Lara was curled up comfortably on her side asleep. She awakened with a gentle stretch.
Her eyes fluttered open to see the beautiful sun-filled sky, framed by the lush branches of a tree.

That wasn’t right, where’s the ceiling? Lara got up on one elbow and scanned her surroundings; she was in the everglades by the looks of it, with no memory of how she had gotten there.

Lara saw the blond man laying near her, as far as she could remember she had never seen him before. Did he have something to do with this or was he in the same situation as her?

Lara kept herself calm, she needed to figure out what was going on and panicking would not help. She noted a brick-sized stone she could use as a weapon if she needed before she approached Patrick Jane. She cautiously shook him on the shoulder as she spoke to him softly in her British accent, “Hello? Awake up. Wake up.”

He was dreaming. As of lately it tend to happen.
Chasing blue butterfly. It was getting further away and suddenly Jane's shoulder hit a branch of a blooming cherry tree.
Suddenly the branch moved and bumped his shoulder again. "Hey!" he called out.

Then he heard a voice. It was calling but he couldn't decipher what exactly.
And in a blink of an eye there were different kinds of wildlife sounds.
And the same voice now accompanied by shaking of his shoulder.
In a flash Patrick's eyes flew open.

Blink.
Blink.
Blink.

"Damn Neal! I'll lock you up. What the hell you're up to?" he blurted out. "Oh..." Patrick blinked his vision clearer and found a woman looking back. "Hi!" despite the weird situation Jane gave her his big, bright smile.

Lara recoiled slightly when Patrick blurted out his statement, what did he mean by “Lock you up”?
Lara waited a moment while Patrick composed himself, she was ready to react if he tried anything, but he responded with a big smile. Patrick’s smile was very charming and disarming but Lara did not let her guard down. “Hi” she replied in a strong yet unsure tone.

Jane looked around cautiously only to find a view completely different from what he'd expected.
Something definitely wasn't right.

He shook his head, mop of golden curls, and immediately regretted the movement.

"Okay, I have no idea what did I drink last night, because I know it wasn't Michelle's usual butterfly drink. Whatever it was I didn't do it." he rambled without a filter. He usually woke up with more control over his mouth.
Patrick looked observingly at Lara. She looked cautious and one who didn't trust strangers easily.

"Pardon my behavior, miss, I just don't wake up in a places what strangely resemble Glades often." the blonde flashed his most apologetic smile he could muster.
Well, he did get to wake up in places he rarely recalls falling asleep but he always knew who to blame. This was different.

Lara saw that Patrick seemed to have woken in the same situation as her. Patrick did not seem like he would be a threat and Lara relaxed a little, but only a little, She still did not know how she had come to be in the everglades and if the person who had put her there was still around. “I’m Lara DunCroft.” She said introducing herself, “Who are you and what do you remember?” she asked. Lara’s eyes subconsciously scanned the perimeter one again before returning to Patrick to focuses on his reply.

It felt too real to be dream so he decided it was reality.
"Hi Lara, I'm Patrick. Patrick Jane." he introduced with himself. "I'm actually a consultant for the MDPD." Patrick added.
He decided it'd be good to tell straight away, to be clear from the start.
He looked around once again. Someone had done a number, definitely something to add to his 'never again' list. The blonde rubbed his head tiredly. Headache wasn't a helpful aide this time because it didn't explain why and how he happened to be in Glades, from the looks of it, instead his own bed.

Lara was pleased to hear Patrick was with the MDPD, he could be lying but Lara gave him the benefit of the doubt, though she did not let her guard down completely. "I'm a police officer myself." Lara replied

It was obvious Patrick had no idea how the pair had ended up in the everglades, Lara sighed in disappointment and rubbed her aching neck, that’s when she felt the tiny needle puncher on the side of her neck.      

“Do you have a needle mark too?” Lara asked Patrick, “It look like someone has drugged us and dumped us out here, but who and why?” she added.

"Oh really? That's cool." Patrick said with a smile. He felt like after five too many tequilas and not yet up to his usual game of reading people. But he wasn't Neal and didn't know all the cops around.

At Lara's question he let his hand brush over his neck. "Yes, it's there. But really, why to take us?" Jane was clueless. "I don't remember any case of recent involving anyone dumping bodies in Glades or even drugging anyone. In fact it was just some robbery gone bad at jewelry shop where most was fake anyway. Does your case might called this?" he realized too late of his slight impoliteness. But he rarely did it the nice and fluffy way.

