Chapter 4

Jane was almost catatonic and Lisbon found it difficult to establish any kind of contact with him and ended up just holding him tightly. She was more shaken than she looked as she carefully tried to maintain a neutral look for Jane's benefit. To her surprise she wasn't afraid of Jane, she was more worried about his mental state as this was the worst she had ever seen him. To her, this looked way more excessive response than what the situation warranted.

Yes, it had been scary to wake up to find Jane strangling her, but he had clearly been asleep and once he had been woken up by her punch, he had immediately been lucid and completely in control of himself and the horror in his eyes was enough to convince her that the strangling hadn't been intentional. Like she would ever believe that he would be capable of hurting her.

However they really needed to sort out Jane's head as this was going to destroy him before any damage came to her. That she was sure about.

Jane was finally quieting down and seemed to only be shaking now as he clung to Lisbon. She looked down at him while stroking his back with her hand.

"Jane? Jane, look at me," she gently said trying to coax him to lift his face. Jane just shook his head.

"This is not your fault. You are not responsible what happens in your dream," Lisbon tried again.

"It is my fault. It's all my fault," came Jane's mumbled response. Lisbon didn't even try to talk him out of it, but changed tactics.

"Well, what are you going to do about it?" she asked.

Jane stilled, his breathing calming down as he considering this question that came completely out of the blue. Lisbon stayed silent and waited for his response. Jane finally straightened a bit and looked at her.

His eyes were brimming with tears and horror, his self-loathing was coming off in waves, but he made an effort to seriously consider the question as Lisbon had hoped he would. It would side track his mind to consider practical ways of dealing with this instead of wallowing in the horror of the hypothetical.

"Sleep in a different room?" he said a question in his voice.

"Hmm," Lisbon answered non-committedly.

"Sleep only 90 min before waking up," he said next with a slight hesitation.

"That would keep me from going into deep sleep," he said with more conviction.

"That might work," Lisbon agreed as she tried to keep him going.

"I can try to achieve lucid dreaming so I can control the dream," was his next suggestion as he was gathering steam and becoming calmer.

"I can re-visit self-hypnosis and make myself to dream other things," Jane said next as he looked at Lisbon with a small hopeful look.

"Is that possible?" Lisbon asked with her usual skepticism, which clearly brought comfort for Jane as he started explaining the different techniques he had used in the past. When he came to the reason why he had used them, he became serious.

"I had to establish coping mechanisms to survive in the mental hospital after my family died and eventually to be able to cope with the outside world when I was released," he quietly said.

Lisbon hugged him fiercely.

"Now that you are aware what you can do, I'm sure you will be able to beat this," she said.

XXX

After Lisbon had gotten through to him and helped him to focus and find solutions to the present situation, he felt calmer although he was still very upset what had happened.

He was in awe of this woman, who after everything didn't flinch when she looked at him and tried to make him feel better instead of kicking his ass and getting him committed to a mental hospital again.

"I want to sleep on the couch," he said carefully, "Just in case."

Lisbon looked at him for some time until she made up her mind.

"Only tonight," she said.

"Once you have control over your dream-scape, you will be back here," she said sternly.

Jane couldn't do anything else than hug her and just hold her for a long time. He didn't deserve this amazing, understanding woman, but here she was anyway. He couldn't be luckier and he would do everything he could to keep her safe and if that meant going to war with his subconscious then that would be what he would do.

He inhaled her scent and enjoyed her petite, warm body against his and let it calm him down. Eventually he let her go and kissed her forehead.

"Thank you," he whispered and tried to put everything he felt into those words.

Lisbon just smiled and got out of the bed, walking towards the guest bedroom and waving him to follow. Jane followed although he would have been more comfortable with sleeping downstairs instead of next door but that would do tonight as he was planning to start on countermeasures straight away.

"Are you sure the alarm won't disturb you if I set it for every 90 minutes?" Jane asked as he fiddled with his phone.

"I'll be fine," Lisbon answered, satisfied that Jane seemed to have overcome the initial horror and helplessness.

"You do what's necessary," she continued and leaned down to kiss him gently.

"Goodnight," she said before leaving the room and closing the door behind her leaving Jane to lie on the bed, feeling guilty again.

He set his alarm and tried to relax, but didn't expect to fall asleep. If he never slept again, it would be fine by him.

XXX

The dark figure standing next to the trees on a small hill some way from Lisbon's house, lifted a cell phone to make a call.

"He's definitely reacting, but not in the way we expected," the man in dark clothes said.

"I don't care how he's reacting as the main thing is that it's working," came the answer.

"There is something else interfering with the process and it's possible that the outcome is not what you wanted," he tried.

"Continue," came terse answer and the line went dead.

The man sighed and put the phone away. There was nothing else to do than observe anyway as the process was started several months ago and there was no way of guiding its course now. It was interesting to note that the strangling had been completely unexpected as it had never been part of the plan. He idly wondered where that had come from. It was unknown what Lisbon and Jane had been talking about, but the fact that Jane was now in a different room and clearly refused to sleep, meant that there was no point in staying. Better to come back tonight.

The man carefully packed the binoculars and as had been his custom for the past two months, brushed away all the footprints and signs of anyone ever having been there.

Although the effect on Jane apparently was unexpected, it still filled him with anticipation.

Finally Patrick Jane was getting what he deserved and there was no way he could weasel his way out of it.

TBC