-There Will Always Be Another Dawn-

Chapter Four: Righting The Wrongs

Jane's cell phone went off at exactly six-thirty in the morning. It took her a moment to remember everything, and the second she did she sat up and grabbed the beeping device. Jane gazed at the other vacant half of her bed and took a deep breath before taking the call.

"Jane? This is Frost… there has been… we found…"

A small bark of laughter escaped Jane at hearing Frost's voice. The reception was once again so bad that she could barely hear him, but she was pretty sure that she knew exactly where he was.

"I'll be right there," she said and jumped out of bed.

Whatever was happening to her, if she was slowly starting lose her mind, or if something so incredibly odd was going on that she would need to start reading books about magic, the one thing she knew was that she did get that chance she'd asked for, and this time she had to make it work. Without even taking the time to make some coffee, Jane hastily threw on some clothes and left her condo not long after she'd ended the call with Frost. She sped to the warehouse in the industrial district and the crime scene looked exactly like she remembered it.
Jane jumped out of her car and hastened past a couple of officers and toward Frost. Korsak and Frost were looking at her when she approached, and neither seemed to expect the blindingly bright smile that spread across her features.

"Barry, it's good to see you," Jane said.

She rested both hands on his shoulders and shook him gently.

"Real good to see you."

"Uh… yeah, you too," Frost answered.

He glanced over at Korsak who only raised his shoulders.

"Are you alright though?" Frost asked when Jane finally let go of him.

"Yes, perfect, I'm fine. Listen, I've got a couple of things I need you to do. I want you to dig up everything about a guy named Mason Chesterfield. And Korsak, you're going to have to help me with something."

Frost took down the name on a notepad, but still looked genuinely confused. Korsak was slowly shaking his head, but remained silent as Jane beckoned him to follow her. She walked back to her car and talked quietly with Korsak, telling him to get a few things organized.
Jane was determined to keep both her former and her current partner out of this, as to not foolishly risk their lives. Again.
She had a pretty good plan worked out in her mind, and all she needed to do was keep Frost as far away from everything as she possibly could. Confining him to the bullpen with the order to wait for Chesterfield seemed like the right thing to do, and with Korsak's help she was going to lure the killer into a trap to bring him behind bars once and for all.
Maybe then she would finally be able to get to the bottom of this crazy case. Not once had she gotten the chance to look over the evidence Chesterfield had supposedly collected, but Jane was sure that this time would be different and things were going to work out in her favor.

"Are you sure that you are alright?" Korsak asked.

Jane must've been quiet for a little bit too long, but she quickly nodded.

"Yes really. I've got this. You know what I want you to do?"

Korsak nodded.

"Although I'm not entirely sure why. This doesn't seem to make a lot of sense if you ask me."

"Oh but it will, trust me on that."

"Okay."

With one last weary glance, Korsak nodded and turned to walk back to his car. Jane watched him climb into the vehicle and drive off.
She looked down at her phone and realized that she still had plenty of time until Chesterfield would show up in the alley. And although a tiny shiver ran down her spine at the though that she had been through this twice before, the urge of wanting to fix the things she had spectacularly failed at making right in the first place was far stronger.

Just as Jane was about to get into her own car, she heard the clicking of heels quickly coming closer. She would recognize that sound anywhere and turned to see a slightly agitated Maura walking toward her.

"Jane, where are you going?"

"Getting breakfast, I think, and some coffee, why?"

"Because that over there is a crime scene, and you haven't even as much as glanced at the body. That is not like you."

"Oh, uh, yeah, well I am sure everyone is doing a wonderful job," Jane said.

She wasn't entirely sure how to explain her irrational behavior. The last time she'd told Maura that she had lived through this exact day once before, the doctor had read through books about psychoanalysis all day to determine what might've caused Jane to be this confused. She had eventually decided that it had something to do with Jane being overworked and gone straight to Cavanaugh to tell him that she needed to be sent on mandatory leave. But before Jane could even be summoned into the office to talk about Maura's claims, they'd gotten the call that Frost had been shot and was on his way to the hospital.
So this time around, Jane was a bit wiser and decided not to mention anything that could cause Maura to question her sanity.

"Wanna come along?"

