Hi all!

Apologies once again about the long wait between chapters, work has been crazy!

My thanks as always go to JaneyGWF for all her editing magic.

Please keep reviewing, the encouragement really does help get these chapters to you faster, even if that's hard to believe at the moment!

I hope you enjoy!

Maura fixed yet another concerned look at Jane as she paced in agitation across the rooftop. She had been alternating between pacing and sitting in rigid stillness for the past two hours, and Maura could practically feel the desperation coming off her friend. Maura didn't feel much more emotionally stable herself, but she was better at hiding it as she attempted to remain visibly in control of the situation.

They had left for Boston as soon as they realised where Alec was most likely heading. They had grabbed Reynolds' gun and gathered the incendiary rounds, which along with Jane's sidearm gave them two weapons that could kill Alec. Jane had begrudgingly allowed Maura to carry her in her arms rather than holding herself in a piggy back position, remembering the physical toll of that method and knowing she would need to be fully functional when they reached their destination. Bella had wrapped a blanket around Jane to protect her from the cold of travelling at vampire speed, wishing them luck before Maura started running.

They had reached Boston in record time, with Maura setting Jane down on a rooftop overlooking BPD a little after five in the morning. The building seemed intact and quiet, with no sign of violence or destruction. Maura had disappeared momentarily, reporting no sign of Alec, Frankie or their scents when she reappeared. Both had been put immediately on edge, worried that they had misjudged. They had decided to wait and watch, neither of them wanting to leave BPD unprotected while they aimlessly searched the city with no hint of where Alec might have taken Frankie.

While Maura had kept watch with every enhanced sense at her disposal, Jane had started calling their allies in New York for updates. Constance and Hope were fine, still being watched in their hotel room by Alice and Jasper. They were monitoring the situation with NYPD, reporting several more missing officers and further casualties as the rescue efforts continued. Most of the general staff had been off duty, since the attack had occurred in the middle of the night, but a lot of detectives and crime lab staff had been called in to assist with the aftermath of the raid, and had been caught up in the destruction of the precinct. Constance and Hope had both called in favours with colleagues, ensuring prompt medical assistance and expert rescue operations much faster than would have been otherwise possible.

Esme and Carlisle had managed to retrieve the bitten officer without issue, simply removing him from his hospital room while the nursing staff were occupied with more incoming casualties from the NYPD disaster. They had moved him to a property the Cullens owned well outside the city, and made him as comfortable as possible to endure his transition. There was no way to stop the transformation at this point, so the Cullens had accepted the responsibility of helping him adapt to being a newborn vampire.

Rosalie and Emmett had managed to intercept the hybrid children before they reached a facility and were split up. They had stolen the small bus being used to transport the children, gently ejected the supervising officers from the vehicle, and escaped. After a few hours of inventive driving to lose any pursuit, they had transferred the children to another vehicle obtained by Edward and Bella. They left the city without incident, bringing the hybrids to the property where Esme and Carlisle had already been hard at work organising beds and food. When Jane talked to Bella, it sounded like the Cullen family was run off its feet coping with the circumstances that had fallen into their laps, but they couldn't be happier about their new responsibilities. Rosalie in particular had taken to each and every child now in her care, seeming to think of herself as a surrogate mother to them all, with Emmett and the others fully supporting her. Jane had hung up the phone confident that the Cullens and Maura's mothers had them covered in New York, and that she could focus on getting Frankie back without feeling guilty.

However, Maura had watched that certainty drain out of Jane with every minute that passed without incident. They were both afraid that they had misinterpreted Alec's motives and intentions, and that they were in the wrong place. Maura had been unable to come up with any better ideas, since she was not willing to leave Jane alone and scout the city in case Alec was waiting for just such a mistake, but she could see it was driving Jane past the point of reason to wait. They had debated trying to get BPD evacuated to ensure everyone's safety, but they couldn't think of any way to convince the brass of the gravity of the situation without telling them everything. They had even considered attacking the building themselves to force an evacuation, or at least calling everyone they knew and asking them to stay away, but they were also concerned that anything they said would just draw their friend's attention towards the secrets they were trying to keep. To equal dismay, the best course of action seemed to be waiting and watching.

Jane had started muttering, pacing, pulling at her hair, looking at her phone and looking at the lightening sky since they had commenced their vigil several hours ago, with the intensity of each movement increasing as time passed. Now in the full sunlight, Maura could see the strain on her face in exquisite detail, and she was growing increasingly concerned.

