Author's Note- This part morphed into two chapters. So, I'll polish the other one up and post it tomorrow or Tuesday at the latest. And this changes to Jane's point of view for a while. Enjoy.
Disclaimer- If it were mine, this is what would have happened... I think. So it's obviously not.
Disparate images of half-remembered nightmares, memories, and fantasies flitted briefly through his mind in a confusing, heart-hammering dream.
Jane stirred.
The first thing he became aware of was that his heart was beating too fast. It's crescendoing tempo was making his chest ache like someone was trying to pry it open with pliers. He needed to calm down before he had a heart attack. He could already feeling his arm aching too. Not that the position that he was in was helping. He was laying on something, face down, with one arm curled under him. Laying on said arm was not a wise decision, he could already tell.
Slowly, still mired in sleep, he moved his arm out from under him. It tingled painfully as the feeling started to return. Trying to hide from the world outside his head for a bit longer, he turned his head into the fabric beneath his face and burrowed a little deeper into it. An odd mixture of his and someone elses scent filled his nose. He had to try and clear his thoughts before he recognized it as Lisbon's and breathed a little deeper. The whole process forced his eyes to crack open reflexively.
Where was he? What day was it? He didn't know when he had fallen asleep, or even how really. In fact, everything was a little fuzzy. As he searched his memory, it felt like he was trying to see through thick cotton, stuff that billowed up around his memories to hide them when he tried to think too hard. All he could remember was- a dark wood. Lots of water. Maybe Lisbon's tears, or perhaps he had imagined that. Then...
Turning his head again, he worked his mouth with his tongue to try and moisten it. God, he felt like he had a hangover. The worst hangover of all time. His head was pounding, he felt dehydrated and was discovering that every single bit of him ached, not just his chest. Maybe he had been hit by a bus at some point. He closed his eyes briefly as he shifted and then squinted them open again as he slowly pushed himself up. He swung his legs over the edge near him, pushed the blanket around his shoulders away, and held his head near his knees till the room stopped spinning. Once it had, he looked around.
Why was he in Lisbon's office? More importantly, why was he laying out on Lisbon's couch, in her office, feeling like death warmed-over? There was a glass of water not far in front of him, with two tablets beside it. A note lay just beside that, hastily scrawled in Lisbon's script. With difficulty, he rubbed at his face, blinked rapidly and focused enough to see the words.
'Doctor said you might have a massive headache. Take these and drink all of the water. You've got the day, so make yourself some tea and try not to over-think anything. I'll be back soon to check on you. Lisbon'
Thoughtful of her. Jane did as she instructed, greedily pouring the whole glass of water down his throat after the pills before the words caught up to his brain. He pulled back and looked at it again.
Doctor?
He touched his head, remembering nothing of the sort, which was unusual for him. Normally, he couldn't help but remember things other people seemed able to easily forget. Had he suffered a head injury? It certainly would explain why his brain felt like it was on fire, but when he felt around his skull, his probing fingers didn't encountered a single abnormality. Not a gash or a goose egg. Not so much as a sore spot- nothing but his blonde curls. His scraggly blonde curls.
He looked around blearily. How terrible did he look right now? Sighing, he cynically wondered how vain he had to be to even care about that right now. It didn't stop him from wondering, but he felt better for questioning himself. Especially since he had the very real problem of worrying about the fact that he had no idea how he had gotten back from the woods- which was the dark setting for his last clear memory. He stood shakily, thinking he would follow Lisbon's advice and get himself some tea. As his headache stabbed him in the temple, he wondered if her other advice not to over-think things was sound as well.
The closed blinds clattered as he opened the door and instantly pulled back, squinting.
When had the world caught on fire? Shaking his head, he slunk out through the gap. He hadn't realized just how dim it was in Lisbon's office. In the hall, the sun was coming in brightly through all the windows and glass walls, proclaiming the afternoon louder than a trumpet call. As he walked slowly by, he peeked in and saw that the bullpen was completely deserted. Where was everyone?
Once in the break room, he set the tea kettle on the heat and turned to lean against the counter to wait. Shaking slightly, he rubbed at his forehead. What had happened in the woods? Had he been hurt? That seemed an obvious answer, but if he had been injured, why had he woken up alone? Though it was probably selfish of him, he couldn't imagine that Lisbon would have just stepped out while he was asleep. Not if he was hurt badly enough to lose his memory. She wasn't the type. She was more the- staying next to the bed till you woke up and were okay, then vanishing- type.
Or couch, as it were.
He winced as his thoughts made his head burn even worse, but pushed through mulishly. He needed answers. The facts, come up with the facts. Lisbon was gone. The team was gone. He had been asleep on Lisbon's couch, not his own. That made him pause. The only thing that explained that was either she had wanted him close, or he had wanted to be close to her. She had mentioned a doctor. Maybe she was the one who had been hurt? That sent a chill down his spine that made him straighten up. Dammit, where was she?
