Title: Speaking A Dead Language
Author: WtUnite [Chedders/Jess]
Rating: M
Pairing: Jane/Maura
Status: 8/?
Category/Warnings: Violence, Angst, Established Relationship
Spoilers: General TV Series spoilers/finale spoilers.
Summary: "I'm sorry Maura, really sorry."
A/N: WE ARE SO FREAKING SORRY! A lot has been going on in both of our lives and we haven't been around to update, but this is the chapter you've all been waiting for ( I think and hope ). A happy late Christmas/New Year to all of our fans and we hope that you don't hate us too much.

Parked in the driveway of Maura's house Jane felt the need for some liquid courage. But the very idea was laughable. Today she was three years sober and the meeting tonight had been an affirmation of that. When her sponsor gave her a new, three-years chip Jane had felt more confidant then she had in months. So she decided to go to ravioli night. But when she called her mom, Angela had told Jane that Maura had left early.

Going to the door Jane knocked lightly. The lights were on and a car was in the driveway, but nobody answered. Though it might be somewhat illegal Jane needed to talk to Maura, so she looked for the hide-a-key. Maura had rented out the house for five years but the hide-a-key was in the same place Jane had helped install it: magnetized to the top of one of the lights bracketing the door because, according to Maura, under the mat was too obvious.

"Maura?" she called out quietly, careful in case Nicholas was asleep. No one was there but Jane heard something that sounded a lot like yelling.

"You're going to wake him up-" Maura's voice wasn't loud, but it drifted out in the hallway, followed by something that sounded way too much like skin hitting skin.

"Does it look like I care, Maura?" the louder voice belonged to Michael, echoing out into the hallway and probably up the stairs to where Nicholas was sleeping.

Even if she had never responded to a domestic dispute call as a uniformed cop Jane would have been able to tell that this wasn't just a heated argument. There had been the sound of a smack and it sure as hell wasn't Maura doing the smacking. Walking slow towards the source of the sound Jane wished she had her gun.

Pausing at the doorway Jane saw a scene that looked eerily familiar: a red faced Michael gripping Maura by the upper arms, getting well in to her personal space.

"Michael- you're hurting me-" Maura struggled, but he was the bigger man in the end. She could fight all she wanted, but it would never amount to anything. It never did. Her left cheek was already stinging from just a moment ago, and as much as his grip hurt, she knew that he could do a lot worse.

"Now, M, don't be that way," he replied, his fingers tightening against her arms. Michael was well aware of what he was doing. He was always in control of these situations. Tugging her closer, a slightly sadistic look appeared in his blue eyes as a look of pain crossed over her features.

"We're going to go upstairs now, and you are going to make it up to me for running off and for not letting me take you to dinner. Any fighting and you know what happens," he stated with a quick glance toward where the staircase was.

Maura knew very well what happened, and she wasn't going to put Nicholas in harms way.

The thinly veiled threat made Jane unfreeze and she rocketed across the space between them to lay her fist heavily against Michael's jaw. A mixture of satisfaction, anger, a little bit of fear and a wave of pain from a couple knuckles flooded Jane's system. "Don't fucking touch her! You ever lay a hand on Maura again and I swear to God I will make the rest of your very short life a living hell," Jane threatened, her voice soft.

But Michael was not going to take that from this uppity bitch cop. Launching himself at her Michael's weight carried both Jane and himself to the ground where they fought for dominance.

Maura didn't even have a chance to react to Jane's sudden appearance before her husband and her friend were on the ground, fighting it out. Worry for Jane kicked in immediately and she tried to grab Michael's arm without thinking of anything else other than Jane's safety.

"Michael- stop!" she stated firmly, raising her voice for the first time the entire night. Instead of complying, he threw his arm back, catching Maura in the face and knocking her down. His attention was back on Jane in an instant as he fought her, aiming a punch for her face.

The two brunettes scuffled on the floor, Jane bringing more skill but Michael having the advantage in weight. She'd taken a few punches to the stomach, ribs and kidneys, as well as what might have been a head butt to the face. Giving as good as she got Jane subdued Michael long enough to use his own tie as makeshift handcuffs. "This is nice," Jane panted, tugging the knot experimentally, "It'll hold 'til a responding unit can get here."

As she stood Jane licked her lip, only to wince. The split lip and busted nose were bleeding freely. She gingerly dabbed at it with the back of her hand, looking around for Maura. "Maura, you okay?"

