Better, Rating: G

[HearMeCalling]

Part Nine

The room would have been dark had it not been for the bright lights illuminating the corridors, allowing medical staff to see exactly where they were going to. Lisbon hated being stuck in the horrible, fake twilight, especially as she struggled to get to sleep unless a room was pitch black. So instead, she was still sitting up, with her mind whirring at a thousand miles an hour and feeling more nauseous by the second. She had been told that the IV drip would make her feel better; they’d even given her some sort of super-painkiller with it to try and ease the stabbing pain in her right side. Instead, it had only succeeded in making her feel like she was perpetually about to throw up saline and make her left elbow ache too. Of course it was all for the best and it would make her feel better, physically, in the long run but she couldn’t help but think so much for the miracles of medical science. There was still a machine blinking and bleeping at her side, so she took to staring at it, testing to see if observing it would make any difference to her autonomous reactions. It didn’t and it just succeeded in pissing her off even further and made her yearn for her comfortable double bed, in her nice, dark and most importantly, quiet bedroom at home.

Van Pelt had finally driven Jane home, acquiescing after Lisbon confirmed they had talked, of sorts. He hadn’t really said much; just mentioned little snippets about his past - what his Mom had been like, when he had first found out and started developing his heightened skills of observation and the like. Nothing particularly integral, nothing that answered her most important questions regarding him: why did he have to act like he had to perform to an audience constantly? Why did he feel the need to use and abuse people in order to get what he wants? Why did he push away everyone and anyone who showed the slightest hint of caring for him? Jane hadn’t even given her a chance to touch on questions like that, instead he had insisted that it was about time she got some rest, especially as she had just received a ‘serious’ injury. He had, however, said that he would stop by come morning and bring her a book to read and if she was ‘good’, some files to catch up with. Lisbon sighed; he knew her far better than anyone else and she suspected that he even knew her better than she knew herself.

Her eyelids were feeling significantly heavier and it wasn’t until she was in that hazy state between wakefulness and sleep when she realized he hadn’t been wearing his bandage on his thumb. She’d have to mention that in the morning. Yes, she was still confused as hell about him, but that didn’t stop her caring for his well-being. Or wanting to have a more rational conversation with him when they had both calmed down significantly. Being angry had been getting exhausting, after all.

[HearMeCalling]

Cho breathed a sigh of relief when the Sheriff of the local PD greeted him at the University campus. For some reason, he had got it into his head that they wouldn’t meet him and Rigsby there, that they’d forget or, because he wasn’t a senior agent, wouldn’t have respected his authority. He’d always been far better at following rules and obeying others that laying them down himself. Lisbon had hinted a couple of times that she would recommend him for seniority if he was looking to move on in his career, but honestly, he was happy where he was. It took a special kind of person to be a leader and he was more than aware that he wasn’t it. Goading Rigsby into action was one thing, telling four or five other people what to do and dealing with hundreds of little jobs at once was another entirely. The pasty, blond man shook his hand firmly and smiled weakly, vaguely recognizing him. It was a little while before he spoke.

“I thought Agent Lisbon was in charge of the CBI’s Serious Crimes Unit?”

“She is,” Cho confirmed.

“Where is she?”

“Enforced leave.”

The blond nodded at Cho’s vague statement and the Asian agent cursed himself. He’d forgotten that Sheriff Wilson was particularly fond of Lisbon. They dealt with him regularly - University culture often lead to an increased number of scrapes and incidents which panicked officials would send them into, even if their presence was entirely unnecessary. Cho jumped slightly when Rigsby appeared behind him, the bag of chips he’d only just purchased already almost empty. The larger man proffered it under his nose and Cho waved it away. There was a time and a place to be eating and shortly before an arrest, when briefing the locals was most certainly not one of those occasions when it was suitable. Thankfully, most the students had already been cleared from the area - Cho was worried that things could get messy, not that he’d ever admit to such a thing.

