A/N: I am still shocked with the feedback this story is receiving. This fandom is seriously the best. Enjoy!
Disclaimer: I do not own The Mentalist. I wish I could be as great as Bruno, but sadly that will never happen.
Jane paced back and forth in the hospital waiting room. He had been waiting almost two hours and no one had told him what was going on. Cho waited with him for the first hour but decided he should go back to the scene to help close the case up. Jane had already pestered the nurses enough to nearly get kicked out, but he still knew nothing of Lisbon's condition.
Jane was nervously twisting his wedding ring when a short, pudgy nurse walked by in front of Jane with a small stack of charts nestled in the crook of her arm. Jane strode quickly towards her.
"Ma'am, I was wondering if you could tell me anything on the condition of Teresa Lisbon." The lady stopped walking and turned around towards Jane.
"Sir, we are not obligated to share information with people other than immediate family. You her husband?" Jane shook his head no.
"Sorry mister, you'll just have to wait." The nurse looked sweet, like one that all the patients would love. She was a little older, and perhaps old fashioned. Jane concluded that she, like Lisbon, was a strict follower of the rules and the law. So Jane decided to pull the authoritative card, grabbing his CBI consultant badge out of his pocket.
"I am with the CBI, and it is imperative I know her condition...for, uh, a case." Jane flashed the card in front of the nurse, who eyed it cautiously.
"Mmm..." hummed the nurse, "okay, let me see." She fingered through a few charts before finding the one that belonged to Lisbon. She scanned the chart, index finger skimming over it as she read the facts. Jane rocked nervously from his toe to heel, anxious to hear what the nurse was going to say.
"Okay, it looks like Miss Lisbon is in stable condition. Blood test found high amounts of tranquilizers in her blood system, way above the amount needed to kill someone. When she was brought in, she was in light coma, but the doctors notes here say that she started coming out of it once her stomach was pumped and she was given IV fluids to flush it out of her system," the nurse looked up to find Jane staring in midair with a dazed look upon his face.
Jane looked back at the nurse. "But she is going to be okay?"
"From what I can tell, yes. It's actually quite miraculous. Normally people with that much tranquilizer in their system fall into a deep coma and stop breathing within ten minutes. There was no sign that she ever stopped breathing completely, which could have caused permanent brain damage."
"Can I see her now?"
"Well, she may may be extremely drowsy from the tranquilizer. I doubt she would even be able to answer your questions, much less remember what happened. I don't think police questioning would be great for her recovery," the nurse looked at Jane slightly angry at the audacity of the police to want to question a patient in the condition that Lisbon was in.
"No, no, I am not here to question her. Teresa is a CBI agent. I am her consultant, her partner. And I would like to see her just to be with her."
"Oh," the nurse was not expecting to hear such concern in his voice. "I am sure I can get you back there then. Follow me."
Jane grabbed his jacket that was draped over a bland plastic chair in the waiting room and followed the nurse down a long hallway. Jane's old scuffed shoes made a soft pitter-patter against the floor as he trailed behind the woman. She stopped just short of a room, stepped aside, and motioned for Jane to go in. Jane nodded at the lady in appreciation before stepping in Lisbon's room.
The room was bleak and smelt strongly of disinfectants the way any hospital room did. Jane curiously made his way in, taking in all the sensory details around him. The faint beeping of machines could be heard in the background, along with soft chatter from the nurses station across the hall.
Jane rounded the corner and Lisbon came into view. She was laying against the hospital bed with her eyes closed. Her skin had more color to it than it had whenever she had been whisked away by the paramedics. Jane walked up to the her bedside and scooted a generic hospital chair next to Lisbon. Jane took a seat and sat back. He could at least relax his tense muscles now that he could physically see her breathing.
Jane sat there watching Lisbon's every movement, careful not to make any noise that would disturb her rest. He already made a promise to himself and a silent promise to Lisbon that he would not leave her bedside until she was able to walk out with him. He did not care how long it took, he would not leave.
Jane reflected on what had just happened in the last five hours of his life. He had been solving a regular case. He had been called to a meeting. He found Red John. He killed Red John. He realized how deep his love was for Teresa Lisbon. What a day.
He wasn't sure how he felt about taking down Red John. He knew he should be feeling ecstatic. He was very happy, but it just wasn't as satisfying as he expected it to be. Long ago he accepted that his family was gone and would not come back again, but he still felt a longing deep in his heart. Now that Red John was dead he realized it wasn't a longing for revenge on Red John, nor was it a longing to be with his family per say. It was something else deep inside that he just couldn't put a finger on. But he did find that killing Red John lifted an enormous weight off his shoulders because he no longer had to worry about the people he loved being brutally murdered. Maybe all he needed now was for Lisbon to wake up and tell him everything would be okay.
