As this is my first ever FF story, reviews are greatly appreciated. Let me know your thoughts about this and whether or not I should continue this story. Thanks :D

Scarlet Fever

It was an ordinary day at the office for Teresa Lisbon. They had just closed a case where an angry lover killed her boyfriend's wife. It was pretty simple, as far as motive and murder go, but it involved a politician so they had been called in. After their case-closed pizza, Lisbon retreated to her office.

Jane decided to follow her after the other members of their team left. After Rigsby had made an excuse to leave with Van Pelt, Cho decided that it was late and that he too, should be heading home. Jane waited a minute for Rigsby to realize he forgot his keys…

"Hey, Jane. You're still here? I forgot my keys." Rigsby said, rushing through the motions of a conversation.

"Yeah I noticed. You have a nice night with Van Pelt" Jane replied. At that, Rigsby turned bright red and he practically ran to the elevator. It was fun embarassing the members of his team, because he did consider himself a part of the team rather than simply a consultant, but he couldn't help think of Lisbon blushing, as she was his favourite to embarrass. She just looked gorgeous the way her skin would flush and all the blood seemed to gather at her cheeks and neck. Then he remembered that he was going to go see Lisbon in her office.

Jane got up off his couch and walked over to Lisbon's office, noticing that she had closed the blinds. That sparked his curiosity, which quickly sparked something else when he thought about what he wanted to do with the blinds closed. No, he shouldn't think like that, it's Lisbon. Lisbon, who always looked beautiful, even when chasing down a suspect. Lisbon, who made him crazy almost every second of the day. Lisbon, who would probably shoot him if she knew what he was thinking right now. So he took a moment to compose his thoughts, and then he walked into her office.

"What do you want Jane?" She asked. Not with anger or annoyance, but with simple curiosity.

"I want many things." He answered cryptically, "But I'm pretty sure you don't want to be bothered with them all."

"Let me rephrase, why are you in my office?" Lisbon said, getting a little annoyed now but that was because she was tired. She liked his presence in her office, even if it was simply to tease her about one thing or another. She tried not to let it show though, and was facing the only window she had left unobstructed.

"Do I really need a reason to come and talk to my favourite CBI agent?" Jane replied, trying to get her to smile.

"Seriously Jane." Lisbon tried to hide her amusement but as she turned around to face him, the smile she had been trying to suppress decided to make an appearance.

"I was merely wondering why you were still here, we don't have a case anymore. I am a friend who is concerned that their friend is not getting the sleep she needs right now." Jane said. Upon seeing that he was successful in making her smile, he looked at her with one of his own. How he wished that he could walk across her office, close the gap between them, and caress her cheek with his thumb. But he restrained himself, as he did most days when he was around her. Since he was using so much self control to stop himself from touching her or kissing her every minute of every day, it was really no surprise that he couldn't restrain himself from antagonizing suspects in their cases. There was simply no control left for him to use; he wished he could explain this to Lisbon but he knew if he did then he would have to tell her about how deeply his feelings for her were. But he could not burden her with the knowledge, so he kept it from her, kept her safe from this unwanted information.

"I have paperwork to fill out" Lisbon said, not meeting his eyes.

"I would argue that you could do it tomorrow, when you've gotten some rest, but we both know that paperwork is not the reason that you are still here. So why don't you tell me what's keeping you here and I'll see if I can help?" Jane desperately wanted her to open up with him, to let down her shields, but knew that she needed her shields to protect herself so he usually didn't pry. Tonight was different though, she hadn't slept in almost 48 hours and she had worn herself out and if the only way he could get her to go home and get some rest by getting her to talk about what was keeping her awake, then he was going to pry into her thoughts and feelings.

Lisbon wanted to tell him, she really did, but she couldn't bring herself to let him know what was bothering her. She couldn't let her shields down, the ones she fought everyday to keep up. She wouldn't burden him with the knowledge of how he made her feel, despite his asking, it would be unhelpful information and she would protect him from it.

