*Okay…there will be one or two more chapters to this one and then it will be done. I know my writing on this one tanked halfway through, but I just wanted to thank those of you who have stuck around and continued to read. I really appreciate all of the reviews and PM's encouraging me to finish. So, without further ado…on with the show.

Chapter 21

The groan coming from Lorelei pulled Jane back from the uncomfortable sleep that had overtaken her earlier. Blinking her eyes open, she winced at the bright light coming from above reminding her of the cut above her eye. She could feel the cold hard ground pressing against her left cheek and the taste of dirt mingled with blood caused her to cough. Again, she winced as every muscle in her body protested the offending act and another groan, she pushed herself up on her elbows. The sudden pounding in her head brought with it of wave a nausea causing her to drop back down to the ground with a resounding thud.

"Fuck…," Jane growled through gritted teeth and closed her eyes again. Taking a deep breath, she steeled herself for the pain she knew was coming as she pushed herself up again, but this time she went to her knees. The sound of Lorelei muttering to her right reminded Jane that she wasn't alone and that she didn't have much time. "Pull it together." She whispered to herself as she cradled her head in her hands before sitting up straight. Another wave of nausea had her doubling over and gasping for breath but this time she was ready. With a few slow, measured breaths the ground steadied under her giving her the strength she needed to sit up again.

"Peter's going to be here any minute." Lorelei's voice was hoarse but Jane could still hear the contempt.

"Yeah?" Jane turned her head in the direction of the disembodied voice and grimaced at the smirk looking back at her. "I'm counting on it." She took a deep breath and let it out slowly, this time with no nausea.

"It's too late for you…for both of you." Lorelei sneered as she struggled against her restraints.

"We'll see about that." Jane readied herself to stand all the way up. It only took a few deep breaths and two attempts but finally her effort paid off when both feet were firmly planted on the ground. "I'll be ready for that piss ant when he gets here."

"We'll see about that." Lorelei repeated Jane's words in a mocking tone.

"I don't think you're in any position to mock me Lorelei." Jane looked down at the incapacitated figure that was twisted into a semi-pretzel. Feeling no mercy, she kicked at one of the bound legs to emphasize her point. When Lorelei groaned again, Jane didn't even bat an eye in sympathy, instead her resolve grew stronger.

"You don't stand a chance." Lorelei coughed and tried to move away from Jane.

"I'll be the judge of that." Jane bent to pat Lorelei's pockets, looking for her phone.

"He'll know something's up when I don't answer the phone." Lorelei sputtered and gasped as she continued to try to pull away from Jane's prying hands.

"I'll just have to take my chances then, won't I…," Jane smiled wickedly when she found what she was looking for. Holding up the small silver cell phone, she gave Lorelei a sad look. "It didn't have be like this ya know."

Lorelei's expression softened for the briefest of moments before hardening. "You…belong…to…me…!" She shouted, spittle dripping from her chin and eyes wide and wild.

All Jane could do was shake her head in response. She hadn't had much experience with situations like this but she felt a wave of sorrow wash over her at the sight of a young woman who had such a promising future ahead of her. The madness that consumed her was something that wouldn't be easily abated and Jane realized that Lorelei would probably need a lifetime of therapy just to have some semblance of a normal life if that was even possible.

"Don't give me look!" Lorelei shouted, surprising Jane from her thoughts. When Jane gave her a look of confusion, she thrust her chin out in defiance. "I don't need your pity. You and that bitch doctor won't be around much longer." Her wild eyes were filled with hate directed Jane's way.

At first, Jane didn't have a response, but at the mere suggestion of Maura her attitude changed quickly. "Say her name and you'll be eating my boot." She bent down so her face was level with Lorelei's, daring her to go on. Instead of an answer in the form of words, Jane got a face full of spit. As she wiped her eyes clean, Lorelei grinned menacingly at her. "Say her name…," there was a sharp edge to Jane's voice that even Lorelei could recognize. "I dare you." Her eyes darkened and her voice lowered to a growl rendering Lorelei momentarily silent.

When Lorelei looked away, Jane squared her shoulders and took a deep breath as she stood up again. Looking down at the helpless figure, she realized she needed to move Lorelei so Peter wouldn't see her first thing when he entered the room. And speaking of the room, Jane realized she hadn't taken much notice of her surroundings yet.

