Chapter Ten

As Jane was pulled out of the car, Maura's terror lodged itself fully in her throat, preventing her from uttering nothing more than a gargled cry. The drive had been agonizing, but the sudden separation seemed more violent than anything she had been subjected to in the car. As the front door slammed shut, effectively cutting off the last semblance of connection she had to Jane, she elbowed Brad hard, lunging forward. "No!" she managed, desperation hitching her voice a note higher, and she kicked at the door with her good leg, fumbling it open and spilling out into the pebble-strewn grass.

Jane turned at the sudden scuffle, jerking forward as Maura tumbled out of the car, but Brad bolted behind her in a second, pulling her up and wrangling her against him. Maura struggled, despair sucking dry any will she had left to cooperate with their captors. Jane recognized the ferociousness; it was born out of resigned fear and sheer desperation, and she wished she could do something to quell it. She wasn't so certain they would get lucky with a just a warning gunshot this time.

"Jesus, Brad," Ted muttered, a hand still clamped firmly around Jane's bicep. "She's barely bigger than a minute, and you can't keep her under control?"

"I'm coming with her," Maura said matter of factly, her voice matching the fire in her eyes. Jane tried to siphon her gaze towards her, if only to help calm her, but Maura was fixed solely on Ted, daring him to deny her.

"You weren't invited," Ted snapped back at her, tugging Jane toward the warehouse.

Jane put up a slight resistance, digging the heels of her feet into the ground. "Can I have a second with her?" she requested, intentionally keeping her voice feeble. Ted liked to feel that he was in charge, otherwise he wouldn't have wasted so much time railing against his younger partner, and Jane was fine playing into his fantasy if it got her what she wanted. She morphed her expression into one more vulnerable, her eyes imploring him. "Just give me a moment with her. Please."

He didn't remove his hand from around her arm, but loosened his grip enough for her to pull out of it and take a quick step toward Maura, who wrestled herself away from the arm snaked around her chest. Brad's gun, however, was still trained firmly at her head, and Jane imagined Ted had adopted the same stance behind her. That didn't stop her from focusing wholly on their stolen moment, and she reached forward, taking Maura's cuffed hands in her own. "We'll get out of this this," she said lowly, angling her head so as to impose as much privacy as she could on their hurried words.

Maura's hardened expression crumbled, her strength seemingly caving in on itself. "I'm coming with you," she protested.

Jane didn't like the thought of being apart from Maura, not even for a moment, but she also knew that the blonde was the only thing she had to lose, which had kept her from attempting anything risky. If they were separated, she may just have a chance at saving both of them. "No," she said, shaking her head. "I'm going alone."

Maura blanched at the refusal, as if the words were some sort of betrayal. "Yes," she pressed, her eyes searching Jane's. "We've come this far together."

Jane reached up, cupping Maura's face with both hands and letting her thumbs trace the dried tear tracks along her cheeks. "I love you," she said quietly. "And they know that. I'm going to get us out of this, but I can't have them use you as leverage."

Maura's shoulders shook as she bit her lower lip, attempting to keep her sobs sidled safely inside of her. "I don't want you to be alone in there," she insisted. "I want to be with you." Her voice finally crumbled in the same manner that her face had, trailing off into a small, quiet whimper as she dipped her head, squeezing her eyes shut. A light tremble passed through her as a tear trailed down her cheek, pooling at Jane's thumb.

"Maur, look at me," Jane pleaded. Maura slowly opened her eyes, the sunlight magnifying the loss inside them. Jane struggled to keep her voice from wavering, and instead lowered it to just above a whisper. "They haven't won yet. Remember that."

Maura nodded, her brow creasing and the corners of her mouth turned downward in a deep, encompassing frown. Jane had a visceral need to erase that forlorn expression and lift it into a smile. She had every intention of making it out of the warehouse alive, but she needed to see Maura as she had that afternoon in the middle of Whole Foods: a smile glowing brightly up at her, a world of new possibility in front of them. She let her forehead rest against Maura's, her lips already smiling at the memory. "Remember, breast friends forever."