"No, thank you. I want to look at the body first thing when I get back," Maura answered.

She still didn't seem entirely convinced that everything was fine, but a smile from Jane had her relaxing her shoulders in a manner that Jane knew all to well.

"Then I'll see you later Maur."

-o-o-o-

This time everything went according to plan.
Jane waited for Chesterfield in the alley and personally accompanied him to his safe-deposit box. Inside was a large yellow envelope which supposedly held a great deal of secrets that could bring a lot of people behind bars.
With the information and Chesterfield safely tucked away in a room at the station, and a dozen police officers positioned in and around the house where Allison was supposed to stay with a friend, Jane was confident that she was right on the verge of cracking the case and ending the day successfully.

They had brought the girl and the entire family of her friend to a safe place nearby and were now waiting for the kidnapper to show up. Jane had given everyone a detailed description of him and there was just no way he would escape her again.
Jane was waiting inside the house, peeking out one of the windows and after a little less than half an hour, a car stopped in the street and a dark figure emerged. She recognized the man immediately, it was him who had killed Allison and shot her father in cold blood the other day. Or the other today.

Jane shook her head. She needed to stay focused. This time neither Frost nor Korsak wear anywhere near the action and she could make sure no one got harmed along the way.
The man had walked up to the house, completely oblivious to what was going on. He glanced around and pushed some strands of his greasy hair out of his face.

"Now," Jane spoke into the little microphone attached to the collar of her jacket.

Within seconds the entire front yard was swarming with police officers, guns drawn and pointed at the man. Jane knew it was quite a vote of confidence that no one questioned her decision to arrest this guy even though there was no evidence pointing to the fact that he was a criminal.
Jane stormed out of the front door, gun in both hands.

"Hands above your head, I wanna see your hands."

The man however looked calmly about him, his eyes still as blue and emotionless as Jane remembered them. He slowly reached behind himself, not even breaking a sweat despite all the weapons directed at him.

"He's got a gun," someone yelled.

Jane's finger snaked around the trigger of her own gun. She had killed this bastard once before and she would do it again. No harm would come to any of those officers if she could avert it. But instead of pointing the gun at either of them, the man raised the gun to his own head, barrel snugly placed against his temple.

"Put the gun down dammit!"

There was a grim tug around his mouth as he stared at Jane with cold eyes. He wasn't afraid, and he wanted her to know it. Already in the next moment a shot rang out and blood splashed across the green lawn. The man was dead before his body hit the ground.
A couple of officers turned away, someone called for an ambulance, and another knelt down next to the man and shook his head.

"No use, he's dead."

Jane shook her head and holstered her gun. She really would've liked to arrest this guy, find out who had hired him the first place. Because Chesterfield had sworn he had no idea who this man was when Jane had shown him the composite sketch.
But there was no changing it now. The threat was gone and everyone she had wanted to save was still alive. There wasn't much more she could ask for. Very few people were lucky enough to receive a second chance and this was already her third.

"Time to call it a day," Jane mumbled on her way back to her car.

-o-o-o-

It was evening when Jane, Korsak, Frost and Maura sat together at their usual table at the Dirty Robber.

"I just don't get it," Frost said for the tenth time that night.

He shook his head and took another sip of his beer.

"How did you do it? Like solved the entire case without actually talking to either of us? That is some serious crazy stuff right there."

Jane just chuckled and raised her beer bottle to her lips. Both Frost and Korsak had been pestering her about how she'd managed to get everything organized, and even prevented an assassination from happening, in less than a day.
Unfortunately shortly after Jane had returned to the bullpen to finally look at the evidence Chesterfield had collected, a bunch of FBI agents had shown up, right along with an official warrant, and taken everything with them. Not even Jane's glare or Cavanaugh's attempt at buying them some time had done anything to stop the agents. Now the information was gone, and Jane would probably find out through the media what it was all about. But it didn't really matter to her that they would write this case onto their flags. They could have the information as long as they put Chesterfield and his daughter into witness protection.
Setting her beer down, Jane smirked at Frost who sat across from her.

"Why don't we just call it female intuition?"

Korsak snorted and hid a yawn behind his hand.

