Maura watched as bodies walked and ran by her; all shouting to each other. She was in a massive room, possibly a mile long. Her eyes drifted over the bottom two levels, her and Shafter standing on the highest one. She spotted people on the bottom floor moving around, there was a hum of voices drifting over to where they were. She jumped and looked around when a robotic voice blasted over the room.

Shuttering Maura turned around, looking at the people moving about the floor she was on. They glanced at her, but as soon as they made eye contact they dropped their gaze, looking away. What she would guess to be an elevator kept opening and closing, allowing people to move in and out going to the area's they needed to be in the massive ship. There was a large orange holograph sitting in the middle of a huge table. Maura recognized it as a scaled down version of the ship they were in now. There were two red blinking lights, with words floating around them. A woman was pointing at one of them and talking to a man who replied before running off.

"Shafter," the alien looked down at her. Its arms were folded behind its back, the humming coming from it slowly stopping. Maura swallowed trying to figure out a way to communicate what she needed. With a leap of faith she pointed down at her torso right next to her hips. The alien tilted its head, the blonde sighing. She had to be clearer. Bringing her knees together and bending slightly, she held her abdomen looking at Shafter with a pained face. She ignored the looks of the people walking by her, focusing on the tall thing standing next to her. The alien blinked at her staying still. Then someone spoke up.

"Sloonz lunkst zarknift Shafter." The woman rolled her eyes before walking past them, Maura glaring, not sure what she had said. Shafter placed its hand on her shoulder, tossing its head indicating it wanted her to follow it. Staying close Maura obliged. They walked down the stairs heading down to the third floor. People stepped out of their way, saluting Shafter as it passed them and throwing confused looks at Maura who didn't make any eye contact, focusing on the stairs she was going down.

Maura stuck close to Shafter, not daring to wonder off and get lost. It stopped in front of the farthest wall, pressing a button and a door opened reviling a bathroom. She smiled at Shafter trying to communicate that it had done right. She slowly stepped into the shinning room, the door closing behind her with a soft whoosh. She eyed the toilet and sink, both looking normal, well at least as normal could get. After figuring out how to flush, she walked over to the sink, splashing water on her arms and scrubbing her hands.

She made the mistake of looking up.

Her reflection stared back at her. Her normal bright green eyes were dark and hooded as if she were keeping a dark secret in them, her cheeks hollow and pale not showing the signs of someone that was alive. She licked her lips; they felt like sandpaper, not to mention the bandage that sat on top of her head. Carefully peeling it off she let it drop to the bowl, examining the wound. It wasn't as bad as she had thought, just a small cut that was already stitched up by Shafter. She decided to let it stay uncovered wanting to give it some air.

What does it matter though? She thought, sighing heavily, closing her eyes and leaning her hands against the sink, her body shaking. Her mind had come to some sort of acceptance as to what has happened to her but there, in the back of her mind she felt the itch, the logic pressing against her, shouting at her that none of this is real, that none of this can be real.

She opened her eyes, trying to ease the headache that was creeping along, looking down at her hands as they gripped the sink. White knuckled and veins pulsing with the pressure from her grip. She let go, a dent creased into her skin, she ran her thumb over it feeling the tender skin there, feeling the cold metal of something from memory.

Black and cool.

She gasped as her mind flashed, her thoughts spinning.

Heavy and terrifying.

She gripped her head with shaking hands.

Demanding and accepting.

Maura snapped her eyes closed letting out a soft cry, tears sliding down her cheeks.

Jane's gun.

She pounded the mirror there with her fist, trying to stop the thoughts.

"You're wrong you're so wrong about me."

She hit the mirror again with her other hand, trying to stop the voice whispering in her ear.

"That Jane out there is an imposter, I am dead." She threw her right first into the glass hearing a satisfied noise as the mirror cracked.

"You don't believe me, feel." Something warm covered her hand and she opened her eyes, her hands not stopping as a scream escaped her throat, blood splattering out of her cut knuckles. Her scream was loud, making her ears ring with the promise of deafness. Someone banged on the door, their deep voice coming through the metal.

"They're not real, none of this is real." Jane whispered into her ear, her body pressing against her back, grabbing her right hand carefully cradling it, grabbing her other and brought them to her chest, hugging her from behind, whispering in her ear.

