A/N: So here I am with my first FanFic ever. Don't want to bother you with too much jabber. But obviously I have, and want to, thank my two Beta's safronia (who was so kind to offer her help on twitter) and (after finally having the guts to ask her) wimmer511, whose own fanfics I love, therefore it is a huge honor to have you betaing for me. Thank you two so much for doing this! - And now, here we go :)
Disclaimer: Yeah, surprise, I do not own "The Mentalist" or any of its characters. Meh...
*Chapter 1*: The Opening
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"Your intellect may be confused, but your emotions will never lie to you." -Roger Ebert
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"Yes Jane, I just got home. Thanks for checking," Lisbon said in sing-song voice, amused about Jane's new habit of checking-in-if-you-got-home-safely calls, as if she needed those, she was a cop for heaven's sake.
"But you're still outside, don't try to deny it, I can hear the wind whistling through the trees," Jane answered equally pleasant. "I'll just stay on the phone until you're in."
Lisbon sighed, "You know I could just hang up, right?"
"You could, but you won't." Damn him. Why did he sound as if that was a foregone conclussion? Oh right, because it was. Damn herself.
"Alright, but I'm really, really tired. After your damn stunt Cho and I had to run all across Central Park to catch Stephen's and then walk all the way back to the cars."
Yes she was exhausted, and not only the unwanted fitness training was the reason for this, no a certain blonde haired consultant had babbled on about his new airstream for the whole of the three and a half hour flight back to Austin, sitting in the middle seat she'd had no way to escape. So Lisbon was naturally grateful to finally plug the keys in the door of her house and enter blissful silence.
She had purchased her new residence just two months ago and there were still some boxes to unpack. The house lay close to Zilker Botanical Gardens, stood secluded by a small forest with her own driveaway and had two floors. The basement contained the hall, livingroom, kitchen, bathroom and the bedroom. Winding stairs led up to the second floor which had two additional rooms, the smaller one in which, for now, the unpacked boxes rested and a bigger one she'd turned into a home office, as well as an extra bathroom with a tub. It was a small house, but homy.
Despite the unpacked boxes she would make sure her new house wouldn't end up like her condo back in Sacramento. In Cannon River she had obtained her first own property, though her job had been less paid than her previous one, the lack of a social-life had secured her with a good filled bank account. And she had loved it -especially the fireplace.
So naturally the first thing she told her real estate agent in Austin was to look for a small house with a fireplace in it. Not being responsible for Jane's antics anymore meant a lot less paperwork and therefore more time spend at home and she wanted to enjoy this time in front of a cosy fire and a glass of wine.
"You're in yet?" Lisbon heard Jane ask, the phone pressed between her ear and shoulder.
"Uh yeah, I am."
"Good...oh, did I mention the microwave I bought last week?"
Gazing at herself in the entrance mirror, a new one, the one she had in Washington sadly hadn't made the journey unscaffed, she let Jane talk about his new microwave while she kept wondering about the changes she made during the past years.
She had had to actually learn what is was like to slow down and just look at the world and enjoy its beauty. Something she'd never done before becoming a Police Chief of a small town in which a drunken man who'd managed to smash the local pub into pieces had been the most exciting crime during her eighteen months stay. Even worse, the owner of the pub had already knocked the lights out of him when they'd arrived, so there hadn't even been a little chase involved-hence her grown knowledge of things she never thought she needed to know. She'd really had a lot of reading time on her hands.
She'd been restless during the six months after the CBI had fallen. She wasn't used being without something to do. It was also during this time that she truly understood how much the team had meant to her. They had become her family, every single one of them. Although she had mended ties with her brothers after Tommy and Annie had left again, they were too far away to really be family. They were tied by blood and she loved them, but Cho, Rigsby and Grace had proven to her that blood wasn't necessarily thicker than water. They were just as important to her as her siblings, even when she hadn't shown it that much on an emotional level.
