AN: Hey guys, how are you doing? :) I just wanna thank the-megtalist; Eldanar and Bruna for the reviews, you made my day! *-* Also, a big thank you for nic73 and 3R1N145, who alerted and favorited this story, respectively. And liv einziger, I can't thank you enough.
Disclaimer: No, I don't own them, only Nina. :D
CHAPTER 2 - Unprofessional
The team had started their search the way it was supposed to be. They used flashlights and carried their guns, just in case. They didn't know what they would find, whether Nina was being held as a captive or not. The only thing they had was Jane's hunch. Not that it was a small thing, but they couldn't take anything for granted. As the delicate situation it was, they had to be sure that nothing could go wrong. Lisbon told the rest of the team to call her immediately if they saw something. Splitting up was a good solution for this kind of job, but it had its consequences.
The trees blocked the light coming from the moon, which made the woods especially dark and gloomy. Jane held his attention on Lisbon, and at the same time he was trying to process every noise and movement he could notice between the foliage.
"What is it, Jane? I can feel your eyes penetrating on me like a sting."
"Nothing. You're just… You have a different facial expression today. I can't figure it out and that's puzzling me." She grinned at his words and her mind flew back to what she was doing before her cellphone rang and brought her to this weird case. "You look slightly drunk, even though you don't smell like one, but also tired and happy…"
"Well I might just be and by the way, it's none of your business." She hissed. "You didn't seem to be that interested in what I did, or looked like, yesterday or the day before. And I really don't give a damn, I'm glad you found yourself some distraction."
"Oh, please Lisbon, you don't need to be jealous here…"
"I'm not jealous. Like I said, I don't care and maybe you should stop caring so much about my life."
He was about to say something when their little rant was immediately interrupted by Lisbon's perception of a small hand coming from behind a tree. Both of them approached the body carefully and found out that it was indeed Nina, fainted on a bunch of leaves. Although she was exactly where they thought she would be, waiting for an unconscious kid to wake up wasn't in their plans. The girl was faced down, her hair was messy and, probably due to her sweat and tears, sticky against her face.
"It looks like she's just fallen down… And there's no sign of sexual abuse." The agent crouched down and put a hand on the child's back. "Her breathing is still uneven, fast. Think you can call the paramedics? I'm gonna call Cho and tell him that we found her." Lisbon looked at him.
"Sure." Jane shrugged. "I'll be right back."
"Okay." She said, while dialing Cho's number. "Cho?"
"Hi, boss."
"We found her. She's fainted in the middle of this…" She took a look around. "Nowhere… I sent Jane to call the paramedics. You and the team can go back to the front of the house."
"Alright, bye." He hung up and looked at Van Pelt's and Rigsby's curious faces. "It was boss. She said they'd found Nina but she's not responsive."
"And what are we going to do?" Grace asked. "How are we going to interview her? I mean, we don't have a clue about what happened…"
"She sent Jane to call the paramedics. They must be on their way. We are going back to the house."
"I knew I should've brought some food. I hate trees and darkness and walking…" Rigsby grumbled and followed the other two agents, waving his hand in the air, from time to time, to send the insects away.
Lisbon leaned against the tree and sat next to the girl, looking at her, attentively. She was dressed in pajamas and it was covered in dirt and blood. She couldn't help but imagine Nina hugging her dead parents and then trying to run away from their killer. The woman felt the urge to turn Nina face up but resisted. Even though she was dying to see the child's face, she might've sprained something when she fell and Lisbon didn't want to cause any sort of pain for the little girl. Not more than she would have to already. So, instead, she just ran her fingers through Nina's hair, trying to take them away from her face. She was asleep, hurt and dirty and the agent couldn't help but feel a little emotional.
Footsteps began to be heard and Teresa got up. The paramedics were carrying a stretcher and, as soon as they got there, the kid was immobilized and taken away.
The walk back to the front of the house was quiet. Jane and Lisbon could only hear the strong breathing and the dry leaves being stepped on. He wondered if Nina knew about her parents. If she had gone out the windows upstairs, without seeing anything, she wouldn't know and the team would have the sad and hard job to tell her. If she had seen it, she would have to explain how she had gotten out and say if she'd seen anything or anyone. In both ways the girl will feel pain, he thought. We don't have much choice. Little did Lisbon know that she was thinking the same thing as Jane. Damn, she didn't want to tell a kid that her parents were dead. That was enough of a gruesome job already when done to adults. The idea of doing it with children made her crumble inside.
