Authors Note: Again, thank you so much for the follows and reviews that you guys are making on this story. This motivates me to keep writing and trying to make things interesting for you. In order to answer some questions that may rise, you are welcome to read the P.D notes. Enjoy and keep reviewing, your comments truly make me want to keep updating!
Jane was fidgeting, and she never fidgeted. It was probably the nerves of the last couple of days, the sudden change of things that she before deemed unnatural and unreal to actually be the opposite. Now she believed that anything was possible, not a single idea was dumb enough to not be explored. She had quickly become friends with her new partner Frost, who was a nice young man that had came from Fraud. When Jane asked him about his special ability, Frost just laughed and said that it wasn't as spectacular as the one Korsak and Dr. Isles had, which in reality had turned out to be quite false. The reason why Frost had turned out to be one of the best informants of the Fraud department was that he had the ability to adapt the physicality of any person, which to Jane meant that he could become anyone he wanted to. He said that he found out of his ability during his teenage years, when desperate to be a police officer he had actually turned into the officer that he wanted to be, fact that deeply scared him. After a while, he learned to control himself and soon joined the police to use those powers for good. For some strange reason, which Frost admitted to her was sometimes plain weird, Korsak found out about him and asked him for his help, which later turned into a job opportunity that he just couldn't turn down.
"I don't know, it's like this sixth sense that he has into knowing who was abilities or not." Frost told her while making their way to headquarters.
"Well, he asked me to join and last time I checked I am very human." Jane told him while smiling.
"Maybe, but you are very different to common humans." he told her while smiling. "And I haven't been the only one that has noticed this." he continued to say while looking to his left. "You want to see something really cool?" he asked her with a smile on his face. "The Doc is coming this way, and I have been like kinda practicing an impression of you. Could I try it on her?"
Jane just looked at him with a face of amusement. "Fine by me, but if she gets pissed I will blame you."
Frost clapped his hands in excitement and concentrated. Before her own eyes Jane saw how now there was another version of herself standing in front of her.
"This is so hocus pocus." Jane said while touching the face of fake Jane.
"Go hide behind the door and watch how I earned my reputation in Fraud." he told her with a smile on his face.
Jane did what he asked her, and soon enough she heard Maura's heel resonate through the hall. In a matter of seconds she felt her stop. No words were exchanged, hearing how steps approached where was hiding, Maura opening the door followed closely by a disappointed Frost. Jane smiled brightly and made her way out, not before sticking her tongue out to Frost who just looked upset.
"Told you." Jane whispered to him, earning a middle finger on her way to the lab.
"He almost fooled me." Maura said conversationally. "But there was something missing from him that made me realize that it wasn't you."
"Indeed Dr. Isles, no one can do Jane Rizzoli better than Jane Rizzoli." Jane said while smiling. "But seriously, what did you see that made you realize that it was Frost."
"It's not what I saw, but what I didn't see." Maura continued to say, suddenly stopping and looking at Jane deeply.
Jane also stopped, her eyes immediately focusing on Maura, trying to analyze them, understand them and be fully absorbed in them. It was a guilty pleasure that she had acquired during the couple of days that she had been here, and although it was a little invasive, Maura never seemed to mind, actually returning the stares with one of her own.
"That was missing." she heard Maura say. "It's the way you look at me."
Jane froze for a while. Sometimes the honesty of Maura was too direct, and although she usually liked it, this time she felt completely unprepared for it.
"Not that I don't like it." she added when Jane stayed quiet for too long. "But it's a very endearing quality of yours. You make me feel safe." she whispered while looking embarrassed at her sudden admittance of weakness.
Jane smiled brightly, and located one of her arms on the shoulder of the petite woman, who returned the gesture. "Now, my dear Dr. Isles, would you tell me the developments on the case of our own Dracula and the Big Bad Wolf?" Jane said sarcastically.
"Nothing new. No killings and no new leads." she said almost angrily. "But I think I have an interesting case that you may like until something comes up." she added with a hint of smile.
Jane returned it. "What kind of case?" she asked excitedly.
Maura smiled, already knowing that Jane was going to come with her. "Well, before I tell you what the case is about, let me ask you something. Have you heard about the phenomenon of sleep paralysis?"
Jane thought about it for a while, trying to understand what this had to do with the case. "Isn't it when you have a terrible nightmare and for some reason you are unable to move your body?"
Maura smiled brightly. "Yes, but more specifically it is when the REM sleep cycle of a person is unnaturally disrupted, which is normally characterized by complete muscle atonia to prevent the sleeper from acting out his or her dreams. When this occurs, the person's body is unable to realize that the mind is out of the REM sleep cycle. But what is really interesting." Maura hurried herself when she saw that she was losing Jane's interest. "Is that some small towns believe that the ones responsible for this are called Shadow Ghosts."
As expected, Jane immediately looked up at the mention of the word 'ghosts'. "Ghosts? For real?" she asked excited.
"Well, they are not ghosts, but creatures that have the shape of what we call specters, which are impossible to touch but are still very real. I was called by a fellow Medical Examiner in New York who asked for my expertise. He is well aware of my involvement with the Special Homicide Unit, reason why he asked for my help."
