Jane grinned at her class of recruits. It was deadline day. Which meant she was either going to be very pleased with her recruits or very disappointed. Jane watched as the recruits filed in, each one diligently placing a report on her podium. Most of the students had refused to meet her eye. With each additional meek recruit, Jane's grin grew bigger. She was pretty sure she had managed to pull the wool over their eyes. Only two recruits, looked even moderately comfortable.

'So,' Jane began when every one had taken their seat. 'How is everybody feeling about this assignment?' Maura would have told her she was gloating. Jane didn't particularly care. She cackled happily when the class grumbled in response. 'Well the good news is, you get another shot. Break in to partners. You all get to take a shot at confirming or busting your theory in the interrogation room.'

'That's not fair,' one of the men grumbled to his friend, 'she's the one with all the information.'

Jane pounced. 'Thank you for that fine assessment Mr. Whitehead.' Her grin was borderline predatory. Her poor, poor recruits. 'And who else here feels I am being unfair?' It took the class a few moments. Some muttering, others hesitant but almost every one raised their hands. Only two of the women did not. 'Recruit Baccay, I see you aren't raising your hand. Care to comment?'

The woman was petite, all of 5 feet tall. Jane was fairly certain she was Filipino, her hair black and worn long past her shoulders. Her eyes were a dark brown and her skin darker. Jane didn't pick favourites but if she had to put money on a recruit going on to do good things, Baccay was her bet. She was soft spoken most of the time but Jane saw the determined set of her jaw that told her she could give as good as she got. 'I don't think you're being unfair ma'am,' Baccay replied steadily.

'Why recruit?' Jane asked.

'You are my commanding officer,' Baccay responded with a shrug.

'So you just follow orders blindly recruit?' Jane pressed.

'No Ma'am,' Baccay replied her voice steady, a glint beginning in her eye.

'So what is it recruit?' Jane sensed more than knew that Baccay was at the precipice.

'I'm an investigator, Ma'am.' Baccay began, her eyes growing steely, 'you gave me a case to solve. It's my job to solve it. Even if the odds are against me. Even if you are a more experienced player.' Jane nodded and encouraged her to go on. 'There will always be someone playing dirty, someone with more experience or more smarts. At least in here, it's only a game. In the real world, it is life and death.'

Jane smiled, pleased with her recruits answer. 'I noticed you didn't raise your hand either recruit Dhar.' Dhar was taller than Baccay, of Indian descent rather than pacific islander. Her features were sharper, her hair wavier. The two tended to be inseparable, as two of the only recruits who were women of colour. Baccay tended to be serious, determined. She was quick and decisive. Dhar was a more jovial sort, though her good nature didn't take away from her efficiency. Jane thought Dhar was made for undercover work, she was slippery, likeable and smart. She read people better than Jane herself did and rarely gave up information on herself. Jane was willing to bet half the recruits adored Dhar, thought of her as a good friend, but as far as Jane had seen, only Baccay really knew the other woman.

Dhar smiled, 'no ma'am I didn't.'

Jane smiled back, 'care to share with your less evolved peers why?'

Dhar's smile took on the barest hint of Jane's own predatory feelings, 'I didn't raise my hand because we've had a week to discover where you went. A week to gather the same level of intelligence that you have. If we did our jobs then you haven't bowled us over at all. We haven't a sticky wicket. It's simply time to play the game.'

Jane turned on Whitehead, 'so what do you say Recruit? Ready to play some cricket?' The man was blushing a furious red. Jane wasn't entirely sure he understood the point, but perhaps he would appreciate his fellow a bit more. If Jane was certain about Dhar and Baccay, Jane was equally as uncertain of Whitehead. He was unfortunately whiney, often shirking the boring parts of his work. Jane wasn't entirely certain he had the necessary discipline to be an agent.

Jane turned to the rest of the class, 'you will have the rest of the hour, that's thirty minutes mind you, to come up with your opening questions. After we will relocate to interrogation where you will all watch one another. You may incorporate any information garnered from your peers in to your own interrogation, who knows, perhaps you will even be able to break me.' The grin on Jane's face let the recruits know that would be no easy task. 'Whitehead you're batting first. Baccay, Dhar you're last.' Jane knew he would take it as a punishment for complaining. After all, the first few interrogators would not benefit from watching their peers. In actuality, Jane suspected only Baccay and Dhar had a suspicion of where she had been. She didn't want the jig to end too quickly.

Thirty five minutes later found Jane in interrogation. 'Alright you will all have fifteen minutes to interrogate me. You are permitted to use any legal tactic to acquire the information. I highly doubt you'll be able to gather an entire timeline in fifteen minutes, so focus on the key pieces you need to confirm your theory. Whitehead, Robins, your fifteen minutes start now. The following pair will knock at the two minute warning and again when your time is up.' Jane settled in to her chair and sank in to her hidden mind. It was a place she had built while under cover to keep any pertinent information from slipping.