"None of it is real."

"This is real….. This is real…. You're not real," Maura cried out, shaking in the womans hold, tears streaming down her face.

"No Maur," she breathed against the blond's neck. "It's not real, look." Maura opened her eyes looking at herself standing there, her arms crossed into her chest. The Mirror was perfectly fine, as were her knuckles. She looked down at them, gasping as they looked just as they always did, clean.

"No no no no no no no," she repeated to herself stepping back, fear chilling her body. She couldn't breathe, she needed to breathe. She clawed at her throat gasping, her lungs working into overload. She felt sweat trickle down her temple. She scrapped her nails across her left knuckles, trying to feel something, feel anything.

Nothing.

She let out another scream as Jane's gun somehow materialized on top of the counter that sat around the sink. Opening the bathroom door she bolted, colliding with the person that was standing there knocking.

"So… How's that woman that came through the portal?" Konif asked, clearing her throat taking a sip of water, trying to clear the roughness of it. Jane smiled softly to herself thinking of the blonde stranger and how kind she was even though they couldn't speak to each other.

"Well…," she chuckled making Konif ask,

"What's so funny?"

"For starters her names Maura and she doesn't speak our language that's all we have managed to understand from her." Jane rubbed her hand remembering the way Maura's felt against hers. The way when the woman moved her blonde hair swayed with her or when she passed you there was something about the way she smelled like vanilla making Jane's mind turn into mush. Konif noticed the way her friend seemed to get lost in her thoughts but didn't speak letting the Captain think about whatever she was thinking about.

"Do you think the Professor can help us with the whole language thing?" Jane suddenly asked, turning her attention back on the sleepy redhead. She frowned in thought.

"I mean, I don't see why not. Have you figured out what she speaks?"

"No but maybe when Palmer meets her they can, I don't know, geek out or something…" Jane trailed off again thinking.

"That could work. But first you gotta get through to the Professor." Konif pointed at the bed on the other side of the room at Jane's raised eyebrows. Palmer was laying there fast asleep looking peaceful. Someone came walking in his eyes scanning around until they landed on Konif.

"Konif!" He yelled jogging over, spotting Jane he fell short standing at attention, saluting her. Jane sat there staring back at him; he stood there gruffly waiting for her to salute back to him. Konif scoffed, pushing against Jane shoulder.

"Come on Jane, let Shin-Tu relax." His eyes darted down to Jane making eye contact. She stared at him raising an eyebrow, smiling she said.

"Nah, I think I like making him sweat a little bit." Konif chuckled as Jane stood up.

"At ease Engineer Shin-Tu." The man dropped his hand smiling when he looked at Konif. "I think I'm going to go check up on Shafter and Maura and then go deal with…. Other things," her mind jumped to Hailey Jacobs when she said that.

"Oh, tell that slime ball of a friend that I want to see it," Konif said turning her attention to the dark haired man who pulled up a chair next to her bed. She walked away, people moving trying not to disturb the Captain. As she stood in the elevator alone, a rare occasion, she sighed heavily rubbing her face. With a ding the doors opened, the H.C.C. was beyond crowded. She maneuvered her way through the crowds, giving her attention to those who needed to speak with her.

"And how is the fuel line repair going on in Wing D," she rasped to a blond man who walked next to her as she made her way across the floor.

"They are just starting now, after cleaning up everything else. I'm sending you the schematics now." She nodded dismissing him. She opened her Omnicuff looking at outlines of the repairs that they needed to do. Someone came walking up to her.

"Captain Rizzoli, it's nice to see you in the flesh again." She saluted Officer Carlson back, noticing what he held in his arms. "Is this…?"

"The thing that shot out of the portal with the blonde woman, sure is. We have yet to know what it is though…" he trailed off as Jane leaned around looking at the cowering animal.

"I guess for now you can place it in quarantine, we'll figure out if it belongs to Maura or not." A scrawny man walked up too, holding a bag.

"This was in the hallway also," he said.

"Just, whatever you find in that hallway put it into the quarantine room."

"Yes Ma'am." They both said heading off to do her bidding.

