Author's Note- Hey lovely readers. :) I lost some work on this chapter and had to do a rewrite, so sorry if it's a little disjointed. I'm also struggling, so whatever, you get what I've got to give. *shrugs. Loves to all, and I hope you and yours are safe and well.
Disclaimer- Don't own the show. No profit had. Blah, blah, blah- the usual technical jargon.
Chapter Fifty-Five:
Lifting her mug up slowly to her lips, Maura took a small sip of her steaming cider. She concentrated on the feeling of the warm liquid sliding down her throat, and admitted- she was surprised by just how much she was learning today. It was a lot, more than she had in a long time. So far, she had learned that hot cider after a horrible dream could help to chase away the chill of fear. She had learned that having someone sit with you while you cried made the pain in your soul a little less fierce, to wake up from a nightmare and have someone worriedly try to give you some kind of comfort once you had calmed down made your body tremble less. She had also learned that Barold was a passable nurse, had seen it when he had gently led her by the hand to sit on the tub while he wrapped her arm back up for her earlier. He had even made sure that she took her pain medication, waited for her to put the bottle into the pocket of her sweater afterward so he could help her back up from the tub, and once they had gotten to the kitchen, he had made sure she was okay at the counter before moving to give her some of the hot cider he had waiting for her. It was a strange sensation to feel so well looked after, so cared for; something she had only recently gained any experience with because of Jane. Now willingly done by another person, she thought that she could get used to this. Quickly.
Therein lay the rub, and why she was currently staring off into space and having to bring herself to task just to stay present. Her dream had done more than scare her, it had revealed her own thoughts to her. It had felt like a warning and made her think, because what if she got used to it, and it was taken away again? What was she going to do when this ended, as so many things in her life seemed to do just when she started to feel like there was hope for her after all? How would she cope now if, or really when, Jane stopped coming back for her? When Frost was called away and didn't care about what happened to her once he wasn't required to?
She shook her head, tried to shake the melancholy thoughts away, taking another sip from her mug of cider so she could focus once more on the warmth it spread into her chest where fear had taken root. Telling herself that she was being cynical. Jane wasn't going to forget about her, or leave her behind for long. Besides, it was Jane's apartment, the woman was bound to have to come back eventually, whether it was for her or not. Wasn't she?
"Here ya go, Maura. Careful, it's hot." Barry warned, placing something steaming in front of her as she startled a little and tried to blink herself away from her thoughts.
Peering at what he had given her, she got another surprise. The food he had promised turned out to be a steaming bowl of soup, filled with what looked like a strange assortment of vegetables, tomato, and fish.
"My mom's recipe." He added, as if he was nervous for her opinion.
It certainly smelled very good. Not at all what she had been expecting, so she tacked in onto the list of things she was learning today.
Frost knew how to cook.
Carefully, Maura set aside the mug she'd been using to keep herself warm, blew on the dish to cool it as she pulled it closer, and spooned some into her mouth. It tasted as good as it smelled, and she amended her earlier addition to her list.
Barry didn't just know how to cook, he was a good cook.
She gave him a small tilt of her lips. It wasn't a smile, but she was working her way up to one. At least she was trying to.
He smiled back, a beaming grin, and returned to get himself a bowl.
Maura shuddered as her body acclimatized to more warm food. She was still feeling the tug of her nightmare clinging to the edges of her mind despite the cider, her body still tense with a fear she didn't suppose she'd ever be completely rid of, but a bit of warm food and a charming companion had gone a long way to making her feel more like herself. Maybe normal would be stretching it too far, but her normal, at least.
Coming to sit beside her, Frost hissed a little as he took a bite too quickly, without waiting for it to cool. He mouthed around the food, trying to keep the worst of the heat from sitting on his tongue.
It was comical and garish, maybe intentionally so, and this time she actually smiled. Laughed even. A warmth suffused her limbs, the laughter and the heat of the food helping life return to her extremities. Oh, she liked Barry. He was kind and thoughtful and warm. He made her feel cared about, which was apparently a feat lately. As they continued to eat side by side, he would let his arm brush hers, occasionally enough that she suspected he was bumping her to get a rise out of her. When one particular bump made her spill, she huffed and glared over at him, which made him laugh.
Was this what it was like to have a little brother? She had heard that those could be annoying. Or was this... maybe just what it was like to have another friend? It wasn't like she had much experience to go off. Susie was the only one she could think of, besides Jane at least, and while she doubted Susie would ever act this way, she had seen the woman act with the same caring intent. She wasn't going to admit that if Frost was trying to take her away from her thoughts, it was working. When they had finished their meal, he took the dishes away against her protest that she at least be allowed to help with clean up.
"If I do anything less, or let you do anything more while she's in gone, we both know that Jane will have words." He shot her a look.
