Since I was asked so nicely, I wrote another chapter. I can't bring myself to stray too far from the status quo at the end of season 1, though, so don't get your hopes up.
Lisbon and Van Pelt were already eating breakfast when Cho made his appearance the next morning. He looked... disgruntled. Definitely not happy. He didn't bother to get himself any food, but instead sat nursing his coffee morosely.
"Bad night?" Van Pelt asked sympathetically.
"Jane is a very restless sleeper." Cho didn't look like he wanted to talk about it.
"Did he actually sleep, though?" Lisbon asked, unable to disguise the anxiety in her voice.
"Yeah, he seemed to be sleeping fine. I was the one who was awake. Boss, if we're going to be here a few days, we're going to have to babysit Jane on a rota system."
"You know that Rigsby snores, Cho. You've complained about it yourself. We're trying to help Jane sleep, not ensure he stays awake."
"That still leaves you and Van Pelt."
Van Pelt's fork clattered to her plate and her head shot up to gaze at Cho and Lisbon in horror.
"There is no way I'm sharing a room with that man!" she said, completely dismayed that anyone would even think of suggesting it.
"What man?" Jane asked, strolling up and looking considerably less frazzled than he had the day before. Van Pelt blushed and tried to hide herself behind her coffee cup.
"So, it actually worked. You slept." Lisbon said to him, trying not to look too relieved to see him looking so chipper.
"I did indeed. Cho has very soothing breathing. Thanks, Cho."
Cho grunted and shot a mutinous look at Lisbon. Four-year-olds confronted with platefuls of green vegetables tend to wear much the same expression (won't, shan't, can't make me). Jane wandered off to get himself some food, whistling softly between his teeth.
"I'll pay for my own room if need be, Boss, but tonight I'm sleeping in a Jane-free room. Sorry."
Cho very rarely made a stand against her. Lisbon knew there was no way she was going to be able to budge him on this. She sighed.
"Well, maybe having a good night's sleep has broken his bad spell of insomnia," she tried to sound optimistic. "Maybe he'll be fine tonight. I'll organise another room for you, Cho. Thanks, anyway."
Cho felt slightly mollified. Lisbon was a great boss, all things considered. He didn't usually resent the fact that she treated Jane differently to the rest of them – Jane was Jane. Everyone treated him differently; held him to different standards. Besides, Cho knew that Lisbon would go above and beyond to help him too, if he ever needed her to. As the caffeine kicked in, he almost felt remorseful about being difficult. Maybe he should relent...
Jane sat down next to him and gave him a cheery grin.
"Do you know that you mutter in your sleep, Cho? I couldn't quite catch what you were saying, but that's because your face was in your pillow. I'm sure I'll be able to hear next time."
...but on the other hand, Lisbon could always share a room with him herself if she was so worried about him.
They had a long and extremely frustrating day. Lisbon and the local sheriff did not hit it off, and spent most of the day butting heads and making life difficult for each other. The case wasn't throwing up any helpful leads, which meant that Jane was bored and irritable. Rigsby and Cho had to spend most of the day out in the woods conducting a fruitless search, while Van Pelt wrestled with an erratic internet connection and some extremely poor filing in the sheriff's office. It was already quite late when they all made their way back to their tiny motel, and it was only then that Lisbon remembered that she had told Cho that she would organise him another room. Exasperated, she went to the manager's office to belatedly make good on her promise, only to be told that the motel was already full.
Lisbon stood for a moment, irresolute. She felt as though she was caught between a rock and a hard place. She really didn't have the energy or the patience for this! Making up her mind, she decided to kill two annoying birds with one rather terrifying stone.
Approaching the others, she told Cho tiredly, "There aren't any more rooms, Cho, so I'll swop with you for tonight."
Jane's head snapped up in astonishment. Had she just said what he thought she had just said?
"Er, what was that, Lisbon? Did you just say what I think you just said?"
"I promised Cho his own room tonight, and there are no other rooms available. Let's not make a big deal out of this, okay? No funny stuff, Jane."
Jane held his hands up in mock surrender.
"I will be the model of good behaviour, Lisbon."
Well, he'd try, anyway. Did she honestly think that having her in his room would help him to sleep? Was that conversation he thought they had yesterday merely a sleep deprived hallucination?
As Cho was taking his things rather guiltily to Lisbon's room, Van Pelt and Rigsby cornered him in the hallway.
