Story 10 – Everything's Fine

A Jane & Lisbon Story

By Brown Eyes Parker

Shout-outs: Nicklecreek, Agathancy98, Totorsg, TwilightLover-CarliseandEsme, Wldwmn, LAurore, LizfromItaly, and ShellGrad

This story is for my INCREDIBLE brother, Andrew. He's been begging me to write a Jane/Lisbon-"Beauty & the Beast" story for quite some time now. It's something I've totally put off, but he asked me to do it again Sunday night, and today I thought. . . "What the heck? He's SO AMAZING, that he deserves it!" So, for you my dearest (and only) brother). . . please, ENJOY!

P.S

This one-shot is to hold him over until I can get to a multi-chapter kind of, sort of in the "Beauty & the Beast" world. . . which is what he really wants me to write. It's on a list of stories that I'm going to write over the summer. But that's all I'm saying! Oh! And stay tuned for whenever I write and post it.

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"Don't talk like that. You'll be all right. We're together now. Everything's going to be fine, you'll see."

Beauty & the Beast_

"This is all of my fault," Jane said as he paced around the bullpen.

"No it's not," Van Pelt assured him as she brought him a cup of tea and tried to get him to sit down on his couch.

"Yes it is," he replied, sitting down and burying his head in his hands, ignoring the drink the red head was trying to shove at him. "We started to get close. . . and Red John always takes the people that I get close to."

Van Pelt sighed and wished that Lisbon was there with him instead of her, she always knew exactly what to do – exactly what to say – to comfort him. She was the only one that he would really listen to, the rest of them were just there. But Lisbon wasn't there at the moment. She had been taken by Red John, and the consultant was at his wit's end worrying about her.

He was clutching his cell phone like his life depended on it, waiting for another text to come in from the serial killer. Van Pelt knew that he wouldn't rest easy until he got a shred of news about Lisbon. She just wished there was a way to make it happen sooner than later. . . for everybody on the team's sake.

They didn't need to deal with the worry, and they definitely didn't need to deal with an actual Jane breakdown. She took a sip of Jane's tea and prayed for a miracle.

She woke up a few hours later, with the empty cup of tea lying in her lap, tension in her neck, and her head resting on the arm of Jane's couch. She couldn't even remember falling asleep; she glanced up to see Jane staring into space, his grip on his cell phone had slackened, and he looked like he had aged ten years in the course of three hours.

She had a sudden twinge of guilt for falling asleep on him when he needed her the most.

"Jane?" Van Pelt whispered.

"You should get some more sleep," he replied, the tone of his voice was hollow and far away.

"Is everything okay?" She asked, suddenly panicked. "You haven't heard anything about Lisbon yet, have you?"

"No," he replied, sighing. "Not yet. But you know what they say, no news is good news."

Van Pelt knew that he didn't honestly believe what he was saying for a second.

"You're right," she said after a second, hoping to convey her faith in the statement. "No news is good news. Have you heard anything from Cho and Rigsby yet?"

"Nothing," Jane answered, he looked at his cell phone like he wanted to chuck it across the room.

Van Pelt was about to ask if his phone was fully charged, when she decided against it. This was Jane she was talking to, he wouldn't allow his phone to go uncharged. . . especially not when it was Lisbon's life on the line. She took a breath and checked her watch. It was almost six 'o clock in the morning. She got to her feet and stretched, glancing at Jane as she did.

"I'm going to make some coffee. Could I get you anything?"

"I'm good," Jane answered.

"Are you sure? You really should try and keep your strength up, you won't be any help to Lisbon not eating or drinking anything—"

"I said I'm good," he replied, looking at his cell phone again, this time it was like he was trying to will it to ring with his mind.

"Okay," Van Pelt answered, taking another look at him before she went to the break room to make her coffee.

"Maybe we should get out of here," she suggested hours later. "Hanging around here and waiting for a phone call isn't going to do Lisbon any good—"

Jane shook his head. "I just want to wait here."

Van Pelt was about to argue when her cell phone rang. She picked it up without even glancing at it and was almost disappointed when she heard Rigsby's voice on the other end. She was even more disappointed when she heard his news, they had lost the signal from Lisbon's cell phone which had resulted in a dead end. They were coming back to the CBI though to pick up the search from there.

After placing an order for food, Van Pelt hung up and tried once again to assure Jane that everything would turn out fine in the end, even though she was starting to find it hard to believe herself.

It was almost midnight when Jane's cell phone rang. He answered it before it rang a second time, relief washing over his face when he heard the voice on the other end.

"I'll be right there," he promised. "Where are you? I'm on my way. . . just stay on the phone with me until I get there, okay? I'll be there soon."

"Do you need any of to come with you?" Rigsby asked as Jane passed him.

"Grace," Jane answered, grabbing a slip of paper and jotting something down. "I'll need her to drive the car, could you send an ambulance to this address?"

"Sure!" Rigsby replied, grabbing the piece of paper.

"I'll have Grace call you when we're almost there," Jane said, nodding at the younger agent to hurry up. "Don't do it a second before you hear from her though."

Rigsby agreed and went to find Cho to tell him that they had finally heard from Lisbon.