And Jane...well she was never really sure what kind of relationship they had. More than often he reminded her of the time when she had to raise her three brothers because her father hadn't been able to. They were a handful in their teenage years, but Jane had managed the same amount of annoyance single-handedly. It was always a mixed feeling like a mother dealing with an ADHD child, or the older sister who at times was allowed to enjoy his antics. And then there were the times they'd flirted, and she had to confess the line between what was simply teasing and what wasn't had blurred more than once and she'd had to remind herself just as often of who he was and why he was working for the CBI in the first place. She never really thought about Jane that way at the beginning, sure he was handsome and charming and incredibly intelligent, but the baggage and past he carried around had reminded her too much of her dad to even start fantasizing about him in any inappropriate way.
With years passing though that invisible line between them had started to turn into a zigzag line and it became harder and harder to not overstep it. After the whole Vegas debacle and the minor detail of Lorelei she had completely stopped pretending he was asexual and the fact she hadn't dated often hadn't exactly helped to not let her mind wander off to the what-if scenarios. His confession, if one wanted to call it that, had also fueled those specific thoughts.
So by the time they found themselves in the whirlwind of Red John's demise her feelings had been all tangled up. She'd been confused, not knowing what to make of these emotions, she wasn't even sure what exactly they were. Of course Jane once again had taken the burden of contemplating these feelings off her when he'd run after killing McAllister. He was gone and therefore anything she might have or might not have felt were naught.
In the months in between that fateful day and her moving to CR she came to the conclusion that her feelings about Jane weren't that surprising. He'd been literally the only man at her side for a decade and despite his tendencies to wreak havoc he'd always cared for her. His ability to know what she felt when she felt it and why and what she needed had also made it really hard for other man to catch her interest, even if she'd been looking, which she hadn't.
"Do you know what I'm supposed to do?...Lisbon? You're still there?"
It took her moment to gather what he'd asked her. "Yes Jane, I'm still here...and all you have to do is pushing the start button," Lisbon answered his previous question, chuckling silently at her unintentional double entendre.
Jane's mixed signals over the years taken into account, Lisbon surmised, she was bound to start thinking about what it would be like with him in a romantic relationship. But that was it, she'd been lonely and so of course her mind had conspired against her and used her best friend Jane as a proxy to explain and defend her reasons for being alone. It had been a relief to finally understand her feelings for what they were and that meant her best friend was still that, her best friend, even if he would never come back.
Jane's letters had finally given her peace; his way of writing them had been one of the reasons she kept every single one. The way he'd described his exile, the beaches, the ocean, the plants, the animals, the children, everything he'd written seemed to come off the page in technicolor. Every letter read was like watching a movie in HD. The world was a beautiful place if you looked past the darkness. If Jane could see it, she had no reason not to.
With new vigor she'd applied to the job in Cannon River and with that had also come the house of the last Chief who'd moved to Seattle. It was a sign from heaven.
Luckily this state of mind held on so far-despite moving and more work again.
Hearing Jane cursing the hightech kitchen gadget in the background, she couldn't help but compare old versus new Jane. There were so many things that hadn't changed at all, like his love for tea or his naps on a specific brown couch. But he finally chose to have an actual home. Okay, a trailer still implied a certain rootlessnesss, but it was a place to actually live in, unlike a lo-fi motel room for example.
She wasn't sure what it meant that he chose to have a home that would surely remind him of the old days, his carney childhood and with that the start of his psychic ways. But hopefully the good memories, like Pete and Sam and of course meeting and falling in love with Angela, would outweigh the unpleasant one's.
For her everything was almost back to normal, but everything was still entirely new. Not being the boss made things way easier though it was still strange to have Cho in particular give her orders. Lisbon knew she'd get used to it eventually, being in a leading position for such a long time left a certain mark on you which wasn't just going to go away, but first and foremost she was a professional and so she just would have to suck it up. And who knew maybe one day she'd be back in the saddle, she would definitely work hard for it and proof that she wasn't just part of the FBI because Jane demanded it. Abbott and Fischer seem to have started to see that she earned her desk in the bureau. But Lisbon knew it was still a long way to go.
"Hah, it worked Lisbon," Jane's excited voice cut through her thoughts.
"Congrats, so I can rest assured you won't be starving to death then, huh," Lisbon teased. Then the buzzing from her phone tickled her cheek.