Maura's face blossomed at the recollection, her eyes brightening with an unemcombered, shaky laugh. The idea that a simple rememberence could bring her so much joy under such a crushing weight of reality surprised her, and it disintegrated almost as soon as it began. "I love you," she said, her eyes serenely clear.

Jane leaned down, letting her lips graze Maura's. "I'll hold you to that when I get back," she said almost playfully, but her brown eyes darkened with honesty. "I love you, too," she murmured, sealing her words inside of Maura with a second desperate kiss.

"Alright," Ted grunted, taking a step forward and jerking Jane toward him. "I can watch this type of shit on the internet all day long without the drama. Let's go." He glanced at Brad, thumbing his nose at Maura. "Think you can handle this little one until I get back?"

Brad took a step forward in response, his face twisted in a grimace, and he jerked Maura back by her hair, eliciting a surprised yelp of pain from her. Jane's lower lip crumbled, and she glared at him, again tasting blood as she bit the inside of her cheek. As Ted yanked her forward, she stumbled momentarily, unable to keep from glancing over her shoulder and giving Maura a small, assuring nod. She would be back.

Maura felt a silent sob beginning to split her chest, but she reigned it in as she felt Brad's gun edge its way down her back. She let her legs collapse underneath her, grateful that he didn't try to hold her up. As she watched Jane disappear into a door along the right side of the building, she was filled with a reckless despair that seemed to stretch through her, almost rooting her to the ground.

"I don't like crying," Brad said, pacing in front of her, his gun by his side. "You're ruining the ambience."

Hatred coiled inside her, and as she looked up at him she felt it spring upward with a power that unnerved her. She kept her eyes squarely on the gun he tapped against the side of his cargo pants. If Jane was going to take a risk inside the warehouse, then she could do the same. The condition of her leg would limit her ability to physically over power him; as always, she would have to resort to using her brain.


A dank smell greeted Jane as she was pushed into the warehouse, the door reverberating shut in the large, mostly vacant space. A small office was tucked away in one corner, merely a desk surrounded by three glass walls. A far wall along the back hid what looked to be shelves filled with cannisters, spare parts, and a few other knicknacks she could only suppose helped with whatever they were storing in the large, cylindrical tanks outside. Stairs lead to a second floor loft, where footsteps echoed on the tiled floor. Moore looked down at her with a wide, welcoming smile as he walked down the steps, clapping his hands. "Well, well, Detective Rizzoli. I must say you staged a grand exit that last time we were together."

She glared up at him. "You tell me what you want and you'll get it, but you're going to have to let Dr. Isles go."

As he approached her, he glanced toward the door with a comprehending nod. "Ah," he said. "Dr. Isles. A brilliant mind gone to waste, if you ask me. But we might get something out of her yet."

Ted moved somewhere behind her and Jane struggled to make sense of the space around her. If she wanted to get out of it alive, she needed to understand it. So far, she had only spotted the one door that she had entered through, but imagined there was a second hiding behind the back wall. If ever she had needed an emergency exit, now seemed like the time. "Quite an operation you've got here," she observed, nodding toward a narrow window that looked out at the large tanks. "Much larger scale than those darling little boring wells at the reservoir."

Moore nodded, glancing around the building with a flourish of his hand, as if showing off a new home. "Don't worry, we've got some here as well. Too bad you couldn't visit during a normal working day, and really see how things work. But I like to keep this unfortunate part of the business between a select group of trusted colleagues."

"Glad I could be a part of the VIP crowd," Jane quipped. The banter came easily; after all, it was the only thing keeping her alive. She felt Ted move behind her, and she took a small step backwards, wanting to widen the range of her vision. "If I'm VIP, why don't you be a gracious host and take these off?" she asked casually, raising her bound hands.

Moore eyed her carefully, but didn't respond, prompting Jane to roll her eyes. "What, do I look like I'm in a position to go all She-Hulk on you?" she asked incredulously, nodding toward the guns that both of them held. "You two clearly have the upper hand here. I'd just like my circulation back."

