Jane sighed and took Maura's hands into hers. She felt the sweaty palms and saw the sad eyes. "I'm scared, Jane" she whispered. The brunette pulled her into a hug. "I know, Maur. I know. But we have the best people working on it. They will find something."
Maura hesitantly replied the hug, crying silently in her arms, as Jane kept rubbing her back and pulling her close. Only letting go, when her phone rang.
She picked up and heard Amelia's voice. She started to worry about Julia, but Amelia just wanted to let her know, that Julia had woken up to a nightmare and ased to speak to her. Then she handed the phone to the girl.
"Ma?" Julia sounded unsettled and scared.
"Right here, honey. Amelia said you had a nightmare. Wanna talk about it?" she questioned with a soft voice as she lifted from the bed, pacing.
"I dreamt of Sophie. She wanted to tell me something, but I couldn't understand her." Julia's tiny voice reached her ear and made her shiver.
"She wants me to help her, but I can't." Julia continued. Jane stopped and stood still. She had heard of such things, but never believed in this stuff. She glanced at Maura who watched her closely.
She wanted to ask Amelia if she had said something because then it would make sense that Julia dreamt of Sophie. But if Julia didn't know and dreamt of her it could quite mean something. On the other hand, she of all people knew that sometimes there was more than just facts. Jane sighed thinking of all the times her gut had helped her to solve a case.
Jane pursed her lips and put Julia on loudspeaker, signing Maura to be silent.
"You need to go and help ma! She needs you!" Julia said in a convinced tone.
"Julia, it was just a dream. Calm down. Some dreams can be very real." Jane wanted to sooth her a little before asking some questions.
"NO!" Julia almost screamed. "Sophie is wearing a yellow shirt and blue jeans. She says she needs help! We can't wait."
Jane saw how Maura froze at the description of Sophies clothes. "Honey, tell me exactly what you have seen okay? I will check then."
"I told you, I can't remember everything." The girl was close to tears again.
"That's okay, honey. Tell me what you remember."
There was a pause to the conversation before Julia spoke up again. "Sophie was in a dark room. But I could still see the wall. There were green tiles, like in the room where I had to wait for my operation for the almond surgery. So, I thought it was strange. Is Sophie going to be okay, ma?"
Jane told her that she was going to check for Sophie but needed all the information Julia could give her. Julia seemed relieved to be taken serious and Jane picked up Maura's phone texting Frankie everything she learned over the next minutes. Then she sat down back to the bed, trying to sooth her child telling her that she would check everything now and that she had to hang up.
She felt a cold shiver running down her body as Maura confirmed that Julia had described Sophies clothes from today up to the very last detail.
"Let's hope this is real." Jane mumbled getting off the bed again to call Frankie. He sounded stressed and she could hear parts of the conversation between Maura and the abductor replay in the background.
"We're closing in Jane. Nina heard some honks from ships, and there is a bell from a church." He said and asked her about the source of her information. She hesitated as she could hardly believe it herself, but then told him. The brunette could hear him breathe on the other end of the line.
"There is actually an abandoned hospital in the grid we believe the call came from." He noted and Jane started to have one of her feelings in her gut that they had just found the place where Sophie was being kept.
When she hung up, Maura stared at her with wide eyes. Jane hesitated, not sure if she better stayed or joined the forces.
"Go Jane!" the blonde woman said, and Jane nodded. She had no jurisdiction in Boston, she knew that. If she should use her weapon, she would get huge problems. But this was a kid in danger, and she didn't care. This was Sophie.
"I'll bring her home." She promised and the blonde nodded. "Jane?" the brunette turned once more when Maura called after her as she was already heading out of the room. "Yeah?"
"Thank you."
The brunette nodded, a determined look on her face, holding out her hand, inviting Maura to come.
They rushed through empty streets. The clock on the dashboard showing one am. It was 1:05 when they slowly drove towards the lost place. Jane parked behind Frankie's car, taking out her Kevlar vest from the trunk and putting it on as Frankie laid out the plan to her.
Maura glanced at her worried, like she had always done. "Take care." She whispered softly and Jane nodded. She followed the swot team into the building while Maura stayed in the car where she could listen to the police radio.
Jane was right behind Frankie, weapon in her hand, recalling how they had once searched Maura in an abandoned asylum. She glanced at the walls which wore old and new spray paintings. The messages dirty as were the walls. They stopped to read old signs pointing to the different stations and took a turn to the left towards the OR's.
They stopped and listened, and Jane could hear muffled voices from a room down the hall. Frankie turned to her and she nodded that she had heard it too. He gave signs to some officers to advance towards the noises.
Then suddenly everything went fast. Jane let the other ones go in in front of her. Three men were sitting at a table playing cards. It was easy to catch them. Meanwhile Jane walked towards a door and opened it, finding Sophie on a dirty mattress in a room with green tiles.
She decided to process this later. Sophie flew into her arms when recognizing her and Jane pulled her tight. "Its okay, Sophie. You're safe now. Your mum is waiting outside."
