Finding Out

Maura Isles stared blankly at the two officers in front of her, her quick mind barely comprehending what they were saying. Her head was tilted to the side ever so slightly, her breathing was just a tad ragged and her movements were becoming not as coordinated.

"I'm sorry Dr. Isles, she no longer is here." The bullish officer on the left said bluntly. From his voice Maura could tell that this man could care less where Jane was. The officer on the right, a sparrow of a man, however, seemed to be the kinder one of the two because after the bluntness of his partner came his sincerity, a heart filled assurance that they all missed her just as much as she did.

Both men continued to babble un-importantly for a for more minutes till Maura coldly cut them off and sent them out of her morgue, her body shaking ever so slightly as the news fully became understandable to her. Her milky white hands gripped the cold steel table weakly, her gaze blurring as tears spilled down her face and dripped onto the table.

"She's gone. She left me." Maura whispered softly to herself and repeated it over and over to herself, marveling at how long it took her heart to accept that little scrap of knowledge. The slight trembling of her body grew to full out shaking as hot tears poured down her face, causing Dr. Maura Isles, the impervious Queen of the Dead, to drop her head into her weakening hands and cry her heart out.

The buzzing of her cell phone was the disturbance that broke Maura's crying, signaling her that there was a case about to begin and that reality never waited for the heartbroken. She steadily gathered her control, dried her eyes and answered the call. Frost's smooth voice pulled at her heart as he distantly told her of the body found and its location. Maura was short with her answers and quick to gather up her gear and head off to another body, utilizing work as the perfect shield to protect her from the hailstorm of hurt Jane was putting her through. Leaving the morgue quietly she stopped at the doorway and gazed at the room, her eye sweeping across it as all different types of memories slipped into her vision. Softly she whispered,

"You promised you would always be here for me." Slowly she turned away and with slumped shoulders walked out her sanctuary.

The case was the best Maura could do to distract herself from the feelings raging inside of her; the hardest one to push away though was the betrayal she felt at what Jane had done to not just her but everyone else who knew her.

Jane had left the party on Friday night too soon by everyone's standards and did not respond to anyone on Saturday despite the fact that she told everyone she would see them that day. People grew concerned on Sunday when yet another day of silence from her passed and finally on Tuesday Angela and Frank Rizzoli went over to her apartment to find it a barren flat with no signs of habitation. Angela had broken down crying right there when she realized her baby girl was gone and tears even glistened from Franks eyes as he desperately searched the apartment for his Janie.

Frost and Korsack questioned everyone in the precinct as to whether they had seen Jane over the weekend, Frankie scoped the streets to see if Jane had left any hints with her birdies and Maura had used the wealth of her contacts to try and find Jane. None of it had worked. The best any of them got was when the chief told them after a week of searching was that Jane had two weeks ago put in her notice that she was quitting and had politely asked him to keep it between the two of them. The knowledge had crushed them all.

Maura had called Jane's number at least once every hour in the past four days to hear only a dead line and an automated voice tell her the line had been disconnected. Frost tried using his computer skills to try and find Jane out through her credit card usage but was cut off when he found out that Jane had cancelled all her credit cards and left her bank. Korsack and Frankie simply put their ears to the ground and tried to use all of their resources to just get a lock on Jane. All of them were trying to find out where she went, and to make sure she was okay. As it stood they had no idea if Jane was even alive.

As Maura finished the Y incision on her latest victim she felt an uncontrollable urge seize her, pushing her to almost rush through cleaning up her work space and shutting down her morgue. She walked quickly to her car as she felt her heart clench at what her mind was set on doing, her movements were jerky as she drove in a slight haze that only cleared once she parked in a very familiar parking place. She was in front of Jane's apartment, the one that she had stripped clean without telling anyone.

Maura sat stiffly in her car for a few moments before slowly exiting her car, entering the building and going for Jane's door. Just before she could put her key in the lock she rested her head against the solid door and the hurt washed over her again. A few moments passed and Maura fought her body to keep going, finally winning it over as she pushed the key in and undid the simple lock. What awaited her was beyond anything she had ever expected.

The place was beyond bare, the only light coming from the moon making everything glow ever so eerily. Maura's eye swept over the rooms in her immediate vision, memories once again flickering in and out of her site. Slowly she walked into the apartment for the first time since finding out Jane had disappeared and her gaze locked onto the group of figures gathered in a loose circle around the shaft of light coming through the windows.

"I see you wanted to come here too" Frost's smooth voice greeted her ears. The splash of a liquid in a glass bottle soon followed his statement as he motion for her to join them. Slowly she walked over to their grouping, standing just outside the moonlight and gazed at all of them.

Leaning against the wall was the young Frankie Rizzoli; Maura couldn't even look at him without thinking of Jane and so couldn't bear to look at him for any length of time. Korsack sat on the floor across from Frost and accepted the bottle of whiskey that Frost offered to him.

"Something told me to come here" She whispered back to him. Korsack grunted in agreement and took a sip of the liquor, and Frankie shrugged silently as they all agreed on having the unexplainable urge to go to Jane's abandoned apartment. From where she stood, Maura was able to gaze at the three of them closely and noticed they all looked just as she felt: lost, hurt and betrayed.

Softly Frankie spoke "She promised she'd always have my back." the statement hung in the air, inviting the others to admit what Jane had promised them as well. Frost's smooth voice came next "She promised she'd never leave me hanging." His declaration combined with Frankie's and the feeling of betrayal in the room grew. Korsack's rough voice uttered quietly "She promised to never run from me." His declaration not only fueled the betrayal already in the air but sparked a new flame, the feeling of deep pain. Maura's soft voice only added to the sense of pain all of them were feeling as she quietly declared "She promised she would always be there for me."

As the declarations combined, the feelings of pain and betrayal overtook them all and the four individuals finally allowed themselves to let their tears fall and acknowledge that Jane had abandoned them, had thrown them to the curb like yesterday's garbage.

Frankie's cries were deep breaths in and slowly hissing them out, tears hardly coming from his scrunched up face as he slide down the wall and pulled his knees up to his chest, holding them tightly to his torso. Frost's cries came out as dry sobs, his tears streaming slowly down his face and into his hands as he placed his head in them. Korsack's were silent, two streams flowing down his worn face. Maura's were heart breaking as slight gasps and small whimpers escaped her lips as she collapsed to her knees, wrapped her arms around her stomach and bowed her head in defeat as sobs shook her petite frame. Softly she whimpered out one last time "Y-you p-pr-promis-s-sed you-u would a-always b-be h-here f-for m-me-e."

Little did they know that at precisely that same moment in time, over a thousand miles away, Jane was crying just as hard as they were and was repeating, like a scratched record, "I'm sorry."

TBC