You guys have no idea how long I've had half of this done. Okay...maybe you do. I wrote 25% of this back in August. Another 25% in early September and the rest today. It was hard, annoying, but essential to write this one and hopefully...chapter nine won't take me so long to write. If so, feel free to club me in the head with any inanimate object you may choose. This is definitely not betaed and I have been sick for the past week...so the last half may suck.

I would like to thank everyone who subscribed, read, and favourited this go-round and you guys would be truly awesome if you were still reading.

MK: Godiva Fudge would really help...I really adore chocolate in general :)

dogeatdog: I'm really glad you're liking this. I was heavily influenced to write this from watching Lord of the Rings multiple times with my boyfriend...a year ago. But hopefully I can keep up with writing this. Especially when summer comes along :)

Disclaimer: No

Eight-Laced With Something Deadly

Jane slowly began to stir awake. He knew he had only three to four hours of sleep so far, but that was all right. Those three to four hours were better than he normally got on a regular basis. Fully opening his eyes, blinking away the sleep from his eyes, he began sitting up, hands grasping at the fluffy white duvet. Blinking once more, he reached up and ran a hand through his curls, which now lay flat against his skull. He sat up straighter, breathing in the musky air. Yep, he was definitely back in the Grand Realm.

"Good morning," he looked towards the window to see William standing there, looking out the window. Jane felt bad for his son, the poor young man was unable to touch anything tangible nor was he able to actually experience life, "How did you sleep?" nor could his son sleep during the night.

Jane nodded, "All right I guess," he pushed the blankets off his body, swinging over in his now wrinkled suit. Looking around, he noticed both Mira and Lisbon were missing. Turning his attention back to William, he barely had to open his mouth before his son knew what he was going to ask.

"Mira took Agent Lisbon downstairs for a quick breakfast," William turned to look at him, "You should join them," he offered a small smile, his arm reaching up to rest on his hips. Jane nodded, standing up from the uncomfortable bed and stretching to relieve the built up tension in his lower back.

"Are you coming? I mean you do not have to stay here alone," William nodded, moving towards the door. Again, these were the times when Jane felt sorry for the young man. He knew his son loved Mira, would do anything for her if he could. He knew his son felt helpless most of the times, which made him seem down when he could not engage in the activities he and Mira could.

…

Lisbon sat on the wooden bench, hands clasped firmly together in her lap. Across from her was Mira, reaching forward to grasp onto her fresh water. Lisbon looked over at the bar, a man standing behind was staring right back at her as he cleaned out the cutlery. When watching him, she felt uneasy, as if he were currently conspiring against something against her.

"Teresa?" she glanced back over at Mira, "Are you feeling okay?"

She nodded, tossing one more weary look over her shoulder then back again, "I'm fine, just a little tired," the Halfling nodded, "Where are we going today?"

"To the Wood Elves," Mira smiled, "Very pretty there, but it could take some convincing to let us past. Last time Patrick and I were there he caused some trouble."

"How?"

Mira shook her head, "Oh, it's nothing. He only caused a marriage to one of the most respected high orders to fall apart," she looked up, now seeing a petite woman – probably another elf – come towards them, holding two bowls in her hands. The large man behind the bar stopped her with his hand on her upper arm. He leaned down and whispered something in her ear. She nodded up at him, turning back into the kitchen.

Lisbon leaned forward, her 'cop instincts' telling her to follow the petite woman back into the kitchen area to be sure that nothing was going wrong. She braced her hand on her thigh and was about to push herself up when Mira spoke.

"Where are you going?" Lisbon looked over at the Halfling.

"Uh," she could not think of anything to really tell the woman, "It's nothing," she turned back around to sit herself at the table once more. She brought her hands up on top of the table portion and began occupying herself with twiddling her thumbs.

For some reason, it felt like something was about to go horribly wrong.

…

Jane and William made their way down to the main tavern portion of the building. Scanning the area, he began his search for the two petite women: one blonde and one brunette. Lips slightly moving upwards at the sight of the two women sitting at a wooden table made him smile. Everything seemed to be in order and if her were to join them, everything would be great. Looking over his shoulder he gestured for William to follow him. The young man did as he was instructed, following him over to the tables. It didn't escape him that William did not sit down along with him, he just merely stood there after saying a brief good morning once again to Mira.

Jane sat down on the bench next to Lisbon, looking over and giving her a bright and cheery smile, "Good morning Lisbon," he leaned forward onto the wooden table and clasped his hands together, "What's for breakfast?"

Lisbon shrugged her shoulders and looked over at Mira, who simply opened her mouth, "I ordered kind of a usual meal for us. I could place an order for you?"

Jane nodded eagerly, his stomach rumbling was a dead give-away of his hunger, "Yes, thank you," Mira nodded and stood up, heading over to the bartender to place one more order. He then turned to Lisbon as he leaned back a little, placing his hands in his lap, "I assume you slept all right last night."

She shook her head, reaching over for the cup of water sitting on the edge of the table, "The bed was very lumpy," she took a brief sip before placing it back down on the table, "I'm still having trouble grasping all this."