Moore grinned, nodding at Ted and motioning toward her wrists. "We're all dignified people." His eyes flashed towards Jane with a sudden venom. "Although I doubt lack of blood flow is going to be a problem for you in about ten minutes."

Jane grimaced as Ted rounded in front of her, grabbing her hands as he sliced through the plastic wire. As soon as she had both hands free, she acted quickly, darting a hand directly at his nose. The loud, sudden crack was rewarding, but not as much as it would have been had she had the opportunity to do the same to Brad. He lunged angrily towards her, but Moore intervened, grabbing him and pulling him back with a strong arm. "Don't worry, Teddy, she'll regret that soon enough."

Jane smiled warmly at the newly injured man, pleased with her handiwork as a line of blood ran steadily from his nose, but she was even more grateful for what came next. "Go get cleaned up," Moore said, eyeing the red drops decorating Ted's shirt. "You don't want to miss all the fun."

Ted brushed roughly past her, but she swallowed her grin as his footsteps echoed behind her. She heard the swing of a door and her pulse quickened with adrenaline. If she was going to act, it would have to be now. One on one was a much better game of odds for her.


Outside, Maura watched as Ted loped away from her toward a bush just off the side of the drive. He brushed its leaves before plucking a few red berries off of its branches and holding them up into the sunlight. A new possibility flickered haphazardly in her brain, much like the static voices on the radio, and she worked to quickly tease it out, realizing her time was limited.

"If I were you," she said nervously, finally acknowledging him, "I would make sure those aren't poisonous."

Brad glanced down at her, then at the berries settled in the palm of his hand. "These aren't poisonous," he said, dismissing her, but she caught his hesitation and decided to use it.

"Are you certain?" she asked. "The actaea pachypoda bush grows wild along the Western interior of Massachusetts. It's the same berry that killed explorer John Angiosos in 1988 and has been known to cause cardiac arrest in even the smallest amounts. You should check to make sure it doesn't have a viscous skin." As the dubious look in his eyes flickered into full uncertainty, she pressed him further. "Does your knowledge of plantlife resemble your knowledge of business? If so, then I would think twice. Or else Ted will simply have another reason to dismiss you."

"You're a know-it-all, aren't you?" he demanded, walking over to her, berries in one hand and gun in the other. "You know what, how about you test them out for me," he suggested, extending his arm toward her.

He was only a couple of feet from her, but she needed him closer if she was going to successfully execute her next move, and she shook her head, politely declining. "No thank you."

He did exactly as she hoped, leaning forward with a menacing stare, ready to force the berries down her throat. She took a chance, raising her good leg and slamming her stiletto heel into his groin. He let out a pained moan, in a pitch higher than she thought him capable of, and fell to his knees, the gun dropping. He reached weakly for it, but Maura beat him to it, scrambling to her knees and pointing it directly at him. As he fell onto his side, his face wrenched in agony, she made quickly for the car a few steps away and reached into the glove compartment, searching for a pair of nail clippers she kept there. Keeping her eye on Brad, who was still writhing on the ground a few feet in front of her, she used the small blade to slice quickly through her bonds. The air stung her chafed wrists, but she kept both of her hands on the gun, still aiming it towards her former assailant.

"Fuck," Brad exhaled, sitting up, but as he eyed Maura's outstretched hands, the irony of his situation struck him with a pained laugh. "Something tells me you've never shot a gun before," he said, his lip twitching. Maura could see him mentally calculate the distance between them.

"I'm dating a cop," she answered, her eyebrow raising. "Do you really want to test that hypothesis?"


Inside the warehouse, Moore pegged Jane with a corrective, if somewhat amused eye. "I expected more than a sucker punch from you, Detective," he said, taking a step toward her. "That doesn't quite seem like your style."

"What can I say, I'm not as enlightened as you," she replied tersely, keeping her arms loosely at her sides. She wanted to keep him comfortable, hoping that at some point his confidence would make him sloppy.

"I always look forward to an enlightenment moment," Moore said. "Like today." He glanced down at the barrel of his gun, examining it with a thoughtful look. "I've thought about you and Dr. Isles a lot over the past two days. I've been waiting to see you again. Closure is important for a clear mind."

