A/N: In light of recent events, I did think about re-writing this chapter and changing it. But then I decided to leave it the way I had originally planned it, because this is a story about hope, new beginnings and most importantly second chances. And although we are not always granted those second chances in life, I think that at least in fiction they should exist. hope you still enjoy.

-There Will Always Be Another Dawn-

Chapter Three: Do It All Again

The bullpen was completely empty. Korsak and Frost had already gone home, having to fight their own demons, but Jane was still too numb to move from her desk. Her headache had gotten so bad that it was now a steady pounding on the edges of her consciousness.
She leaned back and rested her head against the chair. With eyes closed she tried to focus on her breathing, just like Maura had taught her, but every time she managed to calm her racing thoughts, images of the Chesterfield's daughter, Allison, murdered in the little shack, flashed across her mind. Again and again.
Jane raised her hands to her temples, rubbing furiously until gentle fingers brushed hers aside and replaced them.

"Let me," Maura said.

Her voice was so full of compassion that Jane's stomach sank even further. She didn't deserve it, just like she didn't deserve to feel good after she had failed Chesterfield and his daughter, but Maura's fingers were so incredibly calming and relaxing that she couldn't help but sigh with relief.

"The hospital called. Chesterfield died about an hour ago," she said, halfway expecting Maura to cease her ministrations.

But instead Maura continued drawing circles across Jane's temples and even moved her fingers up into her hair to gently massage the headache away.

"I'm sorry Jane."

"I know."

Frost and Korsak had told her that it wasn't her fault, everyone had told her that, and yet she felt responsible. With every murder she could not avert an invisible weight settled on her shoulders, making her bow to the heaviness and ugliness of life a bit more each time.
But when she was with Maura, when they talked, or just had a beer and wine after work, that weight became lighter, easier to bear.

"You caught the perpetrator," Maura offered quietly.

"After he killed Allison and her father," Jane answered, suddenly agitated.

She got up from her chair and turned to face Maura, who was looking at Jane, not judging, not saying anything, just waiting for her to speak.

"And then he got out of it so easily. That bastard should be rotting in jail for the rest of his life."

Jane raised both her hands and raked them through her hair, realizing that her headache had gotten significantly less intense. She gazed thoughtfully at her hands when she lowered them again, watching the scars that marred her otherwise unblemished skin.
She just wanted to repeat the day, do it all over again.
Maura stepped closer to Jane and cradled her hands in her fingers. The detective attempted a grateful half-smile as she raised her eyes to look at Maura.

"Thank you. I'm feeling much better."

"You know, a headache, or cephalgia, can be a symptom of a lot of different conditions of the head and neck and by stimulating your sensitive areas I tried to lessen the intensity of it. Because the brain itself is not sensitive to pain, lacking pain receptors, one has to work with the disturbed pain-sensitive structures…"

Jane chuckled and simply cut off Maura's flow of words by pulling her into a hug. She held Maura against her chest and inhaled the sweet lily and lilac scent which clung to her hair. Jane sometimes wondered how she had managed to gain the friendship and trust of this extraordinary woman.
With Maura she felt like she was finally home, like she belonged and could do no wrong.

"It's okay," Maura said quietly, her warm breath ghosting across Jane's neck.

She rubbed her hands soothingly up and down the detective's back until they stepped apart. Jane grabbed her jacket and offered Maura her arm.

"Shall we?"

Maura smiled and nodded as she walked beside Jane to the elevator.

"So, tell me about Bass," Jane said as the doors closed in front of them.

-o-o-o-

That night Jane didn't sleep to well. She was used to having nightmares, and she could deal with them. But the images of Allison were still too present in her mind, and it was the little girl who stared accusingly at her with those empty dead eyes. Why didn't you save me? That's what they seemed to say.
Jane tossed and turned until she had wriggled herself free of the covers and they were pooled at her feet. She saw the killer and his greasy hair, how he smiled when he pointed his gun at Allison and her father. Bass made an appearance too, and his look was just as accusing. Somehow even the turtle seemed to blame her for what had happened.
Jane woke with a start when her cell phone went off after approximately four hours of sleep. It was six-thirty in the morning and she just wasn't ready for another case. They'd barely wrapped up the last one and now she was forced out of bed that early again. She grabbed her cell phone and held it to her ear, eyes still closed.

