A/N Thank you so much for the feedback on the last chapter! To those of you who are still with me after two years… you guys are incredible! Also to those who are new to this story… well you're all pretty amazing too!

Special Shoout-out to bluelaguna for making me smile =]

I hope you enjoy the next instalment =] Please R&R!x

As promised, an Orderly came to move Lisbon to a more comfortable room. The man - who introduced himself as Joey, carefully helped Lisbon into a wheelchair, as she was far too weak to get out of bed herself. Jane had dutifully followed in her wake, not wanting to let her out of his sight. Once situated in her new room, Lisbon rolled onto her side, closed her eyes and wrapped her arms around herself.

"Are you alright?" Jane asked knowingly.

He had seen her discomfort at being moved, and if the pain on her face was any indication to how she was feeling now, Jane was pretty sure he had hit the mark with being concerned.

She only mmm-ed in response to his question. Truthfully, she felt like crap, her stomach was turning circles again, the motion of the wheelchair having played havoc with her insides. She was adamant she wasn't going to vomit again. After hearing of her condition being caused by dehydration, she was scared to death that if she started getting sick again, her body wouldn't be able to rehydrate quick enough to reverse the kidney damage.

She heard Jane shuffling around the room, rearranging the furniture to his liking. Lisbon internally groaned.

"Jane… please stop." She opened her eyes to see Jane staring at her like a deer in the headlights.

"Sorry Lisbon." He whispered, before turning back to moving the stuffed chair beside her bed. It was then she realised he was trying to get closer to her.

Seeing the recognition in her eyes, he shrugged.

"No use sitting in a hard plastic chair when there's a perfectly nice arm chair in the corner of the room." He sat matter if factly, getting himself comfortable in the chair.

"Jane… you don't have to stay."

"Oh, but I want to." He replied, flashing one of his Jane grins.

"Mmph." She was the only reply she could manage. At that moment her stomach decided to turn rather viciously, making her groan aloud and curl even further in on herself.

"Lisbon?" Seeing her in this much pain and discomfort, Jane was beginning to feel a little ill himself, but not from any physical ailments. She was beginning to worry him sick.

When she didn't seem to even register the fact that he had spoken, he reached out and took her hand again, to which she clasped at first contact. He felt his heart clench as she let out a most un-Lisbon-like whimper.

"Jane…" she said through clenched teeth. "Distract me."

"Jane, getting the gist straight away, reached out with his free hand and stroked the side of her head, trying to comfort her.

"What do you want me to talk about?" he asked, trying to keep his voice steady. This was killing him, seeing her like this.

"Anything…" she ground out. "The case… what's happening with the case?"

"The case… right… Rigsby got a confession from our last case yesterday, but we got a new one this morning. A husband and wife found dead in their apartment. They were found by the cleaning lady." Lisbon only nodded in response. She could feel herself beginning to lose the battle with her very persistent stomach. She swallowed convulsively, trying to keep the nausea at bay.

Jane sighed, continuing to stroke her head. He felt like he was petting a cat a bit, but he also knew it was giving the poor woman some satisfaction

"Lisbon I know you don't want to be sick again, but your body is trying to flush itself out, if you keep trying to hold it in… it may start flushing it out… well you know… at the other end."

He saw a faint blush tinge her face.

"The doctors are going to be able to get you rehydration under control… even as we speak fluids are being pumped into you."

Lisbon squeezed her eyes shut and shook her head.

"I've had enough… I can't." she whimpered.

Jane just sighed again. He felt slightly ridiculous that he was almost trying to convinceher to be sick, but he knew she would feel better afterwards.

"Jane…I… I'm scared. I don't want to be sick for the rest of my life. I need to get better."

Jane squeezed her hand. He hated seeing that sad, scared look in her eye. He felt her tense, as she held in another spasm and she whimpered again, once it had passed.

"Ssh, it's ok Lisbon, I got you." He said as he got off the chair and sat on the side of the bed. "I know your scared, but you're going to be ok. You need to trust me."

She looked into his eyes, seeing nothing but compassion and kindness.

"Just relax Lisbon. You'll feel better when you do. I promise."

Lisbon nodded softly, allowing him to uncurl her and help her sit up. He placed an emesis basin on her lap, before grabbing her hand again. She took a few deep breaths, before she felt her insides spasm, and her hand reached out on its own accord, pulling the basin towards her. She felt Jane pull her hair back and was semi aware of him rubbing soothing circles on the small of her back.

After a moment, she was down to painful dry heaves, that were making her eyes run and her head pound.

When he knew she was finished, Jane carefully took the basin to the sink and returned with a tissue and a clean cloth. Her handed her the tissue and allowed her to wipe her face before he helped her lie back down. He sat back on the side of the bed and started sponging off her heated forehead with the cold cloth.

She hummed in satisfaction

Once she felt her body calm down a bit, she had to admit she felt a little better now.

"You're really good at this whole taking care of someone thing." She murmured to him with closed eyes.

Jane chuckled slightly.