Taking stock of everything around her, Jane concluded that they were in some sort of storage shed with a dirt floor. The walls were made of metal and a large fluorescent light hung high above them. She listened carefully for anything that might give their location away like a highway or road but there was only silence. Letting out a frustrated sigh, she saw the chair where she had been sitting in the middle of the makeshift room. There wasn't any place to hide Lorelei so she decided to move Lorelei to the side of the only door. Jane surmised that when Peter opened the door, he wouldn't see Lorelei on the other side…at least not right away. Reaching down, she tried to wrap her arms around Lorelei's shoulders only to have the young woman try to bite her. "So that's how it's gonna be…huh?" She moved around to grab a foot and drug the struggling body across the floor and against the wall. "Do us both a favor and don't move." The smirk was unintentional but she couldn't stop herself as she reached down and gave Lorelei's cheek a condescending pat.

"Bitch." Lorelei hissed through clinched teeth.

Before Jane could respond, the cellphone she had slipped into the back pocket of her jeans began to ring. Pulling it out, she held it up so Lorelei could see Peter's name on the caller ID. The smug smirk that followed only incensed Lorelei more as she tried to lash out with her unbound foot, but her effort was in vain as Jane side stepped to avoid the foot directed her way.

"Now, we just wait for the fly to enter the spider's web." Jane dropped the phone in the front pocket of her t-shirt.

"He's going to know something's wrong when I don't answer." Lorelei's voice held an unintended plea in it.

'Maybe…," Jane said with an arched eyebrow. "Maybe not." She grinned in a knowing way.

Accessing her next move, Jane decided it was best to gag Lorelei so she couldn't warn Peter before Jane had a go at him. Looking around, she saw a flannel shirt hanging on a hook by the door and decided on a plan. She pulled the dirty, sweaty t-shirt she was wearing off and couldn't help but notice the reluctant appraisal from Lorelei. She twisted the shirt around her hands and gave a wicked grin as she moved around before bringing the shirt around her mouth and pulling it tightly to tie it at the back of Lorelei's head. It was a struggle at first as Lorelei tried to fight her off, but it only resulted in her pulling the makeshift gag tighter causing Lorelei to cough and eventually relent.

"Play nice and I won't have to put you to sleep." Jane wrapped an arm around Lorelei's neck indicating she might cut off her air flow if she continued to struggle. When she felt a nod of surrender, she loosened her grip and gave Lorelei a conciliatory pat on the head. "Good girl." She offered over her shoulder as she stood again. "But this doesn't make us friends or anything…emphasis on the anything." Her eyes fell on the chair and she realized she needed to be sitting there just as Peter had left her so he would think she was still incapacitated. She wouldn't have much time to act, but that moment of uncertainty should buy her enough to take him by surprise. When the phone rang again, she glanced over at Lorelei who was glaring at her with hate and loathing in her eyes. "What say we get this party started?" She said as she dropped down in the chair with the intention of turning the tables on her captors. Only half the job was done. She wouldn't rest until Maura was safely in her arms again. So, with a heavy sigh, she sat back and waited…waited for the fly to enter her den.

The sound of a car door slamming shut roused Maura from her drug induced sleep. She tried to open her heavy eyelids but nothing would happen and she continued to stay surrounded by a blanket of darkness. Her heart started to race when panic set in as she tried to asses her situation, but nothing was coming to her. Taking a few deep breaths, she tried again to open her eyes only to find herself still surrounded by the dark.

She squinted her unseeing eyes and noticed a sliver of light coming from above her head and tried to focus on it. Realizing it was light seeping in from a missing seal around the trunk of a car, she immediately started to feel around for the emergency trunk release. With a sinking heart, she realized there wasn't one, indicating that the car had been manufactured before 2001.

An angry voice reached her where she lay trapped in the dark and she strained to listen. It was clearly Peter ranting about someone not answering their phone. His ranting and raving continued as he got closer to her and she braced herself to fight back when he eventually opened the trunk, but he didn't…not yet.

Continuing to strain to hear what was being said, she listened intently to Peter as his anger boiled over.

"You've got to be fucking kidding me!" He shouted to no one. "Answer the phone!"

Maura took a few slow, deep breaths, afraid Peter might hear her. She could hear him leaning against the back of the car and waited for him to continue ranting.

"It figures. I've done all the hard work already. She's probably trying to convince that bitch Rizzoli that she's in love with her. Fucking pathetic." He's voice was filled with contempt.