“No, none of the call outs I’ve been to have been anything like this either” Lara informed Patrick. Then the thought hit her and her face dropped, “What if whoever dumped us here plan to come back?” She said to Patrick with a slightly concerned look in her big, beautiful, expressive deep-blue eyes.

Patrick nodded.
Then his eyes widened as Lara suggested they might come back. That has never been his forte. But then there always had been Lisbon to rescue him from whatever trouble he'd made for himself. Later there was either Ryan, his sparkling sister or Maddy to save him from trouble or get into deeper trouble.
But he doubted they could suddenly teleport themselves to Glades.

"So, I guess then it's up to us to figure this out and get to safety." Jane said with more enthusiasm than he felt inside, looking back into Lara's equally expressive eyes. "Don't worry, we'll be fine, I'm sure we can talk them into some deal, if they comes back, which I hope they won't. I'm sure my home-mates might soon start wondering where I'm gotten into." -and Maddy even sooner, I hope- Patrick added silently to himself. He noticed he was bit rambling and wrote it off to still being slightly fuzzy around the edges.

“Maybe it’s not such a good idea to wait around and see if they come back, I mean drugging and dumping someone in the middle of nowhere does not say friendly to me and we don’t know how many of them there may be.” Lara pointed out.

“I know when you are lost it is best to stay where you are and wait to be reused, but under the circumstances I say we should start moving. What do you want to do?" Lara asked Patrick, she knew they should stay together so she had to include him in the choice to start moving.

Jane nodded, agreeing. It was wisely suggested but just like life tend to happen outside the rulebook even the best advices had to be stretched around a bit.
He glanced around, slightly squinting at sun, to figure out what else, rather than digging up a hidey hole, he wanted to do.
But all he could punch out of his still frozen brain was another memory of another lifetime, some years ago when he got kidnapped by crazy, cattle-prodding woman. Back then he was handcuffed to a support beam and stuck with cattle prod every time he let his mouth run wilder than suggested in such situations. But he was he, never listens nor follow the book.
Now there were endless, according to Alexa, who was lost in Glades for unknown eternity, savanna of all kinds of sticky and grabby things that either ate you or spit you out. For a fancy city guy like himself Patrick had tried to avoid even thinking of this part of his new hometown.

"Well, I think the best would be to try and find some higher spot and try to see the area better. Maybe there's a road or river way somewhere near." the blonde suggested what sounded much like a wise thing, inwardly making himself "cowboy-up" as Neal once told him after tough night at cramped closet Ry's sister locked them in.
He missed the sparkling girl, though she most likely actually suggest making grass-sand bombs and dig up a firewall and prepare some sharpened sticks if not a whole set of bow and arrows.
Maybe not a bad idea considering their unknown enemy and all.

“That’s the best thing to do.” Lara replied to Patrick’s suggestion as the  military training she had received for a situation such as this came flooding back to her, “Whenever you are lost somewhere like this  and are unable to wait for a rescue team you should follow a road or river,  it will eventually lead you to people.”  Lara continued as she removed her watch.

Drawing from her survival training Lara held the watch face parallel to the ground and pointed the hour hand of the present time in the direction of the sun, she marked the point halfway between the hour hand and 12, from that she was able to work out what way the pair where facing, “Okay, we are currently facing East” Lara informed Patrick. Lara knew that piece of information was not useful at the moment as the pair did not know what way they needed to be heading, but it could be useful later on and following her survival training was the best thing Lara could do right now.

And with that the pair started walking.

Patrick couldn't help but beam at Lara, at least he was somewhat useful in this weird situation. And sure enough it was weird. Finding himself suddenly in Glades instead his own warm and fluffy bed could get strange if it even wasn't Maddy's. So he catalogued the musings about how-when-where-why he was taken for later time and watched the woman detecting the direction.

