Author's Note- If I knew where this came from, I could have stopped myself. Maybe it's my fluffy AU fic, but... oh well.
Disclaimer- If it were mine, this is what would have happened... I think.
Lisbon carefully didn't look at anyone but Van Pelt. It couldn't be what they were all suspecting, right? Jane wouldn't have done this, it couldn't have been him. Could it?
"I've always wanted a couch like that."
Lisbon glanced at the light leather couch off against the wall, where she still expected to see Jane's figure laying out across it while he pondered. Then she looked back at him, the old him. No- the ancient him- as he strolled into the bull pen. Or, more precisely she was looking at the brunette in red attached to his arm. "Who's this?" Another level of hell for her to deal with?
"Oh, this is my 'responsible adult', Tamera."
"Oh, Ta'mara'." The woman corrected his pronunciation with a scolding little smile.
Jane's answering chuckle was like a kid who'd gotten his hand trapped in the cookie jar. Slightly embarrassed, yes, but more like he was just wondering how badly he was going to get in trouble and how cute he needed to be to get out of it.
Ta'mara' just echoed his laugh a little and smiled at her nervously. "Hi."
Lisbon tried to hold back a snort and faked a bit of a smile. "Hi." It wasn't her fault that her tone came out condescending. Come on, Jane couldn't even remember the woman's name properly! Did she really have to talk to this lady? This woman who didn't know a thing about what she had just walked into? All she wanted to do was talk to Jane, her Jane, but that man was gone. And this Jane- well, this Jane was leaving. And she was letting him. She swallowed reflexively. "Well, you did it."
Jane raised one eyebrow at her quizzically.
"You caught a killer and we got back most of the stolen cash." She elaborated.
"Most?"
"Wilcox is missing some of the money." The first plant, to check his reaction. Just like Jane had taught her. "He said you took it, but- he must have hidden it." She didn't like his lack of reaction at all. It wouldn't have been more telling if he had made a sudden run for it. But it- it couldn't be. He may not have his memory, but he was still Jane somewhere inside there- right?
"Hm," Jane harrumphed. "I'd look for an accomplice. That's a big job to pull off alone."
Oh, god. No. She thought she was going to be a little sick.
If there was one good thing about this situation, it was that Jane had forgotten all the old tricks that wouldn't work on her anymore. As someone who had worked alongside the real Jane for years, it was child's play to read him right now. And right now, she didn't believe him for one minute. He was lying, covering something. But it couldn't be what they suspected. Not Jane.
She did her best to plaster on a good-natured acceptance. "We'll do that." The real Jane would have seen through her to the snarl that statement really was in a second. "Oh, by the way-" She reached into her back pocket and pulled out a piece of paper. She was doing this. She really was. She was letting him go. It was what was best for him. "Your last pay check." Could she help it if she wished desperately that he wouldn't accept it? That there was some part of her Jane left in there?
But Jane did take it and unfolded the wrinkled note. He did a little pull back. "That's my payment?" He asked in quiet disbelief.
"You weren't exactly in it for the money." She couldn't help but smile at the memory of Jane- the real Jane- and his dismissal of wealth. It was a happy memory marred by the farce standing in front of her.
"Well, I'll confess to a vague satisfaction in taking down someone that thought they were smarter than me. But not enough to want to stick around here. Certainly not for this." He waved the check her way with a smile.
Two could play at this. "Alright, well, let me know if you change your mind or, you know, get it back." It maybe was a bit of a petty jab, but not one that she was above delivering apparently.
"Some doors are best left shut." He said with a twinkle in his eye.
Carefully, she swallowed. Yes, maybe they were. She was letting him go so that those painful doors would stay shut. She could do this- for him. After all, who was she to stand in the way of his happiness? Anything that got him out of that hell, she supposed she could live with. But-
She paused. How did he know that? Did he just- Was that his memory surfacing? Why else would he be so reluctant? She knew him well enough to know when he was shying away from something.
"Everyone else, I'd just like to say 'thank you'." Jane stepped forward a little so he could address the entire bull pen, but Lisbon was still focused on the woman's arm where the glint of something expensive had caught her eye. "I'm sure we've shared some-" He looked at Van Pelt and then to the rest of the team. "-great times. I'm not presently qualified to comment-"
She shared a look with the red head at that comment and then looked back at Jane. He was just performing. He had no idea what he was talking about.
"-so I'm just gonna make like a rock- and roll." He held out his elbow for Tamara to take.
The woman smiled and waved a little at Van Pelt. "Bye."
Lisbon saw Van Pelt eyes zero in on the bracelet in confusion and her heart seized up a little. So it wasn't just her. Did Van Pelt see it too? "Wait." It was frail, but it stopped Jane nonetheless. She couldn't tear her eyes away from the glitter of actual diamonds. "That looks real."
"Sure does." Van Pelt agreed with a scowled frown.
The woman grinned and kissed him unexpectedly. "You-" She raised a finger to point at him, "-weren't lying."
So it was true. He had bought her the diamond bracelet. Real diamonds, for this... trollop? And there could have only been one way he got the money for it. Something inside her broke at the knowledge, while she stared at him in disbelief. "You took it." Jane didn't look at her, didn't meet her eyes and if she couldn't figure out that that was a confirmation, she had no right to call herself the 'real' Patrick Jane's friend. "Wilcox wasn't lying, you really took it."
Finally he looked at her, but the damage was done. He had taken the money and lied to them about it. "I'm sure I've no idea what you're talking about. I'm late for my new life." Jane took Tamara's arm and started to walk away.
Cho didn't even have to leave his seat. "When'd you grab the cash?"
"Oh please, does it really matter? I mean you people are the highway robbers. Look at this pay check!"
She wasn't paying attention to him anymore. She was still trying to wrap her head around this. Jane had taken the money- that was clear. And the rest of this was an act? No, no quite. Even if this was meant to be an act, it was all too real.
"We could have you arrested for grand theft." Van Pelt said incredulously.
"There's not a jury in the world that would convict me."
No. There had to be a reason. Jane had said that people's core personalities don't change, not even when they were hypnotized. So... why would Jane take the money? Logically, it would be because he didn't have any. So why would he need the money?
"I'm out of my mind! Ask my doctor." Jane was ranting now and she wasn't fooled by the show for a minute. There was something he didn't want them to see.
She blinked, staring at Jane as a painful emotion swept through her. Everything snapped into place. He was forcing them, forcing her, into revealing what they had been keeping from him. What she was so reluctant to tell him. Only... a part of him was hoping they wouldn't. Which meant a part of him was beginning to feel what he might be forcing them into telling him. What he might remember. He wasn't just shying away-
"You're running away."
He looked at her, but she could tell he wasn't confused. He was scared. "What are you talking about?"
"You're starting to feel something inside and you don't know what to do with it."
Barely an eye flickered. "That's nonsense."
He was going to do this, he was going to make her tell him in order to keep him. He was scared, so he would make her do it. Force her to force him.
There was nothing else for it. If he was remembering, if it was really coming back, she couldn't let him go. He couldn't be alone when he remembered something like this, certainly not with this woman that didn't know anything about what had happened. She had to do something.
And the only thing she could think of was going to give her nightmares.
She swallowed down the urge to tear up and squared her shoulders for what he was asking of her. "Prove it. Take a ride with me, if you still want to leave after that, you can."
He stared at her, knowing he had won- and probably wishing that he hadn't.