The interrogation room was similar to any real interrogation room, sparse and uncomfortable, with no windows, no clocks, no real way to tell how long she had been there. The only real difference was that behind the double sided glass was a classroom. Jane's internal clock had told her it had been about five minutes before the two men entered. Jane watched them as they settled in to their seats looking far less comfortable than she felt. She would have to remind the class that they owned the interrogation room, not their suspects.

'So Miss Rizzoli,' Whitehead began.

Jane cut him off, 'it's Agent Rizzoli.'

Whitehead winced, 'sure. Agent Rizzoli, where were you this past weekend?'

Jane felt somewhat shocked and offended. He wasn't even trying. 'At home, sick.'

'I'm sorry to hear that, just a common cold?' Whitehead asked. He looked entirely bored.

Mentally, Jane wanted to kick him. He wasn't taking this seriously. 'Yep. Common cold.'

Robins asked, 'were you running a fever?'

'Maybe, didn't check but I felt feverish.' Jane replied.

Robins did some digging from there, trying to catch Jane in a lie. Whitehead, remained mostly silent. When they had gotten no where and the two minute knock came, Whitehead shrugged and said, 'sounds like you were home sick.' He left without another word. Jane resisted reacting, knowing the class was watching. Besides if Whitehead was determined to fail, she wasn't going to stand in his way. When the next knock came, Robins politely excused himself. The next pair entering.

The next hour and a half ticked by in a barrage of questions and interrogation techniques. None of her recruits were particularly on track. A few, like Robins had tried to catch her in a lie about her sickness. A few others had tried to ask about what she did, be it reading or watching tv. Jane realised, none of her students had even come close to discovering her weekend in New York. By Jane's count, the next pair would be Dhar and Baccay.

The two entered the room, Baccay looking angry and Dhar smiling lazily. Jane would have laughed at the trope except it wasn't entirely a joke. Dhar spoke first, 'I'm so sorry to have kept you here this long Agent Rizzoli.'

Jane smiled. 'It's okay. I volunteered for it.'

'Yes, you did,' Dhar said, smiling that infectious smile, 'we have just a few more details to confirm.' Dhar nodded at Baccay.

'Do you like dogs Agent Rizzoli?' Baccay asked.

'Not really. They tend to smell,' Jane commented. It was technically true.

'Yet you own two dogs, do you not?' Baccay asked.

'I do,' Jane confirmed, 'Boston and Berry. Not my idea, for the record.'

'Whose idea were they?' Baccay asked.

Jane didn't know how to answer that without giving up a key piece of this puzzle: Maura. Jane shrugged.

'Probably the roommates,' Dhar said with a teasing grin at Baccay, the girls roomed together. 'Roommates always get these ideas.' She crinkled her nose in amusement.

Baccay stared at her, 'really. You're getting in to that here.' She shot a nervous glance at the two way mirror behind them. Jane was intrigued. There was a story there.

'Look, I'm just saying, when you have a roommate sometimes you find yourself doing things you wouldn't expect.' Dhar held her hands up in a placating way, 'like getting dogs when you don't want a pet.'

'Can we please stay on topic?' Baccay asked.

'Yes, yes,' Dhar replied with a teasing grin. 'So you own two dogs with your roommate. Can you tell us your roommates name?'

Jane considered a moment. She supposed she could give it to them but she suspected that they already knew. She shrugged, 'I hardly see how that applies.'

'You don't?' Dhar asked her eyebrows raising, 'if you gave us your roommates name, we could confirm you really were home, ill.'

'No she couldn't. She wasn't at home,' Jane replied automatically. She realised a bit lately she had unintentionally given them more than she intended.

'Your roommate wasn't home the entire weekend you were ill?' Baccay asked.

Jane just nodded.

'Sounds like she was out of town. Too busy to check in on a sick friend,' Dhar replied with a lazy smile. Jane felt on high alert now. They were getting somewhere. Jane was impressed and determined to not give up any more. 'I would love to go on a vacation at the moment,' Dhar continued. 'Where would you go Baccay?'

'What?' Baccay asked, 'why does it matter?'

'Because I'm curious,' Dhar replied, a slight pout on her face, 'if you could go any where in the world right now, where would you go?'

'Dhar…' Baccay said, her voice warning.

'I'd go back to India. The weather in the fall is lovely and all the tourists have gone home. I'd have some fresh mango over a bowl of rice on the veranda.' Dhar sighed, her eyes glazing over.

