Disclaimer - The Mentalist belongs to Bruno Heller and CBS. Not me. Obviously.

A/N - Another chapter is finally here! This one was a bit tricky to write, but I got there in the end, and I think it turned out okay? Thank you for all your encouraging reviews - they really kept me going, and it means a lot that people seem to like what I'm doing. Hopefully you like this too!

~ Chapter Fourteen ~

Time Out

Early the next morning, Lisbon woke slowly, a bright light darting through her eyelids and dragging her unwillingly from deep unconsciousness.

She groaned, burying her head further into her pillow as she tried to ignore the morning light. It wouldn't go away though, no matter how deeply she burrowed and no matter how tightly she closed her eyes, and it was with a heavy sigh that she finally dragged open her eyelids, blinking rapidly as she waited for her eyes to adjust to the morning light that was creeping through her thin curtains.

Morning...?

And then, without warning, her brain snapped into awareness, and everything came back.

Jane, the kidnapping, his recovery in hospital. Jane was here, she realised, in her house. He'd slept on her couch….

Dammit, she cursed to herself as anther realisation hit her brain. She was supposed to check up on him every few hours, just to make sure that he hadn't slipped into a coma during his sleep. The doctor had been very clear about that, but if it was already morning…

Quickly, Lisbon checked her bedside alarm clock, only to find that it was already seven o'clock in the morning. Dammit, dammit, dammit.

She felt herself wake up more quickly at the thought, and with out another thought, she pulled herself up on the bed and from under her warm covers with barely a shiver, her mind stuck on her consultant, and her own annoyance at not doing a good job looking after him.

Wait…

Why hadn't her alarm gone off? She'd set it to go off. She'd definitely set it to go off after two hours, so that she could check that Jane was okay, just like the doctor had ordered. But as she glanced back down at her alarm clock, it was clear that either the alarm had been turned off after she'd set it, or she'd never set it in the first place.

Except she definitely remembered setting it…

Shaking her head slightly to get rid of the last remnants of sleep from her mind, Lisbon made her way over to the door, shivering slightly as she stood on tired feet. Even though she was well overdue, it was time to check on Jane.

Lisbon ran a hand over her face, roughly trying to wake herself up more as she pulled open the door and entered the short corridor. In the last few days, she'd probably had about as much sleep as Jane – likely even less, since he'd been unconscious for large parts of it – so in truth she was beyond exhausted, but since she had been the one to offer to take him home, she had to be the one to check up on him.

"Dammit," she groaned again, but she dutifully began to make her way downstairs to where Jane was fast asleep on the couch.

Only he wasn't there. The couch was empty.

Heart thudding in her chest, though she did try to push past the panic long enough to think clearly, Lisbon stalked into the living room, as if moving closer to the couch might suddenly make Jane appear from nowhere.

It didn't work. Jane was still gone.

"Jane?" she called, hoping he was in the kitchen. But no, that room was empty as well. Frantically she moved through her house as if the devil was chasing her, but there was no sign, no whisper that he was within the same walls that surrounded her.

She couldn't believe he had gone again. She'd only just got him back, and now he was gone….

Fear clenched at her heart. Red John, her brain told her numbly, working past the panic into some semblance of thought. She made her way back to the couch, this time not looking for Jane, but instead searching for any sign of a struggle, any sign that he had been taken. Finding none, she collapsed onto it, resting her weary head in her slightly shaking hands.

There was nothing. In fact, the only sign that Jane had ever been there at all was the blanket that she had wrapped around his body yesterday, now lying listless on her cold floor in front of her.

She didn't know how long she sat there, staring down at that old blanket. It was if she was in a trance, as if the blanket's presence was an actual physical link to Jane. She knew she should probably call it in; the cop in her was screaming for her to find her phone, to ring the team and get them round as soon as possible, before the trail went cold again. Before they lost him for good.

She couldn't though. It was as if, by staring down at the stupid blanket, she was putting off the inevitable panic, the inevitable pain of losing him again…

She couldn't lose him again...

