Thank you for the reviews...
As always, I own nothing Rizzoli and Isles

I think this might be my favourite chapter...although It could be because I slightly dread writing the next one.

almost typed 'let sleeping blood die' vv right below that line vv must be tired...good title and almost warping into that tho lol

LET SLEEPING BLOOD LIE

Chapter 32 - Blackmail

"Are you going to stop me?" Jane laughs her voice dropping an octave lower, "Last chance slimebag"...

She leaves quickly, her heart pounding heavily in her chest, her arms somehow clutching a pile of papers, too shaken to put them in her backpack. She had just bolted and miraculously hadn't dropped anything. Her pretend confidence had left her the moment she had slammed his office door.
Her car turns over easily a block away from the building and she drives home realizing she is biting her lip so hard she's almost drawn blood and that she's driving at least 10miles over the limit,

slow down, relax

Getting pulled over would be very bad, a late night cop questioning her, she gave up her badge months ago so has no chance of getting off a ticket and right now she wants to get off the road in case they come after her.
Helicopters like giant black locusts, silent until they are right above you, looking down at you. She has seen them before, once, she would rather not see them again, ever.

She checks her rear vision mirror for the hundredth time expecting flashing of lights and she scans the skies for the millionth time, just waiting for the feds to come after her. A moment later she finds herself biting her lip and speeding again.

calm down Jane, breathe, be calm

Finally she calms herself enough to take in a full breath of air. It's almost heavenly in the chaos of her mind.

Less than 15 minutes from her meeting point, that's when she catches a glimpse of headlights behind her, tailing her some distance off. It was fine before where there was a reasonable amount of traffic, but here in the outskirts of town she didn't expect anyone. She turns right and watches behind, the car turns right also. She tries two sequential lefts coming close to where she started, the car behind again mimicking hers. It is no coincidence, she has a tail.

"Shit."

Her heart is pounding again this time in her ears and throat. She squints into the rear view mirror trying to figure out the car type from it shape, the lights emanating from it too bright. It's not the feds, the headlights aren't fancy enough, not led, just plain incandescent.
But still, she he has to loose it...now...

She speeds up for the next 100 meters or so, almost 88mph, she half smiles, she can almost hear the back to the future theme tune in the back of her mind.
She had created enough space between them and takes the next corner as fast as possible while still keeping control, it is a skilled turn just like in the movies, the tires squeal slightly and the stack of papers slides almost together across the seat towards the passenger door. If she hadn't been so busy right now she would have fist pumped the air.
She turns her headlights off with a flick of her wrist and spins the wheel again, blindly turning into an ally she knows well without slowing down.
15 meters in she is tucked almost invisibly behind a building, she slams the hand-break on so hard she has to throw her arm up so she doesn't collide with the steering wheel.

Seatbelt next time

It's the type of stop that takes rubber off the wheels. The squeal like a skinned cat echoing into the dark night and it leaves a foul smell in the air as a faint drift of smoke rises from the pavement to the side mirrors before disepating completely.
She turns the car off fully and tries to breath again, she only needs enough air to focus.

Breathe...

A moment later the car following her passes the ally entrance, it's a light coloured hatchback, she's sure she has seen it before outside her apartment. The car doesn't slow or stop but carries on to the next corner out of her view. Five minutes...

She prudently stuffs all the papers into her backpack, just incase she has go on foot and watches the rear view mirror breathing short sharp breaths. Four minutes...

Clutching the wheel with one hand she fumbles for her phone with the other.
She has to change the plans incase the car comes back, and even if it doesn't.

Change of plans, tail. meet later

She looks down at her phone, it says 'delivered' under her message. She tucks it away in her pocket again. Three minutes...

She see's her reflection in the mirror, the flicker of fear in her own eye's. For a second she wonders quickly where the color in her face went.

Two minutes...no movement, no cars doubled back. The road is dead, cold, empty. She growls releasing her frustration, she has to get to Maura, make sure she is safe.

One minute...She checks her phone, nothing. She squeezes the wheel again tightly with both hands and watches as her knuckles lighten a little. She clenches her Jaw. It's the longest minute of her life.

Go...She starts the car and drives slowly forward to the other end of the ally before turning her lights on and pulling out onto the main road.

Maura

She will go home, and pack, and get Maura...

Maura is standing leaning against the bedroom door in only her undergarments stifling a yawn when Jane dumps the backpack heavily on the table. She'd blown into the apartment like a tornado awakening the slumbering doctor.

