Chapter 1: Crash landings
Teresa Lisbon had long since learned that there were certain things that spelled trouble, and the recent dearth of cases, combined with an unsettled and bored consultant was a recipe for disaster. The sight of low flying paper planes drifting past her office window was a sure sign that her consultant was just bristling with mischief, and paying scant attention to those cold case files she had asked him to review.
The bored homicide detectives paid lip service to their routine chores, sorting out their expense forms, writing up cases and preparing their submissions for trials, even God help them doing their quota of community outreach programs. Meanwhile Patrick Jane alternated between drinking cups of tea and being generally annoying.
Unable to settle down, he seemed to be full of nervous energy, a sure sign he wasn't sleeping again. Needing an outlet for his creative energy, Patrick Jane experimented with paper planes of increasing aerodynamic complexity as the morning wore on.
"Nice one" Rigsby nodded appreciatively as the latest model glided into Lisbon's office. Even Cho permitted a grin to pass his face as he waited for some response from the office.
"Piranha, both fast and accurate." Jane looked expectantly at the office door, disappointed that his aim hadn't garnered a reaction from Lisbon. He had seen her head tracking the downward trajectory of the plane as it spiralled on to her sofa, but she still wasn't rising to the bait.
Cho and Rigsby exchanged a smile, knowing that this was tantamount to issuing a challenge. Jane had a childish desire to have his expertise in whatever field recognised, and the humble paper plane was no exception.
A slight huff was quickly followed by some rapid hand movements, until a new sleek model was ready to be launched. Eyeing up his target carefully, Jane watched his Merlin glide effortlessly into his leader's office, until it ended up teetering uncertainly on the edge of her desk. His lips pursed in a smile, knowing that Lisbon couldn't ignore that one. Raising his eyebrows slightly as he passed Rigsby's desk, Jane settled himself back in prime position on his sofa in anticipation of Lisbon's reaction.
The resigned sigh as Lisbon leaned forward to examine the offending article was cue for an ear splitting grin from Jane. Cho & Rigsby put their heads down pretending to work, knowing that any moment now Lisbon would be heading in Jane's direction.
"Son of a gun." Lisbon muttered angrily, Jane was making planes out of the cold case report that she had asked him to review. Pushing her chair slowly away from the desk, she raised herself up wearily, just knowing she was setting herself up for another futile confrontation.
Holding the offending article by the tail, like some dead animal, she made her way out to the bullpen, giving Cho and Rigsby a warning glare, before directing a withering look in Jane's direction. "You're supposed to be reading that report, not launching it."
Cho's lips twitched involuntarily, and Rigsby gave up any pretence at working, as he eagerly awaited Jane's response. "Meh, too much bureaucracy - you deal with one piece of paper and another turns up. Just imagine if you never finished anything, it would break the cycle, and bring the system to a halt. It's a revolutionary new concept, someone needs to break the tyranny of the pen pusher - just think how much time and money it would save."
A sardonic smile crossed Lisbon's face. "Perhaps you're right. Those expenses waiting to be authorised were next on my to do list, maybe if I don't sign them off, people will stop putting them in."
Risgby's eyes narrowed, he had a hot date this weekend and had been relying on his expenses being paid.
Umm the old divide and rule tactic. Lisbon didn't normally stoop so low. Jane knew she must be seriously annoyed with him. He racked his brain to see if he had been remotely more annoying than usual. The last case had been closed without further incident; Judge Fitzwilliam had eventually come round to his way of thinking. Jane couldn't see the problem, the case would never have been solved if he hadn't gate crashed the old lady's funeral. For some reason Hightower and Lisbon had taken that particularly badly, they really needed to trust him more.
In frustration Lisbon launched the plane at Jane. "Just read it Einstein." Unpractised as she was in the art of launching paper planes, it took an unexpected detour right into the path of Agent Hightower and Director Bertram, who were rounding the corner just in time to see Lisbon launch the offending article.
"Good to see you're all hard at." Bertram drily noted. "Now Agent Hightower shall we run over those staff budgets again."
Jane could see Lisbon wilting under Hightower's blistering glare, until the senior agent escorted Bertram to the safety of her office.
"Sheepdip! Now look what you've made me do." Lisbon rubbed her temple, feeling the sudden onset of a headache.
"Au contraire my dear Lisbon, I think you'll find you did that entirely by yourself. Everyone knows that a plane should be launched with a steady action, it's all in the arm action, no wonder it went into a tailspin." Jane's face was a picture of innocence when to emphasise the point, he moved his arm backward and forward, as if to launch an imaginary plane, and he watched Lisbon go off into a tailspin of her own.
Jane treated himself to a congratulatory cup of tea, in acknowledgement of a job well done. Lisbon had taken the bait hook line and sinker. Jane would smooth things over with Hightower at some stage, he was starting to get the measure of Madeline Hightower. She was one tough cookie, and he couldn't help but have a sneaking regard for her.