"What?"

"Jane? Frost here… we have… there has been…"

She could barely hear Frost, and just like the day before she told him to send her a text with the exact location. Apparently there had been another murder. Jane was simply too tired and dragged her body out of bed after ending the call and dropping the phone to the floor.
Not even a hot shower could wake her up fully and she went through the motions in a kind of trance. Exhaustion was still deep in her bones, and she slowly slurped her coffee from her portable cup as she left her condo.

It was odd, really, Jane thought as she drove through town. Usually they would not be assigned a new case when the last one wasn't even through with all the paperwork. And especially with a case as this, when a child was involved, they got a couple of days to wind down before they had to be back at work. Everyone understood how such a case could drag a cop down into the abysses of their job.

Jane sighed and rubbed her eyes as she turned onto a small street that looked vaguely familiar. She realized that her GPS had led her to the industrial district once again. And just like yesterday she parked in front of a large warehouse.
She crinkled her brow as she got out of the car. A sense of déjà-vu hit her and almost made her feel a bit nauseous. She entered the warehouse and strode over to where Frost and Korsak were waiting.

"Again?" she asked, a little exasperated.

"Are you serious? We're not even done with the paperwork of the last case and now someone else is murdered in here? Again?"

The two men looked at each other and Korsak shrugged while Frost crinkled his brow. Jane grabbed a pair of latex gloves and pulled them on, snapping the material onto her wrists.

"Okay, what have got this time?" Jane asked.

She joined Maura and saw the victim's face. Her mouth went dry and all blood rushed from her face. Jane felt light-headed for a couple of moments and swayed right where she stood.

"I don't know any specifics yet…," Maura began, but stopped talking when she looked up at Jane.

She immediately rose from her crouch and pulled the gloves from her hands.

"Jane, are you alright? Did you know him?"

"Yes, I mean no… I mean yes. Of course I know him, we just bagged him yesterday. What happened? How did he get out of the morgue, did someone steal the body?"

Maura glanced at Frost and Korsak who had joined them, but Jane saw them shrugging in the corner of her eyes.

"Jane, I think you should sit down, come on," Maura said.

She rested a hand on Jane's shoulder and guided her away from the crime scene and back to her car. A few heads turned in their direction as they made their way past a couple of officers and their police cars.
Maura fished the key out of Jane's pocket and opened the door so the detective could sit sideways on the driver's seat. She knelt in front of Jane and gazed up at her worriedly.

"Jane, you are not making any sense. This man, he was killed about six to ten hours ago, and we just received the call."

Jane was slowly shaking her head, running a nervous hand across her eyes. This was crazy. In fact it seemed like they had all lost their minds. How could they not remember yesterday? The entire ordeal with Chesterfield and the death of his daughter. That was simply impossible.

"Listen Maur, I'm not crazy. This has happened before, I mean the guy was killed the day before yesterday, and once we figured out that he had a partner we tried to find him, but then his daughter…"

Maura reached out and rested her hand on Jane's forehead.

"I think you might be delusional. It could be due to stress and sleep deprivation. How many hours have you slept in the past week?"

Jane batted Maura's hand away and shook her head again.

"No, no, I'm not delusional. This happened before, I mean, it happened to me… I think."

Jane leaned forward and rested her hands on Maura' shoulders, staring at her imploringly.

"Are you saying that you have not examined this guy yesterday?"

Maura shook her head vehemently, causing her curls to bounce across her shoulders. Her brows were drawn and her face the perfect picture of concern.

"No Jane. I received a call this morning to come to the crime scene, I have never before seen this man."

Jane sank back against the seat.

"Well, shit."

-o-o-o-

Jane straightened her blouse, tugging it into her pants, before she walked into the bullpen. Frost and Korsak both raised their heads from whatever they were reading. Together.
They were standing next to each other, gazing down at an opened familiar leather-bound book Jane had definitely seen before. But she didn't have the time or the energy to dwell on whatever they were cooking up with that mysterious book of theirs. She simply held up a hand, forestalling any questions before Frost and Korsak even had the chance to speak.

