DISCLAIMER: I do not own Rizzoli & Isles nor any of the characters from the show. I am writing this purely for entertainment, not profit. Rizzoli and Isles are property of Tess Gerritsen and TNT.
Please find the full disclaimers in the beginning of Chapter 1.
Chapter 2
Nina arrived at the airport. She was not sure where to begin searching for Jane in that sea of people, but somehow she found her way to the column her sister-in-law was slumped against, tears streaming down her face. One hand was extended, holding her phone, the other buried in dark unruly curls.
Nina crouched down, placing a hand on top of Jane's knee, trying to draw her attention.
"Jane?" Nina's eyes were full of sorrow and concern.
"What happened, Nina?" Jane asked, her voice broken, her eyes displaying immeasurable pain.
"We don't know yet, Jane. She was shot on the back of the head on her car. She was on her way to the airport. I am so so sorry…"
"Ma?" Jane looked at Nina with wide eyes.
"Your mother is home. Maura told her she would pick you up and go straight to the precinct, and that was the only reason your mother was not in the car with her."
"Is BPD investigating this too?"
"No. We were just informed by the FBI. Because this happened around the airport perimeter, it is considered national security."
Jane shook her head. It felt surreal.
"Will you come with me? I will take you home."
"Did you already tell my mother?"
"Yes." Nina offered a hand, that Jane took, standing up. She felt dizzy, and was glad for the trash can by the column, because her stomach decided that was the moment to empty itself.
She turned, breathing hard, cleaning her mouth with the back of her hand, and Nina offered her a bottle of water.
"Thank you." Jane whispered, opening the bottle and taking a swig.
Nina picked Jane's overnight bag from the floor, Jane had her backpack on her shoulder, and they moved to the car.
Jane heard Nina telling Frankie she had Jane and was driving to Maura's home. Jane kept sitting there in the passenger seat of the car, looking outside, too stunned to say anything, too numb by the pain of loss to think, tears streaming shamelessly across her face.
When she arrived, Angela was there, and for once Jane didn't squirm from her mother's embrace.
"Jane… Oh, Jane… What a tragedy…"
Angela was shaking with sobs, and Jane let herself cry in the safety of her mother's arms. She was in shock. She couldn't believe Maura was gone. Gone. Her best friend in the whole world. Gone. Two hours ago they had been talking on the phone, and now she was gone, just like that.
Nina gave them some space, while she tried her best to answer Frankie's question. Frankie was super concerned about Jane. Nina could understand. She had never seen her sister-in-law look so much at a loss. Not even when Maura had been abducted. This was much, much worse. They all knew they were close-knitted, and this would be a hard blow for Jane.
All of them were too stunned. Hope. Maura. Gone.
Maura's doorbell rang, and Nina approached the door, her hand over her gun. She looked through the side panel, and a guy in a dark suit was showing an FBI badge, so she opened.
"I am Agent Dean, with the FBI." He kept showing Nina his badge.
Nina flashed her own badge. "Nina Holiday-Rizzoli, BPD."
"Is Jane here?"
Nina knotted her eyebrows.
"Yes."
"Can I come in, please?"
Nina motioned for him to enter.
Angela and Jane had separated when they heard the doorbell, and Jane had been trying to get a grip of herself, drying her tears and blowing her nose using the box of tissues Maura always kept close to the sofa.
"Dean?" Jane looked at him in disbelief. "What are you doing here?" her voice breaking.
Angela remembered the guy from when Jane had shot Paddy Doyle in that warehouse and had that major rift with Maura. Angela recalled Jane accusing him of being the reason for all that mess. She remembered Jane mistreating him despite the beautiful flowers he had brought her.
And just like then, Angela could see Jane was ready to fight or fly in his presence. He was not a welcome person in Jane's life, that was clear to Angela.
"I am really sorry for your loss, Jane. I am part of the investigation taskforce with the Agency. Can we please talk privately?"
Jane exhaled. From all agents in the FBI, Dean.
She looked to her mom, who approached her and kissed her temple, squeezing her arm in support. "I will be in the guesthouse if you need me, baby. Stay strong."
Jane looked at Nina, who followed Angela. Jane mouthed a silent "Thank you." to her sister-in-law.
Only then she turned again to Agent Gabriel Dean. The last time they had spoken was on the phone, when he had provided her info about Maura being under surveillance by the FBI when Hope was under investigation for Paddy's money laundering suspicion during his R.I.C.O. trial. But this had been what – four years ago?
"It has been a long time…" he offered, as if reading her mind.
"What do you already know, Dean?" Jane cut to the chase, her voice strangled.
"You know I cannot discuss an open investigation, Jane." He sighed.
"Of course you can't. Have you at least notified her family? Her biological mother is dead, was murdered overnight. But her adoptive parents?" Jane's tone was hurt.
"We talked to her family. They ordered her to be cremated and the remains will be sent to Europe."
"No service? No funeral?" Jane was shocked.
"That is how her adoptive parents decided. There would be no viewing, Jane…" a pained expression on his face.
"What do you mean?"