When Jane glared at BPD before turning and aiming a kick at a nearby wall, Maura reached the end of her patience. "Jane, sit down or I'll sit you down."

Jane glared at her in turn, ready to protest, before recognising the seriousness of Maura's tone and obeying. She sank to the ground against the wall she had kicked, pulling her knees up to her chest and resting her head on her knees, her posture screaming hopelessness.

Maura moved to sit next to her friend, her heart going out to Jane. "Come on, talk to me. I know you're worried about Frankie, but there's something else too."

Without vampiric hearing, Maura would have missed Jane's reluctantly mumbled confession. "I'm scared."

Maura nodded, even though Jane wasn't looking at her. "What are you scared of?"

Maura waited patiently as the silence dragged out, all too aware of how much this admission had cost her friend and the internal battle she was no doubt waging about sharing her fears, even with her. Maura's patience was rewarded as Jane slowly pulled her face away from her legs, her eyes full of fear and sadness. "I feel like I'm afraid of everything right now. The last time we went up against the Volturi, I nearly lost everything. Ma died. Frankie nearly died. I almost died. You basically did die, in a few different ways. We nearly lost each other. I just…I don't know if I can handle losing anything else. We know what Alec's power is thanks to the Cullens, but we don't know who else he has with him, and we don't know what he wants. If he just wants to cover his tracks, then we might lose a lot of good colleagues and friends. If he knows about how Jane and the other Volturi died, he might be after us, and he might use people we love to get to us. I have no idea what to do, Maura. I can't protect anyone. I'm just a weak human with a gun, and I hate how small and defenceless I feel. This is all too big for me."

Maura pulled Jane into a sideways hug, unable to argue since everything Jane had said was true. She'd been thinking similar thoughts herself, and had been trying not to let Jane see how scared she was.

Maura sighed in resignation. "This is all too big for me too. I always wanted to make a difference, to be useful, but since this all started I've just felt helpless. I feel like an ant on a chessboard. I don't understand the rules, I don't know who is playing, and despite my best efforts I can't do anything to stop a move that takes out a pawn I care about."

Jane pulled away far enough to look at Maura, taken aback by her admission. "So, if we're ants, how do we avoid getting squashed?"

Maura shrugged. "I think we're doing the best we can. We're finding allies, we're researching everything we can, and we're trying to look out for everyone as much as possible. Until someone explains the rules, it's all we can do."

Jane simply sighed, her head lolling back against the wall. Maura looked at her thoughtfully, then smiled faintly. "There was something you once told me about fear. Can you remember what it was?"

Jane raised an eyebrow. "Your memory is better than mine, I'm sure you remember."

Maura shrugged. "I do, but I like to hear you say it."

Jane thought for a long moment, her posture straightening slightly as she spoke with a firmer voice. "We don't give in to fear."

Maura nodded with a smile. "That's right. We don't. We do whatever we have to do to protect others. It's what we do. It's who we are. No matter what our jobs are, or who the bad guys are, we protect people. No matter if they scare us half to death. Or, more to death, in my case."

Before Jane could respond to Maura's odd attempt at humour, an ear-splitting explosion echoed through the air. Maura whipped her head towards BPD, pulling Jane up with her as they rushed to see what had happened.

Fire and smoke were billowing out of several windows on several floors of the precinct. The street outside the building was covered with broken glass and debris from the front wall. It looked as if a bomb had gone off inside the precinct, possibly more than one. Maura was buffeted by a wall of sound as alarms blared, phones rang and people screamed in panic. Dirt covered people started streaming out of the front doors, some of them covered in blood, others apparently uninjured and assisting those less fortunate.

Maura glanced at Jane, assessing the best course of action. "I need to get in there and help, but this is very possibly a trap. He might be after you, or me, or both of us. What do you think we should do?"

Jane's outward hesitation and worry had evaporated as soon as the crisis started, replaced by a cool and collected determination. "I'm coming with you. We stand a better chance if we're together. Keep your mask on, and do what you have to do, we can worry about covering this up when we get everyone out in one piece."

Maura nodded, pulled her mask into place and picked Jane up, jumping down into the street before Jane had a chance to tense up. She took a breath and held it as they fell, not wanting the distraction of resisting her vampiric instincts while they searched for survivors. She placed Jane carefully on her feet and moved quickly into the building, hearing Jane draw a gun before following her carefully.

