Thanks again for the reviews, faves, and follows for Chapter 2. And to all of you who've read but not reviewed I'd love to hear your comments. My apologies for the mysterious 'missing words' (thanks Katrina) it appears that posting wipes out names if you enter them in a style that the site doesn't like!
Here goes, Chapter 3, where we begin to learn more about what happened …. Or not!
"Do you think she's alright?" the pretty red head turned her troubled face to her two colleagues, hoping for reassurance. "How did she sound to you?"
"She's just tired and worried," replied the shorter man, "It's nearly two in the morning. She just didn't want to talk on the phone."
He didn't see any reason to add to vanPelt's anxiety by allowing her to see that he too was worried.
"Yeah. She'd have called sooner if she needed us," chipped in Rigsby, trying to disguise the doubt in his voice and almost succeeding.
"But you know how she feels about him. And you saw her at the scene Cho, I've not seen like that since …" vanPelt's words tailed off as the threesome turned the corner into the busy emergency waiting area and spotted their boss sitting quietly in the corner.
Lisbon didn't immediately notice them approaching. She sat, straight in her chair, knees clenched tightly together, staring intently down at her hands, which were even more tightly clenched.
Her face was pale, tense and solemn. Waiting, like a balloon full of tears, a dam ready to burst. To spill the flood of her emotions all around her.
VanPelt tentatively placed a hand on her bosses arm, "Boss ?"
"Oh! I'm sorry." Lisbon's head snapped up abruptly, "I didn't see you coming," she blurted out before recovering her composure to continue, her eyes searching the faces of each of her team.
"Rigsby, I didn't expect you to come, I thought you had Ben tonight?"
"Cho called boss. I took Ben to Sarah. She understands, sort of…"
Lisbon couldn't stop a sad but proud smile. They were truly a team. She was thankful for that at times like these, she didn't blame them for having reservations when Jane was involved in something dangerous or underhand, but they always stuck together in the end and their trust in her was unwavering. If she thought about it, it was their loyalty to Jane, who had led them down so many dangerous and questionable pathways in the name of justice or revenge, that amazed and impressed her most.
"I'm just waiting for the doctor to get back to me, then I think we should go to the cafeteria and have a coffee. We can talk there," she explained.
Her businesslike manner deliberately deflected the unasked question implicit in each pair of eyes that met hers.
"How is he Boss?" vanPelt asked cautiously.
Lisbon had been dreading that question, not because she was scared of breaking potentially bad news, after all she knew in her heart of hearts Jane was going to be fine, didn't she? But because she couldn't face telling them about all those horrible injuries.
She didn't want to picture the agony on his face, contorted in pain, his hand gripping hers so hard she thought her fingers would break, the relief she felt for him as the pain subsided, only to watch him be put through the same excruciating agony again. She had stood holding his hand as she watched him slipping away into unconsciousness once more, his face relaxing and his hand letting go its fearsome grasp on hers and she had been proud to help him.
But she had no desire to relive those moments.
Now she was just tired.
"How is he Boss? vanPelt repeated.
"It's complicated Grace," she tried to sound reassuring. "He has multiple injuries, mostly to his legs. He's gone for a scan to make sure there's nothing else. That's what we have to wait for. But I think he'll be fine."
She really didn't want to give any more detail.
She looked up at her two male team members, who were prowling up and down the length of the room impatiently.
"Hey, you two! You're making me nervous. Come and sit down. Shouldn't be too long."
She hoped.
The team sat in silence. Cho perfectly still. Rigsby twisting his watch back and forth on his wrist, occasionally examining the digital numbers as they changed. Lisbon somewhat more relaxed now that her team had arrived. And vanPelt casting sideways glances to check on her boss.
Dr Brownloe arrived only ten minutes later, a flurry of white coat flapping, stethoscope swinging and all jerky little steps as he tried to hurry without actually running. His expression was a mix of preoccupation and frustration, but as he rushed up to the group he relaxed into a smile.
"Ah, I see you have some support Miss Lisbon, that's good," he began breathlessly, "You'll forgive me if I'm brief? I have another emergency."
He paused again before continuing, "It's good news. The scans showed nothing else of any concern. Just what we expected. I'm confident that Mr Jane's struggle to regain full consciousness is just a combination of simple concussion and carbon monoxide poisoning from the smoke inhalation. We just need to give him a little time. His lungs are pretty furred up with the smoke, but again that's a matter of time and oxygen therapy."
The news was greeted with an audible round of relieved sighs and the sound of Rigsby muttering under his breath,
"Furred up, thought that was for car engines and tea kettles!"
"Unless you have any questions you'll have to excuse me, I have to dash," the doctor said and made to leave but turned back again. "Oh, I've had Mr Jane settled into a side room for monitoring and expect to be able to take him to theatre at about breakfast time, so I suggest you all go home and get some sleep. He won't be awake until at least mid morning."
Without waiting for a response, the doctor bustled off to his next patient, watched open mouthed by four very much more relaxed CBI employees.
Suddenly, Theresa, worried friend of Patrick Jane became Agent Lisbon, boss and cop.
"OK, let's go get a coffee and see what we've got."
She turned and led the way briskly down the corridor, leaving her subordinates scurrying to catch up.
xx
"Rigsby, you get drinks, since you weren't at the scene. You know what everybody wants. I'll have mine strong, long, black and sweet." Lisbon barked out as she led her team to a vacant table and dropped into another uncomfortable plastic chair.
She was eager to get going.
"Anything at the scene Cho?"
"Very little Boss. The neighbours weren't much use. Only Jane's car was seen arriving, at about 9.30. The house is pretty well camouflaged from the road, entrances and windows not visible unless you go onto the drive. Nobody heard anything until a Mr Ferdinand spotted the fire at about 10.45, by which time it was well alight."
