Reaping Red Road

Cho and Jane sat in silence as they began the long drive back to the office. It was nearly three in the morning and because there was no traffic on the roads, the speed Cho was driving at remained constant…and so did the silence between them.

When Cho had first seen Jane coming down the stairs he immediately noticed that something was wrong but knew better than to ask questions, especially to someone as stubborn as Jane. Instead, he told Lisbon he would drive them both back to the office and gently pushed Jane in the direction of the door. Jane willingly followed him down the stairs and across the grass and when Cho turned back he sighed because it was like watching a puppet on strings.

Jane's feet dragged across the lawn with each step he took, a muddy line forming on the tips and sides of his shoes. His arms hung limply at his sides, hands clenched up into tight fists but his head remained upright with eyes staring straight ahead. Cho opened the car door for him where he sat down, buckled up his seat belt and gazed downward at his hands resting in his lap.

Looking over, Cho saw he was still sitting in this exact same position 45 minutes later and he was getting annoyed now; he didn't like seeing Jane upset so he decided to break the silence.

"Want to talk about it?"

He didn't look at him, just kept his gaze fixed on the road, even though he could drive with his eyes shut and not hit anything, but he wanted to seem casual, as if he wasn't too bothered with a reply. Jane turned to look at him and he couldn't help but feel relieved, hoping he might get a response.

"There's just too much to tell."

The pain in his voice was enough to make Cho glance over but regretted it when he saw Jane's eyes filling with tears. He turned back to face the road. Cho wasn't good with emotions, especially when it came to other peoples, but Jane was his friend, one of the strongest people he knew, and seeing him cry made him edgy. Something was very wrong.

"We've still got an hour's drive. I'm all ears." Anything was better than driving in silence and Cho was beginning to get seriously worried about his friend.

Jane closed his eyes and inhaled deeply through his nose, breathing out in one long breath which made his shoulders sag. He rested his elbow on the door and looked out into the star filled black sky.

"I loved my wife so much Cho, she was everything to me. When I walked into that room and saw her and my little girl dead, a piece of me died with them. I would do the unthinkable just to see her smile one more time or to hear my daughter practise the piano pieces she loved so much. The arguments between us were so rare but when we did I couldn't stay angry at her for very long because it hurt me more to see her so sad. She made me the man I am now, taught me everything I know in life and reminded me never to take things for granted. She was always there when I needed her, but that day I wasn't there when she needed me…and for that reason I will never forgive myself."

Cho could have guessed this from the way Jane behaved throughout any Red John case, jumping to decisions before thinking them through, getting himself into serious trouble and sometimes inflicting pain on people who didn't deserve to be hurt. Silence returned to the car and it was a couple of minutes before Jane spoke again.

"Before I met my wife, I was a completely different person. I grew up with my father in a trailer, travelling with a fun fair and we would move from town to town every couple of weeks. I learned tricks from the people we travelled with, including my own father. They taught me all sorts of magic and card tricks and because learn things quickly, my knowledge would broaden each day. From others I learned unpleasant tricks like how to pick pocket and the art of lying to people. My father never knew I could do these things but I found myself using them more often than I should.

"When my father realised I had was good at reading people, I became the useful 'toy' to him, the boy who would help fund all his dreams. At first I thought it was a great idea. He'd talk about me being the star of the whole fair and how people would come from miles and miles away just to talk to me, to see what I had to say about them. Over the next few weeks people came into our tent to ask me questions about their future or relationships, sometimes more personal things, but in the day I would do shows in a larger tent on the stage."

"My father always said I was a natural on the stage and sadly he was right. Each day a few more seats would be taken up and before either of us could blink people, people were having to stand at the back to watch. I won't lie; I enjoyed the rush I got every time the audience laughed at one of my jokes or gasped at some of the things I told them. I remember one day a woman on the front row hadn't cracked a smile once throughout the whole show but when I spoke out to the audience about her love of gardening, a man handed her a flower out of nowhere and she smiled such a beautiful smile. The crowd never cheered louder than that day…"

His voice trailed off and for a moment Cho thought he had fallen asleep with his head against the window but when he spoke again his voice remained steady.

"One day my father said he was bringing in a special client, a woman and her child. The woman was said to be very rich, I don't remember what her job was but I know the little girl was very sick. My father bought a cheap plastic crystal and he wanted me to pretend it was a 'magic healing stone' which could cure the girl of her illness. The moment I saw the little girl sitting helplessly in her wheelchair with tubes coming out of body I knew…I knew I couldn't go along with it."

