Chapter 1
The city was buzzing all around an apartment building, in San Diego California. Sirens were sounding loudly, and flashing lights shone brightly. The sun was bright but the clouds were rolling in with the eastern wind. On top of the building, from below could be seen, was a woman with a white flowing dress standing at the edge of the building. A group of CBI agents stood in front of the building contemplating the situation.
"She's gonna jump." A male agent with dirty blonde curly hair announced nervously. He looked over at the female agent to his right, with his green eyes. She had long shoulder length black hair, and green eyes. "You better stop her Lisbon."
"I know that already Jane, but we can't just waltz up there like we own the place, we need a plan." Lisbon sighed loudly. The two were in a circle of five Agents. To Lisbon's right was a woman with long red hair, and brown almost red eyes. To her right was a man with short brown hair and blue eyes. Finally to his right was the last of the five, a man with short black hair and brown eyes. "I'm thinking Cho and I will head up and talk with her." She said nodding her head at the man with black hair.
"I'm on it boss." The man known as Cho headed back towards one of the vehicles to get a bullet proof vest prepared for him. Lisbon turned to the red head.
"So what do we know about her other then what we learned at the Red John scene." She asked her.
"Well we know that her name is Adrianna Kreggs, she just lost her mother and sister to Red John. What we didn't know is her father died when she was 12 and her step father is overseas working with the military currently. She currently resides in her mother's home with her little sister. She just recently took a leave of absence from working as chief of the San Diego PD. Currently she is armed with a handgun. That's about it." Van Pelt replied.
"What is she doing, is she going to shoot herself or jump?" Rigsby asked with a hint of laughter in his tone.
"Rigsby!" Van Pelt glared at him with anger in her eyes. Rigsby casually walked away from them. Jane tilted his body so he was in Lisbon's sight.
"What do you want me to do?" He asked with a large grin on his face. Lisbon looked at him with a straight face for a moment before smirking and shaking her head.
"You, are staying down here so you won't cause any trouble." She left towards the same place that Cho went, leaving Jane with a 'what did I do' look on his face. Van Pelt left in the direction of Agent Rigsby.
The girl stood on the edge of the building staring down below. She hated that all the attention was on her. She just wanted to get everything over with she was tired of the pain. Tears were falling from her tired looking blue eyes, staining her pale skin. Her shaky hands were holding a gun; she wasn't going to fire it though. She had already made such a commotion she might as well jump. She inched a little closer to the very edge, pushing aside her long waist length black hair with her thin fingers. She was about to take the last step forward, when a large bang came from the metallic door behind her. Disrupting her thought process she turned to see Agent Cho and Lisbon standing before her.
"Adrianna, please step away from the edge we only want to help." Lisbon calmly told the girl.
"My name is Adri." She replied sternly.
"Adri, we know that you're upset but we can work this out." Lisbon took a step closer to the girl. Adri wiped away her tears with her arm.
"You're all working with him aren't you, he wants me dead too." She lifted the gun in front of her and pointed it at Lisbon. Both Lisbon and Cho responded with raising their own guns. "I'm tired of it, I feel him watching me everywhere I go. I can't trust anyone anymore. He destroyed my family he killed them." She was now screaming at the Agents tears flowing down her face like waterfalls.
"Miss, we are CBI Agents we are here to help you. We want to catch Red John; we are on your side." Cho said raising his voice over the sirens coming from below. He reached into his pocket and pulled out his badge. "See we're agents, now please put the gun down." Adri, jumped down away from the edge walking towards the Agents, letting the gun rest at her side. She looked at the badge it was shining brightly in the sun. The skies began to rumble, startled, Adri looked up at the now almost pitch black sky. The clouds were merging together. "Looks like a thunderstorm coming our way." Adri froze on the spot at the mention of Thunder and immediately dropped the gun.
"Okay whatever; let's just get out of here." She seemed anxious and her fingers were tapping against her white dress impatiently. Confused the two Agents put their guns back on their belts. The metallic roof door opened again to reveal the man known as Jane. He still had a wide smile filling his face; he walked up to Lisbon and Cho.
"Jane, I thought I told you to stay out of trouble." Lisbon huffed.
"I thought you could use my help." He retorted. Lisbon and Jane continued talking, until a flash of light, and a large boom erupted from the sky. As fast as the thunder came, Adri was on the ground in the fetal position crying with her hands over her ears. The sound of thunder was the only thing that scared her and she never understood why. It wasn't the fact that it was loud because she's shot guns that were louder, she never really knew why but she was always too scared to even look into it. Jane walked up to Adri and held out his hand.