Bertram emerged from Hightower's office and surveyed the scene of industry; heads were down as everyone diligently focused their attention on their screens and papers. Completely unfazed by events Jane calmly tipped his tea cup in Bertram's direction, in acknowledgement of his stare. Bertram turned away irritably; a pragmatist by nature he could put up with a lot from Jane so long as the SCU maintained its stellar rate of closing cases, and Bertram was the recipient of the reflected glory. If that were ever to change, he would have no compunction in terminating Jane's contract.
Rigsby and Cho exchanged looks like two errant schoolboys; Rigsby stood up ready to stretch his legs, and take a break now that the coast was clear, when all of a sudden Hightower emerged from her office. She surveyed the bullpen critically before settling her eagle eyes in Jane's direction; she slowly blinked her hooded eyelids and pursed her lips, weighing up how best to deal with the problem in hand. She knew full well that Lisbon had been suckered in yet again by her consultant, who had them all dancing to his tune. A quick glance at Rigsby, who was frozen to the spot, caused him to grab some random papers and start to read them avidly. A smirk appeared on Madeline's face as she sauntered over to the bullpen with feline grace, her quarry was now firmly in her sights.
Perching against the desk in front of Cho, with Rigsby in front of her and Jane still very much in view, she offered her opening gambit. "Good read Agent Rigsby?"
"Yes Ma'am, latest crime statistics analysis." Rigsby shuffled uncomfortably.
Hightower reached forward taking the papers from Rigsby, turning them upside down before handing them back to him. "They generally make more sense that way up."
Jane openly smiled in approval, she was one cool customer.
Rigsby flushed and put his head down. The ping of the lift announced the return of a slightly flustered Van Pelt from the coffee run, she stopped in her tracks when she saw Hightower looking in her direction. "Come along Agent Van Pelt, I should have guessed you were on a mission of the utmost importance." Grace flushed and instinctively tried to push a wayward lock of hair behind her ear, as soon as she put the tray down. Jane smiled at her unconscious display of guilt, that was a sure sign that she'd met up with O'Laughlin somewhere en route.
Lisbon emerged uncertainly from her office, on hearing Hightower's voice. She shot a wary look in Jane's direction, who just shrugged his shoulders, not knowing where this was leading either.
"As we're enjoying a brief hiatus from the usual crimes, I've enrolled Cho and Rigsby on a team building exercise for this afternoon, and I've arranged for Van Pelt to give a talk on internet security to the Silver Surfers of Sacramento at the local community center."
"Excuse me Ma'am.." Lisbon's words died in her mouth, now was not the time to remind Hightower that it was not her job to hand out assignments. If Lisbon had more control of her team, this wouldn't have happened in the first place.
"Yes Agent Lisbon?" Hightower didn't look unkindly at her, she knew it wasn't Lisbon's fault that Jane was intent on winding everyone up, but this had to be nipped in the bud before it got out of control.
"What do you want Jane and I to do?" Lisbon accepted the situation without demur.
"Well you Agent Lisbon can have a quiet afternoon to catch up on your paperwork, and I'm sure you can think of something interesting to keep Jane occupied." Without another word she turned on her heels, and made her way back to her office, a faint smile of satisfaction lingered on her lips. No doubt everyone had now turned their attention back on to Jane.
"Look what you've done now dude – team building exercise. Thanks a lot Jane." Cho stood with his hands on his hips, a look of disgust on his face. Did Jane know how seriously Rigsby took these courses? Jane didn't have to share a car with Rigsby, and put up with him quoting motivational messages for the next few days.
Van Pelt who was late to this party, and didn't know what was going on, guessed Jane had done something wrong, but so what, it was a chance to get out of the office for a while.
Knowing when she was beat, Lisbon none too sympathetically snapped at the team. "You heard Agent Hightower, now just get on with it."
Lisbon made a substantial dent in her paperwork, despite the gentle purring of Jane, who was stretched out asleep on her sofa. Her mild annoyance at his intrusion, was offset by her relief that he was finally getting some rest, his hyperactivity brought on by lack of sleep caused him to misread situations at times, and Hightower made it perfectly clear who she held responsible.
The purposeful clicking of approaching heels warned her of Hightower's imminent arrival. Lisbon bit her lip apprehensively, finding Jane asleep in her office was hardly likely to go down well, but there wasn't time to wake him. Oh well, things couldn't get any worse, Lisbon hoped in vain that Hightower would walk by. Naturally she didn't. Lisbon looked up apologetically, ready to make her excuses, when Hightower raised her hand to still her, and indicated for Lisbon to follow her out to the bullpen.
"I assume he's not sleeping again. How is he coping in general?" Hightower's concern was genuine; he hadn't been the same since Kristina Frye's abduction. However much she sympathised with Jane, she couldn't send a loose cannon into the field. His flashes of inspiration were coming with a heavy price these days, and it not only reflected badly on Lisbon but on Hightower as well. Hightower had briefly considered making Jane answerable directly to her rather than to Lisbon, but Hightower was a political animal intent on going places, and had ultimately balked at the responsibility of that. At least she was ring fenced from his worst excesses this way, and she had Lisbon's back, for as long as they were closing cases.