"The woman was pleading with me, begging my father for my help, so I ran outside. He followed me and I was forced to go back and lie. I told her that if she bought the stone her daughter would have a chance at surviving. She did...and I swear, I've never felt so goddamn ashamed."

"The relationship between my father and I died that night."

"I was nearly 17 and the shows were getting worse and worse because we just didn't get along. One night we had a row on stage and I stormed off, leaving a packed tent full of people who'd paid to see me perform, but I didn't care. You know what I did? I went to our trailer, packed my tiny rucksack with clothes and, making sure I took at least half of the money I'd earned, I left with no idea where I was going, I just kept walking and never looked back."

Cho hated interrupting people when they were speaking, especially since he knew Jane was just beginning his story, but if he had to he would have asked if Jane knew where his father was now. Jane never spoke about his blood family, only the family who were murdered by Red John. Where were they? Weren't they worried about their only son, for Jane had never mentioned having any brothers or sisters…?

"For five years I lived a wild, free life. To anyone I met I was the guy who had no parents, no boundaries and nobody to tell me what to do. I went out a lot and I got my fair share of whatever they call it these days. I'm not proud of it but I had to use my skills of pick pocketing until I managed to get a job and earn my own money. Twenty-one years old, a job I didn't enjoy, having to steal to get extra money and renting a small, messy apartment. The apartment I didn't mind but everything else was awful. I actually began to miss working at the fun fair and that…that made me mad."

His voice shook and Cho saw, out of the corner of his eye, that he had clenched his hands into fists and was glaring into the night.

"Then she came along Cho, Marianne came along and everything turned right side up. My life suddenly had a purpose and I began to see things in a different light. My wife taught me so many things when we were together but…but…"

He suddenly understood. The penny dropped in Cho's brain and he tapped the steering wheel with his thumbs, watching the lights on the road speeding past them in one long strip, each little bulb falling into place behind the last…just like Jane's story.

"Marianne came into the place I was working and it began from there. She showed me the world through her eyes, how different it was and how much I had been missing, wasting away in my tiny little apartment. We began dating but took it slow because she had just come out of a relationship with her previous partner. 18 months later we were still dating and she'd managed to get me a job where I could once again use my talent as my main act…just like at the fair. A couple of weeks later and I found myself doing a small slot on live television show, how I got there is for another story, but for the next few months everything was perfect."

"Of course, it didn't last long." Jane sighed heavily.

"Marianne told me she had been seeing someone else, the ratings on the TV show dropped and they had to cut my slot so they could replace it with a more popular show. Marianne and I said goodbye and went our separate ways. She went to live with the guy she was seeing and I moved to California to start over once again."

"I don't need to tell you the rest. I fell in love with my wife; we got married and had a little girl two years later. I found another slot on television only this time it was more popular. In August, the media went wild as Red John began claiming his first few victims and I was called in to help. Obviously, back then Red John hadn't committed as many crimes so we didn't have the information on him as we do now but I still had my thoughts. I just couldn't keep them to myself…"

Another powerful silence ricocheted between them, only this time Cho knew why. When Lisbon had first introduced Jane to the team not one of them had not seen the interview in which he had insulted Red John, this being the reason Jane blamed himself for his family's slaughter.

"A few weeks before that day, I got a phone call from Marianne. She'd seen me on the show and had managed to trace my number. We talked about how things were and memories from when we were together, just a conversation between two old friends. She asked if we could meet; catch up even more in person. I imagined we'd have a quick discussion over coffee and then get back to our lives."

The noise he made was a cross between a cough and a small laugh. Cho looked to his left and saw Jane's figure reflecting back at him in the window, shaking his head with a sad smile on his face.

"I walked straight past her when I arrived, she looked so different! You saw the pictures of her at the house?" He waved a hand, dismissing his need to go into a description of what she looked like.

"That was the woman I met at the café…but it was not the woman I fell in love with, she was gone, but we still talked like the adults we were. I told her I was happily married with a little girl nearly 6 years old but when I asked her how old her child was she did the strangest thing. The looked down at her hands in her lap and began to fiddle with the table cloth."

