Vince stares at the picture of a pregnant Jane. That was not something he had ever envisioned, not even in his wildest dreams. He stares at the picture, and he wonders who took it. She doesn't smile at the camera. She doesn't even look at the camera. Her hands rest on her stomach. She stares at her stomach. He could never imagine his former partner, pregnant.
Frost stares at the picture of the newborn. A baby with a head-full of thick dark hair. A sleeping, innocent baby, that looks too much like Jane. This had to all be a dream. It couldn't be real. She couldn't have a kid. He would know. She would have told him. Where was the kid, now? How old would it be? Jane stares at the birth certificate. It's upside down, not that it mattered. She had it memorized. Name, birth date, time of birth, birth weight. Parents. She knew it all, by heart. It was a heavy burden to carry, all of these years.
Vince looks up at her, with a look of betrayal. She feels his eyes on her, but she doesn't look up.
"Why didn't you tell us?"
"I couldn't," she responds in a small voice.
"Jane keep going," Frost begs.
August 24th, 2004
She stares at the baby in silence. She holds him close to her, as the nurse enters the room. She stops at Jane's bedside, but she doesn't say a thing. She knows to be patient.
"You can take him now," Jane informs her.
The nurse nods, and takes the baby from her. She gently places the newborn into the basinet.
"Are you sure about this?" the nurse asks.
Jane shakes her head. The tears trail down her face, "No. I don't want to do this."
"Ok," she agrees, handing the baby back to Jane.
October 24th, 2004
She reaches for the phone, trying to answer it, before it wakes the baby. She holds the baby in one arm, and reaches for the phone, with the other.
"Hello?" she answers.
"I see you," he taunts.
"How did you get this number?"
"I can't name my sources," he warns.
"Don't call here again."
"Jane, don't hang up. I want to talk to you."
"I have nothing to say to you."
"I saw you in the park today."
She doesn't respond.
"With a beautiful baby. I am assuming it's mine."
"You don't know what you're talking about."
"Why else would you move away? You didn't want anyone to know. You didn't want me to know. I'm hurt Jane. Do you really think that I would hurt my own child?"
"Don't call here anymore. Leave us alone."
"Do you ever think about me?"
"No."
"I bet you will tonight."
"Why would I do that?"
"You'll be lying in bed, with the baby across the hall. You'll lie there, and wonder if I could have snuck in, without you hearing me. I could come in through the window, by the crib, and take the baby, and you'd never know. You'd be asleep. You wouldn't know, until morning. By then I'd be long gone."
She hangs up the phone. She grabs her gun, her cell phone, and the diaper bag. She locks the door, as she leaves the apartment. She secures the baby in the back seat, and speeds away. Twenty minutes later, she stops at a hotel. She checks in, under a false identity, and locks herself in the room.
She sits down on the bed with the sleeping baby, and the phone rings. She assumes it's the front desk, so she answers it.
"Hello?"
"You can't run Jane. You can't keep him safe, from me. If I want him, I'm going to have him. Understood?"
She hangs up. She grabs her things, and leaves the room. She drives all night, into the morning. She finds herself, somewhere in Ohio. She stops at an adoption agency.
"And the calls stopped?" Vince asks.
"I thought that I could keep him safe. I thought that it was the only way I could protect him," she answers.
Frost touches her hand, gently. She looks over at him.
"You don't have to justify yourself to us."
"The calls stopped. I didn't hear for him. I moved home, and everything was ok. At least, as ok, as it could be. Then about a year later I started getting pictures. I thought at first that it was the adoptive parents. But they were taken from a distance. Then I realized that both of the adoptive parents were in the picture. I contacted the agency. They moved. They've moved at least every three months since then. He always finds him."
"Your motive to kill Nicholas. To keep him safe?" Vince probes.
"He has a name. It's Owen," Jane answers.
"You never told anyone?"
She shakes her head, "Not even my mother." She flips open the folder. She files through the papers, and pictures, to the back. She hands it to them. "Last time, this came with the picture," she reveals laying out the picture, and the piece of paper.
Frost reads it aloud, "'This time, I'm going for him, myself. It's time to meet my son, don't you think, Jane? Wait, you wouldn't want that, would you? You don't want him to know how you abandoned him. You gave him away, like a pair of old shoes. You didn't want him. I'm sure you don't want him to know that. How are you going to protect him this time? By the time that you get this it'll be too late.' When did you get this?"
"I got it yesterday. I found it in the mail when I got home, yesterday."
"He wanted us to think you killed him," Vince shakes his head.
"I didn't. I wanted him dead, but I would never kill him."
"Why not? You've killed before," Frost's cop instincts take over.
"One day Owen is going to want to meet me. I don't want to have to explain to him why I'm in prison. I don't want to have to tell him that I killed his father. I'm not ok with that."
"Jane?"
"Hm?" she looks up at Vince.
"Why didn't you ever go get him?" Frost questions.
"How could I keep him safe? On my own?"
"You're not on your own. You have people to help you."
"People who will look at me, the way you two are looking at me right now. They'll feel betrayed. They won't understand."
"I understand. You wanted to protect him," Frost reassures her.
"But I can't even do that. I never wanted kids. I always said that. When he was born, I realized that I would do anything for him. I would do anything to protect him. If I had to move away from my friends, my family, and my job, to do that, then I would. But I couldn't do it. I couldn't protect him. I thought that if I gave him up for adoption, that I could protect him. It was a closed adoption. I didn't think that Nick would find him."