"Ha ha, you know..." Jane started but Lisbon interrupted his rejoinder. "Hold on a second."
Checking who sent the text message that had arrived, she wasn't surprised to find it was from Marcus. Lisbon smiled to herself, putting the cellphone back to her ear.
"Jane? I'm sorry, but I just got a text from Marcus. I really should answer him," Lisbon said apologetically.
On the other end of the line there was silence, but then Jane seemed to find his voice again. "Uh, right. You should...uh, good night, Lisbon. And thanks for the help. See you tomorrow." When Jane hung up Lisbon stared at the phone in der hands for a moment before she laid it down on the commode in front of her.
Thoughts drifting back to what happened between her and Jane a few days ago, in a New Yorker cold storage. Oh no, she so wasn't going to touch that, not even with a ten foot pole. It had been embarassing, and so redundant, she still blamed the arctic cold for meddling with her brain. She was lucky Jane was so good at denial himself.
Tearing her eyes away from the mirror, she threw the keys in the little bowl on the commode and removed her jacket. Taking off her shoes, she grabbed the phone again and stepped into the kitchen to pour herself a glass of wine. A little smile crossed her face upon entering the living room. It looked almost exactly like her previous one in Washington and that pleased her immensely, the familiarity helped with the bigger changes she'd had to make.
Setting the glass on the coffee table Lisbon's thoughts drifted to safer places, namely Marcus Pike. Unit chief of the art crime team. Dark hair, chocolate brown eyes, intelligent, charming and he had that certain edge-a man's man, a real dude. He wasn't the tallest guy, but given her rather short height he was perfect. And so far she couldn't find any major fault, except that he definitely supported the wrong football team, the Washington Redskins, pleeease. Then again he supported his home team, just as she did, so not really a flaw she supposed.
Lisbon didn't exactly believe in fate but since she believed in a higher power it had been a revelation Marcus originated from the state she'd lived in until seven months ago. On their first night out she told him about Cannon River although he confessed to have no clue where that was. He was a city kid, just like her and admitted to not being very fond of camping, just like her. And she had to admit she liked Marcus, very much. He'd made her laugh several times during their "dinner"at the local Austin cop diner. Now for some women that would be a total no go, but it was more than fine with her. She wasn't one of those chicks who needed candle light, a meal that was so expensive you wondered if they'd hidden gold in it, or having to squeeze herself in a dress to impress the guy opposite you. Marcus had seen that, seen her without even asking.
First she'd been suspicious or more like Jane had been suspicious, which then had made her suspicious, but it was a rather shortlived suspicion when Jane revealed the source of it. He was convinced Marcus must have gathered some secret information about her because how else would he know such distinct preferences of hers without even talking to her. When she'd pointed out that Jane knew stuff like that about people all the time without asking, the dumbfound expression on his face had been amusing. Jane really didn't like it when others were just as good as he was. Some things never changed.
Thinking about it, since she'd been on the occasional date with Marcus Jane was acting...weird. After the first date everything had been fine. Okay not exactly fine. When she hadn't been able to stop talking about Marcus and listing all the things they'd had in common Jane had interrupted her and told her how great that was but that they had a case to work. Really, she'd never thought she'd live to see the day Jane was more interested in a case than personal information, especially when she was the source of said information and giving it out freely on top of it. There was a first time for everything.
In the days following the second date Jane had retreated from her, explaining that he needed to bond with Cho a bit more cause he had the feeling Cho wasn't making a lot of friends here. Cho's face however made it clear he didn't feel the same. And three days later it looked as if Cho was constantly thinking up new ways of how to hide a body so not even the FBI would find it. She knew this feeling well.
That was also the time when she had to realized she was a bit angry with Jane's behavior. The moment he stops being the center of her attention he starts pouting and acting like a puppy she just kicked. He was her friend, best friend even, she had spent enough time sorting her feelings out on the matter, but instead of encouraging her he acted like she took away his favorite toy. That's what if felt like to him probably. Over a decade long Jane had been the center of her universe. He had a problem, or was causing a problem, which was more likely, she was the one there to sort it out. And he knew it. It was like she had an inner Jane radar that deflected the moment he got one of his outrageous ideas.
