The Price You Pay For Love
Chapter 1 - Find Comfort in Pain
It had been 2 months now. 2 months since the change in her began. At first it had barely been noticeable. She had stopped teasing Jane and spent more hours in her office. They had all assumed it was something personal that was bothering her, something to do with her family perhaps? Only one person had seen the truth.
After a few weeks it became more noticeable. She didn't yell at Jane when he did something wrong, she didn't get angry or upset, it was like she just didn't care anymore. Even the others had begun to notice the difference now, but no one dared to ask her about it. They didn't understand the change, but it meant that they all enjoyed work a little less.
She never came to team night anymore and she barely spoke to them unless it was related to the case. She might as well have turned her back on them completely and it wasn't fair to the 3 good Agents on the team.
Agent Kimball Cho knew exactly what was wrong with his boss, she was heartbroken and he could understand why. Jane had lead her along for the best part of 2 years to believe he had feelings for her and then began his relationship with Kristina Frye. The man was a jackass sometimes when he brought her into the office and waved her around in front of Lisbons face, insensitive jerk.
It annoyed Cho that because of Jane the rest of the time had to bear the brunt of Lisbons coldness, he knew what she was doing. She was distancing herself from them so that they would feel afraid to pry for answers as to the change in her. Even Agent Hightower had noticed, but she like Cho could see the reason behind Lisbons attitude make-over.
Cho worried that if this went on any longer she would ask to be re-assigned or Hightower would re-assign her against her will. He loved working with Lisbon, or rather he had loved working with Lisbon (the woman in that office right now was not her) so naturally he didn't want her to leave them with a new boss.
It was for this reason that he had decided, after waiting a little too late already, to make a change. They had just finished up a particularly gruelling case and the team were gathered in the bullpen, minus Lisbon of course who had locked herself away in her office and pulled the blinds down, this was not unusual these days.
Van Pelt and Rigsby were whispering over in the corner and Cho didn't think he wanted to know what they were talking about. He was sitting with a book in front of him and if anyone looked over they would think that he was reading it, but in reality he was watching Lisbons office for any sign of movement through the blinds. If she was pacing then he would leave his little chat for her until another day. A pacing Lisbon was a pissed Lisbon and that was the kind of Lisbon you really wanted to avoid.
Cho was suddenly pulled out of his thoughts by a high-pitched laugh and with the faintest touch of a scowl he looked across the room to see another familiar sight as of late, Kristina Frye.
She came in on evenings to pick Jane up and drive him home, he stayed most nights at her apartment these days. She would sit there on the sofa until Jane wanted to leave and they would look into each others eyes and laugh like teenagers. Cho having had enough of the insufferable woman put his book down and stood up.
The team watched him as he walked to Lisbons office, knocked on the door and walked in. He closed the door behind him and walked over to where she was sitting at her desk looking at her computer with so much concentration that she had only just noticed he was in her office.
"Oh." She said when she looked up and saw who it was, "Hey Cho, do we have another case?" She asked looking down at her watch.
Cho shook his head and sat down across from her desk, "No. I just wanted to talk to you." Lisbon leant forward in her seat a little, looking at him in confusion.
"What you working on?" He asked gesturing towards the computer, still looking a bit lost she turned the computer screen around with a small smile to reveal that she was playing online solitaire, "So far I'm beating Anthony from Italy." She told him and he smiled back at her.
Swallowing his pride and jumping in, he told Lisbon the real reason he was in her office, "I know that lately you've not been yourself and I think you need to go out and relax so." He hesitated slightly, chancing a look at her face, her eyes were a little wider than they had been before, "I was wondering if you would like to go out for a meal tonight? To celebrate closing this case."
She stared at him, keeping her dignity intact, the only give away of her shock being her wide eyes, but after a moment just when Cho was about to say sorry and run she smiled, "Sure, that would be nice." She grabbed her coat and then hesitated, "Are we all going?"
Cho could tell by the way she glanced over at the window of her office that looked into the bullpen that she was worried Jane was going to be bringing Kristina.