Rolling her eyes, Maura gave a scoff of agreement, knowing full well what he meant. The woman had already given her a talking to for washing the dishes this morning, of all the stupid things to get upset about. She didn't want to be responsible for Barry getting a similar reprimand just to clean up a few bowls. To be fair to Jane though, her arm was feeling very sore and abused, so she wasn't going to fight either of them too hard. Not yet, anyway.
There was a knock at the door.
Her heart leapt at the unexpected sound.
Maybe Jane was back early. Though... she wouldn't need to knock, would she? She had a key. It hadn't sounded like a special knock of warning, either.
Maura looked over at her protective detail.
Barry immediately stopped what he was doing at the intrusion and looked over at the door, not moving for a beat as he waited. No one called through, no reassurance from Jane. Which meant that it wasn't Jane or someone like Korsak who knew that they were there and on edge.
Suddenly, her heartbeat picked up.
Slowly, the officer reached back to his belt and pulled his weapon, holding it down, but with the safety off and his finger beside the trigger. "To the hallway." He whispered. "Quietly."
She didn't ask questions or pause to consider. Whatever else she may be, she was definitely a fast learner and she had had the worst lesson of her life about hesitation just the other day, so she moved quickly and silently from her place at the breakfast bar and into the hallway, putting the wall between herself and anyone who might see her. Barely edging back, she made it so she could just see the edge of Frost's back in the gap between the edges of archway.
With his weapon still at the ready, he called through the door. "Who is it?"
There was a reply, but Maura couldn't make it out from where she stood.
"What? I got no such order."
More words she couldn't catch, but her heart kicked up it's pace another notch, thrumming into her throat as if about to burst through.
"Alright, give me a minute." Frost moved sedately, and loudly, toward the door. Then he turned abruptly and on silent feet, he joined her in the hallway. "We need to leave, NOW." He whispered urgently, grabbing her hand. "Stay close to me and no matter what happens, I want you to listen to what I tell you and keep moving."
All the answer she could give was to nod jerkily.
Barry moved down the hall and into the room where she and Jane had found Tommy the other day, and she was right on his heels. When he release his grip on her hand upon entering, she hesitated for a second for want of something to help with, and then as the thought hit her, she shut and locked the door behind them. Not that it would so much to someone who was really determined, but she supposed it couldn't hurt. Meanwhile, Frost got to the window. He threw it open with a single hard shove upward, and as she joined him, he reached out to click open a lock on the grating outside of it just as a colossal, splintering crash thudded through the apartment.
It made her jump and she made to turn around toward it, but Frost grabbed her to stop her. "Get through, go!" He shoved her toward the open window, so she stuck her head out.
For a brief moment, she thought there would be nothing but open sky and looming buildings, and she would be expected to jump to some neighboring building or something, before she remembered there were no shorter buildings around them. There was no way a fall from the third floor wouldn't kill them both. It was a dizzying height when she looked down, but to her relief, there was a fire escape she hadn't realized would be there. Of course. Her brain just wasn't working correctly, running away with itself. How silly. She put a hand against the grating that tried to swing back into her head and another on the window-ledge before looking back to make sure that Barry was coming with her, feeling his absence at her side.
"Go!" He was at the door, barring it with a few heavy boxes. "I'm right behind you."
Needing no more prompting, Maura crawled through the gap of window. She realized she wasn't wearing shoes when her sock-covered feet stuck to the cold metal, and that she wasn't wearing very warm clothing when she staggered to the railing and the wind nipped at her neck. Her ability to think, to reason, seemed to vanish entirely, so all she could do was gasp and clutch at the railing, not knowing where to go. It was like her nerves were all firing rapid-shot at her brain and keeping it from thinking clearly.
A hand grabbed her bad elbow, making her yelp.
"Down, go down, Maura!" Frost was beside her, obviously having crawled through the window too.
She basically tripped down the stairs he directed her to, catching the railing at the last minute to pull herself around and down the next flight.
A gunshot rang out above them, a sound that ricocheted off the metal around her frighteningly, but the hand on her back kept her moving, kept her feet leaping down the steps as fast as she could. Before she knew it, they were at the bottom. She felt more than saw Barry turn upward and fire his weapon at the same time that he was shoving her down the alleyway and around the corner to a small gap between Jane's building and another, a space hardly bigger than she was wide. Turning sideways, she hurried through the dark shadows, her foot kicking something that felt terribly alive, but with the threat of death at their backs, she forced herself to keep moving. To just move as fast as she could with her heart somewhere in her throat.
They suddenly burst onto the street beside the building, out of breath and with dark smudges all down the front of Frost's clothes.