He shrugged, "I'm not so surprised," he chuckled, "You should have actually known your entire life and yet you just discovered it," he glanced up at Mira, who was being 'shadowed' by William. The two of them brought a smile to his face – especially when the Halfling turned around and looked up at him with a delighted grin.

Lisbon followed his gaze, "What's their deal?"

Jane shrugged once more, "They're just old-fashioned lovebirds. Have technically been since the 1690's," Lisbon's eyes squeezed shut. Yes, she was definitely still adjusting, "Sorry," he spoke softly.

She raised her hand up to silence him, "It's all right," she paused, her mouth trying to form the correct words, "You don't know how hard this is..."

He smiled at her, "Yes I do," her gaze caught his, "I found out about all this," he waved his hand around a bit, "Stuff in the 1530's, back when witchcraft was definitely considered a practice of the devil."

She nodded, looking up to see her other two fellow travelers coming back to the table. She gave them a small smile as Mira sat across from them, William once more by her side, "They'll bring all our orders out in a few moments, not much long now."

"That's great, I'm really quite famished," Jane leaned forward, rubbing his hands together as he leaned over the table, elbows now resting upon it, "I can't really remember when I last ate."

"Well, if you would have stayed in the hospital you wouldn't have had to worry about that," Lisbon cast him a knowing look.

Jane thought about saying something to her about the usage of her power in the hospital, but he refrained from doing so. He decided this really wasn't the best time to bring that up at the moment. Maybe in a few years they could remember that moment and laugh about it – and also remember how stunned everyone in the lobby looked. He leaned back in his seat just in time to see Mira heading in their direction, William by her side. Jane's eyes instantly locked onto their hands, or more so William's. His ghostly hand was barely brushing hers. It really wasn't like they were holding hands, but he knew that Mira could at least feel a slight brush of air whenever he tried to do that. Jane fought back a sad smile and turned back to Lisbon just as the couple came to the table.

"Our order will be out shortly, which is great because I am feeling quite peckish," Lisbon smiled over at the Halfling, whose words sounded an awful lot like Jane in a way. Not many people in the world today used such words, it just seemed unnatural hearing them from a young in appearance woman.

Jane nodded, "Good," and he pulled himself forward just in time to see food be placed in front of the two woman accompanying him at the table. He looked up to the waitress and smiled at her, and she gave him an uneasy look as she placed the food in front of him.

Something was not right, he could just tell. The Elven waitress seemed off, and that was never a good sign when it came to being inside an eating establishment. For a split second, he thought about exchanging his meal, but the grumbling in his stomach kept him from doing so. Instead, he picked up his spoon and dipped it in the pasty liquid.

…

After they had all finished their meals, they ascended the staircase and into the room they occupied during the night. Jane and Mira carefully packed up the few belonging they had and slung them over their backs. The entire time Lisbon watched them interact while she sat on the lumpy mattress with a pillow laying over her lap. To her, it was weird seeing Jane this serious over something as silly as packing up for a trip, though he actually preferred the phrasing 'journey' over 'trip.'

"We should probably buy two horses, we can get to the Wood Elves much faster on horseback."

At this, Lisbon had perked up, "But there's three of us," she felt bad for not counting William, and she took a mental note to apologize to him later over the whole thing. Her comment had indeed caught Jane and Mira's attention. The duo halted their preparations and looked over at her, and instantly she felt awkward.

"We don't really have enough money to buy more than one horse," Mira said simply as she threw her knapsack over her back. "If Patrick does not insult the Wood Elves again this time around, they may give us a third horse," she flashed Jane a warning look and walked through the door.

William gave Jane and Lisbon one last lingering glance over his shoulder before he promptly followed Mira out of the room. Lisbon drew in a deep breath, and tried to mentally prepare herself for this journey. From what she heard, it was going to be long and extremely tedious. If she made it through this alive without killing Jane, she would forever and without a doubt be in debt of the powers that be.

"Uh, Lisbon, are you ready to go?" Jane asked her softly.

She turned to him and nodded, "As ready as I'll ever be," he nodded at her and placed a hand on her lower back to help move her through the door and towards the wooden staircase. She glanced over her shoulder one last time to see the door close on its own and she blinked. Her vision was slightly blurry, but when she blinked a second time it cleared out.

"Are you okay?" Jane's concerned voice was heard from her side.

Blinking furiously, she nodded again, "Yeah, I'm fine. I think I just got something in my eye," she reached up and rubbed at it, hoping that whatever could have gotten in her eye was gone. One last blink, and she concluded that it was gone."

Jane smiled by her side, "All better?"

"Seriously Jane, I probably had some little piece of dust in my eye. I'll live."

…

Grace walked into the bullpen and looked around. It was empty for the most part. It was void of an obnoxious consultant and Lisbon had to leave town for a family emergency. Granted, Jane was recently shot and no doubt he was still in the hospital recovering from his wounds, but Grace couldn't help but feel some kind of eerie feeling of doubt that Jane is not in fact currently occupying a hospital bed. Tapping her chin, she moved to sit down onto her chair and gazed at the worn couch. Grace scrunched up her face and rubbed her chin lightly.

