Welcome back!

I hope you like this chapter, a bit angsty, though! But I hope you like it anyway. Please let me know if there's any grammar mistake; I'm not a native speaker, so...I don't know I'll be capable of keeping this update rate, but I'll try my best.

Al suggestions, comments, reviews are welcome!

Thanks for keep on reading this! You all are fantastic,

B. M. Adams

Xoxo...

Disclaimer: I do not own anything of R&I, Just the plot, and OCs


Jane drove as fast as she could, almost losing her nerves. She was scared; her goddaughter sounded so vulnerable and so, so afraid of what she saw on the kitchen floor. Jane thought the worst. She imagined a dead Maura on the floor, in a pool of blood, and beside her, her little daughter watching her mother slowly succumbing to death. She tried to wave away the image of her mind, but she couldn't. The fierce and strong detective was a shaky bag of nerves and fears.

She arrived, hitting the breaks a little too hard, making her bump into the steering wheel. She ran from the car to the door, which was open. She came in; there was no trail of Jack. She hated him with all she had. But she hated herself more because she let this happened; she allowed him the time to do this to Maura.

She ran to the kitchen, she found Maura there, lying on the floor, a little pool of blood behind and around her head. She put her hand in front of her mouth. The detective was terrified, for the scene in front of her, the horror movie in front of her eyes. She sprinted to her friend and tried to find her pulse, finding a faint, really soft beating. As fast as she could, she called an ambulance, "¡Maura, please stay with us!" she said nervously.

She left her friend's side. "Please, Maura, you cannot do this to Kathy, not to me, please… An ambulance is coming; please hold on!" she said and ran upstairs, searching for Kathy. She went to her room and looked in the closet; she found nothing. Jane started to panic when she found Maura's closet empty as well. Desperate, she pressed her hand to her head, trying to make her think clearly where her goddaughter could be.

After a few seconds of paralyzing fear, she remembered that Kathy told her that she always loved the smell of the petunias Maura used to plant in the backyard but never could grow again because her spouse thought that was a loss of time. She rather should spend that time with him.

Running downstairs, she made her way to the backyard. After a quick look around, she knew where she was. She went directly to a corner of the yard where the petunias used to be. Approaching the place, she could see a little body hiding in the plants; slowly, she started to talk, "Kathy, baby, it's me, Auntie Janie." The kid was visibly shaking and crying; this made Jane's heart broke into a million pieces. "Bug, it's me. No one is going to hurt you. I promise". The girl lifted her head from her knees, and Jane opened her arms, grabbing the girl, who instantly clenched as hard as she could, sniffling, shaking, and crying into the woman's chest. Whispering soft words of comfort, Jane tried to calm her down, but nothing calmed the little, scared girl. While she held the girl as firmly as she was capable of, the detective felt her own tears streaming down her cheeks at the thought of her best friend dead in the kitchen.

Seconds after, she heard sirens getting closer and the voices of her partner Barry and Korsak. "Jane, where are you? An ambulance is 2 minutes away. Have you seen that bast…The suspect?" the older man said angrily, keeping himself calm and trying not to say something unappropriated in from of Maura's daughter. "I'm in the yard, be there in a moment."

Frost was kneeled beside Maura, making sure that she was still alive. She was alive but barely hanging to life. "C'mon doc, resist a little more. The help is coming" He said, trying to keep himself up more than anything.

The ambulance arrived, and a couple of paramedics got down from it, running through the front door. Determining that Maura possibly suffered a severe concussion, they took her to Mass General.

Both male detectives stood at the crime scene, searching for proof of something they already knew. It was clear that Jack was the perpetrator of all this mess. A bunch of cops arrived at the scene, including Frankie Rizzoli Jr., who immediately walked to the backyard. Finding her sister and the blonde's kid in her arms, clutching to the woman strongly. He put his hand on his sister's shoulder. "She'll be ok, I know." She turned to face him. "I want to believe that, but I'm not sure" She looked at him with guilty and terrified eyes. The male Rizzoli was about to reply but was called by Korsak to help him first, and he went inside. Jane was left alone again with a shaky and crying Kathy in her arm. "Shhhh, baby girl, everything is going to be fine" she said in her attempt to soothe the girl, but that was useless; she kept on crying and calling her mommy desperately. The woman's heart ached for the little child she loved like her own.

