A/N: I think it's safe to say most of you realize the majority of my stories are Alternate Universe with a dose of Canon Universe woven in. They do NOT follow the happenings on the show closely. In some instances, they don't follow the show at all. That being said, NTB and AHG will be finished in the AU's they were started in which means what's happening on the show including who RJ turns out to be is pretty irrelevant. That being said, my Muse is moving slowly at the moment thanks mainly to the fact my "new" job is physically whipping my tail in ways my old job didn't.
Now that I've addressed the person who thought things would get "awkward" if Bertram turns out to be Red John with NTB, my Muse has decided she needs to ground herself by writing something almost Canon so she can get her mind back on AU's. (We've both been a little discombobulated by how quickly things are wrapping up on the show.) This Three Shot, however it turns out for the good or the bad, is that exercise. It will be completed by the end of the week. I'm hoping my Muse will quit holding my creativity hostage once it's done. ~Calla
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Lost in thought, Lisbon idly pushed files around on her desk. The whole situation was still a bad dream that had quickly taken on a life of its own. Not content to let sleeping dogs slumber in their mangy beds, her pain in the rear "partner" had chosen to rock everyone's world as only he could. She'd wanted to kill him for more than abandoning her by the side of the road and ending in a hospital bed before he was done.
Who was she kidding? She still wanted to kill him. But, she wouldn't.
Jane served a necessary purpose in the big scheme of things. She wasn't exactly sure what at the moment; but, she knew he did. She felt it in her bones. Her "partner" wasn't the only one of them getting hunches. She did too, Lisbon hunches. Which meant his scruffy life was safe for the moment. For how long, she wasn't making any promises.
Taking a sip of coffee, Lisbon lamented the good night's sleep she wasn't getting. That she hadn't had in the weeks since Jane's latest stunt exposed the biggest scandal in the history of California Law Enforcement. That wasn't entirely true either. She'd slept the two weeks she'd been out of work. Well, she'd slept some. The rest of the time she'd worried about Jane.
What else was new?
A few hours after being evicted from the CBI, she'd found him in a church...Her church…On his knees…Actually praying to a God he didn't believe in…She'd nearly freaked out…Jane didn't do church…Not unless it was irreverently and he'd been anything but. He'd been humbled and…seeking for lack of a better word…even praying perhaps…That was how she'd known he was broken beyond anything she'd seen to date.
Well, that and the fact he'd disappeared into the night soon after she'd silently placed her comforting hand in his.
She hadn't seen or heard from the man for three weeks. Not until he'd mysteriously appeared at the CBI a week after she and her team returned to their new jobs working with SAC Dennis Abbott of the Arizona FBI. That had been an unexpected turn of the worm. But, one she'd welcomed as it kept her nominally in the loop.
Shaking her thoughts, Lisbon glanced towards the hall. Seeing a certain dark haired Agent sneaking by her door, she let him know she was on to him. Not only was she on to him, he was on her special list. The one reserved mainly for Jane that nobody wanted to be on especially not him.
"Cho, I needed those files yesterday." Lisbon smirked as the Korean Agent stopped mid-step. "Surely you didn't think you were actually pulling that off? What are you? Like the Invisible Man? I don't think so." Snorting at his "so busted" expression, Lisbon shook her head. "Just bring me the files already."
"Yes, Boss." Cho said before turning around to head back towards his desk. Putting his Boss off those extra fifteen minutes while he chatted up Kensie from the Arizona FBI Field Office wasn't the wisest move he'd ever made. "I'll get them for you."
"Now." Lisbon growled at his retreating back. "You can make a date later."
Lisbon couldn't believe Cho was dumb enough to think she wouldn't figure out what he'd been doing instead of bringing her those files. He should have known better. There was a reason she was the "Boss" and it wasn't because she was beautiful. It was because she was smart, resourceful, and she got the job done. Oh, and maybe the fact she could handle Jane better than anyone on planet Earth. However, she wasn't sure about that last one.
Truthfully, she wouldn't have known anything about Cho's actions. Not if the Korean Agent hadn't gotten a really lousy break. She'd been heading for the break room to make another "cup too many" of coffee when she'd noticed her man standing in the hall flirting with a familiar blonde. Disgusted with his temporary leave of sanity where priorities were concerned, Lisbon continued on with her mission. But, she'd already made up her mind.
She was so busting Cho's chops when he deigned to show in her office.
Right now she was more interested in coffee and perpetuating her own form of hell than embarrassing her Agent. Over the past few weeks she'd fallen into a very disruptive pattern. One that helped her get through her hellishly long days. But, wreaked havoc on her sleeping habits. Like she wasn't getting any, or when she did, not nearly enough.
