Add in some background plot and some healing, up first, Katherine Houghton Beckett. I haven't had much to say in the Authors notes because I write them just prior to posting and the last two weeks were posted from my phone. I'm really happy with how this turned out and for those who followed the Diary of Jane and wanted to see Dr. Worf, sorry it took so long, I just couldn't find a suitable place in DOJ that wouldn't pull from the main story. New Guest appearance from a previously covered show. Emotional chapters but I promise more funny, really soon.
"Seriously, I can buy them myself but these babies are still good." Jane said to Kate as they stood outside of the Ariatt boot stand. It had been five years to the day when they had stood here the last time. Then, as now, Jane grumbled about her partner's insistence on buying her a set of light tactical boots.
"You've been wearing them almost every day since I bought them for you." Kate said as she handed over her credit card, "Five years is a hell of a promotional advertisement but come on Jane, even boots this good wear out. Tell me that they feel the same as the day I got them for you."
Jane bit her lip and refused to look at her best friend, "Okay they're not that comfortable anymore but they're still better than those cheapos I used to get."
Kate signed the receipt and took the card back. "Take them now or I'll just call Maura and have her swap them out on you."
Jane's nostrils flared, "You would too." She reached out and the sales rep handed her the box.
"Fine." She jabbed a finger at her friend, "But I'm paying you back as soon as we get back to Colin's."
Kate laughed and checked her watch, "Those guys from Glock should be done with the rebuilds by now."
"Good." Jane said as they left the Bazar hangar. "Cause I'm really looking forward to whipping the hell out of the CQB this year."
As they walked over to their bikes, they found a black haired woman leaning on a Black Yamaha Rhino staring at them through a dark set of sunglasses. Jane's threat detection went off as they approached but her other side remained quiet. She remained seated next to their Harleys as she slid her sunglasses off. She was dressed in the typical black fatigues that could be found around here but there was no badging or silkscreen on her shirt. Standing around five and a half feet, she was very pretty but Jane could see a very lethal fighter trying to look casual.
"Jane Rizzoli." The woman said; her voice tainted with an accent that Jane couldn't recognize.
"We don't know you." Kate said as she took the box from her partner, deliberately freeing Jane for combat, if needed.
"Ziva." The dark-haired woman supplied, "And you must be Kate Beckett."
Kate narrowed her eyes, a wasted gesture since she still wore her predator sunglasses.
Keeping a careful eye on the woman, Kate dropped the boots in Jane's saddle bag and noted exactly where Jane's batons were.
"Gibbs sent me to find you." She unfolded her arms and straightened, "After your recent experience with DiNozzo, he thought it would be best to send me since he didn't want to put McGee in to this."
"No offense, but you don't sound like a navy girl to me." Jane said coldly.
"I'm Israeli. Mossad Liaison to NCIS." She lifted up her sunglasses and eyed Rizzoli carefully, "Show me your hands."
"Why?" Jane asked.
"Because that's what Gibbs told me to do," Ziva said in a way that broached no argument.
Jane passed a glance to Kate and rose up her hands. Ziva looked pointedly at Jane's scars.
"Good." She said, "You've been trying to get a hold of Gibbs for a while right?"
"Yeah," Jane said, "He hasn't returned my calls."
"That's because whatever it is that McGee did for you, Gibbs didn't like. He told me that I'm supposed to give you a password but he didn't tell me for what."
Kate sighed in relief, "So why couldn't he just tell us that?"
"Because he doesn't trust anyone." She said knowingly, "And whatever it is that you're doing he wants you to know that not all of it is legal and that you're treading in very dangerous waters. If you need something else email McGee about your transfer."
Jane nodded, "I got it. What's the password?"
"He said the password is your fiancé's twin sister's name."
Frowning, Jane looked over at Kate,
"Maura doesn't have a twin sister, right?" The latter asked.
"Just a dead brother, Colin. And a little half-sister, Cailin."
Kate's eyes widened and she looked to Ziva. "What was the name of the NCIS agent that DiNozzo and McGee worked with, the one who died?"