"Are you really going to make Lisbon share a room with Jane?" Van Pelt asked in her best accusatory tone.
Cho looked defensive. "She doesn't have to. She could share with you and have Jane sleep on his own. Or have Rigsby share with him."
"She's trying to help him sleep! Neither of those options will help."
Cho gave her a quizzical look. "Having Lisbon in his room probably won't help him to sleep either, but that's the option she's going with."
"You suggested the rota system, Cho!"
Cho gave an unrepentant grin. "I never thought she'd go for it. Guess I was wrong."
"Come on, man, can't you take one for the team? This could seriously backfire on all of us." Rigsby looked pleadingly at Cho.
"I took one for the team yesterday. Besides, this is Jane and Lisbon we're talking about. Control freaks anonymous. It'll be fine. Don't be such a big baby."
Lisbon travelled light. It only took her a moment to put her toiletries in the bathroom and drop her bag beside her bed, which was her version of unpacking and settling in. Jane sat on his bed and watched her.
"Well, this is unexpected," he said.
"Hmm. Don't get any ideas. This is Insomnia Remedy B, not Insomnia Remedy A." She gave him one of her crooked smiles. He smiled back.
"Glad to hear it. I would have hoped for considerably more enthusiasm if we were going for Remedy A."
"I'm going to shower and I'm planning on taking my time. If you want to use the bathroom, now's your moment."
"I've already cleaned my teeth. Go ahead."
Having Lisbon in his room had been fine (-ish); knowing that she was naked and wet a few feet away from him was a lot less fine. Jane tried watching TV, but his mind was not co-operating at all. He was very relieved when she at last emerged in what he supposed were her pyjamas.
"Going jogging?" he asked.
"This is what I sleep in," she said, frowning at him.
"To save time in the morning when you go jogging?"
She gave him an exasperated look and climbed into bed.
"Expecting a negligee, were you?"
He grinned. "On you, Lisbon? Not even remotely."
Her frown deepened.
"Meaning?"
"Wow, no matter what I say I'm going to be in trouble, aren't I?"
"Let's just go to sleep, shall we?" Lisbon snapped off the light with slightly more force than was necessary.
Lisbon stayed awake longer than she usually did because she was trying to work out if Jane was managing to sleep or not, but eventually her tiredness won out and she drifted off to sleep. Jane listened as her breathing changed and he turned over quietly so that he could watch her as she slowly relaxed. She had her back to him at first, but turned over after about half an hour and curled on her side facing him. If he reached out he would be able to touch her face. He lay motionless for some time, struggling with himself, before he finally compromised and reached across and touched her hair, which was spread out on her pillow. It was soft and silky and the ends were damp from her shower. She should be more careful to keep her hair dry before bed – it wasn't wise to sleep with wet hair.
As it turned out, Lisbon wasn't much use for Insomnia Remedy B, because she breathed so quietly once she was deeply asleep that he actually couldn't hear her at all, even when he held his own breath. It almost alarmed him – should he wake her up? Put a mirror in front of her mouth? Fortunately she turned over every now and again, which set Jane's mind at rest. He lay watching her sleep for a couple of hours before drifting off himself. And once he did fall asleep, Jane slipped into a deep, dreamless state which he rarely, if ever, reached these days.
Lisbon woke up first the next morning. The sun was slanting through the blinds onto the wall and there was a very loud bird singing a tuneless song right outside the window. Lisbon always rather resented waking up, particularly when she was woken earlier than strictly necessary. However, when she turned over, she was greeted with a very cheering sight. Jane, looking a little like a sleeping angel (or, more likely, a fallen angel), was lying lost in a very deep and peaceful sleep. She couldn't remember ever seeing him looking so relaxed before. She didn't want to do anything to disturb him, so she lay very still, watching him. The longer he was able to sleep like that, the better. She wondered what had enabled him to sleep so deeply. Surely not just listening to her breathe?
As the sun rose, shards of light crept down the wall behind them until it reached their beds, lighting up the sleeping Jane until it looked like he had a halo. Lisbon grinned. She wished. Or not, actually. She wouldn't want a boring, perfect Jane. Where would the fun in that be? She didn't have long to ponder this before the sunlight on his face woke Jane up. He blinked and squinted, then raised his hand to block out the light. He suddenly became aware of Lisbon lying watching him with bright, interested eyes. Those eyes of hers...
"Morning, sunshine," she said, grinning at him.