"What about a clear conscience?" Jane retorted, resisting the urge to run her thumbs across the scars on her palms, which were sweaty with apprehension. She had to find her window before Ted joined them again.

Moore aimed the gun at her, squinting one eye closed as he tried out various targets on her body, moving from her head, to her chest, to her gut. "My conscience is just fine," he answered. "Meditation helps with that."

Jane's eyes followed the gun only for a moment, but she pulled her gaze stubbornly away from it. "Don't feed me that yogi bullshit, or the rehab bullshit, or even the wastewater management bullshit. You've dug your own fucking grave here. With or without my testimony, we've got enough to put you away for a good thirty years."

He laughed, tilting his head as he studied her. "I don't think it's my grave I'm going to be digging today."

As he kept the gun trained squarely on her, Jane was far from a meditative state, her mind concentrated solely on the hollow of the barrel, which was pointed directly at her chest. Any quip she was about to offer back at Moore was cut short by a low growl from beneath them, as if the ground itself were murmuring. She raised a questioning eyebrow at him. "What the hell was that?" she asked, confusion overtaking her fear, if only for a moment.

For once, Moore's eyes were less confident, a small flicker of worry creasing his forehead as he brought the gun back to his side. "Ted!" he called, his tone taking on that of a manager rather than a murderer. Another brief rumble shuddered under them, and this time Jane took advantage of it, stepping forward and launching her fist directly into Moore's throat. He was caught off guard, and she used the brief instant to jab her hand down onto his arm, ripping the gun from his grasp. As she leveled her finger on the trigger, another grumble sounded beneath them, the walls vibrating lightly. A door slammed behind her, hurried footsteps echoing briefly before they stopped, and she turned, locking eyes with Ted, but he seemed more preoccupied with the tremble at their feet than with the fact that she held a gun pointed directly at him. Moore heaved breathlessly beside her, his hand still locked on his pulsing throat.

Whatever was going on, the two men seemed to know more about it than she did, and Jane only had to take in their horrified expressions before she put her legs into action. A hiss came from behind her, the sound of metal flicking against metal, and she lunged forward. Instinct propelled her, but not fast enough, and the back wall of the warehouse imploded in on her with a rupturing boom, staining her world with a sharp, fiery chaos.


Frankie skidded along the narrow road, following too closely behind the local squad car in front of him, and he hoped the officer in the gallon-size hat wouldn't suddenly decide to hit his brakes. His uniform was tight around his neck, to the point where he could feel his pulse knocking against it, and he reached up, ripping open the buttons of his collar. His heart raced as he caught sight of a group of cylindrical structures along the road ahead of him, and his foot hit the gas harder, veering around the patrol car and giving the driver a tactical signal to follow him. He recognized the Prius in the distance, and as they got closer, he saw Maura and a second man outside of it on the grass. His throat tightened. He didn't see Jane.

"Maura!" Angela cried, launching forward in her seat, but Frankie glowered over at her as his tires crunched to a halt halfway down the drive, and he turned to her, his eyes burning with urgency.

"Ma, you don't get out of this car until I tell you to, I mean it," he said, his voice harsh. "I need to do my job here."

She nodded, her eyes still locked on Maura. "Is that a gun?" she asked, squinting.


Maura heard the telltale sound of an engine, a euphoric, almost debilitating sigh rising in her, mimicking the trail of dust stirring along the car's path as it sped along the narrow road. "If I were you, I wouldn't move," she said to Brad. "They have much better aim than I do."

It was the rumble behind her that caught her attention next, and for a second she thought they were being surrounded by squad cars from all sides. She turned, her sudden relief trumped by a sinister feeling in the pit of her stomach as the ground trembled again beneath her feet. "What's going on?" she murmured.

Brad looked up at her, his face a mask of stone. "My educated guess would be a slight microearthquake coupled by a fractured pipeline and a compromised transformer." He shrugged nonchalantly, but his eyes darkened. "These things tend to happen from time to time."