Added to that, in the six weeks since she'd returned to work, she hadn't had a moment to herself. She was at the forefront of the Task Force charged with investigating everyone still left standing after Jane's latest escapade. As far as the FBI and the Top Dogs were concerned, everyone in Law Enforcement was up to their eyeballs in dung. They were considered guilty until proven innocent. If that wasn't stressful enough, she reported directly to none other than J.J. LaRoche who'd been brought in as Abbott's "Advisor" since he knew the workings of the CBI inside and out. That and the indisputable fact the man was clearly untainted by the whole "Tyger Tyger" virus infecting so many others.
All Lisbon could say was God help her. She needed all the Divine Intervention she could get at the moment. If all of the above wasn't enough to turn her dark hair gray, she and her team were still under investigation for "questionable" behaviors all attributable to Jane's dicey influences. She was clueless how any of the contradictions were supposed to work. From where she sat, investigating the investigators was absolutely insane. She'd said as much to LaRoche.
While he'd agreed with her; he'd confirmed there was nothing he could do about it. She was lucky the FBI had finally decided they needed her and her team to join the search for the rest of the ridiculously named "The Blake Association." Since LaRoche had every confidence their activities would check out in the end, she had little choice but to go with the flow until the scrutinizing was done. In the interim, if it made things better, he didn't think either she or her team were guilty of anything more heinous than using unorthodox practices to solve their cases. Not even Jane. While the man was a confirmed pain in the ass; he wasn't dirty. If anything, he possessed a strange Code of Honor impossible to deny or ignore.
Thanking Cho for the files he was finally pressing into her hands, Lisbon resisted the urge to throw her hands up in defeat. She couldn't quit if she wanted to. The only option available was continuing to lead a difficult investigation while doing everything in her power to insulate her guys from as much of the unpleasant fallout as possible. Her team was completely innocent even if some parties didn't believe it. Fortunately, LaRoche did or things would be even more uncomfortable since SAC Abbott wasn't one hundred percent enrolled with their presence.
Unfortunately, that was the upside to her present situation.
On the downside, they weren't getting anywhere fast. The waters were so muddied it was nearly impossible to sort the truth from supposition thanks to the filth cutting across multiple Agencies. It didn't help the corruption spanned the ranks from still wet-behind-the-ears Rookies to the highly decorated Veterans with years of service under their belts. To people like Lisbon herself. Shuddering at the thought, she decided reality was almost more than she could get her mind around at the moment…the CBI, Nappa Sheriff's Department, local FBI offices, Homeland Security, local PD's, and Sheriff's Departments…the List of Corruption went on and on. Lisbon's stomach roiled at the thought the paper in her hands was filled with the names of those who should be incorruptible but weren't.
As a result, the CBI was currently undergoing reorganization from top to bottom. Or it would be once LaRoche and the higher ups were convinced the purge was complete. Personally, she thought the witch hunt was far from over. Heads were rolling right and left as guilty parties turned on one another. Lisbon currently spent more time sitting across Interrogation Room tables interviewing people she'd worked with for years than she did sitting behind her desk. The sad part was she'd ended up arresting most of them. The final confirmation always came in the form of those three damning dots.
Some days she didn't even see her office from the time she locked her purse in her desk drawer in the morning until she unlocked that same drawer to go home late at night. Then there were those lovely occasions she snuck off to the ladies room to hurl her guts because the figurative stench wafting around her literally made her sick. She didn't get it. She truly didn't. At what point had things gone so wrong in the Universe?
Clearly long before Haffner, Stiles, and MacAllister departed this life in less than a blaze of glory and Bertram made his big break.
There was absolutely no reason the former Director of the CBI should be sitting in jail awaiting his fate along with an FBI Agent. Not a single one. Not unless you included the fact he was a murderous psycho. Or he might be. They still hadn't proven that one yet. That Bertram was clearly a killer, yes; undeniably Red John, no. He wasn't exactly cooperating since his capture.
Nor was there any sane reason all the rest of the corrupt officers and agents she kept arresting should be joining them behind bars. None of them should be dirty. They'd all sworn to uphold the law and protect California's citizens. Not break it and murder at will. If she didn't know better, she'd think they'd all lost their minds and maybe they had.
Kind of like a case of mass hysteria except it was mass evil instead.
Running her hand through her hair, Lisbon admitted the truth. The sleaze was everywhere. About the only Unit standing up to scrutiny was hers. While guilty of less than orthodox methodologies, they weren't corrupt. But, that didn't mean they were safe yet. They could all get sacrificed to the flames of the witch hunt pyre. Stranger things happened all the time. Closing the file, Lisbon refused to rest easy because it was all over the grapevine she was a shoe in for a major promotion.
