Patrick Jane stood staring out the window, his back towards the two wounded female agents. The warm California sun hid behind dark grey clouds. He wore a black three-piece suit. Lisbon gazed groggily at his back for a long time. He was always wearing dark clothes, ever since Red John had taken Kristina Frye. Jane's suits had gotten progressively darker, and she was so worried that it was some sort of metaphor for his emotional state-

What was she thinking? This wasn't a Shakespearean tragedy.

"Hi Jane," she greeting, pushing herself. She rubbed her eyes.

Jane turned around and grinned at her. "Hey. How are you feeling?"

Lisbon yawned and rubbed her eyes. "I feel all doped up. Those nurses keep giving me morphine. I don't think I need that much." She smiled. Her long sleep had been good; her mind felt a little clearer than it had went she went to sleep. "What are you doing here?"

"Van Pelt."

Lisbon glanced over to her roommate, and found that the redhead was snoring loudly, clutching a paper cut out of a teddy bear. "What happened?"

"She's convinced that a mysterious dark-haired man is going to kidnap you away to marry you," Jane replied matter-of-factly. "She was getting so upset that we agreed to take turns watching over you."

Lisbon snorted. "Yeah right."

"So," Jane's smile softened as he sat down on the bed beside Lisbon, "you never answered my question."

"What question?"

"Who's in love with me?"

Lisbon went red. As a distraction, she glanced over at roses blooming on the beside tables. "So Rigs and Cho are going to be dropping by?"

"Lis?"

"We all love you and care about you," Lisbon replied, cleverly avoiding the true intent behind the question. "We're a family."

Jane grinned at her avoidance, but decided not to pursue the question. After all, he wasn't sure that he was ready for that answer. He didn't know if he was ready to be loved again. "Yes, we are, aren't we? So, what have you been doing here?"

"Nothing much. Watching some TV."

"Anything good?"

Lisbon shrugged. "Castle is pretty good."

"Really?" Jane's eyebrows shot up. "After what you do for a living, you watch murder mysteries?"

"I like the characters," Lisbon defended her choice of entertainment. "It's not about the murders, it's about the people. They're all great. Plus I feel a certain affinity to Detective Beckett. After all, she has to deal with an immature, childish, annoying man who gets her into trouble... but helps close cases."

Jane grinned as he saw himself reflected in her words. "Aren't immature and childish the same thing?"

"No," Lisbon replied, a smile spreading across her face. "They aren't. I've also been watching the Big Bang Theory. Van Pelt made me. It is so ridiculous."

Jane rubbed her arm and patted her shoulder. "Anything else?"

"I-" Lisbon just happened to glance out the door. A dark-haired man was standing across the hallway, a clipboard in his hand, and he was looking over at the nurse's station. For an unknown reason, a shiver went down her spine. But she ignored it, because obviously that was the morphine. "I've also been watching reruns of Doctor Who."

"I didn't think you liked sci-fi."

"I don't, but David Tennant is hot."

Jane laughed. "Well-"

"Well, hello there." The blonde nurse walked into the room and smiled widely at Jane. "I don't think we've met. I'm the day nurse here."

"Hello, nurse. I'm Patrick Jane," the consultant replied, shaking the nurse's hand. "I work with Lisbon and Van Pelt."

"Oh. Isn't that sweet that you come to visit them?"

Was it just Lisbon's imagination, or did the nurse's gaze focus on Jane's wedding ring and a flicker of disappoint pass through her eyes? Lisbon felt the irrational surge of jealousy rising up like a black cloud in her soul. She sank back into her pillows and tried to come up with a great new thing to say or do to drive that nurse away, but remained silent.

"So how are things at the office?" Lisbon asked Jane, trying not to glare at the nurse as she adjusted a few things on the IVs that Lisbon was hooked up to.

"Fine. We're all on paperwork catch up. Bertram wanted Wainwright to split us up temporarily, but we all agreed that it would be better for us just to handle smaller things until you and Van Pelt could come back to work."

"That's good," Lisbon sighed, feeling her mind going foggy again and exhaustion creeping into her again. "You know what's weird?"

"What?"

"I think I'd quit my job before I worked with anybody besides my team. We could start our own private investigation unit. I'd quit for any one of them. Even you, Jane. Even you."

"I wouldn't want you to quit for me."

"But I would. You'd better believe it, you angelic-looking devil!" Lisbon giggled at her oxymoron. "Get it, angelic devil?"

"What did you just give her?" Jane asked the blonde nurse. His blue eyes flashed.

"Doctor's orders," the nurse replied demurely. "A gunshot wound is very difficult to get over."

"I like morphine. It makes it easy not to think. And sometimes I don't want to think, Jane. After everything I've been through." Suddenly she had a brilliant idea of how to get Cho to the hospital and the blonde nurse away from Jane! "You know, I think Van Pelt's right about the mysterious stranger lurking. But he's not after me!"

Jane squeezed Lisbon's hand. "Oh, yes?"

"He's after her! And so one of you guys need to be here all the time. Cho should take next round. Cho is an amazing man who is the best member of my team and is independently wealthy, too!" Lisbon glanced sneakily at the nurse.

"That's nice," the nurse said, and turned to Jane. She smiled so flirtingly that Lisbon was tempted to rip out her IVs and stab them into the nurse, if she wasn't so darn tired! "So you work with the police?"

"Jane!" Lisbon shouted, bolting upright. Both Jane and the nurse jumped. "Jane, I'm thirsty. Can you get me some juice?"

"Sure," Jane replied, standing.

"I'll show you where it is," the blonde nurse replied.

Lisbon groaned. That wasn't what she was planning at all! "Jane, I'm gonna need to talk to Cho. Make sure he comes by sometime when I'm lucid."

"All right," Jane replied, smiling. "I'll be right back."

And then he left, with the blonde nurse right beside him.