A strange look came over Ziva for a split second but Jane caught it; regret. "Caitlyn Todd."
Jane nodded, "Tell Gibbs I said thanks."
She looked at her strangely. "That means something to you?"
"Yeah it does." Jane said as she slung her leg over her bike. "Enjoy your stay at LETO."
Kate followed suit and they were on their way back to Colin's hangar. They didn't say a word, they didn't have to.
They roared into the hangar and shut down. Kate ran up the steps to Colin's loft to get his computer as Jane dug in her backpack for the flash drive that Rick had given her. She found it and something else. For some reason, Rick's tablet was in her backpack. She looked at the note taped to it and frowned.
I know this will probably get my ass kicked but this is the only copy, I swear. And if you don't like it, I promise I'll never ask again. Rick.
She shoved the tablet back in her bag and rushed out to the dining room where Kate was booting up the laptop.
She handed over the drive and her partner plugged it in. A moment later a password screen came up. Kate typed in Caitlyn and got nothing. She typed in Todd and again, nothing.
"Do the full name." Jane said.
Kate typed it in and the screen flashed green. They stood watching the green screen turn black and then several files listed themselves on the screen. One said "read me first".
Kate clicked on it and a strange man with grey hair and greyish blue eyes looked back at them. He was standing in some kind of command center.
"Detective Rizzoli. I'm Special Agent Gibbs. McGee reconstructed all of the financials you asked for and what he found got my attention. Your guy is connected to some very powerful people but he's also in bed with a very bad organization in Columbia. I don't know what you're planning to do with this but the offshore account information wasn't obtained through proper channels. McGee almost got caught twice on this and I won't let him get any further into it. I withheld this information on purpose because certain authorities were not happy about where we were digging. To protect us as well as you, I've waited until the attention settled since NCIS has no jurisdiction on what we're looking into here. The only reason I didn't have McGee scrub this was because of the implications of this man moving in to Pennsylvania Avenue. You're going to have to retrace this on your own, through the proper channels, if you're going to make this stick. Just give me a heads up when you move. If you need something else, get a hold of McGee but don't refer to this in anyway. McGee found some watch dogs looking at your computers. Be careful."
Kate clicked on the file that said overview. A vast network appeared and Kate pointed out names.
"First of Manhattan, Capitol City Bank, Baltimore Independent." She said as they looked through the web. "There's hundreds of thousands of dollars moving around here."
"This is too small to be the cartel," Jane said as she tapped the mouse pad, "It's a laundry machine. Dirty money ran through so many banks it comes out the other end clean."
Kate clicked on First of Manhattan. "Here's where it goes in."
Tracing the line with her finger Jane stopped on a bank in Philadelphia. "I wonder if Joyce Schmitt was in on this."
"Not unless she was working at thirteen." Kate said. "The dates are too early."
Jane nodded, "It's going to take us a week to go through all of this."
"Better here than in New York."
Agreeing, Jane leaned over Kate's shoulder, "There." She pointed at a small bank registered in Arlington Virginia.
Kate brought it up and whistled. "This bank is holding his money for Campaign Contributions."
"That's a lot of money." Jane said, "He'll be able to seriously outplay everyone else's advertisements."
"I wish we could steal it."
Jane looked at her, "What!?"
Kate leaned back into her and smiled, "Take every last penny and give it to charity. Cancer research, education programs." She looked up at her partner, "Police widow's fund."
Jane started laughing, "If only we could."
They stopped laughing as they looked over several of the files and within twenty minutes they had their connection.
"It's all there." Jane said stoically, "All of this is Bracken's money almost from when he opened up shop."
"Here it is," Kate's voice trembled as she clicked on one of the banks, "this payment went to Dick Coonan's account three days before my mom was killed."
A tear slid down her cheek and Jane pulled her into her arms, "My mother's life was worth twenty thousand dollars."
"C'mon girl." She said softly, "You killed him and now we know where to look to tie Bracken right to Coonan."
