a/n: Yay for the end of term! And yay for getting re-addicted to The Mentalist! I just kept wondering what Bosco was thinking during those scenes he got to watch Jane and Lisbon. So these few pieces will all be, as the title signifies, from Bosco's perspective on one of my favorite pairings.
The whole building had been talking ever since the call came in that morning. Bosco heard the security guards at the front desk giving the cliff notes version to everyone checking in, (Though they were more impressed that Jane had caught the guy inside of three minutes and with less than thirty words). His new unit had been discussing the latest 'Jane Incident.' (Like Minelli, they were more concerned with the dead suspect and the damage to the CBI's reputation). When Bosco came out of his introductory meeting he found his secretary gossiping with some other women about how the CBI couldn't get rid of Jane, he was too good, and no matter how crazy he got they'd never transfer him to anyone else. (Apparently he'd either get himself shot or cause such havoc that Minelli would send him back to a waiting Lisbon with apology flowers and some jewelry).
In fact, the only people in CBI Headquarters who weren't talking about the latest escapade of Patrick Jane were busy playing catch in the Serious Crimes bullpen. They didn't need to hear the details of whatever had happened, because Teresa's team knew Jane well enough to fill out the story for themselves.
Before today Bosco had worked very hard to keep from looking into Teresa's time at the CBI. He knew she was on the Red John case, but every cop worth his salt knew that. He stopped himself from prying into other cases, reviewing her team members, or talking to anyone at the CBI about her before his transfer was official. And he hadn't meant to snap today and look into her life here, but then the whole damn office wouldn't shut up.
He knew heard what the secretaries were implying about Teresa and this Jane character and her reasons for stepping in to defend him. Though his team didn't seem to agree with the staff's view of the situation, he could still hear the disdain in their tone that Teresa's crew was willing to stand this guy when they should be throwing him out. In fact, beyond all reason, they seemed to enjoy him.
So, Bosco had glanced over their personnel files. Not examined them, just glanced. And his team had been right. Cho, Rigsby, and Van Pelt were all good agents with no real black marks on their records, but there were some warning flags. Things that they would have been fried for if Teresa hadn't stepped in and taken the hit. Things that didn't start until they associated with Patrick Jane.
The man in question had an impressive file of closed cases with very vague mentions to the rules he'd snapped to close those cases, and Bosco was sure both those things were down to Teresa. Her handiwork was all over Jane's file, editing out shots of rebellion and distilling them through impressive understatement until you would only know the extent of Jane's recklessness and disregard for the law if you talked to the people who'd been forced to deal with him.
Bosco interrupted his 'glancing' over the files when time came to report to Minelli's office and break the news of his transfer to Teresa. Bosco could hear Minelli through the wall, scolding both Teresa and Jane for the incident this morning. "I fear a terminal screw up is coming."
"That's not gonna happen. I can handle him." Bosco crashed to a stop outside Minelli's office at the sound of her voice. Five years. Five years and he still couldn't breath properly when he heard the sound of her voice.
It took him a moment, but when Bosco heard Minelli question Teresa, "Can you?" He found the strength to walk again. He'd seen enough of the files and heard enough gossip in the course of this morning to know how her concern for Jane looked to Minelli, and more than that Bosco knew what this fool was doing to her career. He stepped into Minelli's sightline and listened to the end of the rant. "Maybe since he saved your life you're going easy on him. Maybe you feel compelled to cut him some slack."
"No sir, that is absolutely not the case." She was lying. Partially. Bosco knew that tone, and it meant she wasn't exactly lying about not cutting him slack, but she wasn't telling the truth about it either. Probably meant she wasn't cutting him any more slack than she usually did.
Minelli shouted and waived him in, "Hey Sam! Get in here."
Bosco steeled his nerves for the meeting about to come. In some deep dark spot he hoped that the sight of him would make Teresa abandon Jane and demand to be transferred to his team, but he had a feeling it was going to be tougher than that. He just nodded to Teresa, "Lisbon."
"Bosco." Anyone who didn't know her like he knew her would've missed her shock.
"Agent Bosco and his unit are taking over the Red John case." Well, Minelli obviously wasn't one for easing in, and under circumstances where they weren't about to get yelled at, Bosco would've appreciated that quality.