The team met up again and questions began to flow, starting with Van Pelt's.
"How is she? Was she taken to a hospital already?"
"She's been through a lot…" Lisbon said.
"And we still have to find out the whole story…" Jane replied.
"Are we telling her that her parents are dead?" Rigsby asked, hesitantly.
"If she doesn't already know…" Jane replied. "She's the only one who can tell us. I'm going to see her reactions when it's a favorable time for talking to her."
"I bet she knows." Cho said, installing a deep silence between them all.
A few seconds later, Lisbon was the first to get out of her daydream. "Get ready guys, you'll be going to the CBI. Jane, you and I will go to the hospital and wait for the doctor's permission to see Nina; Van Pelt and Rigsby, I want you to find out any sort of enemies that Anthony or Judith might've had. Cho, look through their professions and files at work, if there's any. Let's go."
Jane and Lisbon arrived at the hospital and went straight to the floor where Nina's room's was. The doctor was filling in some gaps in a paper, probably writing information about one of his patients.
"Good morning sir, I'm Agent Lisbon and this is my consultant Patrick Jane. We're with the CBI and we'd like to talk to Nina Dobrev."
"Oh, sure! The little girl that just got here… Ahm, I'm afraid you two will have to wait while she regains some energy and I examine her. This may take a little while, so I'll have the nurse call you when she's ready to talk, alright?"
"Doctor…" Jane wanted to know his name.
"Adams. Doctor Adams."
"Okay, Doctor Adams, we'll be right over there, in the corridor." They smiled to each other and at the same time as the doctor went away, Jane glanced at Lisbon. She seemed to be lost in her thoughts. He couldn't help but worry about her too. She looked so… Tormented. "Alright, now, tell me what's going on."
"Sorry?" She looked at him with wandering eyes.
"You don't look normal." He opened the door for her.
"I'm just tired, Jane. I haven't slept in twenty-four hours. Besides, I hate those types of cases with a child. They're always sad and never end well."
"You should go home and rest. Don't you trust your team? Don't you trust me? We can take the work from here." Twenty-four? Why the hell hasn't she slept in twenty-four hours if she had time to do so?
"It's not that easy, Jane. I have to be here." If regrets could kill, she'd already be dead. Lisbon wished she had slept well instead of going after an unfulfilled desire with a one-night stand. Damn it, Lisbon. That was totally irresponsible, she said to herself. She should know better; in her job there was no time for that kind of fun. Except for once in a lifetime and she'd already spent her chance with Mashburn.
"Why? You have to sign papers? Talk to the suspects that we don't have yet? C'mon Lisbon…"
"I need to be here for Nina when she wakes up! I have some questions to ask her about earlier in the day and I need to give her the horrible news…"
"Well, I can do that. And don't tell me that I can't, because I've done that already."
"We've always done it together. I never let you go and visit the victim's family by yourself. That would be unprofessional."
"Unprofessional is you working this way!" He motioned to her.
"Which way, Jane? Huh?" She asked, her patience wearing thin as they sat in a chair. The corridor was empty and silent. The only sound, besides their voices, was the loud beeping that came from the machines in each one of the rooms. "I'm just tired, for God's sake! It's not like I've never worked like this before."
"You were with a one night stand, weren't you? I mean, I can tell by your relaxed look, in spite of our actual situation, and your irritation. Probably somebody took you away from your… fun."
"What if I was? Please, Jane, just let me be, okay? I had a rough night just like everyone else on the team. Just… gimme a break." His perceptiveness sometimes annoyed her.
"Fine, I'll shut up."
"Good." She curled herself into a ball, searching for the back of the chair for sleeping support, and closed her eyes. Jane just kept staring at the ceiling.
"Agents?"
Jane woke up suddenly with the doctor's voice. He didn't even remember falling asleep in the first place. Next to him, Lisbon slept like a baby. He didn't have the courage to wake her up, so he decided to talk to Nina by himself. "Erm… I think we should let her sleep." He smiled. "She's exhausted, worked a lot." Jane explained.
"That's fine, it's just that you told me to warn you as soon as the girl had woken up. And, she's waiting now. Be careful with her."
"You don't have to worry, doc." He got up and started to walk towards the girl's room. When he opened the door, scared and big green eyes stared at him. Nina shrank instinctively. "Calm down, baby. There's no need to be afraid. My name is Patrick Jane, what's yours?"
