A/N: It's my birthday today :) I woke up at 5am and couldn't get back to sleep (I'm like a little kid when it comes to my birthday) so I wrote this. It's probably not very good, but oh well.
Disclaimer: My sister was going to get me The Mentalist boxset for my birthday (I don't know why she changed her mind) but I still don't own The Mentalist.
Jane's nightmares died alongside Red John. They were the cause of his insomnia, so he was glad he could finally sleep.
Lisbon's nightmares never died.
Jane never knew Lisbon had nightmares. He never would have guessed. But after a while of sharing a bed with her, it all came out.
The first time it happened, he pretended he was still asleep. She was silent, but sat bolt upright, slightly sweaty with tears streaming down her face. Once she had calmed down, she looked over at him, making sure she hadn't woken him. But even though his insomnia was gone, he was still a light sleeper. He noticed it all.
xxx
The second time he couldn't just ignore it. He woke before she did, straight away noticing her shaking and muttering. He couldn't make out what she was saying, but he thought he heard his name.
He gently shook her, whispering comforting words. She woke slowly, slightly disorientated. Once she saw him she started sobbing into his chest, clutching at his tshirt as he stroked her hair and rocked her back and forth, like you would rock a baby.
He asked about them when she stopped shaking. He wanted to know what was waking her, wanted to make it better. He didn't like watching helplessly as she cried, only able to wake her and calm her. But, she was nothing if not stubborn. She refused to talk about them, and he wasn't sure is it was because she genuinely didn't want to talk about them, or if she just didn't want to seem weak.
xxx
The third time it happened she screamed. It was such a heart-wrenching noise that he knew straight away that he never wanted to hear that noise come from her mouth again, and that he had to get her to talk about them.
She claimed she couldn't remember, and he didn't mention that before she screamed, he distinctly heard her mutter "daddy".
xxx
The next time she woke from a nightmare she told him everything. He was glad, because he was running out of ideas, and the next things on his list were hypnotism and a shrink, neither which she would agree to.
She told him that she had nightmares about different things. She had nightmares about him, him dying, him getting hurt, him murdering Red John. She had nightmares about Red John murdering him, murdering the team, murdering herself. She had nightmares about her childhood, about her mothers car crash, about being told her mother was dead, about her father drinking, and about him hurting her and her brothers. He had been dead a long time, but he still haunted her in her dreams.
As he held her and comforted her, he realised that, while he may have suffered, she has also suffered, that her life has never been easy, not since she was twelve years old. She was always so tough and strong and independent that everyone forgot she was only human.