Chapter 29

Episodes 6.12: 5:26 and 6.13: Hide and Seek

As Maura's pregnancy progressed, Jane's excitement only grew. Twin girls were perfect, in her opinion. She hoped they would look exactly like Maura. Although the doctor had warned of the increased risks with twins, and especially in a mother with just one kidney, Maura was doing great. She was as active as an enormously pregnant woman could be. She was still working, and she had that special glow. Jane felt like she was falling in love with her all over again.

They even got to go on a working trip to Los Angeles right before Maura hit the cutoff at which the doctor would no longer allow her to travel. Jane hated LA and was nervous about leaving the kids only two months after the break-in and car fire, but Maura thought a romantic getaway before the twins came was a great idea, so Jane tried to see it as such even though they were technically going there to solve a murder. Maura definitely enjoyed LA more than Jane did, though. She seemed disappointed that Jane could never see herself living there, because apparently she was already thinking about their retirement. Jane wasn't ready to think about that yet, but she already knew she wanted to retire in Boston. Still, she was happy to see how relaxed Maura felt in the warm, sunny California weather.

And then all hell broke loose.

Their debit cards were denied in LA, although Maura's credit card still worked. They called Nina to have her look into it, assuming their number had been stolen and that it would soon be put right. By the time they got home, Nina had gotten their account back open and traced the IP address of the person who had hacked in. No money had been stolen, oddly enough, and the IP address led back to a password-protected website.

The password was Jane Rizzoli.

The website had a video of a gloved hand holding up a lighter in front of Jane and Maura's house. The date on the video was the night of the break-in. The message seemed clear: the mysterious person had planned on burning their house down that night.

"Well if they had planned on hurting us, they would have broken in when we were home," Jane reasoned.

"And that thought gives you comfort?" Maura asked, incredulous.

"A little," said Jane. "They ran out when Ma and the kids got home. They didn't try to hurt them."

"We could have lost everything we own if they hadn't gotten home when they did. Jane, this person may not be a murderer, but they certainly are trying to ruin your life, and that affects all of us."

"I know, Maura! You know damn well I won't be able to sleep until we catch this person. My whole family is at risk, and I don't even know why."

And it was true. Jane couldn't sleep anymore. As days and then weeks passed with no resolution, she would lie awake at night listening for noises, or get up and look in on the children. She wanted to know who hated her this much, so much that they would hurt her whole family. She needed to know, before anyone she loved could get hurt.

Korsak didn't think Jane should be out on cases with this going on, so he put her on desk duty, charging her with searching her emails for threats. Given how many dangerous people she had put behind bars, she received threats all the time, so this was no small task. Meanwhile, her very pregnant wife, who was just about to hit the eight-month mark by now, was going out to crime scenes without her, as she was her own boss and saw no reason to put herself on desk duty. Jane wasn't extremely happy with this arrangement, but there wasn't much she could do until the person behind all this was caught.

Nina was able to find a raw image of the arsonist's video that showed more of her wrist, revealing a butterfly tattoo. Then Frankie came in and said that it was his new murder victim, Lianne Sampson. So the arsonist was dead, murdered, which led Maura to the theory that both the arsonist and the hacker were hired by someone with a grudge against Jane – someone who didn't have a problem killing. On autopsy, Maura found balloons in Lianne's stomach, one of which contained a watch. It was the watch Jane's mother had given her when she became a cadet, and the battery had been removed to freeze it at a particular time and date: 5:26 on April 26th. That was tomorrow.

Suddenly, Korsak put Jane on leave, quite against her will. Maura hired a bodyguard to protect her, which was also against her will. Maura, Angela, and the children had to be evacuated from the house until 5:26 had come and gone. Only Jane and the bodyguard could be home, and the neighborhood was flooded with police, hoping to catch whoever it was in the act of doing whatever they planned to do.