"I'm fine," she responded after a moment, her eyes locked on Michael. The medical examiner was resting on the floor against the wall as far away from the fighting as she could get. Her lip was busted and a bruise was starting to form on her right cheek, not to mention the finger shaped bruises appearing slowly on her arms. All in all, she looked anything but fine.

Jane leaned heavily against the wall, using its solid presence to brace herself. "Sorry. I should have controlled myself. I should have just called for backup but when I saw…." A wave of bile rose in Jane's throat and her first instinct was to go over and kick him, even if he was down. But instead Jane acted proactively and pulled out her cell, which hadn't been damaged in the tussle.

Rattling off her badge number to the dispatch operator Jane asked for a police car and an ambulance. Looking at Maura changed Jane's mind. "Scratch the unit, just the bus." Hanging up Jane hit the speed dial for Frost. "I need you to come to Maura's house and bring cuffs, and beat the ambulance."

Maura kept her head down, not really caring to hear the conversation. She knew what was being said anyways. Her back hurt from hitting the floor, but it was all just superficial damage. Michael wasn't unconscious, and the fact that he was aware of everything left her feeling more on edge than she had moments ago.

"Maura…?"

Jerking her head up, the medical examiner paused when she noticed Nicholas standing in the doorway, clutching the cop car that he had received from the Rizzoli's household just earlier that evening.

"I'm fine," she stated again, motioning for him to walk around to her. Nicholas only hesitated for a moment, taking the long way around to avoid getting anywhere near Michael. He barely glanced at Jane, knowing that she was there, but his focus was on the blonde sitting on the floor.

She pulled him into her arms when he was close, holding him while he stood in front of her.

The stream of curses from Michael's mouth, which had stopped in order to eavesdrop on Jane's phone conversation, started again when Nicholas came in to the room. When a glare didn't cause Michael to shut up a grim faced Jane knelt beside him. "If you don't shut your mouth you'll be eating through a straw for months." Spotting a discarded newspaper Jane tore off a sheet and stuffed it in to Michael's mouth. "You should be able to breath."

"You two alright?" Jane asked, her voice changing from the threatening tone she used with Michael to a much softer, almost nervous, tone.

"Maura's not," Nicholas supplied, holding tightly to the cop car with one hand while the other was pressed gently against her bruising cheek. Maura didn't pull away from the touch, even if it stung just a little. Instead, she clutched the little boy tighter and stared at Michael.

"It's okay… we're okay," she whispered after a moment, squeezing Nicholas so tight that it might've hurt anyone else, but he just pressed himself closer to her body, watching Jane watch them.

Walking away from Michael, who was still cursing from behind the newspaper, Jane slumped against the wall near Nicholas and Maura. "We will be okay," Jane promised both the little boy and her…friend. She tried to smile reassuringly but it simply split open her lip again, causing Jane to stifle a groan.

Five and a half minutes later Frost ran in, gun drawn. "Put that away," Jane instructed. "Get him cuffed and get him out of here. I don't care what for but make sure he spends the night in lockup, with the least pleasant cellmate you can find. If you need a statement you can get it later, we'll be at the hospital." Jane was crisp and she glared at the bound man even as they heard the sirens approach.

Frost spared a glance at Maura, but didn't approach. He knew better. Instead, he pulled Michael to his feet, cuffing the man and jerking him around as hard as he could. He even managed to make the bigger man run into a few things on their way out of the house. Nicholas watched as his father was taken away without a word. He waited until he was certain that Michael was gone before be turned to look at Jane.

"Thank you," he whispered softly, offering her the best smile that he could give. Maura glanced up at the detective, but she quickly looked away again, gathering herself to face the ambulance and the trip to the hospital.

Six stitches, a chest x-ray, a hand x-ray and a painful restructuring of her nose, Jane was finally free of the doctors. While being fitted for a splint for a sprained wrist and having her lip stitched Jane told her version of the events to a uniformed officer. Scanning the ER Jane immediately found Frost performing the dual role of babysitter and detective with Nicholas. Looking harder she found Maura.

Sitting carefully next to the blonde Jane looked at her out of the corner of her eye. "I'm sorry," she mumbled, painkillers making her lips somewhat spastic and the tugging of stitches in her skin highly uncomfortable. But still she soldiered on. "I shouldn't have gotten in to your business, it isn't my place. I blew a whole lot of shit out into the open. And I screwed stuff up for you. And Nicholas." She probably looked like a Frankenstein creation and her mouth wasn't exactly working but she had to say it.

