"That bitch!"
Even the Marshals jumped as the door flew open. Agent Gabriel Dean strode through the door, making a bee line toward Maura, who was sitting in a chair in the main room.
"He's dead." Dean bent down over Maura, putting his face inches from hers. "The man hunting you is dead. Paddy Doyle killed him last night. He came out of hiding, killed the man hunting you and him, and then disappeared again. I know Rizzoli is somehow involved in this." Dean stood and began pacing the room. "Now I've missed the chance to capture Doyle." He turned to face the doctor again. "It's fine though. I may have missed Doyle, but I've got her. Helping a convicted murder. A known underworld figure. I'm not only going to end her career, I'll see her behind bars."
The Marshal's rose from their seated positions concerned about the FBI agent's erratic behavior.
"There is no way Jane helped Paddy Doyle. As an officer of the law it goes again everything she believes. To think otherwise would be irrational bordering on insane." Maura didn't move from her seat but did look Dean directly in the eyes.
The agent whirled, charging toward the sitting woman. He brought his arm back, hand closed into a fist as he approached. The marshal closest to Maura stepped forward grabbing the cocked arm while simultaneously sweeping the agents legs out from underneath him. Dean landed face first on the floor with his arms pinned behind his back. The marshal kneeled over him using his body weight to keep him down.
"What the hell?" Dean growled.
"We are here to insure the doctor's safety, even from you."
"I'll have your badge for this." Dean sputtered into the carpet.
"You don't have the juice to take my badge." The marshal replied calmly. He carefully removed Dean's gun from its holster and passed it to his partner. The second marshal removed the magazine and ejected the loaded round from the chamber. The marshal holding Dean continued to speak calmly. "Now, I'm going to release you. You are going to stand up slowly and leave. Understood?"
Dean nodded his head in understanding but didn't say anything.
The marshal stood slowly preparing himself for another outburst. Dean raised himself from the floor straightening his shirt and coat as he stood.
"This isn't over." He glared at everyone in the room.
"It is for now." The marshal holding Dean's weapon responded. He held it out to Dean. "I'll be keeping the bullets."
Dean stormed from the apartment without another word. The marshal who had wrestled with him pulled out his phone. His partner looked at him quizzically.
"Calling the district supervisor?"
He shook his head. "Regional. She has got to be able to pull the plug on this ridiculousness." As someone picked up on the other end, he walked from the room and into the kitchen.
Now alone with Maura the second marshal turned to her. "Sorry about that. All of this really. Its common knowledge that Dean is cracked, but he has friends and knows how to work the system."
Maura was rather shocked by the admission but recovered quickly. "Thank you for stepping in."
"Not a problem." The marshal reached into his pocket retrieving his phone. "Is there anyone you would like to call?"
With the case solved and sole suspect dead Jane was focused on figuring out how to end the investigation against Maura. With Doyle back underground she wasn't sure how Dean would react realizing his plan had failed. It was possible he could continue to try run the investigation again Maura. It was also possible that he could do something rash or stupid or both. She was so engrossed in her thoughts she didn't consciously hear her phone ring. She picked it up out of reflex and answered from habit.
"Rizzoli."
"Jane!"
Jane Rizzoli, the consummate professional, the cop's cop dropped her phone in shock. A series of colorful yet very descriptive expletives escaped her mouth as she retrieved the phone from the floor.
"Maura? Are you all right? Did you escape? Are you OK? Where are you? Are you hurt?"
Several heads turned at the detective's outburst.
"What?" Korsak shouted.
Jane shushed everyone nearby.
"I'm fine." Maura answered.
Jane felt the tension that had been in her shoulders for days finally loosening a little.
"Where are you calling from?" Jane finally got out a coherent question.
"One of the marshal's gave me his phone to use."
All of Jane's antennas went up. "Why? Why now?"
"Well, agent Dean attacked me…"
Jane jumped from her chair. "He what? I'll kill him."
Maura rolled her eyes at herself. How could she have been so careless? Jane was already upset and she said the worst thing possible.
"He didn't do anything Jane. The nice marshal stopped him."
The line when quiet for a moment and Jane thought she might have lost her friend.
"Maura?"
"Jane, the marshal would like to speak to you."
Jane heard the ruffle of the phone changing hands.
"Detective Rizzoli? This is U.S. Marshal Don Mathers."
The marshal was quiet as he let everything sink in.
"Wait. You are Marshal Mathers? You're kidding?"
