Protective

He was running down the hallway at a breakneck pace. He had to get to her before…

He stopped short suddenly the cold hand of dread strangling the breath from his lungs.

She was lying on the floor in a crumpled heap.

Jane forced himself forward to help his partner. He knelt down beside Lisbon's still form, pulled out his phone and dialed 911 while feeling to see if she still had a pulse.

The giant knot in his chest loosened slightly when he felt the weak but steady beat beneath his fingertips.

As soon as his call was answered he frantically told them that an officer was down and that she needed an ambulance at their location right away.

"Alright sir," the woman on the other end of the line replied. "Can you tell me the nature of her injuries?"

He checked her over and when he caught sight of a small puncture wound in her left arm the pit of his stomach dropped.

"She's been injected with something. I don't know what."

"Is she conscious?"

Jane shook her shoulder. Lisbon's eyes opened a fraction and she let out a small moan.

"Yes," he confirmed. "Barely."

"Okay, I need you to keep her awake until we can get to you."

"I understand," he said hurriedly and hung up.

Shoving the phone back into his pocket he looked down only to panic when he saw that Lisbon's eyes were closed.

He propped her up against the nearest wall and brought his hands to her shoulders.

"Lisbon, open your eyes. You have to stay awake till the ambulance gets here."

There was no response.

"Come on honey, don't do this," he pleaded while shaking her urgently. "You need to wake up Teresa, now."

There was still no response.

Not knowing what else to do Jane raised his arm.

"Sorry," he whispered and brought his hand down to her cheek in a hard slap.

He cringed at the resounding smack as his palm came into contact with her face.

If that didn't do it he didn't know what else would.

Just as he'd given up, decided that hadn't worked either and was trying to think of anything else he could do he heard the woman in front of him moan quietly.

"Ouch."

Jane immediately brought his hands up to either side of her face and peered at her intently.

"Lisbon? Can you hear me?"

She mumbled out one syllable, "Jane."

"Yeah, it's me. Can you open your eyes?"

In answer to his question her eyelids fluttered open halfway.

Jane didn't think he'd ever been so relieved to see her soft green eyes before.

"Good, that's good Teresa," he commended her. "Now I need you to keep them open. The paramedics will be here soon. Okay?"

She nodded her head slightly, "Okay."

After a few minutes of Jane talking nonstop and firmly patting her arms and shoulders in an effort to keep her awake Lisbon whispered out another word.

"Sleep."

"Not yet sweetheart. Soon though, I promise."

Then he heard the sirens.

"Real soon."

Four hours later and she was doing just that.

She was going to be fine. The doctor had told him what she'd been injected with but he'd been to hyped up at the time to remember the medical name. He had called Cho and told him Lisbon was going to be alright though.

Jane stayed with her while she slept. He wanted to be there when she woke up, which the doctor had said shouldn't be in too long.

He looked up from his task of folding a piece of paper into a little origami frog when he heard his partner start to stir.

Abandoning his craft and sliding forward in his seat he took hold of Lisbon's left hand gently.

"Teresa?" he said softly not wanting to wake her if she was still asleep.

He felt her reciprocate his hand hold with a slide of her thumb along his, then the small woman opened her eyes slowly.

She blinked sleepily and turned her head toward him.

"Hey," she greeted huskily, her voice rough from hours of silence.

"Hey yourself," he answered.

Lisbon extended her tongue to lick over her dry lips.

Jane took the hint and fetched her a glass of water. But instead of handing the cup to her he played nursemaid. He sat down on her hospital bed, helped her sit up, and brought the paper holder to her mouth.

She grumbled a bit during the process saying she could do it herself, but Jane ignored her. He liked helping her and she liked it too, though she wouldn't admit it.

After she'd had a substantial amount of water Lisbon questioned, "Did we get him?"

Jane nodded, "We got him."

She closed her eyes in relief.

Cho had taken Lisbon's attacker and their victim's murderer into custody a couple of hours before.