Jane hadn't even bothered to look at Bosco when he'd walked in to the room, which tore Bosco between insult and pride. Sure, he was a little irritated that Jane didn't think he was worth looking at, but he also had to stifle a flare of ego that the golden boy hadn't caught the shock in Teresa's voice and wondered who triggered it.
"You have always been too close to the case. And now both of you are way too close. We need to make a change." Jane didn't like not being in control. Bosco could've told you that the second he'd walked in the door, and now Minelli had robbed Jane of enough control to force him to his feet and finally look like he was paying attention.
Teresa stepped in before Jane could start yelling at Minelli in his desperate attempt to turn the tables, "Can we talk about this?"
"No. You've worked for agent Bosco." Ahh, there we go. Jane finally deigned to look at him, eyes quickly glancing him up and down. "You know that he'll do the job right." Bosco gave Jane an up-down himself. This was the first time he'd gotten a proper look at Jane, (outside the newspaper articles, that Bosco would never admit to reading, the ones with pictures that always had Jane standing too close to Teresa).
That glance was all Bosco needed to know the rumors were wrong. Jane looked like a kid. There was no intensity to him, no real strength, just rage. All the stories about the daring things Jane had done, and all he'd been through made Bosco expect a tougher looking guy, someone stronger than this boy. His daring wasn't from courage, he just felt the need to prove himself against a whole building full of better men than him. The actual sight of Patrick Jane was more comforting than Bosco ever thought it could be. Maybe this would be a good meeting after all.
Or not. "You need to let my team finish what they started." Teresa was mad, and this was going to be his fault.
"Teresa, no offense, but you guys aren't even close to catching this guy. Fresh set of eyes gotta be a good idea."
"What do you know about the case?" Ahh, there was more of that rage. Only rather than just letting it spray off him waves like he must usually do, it was aimed at Bosco now. Like a two-year-old in a temper tantrum. Eventually Jane's anger would burn out and dissolve into the self-pity and despair that Jane must be more comfortable dealing with. Bosco had nothing to worry about. …Not that he had ever been worried about Jane. Or he had anything to be worried about where Teresa was concerned.
"Not much. It's a serial killer. 15 victims. Including your wife and child. I can imagine your pain." Bosco was just poking at the kid's wounds, seeing how easy he would be to push to the limit. Considering that he looked to be halfway there already, Bosco thought it was a credit to Teresa that she'd kept him alive this long. "Maybe that pain is clouding your judgment."
"Well …" The kid almost sounded resigned to the fact, but he looked back to Minelli, waiting for him to say it was all a hoax to teach Jane a lesson. But Minelli killed that dream when he nodded his head that this was sticking. And like the spoiled child he was, Jane just walked out of the room.
Teresa glared at them both, fire in her eyes that Bosco had only seen her use on abusers. "And me Sam, what's clouding my judgment?" Bosco saw some of Jane's rage in her eyes too. Damn, she wanted to protect the kid. Maybe Bosco did have something to be nervous about. Not that he was giving the gossips the credit of being right, but maybe she actually wanted to keep Jane around.
"Good question. You tell me." Teresa left the room, following after Jane, and all Bosco could do was close his eyes and sigh. Five years. Five years since he'd seen her and in her heart she was partnered with a freak show.
That could have gone better.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
The kid had scheduled a meeting. He'd called Bosco's secretary and scheduled an appointment. Almost like he was a real grownup. Jane blew on to the rooftop restaurant five minutes late and with a smile Bosco almost mistook for real. "Hey, sorry I'm late, had traffic. What are you having?" Jane grinned wider and reached for his wallet, but Bosco reached for his own instead.
"What are you having?" Jane gave a pleasantly surprised smirk in return. Smug kid probably thought Bosco would be tight with his money. He just ordered at bottle of water, probably not wanting to be too far in Bosco's debt. He ordered his own dog with kraut and tossed Jane his measly bottle of water. How Hollywood of him. A bottle of water. Seriously, who does that?
The kid at least had the decency to overcome his shock and say thank you. And even though Bosco would've done it anyway, he left gave the vendor a generous tip and got a little extra joy out of defying whatever stereotype Jane thought he had Bosco boxed into. Bosco had learned the value of folks in the service industry in his years on the force; learned that when no one else knew anything about a victim, the guy who served him lunch or his after work drinks always had something valuable to say. Treat 'em right and they tell you plenty.
