Monday

The lab headed back to Boston, and Korsak left with Kujo as well. It was just Jane, Frost and Grace with the FBI and the children, parents coming in to pick them up throughout the day, always remembering Grace from the original case, always thanking her. Modestly she directed their attention to Jane.

"We couldn't have solved it without her detailed notes," Jane always said modestly. "And DNA profiling has come so far."

It was hard to say goodbye to the children, and even harder to watch them say goodbye to each other. Grace said she'd be running up an effort to co-ordinate all of the parents to see if there was a program they could run to keep the children in contact, but Jane knew most of them would want to distance themselves from this time in their life. Jane hadn't seen Catherine again - neither of them had reached out to the other, not because they didn't like each other but because of the horrific memories that were associated with their time together. With Hoyt. Jane rubbed her hands and smiled politely at the parents, taking awkward photos with the children for the families to send to their local newspapers.

Tilt had been questioned by almost everyone, and the parents had been told he'd been taken back to Boston, in case they tried to seek retribution personally. Jane wouldn't blame them. Hell, she'd let them into his cell herself if she had access to him. She rubbed her hands again. Anyone who preyed on the innocent like this, anyone who tortured children, anyone who could do that... the parallels were there, Richard had been right. But it hadn't been as obvious when Maura had been here, because Jane hadn't had to spend time by herself, sifting through her memories of her own kidnapping and deprivation of liberty. But how could she compare the years of torture these children had suffered with her own few hours of terror? They'd known they'd be killed when they got old enough, they'd lived on the same property where two of their contemporaries had been put down like dogs and buried. Jane had known what Hoyt did to women, what he'd been planning to do to her, but these children had known they had no future. They knew there was no escape, that no one would come and rescue them. Jane had left her computer unlocked, and she knew Korsak had her back. She just didn't know if he would make it in time. But these kids - years of living like this had normalised it for them, and now going back to a normal life with parents who were all but strangers - Jane's heart just about broke for them, scruffing their messy hair as they hugged her goodbye, hoping against hope that at least one of them would grow up able to forget, able to adjust to their new lives. Their old lives. The lives that had been as much as ripped away from them. The broken bones, the scars and organ damage they'd all suffered would be constant reminders. Jane looked down at her hands again, remembering how she'd doubted herself, how she'd doubted that she was ready to go back to work, how easy it would have been to give up, to go home and escape it all as irrelevant. How easy it would have been to miss the dog hair.

But she hadn't. She'd rescued them. A sparse six; one for each year this man had been in operation. There were four bodies they'd found so far, four families that would at least get closure. Four families that wouldn't look at her with all the gratitude leaking out of their faces, four families that would probably just sigh in relief at having an answer. And there were more to come, more forgotten bodies strewn in his wake. More bodies that Maura was supervising as they suffered even further indignities. Alone, because Jane wasn't there for moral support this time.

But Maura was an adult. She'd done this before, and she'd do it again, all without Jane. She didn't need Jane, not to do her job. She'd be fine without Jane.

But Jane wasn't fine without Maura. She'd woken at every noise, unaware that the hotel had been this busy at night because the presence of Maura had soothed her subconscious - the smell of her warm skin, the soft body against Jane's own had brought comfort to Jane's usually uneasy mind. She yawned, rubbing at her eyes. At least the storm had blown over.

Grace handed Jane a coffee.

"You look like you could use this," Grace said. "Rough night?"

Jane sipped thankfully, relishing the burn in her palms, the fire that kept her focused.

"Had worse," Jane said, referring to both the coffee and the night.

"You miss her already, huh?" Grace asked sympathetically, and Jane just nodded. There was no need for bravado with Grace, no need to hide who she was, no need to hide what Maura was to her.

Jane went to bed restless and anxious.

The remaining bodies were still in the process of being identified and were sent back to Boston as well., until their families could be found. Older cases were being reopened, and Jane wished she had her own laptop with her. Her impetuousness had saved the children from more suffering, but an extra few minutes to drop home for her go bag probably wouldn't have hurt them. Probably. Jane sighed and rubbed her hands. The hotel room felt so empty without Maura, and she hadn't slept well at all, wondering still at the sudden coldness, at the withdrawal. She could feel Maura pulling away from her, and she wasn't sure she could stop her. Wasn't sure she should stop her. The intensity of Jane's feelings were overwhelming, the suddenness of it all. They'd gone from colleagues to something else so suddenly - perhaps the feelings would fade as suddenly as they'd come. Leaving Jane alone. Once her hands healed up a little more - she'd pushed to go back to work, but it had been too soon, too much. Without Maura she didn't know how she would have survived. Once her hands were healed, would her reliance and trust in Maura remain, or would it fade like she was told the scars would?

Maura didn't like people, and Jane was a person. Perhaps it was Jane's medical vulnerability that had drawn Maura to her, and once it was gone Maura would no longer find Jane interesting. But Jane remembered how Maura had stared at Jane's bare chest the morning before, and that interest certainly hadn't been medical or professional in nature. Jane sighed, pulling the pillow Maura had used the night before to her chest, the lingering scent of Maura lulling her into a false sense of security, a restless sleep pulling at her.

Notes:

Since they're apart for a little while there will be shorter daily updates until they reunite.