"There is no reconstruction possible…"
"What?"
"She had a security camera in her rearview window of the car." He sighed again.
"Yes, I know, she told me something about insurance and safe driving…" Jane deviated her eyes, the memory of Maura explaining it to her hitting her with the power of a punch to the stomach. But then she snapped her face back: "You actually have footage of her being shot?"
"I do…"
"Show me…"
"Jane…"
"It is the minimum you can do, Dean. Please. I will not tell anyone I saw it. I need to see her…" Jane pled. She would beg if she needed to. She was not part of the investigation with BPD or the Agency. She was a Training Agent. And too close to the victim to be part of the investigation anyway.
Dean bit the inside of his cheek, as if thinking twice, and then picked up his phone, browsed to a video, and turning the phone to Jane, pressed the "Play" button.
Jane covered her mouth with her hand not to cry out loud.
There, alive, was Maura. The timestamp showed 1.57PM – she was likely getting to the airport to pick Jane up. She had been obviously crying, her beautiful face marred by tears, her expression tortured in pain. Her eyes were paying attention to the road. Jane could see Maura looking up – a traffic light, maybe? And then looking back, surprised. A noise? An open door? Maura looked ahead and began opening her mouth, and then the screen went red.
Jane gasped and dropped the phone, involuntarily. She was shaking.
Dean picked up his phone from the floor, and guided Jane to sit.
"That is the reason not to have a viewing. That is why her parents opted for cremation. I am really sorry, Jane. Is there anything I can do?"
"Find whoever did this to her, Dean. And make sure they pay for it." Jane's voice was strangled.
He nodded, and stood to leave.
"Will you be okay?" he asked, his hand on the door handle.
Jane shook her head no. Nothing would be okay ever again.
He showed himself out.
Immediately Nina and Angela came back. Nina probably had been vigilantly monitoring the other door.
"Jane?" Angela asked, seeing Jane's expression even more tortured than before. Jane raised her eyes. "Did they communicate her parents?"
Jane swallowed hard. She would need to tell them.
"Yes, that is what Dean came to tell me. Maura will be cremated and her remains will be sent to Europe."
"Cremated? Without a service? A funeral? A viewing?"
The tears spilled freshly from Jane's eyes, and she shut them hard, trying to control herself.
"Ma… the shot blew Maura's head off." Jane blurted, and Angela covered her mouth with one hand, the other over her heart.
"Let's remember her as she was alive, okay?" Jane picked one of the pictures from the coffee table, she and Maura together, and hugged the picture to her chest, while her sobs violently racked her slim body.
Nina excused herself to call Frankie to update him, and Angela sat by Jane's side, hugging Jane and trying to find some sense in all that mess.
Frankie came by the house a while later, finding them the exact same way.
"Any progress on Hope's murder?" Jane asked.
"Nothing yet, Jane, I am so sorry." Jane could see they were all devastated. Maura was important to all of them.
Angela stood to try to get some coffee going for all of them.
Jane felt she was suffocating. There was nothing else she could do here. Everything was so Maura and at the same time Maura was not there.
She picked up the phone, and checked if she could change her ticket back. She originally had planned to stay with Maura at least until Sunday. But she needed to get away. Immediately. There was space for the last flight in the end of the day. So she did what she was a specialist in doing. She ran.
"You can't go back, Jane, not yet."
"There is nothing else I can do here, Ma. I can't… I just can't be here…" Jane looked at everything around her, her fingers digging through her unruly dark curls. Everything was Maura. Everything smelled of Maura's subtle perfume. "I can't be here… without Maura. I can't, Ma. Not yet, at least. It is killing me... I need to go away…"
Frankie picked Angela by the arm. "Let her go, Ma. She needs space. That is how Jane is. She needs space. And without a body to bury, she needs to grief in her own way."
"She can't be alone now, Frankie, it is not good for her..."
But Angela knew, as she was speaking those words, that although it was not good for Jane, that was exactly what Jane needed, what Jane wanted now. The only person who would be able to change Jane's mind in a situation like this would be Maura… But Maura was not there. And would never be again.
Angela nodded, and Jane hugged her.
"Thank you for understanding, Ma. I really need to do this…"
"I will drive you to the airport." Frankie decided. He needed to talk to Jane alone.
Jane said her good-byes to Nina and to her mom, and jumped into Frankie's car.
"Jane, are you sure that being on your own is a good idea?" he was really concerned about her. He knew how close Jane and Maura were. He knew Maura and Jane spoke daily even after Jane had moved to DC more than a year before.
"I can't breathe, Frankie. Everything in that house is Maura's…"
"You could stay with Nina and I, or with Tommy…"
"No offense, but I need space. The pain… It is… It is just… it is just unbearable..." She sighed, tears rolling her cheeks, the feeling of suffocating increasing.
He nodded.
"You know we are here for you, right? And you know you can show up at any time of day or night? Or that you can call and we will be there any time of day or night?"
She nodded. "Thank you, Frankie. Don't you worry about me. Focus on bringing justice to Hope. And I hope the FBI brings justice to Maura."