The creak of the front door handle snapped her out of her thoughts, her hand immediately going to her side, even despite the fact that she was still wearing her pyjamas and so definitely wasn't carrying her gun. Quickly, before the door could even open fully, Lisbon dashed to the kitchen and grabbed one of her large knifes. There no way she was going down without a fight.

Red John could go to hell...

Finally, the front door swung open, and Lisbon held the knife in front of her as she moved back to her front room, waiting with baited breath….

She released it sharply. It was Jane.

Jane.

And, Lisbon realised numbly, he did not look okay.

Jane staggered through the door, almost holding onto it to keep himself upright. Lisbon allowed the knife to drop to her side as she scanned his body for injuries. He was still dressed in the suit he had been wearing out of the hospital, and it seemed undamaged…

In fact, the only injuries she could see on him were the one's he'd had yesterday. Realisation hit again, and this time, Lisbon considered raising the knife again. God, he hadn't been kidnapped; he'd left her of his own free will.

"Ah, Lisbon," Jane said casually, finally noticing her standing by the kitchen, though his charming smile was tinged with fatigue. "I see you're awake."

"Yes, I'm awake," she hissed, gripping the knife tightly. "Dammit Jane, where the hell have you been?"

"For a walk," Jane shrugged, collapsing onto the couch with a sigh. Lisbon felt her anger growing, almost overpowering any concern she might have had about her consultant's terrible condition.

Lisbon dropped the knife on a nearby table and crossed her arms angrily. "A walk? At the crack of dawn?"

"I often go for walks at night," Jane replied, leaning his head back against the couch as he closed his eyes. "It's good for the soul."

"Sheep dip!"

"Lisbon…"

"Shut up, Jane," Lisbon interrupted angrily. "Dammit, I thought Red John had kidnapped you!"

Jane's eyes flew open, his mouth falling open slightly. It would have been a comical sight had Lisbon not been literally shaking with barely repressed fury.

"Red John?" Jane asked. He actually had the gall to smirk at the thought, and Lisbon considered picking up the knife again, just to wipe that stupid smile off his face. "You thought Red John had kidnapped me? What on earth gave you that idea?"

"You were gone, you idiot!" Lisbon growled. "I wake up - at seven o'clock, which is hours after I'd set my alarm to go off by the way, and I know that somehow that's your fault too- and of course, you're nowhere to be seen…"

The smile fell from Jane's face, but Lisbon remained unmoved. He frowned at her. "Well I would have left you a note, but how was I to know you'd overreact this badly?"

"Overreact?" Lisbon asked incredulously. "Dammit Jane, Red John said he'd up his game! He warned you! Why are you determined not to take that seriously?"

"Oh, I am, I assure you," Jane replied. "But I fail to see what that has to do with anything – "

"Oh, you fail to see, do you?"

"Yes," Jane nodded seriously. "I fail to see why my going for a walk has anything to do with Red John."

"It has everything to do with it!" Lisbon ground out. "You were beaten up Jane! You were in hospital! You are nowhere near your best – "

"I'm fine, Lisbon," Jane interrupted, rolling his eyes. "And I assure you, if Red John wanted to kidnap me, even at my best, I'm sure I could do nothing to stop him."

"Jane – "

"Oh, stop fretting Lisbon," Jane waved her off. "I'm fine, and I'm here. More importantly, Red John isn't here. And I needed to leave the house for a bit. Besides, if I'm going to be staying here for a couple of days, I'll need a few changes of clothes."

For the first time since he'd walked back through the door, Lisbon noticed the bag Jane had dropped by the couch.

"You went to the motel? That's miles away!" Lisbon asked incredulously.

Jane rolled his eyes. "It's not that far."

"You're an idiot, Jane," Lisbon said seriously. She should've just left him in the hospital...

