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

A/N - So another chapter has finally arrived. Sorry for the long wait, but I've been concentrating on some of my other stories, and I do work full-time now, so my free time is severely limited. I am fairly pleased with how this chapter has turned out, however, so I hope that goes some way towards making up for the wait. Enjoy!

~ Chapter Fifteen ~

Unexpected Visitors

Jane groaned to himself and shifted slightly on Lisbon's couch as he tried to get comfortable, though he'd written it off as a largely futile attempt once the last of his painkillers had worn off an hour or so ago. Lisbon had left for work hours ago, but since Jane couldn't even move without something hurting, he'd been forced to admit – albeit reluctantly – that he was in no condition to follow her. His bruises were making his body ache to the point that he could barely focus on anything else and his shoulder felt as if it was on fire. He let his head fall back onto the couch.

God, he felt miserable.

It wasn't the usual kind of miserable either. It was that kind of miserable that seeped into his bones, that worked its way up from deep inside of him until every part of his body felt terrible and made him wish he was someone else. Anyone else…

Jane bit back another groan as he shifted once again, his usual pain management techniques doing little to make him feel better. There was no way in hell he was taking any more pills though, because although they did deal with the pain, they also made his head feel funny and his thoughts feel like mud.

Pain versus the ability to think…

It was a thin line, one that he was only just stopping himself from crossing at the moment. He had tried to get some sleep earlier on, not long after Lisbon had left, but even as exhausted as he'd been after his early morning jaunt, rest had not come easily. Her apartment was too quiet, and allowed him far too much opportunity to think. Usually he needed a distraction to drop off, and the daytime TV shows were so dull that they barely counted as entertainment at all.

Once it had become clear that he wouldn't be able to sleep however, he hadn't been left with many other options. He'd briefly tried reading, but his head hurt too much, and he didn't share Lisbon's taste in music so that wouldn't help much either. Jane had considered taking a shower, just to wash the smell of hospital from him, but he'd quickly realised that not only would he struggle to even get upstairs to the bathroom, he'd also struggle to actually wash himself once he was there. His shoulder was useless and immobile, and his whole body felt stiff and achy.

So with all his ideas quickly nixed, Jane had been forced to stay on the couch. And worse, there wasn't even anyone here to complain and grouse to. He sighed again, but still felt no relief.

God, he felt miserable.

Lisbon sighed as she tried to focus on the report she was currently attempting to write, an effort that was proving significantly harder to do today than usual; as much as she tried to concentrate on the words, her mind kept coming back to one thing.

Jane.

She was worried about him. Really worried. Really, really worried. Despite his many assurances to the contrary, she knew that he wasn't okay. Physically he would get better, she was sure of that, but mentally…well, Jane didn't exactly have the best track record for dealing with his emotions in a normal way, and the man had been through a lot recently.

As mad as she'd been with him this morning for leaving her place without letting her know, a large part of her recognised that he'd simply needed to go, and that he hadn't been trying to scare her or hurt her; he'd just needed to escape. It was his way of dealing with things most of the time; not running away from the issue, but rather running away from anyone who could help him with it.

It was clear to her that Jane had wanted to be alone, that he'd wanted solitude to deal with things himself, but she also knew that time on his own, specifically time alone with his thoughts, would only make things worse for him, not better. And Lisbon was determined, whilst he was staying at her house, that this would be something that would change. Jane didn't have to be alone anymore, and she would prove it to him, one way or another.

Another hour, she told herself firmly, as she reached for another report. She'd give it one more hour at work, then she'd go home to keep Jane company…

A knock on her office door, however, interrupted her thoughts.

"Yes?" Lisbon replied absently, doing her best to shrug away her worry for her consultant, though she wasn't entirely sure she'd succeeded. "Come in."

Lisbon had been expecting Cho to swing by after he'd written his report on what had happened during the raid, so she didn't think much of the visitor until she raised her eyes. She was surprised to find that, instead of her stoic agent, a tall, dark-haired man stood in her doorway.

"Agent Lisbon?"

He moved further into the room, and it took her a second to recognise him.

"Judge Garrison," Lisbon replied, unable to hide her surprise. As he walked over to her desk, it was then that she noticed the boy who was trailing him, and her gaze softened. "Liam?"

"Hello, Miss Lisbon," Liam replied quietly as he came to stand beside his father. Already, Lisbon could see that something was wrong; the child was polite but his whole manner was subdued, and she felt her concern for Liam double at the sight.

Steeling herself, Lisbon turned back to Liam's father. "Can I help you, Judge?"

