Author's Note: If you've been reading this story all along, you already know the drill - it's dark and there is 'main character death' even though she doesn't actually die. Also I don't own Rizzoli & Isles, the quote, or the song contained within. (Go figure.)

CHAPTER THREE: YOU WIN. YOU WON.

"It's strange how dreams get under your skin and give your heart a test for what's real and what's imaginary." ~Jason Mraz

Jane marked the day Maura went from a friend to her family by a dream, too.

Jane struggled against the rope bonds that kept her firm against the arms and legs of chair, trying to get free, when she noticed the window and the sobbing medical examiner on the other side of the pane of glass. Jane renewed her efforts, desperate to get free, to save Maura.

With one last fierce twist, causing a rope burn that bled slightly, Jane got free of her bonds, only to find she was in a white room with no escape – no doors, no air vents, nothing but the glass window. She heard a whoosh and turned with apprehensions. White gas began billowing into the room behind Maura. Jane pounded her fist against the glass, and for the first time Maura looked at her. "Jane?" Her voice shook.

"Maura, Maura, can you hear me? Can you see me?" The blonde nodded. "Okay, Maura, I need you to try and get free, okay?"

Maura shook her head. "I can't."

Jane placed both palms against the glass. "Yes. Yes, you can. I know you can. Just keep twisting your arm okay, and try to get a few centimeters out."

The woman started crying again. "I can't, Jane." She twisted feebly, and Jane could finally see why Maura couldn't get free – her bonds were far tighter than Jane's had been. "I can't get free."

"Okay, Maura. I want you to breathe, okay. Try and calm down, okay?" Jane looked at the gas behind Maura's head. There was more of it, and Jane didn't know how much longer she had. "I'm coming, Maur." She realized this was the first time she had called the doctor anything other than Dr Isles or Maura, but the nickname felt right for them. "Maur, I'm coming, okay?" More sobs sounded, and Jane knew she had to get Maura to calm down.

As Jane searched her room for an exit, she started speaking. "Okay, Maura, remember that day we met? Yeah? You thought I was a prostitute, remember? I remember I couldn't believe this woman had just put on gloves to hand me money and honestly thought I was a prostitute." Jane ran her hands along the edges of the window, searching for a crack. There was none. "It was flattering, honestly. I had thought I was doing a terrible job of actually blending into the "street" crowd. The guys were giving me so much crap over it. And here you were, in the middle of the department, not realizing I was a detective despite the fact I was in the precinct's cafe. It wasn't until later I realized – what with your attire – you probably didn't have much to compare me to."

Maura had stopped crying, and instead was smiling lightly. "You seemed a little over confident for a street walker, that's true. I just figured…"

"The clothes fit. I know. I'm still surprised you made the assumption though, didn't have to find out all the facts first." Jane's voice was teasing, but her actions betrayed her nervousness. She was running her hands up every inch of wall, trying to find a purchase of some type. She suddenly realized that if there were no air vents in this room – it wasn't just Maura who was in danger of dying. She'd suffocate too.

She turned to look at Maura, tried to calculate how thick the pane of glass was. "Okay, Maura. Here's the deal. Don't be worried, okay? But I'm going to try and break the glass. You good?" She waited for the blonde to nod at her before she grabbed the chair where she had been tied up and hurdled it at the mirror. The glass didn't even shake on impact, but the chair shattered. Jane couldn't help exclaiming, "DAMN IT!" Maura cowered, folding in on herself, a sob sounding from her lips. Jane admonished herself, knowing that in order to keep Maura calm. "Hey, Maur, don't worry, okay? I'm working on this."

Another sob reverberated, and Jane searched for something to calm down the doctor. She smiled through the glass as an idea occurred. She hummed the first bars of an inside joke – the song she had put on as Maura closed during a particularly hard autopsy, singing it to the dead body on the table.

Maura smiled when she picked up the tone. "What makes you beautiful?" Jane nodded. "I can't believe you."

Jane started lightly singing the song from the beginning, looking around her room in a last ditch attempt to notice something she missed. "You're insecure, don't know what for, you're turning heads when you walk through the door…"

And then she saw it: the camera that inched out of the wall for the first time. It was out of Maura's sight, on the same wall as the window, and she didn't want to call attention to it yet. She turned back to the medical examiner, who was whispering the words along with her singing, as though they were a life line. "Everyone else in the room can see it, everyone else but you…"

She narrowed her eyes at the camera, and then looked to Maura. "Can you keep humming that for me?" Maura lightly hummed the chorus. Jane moved out of the window and looked up at the camera. She tried to harden her face, but she couldn't disguise the pleading tone in her voice. "What do you want from me? I'll give you anything. Let her go. I know you want me and not her – don't hurt her." The camera tilted a little, mimicking a person's cocked head, and she couldn't help the swear that escaped her lips. "You sick fuck." Seemingly from nowhere, a note appeared, floating down from the ceiling. Jane grabbed it and read it. "You're not going to win this one." She looked back at the camera, bristling. "I am. I'm going to get free and save her, just you see."

