Jane woke to an empty bed, finding a piece of paper on Maura's side. Had an idea and went to work. See you later. I love you!
The first thing the brunette felt was anger. Some nuts were running around burning her families houses or crosses in front of them. And Maura, her beautiful girlfriend just left the house alone to go to work?
She dressed up quickly, grabbing her car key and gun in a hurry to drive to the precinct. The elevator seemed to be slower than usual as she drove down to the morgue. Jane couldn't help but feel relieved when finding Maura in her office, typing something into her Computer.
"Jane!" the blonde said in surprise looking at the watch on the wall. It was only seven o'clock and the brunette was only due to work in one hour. Jane rubbed the scars absentminded but nervous. She went to Maura and gave her a soft kiss. Maura stood to hug her tight, which calmed Jane down.
"I think I found something." The blonde said when their mouths parted after a second kiss. "But I need your smart brain to tell me if it's possible or not."
Jane nodded, sitting on the edge of Maura's huge desk. "Tell me." she said, crossing her arms in front of her chest.
The blonde bit her lip. "I think I know who did it. I mean… I think I know one of them personally."
The brunette looked at her closely. "How do you know?" she asked gingerly raising an eyebrow.
She watched as Maura took her time, weighing every word before it could leave her lips. "What if… " The blonde cleared her throat. Then she pursed her lips and said. "Not here." Jane was surprised when her girlfriend grabbed her hand fiercely and dragged her out of the office to the parking lot.
It was still dark outside, and Jane tried to focus on the street as she followed Maura's directions to an isolated spot close to the river.
Jane stood close to Maura as the sun slowly started to show. She had a feeling what Maura was about to say. Dragging her out of the office could only mean one thing: the killer was one of them. And a lot of things started to make sense to her, even before the blonde mouthed it. The feeling to be observed, the first warning left in form of a package in the waiting room, the burning of the corpses so that it was impossible to find stich marks or anything else, even the drug testing story.
"You think its one of the ME's." she quietly said and watched how Maura's face pulled on a painful and sad expression.
"It does make sense, doesn't it?" the blonde whispered.
"Yeah, it does make sense." Jane sighed, hurting because Maura hurt. She knew better than anyone about the process Maura had gone through when choosing the members of her team. How careful the blonde had been in checking and deciding.
Maura glanced at the sun, contemplating, fighting before finally giving Jane the name. It was the guy who had suggested to have a party for Maura's return. He was one of the first persons hired by Maura when she had become Chief medical examiner of the Commonwealth.
"Just tell me." Jane softly said putting a strand of blonde hair to where it belonged before grabbing Maura's hand. "How on earth did you get the idea?"
"The queen of the death." She whispered, "he wrote, shame that the queen of the death didn't die. No one uses this nickname except for the people at the precinct."
Jane nodded after giving it a thought. Maura was right. "But why him?"
"Because he was the only one who kept sneaking around my office and spying or asking after Frankie and Korsak had payed the senator a visit. And we all agreed that this is probably when he lost his source of information right? First it didn't hit me, until last night. I woke up to a nightmare and couldn't fall back to sleep. So, I started to think about Angela, the house and the note…"
Jane nodded again hugging Maura tightly. Her mind already working on a way to check if the theory was right, and if yes, how to catch him with enough evidence to put him behind bars. The best thing would be to catch him with his partner. A plan slowly formed in her head, as the suns light hit their faces.
A lot of thoughts were running through Janes mind as Korsak and Maura followed the car of the ME in silence. the brunette drove slowly, hoping he wouldn't spot them in their unmarked vehicle. If they solved the case now, Maura would go back to Paris and she to Quantico. No matter how often the couple told each other that it would only be for three months, neither of them was happy with it.
Jane loved coming home to the blonde, sleeping and snuggling with her. Three months could be a long time. Besides wouldn't they get estranged to each other again.
She bit her lip while glancing at Maura on the backseat through the rear-view mirror. The blonde also seemed to be deep in thought. The suspect's car took a turn to a bumpy road, leading to an old farm. Korsak phoned the rest of the team as they didn't trust the normal channels. The ME might have a police radio in his car.
Jane put their own car to a halt, and three pair of eyes watched the farm closely.
The ringing of Korsaks phone announced the arrival of the rest of the team.
"Showdown." Korsak murmured while Jane checked if her Kevlar vest was sitting right. Korsak shot her a serious look and nodded.
"Let's go!" he spoke into the phone when Jane nodded back. She hit the gas and sped up followed by some police cars. She waited for the sound of the helicopter, which appeared as she arrived at an old barn.
"They are running." A voice came over the radio. Jane ran too, seeing both suspects a little bit further down a field. Her pulse was high, pushing adrenaline through her tall body. She heard the footsteps of other officers behind her.
And then a police car appeared on the street on the other side of the field, hitting the breaks hard. Frankie jumped out of the car behind the first one and pointed his gun to the men who had no chance to move any further. Her brother gave her a thumbs up sign, while the officers handcuffed the ME and his friend.
Jane returned to the farm, finding Korsak waiting for her. He told her that he had already peeked into the old building which once used to serve as storage for hay and grains. The brunette went inside and found five people hooked to IV's. She found Maura standing next to one checking the vitals. It was Bradley, who had refused police protection and disappeared from the radar for the last two days.
It wasn't as if they hadn't searched but they couldn't find him and now they knew why. Jane stepped closer, rubbing the blondes back. "He is dead. They all are." Maura said quietly. The brunette approached Maura touching her arm. "We caught them." She stated. Maura bit her lip and Jane knew that she only had one question on her mind: How couldn't she have seen it? If she had seen it earlier… Jane knew this cycle all too well.
"There was no way you could have seen it, baby. Neither of us did." She said, putting her hand on the shoulder.
"Well, I should have." Maura said fiercely, turning away to walk out of the barn. Jane stood sighing knowing that it was best to give her some space. Maura and she would talk later.
When the lots met later at the dirty robber the mood was mixed. It felt good to have solved the case, but the fact that it had been one of them was everything but satisfying. "At least we had one last case together old man." Jane said and toasted to Korsak who gave her a fatherly smile. "This was nice. Although I must admit that I feel to old for that work now." He replied and everyone chuckled.
Later that evening Jane prepared a bath for them. Maura felt and looked better as the shock started to wear off. Two more days, Jane thought, and they would be on different continents again. But these two days were uniquely theirs. A smile spread on her face as Maura took her space in between her legs and her arms in the warm bubbly water.