Jane, Frankie and Adam are standing in the autopsies room and stare at the dead man on the table.
Jane's face is beyond serious. "Did you know him?"
Maura straightens up and turns to her daughter, who became unusually quite.
Liz swallows down the lump in her throat and frowns deeply while she looks at the dead man. "Barley. We had a coffee every now and then. I know that he had a wife and two boys. Jim and Owen ."
"Damn it," Frankie whispers.
Jane sighs heavily and furrows her brows as she looks at the man who is still wearing his police uniform. "That is the third one in a row. Maura -"
Maura sighs heavily with a stoic face and gets a pair of gloves. She already knows what her wife is going to ask, and that is what is worrying her. Now she can understand how her mother-in-law must have felt like when two of her children had decided to risk every day their lives to protect the citizens of Boston. "It is the same MO. Officer Owen got shot with a heavy-calibered bullet."
"How heavy?" Jane asks and her expression is as hard as stone.
The ME looks long at the sergeant and frowns a little. "According to the condition of his organs, .308."
"Well, that's heavy." Frankie states and furls his eyebrows.
"A sniper rifle." Adam mumbles more to himself and everyone is turning to him.
"That would explain the wound channel that goes across downwards." Maura states and frowns.
"Great, that's what Boston now needs." Jane grumbles sighs. "A sniper."
Adam blinks a couple of times and frowns just like the others. "A friend of my family is a former sniper. I can call him and ask if he'd help us reconstructing sequence."
Jane frowns a little and nods approvingly. "Yeah, do that." She says and he turns to leave. She licks her lips and glances at her daughter. "And you are coming home with us tonight."
"What?" Liz asks with and high-pitched voice and shift her weight from one foot to the other. "Why?"
Jane is looking unrelenting at the younger woman and clenches her teeth. "Because there is someone out there who killed three cops in a short amount of time."
"So you wanna pile us up in the house so the person doesn't have to look for his next victims." Liz snaps back and furrows her eyebrows. "Well three are better than one. Hey, I can also ask Adam if he wanna join us, then whoever did this can shoot the four of us. Yay, it's gonna be so much fun … for five seconds."
Jane growls low and takes a step forward. It is more than obvious that she is pretty pissed off and she wants to ream her daughter, no matter that they are at work right now.
Maura steps in between them and looks long at her wife, frowning. "She has a good point, Jane." She says softly and nods slowly. "You are more at risk if all of you stay at the same place."
Jane is looking with hard eyes at the smaller woman and snarls, "Find, spend the night with your lover." She looks back at Liz and her facial muscles are twitching. "We'll talk about your behavior, you're not getting out of this easily."
Liz doesn't flinch as Jane passes her and presses her lips together. Her eyes find hazel ones and she frowns slightly. She knows that she adopted the wrong tone, but not only Jane is affected by the fact that another cop got shot.
She takes a deep breath and turns to leave the autopsy room.
"You are in trouble, Liz." Maura says without looking at the brunette. "I know that you are right, but you shouldn't have talked to her like that."
The younger woman stops abruptly and grit her teeth. "I know, but other ways she wouldn't have agreed to that. I know that the two of you are worried, and I am worried about Ma and Frankie too. But I am a adult."
"I know, but that doesn't make it any easier." Maura replies and glances at Liz. "Be careful out there, okay?"
Liz has to smile a little and nods once. "I love you, Mom."
"I love you too." The younger woman replies before she disappears around the corner.
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The young woman is arriving at the floor of her apartment and stops abruptly rolls her eyes as her phone starts to vibrate in her jeans all over again, fishing her keys out of her purse.
Five minutes after she has left BPD her the callings had started but she is in the mood that she want to be left alone. Frankie has called, Maura has called and Jane has called, and none of those calls she had taken. The only one who didn't tried to get in touch with her was Adam. He had seen that Liz isn't in the mood for company and only asked for a message that she arrived safe at home.
And that's what she has done and she had sent the same message to her family and friends.
She is fishing her keys out of her purse and growls low as her phone doesn't stop anymore. "For the love of Pete." She whispers to herself and enters place and is about to switch on the lights, hesitating as she looks at the windows. If I am already in the hairline cross, it doesn't matter if lights on or off, or blinds open or closed, she thinks but doesn't move.
