while we breathe
Title: while we breathe
Rating: PG
Category: Jane/Lisbon
Word Count: 592
Author's Note: Written for tromana in the Mentalist Fic Meme at mentalistprompt. Prompt was: Jane/Lisbon, "Where there's life, there's hope." Originally posted here.
xxxxx
Jane has always hated hospitals.
As far as he can see, they have very little to offer, regardless of how much they might advertise a never-ending capacity for healing. Instead, the overpowering odor of antiseptic and disease washes over him, numbing his senses.
He’s sitting in the waiting room, and he watches the bustle of the hospital personnel around him. He is alone.
He wants to tell Lisbon about the other people in the waiting room. The well-dressed businessman sitting in the last chair in the corner who is here visiting his mistress, or the receptionist at the front desk who is hoping the next shift arrives on time so she can make her daughter’s dance recital. He wants to annoy her with games of I Spy and offer to bring her overpriced, watered-down coffee from the cafeteria. He wants her to roll her eyes and threaten him as he annoys the nurses.
Mostly, he just wants her to wake up.
xxx
It was his fault.
No one from the rest of the team blames him; they even encouraged him to stay and wait when they had to get back to work. But Jane knows better.
He knew that going back to the bar where the victim worked wouldn’t actually give him any insight into their murderer, but he wanted to get a better read on which one of her managers the victim was sleeping with. She had been with him just hours before she died, although their best suspect was still the victim’s father.
If only Jane hadn’t insisted on going back to the bar.
But he had, and Lisbon had gone with him. To keep him from doing anything he might (the CBI might) regret later. To make sure he didn’t get into trouble.
Of course, he did anyway.
And now she is in the ICU, unconscious, and he is in the waiting room, alone.
xxx
There are no couches in the ICU waiting room, so he falls asleep sitting up. He’s leaning back against a plastic chair; it’s not relaxing or comfortable.
His eyes close for all of forty minutes, and he wakes up with a crick in his neck.
He finds it more difficult to track his thoughts without Elvis to keep him company.
xxx
Minelli stops by first thing in the morning.
He mumbles gruffly in greeting, but his concern is evident. He has always cared for Lisbon like a daughter.
Jane is relieved that someone Lisbon considers family can be there, even if she isn’t awake to know the difference. Her brothers are on their way, but they all live halfway across the country, have wives or girlfriends, children, jobs. Either Cho or Van Pelt called them the night before, but it’s going to be another day or so until the Lisbon brothers can get there.
It’s only fitting that Minelli be the stand in.
xxx
It’s another six hours before the doctors let Jane see her.
He’s been told that she’s out of the woods, but he remains unconvinced until he sees her for himself.
She’s lying in the bed, connected to multiple IV lines, with machines and heart monitors beeping methodically in the background. She appears unusually pale and impossibly small.
Lisbon never looks small.
He reaches out to touch her wrist. He doesn’t quite believe the heart monitor until he feels her pulse under his own fingers.
Reassured, just enough, he takes the seat by her bedside.
For as long as she keeps breathing, he’s happy to wait.
xxxxx
Rating: PG
Category: Jane/Lisbon
Word Count: 592
Author's Note: Written for tromana in the Mentalist Fic Meme at mentalistprompt. Prompt was: Jane/Lisbon, "Where there's life, there's hope." Originally posted here.
xxxxx
Jane has always hated hospitals.
As far as he can see, they have very little to offer, regardless of how much they might advertise a never-ending capacity for healing. Instead, the overpowering odor of antiseptic and disease washes over him, numbing his senses.
He’s sitting in the waiting room, and he watches the bustle of the hospital personnel around him. He is alone.
He wants to tell Lisbon about the other people in the waiting room. The well-dressed businessman sitting in the last chair in the corner who is here visiting his mistress, or the receptionist at the front desk who is hoping the next shift arrives on time so she can make her daughter’s dance recital. He wants to annoy her with games of I Spy and offer to bring her overpriced, watered-down coffee from the cafeteria. He wants her to roll her eyes and threaten him as he annoys the nurses.
Mostly, he just wants her to wake up.
xxx
It was his fault.
No one from the rest of the team blames him; they even encouraged him to stay and wait when they had to get back to work. But Jane knows better.
He knew that going back to the bar where the victim worked wouldn’t actually give him any insight into their murderer, but he wanted to get a better read on which one of her managers the victim was sleeping with. She had been with him just hours before she died, although their best suspect was still the victim’s father.
If only Jane hadn’t insisted on going back to the bar.
But he had, and Lisbon had gone with him. To keep him from doing anything he might (the CBI might) regret later. To make sure he didn’t get into trouble.
Of course, he did anyway.
And now she is in the ICU, unconscious, and he is in the waiting room, alone.
xxx
There are no couches in the ICU waiting room, so he falls asleep sitting up. He’s leaning back against a plastic chair; it’s not relaxing or comfortable.
His eyes close for all of forty minutes, and he wakes up with a crick in his neck.
He finds it more difficult to track his thoughts without Elvis to keep him company.
xxx
Minelli stops by first thing in the morning.
He mumbles gruffly in greeting, but his concern is evident. He has always cared for Lisbon like a daughter.
Jane is relieved that someone Lisbon considers family can be there, even if she isn’t awake to know the difference. Her brothers are on their way, but they all live halfway across the country, have wives or girlfriends, children, jobs. Either Cho or Van Pelt called them the night before, but it’s going to be another day or so until the Lisbon brothers can get there.
It’s only fitting that Minelli be the stand in.
xxx
It’s another six hours before the doctors let Jane see her.
He’s been told that she’s out of the woods, but he remains unconvinced until he sees her for himself.
She’s lying in the bed, connected to multiple IV lines, with machines and heart monitors beeping methodically in the background. She appears unusually pale and impossibly small.
Lisbon never looks small.
He reaches out to touch her wrist. He doesn’t quite believe the heart monitor until he feels her pulse under his own fingers.
Reassured, just enough, he takes the seat by her bedside.
For as long as she keeps breathing, he’s happy to wait.
xxxxx