"East." he said thoughtfully. "If it was on map I'd say city should be North." Patrick turned his head to look that way briefly as they started moving.
"I wouldn't deny some relief if we could find some tree or bird watch tower, anything." the blonde suddenly had a vague memory of Ryan telling some old story of their investigations around here, something about leech, trees and heights, and his colleagues making fun out of his wildlife intolerance. So, if he recalled correctly, there had to be places of hard ground, some trees and roadways towards civilization along waterways with alligators. So technically they just had to hit non-swamp spot that resembled road and track North with luck reaching city by following morning - something little blue-head had likely managed before cop found her.
Maybe they could get lucky, Patrick thought while they walked

“I agree.” Lara replied to Patrick’s comments. She scanned for some kind of bird tower/platform or solid tree to climb for a better vantage point.
Then Lara spotted a dilapidated, half built tree house in the distance. No doubt a project started and abandoned by a hunter some years ago. “Look. Over there.” Lara said pointing it out to Patrick.

“Your handling this well. A lot of people would just panic in this situation.” Lara encouraged as the pair headed for the tree house. Patrick’s calmness kept this weird, potentially stressful situation from becoming even more difficult, when you are lost the last thing you need is to be stuck with someone who is freaked out and falling to pieces.

When the pair reached the tree house Lara made sure that the wooden planks nailed up the trunk where still secure, some seemed to be a little rotten so Lara climbed them carefully and cautiously, “You can stay down here if you like.” Lara offered before heading up.
Patrick did not look like the “outdoorsy-trek through swamps- backwoods survivalist” type in his nice looking suit, besides Lara did not see the point in them both risking it, but the choice was Patrick’s.

Lara reached the top and scanned the surrounding area. There was no road or river in sight, just miles of solid land encumbered with mires and lakes of stagnant swamp water, “It looks like we are deep inland. We’ll just have to trek North until we find a road or river.”

Patrick looked the way Lara pointed and smiled. That was a good thing here, in this place full of who-knows-what. ''That's wonderful, we should be now able to see some more of this place.'' Patrick said, somewhat relieved.

''Well, thank you. You're handling this quite well yourself.'' he said bit humbled by the compliment he actually felt good about. But being who he was he rarely was letting anything beside calm to show, that and he was a con, and one with an experience at that. Besides he knew how important was to stay with clear mind in a situation this weird.

''Thank you.'' he answered somewhat awkwardly, not quite sure if being more gentleman that usually would change a thing. Beside he really wasn't that tree-climbing guy Ryan's sister tried to make out of him despite his surfing show off while ago. So Jane felt rather relieved to not climb that tree house, and not just because of his still somewhat clean looking suit.

Lara's words made his heart sink a bit. That meant more and more of this land clad with water, grass and hidden traps. ''So this means we're stuck to no way of running into transportation. On the bright side it should also mean there should be no more bad guys. Or at least not too soon.'' he said bit hopeful. Dealing with the swamp was already enough, they will need water really soon and it was getting too hot for Patrick, so dealing with bunch of unknown goons wasn't on his to-do list. Although it might shed some light into the reason they were stuck in Glades.

Lara carefully climbed back down the tree. She nodded in agreement with Patrick’s comment about not running into the bad guys. That was definitely a good thing right now.

“Okay let’s start walking. Be careful and watch your step.” Lara said, “Try to stay close. If you follow my path you’ll know that the footing is okay, it will be a lot safer.” Lara said as she began to walk, her military training shining through.

Lara usually avoided taking the lead in situations if she could, though she has the capability she does not have the self-confidence. Giving Patrick direction like this was a little out of her comfort zone but she tried not to let it show (Lara was not one to let anything show), she tried look confident for Patrick’s sake and at the end of the day it was up to him if he wanted to take notice or not.

"Okay." the blonde man agreed. The usually talkative consultant was less chatty. But he was glad none of his friends were around to poke at that. He still felt slightly dazed and for most of the part his body endlessly tried to talk him into laying down by sending dizzy spells randomly.
Patrick couldn't tell whether that was after effect from being knocked out or anything else he couldn't remember from the night before (fist fight was just one idea, that or he'd slipped on something and fallen hitting his head on carpet).

But his observing skills weren't that concussed to stop throwing things to notice about Lara.
First, she seemed no-nonsense and confident. But also not quite. Obviously some kind of military background or training was present because he definitely wouldn't know to walk in her steps, unless of course he hadn't been Michelle- Ry's National Geographic walking encyclopedia and Discovery Channel know-it-all. Apparently the hospital and rehabilitation center had been fans of science and explorer channels for their long-term patients.
However he wasn't exactly dumb himself.

Lara was pleased to see Patrick follow her path without any sort of an argument or male ego trip.

