A/N: Thank you for the reviews!
Jane regretted that he couldn't show Lisbon how much her confession meant to him. He didn't want to let her close to him until Red John was caught, as she was too much of a target as it was already. Neither could he tell her about his feelings, held down by an iron grip, as it would only hurt her too much in the end if she thought that he had changed and forgotten Red John.
Jane had to admit that Lisbon had changed him already, the whole team had, but he still wasn't willing to let go of his vengeance. He wanted to protect them, which was new to him, but he couldn't allow himself to speculate about a future as to him, the future after Red John didn't exist.
He occasionally found his control slipping as when he had pulled her to him when he had hypnotised her or when pushing a strand of her hair behind her ear, like just now. These moments of intimacy were his lifeline, moments to spur him on, to give him strength, although he had felt guilty of using her without her consent. To know now that Lisbon would welcome him, that she would give whatever he wanted or needed without asking anything in return, made him feel humble and grateful, however it also reminded him to enforce his control that he wouldn't take too much, wouldn't assume too much as above all he wanted to make sure that he didn't hurt Lisbon.
Somewhere in his mind a small hope stirred, a thought not yet fully formed tickled the edges of his conscious mind that maybe someone would wait for him.
XXX
Lisbon felt light and oddly relieved that she had finally opened up to Jane as well as admitting to herself how she felt. She was happy that Jane had been honest with her and almost giddy about what she had seen in his eyes. She had always known that he liked her, but to see the fondness, the gentleness and the caring in his eyes had been more than enough to convince her that she had made the right decision in offering everything to him, while expecting nothing in return.
Lisbon turned towards Jane to suggest that they should get back to the office, when she saw a man dressed in black stabbing something in Jane's neck. Everything slowed down.
Jane slapped his hand on his neck a look of surprise on his face, to only blink his eyes sleepily and slowly falling into an unconscious heap.
Lisbon pulled her gun while shouting at the two black clad men to freeze and to step away from the still form of Jane. She saw one of the men pulling the trigger and she also fired her gun, but she could feel by the piercing pain in her stomach that she had been hit. The stickiness that greeted her hand when she pressed it against the pain was a confirmation of the deliberately aimed shot as it would incapacitate her quickly. She still tried to lift her gun and aim for the men again, only to be shot in the shoulder, dropping her gun and falling to the ground.
Lying there on her back she could faintly hear the panic of the people on the busy park and the shopping street and the wailing of sirens in the distance. She managed to turn her head a little towards the black van to see the men shoving Jane into the back. She tried to keep her eyes focused on the licence plate, but it was getting difficult as everything was getting blurry.
She felt a pair of hands pressing hard into her abdomen and the flaring pain took the last remnants of her consciousness away.
XXX
In the CBI bullpen it was quiet. Van Pelt was tapping away on her computer, Rigsby was munching his snack and Cho was reading as usual. They had seen Lisbon and Jane take off and although the others were confused as to what was going on, but decided not to mention anything, Cho could guess what was going to take place. He strongly wished that they would have a happy ending as Lisbon and Jane deserved some peace and happiness.
A phone rang and Cho reached to answer it under the eyes of the other agents.
"We will be right there", was the only thing Cho said, his impassive face revealing nothing.
"Do we have a new case?", Rigsby asked his mouth full earning a glare from Van Pelt and he quickly tried to swallow the rest of the sandwich.
"Boss has been shot and Jane kidnapped. They are taking her to the UC Davies, the responding officers are meeting us there", Cho responded to the shock of Rigsby and Van Pelt. They hastily grabbed their coats and went to find their cars.
XXX
When they got to the hospital, they went straight to ER to find any news about Lisbon. The nurse could only tell them that she had been taken to surgery and that they could wait in the waiting room. When the team turned around, they were approached by two police officers.
"You are from CBI, right?", one of them asked, Officer Dent by the name badge.
"Yes, what do you have?", Cho responded and the grave face devoid of emotions made the officers feel bad for the guy who had done this to the CBI team.
"We happened to be patrolling close by when we heard the shots. We ran to the scene to find agent Lisbon on the ground, bleeding and unconscious. My partner stayed with her trying to stop the bleeding, and I tried to stop the black van, before they took off, but I don't think I managed to put too many bullets into the van", officer Dent reported.
"By that time other units had responded and were taking statements so we decided to escort agent Lisbon to the hospital. Then we called you", he continued explaining what was their take on what had taken place. They promised to let the team have all the evidence and statements as soon as possible. Cho nodded and thanked the officers.
"We hope that agent Lisbon will pull through", the officers said before leaving. The team were left alone in the ER. Cho walked away from the chaos towards a quieter corner and placed a call to the CBI, to their temporary boss and updated him what had happened.
Cho snapped the phone shut and gave the instructions to Rigsby and Van Pelt to go to the crime scene, cringing when saying that as it was their own people involved now, and to start on the evidence the local PD had gathered. He would stay to speak with the doctor and get an update on Lisbon's condition.
After Rigsby and Van Pelt had left, Cho found the waiting room. There were other people silently sitting and waiting so he took a seat away from them getting ready to wait. He shook his head when he thought about his earlier wish for a happy ending for Jane and Lisbon. He knew it was irrational, but he felt it was his fault, that maybe he had jinxed it. He leaned back in his chair, alone with his dark thoughts as hours went by.
TBC