"This way." He ordered, hiding his gun from immediate view and ushering her along. He got them to a car and opened the door for her with a push of a button, quickly guiding her into the seat before closing the door on her and locking it. As he ran around the vehicle to get into the driver's seat, she watched him, panting hard with adrenaline and fear, and so didn't notice their pursuer until the glass of her window was suddenly shattered inward.
She flinched and screamed involuntarily, and tried to move to the other side of the vehicle to Frost's open door.
An arm wrapped under her arms almost before she could move, hauling her out through the window and broken safety glass in a feat of upper body strength that made panic swell up through her whole body. She couldn't get a grip on anything to stop him, either, flail as she might. Frantically, she raked her nails toward his face, feeling them made contact and dragging down hard as he hollered in pain.
He dropped her feet to the ground, that same hand coming up immediately to grab her by the hair, yanking back hard. It hurt and unbalanced her, sending her to the ground on her behind, still with his harsh grip on her hair so that it pulled even more of it from her scalp by the roots.
She cried out, but retaliated almost blinding by biting at his leg, digging her teeth in at the back of his knee where the flesh was the most sensitive.
He yelled and let go, instinctively punching downward, but the second he let go of her hair, she'd already scuttled back enough for him to miss.
Frost suddenly barreled the man over, taking them both to the ground, several blows landing in the time it took them to roll over twice.
A gun skittered to the side furthest from her, but she only a second to wonder whose it was and to contemplate trying to retrieve it. Her lips let out another strangled sound as their attacker got the upper hand, catching Barry in the ribs with a hard blow and a head-butt to the nose. The officer crumpled backward, holding his face.
The man grabbed the weapon and was about to point it at Frost's head while the officer was reeling.
It all happened so fast, Maura had barely had time to recover, but she moved on instinct, reaching out to grab a handful of man's long hair in turn and tugging back as hard as she could.
See how he liked it.
The gunshot sounded, but went askew, missing Barry by inches.
She grappled with the man's arm in an attempt to get the gun pointed further away from her friend, but he was so much stronger than her, it was ridiculous. All she was really doing was distracting him as Frost used precious seconds to get back up.
It must have been annoying enough.
He grabbed at something from the gutter beside them with his free hand and threw it over his shoulder into her face.
Maura cried out and fell back, putting a hand up to her stinging eyes to paw off the snow and gravel that had hit her, even though the damage was done. She couldn't see a thing, couldn't fight back, couldn't do a damn thing. Another shot rang out and she tensed in fear, worried she'd either feel searing pain travel up her body from a bullet wound, or feel the harsh and calloused hand grab her to drag her away from Frost's body.
A hand did grab her, making her start horribly in surprise, but it was Barry's voice that yelled through the ringing in her ears for her to get up and run.
Her legs shook as she stood to her feet, barely able to hold her, even with help.
Barry had a hold of her good arm to get her up and started to drag her, but he must not have realized the extent of her predicament because he let go after a moment.
Still trying to rub the grit from her eyes, she made a sound somewhere between fear and helplessness she was too scared to be embarrassed by as she took a few blind steps toward the sound of his footsteps while reaching out blindly for some kind of contact.
"Maura?" The footsteps stopped. "What-"
Her hand met his and she clutched at him.
"What's wrong?" His other hand touched her arm to help hold her up.
"Barry, I can't see!" Her voice was shrill with panic. "My eyes got something in them." She was blinking furiously and it was improving, but she definitely couldn't see where she was going yet.
"Okay, okay." He said soothingly, tilting her head back, taking a few seconds to examine her eyes. "Okay. They don't look too bad. I've got you, Maura, just hold onto me." Frost breathlessly got out, grabbing her hand and transferring it to his shoulder so she could clutch onto his shirt. "We need to keep moving, I'm sorry. We need to find another way outta here. His last shot hit my car."
Reaching out to hold onto his belt as they moved, she moved her other hand to the center of his back so she could feel what his muscles were doing so their changes of direction weren't so disorienting. Her watering eyes were stinging something awful, and the added weakness made her feel even more vulnerable than she had felt to start with.
"You're doing great, Maura. Just keep moving." He reassured.
Her panic was still throbbing in her throat, so somehow she doubted that, but hearing his voice made her stop feeling like she was going to throw up- which was probably the point. Continuing to blink rapidly, she finally managed to get most of the grit out of her eyes and paused a second to wipe them clear of tears. She could see now, but it was as if she'd been staring at the sun too long, an ache still present despite her attempts to rub it away. The alley they were was unfamiliar and suddenly realizing they had walls around them was just as disorienting as not being able to see.
"Maura, we have to keep going, we don't know if he was alone." Frost got a hold of her good forearm, moving to pull her along again, when suddenly a gunshot echoed off the walls from beside them where a cross alley had concealed another shooter.
This time, she watched with horror as the officer jerked, a spray of blood escaping from his front before he fell.