"So you keep telling me," Jane replied, unconcerned. He grimaced as he shifted on the couch, his free arm moving protectively to cradle his ribs. Lisbon felt some of her anger melt away in the face of his pain, though she made herself promise not to let Jane off too easily.

"Pills?" Lisbon asked, concern crossing her features.

"Yes, please," Jane replied tiredly.

With a deep sigh, Lisbon went over to pick up his pills from the table, before making her way back towards Jane with deliberate slowness. This time though, instead of standing over him, Lisbon sat right beside him on the couch, holding out her hand silently and offering him the pain medication.

"I'm sorry that I scared you, Lisbon," Jane said quietly, as he took the pills gratefully.

"You didn't," Lisbon replied stubbornly, turning away from him slightly as if that would protect the truth from his all-knowing gaze.

Jane rolled his eyes, as she'd known he would. "Of course I scared you. You thought I'd been kidnapped again. I'd be offended if you weren't scared."

"I wasn't," Lisbon replied, somewhat childishly.

"Well then, I'm well and truly offended." Jane pouted, but Lisbon remained unmoved. Truth be told, she was still furious at the man. "My own nurse, not even scared when she thinks I've been kidnapped..."

"I'm not your nurse, Jane," Lisbon told him angrily.

Jane fell silent in the face of her growing fury, perhaps sensibly deciding to let her cool off before he spoke again. Lisbon, for her part, took a couple of deep breaths, trying to let the tension of the morning slip out of her stressed body.

After a few long minutes, she finally felt calm again, and she turned back to Jane, a question on her lips. Jane, it seemed, was sat patiently next to her, waiting for her to be the one to break the silence for once.

"Why didn't you wake me before you left?" Lisbon asked quietly.

"You wouldn't have let me go," Jane replied simply. "And I didn't want to wake you up. You looked tired."

"Well, did you really have to go?" Lisbon asked. "Couldn't you have at least waited until daylight?"

"No," Jane answered. At her disbelieving look, Jane moved to explain, and for once, he looked completely serious. "I couldn't sleep. Even with the drugs…I couldn't seem to drop off. Walking around usually helps."

"Do you do it a lot?" Lisbon asked quietly.

Jane shrugged. "Sometimes."

Lisbon fell quiet then, lost in her thoughts. Sometimes, with all Jane's smiles and jokes and utter childish ridiculousness, Lisbon forgot how damaged Jane was.

In fact, it brought home the reality of the situation in a way that nothing else had so far. Jane might seem fine, he might even recover from the trauma of being kidnapped, but he would never be okay…

"I really am sorry I scared you," Jane replied seriously, his eyes locking onto hers.

"You should be," Lisbon replied, though the anger had left her voice now, tiredness replacing it.

"I am," Jane assured her, and despite herself, Lisbon allowed the rest of her anger to melt away.

"Don't do it again, Jane," she replied seriously, turning on the couch so that she was sure he was taking in her words. "Do you have any idea how worried I was when I came downstairs and you weren't there?" Jane moved to speak but she interrupted before he could. "I'm responsible for you. I brought you back here, against your Doctor's recommendation, because it was what you wanted. And all I ever wanted, all I ever asked for, was for you to act like a grown-up for once in your life."

"I'm sorry," Jane repeated, once it was clear that Lisbon everything she had wanted to say. He looked chagrined, and sincere, and a little regretful, and Lisbon thought that maybe once, just once, her message might be getting through to him.

"I know, Jane," she replied with a sigh.

Because despite the fact that he had lied to her before, and despite the fact that he would lie to her again in an instant, she couldn't help but believe him.

A/N - So how was it? I tried to balance out the angst and fluff so that there were even parts of both, but I think I overdid it a little on the angsty-ness, and didn't add enough of the fluff. I can't help it though- it sounds terrible, but I really do love sad, hurt, suffering Jane. I hope you still liked it anyway, and if you really do want to see more fluff, please hold on until the next chapter...there will be a whole host of fluffy scenes then if all goes to plan, including the long-awaited return of Liam! For now though, thanks for reading!