Hearing him refer to Jane caused Maura to wince and twist in the uncomfortable confines of the small trunk she was trapped in. She needed to ready herself in case he opened it. It was imperative that she be ready to react before he realized she was awake.

"Shit, I'm just going to have to take care of this myself." His voice sounded closer and Maura readied herself, but then he went silent and her heart sank again, thinking he had moved away.

After what seemed like hours of excruciating silence, Maura slumped back further in the darkness thinking that Peter had left her alone. It was the click of key turning that had her tensing in anticipation as she thought that this was finally it. She would have the chance to fight back, to free herself and try to find Jane.

And then it happened, fast…too fast for Maura to react. The sudden bright light stabbed at her eyes causing an instant headache as she held her hand up to block the offending white/yellow stream of sun from blinding her. It was that move that gave Peter the leverage and upper hand as he grabbed Maura by the arm and jabbed her with a needle, injecting her with something that instantly affected her.

"I figured you'd be awake by now. Can't take any chances, now can we?" He smirked down at her and waved the empty syringe at her. "Propofol."

Maura blinked a few times, each time her eyelids heavier than the next until finally she couldn't lift them open anymore. Her last thought as she slipped under was that she had surely disappointed Jane by letting Peter get the best of her.

With eyes closed and slow, steady breaths, Jane prepared herself for the moment the door opened and the fight would begin. Her tense body started to ache again as she tried to sit motionless with her head hanging low allowing a curtain of dark, tangled hair to hide her face. She knew she would have less than a minute to react but she needed to be sure he was close enough to her, keeping him from closing the door and trapping her again.

Biting down on her lip, she listened intently to the far-off sounds of a car approaching and stopping far enough away that she couldn't make out much more than a door slamming shut. It was at that moment the phone started ringing in her pocket and she could hear Lorelei struggling against her restraints. Ignoring the phone, she took a deep breath and centered herself as the phone went silent. After a few minutes, the phone started to ring and again Jane ignored it. She couldn't stop herself from glancing up to smirk at Lorelei who was glaring at her with the intent to kill.

The phone stopped this time after only three rings and Jane prepared herself for his approach but instead of the sound of a turning door knob, the phone broke through her mental preparations…yet again.

"Persistent little shit, isn't he?" Jane glanced at Lorelei again as if she might answer but then shrugged when she was greeted by a muffled string of what she could only assume were profanities.

When they were again plunged into silence, Jane prepared herself for the moment she had been waiting days for. But instead, silence was followed by more silence as Jane strained to listen for any signs Peter was getting closer.

Minutes felt like hours to her aching and broken body and Jane shifted uncomfortably in the chair trying her best not to let her guard down. It was difficult not to let herself drift away when the pain abated but instead of allowing that to happen, she shifted again so the pain would keep her awake and alert. Thanks to that second wave of energy to hold herself up, she heard a car trunk being shut and she couldn't stop herself from giving Lorelei a questioning glance. She wasn't sure, but she thought that Lorelei was smirking at her.

Again, the faint sound was followed by silence and Jane began to worry that maybe Peter wasn't going to check on them at all. But then it happened. The sound of a key slipping in the locked door caused Jane's heart to race and breath quicken with fear and anticipation. It would only be a matter of seconds before it was either all over or she was dead. Taking a deep, calming breath, she let it out in a long slow exhale and waited for her moment.

As Peter pushed the door open without any preamble to what he might find, he cursed and ranted to Lorelei who remained still and silent. Preoccupied with brushing dirt from his knees and then his hands, he dropped his head to see if he had gotten everything off, ignoring the silence that continued to surround him. When he was satisfied that he was as clean as he was going to get, he glanced up to find Jane still sitting in the middle of the room where he had left her hours earlier and he couldn't help but smirk at the fact that she still seemed to be unconscious.

"Ha, I can't believe she's still out." He moved closer to her so he could sneer at her thinking she wouldn't be able to do anything. When he realized that it was still quiet and he had yet to see Lorelei he glanced to his left finding nothing but empty space. It wasn't until he glanced to his right that what was happening hit him and it hit him hard in the form of Jane's clenched fist.