"Fear is only in the mind, if you want I can help you." His hand stood suspended in the air in front of Adri for almost a minute before she even raised her head to look at him. She sniffled lightly before standing up straight she pushed his hand out of the way. She ignored everyone's stares as she went down the staircase to the commotion in front of the building. She immediately convinced the police officers she was fine and just needed some therapy.
"Wow she's… interesting." Cho sighed. Jane walked up to Lisbon and Cho with a smile.
"Yes, yes she is."
"Well, either way we need to bring her in for questioning. We'll ask her to come see us tomorrow." Lisbon walked towards the rooftop door. "Come on we have paperwork to complete." They began to make their way down the staircase.
"So why do you think Red John left her alive it wasn't just coincidence that she wasn't there as well?" Cho asked Jane.
"I'm not sure exactly, but I am curious to find out." He replied with a distant look in his eyes. The three of them took the staircase door out to the front of the building.
"Rigsby it's nice to see you again." Adri huffed lightly as one of the ambulance workers checked her over.
"Yeah it's been awhile Chief Kreggs, I haven't seen you since I left for the CBI." He chuckled. "I never expected to see you again in a situation like this though." She smiled at him lightly.
"Yeah well people change and stuff happens, nothing can stop it." She stood up off of the edge of the ambulance and turned to one of the doctors. "I'm fine, can I leave now." Her voice had an aggravated tone to it.
"We were told not to let you leave till the Agents talked you." The doctor replied. Her fingers clenched tightly. She pointed towards Rigsby.
"See this guy right here. He is an a-gent say it with me a gent, I was just speaking with him. Therefore the Agents have talked to me." Lisbon saw Adri yelling at one of the doctors, she sighed before intervening.
"Miss Kreggs, you are free to leave on the condition that you will come in tomorrow for some questioning." Adri calmed down slightly, she knew that the people were just trying to help.
"Yeah sure." Her head ached she could feel a sharp pain in her temples. She wasn't planning on telling the doctors she just wanted to get some rest. "Yeah I will. Do you think someone could give me a ride to the nearest hotel, I don't feel comfortable going home just yet." She stared down at her black dress shoes, and pulled lightly on the hem of her white summer dress. So much had happened she was confused with everything mostly her reactions to the situation, she didn't feel in control at all. She was going to fix it though. Another loud burst of thunder caused Adri to return to the fetal position.
"I can take you." Jane smiled. He seemed a little too happy with the situation. Jane stood in front of Adri who was curled up in an almost perfectly round ball, he kneeled down to face her. "Come on it'll be fun." He held his hand out to her again. Adri sniffed lightly before looking Jane straight in the eye. She wiped the tears away from her red eyes before taking a deep breath. She shook her head in disapproval before smiling and taking his hand.
"Fine, whatever." They both stood up, and Jane was still holding a small smile on his face.
"Well what are we waiting for let's go my car is this way." He let go of her hand and led her towards his light blue Citroen DS21.
"Wow nice car." Adri was shocked; it was the most amazing car she had ever seen.
"Thanks." He opened the car door for her, she smiled and got in the car. Other than her head ache she was beginning to feel a bit better. "You know, you have a nice smile you should use it more often." He laughed as he entered the driver's seat of his car. Adri blushed lightly at his words.
The car was silent as Jane drove into Sacramento. Adri stared at the street lights as they passed by. Eventually Jane pulled into a nice looking hotel. "This place looks expensive, I love it." She smiled at Jane. "Thank you so much for driving me Mister Jane."
"It was my pleasure, if you need anything the CBI Headquarters is just up the road, you can usually find me and the other agents there." Jane told her with a serious look on his face. She smiled one last time before exiting the car. Adri waved goodbye to Jane as he left. She gripped her head tightly as she felt a wave a pain pass through her head, after a moment of excruciating pain she took a deep breath and entered the hotel.
The small rectangular room was cold and only contained a metal table, three chairs, a mirror that filled one side of the room, and a small door. Sitting at the table was Adri, she was wearing a black skin tight t-shirt, with black dress pants. She had her head in her arms as she laid against the table. Her headache had made it impossible to sleep last night even though she was staying at such a luxurious hotel. "Hello again." Jane smiled as he and Agent Lisbon entered the room. They both sat across from Adri at the table.
"I said I'd be here, so I'm here." She returned with a smile. There was something about Jane's bright smile that gave her an uncontrollable urge to smile back, and she hated smiling. She turned her attention to Agent Lisbon. "You said you had some questions so question away."
"Alright, I want you to tell me what you did from beginning to end on the day of the murder." Lisbon stated calmly. Adri sighed regretfully that was something she could do without fault. She had a photographic memory, it was a blessing and a curse, though it had helped her numerous times working with the police.