It felt like the longest day of Jane's life. She kept checking the clock, periodically calling Maura, who had gone to work, and Angela, who was at the safe house with the kids, to make sure all was well with them. Maura had been smart enough to hire Jane a bodyguard who could cook, so he was keeping her busy with food. When she went to the window all she could see were cops milling around with bomb-sniffing dogs. They had swept the house for explosives and found nothing, and they had roadblocks set up to keep anyone from driving a bomb down their street, but Jane still couldn't relax, not even when 5:27 arrived uneventfully.

That was when it hit her: it wasn't a time.

Why would they tell her an exact time when something was going to happen? They had to know she'd be doing exactly what she was doing now: sitting at home with a bodyguard while cops swarmed the neighborhood and her family was safely elsewhere. The date might be right, but the time couldn't be. That was some other message, and she needed to be at the station, with her colleagues, to best figure out what it was.

She stormed out of the house, her annoying bodyguard chasing after her, and told Korsak her epiphany. It took some arguing, but she finally convinced him nothing was going to happen at the house, and he took her back to the station. Angela and the kids were allowed to return home, but they kept a police presence on their street.

Ordinarily, Jane went out of her way to be home in time to kiss her kids good night, but tonight, she didn't think she could bring herself to go home at all until she solved this riddle. She had to end this, now.

But she was stuck. She couldn't crack the code. She went down to Maura's office, knowing a few minutes with her wife would calm her a bit. Maura was still there even though it was getting late, though whether she was desperate to crack the code herself or just unwilling to leave Jane was unclear. Either way, it comforted Jane to see her. Just the sight of Maura, with her reassuring smile and her enormous stomach with two babies kicking inside, seemed to lower Jane's blood pressure a little. She wanted Jane to take a nap on her office couch, but Jane couldn't let herself rest just yet.

"Do you ever wonder if it's worth it?" Jane asked. "This job?"

"Wow," said Maura, heaving herself up from her chair and coming over to sit with Jane. It was the first time Jane had ever seriously questioned her choice of career.

"Don't you ever feel like doing something else? Something that doesn't involve dead bodies?"

"Sure," said Maura. "I'd like to get an engineering degree and work with Elon Musk on SpaceX, or move to Maine and write mystery novels."

Maine? She would have to ask more about that later. "I can't think of any other life."

"Well, that's not true."

"It is. I mean, I guess I could just stay home and raise the kids, but that's what my mom did, and I wanted to be different. I wanted a career, and this is the only career I've ever seriously wanted, since I was old enough to think logically anyway."

Maura looked at her, and Jane wondered what she was thinking. Was she secretly relieved that Jane was finally thinking about leaving this dangerous job, or was Jane destroying her hero status in Maura's mind? Whichever it was, she seemed determined not to let on. That was Maura for you, always putting Jane's needs before her own. Sometimes Jane wanted to turn the tables on her, but Maura was so good at what she did, sometimes Jane couldn't even figure out what Maura's needs were in the moment, like right now. Would Maura be happy if Jane wasn't a cop anymore, or would she be disappointed? Would she give a direct answer if Jane asked?

"You're in the middle of a crisis," Maura said calmly. "And contrary to the worldview of romance novels and Elizabeth Gilbert, now is not a good time to make a decision."

"Who's Elizabeth Gilbert?"

"Eat, Pray, Love!" Maura said indignantly.

"Oh, god." Jane threw her head back. She remembered when Maura had read that book and gushed about how inspiring it was. Jane had thought she'd rather munch on broken glass than read a book like that.

"Maybe it would help if you'd lean in to the discomfort," Maura suggested.

"The same way you lean in to stilettos?" Jane asked with a wry smile, remembering the first time Maura had talked her into wearing those awful shoes.

"Yes, except the leaning in you're about to do doesn't make your butt look great," said Maura with a delicious grin, no doubt enjoying the same memory.

Jane sighed. "It doesn't make anything look great." She took a deep breath and forced herself to stand up. This little respite with the wife had been pleasant, but she needed to go back to trying to fix this thing before the next shoe dropped.

