A/N: I'm glad that people find this interesting and are taking the time to read/review/favorite. Let's continue the story.
Chapter 5
Lisbon was sitting on a bench in a small park to clear her head. She was cradling a cup of black strong coffee and just the aroma was enough to untangle some of the tightness from her shoulders. She had left the FBI office and decided to walk a bit further away where she had seen a small coffee shop in a street corner as they had once driven past it. It had looked small and a bit shabby but it had been full of people and a continuous stream of coffee deprived customers had been entering and exiting its doors. And finally today she had given in for her need of privacy, a bit of fresh air and a good cup of coffee.
When she had gathered her jacket and put in on, Jane had raised an eyebrow from his sofa and made a move to get up, however Lisbon had minutely shaken her head and he had sunk back into it. As she left her desk she generally announced her intent on taking a small break to which Cho had just simply nodded and Wylie was oblivious to the world as his computer held his focus. Lisbon was grateful that Jane didn't make a fuss but seemed to understand her need for space.
The park was small, but busy with people taking coffee breaks, students lounging on the grass studying and small children running around in the sunlight. It was a welcome breath of normality and she took a moment to enjoy it. She couldn't see herself anymore as the other people, she had long ago passed the boundary of what might be called a normal life. It had brought Patrick Jane into her life though and for that she was grateful.
He was one of the reasons why she needed to be alone for a while. When they were off duty, she continuously kept a close eye on him, worrying, looking for signs even though she didn't know what signs those might be. When they were at work, she could trust Cho to look after Jane and intervene if he happened to do something in his sleep even though they hadn't told him what was going on.
Since that night when Jane had tried to strangle her, he had stayed in the guest bedroom. He had thrown everything he knew into controlling his dreams and so far he had been successful. He looked very tired as he kept to his interrupted sleep pattern but it wasn't anything he hadn't done before. Jane otherwise kept to his usual schedule of coming to work with her, but more often than not, didn't come to the field anymore, but stayed on his couch giving his insights from the depth of the soft leather.
Red John had made all of them paranoid. She couldn't shake the feeling that there was something else going on, but Red John was dead. That knowledge didn't do much to alleviate her worries, but there was nothing tangible to cling onto so she made herself discard all the thoughts of conspiracies.
She continued to sip her coffee and to soak up the sun while she tried to relax and enjoy this moment of peace as she was sure it wouldn't last for long.
XXX
Cho kept a careful eye on Jane as Lisbon left the floor. There was something going on with them, but he couldn't quite figure out what. Jane looked like he had when he had first started working at CBI, like he hadn't been sleeping and Lisbon looked worried all the time although she tried to hide it. Cho saw straight through her after all these years though.
"You look tired," he said when Jane noticed him watching.
"Meh, bad dreams, you know how it gets," Jane answered while he shrugged his shoulders. His answer surprised Cho, he had expected the usual flippant answer from him.
Cho stopped writing and stared at the man on the sofa until he started squirming under his gaze.
"Stop it Cho," he said after a while and Cho smiled inside; he still could make the overtly confident Jane uncomfortable.
"Want to share?" Cho asked.
Jane stopped fidgeting and carefully didn't look at him. So it was something bad.
"Not really," came his answer.
"Okay," Cho said and went back to his paperwork. He knew that the more he pushed, the more Jane would stubbornly withhold. When he wanted to share, he would talk. He had made it clear that he was willing to listen and now the ball was in Jane's court.
When Lisbon returned to the office, it was to find Abbott waiting for her to start briefing the team about the next case.
XXX
The case had taken them out of state and proven to be more complicated that they originally thought. They had been on it now for almost a week and this was their first good lead, hence the whole team had packed up and stayed the night in the hotel, close to the local FBI office. Tomorrow morning they would hopefully make the arrest.
Lisbon and Fischer were sharing a room, while Cho and Wiley shared another. To Cho's surprise Jane had declined to share the room with him and had paid for a single room for himself leaving Abbott alone in the third room.
Abbott had expressed his puzzlement as well and Jane had weakly given an excuse of having problems sleeping and not wanting to disturb anyone. Cho had turned to Lisbon, but she had looked torn rather than surprised. He really needed to get to the bottom of what was bothering those two.
