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 8

Jane hugged Maura back, letting her own tears of relief flow, giving Maura plenty of time to accept the reality that Jane was there with her.

"How have you decided it was really me?" Jane asked, when she finally felt Maura's sobs calming down.

"I should have suspected when my delirium spoke to me and touched me, gave me medicines and took care of me, or when you cried. But the fact that you know things that I have no idea about were the proof I was missing. I could not come up with this sequence of events even if I wanted to…" Maura mumbled, her face buried on the crook of Jane's neck.

Jane rubbed her back up and down, gently.

"Should I stop? I don't want to upset you…"

"No, please, I need to know…"

"When I saw the video…" Jane shook her head. "I realized I could not stay in Boston without you. And if there would be no funeral, there was no reason for me to stay. I ran back home. Took a flight back that same fateful Friday. I… I was numb, home, for the weekend, feeling guilty for everything I could possibly had done differently, and attempted to go back to work on Monday. After I flunked the first five minutes of the first class, I signed up for an unpaid leave and drove back to my apartment."

Maura could see the tears trailing freely through Jane's cheeks.

"What did you do?"

Jane shook her head.

"Tell me, Jane, please…"

"I… stopped by the liquor store on my way home…" Jane hesitated, biting the inside of her cheek. "And I drank day and night for weeks, trying to numb the pain of your loss, trying to wipe away my guilt, trying to forget that you were gone. God, the pain was unbearable…"

"Oh, Jane, I am so, so sorry." Maura squeezed Jane's hand, in reassurance.

"By the end of the third week, Dean showed up again. He threw me under an icy-cold water shower and gave me sludge strong coffee to fight my inebriated state, and finally told me you were alive. I was so in shock, Maura, that I almost killed him then and there."

"I cannot even begin to imagine…"

"He was concerned that WitSec was protecting you too well physically, but that your sanity could be on the line. And when he learned I had already done the hardest decision that was to take the unpaid leave, he gave me the pointers to come completely underground to find you. He didn't know all the details, and we had to do everything the old-fashioned way – no internet, no cell phones, no credit cards. We relied on paper maps, paying all cash. To my family I lied saying I was on a secret undercover overseas, so they don't worry for a couple of months at least. But I found you. And I am so glad I did..."

"I am glad to have you here too, Jane."

"I am sorry I could not protect you from all that happened, Maura…" Jane offered, sheepishly.

"You are not God or some type of superhero, Jane, who is omniscient and omnipresent. You are 'just' a blood and flesh hero, my hero, who found me here. And I am really sorry for all that you had to go through this past month…"

"Knowing you are alive is enough…" Jane smiled to Maura, trying to wipe away the tears from her cheeks. "Can you tell me what you remember?"

Maura nodded.

"I was on my way to pick you up at the airport, and my intention was to then drive with you to the precinct, so you could be with me when I spoke to Frankie and to Kent. I was almost at the airport when I stopped by a traffic light and a man entered the back door of my car. I looked back but someone honked, the traffic light turned green, and then everything went black – I think it was when he shot me. I don't remember anything until waking up in a sterile hospital room, men in black suits all around me, not a familiar face in sight. I was sure I had been abducted, because I knew nothing would have kept you or someone from your family to be there when I woke up. But then they introduced themselves as Witness Protection agents, and that for all purposes I was dead." She paused, shaking her head, stifling a sob with her hand covering her mouth.

Jane pulled her closer, holding her.

"When the doctor entered, he explained I had been lucky to have survived. When he told me I had been in a coma and 'dead' for the world for more than a week, I was mad, Jane…"

"I hated they made that decision without consulting with me, or with you who is my medical proxy, or with my parents or my lawyers. But I was so weak and in so much pain, that nothing I did or said seemed to make any difference."

"They kept me in the hospital until I could move around with the crutches, and then Witsec moved me here. I spent the first five days mostly in bed, in too much pain to move around too much. They had left crackers and electrolytes by the bed table, and I was not sure if I wanted to live, I was still confused and foggy."

