Thank you all so much for sticking around to the end! You're all the best. Here's part 6 of 6. Please don't hesitate to let me know what you think- I welcome the good, the bad and the ugly. :) Happy reading!

Jane slowly backed away from McGrath, trying to get between him and Maura. He noticed and raised the gun he was holding higher. She looked at his hand. It was steady; no sign of weakness. His lips pursed into a small, slug-like smile.

"Always protecting the beautiful doctor," he said, his voice as oily as his skin. "Tell me, Detective... Are you willing to die for her?"

The back of Jane's legs bumped against the side of Maura's bed. She stopped. "You know Paddy is going to kill you for this, McGrath. He's going to tear your worthless head off. He'll break your fingers one at a time before he chops them off and makes you watch him feed them to a dog."

McGrath sneered. "Listen, bitch-"

"I see we dropped the formality of calling me detective."

The older man's face splotched with anger. "You're pretty cocky, aren't you? All I have to do is pull this trigger, and all that macho shit will be blown away."

Jane raised her eyebrows, unable to figure out why she had decided antagonizing the crazy man with a gun was the best course of action here. But she started it, so she knew she had to keep going. "You know what, McGrath? You would be right about that, except I don't have any 'macho shit.' It's called intelligence, which is something you obviously not familiar with if you can't comprehend the fact that Paddy is going to kill you for this."

"You don't know Paddy like I do. We've been working together since the 60s. We're like brothers."

"Huh. Really? Because I would have characterized your relationship more like a master and his ass. And I mean that in the biblical sense of the word."

Jane watched McGrath's grip tighten around the gun. His hand shook slightly with the extra effort. "Ever since that bastard daughter of his came around, she's been his priority. He doesn't even know her! He didn't even want her, and suddenly she's more important than his true family. I've taken bullets for him. I've dragged him, barely alive, to her fuckin' house so she could save him. I've killed for him. And now I'm going to kill for me."

He took a step closer, and Jane suddenly knew exactly what she had to do. "Paddy will never forgive you for killing her, McGrath."

The man shrugged. "Then maybe he won't find out it was me. I'll tell him I got here too late to save her."

Jane frowned. "You really think he's going to buy that? Because you know what I think that sounds like, you punk ass bitch? I think it sounds like the load of shit that it-"

The gunshot drowned out the rest of her sentence. Jane, who had been watching his hand for the smallest flicker of movement, dove toward him at the same time he decided to pull the trigger. She felt the unmistakable burn of a bullet across her shoulder and then the sickening thud as she slammed into McGrath full force. She sent them crashing over the chair she had been sitting in and into the far wall. Through her pain and the rush of adrenaline that had spiked as she jumped into action, Jane was aware of the fact that Maura's heart monitor had picked up speed. She didn't know if that was good or not. She was also aware that because McGrath had been clutching the gun so tightly his grip would be compromised. It would be easier to tear the weapon away from him as they fell. She reached for it, yanked, and pulled it free. She struggled to her feet, gun in hand, only seconds after she hit the floor. He stayed down, the shock still etched across his face.

"Don't move. I mean it. I would be more than happy to get an excuse to shoot you."

A barrage of nurses and doctors suddenly burst into the room, alerted to the problem by the sound of the gunshot. Jane knew, the second she pushed McGrath too far, that if she could avoid being killed by the bullet, the gunshot itself might save both her and Maura. A member of the hospital security staff was among the crowd, and he immediately ran to Jane's side, calling for more back up. But then Jane realized the doctors weren't looking at her or McGrath. They were gathered around Maura. Feeling panic fresh in her chest once again, and ignoring the pain throbbing in her shoulder, Jane handed her cuffs to the guard, who slapped them onto McGrath.

She turned to face her best friend, whose bed was obscured by the people gathered around it.

"What the hell's going on?" Jane asked into the noise.

A nurse turned to look at her. "She's waking up. This happens sometimes, patients fight off the sedation before we had scheduled for them to. She panicked because of the breathing tube, so we're taking it out before she chokes herself."

"What? I thought she couldn't breathe on her own," Jane yelped, hating the helplessness of her own voice. "You can't take it out if she can't breathe."

The nurse sighed. She looked tired, but patience lingered in her eyes. "If she's fighting the tube, chances are she'll be okay without it. If not, then we can sedate her again and re-intubate. But the way she's struggling right now, aside from causing her pain, could redo the damage the surgery was intended to fix."

Jane felt tears fill her eyes. "But she's scared. She shouldn't be awake yet."

"Here," the nurse took Jane's hand, pulled her toward the bed, and put the detective's hand in the doctor's. "Stand right here, and don't get in anybody's way."

But Jane had stopped listening the second she had seen Maura's eyes were open. She gripped her fingers as tightly as she dared and she stared down into her friend's face, drinking in the fact that she was alive, that she was breathing and that she looking back at her. Maura's eyes, one still nearly swollen shut, searched Jane's face. And suddenly Jane knew she hadn't panicked because of the breathing tube. She was a doctor- she would known it would have only been there if it was necessary. She panicked because she heard the gunshot. She saw Jane fall, and she didn't know whether she had been alive or dead. Even after being stabbed in the chest with an ice pick, the question in Maura's eyes wasn't about herself. It was about Jane.

