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Disclaimer: I don't own Rizzoli and Isles.


Jane was escorted to a conference room on the third floor of the building. She asked questions of the agent she was following the whole way there, but he didn't utter so much as a 'hello'. As he opened the door to the room, she finally lost her patience.

"What the hell is going on?" She screamed.

"I believe I can answer that." A man she did not recognize stood from a chair next to the table. He held out his hand. "I'm Senior Agent Marcus Abrams. "I should apologize for Agent Dean. While I'm not directly his boss, I am responsible for him while he is here. Tracking law enforcement personal is not something the FBI normally does."

Jane took a seat at the table, ignoring the outstretched hand.

While Jane was angry about the tracking, it wasn't her top priority. "That's not my major concern. What do you know about this case that you aren't sharing? Why are you keeping the BPD in the dark on this case?"

Abrams took a deep breath. "It was deemed a national security matter."

"Really?" Jane huffed. "How many people were going to die for the sake of national security?"

"If you will let me finish detective. It was deemed a national security matter by the Chairman of the Armed Services Committee. The BPD was supposed to be brought in after the second couple was attacked. Agent Dean did not do that, and we are looking into why." He picked up a folder off the table, pulling out pictures, and setting them on the table. "These are pictures taken from locations in both Afghanistan and Iraq. Notice anything?"

Jane picked up two of the pictures, studying them. "They all look like Hoyt's work."

"Yes, they do. The problem is that Hoyt was locked up here when this happened." Abrams pointed out.

"The apprentice? He's a soldier? That's not possible. We would have gotten a hit on the prints we found at the scene."

"No you wouldn't. Have you ever heard the term 'sheep dipped'?" Jane shook her head. "All these sites were Black Op sites. The units that were there don't officially exist. They don't exist to such an extent that the records and files of the men and women that were part of the units have been removed from the DOD."

"What were they doing?"

The agent let out a sigh. "What I'm about to tell you is still classified. I should have you sign a stack of papers before telling you and threaten you with prison if you talk. However, given the circumstances..." The agent pinched the bridge of his nose and squeezed his eyes shut. He let out a breath with a heavy sigh. "They were witch hunter squads. They were assigned to go in and eliminate high value enemy magi targets."

"That's why the black fire." Jane started filling in the blanks. "Destroys not only the material evidence but also all the magical traces. That's skirting the line on international law not to mention a public relations nightmare."

"Now you see the reason for such national security and plausible deniability."

"Why are you telling me this?"

"Because, detective, regardless of what you believe, or the way Agent Dean has acted, we are all on the same side here. I don't want to see these monster's hurt anymore innocent people. I certainly don't want them to seek revenge on a decorated officer of the law who already fought and beat them once."

Jane stood from the table and began to pace the room. She needed to gather her thoughts. "So the apprentice is a Special Forces soldier that's come home to do what he was doing over there, and now he's hooked up with Hoyt?"

"That's what we believe, yes."

Jane thought for a moment. "That makes sense. Hoyt used a fake identity to get into training at Fort Stewart. That has to be where he met this Special Forces solider." She saw the look of surprise on the FBI agent's face. "You wouldn't know about it because it's not in the file."

"I'll make some calls and see what I can find out about the course Hoyt went through."

At that moment, Jane's phone rang. "Rizzoli."

"Jane, I'm in your apartment." Maura's voice greeted her.

"Why?"

"They've been here Jane. They have destroyed your apartment. I don't know what they were doing or what they were looking for, but it is a mess."

"I'll be right there." Jane hung up the phone and looked at the agent. "I've got to go. Our suspects just hit my apartment." She turned and left the room.


There were so many police and crime scene vehicles in front of her building Jane had to park around the corner from her own place. She got out of the car and started the walk to the front entrance. As she came around the corner a crime scene tech stopped her.

"Detective Rizzoli! I was told you could identify the victim?"

"Victim?" Jane was confused. Maura hadn't mentioned a victim.

"Yes. A young woman in her twenties, dark hair. They said she was a neighbor."

Jane's stomach sank. "Marrisa!"

Jane followed the tech to a coroner van, watching him open the rear doors, revealing a body bag. She climbed in without a second thought, horrified at what she was going to find in the bag. She was surprised at how steady her hand was as she pulled the zipper down, revealing the body inside.

Her mind froze in terror as she recognized the face. It wasn't the lifeless face of her ever perky neighbor, it was the demented smile of Charles Hoyt, her personal boogie man. She didn't even have a chance to scream before the taser struck her neck and everything went black.


