A/N: Thank you to the people still reading and still nudging me along. This will end up at 46 chapters plus a small epilogue, and yes, believe it or not, 50% of the whole lot is already written. One of the upcoming scenes I've had written almost since I began the story, it seems surreal to be considering where and how it's going to fit into an actual chapter.
On and on we go.
Tx
Prometheus – Chapter 43
Cold concrete pressed against her back, seeping through the thin cotton of her white undershirt.
Something toyed with the edges of her subconscious. Something she knew she should know, and yet-
She could feel her teeth chattering, drumming out an uncomfortable staccato but it had nothing to do with the temperature… Her eyes were locked on the blood between her fingers, on her palms... someone else's life tracing little rivers down the side of her wrists-
-and then an a flash the blood was hers, and the scars in the centre of her palms had opened, spilling pain and terror onto the basement floor…
A strangled grunt escaped her throat and she squeezed her eyes shut, her heart thundering in her chest.
"Rizzoli."
The sound of a chain rattled in the background.
"Jane."
She opened her eyes, pulled her bound hands closer to her body, and slid to the side, ready to strike. A figure loomed before her… but…
…his was a face she had come to remember.
'You're-" Her voice faded on the edge of the word, rendered hoarse by the events or the cold or-
"A friend." Came the gruff answer. Her brows furrowed immediately, and she slid further away along the frigid concrete surface, edging closer to the corner of the room.
Something was draped over her shoulders, she blinked in confusion at the heaviness of it; soft, thick cotton making contact with her skin.
Warm.
"Maura-" She whispered.
A hand found her forearm, and she felt herself flinch.
"-She'll be okay, Jane."
'She'll be okay'.
The chattering in her jaw exploded out across her entire body and in an instant she was hissing uneven breaths in and out through her teeth, her stomach clenching as she balled her bloodied hands into fists, pressing her elbows so sharply into her own ribcage to stop it from expanding.
"Riz- Jane, hey-"
She rocked forward, away from the wall, away from the words, and the sound that came from her throat next sounded foreign to her own ears even as she tried to understand what was being spoken to her.
"She's alright."
It followed with another
"..and so are you."
And another
…and suddenly, she was sobbing.
The first thing Maura registered, was the distinct sound of hospital air conditioning. The coarse sheets underneath her body, the way the cold seeped into her body despite the blanket and warm air being blown in underneath it.
Recovery.
Which meant she had been in surgery.
Which meant-
Lifting her right hand to her neck, Maura ran her fingertips along the edges of a thick surgical gauze, tracing where the tape fixed it to her skin. A slight turn of her head and she could feel the pull of stitches beneath the padding. She tested it a second time, then swallowed, wincing almost immediately as sharp pain shot up her neck and across her collarbone.
A nurse wavered into the Doctor's vision, brow furrowed and clipboard clutched to her chest.
"Dr Isles." Her voice contained a slight English lilt that sounded like London. "It's good to see you awake."
"How-" She winced as the vibrations set off another wave of shooting pain, and tried again, containing her voice to a whisper. "How long was I in surgery?"
The nurse stepped closer, leaning over Maura to check the levels of her IV, before making some notes on her clipboard.
"A little under two hours." She said. "The wound itself was fairly simple to close, but the entry point was just over one and a half inches deep. You required a transfusion due to the blood loss.'
'Maura!'
'Tell me what to do…'
"God-Jane…" Maura choked out, squeezing her eyes shut at the feel of her tongue, still thick in her mouth. She blinked her eyes open again and gripped the edge of the nurse's coat between her fingers. "I need to talk to Anna Frost."
The nurse glanced down for barely a moment, at the point where Maura's clumsy fingers were gathered at the edges of her uniform.
"Yes, you have quite the welcoming committee waiting for you." She answered, reaching to Maura's wrist, checking her pulse. "Another thirty minutes or so and we'll have you moved to a ward."
But Maura shook her head, eyes wide. "No, you don't understand, it can't wait-"
"Hey- stop." The nurse interrupted, curling her fingers around Maura's forearm gently. "You're a surgeon, Dr Isles. You know how this works. Besides-" she tilted her head. "In half an hour you will have stopped drooling." When Maura automatically lifted her hand to her mouth in horror, the nurse laughed. "-just kidding. Your dignity is intact. However, in half an hour the anaesthetic will have worn off and you will have half a chance of remembering any conversation with them." Stepping back from the bed, she nodded once. "They're waiting for you, Dr Isles. They won't leave. There's nothing you're missing."
Maura blinked slowly at the nurse's retreating back, clenching and unclenching her fist, willing herself lucid.
Because she knew… she knew.
It wasn't true at all.
The first moments of consciousness came to her slowly.
She was warm. Warmer than she had remembered being in…
Blinking her eyes open, she took in the start concrete floor of the isolation cell. There was something… it felt… different.
As awareness grew, memories, sketchy and scattered began to pull together-.
She sat, bolt upright in the bed, wincing as the movement pulled her shoulder. Her left hand flew to her side, where a-
-hoodie?
Fell loosely on her frame.
Blinking, she slowly brought her hands together in front of her body.
Unbound.
Clean
The sharp intake of breath was automatic and she squeezed her eyes shut, attempting to stave off the panic rising in her throat.
She saw Suzie Chang, crouched in front of her, cleaning the blood from her skin, expression full of concern. She saw – no, felt – the hand on her back between the shadows of her grief and terror.
A friend.
Maura. Maura was alright and the surgeon-
Hoyt-
"I win"
She heard her own voice, sharp and raspy clattering across the corners of the isolation cell, echoing in her own ears.