"You have no idea how much I wish I was. Look Detective, we are in a tight spot here. Everyone knows Dean is off his nut on this thing, but with a federal court order, there isn't a lot we can do. We just got off the phone with our supervisor looking for a way out."
"What sort of way out?"
"We want to put the doctor into protective custody with the BPD."
"I'll have my Captain contact you immediately."
"What's is taking so long." Jane was still pacing the bull pen.
"Will you calm down? Korsak and Frost are handling the transfer."
The detective whirled on her brother. "They should have been done by now."
Frankie had been trying to keep her calm for over an hour. Without much success. "You know they are just making sure everything is done officially and correctly. While not technically violating a federal order, it is skirting close to the line."
"All the more reason to be quick about it. If Dean or someone gets wind of what we are up too, the whole thing falls apart." Jane shot back.
"What falls apart?"
The brunette detective whirled as the voice. "Maura!" Jane streaked across the room embracing her friend in a crushing hug.
"Ow!" Maura exclaimed.
Jane sheepishly took a step back from her friend. "Sorry about that."
"It's good to see you too." She smiled at her friend.
"Maura." Frankie walked over and embraced the doctor in a bear hug. "How are you?"
"Really, all things considered, I'm doing very well. The marshal's were very professional."
"I hate to break up this party, but we do still have a problem here." Korsak interrupted.
Maura immediately refocused on the situation at hand. "I'm still the material witness in a federal prosecution."
"Well, there I have a bit of good news." Frost looked up from his data pad. "The marshal regional supervisor has contacted the judge that signed the order. The witness summons has been withdrawn. The judge isn't pleased, but realizes the he was misled. That also means that the protective order is no longer in place." Frost looked around the bullpen waiting for some sort of reaction to his statement.
"Well, you can guarantee that Dean knows this has happened as well." The brunette responded.
"Then it's over, right?" Frankie asked. "The investigation is closed, the killer is dead, and the court order is lifted."
"Who is dead? Agent Dean was ranting about something but he was acting so strange I really didn't catch it all." Maura questioned.
"Paddy Doyle beat us to the person who killed your half-brother. We found his body not twenty four hours ago." Korsak explained.
"That explains Agent Dean's reaction. With the threat to me removed, Doyle went back underground. He missed his chance to get him."
"That also means he missed his chance to get you and Jane." Frost pointed out.
"The question is what is Dean going to do next?" Jane voiced.
"His behavior is getting more and more erratic. The way he acted toward me shows that he is spiraling into violence." Maura looked around the room. "And he is fixated on Jane and I."
Agent Dean threw his phone across the room watching the device shatter as it hit the wall. While officially ongoing, with the protection order and witness warrant withdrawn the investigation was over. Not only was the investigation over, so was his career. Oh, they couldn't fire him or prosecute him, he was too well connected for that. He would never advance beyond where he was now. He would be shuffled off to some field office in the middle of a cow pasture somewhere investigating gremlins. He hated gremlins.
He took a moment to compose himself. Surely there was some way to salvage this situation. He knew that Rizzoli had tipped off Doyle. If he could figure out how then he could get things back on track.
"She wouldn't be dumb enough to leave around evidence." He muttered to himself. "But there has to be some small trace of how she contacted him. If it exist it has to be at her apartment." Without another word, he left his hotel room."
Jane, Maura, Korsak, Frost, and Frankie all sat around Maura's dining room table. Korsak pushed the end button on his pone and set it down on the table. "That was the uniforms watching Dean's place. He's not there. They asked around. It appears he left a little over and hour ago according to the staff."
"Where would he go?" Frost asked.
"Here." Maura offered. "He's still focused on me."
"If that were true he would have been here already." Jane responded.
"Alright. If Maura's not the target, that leaves you." Frankie pointed out.
"He's not here." Jane reiterated.
"He doesn't know you are here Jane." Frankie snapped back.
The three detectives all exchanged looks of stunned silence.
"My place?" Jane finally asked.
Everyone headed for Maura's front door.
Dean stood outside Rizzoli's apartment for half an hour waiting to see if she would show up. After satisfying himself that it was empty he entered the building making his way to her front door.
It took him no time at all to pick the locks Jane had installed after her run in with Hoyt. He checked the hallway one last time before slowly entering the apartment. He shut the door quietly behind him giving his eyes time to adjust to the darkness. As the room came into focus he began looking for the switch on the wall. As the light blinked to life he jumped at the voice behind him.
"Grandpa said you would come after Jane first. I thought for certain it would be Maura."
"Who are you?" Dean pulled his gun from his holster.
