Long Way Around

Chapter 14

Disclaimer: Jane Rizzoli and Maura Isles do not belong to me. No infringement intended and no profit will be made from their use.

A/N: Sorry for the delay in updating. I got a little tired of dealing with the post-Season 2 finale world. But this chapter takes us to the end of this little story. I have another one-shot I'm working on that should be posted soon. Thanks for reading!

"I guess you got a little more information about the situation," Dean said as Jane put away her phone and raised her gun at him.

"Who are you working for?" Jane asked.

"Do you know what Afghanistan is like, Jane?"

"Who the fuck are you working for?" Jane asked again.

Dean raised his hands as if in surrender. "I'll tell you, but don't you want the whole story?"

"Fine. Talk."

"Afghanistan is a total hellhole. I saw things there that I will never forget, that will keep me up at night for the rest of my life. Plus, everywhere there's poverty and corruption, and the only part of the economy that works is the heroin trade. The U.S. government uses private contractors for as much as possible in Afghanistan even to work with the FBI, so mostly I was working with private contractors not soldiers or other FBI agents. There was a security contractor out of Boston. I have no idea how they were awarded the contract because they're connected to the Patriarca crime family, and not shy about it. The whole reason they were in Afghanistan was to get a heroin hook up. That was easy. The hard part was getting the heroin into Boston because Doyle had the ports and the drug trade locked down. Eventually these guys came to me. They figured the FBI would have a common interest with them, taking out Doyle."

"So you're working for the mafia?" Jane said, her voice laced with disgust.

"It was so easy Jane. I looked into the FBI investigation into Doyle, which as you know has been happening for a couple of years. But they weren't anywhere near making a move. So these guys, they asked me to kill him. I resigned my position in the FBI and came back to Boston."

"Why did you agree to do it though?"

Dean shrugged. "Money."

Jane took a moment to think through what Dean had told her so far. "So you quit the FBI? But how come they don't care that you're still acting like an agent?"

"The FBI is a total mess right now and I don't think they even know I was at the warehouse. Doyle's death totally fucked up their investigation and then they were totally unprepared for the aftermath. Of course the Patriarca family was prepared and they've consolidated power. No one was expecting that either. They've been somewhat off the radar for awhile."

"So Doyle's dead, but you're still hanging around. Why are you still here? And what does Maura have to do with this? Why were you still bothering her after Doyle was dead?" Jane asked.

"Because I haven't completed my mission. Someone tipped off Doyle about O'Rourke right? And it was probably someone in BPD. The Patriarca family was really paranoid about Doyle's connections within the police department."

Jane picked up the thread of Dean's story. "And you were supposed to find out who the connection was and kill that person too. So if it had been me or Maura you would have killed us? For the fucking mafia?" Jane said disbelievingly.

Dean shrugged again before saying. "Yes I would have. Why are you so sure it wasn't Maura? I haven't rule her out yet."

"Because I know her," Jane answered angrily. She took out her phone and pushed a few buttons. "Hey Korsak. I need you and a squad car at the Omni Parker Hotel, Room 621. Okay, see you in a few."

Dean sat forward in his chair. "You're going to arrest me? For what?"

"Is that a serious question?"

"Jane, I was hoping when I found you here in my hotel room that we could work out our differences. I honestly really like you."

Jane pinched the bridge of her nose. "You've got to be shitting me," Jane said but then immediately realized she had taken her attention off of Dean just long enough for him to make his move. By the time she saw Dean moving, any advantage she'd had was gone. And she hadn't bothered to frisk Dean when he came in, which in retrospect was a little too cocky.

Jane tried to duck into the bathroom to her left as she saw Dean standing up with a gun in his hand but she heard the shot and dropped to the ground as she felt the bullet hit her upper arm. "Son of a bitch," Jane yelled. "Backup is going to be here any minute, what the fuck do you think you're doing?"

"Going out with a bang. I knew as soon as I found you here that I wasn't going to get out of this unless I took you out. But I also know that wasn't going to be a problem. See Jane, I know you. You shouldn't have come here. You aren't going to do anything to me. That's why shit keeps happening to you. You don't follow through to finish things off. You were always tough right up until the time came to take real action. That's when you lost your will, why you keep getting hurt. Does Hoyt still haunt your dreams?"

After checking out her arm and deciding it wasn't too bad, Jane took a deep breath and stood up, leaning against the wall inside the bathroom next to the door. "Things change. You've been out of the loop for too long, Dean. Hoyt's dead. I killed him. I stabbed a fucking scalpel into his heart. And I did that because he went after Maura."

Dean laughed. "Jane you are so fucking-"

Jane didn't get to hear what exactly Dean thought she was because it was that moment that she chose to step back into the room and fire two shots, hitting Dean in the thigh and in the abdomen. Jane ducked back into the bathroom. A few seconds later the hotel room door burst open and a uniform entered, gun raised.

"He's got a gun," Jane said.