Jane was just about to walk over to the window in the room overlooking Sacramento when Lisbon started to stir. First she crinkled her face and furrowed her brow, then she began to wiggle under the thin white sheets. Jane leaned over the bed, examining her carefully.
"Lisbon, he-yyy Lisbon. It's me, Jane." Lisbon opened her eyes, quickly scanning her surroundings.
"Jane? Wha-what happened? Uhhhh and why is my head throbbing like I got hit by a freight train?" Jane couldn't respond. His smile lit up upon hearing her voice, leaving Lisbon confused.
"Why are you smiling like a fool?" Yep, his Lisbon was definitely back.
"I am so glad you are okay. You will never know how scared I was." Jane reached out and placed his hand on top of Lisbon's. She flinched slightly, but did not pull away.
"I am glad I am okay too, but could you please tell me what happened?" Lisbon was getting more aggravated by the minute.
"Red John." Jane just said those two words and Lisbon went silent.
"Red- Red John? He did this?" Lisbon clearly couldn't remember anything about this evenings events.
"What was the last thing you remember about today, Lisbon?" A look of concentration was cast upon Lisbon's face as she tried desperately to remember what had led to her being in the hospital.
"I was going to check out that lead on the Greer case. When I got there I got out of my car, and walked up to the porch. That's the last thing I remember." Lisbon watched Jane curiously as he listened intently on what he was saying.
"Okay, well it didn't take much time, so you didn't miss much," Jane said.
"Dammit Jane! Quit beating around the bush! Tell me what happened!" Jane could see the fear in Lisbon's eyes, the kind of fear someone gets when they know something bad has happened.
"Somewhere along the line Red John came and subdued you somehow. Since you aren't suffering from any bodily damage, I suspect he used a gas or chloroform rag to knock you out," Jane paused, not knowing exactly how to continue telling Lisbon how he had found Red John about to slice her up.
Lisbon saw Jane's hesitation. "Jane. I can handle it. Please, I need to know."
Jane took a deep breath in before continuing shyly. "He drugged you up with a fatal amount of tranquilizer, and was going to use you as a canvas for his next bloody masterpiece."
Lisbon looked at Jane with wide eyes. "But...but he didn't...because I am here now, untouched. Why didn't he?"
Jane looked Lisbon straight in the eye. "Because I found him first."
Lisbon gasped, "Oh my god... You... you killed Red John?"
Jane simply nodded.
"Why though, why didn't he just kill me? He didn't have to drug me up so I wouldn't feel a thing. He could have just killed me in my apartment, like every other victim." Lisbon wanted to find out everything, and more importantly now she wanted to find out who Red John really was.
"He probably thought I was getting closer, and wanted to throw me off by killing you. Make my life crumple apart so he could get two steps ahead again, when in reality I was no closer than I was when I first narrowed it down to seven suspects. He felt desperate, like he had to do it now. Or maybe, just maybe, he felt a little remorse inside, slightly sorry that he was going to have to kill one of his best agents, so he went a little easy on you.
It took a minute for Lisbon to take everything in. She put pieces of the puzzle together. The fact Red John always knew what was happening in the CBI, the fact that he knew about the Greer case and lured her to a vacant house. The fact that he called Jane into a meeting in order to get her alone.
"Oh my god, Red John is Bertram!" Jane was pleased that she had put all the information together. Now he was sure she had her full mental capacity back. Lisbon just sat in her bed, shocked, yet relieved at the same time.
The next question that popped into Lisbon's mind was "what comes next". She never really faced this question because she didn't think the capture of Red John would be so imminent. She didn't really want to think about what was next, she just wanted to rest. She also wanted to remember. It was okay to have someone recall the event of what happened, but it wasn't the same as actually knowing. A little tugging feeling inside kept nudging her to remember.
"Umm... Jane?" she asked hesitantly.
"Yeah, Lisbon, what do you need?"
"Can you help me remember, you know, what happened? I feel like he said something to me... I just, I just can't remember." Whatever it was, Jane could tell it was really bothering Lisbon.
"Lisbon, I don't know if that's a good idea. I don't want the memories to, uh, haunt you." Jane had a look of real concern upon his face.
"No, no I don't think its something he did. He said something."