Lisbon took out her cell and found her call records, "So," she confirmed. "Jane called me at 10.23. Then I heard what I assume was his phone being dropped and I think we can also assume that he jumped straight after."
Cho looked at his notes, "Yes Boss, Mr Ferdinand called 911, the call was logged at 10.46. He went to investigate and found Jane already on the ground."
"Did he say if Jane was conscious?"
"He was 'out of it', to quote Ferdinand."
Lisbon took a deep breath and then let it go slowly, "Thank God…" she said quietly.
Rigsby returned with the drinks and a plate of sandwiches.
"Best they could do at this time of night," he announced to an apathetic audience.
"What about the fire guys ?"Lisbon enquired again of Cho, eager to get back to business.
"They weren't able to enter the building, so I suggest Rigs and I go back in the morning, see if their investigation guys turned anything up. There was no other vehicle around so they had no reason to suspect anyone else was in the building."
Cho looked over to the team's arson expert, assuming that his plan had his bosses approval.
Both Rigsby and Lisbon nodded their agreement.
"I did a pretty thorough search of the ground around the entrances and the front of the house," vanPelt offered, wishing she had more, "I found Jane's phone in the bushes just near to where he fell. I had a look at his calls and messages for the last couple of days."
She looked over to Lisbon and said sadly, "Sorry. Nothing except a call to order pizza yesterday and his call to you last night."
"Never mind guys, not your fault." her boss consoled her, then added rather ruefully, "What do we expect when Jane's involved?"
Lisbon buried her face in her hands briefly, more out of fatigue than anything, before continuing.
"We're just going to have to wait til we can talk to Jane," she observed to no one in particular, taking her hands down to shove them in her pockets and leaving her face looking dejectedly at her feet under the table.
"Hopefully tomorrow."
She levered herself up wearily and pushed back her seat making it scrape noisily on the hard floor, "OK let's all go get some sleep. Thanks guys, I'll phone you in the morning and I'll let you know if I hear any more news about Jane in the meantime."
"Rigsby, do you want to take the rest of those sandwiches?"
The plate was still almost full.
xx
"Mr Jane…"
"Mr Jane…"
"Patrick…"
"Can you hear me…"
"Can you open your eyes for me Sweetie…"
Somewhere up above the clouds inside his head, he could hear the voice of an angel calling to him, it was kind and gentle and made him want to see what an angel actually looked like, he couldn't remember having seen one before, at least he didn't think so. So he slowly pushed an eye lid up and then tried the other one. He blinked to clear the swirling mist and persuade his eyes to focus again.
"Hello Mr Jane" the angel smiled.
She was round faced and young, with laughing blue eyes and a wavy blond bob.
He closed his eyes for a second or two then tried again, blinking furiously and peering at the blue plastic name badge pinned to her soft round bosom, he couldn't make out any of the letters.
She had a neat feminine figure, his subconscious couldn't help noticing.
"I'm Cindy," she said, seeing his unfocused attempt to discover her name.
He tried to smile, but supposed it wasn't even approaching one of his best.
"Don't worry", she reassured him. "You're going to feel a bit disorientated for a while. Close your eyes for a bit, I'll go tell the doctor you're awake. He'll be pleased. Then I'll get you a drink. I expect you'll be thirsty."
"Cindy," he said looking sleepily at the angel from under half closed lids, "Where's Lisbon?"
"Oh…"
She thought for a bit.
"I think Lisbon's in Portugal Mr Jane."
"OK…"
... that's strange ...
He let his eyes close again and let his mind wander. It was all it could do.
Before he had time to try figuring out why Lisbon would possibly have suddenly taken herself off to Portugal, he felt a gentle hand touch his wrist.
"Here I've got you some nice cold water. I'll just crank up the bed for you to make it easier."
He was suddenly aware of a subtle whirring sound and felt his head gradually rising from the horizontal. The movement instantly made his senses swim a little.
Cindy gently put a hand behind his head and helped him lift it forward to meet the straw poking out of the lidded plastic cup she held to his mouth with her other hand.
Not very dignified!
"Your throat will be dry after the anaesthetic, but you must only sip a little bit and take it slowly, it's common to feel nauseous too," she instructed him.
She's not wrong! he realised after only a few sips.
As soon as his head lay back on the pillow, telltale queasy feelings started to stir and tiny beads of cold sweat proceeded to form on his forehead. The queasiness soon built into full blown spasms and Cindy calmly positioned a bowl to recapture the rejected water.
It was then that Jane realised how much every part of his body hurt. The lurching in his stomach set off a chain reaction and he broke into a fit of tight wheezy coughing, which caused a series of needle like pains in his ribs, stopping him from breathing. A tidal wave surged up to splash around in his head, throwing rocks against his brain. Then it retreated and gained speed to hurl itself through his legs and thrusting redhot pokers down to his feet, firing sparks of white heat into his bones as it went.
Jane's face screwed up in an involuntary grimace and he waited for the pain to subside.
When at last he had relaxed back into his pillows Cindy gently wiped his face with a cool cloth, cleaning away the traces of soot stained sputum from his nose and mouth, and helping to sooth the tension from his features.
He was just thinking about daring to unscrew his eyes when the door handle turned and he heard someone enter.
"Jane."
"Lisbon"
He searched for a little smile and found he had no trouble in letting it spread slowly over his face when he opened his eyes to meet hers.
Relief shoved away the clouds that her face had borne and the sun shone back at him.
"Aaahhhh! …Lisbon ! I get it …" thought Cindy and left the room in search of Dr Brownloe.