As her body crawled back into consciousness, she made sure to lay perfectly still. She didn't want to give any indication to Hoyt or his little buddy that she was coming around. She knew that he wouldn't do anything as long as she wasn't awake to 'enjoy' it. She needed a moment to get her bearings and figure a way out of this nightmare she had so very often. She could tell that her legs were bound at both the ankle and the knee. She also saw that her wrist were duck taped together. Things weren't looking to good.

She was pulled from her planning when she heard the rear doors of the van open and someone climb inside. She felt a hand grab her shoulder and roll her onto her back.

"Time to wake up Jane."

Against her control, her eyes snapped open at the voice. On seeing Hoyts face her fear returned tenfold. She cringed at his touch as he reached down and ripped the tape away from her mouth.

"It has been such a good game, Jane, but now it's time to finish it."

Jane hated his smile. It didn't contain anything that a normal smile should. There was no happiness, joy, or hope. His smile was simply a promise of pain to come.

"Where is your little friend?" She was relieved that her voice didn't show the fear that she felt.

"Oh. He's getting ready for the last chapter."

As if on cue, a second voice sounded from beyond the doors. "It's ready doctor. Want to see?"

Hoyt turned, leaving the van and closing the doors behind him. As she heard the click of the latch, Jane began looking around the van for anything she could use as a weapon. Hoyt was smart though, the back of the van was bare. There was nothing a normal person could have used to defend themselves. It was a good thing that Jane wasn't normal. She put her hand against the wheel well and began pulling the metal from the van. She took as much as she could before she heard the latch on the van again. She quickly laid back down, holding the piece of metal underneath her, in both hands. As she heard the footsteps approach, she fashioned the metal into the biggest blade that she could manage.

Once again she felt Hoyt's hand on her shoulder, but this time she was ready. As he rolled her over she brought the blade up in an arch, the blade catching just under his jaw, cutting through his lips, across his left cheek, blinding his eye, and continuing into his forehead. He stumbled backwards out of the van and fell onto the ground. He grabbed at his eye, screaming in pain. The force of the blow knocked Hoyt out the back of the van and onto the ground. Jane tumbled out the van behind him.

"Dr. Hoyt! Dr. Hoyt!" The apprentice came running from the woods. Jane laid still on the ground so as not to appear a threat. He completely ignored her as he knelt over the still screaming Hoyt. Jane knew he still had a gun and was well aware of what happened when a person brought a knife to a gun fight. That's when she noticed the taser that Hoyt dropped as he fell form the van. She grabbed it and jammed it into the leg of the apprentice. He immediately attempted to draw the gun from his waistband, but dropped it on the ground, the electrical charge causing him to lose control of his muscles. Jane continued to use the taser until it was completely out of charge. She threw the now useless device to the side, lunging for the pistol, beating a quickly recovering solider to it. He pulled a knife from his belt, trying to focus on Jane and she fired twice, both bullets hitting the center of his chest. He fell over, blood coming from this mouth.

Jane retrieved her make shift knife and cut off her restraints. She pulled herself to her feet and walked over to a still struggling Hoyt. He was vainly attempting to retrieve the knife his apprentice had dropped. Jane stepped on his hands, one over the other, stopping his progress. She looked down at his ruined face. Her fear had been replaced with anger. The knife reformed in her hand. She took the now sharpened spear and rammed it through both of Hoyt's hands and into the ground underneath. He let out a cry of pain and then fell slack.

"There. Now we match." Jane walked over to the van and sat down. She wasn't sure how much time passed before it occurred to her that she needed to tell someone what happened. She slowly began looking for her cellphone.


Maura was hanging onto her composure by her fingernails. She knew there was something wrong when Jane didn't show up immediately. Her vague uneasiness turned to dread when no one else was able to reach her and Korsak had confirmed she had left the FBI. Her dread became full blown panic when a uniform pointed toward her car around the corner saying he saw her enter a coroner's van.

Maura pulled out her phone. "Suzie, I want a GPS location of every transport van we have. Yes. Right now. I'll wait."

Frost looked a little stunned. "You have GPS in every transport van?"

"My budget is bigger than your budget." Maura said curtly.

"Hoyts too smart for that. He didn't steal one. He dummied one up." Korsak added.

"Do you have a better idea?" Maura leveled her eyes at both detectives.

Frost dropped his back pack off of his shoulder. "Yes. Yes I do." He pulled out the data pad he always carried, holding it, screen up between his two hands, eyes closed in concentration.

"What are…" Korsak didn't get to finish the question.

"I'm searching for the last location of Jane's phone." Frost answered. The screen zipped through information so fast that it almost looked like static.

As she was waiting for Suzie to pull up the information she asked for, her phone buzzed in her hand. Her first thought was to ignore it, but on instinct she looked at the screen. Jane's face showed on the tiny screen.

