A/N: Because I totally haven't got enough multiparters on the go. *rolls eyes* Four Seasons is written and will be posted... over the next 2 days. And I'll keep Addiction and Unbound rolling. That's a promise.

Anyway, Catch is my entry to the January Challenge on Jello Forever. The prompt. New Beginnings. I love that prompt. YAY. And yes, the chapters will get longer. Consider this more prologue-y, if you will.

Enough rambling. I need sleep.

x tromana

Title: Catch-22
Author: tromana
Rating: T
Characters: Jane/Lisbon, Team
Disclaimer: Not mine.
Summary: Lisbon knows who the murderer is, for a change. While it isn't a bad thing, it isn't necessarily a good thing either.
Spoilers: 2x03 Red Badge
Notes: written for the Jello-Forever January Challenge: Prompt: New Beginnings

Catch-22

1 : a problematic situation for which the only solution is denied by a circumstance inherent in the problem or by a rule the show-business catch–22—no work unless you have an agent, no agent unless you've worked — Mary Murphy; also : the circumstance or rule that denies a solution
2 a : an illogical, unreasonable, or senseless situation b : a measure or policy whose effect is the opposite of what was intended c : a situation presenting two equally undesirable alternatives
3 : a hidden difficulty or means of entrapment : catch

(From Merriam-Webster)

Part One

He preferred it when she was angry. He could cope with that. Lisbon when she was shouting and raging, positively screaming his name from across the bullpen as she berated him for some crazy antic that he had carried out. That was fine; that was to be expected. Sometimes, he wondered how she never suffered from a hoarse throat, though she was certainly at no risk of doing that with the way she was behaving right now. In fact, excepting when she was suffering from a headache, Jane hadn't ever known her to be so quiet. And he knew she didn't have a headache - the Advil was still in its usual cupboard in the kitchenette. He'd checked. Twice.

It wasn't as if he'd done anything different to usual. Well, not really.

She was definitely over, or possibly, under reacting.

Besides, they'd just arrested the perp, told the victim's relatives, eaten closed case cookies and she'd signed off on the paperwork. She'd even found the time to write 'closed' onto her whiteboard like she did every time they'd finished with a case.

Whenever he tried to speak to her, it was always promptly replied to with a 'not now', 'tell me later' or the like. Jane had even specifically laid on her rock hard, uncomfortable couch which was inferior in virtually every way in comparison to the one in the bullpen, hoping that would at least trigger some kind of ranting tirade from her. It hadn't. In fact, Lisbon had just ignored him and gotten on with her work as if he weren't there.

He knew she was angry and he just wished that they could clear the cobwebs and get back to normal. Something that was very difficult to do if she was barely acknowledging his existence.

Jane couldn't help but think that if he knew more about why she'd been so on edge, so determined with this case, then he'd understand why she was so annoyed. It was relatively short and easy; they'd only ever had the one suspect and he was behind bars, for now, waiting for the case to hit the courts. Lisbon herself had identified him from just two rope burns and a couple of slashes to the victim's abdomen and Cho had immediately agreed with her suspicions.

He'd just figured that they'd both studied the course in some kind of training manual and that they were simply more liable to remember than Rigsby and Van Pelt. It wasn't as if either of them were caught up in the first throes of love and trying to disguise it (albeit, badly) from the management like the younger two agents were. Clearer minds meant that they were more likely to remain focused on the task in hand.

But, it wasn't quite that. Jane knew that whenever Red John reared his ugly head, he entered some kind of tense fervor. It ran through his veins and almost controlled his very being. And Lisbon had had a similar kind of frenzied look in her eye from the moment she had clapped eyes on the twelve year old victim's bloodied and bruised corpse.

It was almost like she was seeing herself in the girl's place.

TBC…