With lightening quick reflexes, Jane was up and on top of him holding him a choke hold just as she had been taught all those years ago at the academy. She could feel her energy being depleted the longer she had to hold on and the slightest give allowed Peter to swing an elbow back hitting her in the nose. Taking a sharp intake of breath as pain blossomed across her face, she could taste the blood before she felt it running down over her lips to her chin but she didn't let go as he continued to struggle. The strange thing was that he wasn't grabbing at her but trying instead to find something in the pocket of his cargo pants. Her swelling nose was making it more difficult for her to see and breath but she refused to let go, that is until the end of a sharp elbow hammered her in the ribs knocking what breath she had left from her lungs. She let go out of reflex and grabbed at her side, gasping to catch her breath and then she realized what he was trying to pull from his pocket…a small hand gun.

Eyes wide with surprise stared down at Jane as she looked up the barrel of a small 9mm gun being held in unsteady hands. Peter stood over her, shaking his head to clear the vision that had been dimming with each passing second Jane had him in a choke hold. Her eyes stayed trained on the gun pointed directly at her chest wondering if he had the balls to pull the trigger.

"You're so fucking dead. You and that bitch Dr. Isles…," He screamed at her, spittle flying everywhere. The rage in his eyes was wild and uncontrolled, a dangerous combination for someone with no firearm experience holding a gun.

"Maura's dead?" Jane could barely say the words as her heart sank and her will to fight drained from her.

"I buried that bitch so deep in the ground it will take you days to find her." His rage was boiling over at this point. "The only thing I regret is that I don't get to see her die, but you on the other hand…," he clenched his jaws as he squeezed the trigger, waiting for the blood splatter to bath him in his redemption.

Jane stiffened, poised to react when she saw that Peter was on the verge of pulling the trigger. The only thing she could think about was what he had said about Maura and she knew she needed to get the gun away from him…but then she saw his muscles tense as he pulled the trigger and she knew it was too late. Sucking in a breath and closing her eyes, and waited for the white, hot pain to cut her in half but then she heard a click and nothing happened. To her trained ear, she realized he had left the safety on and without thinking, she pushed herself up and barreled straight at his middle taking him down in an unforgiving tackle that knocked the gun out of his hands as well as all the breath from his body. Punching him square in the face bought her enough time to scramble to her left where the gun lay just barely out of her reach. She would have to get up off him to get to the gun but that would give him the chance to move as well. The split second it would take to decide what to do was time that Jane didn't have to spare so she with all the strength she had left, she catapulted herself across the floor towards her salvation.

As Jane slid towards the gun with her hand outstretched, her fingertips slammed into the black, rubber butt knocking it further away from her. She didn't have to look to know that Peter was already on his feet but instead of going after the gun, he grabbed the metal chair and hoisted it above his head determined to smash it over Jane's. With one more push, the gun finally slipped into the palm of Jane's hand.

Years of training had prepared her for moments like these but each time she had to draw a weapon and shoot someone was a unique experience. Sometimes she felt sad or maybe even a little relief and then there were the times when she felt nothing but a cold, numb darkness. This wasn't one of the times. For the first time in her life the only word for what she was feeling was elation as she flipped the safety off with her thumb, whipped around, and pulled the trigger lodging a 9mm bullet in Peter's chest. She watched his eyes go wide with realization as he looked down to see the small dot of red bloom across the front of his shirt growing larger and larger with each struggled beat of his dying heart. Out of reflex, he dropped the chair and clutched at the growing red desperately trying to keep it from growing any bigger. But Jane knew it was only a matter of minutes because she had hit him dead center and she couldn't stop herself from smirking as she watched him struggle for his last breaths before falling to the floor in a heap. Glancing over at Lorelei, she realized the young woman had passed out and decided to focus her energy on Peter who was taking several short, gargled breaths as his heart slowed to a stop.

"Tell me where she is." Jane crawled along the floor to place her face close to Peters.

"N…nnn….nnnev…e…r." He wheezed and gurgled on the blood that was pooling in his lungs.

"Fine…but I'm gonna stay right here and watch you die. And then I'm going to go find Maura." She hovered over him so she could look him in the eyes.

"Y…oou…wo…wo…won't…find…h..er…," his lips curled back in a wicked grin but his mouth was so full of blood by now that it caused him cough and choke.

"Oh don't you worry about that. Just lay here and die already." Jane gave his shoulder a pat as his eyes widened. "I've got a few tricks up my sleeve. I am a detective after all…," she smirked down at him, waiting for the light to leave his eyes as he took his last strangled breath.