Maura shook her head, registering the line of squad cars as they came to a stop halfway down the drive, the sudden silence overwhelming as Brad's explanation settled within her. Turning back to the warehouse, she took a subtle step forward, as if being pulled by a magnetic shift. She saw the explosion before she heard it, the sound traveling slower than the horrific image itself. As shards of glass and debris shot towards them, she was rocked backwards, the gun falling somewhere along the grass. Her ears rang as she tried to right herself, the world moving in disorienting slow motion as she heard voices cry out behind her. But only one thought riccoched through her brain as she clambered to her feet.

"Jane!" she screamed, the pain in her leg muffled by a fleeting sense of vertigo, but she kept lurching forward. She was barefoot, unsure of when she had slipped her shoes off, but conscious of the sharp gravel digging into the soles of her feet. Barely registering the sound of someone yelling her name, she ignored the howling pain in her leg as she limped faster toward the billowing smoke, heading for the door through which Jane had disappeared. The front side of the building was still partially intact, but the back of it had been blown clear through, leaving a gaping, jagged hole. Maura's lungs clogged as she choked on the dust that clouded her vision, and she coughed violently, her lungs feeling as if they were being pricked by small, minute spikes. "Jane!" she yelled, her voice thick in her throat.

The building felt as if it were alive and groaning, and Maura knew its structure could only hold for so long. "Jane," she called again, pressing forward, her eye catching a smoldering fire at the back of the building. She lowered herself onto her knees, relieving some of the pressure in her leg as she crawled forward. A grating sounded from behind her, and she lurched forward as a column crumbled sideways, blocking the door.

She heard a hacked cough, followed by the groan of her name, and she moved forward, her knees crunching broken glass beneath her. "Jane," she murmured as she caught sight of her a few yards ahead, her hair an ashen gray as it splayed behind her. Her upper left side was covered by a slab of steel and her forehead was bloody, but otherwise she was alert. Maura was able to move several pieces of small debris carefully from her legs, but the heavy piece on her side was immovable. She grunted with effort, her leg not helping her efforts much, and let out a frustrated cry as it didn't budge.

Jane found her voice, but it sounded far away to her, muffled by the ringing in her ears. "Maura, get out of here," she said, coughing. She heard the wrenching sounds of collapsing beams, the structure of the warehouse no longer able to withstand such force.

Maura heaved against the slab, her voice strained. "No," she uttered, her eyes raking over the debris that lay on top of her. "We can get you out of here."

Jane reached for her, touching her arm, at the very least grateful for the opportunity to do so again. "I don't know where anyone else is," she said. "Moore and Ted were in here, but there could have been more."

"I don't care about anyone else," Maura replied gravely, grunting again as she tried to lift the heavy piece of steel, tears welling from both the frustration and the dust. Jane winced at the slight shift, and let out a shaky exhale as its weight went full on her once again.

It was the crunch of footsteps that made her eyes widen, and she craned her head as much as her prone position would allow. She recognized Moore's tall, slim frame, which was all she had to go on, as the figure looming toward them was covered in an mix of dust, ash, and blood. Something shiny glinted in his hand, but Jane didn't give herself time to recognize the bar of steel for what it was, before she shouted a warning. "Maura, behind you!"

Maura instinctively turned, ducking as the bar swung at her. Fumbling on the ground, her fingers scraping over jagged metal, she felt something give, and she brandished a flat piece of metal, one end broken into a sharp point. As he came towards her again, she lunged forward and swiped at a deep wound on his thigh. He doubled over, and she used the opportunity to swing the metal slab against his head. He landed on his side, disturbing a fresh wave of dust, and lay unmoving as Maura clawed her way back to Jane.

"Jesus, I take back everything I said before about your batting stance," Jane remarked. Behind her, another loud wrenching sound echoed through the warehouse as the far wall arched in on itself. A piece of the upper floor groaned, wrenching downwards with a loud whine as it crashed down somewhere out of sight, floating dust and debris towards them. Jane looked up as Maura tried again to lift the steel off of her. "Listen to me, Maura, you have to get out of here," she said, hoping to keep her hysteria at bay. "This building isn't going to hold very long."

