Chapter 8 – Sleep Deprivation

Jane had been under a great amount of stress. Someone was after her. They had burned down her apartment, hacked her financial accounts, and threaten her and those close to her. She wasn't sleeping that much, it was all beginning to take a toll on her body. In an effort to keep Jane safe, Maura had hired a body guard. Then the unthinkable happened, someone kidnapped Maura.

Jane was beside herself, she didn't know what to do or where to look. There went really any clues. Maura had been called to a crime scene, however it was not a crime scene. Someone made her believe that it was a crime scene and then kidnapped her. When Jane checked Maura's phone which had been dropped at the scene, she discovered that the last call before she had called Maura came from a BPD number.

Had someone at BPD kidnapped Maura? Jane didn't know what to believe. She wanted to believe that no one at BPD would be capable of kidnapping Maura. She asked Frankie to look into where that BPD call came from. Nina helped Frankie and discovered that the call to Maura came from Operations. There had been a shift change recently and they were calling all of the previous shift workers back to question them. Jane wouldn't stop until she found Maura.

Frankie and Nina were worried about Jane. They knew that she hadn't slept much lately. She seemed out of it but was able to answer their questions. Angela came by a while later with sandwiches for everyone, it was the only thing she felt that she could do to help. She wanted Jane to find Maura before something happened to her.

Sergeant Miller from operations was able to provide information to Nina that led to her discovering that the call that was made to Maura was spoofed from a burner phone located around the abduction area. They were making progress but not fast enough for Jane.

Jane took some files from possible people that could be involved in Maura's kidnapping and went to Maura's office to review them. She sat down on the couch and started reviewing them. She started hallucinating. Maura had previously told her about the stages of sleep deprivation. Maura had said, 'hallucinations begin by day four, followed by slurred speech, short attention span, and death.'

Jane was surprised when she woke up on Maura's couch, covered by a blanket and her mother sitting in the chair beside her. Her mother asked her, "Are you okay?"

Jane didn't hesitate to honestly reply, "no, no I'm not."

Kent had found a paint chip that led them to a lead. The paint chip was five different colors and they now had to look for old municipal buildings that were painted in that order. It was a daunting task and now that they had discovered that it was not an inside job, they were able to establish a task force and had all the assets they needed.

Jane felt a little better after her brief nap but she was still suffering from sleep deprivation. She was determined to work through it though as she had to find her best friend before something happened to her. Every time someone saw her they told her how tired she looked so hopefully the small nap would make it look like she had slept some.

Nina worked on the computer to search through all of the cell phones that had pinged off of the tower near where Maura was kidnapped. She discovered that Joe Harris, a psychiatrist at the local hospital, cell phone pinged off of the tower. Joe treated Luann, the lady that had set fire to Jane's apartment.

They were able to figure out that his cell phone had pinged by a former mental hospital, the Arkush Asylum. Jane immediately asked for Korsak to scramble a tactical team, radio silence. They all got up to head to the Arkush Asylum.

Joe Harris had kidnapped Maura. Maura was able to hide a piece of broken metal from her captor. When they were down in the tunnels, she used the piece of metal to cut his throat and break away from him.

Jane was happy and frightened when they found Maura. She heard a gunshot and Korsak told Jane to go ahead and that he would take care of Maura. Jane chased after Harris and shot him. She screamed at him, "who are you working for?" he just continued to wheeze and didn't respond she told him, "you don't even know me" and still no response. She then asked, "Why me?" she bent down with her gun still aimed at him and asked again, "Why me?"

He continued to wheeze and eventually replied, "Why not?" right before he inhaled deeply and died.

Jane ran back to the spot that the ambulances were at and found Maura. She needed to see Maura. Everything she had done the last few days was in an effort to find her and she didn't want to leave her alone now. Maura was hurt, Jane knew that. Maura had told her that Harris wasn't working alone and that frightened her. Maura's life could still be in danger.

Jane asked Maura, "Are you alright?" and then turned to the EMT and asked, "How is she?"

Maura replied, "Surface Abrasions, single facial hematoma."

"Okay," Jane replied and then turned back to the EMT.

The EMT told her, "What she said, we are taking her to General for a full work-up."

Jane turned back to Maura and asked, "Did he hurt you?"

Maura shook her head and whispered, "He just wanted to scare me."

Jane's voice broke as she told Maura, "Well, he's dead, okay. You don't have to worry about him anymore."

Maura wanted to make sure that Jane understood, "I heard him on the phone. He wasn't working alone. This isn't over."

Jane nodded her head and told Maura, "It's over for now."

Maura's voice rose as she asked her, "What did he want?"

Jane signed and told her, "Doesn't matter, okay? He's dead and you're safe. Okay?" Maura nodded and sniffled. Jane told her as she started to back away so that they could load Maura up in the ambulance, "All right, um, I'll … I'll come straight to the hospital as soon as I wrap up here."

Maura's voice broke and she replied, "Okay."

Jane instructed the EMTs, "Be careful," as they loaded the gurney into the ambulance. Jane then turned to Korsak and told him, "we need uniforms on her room 24/7."

Korsak informed her, "already taken care of."

Jane and Korsak followed the ambulance off of the property and then went to the precinct to take care of the paperwork. Two hours later, Jane was at the hospital with Maura. Maura could tell how tired Jane was and told her, "climb up in the bed with me. We both need sleep and I know for a fact that you will not sleep well in that plastic chair. You sleep better when you sleep next to me."

Jane climbed up into the bed after Maura had moved over to make room for her and they both fell asleep a few minutes later with their arms wrapped around each other. That is how Angela found them when she came by to check on Maura. She stepped out and told the officer at the door not to let anybody in the room as they needed their sleep. Angela wouldn't have to worry about Jane's sleep deprivation anymore now that Jane had Maura back in her arms.