"Lisbon, you know his words can be just as harmful as his actions. Besides, it would be extremely hard to regain your memory considering you were drugged. It may be impossible for that matter." Jane crossed his arms. No way was he going to free the memories of Red John into her mind. Even though he desperately wanted to know every detail, he loved her too much to put her through that.
"Jane, please, for me," Lisbon asked with pleading green eyes, "I'd rather not spend my life wondering. I can handle it, I promise you."
Jane eyes wondered about the room for a moment silently. He finally sighed and said, "Okay. But if at anytime you show signs of being distressed, or scared, I will stop without hesitation, okay?"
"Fine...just do what you have to do." Lisbon was bracing herself, she wasn't sure exactly what memories would come back to her.
"Teresa, I need you to be as relaxed as possible," Jane reached out and grabbed Lisbon's hand, clasping it between his. It was the second time today their hands had made contact and she would be lying if she said she didn't like it. His hand was warm and enveloping around hers. It made her feel safe and protected. Lisbon's tense muscles relaxed as Jane continued, "think of a container of bubbles. You blow all the bubbles at once, and they are floating in the air. They are gently falling to the ground, and you pop some too. As the bubbles pop, you are beginning to reach a state of tranquility," It wasn't hard to get Lisbon nearly asleep because she was still drowsy from the tranquilizer. Jane continued to smoothly talk to Lisbon, calmly tracing circles on the back of her hand, "now there is only one bubble left, floating freely in front of your face. You can see anything you want to see in it."
She didn't know where she was exactly. She wasn't quite sure how she had gotten there either. The room seemed to be spinning around in circles also. She was laying on something hard and cold elevated off the ground. A table perhaps? The detective cop instinct took over immediately as she recalled what she had been doing at such a location. The Greer case. A man called saying he had a lead. She must have been lured in here.
"Hello, Teresa," a shrill voice rang out somewhere to the side of her. Lisbon slowly turned her head. She felt as if her body was made of lead. It was hard to move her head, much less her extremities.
"Who- who are you?" Lisbon questioned.
The man laughed. "Well, you know me by several names. My given name, and of course, the infamous name I have ever- so- graciously given myself."
Lisbon just looked at him with confused eyes.
"You still don't get it. Well why don't we play a game, Teresa?"
Lisbon gulped. She wasn't liking this situation one bit. She couldn't move, she had no way of calling for help, and this man looked intent on doing serious harm to her.
"I already have backup called, they are on their way. Why don't you make it easy on yourself and give it up now?"
The masked man laughed again. "You are lying to me, Teresa. Patrick was right when he said cops were bad liars, especially you."
The way he had said "Patrick" sent chills down Lisbon's spine.
"You know, Patrick is going to be very disappointed when he sees what I have done to you. I wonder if it will cause as much damage as when I took his lovely wife and daughter away. Such a shame, they were lovely ladies, they really were."
Lisbon froze, and in that moment she swore her heart stopped beating. No. It couldn't be. Not Red John. This wasn't supposed to happen!
"Red John," is all she could murmur.
"Very good agent!" The man's voice got even higher, if that was possible. The voice sounded obviously like a disguise. Nobody talked like that in real life. But Lisbon couldn't even tell if this was real anymore.
"Why?" asked Lisbon.
"Well, why not, Teresa? Patrick has been getting closer to finding me. But of course, I will never let that happen. I just need something to distract him for a while. Maybe your death would do the trick?" His words sent shivers all throughout her body. This couldn't be the end. She still had things to take care of. Well at least one thing.
"No. Don't please, don't do this." Lisbon hated pleading with people, sounding desperate, like she didn't have control of the situation. At this point, however, she felt like she didn't have a choice.
"Don't worry Teresa, I have decided to be kind to you. Rarely do I show this kind of congenial attitude towards my victims, but you have always been... one of my favorites. Special to me in a way. Maybe it is because you and your team are so good at mowing down my competition, I suppose you could say. I mean your team does have the highest solve rate in the state, right?"
Lisbon couldn't find any words, so Red John continued. "I will allow you to die peacefully. Then, of course, I will use your body to create my next masterpiece. Patrick won't know the difference... And you? Well it will be our little secret you can take to the grave."
Red John grabbed a brown bottle off the table, along with a clear plastic tube that was about one inch in diameter. He grabbed Lisbon's chin, and pried her mouth open. Lisbon tried with all her might to keep mouth closed, but the strong grip of his hand was over powering. Tears slid down the sides of Lisbon's cheeks as she felt him shove the rubber tube down her throat. She could hear the unscrewing of the brown bottle as he raised it up even with her eyes. He carefully put the mouth of the bottle up to the top of the tube and tilted it over. Lisbon watched as the contents slid through the clear tube into her body. She could feel the liquid running through her esophagus, leaving a numbing sensation in its wake.
