Mend This Tear- chapter six
DISCLAIMER: The Mentalist does not belong to me. It is the creation of Bruno Heller. I'm writing this fiction to express my love for the series and maybe vent a little.
Cho called Agent Hightower as soon as he left Elise's apartment.
"Agent Cho. I hope everything is all right," Madeline Hightower answered on the second ring. The sleepy lilt in her voice told him that she knew he'd never call her, especially so late (or so early), he thought, looking at his watch, unless there was a serious problem.
"Lisbon is in the hospital," he said, getting right to the point. "I don't know what's wrong yet and am on my way there now but doctors will want a copy of her medical history. I need you to call Human Resources and have them send a copy of her medical records to Sacramento General."
There was a pause on the other side of the line as the CBI Chief absorbed the rush of information she was just given. Thankfully, it was very short.
"Agent Cho, you know Human Resources do not have a night shift."
Kimball did know, but in his worry he had forgotten.
"And wouldn't the hospital already have her history on file?" Madeline asked reasonably.
"Boss's never been to Sac General," Cho explained. "She usually goes to a small clinic. But it won't be open now so I can't get her files from there. But CBI keeps copies of employee's medical records for insurance purposes."
"Yes, we do. Theoretically, I can have security let you in to get her file, but there is the issue of privacy to consider-"
"Not an issue. I'm her medical proxy."
Again, there was a pause on the other side of the line as Agent Hightower tried to remember if she ever read that piece of information in Lisbon's file. She couldn't.
"That's news to me Agent Cho but I'll have to take your word for it. I'll call security and clear it with them. Be sure to call me when you reach the hospital. I want to know how she's doing."
"Yes ma'am," Cho had almost hung up when but heard Hightower call out to him.
"Ma'am?"
"Who else knows about this?"
"No one."
"Don't you think Patrick needs to be told?"
"No. Why?"
Hightower stopped herself from sighing in frustration. She never liked dealing with Lisbon's right hand man. Although efficient, his abrupt manner left something to be desired. And he could be terribly obtuse when he wanted to.
"Call me as soon as you know anything," she said, before hanging up, thinking that she'd have to make the call to Jane herself.
As Cho drove to CBI, he deliberated Hightower's question.
She had a point. But the reason Lisbon made Cho her proxy in the first place was because of his discretion. That was what she told him, and if privacy was what she wanted, he'd give it to her.
Kimball didn't have to be a mentalist to know whom she was guarded against.
Jane constantly pushed himself onto their boss, invading her space both physically and emotionally. If he wanted to know what time it was, he'd grab her hand and look at her watch. If there was something going on with Lisbon, Jane wanted to be the first to know. At first, Cho thought it was because, as a 'hand's on' mentalist, the concept of privacy and personal space was not something Jane found useful in his line of work.
Later, Cho realized that what Jane readily labeled as nosiness was just an excuse to butt into the team's affairs without them realizing he did so because he actually cared about them. Cho also suspected that Jane's natural curiosity and 'touchy feely' behavior was something he simply couldn't turn off.
But Jane's run in with Red John proved that the consultant was perfectly capable of maintaining a professional distance when he wanted to.
Cho wasn't fooled. Like when Janestopped flirting with Lisbon, Kimball only took Jane's behavior change as further evidence of the profoundness of his feelings for Lisbon.
It made the Asian descendant realize that, unlike Jane's meddling with others, which was always calculated and planned, when it came to Lisbon, Jane's imposition was entirely wanton; like he couldn't help himself.
Why else would Jane resort to the extreme of physically removing himself from the woman's presence to maintain the distance he deemed necessary. Why Jane felt that distant necessary was beyond Cho's understanding, though his talk with Elise raised some interesting ideas in his mind.
The team knew Lisbon missed Jane. He was such a commanding presence that they all did. Kimball could only imagine how his boss felt having Jane suddenly disappear from her orbit, after being constantly gravitating towards her, irritating her till she kicked him out of her office, only to have him return shortly after, drawn back to her like a magnet.