The kettle whistled in that moment, startling him out of his musings. For a few moments, he pushed his troubling thoughts away and concentrated on making himself a cup of tea. As he walked back to Lisbon's office, saucer and cup in hand, he tried to focus back on his train of thought. If he had been hurt, what would make Lisbon leave him here? What would compel her to do something so out of character? And where might the team have gone without telling him if he was out of it? He stopped in his tracks as the answer flooded through him, truly like a light turned on in the darkness.
A case.
They must have gotten a case while he was asleep. For no other reason would the woman have left him behind. Especially lately, since she had taken to pulling and pushing him to and from each scene, trying to get him to focus on something besides Red John. So, not wanting to wake him for some reason, Lisbon had left him behind. He reached into his pocket and searched for his cell, intending to call her and get some answers, but all he found was a piece of paper. Where the hell was it? In fact, where were his keys, or anything he usually carried with him? All he had was...
He looked at the paper. It was a crumpled check. His CBI check. Unconsciously, his face scrunched up in confusion. Checking his other pockets with his one hand, he found only one other thing. He pulled a velvet box slowly from his pocket. Checking it, he wondered what reason he could possibly have had for carrying around diamond earrings. Shaking his head, he slipped back into Lisbon's office and looked around. Setting his tea beside his empty glass, he opened up the blinds and let the light flood the room to illuminate it.
He was startled enough to almost lose his balance when a loud buzzing filled the room and blinked around him. His cellphone. It must be in here somewhere. A small memory tugged at him, and he realized it must have been the thing going off that woke him in the first place. He just hadn't realized it at the time. Searching the couch, he found nothing. Listening carefully, he followed the sound to Lisbon's desk and pulled open a drawer. There, sitting on a pile of papers, were his phone, wallet, and keys. He immediately took up his phone and pulled it open, barely glancing at the ID, because he had a pretty good idea of who was calling him.
"Lisbon." He breathed, dropping into her chair heavily.
"God, Jane- don't scare me like that! I thought something else had happened to you!"
Something else? He pulled the phone away from his ear briefly to look at it. It sounded like she was exasperated with him, but he didn't know why. He put back to the side of his head.
"When I call, you answer. I don't care how out of it you are. Understand?"
Immediately, her tone made him sit up, putting on his best pouting tone."Me? What about you? I wake up here without any idea what the hell's going on- what happened last night?"
"I brought you back to the office, what else was I going to do with you?" Lisbon growled back. "You scared the crap out of me."
"Why? Was I hurt?" He sat forward on the edge of the seat. "Were you?"
There was silence on the other end of the phone for a very long time. It was worrying him by the time she finally broke it. "Jane... where are you?"
"In your office, where I assume you left me." He answered testily. "What's going on? What happened in the woods? Did we catch the murderer so quickly? Cause if so, I'm even better than I thought." His tone was teasing, but the fact that she hadn't answered him yet was unsettling him.
"The woods." It came across as a whisper of sound over the line that he could barely make out. "Jane, what's the last thing you remember?"
He frowned. "The case, of course. We were looking over the body in the woods. The man whose throat was slit. You said something. It all gets a little fuzzy after that. I assume we caught the guy and solved the case or you wouldn't be off on a new one, especially without me."
"How did you... never mind, don't answer that." Lisbon backtracked quickly.
"What happened?" He was getting impatient now. More silence greeted him and Jane almost barked at her. "Lisbon!"
There was a hissed curse on the other side. "Look, Jane, you... you were hurt, yes. Almost killed, but we got you out in time. That case- it was almost three days ago."
He started in surprise. Three days? He had lost three days?
"Maybe I should have taken you back to the hospital after- last night. I should have realized, with all that's happened... hell, the doctor even said this might happen." A voice spoke close to the phone and there was a rustling, as though Lisbon were moving. "Look, I can't talk right now. Just... just stay in my office till I get back there, okay?"
"Lisbon, how often has that worked?" He asked dryly. "You got a case. Now you're worried and not just because you left me here in your office alone." He heard another voice shout. It sounded like Cho barking orders to someone. He sounded anxious, or at least anxious for him. "Come on Teresa, what's going on?" He finally pleaded quietly.
"I... I only wanted to make sure you were safe." She sounded resigned and yet, still worried.
What she said made him stop, frown deepening. Safe? Slowly, he sat forward. "Lisbon-"
"It's nothing, just-"
"Lisbon."
Another long pause stretched between them, but he let it, waited for her to give, because he knew she would.
Don't let it be that. Not that.
Lisbon's response was soft. "You better come see this."