"I'm not leaving you," Maura vowed, her eyes looking around her for some sort of lever to use. She needed to use all of her weight if she was going to make the piece of steel budge.

"Maura!" Jane cried, her voice raw, and she reached for Maura's hand, squeezing it tightly. "Maura, listen to me, please," she pleaded, talking over the lump in her throat that was threatening to cut off her voice completely. "I need to know you're safe. Please get out of here. Do it for me, okay?"

Maura shook her head, fully aware that Jane's panic had more to do with her life than with the detective's own. "I'm not going anywhere." She glanced helplessly at the pile on top of her left half, rubbing an ashen hand across her forehead. "I just need a hinge of some sort," she muttered.

Jane shook her head, not wanting to let go of Maura's hand, but the blonde looked down at her, nodding with an earnestness all too recognizable. "I'm going to get you out of here."

She glanced down at the piece of metal she had picked used on Moore, limping over to it and wedging it between the ground and the large slab of steel that lay over Jane. "I'm going to try and counter the weight," she said. "If I lift it, can you roll out?"

"I can try," Jane replied as the landing directly above them gave an unpromising croak. "How much do you weigh again?" she asked nervously. If that landing came down, both of them would be trapped.

Maura didn't reply, instead glancing down at the piece that she had fitted just underneath the steel slab. "On the count of three?"

A piece of the upper floor fell somewhere behind Jane's head, and she shook her head sporadically, her eyes widening. "How about on the count of now?" she countered.

Maura nodded, her eyes flitting frighteninly up at the loft over them. Leaning onto the wedge, she heaved her weight onto it, managing to lift it only an inch or so. "Go!" she groaned, her leg screaming at her.

Jane wiggled her arm, ignoring the sound of crunching bone as she jerked it out with a halting cry, not caring that it hung limply at her side or that the entire left side of her body was searing with pain. Maura crashed back down, the slab falling back into place, disturbing a pool of settled ash. Jane let out a wrangled cry, attempting to get to her knees, but her vision blurred briefly, forcing her back against the ground.

"We have to get out of here," Maura panted, cringing as she pushed herself to her feet.

"Thank you, Dr. Obvious," Jane wheezed, taking in the destruction around her as she rose slowly to her feet, grimacing as her arm hung limply by her side. She could no longer see the front door, which had been blocked with part of the upper floor. Moore was still on the ground in front of them, but Ted was nowhere in sight. Another piece of steel plummeted toward the floor in front of them, and Jane used her good hand to guide Maura toward the back of the structure, which was now a pile of smoking, unsturdy rubble.

"Can you climb?" she asked Maura, taking in her bandaged leg, which was now covered with a new amalgamation of dirt and blood, the bandage slipping off her.

"I can climb trees," Maura answered, gritting her teeth as she managed to mount it. "I've never climbed debris."

"Trying new things is good for you," Jane returned, clenching her teeth as she helped Maura up with her good arm. They scaled the pile as quickly as their injured limbs would let them, the edged steel scraping their arms, elbows, and whatever exposed skin it could before they finally felt the scorched grass beneath them. They made their way over the scattered debris, each grunting in their own private pain. Maura collapsed, heaving, her leg finally giving out, and Jane came to a stop beside her, clutching her stomach as she coughed. They watched as the warehouse gave a last moaning screech, its parts scraping against one another like a million fingernails across a chalkboard, collapsing almost in slow motion, the dust wafting over the field, covering them.

"Maura! Jane!"

Jane's eyes narrowed, confusion curling her lips. "Is that my mother?" she asked, disbelievingly, squinting into the dusty air. "What the hell is she doing here?"

"Maura! Jane!"

This time Maura squinted discerningly. "I forgot to tell you. They're here to rescue us."

Frankie made it to them first, plummeting to his knees as he scanned their injuries. Angela was on them in a second, her face flushed with the effort of running, her expression still a mask of worry. "Are you girls okay?" she asked, her eyes fluttering over both of them in an attempt to absorb anything not right with their bodies. She knelt over Jane, her hands hovering over her as if afraid to touch her. "Janey, talk to me."

