A/N: This chapter is going to be a little (or extremely) on the violent side. The story is rated M for sex and graphic violence, but I promise you there will be no graphic sexual violence. I can't stress enough how much I'm against rape scenes.


With her hands gripped tightly around the crowbar, Jane slowly stepped down from the porch and on to ground below. When she hesitated to take a step further, she silently chastised herself for not being brave enough. With just a few short weeks before she was due to enter the academy, Jane had assumed she was ready for anything, but she hadn't expected to encounter a situation like this one on her vacation—or anytime before she officially had her badge. You can do this, Jane. This is preparing you for the rest of your career, she told herself in hopes that a mental pep talk would work, but when encouraging words to herself weren't enough, she thought of Maura, the woman she loved more than life, itself. If she were afraid, she could just imagine how Maura must be feeling. She thought of her quickly changing out of her lingerie and into the clothes she was wearing earlier. Once she was dressed, she'd be sitting on the bed, probably shaking and waiting for Jane to knock on the door and tell her that everything was going to be okay and that they'd soon be holding each other in Jane's room where it was safe. If she couldn't be brave for herself, she had to be brave for Maura.

As if she were crossing a busy street, Jane looked both ways before running from the edge of the porch to her car. Little inspection was needed for Jane to realize that her tires had been punctured. She would have accepted one flat tire as pure coincidence; they were in the woods and some of the roads she had driven on weren't exactly paved, but four flat tires couldn't be a coincidence. Someone had deliberately slashed her tires just as someone had put a camera in their room. "Fuck," she said as she angrily kicked one of the front tires. She hadn't wanted to be that loud, but her anger had gotten the best of her.

There was darkness all around Jane save for the lights coming from the bedroom, the living room, and the dimly lit porch. There were tall trees all around her, which served as the perfect hiding place for whoever might be after them. They were trapped. Even if they were to leave the cabin, they'd still be trapped. There was not a single cabin or sign of civilization closer than the gas station they had stopped at earlier, but that was still three miles away.

Jane wasn't about to expose Maura to the threat of being caught outside and she wasn't going to leave her alone for another second. There were two of them and only one of him. They were young, intelligent, and agile. The odds were in their favor, or so Jane tried to convince herself.

Jane knocked on the door for Maura to let her in. She called her name. She did everything short of breaking the door down, but there was still no response from Maura. Jane had been in the front the whole time and all of the windows were locked, so she knew nobody had entered the cabin while she was outside. If they had broken a window, she would have heard it. Jane contemplated using the crowbar to open the door, but she didn't want to risk causing any damage that might prevent them from being able to lockthe door.

As she had originally planned, Jane surveyed the perimeter. Everything was in tact until she approached the back of the cabin. There was a backdoor—one that Jane and Maura had failed to notice. It wasn't visible from the living room or the bedroom, which were the only two rooms Jane and Maura had spent time in.

Jane was hesitant to approach the door until she noticed it was slightly ajar. There was the possibility that it might have been ajar since before they had arrived, but that thought never crossed Jane's mind. A slightly open door and an unresponsive Maura. Those were the only two pieces of the puzzle that Jane needed for her adrenaline to go into overdrive. I should have listened to her when she said she wanted to go home. Jane quickly shook that thought from her mind. It was no longer the time for regrets. She quietly entered the cabin, ready to take down whoever might be in there with her girlfriend.

As Jane crept down the hall, she tried not to make any noise in what could possibly be a vain attempt at a sneak attack. She stood motionless next to the entryway, pausing for just a second before she took her first step into the room.

The sight that unfolded before her was her girlfriend unconscious with a masked man kneeling in between her legs. An empty condom wrapper was carelessly lying next to a rag, which Jane had assumed was soaked with whatever chemical he had used to drug Maura. The mask was crudely constructed, almost as if it had been sewn together using pieces of other Halloween masks. It was a horrific sight and Jane would be damned if that mask was the last thing Maura ever saw.

Had he begun to rape her and pulled out for some reason? Had he not started yet? All Jane knew was that this man was staring at Maura, not just staring but fixated on her, almost lovingly. Although she had been rendered unconscious, he had placed a pillow under her head to make sure she was comfortable. He had also positioned her similarly to the way she was positioned with Jane over an hour ago when Jane was about to enter her for the first time.

He's re-enacting what we did, Jane realized. He hasn't been inside of her because I wasn't inside of her at that point. It was a huge consolation and Jane was extremely grateful that the bastard hadn't violated her woman in that way. The following moments were all a blur to her. Had she been looking at him with Maura for a minute or had only a split-second passed since she had entered that room? The length of time seemed insignificant to her. What mattered most was protecting the woman she loved.

Jane rushed at him with every intention of knocking him out with a blow to the back of his head, but the moment she swung that crowbar with all of the strength she had gathered was the moment he turned around. The sharp edge of the crow bar was mere centimeters from his eye and Jane considered it a missed shot although she had knocked him down. She looked at her unconscious girlfriend and then at her attacker writhing in pain. She wasn't sure exactly what he had done to her, but he was going to suffer, regardless. Jane's second swing rendered him unconscious, but it was the third swing that brought on his demise. The sound of his skull cracking still didn't bring enough satisfaction for Jane. She felt like a child, taking pleasure in every swing as if she were hitting a piñata. She'd glance at Maura's body and the sight of her girlfriend lying on the ground with her legs spread enraged her. She wasn't sure when it had happened, but Jane Rizzoli had broken from reality. As she continued to beat him to a pulp, she imagined Maura fully conscious and the milestones they had left in their relationship. She had yet to propose to her, but how was she going to do it and when?

She knew it wasn't an ideal proposal, but Jane grabbed the ring from her bag and slipped it on Maura's finger. Their tormentor was gone and it was now time to revive Maura. His face may have been the last thing she saw before she passed out, but she wanted the ring to be her very first sight once she woke up. Jane had kept her promise and Maura was safe.

…or so she had thought.