.
.
I do not own these characters and no copyright infringement is intended. I receive no monetary compensation from writing these stories. Thanks, Mr. Heller. Season Seven rocks.
AN: I like the new Vega character, and I'm looking forward to seeing her react to the team. Here's a little ditty about Cho getting enlightened in an unexpected way.
"The best test of whether you really understand a concept is trying to teach it to someone else."
.
.
.
Michelle Vega was halfway through reading her imposing stack of introductory federal paperwork when Supervisor Abbott strode out of his office and into the bullpen. It was after five, and the only other person still present was Cho, who was absorbed in paperwork of his own.
Abbott scanned the room. "Cho?" he boomed.
"Yes, boss," Cho answered, his head snapping up immediately.
"Supervisory Agent Brennan down in Terrorism has requested some help for surveillance this evening. He has five men down with the flu. Would you be willing to help out?"
"Sure thing," Cho answered without hesitation.
"Oh, and Agent Vega," Abbott addressed her. She sat up a little straighter.
"I apologize for not meeting with you yet. I'm afraid I have a conference right now, but why don't you accompany Cho on his assignment tonight and let him fill you in on the basics of how the team works. Then you and I can talk tomorrow."
"Yes, sir," she answered with military precision.
Vega hadn't really had time to form a well-rounded opinion about her new job. Everything was still too new, and too different from what she had envisioned. It wasn't that she didn't like her team members – she did – at least what little she knew of them. But there was no getting around that some of them were very, well, unconventional.
Cho was her favorite so far. He was straightforward, tough and hardworking, and all of that made her comfortable. This was the kind of agent she wanted to be, so she would make sure to watch and learn all she could from him.
She also liked the fact that when she acted on her own judgment by taking down the escaping woman in the parking garage - disobeying Cho's instructions - that he had commended her rather than reprimanding her. She liked this much better than the "absolute orders" status quo of the military. Maybe dropping out of West Point would turn out to be the best thing she'd ever done. Maybe she would find this work more satisfying. She was optimistic and determined to fit in with this unconventional team.
Cho rose, grabbing his jacket from the back of his chair and pulling it over those muscular arms. Not that she noticed. She quickly rose as well, and followed him into the elevator without speaking.
%%%%%%%
Three hours later she was sitting in the passenger seat of an FBI SUV with Cho, parked on the street outside the residence they were watching. In his sparse way, he had already given her the basics on most of the team members. Abbott – tough, fair, smart, and willing to get "creative" within parameters. Wylie, a tech/information wizard, added to the team because of his unassigned, innovative work on a previous case. Lisbon, his team leader at the now defunct CBI, did a two year stint as a sheriff before returning to work with Jane at the FBI. Cho obviously had a lot of respect for Lisbon – it was in his manner and his voice.
"So you liked Lisbon as a boss?" she asked carefully, adding, "if it's not too personal a question."
"Absolutely. She's a great cop and I love the way she works. Plus, she managed Jane all those years – I don't know how. He wouldn't listen to anyone else – barely behaved for her." Cho shook his head, remembering.
"So how did he start working for the CBI to begin with?"
"He was a fake psychic and then Red John - a serial killer - murdered his family for belittling him on a talk show. You knew about that, right?"
"Wylie told me some basics, but he wasn't there." She was curious.
"He found them murdered when he got home from the show – Wylie tell you that? Cut up and disemboweled."
"Oh my God. That's horrible." Her stomach turned as she imagined the scene.
"Yeah. A year after that, he showed up at the CBI requesting to see the files on the serial killer – our team had been assigned to the investigation a couple of months prior."
"He wanted to help solve the cases?"
"He didn't say it outright at first, but he wanted revenge – that's what drove him."
"And they just let him join the team?" she asked incredulously. Why in the world would a member of a victim's family be added to a law enforcement team, she wondered.
"He was smart. He manipulated the director into letting him see the files. But Lisbon realized he had a talent, and she asked him to help solve another case we were working on at the time. Solved it in fifteen minutes, just by talking to the suspects."
"Wow."