"What's that?" Maura asks pointing at the backpack almost fully awake now, "And what's on you face?"

Jane moves around the apartment checking all the windows are secured and blinds are tightly drawn grabbing items as quickly as she goes, "We have to go, now. I have another place to stay."

Maura doesn't move, 'Why?" she looks confused

Jane stops her flustering and looks up at her, "I was followed, It's weird because I was so careful." She shrugs and goes back to packing a bag

"What about the Wall?" Maura frowns, she wanted to study it more, she wanted to understand it, to see it how Jane saw it.

Jane looks confused now, "What about it?"

"We can't just leave it here."

"Well it won't fit in my suitcase either." Jane smirks, a moment of her old self glimpsing through, just a moment before its gone replaced by deep lines of concern

"Are you sure you were being followed?" Maura walks over to the window and peeps out scanning the area, it is brightly lit with street lights.

Jane pauses and looks up at her incredulously, "Yeah Maur, I kinda know when I'm being followed. Careful, they might see you."

Maura see's headlights on a car turn off just across the road and up a few cars. No-one gets out.

Jane continues, "I've seen it before too, here, its a..."

"Grey Toyota hatchback" they say in unison.

Jane drops the items she is holding and rushes to the window pushing Maura away from it and pulling Maura behind her protectively with her arm. She signals for Maura to be quiet before pulling out her gun and using the tip of the barrel to pull back the curtain peeking out in the direction Maura had just been looking.

"Damn it. We'll have to take the fire escape." She growls rushing back to the bag she dropped, "Hurry up and put some clothes on will you."

Maura stands still, stunned, but thinking, "Fire escape." She moves back towards the window to look out again. Fire escape.
In her mind she replays a conversation from yesterday, Dan's gruff voice at the dirty robber,
"...outside Jane's apartment at midnight and she came outside down the fire escape and went across the road to the car..."

"No Maura. Get back. It's not safe." Jane barks at her, "Stay away from the windows."

Maura strides to the couch unfazed by Jane's comment and retrieves her handbag she had left there last night, fetching her cellphone from inside.

Jane watches her mouth slightly open, mostly annoyed that Maura isn't preparing to escape right at this crucial time, "Maura we really have to go, I just pinched a whole bunch of very very classified documents, and you're in your underwear." she whines at her friend.

Maura doesn't respond as she finishes typing a text message and presses send then appears to hold her breath waiting.

Jane can't help but stare, mystified at the scene before her, the stunningly beautiful woman standing in the middle of her crappy lounge in only skimpy white underpants and a very revealing singlet, so much soft ivory skin glowing in the dim lighting, her blonde hair falling messily all around her neck and shoulders shining where the light touches it. She is clutching her phone away from her staring at the screen stiffly in anticipation like it's a time bomb about to go off. She looks so incredibly sexy that Jane has to fight herself to not just jump over the back of the couch and just take her right there. Her heart is palpitating and she can't now tell if it's from chemicals or fear.
Her brain says run and her heart says stay.

Maura still doesn't move and Jane is trying to come up with a new emergency plan.
Maura wasn't even meant to be here tonight. Jane had gone sleep during the early afternoon to be rested enough for the mission that night, she was to wake at 10pm and get prepared which would take about two hours. She would leave at midnight and arrive at the location at 1am taking the long route. She had the access codes for the day's alarms and a temporary fake ID card for entry courtesy of Shannon. But the building codes would change at 5am so she had a limited time frame. The deputy secretary would be there from 1am to after 2am for a few overseas conference calls, according to the schedule in the receptionists computer they had hacked earlier that week. She would take the back stairs and enter with the swipe card on the back side of the building that was unguarded, she had the building blueprints to get her to the 10th floor, the quickest route was to take the left wing corridor and the service elevator and that would also avoid any guards. Once on the 10th floor, his door was at the end of the hall. She would wait until he was off the phone before making her entrance.

But Maura had arrived at around 7pm and they had talked until Maura had fallen asleep at 10:35pm in her arms and she herself hadn't got up until just after 11pm not wanting to disturb Maura but also enjoying the closeness. She had to rush to get ready to leave and didn't leave until 12:25pm. Because of this she had gone directly to the location and so whoever followed her had likely started at her apartment. It was good, maybe, it wasn't the Fed's or spooks anyway. Shannon had managed to alter her records so her name didn't match her apartment or bank accounts anyway. She was very close to becoming a ghost like the people she had been working with. But she would have been wise to move to a new location completely. The reason she didn't was that her family would completely freak out and be unforgivably hurt. She growls, for the first time in weeks she isn't sure what to do, there is no protocol for this.

