A/N: This is my first Rizzoli & Isles story. I have only recently discovered the series and I hope I have done them some justice. Of course, I do not own anything (If I did... well, let's not go there...) This story will be Rizzles eventually.

Chapter 1

"We don't give in to fear"
"I understand that; if we do than we end up dying a little bit every day"
~Jane Rizzoli & Maura Isles "Born to Run"

~()~

It was pouring it down. The rain hammered on the roofs of cars, lashed violently against windows and filled the gutters and sewers at a rapid speed. The streets were covered in pools of muddy water and Jane Rizzoli groaned as she stepped out of her car and felt her foot sink straight into a large puddle. She slammed the car door and did not even bother to protect herself from the rain as she quickly made her way across the sidewalk and into the apartment building. By the time she had made it inside her black hair stuck to her forehead and her coat and pants were soaked.

She met the officer standing by the elevator, signed herself in and then made her way up. She got out on the fifth floor and followed the sound of voices to the apartment at the end of the corridor. Several uniformed police officers were talking to neighbours and made notes.

"You look like a drowned rat!" Korsak commented as Jane lifted up the yellow police tape sealing off the front door and stepped into the apartment. Her eyes shot across the room and met his.

"Have you looked outside?" she snapped back. The rain was rattling against the glass. Korsak shrugged and continued looking over the shoulder of one of the crime scene investigators who was taking pictures of something on the cream coloured carpet.

"Is it him?" Jane asked as she walked into the bedroom and found Maura Isles bend over the bed.

"Actually, it's a her," Maura answered as she looked up and her eyes met Jane's across the room. A smile lingered on her lips. Jane shot her a dark look and Maura instantly understood what she meant. Her eyes were drawn back to the body in the bed and Jane approached. When she reached the bed, her heart skipped a beat and a strange, cold sensation washed over her. As she looked at the woman in the bed the images she had gotten so used to started to flood back into her mind.

"It's him," Jane sighed and shook her head. Maura had slowly pulled back the covers and revealed the woman's full body. Now that the blood stained sheets were removed, the woman's mutilated body became visible and Jane felt her stomach tighten. Her dark eyes found Maura. "That's the third one in two weeks and we are no closer to finding him!"

"Stab wounds appear quite similar to the ones found in earlier victims," Maura said as a gloved hand gently lifted up the woman's dress and revealed a pattern of wounds Jane had seen before.

The corners of Jane's mouth twitched at the comment. She knew Maura's hesitation to state observations without having any scientific evidence to support what she was saying. She patted her on the arm and the female pathologist looked up, almost positively beaming. "That means a lot coming from you"

She looked up when Korsak appeared in the doorway behind her and she walked up to him. "It's him," Jane said and shook her head. A sense of desperation filled her eyes. "Three women; all stabbed to death within the last two weeks. The stab wounds are the same every time. No signs of someone breaking into their apartment. The doors are locked from the outside, which suggest the killer has a key."

"Hey Jane," Maura called and Jane's head whipped around at the sound of the other woman's voice. "Can you come over here a moment?"

Jane reached the side of the bed and shot Maura a sideways glance. "What is it?"

Korsak also reached the bed and looked from the pathologist to the detective and back. It was clear Maura had found something. Jane was fixated on the victim's face. There was a strange, somewhat intrigued look in her eyes. However, Maura was not looking at the victim. She was looking at Jane. And the look in her eyes was something Korsak had never seen before.

"Don't you think she looks like you?" Maura asked unexpectedly and Jane's eyes were torn away from the victim and fixed on Maura's instead.

"Excuse me?"

"The victim," Maura began and pointed at the bloodied woman in the bed. Jane's eyes followed Maura's gloved fingers and her dark eyes narrowed.

"Dr Isles, that is an irrational statement coming from you," Jane said in surprise and looked from Maura to the woman in the bed and back. She failed to see the resemblance Maura had discovered. "She looks nothing like me."

Korsak cocked his head and as Jane glanced at him she felt her heart sink. Whenever he did that he was about to agree with something Maura had said. She hated it when he did that. Her eyes were drawn back to the woman in the bed and she searched her face before grabbing Korsak's notebook from his hand and checking the victim's details.

"Abigail McShane," she mumbled to herself. "She's thirty-seven, works as a manager for an insurance company. Single." She looked up and watched in horror how now both Korsak and Maura were staring at her. "She looks nothing like me. I don't know what you're on, Maura, but this..." She waved the notebook in her hand. "...is not a blueprint of me."