Kate cried into her friend's stomach while Jane gently stroked her hair. It wasn't something that happened often but when it did Jane never said anything about it. She was just there for Kate as they had always been for each other. After a few minutes Kate rubbed at her eyes and started to compose herself.
I'm sorry. She sent.
Jane just ran a hand through her hair, there's nothing to be sorry about.
Thank you for being here.
Any time you need me.
"My life for my partner." Kate said softly.
"With no regrets." Jane said, "But if something ever does happen to me, promise me you'll take care of Maura."
Kate looked up at her, surprised that Jane had asked, "I've already made that promise."
Confusion washed over Jane, "When?"
"When you were in the hospital." She said as she put a hand on Jane's scarred abdomen. "I knew that if you died, I'd have to be there for her. Even though you couldn't admit it, I knew that's what you'd want and I knew I wouldn't be going back to New York."
Jane smiled softly and leaned down to hug her best friend, "I love you, Kate."
Kate returned the hug and sniffled, "I love you too."
Liv watched them from her room and smiled at the tight bond they had formed almost from the day they met. In truth she envied that kind of partnership and it brought out how much she missed having Elliot around. He'd been a good partner and a great friend. The only one who understood her the way partners were to understand each other. Even when they were fighting over a case, there had always been love, trust and friendship. She knew that she had her own bond with Jane but it was different. They understood each other's pain and Liv missed the times when Jane would just listen to her and take care of her.
But pushing Jane away was a necessary step if she was going to save herself from her demons. The same demons that had driven a wedge between her and Casey Novak.
Thoughts of the athletic redhead filled her mind as she remembered all of the amazing things they did together, like sky diving. Only Casey had ever been able to convince her to willingly jump out of a moving airplane. She regretted how they ended it and wished she could go back and give her heart to the woman. But she loved Alex and nothing had changed. She honestly doubted she could ever love Casey the way she deserved to be loved or anyone else for that matter. She sighed heavily as she watched Jane and Kate put up Colin's computer and take away the flash drive, she wished that she could join them but she knew that she needed distance.
Everything depended on it.
"Why does digging up the past have to be so goddamn painful!?"
Kate sat in her room later that evening going through the digital files Agent McGee had assembled for her and tried to piece together how exactly Bracken was tied to the Raven. The massive amount of financial records was difficult to understand, mostly because she was a cop and not a forensic accountant. She flipped back to the overall filled web that he'd set up to show the flow of all of this money. Nearly a hundred million dollars moved around the screen from one area to another right in front of her eyes through green lines to different bank shaped symbols, except for a hand full of red ones that indicated that the money paths were unobtainable, at least legally.
McGee had done some seriously black electronic espionage work to assemble these files, half of which were so out dated, she wasn't sure how they had been pulled from a computer. But as she watched Bracken's money move around her eyes kept falling to the same transaction that had ended her mother's life. It was so hard to know that there had been an actual dollar amount put on Joanna's life. A life that was priceless in Kate's eyes. She felt the tears welling up in her eyes and she gripped the ring that hung loosely around her neck.
Closing her eyes, she felt the tears fall and creep down her cheeks. She reached out blindly and shut the laptop screen, a little harder than she meant to. Her sadness reached the point where she couldn't contain it anymore and she let it out.
"I can't keep it in anymore. I love her so much, it hurts. I feel like I'm dying inside without her and I hate it. I hate how broken I've become. Kate, please tell me how to make the sadness go away."
"I wish I knew, Jane." She'd said that night as she held her best friend tightly. "I wish I knew how to live without the person that means the world to you. But what I do know is that I'll be here for you. Always."
"Always?"
"Always." She crooned as she stroked her friend's hair soothingly, "I'll always be here for you."
She wished Jane was here right now to hold her as she let go of the pain she'd held in all these years. So many things they'd been through together, there was no distance they wouldn't go for each other. They were sisters, not by blood or by marriage, but by their unbreakable friendship.
She sat on her bed and brought her knees to her chest and wrapped her arms around her legs. She tried to hold it in but the grief and mourning that she held in wouldn't be denied. Before she realized it, two strong but slender arms wrapped round her.