"Lisbon?"

"Hmm?"

"Promise you'll never do that to me again? You scared the life out of me."

She sighed tiredly.

"Jane, it's my…"

"Job to be in harms way," he finished for her. "Yes I know. But do you think you could be more careful in future. I'm actually very fond of you. Also, I miss you when you're not around."

"I don't think I could've been more careful than I was," she reasoned. "And I'm so glad you'd miss me," she added sarcastically.

"Of course I'd miss you Lisbon. Who else would put up with me if you were gone?"

"No one with their head screwed on right," she answered snidely.

"Insulting yourself Teresa?" he asked playfully.

"Yes, but I've been resigned to the fact that my head isn't screwed on right since the day I signed on with you," she replied calmly.

"Ah," was his response.

"What's that?" she asked gesturing to the, as of yet, formless piece of paper sitting on the bedside table.

"Hmm?...Oh, I was making you a frog as a thanks to you for not dying on me," he explained.

Lisbon smirked, "You're welcome."

She took a deep breathe and smiled cheekily at Jane.

"So…when are you bustin' me out of this joint, partner?"

He grinned back mischievously, apparently quite willing to play along.

"Okay, so here's the plan…" he began.

-:':-:':-:':-

"I still cannot believe you did that," Lisbon said as she and Jane walked through the front door of her apartment.

She had wanted to go back to work and do the mountain of paperwork that came with their now solved case (courtesy of a certain consultant who shall remain nameless), but Jane had insisted, with absolutely no room for argument, that she was most definitely going straight home.

"What? The woman needed a bit of a shaking up," he defended himself of her criticism.

"I think that was more than just a bit of a shaking up."

"Fine," he grumbled. "I don't know what you're complaining about though. I got you out of there like you wanted."

"I'm not complaining Jane," she corrected. "But I do think that you should use a less dramatic method next time."

"Next time? Oh no, no, no, no Lisbon. There will be no 'next time'."

She looked at him exasperatedly.

"We went over this. I have…"

"Yes, yes," he interrupted. "I heard you the first time."

Jane stared at his shoes suddenly feeling somewhat self-conscious.

"Sorry, I'm feeling a little overly protective. Happens when someone I care about very nearly gets herself killed."

"I don't put myself in those kind of situations on purpose you know," she said gently, her irritation at his behavior lessening.

He transferred his gaze from the floor to Lisbon's face.

"I know," was his equally gentle answer.

They stayed in silence for a few moments until Lisbon spoke up.

"Well, thanks for dropping me off."

"You want me to leave?" Jane asked.

"You'd intended to stay?"

"Yeah."

"Oh."

"You don't mind do you?"

"No, of course not," she assured him.

"Good, because I'd really feel better if you let me stay the night."

"The night?"

Lisbon sounded surprised.

"That's what I meant by stay."

"Oh."

"So you do mind?"

"No, it's fine. You can have the guest bedroom."

"That's not necessary for just one night. I'll sleep on the couch."

"Alright, well I'll get you a couple blankets and a pillow then," she said as she moved towards the staircase.

"Thanks. Although, it's too early to go to bed yet," he informed her gesturing to the digital clock on her nick-knack shelf. "Do you feel like a movie?"

"Sure," she agreed readily. "But I'm going to take a quick shower first."

"That's fine."

Lisbon was half way up the stairs when Jane stopped her again.

"By they way, how long will you be taking?"

He clarified when she stared at him confusedly.

"I thought I'd start the popcorn so it's ready when you get done."

"What makes you think I have popcorn?" she challenged him.

"Even you aren't above the odd food craving dear," he replied smoothly.

Lisbon sulked slightly. It wasn't fair. How did the man simply know these things?

"I should be about ten minutes," she answered to his earlier question.

"Ten minutes?" He was clearly impressed. "I'm not even that quick, and I don't have the washing impediment of long hair."

"And I hope you never do," she said playfully.