"N-Nina…" She answered, quietly and reluctantly.
"Hi, Nina." He opened a charming smile. "I'm with a sort of police, called CBI, ever heard of it?" She remained silent. He let out a breath. "I'm not going to hurt you," He sat on the edge of the bed and looked her deep in the eyes. "I promise."
"C-can you tell me why I'm here?" She was still on her defensive mode. That man was just a strange for her. And why wasn't she at home, where she was supposed to be? Tucked in bed, just waiting for her mom to wake her up for school… What happened? Where were her parents? Nina kept staring at Jane, waiting for him to answer all of her questions.
"You are at the Sacramento City's Hospital…"
"But why?" She cried out, interrupting him. "And where is my mommy? I wanna see her!"
Yeah, she doesn't remember anything. He finally could realize. "How old are you, Nina?"
"Four… But…"
"I'll be right back."
Outside of the room, Jane took a deep breath. This was going to be sad. And difficult. The girl had forgotten everything. She was probably blocking her traumatic feelings from that night. Jane had dealt with this kind of case before, but it was an older girl. Not this small. Not Charlotte's age. He ran through the corridor and shook Lisbon's shoulder. "Lisbon, wake up." She snapped her eyes wide open, trying to acknowledge her surroundings.
"Huh? What?"
"I thought that I could do it alone, but I can't." Lisbon looked confused. "Nina's awake, looking for her mother."
"Damn it, Jane!" She got up quickly and hurried back to Nina's room. "I told you I wanted for us to do it together! Did she forget everything?" She asked him, before turning the doorknob.
"Yes… At least from that night. And, she's four. Not six."
She sighed and opened the door. The same green eyes from before, met hers. Lisbon approached Nina carefully and also sat on the edge of the bed, but closer to the girl. "Hi, Nina. My name is Teresa Lisbon. How are you feeling?"
"I don't know… Weird, I guess." She shrugged.
"Think you can talk?" The child nodded. "Okay… Ahm, do you know why you're here? I mean, can you remember anything that happened yesterday?" Nina shook her head in denial and Lisbon looked quickly at Jane, who nodded to her. "Nina, you were found, by me and Mr. Jane, unconscious in the middle of the woods behind your house. I really need to know if there's something, anything, as small as it seems, that you recall from last night. It's quite important..."
The girl stopped a little to think and Lisbon and Jane could tell that she was really trying. "I… I just remember my mom and my dad screaming at each other again… And then, a loud noise. But I don't remember anything anymore." She looked first to Lisbon and then to Jane. Both had disapproving looks on their faces. She knew that they expected more, but something wasn't letting her inside her own mind. "But why? And he hasn't answered me about my mom yet! Where is she?"
"Nina, I'm really, really sorry but your mom and dad are not here anymore." Jane said, looking at the floor.
The girl looked at him with watery eyes. "What do you mean?" She knew what he meant; she just didn't want to believe it.
"They became angels. You know, God needed them upstairs…"
"No…" She moaned and tears began to stream down her face, on full force. "No, I don't want them to become angels!"
At first, they didn't know what to do. This wasn't one of the cases where both of the parents weren't present or egotistical; or a case with an older kid. They should've kept in mind that Nina was a very little girl. And by understanding that, Lisbon did the only possible thing that could be done to comfort her: she pulled Nina into a hug.
"Come here, honey." Nina couldn't keep control of her sobs. "I need you to be strong, okay? You are going to help me and my team in this case and we're all going to find the bad guy that took your parents away. I'm not gonna let anything happen to you, alright? I'm not." She closed her eyes, while Nina cried her heart out, soaking her jacket in salty and hot tears. The woman broke the hug delicately and looked into Nina's eyes. "Do you trust me?" The girl wiped the tears with the back of her hands while Lisbon took a lock of Nina's hair and put it behind her ear. "Because I'll only be able to do all of that, if I have your trust. Like I said, you have to be strong in order for me, Mr. Jane and our friends to be strong. And I know that you're only four, but I also know that you are rather intelligent." She gave Nina an encouraging smile and stretched her hand towards the girl. "So Nina, can I count on you?"
The girl nodded shyly and put her hand on Lisbon's.
AN: So, what did you think of it? Please tell me, I appreciate any kind of feedback!