"I'm here, partner." Jane whispered, "It's just you and me. Just let it go."
She leaned in to her partner and finally let go of it all. "You c-c-c-came."
"Yeah." Jane crooned, "I'll always be here, Kate. Always."
She laid her partner down on the bed and curled up around her, holding her from behind as Kate had done for her countless nights after nearly dying in New York. She held on tightly to her for hours as Kate mourned her mother, and finally grieved. She cried for more than an hour before finally falling into blessed sleep.
Jane stayed with her even in sleep. Even if Kate hadn't done this for her, she still wouldn't have left. Because Kate was every bit as important to Jane as Maura was, just in a different way. Maura had her heart and Kate had her back.
Oddly enough, Kate's dream wasn't a fabrication of her mind, instead she was greeted by tender memories of trust and love. Memories of Rick doggedly investigating her mother's murder. He hadn't pursued the case for his fiction, he'd done it because he loved her. Memories of her father and the day he gave up the bottle for the last time flowed through her mind and ended with all of the times he'd been there for her when she'd needed him.
But the most prominent memories were of Jane. Who from the day they'd met formed a bond like nothing she'd ever had before. She'd woken up at her dad's cabin in upstate New York to find her hand being held by the Boston detective. She'd held Jane's hand at Mass General when Jane had shot herself. When Hoyt had come back and took her. The love she felt for her was more than just sisters. It was the kind of love shared by twins. Unbreakable.
But the memory that had stood out the most was that night in New York. Only a few days after Gates had handed Jane a signed transfer order that would return her to Boston. One that Jane shoved in a drawer, unsigned.
November 2012
Kate paced around the spacious office, she hadn't said much on her arrival and Dr. Burke sat in his usual seat. Tall, built and dark skinned, he sat watching her with those dark eyes of his, that patient look on his face, ears tuned to listen to her pace. She glared at him and he took that as a sign.
"You seem agitated, tonight." He said, his deep baritone voice resonating throughout the room.
"Yeah, I guess you could say that." She said as she continued to stalk around the room. "My Captain gave my partner a signed transfer order a couple of days ago. She said Jane would probably want to go back to Boston now that she's with Maura."
He sat quietly, waiting, always waiting.
She felt the need to fill the silence, "Ten months. Ten months I have taken care of her. Helped her back onto her feet and seven months we've been partners and she's thinking about leaving again."
"Is she?" he asked.
Kate stopped to look at him. His expression was always the same; warm, comforting, inviting. As if to say: "Talk, I'll listen".
"She has to be. She's with Maura now and anyone with eyes can see how happy they are together. Maura says she has never once felt safe in New York." She waved her arm to the window that over looked Manhattan. "Now that they're back together, it's only a matter of time. Jane and Maura are very close to Jane's family. I know that Angela Rizzoli has to be pushing for them to go back." She was pacing again.
"And what did Jane say to her mother on the phone at Thanksgiving?" He knew the answer but he wanted her to remember too.
Kate paused, she knew what she wanted to say but she also knew what he wanted her to say so she elected not to dance around the truth she didn't want to face, "That she can't leave right now. That she can't leave me alone in this and that she needs to figure out her other things."
He nodded.
"I haven't been able to get past the idea that she could leave. I've never had a better friend, a better partner. It's like we're in tune to each other." She sat down, "I don't want her to leave. I don't want us to be separated like that."
"Do you think Jane feels the same way?"
It was a simple question but it caused her thoughts to swirl around in her head, "A month ago, I would have said yes, but she has Maura now; her best friend, her lover, her… well… everything. How am I supposed to compete with that?"
"You're not supposed to be in competition with Maura." His tone was flat and even.
"Then why do I feel like I am?" She snapped angrily.
"Do you think Jane feels like she has been in competition with Castle?"
Kate blinked at the psychiatrist, "No. She knows that I love him, that I want to marry him. She's never put that kind of pressure on either of us. After she started healing, she always gave us room to be together. She never once tried to put herself in the way. In fact she's pushed us together from the beginning."
