Authors Note: My entry to the Jello Forever October challenge. Prompt "frozen in time". Also a special thanks to lgmtreader who suggested this story, kind of. Not sure about the end, but oh well, I'm posting it anyway. I may do another one, well see. Oh and Spoilers for ep 2x2 Scarlet Letter just little ones, but as it's a new ep, I thought I'd put in the warning.
Disclaimer: If only, if only.
Jane stood staring at the scene in front of him. How had it come to this? It was as if time was standing still, frozen in the one second. He thought of how he had come to this, standing in a room covered in blood and didn't like what he thought of.
It wasn't supposed to end like this; he had been two steps ahead of Bosco's team the entire time, thanks to that tiny little bug he had placed under the conference table. He had heard every word spoken out loud, every theory, every piece of evidence. He had even managed to get in good with one of the file clerks who slipped him the new files whenever they came in.
He'd kept it all hidden, had never showed it to anyone, had never told anyone, and yet, still, she was there. How the hell had she gotten there before he had? How did she find out something like this before he had? If she was here surely that idiot Bosco wasn't far behind.
She was standing there, gun drawn on the man he now knew to be Red John. He'd figured it out about the same time Bosco and his team had. Van Pelt had looked up the same addresses and businesses as Bosco's team, only she had been faster. He had put the clues together to find out where Red John was hiding and he hadn't told anyone where that was. He knew that they would figure it out, but he figured that by the time they did his job would be done, and he would be in the wind, flying free for the first time in years.
But, there she was, Lisbon, standing above Red John she was yelling, but he couldn't hear her. There was a gun next to him on the ground; it was obvious to him that Lisbon had got the jump on Red John; that this could be a very different scene before him.
It seemed to him that time started to slowly thaw as he watched, almost in slow motion, Red John lunge towards the gun on the ground, Lisbon's finger on the trigger of her weapon, pulling it, the bullet leaving the barrel, the sound of the POP as the sound caught up with the bullet, the impact on Red John's chest, and then time was speeding up.
Red John fell to the ground, landing on the gun that had been laying there next to him, blood pooling underneath him. It was only then that Lisbon looked over at Jane, as if noticing for the first time that he was standing there.
"How did you know he was here?" His voice was quite, he wasn't even sure that he had spoken.
"I saw the notes. Bosco left them sitting on a table. I put two and two together and wound up here. I thought you were already going to be here." She had holstered her gun and moved towards Red John while talking. Jane watched numbly as she hand cuffed the man on the ground behind his back and turned him over, kicking the gun across the room.
"Why isn't he here?" He still hadn't moved, hadn't taken his eyes off the body in front of him.
"I left him a note. Told him where I was going to be. He should be here any second."
"But why didn't you tell him?" He looked at Lisbon now. She was standing and walking towards him.
"I thought you were going to get here first. I didn't want someone else to walk in on you with a gun or a knife to Red John. They wouldn't have been as understanding as I am." She was standing in front of him now, arms at her side, the look on her face pleading him to forgive her, forgive her for taking away his chance at vengeance.
He didn't say anything as he watched the body on the floor, heard the sirens coming, saw as Bosco and the rest of his team come rushing into the room. Time seemed to stand still again, in the bubble surrounding him and Lisbon, as the sounds started to explode, expletive went flying as Bosco realized what had happened, paramedics were called in to check on the body, He knew that there were people talking to them, asking what happened, how they had gotten here, but none of that mattered.
He stood there staring at Lisbon with that look on her face as Red John was put onto a stretcher and whisked away, still alive, as Bosco pulled Lisbon's weapon out of her holster to be tested and processed.
"You shot him to protect me." It was barely more than a whisper, but that didn't matter, she heard him.
"Only to protect you from yourself."
They didn't know how long they stood like that, staring into each other's eyes, not moving, not noticing everything going on around them, and it didn't matter. What did matter was that Red John was gone, and that they were safe, that Jane was safe, that Lisbon had gotten there first. To save him, to protect him from himself.