"Well, since I am not graced with such intuition and sat at my desk trying to solve a crime the old-fashioned way, I'm calling it a day. Good job Rizzoli."

Jane smiled and nodded.

"Night," she said when Korsak got up. He waved a hand at them and left.

Jane chatted a bit more with Frost, glad to actually have him sitting right there in front of her, while Maura nursed her white wine without saying much.

"Alright, I'm heading home too," Frost announced after a second beer.

Jane smiled and briefly rested her hand on his forearm, squeezing gently. Frost awkwardly patted her hand, seemingly confused at this rather physical display of affection.

"See you tomorrow."

"God I hope so," Jane sighed, earning another irritated glance from Frost.

"Better cut back on the beer for tonight," he warned with a wink and got up.

He grabbed the bag he had been carrying around for the better part of the day and Jane could clearly see a certain leather-bound book peeking out of it.

"Hey what's with that book anyway?"

Frost shoved the item deeper into his bag and shrugged sheepishly.

"Nothin'. Goodnight you two," he said and turned on his heel before leaving the Robber.

Jane watched him go and eventually gazed at Maura who had been suspiciously quiet the entire evening.

"Everything alright with you?" Jane asked, pushing her empty bottle aside.

Maura sighed and tucked a few strands of hair behind her ear. She rested her fingertips against her wine glass and tapped them against it.

"Yes I'm okay. It's just… well, something happened this morning."

"Ah crap, I totally forgot that Bass died."

"Wha… how do you know?" Maura asked, raising her eyes to look at Jane, clearly surprised.

"I… uh…put two and two together. You were pretty down the entire day and haven't spoken about Bass yet, so I concluded that something must've happened to him. Rational deduction, you know, I'm a detective."

Maura smiled at that and leaned back.

"I think it must've have been the medication, Bass responded negatively to it, but by the time I realized that it was already too late. But I went to a pet shop today, after my lunch break, to see if they had a tortoise. You know, another tortoise won't replace Bass, I had him since he was but a hatchling. Statistics however say that most people can cope with the loss of a pet better if they look for, or find another pet to devote time and affection to."

"And did you find a suitable candidate?"

"No, but I will go back tomorrow and see if they had a couple of new arrivals."

Jane nodded, watching Maura how she hid a yawn behind her hand.

"Shall we?"

"Yes."

Jane got up, and on her way to the door she wrapped an arm around Maura's shoulders, Maura's head immediately tilting toward her and coming to rest against Jane's shoulder.

"I'm so sorry about Bass Maur."

"I know, thank you."

-o-o-o-

When Jane went to bed that night, she had a small smile on her face. She rested her head on her joined hands and stared at the darkened ceiling above. The day had been successful, albeit one of the weirdest she'd ever had. But still a full-fledged victory.
Still she couldn't explain what exactly was happening to her. Jane wasn't a person who believed in superstition, magic or anything of the like. But for some odd reason she had lived through the exact same day three times now. It was as if she was caught in her very own version of Groundhog Day. And the truth was that there was absolutely no sane explanation for it. People would put her into a nice padded cell and a cozy straightjacket if she ever told anyone about this.

But Jane was also a very practical person, and if mysteriously repeating the same freaking day over and over again meant that she could save innocent lives, then that was what she would sure as hell do.
Her eyelids grew heavy, and as Jane went over her day in her mind she realized that bestowing a tight hug upon Maura before parting was exactly how she liked to end it. However fried her nerves were, either because of a case or a day that repeated itself, Maura's company always managed to calm her.

She wondered when Maura had become one of the most important people in her life, but couldn't pinpoint a day or time. Maura had simply wriggled her way into Jane's heart, and now there was absolutely nothing she wouldn't do for her.
Jane's days were always busy, and that didn't leave much time to dwell on personal things, let alone on her emotional life. But when it was dark out, and she was alone in her bed, she just couldn't help but wonder...

But then again Jane was too much of a chicken to admit to her feelings, for fear that she would risk Maura's friendship. It was almost as if she used up all her bravery for her job, and none was left for her personal life.
Jane sighed and rolled onto her side.

"Maybe I'm a psychic and solve cases before they even happen," she mumbled before she drifted off to sleep.

A/N: don't forget to review :)