Everywhere I stop it is a cliffhanger...I am so sorry. I even tried several different places too and they were all bad. But getting close to the end anyway. Not long now. :) Thank you for all your continued support and comments. Keep it up.

Chapter E1ght33n

"Are you going to tell me what happened Jane?" Maura asks easily keeping a remarkably slow stride with Jane who is still lost in thought.

Jane turns to look at Maura like she had forgotten she wasn't alone and sighs.

"Do you need to see a doctor?" Maura asks, noticing the lip is still growing slightly in size meaning the event was rather recent. She also notices Jane keeps rubbing her left wrist like it might be causing her pain.

Jane slows down even more before stopping completely. Maura stops slightly ahead of Jane and walks back to stand in front of her.

"Maura. Do you think I am love-able?" She asks cautiously looking straight into Maura's eyes

"God yes." Maura replies too eagerly and without a pause, then looks a little worried. "I mean..." she pauses afraid they are not on the same page and she might end up putting her foot in her mouth trying to correct the possible implication.

Jane calmly watches her friend's features distort slightly.

"Are you asking if 'I' love you?" She finally asks

Jane smiles and sighs, "I know you love me. Otherwise you wouldn't want to spend time with me. And I love you too. I just...I don't understand why men don't really love me. I thought maybe there was something wrong with me."

Maura frowns, "There is absolutely nothing wrong with you Jane. Other than needing a little self-assurance. You are close to...perfect."

Jane snorts a laugh, "Perfect? really?"

Maura blushes slightly and bows her head, "Yes. And anyone that doesn't treat you like a princess doesn't deserve you Jane."

"You have to say that because you're my friend."

Maura feels her heart clench with sadness. Jane is the most confident and assured person she knows on the job, away from work and especially around men she is insecure and sad. Or maybe it is just lately. Maybe since Casey took off without explanation and then lied to her. It would knock anybody's confidence. She had just somehow believed Jane was invincible in every possible way. She had not realized the effect Casey had had on her. That fact that Jane can be and is so vulnerable makes her even more love-able to Maura.

"I am saying it because it's true. You know I can't lie. You are the most remarkable, amazing, caring, wonderful, sincere, kind person that I have ever, ever met."

Then there is that moment. The one that falls between them sometimes. Unexpected but not unwelcome. A longer than usual glance with twinkling eyes, a subtle smile, eyes searching, and an almost obvious physical spark. The feelings of being valued and important. The feelings Jane thought she would get from Casey but doesn't.

Maura sucks in a breath, it doesn't feel uncomfortable but she is sure these feelings shouldn't happen even if she isn't sure Jane feels them too. But usually by now Jane would have altered the moment by laughing, or saying something about Maura's comment in general or unusual reduplication or that there were a lot of adjectives in that sentence, but she hasn't, she doesn't, she isn't blushing or uncomfortable, and that is what causes Maura's discomfort.

"You don't have to stay with him Jane."

She regrets speaking the moment her words reach Jane's ears. Jane breaks eye contact and begins to walk along the path again uncomfortable and hunched. The warm cocoon they were in together quickly smashed. Maura rushes to catch up again and almost bumps into Jane who has suddenly stopped walking again.

"Maura. Do people change after a traumatic event?"

Maura studies Jane's body language this time, not just her face. She is hugging herself like she needs to comfort herself. She has almost etched frown marks across her forehead. Her fingers tap the sides of her body and she twists her lip in uncertainty.

Maura steps closer, she wants to be ready to reach out and comfort her friend who she can tell is perched on the edge of emotional turmoil.

"Yes, sometimes they can."

"How much do they change?"

Maura steps even closer and Jane doesn't take a step back, "Well, it depends on the person. But any number of factors, both physical or chemical, can alter a persons emotional or psychological stability. In some aspects they may remain the same yet in other ways they may be completely different. Sometimes they return to the way they were with time and counseling and other times it seems to be more permanent."

Jane bites the side of her lip and winches at the pain from the cut she forgot was there.

Maura steps closer, now completely inside the area she knows is Jane's personal space. She reaches up and brushes Jane's swollen lip with her thumb. When she looks up she see's Jane's eyes are wet and watching her. Maura's heart constricts and she moves her hand gently behind Jane's neck to draw her into a hug.