"Well, I'm not gonna lie, I'm not happy I'm off the Red John Case." That was putting in mildly. After the way the last meeting had gone Bosco had read through every case file Jane ever touched, even those he did off the books for other departments. The man was obsessed. "You might be right. Fresh set of eyes might be what's needed." Lying through his teeth, that's what the kid was doing. Bosco had done it to suspects a million times. Make them think you understand why they did what they did so they'll open up and start trusting you.
"Here's the thing, Sam. If I may. I know this case. I could be a very good resource for you. If we could just come to some kind of an understanding." This was not happening. Bosco must not be as intimidating as he thought if the kid thought that being polite and calling him Sam meant that any sort of 'understanding' could be reached. Understanding meant bribery or blackmail, and even though Bosco knew it was what Jane wanted, he was beginning to lose his temper.
"You want me to keep you up to date on the case."
"Sure."
"Tell you about fresh leads, etc."
"Yeah, let's just keep an open line of communication." Jane was starting to get excited, like he actually believed Bosco might really be on his side. In response Bosco took as large a bite of his hot dog as he could manage without choking on it. Jane didn't like the sight of the hot dog, Bosco could tell, and though it was juvenile of him, he wanted to make Jane uncomfortable. It churned his stomach at the implication behind Jane expecting Bosco to cave because he was an old friend of Teresa's. It said something about Jane's relationship with Teresa that he thought he affection would guarantee him amnesty with Bosco.
"My wife has me on a diet. This is like committing adultery here." Jane smiled back at Bosco's joke, but it wasn't real. There was a genuine flicker of disgust that Bosco was all right with making adultery jokes. That and the ring still on Jane's hand told him that whatever influence Jane had over Teresa, he wouldn't go to her bed until he'd killed Red John with his own two hands. Another reason to keep the case. Not that he cared who Teresa spent her nights with, just so long as it wasn't Jane.
"Let me communicate this to you. You're a party entertainer, a clown." Jane kept his smile in place, but his eyes turned dark at being degraded by someone he had read as closer to a friend. "Fresh leads? I wouldn't tell you where the bathroom was if you ass was on fire." Jane laughed again, but this time he had his walls back up and finally grasped what sort of man he was dealing with. "Do we have a good understanding now?"
"I understand you. It may take you some time to understand me." Ahh, there was that rage again. His fall back emotion when he didn't know what else to do.
Bosco couldn't stop himself; he wanted to watch the boy squirm. "You're filled with equal parts self loathing and self love. You're addicted to control. You're terrified of confinement."
"Who's my favorite Beatle?" Bosco just smirked at the kid, knowing that he was interrupting to throw him off. Jane didn't know how to fight good, solid facts with his shiny trickery. Bosco wasn't entirely proud of himself for torturing Jane, but this rat had been manipulating Teresa for too long and she was too kind to notice. It was ending here.
"Your wife wanted you to quite the psychic trade. She begged you to stop. But you were making too much money, you were having too much fun." This boy had hurt his Teresa. He'd spent years using her to try and making himself feel whole again, bleeding her dry to keep his rage fueled, because without it he was a shell. Bosco wanted to see him bleed. "You can still hear her pleading with you. How'm I doing?"
"You can read the interviews in my case file. You can read, very impressive." And gone was all that precious control that Jane loved so much. Bosco really didn't understand how this kid had survived so long when it was so easy to shove him to the edge.
Bosco put his hand on Jane's shoulder, the best attempt he would make to comfort the kid. A better man would feel bad about taking away the only things that kept this boy going, but he would rather strip him of what kept him alive than let him anywhere near Teresa ever again. "Look, Patrick, I'm sorry to be so blunt with you."
Jane put his hand on Bosco's shoulder in retaliation, and Bosco saw some fight come back into those hollow green eyes. More rage than fight, but still. "Really."
Bosco pulled his hand back to where Jane could see it. "You're not a detective. You're a victim." And with that he left Jane standing with that thought, and the hope that when Jane resigned for the second time this week he'd stay gone.
