A/N: Final chapter! A relief for me, because it means I'm writing less fics with Summer Secret Santa. Plus, writing the same story from two different POVs is suprisingly hard!
Thanks to: boutondor, lisbon69, Koezh, yaba, Divinia Serit, dogeatdog, Viktorija, Frogster and WildDaisies10 for reviewing. Especially to dogeatdog who signed in anonymously, Divinia Serit for betaing and boutondor for giving me the prompt in the first place.
x tromana
Part Four
When Lisbon finally returned from surgery, taking what appeared to be an obscene amount of time, Van Pelt quietly left. At least the prognosis looked good and it meant she could use the excuse of passing the information onto Rigsby and Cho to get out of there. Briefly, she wondered if they had gotten a confession from the kid shooter yet. There was no doubt in her mind that he was guilty - he shot at two cops in broad daylight, how could he not? The question was simply why he'd decided to do such a stupid thing like that. She growled slightly as she climbed into her car, a little guttural rumble from her throat. Lisbon better make a full recovery else that idiot would have hell to pay.
But updating the rest of the team and finding out whether or not they had managed to get a confession wasn't the real reason she was leaving. She'd already grown sick and tired of Bosco and Jane glaring at one another, almost blaming each other for the situation. The mutual loathing the men shared was terribly immature and something she hadn't particularly enjoyed being caught in the middle of. Lisbon cared for both of them, that much was obvious, but they didn't have to let their male pride make some kind of competition out of it. Besides, neither man was in the position or even had the right to try and win her affection. She wouldn't date either of them - however much she wanted to. Even Van Pelt knew her boss held more regard for herself than that.
The journey to work was mercifully uneventful and Van Pelt almost felt calm as she pulled up in front of the CBI headquarters. The sun was setting, decorating the sky with a spectacular display of oranges and reds, not that she particularly had time to notice. She was too busy trying to get back into the work mentality. As she traveled up in the elevator, she wracked her brains, trying hard to think of the usual tasks she'd be assigned when they were on the verge of closing a case. And she'd have to see the department's shrink, having just been involved in a shooting. The red head shuddered a little and quickly made the decision to head to the kitchenette first. She'd listened to Jane extolling the virtues of tea far too many times and according to him, it was the perfect beverage for this kind of situation.
"How's Lisbon?"
She practically jumped out of her skin as Rigsby asked the question, completely forgoing the usual 'hello'. His brown eyes were rounded, full of concern for his boss and the look reminded Van Pelt of just why she had fallen in love with him in the first place.
"She should be fine," she assured him, smiling briefly as he wrapped an arm around her waist. "Clean entry, no major damage. She'll need physio though."
"Hm. She won't like that."
"I guess, but it's far better than it could have been."
Disentangling herself from Rigsby's arm, she poured the boiling water into her mug and then allowed the tea bag to stew.
"What about you? Have you…"
"Cho got the confession," he answered and Van Pelt beamed. "Carey sang like a song bird when he realized he'd just hospitalized a cop."
"And?"
"Grimshaw was the intended target all along. Carey was jealous of his relationship with the Creston girl."
"And the attack on the father?"
"Creston again."
"Lisbon will be pleased."
"Yeah."
Rigsby grinned and he swiped a sip of her tea, much to her disgust.
"Hey, that's mine!"
"And? You need to book an appointment with the shrink. Second time in a month isn't it?"
"Don't remind me," she snapped, wincing as her ribs twinged slightly. She wasn't quite healed then. "Really, don't."
***
Her head was throbbing.
That was nothing new. Lisbon often had headaches and migraines, it was something she inherited from her mother, something she was less than grateful for. It got in the way of her work more often that she cared to admit, but she learned to work through it. With eyes scrunched tightly shut, she moved her left arm to massage her sore temples but froze when something foreign laced its way up her upper body. Tentatively, she opened her eyes to be confronted with plastic tubing and the concerned faces of Patrick Jane and Sam Bosco looking down at her.
"Oh no…" she choked, her throat feeling terribly dry.
Both men smiled genially at her, but Jane glared at Bosco when he took Lisbon's hand to stroke it gently, looking positively jealous as his fingers gently stroked over the woman's knuckles. Irritably, Lisbon pulled her hand away from the other senior agent and despite the tubing, laced her hands together and allowed them to rest on her abdomen. Quickly, she glanced from one to the other and both wore expressions of kids who had been caught fighting when they'd explicitly been told to behave.
"What happened?"
"You were shot."
"And?"
"You should be fine."
"Oh. Good," she replied, seemingly unconcerned about the injury she'd received. "And the case? How is everybody else?"
"Case closed," Jane announced brightly and Lisbon allowed herself to relax a little. "Cho got the confession in record time, apparently. They're worried about you."
"They're all fine, Teresa," Bosco interrupted, much to the blond's annoyance. He was just getting to that part. "And I've informed your brothers. James is on his way."
Lisbon narrowed her eyes slightly. While she appreciated Sam's sentiment, the last thing she wanted was James Lisbon flying over to be all overprotective of her. She may have been accused of acting like a mother hen on occasion, but the eldest of her younger brothers really took that characteristic to the extreme. Still, she would have had to tell them sooner or later, so it was better Sam than herself she decided. She glanced at the twenty four hour clock in front of her. Nine seventeen p.m. They'd arrived at the Grimshaw kid's place slightly before midday.
"Does your wife know where you are?"
Sam remained silent and Lisbon nodded slightly.
"Go home. Go see her."
Jane looked almost triumphant at the fact that she had dismissed him.
"You can go too, Jane. I need somebody to go and greet my brother at the airport."
***
Two weeks later and Lisbon was not only relieved to be back at work, despite the damn crutches. Maybe she was being a bit over eager in dismissing their usefulness, but really she couldn't stand being on them for longer than she absolutely had to. Only two weeks longer, she told herself as she took to the elevator. As far as she was concerned, it was better to limp than to have the apologetic looks from complete strangers as she attempted to weave through people on the metal sticks. If it wasn't for her doctor telling her that getting rid of them now would be foolhardy and would lead to longer, more permanent, damage, she would have disposed of them already.
Now, it was time for things to get back to normal. As Jane and her brother had gotten on like a house on fire, he was driving James back to the airport. Bosco, however, was the one driving her everywhere while she was still unable to use her leg for little more than hobbling. It seemed that while she recuperated that she was going to have several shadows, but Lisbon knew that she shouldn't complain, it was just their way of showing affection. As she slowly made her way past the bullpen, Rigsby offered her a bright smile and Cho nodded gently in her direction. Van Pelt was still off, at her suggestion. The woman still hadn't quite recovered properly from her own injury and besides, she was still a little shell shocked at being involved in two shootings so close to one another. Bosco hovered behind her as she said her greetings to her team and eventually helped her into her office in silence.
"He's going to be the death of you."
"I'll see you later, Sam."
He didn't need to say the name of who he was referring to. As he nodded and quietly closed her office door, she couldn't help but wonder if he was right.
end