Jane hugs her back tightly, almost too tightly, and she is shaking ever so slightly. After a moment she whispers, "I'm alright."

"No you aren't Jane." Maura whispers back, "And you don't have to be. It is ok to be upset."

Jane doesn't let go and Maura won't let go.

They stand like that in the middle of the park walkway, halfway between Jane's place and Maura's place. Several people pass by but do not disturb them.

"I think I don't trust him." Jane finally whispers, "He is...different."

Maura rubs Jane's back in comforting strokes, there isn't much she can say with no information on the situation.

"He loves me though." She chokes out like it's a sort of consolation prize.

"Love doesn't endure all things." Maura whispers still holding her as if their lives depend on it.

"Maybe I need to give him more time. Things change. Life changes things. Everything is different now."

Jane pulls back but doesn't let go. She searches her friends face and sees worry, and behind that genuine caring.

Maura smiles weakly, "You have to do what is right for you Jane. Do what you want for yourself, not for him. He should earn your trust and you should feel safe in the process."

Jane's eyes flicker down letting Maura knowing she is on the right track.

"Sometimes people need to be put in their place. To be told what is ok and what isn't. And to be told the consequences of any future unchanged behavior."

Jane clears her throat. Somehow Maura's words strike her as truth.

"And if you don't feel safe or certain in any situation, or respected, then go to someone for support."

Jane nods slowly. She starts to walk again pulling Maura with her, their arms still entwined together.

"I really don't think he meant to hurt me." She says after a beat into the direction they are walking.

Maura blinks a few times, mostly in surprise. She doesn't know what happened but maybe Jane is being too dismissive about something rather serious.

"How would you know if he meant to?"

Jane stiffens slightly, Maura feels it in their interlinked arms. She knows Jane won't respond. It's not a question really. It's a statement disguised as a question. A thought that challenges a belief. Something that enables one to search a little deeper when they are ready, when they can. A pathway to empowerment.

And when enough silence has passed, Maura speaks again, "You truly are a remarkable human being. And I meant what I said earlier. Anyone that doesn't treat you right doesn't deserve you."

Jane turns her head and smiles and Maura returns it.

"I feel like the luckiest person on earth to have you in my life Jane. I hope we stay friends forever."

"Life-long best friends forever?"

"L-bffs. Exactly." Maura chuckles and nudges Jane's shoulder with her own.

And Jane, in return, with a warm smile, puts her arm around Maura, pulling her closer and kisses the top of her head.

Casey watches as Maura falls silent. An odd ending to a conversation between the two of them. But he is more interested in why Maura didn't want Jane to come for her essentially putting herself in more danger.

"So she will come for you."

Maura doesn't look up. It's not a question. They both know Jane will come.

"Do you think she would ever put herself in danger for me like that?" Casey asks as he taps his gun across his thigh.

Maura lets the phone slip from her ear to her lap knowing she won't be able to put it back. Knowing she won't hear Jane speak again, not that Jane will for definite anyway, but grateful to know she is close by and could be listening.

"I...I'm not sure..."

Maura can't imagine Jane allowing anything bad to happen to anyone regardless of being a friend, stranger or enemy.

"But she is coming for you?" Casey pushes.

"I...I hope not" She stumbles because she can't lie.

Casey laughs

"She once told me you were a genius and were probably even smarter than Einstein."

Maura huffs lightly, it sounds like the sort of ridiculous thing Jane would say.

"You ain't that smart though."

Maura 's eyebrows raise slightly, offended, "I actually have an IQ of one hundred and-"

"I'm not talking about that sort of smart." Casey cuts her off, "I'm talking about seeing what is in right front of you. At first I picked you because it would be easy to grab you. You live alone, hermit like. Without Jane you wouldn't even go out."

Maura wants to defend herself again. She has gallery openings and charities she goes too all the time. But in a way he is right, those event's were mostly obligations she upheld.

"And you don't train in self-defense or fighting so you were easy to grab. No offense." He adds with a twinkle in his eyes. "I knew she cared about you. But watching how she reacts and that she has struggled to control herself lately...I've realized you mean more to her than I thought. More than just a friend."

