"C'mon Maura, it's time to wake up," Jane whispered. She cradled Maura in her lap, Maura who had floated in and out of consciousness for the past twenty minutes. After Maura had fainted, Jane had doubled down in her resolve and finished the procedure the best way she could based on what Maura had described. Then, when she'd banished most of the black, oozing blood from Maura's lower leg, she tied her t-shirt around the wound tighter than she thought she should, just to make sure.

Maura sweated despite the cold fall night and mumbled as she hallucinated. "I dreamed we went camping," she said to Jane as she started to stir. "Your family was there."

"Maybe we can go sometime. Take some vacation days," Jane placated, "c'mon. We gotta get you outta here."

"Your accent makes me feel at home," Maura confessed. She turned her head toward Jane's belly. "Which is strange because I didn't grow up around people who sound like you. Can you turn the heat down?"

Jane shook her head to keep the emotion away. It was hard to not feel like Maura was dying. "Can you get up for me? We gotta start movin'."

"My leg hurts," Maura groaned, "why does my leg hurt?"

Jane almost picked Maura up and carried her, but then she heard the snapping of twigs and the cocking of guns in her direction. She bent down low over Maura's body to protect it, aiming her empty gun right at the man in the middle of the group of four. "Sensei Matta, I presume," she growled.

"That's right. And you are officer…?" Matthew Moore asked, shining his flashlight right in Jane's direction.

"Detective Rizzoli," Jane corrected, not standing down.

"Detective, huh? Kinda stupid to drive a car registered to the Boston police out to my retreat, don't you think? Get up, both of you," he commanded.

"My… my friend's hurt," said Jane, "she can't move."

Moore motioned toward them with his head. "Get her off the ground."

Three men approached Jane and Maura, putting their guns away when Jane dropped hers. One of them picked Maura off of Jane and she groaned with pain. "It's alright, you're alright," Jane said to her lamely as the man slung her over his shoulders.

Moore grabbed Jane by the arm and they continued their trek, this time led by Moore and his men. "Not safe out here in the dark, detective. Not if you don't know where you're going," he quipped.

Jane ignored it. "How'd you make the transition from yoga to fracking? Hard left at fraud?" she asked, not afraid to be snarky even in the face of clear danger.

Moore, built and clean shaven, seemed to like this about her. "This land is full of black gold, all from shale rock. I just needed capital to tap its potential."

Jane scoffed. "And a religion to hide behind - so you swindled vulnerable college students?"

"I'm ex-Army. And I was already a martial arts master. Didn't take much to repackage what I knew and sell it," he explained.

"So you figured out that Rachel was a brilliant geologist, and you brought her here to analyze your rocks for free?"

"Actually, she paid me for the privilege."

Jane winced when he yanked her arm forward, apparently angered by the mention of Rachel. "And she helped until she realized that you were destroying this wilderness."

Moore clarified. "She stole shale samples from me. Gave 'em to an environmental conspiracy crackpot. I guess you could say we were at cross purposes."

At that, they had arrived back where they started: Frost's unmarked. It still sat in the ditch, pushed a little farther back against a small overjet of land. Moore's men put Maura into the passenger side first, tied her in, and then reached for Jane. She struggled, not enough to get herself shot, but enough to make them work. When they finally got her in, she said, "I'm a homicide detective. And that's that Chief Medical Examiner of the Commonwealth. Every cop from here to Boston will be looking for us."

"Too bad you can't look behind you," said Moore, "you'd have a nice view of the water when it comes through. See, you're in a spillway for one of my reservoirs. A few million gallons of water are gonna come pouring through here and it's pretty toxic from all the fracking. If I were you, I'd put off swallowing it as long as you can. Let's go, boys." with that, he and his men left them, all confident they had escaped and successfully stopped the threat of a BPD cop on their land.

"Fuck!" Jane shouted as soon as they had left. She took the large piece of glass she had used to cut Maura open to the seatbelt in her lap. "C'mon… c'mon!" she yelled when she heard the water come bounding through the spillway.

"Try your phone." Maura spoke for the first time since they had been captured.

"I can't, Maura," Jane replied sadly, "it's busted and it got wet."

"Call your mom," said Maura, "tell her we're friends again." Clearly she was still in and out of lucidity.