Red John pulled the tube out of her throat, leaving her gagging.
"I would approximate you have about five minutes of consciousness left. Anything you would like me to pass on to your friends, family, or... Patrick? Because you know I will. I like to grant people's dying wishes. Unless of course, it is for me to die." The man belted out a laugh once more. Lisbon vaguely remembered the laugh from somewhere, but she couldn't really think back at the moment.
"You better hurry it up, you are running out of time. I am positive you would like to say something to at least Patrick. Maybe an 'I'm sorry for doing this to you'?"
This man was truly sick, Lisbon thought. He was killing her and she should be sorry? But there was something she would like to say to Jane. Actually, there was a lot of things. About how she was thankful he had been assigned to her team. How he was her absolute best friend. How she actually didn't mind his antics that made her life a whole lot less mundane. How he made her a better person. How he saved her. There was so much she wanted to tell him. Now as she lay there slowly dying, she realized her biggest regret in life. Not being able to tell Jane how much he meant to her, how much she cared.
"The clock is ticking, Teresa."
She could feel herself slipping under. There was no way she could fit all the things she wanted to tell him in now.
She mustered the last amount of strength she had into her last words before falling into complete darkness. "Tell Patrick that I love him."
Lisbon's eyes snapped open. Only a couple of minutes had actually passed by, but she had remembered what she wanted to remember. She had confessed her love for Patrick.
"Lisbon? Did you remember?" Jane gazed at Lisbon, searching for any signs that she was now mentally traumatized. He couldn't sense trauma, but instead something else. Embarrassment?
"Yes." Lisbon quickly snapped.
"Well? What is bothering you? You seem...embarrassed or something."
"No, I am not! Just, uhg, I'm tired. Let me rest." Lisbon pulled the covers over her shoulder and shut her eyes.
"No, Lisbon, something happened. I knew I should not have let you retrieve those memories."
"Nothing happened, I swear!" Lisbon's green eyes met Jane's blue-green.
"Lisbon, please, I know when you are lying. If not for yourself, will you please share for me? That way I won't be kicking myself every night wondering what Red John said and did to you?" Jane's expression grew serious, "Lisbon, you don't understand. If I would have found you dead...I don't think...I just don't think I could do it. My heart stopped when I saw you laying there. I need you to know how sorry I am, I know this is all my fault."
"Jane, what happened is not your fault. None of it is. Please, understand that." Lisbon desperately wanted to tell Jane that she loved him, no matter what. She just didn't know if he could handle that right now though.
"What is bothering you so much Lisbon, tell me, I am begging you, tell me." Jane was pleading with her now. She could feel the dam keeping her emotions back start to crack. She had been keeping it in for a while now, and with this whole Red John brush-with-death-fiasco she couldn't help but let the flood gates open.
Her eyes filled with tears that started trickling down her cheeks. Jane was already sitting on the edge of the hospital chair close to Lisbon, but the scene of her crying prompted him to sit on the edge of her bed. He gently reached up and brushed a tear off her cheek with his thumb. She clutched his hand against her face, pressing his palm onto her cheek. It felt so warm, yet tender against her soft skin.
"Teresa, please don't cry. I am going to help you. Do what ever it takes to keep you safe. I won't let you down again, I promise." Lisbon released her grip on his hand, but he kept it there at her face a few seconds longer before reaching down to clasp her hands between his.
"Thank you," Lisbon whispered, "for everything."
Jane responded simply by scooting his body up the bed in order to lay next to Lisbon.
"Get some sleep, Teresa, I'll be right here when you wake up." At that Lisbon swung her arm across his chest, in the most comfortable position she could think of. She was indeed very tired, so it didn't take long before day faded into darkness.
Jane lay there basking in the feeling of Teresa Lisbon wrapped around him. It was really a feeling he would like to get used to. He moved his chin over her head and put one arm gently around her waist before he too fell asleep.
Maybe tomorrow Lisbon would tell him what was bothering her. Maybe tomorrow he would tell Lisbon that he loved her.
A/N: There ya have it! Chapter 3! I told everyone I wasn't going into the whole Red John scene, but I suppose my muse couldn't resist. This story kind of has a mind of its own. I am hoping to pick up the pace a little in Chapter 4, but who knows what will happen! I really hope you enjoyed this chapter, and don't forget to review!