"No, Jane," Maura pleaded. "Come on. Stay."

"No, I'm good," Jane promised. "Really." She gave Maura a quick kiss and headed back upstairs.

She could not have imagined in that moment that it would be one of the most horrendous mistakes of her life.

~R&I~

It was Nina who helped her figure out that 5:26 referred to a Bible verse. She went rifling through the Bible her mother had given her when she made detective, hunting for a New Testament verse that might make sense. She found it in Matthew: "Truly I tell you, you will not get out until you have paid the last penny."

"So it's about revenge," she said. "But what would the last penny be?"

"The last thing you would ever want to lose," said Nina.

"That would be my family." Jane's mind reeled. Maura was safe down in her office, but what about Ma and the kids? "The watch. It was a gift. It had 'love, Ma' engraved on the back. What if he's after my mom, or my kids? Maybe he's attacking me as a mother; he wants to take away my children." She pulled out her phone and frantically dialed her mother. No answer. "I'm gonna go home and check on them."

"I'll drive you," said Korsak, jumping up.

"Nina, can you call dispatch?"

"On it," said Nina.

Jane dialed Frankie as they drove. She had been shitty to him earlier and he had left to have a drink at the Robber. She begged him now to meet her at her house. Then she went back to trying to call Angela, to no avail. She didn't have time to call Maura right now, and it would only make her want to come with them. She was safer in the morgue.

When she got home, the house looked peaceful, normal. She jumped out of the car while Korsak was still parking and went in quietly, gun drawn, finding no one on the first floor. She crept up the stairs, where she surprised her mother coming out of the guest bathroom.

"Why didn't you answer your phone?" she demanded through gritted teeth.

"I turned the ringer off after the baby went to sleep. I was running a bath. What's going on now?"

"I need to check on the kids." Jane went into the nursery, where Barry was sound asleep in his crib. Then she went up another flight of stairs and found Holly asleep in her bed, Marie Curie at her side as always.

"Jane, are you going to tell me what's happening?" Angela demanded when Jane came back down.

"I think he might be targeting my family. I was afraid…I was afraid he would get you and the kids."

"We're fine," Angela promised. "Police keep coming by. The kids were asking when you and Maura were coming home, but I told them you both had to work late, and they want to sleep."

They went downstairs, Korsak and Frankie joining them, and Angela decided to pour everyone a drink to calm their nerves.

Jane couldn't calm down, though. She was still waiting for the other shoe to drop, and it was now fully sinking in that she had left Maura at work alone, without telling her anything. What if Maura came to look for her and, hearing what had happened, decided to leave on her own? What if someone accosted her in the parking garage? Jane dialed her, looking for reassurance, but it didn't come. The phone rang and then went to voicemail. Jane hung up and dialed again, and again.

"I have to get back to the station," she told Korsak urgently. "Frankie, you stay here."

She dialed Maura over and over as Korsak drove her back to work. Once there, she ran to Maura's office, which was dark. The whole morgue was dark and empty, except for a few night employees in the crime lab, and they hadn't seen Maura. She called Nina as she went upstairs.

"Maura's not with you, is she?" she asked.

"No, why?"

"I don't know where she is. Can you trace her cell phone?"

"Of course."

By the time Jane got upstairs, Nina had identified the location of Maura's phone. She showed Jane and Korsak on a map.

"Why in hell would she be there?" Jane muttered. "Can you check with dispatch, see if she was called out there to look at a body?"

Nina checked, and dispatch said there was nothing. Jane was out the door before she could finish the sentence, Korsak hot on her heels.

When they got to the place where Maura's phone was pinging, they found her car sitting empty. The doors were locked, but Jane unlocked them and looked inside. Maura's purse was tucked under the seat, where she always left it when going out on a case. No phone.

There was crime scene tape nearby, in spite of dispatch saying there was no crime. Maura's phone was on the street, next to her medical bag. There were tracks in the dirt that looked like someone being dragged away. There was also blood.

