"Doctor Isles," the surprise was evident in Agent Blake's voice, "I'm surprised to see you here on a Sunday."
Maura turned from where she was waiting for the elevator in the lobby to watch Agent Blake stride towards her from the direction of the entrance to headquarters. She offered a tired smile, "Death doesn't operate on my schedule, Agent Blake."
Blake nodded once in acknowledgement of the reality of the position Maura held. "Fair enough. I am glad I've run into you though; there are some things I would like to discuss with you, when you have time."
Maura glanced at her watch; it was too early for any conversation really. Her brows furrowed at the thought causing her to return a more observational gaze towards the FBI Agent. Her navy pant suit and white blouse showed obvious signs of wear, crinkled and ruffled. "Have you been here all night?"
Blake shrugged as if it were no big deal. "Just ducked out for a coffee break down the street."
Maura nodded understandably. "I see. I have a few things I need to do downstairs. I will come find you when I am done, if that would suit you?"
The elevator dinged and Maura walked towards it, stepping inside, but turned and held the doors at bay, while she waited for an answer.
Blake smiled, "I would appreciate that. I'll either be in BRIC, or the conference room." She watched Maura nod confirmation before she removed her hand and allowed the doors to close. She rubbed at a knot in her neck and strode over to the elevators that would take her to the homicide level of the building.
The week had dragged by slowly for the investigation, with Garcia striking out on finding anything useful about Ryan Leiland, which in and of itself was quite suspicious and incredibly frustrating. There had been no luck in tracking down the suspected hired perpetrator responsible for Cooper's death; he was either long gone or long dead, neither thought provided Blake with much comfort.
She rode the elevator upstairs, where she made a beeline for the conference room. She wanted to sift through the evidence again, and comb through contact reports from the agents that had been keeping an eye on Maura since the day she was abducted. Blake still felt that Maura was the key to catching the guy. He had spared her life and if they could figure out the reasoning behind that and the subsequent threat against Maura and others Detective Rizzoli was close to, then maybe they could find a new angle to tackle the case.
Blake logged onto the secure FBI network on her laptop and started shifting through surveillance photographs of the people that had visited or stopped to speak with Maura outside the walls of the BPD in the past five weeks. Several yawns escaped her as she settled into a rhythm of tapping on the space bar to bring up the next picture. Before she even realised it the exhausted agent fell asleep rather unceremoniously, her head coming to rest against her arm on the table.
It was the darkness that pierced its way through the dull veil of her fleeting consciousness. She felt heavy, each breath more ragged than the last. Pain radiated from the back of her head and her body refused to respond to the commands she gave it: open your eyes, check the head wound… open your eyes!
She groaned pitifully as the throbbing at the back of her skull brought her closer to reality. A damp musky smell invaded her nostrils and her eyes shot open as she remembered exactly where she was. It was then she felt him straddling her hips, her gaze settled on his mottled, leering features and a shudder of fear shot though her spine.
"Oh Janie, so glad you're awake," he cooed, his smile sinister while his left hand pinned her right hand down. "I wouldn't want you to miss the fun."
Before she could register what was happening he slammed the scalpel through her right palm and the worst pain she had ever experienced screamed through the severed nerve endings, slamming her brain with an excruciating warning of danger. He followed up with a scalpel through her left hand and she was pinned, fear radiating from her eyes as he leaned over her and traced a third scalpel carefully along her throat in a warning of what was to come.
"Please…" she muttered, not really sure whether she was begging for her freedom or a quick end to it all.
Charles Hoyt gazed down longingly at his latest prey, he was going to have so much fun before he ended her. "I do love it when you beg, Janie…"
Jane's eyes opened abruptly and she instantly rolled over looking for the comfort that Maura had been providing following each nightmare, but she wasn't in the bed and the sheets next to her were cold. She sat up and rubbed at the tears that had escaped during her haunted sleep. "Maura?" She rasped tentatively, her voice rougher than usual with sleep.
No response.
She glanced over at her alarm clock, which indicated it was too early to be up on a Sunday, it was just after eight in the morning. She pulled herself out of bed and stumbled into the en-suite. After emptying her bladder and washing her hands thoroughly she stared into the bathroom mirror, not liking what she saw staring back at her.
Her sleep had been interrupted by regular nightmares since her first memory had returned and she now had a firm grasp on everything Charles Hoyt and some understanding about what had changed her from whom she thought she was, to who she had apparently become. Closed off and fearful of letting anyone get too close to her; the memories of what Hoyt had been about to do to Maura when she had stopped him, remained the most vivid. It was clear that Maura had become the most important person in her life, but because of Hoyt and the threat of others like him she had kept denying herself the chance to be happy.
