Disclaimer - I do not own Rizzoli and Isles~

Author's Note - So, last night's episode is now my absolute all-time fave~
Protective Jane was on such wonderful display for the entire ep, and I absolutely loved it ^.^

Hope you all enjoy this story~ =3

In High Heels

This just couldn't be happening...

This simply could not be happening...

Detective Jane Rizzoli's mind spun in dizzying circles, as the expression of horrified shock on Maura's face caused her to bend over herself, to look into the car at the face of their victim. Then when Frost picked up Maura's I.D. badge from the floor of the car and held it up in consternation for all to see, Jane felt her world tilt even further off its already unsteady axis.

This

Could

NOT

Be

Happening.

Jane took a moment to walk away with her hand covering her mouth, after she'd led Maura over to a bench to sit down.

She needed to think. There just had to be a reasonable explanation for what was happening right now.

She went into a quick huddle with Frost, Korsak, and Cavanaugh, and the result of their discussion was unfortunately not promising. As Jane looked back over at Maura who looked so lost on the bench, she felt her heart break a little for what she was going to be forced to put her best friend through. Her best friend whom she'd loved for almost as long as she's known her.

Jane Rizzoli decided right then and there that she was not going to allow Maura Isles, the woman she loved, to go to jail for murder. She promised herself that she would fix this god-awful mess.

She would do everything within her power to keep Maura safe.

~o~o~o~

Walking into the interrogation room to question Maura, was one of the hardest things Jane had ever had to do in her life. Walking into that room knowing that Maura could have been raped made Jane's stomach roil, and bile rise up to the back of her throat. When Maura quickly yanked off her jacket to reveal the bruising on her arms, all Jane wanted to do was jerk out of her chair, and beat down the asshole bastard who'd hurt her like that. But of course the asshole was already dead, and it was now Jane's job to prove that her best friend had not done the deed herself.

But it was so hard to just sit in that chair, and not react the way she truly wanted to. She couldn't even go around the desk to pull Maura into her arms, and just hold her tightly against her body.

She couldn't even do something that simple for the woman she loved.

~o~o~o~

Maura felt so humiliated.

This was probably the most horrifyingly embarrassing moment of her life.

Here she was, the Chief Medical Examiner to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts...and she was being made to strip down completely naked like a common criminal for processing.

She wanted to cry. She really and truly did. She just couldn't believe that Jane was having to see her like this...that Susie was having to see her like this. She used to dream during the deepest parts of the night, that she'd be able to show her body to Jane...stripped bare...skin exposed to her intensely-dark eyes...but not like this. Not so fully exposed to complete strangers 'guarding' her, and the assistant who she knew looked up to her. And certainly not to the woman she'd loved for so long.

Maura wished with her whole heart and soul that she could just crawl into a deep, dark hole and never come back out. At least not until this whole horrifying experience was done and over with.

Jane wished she could cover Maura up...hide her away from the judging eyes of the guards, and even from the sad, sympathetic eyes of Susie Chang. This wasn't how she'd wanted to see Maura bare before her the first time. Hell, she'd never wanted Maura to have had to strip down like this ever. This was beyond humiliating for her friend, and Jane could see just how mortified Maura was by the whole ordeal, by the way her small shoulders seemed to fold even further in on themselves. The feeling of wrapping Maura up tightly in her arms, and keeping her safe and protected from all of this, swelled up to overflowing in Jane and it took everything within her power, to keep her hands from reaching out to the slightly-shaking, half-naked woman before her.

She was failing utterly in keeping the woman she loved safe.

~o~o~o~

The taste of bile rose up again at the back of Jane's throat, as she watched Maura step out of the elevator flanked by her now ever-present guards, on her way to the hospital to be checked for signs of rape.

Jane couldn't even think the word without feeling ill. If that sick sonofabitch had hurt Maura in such a way...Jane wasn't sure just what she would do...but she would be a force to reckon with for a long time to come, if Maura had been touched that way.

Maura looked so small to Jane as she spotted the dark-haired detective, and came over to stand before her. Her usually luxurious honey-gold locks looked lifeless, and the dark circles beneath her listless eyes coupled with the faded pallor of her skin, just made Maura looked even smaller than she already was. The urge to shove the guards away and just take Maura as far away as possible from all this, hit Jane with the force of a tidal wave and she just needed a few precious seconds to ground herself, before she was swept away by the powerful current of her emotions.

Maura wanted to touch Jane.

She wanted so badly to reach out to the tall detective, wrap her arms around her waist, place her head against her chest, and just...breath Jane in. She felt like she was brittle glass trying to hold the water of all her feelings and emotions in. Just a small touch would shatter her into a thousand tiny pieces. She needed Jane to fix this for her. She couldn't remember anything from last night, and she needed Jane to put the clues together for her to get her out of this mess.

She trusted Jane...with every bit of her heart and soul. Jane would help her...Jane would keep her safe.

~o~o~o~

She'd just thrown Maura under a bus...her own mother, who supposedly thought of Maura as a 'second daughter', and considered Maura 'her business'...had just thrown Jane's best friend under a freaking, speeding, armour-plated bus.

Jane couldn't decide if what she was feeling, as she watched the video her mother had 'produced', was rage or raging disappointment in her mother. She decided that it was a bit of both, and watched silently as her mother left the room, after having her own hand in further incriminating the love of Jane's life.

Maura was family.

You do not do what Angela Rizzoli had just done to Maura...you don't feed family to the dogs. But that's just what her mother had done...and Jane wasn't sure she would ever be able to forgive her mother for it.

~o~o~o~

Jane had thought walking into the interrogation room to question her best friend for murder, was one of the hardest things she'd ever had to do in her life.

She hadn't had a clue...not a damn clue as to what truly hard was...

Walking into Maura's home that night as a cop...as an officer of the law there to bring in a murder suspect, instead of being there as Maura's best friend as they prepared for a night of sharing pizza, beer, wine and laughter together was the single hardest, soul-breaking thing Jane had ever had to do in her life.

She wanted to cry.

Her heart was breaking so rapidly as Maura rambled on adorably about Bass and his refusal to eat, while not having a damn clue that Jane wasn't there in her best friend capacity. No, she was there to take away the freedom of the woman she loved more than life itself. And when Maura finally turned around and her quick, analytical brain swiftly put together the pieces for the real purpose of Jane's visit...Jane would forever swear that she actually heard her heart break at the softly uttered, "oh no..." that slipped passed Maura's lips.

Jane Rizzoli had just arrested her best friend, and the woman she loved...for murder.

She had utterly failed to keep Maura safe.

To be continued...

AN - Hope you all enjoyed. Please review~ ^.^