"I woke up at six o'clock, it was a habit from my cop work. I took a shower and I got changed, I got my sister up and ready for school and out the door by quarter to eight. I made breakfast for my mother right after that, she had been sick so I was taking care of her. Hence my leave of absence from the San Diego PD, my sister is too young to take care of her so that left the job for me." She stopped momentarily to bring herself together, she was about to start speaking again when Jane interrupted.
"That must be rough you're step father is overseas so he wasn't there to help." He no longer had a smile on his face; it was serious with a hint of intrigue in his eyes.
"All he does is cause more problems." She mumbled, her fists clenched with her words and her face held a resentful look.
"What was that?" Lisbon asked confused.
"Nothing. Anyways, after breakfast I sat around watching television until Mary-Lee my little sister came back from school. I was going to make dinner when I realized we didn't have any spaghetti noodles so I left for the store down the street." Her voice began to crack a little as she spoke and you could tell that she was trying to hold back her tears. "When I got back the house was quiet, so I went up stairs to my mother's room and… and…" Adri now had tears slowly sliding down her cheeks, and she wasn't talking anymore she was just taking deep breaths trying to calm herself down. "I saw the smiley face as soon as I opened the door, and there was this note pinned to my mother's bedroom door." After wiping her tears she dug into her pocket and handed Lisbon a piece of paper.
"This should have gone straight into evidence, why did you keep it from us?" She opened the paper, after looking over it a moment she handed it to Jane.
"Adrianna, you mock the criminal system with your lies and secrets. You can consider what's behind this door a gift, they won't have to be in pain anymore." Jane took in a deep breath before placing the paper on the table. "Do you know what the note is talking about?" He asked with a raised eyebrow. She did know, but she couldn't say anything because she knew what the outcome would be if she told them. If she told anyone, even though she knew it meant that her mother and sister's death was her fault, and even though it tore her apart inside, she could not tell anyone.
"I really don't know what it's talking about." She said as convincing as possible. A shiver ran down her spine as she felt Jane staring at her, she looked away avoiding eye contact.
"Alright well that's all we need to know for now we'll call you if we have anymore questions." Lisbon sighed.
"Well here's the number of the hotel I'm staying at, I think I'm going to be staying there for awhile until I get everything sorted out." Adri wrote a phone number on a piece of paper and handed it to Agent Lisbon.
"Thanks, do you need a ride home?"
"No I think I'll take a cab." She was nervous and didn't want to go with any of the Agents to make it even more uncomfortable. She said her goodbyes, and left for the hotel.
* 2 weeks later*
A large man with a bald head and beady eyes walked into Agent Lisbon's office. She was sitting typing away on her laptop. "Lisbon is this a bad time?" He asked her.
"LaRouche, uh no actually, what would you like?" She turned from the computer screen to face him.
"We're having a new Agent join your team, just as a trial nothing permanent yet, she'll be coming in this afternoon. The reason it's only a trial is due to the fact she just recently got out of therapy for a death in the family." He sat down in the seat across from Lisbon as he spoke.
"Alright, and who might this new Agent be?" She questioned.
"Junior Agent Adrianna Kreggs." He answered leaning back in the chair. Lisbon raised a brow at the name. "Is that going to be a problem?"
"No it's just going to be… interesting." She smiled. She stood up and walked over to Agent LaRouche with her hands in her pockets. "Is that all you wanted to speak to me about?"
LaRouche stood up and straightened out his suit and nodded before leaving the room. Several seconds later Jane enters Lisbon's office. "So, what was that all about?" He asked with a wide grin on his face.
"LaRouche was just informing me that another Agent is going to be joining our team this afternoon." She walked out of her office Jane following close behind her.
"Who is it?" He asked. Lisbon and Jane were now standing where are all the other Agents' desks were. She ignored him and began to speak to the Agents.
"Alright this afternoon we will have a new Agent joining our team. Van Pelt you can give her the run down on everything on our current case she will be helping you for the time being."
"Yeah sure boss." Van Pelt returned.
"Who's the new kid?" Cho asked as he stared down at his book.
"You better not be talking about me." Adri walked into the room and everyone stared at her silently. "I came early seeing as I have nothing better to do." She placed her black coat on the back of a chair and sat down. Jane being his usual self was the first to speak.
"Well it's nice to see you again, are you staying at home yet or are you still staying at the hotel?" He asked with a big smile. She smiled back softly before answering.
"I'm back at home now I've done a lot since I saw you all last. I went and saw a therapist, I went back home. Now I'm planning to start working again, so I thought I'd try here."
"Well welcome to the team." Van Pelt shook Adri's hand with a smile.