Lisbon woke the next morning, her internal clock ever-reliable, to find herself being held closely from behind, her scars pressed into a man's bare chest. It took a minute for her brain to catch up, but when she remembered, she smiled and turned over. Patrick Jane was sound asleep, his face more peaceful than she had ever seen it.

It was adorable.

She considered waking him up, but even with everything they had done - and, more importantly, said - the previous night, the early morning sun illuminated all of her scars and made her self-conscious. Instead, she disentangled herself gently from his arms, careful not to rouse him, and set about her morning routine. When it was time to get dressed, she hesitated before hunting down the necklace she had thrown aside the previous night. For a minute, she just held it, the diamond catching in the light, debating internally with herself. Then, with a sigh, she put it back on.

Only a minute later than her usual time, and she was ready to go to work, and checked to see that Patrick was still softly snoring in her bed. Again, she considered waking him.

No, she decided, I'll let him sleep in. If we come into the office at the same time…who knows what anyone will think. And no one can know this happened.

Taking a breath, Lisbon turned her back and left. No one can know this happened, she told herself again as she drove, all her old morals and standards kicking in. This was an extreme situation, and it won't happen again; I'm his boss, and whatever we may feel, that takes priority. He'll understand. He always does…

Still, she was distracted, tugging at her necklace as she walked in to her office and sat down, ready for the day. The rest of the team would come in soon, and she needed to act normal. She was so focused on this that it didn't occur to her what would actually happen…

"Where's Jane?"

Not one minute after arriving at CBI HQ, Rigsby, Cho, and Van Pelt all strode into her office without waiting for her to direct them, and these were the first words she heard.

"I'm sorry, what?" Lisbon asked, setting aside a file and looking up at them to see them staring her down angrily.

"Where's Jane?" Cho demanded again.

Lisbon pretended to think, then shrugged. "If he's not here, then I don't know where he is," she replied.

"You expect us to believe that?" Rigsby asked. "He told us he was going to talk to you last night, and he didn't expect to come out of that alive."

All of a sudden, Lisbon's behavior for the past few months came flooding back to her. It felt surreal, like she was remembering someone else's life, but it hadn't been. Blood rushed to her cheeks as she looked back on the things she had done.

"I…" she said slowly.

"Where is he?" Cho asked in his typical, flat manner.

"Look," Lisbon sighed, "I've been…unreasonable lately, I know that, and I'm sorry. I don't know what I was thinking. But last night, Jane and I…talked, and we've reconciled."

"Then why isn't he here?" Van Pelt interrogated.

"That I don't know," Lisbon answered, and she wasn't entirely lying anymore. "I told him I forgave him, not that he's allowed to miss work. If he doesn't come in soon, I'll have to write him up for tardiness." With that, she returned to what she'd been doing, though she did have to wonder…

"Rigsby, start calling hospitals in the area, see if you can find him," Cho said as the three of them started moving as one to leave.

"You don't think he's just lying in a ditch somewhere?" Rigsby asked, genuinely surprised as he held open the door.

"No, she-"

"Now hold on a minute!" Lisbon said, setting her work aside once more. "None of you are going anywhere looking for Jane. He'll be in…soon." I hope.

Though the trio stopped walking, Van Pelt rolled her eyes, and Rigsby and Cho looked at each other; clearly, they didn't believe her.

"Look, a hundred bucks says he at least calls within ten minutes," Lisbon told them, a bit desperate. "Please, don't embarrass yourselves."

"I'll take that bet," Cho said, stepping back from the door. "My hundred bucks says he's in a hospital. You're too good a cop to kill him, but no way did you let him go unhurt."

"My hundred bucks is still on his body in a ditch," Rigsby inserted.

"You guys are ridiculous," Van Pelt said, and Lisbon felt a flicker of hope before she went on, "Lisbon's too smart to leave any traces of whatever she did. My money says we never see or hear of him again."

"I didn't do anything to him!" Lisbon all but shouted, not even aware that this was technically a lie.

"If that's true, you'll make three hundred bucks," Cho stated.

"Just…just wait a little while, okay?" Lisbon pleaded. "You'll see. He's fine, I promise."

A few minutes passed. Rigsby, Cho, and Van Pelt all had their cop stares fixed on Lisbon, and she felt pinned to her seat, her eyes on her phone, silently pleading for Jane to call. What was taking him so long? Maybe she should have woken him…

Finally, just before ten minutes had passed, Lisbon's phone rang. Everyone in the room jumped at the sudden noise, and Lisbon grabbed it and checked the caller ID.