Turning away from him and continuing up the stairs she laughed inwardly at the visual she'd just given herself.

Jane with long hair…horrifying to say the least.

During Lisbon's shower Jane found and put the popcorn in the microwave, then searched through her collection of films. Not very many, but then that wasn't surprising. He finally chose one he couldn't recall ever having seen and put it in the DVD player.

By the time the popcorn was done, put into a bowl, and salted Lisbon was done with her shower.

She came down the stairs with a towel thrown over her shoulder holding the bed clothes for the couch securely in her arms.

Jane, being a gentleman (at least in most cases), moved to assist her. He relieved her of the large soft bundle she was carrying and deposited it on one of the easy chairs in the living room.

Then he turned and observed discreetly as Lisbon dried her hair in the kitchen.

He supposed it was rather weird but it made him feel better.

In the past when he'd watched his wife do the same thing it had relaxed him for some reason.

Seeing Lisbon go through the same little ritual calmed him, which was something he was definitely in need of, what with everything that had happened earlier.

When she'd finished she flung her head back to get the wet strands of hair away from her face and Jane's breathing hitched slightly. She really was lovely…and adorable, he added mentally.

She was practically swimming in the over sized button down she was wearing, although she had made up for the size difference by tying together the two pieces of excess fabric in the front. Also, the black sweatpants with the white strips running down the legs from hip to ankle were strangely fetching.

Now sufficiently dry Lisbon opened a door on one end of her kitchen and threw the used towel into what he concluded to be the laundry room.

Figuring he'd spent enough time gawking at his partner Jane forced himself to move and walked into the small kitchen.

Lisbon was now rummaging around in the fridge. She gave a triumphant sound and emerged holding up two sodas.

"Last in the house," she declared.

"Lucky," he replied as he grabbed the bowl of popcorn and headed back to the living room with Lisbon behind him.

"Did you salt it?" she inquired.

"Of course."

"Good. Alright, there's Root Beer and Mellow Yellow. Take your pick," she said while plopping down unceremoniously onto the couch.

Jane smirked at the rather childish action.

"Root Beer, definitely," he chose setting down the bowl of their evening snack on the coffee table in front of the sofa and sitting down (in a more subdued manner than his companion) beside Lisbon.

She snatched up the remote from the table and pressed play.

"Oh, nice choice," she said happily as the film began.

"Thought I'd give it a try."

"You've never seen it?" she asked surprised.

"Nope. Why, should I have?"

"Pfft…Bringing Up Baby is probably one of the better comedies Cary Grant did."

"You must be quite the Grant buff," Jane commented, amused.

"Not of him exclusively," she corrected. "But of the old classics? Absolutely."

By the time the movie (which was admittedly quite good Jane thought) was done they'd finished the sodas, the popcorn, and Lisbon was sound asleep on Jane's shoulder. He'd noticed she'd conked out about half way or so through the movie and had turned the volume down so she wouldn't wake up.

He wasn't surprised she'd fallen asleep. One, she'd had a pretty hectic day and two, they'd given her something at the hospital that causes drowsiness.

Not wanting to disturb her and feeling very comfortable himself Jane turned off the TV, leaned back gently pulling her along with him, hooked his legs around hers and swung both pairs up onto the cushions so their bodies were reclining .

Lisbon moaned slightly but didn't wake. In fact, as soon as they were settled she actually snuggled further into him.

Jane imagined she had to really be out of it to do that.

Not that he minded.

The pillow and blankets stayed where they were, forgotten. The armrest served almost as well as a pillow and who needed blankets when a warm Teresa Lisbon was cuddled up to them?

Jane shifted a bit so he could look down at the small woman slumbering against him and smiled. This was something he definitely wanted to repeat. Maybe even in a bed if he was lucky.

With that thought for the future in his mind Jane tightened his arms slightly around his sleeping partner and closed his eyes.

Thanks for reading. Please review and tell me which one you preferred.