Cho could feel his eyebrow beginning to raise but immediately stopped it. He couldn't understand why Jane thought this was a strange thing, everyone fiddled with things from time to time, he usually did when he was at the office waiting for a call.

"You're probably wondering why I thought this was strange…" Jane knew him too well.

"When women fiddle with things, they are either hiding something, trying not to cry or very bored. I hadn't seen Marianne in over 11 years but she was mirroring something my wife did whenever she was upset, eyes down, biting her lip; it was easy to see something was wrong. She told me she had a daughter, a beautiful daughter, but when I questioned her on the age again she told me she was nine… and everything made sense."

"You see Cho, Marianne's daughter is my child. I've never met her before, hell! I didn't even know I had another daughter. Needless to say, the conversation went downhill from there. She told me she'd been too scared to tell me she was pregnant, hoping it would turn out to be her lover's child instead, but when over a year had past the obvious signs were there. She told me the only reason she had bothered to call me was because they were having money troubles and 'our daughter' needed help as well as her. We argued and I left without another word."

"The next couple of weeks were living hell. She sent letters to the house, left voicemail's on my mobile and she would ring every other day on the dot at 9pm. When my wife became suspicious, I told her it was an undercover officer on the Red John case who had to ring me at the precise time otherwise the police would get worried. I hated lying to her and it hurt even more when she believed me but eventually the phone calls stopped and everything seemed to go back to normal."

"The last letter I got from her was the day Red John 'visited' our house. I remember seeing it in the pile I picked up off the floor and not wanting to read it. I never did find out what was in the letter…the police must have taken it away or it just went into the bin. I never heard from her after that day, she just disappeared."

Was that it? Cho could understand why Jane was so upset but he had seen him upset before and tears had never been shed. Talking about Red John, a guilty suspect being let free, seeing Lisbon unhappy…Cho had watched from afar and all these times Jane had become angry or upset he had not once reacted like this.

"Yesterday she called me completely out of the blue. She sounded troubled and from what I could hear in the back ground, she was calling from a payphone. She didn't want her call to be traced. She asked me to meet her today in the same café where we had last met but this time it was urgent, not concerning the reason we had met the last time. Cho I think…I think she wanted to tell me something about Red John…but once again…I was too late."

Cho didn't know what to say, what could he? No words he uttered could possibly make Jane feel any better and sympathy was something Jane hated.

"How many more Cho?"

He was looking at him now, tears sparkling in the corners of his eyes.

"How many more of my friends is he going to kill before we finally catch him? I don't think I could live with myself if I lost anyone else, you or Rigsby or Van Pelt…Lisbon..." His words faded as he said that last name, tear tracks shining in the headlights of the on coming traffic. "I just couldn't go on. Why didn't he just kill me when I was tied to that chair? What does he want from me?"

He swallowed, turning back to look out of the window as if seeing the sky for the first time. Cho knew he wouldn't speak again until they got back to the office so he thought through what he was going to say and cleared his throat.

"I'm sorry Jane, I really am. Red John left a lot more clues at this scene than any of the others. Do you have any idea what 'Reveals in Troy' could mean? Think about it, maybe figuring that out will take us a step closer to catching him. We'll find Josephine too; maybe she saw something and managed to escape. Don't worry about us Jane; we'll always be here for you. You've stuck by me, so I'll do the same...I owe you."

He said these last few words looking across at the man with so many secrets, hoping he would find some comfort from them. Cho was never really good at the whole 'sympathy speech' things but right now he felt like Jane needed a friend, someone to reassure him that everything would be okay even when it felt like the world was against him.

Jane looked back at Cho and a small smile appeared on his lips.

"Thank you for listening Cho, I'd appreciate it if you kept all this between just you and I right now. And you didn't have to do that, I've never heard you give such a meaningful little speech but…that was good. I'm touched."

"Shut up." He turned back to face the road, trying to keep a straight face like he always did whenever somebody mocked him, but he found himself mirroring Jane's sad smile because he felt as if his 'sympathetic speech' had been more than just a joke to Jane, it had actually meant something. They remained silent for the rest of the journey, each lost in their own train thought.

But they both felt that the trust they already had in each other had just grown a whole lot stronger.

Author's Note: I will probably come back and edit this at some point but I wanted to get it out as quick as possible so I can get the next chapter up!

Thank you so much for the past reviewers as well! This took me so much research, I did a mind map and everything!

Key events from it will appear in later chapters too!

~twi