The ground floor was already clear. It didn't look like there had been an explosion here, but part of the ceiling had collapsed, allowing dust and debris from the first floor to spill into the foyer and cafeteria. Maura gestured to Jane and moved towards the stairwell, not wanting to jump through the hole and risk causing further structural damage when she landed.

They moved quickly through the floors, stopping at each landing to check for survivors. The morning shift had barely started, with the time being just after eight, so fortunately the offices weren't as full as they could have been. Maura efficiently lifted desks, walls and computers off people, silently directing them towards the stairs before moving on. Jane followed closely, her stony expression, clipped voice and drawn weapon giving her colleagues an increased sense of urgency as they moved to safety.

They finally reached the homicide bullpen, both dreading what they would find. As they had feared, homicide seemed to have been a primary target, with the blast patterns in the room suggesting there had been a bomb used in the centre of the bullpen as well as another in BRIC. The computer room was a collection of melted plastic and burned walls, while the bullpen was completely destroyed. There were several bodies around the room, some still sitting at their desks, all burned beyond recognition.

Jane almost dropped her gun at the sight of the room, and her dread as to the identity of the bodies was palpable as Maura turned to face the stricken detective. "Jane, we didn't see Korsak or Nina arrive. There's a good chance neither of them were here. We have to keep moving."

Jane nodded numbly, sparing one more look around the room before backing out and heading for the stairwell. Maura glanced back, a slight smile flitting across her face as her keen eyes picked out a piece of charred but intact blue plastic lying next to what was left of Jane's desk. Hopefully the luck that had spared Guardian Chogokin would spare their friends as well.

They cleared the remaining areas of the building quickly, before heading back downstairs. The only place left to check was the morgue, and then they could try to find a trace of Alec and hopefully chase him down.

Maura's enhanced hearing picked up screams long before they reached the floor, and her pace increased without conscious choice, forcing Jane to run to keep up. Maura barged the door open, finding the floor filled with smoke and water. The automatic sprinklers had gone off, but didn't seem to be accomplishing much against the sheer volume of destruction. Maura stopped breathing again, realising that there would most likely be bleeding humans when they found the source of the screams.

Maura followed her ears, quickly establishing that there were no survivors in the morgue or the offices. It looked like several bombs had been employed in those areas, and the walls had buckled outwards, leaving glass and unrecognisable chunks of debris throughout the corridors. She followed the familiar path to the crime lab, listening for signs of life and glancing worriedly at the ceiling, which was starting to sag.

They approached the labs carefully but quickly, with Maura needing to use her strength to shift several overturned cabinets and a collapsed section of wall to get through. Maura crashed through the buckled door of the crime lab, instantly identifying five survivors in the mess that was left of the room. Susie was crouched under a bench with Nina, and three other lab technicians were similarly bent under other furniture, one of them screaming in pain.

Maura heard Jane gasp in relief as she saw Susie and Nina looking relatively unharmed besides a cut on Susie's forehead, and moved to address the injured lab tech as Jane spoke urgently to the group. "Guys, come on, we've cleared a path."

Susie and Nina moved first, shooting relieved looks at Jane before calling to their colleagues. Maura lifted the injured tech easily, quickly realising that he had a broken leg but no apparent bleeding injuries, and tried to make the manoeuver look clumsier for the benefit of the humans watching. She led the way out of the room, hearing Jane herd the rest of the survivors close behind.

Susie was the first to start asking questions. "Detective Rizzoli, what are you doing here? I thought you were still off duty?"

Jane glanced at Maura warily, well aware that neither of them should officially be here. "I was in the neighbourhood. Korsak asked me to come by, something about a stray puppy."

Nina laughed, a bitter bark that carried very little actual humour. "Lucky us. So who is your ninja friend? Anyone we know?"

Jane kicked at a piece of debris, her answer curt and decisive. "Someone who is helping us get out. That's all you need to know."

Maura looked back in time to see a doubtful look pass between Susie and Nina, but they wisely chose not to argue, instead allowing the other techs to ask about what had happened to the building. Jane started filling them in, leaving out all the secret details, the sound of her voice filling the corridor and lessening the horror of seeing their supposedly safe workplace completely destroyed.

Maura had just stepped into the stairwell when she heard the distinctive sound of vampire speed. She immediately stopped, gesturing for the others to step back.

