They made their way up the driveway, twilight fading into darkness around them; the sun had set while they were inside Roy's house. Lisbon was still in front of Jane, trooping forward with determination, but he could see that her strength was waning. To the casual observer she may have seemed fine but to Jane's practiced eyes it was obvious in the slight hesitation before she placed her unsteady feet; the way she kept her arms crossed so she could tuck her hands under her armpits to prevent them from trembling; and the way that her cheeks were an unnatural, delicate shade of pink that Jane had never seen on her features that told him all was not well.

She had begun to breathe a little harder and though Jane was too he attributed his to his lack of athleticism and hers to some kind of strange side-effect of the injection she'd been given. He was so intently watching her and settled into the silence they had fallen into that he jumped a little when she broke it.

"How long is this damn driveway? I don't remember it being this far in the car."

"You must have been driving too quickly for once," Jane responded automatically, pushing her buttons without thought. She scoffed in return and they dropped back into silence; Jane was pretty sure that she hadn't responded with more wit because she didn't have the energy. Her words had slurred together as though she were drunk, the only spaces between them placed by her harsh little pants for air. While this was alarming in itself what concerned Jane more was the fact that she hadn't noticed how she had been speaking.

He didn't have time to dwell on that, though; she stumbled, her feet tangling together and causing her to fall. He acted instinctively, leaping forward to catch her by the elbow and hip, hauling her forcefully back up to her feet before she could build enough momentum to bring them both down. Her arms flung back when he first grabbed her, automatically pushing away his help. She succumbed when he got her up, leaning back against him, just closing her eyes and breathing hard. He could feel that she was quivering; her skin was warm and flushed, sweaty against him. He wrapped one arm around her waist and brought his other hand up to rest on her forehead before running it through her hair. She sighed at the coolness of his hand on her warm skin and the tingling feeling his passing fingers left along her scalp.

He leaned down to murmur in her ear, "Dizzy?"

She kept her eyes closed, "m'fine, Jane."

He just gave a non-committal hum, not wanting to argue with her and rile her up; he needed her to be as strong as possible if they were going to make it out of this alive. She pushed off of him at that point and he did his best to let her go, allowing his hands slip off of her, staying close enough to catch her but still giving her the space he knew she needed.

"You sure you ready to get going again?"

"Yes, Jane; let's get going," Jane smiled to himself; he knew that she needed to be able to feed off of him, to feel a little agitated to be able to carry on.

He followed along in her wake, noting that their pace was much slower than before. He watched her careful steps, shadowing her every move, and so it was her that noticed what he did not.

"There's the road," the relief in her voice was palpable. If it wasn't, her empathetic sigh of, "thank god," certainly was.

He smiled as they walked up the end of the driveway and stepped on the asphalt. Jane was so wrapped up in enjoying the happy expression on her face that he almost missed the car that was racing towards them. The driver clearly hadn't seen them as they had just stepped up out of the ditch and onto the dark rural road. Jane's head whipped around to see that the driver wasn't even watching the road, was instead rooting around for something in the passenger seat; he clearly didn't expect to run into anyone at this hour. Jane grabbed Lisbon and yanked her back, ignoring her startled gasp of surprise and pain. The fell into the ditch, the car passing in front of them without harm, the driver not even noticing his near miss.

Jane chuckled at their luck and at himself; he'd been so wrapped up in her that he didn't even notice a car coming at him. Some mentalist he was! He pulled himself up out of the gully to check that the coast was now clear, turning back to make a joke to Lisbon.

He stopped cold at the sight of her body, limp and still in the bottom of the ditch. After a moment of frozen terror he was racing towards her, almost falling in his haste, hands grabbing at grass and dirt in an attempt to steady his mad rush. He stumbled to a stop beside her unconscious form, his hands hovering over her, hesitant and unsure as to what to do with her. He settled for turning her over, reaching a hand to find the pulse at her neck and leaning an ear to her mouth to listen to her breathing. He was reassured to find a steady pulse; her erratic breathing had him worried but he was happy that she was at least moving air. He shook her shoulder, "C'mon Lisbon, wake up for me."

She didn't comply and he decided to haul her up out of the dike, trying his best to be gentle. The terrain was steep and her dead weight wasn't conducive to that; he'd have to hope that she wouldn't mind the bruises. He was pretty sure that she wouldn't. Once he got her up onto the roadside he laid her out again, rechecking that she was still with him and merely out cold. Pleased to find that at least he lifted her as best he could, knowing that he had a ways yet to travel down the road before he could find her any help. He had just begun walking when there was the sound of a shot and something raced through the air directly in front of him. He could feel the whoosh of air from what he suspected was a passing bullet.

"Oh, crap."

So sorry that took so long! I kept playing with it and then I ended up straying from my original idea, etc. I like where it's going now but I need to put a little bit more thought into planning it before I work myself into a hole that I can't find a way out of, haha. And I'm not sure about my action-skills as of yet; I'm a lot more comfortable with character studies and one-shots. Your feedback was really great though and I'm looking forward to more. I plan on updating sometime next week as I'm at an archaeology project all weekend, but I'll keep thinking about this fic idea-wise at least even when I'm wading through the bushes, haha.

Ciao, Moksgmol