Author's Note- Two words. Hospitals. Suck. Thanks for your patience.
Disclaimer- If it were mine, this is what would have happened... I think. So it's obviously not.
Carefully, Lisbon guided Jane by the arm to her SUV which was parked outside the crime scene tape. With one hand, she pulled open the passenger side door, elbowing it open the rest of the way to keep it out of their way. She settled the other on his right shoulder, gently pushing down.
"I've got a headache." Jane mumbled, obediently sitting on the edge of the seat so that his feet still dangled outside the vehicle.
Once he was settled, she crouched slightly in front of him to be nearer to his eye level and peered closely up into his face. He was pale- almost ashen. It looked like he had just run a mile, something she knew Jane didn't do unless something or someone was chasing him. There was too much perspiration on his forehead to be explained away because of the bright sun though. His blonde curls were messier than normal and lacked their usual luster, as though he'd been running his fingers through it too much. Pain was etched in the corners of his down-turned lips, clearer to her than anything else in the world seemed like it could be. Honestly, he looked like a drunk who'd spent the night on a park bench. "You probably need to go back to the hospital." She murmured back at him quietly.
"You know I don't like doctors." He protested.
She crooked a tiny smile at his pathetic whine, if only because of the familiarity of it. At least he was talking again. "I know, but you're not even supposed to be out in the field right now and I'm not going to drag an invalid around with me if you're going to be passing out on me."
He suddenly looked down at her, eyes pleading.
She swallowed. They were like a morning sky- a weird combination of light green and blue.
"I won't, I promise. I need to be involved in this. I just need to get rid of this headache first."
Frowning, she glanced down at the water bottle in her hands, the same one he'd already drunk from. Taking the cap off again, she handed it back to him and watched him chug some more down.
He was so stubborn. Even a whiff of Red John set his ears up like a hound catching a snapping twig in the distance.
"You took the pills I left you?"
Finishing off the last of the water, he coughed a little, nodding his head.
"Well, it should be taking the edge off." She took the empty bottle back. "If it's not, something else could be wrong."
"Assuming it's not just another part of the first thing that went wrong." He mused, piercing eyes settling back on her face. "Only, I don't quite know what happened in the first place, do I?"
"There's time for that." Her hand pushed against her thigh, helping get her up to standing again despite the bottom dropping out of her stomach. "Right now, I'm more concerned with this headache, but I guess the hospital can wait till after we've made the initial interview. We need to hustle to beat the media's questions for the family there with our own."
He just nodded. Slowly, he pulled his legs into the car and seemed surprised when she helped him fold his limbs inside before closing the door.
Catching sight of a news truck not far away, she frowned, but she had enough to deal with. She came around the other side of her car and climbed in the drivers seat.
Jane looked at her, expression open and curious. So much like her brothers, it almost hurt. "You took a cab, right?" She grumbled, belting herself in.
"You told me to." He answered dryly. "Driving with this kind of a headache probably isn't a good idea, is it?"
Her lips pursed. "No, probably not." She started the car and started to pull out.
"So-" He began brightly. "-what'd I do?"
"Do?" Lisbon glanced at him with a small smile, heart stuttering a little. "What makes you think you did something?"
"I usually get myself into these messes. It makes sense." He looked out the window. "Besides, three days is a long time. I assume I wasn't in a coma, or I would have woken up in the hospital. So what happened?"
She hesitated, equal parts uncertain and uncomfortable. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see him narrow his eyes at her.
"Start with the woods, Lisbon."
That just made her flinch like he had slapped her, unable to help her reaction. Damn, she hated those woods now.
"Wow, that can't be a good sign." He said conversationally.
Not able to think of an answer, she said nothing as they stopped at a red light.
"Teresa." He'd been watching her fidget.
She played with the turn signal for a minute longer before she looked back at him and met his eyes. "What's the last thing you remember?" She finally asked quietly, looking back at the road just as the light turned green so she could press on the gas again.
"We were looking at the body. You said something, a comment about... I don't really know what, I think I'd tuned you out a little by then."
He would. "Flattering." She quipped dryly.
"I don't remember anything after that." He continued, ignoring her. "So, what did happen?"
She took a deep breath and let it out as a sigh. "I'm not entirely sure. You walked away, as you are want to do." She paused to steer the car around a corner. "I went looking for you after a while." Her right shoulder lifted a little in a shrug. "I expected to find you standing over some piece of evidence or giving some insight only you would understand but..." Suddenly, her throat grew tight, strangling the casual tone she'd been trying to feign. She drew in on herself a little, protectively.
"But what, Lisbon?" Jane murmured, once again watching her.
She swallowed twice before she could speak. "I found you lying face up in a pond. You weren't breathing." Her voice cracked a little and she cleared her throat roughly. "It was the killer that had tried to drown you. You shouldn't have gone off on your own. You're lucky to be alive." Trying desperately not to show him how much that moment had scared her, her tone turned scolding.
He only nodded thoughtfully, as though it fit with what he'd been thinking. "So, I died? No wonder my memory is spotty." He mused aloud, trying to make light of it.