Lisbon knew that he would know if she was lying to him and she was too tired to fight with him, so she decided to tell him the truth. Not the whole truth, simply a part of it, albeit a small part, but truth nonetheless. "I don't want to go home alone. My apartment always feels so lonely after a case…"

Jane was surprised that she had opened up so easily, but he could see in her eyes that this wasn't everything, far from it. But he decided that that was enough prying for one night. "Okay, grab your coat, and the change of clothes you keep in the second drawer of your desk and let's go."

"What?" Lisbon asked. She was confused, what was he doing? For a second she thought that maybe he would take her home with him, but that was crazy. He was probably going to drop her off at a hotel. At this thought, she couldn't help feeling a little disappointed.

"Well you don't want to spend the night alone, so I'm going to take you to my apartment and we can keep each other company. Don't worry; I'm not going to seduce you. At least not tonight." He added with a grin.

"Huh? What, no. I didn't think… uh… I wasn't…" Lisbon's tired mind refused to come up with a complete sentence.

"Lisbon, I'm just messing with you. Now come on, let's go before you pass out." Jane smiled at her reassuringly.

Against her better judgement, Lisbon grabbed her stuff and smiled at him as they walked to the elevator. "Thank you." She whispered.

xxxx

The drive to his apartment was quick but that didn't stop Lisbon from falling asleep before they reached their destination. When Jane pulled up to his apartment building, he wasn't going to bring her to his Malibu house as it would only make her less inclined to sleep, he looked over at the sleeping Lisbon and, rather than wake her up, he went around to the passenger door and gently picked her up. He got a few strange looks from passers-by but he didn't notice; he was only watching Lisbon while she slept in his arms as he made his way up to his apartment.

He had barely made it in the door when Lisbon stirred. She opened her eyes, temporarily forgetting where she was, or rather where she was going. Feeling more than seeing Lisbon wake up, Jane decided to set her down so she could get ready for bed.

"The bathroom is just to the left there; feel free to use the shower if you need to. And the bedroom's right across the hall." Jane said.

"Um, Jane?" Lisbon asked tentatively.

"Yes, my dear?"

"There's only one bedroom." Lisbon stated, as if he didn't already know.

"Yes, and?"

"If I'm in the bedroom, the only bedroom, where are you going to sleep?" Lisbon asked.

"I'll sleep on the couch tonight." Jane said.

"That can't be good for your back." Lisbon said.

"Meh, I'll live."

"This is ridiculous. I will sleep on the couch; after all it is your house."

"Nonsense! If it's such a big deal to you, we can both sleep in my bedroom." Jane said.

"Uh, well… I don't think… I really don't mind…" Lisbon muttered.

"Teresa, we are both mature adults who do not need to sleep with each other in order to sleep with each other. Do you understand?" Jane rationalized.

"Yeah, fine. Whatever." Lisbon was too tired to argue anymore. "And Jane… um… I don't…"

"I have a shirt you can wear and I'm sure I could dig up some pyjama bottoms if you want, but it is really hot out I don't know if you would be comfortable with them." Jane said, practically reading her mind. As much as he led Lisbon to believe, he didn't always know what she was thinking. In fact, she was actually pretty hard to read, but his guesses were usually right and when he wasn't almost certain of what she was thinking, he just wouldn't say anything at all.

With that, Lisbon hurried into the washroom, thanking Jane for the shirt and silently congratulating herself on her ability to restrain herself from doing something innapropriate to Jane, as well as the foresight to carry a toothbrush in her purse. Lisbon brushed her teeth and changed into Jane's shirt, she could take a shower in the morning, it was after all a Saturday tomorrow.

While Lisbon was in the washroom, Jane mentally shook himself, thinking thoughts of how he couldn't under any circumstances lose his control tonight. He wanted Lisbon to feel safe, not pressured or uncomfortable. So he decided to find some pyjamas for tonight, even though it was really hot out. He didn't want to make this harder than it already was.