So she assumed it was odd for him to realize he wasn't her sole point of being anymore. Of course he hadn't really been for two years, but Lisbon had come to understand that for Jane the start of working with the FBI equalled the end of the CBI and the two years in between hadn't happened. But they had. And he was an adult man and not an eight-year-old who was envious of mum's new boyfriend. Marcus wasn't even her boyfriend...yet, though it was definitely going in the right direction.
Answering Marcus text and telling him she would love to accompany him to the next game in Houston, as long as no case torpedoed their plans, she felt a tiny bit of guilt creeping up, but then, nothing bad had actually happend besides her damn emotions playing rollercoaster with her.
He answered not a minute later that he'd be looking forward to it.
Sitting down on the cream colored couch she sorted through her mail: bill, bill, bill, adverts, bill, advert and an envelope...without a returning address. Frowning, Lisbon set the pile of bills aside. Opening the envelope she took out the piece of paper in it.
For a short moment Lisbon thought Jane may have decided to continue the letter writing, which made her heart strangely flutter. Oh stop it, Teresa. She was beginning to feel like she'd cheated on Marcus, which was ridculous. Unfolding the paper and skimming its content, Lisbon all of a sudden felt her blood run cold and her breathing hitch.
This couldn't be real. This was surely a joke. Rereading the lines slowly however made it chrystal clear it wasn't a one and that left only one thought: He has found me.
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Lisbon was tired. She hadn't slept...much. She supposed she had napped at some point when the exhausting day had decided to finally catch up with her body. The few hours she'd gotten weren't nearly enough but she guessed that meant the letter she received yesterday had already partly succeeded in its purpose.
Getting up from the armchair she had pushed into the furthest corner of the living room between the big shelf and the window, she stretched, noticing the pain rushing through her bones. Right now she had no idea how she'd get through the day without randomly falling asleep.
Before making her way to the kitchen for some coffee she leaned close to the window frame and peered out into the small garden. Nothing. No movements except for some birds chirping in the trees. Don't be paranoid, Teresa, there's nothing out there, Lisbon reproached herself.
Still in the same clothes from yesterday she made her way to the kitchen but stopped in the hallway. Starbucks wasn't so far away, she could get her caffeine from there just as well. There was of course the matter of her clothing but she'd left her travel bag in the car last night, that should do.
Putting on her boots, grabbing her leather jacket and keys she casts another look in the mirror to check her appearance. Well the bags under her eyes would be telling for her lack of sleep but other than that she looked astonishingly fine, a bit of additional make-up and she'd be okay.
Opening the front door slowly Lisbon watched what she could behold of the street. Oh stop it, he won't be waiting on your porch at sunlight. At least that's what she hoped. Shaking herself awake one more time she made her way to her SUV, taking a quick glance around she decided to better be safe than sorry and got down on the ground to inspect the underside of the car. Everything seemed fine. Lisbon was about to open the door when she decided to take a few steps back onto her porch, hesitating for a split second Lisbon turned her body away from the car before pushing the button that would automatically unlock the doors.
Hearing nor feeling any explosion she took a deep breath, glancing around once again and got into the car. She had plenty of time to change her clothes and get her coffee before driving to work. One advantage of a sleepless night, she thought and left the parking lot.
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Since they had wrapped up the New York case yesterday, all that was left was the usual paperwork which didn't take long. The extra strong cup of her favorite brew had helped her shaking off a bit of the tiredness that wreaked havoc on her body and with the hour clock ticking away she was positive she'd be fine by afternoon. She was not in her twenties anymore but she was still fit and one night without sleep wouldn't kill her. She tried not to think about what had brought on the sleepiness night, though it was easier said than done.
Not helping getting her thoughts off that specific topic were the eyes staring at her back all morning long. Jane had greeted her as usual, bringing her a second cup of coffee, she had never been so thankful for one, and retreated to his couch to take a morning nap as there was nothing for him to do while everyone else was figuratively continuing to help murder the rainforest as he so cheerfully put it.
At 10.30 however, Jane had ended his nap and apparently wasn't in any mood to read a book, but rather stared holes into her back.