She hated that flippant tone. Like that moment hadn't been one of the worst of her life. Uncomfortable, she gave him a look. "The EMT's managed to resuscitate you and then they took you to the hospital."
"I assume you came with, to make sure I was okay?" He asked.
A nod confirmed his suspicion. "I followed the ambulance to the hospital and got in to see you." She shook her head, looking out her side window at the passing businesses furtively, even more ill at ease and a little embarrassed. It flashed through her mind's eye like it was happening all over again. Even now, she could clearly see his shrewd face, smiling in a slightly confused way, asking her if they were sleeping together. "I should have talked to the doctor first."
"Why? Was I naked?" He grinned cheekily at her.
She blushed a little, gave him a withering look and turned another corner. Finally on the ramp for the highway, she shifted in her seat uncomfortably. There was nothing for it. She'd just have to say it. "You... you didn't know who I was."
He blinked, smile slipping. "What?"
Lisbon couldn't meet his eyes. Whether that was due to her own memory or to hide the small hurt flashing through her because of the lack of his, she didn't quite know. She had no right to feel that way. He'd lost his memory due to injury and trauma.
It was pointless to be hurt that he'd forgotten her.
"You lost your memory. Of quite a few years. Back to when you were a conman, even before you were a fake psychic. You- you didn't remember me, or the team... Red John." She hesitated, but he deserved the truth, from her at least. "Or even your family."
A disquiet settled between them.
Struggling to breath normally, she let it, giving him a chance to absorb what she'd said. Hell, she needed the time to. She pulled off the highway methodically, not even having to think anymore about where she was going. Her limbs were doing the work for her. Palm and oak trees along the street passed by, buildings still casting pale shadows on the streets this early. Her eyes slid briefly to the sky, which was just overcast enough to take the burning heat out of the suns rays. It really was a beautiful day. Her thoughts slipped to their destination, to the family that awaited them.
What a horribly beautiful day it was.
Only the hum of the engine punctuated the silence as they moved out of the shabby, business area of the subdivision and on into a slightly nicer neighborhood. The quiet itself seemed like it would last forever, consuming several blocks of residential road as she drove them to the address Cho had given her.
Finally, he broke it. "Well, that must have been fun."
She'd never heard him use so much sarcasm before and one of her eyebrows rose unconsciously at him.
He smiled at her understandingly. "How bad was it?"
Chuckle bubbling out of her in response, she suddenly spotted a police car up ahead and turned the car to park at the curb behind it in front of an unassuming pink house. "You were a jerk." She shut the SUV off, took the keys out of the ignition and smirked at him. "Not that that was so unusual."
His lips lifted to mirror hers, eyes crinkling just a little in true mirth.
It stung a little to see that, thinking about how close she had come to never seeing it again. To losing her best friend. And he was.
They climbed out of the car simultaneously, but he waited for her to come around off the street before speaking again. "So, you met the 'old' me." He commented thoughtfully, raising his voice so she could hear him in the wind that had started to pick up. His sharp look her way spoke volumes. "Just how much apologizing do I have to do at work?"
She laughed and scoffed at him at the same time, avoiding his searching gaze. "Not too much. The department was relatively sparred- the team and I pretty much covered for you." Stowing her keys in her pocket, she also drew out her note pad from her pocket to double-check the address, ignoring his raised eyebrows.
"What did I do?" Suddenly, his fingers brushed the crook of her arm gently.
She stared back at him. Then realized what she was doing and pointedly switched her eyes down to the cracking cement beneath her shoes. You knew it was coming, she scolded herself. Just tell him. Her shoulders lifted in an embarrassed shrug. "You- conned some people... acted like a jerk to your friends. Had a 'fling' with a woman named Tah-mara, and then stole a bunch of money from evidence. You know, par for the course." Her discomfort was almost palpable in the air but she tried to hide the whole truth about how much that entire encounter had affected her.
His eyes though, at the edge of her vision, showed his concern. They'd gone slightly soft, sparkling over his frown. "In other words, I acted like a complete ass to you and everyone else and committed a felony." He grinned suddenly. "At least it's nice to know you would shrug off a felony for me, Lisbon. That's really sweet."
She gave him a dry, exasperated look.
"Well, at least I didn't do anything too stupid, right? Like go on TV again?"
Her heart clenched painfully, but it was the customary ache that accompanied any mention of Red John and Jane's supposed stupidity. So, she simply shook her head to assure him and nodded at the house, desperate for a conversation change. "This is it. Joanna Lister's brother is her next of kin. He lives here with his two kids."
"Lisbon?"
She looked back at him. He was standing behind her, expression unreadable. "What?" She didn't want to know... but she did.
"You're sure?"
Relief tugged at her insides. Without him having to say it, she knew what he was talking about them, not really what happened any more. That was something she could handle. "Yeah, I'm sure. We're good." She gestured to the house. "Now come on. The local detectives will have already made the notification, we need to get in there."
He came, though for a moment there he wore such a vulnerable expression, she might as well have been followed by a sad puppy.
She took a deep breath. Today was shaping up to be a really bad day, but at least there was no way it could possibly be worse than yesterday.
Right?