"I am fine. I have something for you to do though. Frost, try and find out everything you can about a guy named Mason Chesterfield. And Korsak, I'd like you to get a couple of uniforms and patrol Franklin Park with them. I'll give you a description of who you are looking for. But first I've got to make a call."

Both of them nodded, although they were clearly not sure what to make of Jane's orders. Thankfully they trusted her enough to simply do as she requested without asking superfluous questions.

While on her way from the crime scene back to the station, Jane had stopped to get a coffee and with the hot beverage in her hands she had simply sat in her car and gone over the events in her head. The only conclusion she had come to was that she must've had the most crazy and foreshadowing dream in the history of dreams. There was just no other way to explain it, and her head was shutting down as soon as she tried to make sense of whatever was happening. So, as a cop, she had tried to work with the facts, and they told her that something awful was going to happen. And now that she was a step ahead of everyone else, she could prevent two deaths and send a killer to prison. That was worth something, and if fate, or destiny, or whatever, had decided to give her another shot at making it right, then she sure as hell would.

She pretty much had all her bases covered by the time she waited for Chesterfield near the alley he had dragged her into the day before, or today. Jane shook her head and twirled a lock of hair around her finger.

"Best not think about it," she mumbled to herself.

Maura was probably already setting up all kinds of psychological tests to check whether she had gone off the deep end for sure now. Jane smiled at that and crinkled her brow. For some reason she felt like she had forgotten something, but she just couldn't put her finger on what it was.
Chesterfield rounded the corner at the end of the street and Jane pushed herself off the wall she had been leaning on.

"There he is."

She walked over to him and his eyes widened as he spotted her. He seemed too surprised to even move as Jane grabbed him by the collar and bodily dragged him into the alley, away from prying eyes.

"Alright Mr Chesterfield, I need you to get me all the information you and your partner Jim Abernay have collected, and I will accompany you to make sure everything will go smoothly. Your daughter Allison is being picked up by another detective just as we speak, so she will be in safe hands until we return to the station, okay?"

Chesterfield nodded, slowly, his eyes still darting around nervously.

"How… how did you know where to find me, and that I have information I wanted to give you?"

Jane smirked.

"Let's just say I am a step ahead of you."

-o-o-o-

It was late afternoon when the elevator doors parted in front of Jane and she stepped into the brightly lit corridor even before they had completely opened. With quick strides she made her way over to the nurse's desk and flashed her badge in front of the woman's face as she looked up. She had long since figured out that medical staff and people in general were much more compliant once she had identified herself as a member of the police force.

"Detective Rizzoli, I'm looking for Barold Frost," Jane said and shifted impatiently in front of the nurse as she looked at the computer screen in front of her.

"He's still in surgery," the nurse said, raising her hand and pointing in the direction somewhere to her left.

"You can sit in the waiting area over there."

Jane clenched her jaw and refrained from demanding that the nurse tell her more about Frost's condition. She wouldn't know anything about him anyway, but there was almost nothing worse than this uncertainty. So she simply nodded and walked in the direction the nurse had sent her, and when she rounded the corner to the waiting area, Korsak was already sitting in one of the small plastic chairs.

"You're here?"

Korsak rose from his seat when he spotted Jane and walked over to her.

"I got the call first, thought I'd come by and see what's going on."

"And?"

"Looks bad Jane. He was shot three times, one in the shoulder and stomach, and one grazed his head."

"Oh god."

Jane felt her stomach drop and she sank heavily into one of the chairs. This was not how it was supposed to go. She had sent Frost to pick Allison up, but instead the killer had gotten there first. The same man Jane had shot in the park before, who was obviously still just as alive as Chesterfield and his daughter.
They'd told her that Frost had chased the man as he tried to drag Allison away and toward his car, and a shooting had ensued. Now the killer was dead, again, and Frost was fighting for his life in that operating room. And it was all Jane's fault. She had messed up, and seemingly just as bad as before.