"Anything I may help you with Jane?" Lisbon asked without turning around.
She heard him sitting up. "Shouldn't I be asking you that?"
"Well, you don't, you just keep staring at me."
"What can I say Lisbon, it's a lovely sight." Lisbon could hear the smile in his voice and couldn't repress a smirk of her own. "But since you've started it, is there something I can help you with?" he asked.
Lisbon paused her typing for a second and knew that alone would tip him of, lying was also out of the question, but half a lie might work, if she kept on looking dutifully at the screen.
"Not really, I haven't slept well, not at all to be precise, something you should be an expert at, but I doubt you can help me with it," Lisbon told him, all the while never taking her eyes off the screen.
"I hope my grumbling stomach didn't keep you awake, dear. Anyway, I wouldn't say there's no way that I couldn't help you Lisbon, there's always..."
"NO," she cut him off and spun around. "You're not going to hypnotize me, period." Lisbon glared at Jane before facing the monitor again adding, "Listen, it's fine, everyone has some bad nights now and again, nothing to worry about. I was pretty keyed up yesterday. I'm sure tonight I'm gonna sleep like a baby," she said, her voice hitching just a tiny bit. Oh crap.
Jane studied her for some time. Yes she was definitely hiding something. If he wouldn't be worried it would amuse him that she still couldn't control her voice when she was trying to lie, especially after he pointed her tell out to her. But then again the fact his Lisbon was such an honest person was one of the things he lov...liked about her the most.
He also knew pressuring her into telling him wouldn't do, she'd only close off more. He just hoped for Marcus, the damn call-interrupter, he wasn't the reason for her sleeplessness...in which way ever or he'd regret it. Maybe a third cup of coffee would help her with the tiredness. Getting up and taking off towards the break room he stopped at her desk.
"Lisbon, if there's anything you want to talk about, you know I'm here...right?" Lisbon gaped at his retreating form for a while, pondering if she should just tell him about the letter.
Dismissing any such thought right away she hoped Jane wouldn't start digging once he sniffed the bone buried in the ground.
It was safer that way. For everyone.
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In the afternoon they got a new case. A double murder in Austin, not too far from the HQ, which according to the APD had signs of a professional background, which is why they called on the FBI to take over. Abbott told the team as long as they had no other evidence to go on they would treat this as a normal murder case.
Arriving with two cars in front of a large exclusive looking building, Lisbon was surprised to see it was settled in a rather noisy neighborhood. Detective Slater welcomed them and filled them in on what they'd found out so far. Fischer then sent the rest of the team inside while she stood back clearing everything with else with Slater.
Entering the hall it showed no signs of anything disturbing, not even the front door of the apartment, in which they knew the bodies were still in, was harmed. They finally came to stand in the hall of 's Apartment, who was one of the two victims.
The table in the middle of it was bumped over and the vase that probably had been on top of it lay shattered a few meters away.
A cop lead them further into the living room in which the murder had happened. Two bodies were sprawled on the ground. The older one, presumably Townsend, had slightly gray hair and lay on his back. His head was tilted to the sight, blood coming out of his mouth. He'd caught two shots, one in the forehead and the other one close to the area around his heart.
The younger man Jason Reilly, late thirties, according to Sergeant Miller, had five shots in his body. Two similar to Townsend's, just that the bullets in his body had been shot in the back instead of the front and Miller pointed out Reilly had gotten three additional shots in his legs to the front.
Jane who already had gotten down on his knees in between the two corpses, spoke up then. "He must have fallen over when the shots went into his legs. Once down the killer made sure to kill him off with the shots to his head and heart."
Cho crossed his arms. "He wanted to help Townsend; he attacked their assaulter, that's why he had to stop him with the shots to the legs. After that the old man was an easy target."
"The bullets to the head and torso look professional to me. Even when Reilly was already down he still killed Townsend with two precise shots that isn't an easy thing to do. APD was right. Whoever did this wasn't only a good shot but knew how not to draw attention," Lisbon surmised.
"And still he drew enough attention for someone to call the Police," Jane replied as he got up again to take a walk around the room. Taking in the beautiful painting of an old clipper ship that struggled in the rough sea.
