Author's Notes: Thank you for leaving reviews/comments! Chiisana Minako (Perhaps Jane is being too sweet… but then it may balance out with him ticking Lisbon off earlier. I haven't had chocolate covered strawberries in forever!), Famous4it ;-), starbuckfaerie21, Katharen Silver (Glad you loved the chapter, it's nice to have Jane thrown off balance once in a while. I wanted him to stay too…), finaldragon13, mtm, shopping-luva91 (Yay! A new reviewer, thank you!), Nancy (I miss having dogs…), yaba aka yana (You are so awesome! You beta, you comment, and then on top of that you come back to ff net and comment here as well!), MOSI3 (I'm happy you like the story. Yah… my last dog wasn't the brightest thing… but I guess her cuteness made up for it?), and Charmed225 (Thanks!).

As usual, enjoy reading and kindly leave a comment.

Chapter 9

Teresa awoke to light filtering through the window blinds. She carefully opened her eyes, squinting against the intrusive light and realized that she was not at the hospital, but in her own bedroom. Her ribs were aching again, more of a twinge that she could mostly ignore. She still felt groggy, but had to use the bathroom.

After washing her hands she decided to go downstairs, the smell of coffee having caught her attention. She no longer thought of going back to bed. Rounding the staircase, she saw Jane in her tiny kitchenette apparently preparing breakfast. Abby was happily eating her food beside him in the small space.

"Good morning Lisbon," he called out, smiling at her from over his shoulder. It looked like he was cutting up apples and oranges, placing them on plates with a muffin. "I wasn't expecting you to get out of bed. Well, I did think there would be a high probability that you would with coffee in the air. You can go back to bed though and I'll bring this up for you," he offered, gesturing to the muffin and fruit.

"No, I'm fine- did you just come in to check on me?" Lisbon asked, her eyebrows slightly pushing together in consternation, "Don't you have work?"

He set the plate down on the dining table in her spot from the previous night and glanced up at her, "It's Saturday."

"Oh."

She gratefully reached out for the steaming mug of coffee placed on the table and sighed in contentment at the freshly brewed smell. She picked up the plate and went to the living room to sit on the sofa. She noticed the indentation on the sofa by the back wall. Had Jane slept there? She didn't know what to think of that so didn't comment and sat down, placing the plate on the coffee table and reaching for the remote.

Jane had watched Lisbon and knew she realized he had slept over. He also noticed that she decided not to comment. Interesting. He brought his own plate and a mug of tea with him and joined Lisbon on the sofa, each sitting on opposite ends and watching some animal show that happened to be on. He quietly observed Lisbon tear pieces off the top of her muffin and pop them into her mouth and rub her fingers together above the plate on her lap to discard the crumbs. She was wearing a big loose white shirt and the green flannel pants from last night.

"What?" Lisbon asked, having caught him staring at her. She was looking over at him now.

"Nothing," he said innocently, taking a bite out of his muffin as if to prove the point.

"You sure?" she asked speculatively, raising a brow.

"Well, I was just wondering if this was your normal weekend routine," he finally asked, having swallowed his bite.

"Normally I'd have been up a couple hours ago and out on a morning jog- what?" she asked, smiling at his grimace.

"Any normal person would be sleeping in," he said in distaste.

"Oh really? So all those other morning joggers aren't normal either? What about you?" she asked, a sarcastic bite to her amused tone. If he called himself normal she'd laugh.

"Well, I certainly don't go out for a morning exercise," he replied, reaching over and snagging a piece of orange off her plate.

"Hey!"

He gave her a cheeky grin and popped the peeled wedge into his mouth. She rolled up the muffin paper and threw it at Jane's head, it bouncing off his forehead.

"Are you challenging me to a food fight?" Jane asked in a dramatic ominous voice. He plucked an apple wedge off his plate, taking aim.

"No!" she practically squealed, leaping up to her feet then immediately freezing, clutching her ribs. Food forgotten Jane quickly placed the apple down on his plate and rushed to her side, gently lowering her to the sofa.

"Are you okay?" Jane asked in alarm, holding her arms. She was hissing through clenched teeth, but nodded her head, cradling her ribs still. "Do you want me to get you some ibuprofen?"

After another moment she slowly breathed in through her nose and let the breath out before answering, "No, I'm fine. I just moved too quickly."

Lisbon then punched his arm.

"Ow! What was that for?" he said, rubbing his arm gingerly.

"You shouldn't be picking fights with me when I'm still healing!"

"But you started- okay, okay! Truce!" Jane said when he saw her raise her fist to hit him again. She openly grinned at him, "Wimp."

"Oh, well that's not fair! How am I supposed to defend myself against an injured cop?" Jane said, still rubbing his arm as he sat back down next to her on the middle cushion.

"You're not. You're still a wimp, my brothers would have called that a love tap," she replied, still highly amused by his reactions as she finished eating.

There was a comfortable silence between them as they returned to watching the news, Abby had come to join them, lying in front of the coffee table.

"Has she gone outside yet?" Lisbon interrupted the silence.

