**DISCLAIMER – I do not own the characters, they belong to TNT and associated bodies. **

A/N: I forgot to put in a song title for the last chapter, it's just 'my thing'. It should have been 'Stay', by the wonderful Sara Barielles.

A/N 2: This chapter, but more so, chapter 12; will be the beginning of the story going a little more case-heavy. As much as possible, I have tried to get the facts accurate, but if there are any glaring errors, please let me know.

FLIGHTLESS ANGEL.

Chapter 11 Summer Nights.

Maura took her seat once more by the kitchen-top, testing the heat of her tea by placing her fingers to the side of her cup. Sufficiently happy, she took a sip; grateful for the heat.

Jane had wandered over to her bookshelf, moving a framed photograph slightly to the side, she reached in between two books, removing a small, thin folder. She walked, silently; to her stool, and once sitting, she slid it across the surface to a puzzled looking Maura.

"Everything you need to know," Jane sighed; "about the Cranston case."

Maura looked at the file. She looked at Jane, whose eyes were somewhere else, in another time.

"Jane, I could simply have googled it. And believe me, I was tempted. I don't want to read it. I want you to talk to me about it. Don't you see, Jane?" Maura tilted her head at Jane, who was now back in the room, body and mind. "Jane we only bicker when we don't talk. So, I need us to talk about this."

"Are you my shrink now?" Jane spat, before grimacing and putting her hands over her face, inhaling deeply. "Okay, you want to talk; then we'll talk. Where would you like to begin?"

"It's your story Jane, you begin as you wish."

"This is gunna talk a while," Jane hung on the final syllable, in that adorable gravelly tone she had when tired. She rose from her stool, and waved Maura over to the couch. "I would say get comfortable," she patted the seat opposite as she slumped into 'her' side; "but we both know that's almost impossible on this old thing. Okay . . ." her eyes searched the ceiling, as Maura set her tea-cup on the table, and pulled the comforter over them both.

Jane's eyes were fixed on the table, almost in a transgression state. She stared for a few minutes, before starting in nothing beyond a whisper.

"I was finishing up second year at the Academy. I was 20 years old. 1995. It was meant to be the best summer of my life. My Nona had travelled to Italy to the family home, she let me have her house on Southie for a couple of weeks. It's near Carson beach, you could walk it in the morning, walk back at night, not a thing to be scared about back then. Things were tough with Ma. Frankie was talking about joining up, Ma blamed me. I needed the space. Two friends from the Academy came with me, Melissa Grey and Jessica Carson-Alexander. They were everything to me," Jane's eyes welled with tears, she paused briefly.

"We would go to that beach every day, tease Jess about how she had a beach named after her, that Boston wanted to welcome her home from Kansas." Maura's eyebrows raised, as she mentally pieced together the link.

"Talk, swim, laugh, run, barbecue, drink, dance and walk home. Do it all again the next day. On the last Thursday that we were there, there was an automobile accident on the road that we walked down to the Island. Cops, everywhere. We decided to go to Thomas Park instead. It was sunny, we had food. Just turned a beach day into a picnic. It should have been the best day ever." Jane stopped again, and took a deep breath, scratching her scalp absent-mindedly.

After a few minutes, Maura reached over to gently rub Jane's knee under the comforter, which she had unconsciously hunched up to her chest.

"Jane, it's okay. Just keep going."

She looked at Maura, then slowly took the hand on her knee, into her left hand, giving it a soft squeeze. She held on as she continued.

"We were just three normal girls enjoying a vacation. We didn't notice people around us. We were just so happy to have some time out, to be able to enjoy life. To not be serious for a few days. At about 6pm, I was getting cold. I told the girls I would walk back to Nona's and grab us a few jackets, we could sit in the park until sun-set and then maybe hit a bar or two. Jessica was wearing a beach dress. She said she couldn't go to a bar in it. So she decided to come home with me. Melissa was feeling the sun, she was fair skinned. It made her tired, and she said she would lie back and have a nap, we'd be back in no time. There were a lot of people in the park, it seemed like a good idea." Jane looked to her hand, wrapped in Maura's. She gripped it slightly tighter.

"Jessica and I were a lot more than friends, Maur. When we got back to the house . . ." Jane started to cry, silently.

"When we got back to the house, we had a kiss in the kitchen. We went up to my room." Jane was almost silent now, barely getting the words out. "When we were . . . finished . . . we panicked. It was after 7pm. Even if Melissa was sleeping, she would be cold by now. We grabbed a few jackets, concocted an excuse as to why we were so late, and practically ran back to the Park. When we got there it was about 7.20pm. We couldn't find Mel. Her beach-towel and bag were still there, we figured she maybe went to the bathroom. Maybe she went to grab a bite to eat, we'd finished the food hours ago. So we sat on the towel, and waited. And waited. And waited. By 9pm we'd each done a circuit of the park, asked people had they seen her go anywhere. No-one saw anything. They hadn't even noticed us leave. Hadn't noticed the three normal girls, having a normal day. Because it was all so normal."

Jane stopped. She swatted the tears off her face, which were subsiding, and breathed deeply to stop herself from hiccuping.

"They found her body on the Monday. In the Park. 100 meters from where we sat, waiting for her. Some had managed to take that beautiful girl, completely unnoticed; kill her, completely unnoticed, and bury her, completely unnoticed, all within 100 meters. Half the Academy joined the search for her. I've never seen a search on that scale since. I've never been so desperate for a reason to hope. So desperate, to wake up, and find it was all just a bad dream. But it wasn't. And it didn't stop there. The markings," Jane physically wretched, and balled her fist in front of her mouth.

"The markings they found on her, were consistent with four other homicides in Boston that summer. All the same M.O. We did everything humanly possible to nail the bastard. Everything. But he was a nobody. He slipped in and out of those murders like a wave. In and out. There and not. No witness to him ever being there. Jess and I blamed ourselves, people said it wasn't our fault, but we knew it was. We could barely look at one another." Jane paused once more, biting the index finger of her right hand, and taking a laboured breath. Her voice cracked as she continued.

"Her parents divorced years back, her and her Mom had stayed in Kansas, Dad was here in Boston, little brother was at BCU. It's why she chose here for the Academy. After Melissa, Jess couldn't cope. She dropped so much weight, so quickly. She couldn't sleep. Couldn't go back to the Academy. She couldn't forgive herself. Couldn't understand what had happened. Her Mom took her home to Kansas, get her away from it all. When they officially stopped investigating the case in the summer of 1997, she killed herself with her Mom's glock." The tears began again, almost flowing.

Jane clenched her teeth together, and looked to the ceiling.

"I threw myself into work, all I wanted to go was get my silver badge and get access to the evidence so I could work the case. So I could figure it out. For both of them. By 1998, I was 24; I was pretty much the level Frankie is now. I couldn't stop myself, I worked day and night, just complete tunnel-vision. I had to get up, so I could get into the case files. The week I passed my exams for my Gold Shield, Jessica's brother got in touch. He'd cracked the case."