Flameout Chapter 26

Thursday

Stella

Stella had one hour of outside time right before dinner each evening. Once outside, the prison guard gave Stella the charged cell phone. She checked the messages and discovered that she had three missed phone calls from the same number that had come in earlier that day. She called the number and discovered that it was her new HR representative from BPD.

The woman's voice was shaky as she told Stella, "I'm nervous, there has been quite a bit of activity in HR. It seems as though Lieutenant Frost has asked for quite a few personnel records. I was able to find out some of the names and they seem to be some of the morgue new hires. I think he might suspect something."

Stella spoke before the woman could finish, "Don't worry, just go about your business and don't worry about Frost. Our plan is still valid as long as everyone does their part. Please don't call me again. Contact your contact person if you have concerns, they are trained to deal with any situation that might arise. It is too risky for you to call me directly."

The HR representative then replied, "I'm sorry, I just got nervous. I thought you would want to know as soon as possible."

Stella once again spoke before the woman could continue. Stella knew that she only had a few minutes with the cell phone each night so she had to be quick. "Thank you and like I said please do not call be directly. Dispose of this phone number immediately. Goodbye."

The woman thought, 'wow, she is really rude. I wonder what her issue is. I am glad I don't have to deal with her directly.' The woman had no idea who she was dealing with, no name had been exchanged from Stella's end.

Stella thought to herself, 'man, I wonder about these people, they panic so quickly. I thought I was dealing with professionals.' Stella gave the cell phone back to the guard and continued to walk around the perimeter until her one-hour allotted outdoors time was complete.

Stella had to put some of the pieces of her puzzle together quickly. As she found out things about Jane and Maura she had to modify and adjust her plan. Her HR representative was a quick hire, she didn't have too much time to plan that phase of her plan as the opening became available and she had to put a person in play.

Stella had no idea that one of the supervisors in the HR department had become pregnant and decided not to return to work after having the baby. Although this was great news for Stella the timing sucked as she hadn't finished her vetting process. The position was to be filled within weeks of Stella finding out about Maura's mass hiring for morgue positions.

Friday

Nikki

Nikki woke up Friday morning to find herself alone in her bed, well the bed she had been sharing with Mark. She got out of bed thinking maybe he was cooking them breakfast. She went to pull something out to wear and noticed Mark's side of the closet was bare. All of his clothes were gone. She ran out into the living room and saw a note. She opened the note and a key fell out. She read the note. 'Nikki, I have loved you for quite some time. Just before Valentine's Day I had planned to propose but you declared that you would always love Jane. I cannot compete with your unrequited love for Jane. I am leaving. Please do not reach out to me, this is the end. Mark.'

Nikki fell to the floor in tears, she loved Mark. She would have said yes if he had proposed. She knew she could never have Jane and now it looked as if she couldn't have Mark either. She laid on the floor for hours. It wasn't until the house cleaner showed up that Nikki rose and went back to her bedroom. She didn't know what she was going to do now. She had to think, maybe she could find Mark. They had broken up and gotten back together so many times already, maybe this wasn't really the end of their relationship. Just maybe things would work out.

Gen

Gen hardly got any sleep. She crawled into bed at almost four in the morning. Steve stirred and just wrapped himself around his wife. He was used to her crazy hours. He knew it came with the job and more so with her personality. Gen was the type to be in the trenches with the troops not just leaving to go home when she had put in her eight hours.

When Steve's alarm went off at seven, he tried to be quiet but Gen stirred and got up. She had to get back to work. Steve told her, "Honey, why don't you sleep for another 3-4 hours. You are going to exhaust yourself. Your body needs sleep."

"I know, however I have to help with this case. We are making progress and I want to wrap it up as soon as possible. I promise I will take a nap at work. It might be a short one but my body will let me know. This isn't the first time and probably will not be the last time that I do this. When the case is closed, I will tell you all about it but for now I need to do this." Steve agreed and dragged his wife into the shower with him. It was Friday and he had would have the weekend off but he knew he would be spending it with their sons because Gen would be at work.

Jane

Jane was on cloud nine, she was flying. She loved flying and to top things off she had Maura in the backseat. Maura had agreed to go on the incentive flight with her. "Jane, this is fascinating, such a rush of adrenaline. I can see why you enjoy it so much." Maura said as soon as the plane was airborne.

"You haven't seen or felt anything yet Maur. All we have done so far is take off." As soon as Jane said that she maneuvered the plane so that it was flying straight up. Ace was right on her tail. They went up another 10,000 feet and then Jane leveled the plane off.

"Oh my God, Jane, please warn me next time you are going to do that."