Liz takes a deep breath and decides to be on the safe side and closes the blinds before she finally turns the lights on. She listens attentively if she hears glass breaking before it is too late and her body relaxes when she is greeted by silence.
She is rolling her eyes once again and drops her purse and her jacket on the couch before she makes her way to the bedroom. She just want to shower, get dressed in something comfortable, eat dinner, watch some TV and then go to bed. And that's what she is doing. She takes a hot shower, changes into a comfortable sweats and a shirt and checks the contents in her fridge, but then she feels like she isn't in the mood for cooking herself and decides to go for a frozen pizza, because she also isn't in the mood to look at her phone for the rest of the night, and then she grabs one of her beloved Dr. Pepper.
She straightens up as someone is knocking on her apartment door and furls her eyebrows, walking to the door. She looks trough the peephole and leans her forehead with a groan against the wood.
Liz takes a deep breath and finally opens the door. "What are you doing here?"
Adam stands there dumbfounded and blinks a couple of times. "Your apartment is on my way home."
"No, it's not." She replies and still doesn't step aside. "Did my mothers send you?"
"Wow, you have a great mood." He states and frowns.
"Adam."
"No, they haven't sent me. But Arrived at home in one piece isn't exactly reassuringly."
"The next time I send you a picture with a smile plastered on my lips and thumbs up."
Adam smiles a little and frowns a little. "Can I come in?"
Liz is still standing in the door and sighs. "I really want to be alone tonight."
He nods slowly. "Okay."
"I am really sorry."
"You don't have to excuse that you need time for yourself, Liz. I just wanted to make sure you really okay."
"All right, you be careful yourself." She says and furrows her eyebrows as she places her head against the frame.
Adam nods again and stuffs his hands into the pockets of his jeans. "Sure I am. See you tomorrow."
Somehow, Liz is feeling bad that she fob him of with her grumpy mood and frowns. "Yeah, see you tomorrow."
He stops abruptly and turns back to her, frowning. "I forgot to tell you something."
She smiles a little and thrusts her chin at him. "What?"
"Night."
She is a little disappointed, but she doesn't show it too much. "Night." She can see that he is hesitating and clenching his teeth before he finally leaves.
Liz locks the door again and glances at the TV and makes the decision to skip TV and dinner and to go straight to bed, even though she is going to regret it in the morning.
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Chaz is sitting behind the steering wheel of patrol car and eyes Liz skeptically, chewing on his sandwich. "You look like shit." He states matter-of-factly.
Liz is choking on her own sandwich and her eyebrows shoot up high. "Jeez, thank you, pretty boy. That's exactly what I needed to hear."
He smiles wryly but frowns. "You okay?"
She is taking a deep breath and nods slowly. "Yeah, just didn't sleep much last night."
"I know I'm gonna regret it. Why?" Chaz asks and makes a face as she punches him hard.
"Because I had bad dreams, couldn't get back to sleep." Liz answers and shrugs. "Currently, a lot is happening in my life."
"Then it's probably the wrong time to tell you that Will crossed my way yesterday." He replies and furls his eyebrows as he sees his friend's confused look. "What?"
Liz isn't sure why this information gives her the collywobbles, but when her Will had shown up he doesn't seem to be his old self anymore. She tries to shake the feeling off and shrugs. "He showed up at my place at Sunday, but as be has seen Adam, his whole appearance changed. Will told me that he would be on his way to New York."
"Did he also tell you that he got fired?" Chaz asks and can see the answer written all over her face.
Liz' eyes went huge and shakes her head. "No. What happened?"
"He didn't say that. But I had the feeling that he went stray from the straight and narrow." He says and she furrows her brows. "He appeared … disheveled, like he hasn't seen a shower for a couple of days, and I think he has been drunk."
Liz closes her eyes and has to swallow hard. Maybe that was shed has seen too at Sunday, and hasn't given too much thought about it because they were interrupted by her new lover. She winces as she feels an hand on her shoulder.
Chaz looks worriedly at her. "No matter what happened with Will in those six month in Seattle, it is not your fault."
"But -" Liz starts.
"Uh-uh," he cuts her off and furls his eyebrows. "There is no but. Will made his decisions after he broke up with you and left Boston. It has nothing to do with you."
