Van Pelt lay in bed, staring at the ceiling. The blonde nurse hadn't been in for a few days, and the rest of the hospital staff wasn't giving her or Lisbon much medication. It all seemed rather suspicious. Van Pelt wasn't giving much thought to the blonde nurse, though. It was a relief to have a few hours to think clearly, and she didn't want to waste any time. Everything in the past while ran through her mind, making her alternately cringe, blush and giggle.
"Feeling better?" Lisbon asked her.
Van Pelt nodded. "I can't believe we actually were trying to set up Cho."
Lisbon laughed. "Well, we did agree that he needed a girl."
"Did you talk to Jane? Have they found him yet?" Van Pelt swung out of bed. Now that she wasn't so doped up anymore, she had gotten dressed in a comfortable yet classy outfit.
Lisbon shook her head. She had likewise showered and dressed. "Cho knows how to look after himself." Despite her words she was nervous for his safty.
"I just hope that it's one of Jane's wacked out plots. I don't know what I'd do if I lost anybody on the team," Van Pelt murmured. "You're the only family I have left."
"I'm worried, too." Lisbon shook her head and put on a brave face. "I'm sure he's fine."
"Yeah. Of course he is." Van Pelt paused. "I'd just really like to know who stole our roses."
Lisbon snorted. "It was probably just that nurse. You saw how she was throwing herself all over Jane-"
"And how jealous you were because of it."
"She was probably jealous that he'd buy you and me flowers and got rid of them," Lisbon continued as if she hadn't heard Van Pelt's comment. "As soon as I'm off suspension, I'm going to start digging into her background. There is definitely something not right about her. She didn't act like a proper nurse, did she?"
"No, I don't think she did." Van Pelt nodded, and then sighed. "You know, I'm glad that we're not pumped full of morphine anymore, but… Is it wrong to wish that I could hallucinate having conversations with TV characters more often? I haven't laughed as much as I did with Amy in a really long time. Since before Craig. Plus it was kinda nice to be able to relieve myself of deep dark secrets and be certain that I was only telling myself."
Lisbon nodded her agreement. "It's strange that we both hallucinated them, though. I guess it was a shared psychosis or something like that. I just wish that I had more time with Detective Beckett. She could help me figure out how to deal with Jane, given who she deals with every-."
It was just then that Detective Kate Beckett walked into the hospital room, her six-inch heels clicking against the floor. Lisbon started in surprise and then went white. She didn't mean it! Was she forever to be doomed to hallucinate TV characters, her sanity questioned at every turn? Is that what years of stress had done to her. Across the room, Van Pelt was also white. She glanced at Lisbon quick to make sure they were sharing the hallucination. Detective Beckett looked between them almost sheepishly.
"Detective Beckett?" Lisbon squeaked.
"No," Beckett replied, shrugging. "Stana Katic."
"The actress?" Van Pelt asked.
Stana nodded. She looked between the agents apologetically. "I'm very sorry for the deception, but Mr. Jane hired me to come… He made a very convincing case that it would help the two of you heal faster."
Lisbon stared for a moment, and felt her face go red from embarrassment and anger. She breathed deeply to calm herself. "He does that. So Amy and Bernadette…?"
"The actresses," Stana told her.
Van Pelt pressed her hands to her face. "And when you guys brought in cameras?
"Courtesy of Mr. Jane. He said that you'd enjoy watching your antics when you got better. I believed him at the time, but when I gave him the tapes he chuckled kind of… evilly. I'm really, really, sorry."
"It's okay," Lisbon assured her, and despite herself her anger melted away and she was grinning. "The best of us have fallen prey to Jane."
"So what you said about Castle it wasn't true?" Van Pelt asked, her voice tinged with disappointment. "Wow. I was almost convinced to start watching the show, just to see if the two of you were really that cute."
"It would be nice for you to watch it anyway," Stana suggested. "But anyway, I thought you should know the truth. And now that you do, what are you going to do next?"
"What do you mean?"
Stana looked at Lisbon. "I may not be a 'real' detective, but I know love when I see it. And you are in love with Mr. Jane, and you," she turned to Van Pelt, "totally head over heels for Mr. Rigsby. There's no use denying it, either, since we've spent the last few days discussing just how much the two of you love your respective male colleagues. Now, I'm going to ask again; what are you going to do about it?"
Lisbon sighed unhappily. "It's against regulations. If Bertram found out, he'd split us all up. I don't think I could handle that."
"Me, either," Van Pelt agreed. "What we do is too important, and I can't imagine working with anybody else but my team. I'd quit first!"
Stana nodded her understanding. "It's not fair, but I see where you're coming from. It's been nice meeting you both."
"You, too." Lisbon and Van Pelt both stood to shake the actress's hand. When she left, they looked at each other and shook their heads.
Lisbon let herself laugh. "That's exactly what Jane would do.'
"I can't believe that he got the others involved…" Van Pelt trailed off, thought for a moment, and nodded. "Yeah, actually I can. So should we plan our revenge?"
Lisbon shook her head. "Let's just pretend that we never found out. At least I got to meet famous people."
Van Pelt laughed. "Yeah. But I never even got any autographs to prove it!"
The women chuckled for a moment, and then their minds turned to their colleagues. The humor slipped out of the room as both wondered, with worry twisting knots in their stomach, where Cho was. It wasn't like him to disappear without telling anybody, and even less like him to remain disappeared. Both of them glanced unconsciously towards the lack of roses, and shivered. It was ridiculous to think the events were connected. Wasn't it?