"I did have a daughter remember Lisbon."

"Right… of course." She cracked her eyes open and looked at him. She could see he was almost enjoying looking after her… she could tell he really missed being a dad.

"How are you feeling?" he asked softly, trying to take the topic off of himself.

"A little better… the pain isn't quite so bad now." she replied, allowing him to escape the awkward tension that had almost fallen between them.

"That's good… you should try to get some sleep Lisbon. You need to keep your strength up."

Lisbon nodded, feeling her eyelids beginning to droop anyway.

"Jane…"

"Yes my dear?" he replied a small amount of wit present in his tone.

"Thank you for looking after me." she said, her voice beginning to slur from fatigue.

"It's my pleasure." He leant forward, tucking the blankets in. "Sleep." He ordered, knowing very well she was already on her way, and no amount of strength would have been able to allow her to defy his orders.

He smiled at the sick woman in front of him. She had been right in saying he was good at taking care of people… if he did say so himself. He had loved taking care of Charlie, and being able to have someone depend on him, almost made him feel good about himself. It almost amused him to see his tough as nails boss in such a vulnerable state, but at the same time it half scared him to death.

He knew it wasn't exactly fair to be feeling happy that Lisbon needed him to hold her hair back, but he was just happy that she needed him in general… and also that she seemed to want to need him.

He sat back in the chair and closed his own eyes. It had been a long day and the doctor would be around again soon to administer her first set of medication, so he decided now would be as good a time as any to catch up on some of his own sleep. He would have to call the team soon though.

X-x_THEMENTALIST_x-X

Rigsby and Cho had stayed at the crime scene, talking to neighbours and trying to figure out if anyone else had seen or heard anything suspicious. They were both feeling a little disheartened when nobody else had heard the fight between Robbie and Mark… they had been hoping someone would have been able to ID the man.

They gave up late evening and made their way back to the office.

Grace had spent most of the day trying to figure out who Mark was. The old cleaning lady had mentioned something about Robbie fighting with a Mark the night he and his wife were killed.

She had gone through Robbie's phone book only to come up dry. Frustrated she got up and made her way to the break room. Jane wasn't back yet… she guessed he had stayed with Lisbon. She only hoped he was being useful, and not being a hindrance to her, seeing as she was already sick.

Returning to her desk with a fresh mug of coffee, Grace decided to attack his client list. After about thirty minutes of skim reading the names, she came across a Mark Carmichael, a man who was trying to sell his restaurant. For such a common name, he was the only Mark on the list. Deciding he would be a good place to start, she typed his name into her laptop to carry out a background check on him.

She leant back in her chair with her coffee as she waiting for the computer to finish loading.

"Slacking off on the job I see."

Grace jumped at the sound of the voice, turning around to see it was only Rigsby and Cho returning from the crime scene. She sent a dirty look at Rigsby's way before turning to Cho.

"Anything?"

Cho stoic as ever, shook his head.

"Nothing… no body except Adrianna seemed to hear the fight."

"That's weird…" Grace replied. "I may have found out who Mark is though."

Both boys walked over to her desk and looked at her computer that had just finished loading.

"Name's Mark Carmichael. I found his name in Robbie's clientele, he owns a restaurant and was selling via Robbie. He has no criminal record either…"

"Possible motive?" Rigsby asked.

"I don't know? I don't see anything on here… I guess we'll find out more when we interview him."

"We'll talk to him first thing tomorrow." Cho said.

Grace nodded.

"Should I…"

She was cut off by her phone ringing. She gave the boys a look when she saw Jane's number on her caller ID.

"Van Pelt." She answered.

Rigsby and Cho moved off to their own desks to begin filling out paper work for the day.

"What? Is she ok?"

Rigsby looked over at Grace who looked slightly shocked and panicked. Shooting a sideways glance at Cho, he got up and crossed the room the Grace's desk, who had just hung up the phone.

"Grace?" he asked tentatively. "Grace what's wrong?"

Van Pelt looked up at Rigsby and Cho.

"That was Jane… Boss is in hospital…"

"What? Did he say what was wrong with her?" Rigsby asked.

"He said he found her in a bad way this morning… he said we should probably get to the hospital now… said she's gonna be waking up soon."

Cho was already out of his seat, putting his coat on. Although he comes across as emotionless and uncaring, when it comes to Lisbon or anyone on his team being in danger, he can be one of the most compassionate guys around.

Grace and Rigsby followed in his trend, grabbing their jackets and racing out of the bullpen. Each agent was completely unsure as to what was wrong with her. They had no idea what they were going to find when they got to the hospital. The main thought that was running through their heads was they couldn't lose her… if something was terribly wrong, the entire team would fall apart.

Hmmm…. So I'm not one hundred per cent happy with this chapter, but I figured I would post it anyway.

Please let me know what you think in a REVIEW. I love getting them and your feedback means the world to me! also if anyone has any suggestion as to what they want to happen next, please let me know! and I'll see if I can fit them into the fic. ;) thanks for reading!