Tears spilled down her cheeks, unbidden, and she pressed the pads of her fingers against her eyelids angrily, until all she could see were bursts of colour. The concrete pressed to the soles of her socked feet, and the stale air and the absolute silence pressed against everything else.
Because in every fibre of her being she knew.
She hadn't won at all.
Were it not for the circumstances and the name on the edge of every breath, Maura would have appreciated to a greater extent how formidable Anna Frost was.
In full uniform, utility belt – full utility belt– and with her arms folded tightly across her chest, her glare followed Maura from the moment she entered the room, through the thirty seconds it took for the nurse to set up Maura's charts and IV; and didn't so much as waver at the disapproving frown levelled her way by the nurse on her way out the door.
Off to the side and behind her stood Barry, who's eyes had lit up as soon as they landed on Maura, and seated in the tiny chair in the corner of the room, Vince Korsak straightened, pulling his jacket closed around the front of his body.
Nobody said a word.
Maura studied the three of them as soon as the nurse had gone, bracing herself against the pillows underneath her. Heart in her throat, she asked the question… the only question she had needed the answer to since waking in recovery.
"How is Jane?"
"Safe." Korsak said quietly, but before Maura could ask anything more, Anna shook her head.
"I told you to wait for us, Maura." She said sharply, before shooting Maura a look of pure agitation, flinging her arms out from her body, her utility belt rattling at the action. She grated out. "Do you have any idea how reckless-"
"He would have killed her, Anna." Maura's eyes flared and pulled her knees closer to her chest. "-He almost did kill her."
Anna took a step forward, gesturing outward. "He nearly killed you."
Had Maura not come to know Anna as well as she did, she would have missed the undertone of worry in the words. The knowledge, this specific knowledge warmed Maura in a way she didn't expect, and eased the shudder that rippled along her spine at the memory of Hoyt standing over her, ready to end her life…
'Please stay with me'
"Hey-" Maura hadn't realised she'd closed her eyes until they shot open to find Anna looking back at her, now two steps closer with her fingers tangled together in front of her body.
Maura held out her right hand. Anna narrowed her eyes for a moment, before lifting her head to the ceiling and blowing out a loud breath. By the time she finally looked back to Maura, all trace of Police Officer Frost was gone, and she closed the distance between her and the bed, reaching out and giving Maura's hand a gentle squeeze.
Maura squeezed back, before disconnecting their hands and shifting further up the bed, looking between the three of them.
"Hoyt?"
"In a cell." Anna said. Maura felt the surprise flash across her face. Anna shook her head, staring down at a minor imperfection in the linoleum in front of her feet. "She knocked him out and sliced clean through both of his Achilles tendons. I don't know why she didn't kill him." She added, before looking up again. "I think I would have."
"He… seemed confident he was going to prison either way." Maura responded. Brow furrowed, she tried to piece the fragments of her recollection together. "How-"
Anna ducked her head and raised an eyebrow.
"Turns out," She said, before Maura could finish the question. "-there were a number of orderlies who had taken to loosening her restraints. Or not fastening them completely."
"I might have to deal with that." Maura said, quietly. But then she shook her head. "Akerman-"
"-Dead." Anna interjected. "I doubt he even had a chance to go in."
Maura pressed against both temples with the tips of both forefingers. A dull thud had begun to resonate at the base of her neck and it was sparking up over her scalp.
"Where is she?" She asked.
"In an isolation cell." Korsak answered.
"What?" Maura's eyes widened, and she immediately attempted to pull herself further upright, grimacing when hot pain flared across her neck. "No-"
"Maura." Barry Frost stepped out from behind Anna, stuffing his hands deep into his jacket pockets as he stood at the foot of the bed. "Jane is still officially guilty in the eyes of the law. There needs to be a formal challenge, which is difficult-" He glanced across at Anna. "-because she took a plea."
She could feel her body beginning to wane, the crease of sheets as she slid back down the bed. Anna, catching the subtle movement brushed her fingers against Maura's forearm.
"You need to rest, Maura." She said.
Maura shook her head, frustration building. "No, Jane is-"
"-as safe as she can be right now." Anna glanced to Korsak, who nodded.
"Isolation is the only place we can regulate who comes and goes." He said, leaning forward and resting his elbows on his knees. "-and in the absence of the Warden… I'm the only one who makes those decisions."
The image of Jane, alone in those cells again was a vice around Maura's chest, squeezing her ribcage painfully.
'Please stay with me.'
With a sigh of resignation, Maura lifted pressed two fingers to the bridge of her nose, before pushing outward along the line of her eyebrows.
"Jack McCoy." She murmured. "He needs to know what's happening."
"McCoy?" Maura heard the shuffle of feet, and looked up to find Anna spinning toward Barry in surprise. "As in, District Attorney McCoy?"
She nodded. "He's an old friend." Sliding a little further down the bed she turned to her uninjured side and tucked her knees in closer to her body. "I… already spoke to him, before we knew for sure-"
"Well, aren't you full of surprises, Dr isles."
"He's-" She paused, clearing her throat around the slur in her own voice. "-We can trust him."
"Okay Maura." Anna Frost nodded, dropping her palm onto Maura's shin. "We'll get in touch with him." Squeezing once, Anna dipped her head. "We will work this out, alright? We'll be back later with news."
Maura nodded, feeling the present slipping away, figures turning into shadows behind her eyelids. As much as she tried to fight it, Maura felt the pull of exhaustion well beneath her skin. Vaguely, she would recall the visitors silently filing out of the room, but as she slipped toward sleep, a pair of eyes stared back at her…
Black, bottomless, and afraid.