Frost went to the yard and stood next to her friend, looking at the night sky. She saw him standing there and leaned her head on his shoulder. He looked at her and said, "Would you like a ride to the hospital?" She just nodded with her head still on his shoulder.

On their way to Mass General, the girl never moved from Jane's lap. She was attached to her shirt as if her life depended on it, and her aunt never stopped her loving strokes in her back and the occasional loving words she said to her in a useless attempt to soothe her pain and fears. When her mother couldn't be with her, the girl's safe place was right there, Jane's arms and her warm chest.

They arrived at the Emergency department of Mass General; she ran to the information counter, almost yelling to the nurse. "Jane, calm you down. You're scaring her" He said, pointing to the girl in her arms. "Let me ask," and then he began to speak with the nurse. Jane was nervous and impatient. "The nurse said that she got here a few minutes ago; they are performing a CT scan on her to see the extent of the wound. It's probably a concussion. She said that she came in with stable signals…A little better than what we thought at first" This put Jane at ease, soothed her a lot more than anything.

Both stayed in the waiting room for at least 1 hour, Kathy finally fell asleep, but Jane always kept her close in her chest. A young, handsome doctor came to them. "I guess you are Dr. Isles' friends?" Both nodded. "Ok, your friend suffered a Concussion, a little less severe than what we thought at first. She hit her temporal lobe. She woke up during the CT scan. She needed stitches, so that's why we took our time. She is resting in her room now… She'll probably feel dizzy and a headache when she awake, probably she would feel a buzzing in her ears, some blurry vision for a few days, and maybe it'll be difficult to recognize some faces for a while... but let me tell you, she was fortunate. This could have been so much worse," the doctors explained.

Thanking him, the doctor left. Frost was called by Korsak; he needed him. The brunette went to her friend's room. She found the blonde with a big patch in her right temple. She placed the sleeping kid next to her sleeping mother. She sat in a chair next to her friend's bed and grabbed her hand.

Maura was wearing a hospital gown, and all her bruises were shown. Some were rather old, but others were recent. Her arms and legs were full of those and probably her torso too. She felt so guilty for not recognize the sign of abuse, for not helping her before; she felt like this was her fault. She could've done something to prevent this, maybe been a little stricter that night, make her speak, push her a bit further. Her mind was working way too fast and hard on blaming herself. She felt so, so bad for this whole situation.

She was almost choking on that room; she walked by the halls, trying to keep her mind at ease and thinking clear. Her ears were buzzing, and her head ached. But was useless, she leaned on a wall and cried her eyes out. When she finally was able to put herself back together, she walked to the hospital's cafeteria. She paid for her coffee and sat at one of the tables. She saw the big clock on the wall; it was almost 1:30 am. She checked her phone; there were a few messages from Frankie, Frost, and her Ma, but nothing else. She texted her Ma, told her what had happened, and locked the phone again. She finished her coffee and went to her friend's room again. Sitting at the chair next to the bed, she held the blonde's hand. "I'm sorry, Maura, I should've protected you; I should've prevented this from happening in the first place. I knew and did nothing but look away" She began to cry, and her voice began to tremble. "I'm sorry…I'm so, so sorry about this. I promise I'll never let anybody hurt you again… and I promise I will catch that son of a….that bastard for what he had done to you and Kathy. I'll make pay for every single thing he had done or say to you," Jane said, full of rage against Jack, wiping out the tears from her cheeks. She stayed in the same position, holding Maura's hand and stroking Kathy's back. "Nobody will ever hurt you again. I promise".