spoke up for the first time that evening.

"We go NOW Vince. Those are new fresh girls. Those other two guys went down to break them in, we won't get a better chance than right at this moment. The guy they left behind, he'll wait for his turn but right now you can bet he is really distracted because he has to wait his turn. Give me the Beretta Vince. I'll take the guy on the crane first. You two wait until he's down before joining me up top."

Jane, Maura, Barry, Beedie.

Frost insisted that Jane braid her hair instead of going with a standard pony tail.

"I know you don't normally wear a braid Jane but this Jasper guy probably doesn't have a clue about your hair styles...and it really will hide the bug and make access to it much easier."

"What if they tie me up or handcuff me Barry? I won't be able to turn it on and off."

Barry was getting a little impatient, Jane could tell because he had a habit of chewing on his thumbnail when someone was starting to irritate him. He was currently biting that thumbnail to the quick. Ugh.

"Jane... we can't put it on your clothes or anywhere else on your body... they will search your clothes thoroughly and your body... they might just overlook your hair. They'll sweep your head too, but if we hide it within the braid it might get overlooked...please... lets do this, we are running out of time."

She was sitting on a chair in Maura's office getting prepared to leave in just ten minutes and they were still arguing the details. Jane sighed and bent forward, giving Barry access to her wild, dark tresses.

Barry super glued the little GPS tracking device to a lock of Jane's hair. He chose the middle layer and placed it at mid-length so when she braided the hair it would be woven in among the other strands. If she had to let her hair down for some reason it would still be tucked in the midst of Jane's thick mane. The device was the size of a dime and could be activated at will by gently squeezing. He made Jane practice turning it on and off several times so she could get the feel of it. He wanted to be sure she knew the difference between "on" and "off" as this would be critical for them to find her.

When he was satisfied that the GPS was secure he nodded to Maura. She was standing behind the chair that Jane was sitting on preparing to do the honors of braiding Janes hair.

"Not a French Braid Maura...nothing fancy that's not my style...just a normal one with three strands... that way even I can do it back up again if they make me take it out for some reason."

" I know. " Maura was gently running her fingers through the thick silky strands of Jane's hair. Her eyes were deeply green this morning with only the hint of amber in the undertones. Her voice was wispy sad and sent a shiver through Jane's heart, which made her tremble all over. Maura calmed her with a soft touch and whispered in her ear.

"Sshhsh...I love you... it will be okay." She pressed her cheek against the softness of Jane's neck, rubbing in gently along her shoulder, kissing lightly once, twice...

She sighed and then divided Jane's lovely hair into three thick strands, her nimble fingers wove the pattern slowly...lingering, trying to stretch each moment...relishing the simple feel of Jane's silky hair beneath her tender clasp.

Beedie silently entered the room with a tray holding four cups of coffee and a plate of blueberry scones. An emerald colored dragonfly swooped in fast decent across the chest of his black tee shirt. He placed the tray upon the side table they had set up for snacks and drinks and then quietly sat down at his work station.

Jane followed his minimal, cautious movements across the room, thinking he was one of the strangest most brilliant people she had ever met. He never said anything at all except when it mattered. And when he did speak the information was always incredibly useful. She found herself feeling a deep affinity for this young man that Barry had befriended. Beedie wasn't getting paid anything for helping them. He showed up when Barry asked for some advice and he never left, he simply stayed on, putting all his personal concerns aside and plunged into the problems that he could solve for them.

"You really like bugs." Jane stated, she smiled and pointed at his current tee shirt. She wanted to connect with him in a way that didn't have anything to do with this Hoyt situation. Wanting him to know that she saw him as a person whom she valued and not someone she was using to meet her own desperate needs.

"I do." He nodded his head a fraction and returned her smile with a lopsided grin.

"They survive in spite of their size... and they adapt to environmental disruptions remarkably fast... and I find them... beautiful." He shrugged his shoulders and turned to face his computer.

Maura was looking at him with genuine affection, smiling widely and getting that excited goggled eyed look when someone started using words that had more then ten letters.

" I do too... find them beautiful, although beetles are my favorite, specifically Insecta Coleoptera: The ladybug. Did you know that in 1999 the space shuttle brought four ladybugs into space to perform an experiment in anti gravity? "

Beedie swiveled his chair around to look at Maura, in that odd way he had of... not looking but, still...you knew he was. His gray eyed gaze was fixed and rapt upon what Maura was saying. He absently pushed his horn rimmed glasses into place, his lopsided grin turned into a whole and real smile as he listened to her girlfriend speak of bugs.

Jane could only smile at the two of them, and was not the least offended that she had been rather unceremoniously dumped from the conversation after she initiated it. Bugs! But it was time to go...so she had to interrupt them and regretted doing so.

"Maura...sweetie... it's time for me to go now."

Maura quickly finished braiding Jane's hair, clasped her hand and walked her to the door to say goodbye.

They held one another for a long quiet moment. Kissed, long and sweet and tender.

"I'll be back."

Was all Jane said.

Nod.

And she was gone.

Frankie and Carrie

"Yum yum...look what we got here...this one is really sweet and a bonus besides. Not part of this current batch that's for sure. Look how clean and smooth she is." The guy was about to reach out and stroke Carrie's cheek but Frankie screamed at him.

"Don't you touch her."