She spotted Shafter leaning against the wall outside of the third floor bathroom. Quickly turning off the information screens Jane headed down there. As she was going down the third flight of stairs, in the middle of putting her hair up she spotted Shafter grow worrisome, placing a hand against the door there. She stopped for a second before jogging over.

"Everything alright Shafter?" The aliens' eyes flickered with all the emotions it was going through.

"I think she's hurting herself." Jane rested her head against the door, holding her breathe when she heard it, a choked sobbed. She jumped back as Maura screamed loudly followed by thudding noises. She slammed her fist into the door,

"Maura!" There was no reply only the sound of a distraught woman on the other side. Jane the clicked on the Holoscreen, trying to open the door but it didn't work. The screams died down only to be replaced with mumbling. Shafter and Jane swapped a look. And then suddenly the door opened to Maura screaming and bolting out. She collided into Jane full force making them both fall down.

"No no no no no no!" Maura was yelling pushing Jane off of her. The Captain rolled over quickly snapping up, people stopping what they are doing to watch. Soldiers stepped forward their Sonic Rifles raised, pointed at Maura.

"No! Stand down! STAND DOWN!" Jane yelled, roughly pushing one of the rifles down, not wanting to spook Maura as much as she already was. The blonde woman was on the ground, her breathing ragged.

"Maura?" Jane asked softly walking over to her. She placed her hand on her shaking shoulder, the blonde turned into stone.

"Jane," her voice was deep and holding so much emotion. She looked up at the brunette who gasped, seeing Maura's knuckles. Blood was pouring out of them, the cuts having yet to clout. Her wrists were starting to swell, bruises covering her hands. Maura followed her gaze and looked down at her hands, pressing her fingers against the blood that didn't seem to stop. She gasped as her fingers made contact sending pain up her arm.

"B-b-but this can't…. I mean…" Maura's breathing started to get more labored, as if she just got done running. She looked up to Jane's brown eyes, gasping for air.

"Someone get a doctor!" Jane yelled over her shoulder at the forming crowd. She knelt down, gripping both of her shoulders making eye contact with her. Green eyes bore into her as Maura tried to calm down.

"Maura?... Maura?!" Jane yelled as the blonde suddenly slumped over into Jane's hold, her eyes closing. Jane's hand flailed around her neck, searching for her artery, sighing as she felt the pulsing of Maura's racing heart, sending blood all around her body. Jane cradled Maura, holding the unconscious woman, feeling the eyes of everyone else on her back. She looked over her shoulder barking,

"Get back to work, isn't there things that need to be fixed?!" They broke up quickly, bumping into each other, trying to get away from the Captains gaze. Shafter crouched down next to them humming,

"Jane, I feel like… we need to isolate Maura somehow."

"What do you mean?" Jane asked, looking down at the face that was resting against the crook of her arm.

"How would you feel if suddenly you were transported to a different Universe and all of these people are trying to talk to you but you don't understand them so you're left in the dark and aliens are present and try to speak to you, not to mention-"

"Alright!" Jane interrupted, knowing to stop her friend before it could continue its rant. "Alright," she said softer. Shafter stood up as Dr. Peirce came running over, heading over to the bathroom and looking in. The blond man asked,

"What happened?"

"It appears she had some sort of episode and proceeded to hit the mirror." Shafter hummed at them. Jane was reluctant to let go of Maura, wanting to protect her feeling like it was her responsibility. Dr. Peirce grabbed one of her hands looking at the wounds there, the blood finally seeming like it was stopping.

"I'd like to get her to the medbay." He stood up, right about to call for a stretcher when Jane stood up carefully, not wanting to jar the unconscious cargo she was holding. She held Maura close to her chest, cradling her.

"Let's go," Jane said, nodding her head towards the elevator and carried Maura with ease, Dr. Peirce falling into step with her. "Shafter! You comin'? Konif wants to see you," Jane called to the alien. It looked like it was thinking before saying,

"Tell her that I'll come and see her later I must look into something." Jane shrugged stepping into the lift.

"…ou should have seen it; it was the biggest Shvista I have ever seen!"

"But I thought they only grew to be ten feet long?"