The brunette lifted her up after checking for any injuries, and then quickly walked out of the building to her car where Maura was pacing. The blonde lifted her eyes from the ground when she heard footsteps coming closer. Jane could literally see how Maura lightened up when she saw Sophie in her arms.
She silently handed the girl to her mother, who shot her a short but grateful look before taking care of Sophie.
Jane nodded to her, smiling as she felt relieved by the ending of this abduction. "Frankie we re bringing her to the hospital to have her checked" she spoke into her walkie talkie then she opened the door for them and slipped behind the wheel. Maura sat in the back with Sophie, the girl clinging to her, still scared. Maura was constantly repeating that she was safe now and holding her close.
Jane pulled her eyes from the rear-view-mirror onto the street and called Amelia. The student picked up immediately. "I have told her nothing!" she said after asking if they had found Sophie. Jane stated that she believed her, questioning if Julia was still awake.
Amelia handed the phone over to her daughter. Jane bit her lips when she heard the scared voice. Even though she had given a thought what to say to her girl beforehand, the words eluded her now.
"Sophie is fine Julia." She simply said deciding to explain the rest later. And as if Sophie wanted to let her friend know that she was okay, she leaned forward and said two words. "Thank you."
The brunette couldn't help but feel chills running down her body. Julia suddenly yawned and said. "Hell, I'm tired. I need to sleep now."
Jane chuckled as more relieve washed over her and saw Maura grinning kind of amused, locking eyes with her in the mirror. Jane quickly rolled her eyes and then focused on the street again.
After a thorough check up by some doctors, they were thankful to learn, that Sophie hadn't been hurt nor touched in any impropriate manner. Then they drove to beacon hill, feeling tired now too.
It was already four o'clock in the morning when Jane laid down in the guestrooms bed, immediately falling asleep. Sophie was home unhurt. That was all that mattered right now. But she would have to do some processing later for sure. Especially about Julia's dream.
She had no idea when it had happened, but when she woke up a few hours later she was confused because of the tiny body in her arms. Not quite awake she believed it to be Julia. But then she felt another body shift in the bed and saw Maura turning towards her, a crooked smile on her face.
"She came to me and said we should sleep here, because this is the only safe place." She tried to apologize, looking worried that the brunette would be mad. "she kept rolling from me to you and back."
Jane felt the warmth of the girl and heard the deep breath. She smiled at Maura. "Its okay. Its good that she sleeps."
Maua nodded, mentioning that she would get up and make breakfast leaving Jane behind who was wondering what time it was.
The brunette felt Sophie slowly stirring in her long arms as she woke up. "Ms. Rizzoli?" she asked with a sleepy voice making sure, that her shield was still there.
"I'm here." She softly said and added that she should call her Jane.
The girl nodded and cringed when Jane was about to loosen the arms around her. By the time Maura reentered the room with two cups of coffee she found Sophie giggling in joy because Jane tickled her merciless.
Jane stopped to let her take some breathes and reached for the offered cup. The coffee was just how she liked it. With cream and a bit of sugar.
Maura slipped back into the bed, taking a sip before putting the mug onto the nightstand. Jane looked at her wide eyed as the blonde had been strictly against bringing food out of the living room or kitchen area. And surly not into the bedrooms.
She saw how the blonde shrugged and smiled. They spent some more time in bed, making sure that Sophie felt safe. They took it as a sign that she was, when she demanded pancakes with lots of sirup.
She would have a long way ahead to get over what had happened to her, Jane thought. Like Maura and she had a long way ahead of them, if they wanted to make this work again. But she hoped that everybody would succeed in the end.
Julia picked up when she called after Maura and Sophie had left the room to give her some privacy. She smiled as her daughter told her all smart, that she didn't have to school today because she had worked all night like her ma.
"Yes, and you really did a great job, honey." Jane said honestly. Then Jane listened to Julia for some more while. She hung up after some more talking and found a pile of pancakes when entering the kitchen.
"Sophie said you need to be fed well." Maura said and shrugged, still looking a bit worried about Janes reaction for them sleeping in the same bed.
Jane passed her on the way to the coffee machine shooting a quick glance towards Sophie who was busy creating a sea of sirup on her own plate. When sure that the girl wasn't looking, she quickly squeezed Maura's hand and bend down to whisper what she thought. "Maybe we can find a way to rekindle our friendship, but you will have to talk to me."
Maura looked at her and nodded, before Jane let go of the hand to make herself more coffee.
A loud giggle escaped Sophie when Jane also soaked her pancake pile in sirup. Maura just rolled her eyes as she dug into her sugar free muesli with fat reduced yoghurt.
But even though Sophie appeared lighthearted she never left the brunettes site. When it was time for Jane to go home, the girl started to panic and cry.
When the brunette tried to talk to her she wouldn't have it. Sophie was close to a panic attack and Jane could feel her.
She hesitated. When Sophie ran into her room, she said to Maura: "You could come with me. but as I said my flat isn't quite big. But maybe it would help her, and we could talk?"
Leaving the girl behind seemed to be cruel to her. "Just a few days till she calms down."
Maura gave her a surprised look. "Yeah, It would make things easier for her. And I don't mind a small flat. But I'm not sure I can talk yet." Maura's eyes were dark and unreadable.