"Yeah that's weird. He killed them rather fast, no fight, and a professional would have used a silencer." Lisbon focused from the corpses back to Jane.
"Cho what exactly did the caller say?" Jane asked turning to look at the asian man who took out his small notebook.
"Caller said they heard some crashing in Apartment 325A, first they thought it was a fight, but minutes later heard a few shots right before the main door was slammed shut."
Lisbon shifted her eyes to Cho, away from the same painting Jane had been looking at. "Name?"
"None. Anonymous caller."
"Huh," Jane's eyebrows shot up. "Interesting."
"Jane," Lisbon sighed heavily. She was in no mood for his holding back on things. Lately she hadn't that much of a problem with it, but she guessed the previous night was making her more itchy.
"Well, think about it Lisbon, we have an anonymous caller who claims to have heard shots and a crashing, which he concluded was a fight and then a slamming of the door." Jane looked at her. "This was a professional; the only signs of a struggle we could find was the bumped table in the hall, which we can be certain of had nothing to do with this." Jane pointed at the two dead men before continuing. "So how did the caller manage to be aware of a "fight" if there was none. And I'm pretty sure our suspect did indeed use a silencer. By seven shots that got fired you'd think a few more people would have called, Slater mentioned the other tenants were all at home, but all of them said to not have made the anonymous call, plus why would a killer slam the front door shut when he just successfully killed his targets-to get attention?...meh."
Lisbon rubbed her temples. "Right. And why not leave a name. Slater said no one here had any knowledge of what was going on before APD showed up and questioned them. Correct?" Lisbon turned her eyes on Cho.
"Yeah. Only Mrs. Oliver from 326B said she'd heard some unusual noises, whatever that means, around some time before the call was made."
Jane by now had finished his snooping around tour and came to stand next to Lisbon. "I want to talk to her. APD took the statements, they probably missed something."
"Has anything been taken?," Lisbon asked, ignoring Jane's request.
"According to APD nothing seems to be out of place."
"Any relative who could make sure of that?"
Cho took his phone and called Wylie's number then put it on speaker. The young IT answered after one ring. "Wylie, do Jason Reilly or Jonathan Townsend have any relatives?"
Cho could hear keys being hit. "Uh...Reilly has...uh had a girlfriend, name's Caroline Hawthorne but the apartment belonged to Townsend, no living relatives here."
"Thanks. Send me the address of the girlfriend."
"It'll arrive faster than a plane, Choman," Wylie said and hung up. Unknowingly leaving a man behind who for the first time in his life actually turned slightly red.
Jane and Lisbon smirked at Cho's unusual embarrassment. Last week Cho had saved Wylie from being beat to a pulp in a local bar where the team had their first case-closed beer. It wasn't Pizza but hey, it was a start. All but Abbott had joined. When Wylie had made a comment about a man's wardrobe, he wasn't aware of the implicated insult in his statement and therefore hadn't seen the fist coming towards him, Cho had though. It hadn't been a big deal really, but Wylie had gazed at Cho with so much adoration it had been comical and then told Cho he was like his personal Superman...hence Choman, at least to Wylie. No need to say Cho wasn't a big fan of his new nickname, but Wylie didn't get the message so far.
Jane tapped his bottom lip with his index finger before addressing Lisbon and Cho. "Next Mrs. Oliver." It occurred to Lisbon it wasn't a question. Jane wanted to speak to the woman, so he would.
On their way out something caught Jane's eye and he bowed down to pick it up. A ring. Nothing flashy.
"Seems to be a men's ring," Jane mused, examining it further.
"Maybe Jason's," Cho said.
"No. Not the ring type. Ah, there's an engraving inside. No idea what language that is though," Jane said. "You have any idea?"
Jane held it out for Lisbon and Cho to see. When Jane looked back up he noticed Lisbon's eyes had widened though she tried to mask it when their eyes met.
"You know what this means?" he asked and now Cho as well was looking at her.