"Yes, I took her out for a short walk," Jane rumbled, having settled back into the sofa cushions, arms resting on the sofa back.

"Thanks for taking me upstairs. I think I fell asleep at the table last night," Jane heard her quietly add. He looked over at her, she was still watching the TV. "And thank you for signing me out of the hospital, even if you were being a pain about it."

He grinned down at her, his eyes particularly green in the sunlight from the window. She looked over at him and realized just how close they were, she could see the golden brown that ringed his pupils within the almost grey green of his eyes. He could see the persistent, though light, freckling on her face despite her weeks out of direct sunlight. There seemed to be a force holding them in that moment.

Jane made the first move, though it wasn't the one that Lisbon had thought. He pulled her close to him, her body against his. She was no longer able to see his face as he had brought her head to his shoulder. She didn't attempt to remove herself from that position, only tried settling her body more comfortably as it was half twisted facing him. She brought her own arms about his waist and sat silently, feeling as though he needed this somehow.

"Lisbon. Teresa," he sounded as though he was trying out her name, though unknown to her he had said it many times while she was in a coma, "Don't you ever do something so stupid as to take a bullet for me ever again. I'm not worth it."

His voice had gone from gentle to almost stern, his arms had flexed, wanting to pull her in closer, but not, fearing for her healing torso.

"Jane, you can't tell me not to try and protect one of my team members," she was talking into his shoulder. There was no indication that he was going to let go of her any time soon; his hold on her was firm and just on the threshold of becoming painful if she moved. He finally pulled away from her, his hands now holding her shoulders. They were looking into each other's eyes.

"Teresa," he began again, "don't waste your life on mine. I should have listened to you and not gone in when you told me. I don't deserve…"

"Jane, you're part of the team, even when you don't act like it… which is most of the time. But as part of this team you're my responsibility… which often results in a lot of paperwork for me," she admits with a small smile, "You kept telling me you wanted me to trust you, do you remember? Trust should go both ways. You should have known I'd do my best to save you or anyone else on the team, even if you're a pain in the ass, you're our pain in the ass and I'd do it all over again."

"I don't know if I should be offended, but this isn't about trust, I'm telling you not to-"

"This is about trust!" Lisbon exploded, swiping angrily at his hands on her shoulders, "if you trusted my judgment none of this would have happened! Half the shit you get into is because you don't listen to me! So yah, you should listen to me, and you need to actually trust me. For someone who's supposed to know what's going on in everybody's minds you sure can be dense!"

Jane sat in stunned silence. True, it wasn't the first time she has ever yelled at him (she yelled at him for something almost every other day), but to have been blind to this underlying problem. He relied on her a lot, knew her probable reactions, and depended on those reactions. He did things seemingly without thinking of the consequences, but he was more than aware of the consequences as long as he knew the variables. He was off his game and hadn't taken into account how much out of his mind Dawes would be, that he would have a gun (drug addicts should have sold or pawned everything of any worth to score). It had been a terrible day to make a mistake like that.

Everyone thought he did things on impulse and without thought, and he did do many things on impulse, but that was just part of his personality. It was never without thought, however. He knew better than most people how serious consequences could be. How arrogantly thinking that no one could touch you and trying to make a fast buck could have deadly ramifications.

"I do trust you," he said quietly, his eyes searching hers, wanting her to believe him, "It's because I trust you that I know I can do almost anything and you will help me."

"So trusting me amounts to you causing me more problems at work?" her arms were crossed over her chest.

"I'm sorry if that's the result, but you know I do what I do to find out the truth. That's what you want to know too, that's why you keep me around. I close cases, isn't that what you tell everyone?" he pressed, a smile curling its way onto his mouth at the end.

Lisbon's arms were still crossed, but she let out a sigh, "I just wished we were on the same page when it came to rules and regulations."

Jane patted Lisbon's knee with a smile and said, "Don't worry, I won't cause you any paperwork for the rest of the week."

"It's Saturday, it's already the end of the week," Lisbon said flatly, hands around her now cold coffee.

"Oh, did I tell you it was Saturday? It's actually Monday," he looked down at his watch, "and time for me to go, I'll stop by after work. Try to rest some more, it's the only way to heal faster."

"Wait, what?! Jane, you're late for work! And why did you tell me it was Saturday?!" Lisbon spluttered disbelievingly, standing up after Jane, who was pulling his jacket on, Abby looking up at him, tail thumping the floor.

"Relax, the team knows I'm coming in late. I didn't want to stress you out by telling you it was a work day. I'll see you later," Jane tossed over his shoulder as he carried their empty plates to the kitchenette.

"Are you really going to be good and not break any rules this week?"

"I never said that, I just said I wouldn't cause you any paperwork."

"Seeing as I'm on medical leave that's not really a promise," she said, clearly frustrated.

"Oh yes it is, because our good friend Cho will be taking care of it. See? No worries. Good bye now!" and he was out the door.

"Unbelievable!" Lisbon said to herself, throwing her arms in the air, causing her to wince.