The team was exhausted and everybody agreed to go straight to bed and get up early in the morning to finish the case. Cho stayed back and was glad to see Lisbon also linger in the lobby for a moment. The rest of the team headed to their rooms, including Jane who looked like he was about to collapse. He didn't even notice that Lisbon hadn't followed them.
"What's going on?" Cho asked when they were alone.
"Jane has been having really bad nightmares," Lisbon answered. Cho waited for her to continue as he didn't believe that was the whole story.
"I'll tell you when we get back home," she mumbled and suddenly all strength seem to go out of her as her shoulders sagged and her eyes became dull with tiredness.
"I need to talk to someone but let's finish this case first," she quietly said and looked at Cho who nodded gravely and gently took her arm and escorted her to her room as he continued to his own.
"Goodnight," Lisbon said and slipped in through the door as Cho nodded and opened his own door. Wiley was fast asleep already and Cho quickly got ready for bed. He was ready to leave the questions unanswered for now, but was expecting the full story once this case was over. Lisbon knew that he would do anything to help them and was hoping that she would trust him like she used to.
XXX
Lisbon woke up in the darkness and was disorientated first, but when she heard the screams coming from outside she bolted upright to find Fischer already armed and ready to run out of their room. They weren't the only ones as also Cho and Abbott were emerging, their guns drawn. Wiley was still in bed, sitting up looking confused as Cho closed the door behind him. As they made their way into the lobby where the screaming was coming from, Lisbon's mind distantly took note of how ridiculous they looked; Abbott in his stripy pyjamas, Cho in boxers and a white T-shirt, Fischer in her silky night dress and Lisbon in her own over-sized T-shirt that came down to her knees and only her panties underneath. And all of them holding guns. Her mind was silently giggling at the sight and she had to suppress the manic giggles surfacing.
They burst out into the lobby, guns drawn, gaze sweeping the scene making instant threat assessment and they all came to a sudden stop.
Jane was standing in the middle of the lobby, wearing his slacks and shirt but barefoot, his eyes closed and breathing deeply. He was holding a knife that had slick blood glistening on it and was facing a maid who was screaming in horror, holding her arm close to her chest while the blood kept dripping between her fingers. The hotel clerk from the counter was trying to talk to Jane.
Cho glanced at Lisbon who seemed to have frozen on the spot.
"Bad nightmares?" he asked quietly as he put his weapon away and approached Jane carefully.
Fischer had taken hold of the maid and was leading her slowly away while calling an ambulance. Abbott and Lisbon had both lowered their guns and Abbott was looking shocked. Lisbon finally shook herself and took a deep breath as she approached Jane.
"Jane, wake up," Cho was saying without much effect as Lisbon got closer. He was standing, fast asleep, a bloody knife in his hand, and not moving or making any signs that he had heard Cho.
"Let me," Lisbon said as she put her hand on Cho's arm. He nodded warily and stepped back.
"Jane, put the knife down," Lisbon said to which Jane didn't respond.
"Cho, can you go and get his phone and bring it to me," she said when nothing she tried made Jane respond. She didn't want to get any closer as the memory of his fingers against her throat was still fresh, but she had another idea that didn't require her to get any closer and would hopefully wake Jane up.
Cho didn't question her and took off to find Jane's phone.
"What's going on Agent Lisbon," Abbott asked and Lisbon once again had to contain her hysterical giggles at the sight of her supervisor in his pj's asking questions as usual. Her mind was definitely being stretched to its breaking point.
"He has been having bad nightmares and sleepwalking in the past few weeks," Lisbon explained and saw Cho coming back with a phone in his hand. Without any further explanations she asked Cho, "Has he set the alarm?"
"No," Cho answered as he looked at the phone.
"Damn, that's it," Lisbon said to herself making both Cho and Abbott look like they wanted more details. She didn't give them the time to come up with questions.
"Set the alarm for now," Lisbon instructed Cho as she kept close to Jane in case he started moving.
Cho complied and after few seconds, the alarm went off and it immediately had an effect on Jane. His eyes opened and when he saw Lisbon, he started to smile but seemed to then realize that this wasn't their bedroom and once he saw what was in his hand, he reflectively threw it away from him. He looked at Lisbon in terror and then looked down at his hands that had specks of blood on them. He eyes widened and he started hyperventilating, a deep keening escaping his mouth.