"Then why would you? Doesn't Jane deserve the same respect from you?"
"Of course she does!" Kate shot to her feet, "I love Jane and I would never put myself in between their relationship. It's the one thing that Jane has wanted since I met her, even when she couldn't admit it to herself. I would never try to take that away from her."
He leaned forward in his chair and clasped his hands together, resting his elbows on his knees. "What was Maura's role in Jane's life before she came to New York?"
"Maura was Jane's best friend." She stared at him trying to figure out what angle he was working on her.
"And your role after she came to New York?"
"I was her best friend, her partner."
"And what is Maura's role now?" he asked.
Kate opened her mouth to say her best friend again but the words stuck, no, not best friend. "She's Jane's girlfriend, her lover. She's often said that Maura is her soul mate."
"And what role do you play in her life?"
"I'm her… partner." Kate couldn't be sure about the other anymore.
He sighed slightly, "Isn't she the same person she was before she was with Maura?"
"Yes and no." He sat quietly awaiting her elaboration, "We're the same at work but I see her a lot less after work. But we still talk only now we talk about other things. Instead of her being always tinged with sadness now she almost has a glow about her. But when she drove me tonight, we didn't say much."
"As I recall, you often said that it's a relief to have Jane drive you here, is that still the case?"
"Yeah, she always makes time to do that." Kate said distantly, "And when she knows I'm not having a good day, she'll often wait for me."
He nodded, "Is she here now?"
"In the waiting room." Kate looked at the door that lead to the lobby, her gaze didn't shift even slightly. "She knows something was bothering me and she wouldn't leave me."
"That sounds like more than a Detective's partner." He said.
"I guess so but," she stopped, and turned her heat to stare at him in confusion. "Maybe. But…"
More silence, more watching, more waiting.
"We've always looked out for each other." Kate said after a moment, "It's been that way since the night we first met."
He shifted slightly in his chair but kept his eyes on hers. "I think you should ask Jane to come in for a session together."
Her eyes widened in alarm at his suggestion, "Oh no. I can't. She doesn't like shrinks and besides I can't let her know that I doubt her like that."
He sat there.
She tried to put all of her conviction in her voice but it still felt week. "I can't do that to her. I have been her only anchor when she wasn't well, I can't let her know that I'm the one who's weakening."
His expression didn't change as he asked the fatal question. "Are you weakening or is it something more?"
She glared at him, "Yes. I'm weakening. After ten months, I'm the one drawing strength from her and I'm the one who's not well."
She started pacing again. He watched her as she stalked back and forth. "She's the one who helped me understand that I have PTSD. Her experiences with The Surgeon were hard on her in ways I can't even imagine and she's tried to explain them. Things in her life have constantly changed and when Maura left, it damaged her. I was the only one she thought she could trust. I'm the one she drove out here for, almost froze to death trying to get to. I'm the one who put her in that tub and stayed with her every night while she cried herself to sleep."
A revelation finally struck her; the source of her unease was laid bare right before her. This was why Burke was worth every penny. Why she kept coming back to him. He got her to face her fears on her own terms.
Her voice unsteady Kate looked down at her feet, "Now that Maura's back I don't know where I fit into her life anymore. All I know is that now I need her and losing her would be like cutting off my own arm."
Burke let her mull over that for a minute before he replied.
"Tell her." It was a simple statement and it caused her to look up at him.
He never told her what to do. Only asked questions and guided her to work things out on her own.
"Really?" she said still stunned.
In all the months she had come to him he never once told her what to do, ever.
He nodded with a slight smile.
Kate took a step toward the door but as she got closer her confidence waned. Her hand was shaking as she grabbed the door handle. Taking a deep breath for courage she turned it.
Jane tossed the magazine down and bolted upright. "Short session for someone who needed to get something off her chest." Jane stretched her long lean body before she caught sight of Kate.
She dropped her arms and came quickly to her partner's side. Kate was shaking, subtly but it was the fear that had caused Jane to rush over.