So on the days that Lisbon came in to find the bullpen couch sans consultant, Rigsby would make an effort to draw the consultant from his lair while Cho became more vigilant than ever, working extra hard on whatever case they had, knowing it would please Lisbon. Because while Cho didn't believe Lisbon was in love with Jane, he knew the man's prolonged stay in the attic hurt her.
She looked like she lost her best friend.
The only time Jane even came close to sharing case-closed food with them was when he offered to buy pizza on the dead jockey's case. And even then, Cho suspected Jane had only done so to change the subject after the team realized he had let Grace get on a horse that might have been dangerous.
That had been a bad day. Cho remembered Lisbon had called Jane into her office and the door had been shut. He never knew what happened inside; Jane had gone home afterwards with a resigned look on his face. But judging from Lisbon's calm demeanor, Cho figured she must have made some headway with the emotionally suppressed consultant.
And yet, Jane's MO hadn't changed afterwards. He was as distant as ever.
Funnily enough, his and Lisbon's recent kidnapping by Rachel had helped bring them closer again. For the first time in a very long time, Cho had seen them sit together, share a laugh.
Lisbon smiling was a truly lovely sight; a rare blue moon.
But something must have happened during the Keeley Farlow case and Todd Johnson's death to once more create a distance between his boss and her consultant.
Cho wasn't sure he wanted to find out what happened. But what he did know was that Lisbon didn't need to be subjected to Jane's volatile mood. Not when she was sick and certainly not until Cho finds out what's wrong with her.
So no, he wouldn't call Jane. Not yet anyway, Cho thought, parking at CBI to get Lisbon's file.
When Cho arrived at the hospital, an ER nurse told him that the doctor had ordered some x-rays be done for Lisbon's lungs and that it might be a while before she was brought back.
"There was a pretty bad traffic accident, so priority goes to the crash victims since Ms. Lisbon's stable now."
"What are the x-rays for?"
"I'm not sure," the girl admitted. She looked young, Cho noted, "I just started my shift and the nurse responsible for Ms. Lisbon is with her right now. But you can wait by her bed. It's the one behind that curtain," she said, gesturing to the corner of the ER, "There should be a chair there too."
Cho nodded in thanks before heading over. Moving the curtain aside, he was shocked to see Jane sitting on the bed, dangling his feet.
"Hey Cho."
"Jane, what are you doing here?"
"Oh, I was in the neighborhood. Decided to stop by, see if anyone I knew was at the hospital," the blond said with a smile.
"Hightower called you," Cho said in monotone. The smile left Jane's face as he stood up from the bed, hands in his suit pockets.
"Yes she did. It should have been you, Cho."
"Why? You next of kin?" Kimball deadpanned.
Jane's face was carefully devoid of emotion, but Cho noticed the next breath he took was a little deeper, as if he was calming himself down. He also noticed that Jane's eyes were puffy and slightly red rimmed, as if he had been crying.
"So have you seen her?" Cho asked.
"No. Nurse told me she's getting her lungs x-rayed. That was half an hour ago."
"They say why?" Jane shook his head.
"But I caught one of the medics that brought her in before he left. Said she was barely breathing when they found her. She also had cardiac arrhythmia and was slightly cyanotic."
Cho had spoken with enough forensic pathologists to know that meant Lisbon's pulse hadn't been normal and that her nails and lips were turning blue from lack of oxygen.
"Who's her doctor?" Cho asked.
Jane pointed to an elderly man hovering over a bleeding woman on a stretcher.
"I think I heard someone call him Milton. I didn't get a chance to talk to him; he's been busy. But the medic did. Said he was pretty optimistic since she responded well to the steroids and oxygen she was given in the ambulance. Seems to think she might have just had an asthma attack."
Jane's tone indicated he didn't agree. Cho was equally skeptical.