"Then they came back again, restocked the house, and left, saying they would be back in another seven to ten days. And I realized this was a nightmare that was just beginning. And I realized how incapable I was to do things on my own, especially when I could not research the pieces of practical knowledge I was missing. And the fever… I could not think straight for days. Everything was foggy, confused, exhausting, painful…"

Jane squeezed her gently.

"It is going to be okay, now. The antibiotic you started yesterday is the next level of antibiotic, and you feel way less feverish to my touch than yesterday."

"I do feel much better. I do need a shower, though. I have no idea the last time I showered."

Jane twisted her nose in a fake disgusted face, and Maura slapped Jane's arm weakly.

"Let me help you with that. Also, separate any clothes that need laundry, and I will wash them by the stream, while I try to fish something to have fresh protein for our lunch."

Maura walked painfully slowly to the bathroom. Jane waited outside, in case she needed help, but after a long while she showed up in clean clothes.

Jane picked the dirty clothes, and put them aside.

"We need to change the bandages…"

Jane had seen they had left medical supplies for that.

She motioned Maura to lay on her stomach in bed, and pulling back the coarse button-up shirt to expose Maura's upper back, Jane gently peeled off the tape holding the big bandage that was covering the back of Maura's head, neck and top of her spine.

Jane was glad Maura could not see her face. From the back of Maura's head, up to the top of Maura's back, there was angry mass of scar tissue from the small shrapnel showing clearly how the bullet had exploded on Maura's nape. It was a miracle Maura was still alive. The hair on the back of Maura's head had been completely shaved, instead of just cropped as the rest.

The wound seemed mostly clean, except for one spot that was clearly infected.

"Maura, I can see one spot…" and Jane moved her clean hand closer to the spot so Maura could understand what she meant, and she heard Maura hiss when Jane touched it. "… that seems to be infected. There is a yellow crust, and it is red and puffed around, different from the rest."

"It does hurt differently."

"What can I do?"

"You need to find a needle, Jane, and disinfect it. My suspicion is that there might be some dirt or some shrapnel that was not removed properly."

"Hmm, okay. I will be back."

Jane picked a needle she found in a drawer in the kitchen, and walked back to disinfect it with the peroxide in the bathroom.

"Okay, I got a very clean needle."

"Now you need to break the yellow crust and poke around."

"It will hurt like hell…"

"It already hurts like hell, Jane. Do it, please, otherwise there is no amount of antibiotic that will make me heal."

"Okay." Jane exhaled, trying to gather her courage. She poked and Maura gasped.

"Tell me what you see, Jane." Maura's voice was strangled with pain.

"There is pus, and fluid." Jane said, cleaning it with a disposable paper towel. "Oh, I see a black dot…"

"There should be no black dots anywhere. Can it possibly be a piece of shrapnel?"

"Possibly, but I wouldn't know until I try to remove it, Maura. But I don't think I can do it."

Jane could see it was really nested in Maura's flesh, and it was tiny. But the redness around it indicated that was likely the source of the infection.

"Do it, Jane. Try to dislodge it with the needle. If you can't, you will need to find a knife, disinfect it, and dislodge it."

"No anesthesia?"

"Women give birth without anesthesia. I will live." Maura ground her teeth, bracing for the pain.

As gently as Jane possibly could, she used her right hand to keep the wound opened, and then with the needle she poked precisely all around the small black piece of debris, trying to pry it lose. She could hear Maura gasping in pain, and when Jane thought she would need to resort to the knife, finally the little black piece got released from Maura's flesh.

"I got it, Maura." Jane announced, triumphantly, picking up the piece and piercing it between her fingers. "Definitely a piece of metal." Jane said, placing it on the bedside table. "What do I do now?"

"Pour a bit of peroxide on the place from where you removed it and let it bubble." Maura gritted her teeth.

Jane did as told, and Maura hissed, before finally relaxing.

"Now you can dry the wound, apply the scarring cream all over it, and place a new bandage patch."

Jane delicately did as instructed. She exhaled relieved after she finished. "All done."

Maura sighed, tiredly. "Thank you, Jane."

"Why don't you stay lying down a bit? I will try to catch a fish for our lunch." Jane knew she needed fresh air after the gruesome task she had just completed. "Do you need anything before I go?"

"No, Jane, thank you."