"He's a fighter Jane, a strong kid, he'll make it," Frost said as he joined Jane on the uncomfortable chairs.

It didn't take long until Maura also appeared in the waiting room. A deep frown creased her brows as she pulled Jane into a tight hug.

"Any news?" Maura asked when they parted.

Jane shook her head and raked her hands through her hair, tugging on the strands in between her fingers. The churning in her stomach still hadn't stopped and she felt sicker with every passing hour. She wasn't sure if it was a bad sign that it took them so long, and although she knew Maura could probably provide a couple of statistics on that, she didn't feel like asking. Instead she sat back down and concentrated on the way her back ached, pressed so uncomfortably against the plastic backrest of the chair.

Maura took a seat next to her and grabbed Jane's hand with both her own. Korsak brought them some coffee and Jane simply remained silent as she waited for news. Maura eventually rested her head on Jane's shoulder and shifted so that she was pressed against her side.
Although she tried not to, Jane felt immediately better. Maura's vicinity was making her calmer and it soothed the raging guilt that tried to force its way out of her.

So when eventually a doctor came through the green double doors, still in his surgery shrubs, Jane fought the urge to jump up and instead shook Maura gently to wake her. Korsak walked over to the doctor and they spoke quietly. Before Jane even had the chance to join them, the doctor shook his head and turned to walk down the corridor.
Korsak's crestfallen expression pretty much told Jane everything she needed to know, but still the words hit her like a solid blow.

"He didn't make it."

Maura barely managed to stifle a gasp. She wrapped her hands tightly around Jane's arm, but the detective could only stand there like a statue frozen in time. She was numb, and her arms and legs felt entirely too heavy for the rest of her body.

"Go home Jane, I will take of everything. I'll call his family," Korsak said.

Jane slowly shook her head, Maura's touch the only thing that kept her anchored to the present moment.

"No. I should call them. I should. It's my fault."

"No Jane, it's not. Don't say that," Maura said.

"I sent him to the house."

"You couldn't have known that someone with a weapon would be there, trying to abduct the girl."

"Couldn't I?"

Jane cocked her head to the side, her gaze completely unfocused for a moment. Korsak and Maura shared a glance, the older man gesturing for Maura to do something.

Maura turned and reached out to cradle Jane's face in her hands, forcing her to look into soft green eyes.

"Come on, I'll take you home. Let's go."

Maura led Jane out of the waiting area and down the corridor to the elevator. Jane followed without much protest, because in her head different thoughts and emotions were trying to move to the forefront. Despite Maura's reassurances she knew that she was to blame for Frost's death. He would still be alive, hadn't she sent him to the house. Or if she had at least warned him of the killer.

Maura took Jane home in her car and accompanied her even into her condo. They had been silent the entire time, mainly because Jane was still too deeply in thought. Somehow she was hoping that this was just another odd dream, and that she would get the chance to repeat the day and save Barry's life. She knew it was crazy, but wasn't having a dream, or vision, of what was going to happen as well?

Without speaking Maura came to stand in front of Jane and brushed her blazer off her shoulders. Maura folded it carefully and placed it across the couch's backrest. She took Jane's hand and led her toward the bedroom.

Jane only stopped to push her shoes off before she climbed onto the mattress and rested her weary body atop the covers. She heard Maura stepping around the bed, but didn't turn to see what she was doing. She expected her to simply leave, but instead the bed dipped down for a moment and Jane felt Maura's warm body pressing into her back. An arm snaked across her waist and a warm hand came to rest atop her stomach. Jane exhaled shakily and reached down to entwine her fingers with Maura's.

This felt so right, and at the same time she wanted so much more. Maura was her best friend, and yet she was having all those feelings, romantic feelings, that she just couldn't shut off.
Jane cherished Maura's friendship more than anything, and even the thought of risking that, made her feel sick to the stomach.

So instead she held her tongue and closed her eyes, relishing the feel of Maura so close to her. The familiar scent and the rhythmic breathing against her neck eventually calmed her enough that she could succumb to sleep, wishing with her last thought to be granted yet another chance.