"An asthma attack?" Jane nodded, understanding Cho's reaction. The diagnosis sounded so mundane.
"Wouldn't the EMT personnel would have recognized a simple asthma attack?"
"Apparently, she had a very bad one. Wasn't wheezing, which is one of the most telling symptoms."
"What about poison?"
"I already asked them to run a tox screen," Jane informed him, then gestured at the brown folder in Cho's hands.
"Is that her file?" Jane asked, pointing to a brown folder in Cho's hands.
"Yes," holding it tighter to him. He noticed that Jane hadn't said Lisbon's name once. Just referred to her using pronouns.
Jane nodded slightly. He had been avoiding meeting Cho's gaze ever since the latter asked him retorted that he had no reason to call him. But now he met his eyes.
"Why, Cho?"
He didn't bother elaborating; the Senior Agent was sharp enough to understand what he meant.
"I figured you were too busy with other stuff," Cho said noncommittally.
"More urgent than this?"Jane asked, managing to keep his voice steady, benign.
"You tell me," Cho deadpanned.
Jane was not as successful at keeping his skin from flushing, though neither man was sure if it was out of anger or embarrassment.
It wasn't that Cho wanted to jerk Jane around, but something Elise had asked him was making him want to antagonize the consultant.
"Why would Jane think Red John went after Kristina because of him? Wasn't it because she talked about him on TV?"
It was a very good question. It made Cho realize that Jane might be hiding something from them. Something important.
Something that might truly endanger Lisbon.
The tension was broken when a nurse and an orderly suddenly appeared, pushing Lisbon into the small curtained room on a gurney. They noticed that she had been changed into a short hospital gown. By tacit agreement, they respectfully removed themselves from the area as Lisbon was transferred onto the ER bed, not wanting to see any flesh that might inadvertently be revealed during the process. Cho noticed that Jane had a hard time doing so but refrained from teasing him. The man was obviously worried; peeping being the last thing on his mind.
They let themselves back inside the curtain when the orderly left, pushing the now empty gurney away.
Cho watched as the nurse, this one an older matronly type he noticed, fussed over Lisbon.
"What are you doing?" Jane asked, as the nurse placed two tiny short tubes at the base of Lisbon's nose. There were adjacent and extended from a larger, longer tube which was connected to a small tank attached to the wall behind Lisbon's bed.
"Don't worry, she'll be fine," the nurse said kindly, "we're just keeping her on oxygen as a precaution since we don't know what stopped her breathing in the first place."
"Not asthma?" Cho asked.
"That's the most likely reason, but the doctor needs to check her x-ray and medical history before he can know for sure."
"But she's fine now?" Cho prodded, since Jane decided to remain silent.
"Yes," the woman assured them.
"Then how come she's so out of it?"
"She's tired, dear. Plus, it is late," the woman said with a grin, "maybe she's just sleepy. Some of the medications she's on cause drowsiness."
Cho nodded and handed the nurse Lisbon's file.
"This is her medical history."
"I'll just get this and the x-rays to the doctor. I'm sure he'll be over as soon as he can," she said with a reassuring smile before leaving.
Cho settled down into the chair to wait. He kept himself busy by watching Jane stand over Lisbon, an unreadable expression on his face.
Author's note:
I have to give credit where credit is due: I got the idea of Rigsby trying to get Jane to hang out in the bullpen more from mswyrr's fic, Hummingbird. You can find it in my favorites, it's a lovely story. Also, my baby brother (whose actually a teenager about twice my height) really helped out with this one; if nothing else, as a wall to bounce ideas off of, and vent to, so this chapter is dedicated to him.
Cho mentions in this chapter a conversation between Jane and Lisbon which took place in her office after the dead jockey case was solved. If you're interested, you can know what happened by reading my Red Ponies episode tag, "False Hope". It serves as a prequel of sorts to this story. I also posted an episode tag for Blood For Blood called "Bloody Trust" which will be this fic's sequel.
Reviews= love=better writing. Give generously :)