Jane turned the faucet on again so that she could splash her face in an attempt to remove some of the exhaustion, she knew it wouldn't work, but she hoped it might anyway. She quickly tied her hair back in a pony tail and slipped back into her room, where she changed into some comfortable sweatpants and a Red Sox jersey. The smell of coffee and bacon had wafted into her bedroom, causing Jane to smile, figuring that Maura had simply awoken early and was now preparing an obnoxiously early, for a Sunday, breakfast.
Her face scrunched up in a frown when she walked out to discover it was Frankie that had been preparing the delicious smelling breakfast. He handed her a mug of steaming coffee, all the while grinning a little sheepishly. "Maura had to go into work, so she asked me to come over and make you a healthy breakfast."
Jane looked sceptically at the copious amount of bacon getting crispier by the second and back at her goofy grinned brother. "I'm pretty sure that is not what Maura classes as a healthy breakfast, little brother."
He just chuckled, "Hey what Maura don't know, won't kill her. Besides I get the feeling you could do with some salty bacon goodness!"
She nodded quietly, sliding onto a stool next to the kitchen counter so that she could watch her brother finish preparing their breakfast. She sipped at the coffee and felt like at least a small part of her was waking up. A contended sigh escaped her mouth when Frankie slid a plate with Bacon and toast in front of her. "Thanks, Frankie. Just what the doctor ordered… well you know, any other doctor not known as Isles."
Frankie rolled his eyes and sat down opposite Jane with his own plate and mug of coffee. "She's only lookin' out for ya."
Jane fought back a yawn. "Oh, I know." She bit down into a crispy rasher of bacon and her face melted into the most divine happiness, "But no woman should ever deny me this. God Frankie, this is good."
"It's nothin'." He watched on happily as his sister dug in energetically to the breakfast in front of her, glad to see some light in her eyes and a smile on her face. "So, Maura's been spending a fair amount of time here." He observed, mostly because it delighted him to tease his sister.
Jane shrugged nonchalantly, "Well yeah, she's my soul mate remember?" She spat back playfully, knowing exactly what he was trying to do. "Besides, when she's around it kinda helps me remember stuff." She looked down at her hands, dropping the toast, suddenly losing her appetite at the sight of her scars.
Frankie noticed the sudden wave of melancholy and sighed sadly. Maura had warned him what it could be like, she wasn't the post Hoyt Jane yet, but she wasn't really the pre Hoyt Jane either. He saw traces of the softer, more open woman he had grown up with and he really hoped she would stay around, because that woman would never be at risk of screwing up her relationship with Maura. Post Hoyt Jane on the other hand; well he honestly didn't know how she had managed to get Maura to fall in love with her in the first place. Sure she was still kind and loyal and protective, but she was sarcastic, over bearing, obnoxious and freakin' oblivious half the time to the hurt she inflicted when she was being over protective of Maura.
"You've been through a lot Janie, but Hoyt, he's dead. He's never coming back and you're okay and Maura's okay and you just gotta work through it." He wanted to say more; he wanted to tell her not to pull away from Maura in some misguided attempt to protect her, but he didn't know how. He didn't want to piss her off, so he just hoped that the fact Maura was around to help her through this Hoyt stuff as she remembered it, would make things different.
"I know," Jane said solemnly, "I just can't help thinking that Maura got hurt because of me ya know? I hate that thought." She sighed, because she knew what she was doing, she was finding excuses to run away from dealing with everything, because it was too hard and that meant withdrawing from Maura because she would not approve of such behaviour.
"Quit it Janie, right now. So help me God, if you freakin' start pushing Maura away I'll kick your ass." Frankie growled angrily, "You've got a fresh start, a chance to be happy and be the Jane I grew up with, around the one person who shines a light so damn bright into your life everything else means nothin'. She likes this softer side of you Jane, she's spent years trying to work you out because all you would give her were crumbs… that's all you gave any of us after Hoyt, but we put up with your sorry ass because we love you. She loves you. Don't fuck it up."
An amused smile curled at Maura's lips when she entered homicide's conference room, coffee in hand, to find that she had been very correct in her assumption that the federal agent could do with some perking up. Agent Blake rubbed blearily at her eyes as she swivelled on her chair to greet the doctor.
Maura smiled graciously and placed the coffee in front of Blake, "I thought you might be able to use this."