Patrick Jane.

Trying to contain most of her sigh of relief, Lisbon picked up. "Jane, where the hell are you?" she demanded.

"Good morning to you too," came Jane's drawl.

"You're late," Lisbon stated, shooting a glare at her team.

"Well, I'm sorry, I forgot to bring my alarm clock, and since someone apparently doesn't need one and never bothered to tell me or wake me up…"

"You need an alarm clock?" Lisbon asked, unable to suppress her smile.

"Who doesn't? Apart from you, apparently…How do you do it?"

"Never mind," Lisbon said, forcing her expression back to neutrality. "Just get the hell over here."

A chuckle came over the line. "What's the money pool?" he asked.

This time, Lisbon didn't even try to hide her smile. "Well," she said, "Cho's put a hundred bucks on you being in a hospital, Rigsby's put the same on us finding you in a ditch, and Van Pelt's is on you just never being seen or heard of ever again. Plus mine, which says that you're okay and will be here any minute."

"Four hundred dollars, all on whether or not I'm still alive?" Jane asked, surprised.

"Yeah, don't let it go to your head," Lisbon told him. "Just get your ass up here."

"I'm on my way," he assured her.

"Good. See you soon." With that, Lisbon hung up.

The team's collective glare still didn't waver.

"What?" she asked, looking at them and starting to grin at how absurd this was getting. "You think I paid someone to call and pretend to be Jane just so I could keep up some charade for a few more minutes?"

"Wouldn't put it past you," Cho said matter-of-factly.

"Guys, come on." She shook her head. "I know I've been a nightmare lately, but this is extreme. Look," she sighed, relenting, "he told me about the suicide note, that he expected me to do whatever to him and told you all not to come after me. If I really did hurt him, I would know to tell you. Even if you don't believe that I would do the right thing anymore, at least believe I would do the easiest thing."

"She has a point," Van Pelt admitted.

"Nah," Rigsby said, shaking his head slightly, "I don't buy it."

"When Jane walks down that hall, will you buy it then?" Lisbon demanded, gesturing.

"We'll see if that happens," was Rigsby's reply.

Several more minutes passed, the tension in the room growing more palpable by the second. Come on, Jane, where are you? Lisbon thought, all but praying. Just get in here, damn it…!

Finally, on one of the intervals where a member of the team briefly broke eye contact with Lisbon to check the hallway, Van Pelt's expression dropped in shock.

"Uh…" she stammered, the others' only warning before the door to Lisbon's office opened.

"Hey," Jane said cheerfully. "Good morning everyone. Someone call a team meeting?"

"J-Jane?" Rigsby stammered; even Cho's eyes were wide.

Jane grinned. "Hey, Rigsby," he responded, as though the past few months had never happened. "Everything okay in here?"

"Uh, yeah…just…didn't expect to see you…"

"Well, I'm here," Jane said, spreading his arms. "Alive and well. Lisbon and I talked things over last night, and everything can go back to normal. Is that okay with the three of you?"

The team exchanged looks.

"Oh, uh, I think you each owe Lisbon a hundred dollars, if I'm not mistaken, correct?" Jane added, still smiling.

More looks. "…I'm not paying," Cho finally said gruffly.

"Oh, come on, you made a bet, fair and square," Jane chided.

"After the way she's been treating you-"

"Yeah, I get it, but that's over now, and you made a bet," Jane countered.

"Guys, it's fine," Lisbon sighed, "I don't want your money. Can we please just get back to doing our job?"

"Which is what, by the way?" Jane asked. "Do we have a case?"

"Bertram hasn't assigned us yet," Lisbon said, "but there's always deskwork to do. For all of us," she added, giving the team a meaningful look.

At that moment, the door opened once more, narrowly missing Jane. "Good, you're all here," Bertram said gruffly, tossing a file onto Lisbon's desk. "The Red Team is up." He paused to glance at Lisbon. "Try not to embarrass us too much today," he told her, and he left.

Again, Lisbon felt her cheeks get hot. Had she really done all those things to Jane, risked cases and even lives because of a grudge that didn't even make sense now that she thought about it? Who even was that person she had been recently? It was a complete stranger to her…

"Well," Jane said, the first to step forward and grab the file, "you heard the man, we're up." His expression didn't change as he flipped through the papers. "Low-end stuff, nothing we can't handle - perfect for things getting back to normal." He held the file out to no one in particular, hoping his first move would get the others in motion. After a moment, Rigsby took the file, and Cho and Van Pelt gathered to look over his shoulders. Lisbon stood.