The filthy man had stepped into Frankie's space bubble. He did not like people in his space bubble. Only people he liked were allowed to get within inches of his person, or his temper would snap. This asshole had his filthy eyes on Carrie and was about to touch her with his grubby hands.

Once their eyes had adjusted to the lights in the hold Frankie had almost thrown up on the spot with what he saw. The entire space told a story of torture and despair. From the blood stains on the metal floor that would never completely come clean to the fifty or sixty chains that were anchored to the wall in ten foot spans.

Chains that were now being attached to young women and girls who were terrified. Many of them had been beaten and none of them had proper winter clothing. Most of them were quaking with shivers. All of them had the look of despair and defeat - it was haunting and monstrous and Frankie could feel the pressure building in his head, the flush of heat rising throughout his whole body. The rage and fury were going to win this time.

"I'll touch her if I want pig boy... you ain't got a thing to say about it, she ain't nothin' but meat now." The guy sneered at Frankie, and reached around to lay his dirty hands upon Carrie.

The stupid asshole had slung his gun onto his shoulder, blatantly dismissing Frankie as a potential threat. "Pig boy" was chained to the wall after all, what could he possibly do?"

Frankie stepped in front of Carrie and gently pushed her back against the wall. His strike was unbelievably quick - his hand darted out to punch offensive lecher in the larynx. He kicked hard, smashing his heavy boot into the drug dealers knee while simultaneously kicking the other leg out from under him. The guy landed on metal floor screaming,holding his shattered knee and clawing at his throat.

But Frankie was on him in a flash, he flipped his ankle chain around the guys neck making a swift loop and then he jerked his leg hard, snapping the mans neck with a crunch and a clang that echoed through a hull that had suddenly become still.

Except for Frankie. He grabbed the dead mans machine gun and pointed at the next nearest goon who stood about ten feet away from him.

"You need to put that gun down boy. Silas get your ass ov...-" This man was older and calmer and smarter. He also looked like he actually washed himself. But Frankie wasn't the one to notice these things. Carrie noticed, and told him later - after it all was over.

Frankie opened fire, filling the guy with at least twenty holes. Blood spattered the walls and floor and the panic stricken women and children who were witness to the unsuspected carnage. Thankfully, all of the women in the room had already retreated to the safety of the wall and were crouching on the floor with their hands covering their heads.

The third man (who's name was Silas) in the room was basically dumbstruck, in total shock, unable to move or think. In thirty seconds or less Frankie Rizzoli had taken down two trained professionals and was pointing that machine gun his way. He never had a chance. He eventually tried to fire but had forgotten to unhitch the safety of his weapon. Click. Nothing.

... Thunk. Silas slumped to the floor.

Frankie Rizzoli is... what is commonly known as a "Berzerker." Once his temper is unleashed he loses his mind completely. His parents, and Jane, and a very patient therapist had worked with him for years to help him gain his self-control. And this was the real reason his Ma didn't want him to become a cop. She was terrified he might lose his temper at the wrong time and hurt some innocent person.

On this night, he had gone berzerk at precisely the perfect moment. He actually felt that God had got it right for once. The handicap, the terrible secret he had tried to hide for all his life...the secret he struggled to manage and contain... had been a generous gift... for this one time. He felt no remorse. Not a single second of self doubt. Those men were animals.

Vince Korsak, Pepper Peterson and Eddie Kelso peeked into the brightly lit hull of the old merchant ship, utterly stunned. Several minutes passed before anyone felt it safe to approach Frankie, who was standing stiffly silent. Clinging to the gun for all his life and scanning the room for more enemies like a terminator true and through.

Finally, it was Carrie who gently talked him down.

"Frankie... Frankie sweetie... it's me... Carrie." And she placed her hand upon his shoulder, stroking gently. "Please put the gun down now Frankie... please." And she turned him around to face her.

She was smiling and nodding at him, tears were rolling down her face in giant droplets. Her beautiful pale skin, dusted with freckles glowed with a warmth that would shine on him forever in that moment. He set the gun down on the floor and slowly collapsed. Carrie pulled him into her arms and Frankie wept.

Not for the men, never them... but for the women in this room who could go free. For the woman who held him close and kissed his head and hair and for his sister - Jane. They could no longer use Frankie as a weapon to hurt Jane.

Korsak called it in. He didn't care anymore what Jane would say. These woman needed caring for and they needed back-up down here before the rest of Big Mouth's crew showed up. He sent Pepper and Eddie back up top to keep watch and wait for reinforcements.

He checked his watch and swore. It was 6:30 a.m. Jane was already gone. Fuck. He called her anyway.

Maura answered.

"Vince?"

"Please tell me Jane is still there Maura, please tell me she didn't leave?"

The silence along that invisible line...the black hole of telephone hell...the depth of despair that could be felt through miles of air...every molecule along that path, quivered and shook relaying an absolute sadness.

"She left a half an hour ago."

Whish, thump, clunk.

And in the background he could hear Barry shouting..."Maura... Maura...oh God."

To Be Continued.

Shoot, I meant to get the meeting with Jane and Jasper into this section but found that this was a better place to stop and begin the next chapter with that meeting. Hope you stick around to find out what happens.

Thank you so much... you know who you are...those of you who have consistently sent me a nod to continue. I so appreciate your kindness. :)

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