Minutes later, they found themselves dressed in their vests, guns drawn, outside of Jackson Kennedy’s quarters. A sharp knock at the door went unanswered, so after the two agents shared a shrug of understanding and counted down from three to one, they used all their effort into forcing the door open. As it clattered against the wall, almost drowning out their calls ‘CBI’, they noticed a foot, climbing out of the window directly opposite them. In a flash, Rigsby was over there, chasing down the idiot and not wanting to rely on the locals to catch the man. He knew he was a particularly fast runner and that all his hours down the gym were never in vain. Catching a University professor, regardless of whether or not he was armed, was never going to be a problem for him. It didn’t stop him wincing at the stitch he was developing though and temporarily regretting the snack, but he immediately put it out of his mind and along with Sheriff Wilson, chased the perp into the vegetation. With ease, he floored the man and already had him handcuffed by the time Cho caught up.

“Nice one,” he observed.

“Yeah,” Rigsby agreed. “I’m hungry. Can we stop for something to eat? Don’t tell Grace, she’ll try and force feed me celery when I see her next otherwise.”

“You’re not even together yet and she already has you under the thumb,” Cho sighed. “Sure, come on.”

[HearMeCalling]

Lisbon was already awake when Jane popped his head around the door come morning. That didn't surprise him; he was yet to meet anyone who wasn't comatose who could sleep well in a hospital bed. His heart ached just a little, reminding him that yes, he was still human and still had the same old human cravings for love and companionship even if he was still stubbornly refusing to allow himself such luxuries. She smiled slightly as he handed her a pile of origami lilies, that he had obviously spent all night folding and she hadn't even a fathomable idea what she was going to do with them. But like with everything (nice) that Jane did, it was the thought that counts. He sat beside her in silence, feeling relieved that she looked significantly better than the night before, even if she did look exhausted. But then again, Lisbon almost defined the word 'fighter', so that was hardly surprising. When her expression hardened somewhat and she started to scrutinize his appearance. He squirmed somewhat; maybe this was how Lisbon felt each and every time he took the opportunity to observe her at length? Which, to be fair, was quite frequently as one of his favorite ways to pass time was Lisbon-watching.

“Why have you taken your bandage off?”

Jane blinked slowly before quickly glancing at his bruised digit. To be fair, what with Lisbon being hospitalized, he had entirely forgotten about his own injury; the one that he had picked up when he had foolishly punched that drug dealer. The same one that had landed up shooting Lisbon.

“Meh, it was getting in the way,” he replied casually. “Have you any idea how difficult it is to get dressed with a bandaged thumb?”

“Jane,” she squeaked. “That's not the point. If you want it to heal properly, you need to accept the treatment you were given.”

“Like you are?”

“Exactly! I don't want to be here, but I am.”

“I'm sorry, Lisbon,” he replied mournfully.

She reached out and gently clasped his hand. It was unusual for her to display affection, but she was hardly in a normal situation right now anyway. Sometimes, just sometimes, she was allowed to show her softer side. She didn't always have to be the hard-nosed, straight-laced, by-the-book Agent Teresa Lisbon. Especially not when she was in hospital, anyway.

“I know.”

“That's not what you said yesterday.”

She shrugged. “I've calmed down since then.”

“That'll be the drugs, then,” he replied cheekily.

“That may be so,” she sighed. “But why, Jane? Why do you constantly hurt those around you?”

Jane opened his mouth to reply when three dark-haired, green eyed men of varying heights fell through the door, each wearing the same expression of concern. It seemed that they, too, had inherited the tendency to crease their eyebrows when worried. He smirked at them; this was obviously the rest of the Lisbon clan.

“Tessa, we were worried,” the youngest gasped.

One of the older ones threw his arms around her shoulders before taking hold of them and looking seriously into her eyes.

“Don't you ever do that to us again.”

“I'll leave you four to it,” Jane mumbled, quickly heading towards the door. “I'll drop by again tomorrow, if you need anything, Lisbon…”

“We haven't finished with this discussion, Jane!” she called over the rabble, unsure if he actually heard her.

