If only it were a bad dream, the throbbing pain in her arm reminded her it was all too real. She cursed and bad temperedly reached out for the painkillers, even these tablets weren't strong enough to make Lisbon's pain go away. Her preferred choice of drinking herself into oblivion wasn't an option with the medication, so she tossed and turned through the night going over and over the events of the last few weeks.
Even the worst pulp fiction writer would never have come up with a plot as farfetched as this. She laughed as she recollected one minute the plucky heroine had a bomb strapped to her, then after trying on the bridesmaids dress for her girlfriend's wedding the fiancé shot her before being gunned down by the bride to. Not to be outdone Jane had his own heroic subplot going on, outwitting the perp he had saved the heroine then unearthed the spy in the camp before confronting and shooting the evil villain.
Not bad for a couple of days work eh?
Honestly you couldn't make it up!
The upshot was that she was on suspension for trying to prove the Director of the CBI was the traitor in the camp - well I guess he had a point there.
Meanwhile Jane was waiting trial for murder with the option of the death penalty still on the table. Oh crap!
She reached out for the water and swallowed the tablets – wishing she could make this all go away.
The painkillers would kick in soon and she would pull herself together, this wallowing in self pity felt good but was not getting them any further forward.
Eventually Jane had come clean about the Tyger Tyger business and told Lisbon about Hightower's suspicions - Cho being more astute that the others had confronted them, he had pretty much worked it out for himself but needed confirmation. At this stage there was nothing to be gained by dragging Rigsby and Van Pelt into that problem.
Hightower had confided in Lisbon at the ranch, perhaps knowing she faced an uncertain future and wanting to make sure her work wasn't in vain if anything happened to her. Hightower was going to disappear for now, she could not even trust WITSEC as she did not know how far Red John's influence spread and had made her own under the counter arrangements.
"Theresa - You and Patrick watch out for each other you're stronger together" Hightower advised her. Lisbon nodded warily wondering where this particular line of conversation was leading.
"I've seen the way you look at each other, when you think the other one isn't looking – maybe it isn't your time yet but sometime the damn will burst. Don't resist it Theresa – it's a wonderful thing when it happens."
Lisbon had blushed and looked anywhere but at Hightower – were they really that transparent and did Jane really feel the same way about her? Before she had time to follow that train of thought everything went distinctly pear shaped.
Lisbon had felt like a real schmuck thanking Bertram for visiting her in hospital and smiling sweetly at him [that might have been the medication] before he ruthlessly delivered the news of the team's suspension.
Bertram seemed to be on a mission to destroy them; he had all but sold Jane out to Ardilles, who had a few scores to settle with Jane himself and would pursue the case vigorously.
With all the evidence disappearing or being tampered with and the key suspect being murdered before they got to him, it all smacked of conspiracy – it begged the question was this Red John's network or something within law enforcement, assuming they were not one and the same.
It was bad enough that O'Laughlin had been Red John's man and Lisbon wondered how far the network had spread if even the FBI was affected.
In Jane's absence the literary Cho was freaking Van Pelt & Rigsby out by waxing poetic at every opportunity consoling Grace with the Blake quote "when a sinister person means to be your enemy, they always start by trying to become your friend". Rigsby shifted awkwardly and thought Cho was getting way too much in touch with his feminine side, really not knowing how to cope with the new Cho.
Lisbon smiled, whatever the other two thought Cho was actually trying to send out signals to anyone eavesdropping that he was sympathetic to their cause to see if anyone approached him.
Nevertheless Lisbon did finally snap and threatened to put his poetry book where the sun don't shine but she cracked up when he impassively replied "he whose face gives no light, shall never be a star."
Jane's bail hearing had been and gone, he had opted to stay in jail rather than raise the bail - seriously how did he think he could raise a million dollars anyhow. Oh, ok that's how...
Having rescued the kidnapped girl while out on bail, unbelievably Jane worked his magic on the jury refuting the charge on the basis he could not have killed Timothy Carter as there was no such person. An emotional closing speech played to the gallery, hell even Lisbon was sniffing at the end and voila he was released.
The team were all ecstatic but the look on Bertram's face made Lisbon's blood run cold – there was real malice there. Lisbon told Jane how hard Bertram had tried to get him put away and they guessed he was a key part of whatever was going on. It was too much of a coincidence for Carter to be sitting on the table close by in the mall.
Lisbon was reluctantly re-instated after another of Jane's schemes -they agreed there was little they could do at this juncture other than be vigilant – they had to carry on to all intents and purposes as if everything was ok.
Nothing confidential would be discussed in the bullpen and they would step up their security checks. The whole team carried burners now so they could have a secure communication channel, although Lisbon was still the only one who knew Red John was still alive.
Jane & Lisbon were closer than ever, they still bickered like an old married couple.
"Well Jane, I really hope you have finally learnt something from all this" Lisbon said in her best school ma'am voice.
Jane looked at her seriously and said with all sincerity "Lisbon, I have indeed learned a valuable lesson from this and intend to mend the error of my ways."
"Really Jane - I am so pleased to hear that, what have you learned?"
"Don't get caught, Lisbon – serious mistake" he quipped then ducked to avoid the stapler hurtling across the room.
"So Lisbon, what's with the self help books?" Jane teased.
"Self help? She looked confused.
"Yeah, the NLP for dummies – you trying to get rid of me - fancy a bit of consulting do you?"
"Only in my dreams" she said.
"So you do dream about me – do tell." Jane was enjoying making her squirm.
Lisbon felt herself blushing, if only he knew. Sheep dip! Was he reading her now?
"You're so full of it Jane."
He flashed his megawatt smile at her then retired to her couch. Lisbon was smiling as she got back to her paperwork, enjoying the closeness she and Jane now enjoyed.
They were going to face some tough times in the months ahead but having someone you could trust at your side made all the difference – well until the jackass's next scheme backfired.
A/N Just a short chapter to wrap this up. Without going too far off track it seemed an appropriate time to wind this up. I had not planned to write more than one chapter and could not see a viable way to take this forward from here.
I hope the final chapter is not too flippant – trying to précis events of the end of S3, which I loved despite the incongruity of it all, made it all sound like an episode of the 70's series Soap.
Thank you to everyone who has read and commented on this.