"No, how woud I?" she said. Luckily she had remembered in the last moment to not be too quick with that statement. Jane didn't look convinced anyhow, but let it slight; for which she was grateful, she wasn't sure if she could even come up with anything close to a convincing lie. "I'm just surprised you don't."
"My memory palace has a special room for languages that are useful, like latin for example," Jane wasn't deterred by the incredulous look he received from both his colleagues, "but I have to admit I already struggled with spanish, at least if my vacation time is anything to go by. Guess we have to use FBI resources then."
Just as Jane was about to put the ring in his pant's pocket Cho grabbed it from him and stuffed in a plastic bag which made Jane roll his eyes. "Really Cho? It has my fingerprints all over it anyway."
"Which is bad enough," Cho replied, zipping the bag.
"Meh, wasn't the killers, no harm done."
"You can't know that, Jane."
"Yes I can," Jane said exuberant, throwing a fist in the air to emphasize his words while sporting a cocky grin.
"This isn't the White House, Obama. You don't know, end of story." Cho countered.
"And here I thought there were no such thing as psychics?" Lisbon could swear Cho smirked a little bit.
"And that is very true but I doubt our assassin came in here without gloves on and than on top of it all lost a ring in a fight that never happened for good meassure," Jane explained followed by another smug grin.
Lisbon eyed the bag with the ring again. "Still, maybe there was a second man. Have you thought about that?," Lisbon directed the question to no one in particular and both men stared at her with something close to wonder. And Jane looked actually thoughtful about what she'd said, which made her proud.
Walking outside she heard Jane say behind her. "Very good Lisbon, although probably wrong, who would need two assassins to kill two men."
"I never said the second was an assassin. Could've been anyone. Who knows how long the ring had been lying there."
Jane came to a sudden halt, making Cho smash into him, with a bright smile on his face. He beamed at Lisbon even though she couldn't see it. He was proud of her and he meant it. She always had good instincts, but his presence at the CBI, he assumed, had undermined it because she was too busy trying to keep him in line.
Being shoved aside by Cho he looked at him, still beaming.
Cho lifted his left eyebrow and muttered something Jane only could make out the last part of, "...than Rigsby." He had no idea what it meant. He then remembered he'd caught Cho saying the same thing two weeks ago while Jane was bonding with him.
Sorting through his memory palace he remembered the exact moment Cho had uttered these words. Cho and him had just been talking about a new book when Marcus had shown up bringing Lisbon a cup of coffee to her desk, as if he hadn't already done that..tsk. Jane shook his head at the memory. To his utter disbelief, Lisbon instead of telling Marcus that he Jane had already provided the necessary caffeine, thanked the man for this thoughtfulness and chatted with him as if they had nothing better to do. When he'd mentioned this to Cho that was when the Korean had turned back to his computer and mumbled the same words. But just like now Jane hadn't caught what was said before these two words because he was busy trying to kill Marcus with his eyes.
Looking back at Lisbon, Jane's smile turned into a frown.
As proud as he was, he felt confirmed in the suspicion that Lisbon wasn't feeling very well and he wasn't talking about the headache that seemed to be crawling up, she'd massaged her temples almost six times. Since working for the FBI Lisbon was freer, lighter in everything she said and did and yesterday night he was sure she had been that way when they all said their goodbyes.
But this morning she had been tense, in a way he had never seen her before, not even during the time Volker had harrassed her. He wondered what happened in one night to change her countenance so drastically. And why she wouldn't tell him. They were Partners after all, equals, if she felt bad or something was bothering her he wanted to know...well he always wanted to know but even more so now. Marcus wouldn't even recognize her mood swing, just because the agent fo Art's had guessed right that she didn't like ostentatious meals at upper-class restaurants didn't mean he knew her. Jane was also baffled as to why Lisbon was so impressed by this. Marcus had just guessed. Nothing to write home about.
Bringing his thoughts back on track there was the matter of the ring or rather the engraving of it. Her eyes had been a mixture of fear and as if she remembered something. When she'd caught him starring she realized it and put on a front. He smirked again, she really should know by now she couldn't hide things from him, especially her emotions. A memory from a few days ago surfaced in his mind, but he shoved it aside. No time to dwell on things past. She had made it clear yesterday that she didn't want to talk about it, suited him just fine.
