Hey guys. I know it took me longer than I thought but my private life and university took away my muse, but she returned last night^^. So I hope you all enjoy this. Mary.

Chapter 3

It was a weird feeling being out of the hospital for good. Not that she had been allowed to leave it on the weekends to visit her family or her comrades but Jane had refused to leave. She was so out for getting everything past that she requested not to get visitors or leave.

Now Jane was walking along a river. It wasn't a big one like the Mississippi but it could be called a river though. Sweat had formed on her forehead and was running down her back from exertion but she refused to take a break.

After leaving the bus station in Nashville she had grabbed a map from the tourist center and looked out for the next train rail or river. It always took you somewhere. So she started to follow the rail line until it crossed with a river. To come through Nashville wasn't that hard. It wasn't a million people city and reading maps to find an out wasn't something she had forgot. She had been used to getting asked for a ride by several cars driving by her rout but she had always declined. She knew what they saw in her. A veteran, a hero. But nothing of that fitted Jane Rizzoli. She self thought of her as a coward. She couldn't save her comrades life's over there. She shouldn't be treated with respect and kindness.

After over half a day of walking she decided that it was a time for a break. The bus ticket had only been sixty dollars, so she had been able to get some food and water for the next two days. When Jane passed the river on the rail line, she decided to follow the river. She knew, from the map that it would take her back to Nashville or to a small town called Ashland City. So it was obvious that she was headed westbound. After the sun had crashed and she could see the stars in the sky above her she decided to rest for the night. It also seemed difficult to walk with the prosthesis through undergrowth. So she made a small fire to get a little warm, grabbed her filthy blanket and covered herself as good as possible. She didn't take off her prosthesis though which was to be a big mistake.

The next morning Jane was woken by the sun streaming through the trees dancing on her tanned skin. She stretched herself, yawned loudly and got up to grab all her belongings. The deer, she hadn't even noticed only a few yards from her stormed off caused by Jane's sudden movements. She smiled to herself packed away her blanket and got up, ignoring the sharp pain in her residual limp. She had suffered long from phantom limp pain, so she shrugged it off as exactly this.

It was beautiful day and Jane enjoyed the freedom being alone for the first time in over a year. She took her time to let her gaze wander over the beautiful landscape she passed while traveling along the river. When the sun stood high upon her she decided for a break and a short nap. She really was exhausted from all exertion by walking all day long.

When she came around she noticed the pain was growing stronger and a sheen of sweat had spread on her forehead. She just shook her head, cursed herself for being such a wimp and got up. She had to make it to the next town. She needed money. And there for she needed work. So she gritted her teeth and limped along the river.

The sun had started declining and a cold wind blew around Jane when she came by a farm. The lights were off and she cursed. But then she noticed a barn, well one of the barns and she made her way over to it. She tiptoed, as possible as it was, past the big oak in the center of the yard across the set up playground into the barn.

She silently closed the door and looked around. She smiled and shook her head. It wasn't the one you stored your machines and tools but the animals, to be exact, horses. She could make out at least 5 boxes with horses. So she decided to enter the last one on the left side assuming that it was empty. She entered it, let her duffle back pack fall to the ground and was startled when a warm wet thing touched her arm. She turned around and chuckled when she saw a filly standing next to her.

"So you live here." she whispered and petted the filly's head. "Mind if I crash here tonight?" she asked and sat down in the warm hay. The filly dropped next to Jane and nudged her arm with its head. She smiled and started stroke the filly's soft fur until she dozed off.

The Parker's pregnant mare had started to foal early this morning and it took Maura and Louise the whole day to get her filly out. It hadn't been a complicated birth at all but the little one had took his time to make an arrival. Emma had come from school early because Miss Henderson had been called in sick. She had joined her mother shortly after dropping of her school bag at home. She liked helping her mother out and it was her dream to become a animal doctor when she grown, like her mother.

It was after eight o'clock in the evening when the three Isles women came home, exhausted and starving.

"Emma, would you mind feeding the horses? They hadn't anything since this morning." her Nana said and prepped some sandwiches, while Maura cleaned her tools.

"'Corse." Emma piped in and hopped from the kitchen counter to take off to the barn. She was out of sight when her mother, toweling her hands, stepped on the porch and added "And please tell me how the filly is." Maura chuckled when she heard her daughter squeal in consent.

"I'm so glad that the Parker's mare didn't die on me today" Maura sighed and dropped on one of the chairs. Louise placed a mug of tea in front of her. "Supper is ready any minute."

Outside, Emma entered the barn with a bucket full of apples and carrots and switched on the lights. The three stallions and the two mares where standing in their boxes all glancing at the little girl with the bucket. She entered every box carefully, like her mother had taught her, and poured some of the food into the big feeding dishes. When she entered the last box to give the filly the remains she suddenly dropped the bucket and suppressed a scream. She backed against the wall and slowly, not to startle the sleeping woman in front of her, exit the box to take off towards the house.

"Mommy" she screamed as she run over the yard towards the porch. The two women exit the house startled by that scream. Emma stopped in front of her mother.

"Mommy" she said, trying to catch her breath. "There is a woman in the box with Lilly." Lilly was Emma's name for the little filly one of the mares had given birth to weeks ago. Maura looked down at her daughter in misbelieve and then at her grandmother.