Jane choked back a sob. Soon, they would drown. Soon they would be dead and she would never even get to hold Maura again. She wouldn't get to tell her she loved her, or take in the scent of her hair, or hear her break a case wide open in the morgue again. She'd never watch Maura cook with Angela again, or tease her about her unpronounceable lunch. She'd never lay in the same bed with her, or be inside her. Ever again. She gave into the delusion. "Ok," she told Maura. "Hey Ma…" she began to pretend, but then her phone beeped as she pressed it. "Fuck, it works!"

"The microprocessor dried," Maura explained, rolling her head toward Jane, eyes still closed as she smiled weakly. She was so pale but Jane was invigorated at the sight and sound of her.

"Maybe just texting," Jane thought aloud as she typed. "Wait, crap. I can only send symbols."

"Type 42 point 391…"

"What?"

"42 point 391…"

Jane's eyes lit up with realization. "Morse code for the coordinates! Nice job, babe."


Vince Korsak, having tried Jane's cell countless times back at the station, and having waited hours for her return, had decided enough was enough. He was a man of action, and sitting on his ass at his desk did not count as action. So, he sat here, in his cruiser just outside of Northampton, trying to determine which of those seven lakes Jane and Maura would most likely be at.

When his phone buzzed, he figured it would be one of the boys back at the office, either with news from Jane or news about Matthew Moore. He pulled it out, and pushed his glasses up farther on his face when he saw the message was from Jane. A long series of dashes and dots, he at first thought it was a malfunction, or maybe a prank. But, after his seafaring experience kicked in, he realized it was morse code: he wrote down the message on his map and it revealed a set of coordinates.

He sped off, knowing things were grave if Jane had been reduced to one message in code, late in the rural wilderness. He hoped he could get to her in time. In time for what, he didn't know, but either way, he needed to find her, fast.

The coordinates brought him right at the top of an embankment that gushed water. When he shined his flashlight down into the shelf, he saw Frost's battered unmarked quickly taking on water. "Jane? Maura? You down there?" he yelled.

"Korsak!" Jane shouted back, heart pounding in relief, "down here! Help!" She heard Korsak jump onto the back of the car and come around to the passenger side.

"You ok?" He asked, poking his head into the open passenger side window.

"Yeah," Jane answered, "we gotta get Maura outta here, a'right? The spillway to the reservoir is open and the water's real toxic. Hurry."

Korsak opened the door and untied Maura, gathering her up in his burly arms. He nodded.

"Can Sergeant Korsak come on our camping trip?" Maura asked weakly, and Korsak shared a small smile with Jane.

"Great job with the morse code. Coordinates put me almost on top of you," he said.

"It was all Maura," Jane replied, "watch her leg, watch her leg! She's hurt."

Korsak swerved to avoid contact with Maura's injured leg. "Can you walk?" he asked her.

"I can hop," she answered in a moment of clarity.

Korsak held her close and let her lean on him for balance. "You stayed with her," he said to Jane as he looked over his shoulder.

Jane, now free, climbed out the window of the driver side door. "I wouldn't leave her," she whispered, watching Korsak carry Maura to safety with relief.


"Hey," Jane greeted Maura as she shuffled into the hospital room, still in the dirty undershirt and slacks from the night before. Their eyes met, Maura's brighter for some of the sleep she got, Jane's hollow and dark for lack of it.

"Hi," Maura said brightly, "come sit next to me. They just stitched up my leg," she showed Jane the gnarly sutures.

"God that's awful," Jane grimaced. "Not as bad as when they left it all exposed, but still bad." She took the seat anyway.

"My surgeon was very impressed with you," Maura told her through a smirk, "the accuracy and efficacy of your incisions means that I won't need a skin graft."

Jane crossed her eyes and curled her upper lip. "Janie can't do big words right now, Maura. Just tell me I did good."

Maura pursed her lips and twitched her nose to keep tears away. She opened her arms for Jane, who slumped into them. "You did good," she said thickly.

Jane snaked her own arms around Maura's midsection and squeezed, her face buried right at her collarbone. "Want me to ask Ma to bring you some new clothes? Alicia said they'll probably discharge you soon." Her words were all muffled by the smashing of her face against Maura, and the scratch of the hospital gown against her mouth.

Maura pulled back to look at her. "I send you to eat something and you come back on a first name basis with the hot nurse?"

Jane reddened. "Is she hot? She's a little hot."