Jane promised he would find out what made her anxious. He'd just needed to pay extra attention. Shouldn't be hard considering most of his attention already belonged to her.
Of course he needed to focus on the case as well, the misgiving this case might end up on the cold case file, made him worry though.
In the hall to the stairs they were joined by Fischer. "Anything?"
"Nope. Except you can tell Abbott that we have indeed, need to look for a professional assassin," Jane said before taking the steps to Mrs. Oliver's floor. Fischer's forehead wrinkled, and she focused on Lisbon who stayed back as Cho followed Jane upstairs.
"Is that certain?"
"It's Jane. So, yeah," Lisbon smirked, rubbing her temples again. A headache was the last thing she needed right now.
"You're alright?," Fischer watched Lisbon with concern.
Since their little night out they had kept going out occasionally. Lisbon had never realized before how much she had missed having a friend, especially one who understood what it meant to fight your way up as a woman in a man's world. Kim seemed to appreciate the same about her. She had told her about her parents who were both lawyers and had pushed her since her childhood to work hard and become something people would look up to. Lisbon didn't need Jane's mentalist skills to have heard the bitterness leaking through. At one point Kim had said talking to her would be better than talking to a shrink, somehow Lisbon had the feeling it hadn't been a joke.
"I'm fine. Just didn't sleep a lot. And a headaches probably on the way."
"There's some aspirin in the car if you need it. I guess Cho can handle Jane up there. I'd like to talk to some other neighbors," Fischer answered making her way to the Townsend's direct neighbor. Lisbon followed on her heels, once more rubbing her temples.
This was shaping up to be a long day.
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One hour later they had finished the interviews. As it turned out the weird noises Mrs. Oliver had heard were the tenants of the Apartment right below hers who'd just returned from their honeymoon and were still very enthusiastic about their recent wedding.
The other Apartment owners weren't of much help either. No one had heard or seen anything. And everyone told them what a nice man Mr. Townsend had been. While everyone also knew that had been a frequent visitor, and that had described him as the son he'd never had. That had been about the extent of information they'd gathered. Bottomline, no one knew something about anything. Oh, joy.
Since this had been fruitless, Fischer hoped the girlfriend would be more of a help, so her and Jane made their way to Caroline Hawthorne.
Though Lisbon should've tagged along she excused herself saying she wanted to join Cho and Wylie at the HQ, and besides she could feel the headache coming. While walking to their cars Lisbon could feel Jane's scrutinizing eyes on her, but again he kept his mouth shut.
Jane on his part was seriously considering grabbing her and asking her what she was hiding. He hated it when she kept things from him, always had. The fact he could read her like a book and told her she was translucent was because she made it particularly easy. He'd never contemplated if she could do a decent job of it, if she really set her mind to it. Back in there, aside from the migraine, she had tried to mask her surprise, the fright, which had come with finding the ring. And he had to admit, she'd been good, her answer if she knew what the engraving meant was so dubious, he couldn't tell if she was lying or telling the truth.
This brought his thoughts back to her great acting when they wanted to convict Dr. Carmen. She had been fascinating to watch, a great actress. Back then he had been worried Carmen would see through the act, but Lisbon's devastation and having no other way to get a result had spurred her into the best performance of her life. The case had had him wondering at the time if she might not be that new to lying after all.
Nonsense, Jane thought. He knew his Lisbon, and she truly wasn't a liar at heart, nor would ever be. That being said, he also knew she would do her utter best to lie if she felt it was necessary.
xxxxx
"A lie would have no sense unless the truth were felt dangerous." -Alfred Adler
xxxxx
A/N: Ok, so this is the first chapter, for everyone who wants to know what the mysterious letter said...well, I'm gonna have to ask you for a little patience. But I promise you, you will get to read it ;) But for now I would love to hear your opinio, and I'm looking forward to your guesses about what the hell is going on with Lisbon.
Also, for the people who don't like too much "interior monolog" but rather have dialogue, don't fret. There will be more interaction in upcoming chapters, but it's important to first get a bit inside Lisbon's (and also Jane's) head.