"What fun is that, Maur." Jane loved teasing Maura, she just hoped that Maura wouldn't throw up.

"Jane!"

"Okay, okay, we are going to make some turns, left and then right. I am also going to roll the aircraft over and Ace will come up below us like in that scene I showed you in Top Gun."

"Really, I didn't realize we would be doing that."

"I want you to experience it all babe. Now, I need to add some speed, we have a destination to arrive at. We only have a short window of time at the destination so we must get there."

"Where are you taking me Jane?"

"It is a surprise, Maur."

"Are you two going to chatter the whole flight?" Ace questioned. He had been quietly listening to them banter back and forth.

"Oh, hello Alexander, I didn't know you could hear us." Maura said. Ace thought Maura was too formal at times, she always managed to call him by his given name instead of his call sign. His wife didn't even call him Alexander, only Maura but he really didn't mind, he knew it was part of her personality.

"Ace, you know this one likes to talk." Jane said and was waiting for Maura to chastise her.

"Hey, I just wanted to find out where we were going. You can't blame a girl for trying." They were silent for a few minutes as Jane and Ace sped up. They had some performance tests to run on the aircraft during the flight and Jane wanted to knock off as many as should could on the trip to their secret location. She wanted to enjoy the short window of flight time she was given at their destination. Jane had to pull a great deal of favors in to make this happen so she wanted them to enjoy every minute of it.

About half an hour later Jane asked, "Ace is the gas station going to be on time?"

Maura wondered what the heck Jane was talking about. 'Gas station, there wasn't a gas station in the sky.' Before Ace could respond Maura questioned Jane, "Jane, what gas station, what are you talking about?"

Ace replied, "Yes Jane, in twenty minutes."

"Thanks Ace. Maur, you will just have to wait and see."

Sure enough twenty minutes, a voice came over the radio, "Tiger 1 this is Tanker 1 how do you copy?"

"Loud and clear Tanker 1." Jane replied.

"Roger, let me get Tiger 2 taken care of and then it will be your turn. I understand you have a visitor on board."

"Yes, Tanker 1. Dr. Maura Isles, my former trauma surgeon and now the Chief, Medical Examiner for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts."

"Welcome, Dr. Isles. I hope Jane is truly taking great care of you. I am Victoria, Captain of this tanker and all female crew of five. The only face you will see is that of Olivia, our boom operator."

"Thank you, Victoria, and yes Jane is taking great care of me."

"Well I see that Ace is all finished now so Jane if you can maneuver into place we will get you fueled up and on your way. I understand you have a special destination to show your lady."

"Yes, I do. Wait, how do you know she is my lady?"

"Jane, do you really think you could shack up with your former doc and not have everyone know?"

"Well, I was hoping that my private life would be somewhat private."

"Oh no, when the great Jane Rizzoli is off the market it is not private." They couldn't tell but Maura was blushing. Hardly anyone knew of her relationship and engagement to Nikki so Jane was a little surprised that everyone seemed to know that she was dating Maura.

"Well, I guess the cat is out of the bag. I will make sure to introduce the crew to her the next time we are in the same town. I believe that is June, if I am not mistaken."

"Yes, June. I look forward to meeting you in person, Dr. Isles. We might tease Jane a great deal but we love her and are so very proud of her. We also appreciate that you were able to save her life. She is one of the great ones."

"Hey, what about me." Ace chimed in, he hated when they left him out of the conversation.

"Ace, we love you buddy, but you are a dude. Jane is one of us. We women have to stick together."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. We need to fly Jane."

"Thanks Victory crew. See you in June." With that Ace and Jane flew off.

"Why did you call her Victory Jane?"

"Just part of that teasing we do, we call the crew Victory. We have been doing that for years. I do not even remember how all that started."

The rest of the flight to their destination was relatively quiet. They sped along at a high rate of speed, pinning Maura to the back of her seat. As they approached their destination Jane slowed the plane down and conversed with the tower.

"Tower, this is Tiger Flight, Tiger 1 and 2, do we have permission to enter the airspace?"

"Yes, Tiger Flight you have permission, you have fifteen minutes of clearance granted after that you must leave our airspace."

"Roger Tower, fifteen minutes, understood."

Jane and Ace lowered their planes down to a few thousand feet above the water. "Check it out Maur!" Jane said as they flew over Niagara Falls.

"Jane, is that Niagara Falls?"

"Yes, Maur, I wanted to take you somewhere special." Jane was flying as slow as her plane would let her. She watched the timer she had set as she didn't want to abuse her allotted time. She also had to make sure that she stayed on the United States side of the falls. She was not given clearance to fly into Canadian airspace. Jane flew as close to the falls as she could talking with Maura and Ace the whole time. Jane had never flown near the falls before and she was quite amazed that she had been given permission. She had a feeling that her previous crash had something to do with the special permission that she was granted. She didn't care she felt honored to be able to fly over the falls and she was going to enjoy it.

