Chapter 3

~o~

"Dig up everything you can on the Mansfields and Miss Whitman," Lisbon told Rigsby over the phone, handing the keys to Cho. "Did you find anything in the kids' statements?"

"No," Rigsby answered. "They could have easily given a joint statement. They all said the exact same thing. It's too coherent. Something's definitely wrong with these statements, but we're not going to find anything until we talk to them."

Lisbon sighed as she got in the car and put her seatbelt on. She could feel another tension headache coming. "We're on our way to talk to the ex-girlfriend. Hopefully, we'll be able to get more out of her than what we got out of Jeffrey Whitman."

"Too bad Jane's not around," Rigsby commented. "This is exactly his kind of case."

"We can solve this without him," Lisbon said firmly. "He needs rest. If he calls, not one word on the case, okay?"

"Okay, boss."

"He's right," Lisbon said to Cho after hanging up. "This is exactly Jane's kind of case."

"He could help out a bit without leaving the bed," Cho suggested.

"No," Lisbon said firmly. "No work for him. He needs to rest. Remember the last time he was injured and worked anyway? That's not gonna happen again. Besides, we would need him in the field, talking to the kids. Teens tend to lie so much. They think they're hiding deep, dark secrets when their lives are just like any other kid's. Jane's wouldn't be that useful from the case files anyway."

"Your call," Cho said as he pulled up in front of Amanda Walker's house. They walked to the front door and before Lisbon had a chance to knock on the door, it opened.

"You must be the police," a woman said to them.

"We're from the CBI, ma'am. I'm Agent Lisbon and this is Agent Cho," Lisbon told her. "We'd like a word with Amanda."

"Oh, I understand, but could you please come at another time?" She looked pleadingly at Lisbon and Cho. "Amanda's really upset and she's been crying all day. She and Dan were very close."

Lisbon looked at her watch. It was past 5 o'clock. It meant that if they left now, they would be in Sacramento at 7 o'clock, which wasn't a bad plan. She preferred not leaving Jane alone too long. At this point, they might as well wait another day to talk to Amanda. "We can come by tomorrow if that's more convenient with you."

"Oh, but tomorrow's Sunday," Mrs. Walker said.

Cho and Lisbon looked at each other. "So?" Lisbon asked.

"Well, we have church tomorrow, then there's the Sunday luncheon in the town hall. Everyone is going. You won't be able to talk to anyone."

Lisbon took a deep breath, trying to remain calm. She hated it when people didn't realize that they were doing a murder investigation. She thought about it for a few seconds and then forced a smile. "That's all right, Mrs. Walker. We'll stop by on Monday morning."

Mrs. Walker smiled appreciatively. "Thank you so much, Agent Lisbon. We'll see you Monday," she said before closing the door.

"Are you sure about not questioning the girl until on Monday, boss?" Cho asked as they got in the car.

"Forensics won't give us test results on the soda can until late Monday at the earliest. There isn't much more we can do before Monday" Lisbon explained as Cho drove off.

Lisbon's phone rang and she rolled her eyes when she heard the voice on the other end of the line.

"Hey, Lisbon."

"Is there an emergency?" she asked immediately, even though she knew there wasn't.

"Yes. I'm bored."

Lisbon sighed. "That's not an emergency."

"It is. I'm on the verge of taking a screwdriver and jamming it in my eye."

"There aren't any screwdrivers in my bedroom, Jane."

"How's the case going?"

"It's going," she deadpanned. She would not encourage him in any way to get involved with this case.

"When are you getting home? I'm hungry."

Lisbon froze for a moment. She had been so stupid. She had completely forgotten about food for Jane. "I'll take care of it," she said and hung up. She dialed again and Van Pelt picked up.

"Hey, we couldn't talk to Amanda because she's too upset," Lisbon told Van Pelt. "The entire town is going to going to church and all that tomorrow, so there isn't much investigating we can do. You and Rigsby can go home. We'll pick things up on Monday."

"All right," Van Pelt said.

"Do you mind doing me a favor?"

"Sure, boss," Van Pelt said enthusiastically.

"Could you pick up some food, and stop by my place to give it to Jane? He's in my bedroom on the first floor. You'll find a copy of my house keys in the third drawer on the left."

"Okay. What should I get?"

"I don't know. Just get something simple like chicken fried rice."

"Okay, boss."

"Thanks, Van Pelt," Lisbon said gratefully. Crisis averted. There was a reason why she never considered nursing as a profession. She sucked at it. Even with her brothers. She would always forget to bring them that glass of water they asked for or buy the Advil. She was a terrible nurse. She would have never taken Jane in if she hadn't thought that she was basically his only option. She hadn't wanted to burden the others with him. Besides, it was her fault that he had been injured in the first place. She just needed to be better at taking care of him.

"No problem. See you Monday," Van Pelt said before they both hung up.

"Jane's in your bed?" Cho asked.

"He's recovering," Lisbon explained, hiding any embarrassment she was feeling. What was the big deal with Jane sleeping in her bed? She wasn't sleeping there as well. ''He needs to be in a proper bed."

"Of course."