She breathed a sigh of relief when he gently nodded in her direction, but she was soon wrapped up in her siblings' tales of nephews and nieces. Lisbon smiled; it was a shame that it took an accident to reunite them. She really didn't see her family nearly often enough.

“So, that was the famous 'Jane' then?” one of them suddenly asked.

“Yes it was,” she mused.

Cho didn't feel at all guilty for leaving Jackson Kennedy in a holding cell overnight. The man had killed his brother - and as someone who was extremely loyal to both his blood family and second family at the CBI, that kind of thing really made his blood boil. As long as what they were doing was legal, he stood beside those who he deemed worthy steadfastly and would never cross them. These days, people really had to earn his trust.

“So, are you going to give us a confession, then?”

“Have you any proof,” the previously mild University professor snarled.

“We found your gun,” he shrugged. “Dumping it so close to the scene of the crime wasn't exactly a clever thing to do, Mr. Jackson.”

The man went to answer, but instead looked at the door which Jane sauntered through, having driven far too fast to get to work at a reasonable time. He'd stayed at the hospital longer than he had expected. Still, he was relatively relieved that he hadn’t left Lisbon on her own, although dealing with the three men he left her with could quite possibly be quite physically draining. Still, he didn’t know them, yet, so it was a bit early to be passing judgments. Jane smiled at Cho and quickly pulled up a chair beside him, more than ready to carry on with the interrogation.

“This is Patrick Jane, our consultant.”

“We’ve met,” Kennedy remarked. “Those finger prints could have-”

“Yes, they could have been planted,“ Jane agreed. “We’ve had problems with that ourselves recently. But I knew you did it before they found the gun. Darwin’s good reading. Did Rigsby go pick up the book for me?”

Cho nodded and placed the evidence bag containing Kennedy’s copy of ‘the Origin of Species’ in it. Instantaneously, Jane removed it from the plastic envelope and started rifling through it. If it irritated Cho, he didn’t show it, though Jane suspected it didn’t bother him quite as much as it would have Lisbon. Eventually, with a triumphant ‘aha!’, Jane pulled out a photograph of Jenna McCrae and Jackson Kennedy, caught in some kind of lover’s tryst. Cheating; it always seemed to come down to that.

“Survival of the fittest, hm?” Jane remarked. “I don’t think that’s quite what Darwin meant, but an interesting interpretation nevertheless.”

“He didn’t deserve to live,” he snapped. “He was throwing his life away and dragging her down with him.”

“So you thought you’d jump right in and save her? You thought you brother deserved to die because he wasn’t the good, well-adjusted, well-standing member of society that you were?” Cho hissed. “Just thought you’d take matters into your own hands?”

“Yes, you could say that.”

“I’m surprised, you confessed over a photograph?” Jane smiled. “Still, at least you have what you want. Cho, anything you want to send over to Lisbon? I was thinking about going over to the hospital again…”

[HearMeCalling]

Part Ten

One Week Later

It had been a blessed relief to finally wave off Stewart shortly after arriving back at the CBI headquarters. He’d insisted upon doing the ‘brotherly thing’ and driving her to work before shooting off and catching his plane home. Stewart, the most careful and loyal out of the three, was the last to leave and Lisbon, to be fair, was looking forward to not only being back at work (far too soon, according to Minelli and her doctors) but also having her place back to herself. She’d forgotten just how exhausting family life could be at times and had even surprised herself at just how much she craved downtime alone. She didn’t particularly like being fussed over - it made her feel like she was being crowded. But still, things were different since the last time she’d been at work: the after-effects of the Lorazepam had finally subsided, she was feeling significantly calmer and though she would be loathe to admit it, the week off had done her a lot of good. That didn’t change one fact though: Jane.