"No, just you and I." He said in his usual tone of no emotion, trying not to let his uncertainty show. She looked a little relieved and followed him to the office door. Cho walked into the bullpen and put on his coat and picked up his mobile phone.
Van Pelt and Rigsby were about to leave and Jane had just stood up from the couch, holding hands with Kristina. Lisbon looked quickly away from them and back to Cho who asked, "You ready?"
She nodded, "Yeah." with a nod at Jane and a smile at Van Pelt and Rigsby Lisbon walked away from the bullpen with Cho at her heels. She didn't truly relax until she and Cho were in his car on their way to a local Chinese restaurant.
She glanced over at the man sitting next to her, always so calm and composed, she sometimes wished she could be like that. They drove to the restaurant in comfortable silence and when they arrived the reality set in for Lisbon.
She hadn't realised it before, but when she looked around at all the couples in the Restaurant she realised that this was in some twisted way a date. The shock must have shown on her face because Cho asked her if she was alright.
"Yeah, I'm just tired, the last case wore me out." She said as she took a sip of her wine.
"It was pretty difficult, they always are when they involve kids." He told her in his calming soft voice, she nodded, "I suppose they are."
After that they made a deal not to talk about work for the entire night and although at first Lisbon thought that it would be difficult to find topics of conversation she was wrong.
She hit it off with Cho immediately and they spent the night discussing everything from their family and their schooldays to their favourite music and movies. As the night progressed Lisbon let her hair down a little more, she was sharing stories with Cho and smiling and laughing again.
Cho did his fair bit of talking, but sometimes he took a moment just to watch Lisbon as she smiled and laughed whilst she was telling him about the time her brother had got so nervous asking a girl out that he had fallen and broken his wrist.
Cho was honest with himself tonight, he had asked her out for dinner originally just to cheer her up because he missed his old Boss, but the more he saw her smile and the more he found out about her family, the more he realised that it was so much more than that.
Maybe he hadn't really acknowledged it before but he liked her. He didn't know how he hadn't seen it really, she was all the things he looked for in a partner. She was strong, funny, opinionated, quirky and beautiful, he had never truly noticed her beauty before.
Maybe it was because she had always had an obvious thing for Jane, even then he supposed he had been attracted to her, but he didn't see the point. Everyone had assumed that something would happen between Jane and Lisbon one day, until Kristina came along.
The fact of the matter was that Cho was torn because he was very attracted to Teresa who he had gotten to know tonight, but Lisbon was his Boss and that left him with quite a dilemma.
When they eventually left the Restaurant at 11pm that night Lisbon felt much lighter and Cho had a heavy weight pulling him down. Cho being Cho however never let it show as he drove Lisbon back to her apartment.
She was about to leave the car when Cho said, "Boss?"
Lisbon looked at him with a smile and he said, "I hope that you are yourself again on Monday, we've all missed you a little." The rare display of emotion shocked Lisbon, but she leant over and hugged her friend, "Thanks Cho, I think you just brought me back." With another smile and a thanks for the meal Lisbon had jumped out of the car and hurried up the stairs to her apartment in the light evening rain.
With one last wave she entered her apartment and Cho drove back to his. He was now going to go home and spend the remainder of his Friday night alone with his cat, watching sappy soap re-runs. He had enjoyed the first part of the evening much more, he decided.
His cat reminded him too much of his boss anyway, she had dark brown fur that was almost black and big green eyes, damn that cat and damn that woman. No wonder Bosco fell for her. Cho thought as he glared at his cat, it just cocked its head however and watched him with a bemused sort of look in its eyes that was all too familiar.
For a moment he wondered if Lisbon was an animagus and spied on him in cat form, he entertained this possibility for a few more moments as he watched his cat, until he remembered that Harry Potter wasn't real and then decided to get some sleep before anymore crazy thoughts entered his head.
To Be Continued.
A/N - So this is something new for me. Tbh I think all my chapter fics of the Mentalist have been angst and RJ drama, but never this sorta drama, do you think i can pull it off? Its only going to be 7 or 8 chapters long.
Anyways thanks for reading! x