Van Pelt opened the door. She felt weird going to her boss's house, especially since she wasn't even there. She felt like she was trespassing even if she was here at her boss's request. Trying to look around as little as possible, she went into the kitchen to grab a fork and some paper towels. She also filled a glass with water. She silently walked up the stairs, still feeling like a criminal. When she reached the top of the stairs, she saw the bathroom on her right and then there was a door slightly ajar on her left. That was probably Lisbon's bedroom. She gently knocked on the door.

"Lisbon?" Jane said from the other side of the door.

Van Pelt pushed the door open and saw Jane lying in bed, a moisturizer bottle in hand. She smiled shyly at him. "No, it's me," she said. "Lisbon's on her way back, but she thought you might be getting hungry."

Jane smiled, happy that Lisbon had disrupted one of her team members for him. "That's not a very impressive deduction as I told her I was hungry," he pointed out to Van Pelt.

"Is chicken fried rice okay?" Van Pelt asked him, ignoring his jab at her boss.

"That's fine," Jane answered distractingly. His attention was focused on the moisturizer bottle he held in his hand. He held it out to Van Pelt telling her, "Smell this."

Van Pelt put the food on the nightstand next to Jane and took the bottle, smelling it. "Smells good." She handed the bottle back to him, clearly unimpressed by the smell.

Jane smiled, taking another whiff of the lotion. "It smells like Lisbon."

Van Pelt shrugged. "I guess."

"It's like she's in the room."

Van Pelt rolled her eyes, obviously not finding the discovery of the lotion as marvelous as Jane had. ''We're in Lisbon's room, Jane. It's normal that it smells like her, '' she deadpanned. '' I've to go. I'll come visit you sometime this week. Hope you recover fast," she told him before walking out.

Jane peeked a look at the food with disinterest. Dinner at Lisbon's wasn't as appealing without Lisbon actually being there.

An hour after Van Pelt had gone, Jane heard the front door again and he knew it was Lisbon. He heard her footsteps, utensils rattling, drawers and cupboards opening and closing. After about 10 minutes, she finally opened the bedroom door. She had plates, utensils and glasses in hand. She also had a huge plastic bag full of food from the smell of it.

"Are you still hungry?" she asked him.

Jane nodded. "The rice got cold quickly, and now it doesn't taste good," he told her, not mentioning that he hadn't really touched it.

Lisbon put everything on one of the dressers, next to the kettle. She went to her armoire and got a blanket out which she laid on the bed next to Jane. She put the food on top of the blanket and sat at the foot of the bed, facing Jane. "What do you want? I've got pad thai, some spring rolls, general tsao chicken, shrimp alfredo, lasagna, and some salad."

"You can have the pad thai; I'll take the shrimp alfredo."

She smiled, happy to get her favorite, as she poured the pasta on a plate with a breadstick and handed it to him. "You can have the leftovers for lunch on Monday. I'll bring the microwave and the cooler in the room tomorrow so you don't have to go downstairs," she explained as she started digging into her pad thai.

"You know it would all have been much simpler if I was at the CBI."

"I told you Minelli doesn't want to see you there."

"Minelli's the kind of man who doesn't really know what he wants," Jane said confidently.

Lisbon rolled her eyes, unimpressed by Jane's cockiness. "Oh, and you know what he wants?"

"He wants the case to be solved. If I stayed at the CBI, I could work tomorrow while resting."

"Well, that would be pointless since we're not working tomorrow."

Jane smiled. He was going to have Lisbon's company the next day. "Don't you have a murder to investigate?"

"Everyone's going to church tomorrow and apparently a murder investigation cannot get in the way of mass." She couldn't keep the irritation out of her voice. Despite being grateful that she would be able to watch over Jane tomorrow, Lisbon wasn't too happy with Mrs. Walker. She could never understand how people didn't realize the importance of a murder investigation. She blamed CSI. They made it sound that everything could be solved with DNA and no actual investigation was required. "I figured it would be easier for everyone if we just picked things up on Monday," she explained to Jane.

"So the victim's from a religious family, huh?"

Lisbon pointed her chopsticks at him. "No case investigation. You rest. You read novels, play Sudoku and drink tea."

"But it's boring," he whined. Really, the man was worse than a four year-old.

"Tough," she said, unmoved.

He smiled at her as he watched her eat. She was so adorable when she ate. Despite almost dying, being in a cast, and being forced to bed rest for the next three weeks, he could see some positive side to the whole situation. Being in Lisbon's home, on Lisbon's bed, wasn't a horrible thing. Having Lisbon spending have off-work time with him was definitely an added bonus. He looked quickly at his food when she caught him.

She eyed him suspiciously and asked him, "So, have you gone through all of my stuff today?"

"Oh, no. I only looked on the top of your dresser there, '' Jane answered, gesturing to the dresser on the left. He reached for the moisturizer bottle. "I found this. Lovely smell."

Lisbon rolled her eyes.

"Only that?" she asked, genuinely surprised.

"I'm pacing myself. I'm here for three weeks after all."

She pretended to admonish him, but they both knew she was highly amused.

~o~

Author's Notes: Thank you so much for the support. A special thank you to Amelie, whom I could not reply to personally. I am very happy you're enjoying this fic :)

I promise you'll get more Jane and more Jane/Lisbon as the story progresses. I just need to set the case first and unfortunately Jane couldn't be involved for that. I really hope you enjoyed this chapter. I've already got an idea for a sequel and I really want to write it so I might prioritise this fic over others now ;)