Maura glared but her lips turned up in the ghost of a grin. "She likes you. She thinks you're sexy for the way you dote on me. And the way you talk."

"What happened to socially inept Maura? You're too good at reading people now," Jane recovered, teasing. "I mean, I like her too." When Maura punched her bad arm she winced. "Ow! Listen, on the way back from eating the shittiest tuna sandwich on the Eastern Seaboard, I may have started a conversation with her. But only to talk about you," she batted her eyes theatrically.

"Mmm," Maura hummed, "good recovery."

"Wanna know what I learned from Nurse Alicia?" Jane asked.

"What's that?"

"You're the worst patient ever. They had to put you under general because you talked too much under regional."

Maura's mouth fell agape. "She did not say that."

"She did. But as you've pointed out, she may have a vested interest in making you look bad to me," Jane laughed. "So you want those clothes or not?"

Maura shook her head. "Is it bad that I don't really want your family crashing in here yet? I just need a little more recovery time."

"It's not bad," Jane assured her, "in fact I was hoping you would say that. They're annoying."

Maura rolled her eyes. "They love you. They want the best for you."

"You mean they want you for me. They've been buttin' in all week," Jane corrected.

"Is there a difference?" Maura said slyly.

"Ha ha," Jane snarked. "Fair enough. Anything I can get for you?" She asked as she settled back into her chair.

"Actually, yes," Maura said quietly. Jane leaned forward in interest. "My father is out of the ICU."

"Ok…" Jane said, full of trepidation.

"I would like… would you please ask him to come see me?" Maura made sure she didn't break her gaze with Jane as she requested what she did. Jane turned hard, her back seized up and she sat tall. "There is a man outside of his room that will bring him here. I would go to him myself, but I need to elevate my leg."

"You sure that's a good idea?" Jane asked with her eyebrows narrow and her teeth clenched.

"I want to talk to him." Maura stood firm. "I need to talk to him."

"About what?" Jane stood firm, too. She felt the potential for breaking in the demand that Maura was making.

"About you," said Maura. "I need to set the record straight with him about you."

This intrigued Jane. "Can I be in here for what you say?"

Maura considered it for a moment. "Yes. But you can't interrupt or take over."

Jane nodded, her mind easing. "I won't. Want him now?"

"Yes," Maura said.

"A'right. I'll go get him." With that, Jane stood and exited the room.

She was back not fifteen minutes later. She entered, stood to the side, and a young, stocky, brown-haired man with a shaved head and an adidas tracksuit wheeled in none other than Patrick Doyle. "He's only here because it's you, you know," the man said to Maura. "It's ballsy to send a cop to collect Paddy Doyle."

Maura stared at him severely. "Please wait outside until my father and I are done speaking," she told him.

"Absolutely not," he returned.

"Shut up, Sean," Paddy gruffed, waving him off. "Wait outside." Sean looked at Jane, who still stood at the foot of Maura's bed with her arms crossed, and then at Doyle, before leaving. "Maura. What happened to you?"

"I… we were in a car accident," Maura said, taken aback by his concern, "I needed a procedure done on my leg, but my condition is improving."

"Who was driving?" Paddy asked, looking between the two of them.

"Don't do that," Maura warned, "we're all adults. You don't need to threaten Jane for something that wasn't her fault. In fact, that's why I wanted to talk to you."

"You're not going to ask me about your mother?" He asked her, folding his hands in his lap, moving his feet gingerly, slowly, as much as his still impaired sensation would allow.

"I don't think you're going to tell me about her," Maura answered. She sighed, met his gaze openly. "If you are, then I would like to hear it."

"What did you want to talk about?" Paddy redirected, as if to tell her that she was right.

"I want to talk to you about her," Maura said. She pointed to Jane. "You said you would have shot her, given the chance."

"I would have," he said.

"No, you wouldn't have," Maura replied. "I've been thinking about it since you said it. You wouldn't have because you need her."

"Maura-" both Doyle and Jane said, but she hushed them.

"No. You need her because she protects me. In ways you can't," she asserted. "And she lets you protect me from all the danger that arises from being your daughter. You told me that to push me closer to her."

"And why would I want you closer to a cop?"

"Because, like I said. She protects me." Maura saw through him, flayed him open. "And if I hate you and love her, it keeps me safe."

Paddy only watched her.