.

Jane was out of the car before it had come to a stop, and was dashing up the driveway as fast as he could run. He tore through the open door and shouted Lisbon's name urgently.

"I'm up here!" She called weakly.

Jane bolted up the stairs and stopped short when he saw her slumped across a wall, Red John's corpse laying just inches away from where she was sitting.

"You're okay," he breathed in relief.

"I told you I was fine," she answered, trying to smile at him as she looked at Red John before wincing in pain, her hand flying to her abdomen. "I'm sorry. . . I'm sorry that you didn't get a chance to kill him—"

Jane's glanced at Red John and then fell on his knees, gathering Lisbon up in his arms, the sound of sirens were wailing somewhere in the close distance.

"Don't be sorry. . ." he whispered, soothing her hair away from her face and pulling her closer. "Don't think for a second that this is your fault. If it's anybody's fault, then it's mine. . . if we had never met—"

"Don't talk like that!" She ordered. "I'm a little worse for the wear, but everything's going to be okay—"

"Jane? Lisbon?" Van Pelt called, bursting into the house. "The paramedics are here!"

"We're up here," Jane replied as a handful of paramedics made their way up the stairs, he relinquished Lisbon to them without a word, but followed close behind, when they asked what their relationship was, he lied because he didn't want her to be alone on the ambulance ride. He held her hand the whole entire time, even after she had fallen asleep from the sedative they had given her.

All the while, he was planning his escape in the back of his mind.

.

"You're still here," she said when she was fully focused two days later. "I thought for sure that you'd be halfway across the country by now."

"I wanted to say goodbye first," Jane answered. "And I wanted to thank you for everything that you did for me while I was on your team. Your friendship. . . everything means so much to me."

"Then why are you going?" Lisbon asked.

"Everything. . . everybody I touch gets hurt," he said. "Or they die."

"Don't talk like that! I'm not dead, I'm here! And I was hurt, but I'm healing now! But we're together now!" Lisbon insisted. "And you have no reason to go away. I can't promise I won't get hurt, but if I do it won't be your fault if I do. And Red John's gone so; he won't be touching me ever again. I promise Jane, everything's going to be okay. It won't be easy, but it'll be okay. I'll make sure that it'll be okay—"

"You're just one person, you can't promise that."

She reached for his hands and held them firmly with her's. "I can try. Please stay."

Jane looked at her pleading eyes, the way her chin was set in firm determination. And he began to wonder how serious his plan to run really was. In the back of his mind he had always known that he had so much to run away from. A small voice in the back of his mind told him that was probably the reason he had stayed until Lisbon was feeling better. There was this part of him that had always known she would try to talk him out of going. . . and he owed her that much.

He looked at their intertwined fingers and said, "I still have a lot of stuff to work out."

"I know," she replied, smiling but at him. "But I'll help you. . . just like I've always done."

"There might be times that I won't want your help," he told her, running his free hand along one of her knuckles.

"I know," Lisbon said, reaching out a hand to touch his face. "But I'll still be there, waiting for you patiently just as I've always done."

"I know," Jane whispered closing his eyes as she gently stroked his cheek. "There still might be times that I wished we never met."

"You're not making a very convincing case," Lisbon told him. "I've dealt with all of this for ten years, I'm not afraid. No matter what happens, I'm not going to run away."

"I know you aren't, it's one of the things that I—" he started to say as he opened his eyes and looking at her. He wanted the courage to say what was really feeling. . . what he was really thinking in that moment. He knew that she wouldn't shut him up if he said it, but still to be able to actually say it out loud was a new concept for him. And he was scared.

"It's one of the reasons you what?" She asked, her voice encouraging.

"I was just going to say that it's one of the reasons that I love you," Jane answered her slowly, surprised that his voice was quivering slightly.

"You love me?" Lisbon looked so hopeful, just like she had the afternoon after he had blurted out love you. He didn't want to disappoint her again.

"Yes," he said. It felt so good to finally be able to say it aloud. "I love you Lisbon. . . for what you've been to me, for what you are to me, and for what you're going to be to me—"

"I love you too," she said breathlessly.

Obviously, he had known that she felt the same way, he had known it the moment that she had fallen in love with him. But it was still good to hear it actually coming from her mouth.

He looked at her, so small and pale in her hospital gown, she was still his beautiful savior. The one that had broken the awful spell that Red John had cast on his heart. As he leaned into kiss her, another argument to why he should go away and leave her alone forever tried to crowd its way into his thoughts. He wouldn't allow himself to entertain thoughts about his past, or who he was before her.

Because Lisbon was right, everything was going to be fine; all that mattered was that they were together now.

_The End_

Author's Note II:

I don't want to try and make you give me positive reviews, because I want HONEST opinions about my story. But this honestly isn't my favorite story that I've written, although I DO like the ending. Feel free to leave a review and tell me what you thought.

Oh! And random fact, this was inspired by the quote from "Beauty & the Beast", but I wrote it to "Farewell" from the Pocahontas soundtrack. . . and some other random Disney instrumental tracks. I don't know why I felt the need to share that. . .

Until next time!

Love,

Holly, 6/5/2012_