"Actually I was hoping you could help me," Judge Garrison sighed, placing a hand gently on his son's shoulder.

"Oh?" Lisbon replied, glancing between the boy and his father.

"Yes," he replied. He seemed reluctant, but took a deep breath, as if steeling himself for what he was about to say next. "I was wondering…" He glanced down at his son. "Well, we were wondering if you knew where we could find Mr Jane?"

Jane's sleep, when it eventually came, was not restful.

His dreams were wild and ferocious, his mind taunting him from the moment he had managed to finally drop off to sleep. Punches, pain, fear. The images were in Technicolor, and the pain from the beatings were very, very real, making him truly fear whether he would ever be pain free again.

He twisted and turned as if to fight off his internal demons, but his thoughts gave him no relief.

Instead, he saw Liam, his eyes wide and fearful, looking to him for salvation, for a hero to save him. Only Jane knew that he was no hero, and that there would be no salvation.

"Jane…"

He twisted again, trying in vain to rid his mind of the images that were taunting and haunting him in equal measures. He was trapped though, and his experiences during the kidnapping were soon interspersed with memories from the day he had found his wife and daughter slaughtered. So much blood…

"Jane, wake up…"

He groaned, and clenched his fists as he tried to force away the terrible images, but it was no use. It was if a film was playing over and over again in his head, and there was nothing he could do to change what he was seeing.

"Jane, dammit…"

A hand nudged him in his side, jerking him awake in the most abrupt way possible. His eyes snapped open, but he quickly shut them again as pain rushed through his entire body. Ow…

"Jane, come on," came the voice again. "I've got someone here who wants to see you."

Taking a deep breath in an attempt to steady his breathing, Jane forced his eyes open again, doing his best to shove the haunting memories away as he tried to focus on his current reality. The first thing his eyes were able to focus on was the dark-haired woman knelt by the side of the couch he was lying on.

Despite the nightmare that was still at the back of his mind, his heart immediately lightened at the sight; Lisbon was home.

"Hey," she said softly.

"Hey," he replied hoarsely, pulling himself up. She looked at him in concern, but she said nothing, and for that he would be eternally grateful. He ran a hand through his slightly damp hair as he tried to calm himself down, not wanting to appear any more pathetic to Lisbon than he must have already looked.

"How're you feeling?" she continued quietly, and he could see her look him up and down, no doubt cataloguing every injury. Jane almost rolled his eyes, but managed to stop himself.

"Sore," Jane replied seriously, then considered his condition a little more. "And hungry."

Lisbon frowned. "Well, I can make you some lunch in a bit, but first…well, you've got some visitors."

"Oh?" Jane replied, sitting up a little more on the couch.

"I'll just go and get them, okay?" she told him, and Jane nodded, curiosity rising up in him as he mentally went through a checklist of people that might want to visit him. It wasn't the team, because Lisbon would have just told him that without the air of mystery. And it wasn't any of his carnie family, because there was no way they'd wait outside for Lisbon to let them in. But who else would care enough to come and visit him…?

The front door opened again before he could consider the matter further, and Lisbon came back into the house, followed closely by…

"Patrick!"

The boy hurtled forward, arms spread wide as he ran towards him. Jane braced himself for the impact he knew was coming, his mind still a little in shock over the unexpected visitor.

"Liam," he replied, supressing a groan when the boy barrelled in his chest. Pushing away the pain that had been stirred up at the contact, Jane allowed his uninjured arm to circle the small, trembling boy, a smile growing on his face as his mind caught up with what was happening. With his arms still wrapped tightly around the child, Jane turned to Lisbon, and Liam's father - who had apparently come along on the visit as well - with a question on his lips.

"Later, Jane," Lisbon promised before he could say a word, giving him a long, significant look. Immediately he glanced down at Liam, and understood. "We'll be in the kitchen if you need us, okay?"

Jane nodded once, and Judge Garrison gave him a long look before nodding as well, following Lisbon in her kitchen without so much as a glance back at him.

Shaking the encounter away, Jane turned his attention to the little boy in his arms. As gently as he could, Jane prised the small arms away from his body until he could see Liam's face again. To his distress though, Jane quickly found that the boy relief at seeing him had turned into tears. He was crying…

"Hey, what's wrong?" he asked, raising his uninjured arm so that he could brush the tears from Liam's cheeks.

"I…I thought you'd…died," Liam replied desolately. Fresh tears spilled out of the boy's eyes, and Jane felt himself pull Liam closer to his chest on pure instinct alone, even though he was completely and thoroughly confused by the boy's statement.