"Jane," she said, getting everyone's attention, though hers was fixed entirely on the man himself. "I'll ride with you."

"Sounds good," Jane said.

Rigsby stepped forward. "Hey, you want one of us to-?"

Jane held up a hand and smiled at his friend. "Relax, Rigsby, everything's cool," he told him. "Let's just go back to normal, okay? I promise, everything's fine."

Unlike with his boss, Rigsby didn't argue, though the glances the trio gave Lisbon and Jane as they left the office spoke legions.

~o~

"Jane…"

"I know," Jane cut her off before she could even begin.

They were driving down the road, Jane at the wheel. The awkwardness had only simmered for a few moments before Lisbon had broken the silence.

"You're beating yourself up for last night," he went on. "You got caught up in the moment, all the emotions and everything, but now your judgment has caught up with you and you want to turn in your badge for breaking policy."

Lisbon sighed. "Should I even bother talking?" she asked.

"Of course," Jane replied, "I don't want to just read your mind the whole way."

Despite herself, she couldn't help a small chuckle that she quickly caught hold of. "Listen," she said seriously, "last night can't happen again. I'm your boss."

"I know," Jane assured her. "Your job is the most important thing to you, I get that."

"I'm not saying-"

"The fact that you always have to do what's right is one of the things I love most about you," he went on.

At that, she shut up. He gave her a wry grin, and she shook her head.

Then there was silence.

"For what it's worth," Jane said at last, his tone entirely serious, glancing at her for a brief moment of eye contact for good measure, "I meant everything I said last night."

"I know," she told him softly. "I did, too. I still do. But this…can't…happen. I'm still your boss. I know we're the Red Team and all that, but I don't want to ask for special treatment like I'm some sort of big deal, I just want to do my job."

"I understand," Jane said. "To be honest, I don't really want to ask for favors either. I would, if you were okay with it, but since you're not…"

"I just don't want you to think that I…" Lisbon hesitated, searching for words.

"It's okay," Jane said soothingly. "Last night was…hectic. You made a mistake. It's okay."

Lisbon's jaw worked for a minute. "…I wouldn't call it a mistake," she managed at last.

He looked at her, taking his eyes off the road for a few moments longer than was really safe, surprised she would admit that much - he'd deliberately used the word to offer her a way out, but she hadn't taken it. Instead, she smiled at him, shyly but sincerely.

And, slowly, he smiled back.

~o~

The case was easy, open-and-shut, the only sort of thing anyone could trust the Red Team with since Lisbon had started acting up. But things were normal now, and only Rigsby, Cho, and Van Pelt seemed to feel any unease at how suddenly things were as they had once been. Working like the team they used to be, it only took a few hours to close the case, and clue Bertram and the world in on the fact that the problem had passed. No one outside the CBI knew the exact cause of the issue, of course, but once the Red Team started closing cases again, Charlotte made sure the public knew, and before long, difficult and sometimes even bogus cases started flooding in for them and them alone once more.

As promised, Jane and Lisbon went their separate ways every night. Yes, Lisbon wanted to ask him to follow her every time they went home, but she resisted the urge, and Jane knew not to do anything if she didn't ask. It wasn't as hard as she'd expected to live with this new thing between them, feelings they had both confessed to and couldn't - wouldn't - take back, but not act on any of it. Life went on, and work was hardly even work when it meant working with Patrick Jane. Everything was good.

Then, a couple of weeks later, Lisbon had to lunge out of the shower one morning to throw up in her toilet. Spitting and staring at the vomit floating in the water, she felt her blood run cold.

No. Oh god, no…

Full disclosure: that last bit was originally supposed to go very differently - the team was originally going to be too weirded out by Lisbon and Jane suddenly being okay with each other and cause problems, leading to a big fight that ultimately caused Lisbon to puke less than 24 hours later. I changed it…in part to not spit as directly in the face of science (not that I haven't done that many times before in this series), but mostly because I couldn't recall exactly how that argument was supposed to go, the scene is a casualty of the hiatus. Sorry to slightly cut back on the cheese for this chapter; rest assured it will return full-force in the next one!