"Yes, Ma, I'm fine," Jane cringed, sweat beading across her ashen forehead. "I just feel like my entire body is a little broken, that's all." She gave Frankie a beleaguered grin. "You couldn't have gotten here just five minutes sooner?"

"Where's Moore?" he asked, glancing behind them at the smoldering building.

"Two guesses," Jane replied, pain thinning her voice to a low murmur.

"Where does it hurt?" Angela asked, reaching out to her.

"No!" Jane exclaimed, her voice hoarse with the effort as smoke and dust clogged her throat. Her side was throbbing, so much so that she doubted an extra touch from her mother would even matter, but she didn't need to try and up the pain quotient. "Don't touch, Ma."

Maura crawled over to her, slipping her blazer off her shoulders. "I think you broke your clavicle," she said, punctuating her words with a cough. "I can use this to make a sling. We've probably already jostled the acromion, but it will at least prevent any further grating." She fumbled with the fabric, her hands shaking so much so that her efforts were quickly moot.

Frankie leaned over, gently taking it from her. "Here, I can do it," he offered.

Angela put her arms on Maura's shoulders, helping her fully onto the ground and gently extending her leg along the grass. "Are you hurt anywhere else?" she asked, her eyeing the loosened, bloody bandage. "I think you may have popped most of your stitches."

Maura's eyes stayed locked onto Jane, monitoring Frankie's progress as he wrapped the blazer delicately over her injured arm. "I think her wrist may be sprained," she said worriedly.

"Thanks to you, she'll be fine," Angela replied, studying the blonde's creased forehead, worry permeating through her in a thin sheen of sweat. Behind that worry was an insatiably strong love, which Angela had noticed intermittently over the course of the girls' friendship, but never as unbridled and exposed as it was now. She extended an arm and pulled Maura into her, placing her lips on the crown of her head. "I'm so glad you're okay," she breathed.

Jane raised her head, attempting to right her body, but her shoulder screamed at her, overpowering her desire to see Maura, and to feel her in her own arms. As if sensing the need, Maura pulled away from Angela, scooting over to Jane and placing a calming hand on her side. "You're not missing anything," she said lightly. "Just stay there until we get a stretcher out here."

Jane nodded, her eyes closing briefly as she swallowed. "I'm going out on a limb here, and saying that I'm completely against fracking."

"Personal experience is known to be number one influencer of political decision-making," Maura offered, still slightly dazed.

"My shoulder hurts," Jane pointed out needlessly.

Maura frowned down at her, moving a piece of dark hair away from her forehead. "I know. You're going to be on the mend with me for a few weeks, it looks like."

Jane shook her head, tears springing against her eyes. "I'm so glad my shoulder hurts," she laughed, cringing with the effort. Things could have gone much worse, and even the of tormenting pain was a reminder of how lucky they both had been.

Maura leaned over her, a tacit, immense recognition passing between them, and she delivered a quick kiss to Jane's forehead. She began to straighten, but thought better of it, instead leaning forward again and this time pressing her mouth against Jane's lips. It was an echo of their earlier kiss, but this time it was born out of gratefulness rather than fear.

"Where's Brad?" Jane asked, her face morphing into a new, unbridled anger.

"Cuffed, in the backseat of a squad car," Frankie answered. "We'll book him in Boston."

"Not if I don't kill him first."

"If your shoulder wasn't busted, you could do the honors and ride back with ride him," her brother pointed out.

Jane shook her head, glancing over at Maura. "Nah. I've spent too much time in a car with him today. Just get me the hell out of this part of Massachusetts." She took Maura's hand, pressing it to her lips and holding it there. Maura caved next to her, another cough racking her chest, but their hands stayed intertwined, not letting go.


This ship hasn't sailed yet. More still to come!

In the meantime, thanks for reading and thanks for reviewing this chapter (see what I did there?).

Thanks Cat and Ren for the read-through :)