She pushed the indicator to answer the call and brought the phone back to her ear. She was so afraid that she couldn't speak. She didn't know what she would do if she heard Hoyt's voice on the line rather than her friend. The silence seemed to stretch on forever. She became aware of the stares of the two detectives next to her.

"Maur? Are you there?" Jane's voice came across the line.

Maura's knees buckled and she sat heavily on the steps of Jane's building. She held the phone out to Korsak as she did her best not to cry in front of all of the BPD and her staff.

"Hello?" Jane said again across the line.

"Thank God. Janie! Where are you? Are you alright? Does Hoyt have you?" Korsak released all four questions as a single breath.

"I'm…" Jane took a breath to hold it together. "I'm fine. Hoyt's indisposed. I'm not sure where I am, but my phone is back on so trace it and come get me."

Korsak looked at Frost. "The phone is on, find it, and we find Jane." He reached down and helped Maura to her feet. "We are on the way Jane. Just stay there. We are coming to you. Don't hang up the phone."

"Got it." Frost yelled. The image on his tablet screen showed a map overlay of Boston with a large blinking dot in the middle. "That's Jane."

Korsak helped Maura into the back seat of his cruiser as Frost got in the passenger seat.

"We've got your location Jane. We will be there in twenty minutes." Korsak launched the cruiser from the curb.


When Korsak slid the cruiser to a stop in the dirt, Jane was still sitting on the back of the van, just staring off into space. Maura was first out of the car.

"Jane!" She ran toward to the detective.

Even in her less than completely alert state, Jane was amazed that the medical examiner could run in heels on such rocky ground. Before she realized it she was laughing softly to herself.

"Jane. What happened? What hurts?" The M.E. grabbed both sides of Jane's head to force her to look in her eyes. "Do you know where you are right now?"

Some distant part of Jane's brain realized that she and Maura were making skin to skin contact and nothing was happing. She half expected the entire van she was sitting on to turn to gold and fold in on itself. When it didn't happen, she decided that she must be more tired than she thought. She was so lost in her reverie that it took her a moment to come up with an answer to Maura's question. "Hoyt's van." She stated flatly.

Maura smiled at the answer. "Right. Can you tell me what happened? Are you injured?"

As Maura checked over Jane, Frost and Korsak saw to Hoyt.

"So, do we unstick him or do we wait for the EMTs?" Frost asked. "I have to admit, it certainly is fitting to see him staked to the ground."

Korsak grunted in agreement. "Leave him. Maybe he'll die while we are waiting. As least Janie put this one down permanently." He knelt down to look at the apprentice's body.

"Unfortunately, it looks like he is going to make it." Frost pointed at the large number of approaching emergency lights coming up the gravel road they had just traveled.

"Hoyt doesn't get so much as a Band-Aid until Jane gets the all clear." Korsak turned to Frost to make sure he understood.

Frost just nodded his head in understanding. Both men walked over to the two women as more police and emergency workers arrived on scene.

"How are you?" Korsak asked, not even sure he was going to receive an answer.

"Good. I'm good." Jane responded even as Maura rolled her eyes at the response.

Maura shook her head while answering. "She has a head injury, which I'm sure she isn't going to get x-rayed, she had a rather deep laceration on her neck that really needs stiches, and her body has received a dangerous level of electric charge." She signed as she finished. "I suppose it is too much to hope that you would go to the hospital to be observed overnight?"

Jane closed her eyes and braced herself. After taking a deep breath she stood from the back of the van. "Yes. Yes it would be. I'm going home."

"You can't go home. It's not only wrecked, it's a crime scene." Maura pointed out. "I really think you should go to the hospital."

"I'm not going to the hospital."

"Well then, you can stay at my place."

Jane narrowed her eyes at her friend. "Are you being nice or are you simply trying to keep an eye on me?"

"Both." Maura moved out of the way of an EMT as he set down his bag in front of Jane. "Now, you are going to let this nice man…" She turned to the EMT. "What's your name?"

"Darrel."

She turned back to her friend. "You are going to let Darrell stich up your neck, apply ointment to your electrical burn, and check you for a concussion."

"You just checked me for a concussion!"

"Jane." Maura said, infusing her name with warning.

"Fine." Jane huffed and let Darrel go about his work.

Maura watched an EMT under the careful scrutiny of Korsak and Frost remove the spear from Hoyt's hands. The two detectives then handcuffed his feet to the stretcher and strapped the still unconscious man down.

"I'll ride with him." Frost announced. "Make sure nothing happens in transit."

