Chap. 11

That evening at seven, Jane passed the threshold of her home with two bags of groceries. He had tried three times to call her during the afternoon to know if she needed him to go shopping and to hear her voice after that last case. With no answer from her side he had became quite nervous and had struggled against his primal reaction to ask Wylie to localized her with her cellphone, but he had remembered that she needed time. The tension they were experiencing those days didn't need to worsen, with his over-protection.

The house was empty, which didn't bring his fears down, nevertheless he decided to begin making supper and to start panicking in an hour if she still didn't appear until then. 'Duck and oven cooked-potatoes' was his menu for the evening, betting that she would have eaten a light lunch and as she took her pain meds in the evening, she had to eat properly before going to sleep. While peeling the potatoes he had sent her a short message asking her at what time she thought she would be in, that was the minimum right he felt he still had without being misunderstood or too nosy. It proved to be unnecessary as he heard a car pull up in front of the house. Leaving his task he eyed discretely through the window and what he saw brought back anxieties that he thought had left with the plane to Washington a few month ago...

Outside Lisbon was in a dark-green modern car, nothing fancy there, and someone was helping her out, that was definitely not normal if one knew Lisbon as he knew her. She would never leave someone open the door like that unless something more than casual was happening. The guy was for sure the one from the morning and both were smiling nicely. Jane had to think fast. What was the best behavior to have? Return to the kitchen as nothing had occurred to him or open the door to welcome her and thereby signaling his knowledge of the event. Deciding for the latest he opened the door to see the car already driving away and Lisbon painfully approaching the door. He smiled sweetly at her and to his relief she smiled back. They were now facing each other, Jane brought his hand to her face and stroked gently her cheek before leaning down to kiss her. It was a short but loving kiss and Jane could feel how exhausted she was as she rested her weight on him. Gently he put his arm around her shoulder and they both went inside.

Lisbon was in pain, he could see that, but she also seemed to be in a quite peaceful mood.

"Supper will be ready in an hour, the potatoes still need to cook. Why don't you go and relax, take a bath and I'll call you when it's ready?", he whispered in her ear while hugging her.

She nodded her answer and after another minute in his warmth, she went to the bathroom, leaving a very confused Jane heading to the kitchen.

Jane couldn't put two and two together... On the one hand Lisbon seemed to enjoy the company of another guy, having a strange relationship with him, non answering her phone, and on the other hand she seemed to seek for Jane's embrace, kiss and presence. Simply spoken, he was helpless and needed rapidly to regain his brain in its top form.

Rather than a bath Lisbon decided to have a quick and warm shower to relax her contracted muscles. Getting undressed was still a bit trickier with her cast, but at least it didn't hurt her as much as it did the first day. Before falling asleep in the shower, she exited and enveloped herself in a towel. In the mirror she could still see her injured purple and yellow face and the bruises on her shoulder. It was all healing nicely and colorfully. In the bedroom her pajamas was waiting for her, but too tired she told herself to lay down a few minutes to regain strength to be able to dress and then eat. Her mistake was to close her eyes, which brought her directly in the world of dreams.

When all was ready, Jane set the table and called her, "Teresa, supper is ready!". Receiving no answer, he repeated louder, but still got no answer. Leaving the kitchen he headed towards the bathroom to check if she had fallen asleep in her bath. Seeing an empty bathroom he went to the bedroom and was fascinated to see her on the bed sprawled on her back and deeply asleep. Taking his time to look at her peaceful face, he approached her silently. Her bruises on her face were clear to see, like the one on her shoulder, that he hadn't see at all before. They were not huge bruises, but still were surely painful. Sitting on the edge of the bed he traced with one finger the shape of her injuries on her body. She was absolutely beautiful and he could feel the desire rise in him to make love to her sweetly and softly. Instead he choose to kiss her tenderly, for she had to eat something and head then straight to bed, again the talking would have to wait.. Whispering her name and kissing her shoulder and neck then her lips, was enough to wake her up with a smile on her face.

.-.-.-.-.

NB: Not much happening here... My next chapter will contain a m-rated section (nothing terrible promise!), my question is: should I leave it aside for a special chapter so that I don't shock or bother the readers of that story? I've mentioned where it starts and where it ends, but let me know what you'd like... the tolerance for such things are different depending where you live in the world ;-)

Thank's for your nice and encouraging words to my story!