After thirteen minutes her timer went off and she and Ace prepared to depart the area. "Thank you tower. Tiger Flight is headed home."

"Good day Tiger Flight, safe travels. If you ever are this way, by way of ground transportation please stop by."

"Roger that, Tower." Within less than a minute the planes were turned around and headed back to Syracuse.

"So, what do you think Maur, was that worth the extra time up here with me and Ace?"

"What is it you would say, 'Hell ya!'"

"Yes, that is exactly what I would say. Now we have some speed to pursue and a few more maneuvers to perform and then we will be back to base before you know it." Jane and Ace flew at almost Mach 1 for as long as they could to make up some time. When they were within range of the Syracuse Tower they radioed in, "Tower, this is Tiger Flight requesting permission to land."

"Tiger flight, permission is granted, Tiger 2 then Tiger 1."

"You head the man, Ace, you are up first."

As soon as Ace landed, Jane buzzed the tower and then landed. She knew she would catch some grief but she couldn't resist. Ace had a feeling Jane was going to do that and had warned the tower before they took off that morning.

At the end of the flight the children all met them by the hangar. They had a tour of the fire station and were able to ride the fire truck to the hanger. The driver had put on the lights and sirens and answered as many questions as the children asked.

Charlie had sat by Cindy and grabbed her hand. Cindy looked down at Charlie and smiled. "It's okay Charlie. They planes have landed safely and are now taxing to our location." She squeezed his hand for reassurance, he squeezed back without saying a word. As soon as Jane and Maura had exited the plane Charlie took off for them. He reached Maura first and hugged her and then hugged Jane. He didn't let go of Jane. Jane gave Maura a concerned look right as Cindy walked up and whispered in Maura's ear that Charlie was a little scared.

Jane didn't need to be told what was going on, she sensed it and asked Charlie, "Would you like to go for a little walk and talk?"

Charlie didn't respond verbally he just shook his head. Jane motioned to Maura and then walked off holding Charlie's hand. The sight of the two of them walking off like that gave Maura chills. She loved how Jane and the children took to one another. Maura knew that Jane would be able to settle Charlie down. "So, what's going on Chuckles?" Jane had given Charlie that nickname months ago. At first Maura was upset by it but then she realized that Jane only called him that in private when it was just the four of them. Charlie loved the nickname.

"I was scared that something would happen to you and mommy."

"Well, as you can see nothing happened and we are both on the ground safely."

"Yes, but with the lights and sirens of the fire trucks it just reminded me of your accident and it scared me. Cindy let me hold her hand and that helped me feel better until I could see and hug both of you."

"I am glad Cindy was there for you. Did Cindy know that you were scared?"

"I am not sure, she didn't say anything she just squeezed my hand to let me know I was okay. I squeezed her hand back, so we really didn't say anything to each other. I think she knew though."

"Ya, she probably did, she is a smart lady, not quite as smart as your mommy, but pretty close."

Charlie laughed and replied, "I don't think anybody is as smart as mommy."

"You are probably right, so are you okay to join the group again?"

"Yes, and Jane." Charlie paused waiting for Jane to acknowledge him.

"Yes, Chuckles."

"Thank you for talking with me."

Jane pulled him in for a hug and said, "anytime buddy, now let's go join our family."

Saturday

At around three am, Jane and Maura woke up to a blood shuttering yell from Charlie, "No Mama, you have to be okay, mama please."

Jane was in Charlie's room so fast. She held Charlie who was trenched in sweat. "You are okay, Charlie. I am here, you are okay."

Charlie was dazzled when he looked into Jane's face. "Mama, it was terrible. Yours and mommy's plane crashed and I couldn't find you."

Charlie had been in therapy and they had checked with the therapist to make sure that Charlie would be okay with Jane flying and being around the airplanes. What they hadn't factored in was the fire engines with the lights and sirens arriving so close to the aircraft. "We are fine, Charlie. You can see us both right now." Maura had walked in and was standing right next to Jane. Bella had woken up and was standing hugging Maura's side.

"You know what I think we need right now?" They all looked at Jane waiting for her to finish her comment. "A family sleep in, let's all go sleep in the king size bed." Maura smiled as she thought that was the perfect solution for the moment, she knew that Jane had to get up in a few hours and go to work but she could continue to snuggle with the children after Jane went to work. They had no plans for the day except to pack up a few things and then have a big dinner with the friends before they left Sunday morning to go back to Boston.