CHAPTER 5
I'm assuming you've already seen the mid season finale for season six, otherwise you might want to turn around (and come back later). Major spoilers for 612 ahead.
It starts with the phone calls. Every few minutes her phone buzzes and Jane is just about ready to throw it against a wall. Maura laughs about it and Frankie joins in. It does little to temper Jane's annoyance, but when they subside for a while she almost forgets about them. And then they are pulled onto a case and dragged over to Los Angeles and Jane resorts to ignoring her phone for anyone that is not her mother, the LAPD, the BPD or Maura.
But then it escalates to the credit cards. Jane doesn't think much of it. Just a few stolen credit cards, identity theft happens. They'll get the bastard and put them in prison for it, Jane will the cards fixed and sure her credit won't be quite the same, but she'll recover. It isn't really as big a deal as Maura is making it. But Maura paces back and forth. She mumbles something incoherent at timed intervals and then returns to her pacing while Jane stands to a side and watches her with raised eyebrows.
"First those phone calls, now this, something isn't right. How are you this calm? How can you be okay with this? This isn't okay, Jane."
"One of us has to hold it together," Jane mumbles under her breath.
"What was that?"
"Nothing, Maur will you just sit down for a second," Jane motions to the couch, "Frankie and Nina are already looking into it. I'm sure they'll find the person responsible soon."
"They had better"
Jane smiles. Having Maura Isles in her corner is like having an entire army at her back.
"You worry too much"
"Because you won't take this seriously enough,"
"I will, Maura, I promise"
Maura leans into Jane and they sit there for a while enjoying the view from the window of their hotel room that Maura so graciously upgraded much like the rest of their trip.
"I didn't really wanna come here, but this is good. The city isn't half bad,"
"But you still can't wait to get back"
"You know me too well"
Maura chuckles.
They wrap the case soon and return home to find that the fears that Jane has been turning over in her head have all come true. The fire, the phone calls, the credit cards, it's all linked and Jane is the target. Except identity theft isn't the crime. As the video plays through Jane feels a dark terror settle into her gut, it is a feeling she will soon grow very familiar with and perhaps one that will never again leave her alone.
Jane brings over the video to Maura's office leaving Frankie, Korsak and Nina to look into anything else related to it that may help. She walks with slow measured steps turning over the pen drive in her hand. She knows what Maura's reaction will be. But Jane is numb for the moment. These things happen on the other end of the table, she is the one investigating. Jane Rizzoli isn't the victim, she is the detective. Yet, this person had managed to put her on the other end.
Maura plays the video over and over again, looking for something new. A stray shadow. A new sound. Anything to tell her more than what she knows which is nothing. Maura Isles does not deal well with nothing. She is a woman of science, she searches, probes, tests, she finds answers. She does not stare blankly at a video with nothing to give her more insight into the person after her best friend.
Finally, Jane tires of watching the doctor play the video on a seemingly endless loop and shuts the lid of the laptop. Maura cannot understand how Jane is this calm, the frustration in her wild eyes makes her forget for a moment that Jane has always taken to folding into herself when a crisis hits. So Maura keeps probing her until Jane bursts out.
"Aren't you worried? What will they do next Jane?"
"Well I don't know, Maura, but whatever it is, it will be worse. That's what you're thinking isn't it? Because that's what I'm thinking when I lay awake at night surrounded by things that aren't mine because he burnt down everything I have ever owned! Is that what you want, Maura? Do you want me to yell because my world is falling apart?"
"I'm sorry, Jane," Maura gets up and comes over, "I did not mean to upset you"
"Yeah well I'm already upset."
"I can't imagine what Angela is going through."
"No!" Jane jumps eyes wide, "No! She is not going to find out about this."
"Jane I can't lie"
"Yes you can"
And before Maura can argue any further her phone goes off and the matter is settled. Jane raises her eyebrows and pulls out her phone. She shakes it to see if it is working and then runs upstairs where she is met with an even worse fate than having her identity stolen: desk duty. Korsak leaves her with instructions to weed out anyone she has put away that meets their profile and Jane begrudgingly heads over to her computer.
When it is evident that Jane will not stay away from the line of fire Maura goes behind her back and gets Korsak to appoint her a bodyguard that she will cover costs for as long as Jane never knows. And there is another thing that Jane has to deal with.
It is an uncommon feeling for Jane, all this uncertainty, so much of her life being out of her hands. Jane usually has both feet planted firmly in the ground knowing exactly what her next move is going to be. In that the person has succeeded, Jane thinks, because trapped in her apartment she feels like she is all but suffocating unable to help, unable to do her job, unable to do anything that matter except sit and wait. Wait for the next thing to hit her square in the face without warning.
But there is warning so Jane heads over to the precinct against all orders. She browses through files looking for clues other than the watch. When nothing turns up she goes to see Maura. She finds the other woman sitting in her chair going through her computer.
Maura closes the lid and turns to face Jane.
"How are you doing?"
"He's hell bent on taking everything away from me." Jane shrugs, "I just need this to be over"
"I'll always be here, Jane."
"I know," Jane smiles, "Thanks for the bodyguard"
Maura returns the smile. "How did you find out?"
"C'mon, Maur, the BPD would never spring for it."
"They might have"
Jane laughs.
"What would I do without you?"
"You'll never have to find out." Maura's smile is tinged with a wistful layer that Jane never sees through.
"I don't get it. It was just a watch from my mother. What-" Jane pauses her eyes growing wide with the realization.
Maura nods as Jane turns to dash out.
"I love you, be careful" Maura says after her, but Jane is already gone.
They make their way over to Maura's house and Jane calls Frankie on the way and tells him to meet them there. She crosses her fingers hoping it isn't too late.
A homicide, the voice on the other end of the phones says and Maura heads on over to the address it tells her. She assumes she will meet another detective there since Jane is occupied. She worries about Jane. It is difficult to love someone who is forever standing in the first line of fire. Maura tries to keep her safe in her own ways, with a body guard, with her incessant hovering, with so many things that Jane will never know about. She checks the empty squad car and then walks into the crime scene ducking under the yellow tape.
Jane takes a deep breath when she finds her mother. She throws her arms around the flustered woman and smiles.
Ma is safe. Everything is fine. And yet Jane cannot ignore the knots twisting into each other at the pit of her gut. Frankie finally makes it and Jane should be able to breathe, everything is okay for the moment. Only something feels awfully, terribly wrong. But Maura should be fine. She's at the office, right?
Jane pulls out her phone and dials the first number on speed dial. The bell keeps going, but no one picks. Maura always picks Jane's call, especially after that one incident where Jane sent over two squad cars, made Frost cut short his break and sped on over because Maura wouldn't pick up the phone. She was quickly embarrassed when she learnt that Maura has simply left her phone in the locker at the spa after which she owed Frost a lot of makeup coffees and burritos.
Her phone flashes a missed call, but before she can do anything about it an arm comes around her throat and a she screams but it comes out mostly muffled. She knows it is a man by his build and the strength of the arm around her. And she tries to think of all the ways she should be able to put into practice those maneuvers she learnt in self defense. But as her heels drag across the concrete floors and the phone vibrates too far out of her reach, Maura is utterly helpless.
She tries to call again and still no answer. The faces around her fold into concern, but all she can feel is ice cold terror. How could she have not thought of Maura? He wanted to take everything from her and no matter how much he took as long as she has Maura she is going to be fine. Maura is everything to her, why won't she pick the phone? Jane taps her feet against the floor and as the bell keeps ringing she feels like she can't breathe.