Baccay glared, then answered with a furious blush, 'Denver. I'd go to Denver. I want to see the mountains in the fall.'

Dhar smiled, 'see that wasn't so hard. How about you Agent Rizzoli? Where would you go?'

'Boston,' Jane replied. Maura was in Boston right now, that's where Jane would go.

'Really? You'd go home?' Baccay asked, 'you've had like forty falls in Boston.'

Jane chuckled at that, 'doesn't change my answer.'

'Really?' Dhar asked, those eyebrows arching gracefully again, 'because you seemed awfully eager for your visit to New York. Texting your neighbour last minute to watch your dogs.'

Jane grinned. They had really done it. She felt absurdly proud of the pair. The game, however, was not over. She wanted to see just how far they had gotten. Jane shrugged again.

'The airlines confirmed that you had a reservation from DC to New York flying out Friday and returning on Sunday.' Baccay, slid a printout of her flight information. Jane was impressed.

'What we couldn't find,' Dhar said leaning forward, 'was a hotel reservation.'

'Which means, you were with someone,' Baccay said.

Jane shrugged, 'maybe I used a different name.'

Dhar shook her head, 'it's possible but not probable. Unless, of course, you'd care to share that information.'

Jane shook her head.

'Your family is in Boston, with the exception of your father whose listed address is in Florida.' Baccay offered, 'so probably not family.'

'Then there's the fact that you left last minute. The airline confirmed you bought a same day ticket and, of course,' Dhar continued, 'we had no prior knowledge of you leaving. So that means this trip was either an emergency or….'

'Of the spontaneous variety.' Baccay finished.

'Seeing as you do not seem particularly troubled,' Dhar replied, 'I'm guessing the later.'

Jane grinned, 'it's all some very lovely guesswork but I'm afraid that so far, that is all you have.'

'True,' Baccay said with a shrug.

'Very true,' Dhar said with a smile.

'Brava to both of you, you did better than I expected,' Jane said standing.

'Thank you,' Baccay replied. 'It was a challenging and insightful experiment.'

'Sure was,' Dhar said with a lopsided grin. The girls stood to leave. 'Say, Agent Rizzoli?'

'Yes recruit Dhar?' Jane asked.

'Will you be seeing Dr. Isles in Baltimore too?'

The question left Jane floundering. She was well and truly impressed. They had pieced it all together. 'How did you?'

Baccay shrugged and smiled, 'you wanted to go to Boston. That's where her book tour is at the moment.'

Dhar was still grinning and opened the door for the three of them. Baccay left first. Jane feeling a bit stunned. As she passed, Dhar whispered so that only Jane could hear, 'Dr. Isles is beautiful, you are very fortunate.' Jane blinked. She supposed it wasn't hard to guess that a last minute trip was a romantic kind but she was still impressed that Dhar, at least, had it all sorted.

Jane tried to compose herself as they walked in to the classroom side of interrogation room. They entered to applause. Baccay, blushing furiously took her seat and hid her face. Dhar, however, took several bows before settling in to her seat. Jane congratulated the pair and dismissed the class. She was impressed and she missed Maura. Jane pouted. Baltimore was too far away.


Mia Russo hastily packed the car. Her husband had disappeared a few days ago. He hadn't told her where he was going or why. Mia didn't really care. All she knew was that he would be back. Mia and her two younger children couldn't be there when he did. Mia had packed suitcases and taken anything of value. She would head south then west. Vinnie would try to follow her but Mia wouldn't make it easy. She knew there were other MEND clinics in the rural parts of the south. She would head that way. They could help her. Mia felt a pang of hurt. She supposed she could have gone back to the clinic here in Virginia. Tried to find her eldest daughter but Isabella was safer without her. Mia was afraid. Afraid her daughter might hate her for abandoning her. Afraid that she would be arrested for abandoning her daughter. Afraid she would leave her boys in their fathers care. No. What was done, was done. Isabella was safer now. Mia just had to get out of state. Then maybe she and her boys would have a chance. Mia slammed the trunk of her car. She refused to cry. Refused to look back. She had thought that if she got Isabella to safety, Vinnie would stop hurting people. Instead he had turned his fists on her. On their boys. Mia couldn't let that happen.

Mia climbed in the drivers seat and looked at her boys. They were asleep in their car seats. Mia knew she wasn't the best mother. She knew she hadn't been able to protect all of her children. Mia knew what she had done to Isabella was wrong. She knew running was wrong. But Mia didn't know what else to do. All she knew was she had two sleeping boys to protect. She started the car and backed out of the driveway, watching as the house that had been her living nightmare faded in to the darkness, never to be seen again. Mia didn't breath properly until they crossed the state line in to Kentucky some hours later.

Vinnie would never find them. Mia would make sure of that.