"Me? I'm a friend. A friend who doesn't like seeing people he cares about bothered by an unscrupulous asshole like yourself." Matt stood from the sofa walking toward the agent.
"I'm a federal agent. Stop or I will kill you."
"You're a disgraced federal officer who just broke into the apartment of a decorated Boston Special Projects Detective. Why are you here, agent?"
Dean was instantly at a loss. He hadn't planned for someone catching him. He was looking for evidence to implicate Rizzoli with working with Doyle. Failing that he was going to plant it.
Matt took another step toward Dean. "Can't come up with a lie fast enough."
"I will shoot you!" Dean screamed.
"You do that. That makes what I do to you next self-defense."
Dean fired his weapon twice into Matt's chest. The werewolf watched the horror in the agent's eyes as the two holes began to rapidly heal.
"Should have used silver." Matt lunged at Dean.
Jane led the group up the stairs to her apartment. As she put her key into the first dead bolt she could tell it was undone. She reached down to her holster and retrieved her sidearm. The others mimicked her action. She held up three fingers slowly counting down. As she lowered the last finger she threw the door open and rushed into her apartment.
"Ah, Lady Jane. So nice to see you. And Duchess. It's so nice to see you out and about after the recent unpleasantness."
Maura recovered first. "Ambassador Thye. I have to say we are all quite surprised to see you here."
"Yes. I imagine you are."
Jane returned her firearm to her holster. She cast a glace around the room seeing if there was anyone else or if anything was out of place. "What are you doing here ambassador?" She finally asked.
Thye picked a pot up off the stove. "Would you like some tea?"
"You have tea?" Both Maura and Frankie asked together staring at Jane.
Jane growled at them. "No I don't. Ambassador could you please tell…"
"I'm here to assure you personally that you will have no further problems from Agent Gabriel Dean."
"How can you…" Once again Jane was cut off. This time by Maura.
"Thank you for this news Ambassador. The help you've offered during this trying time is most appreciated."
Jane glared at her friend but said nothing.
The ambassador took no notice of it. "It's nothing. One can't have rogue officials running around outside the boundaries of the law. Especially threating to harm upstanding public servants as yourselves."
"What exactly happened to Agent Dean?" Frost asked, not sure he wanted to know the answer.
"Apparently, having failed in his original plot, Agent Dean traveled to this very location attempting to enter by force. The alpha's nephew, Matthew I believe is his name, was stopping by to visit and interrupted his attempt. Words were exchanged and an unfortunate incident occurred."
"Unfortunate incident?" Jane ran her hands through her hair as she asked the question.
"For Agent Dean, yes. Matthew is fine. Such a charming young man." The ambassador continued to sip her tea.
Jane balked. "Ambassador, I appreciate everything you've done, but as an officer of the law, I can't allow vigilante actions to…"
"Come now." The ambassador showed her most innocent face. "Do you really think that is what happened? Some sort of retaliatory assassination? It that what you think of us?" She appeared hurt.
"Uh…" That's exactly what Jane thought but through an act of shear will managed not to say it out loud.
The ambassador shook her head dismissively. "Agent Dean attacked Matthew. Shot him actually. Lead bullets fortunately. Matthew was forced to defend himself. After subduing Dean, he took him into custody."
"Into custody?" Korsak questioned.
"Yes. It's not widely known, but the wolves have been deputized federal agents since the country's founding. It was done so they could deal with threats and problems that challenged normal authorities."
"Wow! That's so cool." Frankie exclaimed receiving glares from the group. "What? It is." He defended himself.
"So calm yourself detective. After he is released from the hospital, Mr. Dean will be spending quite a bit of time in the prison system." The ambassador poured herself another cup of tea, taking a sip. "I do love a cup of good tea. So you see detective, everything is legal and completely above board. There is nothing for you to worry about."
Jane was about to explain the large number of things to worry about with the situation when Maura started talking.
"Thank you very much Ambassador."
"Don't thank me. Thank the pack. They did the heavy lifting. I just delivered the good news." The ambassador set down her cup. "Well, I don't want to over stay my welcome, plus I'm late for a meeting with the members of the high council. Do have a pleasant day." With that the Sidthe Ambassador breezed from the room quietly shutting the door behind her.
Jane stared blankly at the door. "What the hell just happened?"
"It's over and you won." Frost answered.
"But…" She began.
"Take the win Jane." Korsak stated.
"Yes." Maura agreed picking up a poured tea from the counter. "What Vince said."