Hmm. She had been watching him sleep. Well, that was fair, he supposed. He was willing to bet she hadn't played with his hair, though. Which reminded him...
"You know, Lisbon, you should make sure your hair is properly dry before you go to sleep. It's not good to sleep with wet hair."
Her eyes narrowed, both suspicious and puzzled by the random comment. Had he been dreaming about her?
"What are you talking about? I didn't wash my hair before I went to bed."
Oops. Um... Hmm. Maybe he should have just stuck with 'good morning'. He tried to clear the unaccustomed fuzziness of sleep out of his brain.
"I could smell that it was damp after your shower last night. You need to look after yourself better."
He got hurriedly out of bed before she could comment. She was looking at him very quizzically. Why did she doubt him so? He didn't lie to her that often.
"I think I'll shower, if that's okay?"
He ducked into the bathroom before she could respond.
Lisbon twirled some of her hair around her finger while she waited. What was that all about? She knew him well enough to know that he was lying to her or hiding something, but she couldn't figure out why or what. Had he done something to her hair? He wouldn't... would he? Right now she couldn't get to the bathroom mirror because there was a naked Jane in the way. Oh. Great. Just what she needed to be thinking about. Had he been thinking about her while she was in the shower? Maybe that was what the whole wet hair thing had been about and why he had seemed so embarrassed. She jumped out of bed and got dressed rather hurriedly. The less nakedness there was in the room, the better.
Jane emerged from the bathroom looking very cheerful indeed. Lisbon sighed inwardly. She wanted Jane to be happy and well-rested, she really did, but she knew from experience that a happy, well-rested Jane tended to create paperwork. On the plus side, they would probably solve the case a lot more quickly, which meant they could get home sooner. Or was that on the minus side? She was undecided.
"So, does Lisbon talk in her sleep?" Cho wanted to know at breakfast.
"Lisbon barely even breathes in her sleep. At one point I actually considered waking her up to check she was still alive but then I realised that if she was dead, there would be nothing I could do about it - especially since I don't know CPR - and if she was alive, she would kill me for waking her up. So I concluded best let sleeping Lisbons lie."
Lisbon frowned. " You don't know CPR? Honestly Jane, how did you worm your way into the CBI? When we get back to Sacramento, you are going on a course to learn CPR and anything else that you ought to know, but don't."
"And you know, she doesn't look at all dangerous when she's asleep, either. Instead of looking like an avenging angel, she just looks like an angel. Very deceptive indeed."
Lisbon was startled into silence by the angel comment. Did he somehow know that she had been thinking that he looked like a sleeping angel (she couldn't help harbouring a tiny irrational fear that he could actually read her mind)? Or did he really think that she looked like an angel when she slept? She shot him a funny look.
"You know, Lisbon, if you want to stick your tongue out at me you should just do it. Although it's impressive that you can make a face which conveys the same message without actually having the bother of sticking your tongue out. You are as much a virtuoso of the withering glare as you are of the irritated growl."
"The good news," Lisbon said to the others, "is that despite his claims that he spent the night watching me sleep, Jane actually slept like a baby himself. Of course," she glared at him, "no good deed goes unpunished, does it?"
"Lisbon, I am forever in your debt, as always. You are my guardian angel." Jane gave her a cheeky grin before strolling away to get himself some more tea.
Van Pelt smiled at Lisbon sympathetically. "Well, anyway, it's good news that there's a way to help Jane when his insomnia gets too bad, isn't it? And he didn't keep you awake either, so it worked out okay."
Lisbon looked slightly sceptical, but shrugged in semi-agreement.
"Does this mean that you'll sleep with Jane in future and I'm off the hook?" Cho asked hopefully. Then, realising what he'd just said, began to almost stutter, "I mean, you know, not sleeping with him..."
She cut him off before he could belabour the point any further. "I know what you mean, Cho, and I wouldn't count on it. You know how quickly Jane finds the limits of my patience and then barrels past them. Let's just say, you won't always be left holding the baby. We'll share the responsibility. Deal?"
Cho sighed. "Deal."
The baby in question returned with his tea and graced everyone with his most dazzling smile before settling into his seat with a sigh of happiness. Everyone had to admit that Jane was considerably more pleasant to be around after he'd had a decent night's sleep.
Lisbon still wanted to know why having her nearby had enabled Jane to sleep so well, but decided that was a problem to tackle another day. So to speak.