Lisbon came out of the bathroom to find Jane in his boxers, looking through his drawers. She put her clothes and toothbrush on the table by the door and waited a moment before alerting him to her presence. She was also enjoying the view.

"Lose something?" She asked. Jane jumped, startled. He didn't realize that she was done in the washroom. When he turned around, he almost forgot that she had asked him a question; she looked so good in his t-shirt. He was momentarily caught up in fantasies of her falling asleep every night beside him, in his t-shirt or nothing at all. He shook his head, trying to clear his thoughts before answering her question.

"It's just, I don't normally wear pyjamas to bed when it's so hot out." Jane said, blushing. "So I don't have anything to wear to bed but maybe an old t-shirt and my boxers."

"Don't think that you need to wear pyjamas for me." Lisbon blushed when she realized how that sounded. "I mean, I don't want you to be uncomfortable on my account."

"Okay then, thank you Lisbon." Jane was relieved; it would have been hot enough tonight without having her warm body sharing his bed, and seeing how she was… Well, he was just glad he wouldn't be overheating. Jane made his way to the bathroom to brush his teeth and splash some cold water on his face. After a few minutes, he returned to the bedroom to find Lisbon just standing there, staring at the bed.

"It's not going to bite you" Jane said. He was so close to her that he practically whispered it in her ear. She jumped.

"I know. I'm just not sure which side of the bed you sleep on." Lisbon said quietly. She was feeling slightly embarrassed by the whole ordeal. She never thought she'd be sharing a bed with Jane, well she'd had fantasies where they were, but the circumstances were much different than these ones.

"I prefer to sleep on the right side, if that's alright with you" Jane replied.

"That's actually perfect; I like the left side myself." Lisbon said. With that, it was settled. They climbed into the bed on their respective sides and got comfortable. They whispered their goodnights and fell into deep relaxing sleeps, the best night's sleep either of them had had in a long time.

Xxxx

The next morning, Lisbon awoke to find that during the night she had curled into Jane's side. She was slightly alarmed to find her hand lying on his chest, her legs entangled with his and her head resting on his shoulder. But she was not the only one to have changed sleeping positions throughout the night; Jane had encircled her with his arms in tight embrace and buried his face in her hair. She decided to lay there for a few minutes because she enjoyed the contact and the feelings it gave her. She liked feeling safe in Jane's arms. That, and his strong arms prevented her from moving.

Jane woke up a few minutes after Lisbon did, surprised that he had managed to sleep that night. He attributed it to the woman lying with him in his bed. He'd woken up once briefly to find that she had moved in her sleep to be closer to him, so he was not surprised by their position, only by the fact that Lisbon hadn't extricated herself.

"Good morning sunshine." Jane said sleepily.

"Mmm," was Jane's only reply. She still hadn't made to move out of his arms, a fact that didn't escape his notice.

"Not that I'm complaining, but do you mind telling me why you haven't run all the way to Timbuktu yet? Given our current position, I would've thought that you'd have jumped out of bed the second you got up." Jane inquired. He was still waking up and could put the energy into coming up with some extravagant plan to get the answer, so he just asked.

"Well, your strong arms have succeeded in preventing me from doing so, Jane" Lisbon wiggles a bit in his arms to prove that he did, indeed, have a vice-like grip on her.

"Oh! Well, uh, sorry about that" Jane muttered as he let her go and got out of bed. He went into the bathroom and could have sworn he heard Lisbon whisper something along the lines of 'I didn't mind' while he left. He had a quick shower, not wanting to use all the hot water; after all, he did have a guest over. Whilst in his shower, Jane tried to get the inappropriate thoughts of his boss out of his head to no avail. He just couldn't shake the image of her in his arms and how much he wanted to have her in his arms again.

Little did he know that the day's events would grant him just that.

So... what do you think? Good? Bad? Mediocre? Review please.