"I don't know." She whispers.
"He never became a real grown up, Liz. And he got you down with him sometimes. That's why the two of you were fighting in front of all of us." Chaz replies and shakes his head. "I mean, Adam and you keep you privacy pretty good separated from work. Will made the impression that he was looking for the attention of BPD to show everybody that he is with Elizabeth Rizzoli-Isles, that you belong to him. I mean, did you really … love him?"
Liz swallows hard and her shoulders slump. That is a question she had asked herself a lot of times since she wasn't with Hanley anymore. If she really loved him or just said it so she wouldn't hurt his feelings. That those feelings she felt weren't just projections of his own.
She knows that she sometimes felt like she is forced to spent her free time or breaks with Hanley. Or like he was trying to control her at sometimes. That she had to function if he wanted her to. And she came to the realization that this might have been why she often tried to push him away from her. And to the realization that he really forced her into a relationship.
They worked out well when they had no commitments, and that the problems started as they became a couple. Hanley never gave her the space when she asked for it and had to discuss everything immediately.
She also came to the conclusion that it feels differently with Adam. That he gives her the feeling to be in control, that she have a say in what they have.
When they spend a night together and shed says that she isn't in the mood, Adam doesn't try to seduce her anyway. He respects that and only holds her until they wake up in the morning again. Or when she says that she needs some time alone, he gives her that. Every now and then he send her a message or calls her, but he respect her wishes. Well, except from last night. But he left without any discussions as she said that she want to be alone.
She liked Hanley, she cared about him. But she has never felt the way like she does now. Every now and then her stomach fluttered when she saw Hanley, but it never did somersaults like it does these days. And she has to say that she is glad that they don't speak about their romance at work like she had to with Hanley. That Adam is telling her when there are changes or that he'll be somewhere else even though they had planned some time together.
Sometimes, she was disappointed, and sometimes she shrugged and said Doesn't matter, then I'm gonna spend the time with my family or friends.
And somehow, she already knows more about Adam than she knew about Hanley at all.
She knows that he is born and raised in Boston, and that he is a only child like her. That he is practicing Taekwondo and has the red belt, that he prefer to have a real book in his hand instead of a tablet. That Adam runs every morning three miles and that he enjoys if she joins him every now and then, and that he jog his nine miles at the weekend. That's when she prefers to have a jog with Leslie or any other of her female friends
Liz also knows that there is as good as nothing he doesn't like to eat. If she is honest with herself, she knows more about Adam then about Hanley.
And she also knows that Adam tries to make a good impression with his knowledge at work and not with sweetener, that's why Frankie already invited Adam to join him and Jane for a drink after work.
Liz takes a deep breath and shrugs. "I cared a lot about Will." She finally says.
Chaz glances long at her and furls his eyebrows. "But did you really love him?"
"I am not sure anymore," she admits and blushes. "Adam confuse me sometimes makes me speechless. That never happened with Will."
He chuckles and gives her a push. "Jesus, I think you had a big crush on Will, but you are falling for Adam."
She blushes even more and pushes him back. "Shut up." She growls and he chuckles even more.
Liz huffs and glares at him, crossing her arms over her chest like she is seven.
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Adam is at home for an hour already and is going through his notes as he hears the knock on the door. He doesn't think twice and gets up, opening. He can't help the little smile that appears on his lips. "Hey, there."
Liz isn't saying a word and stands on her tiptoes as soon as he says hello, pressing her lips to his. She smiles a little when he is a little taken aback from her greeting, but he doesn't need long to gain composure again. She sighs relieved as soon as he kisses her back and breaks away again. When she is sure what it means that her feelings are currently telling her and takes a step back. "Okay." She says with a broad smile.
"Okay," he replies and furls his eyebrows as he realizes that he doesn't know what she means. "Okay? What is okay? Liz?"
Liz snickers and turns to leave with a idiotic smile. "See you tomorrow at work." She just answers and disappears around the corner.
Adam stares dumbfounded after her and wears a deep frown on his forehead. "I have no idea what this has to mean, but when she says it's okay, it is okay." He mumbles to himself and closes the door with a scoff and smiles like a Cheshire cat.