"This thing had to be at least forty, Shin-Tu, at least… Oh hey Jane, tell him about the forty foot Shvista that we saw," Konif said as soon as she spotted the brunette walking back into the medbay. The redhead eyes widened as she saw what Jane was holding. "Is that…?" her question hung in the room unanswered. The Captain carefully laid Maura out on the bed next to Konif, slowly pulling out her arms from underneath her. She stepped away as the doctors swarmed her.

"My my! She looks prettier in person than when her image is distorted by a portal." A British accent rang out. Jane turned around smiling as she noticed Alex Palmer sitting up in his bed trying to get a better look at the blonde.

"Professor, you're awake."

"Yes, I thought a nap was in order after…," his eyes misted over for a second before he pulled himself out of his memory. "Well, it doesn't matter now deary. I'm all rested up." Jane walked over to him, throwing over her shoulder at Konif and Shin-Tu,

"It was fifty." She sat on the side of his bed smiling at the small man, glad to see that he was up and looking fine for the most part. She opened her mouth to ask something when another doctor came up to her.

"Captain Rizzoli?" Jane held eye contact with Palmer for a second longer before sighing and looking at the doctor with raised eyebrows. "You wanted to let me know when we beguine the autopsy of Commander Hailey Jacobs." There came a heavy sigh from behind Jane, no doubt Konif. Palmer dropped he eyes, looking down at his hands, fidgeting.

"Right." She stood up following the doctor, casting one last anxious glance at Maura, to a separate room that was down the hall. There laid her X.O. She was pale and looked like she was frozen. Her hair had already been shaved away from the wound, the piece of metal lying on an examination table next to her. Jane looked at it, disgusted that something like this took some one's life.

"So, how did this happen?" she rasped out, turning her gaze away from the body.

"Well I can't be one-hundred percent sure because we still have yet to know what happened down there," Jane grunted. "But as far as I can tell Captain, when that fuel line blew, there was still enough oxygen in the hallway for an explosion, and so when it did go," she just gestured to the piece of metal on the table when she said that. "But of course, we'll know more when we get the reports back from Professor Palmer and Konif." Jane nodded her head, turning away from the body heading out. She collided with someone in the hallway, causing what they were holding to spill out all over the floor.

"Oh whoa there Shafter, where's the fire?" she asked as she noticed it was her friend. They bent down to start picking up,

"Books? Why do you have books?" she asked again, holding up a full dictionary of the Jungken language.

"I was thinking maybe Maura speaks one of these." She held up the Jungken dictionary with a smirk. "You never know Jane."

"OK what do we have here? Greek, Russian, Spanish…" she trailed off picking up a tattered book, the cover was worn, black leather encasing it. She opened it; the pages felt like tissue paper they were so thin. "What's this one?" she asked, not taking her eyes off of the pages that had words she didn't understand with illustrations next to some.

"According to the spine it's English. That book was tucked away; I was barely able to find it." Jane had stood up, some books tucked under her arm, Shafter holding the rest, staring down at the English dictionary that sat heavily in her hand.

"English…" Jane's mind was whirling.

"Yes Jane," Shafter closed all three of its eyes in confusion, not following Jane's train of thought.

Jane's mind went back to when all three of them were standing in the Charkgin ship talking to Konif. For the most part Maura had been silent until Jane spoke specific words, making her spin around staring at her.

"Stay safe my little firefly…" she said out loud. Shafter grew more confused. "She looked at me when I said that. Does the Iwoa have cameras on it?" She asked already walking down the hallway, Shafter keeping up.

"Yes it does but-"

"Do you think we can pull up a feed of Maura speaking and cross reference the sounds to the phrase?"

"I don't see why not," Shafter widened its eyes as it started to understand. "Do you think…?"

"There's only one way to find out," Jane said back, excitement in the pit of her stomach.

"There! She wouldn't stop talking when we were walking back up to the cockpit." Jane pointed at the Holoscreen as the Charkgin running it looped the feed, scanning out Maura's voice.

"Now we'll just record your voice," the alien said, clicking a button waiting for her to speak.