"The director hired him as a consultant, and added him to our team. Jane agreed on the condition he could see the Red John files. He ended up working with us for ten years and we had the best close rate in the bureau. The higher ups overlooked a lot of his stunts because of that, plus Lisbon usually kept him in some sort of check."
"Why? How?"
"I don't know, really. Who knows why Jane acts how he acts."
"So what went down, in the end? You caught the serial killer after ten years?"
"It's a long story."
"Is there some reason I shouldn't know? Sir?" she added, afraid she had overstepped in her inquiry. "Because we're just sitting here."
Cho turned to her and narrowed his eyes, pausing for a moment. The shadow of an amused smile crossed his face. "Okay." He took a sip of his coffee first, giving her the impression he had exceeded his usual quota of words for the day - maybe for the week - and that he needed to recharge before continuing.
"Jane narrowed down the suspects to a short list, and we pursued those suspects. In the course of that investigation, we uncovered a crooked cop ring that was related. Turns out the head of the CBI was in the ring. Plus a lot of other cops, and even some FBI. Big names, from all over. Abbott was sent in to clean things up, and the CBI was dismantled. Our team helped Jane get away to chase Red John."
"So Jane figured it out?"
"Yeah. Red John turned out to be a sheriff from Napa. He was found shot and strangled, with a gun in his hand, lying in a Sacramento park. Jane disappeared."
"Jane killed him with his bare hands?" She had to admit, she couldn't imagine a dandy man like Jane capable of such a brutal physical act.
"The facts of the case were never determined."
She could figure out what that meant. "What happened to everybody after that?"
Cho shifted in his seat and took another sip of his coffee. "Lisbon took a job as a sheriff in Washington state, the other two members formed a civilian PI team, and I went to Quantico."
"And Jane?"
"He went to Venezuela, but I didn't know that until he came back. The FBI found him on some island and sent Abbott to talk him into coming back to work."
"How'd they find him?"
"Wrote letters to Lisbon under some alias."
"Jane seems smarter than that. Why would he leave a trail?"
"He couldn't be extradited." Cho shrugged.
"So Jane was free and clear elsewhere, and decided to come back and work here? Why in the world would he do that?"
"Maybe he missed the work." That explanation sounded ridiculous even as he said it, and Cho knew it.
She was still shaken by how easily Jane had divined her own personal history, even though Cho had told her how good he was at reading people. "But a guy as talented as Jane could do a lot more lucrative things, couldn't he? And…" she hesitated.
"And what?" Cho asked.
"Well, this may sound bad, but he doesn't seem that…tied," she chose her words carefully,"…to the process of law enforcement. It seems more like a game to him."
"Definitely."
"So why did he come back? Doesn't really make any sense." She hesitated. "To me. But of course I don't really know him at all," she quickly qualified her statement.
Cho tilted his head back, clearly thinking hard about something.
"And how did Agent Lisbon get back to this team?" Michelle asked.
"Jane wouldn't work with anyone else. He had them write it into his agreement. Lisbon got a job here or he wouldn't…"Cho's voice dropped off and he raised an eyebrow in surprise, as if something profound had suddenly occurred to him.
'What?"
"He would only work with the FBI if Lisbon worked here too," Cho said, nearly cracking a smile as he shook his head in amusement. Unless she was badly mistaken, Cho had just experienced some sort of revelation.
"So he came back here just to work with her and she came back just to work with him?"
"They work well together," he explained. Cho turned around in his seat to look at her, his face now sporting a full on smile. "Agent Abbott is a smart man. Remember that," he concluded. "Hey," he said, motioning toward the house. "Look."
A man had emerged from the side door of the house, and as Cho called it in, a smile still lingered on his face. "We have movement," he informed their colleagues by phone.
"So we shadow this guy without spooking him?"
"Uhhuh." It was more of a grunt than an answer.
"Agent Cho, please let me know if I ask too many questions, okay?"
"Okay." Cho picked the phone back up. "Suspect headed east on West Mulberry Avenue," he reported, and fired up the SUV.
The chase was on, and Michelle Vega was excited to be a part of it.
.
.
The End.