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 6

Jane tried to move to stand, but then realized she couldn't, a wave of dizziness overtaking her, and she slumped again on the floor, gasping.

"He hurt you, Jane. Badly." Maura looked compassionately at her, and Jane followed Maura's eyes, looking up and seeing the mark of her blood on the wall behind her head where she had slid to the floor.

The pounding pain on the back of her head seemed to intensify.

"Shit…" she closed her eyes, swallowing hard and trying to control her nausea.

"You most certainly have a concussion." Maura assessed.

"Are you hurt?"

"No, I am just bruised." Maura passed her hand on her throat, that was still burning from how tightly he had held her.

"Where did he come from?" Jane asked, puzzled.

"The back door, the same one we used."

"Do you still have the key?"

"I do." Maura fished it from her pocket, her hands shaky.

"Please lock the door. Do the same with the front door if it is not yet locked."

Jane watched as Maura did as she instructed. She had trouble doing it, her hands trembling as Maura continued to shake uncontrollably.

Jane then moved to kneel.

"You should not be moving..." Maura urged, approaching and trying to still Jane.

"We need to get some rest, Maura." Jane panted.

Jane knew Maura was in shock. Jane knew she herself had a concussion. And they could only begin the journey back later that night. But both needed to rest first.

Jane used the kitchen sink as support to stand. She had to close her eyes, nausea and dizziness taking over her.

She then moved, using the wall as support, and pulled the bloodied rug to cover the dead body of the soldier. They didn't need to keep looking at it.

"Everything is destroyed upstairs, but at least it is cleaner." Jane tried.

She moved, slowly, one hand by the wall, Maura with an arm around her waist, to the stairs. She used the banister instead of the wall as they slowly ascended.

Maura went quickly from room to room to assess the less damaged.

"This way." She guided Jane to one of the bedrooms.

Maura pulled the destroyed mattress back to be on top of its base, and helped Jane to sit. She then opened a window, and using a shaving bowl from the bathroom collected some snow from the windowsill.

"Lay down…" Maura pushed Jane to lay on her lap, and then using a towel to cradle the snow, positioned it on top of where the skin of Jane's head had split open, and tied it in place with the towel. On top of it she put back Jane's woolen hat, and then the parka hood, to keep the improvised bandage in place and to give some cushioning for it.

The shock of the cold snow soon numbed the pain a little.

"Thank you, Maura." Jane offered, looking up. Jane could feel Maura's trembling hands on her hair, and she could see Maura was still shaking and crying quietly.

"Here. Lay down as well." Jane pleaded.

Jane moved, opening space for Maura, and Maura laid down.

Jane grunted painfully as she turned to face Maura.

"I am sorry for putting you at risk, for nothing." Maura whispered, her voice broken, as she covered her face with her folded arm.

"You didn't put me at risk, Maura. I came because I wanted to come with you. I am sorry that we were too late to do anything for them." Jane offered compassionately.

"You helped me find what happened to them. You gave them a burial and a committal. And you saved my life…" Maura sighed, shuddering, and Jane watched as Maura began to shake uncontrollably, curling herself into a fetal position as she sobbed.

Jane held Maura tightly. Jane didn't try to shoosh her, she knew what Maura had been through in the past few hours was more than most people would experience in a lifetime. Finding her parents were killed in cold blood. Having to dig their grave and bury them. Being held hostage. Finding out who killed her parents. Threatened with rape. And then killing a man. It was a lot.

Jane felt when the shaking turned into dry sobs, and into sniffling, and then into silence, when Maura finally fell asleep. Only then Jane succumbed to weariness and tiredness and pain, and allowed herself to go under.

Jane woke up disoriented. Maura was still asleep. Jane checked her wristwatch. A bit over 5PM. They needed to get ready to be moving about 6.30PM.

Jane's head was pounding madly. She inhaled sharply, and moved to sit, carefully, avoiding waking Maura up. She could be spared from the horror for a while longer.

Jane gave herself a few moments to adjust. Her legs were stiff, her arms were stiff, her back was stiff, her hands felt frozen. The unusual effort of biking and digging a grave were not going cheap on her muscles.

Jane stood up carefully, supporting her weight by the wall until the dizziness subsided. Her stomach was doing somersaults, but she had nothing to throw up, their last meal had been a full 24 hours earlier. She picked up another handful of snow from the windowsill, and tied the towel again over her headwound, covering it all with the woolen hat to keep her hair and the towel in place.

She knew they would need provisions, now that the damned soldier had consumed it all. But the house had been ransacked. Jane doubted she could find anything. For sure nothing on this upper floor.

Carefully and slowly, Jane went downstairs. By the light of day, things looked even more bleak with the grayish light of the late winter afternoon instead of the torches they had used last night.

She swallowed hard seeing the boots and the dried blood pool that had spread beyond the rug she had put to cover the dead German soldier.

Slowly and diligently, Jane checked their backpacks – no food remained. She stored back the two thermos with water – they were dented but would still help to keep the water from freezing. The medicine pouch and the spare socks Maura had made them carry was the remaining part of her inventory. Jane popped two painkiller pills on her gloved hand and swallowed them without water. She hoped they could hold back a little on the throbbing pain on her head.

Jane then proceeded to check every single cabinet and drawer in every single room on the floor level for anything that could be edible.

In the office, Jane found a broken portrait, with a picture of Arthur and Constance, much younger, with a sweet toddler Maura. Jane picked it from the broken glass, placed it on a discarded cardboard envelope, and put it on the backpack. There was also a discarded photo album, that Jane put on the backpack. Everything else was too messy for her to rummage through.

She had already given up finding any food when she entered the library lastly, since it was the least likely place for someone to have food. But it was there that Jane found a tin of dried nuts. Inside of it there was a bit less than half a pound of it. Jane thought it would be nutritious, light to carry, and they could ration it if needed be. It was almost nothing, but it was better than nothing.

She felt too nauseous to try to eat anything now, whatever she tried to eat she would throw up in no time. But Maura didn't need to know that.

Jane slowly made her way upstairs, each stair a blow to her head.

It was 6PM, and she needed to wake Maura up for them to begin their journey back.

When she entered the room they have used, she could see Maura was still curled up, a shiver running through her every now and then. Her hair was tousled, her face marked by tears, her nose and eyes and mouth marred in red. She looked small and fragile, and Jane wished she didn't need to bring her back to reality this soon.