Maybe I could caveman style knock Maura out and drag her down the fire escape. It would be difficult, although she'd probably kill me if I did plus it's freezing outside and there's no time to dress her, or ~

"It's ok,' Maura squeals with delight, "You aren't being followed. Well, I mean you were being followed..." she is so flustered with excitement and relief she can't even explain so she holds out her phone for Jane to read instead, "..by me."

"Dan, are you at Jane's?"

"Yes"

"Do you drive a grey Toyota hatchback?"

"Yes. Maura. Why?"

Jane stares at Maura's phone her mouth slightly open. It takes several moments for her heart to calm down and relief to take over. Then she smirks at Maura finding it rather comical. Maura smirks back not nearly as embarrassed as she should be. Jane pulls the sexy half naked woman into a hug, as she lets out a sigh of relief.

After a few moments Maura who is trapped in Jane's tight embrace murmurs against her chest, "Wait, you stole government files?"

"What?" Jane pulls away, " Oh, just a few" she smiles coyly

Maura frowns back, "How are you so calm about this, won't they come...um..."

The pause is deafening, it's one of the reasons Jane only goes to Maura's once a week, to avoid these awkward moments

"You can say it Maura."

But things are different now...right...

Maura bites her lip before finishing the sentence, "Won't they come after you...again?"

Jane licks her lips in thought thinking for a moment, "If they were going to, they would have by now."

"You came back here for me didn't you? You wouldn't have came back here otherwise."

Jane nods confirming this, she is constantly in awe of the mind of Maura, how quick she is at putting the pieces together, "However..." a grin creeps across Jane's face, "I was prepared. I have leverage."

Jane is standing in front of him now, the papers she wanted on the desk behind her, him seated in his chair again, "I just sent the photo's I took of you to a friend," Jane turns her phone around so the assistant advisor to the senate could see them, him in only his boxer shorts, "Anything happens to me and they will be sent automatically to your wife along with a long list names belonging to your mistresses that can be easily verified. You've been a bit of a naughty boy haven't you."

It's that look between fear and contempt that is the hardest to describe, she is surprised the vein on his head hasn't popped it's pounding so hard, but Jane has made her point clear and she should go soon.

"Also know that I have poked around your history and financials, and there a quite a few skeletons in your closet. Insider trading. Gambling. Bribery. Extortion. And I only scratched the surface. Imagine what the press would say if it some documents were leaked to them."

"You didn't" The shock clear in Maura's face, the surprise in her voice that rang out high pitched in the otherwise silent room.

"Not all the papers are for me." It sounds like a lame excuse out loud and Jane bites her lip and looks down. Maybe she should have stuck to telling Maura the story in order instead of jumping this far ahead, this was unplanned however. She never planned to tell Maura about the doctor she knocked out either, this incident probably should have been excluded also.

It was easy for her to excuse her own behavior, it got easier every day as she became desensitized to the things she was doing, excusing herself that she had to do it, that she wasn't doing anything worse than they would do to her, that they did evil things on a daily basis, and that she was helping somehow.

But Maura looking at her like that, judgmental, shocked...no horrified. Her reasoning suddenly fell apart, what she had done was inexcusable, and Maura didn't even know half of it. She hadn't even explained in details what happened with Ricci.

She rubbed the scars on her hands in shame. Suddenly she was afraid, that after all this she would loose Maura because of who she had become. She had tried to warn Maura earlier about the things she did...but maybe facing it in reality and hearing the details was different.

"Maur, what are you thinking? Please talk to me..."

She realized, now, possibly too late, how awful it would have been if Maura had agreed to end it as she proposed last night. The thing she thought she wanted then she no longer hoped for and now she might not have a choice. Again she was being selfish. But she felt the loss as if it had happened and it might just break her

"Please Maur," she choked out, tears free falling down her face.

"The world is governed by very different personages from what is imagined by those who are not behind the scenes.
The governments of the present day have to deal not merely with other governments, with emperors, kings and ministers, but also with the secret societies which have everywhere their unscrupulous agents, and can at the last moment upset all the governments' plans." Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli of England - In his political book "Coningsby", 1844

...to be continued...