All heads whipped towards the top of the stairs as they heard the shriek of metal, only to see a section of stairwell being torn from the wall and thrown at them by a cloaked figure. Jane whirled back and lunged through the door they had just come through, pushing Susie and Nina in front of her, while Maura rushed to get the other three techs through the door in time.

The last tech had barely cleared the opening when the mass of metal hit Maura's back, throwing her forcefully into the air over the injured man she'd just gotten to safety. Maura barely remembered not to breathe instinctively as she hit the ground, but managed to maintain control.

Jane swore as she ran to Maura's side, but Maura quickly regained her feet and brushed off Jane's hand. Jane huffed in frustration, giving Maura a searching look. When Maura nodded, Jane's expression hardened and she turned back to the group, ignoring the astonished looks as Maura moved apparently without injury. "Come on, let's go. There's only one other way out of here."

Maura moved to pick up the injured tech once again, but Nina had gotten there first and was already helping him up. Maura allowed it, knowing she couldn't talk to her former colleagues. Firstly, they would recognise her voice and realise who she was, and secondly she didn't know if she had the mental fortitude to resist attacking the humans around her if she breathed and smelled Susie's blood. Her control was already tenuous, and it was only because she had hunted the day before that she had lasted this long. They needed to escape, soon. Once they were out of the building, she could disappear and leave them with their understandable questions unanswered.

Jane was already moving down the corridor towards the morgue, carefully avoiding the jagged pieces of metal and glass littering the floor. Maura was thankful that she was trying so hard not to bleed, but she could hear the sounds of metal moving in the stairwell, and she knew Alec would be at their backs as soon as he got around the wreckage. It seemed clear now that he was after them specifically, as well as wanting to tie up loose ends at BPD.

They quickly reached the morgue and passed through the doorway, with all the humans hesitating at the sight of the ruined room. An explosive had been placed at the centre, and had blown all the tables off their mounts. The roof was sagging down in the middle, with the damaged columns creaking alarmingly. Fires were still sputtering in a few spots, especially in the corner where the chemical storage had been. Maura gently but firmly pushed Nina from behind, knowing they had only seconds before Alec would be upon them.

The group started making their way through the room, with Jane leading. Her gun was still drawn, but most of her attention was on her environment, her eyes flitting between groaning roof segments and jagged uprooted floor sections with caution. The others followed her footsteps carefully but quickly, with nobody wanting to stay in the room longer than necessary.

As they reached the midpoint of the room, Maura heard the creak of metal being thrown aside behind them and knew they had run out of time. "Jane, run!"

Jane instantly reacted, grabbing Nina and pulling her into a mad dash for the exit. The two other techs followed, but Susie hesitated, her head whipping back to look at Maura as she recognised her voice. Maura surged forward, grabbing Susie and pushing her towards the loading dock entrance. Maura could see the questions swimming in Susie's bewildered expression, but she knew there would be no time to answer any of them as she heard Alec enter the room.

Jane had just made it through the loading dock door when she suddenly seemed to lose her sense of direction, skidding clumsily into a wall. Nina and the two techs behind her followed suit, their arms flailing as they tried to figure out where they were. Maura felt Susie tense up and grab onto her instinctively, realising that Alec had just used his power on everyone in the room, however she had been spared the effects thanks to Bella's shield power.

Using the momentary advantage from her immunity to Alec's power, Maura picked up Susie and tried to make it through the door before Alec could react. Unfortunately, the Volturi responded faster than she had hoped. Another shriek of metal was all the warning Maura had before the roof collapsed above her.

Maura pulled Susie underneath her and dived to the ground, frantically throwing out her arms to brace both of them against the impact of the ceiling. She felt something extremely heavy hit her shoulders, but managed to keep her arms locked against the massive force. Susie was screaming, and Maura hoped it was only panic and not further injuries to her favourite criminologist. After what felt like hours, the rumbling, creaking and groaning stopped.

As the cacophony gave way to a deathly silence, Maura suddenly comprehended the horrendous predicament she had managed to find herself in.

First, she was being crushed under tonnes of wreckage, unable to get to Jane and protect her from a violent and possibly vengeful vampire.

Second, Susie was trapped underneath her, gasping in fear and pain, with no idea what was going on.

Third, the challenge that was overloading all of Maura's senses; Susie was still bleeding.