When Jane went down to the kitchen to make breakfast the next morning, she found Frankie and Korsak sound asleep on the couch and the armchair. The hospital hadn't called which she took as a good sign. If Maura would have died.. no, she didn't want to go there. Her love had to live. There was no other acceptable option.
The pancakes were already almost finished when Frankie appeared at the kitchen door, rubbing his eyes. He looked as tired as she felt. She gave him a cup of coffee and watched him stretch and yawn.
"Thank god ma bought a house big enough for all of us." she mused, hiding behind her cup.
Frankie simply nodded. "I figured that no one should be alone in times like these." He muttered.
The siblings sat in silence poking around on their plates.
"Any news from Maura yet?" He asked after a while. Jane tilted her head. "I'm going to check on her after breakfast."
"Tell me if you know more."
"I miss her." Jane sighed looking sad. "Whenever something bad happened, I ran to her. But now I can't….". she felt tears dwelling up her eyes.
Frankie hugged her and said: "She's a though one. She'll make it."
Jane wasn't so sure of that. When she returned to the hospital a nurse informed her, that Maura's state hadn't changed. Jane had almost pulled her gun to force her to let her see her friend as the nurse insisted that Maura needed some rest.
All the machines were scary to Jane. The constant beeping and noises reminded her, that her girlfriends life was hanging on a golden thread. She took Maura's hand and sat next to her. She felt frustrated, scared and helpless.
"You have to life Maura. Please." Jane pleaded holding the blondes hand, trying not to cry.
She talked about various things. Then she just sat in silence, her brain felt empty and soar. Angela took over around midday so that Jane could leave and relax promising to call whenever there were any news. But instead of driving home, she was headed for the precinct. How could she possibly relax? She thought looking for distraction.
She was surprised to find Korsak in the squad room hanging up pictures to a white board. He explained to her, that he was permitted to assist on this case as a counselor now. Jane was sure, that he would have smiled in excitement if this wasn't such a sad situation.
"They even gave me a gun." He stated.
"Uh, I bet Kiki was happy to hear that." She muttered thinking of his wife.
"Well, you know her, she is very supportive. But you're right, she doesn't like it at all."
"You know what yesterday's incident tells me?" He asked his former partner.
"That we've come very close to them." Jane answered glancing at the pictures on the board.
"Right! Or at least they believe we have. We scare the hell out of them. Either that, or they are very angry about us. The riddles completely step out of their normal ways. And whoever is covering them from the government will be scared too. Maybe thinking about stopping the collaboration with them."
The tall FBI agent let these words roll around her head and then agreed.
"So, I bet that we have most of the parts from the puzzle. We just need to put them to where they belong to see the whole picture." Korsak continued.
He pointed to the board. "We have many pictures, and a lot of evidence. The lab is already working on the bullets used yesterday. The more they are scared or angry, the more evidence we get to tie the riddles down."
Jane swallowed hard. Not long ago, Maura had said exactly the same thing. And she knew that both of them were right. But the question was, what else had to happen till they had enough evidence? One of them almost died.
Korsak seemed to have read her mind. "She's going to be fine Jane."
"I hope so." she whispered blinking away a tear.
"Maybe we should go someplace and grab some coffee." He suggested.
"This is the best idea ever." She stated and brightened up a little.
Korsak informed her later in the car that the rest of the team had gone to question some witnesses and people.
"I should be out there with them." Jane stated and felt guilty, chewing on her lips.
"Don't be. You re doing your job equally by theorizing. Besides, no one else is as good at theorizing and interpreting clues as you are. That's why I sent you a picture of the white board." He smirked. She couldn't help but chuckle at his nonchalance.
"Thank you, Vince." She replied.
"You're welcome." Now he laughed too.
Jane drove back to the hospital after spending a lot of time with Korsak. They had developed some quit good theories. This made her feel good. Frankie had joined them and reported about the results of the questionings. Some interesting details had turned up.
And the Lab who mostly consisted from Maura's time as chief ME, and who liked her very much, had sped up and already delivered some preliminary results of the evidence collected at the Chinese restaurant. It felt as if their team doubled daily. Everybody wanted to help and didn't mind working over hours. While on the other hand the riddles seemed to become weaker and weaker. Jane really hoped that Korsak was right about the theory that whoever protected them would cease because it became too dangerous for them.
As she walked down the long hall of the ICU her heart almost dropped. Angela was standing outside of Maura's room, crying. A nurse tried to comfort her. But her mother really seemed to be shaken. Jane started to run towards them, feeling her heart thump wildly in her chest. Both women were looking up. Shocked.
"What happened?" she asked when she could suddenly hear a very familiar voice.
"For heaven's sake! You can't put an IV like that. According to a study in last month's Journal of…"
Jane swung the door open to find Maura sitting on the bed talking to another nurse. She had an odd look on her face because of Janes sudden interruption. Also, kind of saying: did you really believe I would die?
Jane went over and took her into her arms, almost crying in relieve.
"Thank god." she murmured into Maura's hair and tears of joy fell down her face.
"Agent Rizzoli, you need to talk some sense into your friend. She wants to leave the hospital." The nurse said and looked stern.
Jane turned to her girlfriend. "Is that true?"
"Yes. I no longer want to stay here, where anybody can walk in and kill me. Besides we have a case to solve." Jane gasped.
"Maura", Jane rolled her eyes. "We've got a police officer in front of your door 24/7. We won't let anybody kill you. Moreover, you had a very long operation yesterday. You need medical care."
"I know. Thank god I'm a doctor myself." The blonde stated.
"You're a ME. that's not quite the same." Jane pointed out. "Will you perform an autopsy on you if you're dead or what?"
"I'm not staying here. No offense", Maura said to the nurse, "but you are definitely not up to date as far as treatment methods are concerned."
The nurse snorted and left the room without further comments.
Jane did her best to make Maura stay at the hospital. And the blonde woman finally gave in when her friend promised her, to fill her in on what they knew.
Maura seemed to be touched, when hearing how everybody worked over hours to process the evidence in order to help her.
Jane left her friend to rest, after they had talked two hours about the case. Giving Maura a kiss to the top of her head, promising to return soon, she left the room with shaky feet. Maura was alive! She thanked god for hearing out her prayers.