"You know, she does sort of look like you," Korsak said slowly. "Same dark hair, same dark eyes." He paused and shot a few quick glances from Abigail McShane to Jane. He noticed how she had placed her hands warningly on her hips and pierced her dark eyes into his own. He looked back at the victim and continued his observation. "She's tall, slender…"

"I get it, I get it!" Jane suddenly called out and Maura's head snapped up. "So she looks like me but also like about the half of Boston!"

"Actually," Maura began but Jane shot her a warning look and the brunette pathologist instantly fell silent.

"Are we done here?" Jane groaned and turned around on her heels. She heard footsteps behind her and knew Maura had followed her into the living area. She turned around and watched as her friend almost bumped into her. Irritation was clearly visible on Jane's face. "What is it, Maura?"

Maura hesitated for a moment or two before she answered. "Jane, what I said," she began but they were interrupted by a high pitched eerie sound coming from Jane's pocket. The ringtone announcing Angela Rizzoli cut through the silence between them. Jane sighed and yanked her phone from her pocket to push her mother away. She looked back at Maura and grinned.

"You made some pretty erratic observations in there." she said, ignoring Maura's attempt to an apology as she didn't want to hear it. She slowly started for the front door. Maura followed quickly.

"Yes," Maura answered slowly, more to herself than to Jane. An almost confused expression filled her eyes as she followed Jane. "Yes, I did."

~()~

"This can't be a coincidence," Jane said as she and Maura walked onto the homicide the department. "Three women, all with similar physical appearances are found dead in their beds. The doors to their apartments have been locked from the outside. All were stabbed exactly the same way."

"Presumably the same way," Maura corrected her and Jane rolled her eyes. "I have yet to perform an autopsy on the latest victim."

"All right, presumably the same way," Jane said. She slipped into her seat at her desk whilst Maura leant against it. She looked up to her friend and found Maura looking back at her. The bright sparkle in the pathologist eyes almost immediately erased the sense of irritation she has felt over being corrected and she weakly smiled. "So, what else is there?"

Maura's phone bleeped with the announcement of a text message and she checked it. Her face lit up. "The body has arrived in the morgue," she said with a smile that would have disturbed anybody else and she slipped of the desk. The sound of her heels clicking against the floor made Jane look up. Maura turned and looked at Jane, still beaming. "Want to come?"

"I'll pass," Jane said and ran her hands through her hair. She felt tired and her day was far from over. The amount of paperwork that awaited her with the find of the third victim was daunting to say the least and Maura's words echoed through her head. With a sigh she picked up one of the files from the small pile on her desk and opened it. One of the pictures slipped out from between the pages and landed in her lap. She picked it up and looked at it.

Dark eyes narrowed as she looked at the face of the woman who had been their first victim. Her name was Sarah Callahan. They found her in her bed, stabbed to death just over two weeks ago. Jane swallowed hard but the unexpected lump in her throat didn't disappear. She reached for the stack of files again and picked up another. There, on the front page, sat the picture of another woman. Natalie Anderson. She had been victim number two. She smiled; her bright eyes full of life. Right behind it was a picture of her that had been taken when they found her. Her eyes were empty.

"Rizzoli?" Frost called and Jane looked up, quickly putting the files back on her desk. "Check this out!"

She stood up and made her way over to her partner. "What have you got?"

"Remember this?" he asked and waved a piece of paper inside a plastic bag in front of her face. She grabbed it from his hand. A teasing smile lingered on his face as Jane looked at what he had found.

She looked back up at him. "Another one?"

Frost nodded. "Exactly the same one as the ones we found on the other crime scenes. I will have it checked for fingerprints but I am not expecting anything. The others came back blank."

"Has Abigail McShane ever been married?" Jane asked but somehow she already knew the answer. When Frost shook his head she sighed and raised her hands to the sky in desperation and confusion. "So he leaves Bible verses related to adultery with women who are single... This makes no sense."

Frost took the evidence bag from her and Jane watched him walk off to deliver it to the crime scene unit. She sighed and walked back to her desk. She resisted looking at the pictures of the dead women and instead began working out the paperwork that today's case brought along. But as she was writing, she constantly heard Maura's voice in the back of her head.

"Don't you think she looks like you?"