"You sit in the OR if you have to, but don't let him out of your sight." Korsak remembered Hoyt's initial escape had been because he was faking an injury. He knew he was hurt now, but wasn't sure it was bad as the maniac was letting on. "And when in doubt, put two in is brain."

"Got it." Was Frost only answer.

Maura approached Korsak as Frost followed Hoyt to an ambulance. "Vince?"

"How is she?"

"Nothing serious. I'm more worried about the electrocution and head trauma than the cut. She insist she is fine."

"She always does."

"She wanted to go home, I told her it's a crime scene. She's staying with me tonight. I know that you need a statement from her, but…"

"It can wait. Tell me when you want to leave and we are out of here. Cavanaugh and the FBI Boston Office director are on their way here now. They aren't going to let Frost or I within a mile of this investigation now that Jane is a….is involved." He didn't want to use the word 'victim'. He didn't have to say the word 'again'.

"Right." Maura turned to look at Jane, watching the last stich go in her neck. "How hard do you think it's going to be to get her to leave?"

Korsak shrugged. "We could have the EMT sedate her."

Maura stifled a laugh. "Right, because that wouldn't end badly for everyone."

"Well we know that she isn't going to listen to me." Korsak responded.

"You think she's going to listen to me?" Maura asked.

"Come on Doc. You are a genius. I have faith that you can think of something." He smiled as he began walking back to the car.

Maura braced herself for the conversation she was about to have as she approached the back of the ambulance Darrell had moved Jane to. She walked over and sat down next to Jane.

"So." Maura closed her eyes, admonishing herself for such a weak conversation starter.

"So you drew the short straw?"

"Huh? What straw?" Now she was confused.

"It's an expression. Everyone pulls straws out of a pile, the person with the shortest straw has to do whatever it is that was being drawn for. I'm asking if you were the unlucky one to be picked to come over here to try and convince me to go to the hospital."

"Yes. No." Maura took deep breath. She wasn't being very precise. She wasn't use to being so flustered. "Yes I was the one that was selected to come over here. No, I'm not going to try and convince you to go to the hospital."

"That's good. Cause I'm not. I'm going home."

"Your home is still a crime scene."

"Dammit." She muttered. Jane closed her eyes. She had forgotten that little tidbit. Maura really was going to believe she had a concussion if she didn't pull it together.

"I came over here to convince to you come home with me."

"Maura…"

"Jane." Maura did her best not to sound exasperated. "You can't go home. You won't go to the hospital. You won't sleep well at a hotel. Just stay with me. You can come to my house, shower, and go to bed."

Jane narrowed her eyes at her friend.

Maura decided to offer an olive branch. "I'll have Korsak stop on the way and we can buy you beer."

Jane stood up a little too quickly from the back of the ambulance. Maura reached out, placing her hand on her hip to steady her.

"Why didn't you say that the first time? Beer first, then your place."

Maura stood up to follow Jane to the car. "That wasn't so bad, was it?"

Jane smirked. "Don't get used to it. I'm just tired. Next time, you will have to bribe me with more than beer."

"Let's hope there isn't a next time."


As Maura opened the door to her house, Bass flew up and landed at her feet. Jane jumped.

"That dragon is going to be the death of me." She muttered.

"He's a drake and don't speak to him like that. You will hurt his feelings." Maura bent over to pet the creature on his head.

"I'll hurt his feelings? What about my feelings?" Jane asked.

"Well, when he insults you, I'll reprimand him accordingly."

Jane narrowed her eyes. "You think you are so funny, don't you."

Maura didn't understand the joke. "No. Not really."

Jane just shook her head and made her way to the refrigerator. Setting the beer inside, she pulled out a bottle. She also grabbed a bottle of wine. As she turned and set everything on the counter, she saw Maura glance at her watch. "I'm not staying up and drinking alone, so stop staring at your watch."

"You've had a long day. Don't you think you should get some sleep?"

"Trying to get rid of me, Dr. Isles? Got a hot date on the way over?" Jane tried to inject some levity into the suddenly heavy situation. Upon seeing the doctor's face she set down her beer. "Really? You have a date coming over and you asked me to spend the night? Maura!"

"What? No!" Maura defended herself. "It's just…" Maura took a deep breath. "You have had a shock and a trauma, both mentally and physically. Your mind and your body need a rest. I know you aren't going to listen, I mean you wouldn't even go to the hospital, and the electrical current alone should have dictated that course of action, but you are so stubborn, had we forced you, you would have fought and signed out AMA anyway…"

"MAURA!"

The doctor stopped rambling, lowering her eyes to the floor."

"One more beer and I promise I will go rest. Alright?"

Maura smiled. "Deal."