Jane had split his time almost equally between spending time at work and time with Lisbon and her brothers over the past week. Slowly, but surely, he’d won over each one of them and by the time each of them left, they were on the verge of swapping contact details and claiming that ‘Tessa painted you all wrong.’ Regardless of whether or not she had done that, things still weren’t right between them. On numerous occasions, he used her brothers as an excuse not to talk and if they did have a quiet minute alone, he simply clammed up and refused to talk. He stated that there was a time and a place and that really, she should be focusing on her recovery and not silly little details like facets of his character.

‘Well,’ she decided as she walked into the bullpen, ‘if I’m well enough to work, I’m more than well enough to talk.’

Rigsby was first to catch sight of her and gleefully, he threw his arms around her shoulders as Van Pelt and Cho approached more tentatively. After a short while, he realized just how inappropriate it was for him to be hugging his boss and let go. The goofy grin he was wearing didn’t slip, however and Lisbon soon found that she was reciprocating it.

“It’s good to have you back, boss,” he enthused.

“I’ve only been away a week.”

“Are you sure you’re alright to be working?”

“I’m fine, Van Pelt,” she started, pausing when she saw the aghast look on their faces. “Okay, it hurts a bit, but really, I’ll go mad if I’m not doing something.”

Lisbon quickly excused herself, wanting to get away from their scrutinizing gazes. She had already been through this when she had told Jane and her family and didn’t feel like justifying her decisions any further. Besides, she had paperwork waiting for her. What with Porter being sent down for theft and ‘attacking’ her and Jackson Kennedy for murder, the case had somehow managed to generate more paperwork than the average. Good job she wouldn’t be doing fieldwork for a while - it would give her a chance to catch up with it all. She’d barely had a chance to pick up her highlighter when Jane, typically, barged in uninvited, proffering a blueberry muffin.

“Closed case muffin,” he explained quickly. “We managed to save this one from Rigsby.”

“Well, that must be some kind of miracle in itself,” she replied with a smirk. “Thank you.”

Jane shrugged and sat opposite her. Wordlessly, she handed him half of the muffin and they both devoured it quickly, in silence. After throwing away the paper case and dusting the crumbs off her desk, she leaned her elbows against the wooden surface, resting her chin on her laced fingers.

“You’re looking better,” Jane mouthed slowly.

“I feel better,” she admitted.

[HearMeCalling]

“Good.”

“Jane?”

“Yes?”

“Will you answer one question, just one, for now?”

“Okay…”

He agreed purely because he felt like he owed her that. In her week’s absence, he had seen the team rally around her once more, finally willing to put the McTeer debacle behind them and realize that she was worthy of their trust still. It had been a shame that such a violent act had been required to do just that, but at least she had finally gotten them all, including Rigsby, back on side. And still, he was blaming himself for the fact it had happened in the first place. She wouldn’t be in pain at all if he hadn’t had a temporary lapse of judgment, but at least some good had come of it.

“Why do you hurt everyone who cares about you?” Lisbon asked quietly, after some consideration.

“I… I don’t mean to…” he whispered.

“You don’t want to lose anyone else you care about?” she asked tentatively and Jane nodded in response. “I’m not going anywhere.”

“You of all people should know that you shouldn’t make promises you cannot keep.”

“I mean it, Jane.”

“I’ll leave you to it.”

“Good, I have to see Dr. Bennett in an hour.”

Jane nodded and disappeared back into the bullpen, stopping by the kitchenette for a cup of chamomile tea. He smirked; he had obviously just missed something - Rigsby had hidden his face in his hands and Van Pelt, suddenly typing furiously, had flushed a furious bright red. Cho, who was smirking behind the puzzle book he was studying, was obviously the perpetrator. As he settled down on the couch, he privately agreed with the Asian agent. The sooner those two just got on with it, the better. In this line of work, things could get strained enough as it was, never mind having those two constantly denying their feelings. Okay, so things could get troublesome if they did decide to do something about it and Lisbon found out, but surely that was simply something they could deal with if and when it posed a problem?