Maura shakes her head, "No, no. There's nothing more."

"You think she would throw herself in the line of fire for all of her friends?"

"If you took anyone she cared about...it would have hurt her. She would be like this."

Casey looks around the room spotting pictures and items that speak volumes to their friendship. Photos or them together. A baby turtle in a tank. A bottle of red wine and a science today magazine on the coffee table. A pasta maker machine on her bench.

"There were so many signs. Maybe I just didn't want to see them. But I never liked you. You were always just...there."

Jane takes the steps two at a time and when she reaches the landing a sprinkle of broken green glass crackles under her foot and she freezes holding her breath. There are no sounds that she has raised suspicion so she uses the railing to heave herself over the glass puddle and onto the final flight of steps.

"We are just friends."

"Or she hid it from me. Maybe from herself."

Maura pulls at the restraints binding her wrists together but they are too tight and she is stuck in the chair in her frustration.

"Maybe she never acted on her feelings but they are obvious to me now...now that I've watched her. Watched you."

"I don't understand what you mean Casey."

"That's why I haven't killed you yet. Because then it would be over. What would I have to hurt her with then?"

Maura swallows and holds her tongue.

Jane feels like her legs are made of Jello as she makes it to the top step of the second floor. So close now. She realizes in that moment she doesn't have her keys. She scowls and then decides it doesn't matter. It's not like Casey wouldn't let her in anyway. She inches herself along it towards her own apartment keeping an eye out for traps or anything suspicious.

"Whenever she was upset she went to 'you', she listened to 'you' about almost everything, she wanted 'you' to help her raise 'my' baby."

He spits the word 'you' with distain every-time.

Maura squirms a little, she desperately wants to be free right now. His tone is worrying to her. A sort of passive-aggressiveness with an unknown release.

"I picked well when I took you. I didn't even have to touch either of you to get the exact result I wanted. Jane messed with me and now I messed with her and I think that might have messed you up a little too Doctor Maura Isles. Did It?"

Maura glares at him wishing she wasn't restrained so she could, at the very least, give him a good hard slap.

At the bend in the hall Jane stops, she can hear muffled voices coming from the end, from her apartment, from the last door at the end of the hall. With her back against the wall she moves towards the voices.
She clutches the phone in one hand and her gun in the other. Both give her strength.

"And we both know Jane is going to feel the effects of how much I damaged you forever. If she gets out of here alive...and with you still breathing." He says it with a snicker.

Maura swallows the bile that has been building up in her throat, "What if she doesn't come for me?"

Maura is praying inside Jane won't come. Pleading silently with the universe. Because she has just realized that Casey won't kill her if Jane doesn't show. But if Jane does show, they could both end up dead.

"Oh she will come." He chuckles, "Of course she will come."

Maura growls, she hates his arrogance, his tone, his smile.

"I hope she kills you." Maura growls.

"I hope it breaks her when I kill you." He replies.

They stare at each other, both squinting, almost matching each others hate.

Jane takes a final cautious step and now there is only a door separating her from them. From Maura. She leans her face against the door to listen. She hears Maura's voice, muffled through the thick wood. Her heart seems to know of their proximity returns to it's normal rhythm and she leans her body against the door while her legs gather the final strength they will need.

"You can't break her. No-one can." Maura says with her own little smile.

"I think seeing her girlfriend dying or dead might do it." Casey says with a dark smile.

Maura shakes her head, "We are just friends."

"I'm not sure she would say the same." Casey growls

Jane reaches the door handle turning it slightly. It is unlocked so she turns it further until she can push it open slightly. The voices are clear now. She pushes the door further open but a table is preventing her from opening it fully and she sees broken glass all over the ground inside the door. She knows she won't make it two steps into the room before Casey hears her. She cannot get a visual of them because of the obstacle blocking the door but it sounds like Maura is close to the centre of the room and Casey is off to the right somewhere.

"I think you mean more to her than you know, so much so she would give her life for yours."

"I think you have the wrong idea Casey." Maura sounds exhausted and defeated and weak.

Jane has never heard Maura sound this way before.

"He doesn't Maura." Jane's husky voice comes from the gap in the partly open door.

"Jane!" Maura's voice is a mix of gratitude and fear.

...to be continued...