Lisbon stepped forward, now that he was awake and enveloped him in a tight hug, not caring who saw them.
"I'm okay," she whispered to his ear as she stroked his back trying to calm him down. She led him to sit down on a couch next to the wall, shielded partly by a large palm tree to give a little bit of privacy. She continued to talk to him, murmuring meaningless words, repeating that everything was okay as she held him close to her.
Abbot stared at them, then shook his head and went to Cho.
"Do you know what's going on?" he asked the stoic agent, who looked as confused as he felt.
"Lisbon said he had nightmares," was Cho's only answer.
"Well, this is a bit more serious," Abbott answered drily, "but let's calm down the locals first and talk to that poor maid."
XXX
In the end the story the two men managed to put together from the maid's and the clerk's statements was that Jane had appeared in the lobby the knife in his hand, totally unresponsive. Like sleepwalking had both the maid and the clerk said. When the maid approached asking if he required assistance, he had slashed her with the knife and just stood there as the maid screamed. Then the rest of team had made their entrance.
XXX
While Cho and Abbott were trying to piece the story together, Lisbon managed to calm Jane down to a level that he was able to talk. He was horrified at what he had done and kept checking Lisbon to make sure that he hadn't hurt her. He didn't want to let go of her hand either, like he wanted to make sure that she was physically there, anchoring him. He felt overwhelmed by horror and guilt and at the same time he felt the residue of joy and enjoyment, which were making him retch. At this point Lisbon decided to take him back to his room, but Jane didn't want to go. He didn't want to be alone, to be allowed to hurt people and he most definitely didn't want to be in a place where he could fall asleep by accident. He agreed to go to the bathroom to wash his hands as just the mere specks of blood were enough to make him retch.
When Cho and Abbott returned with Fischer they moved to the bar, although the bartender was looking at Jane warily and at the rest of them in confusion as they were still wearing their sleeping gear. Abbott waved at his hand holding the FBI badge that he had grabbed with his gun and the bartender finally made them coffee while casting glances at them while polishing the glasses. They all wanted to have something stronger, but it was too late or early depending how one thought about 4 am in the morning.
"The maid is okay, it was just superficial laceration," Fischer said after a while.
"The hotel manager is also pacified," Abbott added.
"Would you mind telling me what exactly is going on?" he continued looking at Lisbon and Jane.
Lisbon looked at Jane sitting next to her and he gave a little nod in consent, but didn't look up from staring at his hand in Lisbon's. Lisbon proceeded to tell about his nightmares leaving nothing out. When she was describing waking up to Jane strangling her, Abbott's and Cho's eyes widened and Jane kept his eyes downcast, however Lisbon held his hand tightly. When she was finished the other two men and Fischer were silent.
"Did something happen to trigger this?" Abbott asked.
"Has somebody been following you, harassing you?" asked Cho immediately thinking that there must be something else as he knew what Jane had gone through in the past, but hadn't had anything like this happen before.
Jane finally looked at the others and now they clearly saw the harrowing look in his tired, red rimmed eyes.
"Nothing," he said, "I can't remember anything out of the ordinary happening and haven't seen anybody who would make me suspicious," he continued resignedly.
"I have been sleeping in 90 minute cycles to stop myself getting into deep sleep and REM phase so I wouldn't dream, but I was so tired today that I forgot to set the alarm," Jane explained.
"We'll look into this and get you to see a doctor once back home," Abbott said leaving no space for arguments.
"Now though we might as well try to get what little sleep is left, make the arrest early and get home," he continued getting down from the bar stool.
"I'm not comfortable in public wearing only my pj's," he said as he made his way back to the stairs. Lisbon started yawning as well now the adrenaline was wearing off.
"You go," Jane said as he stroked her hair, "you must be exhausted."
"No, I'll stay with you," Lisbon stubbornly said, getting ready to order more coffee to stay awake.
"I'll stay with him," said Cho, "you go back to bed." He looked at himself and continued, "I'll just get some trousers on first."
Lisbon was so tired that after Jane insisted that she go back to bed, she gave up only waiting for Cho to return having dressed more appropriately.
Lisbon hugged Jane who looked like a lost child and kissed him gently.
"We will be fine," she whispered again before leaving the two men in an empty bar at four in the morning. She just hoped that those words wouldn't make her into a liar.
TBC