Jane couldn't catch her breath. "It's my fault," she said. "I was too focused on the kids. I thought—"

"Of course you were focused on the kids," Korsak said. "They're the most vulnerable people in your life. You have to protect them."

"But Maura—"

"Is smart and strong and capable. She can handle this."

"She's also pregnant. Very pregnant."

"We're gonna find her, Jane. Don't worry."

Don't worry? How the hell was she supposed to stop worrying when her wife and two unborn babies were in the hands of someone who had previously killed a woman just to send a message? Her mind raced with the possibilities of what Maura could be going through right now. Jane had always been there before to come to her rescue, but this man had been one step ahead of her all along. What if this was the time she couldn't come through?

There was no hope of getting any sleep that night. Once the crime scene had been processed and Jane had been allowed to reclaim Maura's things, she went back to the station, trying to go through files while waiting for the ransom call she hoped was coming.

When morning came, they still had heard nothing. Kent and Susie came in to help analyze the evidence. The blood they'd found wasn't Maura's, which meant it belonged to her abductor. Maura would have done that intentionally to leave something for Jane, and Jane couldn't help feeling a little proud. They also found some paint samples that they were able to trace, after hours of diligent research, to an empty asylum near the edge of town. Jane and the other detectives had already surmised by then that Dr. Joe Harris, a psychiatrist at the women's prison where their arsonist had been incarcerated, was the one who had killed the arsonist and taken Maura. What they still couldn't figure out was why. Now that they knew the location where Harris and Maura might be, Jane, Korsak, Frankie, and the entire SWAT team immediately stormed the building. They searched every room and found nothing…until Jane caught a whiff of Maura's perfume lingering in the air.

"She was here," Jane said with certainty. She'd know that perfume anywhere. How many hours had she spent inhaling that scent while holding Maura in her arms? She'd purchased a few bottles herself as gifts for Maura. She always had it on at work, to cover the scent of death that clung to her clothes.

The evidence in the room was grim. There was paint scraped away from a big pipe on the wall, meaning Maura had been chained up there. There were marks in the dust tracing a path where Maura had been dragged to a chair and then back to the pipe. Jane had to force herself to breathe evenly as she imagined her wife, her pregnant wife, being abused in this way. She would kill this fucker the second she found him.

There was more hopeful evidence in the room as well, thankfully. There was no blood, which was a good sign, and she found the word "tunnels" carved into the dust on the radiator in Maura's handwriting. She had left them a clue as to where she was headed next, which meant she was still alive and conscious right before she left this room.

They split up in the tunnels, Frankie going one way, Jane and Korsak the other. They had to walk quietly in the dark when Jane would rather have been running. When they heard the sound of someone moving around one corner, they stepped forward with guns and flashlights drawn…and found Maura.

She was on the floor, a look of sheer terror on her face as she brandished a jagged, rusty piece of metal. Her hair had been cut off and there was blood all down her front, and underneath her. "Oh, Jane," she breathed in relief.

"Maura, are you okay?" Jane asked, her voice breaking as she gently removed the piece of metal from her wife's hands.

"No," Maura said, and she began sobbing. "Jane, I need to get to a hospital. I was trying to get away from him as fast as I could, but I fell, and I think I ruptured the placenta. Jane, the babies are going to die if we don't get them out fast enough."

"Okay. Okay. There's an ambulance outside. Let's—" Suddenly they heard a gunshot and a crash from one of the other tunnels.

"I'll go," said Korsak. "You take care of her."

He ran off, and Jane turned back to Maura. "Can you walk?"

"I can try." Jane helped Maura stand, but she was only able to take a few steps before sinking back down. Her face crumpled. "I don't want my babies to die!" she sobbed.