Not Bertram's position of course; but, something comparable to Minelli or Hightower or Wainwright or even a little higher. No one was really sure how the chain of command was going to flow once the reorganization was done. She did know Cho was supposedly up for Senior Agent of the SCU or whatever new incarnation her section might take. Snorting, Lisbon knew under the circumstances, none of that meant anything. In the end, those in power would do what they deemed necessary to restore public trust in the CBI.
Until one of them approached her with an offer, everything filtering from behind closed doors was speculation and rumor. She was leaving it at that. Anything more was folly.
Then, there was the whole Red John angle. She was not going there. She'd wasted too much of her life force on that scumbag. If Bertram turned out to be the Serial Killer, he was done. If he wasn't, Red John was still done. His power base was shattered. His channels of information closed. His endless parade of tools locked behind iron doors. It was only a matter of time until he was on Death Row. Who, or what, he was didn't matter…He was still just a man…And he'd pay with his life in the end.
What did matter was Jane was nearly free.
Or he would be when it finally sank in the nightmare was almost over. That wasn't happening until he got away to find himself. The only problem was the higher ups weren't letting any of them out of sight until the investigation was over. Lisbon shook her head deciding there was no logical reason Jane should have to stay in Sacramento. He wasn't a CBI Agent and he wasn't part of the rampant corruption. He'd exposed it. The big boys should have cleared him a long time ago and let him lick his wounds in private. The past few weeks had taken a terrible toll on him.
However, they weren't doing any such thing though she'd begged them to. While LaRoche and his ilk agreed Jane's hands were clean, that didn't mean he didn't have a vital role to play in the investigation. He did. So, he wasn't going anywhere. Not until he'd done what they needed him to do. Whatever that illusive something was. In an investigation where by the book mattered, Jane wasn't a major player. In fact, he spent most of his time flitting about the building like a lost wraith or hiding in the attic only emerging when she needed to run a theory by him or he thought of something she'd overlooked. While she was grateful for the help he was able to give; none of this was fair to Jane.
Totally over the whole situation, Lisbon snatched her empty cup off her desk and stomped out of her office. While the last thing she needed was adding more caffeine to the mix, she wanted to. She was running on fumes at the moment and a pick-me-up was in order. In fact, she intended grabbing one of those pumpkin spice muffins with the caramel drizzle if DeLarosse hadn't scarfed the last one. The man was a bigger human garbage disposal than Rigsby ever thought about being. Not that those muffins were garbage. Far from it. They were lip smacking delicious.
"Oops." Lisbon almost dropped her cup as she barreled head first into Jane and his hot cup of tea. "Thanks." She acknowledged his steadying hand even as she moaned at noting the muffin box was empty.
"I was just heading for your office." Jane's tone was somber. "Do you mind if I go that way while you make your coffee?"
"Make yourself at home." Lisbon responded as she poured a cup from the freshly brewed pot knowing she was going to regret giving her permission even as the words left her mouth. "Did you just make this?"
"Maybe." Jane was non-committal. "I also grabbed the last couple of muffins for you."
"You did?" Lisbon added cream and sugar to her coffee. "Are you sure? I just saw DeLarosse go by a little while ago."
"I got here first." Jane informed her. "So, yes, I'm sure I saved your muffins. They're up there in that plastic container Grace forgot to take home last week." He motioned in the direction of the cabinet over Lisbon's head.
Reaching up, she opened the door and removed the bright pink container that screamed "Van Pelt." It didn't matter she was legally a Rigsby now, she still went by "Van Pelt" professionally. Thank goodness for small blessings. If there was one thing she didn't need right now, it was two "Rigsbys" on her team. Popping the lid, she was overjoyed to see four carefully stashed muffins inside.
"I hope you intend to help me eat these." Not expecting the answer she didn't get, Lisbon closed the lid before grabbing two small paper plates, napkins, plastic forks, and knives from another cabinet. "If you'll take the muffins, I'll bring the rest of this." Lisbon gestured to the pile of disposable dinnerware and her coffee cup as she offered Jane the plastic container.
"I can do that." Jane grabbed the muffins before heading for Lisbon's office leaving her to follow or not as she chose. "I'll see you when you get there."