"Do you have the..." Jane started to ask when she felt a big folder land in her hands.
Maura smiled at her. "I already talked with Korsak and we have two days. No more, no less."
"So you assumed that I was going to come with you?" Jane smirked.
"I suspected you might." Maura said innocently. "Which turned out to be a correct assumption."
Jane and Maura made their way to the headquarters of the New York Police Department quickly. As soon as their plane landed they got a call from the Medical Examiner who put her in touch with the lead detective of the case, who after hearing who they were was more than happy to ask for their opinion. Korsak was right, Jane thought, bureaucracy here never sucks. Maura quickly went to the morgue, followed closely by Jane, who was a little taken aback with all the gadgets and technology that the department here in New York had. After this trip was over she intended to send a very big letter to the governor and demand him for better installations.
"Well bless my eyes, it's the beautiful Dr. Maura Isles." Jane heard a high pitch voice come from the office.
"It has been too long Dr. Richards." Maura answered back while sweetly smiling at the old man. "When I got your message I knew that I had to come as soon as possible."
"And I truly appreciate that." he smiled at her softly, the years finally taken their toll on him. "As you can see, we are truly lost here."
Maura nodded and motioned for Jane to come in, who had been discreetly listening to everything the two doctors had been discussing.
"This is Detective Jane Rizzoli, who also works at the Special Homicide Unit. Jane, this is my professor and longtime friend Dr. Frederich Richards."
Jane smiled and shook his hand. He smiled brightly at her. "When Maura told me about you and your reputation, I was expecting another kind of woman. I am certainly glad to have been mistaken."
Jane decided to take that as a compliment. "Thank you sir, but when Maura told me about the case I knew that I had to come and see it for myself. We read all of the files, but do you think you could explain to us what is happening and when it started?"
He nodded. "It probably started three months ago. There is a small community here that lives near the outskirts of town, locally known as the Purple Eyed. The reason they are called that way is because they have all decided to wear purple under their eyes a way to protect themselves."
"Protect themselves against what?" Jane pressed him.
"Against what they call the Shadow Ghosts. I know it sounds like a scary story told to children before they go to bed, but there is simply no other explanation for what is happening. The victims are in some sort of trance and end up dying from extreme fear. When asked about their state before dying, the relatives of the victims told us that they were awake but unable to move, their bodies not reacting at all."
"Sleep Paralysis." Maura said. "Did toxicology reports show any kind of drug used to induce a similar symptom?"
"No, nothing out of what you would expect to find in a person, which led me to believe that it was all natural. Their bodies had in fact been the responsible ones for their deaths."
"Why not rule it then as a natural cause of death?" Jane asked him.
"Because in the matter of two months I have had ten people dying of this. Same symptoms, same community, same way of dying."
Ok, this made things become stranger, Jane thought while looking around the office of Dr. Richards. Nothing out of the ordinary, nothing that made it seem that he took care of his office, merely being a place where he had to be until his job was over. Maura was the complete opposite, her office fully decorated with masks and couches that she bought for it with the excuse of making the workplace be more like her, especially since she was going to be spending there most of her days.
"We will try to find out what is happening. Please, if it's not too much problem, do you think I could take a look at the latest victim?" Maura asked him.
He nodded. "She died this morning after being found screaming by her parents." he exhaled, defeat in his face. "Dear Maura, please help us. We are getting questioned by the people and by the authorities, and I'm afraid that if we don't come back with answers soon then many people will lose their jobs."
Maura simply nodded and took his hand. "You can trust us. We will try our hardest to find the truth."
Jane simply nodded in a gesture of reassurance that was thanked by the doctor, who simply said goodbye to them and led them out of the office.
"He was the best professor a graduate from medicine could have ever had." Maura said quietly. "When I met him during my rotations, he made me become interested with studying pathology, making me understand the beauty and delicacy in helping the dead. I own him very much Jane."
Jane grabbed Maura's hand and squeezed it tightly. "Then we will do our best in trying to find out what is going on."
"Thank you." Maura said while looking at Jane.
"For what?"
"For being here, for being the only friend I have had." Maura said even more quietly. "Because of my upbringing and quirkiness, I was never very good at making friends. People thought I was weird because I liked to read. They called me Maura the Bora."
"Well, I wasn't miss popularity either, in fact I was called Roly Poly Rizzoli." Jane said while looking at Maura who was trying not to laugh. "It's not funny Maura."
"No, it's not." she said while still trying to stiff a laugh. "But were you a little bit chubby?"
"No, I was athletic." Jane said quietly.
"Well, I bet now your friends look at you and realize how wrong they were."
"Why, do I look stupid?" Jane said, wanting to hear the words come from Maura.
"Nooo." Maura said while laughing. "Are you kidding?"
She saw that Jane was still feeling insecure. "You are gorgeous my friend."
Jane smiled brightly at Maura, who had suddenly turned red. Both just stayed quiet for a while, deep in their own thoughts, which ironically were about the other.
