Sorry for the wait on this story…I've been in bed most of the week with a bad foot, and trying to decide if I want to have the surgery done…it means being unable to walk for a couple of weeks…anyway here is another chapter to the story. Hope you like it, and have a great weekend. Once again I am only using the characters for a short time and will return them to their owners in good condition.
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Walking into the bullpen Lisbon saw Jane pacing the floor, like he had done the last two days. She noticed the cup of tea that he had made was cold and the cup was still full. Walking over to him, she put her hand on one of his arms to stop him.
"Well are you going to tell me what you are so worried about? I know that there are no new leads on Red John and we don't have an open case." She said in her no nonsense voice.
"Nothing." He stated, as he pulled away and started pacing again. "Nothing! Come on in my office now Mr. Jane." She takes his arm and pulls him towards her office. Cho and Rigby look up at the two people and just shook their heads, wondering what Jane had done this time.
Lisbon pushed Jane into her office and sits him at the chair in front of her desk, and went to her desk. She looked at him closer and could see that he hadn't slept in a couple of days. "Out with it Jane. If we get another case I want you to be ready for it." She said.
Jane looked at her, knowing that she was not going to let him just walk out of the office, and he was really too tired to resist her.
"Molly hasn't call me, she is three days late." His voice sounded worried.
"She's been late before Jane, I'm sure she will call soon. After all her husband died six months ago so he won't be after her anymore. Maybe she took a vacation and got away for a while. After what she has been through hiding from him, she could use the time."
"I called where she worked, she didn't take any time off and they've been concerned about her, someone from the office went to her apartment but there was no answer." Jane puts his hands in his lap and his eyes went down to his lap. Lisbon knew that look; he used it when he was worried.
"Is her car there?" he shakes his head no. "Why don't I call the police in Santa Barbara and see if there has been any accident reported regarding Molly? I know James in the Serious Crime department can do this for me, without having a missing report done."
"Thank you…it's just that she has only missed calling a couple of times and it was only a day." I know that something has happen." He looks up at Lisbon she can see the worry in those blue/green eyes of his.
"Why don't you go lay down for a while I call James. It will take him sometime I'm sure before he can call me back if he is on a case. Please Jane just rest on my couch before you drop down on the floor. That way when he calls me back you'll be here." Jane shrugs his shoulders and gets up from the chair and goes to her couch and lies down. Lisbon looks in her phone book and starts dialing the phone, when she looks up Jane is asleep, but his face still looks worried.
Less than an hour later her phone rings, Jane opens his eyes and sits up.
"This is Lisbon….thank you for calling back so quickly…..Nothing….I understand and thank you for driving to her apartment and asking questions from her neighbors….Yes, she has no relatives that we know of, so should Jane file the missing person report?" Lisbon listens to James for a couple of minutes. "I'll have Jane do it here and have it faxed over you. Thank you for handling it for us." She hangs up the phone as Jane walks over to her desk.
"I'm driving to Santa Barbara; check with David her boss and see if she seemed worried. I know she has a couple of friends she sometimes goes out with. They work in a clothing store by her office. I have a key to her apartment and I'll check if her luggage is there." He says getting ready to leave the office.
Standing up Lisbon goes in front of him and puts her hands on his chest to stop him. "You're not driving in the condition you're in. I'll tell the team we are taking the weekend off to go check on Molly."
He runs his fingers through his hair and sighs. "Thank you Lisbon, I can't just sit around and wait here."
Lisbon knew how close he was to Molly, even though they only talked once a month, he treated her like she was his sister. She wondered what it was that made them friends; he never really talked about how they met. Maybe on the drive down she could talk to him about Molly. Jane usually would not open much about something that was private to him, but maybe this time he would.
After telling the team where they would be and making sure if James called to forward it to her. Jane filled out a missing persons report and it was faxed to Santa Barbara. They took their away bags and were on the road in an hour.
Jane fell asleep for a couple of hours, while she did the driving. The traffic was lite for a Friday night and they were making good time. It would be another four or five hours before they arrived in Santa Barbara. Behind them an old rusted looking van was following, never really get close, but enough to make sure they didn't get lost from the driver of the van. He was going to take Jane when he left the building but saw the two people get into a van. "Soon Mr. Jane….I'll have you soon and you can talk to poor Molly again, if she is still alive." He laughs at that.
Jane woke up and rubbed his eyes and looked out the window, and then over at Lisbon. "You want me to drive for a while?"
"No, I'll drive a little longer and when we stop to get something to eat I'll let you drive the rest of the way. It is nice weather for a change driving down the coast, I thought we might have rain, but the weather man on the road we had clear skies all the way." She said looking over at him quickly.
"Jane could I ask you a question? It's about Molly." She looks over at him to see if he would answer her.
"She is only twenty five years old, her mother and father died when she was nineteen in a car accident. She put her way through school with the money from the insurance company. Then she met her husband her last year of college. She didn't know him long, but they were in love and got married. A short time after they were married she was pregnant and was happy about it, but he wasn't. He beat her and she lost the baby. He told the hospital that she fell down the stairs, she didn't know what to do, he had all the money, a job and she just stayed home. She told the hospital what he wanted her to say. He told her how sorry he was of course, and that it wouldn't happen again."
"How long was she married to him before she left him?"
"Four years, and each time he promised it wouldn't happen again and she was afraid to leave him. He told her that if she did he would find her and kill her. She believed him. I met her one night at the hospital, she was afraid to go in that they wouldn't believe another one of her stories. That night I helped her file a complaint against him and he was arrested. I took her to Santa Barbara to start a new life." Jane says quietly.
"Why her Jane?"
He is quiet for a few minutes. "As a child I remembered my mom, and how afraid she would be when my father came home drunk, which was often. He would take his bad day out on her, she was always afraid that he would come after me, so she always sent me to one of the other trailers, usually Pete's. She didn't have anyone to run to for help, in the carnival everyone kept their problems to themselves. They may not have liked what he did, but nobody would say anything. She died when I was ten, she had cancer, and all those years of abuse she had nobody to turn too. I couldn't leave Molly to face her husband again and again." He turns away and looks out the window, not saying another word. She knew that he would never talk to her about it again, it was the only time he ever discussed his mother and his childhood, except the job he had with his father.
Lisbon kept a lookout for someplace to eat, and kept her thoughts to herself.
More coming next chapter later this week.