"Our babies are going to be just fine," Jane promised. And for the second time in her life, she found herself channeling a strength she didn't know she had. The first time had been when she had to save Maura from Hoyt. The second was now, in the dark tunnels under an abandoned asylum, when she lifted her pregnant wife into her arms and carried her outside to the waiting ambulance.

Out in the daylight, the situation looked even worse. Maura's pants were absolutely soaked with blood, and Jane had never seen her so panicked. Paramedics rushed out to help her onto a gurney, just as a bullet whizzed past them.

Turning and drawing her gun, Jane saw Joe Harris himself, looking a bit worse for the wear after his time with Maura. Jane fired back, hitting him, but he still got in another shot. Jane hit him again, and this time he went down.

She wanted to run over there and see if he was still conscious, ask him why he had singled her out, but she didn't have time. She could see Korsak heading in his direction and knew he would take care of it. Instead, she got on the ambulance with Maura.

"Our bad guy is down, so it's safe to drive," she said, taking Maura's hand. "How are you feeling?" she asked her.

"Scared," Maura whispered.

Jane brushed Maura's hair out of her face. "Did you hurt you?"

Maura shook her head. "He hit me, and he cut my hair. That's all. I hurt myself more trying to get away." Fresh tears slipped down her face.

"You were right to get away. I'm guessing you're the reason his throat was bleeding?"

"Yes, I attacked him so I could have time to get away. But then I couldn't find the way out."

"You did great, Maura." Jane kissed her head. "And I guess we're going to meet these babies soon."

As soon as they got to the hospital, Maura was prepped for surgery. She would need an emergency C-section. Jane had to change into scrubs to be present for this, which she willingly did.

When she came into the operating room, she saw Maura strapped to the table in a gown and cap with an oxygen mask on.

"We just gave her an epidural, but she's going into shock," the doctor explained. "It'll help if you talk to her. Try to reassure her."

Reassurances weren't going to come naturally to Jane right now, considering that her wife was bleeding profusely and a doctor they didn't know was about to cut her open and pull a couple babies out, but she knew she had to try.

"All right, baby," said Jane, sitting down next to Maura's head and taking her hand while the staff put up a screen to block their view of her belly. "We're gonna meet our twins soon. Are you ready?"

Maura struggled to focus on Jane's face. "I'm cold," she said, her voice muffled by the mask. She was shivering violently.

"Let's get the babies out and then we can get you warm, okay? Let's just think about the babies right now. They're going to be so beautiful. You know how I know?"

Maura shook her head slightly.

"Because they're coming out of the most beautiful woman in the whole world." Jane stroked Maura's cheek. "They're going to be perfect, just like you."

"We're about to have Baby Number One out," said the doctor. Jane held her breath, praying that the baby would be breathing when she came out. A moment later, they heard a loud squalling.

"That's her!" Jane breathed. "Maura, she's okay, she's here!" She kissed Maura's cheek and then stood up to see the baby.

"Here she is, if you want to hold her," the doctor said, holding up a slimy, screaming baby.

"Of course I do," said Jane, gratefully taking the baby into her arms and holding her close against her chest, turning to let Maura see her. She was relieved to see a smile forming on her wife's face. "This one can be Rose," she said, remembering the names they'd picked out.

"Rose," Maura said softly.

A minute later, the doctor announced that the second baby was out, but there was no crying this time. The nurses that had been checking Rose over suddenly flocked over to the new baby, the one they would call Annabella.

"What's wrong?" Jane asked.

"She's having a little trouble breathing," the doctor explained. "We're going to have to get her to the NICU."

Maura pulled her mask off. "Jane, you go with her," she said, her voice sounding suddenly stronger.

"I'll take this baby," said one of the nurses, taking Rose and moving her to the warming bed next to Maura. Jane turned and hurried after Annabella to the NICU, where she watched, helpless, as the staff crowded around the baby, putting a tiny oxygen mask and various sensors on her. After a few minutes, Jane heard a small cry.