Deciding Jane was in a funky mood, Lisbon balanced her stash and her cup before following him down the hall. Watching him disappear into her office, she slowly entered locking the door behind her. Opening the plastic container, she placed a muffin on each plate and handed one to Jane. Settling in her chair, she cut a small piece of sweet with her fork. As much as she'd like to pick the muffin up and take a bite, doing so would only leave a sticky residue on her hands she'd have to wash off later. Chewing the bite, she studied Jane realizing he had something important on his mind.
"What's up, Jane?" Lisbon asked ignoring the question she really wanted to ask.
She wasn't playing the fool again. Not like she had with that whole Vegas debacle. She refused to ask what he'd meant all those weeks ago standing on that cliff before abandoning her. She didn't want to know. All knowing would do was interfere with her ability to function when she needed all her faculties about her. For all she knew, Jane might have been trying to lull her into a state of relaxed confusion so she wouldn't catch his true intent. If that was his gist, he'd succeeded easily. If he didn't, clarification she'd never get was definitely in order. Deciding she wasn't touching that one with a ten foot pole, Lisbon dismissed such thoughts from her mind. She had too much to deal with as it was. She wasn't adding Jane's twisted emotions to the mix.
"LaRoche cleared me to leave an hour ago." Jane took a sip of his tea. "I thought you should know."
"Thanks." Lisbon cut off another piece of muffin before bringing it to her lips. "I'm glad you told me. The last I heard, you weren't going anywhere."
"It seems they changed their minds." Jane stared into his cup. "It seems I've contributed everything I can for the moment. They think they've found everyone thanks to you and the team. Now, it's up to you, Abbott, and JJ to wrap up the case in a pretty pink bow. To figure out if Bertram is really Red John or if the chase starts again. If he isn't, you'll catch Red John quickly now that he's on his own. Once that's done, a very public reorganization of the CBI is taking place. The general consensus is the farther away I am when that happens, the better it will be for everyone."
"I can see where they'd feel that way." Lisbon said. "You're a bit of wild card in the situation."
"So can I." Jane agreed recalling his past endeavors. "Besides, no offense meant, but I'm ready to get away for awhile. I've fought the good fight and I'm done."
"None taken." Lisbon sipped her coffee. "I think that's a good idea. I asked them to release you weeks ago."
"I know." Green eyes captured green. "J.J. told me. He also explained why he couldn't do as you asked. While I appreciate the effort, it wasn't worth rocking the boat. You have to know you're up for a major promotion in the very near future. One more fitting of your twenty years of service than Senior Agent ever was. It'll mean less field time; but, I think you should take the position when it's offered."
"That's just rumor and speculation." Lisbon countered. "I seriously doubt it'll come to anything in the end. We both know how things really work around here. I'm not exactly known as the best team player since you came aboard."
"Yes, I do, and it's not just rumor and speculation." Jane corrected her. "I was asked what I thought the odds of your accepting such a position were. I said they were pretty good. You're dedicated, honest, and loyal. Your reputation is good in spite of the dings I've caused to your folder over the years. I can't think of a better person to fill the role they're suggesting so I'm urging you to act surprised and accept the promotion."
"I'll make up my mind when the time comes." Lisbon said not sure she believed any such thing was coming down the wire. "In the meantime, you're going to Malibu to clear your head, aren't you?"
"I think so." Jane concurred. "I'm not sure when I'll be back."
"But you will be back?" Lisbon asked the question she was dreading. "You aren't going to disappear without letting me know?"
"I think so." Jane gave her the best answer he could at the moment. "I'll let you know if I change my mind."
Lisbon wasn't sure he would. There was something "off" about Jane's whole demeanor. Like he'd lost "Jane" recently and was struggling with his very identity. Lisbon wasn't sure her feeling was too far off.
"You do that." She rose to her feet and walked around her desk.
"I will." Jane reassured her not sure he wasn't lying.
Taking a hesitant step forward, Lisbon reached out to give Jane the hug she feared might be their last. She was somewhat surprised when he returned it with a fervor she wasn't expecting. Closing her eyes, Lisbon savored the moment instinctively knowing Jane was doing the same.
Feeling him slowly release her a few moments later Lisbon stepped back staring into Jane's eyes. She wasn't at all shocked when he turned on his heel and left without a backward glance. Jane's swift departure was for the best. Awkward, prolonged good-byes would only make things more difficult for both of them.
Walking back to her desk, Lisbon sank back into her chair lost in thought. It was only normal Jane would be at loose ends given how abruptly an obsession consuming a quarter of his life was coming to an end. She also wasn't positive he was really "done." She had a feeling if Bertram turned out not to be Red John; he'd be back for the final twists of the closing chapters. Lisbon couldn't see Jane suddenly walking away. Not from Red John and not from his quest.
Hopefully, not from her either.