A/N: Hey, just something...
Disclaimer: Will it ever be mine?
Lisbon gets to work about ten minutes early. To her surprise, no one is around. Jane's couch is vacant and the door to her office seems to be intact. She drops her things off on her couch then runs to the kitchenette for some coffee. Black. Lisbon looks over to a nearby calendar as the pot bubbles. Huh. Labor Day. The elevator dings and Cho steps out. He drops off a book and his gun holster onto the desk before joining Lisbon for coffee.
"Hey, Boss."
"Hey." She answers. "No to-go cup from Marie's?"
"My car wouldn't start. Had to take a taxi."
The coffee is prepared. Both agents have their cups at the ready. The nourishing liquid is poured and the agents quickly depart. Lisbon is situating herself in her office immediately. She sets her coffee on her desk and hangs her jacket on the coat rack. While she is busy with this, Grace and Rigsby burst through the door, sweating and panting.
"You two okay?" Cho is mildly concerned.
"Car… broken…" Grace gasps.
"Poison… water…" Rigsby finishes, collapsing on the floor.
"What water's poison?" Cho asks.
"…Taxi." Grace falls down beside her boyfriend.
Lisbon watches her agents fall from her window. She forgets about her coffee and rushes in. Cho explains what he thinks happened. Lisbon nods and rushes to find two bottles of spring water. Grace grasps at it and gulps down the tasteless fluid. After Rigsby finishes his bottle, he thanks Lisbon then moves to his desk for a nap. Cho smirks and walks to his own desk to read his novel. He swoops it up but is surprised when he hears a loud rrripp. He glances down and his book had been torn in half. Half in his hand, half on the desk.
"We got a case." Grace calls out. 'In San Francisco."
She hangs up the phone then gets up to leave. She is shocked to find the phone following her. She waves it around then calls for help.
"Cho? Boss?"
"What is it?" Cho grumbles, mad about his paperback.
"My phone." She sighs. "It's stuck."
"Cho, wake Rigsby up." Lisbon groans.
She marches over to help Grace, but discovers the phone is covered in something adhesive. Cho finds the same problem all over Rigsby's desk. In a huff, Lisbon grabs a few pencils from her desk. She stabs each desk in the office with the eraser side. On every one, the pencil remains stuck. Every one… except Jane's. Lisbon scowls at Cho. He nods. Lisbon leaves Rigsby and Grace behind as she and Cho head out to the crime scene.
As Lisbon and Cho are leaving the scene in despair – a double homicide involving children – they are veered off the road by a red pickup truck. The SUV crashes into a fence. Meanwhile, the driver of the truck falls out as the actual motor vehicle crashes into a close by gas station and explodes. The chief in charge of the crime scene rushes over to the man. Patrick Jane. But not the usual mischievous Patrick Jane. The haunted Patrick Jane in casual wear and a blood-soaked tee.
"Are you okay, sir?"
"No brakes." He moans. Jane hands the man a bloodied knife. "Cut… seat belt."
There is a huge bruise on the side of Jane's head, along with bleeding wounds from his arms and stomach. However, he immediately springs into action at the sight of just whom he had run off the road. Crawling on his side, Jane attempts to rush to the sports utility vehicle. He notices no one has emerged from the wreck. He runs out of breath in the middle of the road and braces for the oncoming vehicle. Before he realizes it, two pairs of hands reach out and carry him across the rest of the way.
Jane lays on his back, looking up at his two saviors as the other car races past and collides with the fiery pickup. Cho and the chief. Cho falls down to meet his friend. He has his own bruise, almost as bad as Jane's, and his wrist feels twisted. Jane cranes his neck in time to watch Lisbon literally fall out of the van. He cringes at her obvious discomfort. She settles, for the moment, at crawling over to her partner. He glances over at her with a pained smile before blacking out.
Jane wakes up hours later. He is attached to several hoses and wires. He attempts to move them away but finds his arms and legs are restrained. Jane finally gives in, after tiring himself with thrashing, and falls back asleep. Lisbon hears his thrashings and has her suspicions. She can move her arms, but not her legs. Once the trouncing ceases, Lisbon pulls the curtain separating the two beds. Her best friend lays there, still and bandaged. She watches him for a moment. An incessant coughing interrupts her gaze. A kind doctor gives the patient some medication for the sore throat. Lisbon waits patiently a few minutes then yanks the blind away.
"Boss." He nods.
"Cho." She smiles. "You saved Jane."
"Was I supposed to let him get hit?" He asks in a complete stoic expression. "He's the mummy over there?"
"Yeah." She sighs. "What happened?"
As if on cue, a nurse with a clipboard struts in. She stops in front of Lisbon's bed. The woman looks no older than twenty-five. Still, she also seems like the kind of person who knows what she's talking about.
"Mr. Jane has a massive hemorrhage in his cranium as well as his… right." She stops, feeling she may need to dumb down the techniques. "His head is bleeding heavily as a result of attack with a blunt object. His abdomen is bleeding from a self-inflicted blade, probably in a self-defense manner, considering the state and angle. There was leather and nitrous oxide found in these wounds, so he was most likely trying to escape from a moving vehicle by cutting off his seat belt. Other than this, his legs seem to be partially paralyzed."
"Unbelievable." Lisbon mutters.
"Miss Lisbon," she continues. "You and Mr. Cho were in a car crash. Your legs were horribly bent out of shape. And your head rammed into the steering wheel. Mr. Cho, you will need to wear a neck brace, a wrist brace, a waist contractor and leg lifts."
"Leg lifts?" He asks incredulously.
"Ahem. Yes. So you can have a chance to gain back your strength. You will be on crutches, most likely for the next month. Miss Lisbon and Mr. Jane, on the other hand, seem to have sustained more pertinent injuries. The two of you will be in wheelchairs for no shorter than three months."
The woman leaves them alone with their thoughts. Lisbon and Cho share a knowing look then stare at their mummified companion, wondering who will break the news to him.
"Can you do it?" Jane inquires sleepily.
His eyes remain shut. Cho glances to Lisbon, silently nudging her to find out what Jane is talking about.
"It?"
"Take me to the bathroom?" He answers without a second thought.
Lisbon's face flushes. Cho smirks. Lisbon frowns even more then throws her pillow at him. He catches the fluffy object with his face, which makes his boss smile a bit. He throws it back and she tries to situate it again. She fails to do so without harming herself. She instead grabs her remote and calls for a nurse. The same one as before returns shortly.
"Anything I can help you with?"
"Uh, I can't fix my pillow right and-"
The nurse adjusts it before Lisbon can continue.
"And Jane needs to go to the bathroom."
"Well, sorry, Mr. Jane. I can offer you a bedpan or a catheter. Which do you want?"
"No." He mutters. It sounds muffled, or suspended in his sleep.
"No, what, Mr. Jane?"
"No bathroom." He sighs. "Ballroom."
"Are you asleep? What do you see?"
"She's missing."
Lisbon and Cho sit up, trying to figure out what exactly is happening. The nurse looks very concerned, as if Jane had experienced some sort of mental trauma. He shoots up on the bed, eyes still closed. He is swatting at the air around him with his head. He tries to push himself out of the bed, but the restraints keep him locked in.
"Who is missing?"
Instead of answering, Jane drops back onto the bed. He turns over, facing the wall, and becomes silent. The nurse looks at him, shakily, and then returns to the other agents.
"Anything else?"
"I'm hungry." Cho answers.
"For fruit, dessert…"
"Bananas."
She nods and leaves once more.