"I'm sorry Maura, really sorry."

"You did what you thought was right, Jane… there's no reason to apologize for that," Maura whispered after a moment. She still couldn't make herself look at Jane though. Coming to Boston had been her way of escaping from Michael, if only for a little while.

If only to keep Nicholas safe.

"… what made you change your mind, Jane? What changed you?" she asked after a moment. She was doing everything she could to avoid thinking of what had happened. She was doing everything that she could to just be herself for a moment longer before she broke down or before she lost what was left. All she wanted was a moment.

"Who am I to say what's right? I made that decision on a purely emotional level, when I should have acted like I've been trained to." The effect of the painkillers made her somewhat morose.

"What do you mean, M….Maura?" Jane asked, stopping herself from using the nickname that sounded sullied ever since hearing it from that bastard. She had an idea what Maura was asking. Later she could blame it on painkillers but Jane wanted Maura to know. "I wasn't sure if I was pissed or depressed when you left, so I decided not to be either one and just drink more. I was drunk for a week before the guys confronted me."

She hadn't been able to express in any number of words how much she was grateful to all of them but they knew. "Korsak threatened to go to the Brass if I didn't cut it out, I know now that he was bluffing but I didn't then. So I went to the meeting convinced that I had ruined my life but the other stories were sobering, I may have fucked up but I wasn't unredeemable. So I changed."

"… I'm glad that you saved yourself." Maura whispered after a moment. She finally looked over at Jane, taking in how battered and bruised she was. Taking in the emotions in her eyes… and she smiled just a little. She smiled, because underneath it all was the Jane who had been her best friend and the woman she admired and not the drunk who had scared her more than she would ever admit.

"There was no other option." Even if she hadn't wanted to change the stories might have scared her in to it. A barely legal frat boy, the only reason he wasn't in a fatal accident was because his friends left him passed out behind the bar. Or her sponsor who hadn't made the change until waiting in a hospital bed for a new liver. Even worse was listening to Alanon members, friends and family, or Alateen for the children of alcoholics.

Even though she had three years under her belt didn't mean Jane hadn't fallen off the wagon. One of those times had been when Hoyt was almost paroled. But she went to meetings, lived by the slogans. She wasn't going to slip up again.

Maura just nodded, pausing when she noticed the familiar doctors coming over to them. Excusing herself, she left Jane sitting by herself as she went across the room to Nicholas, finding another way to distract herself. Frost waited for a moment before leaving Maura with the little boy, arriving at Jane's side right as the doctors stopped in front of them.

"Detective Rizzoli?" one of them asked, glancing at his clipboard before looking back at them.

Jane watched Maura get up and walk over to Nicholas feeling very confused. She'd spilled her guts, metaphorically, and blood, literally, only to have Maura get up and walk away. Frost nudged her gently and indicated the doctors. "I don't need any more damn doctors, I'm fine," Jane grumbled, not thinking straight tonight.

"They aren't your doctors," Frost told her.

"You two are the detectives on the case of Maura Casbrook, correct?" the female doctor asked, glancing over at the woman in question who was entertaining Nicholas. Frost nodded his head, also looking over at Maura for a moment before he turned his attention back to the doctors.

"We are." he confirmed verbally, trying to make himself relax.

"I'm Dr. Maddison, and that is Dr. Turner," the male doctor introduced the both of them quickly, pausing only a moment before he dived into the heart of the matter.

"It seems that Mrs. Casbrook has suffered from a numerous amount of different injuries in the last few years."

A bubble of rage popped and fizzled in Jane's stomach. For three months they had called Maura 'Dr. Isles' like they always used to. Maura hadn't volunteered her last name and they hadn't asked. But to think of her name linked with the ass that she had beaten up made Jane seethe with fury. She wanted to hurt him again; for every injury he'd ever given Maura, and then some.

Frost saw the murderous look in his partner's eyes and took the lead. "How many? To what extent?" He knew the questions to ask through years of training, even though it was impossible for Frost to detach himself from the case emotionally. But he was doing better than Jane.

This time it was Dr. Turner that spoke up, glancing over at the silent detective before turning back to Frost. "She's been to the hospital over fifteen times in the last two years. Some were small things like lacerations and bruises, others were more major like broken ribs and sprains."