"What?"

"My dad wouldn't let me see you again," the boy sniffed. "I thought it was because maybe you'd...died and he just didn't want to tell me. I know I saw you at the hospital, but you were hurt so bad…"

"Hey," Jane interrupted, his voice quiet but firm. "I'm fine. Look at me, Liam. See, I'm fine. Right as rain."

"Yeah, but – "

"No 'buts'," Jane interrupted gently, smiling kindly as he moved Liam from his chest and settled the boy on the couch next to him. "I'm fine. Anyway, it's you I've been worried about. A little birdy told me that you've not been so good."

"I'm fine," Liam sniffed. Jane didn't need to be a psychic – real or fake – to know that the boy was lying.

"Liam," Jane continued, ignoring the child's ridiculous answer. "What's wrong?"

Instead of replying, however, Liam looked around nervously, and was clearly reassured to find that his father was still nowhere in sight and that he and Jane were alone. When he looked back to Jane, the consultant had to force himself to stay calm and relaxed, even though inside his heart was breaking. The child just looked so desolate…

"You can trust me, Liam," Jane said softly, and it was that, more than anything else it seemed, that made the boy speak.

"I'm…I'm scared," Liam muttered, head bowed, and Jane immediately knew what – and more significantly who – he was scared of.

Regardless, he waited for Liam to keep talking, knowing that it would do the boy some good to get his fears off his chest.

"I…I'm," Liam fidgeted slightly on the couch, and Jane could see him glance nervously towards the door that led to Lisbon's kitchen. "I'm really scared."

"You're scared," Jane repeated with a sigh once it was clear that Liam had finished speaking for now. Before Liam could lose confidence with his confession, however, Jane shrugged and continued. "Me too."

"You're scared?" Liam replied, finally raising his gaze, his eyes wide as if he couldn't quite believe that his hero was capable of being scared.

"Yep," Jane confirmed seriously, shrugging once again. "Shall I tell you what I'm scared of?"

"Okay," Liam replied quietly, still not entirely convinced, it seemed, by Jane's confession.

"Well, I don't know about you, but I'm scared that those men who kidnapped us will come and find us and take us back again."

Jane watched as the boy's eyes widened dramatically, and in that moment Jane knew he'd nailed it. The truth was he wasn't at all scared of the 'goons' returning. With Lisbon and the team on the case, knew that those men would rot in jail before they'd have a chance to get him back. No, Jane had told Liam that precisely because he knew that it was something that Liam was probably scared of.

"Me too," Liam whispered, confirming Jane's suspicion a second later.

"But," Jane continued, trying to keep his voice calm. "Then I remember that they're in prison now…"

"But what if they get out?" Liam argued fearfully, and Jane felt his heart break all over again.

"They can't."

"But what if they do?" Liam replied.

"They won't," Jane replied gently. He raised his uninjured arm to still any further protests in Liam before he continued. "Do you know how I know that, Liam?"

"How?" the boy choked out.

"Remember when I told you about my friend Teresa?" Jane began.

"Agent Lisbon?"

"That's right," Jane replied with a soft smile. "Now, she might seem small and friendly now, but she can be scary and mean when she wants to be. And she's definitely tough."

"She saved us, didn't she?"

Jane nodded. "She did. I told you she'd come and save us, and I was right. I'm right about this too, Liam. My friend Teresa will make sure that those bad men stay in prison until they're old and grey and can't walk anymore because they have old man chicken legs that would snap if they tried to stand on them."

Jane watched as Liam grinned for the first time since they'd been rescued, and he felt his heart lighten at the sight.

"You swear?" Liam asked, holding out his little finger. Jane, luckily, knew what that gesture meant.

He joined his little finger to the boy's. "Pinkie swear," he confirmed solemnly, crossing his heart as an afterthought.

"Okay," Liam nodded after a long moment, and though he was clearly still traumatised by everything that happened, Jane could see the beginnings of relief run through the child, as if he had finally begun to accept that he was safe.

"Now," Jane began, trying to push past his exhaustion. "Since your dad and my friend Teresa seem to have gotten lost in the kitchen, how about we play a game to pass the time?"

Liam's eyes lit up. "Twenty questions?"

"On one condition," Jane nodded, a twinkle in his eyes. "This time, it has to be an animal…"

A/N - So, worth the wait? I hope you liked it, and that you'll let me know what you thought, especially in regards to Liam's return. I can't help it - he might be fictional, but I love that kid, and I'm so glad I've managed to work him back into the story without having him kidnapped again! Anyway, until next time, thanks for reading!