Two hours later, after the doctors had given Maura a light sedative to prevent her from moving too much after the trauma of removing the breathing tube, and after Jane had been dragged into a separate room to have the graze on her shoulder stitched up during which time she was coddled by her mother and punched multiple times by Frankie attempting to show emotion, she was back at Maura's bedside.

Watching her friend breathe without the help of machines, just the gentle rise and fall of her chest, was almost hypnotic in its comfort. Jane ran her thumb and forefinger across her eyebrows again, pushing away the tension that had built in her temples. She was tired.

"It's normal to be overly aware of vital signs after watching someone nearly die," Maura said, startling Jane so much that she nearly dropped the doctor's hand. "The impulse will fade soon."

Jane nodded, fighting the emotion that swelled in her chest at the sound of Maura's voice and the color of her eyes. "Good. Because it makes me feel a little creepy."

Maura smiled, squeezing Jane's fingers. "Are you okay? I saw that man shoot at you, and you fell..."

Without thinking about it, Jane leaned forward and ran her thumb across the worry that wrinkled between Maura's eyes. "I'm fine. Now that you're awake I'm fine."

Maura looked up into Jane's face, closer than it normally was. The layers of concern and relief in her dark eyes felt deep enough to get lost in. "For a minute, in the alley, I thought you weren't going to get to me in time," Maura whispered. "I thought... I didn't know if I could hold on any longer without you."

"I wish I could promise I would always get to you in time," Jane said back, her voice frozen gravel, her eyes so intense Maura almost had to look away.

"I know you'll always try, Jane. That's more than enough. You give me as much as you can; I know that."

But it was Jane who looked away first, sitting back in her chair. "It almost wasn't enough this time. Ask Korsak, I almost bashed some some old ex-con's skull in with a baseball bat."

"He had a baseball bat or you were thinking of using a baseball bat?"

"Well, he had the bat until I took the damn thing from him. So both?"

Maura smiled. "Language, Jane."

Jane made a sound that was somewhere between a laugh and sob. "I never thought I would miss hearing that."

"I would have corrected you earlier when you called that man a 'punk ass, bitch' I believe it was, but I had a breathing tube down my throat. And he most likely deserved it."

This time Jane knew she was laughing. "He definitely deserved that, Maur. Besides, that's not really my phrase. I use it when I need a little extra bravery."

"You mean when you're about to do something extra life-threatening. Whose phrase is it?"

"I borrowed it from Frost."

Maura nodded slowly, her eyes darkening slightly with the memory of loss. They sat in silence for a moment before Maura spoke again. "Thank you for finding me, Jane."

She shrugged. "I just wish it could have been sooner so I could have used that pipe on McGrath."

Maura smiled, but her voice stayed serious. "I don't just mean in the alley. Thank you for finding me in general. For coming to my house when you were scared about Hoyt. For trusting me with your mother and your brothers. For being my friend. Thank you."

Jane smiled. "Thank you for letting yourself be found."

"You look tired."

"You look like you got stabbed with an ice pick."

Maura laughed, wincing. "Don't be funny right now."

"Oh come on. Like I can just stop being funny."

"Well, maybe not. But you can stop being tired. Come up here and lie down."

"What?" Jane's heart rate immediately picked up in surprise. "No. I don't want to hurt you."

Maura shook her head. "You won't hurt me."

"It's a little bed, Maura."

"Don't be a prune. I'll scoot over."

Jane raised her eyebrows and slid onto the bed, carefully avoiding all the wires and tubes. "Don't be a prune? Like the dried fruit?"

"I've never quite understood that phrase to be honest."

"Yeah, that's because it's don't be a 'prude.' Honestly, that's not even a hard one."

"Don't be mean to compensate for feeling vulnerable."

Jane looked at her, one eyebrow raised. "I do not do that."

Maura laughed, wincing again. "Yes, you do."

"Okay," Jane chuckled. "Maybe I do that. Occasionally."

"You know what I've been thinking?" Maura asked, punching Jane lightly on the arm.

"No," Jane answered, punching back. "But the anticipation is killing me. Please do tell."

"That it might actually be fun if you taught me how to play baseball."

Jane propped herself up on her elbows, eyes lit. "Seriously?"

"Well," Maura answered, "as long as you promise not to let me win or anything."

"Puh," Jane scoffed, laying back down on the pillow. "Okay, I definitely don't do that."

"Yes, you do."

Jane looked at her, unable to stop herself from grinning. "Okay, maybe I do that, too. Occasionally."

"Mmhmm."

"But only for you."

Maura looked at Jane, answering her smile with one of her own. On impulse, Jane leaned forward and kissed Maura's forehead, just below her hairline. And then the detective, close enough she could feel Maura breathe instead of having to watch, laid back down and closed her eyes. Maybe if she was lucky she would have a dream about baseball.