Another uniform came into the room, gun raised, followed by Korsak. "What the hell happened, Jane? We talked less than ten minutes ago."

"He needs an EMT but just fucking arrest him and I'll tell you everything once we get to the hospital. He's fucking crazy and working with Patriarca to import heroin."

Korsak's jaw dropped. "Shit. Okay, okay, let's go. Time for another trip to the hospital."

A few hours later Jane was sitting in a room in the emergency department waiting to be discharged. Dean's bullet had only really grazed Jane's arm. She had been stitched up and given her statement on the events in Dean's hotel room twice. Once to Korsak and once to a couple of FBI agents. Then she got yelled at by Cavanaugh for awhile. Now she was just waiting for someone to return to tell her she could leave.

Jane had called Maura but managed to convince her she didn't need to rush to the hospital. Maura still insisted on picking Jane up so Jane wasn't surprised to see Maura enter the room with a nurse. "I thought I told you not to do anything rash," Maura said with the hint of a smile.

Jane waited for the nurse to give her the discharge instructions before responding. "I didn't do anything rash. Dean on the other hand...I thought you were going to be angry."

"Let's go," Maura said. Once they were outside and on the way to Maura's car she said. "I considered being angry. But if I was going to get angry every time you did something dangerous...I've lost too much recently. It's not worth getting angry with you about things I know you're going to do over and over again. I would end up forgiving you eventually anyway, so why waste time being angry."

Jane was quiet for most of the ride to Maura's house. When they arrived Jane said, "I'm sorry."

"Don't apologize-"

"No," Jane cut Maura off. "I'm not sorry that I got hurt again. I'm sorry for ever trusting Dean because that put you in danger. He was trying to connect you to O'Rourke's murder. He was looking for Doyle's BPD connection. He thought it was you and he would have killed you if he found any evidence."

Maura was momentarily shocked. "Is that why you shot him?"

"Seriously? He shot at me first. I was defending myself. But whatever, he's been arrested. He won't be bothering us anymore so he's not worth discussing any further."

Maura led Jane inside her house. "What happens now with you and your job?"

"Well, I was supposed to be on suspension and I used my service weapon, so Cavanaugh's not real happy with me right now. I'll probably get another week or two suspension or maybe paid leave. What about you?"

"I guess there's no reason for me to go back to work until you do. We could go on a vacation," Maura said with a smile.

"No, come on, your mother is still recovering, we can't go on vacation."

Maura started moving around in the kitchen to prepare food. "You are well aware that my mother is in perfectly good hands with Angela. I should probably be more specific though. I am going on a trip and I hope you come with me."

Jane shook her head. "You already have a trip planned? Why didn't you just say that? Where are you, or I guess where are we going?"

"Ireland."

"What?"

"We leave in two days."

"What?"

"What's wrong with Ireland," Maura protested. "It turns out I am Irish. I want to explore my roots now that I know what my roots are."

"But how did you plan and book an overseas trip so quickly?"

"I've got our flights and a car reservation. Other than that nothing is planned."

"So, we're just gonna go and drive around Ireland?" Jane asked.

"Okay, a little bit more than that is planned. I have been doing a little research into Hope's family and Doyle's family and I was able to go back on their paternal lines to the mid-1800s when their ancestors, my ancestors, immigrated to the United States. I don't know a lot but enough to narrow down the general area from where they probably emigrated in Ireland. I thought we could drive around those general areas."

Jane came and took hold of Maura's hands. "I didn't know this was the type of the thing you cared about."

"I didn't know either, but until recently I didn't know who my biological parents were. Now I that I know who they were I want to know more. I want to know where I come from."

"That makes sense. Okay, let's go to Ireland," Jane agreed.

Maura stepped closer to Jane and they kissed. "When we return from our trip, I think we should talk about our living arrangements."

Jane raised her eyebrows. "Isn't that a little fast?"

"I don't care. I think you should move in with me. I mean I think we should move in together and my house is obviously much better than your apartment, so I think you should move in here."

"Yeah, I noticed I didn't really get a choice about where I went when we left the hospital," Jane replied.

Maura bit her bottom lip. "I'm sorry. I kind of already think of us as living together."

"This is what you're like in a relationship, huh?" Jane joked.

Maura thought for a few seconds. "No, this isn't what I'm usually like. It's you. I just want to be with you and I don't think we need to wait for anything before moving forward."

"You make some good points. How about we go on this trip and if you haven't changed your mind about wanting to live with me by the time we get back, then we'll discuss moving in together?" Jane countered.

"I can agree to that."

"You haven't said anything to my mother yet, right?" Jane asked.

Maura shook her head, "No."

Jane sighed, relieved. "Good. Don't. Now, can we please eat? I want you to tell me all about our trip and then I want to go upstairs and continue what we started this morning."

Maura kissed Jane again. "See, living together is going to be excellent."

A/N: That's it friends. Thanks for sticking with this story until the end.