Chapter 8

Loud beeps startled Jane out of his unconscious state to find that his hand held a much smaller, fragile, feminine hand. His heavy lidded eyes followed the length of the arm to see a small brunette woman attached to it, head slumped on the edge of the bed, bending over from a chair that was placed next to his hospital bed. By the looks of it, she had been there all night. Squinting his eyes in thought, he stared at her trying to remember what had happened to have him in the hospital bed to begin with.

Everything came back to him in that moment: the break up, resignation, and the crash. Caring less if he woke her up, he stole his hand back and started rubbing it as if she had burned him. Groaning slightly, Lisbon sat up, her hand shooting to her neck, rubbing out the stiffness that had set in from her sleeping position. "Wha?"

Blinking and yawning once, Lisbon's eyes focused on the man in front of her and sighed to see he was awake. She was relieved for sure, hearing that he was going to make it after getting out of surgery for the glass that was in his skull, but part of her was nervous, knowing things didn't end how she wanted them too the night before. "Jan-"

"Lisbon, what are you doing here?" Jane interrupted. He wasn't ready to see this woman, let alone talk to her yet. He was hurt and there was no denying that. Of course he had put his mask on again, but he had a hard time masking the anger in his voice.

"What do you mean 'what am I doing here'? You were in a car accident, Jane. You couldn't possibly think that I wouldn't care. I care Jane, whether you choose to believe that or not." She couldn't contain the sadness dripping from her voice. She didn't want him angry with her even though she knew she deserved it. She just wanted him to want her there with him as a friend.

"Oh, I believe it, but what makes you think I want you here? Lisbon, I resigned from the CBI and I planned to leave as soon as possible, though that seems a little delayed now, but will happen nonetheless."

"Jane, I want you to know that I didn't make this decision to hurt you intentionally. I had a choice given to me. Have you leave the team and keep us together, or have you stay on the team and break us. I was going to do the first, but I couldn't do that to you after all you've been through. You deserve to help find justice with Red John for what he did and I couldn't be selfish and keep you to myself and ruin your chances of doing that. I was put in a difficult situation and I-"

"Why didn't you come to me first? We could've gone and talked to Minelli about it. We could've-"

"No, Jane, we couldn't have. If we went to him, we would've lost any hope for either of them working out. I should've talked to you before taking matters in to my own hands, but I didn't want you to have to choose between your family and me. It just wasn't fair to you. I'm sorry that I hurt you, but it had to be done."

"Well, Lisbon, you did hurt me not only for breaking us apart, but for not talking to me first."

She closed her eyes, wishing he would call her Teresa once again. Sighing in defeat, she stood and made her way to the door. But just as she was about to turn the doorknob, Jane said the words that made her regret ever having him on the team. "Teresa, I loved you. You helped me move on. For that, I thank you. I just wish we could've worked out."

She turned her head to face him, hopeful to see that 100-watt grin on his face, arms wide open for her, but she only saw his head turned away from her, eyes closed. Nodding to herself, she left without turning back, tears pouring down her cheeks.

Author's Note: Sorry it's short and sorry it's a little OOC, but I needed to let this scene play itself out without any alternation from me. Hope you liked it!

Thanks for reading : )

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