Blake exhaled tellingly as she wrapped both hands around the disposable cup. The coffee smelled tantalisingly good and tasted brilliant. "Mmm, thank you Doctor Isles. You thought correctly."
Maura stepped aside and glanced down at the photograph that was displayed on Agent Blake's laptop. It was a picture taken outside of Massachusetts General when she had run into Ryan on her way out. The picture reminded Maura of the vague feeling of unease she had experienced both then and when she had encountered him earlier in the week in the BPD lobby.
Blake followed Maura's eyes to the screen and then returned her gaze to the discontent that briefly played across the doctor's features before her collected professional exterior was slipped back into place. "How well do you know Ryan Leiland?"
The question shook Maura from her reverie; she pulled out a seat next to the agent and sat down. "How well does anybody really know anyone?"
"True, but you know what I mean." Blake declared pointedly.
Maura nodded softly as she contemplated the question seriously. "I would say that I am still getting to know Ryan, but I have known him for years."
"He's popped up a few times in surveillance since Detective Rizzoli had to make her choice." Blake observed, studying the doctor closely.
"Yes." Maura acknowledged, considering carefully the extent she wished to discuss the causality of this observation. Deciding to go with her gut feeling, something she considered Jane might just be proud of, she opened up with what information she had to share. "Jane and I went through a difficult time after she made her decision, as I am sure you're well aware, given her notable absence from my home after hours."
"Yeah, it was something we noticed, although she was never too far away when you were travelling to and from work." Blake noted dryly.
"Yes, she certainly has a protective streak. In any case, I ran into Ryan at a function approximately a week after Jane and I stopped speaking socially and we fell into a comfortable conversation. We talked a few times after that on the phone, before I agreed to meet him for a joint fundraiser that his charity was holding with the Isles Foundation." Maura explained.
"So you know him through these high society gatherings?"
"Yes, but it turned out he was quite a good listener. I do not tend to get along well with most people easily. I am socially inept at times I must confess. So it was quite nice to find someone I could converse with."
Agent Blake listened intently, not just to what Maura was saying, but what she wasn't. She felt like there was more to this than what was verbalised. "There's a but coming, right? I get the sense that you're a little uncomfortable with the thought of Mr Leiland."
"I can see why you're an investigator, Agent Blake." Maura complimented, before continuing. "I like to make my observations based on evidence. I do not tend to trust an intestinal feeling at all, but I have learned a lot from Jane over the years and she trusts her intestines more than most. I am getting the sense that Ryan has be showing up in my life a little too often lately, despite the fact we hit it off. He knows I have no romantic interest in anyone other than Jane, so in some sense I find his entire manner confusing."
"How so?"
"Looking back at our interactions now I see a trend of deep interest in Jane and how she was doing, or how we were doing. He never stayed on the topic too long, but it concerns me now that I think back on it. The fact is I have learned a lot from Jane socially, but I can still be very awkward and honestly he has dealt with that awkwardness all too well. It makes no sense at all, either way I look at it." Maura had to admit the more she thought about it, the worse she started to feel.
She had been so desperate for a new friend that she hadn't really considered the timing of everything. For Ryan to suddenly pay her enough attention, just a week after the terrible decision Jane had to make, seemed incongruous with the barely fleeting interest he had ever shown her in the past, and they had attended many of the same events.
Maura's eyes narrowed as she sifted through her memory and started processing the information she had on Ryan and the unidentified killer. Finally with a tilt of her head she said, "Ryan Leiland is highly intelligent and organised. His company created the base system that BPD uses on its computers. He has time and he has money and a keen interest in the well being of Jane. Honestly Agent Blake, as much as it pains me to say this, he would be my number one suspect."
"I dunno if I feel better hearing you say that or not, because that was the conclusion that Agent Mancini and I came to. The biggest problem we have though is tying him to any of this; he's been smart using someone from his own company, who remains missing, as a fall guy. Our genius technical analyst Penelope Garcia cannot track any of his work back to him… we're basically waiting on him to screw up."
"He will not stop Agent Blake, until he has destroyed Jane." This was the one fact that Maura was sure of, whether Ryan was the guilty party or not, it was very clear the killer wanted to drive Jane over the edge.
"Then we better do something to stop him first." Agent Blake said firmly, her brain already beginning to form the basis of a plan of action. "It's time we took the fight to Mr Leiland."
A/N: Sorry that it took a couple of days, my muse and I were in disagreement... I rewrote this chapter three times. Anyway I hope you enjoy and thank you for continuing to support this story by reading and reviewing and following and favouriting and all things nice :)