“You okay, Jane?” Van Pelt quietly asked, quite suddenly.

“I’m fine.”

“Now you’re sounding like Lisbon.”

[HearMeCalling]

Actually on time and for the first time, not completely dreading it, Lisbon knocked sharply on Alysia Bennett’s office door. It wasn’t exactly a pleasurable feeling when the psychologist answered but she didn’t feel like turning on her heels and running away. Besides, she hoped that she would finally, finally be able to stop seeing her and actually get on with her normal life without the blonde asking her how she ‘felt’ about every little occurrence. Though she knew she had got somewhere since she started seeing the psychologist, she still didn’t think that the exuberant blonde was actually doing much to help her.

“How are you feeling, Teresa?”

“Okay,” Lisbon answered with a shrug, taking a seat without needing to offered. “Thank you for the well-wishes, by the way. There wasn’t any need.”

“How…”

“Oh, it’s still sore,” Lisbon replied, jumping in. “But it’s a career hazard. I’ll be fine.”

“You say that a lot,” the psychologist noted.

“I know.”

The appointment went swiftly and much to her relief, Alysia eventually agreed that they were unlikely to make any more progress so there was no point in keeping her on any longer. With a smile, she shook the blonde’s hand and left as quickly as it was polite to do so. She wandered back towards the bullpen almost with a spring in her step. Almost, for if she had been even a little bit bouncier, she had a feeling that her ribs wouldn’t be quite so forgiving. The injury wasn’t playing up quite so much now, but Lisbon had decided it would be sensible to restrict herself from fieldwork within reason, just out of sheer common sense. Give it a week or two longer and she would be back to, well not quite normal, but back to doing everything she normally did. Her team had been more than accommodating already, something she appreciated, but was already beginning to find grating. It wasn’t as if she was an invalid, after all. When Lisbon spotted Jane staring intently at Van Pelt, apparently distracting the red head from paperwork with some kind of magic trick, she couldn’t help but smile slightly. He glanced up and offered her a sunny beam, which she tentatively reciprocated with a shake of the head before disappearing into her own office.

So, they weren’t quite on the same ground as they were before the murder of McTeer and she doubted they ever would be. She was grateful; things could be a hell of a lot worse. At least they were heading towards patching things up and one day, with her fingers firmly crossed, she hoped things would be better.

[HearMeCalling]

SPOILERS FOR 2x06 BLACK GOLD AND RED BLOOD

Epilogue

Lisbon had hoped that he’d have learned from his brief sojourn in jail. Really, she had. Shortly after her accident, he had slowly fallen back into his same old routine, same old tricks. Back to broken promises and bending the semblance of trust they’d rebuilt. It seemed like virtually everything he had said and done had been completely forgotten, tossed out of the window and reset once more. Jane had promised to learn, but hadn’t. But then again, he’d also seemed slightly more willing, at times, to allow people in. She couldn’t be sure whether or not that was a good or bad thing. But the simple fact that he had bugged Bosco’s office at all had horrified her and that was the tipping point which made her decide to allow the punishment to go through rather than standing up for him as she usually would for one of her team.

To be fair, she was relieved that Bosco had eventually agreed to letting Jane go at all. She shouldn’t have threatened him like that though; he was a good mentor… a good friend. And for another… friend… she’d completely thrown the rulebook aside and thrown it all back in Bosco’s face. It was terribly unlike her to act like that on behalf of anyone, really. She supposed she’d just panicked; however much Jane irritated the hell out of her, Lisbon knew just how much she cared about Jane and she had promised that she would be there for him. And unlike Jane, she wasn’t one to go breaking promises like that without a second thought. That and she and Bosco weren’t really that close anymore. They were something in the past, not the present. At least, that was how she tried justifying it to herself, even though she knew deep down that there was some kind of flaw in her thought processes.

She took a sip of tea after quickly slipping a painkiller between her lips. Sometimes, she wondered why she bothered. Most of the time, she was just grateful that things were back to some semblance of normality.

end