"Stay safe my little firefly. My light will always be on." The computer picked up her voice; she hoped her pronunciation was right. They played Maura and Jane's voice at the same time, the computer picking up on the different pitches. Shafter stood next to Jane humming in anticipation, the other Charkgin seeming to get excited too, Jane clicked her thumb nail against her teeth waiting for the negative match. The computer dinged, green words flashed, Andi's voice coming over the intercom.

"It appears, Captain Rizzoli, that Maura does indeed speak English." Jane and Shafter stood there frozen, the books seeming to weigh nothing in their hands. Jane set down the books roughly, turning on her Omnicuff. She opened the English dictionary and scanned the first page, flipping to the next.

Scan.

Flip.

Scan.

Flip.

She repeated this until every single page was scanned, her Omnicuff showing the data that she was feeding into it.

"Here I'm sending you the scans," Shafter's cuff blinked. "Send it to your translator," she sighed heavily. "Hopefully this will work."

"Hold on deary, are you telling me that that woman," he pointed at the blonde still lying down in the bed. "Speaks English?!" his voice was higher than usual with excitement.

"We believe so Professor Palmer," Shafter hummed from his place next to Konif, Shin-Tu leaving a little bit ago.

"While she's unconscious we," she pointed at Dr. Peirce standing by. "Are going to implant a translator in her ears, hopefully this will get rid of the miscommunication that's going on."

"But Jane," Konif piped up. "What if she doesn't speak English?" The Captain shrugged.

"Then we keep trying I guess."

"Oh, this is truly exciting, I can't wait to speak to her and learn what all she has to offer." Jane chuckled at the small mans enthusiasm. She nodded at Peirce who leaned down next to Maura, carefully placing something in her ear.

"Shafter and I already programmed it to translate German to English," Jane said softly, the room tense with anticipation. She swiped her Omnicuff pulling up the data she had stored there, sending it to everyone that was in the room.

"There. Now if this does actually work,"

"Hopefully," Konif mumbled.

"You can all understand what she says now." Palmer slowly turned on his Omnicuff making sure the data was stored properly, Konif doing the same.

Peirce moved to the other side of the bed. Jane's eyes caught movement and looked at Shafter and Konif, their hands clasped tight around each other. She covered a smile with her hand turning away.

"Well that should do it; hopefully the sting of the implants latching themselves on won't startle her too much." Jane grimaced as she remembered having her translators changed, getting more up to date ones. The process wasn't pleasant. Dr. Peirce fiddled with Holoscreen's that his Omnicuff projected, activating the implants, Maura didn't stir.

"How long do you think she'll be out for doc?" Jane asked.

There was a sharp pain in both of her ears but Maura didn't pay any attention to it. Her hearing was like she was underwater, the voices were distorted. She shifted, not yet daring to open her eyes. Her hands ached and her head was pounding. There was a flutter or air next to her and someone placed their hand on top of her forearm. She didn't need to have her eyes open to know who was holding her.

"Maura?" Jane rasped.

Maura opened her eyes slowly, Jane, a man, a woman, Shafter, and another man with an odd comb over were all staring at her. She slowly started to sit up, Jane helping her. Maura groaned, resting her head in her hands. They were all quiet until Jane cleared her throat.

"Maura…" She looked up at the brunettes tone. Jane casted a worried look around before finally speaking again. "Maura… Can you understand me?" Her mind froze in the middle of thoughts, her mouth going slack at Jane's words. It was odd though, Jane's thin lips didn't match what she said but it was her voice. "Can you?" she asked again, looking at the blond man standing next to her bed. Maura stared into brown eyes, slowly nodding her head, her heart hammering in her chest. Relief washed over her face, as she grinned at her happiness radiating off of her. "You can?!" the man with the comb over spoke up,

"Well say something deary we want to hear that lovely voice of yours!" Shafter hummed in agreement while the redhead continued to stare. Maura's mouth was dry; she swallowed trying to moisten it. She looked right into Jane's face, needing to say this, wanting to say this.

"You're…" her voice was horse from screaming and she cleared it trying again.

"You're dead."

Boom.

So I regret taking on three different fanfic projects at the same time. But challenge accepted.

I hope you all liked this chapter, please tell me what you think, concerns or questions I normally answer as soon as possible.

Thanks for reading.

Take care everyone! - FTP