Jane nodded, watching Maura walk down the hall biting her lips. She tried to convince herself not to expect too much. First, this was to help Sophie who needed Jane to feel safe. But she still hoped that they would talk and clear things up between them eventually.
A few minutes later Sophie came darting down towards her, a wide grin on her face. She jumped right into Janes arms who laughed softly and lifted her up.
One hour later the brunette took two suitcases into the trunk of her car. She was glad when they finally arrived at her home. And when she opened the door to a happy Julia, she was even gladder. She silently thanked god, that her girl was so easy going.
She crouched down and pulled her girl into a hug while she glanced at Maura who was just standing and looking around. The brunette tried not to feel ashamed, when seeing her own flat with Maura's eyes. It was tiny, the walls were not dirty, but one could see that this was an old building by some tiny cracks showing in some corners.
There was a small hallway, leading to the bathroom, Julia's and the master bedroom to the left. At the end of the hall one entered the kitchen which was open to the living area on the right.
"Its cozy." Maura said and smiled at Jane, who knew that this was far below the blonde's usual standards. Therefore, she didn't know if the blonde was just polite or serious.
Amelia interrupted her thoughts, when appearing from the kitchen. Jane introduced her to Maura and both shook hands. "I'm going to leave you to yourselves." The student said, winking at Jane. "I cooked some Chinese food for later."
Maura and Jane thanked her, both smiling at the young woman.
Sophie still clung to her. Therefore, she was sitting with one girl on her left side, and with one on her right side, watching frozen for the umptieth time in her live, while Maura unpacked the suitcases.
"I will put on new sheets later, then you can sleep in the bedroom." She said quietly, when Maura dropped onto the couch on the other side of Sophie.
The blonde looked as every bit exhausted as Jane felt and just stated that Jane didn't need to.
Jane did as promised with the help of Julia and Sophie who managed to put the covers of the pillows on to the wrong side, although retrying several times. Jane tickled them as punishment and then explained Maura what to find were and handed her a towel.
The blonde went to shower first, and when Jane came out of the bathroom with wet hair later, she found Maura sitting in Julia's bed reading a book to the girls. The brunette took some time and stood at the doorframe taking in the scene. Maua had wrapped her arms around them and their heads were resting on her upper body in a way that they could look at the pictures while she read out loud.
It felt like a very intimate moment to Jane when she tucked her girl in. Jane shyly crouched next to Julia's bed, like Maura did on the other side. Their eyes crossed each other for a brief moment and pulled away quickly then. The girl with the dark curls hugged Jane and gave her a kiss to the cheek before dropping onto the pillow.
Jane softly caressed her head, like she always did, kissing the top of her head. "Good night my angel. I love you." She whispered before handing her the teddy bear and pulling up the sheets.
Maura appeared to have a similar ritual. Afterwards they silently left the room and wandered off to the couch.
Jane flipped between channels, her feet comfortably resting on the coffee table in front of her, while Maura sat in a respectful distance, feet tucked under herself glass of wine in her hand. The blonde looked tired and thoughtful. It had been a long night, and they had gotten only four hours of sleep.
The brunette stopped at some gameshow, glancing at Maura who didn't seem to mind, being occupied by her thoughts anyways. Jane was glad to have the next days off from work. Since she had never taken her holidays or sick leave the boss had easily agreed on her request when she had called in earlier that day. Besides the case she had left behind in a hurry seemed to be solved anyways.
Tomorrow was Sophies birthday, and after all that had happened it had to be celebrated bigger than usual, she thought, having a plan in mind. If the weather was nice, she would take the kids to the funfair, which was in town. Besides spring holidays were around the corner. She had already taken off the next week to spend Julia's school holidays at home.
She took a sip of her cold beer and reflected on Maura's apologize which had been honest. It felt good for her at least to have spoken some of the things which had been bothering her. She had been okay with sharing a bed with the two blondes, because she knew that the abduction had to be hard on Sophie. And that Sophie had needed them both for the night.
Maura seemed to be happy, but Jane could feel some jealousy too, because Sophie clung to her more than to herself. Well, it had been Jane who had found her, in the girls mind she was the superhero, with the gun. A role which she refused. Like when she had gotten her reward for shooting herself. To her it was only doing her job.
Her therapist had once asked her if she would act the same, nowadays that she had a daughter. This question still troubled her to be honest. Her reason for shooting herself had been to safe Frankie and Maura. Frankie had scolded her when they once talked about it. Stating that she shouldn't have done that, because she could have died. And he didn't want her to die for him. He claimed that if she had asked him, he would have said so.
But on the other hand, he had admitted that he would have done the same, if he had been in her shoes. Jane rubbed over the scars Hoyt had left on her hands. She knew that she would die for anybody whom she loved. But she wasn't as reckless as she had been, she knew that. She didn't step up to the front row as she used to. But some dangers came with her job and she had to take them.
"Does it hurt?" Maura asked, interrupting her thoughts. Jane looked up and saw soft eyes glancing at the palms of her hands.
"I think the weather is about to change." She mumbled and turned back to the TV.