"That's no problem Patrick, I'll pick up Ethan, Emma and Elly. You stay with Teresa until she wakes up"
"You sure Grace?"
"Of course! I'm sure Ben and Maddy will be thrilled to see them again. You can pick them up when everything is back to normal"
"Thank you so much, we owe you one!" at least a little relieved Patrick ends the phone call with Van Pelt.
Van Pelt, Rigsby, Cho and also Wylie are virtually part of the family. They often get together after work or even on weekends to eat, have a drink, or play a casual game of poker. Especially Grace and Wayne are more often visiting Teresa and Patrick, or the other way around, because the kids love to play together.
Lisbon was taken to the hospital after she fainted from the blow and Jane, of course, came along. She is still unconscious in the hospital bed, but the doctor says she won't have any serious damage from the blow and that she should wake up soon.
Patrick has been sitting next to her bed for three hours, just waiting for her to open her eyes. He is anxious, this whole situation reminds him when Lisbon was attacked by Red John. The inner panic is the same as it was back then.
"J-J-Jane? What are you doing here?"
"Teresa, Finally. How are you?"
"Ehhh-"
Before Lisbon can respond to the question, the doctor walks into the room.
"Teresa Jane, finally you're awake. How are you?"
Lisbon's face reflected confusion.
"I'm actually fine so far. My head just hurts a little. But you must have mixed something up. My name is Teresa Lisbon. He's Jane." Lisbon points to Jane.
Jane looks first at Teresa with a surprised expression, then at the gray-haired doctor.
"What's the last thing you remember Mrs. Jan- eh Mrs. Lisbon?"
"I don't know exactly. Everything is a complete blur. All I remember is that I was on my couch in my apartment and Minelli -that's my boss- called me and informed me that we had a new case."
The look of surprise on Jane's face now turned into one of more shock and despair.
"Doctor? Can we talk in private for a minute?" he now asks the doctor, who only nods and then leaves the room with the blonde to continue talking in the hallway.
"Minelli hasn't been her boss for over a decade. There's something wrong with her memory, right?"
"It almost looks that way. But I can say based on the examination I've done that it's nothing long term. A short term memory loss like this is more common. I guess it can be days or weeks until her memory is completely back to what it was. You should slowly reintroduce her to her life, but you certainly shouldn't overwhelm her."
"Please, if she even finds out I'm her husband, she'll have a heart attack."
"Oh, come on, she loves you. You'll be fine!" the doctor says and then leaves.
"This is going to be a show" Jane whispers to himself and enters the hospital room.
"Jane. What's going on here? Why am I lying here?"
"You had a little accident at the crime scene" Jane decides to ignore the being married thing for now. He takes several steps and sits down in the chair to the left of the bed.
"Crime scene? Oh, the one Minelli told me about, right? Did I miss anything important?"
"Minelli's not our boss anymore, Teres- Lisbon."
"Wait, how? What do you mean?"
"Ehhh, he left after some agents died. But the thing is that-"
"Agents died? Who?"
"Phew, this is going to be harder than I thought" Patrick whispers to himself again.
"What's going to be harder than you thought? Jane damn it now say what the hell is going on! That's an order!" Lisbon looks at Jane extremely annoyed.
'I really missed that Lisbon' Jane thinks ironically, desperately searching for the right words.
His pause apparently takes way too long for Lisbon, so she speaks up again, annoyed.
"Comeee oon. Speak!"
"Alright so since Minelli left, a thing or two may have happened. And a year or two may have gone by. Anyway long story short, we don't work at the CBI anymore, which isn't even possible because we are theoretically responsible for the shack shutting down hehehe"
Jane has to laugh and pauses for a moment to survey the look on the brunette's face, which is a mixture of shock, confusion, and outrage. When he realizes she doesn't share his laughter, he falls silent again, clears his throat, and continues to explain.
"Ehh yes we are working at the FBI now. Rigsby, Van Pelt and Cho are still with us. But Cho is your boss now and you're not his anymore. Well, the tables have turned hehe. Ehh yeah that's it so far actually. As far as the professional factor is concerned at least. The rest of the information can wait."
Jane continues to avoid telling her the most important feature. Right now he does notice how he is a little bit afraid of her.
"Wow" the overcharge is written all over Lisbon's face.
"Ah yes, I probably should have told you before I started the past summary, but the doctor says you've a short term memory loss and therefore can't remember a year or two." Now Jane just grins at his wife.
"Are you hungry? The nurse picked up something to eat just before you woke up. There's a turkey salad!" Jane is kind of desperately trying to lighten the tense mood.
"What about Red John?"
"He's dead. Look there's an yogurt for dessert!"
"WHAT?"
"Yaaa I know! Last time I was in the hospital there was no dessert! And the main course was rancid too."
"I mean Red John" Lisbon rolled her eyes in annoyance. "Who was he?"
"Sheriff Mcallister. You really should eat something. You only had one coffee for breakfast and you haven't eaten since then."
"Jane now give me a break about eating, I'm not hungry. Really? Sheriff Mcallister? He actually seemed like a good man to me- wait a minute, how do you even know what I had for breakfast?"
"Ehh...yeah...you told me. On the way to the crime scene, you were whining so much that you were hugely hungry and-"
"Is that a wedding ring? Am I married?" Lisbon just spotted the ring on her finger.
"Oh ehm possible, yeah" Jane is thoroughly overloaded with the situation 'just say it finally' he thinks to himself, but still he doesn't manage to say the words, instead he hides his hand, with the matching ring to Lisbon's, behind his back.
"Who is he? What's he like?"
"Oh he's quite fantastic! Funny, handsome, well-built, intelligent! Just a dream of a man. But change the subject, you'll find out more details soon enough. Eat your salad now and then we can go to the FBI building. Maybe then you'll be able to remember a few things on your own."
"I'm not going to eat this damn salad."