"There," someone murmured. "We won't need to intubate. She's going to be fine." The man turned to smile at Jane. "I'm Dirk Stevens, respiratory therapist. The baby's breathing fine on her own now. We just need to give her a few minutes to stabilize, and then we can take her to her mother."

"That's great," said Jane, feeling like she was just starting to breathe again herself. She walked up to the cot and bent down to kiss the baby's hand. "Hi Annabella," she whispered. "I knew you'd be okay. You're strong, just like your Mummy." She stood up and realized she was crying. A nurse handed her a tissue.

"Ms. Rizzoli?" Jane turned around and saw one of the nurses from the operating room in the doorway. "Your wife is all stapled up now. She's in a room with the other baby. I can take you to her if you want."

Jane looked back at Annabella, torn. "She'll be fine," the NICU nurse promised. "We'll have her out to you in just a little bit."

"Okay." Jane followed the OR nurse to the room where Maura had been taken. She was off oxygen now, and she was already nursing Rose. Jane paused in the doorway for a moment, just watching. It was just about the most beautiful thing she had ever seen.

"Jane," Maura said, looking up. "How is Annabella?"

"She's breathing on her own. They're gonna bring her down as soon as her vitals stabilize."

"Oh, thank goodness," said Maura.

"So I guess this one came out hungry?" Jane approached the bed.

"Yes, she wanted to eat right away. She latched right on." Maura smiled down at the baby proudly.

"Good, we needed something to be easy after everything we've been through today." She sat down by the bed. "You sure you're okay?"

"I am now. I'll be better when they bring me Annabella."

"Me too." Jane examined her wife's face. She looked exhausted, but other than a busted lip, she had no visible injuries. "I was so scared you wouldn't be okay, and the babies too. I don't know what I would have done if I lost you."

Maura looked troubled. "He said I was going to die, but he didn't say how."

"Well, I think he's dead now, so you don't have to worry about him anymore."

"Yes, but Jane, he wasn't working alone. I heard him on the phone to someone, and it sounded like he was taking orders."

Jane felt a chill, but she wasn't altogether surprised. Harris didn't even know her, so how could he be the one behind all this? "Could you figure anything out about who he was talking to?"

Maura shook her head. "Not at all."

"All right, well I'll let Korsak know. I'm going to be on leave for a while, so someone else is going to have to try to figure this out while I focus on my family."

Maura smiled. Rose had fallen asleep, so she covered her breast and just let the baby rest on her chest.

"You're still shaking," Jane observed.

"I'm still recovering from the shock," said Maura. "I can't seem to get warm."

"I wish I could get in the bed and spoon you," Jane said wistfully. "I'd warm you up."

"I'd like that, but I literally just got cut open and had two babies removed from my uterus. I'm not up to spooning just yet."

"Well, I'm ready whenever you are." Jane really wanted nothing more right now than to hold Maura in her arms and never let her go, but that just wasn't possible yet.

Just then a nurse came in, wheeling a warming bed that contained an oxygen mask-free Annabella.

The baby's eyes were already open when Jane scooped her out of the bassinet and kissed her little cheek. "That's my girl," Jane murmured. "Come see your Mummy! You've seen the inside, and now you can look at the outside. See how beautiful she is?" She placed the baby into Maura's free arm and stood back to watch proudly as her wife held both babies at once, bending her head down to give Annabella a kiss.

"I can't believe how alert she is," she said softly. "Now would be a good time to try nursing her."

"Here, I'll take Rose." Jane picked up the sleeping baby and sat with her on the couch, holding her close against her chest. She watched Maura work to get Annabella latched on, observing the look of satisfaction on the baby's face when she finally figured out what to do. As she listened to Maura talking softly to the infant, Jane felt her body start to relax. She knew the thing they were dealing with wasn't over, but she also knew that it had taken some planning to orchestrate Maura's kidnapping, and it would take time for whoever was doing this to regroup and try something else. So they got a break, and for now, all she cared about was the woman and the two tiny little girls in front of her.