"If you keep that face for much longer, it'll stick like that," Grace abruptly turned to Cho, "Rigsby has gone to visit Jane at the hospital because he's surprised he hasn't shown up here yet."

Cho sat down at his desk. He leaned back and momentarily studied Grace's intense features. The rookie agent was thinking rather deeply, and due to the fact that she was intently staring at Jane's couch, it had something to do with the consultant.

"Do you ever get the feeling that Jane is unique?" she asked, running her fingertip along her bottom lip.

Without missing a beat, Cho spoke, "Yes."

Grace shook her head, "No, I mean special unique. Like he's much more different that we think."

Cho shook his head, "No, I don't think that could be possible."

The rookie agent opened her mouth and was about to speak when her iPhone chirped beside her. She jumped and looked down at the touch screen and slid her thumb over it. She pressed the 'speaker' button and held it up to her mouth.

"Wayne?"

She heard a heavy sigh, "We may have a problem. Jane wasn't in his room. And since the power outage he's been missing."

Grace's eyes opened in alarm and she clutched onto the iPhone tighter, "Why weren't we notified?"

"Because someone thinks they saw him exit the hospital with the boss and his sister."

When Rigsby finished his sentence, Grace looked up at Cho. She almost felt like quirking her eyebrow in his direction because all of this was so incredibly…weird. Why would Jane leave with Lisbon during a power outage? And isn't he an only child?

"But…Jane never mentioned any siblings…"

"No, he hasn't. But I wouldn't be surprised," Grace looked up at Cho when he spoke as he came up to stand before her desk, "Rigsby, do we know her name?"

"Yeah…Mira Calkins. She's his younger half-sister through his dad and is a junior at Sacramento State University. She also mentioned to one of the nurses that she's from New Jersey…"

Cho turned towards Grace, "I want to know more about Mira Calkins. I think there's more to her than just being a student. Jane doesn't have any siblings – half or not – so he could be in danger. Rigsby, see if you can find anyone else that can remember Jane from that evening."

"Got it."

Grace nods, "On it," and she clicks 'end' on her phone.

…

It was happening again – her vision blurring that is. Ever since it first happened back at the inn, it periodically had come up until now…it came up frequently. After six hours of travelling, her vision has blurred multiple times and she feels as if she has grown extremely near sighted. It was making her head hurt and dizzy spells were hitting her left and right from it. Her stomach lurched and her arms tightened around Jane's waist. She groaned and suddenly felt the need to vomit, but swallowed it down. Her stomach was clenching painfully and she let out a slight whimper of pain.

"Lisbon, are you sure you're okay?"

She nods against his back, "M'fine Jane, just feeling a little nauseous."

Lisbon opens her eyes and sees Mira's horse dart forward and do a loop around until she halted it before Jane's. The Halfling narrowed her eyes at Lisbon, inspecting her almost, and flicked the reins so the horse would move closer. Suddenly the Halfling's eyes widened and she moved forward, her hand grabbing onto Lisbon's chin and turning her head to the side.

"You are not fine!" she looked over at Jane, "Patrick, we have to go now!" she flicked the reins again and completely went around Jane's horse and started off before him at a high speed, "Come on!" she yelled, "Move!"

He looked over his shoulder and his breath got caught in his throat. Dark circles were present underneath Lisbon's eyes and her skin had grown sickly pale. His eyes widened and moved a hand down to wrap around her insanely hot ones and flicked the reins on his steed. The horse neighed and lurched forward at an almost breakneck speed. Something was wrong, and he now knew that if they did not get to the Wood Elves in time, Lisbon may not make it to saving the Celestial Realm.

"Jane? What's going on?"

He shook his head, "You're going to be fine, Teresa, we'll get you there as soon as we can."

He couldn't afford to lose her. The entire Celestial Realm couldn't afford to lose her. If something happened to her or if she died, then darkness would overtake the entire Realm and rapidly creep into Earth. The world as they know it would become a dark and horrible place, and many will perish. This would all be over before it ever really started. She, the last hope, could not die merely before she could even use her power to its full capacity.

She could not die.

I was originally going to write more...BUT my brain is overloaded, I have a lot to do, and there's always room for it in chapter nine :)

Preview:

Jane leaned over her and cupped her cheeks in his calloused hands. He was breathing deeply from exertion as he tried to quickly evaluate Lisbon's condition. Her lips were blue, her skin was ghostly pale and cold, and her body was limp against the tree stump. There was a soft illuminating glow pulsating around her, and he knew she was barely alive. She was rapidly fading. Dying. Only Elven magic could possibly save her now, not any other type of modern medicine back on Earth could repair the damage done to her by the poison.

"They are coming," he turned and looked up, seeing Mira holding onto the reins of her horse and leaning into it with her eyes closed. When her eyes opened, he was shocked to see them bloodshot. Just like Lisbon's two hours ago.