"Oh my god, Kate." She wrapped her arms around her, "Kate, hon, are you alright?"
"C-ca-can you… c-c-come in for a... m-m-inute?" she said, her voice shaking.
Jane was floored. She had never heard Kate so unnerved, that stutter was something that Kate had worked hard to lose when she was a child. Her friend had told her once that it only came back when she was the most scared, like after her mother died. Her concern for this woman tripled.
Jane nodded, "Sure."
She lead the way back in and the look she passed Dr. Burke wasn't friendly. She kept her other side carefully hidden, he was after all a shrink and she knew never to let It show to a shrink, ever.
"Jane. I believe Kate has something she'd like to ask you?" He said calmly. "And all I ask is that you be honest with her."
Kate sat down on the couch and Jane sat next to her, another searing glare to the doctor before she took her friends hands into her own. "What do you want to ask me, hon?"
Kate couldn't look into her eyes, "Wh- wh-hhen are you g-going back to B-boston?"
Jane frowned. They had had this conversation earlier this week. She glanced at the Doctor and back to her partner. There's something more to this than Boston.
Jane tipped Kate's head up and looked deep into those mocha eyes. She saw it then, the fear of abandonment. "Oh! No, Kate. I'm staying right here by your side."
"But your tr-transfer." Kate said.
"Oh honey, I'm not going anywhere any time soon." She said as she hugged her again, "I'm right here with you for as long as you need me."
Kate clenched her arms around her tightly, "I do need you. I… I d-don't want to lose you."
She cried for a minute before Jane patted her back, "Kate, I love you and I'm not going to abandon you. Not after everything you did for me. What kind of a friend would I be? I'll always be here for you."
"M-Maura. She hates it here." She said.
"Jeez girl." She said in a gruff tone, "For the way that you and Alexis think of Maura. That she just wants to up and move back to Boston. Haven't either of you been listening to her at all?"
Kate eased away from her, "What do you mean?" she said as she wiped a tear from her eye.
Jane caught the other one. "Maura gave up everything to be with me and has told me that no matter what happens, no matter where I am, she will always be with me. I told her that I needed to be here for you and she was very insistent that I made the right choice. She above all other people understands my loyalty."
She looked to Dr. Burke. "Kate took me in when I was at my lowest point. She loved and cared for me when I couldn't even take care of myself and I'll stand with her against God himself if that's what it takes."
She looked back at Kate, "'My life for my partner, with no regrets.' That was what we promised to each other, remember?"
Kate nodded.
"Kate, you're so much more to me than a partner, you're my best friend, my sister, and I swear to you that I won't abandon you. I know what PTSD does to you, Kate. I know better than most. I won't let you face that alone. You gave me back my life, in more ways than one and I know you've been leaning on me and that's something you did for me when I needed it most. I couldn't bear the thought of you not having me there to lean on."
"I'm still your best friend?"
Jane looked into her partner's eyes again and saw the worry, the doubt. For some reason, she was clinging to that one thought, "Of course you are, sweetie. Why would you ever think that would change?"
Kate stared back at her, "Maura."
"Is my love, my soul mate, everything that I ever wanted." She took Kate's hands into her own, "We were best friends but now we're so much more to each other than that. Just because she and I are together doesn't mean you're not my best friend. It just means that, like you, I'm in love with someone who makes me feel whole."
She looked back at the shrink who was watching them and cringed with embarrassment that she had revealed so much of herself to a stranger. She had never been the feely touchy type but her friend, no, her best friend needed to hear it.
"Doctor patient confidentiality better be in full swing here, doc." Jane said with a snarl, "I'm not one of yours but I better never find out that I'm a case study."
He merely inclined his head at the look she gave him.
"He's quite the chatterbox, isn't he?" Jane said to her partner sarcastically.
Kate giggled slightly as she sniffled, "Don't get him started, He'll never shut up."
Dr. Burke did something he hadn't done with a patient in years; he rolled his head back and laughed.
Kate's on her way to recovery both from her mother and with Booth's help, she's getting over the rifle. Up next Olivia Louise Benson.