After a while they were inside the morgue, Maura and Jane already equipped for the autopsy, which they both knew was not really going to be an autopsy. Maura quickly took her glove off, and without asking Jane, she felt her taking the other glove and taking her hand. Immediately they were both immersed in darkness that never seemed to dissipate. Maura was getting nervous, this experience suddenly new to her. She tried to calm herself and project her destination on the memory. She wanted to go to the last memory of the young woman's life, but her attempts being blocked by some kind of black fog. She could make up a shadow on the fog, a man wearing a suit with a hat walking calmly around. Trying to connect with the memory, Maura spoke to the man, hoping to get his attention. When she finally did, she realized that this was a terrible mistake, because the shadow was suddenly lying on top of her, wickedly smiling and sucking the air out of her lungs. This is not real, it feels real but it's not, she tried to tell herself, but the fear being irrational was winning, and soon enough she opened her eyes to see people moving desperately around the room, screaming what she assumed was the name of the woman. She was trying to calm them down, to tell them that she was alright, but her body betrayed her and in a matter of seconds it collapsed, tremors shooting all around and leaving her catatonic. Maura knew what was happening: the fear had been too much that as the result of the paralysis she had a heart attack, which led to her brain dead. Only seconds before she gave her final exhale, she looked around the room, and on the back of the room she saw the man with the suit and hat leave the room, leaving a trail of fog behind him.
It was a matter of seconds before she felt hands touch her face, soft and sweet hands drying the sweat that she suddenly felt overtake her. When Jane opened her eyes she saw the preoccupied and relieved face of Maura Isles look at her. After Jane took her hand she felt herself enter a dwell of darkness, one that she barely escaped. She had never thought that dreams could be so powerful, and now after experiencing the primal fear that her mind could create, she knew that this could easily kill someone. Without her knowledge she started to shake, and for a while she felt the strong arms of Maura Isles hold her while she hummed sweet words of love and care. This soothed her, and after a couple of minutes she felt her heart beat relax and reach normality. When she looked up she saw tears running down the cheeks of Maura, and with her fingers she cleaned them, too upset to do or say something else. Both women just looked at each other, the prospect of losing the other too great to be ignored, and after that close call, the fact of being so close to each other brought them comfort.
"Jane, jane." she heard Maura whisper while kissing her head. "Thank God and all the possible deities."
Jane managed to chuckle. "The only good thing that can probably come from having experienced this is that I get to be taken care of by no other than you."
Maura smiled sadly at her, kissing her hand now. "Please forgive me Jane. I never knew that this could happen. I was reckless and that almost cost you your life." she choked out.
Jane just hushed and hugged her. "It wasn't your fault Maur. It was the fault of the demon or whatever creature that is or was inside the body of that poor girl."
Maura just nodded softly, too preoccupied with what could have happened. Jane noticed this change and made Maura look at her.
"Maura, do not push me out. I have noticed that in this new world in which we live, full of strange and evil things, it is very easy to lose the light. I also noticed that the only way to come back from that darkness is to have a light at the end of the tunnel. My family, my friends, and specially you, are that light. Do not, I beg of you, do not turn off that light." she said while touching Maura's face and cleaning the tears that were falling from it.
"But what almost happened to you, it happened because of me." Maura cried. "I could never forgive myself if something bad occurred to you and I was responsible for it."
"Nothing happened, and as long as we trust each other nothing will. You know what I saw after the darkness started to take me away?" Jane said quietly. "I saw your face Maura, your face surrounded by warm and sweet light, and I remember telling myself 'Come on Rizzoli, there is the end of the tunnel reach it." Jane finished while looking for Maura's eyes, those hazel eyes that were looking hopefully at her. "And I did reach it."
Maura started to cry deeply, looking for Jane's arms and finding them around her. Jane hugged her deeply, and after calming each other Maura spoke. "In such a short amount of time you have managed to mean so much to me Jane Rizzoli, how is that even possible?"
"Maybe because I'm that irresistible?" Jane answered back sarcastically.
Maura smiled and nodded, wanting to feel the warmth of Jane fill her. Also, she had other feelings inside. She felt angry at the creature responsible for the pain she had felt. Irrational and powerful anger. She knew that Jane felt it too, especially when she took her hands and told her:
"Let's get this creature once and for all."
P.D Notes:
1. The difference between the creatures and humans of the unit is that while the creatures come from mythology, which means that they can be thousands of years old like Mephisto, the humans from the Boston Unit are capable of using a bigger percentage of their brain capability than the rest of humans, that's why Korsak, Maura and Frost are able to control their special abilities after having practiced them.
2. The Shadow Ghost are truly a folklore belief that has been around since the 1800 century. Humans believed that night paralysis were caused by demons who jumped and played on their chests which made them unable to move. Maura acknowledges that night paralysis can be caused naturally, but then she is also aware that they can be induced by the Shadow Ghosts.
3. Maura is never truly sure of how each "travel" that she has with Jane will make them react. The reason of this is that Maura, before meeting Jane, had never tried to share her visions, which as you will see in this chapter, scares her.
4. Something that I have been building since they shared their first memory is that with each new experience they connect more with each other, both emotionally and physically, which is why you will see that I make them share deeper things than what you would expect normal friends experience (At this point in the story it has been a little more than a week since Jane and Maura first met).