"You two are going to have to learn to coexist. You benefit when she looks away; she benefits when you keep bad men off my doorstep," Maura continued. "I am not asking you to be dirty for him," she said directly to Jane this time, before turning back to her father. "And I'm not asking you to like her. But she is here to stay and so are you, in whatever capacity that might be."

Both Jane and Doyle nodded reluctantly before Sean came back in to take Doyle away.


"Frankie! Come help! They're back from the hospital!" Angela called into the guesthouse after she opened the main door for Jane and Tommy, who carried Maura in, to enter. Frankie, with the door to his mother's place wide open, saw them, wiped his mouth that was full of dinner, and then sprang up. He grabbed Maura's right arm from Jane just as they entered. "Ok, I got her," he told his sister.

"You got her?" Jane asked, even as they were feet away, standing near the dining table while her brothers sat Maura on the couch. Tommy put a pillow up for Maura's leg and Frankie hugged Jane once his hands were free. "I talked to Korsak. They got Matta and his guys. You sure you're ok?"

"Yeah," said Jane. "Let's get her some water," she let Frankie lead her to the kitchen while Tommy tended to Maura.

Tommy fluffed the couch behind Maura's head and smiled at her. He was much too close, but benevolently. "Thank you," she said to him.

"Course," he replied. "So, I didn't tell my Pop about knowing you-know-who."

Maura had completely forgotten about his secret, and now that she and Jane weren't fighting, her ability to keep it seemed to be plunging quite precipitously. "I think that's wise," she said.

"You think I should tell my Ma?" he asked innocently.

Maura sputtered. "No!"

At her exclamation, the rest of the Rizzolis spun their heads toward them. "Tommy, did you hurt her?" Angela interrogated.

"No!" Tommy shouted.

"No, no he didn't," Maura assured her. She needed to deflect, and fast. "My surgeon was very impressed with Jane's incisions."

Angela smiled brightly at her daughter, who had come back around the couch. "I always wanted a Doctor in the family," she said sweetly.

"Well, too bad," Jane responded, "You got two cops, and…" she trailed off as she slapped Tommy heartily on the chest.

"An undertaker!" Frankie chimed in next to their mother.

"Oh hell no," said Tommy with his hands up, "not doing that ever again."

Angela laughed and squeezed Frankie's midsection from her perch on the arm of the couch. "Oh, I got three great kids," she said.

"Eh, I think you got a doctor, too, Ma," Jane said, and the way doctah fell so richly out of her mouth made her whole family breathe out in comfort. They relaxed when she sat next to Maura and when she stopped pretending she was from some nondescript place in the midwest.

"Thanks," Maura said, full of emotion again. "And thank you for saving my leg, Jane."

"I think you two should apologize to each other," Angela griped at them.

"Butt out!" Jane and Maura shouted simultaneously, Maura with refined posture and Jane with Italian hands pressed together at the fingertips.

Maura smirked at Jane, and said, "I'm sorry if you are."

Jane winked. "Ok, but I'm less sorry," she said. But when Maura glared at her good naturedly, she said, "nah. We were both jerks."

"You were both assholes," Angela snapped at them.

"Ma! Watch your language!" Tommy chastised, and they all shared a tension breaking laugh.

"You know," Jane said to Maura, "I didn't really win the 'sweetest camper' award."

"You didn't?" Maura tried to keep up with the ruse, as though she didn't already know that, but she broke when she saw the crinkle at the corners of Jane's eyes. "I missed you," she cried.

Jane sniffled long and loud, too, swallowing tears to the back of her throat. "I missed you, too," she said, and she took Maura's face in her hands and kissed her. In front of her brothers, in front of her mother, kissed her.

"Whoa hey!" Tommy yelped, hands out at his sides. Frankie and Angela only shared an embarrassed look. "Did everyone know this but me?!"

Frankie laughed. "You didn't know?"

Jane pulled away from Maura and took in a rallying breath. "Remember a few seconds ago when I told Ma to butt out? I'm revisin': everyone butt out."

Maura sat silently by her, too flabbergasted to speak. Angela spoke for her. "Alright, boys, let's finish up dinner at my place. I'm sure Janie and Maura are tired. We should let them rest."

The Rizzoli brothers ambled out of the main house begrudgingly, shepherded by their mother to the hot meal still waiting next door.