“Yes Jane…yes…she will be…please…she’s two floors down…I
spoke with Emily and she’s been asking about you as well.” Maura watched as
Jane nodded slightly and closed her eyes.

The nurse assigned to her chose that moment to come in. “Dr
Isles? Is everything all right in here?
She picked up Jane’s chart and updated the information. “Detective, how
are we feeling?”

Eyes still closed, “been better” she said.  Jane tried to shift a bit and gasped out loud
at the pain that tore through her chest and abdomen.

“Don’t Jane.” Maura’s hands held her shoulders.

“Oh God Maura…this hurts…” tears in her eyes again, she
tried to get a handle on her pain.  Jane
had a high threshold for pain normally but this felt worse than when she had
shot herself.

“I know honey…” Maura looked at the nurse expectantly.

“Detective…I’m going to give you something stronger for the
pain.” The nurse spoke soothingly and was surprised at the response she
received.

“No…Maura, no…don’t let them please.  I need…I need to know what’s going on?”
Pausing she looked at Maura, seeing the worry and concern in her eyes bothered
her but she needed to know.  She wanted
answers about herself and about Rodriguez.

“Rodriguez, did we get him?” Maura’s hesitation was enough
to let Jane know that they hadn’t.

“He’s going to come for us Maura…you know that.” Holding
Maura’s gaze for a second, she closed her eyes again. “God she was tired…all she wanted to do was sleep but she had already
lost a day” Fighting the pull of her exhaustion, she needed to know…”What’s
wrong with me Maura…what did he do to me?”

There it was, Maura thought, she was hoping for more time
before she had to tell her about her injuries.

“Jane are you sure…maybe we should…”

“Maur please…”

Maura kissed her on the forehead and stroked her head.
“Relax Jane, I will.”

Maura started to explain, as simply as possible, while Jane
lay there watching her intently.  When
she was done she watched for Jane’s reaction.

Eyes squeezed shut, Jane knew, she knew when it had
happened.  When he had her at the
end.  He knew what he was doing; he had
meant to kill her in that instant, and almost did.

And now he’s coming back to finish the job.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

JJ’s anger when she
had woken up hours later scared the hell out of Garcia.  She had never seen her best friend that pissed off.