"You know, he copes in his own way." Lisbon couldn't say any more than that.
No one really knew what Jane was feeling, or how he was going to react to a situation. Although she knew him better than most, his innermost thoughts were still private. She could count on one hand how many deep personal conversations they had engaged in, neither being inclined to bare their souls publicly. Over time a tacit understanding had developed for coping with each other's moods, which by and large served them both well.
Hightower looked at him doubtfully. "I really want to believe you, but that incident with Judge Fitzwilliam could have been career defining for both of us. We both got carried along by his conjecture with disastrous results, and only just pulled the case around in time. He just seems off his game to me. Maybe we ought to consider a more back seat role for now, keep him out of high profile situations."
"Jane is part of the team Ma'am. We all work the case. It wouldn't work any other way. I wouldn't want it to work any other way." Lisbon sighed heavily, aware of the commitment she was taking on.
Hightower gave her a light squeeze of her shoulder before turning away. "As you wish Lisbon, I'll cover your back for as long as I can."
Lisbon quietly made her way back to her office, trying not to rouse Jane, and started back on her paperwork.
"Thanks." A faint mutter came from the sofa, the eyes were still closed but a faint smile crossed the lips.
"I should have known you'd be listening in. Don't let us down this time Jane, I mean it. Just think about what you're doing for once." Lisbon appealed to his better nature, with little hope of making a breakthrough.
A silent shrug preceded the gentle purr of sleep. Lisbon shook her head in resignation; he really would get her sacked one day. At least he was getting some much needed rest in the white noise of the bullpen.
It was one of life's ironies that Jane felt curiously secure with the buzz of proceedings going on around him; it was much more relaxing for him than the recriminatory silence of the night. In fact it was one of the reasons why Jane would have the TV on most of the night in his motel room, it was a distraction, however mindless the topic. His colleagues would be quite surprised how in touch he was with popular culture. Jane had endless trivia stored away in his memory palace; in his quest for sleep he was quite indiscriminate in his habits.
Refreshed from his sleep Jane was altogether more laid back the following day, he stopped at Marie's on the way in and arrived bearing peace offerings for everyone. Rigsby leapt on the donuts immediately, the way to his heart was through his stomach. Cho, who had been traumatised by the bonding exercises, was less forgiving and ignored the peace offering.
Jane tapped lightly on Lisbon's door, and paused seeing she was on the phone. He waved the bag in front of her to catch her attention, and then withdrew with a smile.
Cho finally broke the ice. "New case?"
"Sounds like it, I'm sure all will be revealed." Jane took a sip of his tea; it would be good to have something new to work on, these days confined to the office made him restless.
Lisbon peered eagerly into the bag that Jane had deposited on her desk, she'd skipped breakfast again so it was most timely, and they had a two hour drive ahead of them to Marin County. She couldn't suppress a slight buzz of excitement at the prospect of crossing swords with Walter Mashburn again. There was no denying the spark between them, and he was one of the few people Jane regarded as an equal. Walter's PA Nita Kapoor had contacted the CBI specifically requesting Lisbon's team. An accident on one of Walter's new ventures had resulted in a death, and foul play was suspected.
Glancing round quickly to make sure no one was watching, Lisbon quickly checked her appearance in her mirror, and re-applied a light coloured lipstick. She didn't want to look too obvious after all. After getting her things together she went out into the bullpen."Saddle up everyone, we've got a new case. Marin County, Volta Autonomics. Suspicious death on the test track, one of the autonomous cars unexpectedly veered off course killing someone trackside."
"Was the driver hurt?" Rigsby glared at Jane accusingly, no need to snort like that, he knew the cars were driverless but assumed someone would have been in the vehicle monitoring performance.
"No the car was monitored remotely, they don't know what caused the crash yet. Van Pelt, I want you to liaise with the software engineers to see what data is available." Lisbon knew Grace was best suited to deal with this. While none of them were exactly dummies, 'geek speak' was sometimes hard for the uninitiated to follow. Personally she always suspected it was a bit like the medical and legal professions, they created their own mumbo jumbo to elevate their status, and to deter outsiders from looking in too closely. Although in fairness Van Pelt never let the technical intricacies obscure the facts, she had a real grasp for what was relevant.
Jane observed Lisbon critically as she drove, her makeup such as it was had been freshened up, and there had been a definite bounce in her step on the way to the car park. A quick look at the notes Van Pelt handed to him on the way out explained it all. Volta Autonomics was the latest plaything of one Walter Mashburn. Interesting that she hadn't mentioned Mashburn by name, she was playing it cool for now.
"So Walter Mashburn, Lisbon." There was a definite hesitation before she answered.
"Yeah, what of it?" Lisbon shuffled defensively in her seat.
"Just wondering is he the good or the bad guy this time?" Much as Jane liked Walter, he knew Walter was hardly a choir boy. Maybe that was part of his appeal to someone as strait laced as Lisbon. Perhaps she had a secret penchant for bad boys. Jane smiled as he settled down to read the case in full, he had a feeling he was going to enjoy this case.