She checked back on Maura, who was caught in an endless loop of the chorus. When she saw Jane, she looked up with panic. "I can't remember the next verse." She was breathless by the end of her exclamation, and Jane could see that Maura was having a harder time breathing.

"Maura, okay, listen to me, just breathe, okay? Don't worry about the song. Just listen to my voice, okay?" She took a deep breath, ignoring the voice in her head telling her that she was just using up her own air more quickly. "Remember the case last week? We came across that terrible mangled carcass, and you were able, from that mess, to determine the sex of the victim? That was amazing. I didn't tell you that then, but we were all so impressed. Korsak said you saved our ass on that one. Then you managed to figure out her profession and it was… it was incredible, Maur." Maura's lips were turning blue, and Jane was panicking, trying to keep her alive just through the force of her love for her friend. "You're incredible, Maura. I've never had a friend like you – one who would tolerate me, who would challenge me, who was so smart and so caring all at once. Come on, you've got to hold on, okay?" Maura couldn't respond, and Jane knew she had only seconds.

A second piece of paper fluttered in front of her face. She grabbed it and read the note, the same message again: "You're not going to win this one."

She turned to the camera, her palms still pressed against the glass, as though she could fall through and breathe life into Maura. With a deep breath, she spoke. "I know. But kill me instead. Let her go. You win. But please, just let her live." She stood up taller. "You win. You won."

And she cried as she saw the white gas retreat from Maura's chamber, as the blonde stirred. She cried when she saw the bonds fall from Maura's wrists and a door appear in the wall behind her. "Oh thank God," Jane exhaled, as the white gas began pumping into her room, a note fluttering down with it. "She'll be safe forever when you're gone." Jane smiled. "Good," she whispered.

She looked up into the window to see Maura's face pressed against it. "Jane? Jane, come on!"

Jane stood on shaky legs to face Maura, putting her palm over her friend's on the glass. "Hey you." Her voice oozed acceptance. It was steady, resigned.

"Jane, come on! You have to fight." Maura's voice caught.

"Hey, Maur. It's okay. But you need to go, okay?" Maura shook her head, a frantic sob. "Maur, think about it this way. I can't get free – you can see that – but maybe you could get to people who get me out." Jane knew there wasn't a chance in hell, but she didn't want Maura to watch her die. "Come on, Maur. Go get them, okay? Go save yourself so our family doesn't have to bury both of us."

Maura looked at her uncertainly. "Jane…"

She mustered all her strength. "Maura! Go now!" And the blonde turned and ran. On the white wall she saw the outcome reflected: Maura escaping from the wearhouse, Maura rushing into Korsak's arms, being hugged by Ma at a family dinner, marrying a good man, having a child, dying at an old age after a good life… Jane smiled. On her last exhale, she spoke the words she knew she had to in order to keep Maura safe. "You won."

Jane could lose, she could die, because Maura lived.

Her body fell to the floor, a smile still on her face. A jarring sound reverberated through the small room that held her body, shaking the walls. It had that hint of familiarity – and with a jolt, Jane woke up. Her cell phone was blaring dispatch's ringtone. She groaned as she reached over to pick it up. "Rizzoli." She listened as dispatch gave her an address. "Alright. ETA 20 minutes. Thanks." Hanging up, she got dressed and drove to the scene.

Walking into the park, she spotted Maura and Korsak already hovering over the body. Frost was on the phone, a wallet in hand. She nodded to her partner who waved slightly. "Hey Korsak, Maur, what do we have here?"

Maura looked up, face surprised. "Maur?"

Jane shrugged. "The nickname came to me in a dream." Maura still seemed to need more of an explanation. "If you're gonna be a part of this family, you needed a nickname. Hence Maur."

Maura quietly spoke. "I've never had a nickname before." A smile spread across her face.

Jane felt a warmth inside of her at the broad smile on her friend's face. She was glad to bring this sense of normalcy to Maura's life. "Now you can't say that anymore! Now tell me, Maur, what do we have?" As Maura described the evidence she had discovered so far, Jane realized what the dream meant. Maura was so much more than a friend – she was family. Permanent. Important.

And Jane would do anything for her.

Author's Note: Yes I'm a little embarrassed the quote was Jason Mraz, but IT WORKED SO WELL. (Also embarrassed about the song, but not gonna lie... it's so cute to think of Jane using "What Makes You Beautiful" in such a tense moment.)

Let me know what you think! I welcome constructive criticism. :)