"What do you mean a woman?" Maura asked and let the little girl drag her to the barn.

"She is in the box with Lilly and she is, I think, sleeping." Emma explained excited about her discovery. Maura only frowned and stepped into the still enlightened barn.

"Just be careful dear." Louise whispered behind her. "Maybe she is dangerous."

"Well she looks like daddy when he came back..." Emma said and looked up to her mother. "She is a soldier." the little girl said matter-o-factly and pointed her finger at the last stall.

Maura, still taken aback by her daughters words about her father, shook her head and went straight to the last stall and opened its door. What she saw was pleasant and shocking at the same time. In front of her lay a beautiful dark haired woman in her combat dress curled up next to the filly slightly trembling.

"She didn't wake up when I entered." Emma said from behind her mother. Maura crouched down in front of the woman and gently touched her leg.

"Excuse me Miss." she said slightly shaking the beautiful woman. Maura immediately noticed that something was wrong. She shook her again but this time more forcefully. "Miss." she tried once again. She stepped a little closer to the sleeping form only to notice the heat radiating from her and the sweaty forehead. She turned around to Louise.

"We have to get her to the house." Maura said and shooed the filly away from the soldier. The older women stepped in front of Emma to enter the stall.

"What's the matter she asked her granddaughter not very pleased with the idea of a stranger in the house.

"This woman has a fever , a high one. We need to help her." Maura said and grabbed the shoulders of the woman to role her onto her back. She gasped at what she saw. A angry red but fading scar from her left eye over her cheek to the chin. The woman groaned in discomfort and Maura mentioned for her grandmother to help.

Louise grabbed the soldier in her back of her knees only to notice something hard and cold through the material of the pants. She shook her head and the two woman carried her slowly out of the stall.

"Emma, please open the front door, clear the bed in the guest bedroom and get me some cold water and fresh towels, would you honey?" Maura asked her daughter and the little girl took off.

Louise and Maura slowly carried the limp woman into the bedroom and placed her in the bed. Emma had done as she had been told and cleaned the sheets. Louise stood at the end of the bed and observed the woman in front of her. She definitely was a soldier, a marines, now she saw the combat dress in better light and an injured one as well, she thought looking at the scar in that woman's face. Maura unbuttoned the shirt to reveal a white t shirt underneath, soaked through by sweat.

"Nana help me undress her." Maura said without turning around.

"Why do you undress her at all?" Louise asked still skeptical about the stranger appearance. She loved her granddaughter for her great heart but that got her in trouble for more than one time. Maura turned around at her frowning.

"I know what you think, but this woman needs help and this isn't just a cold that causes this fever. Maybe she's injured or was some time ago and it didn't heal properly..." Maura trailed off as she noticed her Nona's features soften.

"Okay." she said and took a seat on the other side of the bed. The both slowly started to undress the unconscious woman. Emma came back with clean towels and a bowl of cold water. She placed it on the bedside table only to get her mother's doctor's bag. Although Maura was a veterinarian she knew she could help this woman.

When She had peeled her out of the Jacket she gasped at what she could only describe as perfectly healed burn scars. She slightly let her fingers linger over the left arm. The woman trembled under the touch and Maura pulled away. Louise had just finished with the right boot when she turned to the left. She pulled up the trouser and gasped in shock. What she saw was a steal prosthesis. Maura had turned around only to manage the same reaction.

"Oh my..." she whispered and she and her grandmother managed to get the boots and the pants of the still trembling and whimpering woman.

Maura immediately knew where the fever came from. If she recalled correct, at least that's how it was with animals, if a residual limp wasn't healed properly and you wore the prosthesis longer than a day, there was a risk of infection.

"That poor thing." Louise said as she had pealed of the pants completely. What they saw shocked them a little bit. That woman was an above knee amputee with burn scars and a facial scar. She must have endured a lot in this ridicules war. Maura touched the upper left thigh and started to undo the prosthesis.

"Could you..." she said and Louise understood right away. She peeled of the shirt off the raven-haired women only to reveal more burn scars. She just shook her head. This war was so cruel. How could she had survived all of this, she asked herself not really believing in God.

Maura noticed and squeezed her eyes shout. How much pain this woman must have been in she thought and placed the now freed and angry red limb back on the bed. She knew it.

"Could you get me an IV and some antibiotics." she said to the older woman not looking up.

"But those are for animals. She is..." but Maura cut her off.

"You can use them on any kind of living, the dose is important. And she needs fluids." Louise nodded and left the room only to come back with an IV bag, a syringe and the antibiotics.

While Louise smeared some cream on the red scar on the limb and dressing it with a bandage, Maura set the IV and gave her a dose of medication. The woman whimpered under the unknown touch but didn't wake at all. When they were finished Louise gathered their stuff together but stopped at the door.

"I'm gonna get Emma to bed you should eat something." she said and gently touched Maura's shoulder on her way out. Yes she would eat when she knew this woman wasn't in any discomfort anymore. She pulled the sheets up to the chin and renewed the cold washcloth on the woman's forehead. Maura gently stroke her cheek and leaned back in her old rocking chair. Who was this poor woman and what story was written on her mangled body? Maura sighed and closed her eyes. Maybe she was soon to find out.

"Sleep tight." she whispered.

You know the drill. Reviews^^