Gripping the back of the chair Jane could almost hear the tendons in her hand straining. She didn't even feel the sharp jabs of pain from her sprained wrist but felt phantom fingers wrapping themselves around Michael Cabrook's neck and squeezing, tightly. They had suspected it but to have witnessed it with her own eyes and the doctors' reports on top of that made Jane wish she'd killed the bastard instead of letting Frost take him away.

"Were there police reports filed?" Frost asked the questions, not trusting Jane's judgment to be unclouded while under the influence of pain medication and a typhoon of emotions.

Glancing over at Maura again, Dr. Turner shook her head. "None were ever filed. There is evidence of other injuries that were never treated at a hospital as well. The pattern seems to have started a little over three years ago. At least, that's when the first hospital visit occurred."

"All she has right now are a few bruises and a busted lip that we took care of," Dr. Maddison concluded, keeping his eyes on Frost.

Jane couldn't handle hearing more of this. "I need some fresh air." Without another word Jane left the ER. She waited in the ambulance bay, the cold air stoked her fire instead of acting as a shock to her system and bringing her back down again. Slamming a fist in to the wall her hand screamed in pain but Jane didn't care. The storm of emotions spiraled back to one point: if she hadn't scared Maura away none of this would have happened. Slogans and sobriety be damned, all Jane wanted to do in this moment was drink herself in to oblivion.

Touching the chip in her pocket Jane's back hit the wall and she slid down it. When her emotions finally short circuited Jane started crying in to the knees of her jeans.

In the ER Frost watched his partner go; he was torn between following her, doing his job and keeping an eye on Maura. "Is there anything else?"

Both doctors shook their heads this time, handing Frost a copy of the medical reports before they left. Maura watched them leave before turning to look at the doors that Jane had stormed out of just seconds before. She wanted to go after her, but something was still holding her back from the brunette. Something she couldn't put a finger on no matter how hard she tried. Instead, she let go of Nicholas and watched as he all but ran past Frost to get outside.

Maura had to look away before catching the detective's eye.

"You're crying," Nicholas pointed out, stopping in front of Jane. It was cold, but he had his jacket on and his boots. He waited a moment before digging around in his jacket pocket, pulling out something and holding it toward the detective. "Maura always gives this to me when I cry and she tells me a story, but I don't remember them very well."

Opening his gloved hand, he revealed his treasure. Jane's BPD collar tab from her uniform days.

Jane composed herself as best she could, scrubbing away at evidence of tears with the hand not in a splint. "I'm alright, how 'bout you?" What right did she have to break down? Sure she was hurt but she'd gotten much worse on the job. Maura was the one who had lived through that for years. And so had Nicholas. Maybe Michael hadn't laid a hand on Nicholas, Jane wouldn't need another reason to want to beat the man to a pulp, but there was definitely emotional abuse there.

Seeing the little sparkle in the palm of Nicholas' hand almost made Jane start crying again. She gave that collar tab to Maura after waking up in the hospital, after shooting herself. She'd sent Frankie to rummage through her apartment and find it. She'd given it to a scared Maura and, under the influence of drugs, had said some trite words about always being there for her and that they could make it through anything. "I gave this to her, a long time ago," Jane muttered, picking up the little piece of metal. "If you remember what she told you, I can fill in the blanks."

Nicholas shifted, moving to sit by Jane and burrow into her side. He looked at the small metal piece that he had carried around every time he felt scared or sad. For a moment he was silent as he tried to remember what Maura had told him, but only bits and pieces would come back to him. "Maura told me that a very brave person gave her that after they did something really stupid to save the people they loved… the first time she gave me that was after Dad came into my room one night."

Trailing off at the end, he took a deep breath and focused on the collar tab. "Maura didn't let him hit me though. She never did."

She was beyond relieved to hear that the jackass had never laid a finger on Nicholas. She almost expected it from Maura, any other reaction and she wouldn't have been Maura. "She would call it stupid," Jane attempted a light hearted tone for Nicholas' sake. "I guess it was pretty stupid. But someone wanted to hurt Maura and Frankie, so I let myself get hurt to protect them. Afterwards I told her that 'I'm a good man in the storm and I protect the things that I love.' Seems like she took that to heart."

Placing the tab back in to Nicholas' hand Jane stood up, taking Nicholas in to her arms. "Why don't you keep that for me? Maybe it'll make you not scared or feel braver. But let's get you inside before we freeze." Settling Nicholas on her hip Jane headed back in to the ER, not sure what was coming but a little more prepared to handle it.