“Are you okay?” Lara inquired noticing that Patrick seemed to be a little off, as if he was dizzy or something.
Lara also noticed that Patrick seemed quiet and that was another plus for her, she hoped he would stay that way, being stuck in the middle of nowhere with someone who is chatty, chatty and wants to find out all about you would be a nightmare situation for someone as withdrawn as Lara.  

Little did Lara know that Patrick was a very skilled mentalist who was already learning about her through mere observation.

Not that the question really surprised him. It'd be weirder if she hadn't asked, after all it was pretty obvious he wasn't on top of his game, albeit Patrick guessed Lara preferred his more silent version.
"I'm okay, just little bit dizzy. I think I might have a bump on my head somewhere." he answered too open for his own liking, someone must've rubbed off on him. Patrick Jane rarely was this open, unless Maddy or Mich made him be. "Ryan has hard head in tight spaces with little way to sneeze." was mentalist's further explanation.
He and Ryan had been inspecting some small enclosure for evidence the other day when the CSI had suddenly sneezed and their heads bumped together with resounding cracks. Obviously the heat, the sun was bringing out Jane's old issues.
However he just smiled as best as he could hoping Lara won't get worried, she had better chances without a whining consultant.

When Patrick said he was dizzy and thought that he may have had a bump Lara stopped and stood in front of him, “I just want to make sure you don’t have a concussion.” Lara explained, “Keep your head still and follow my finger.” She instructed then slowly moved one finger back and forth on front of Patrick’s eyes, she did a couple of other quick tests drawing from the medical training she had received during her time in the army and she determined that Patrick was okay, “You don’t have a concussion. The dizziness should go away on its own. You’ll be fine.” She reassured him before continuing to walk.

Jane had to breathe a sigh of relief, even though he had had some concussions before, especially one after explosion which resulted in temporary blindness and another one caused by baseball hitting him on head- that had made him all weird and spacey with some past memories.

"Good to know." he commented cheerfully. "I suppose Ryan has a hard head too." Patrick added, letting a hand through his ruffled hair. He might possibly receive a full bathing session from his girlfriend once this all is over.

Lara did not know who Ryan was but Lara did not bother to inquire, Patrick know who This "Ryan" was and that was enough for her.
Lara just kept walking while her eyes hyper-vigilantly scanned her surroundings, a symptom of her post-traumatic-stress-disorder that seemed to have been roused by her current situation.

It was hot, as you might expect from Miami, especially the swamp. Although Patrick usually showed more childish behavior and was known whining about things right now, in this situation especially, he didn't dare to let out his other side.

He kept walking beside Lara and observe surroundings. As if any of the tall grass could show them anything new. Well, he was aware of many things he didn't want to touch nor fall into.

And that was suspiciously weird how often his thoughts returned to his friend and CSI who had told them swamp stories. His sister usually adding some embarrassing detail for more fun.

"Isn't it weird how slow time seems to pass when you are in unusual situation, or quite the opposite? Of course it depends on people and situation." Jane's tongue once again eluded the filter between it and brain.
Or maybe he was suddenly more tired than he thought.

But the consultant started to notice Lara's way of dealing with all this. And for some reason there was an itch about it. But gentleman inside bit him hard enough and just in time before he managed to blurt out something impolite.

It was getting hotter as the morning lapsed by and the sun began to beat down in full Miami heat. Lara felt herself beginning to perspire but she was to uncomfortable to remove the classy light-weight sweater she had donned sometime last night and just walk around in her vest in front of Patrick, partly because of her inherent modesty but mostly because she did not want him to see the scars she had on her body.  

“You’re not wrong there.” Lara said agreeing with Patrick’s time comment. “And in uncomfortable conditions.” Lara murmured as she wiped her warm brow.

Lara’s mind was taken off the temperature as she began to have a flashback. Lara spaced out as she had a mental vision of a very large wood and metal sliding-door, it looked like the kind you would find on a barn or an airplane hanger.
In her minds-eye Lara was on the floor, for some reason, with a view of an industrial type ceiling and the mysterious door that was open, allowing the night sky and nearby surroundings to be seen. The image disappeared as quickly as it had come, Lara tried to recognize something outside of the door but the memory was just too fuzzy right now, but she was starting to remember something and that was a step in the right direction.

Lara told Patrick what she had just seen in her mind in case any of the memories would caused him to remember something about last night.