A/N: Quick update because I felt really uncomfortable leaving the story part way through the Red Badge section. Yes, I'm weird and compulsive like that. Hopefully now, I'll be able to focus on either Pretty Lies or Unbound because I know I really need to update both of them.

Anyway, thanks to: Iloveplotbunnies, mtm, lisbon69, yaba, mwalter1, Divinia Serit, Charmed225, Viktorija, HOUSEMDFanForever and Simonisthecuttestmentalist for reviewing part three.

x tromana


So I'll be here always, whenever you need me
If you need a friend, I'll be there
Someone to rely on, someone who cares
You can always believe in me
Someone who will catch you when you fall
Somebody behind you through it all
You can always depend on me
You can always count on, you can always count, you can always count on me
-Count On Me, Oliver Tompsett and Ashleigh Gray

Part Four

Lisbon knew it was a stupid idea agreeing to the poly the moment she entered the room with the dratted machine. But she also knew that there was absolutely no way she could back out without her actions incriminating her any further. Jane had tried his hardest to calm her down, remind her that she would be fine and all she needed to do was answer the questions to the best of her ability beforehand, but if anything, that had made her feel worse. As the machine flashed into her action, her eyes were instinctively drawn to it. It was measuring her autonomous reaction and if only she could somehow try and bring them under control, then she might just have a chance of getting through the polygraph unscathed.

It took her a little while to get her thoughts back on track, but by the time she was ready to give evidence against Howard, the deputy A.G. standing beside her, she had almost forgotten about it. Only almost, because it was a little hard to have it completely off your mind when you're being accused of doing exactly what you set out to prevent. Howard stared at her with big, watery eyes, obviously hoping to appeal to her sensitive side. She would show him compassion if he'd finally admit to the crimes he'd committed. All the evidence pointed towards him and he was only making it more difficult on himself by pleading not guilty. So, when she spotted Minelli approaching them, her thoughts couldn't have been much further away from that disastrous polygraph and it was only natural that her concerns were immediately for her team and Jane. As her boss' next words fell out of his mouth, she felt the cold dread envelop her once more and found herself doing what Howard had been doing to her seconds earlier. She had to play to his better nature because surely he couldn't think she was guilty, could he? Whatever happened to 'innocent until proven guilty'?

But was Minelli right? Was anyone going to actually stick up for her instead of trying to tear her down? Or was she just in as much denial about her innocence as Howard was about his?

After the rather traumatic experience of handing over her badge and gun (ever since she had been first handed them, she'd never imagined life without them), she wandered aimlessly throughout the building. Somehow, she eventually ended up in Employee Support Services and in front of Roy Carmen's office. Tentatively, she knocked on the door and she wasn't sure how to feel when he eventually let her in. It felt strangely relieving pouring out her (selected) feelings to the psychologist, but still, he infuriated her. All she wanted was a couple of answers from him and instead, he was trying to persuade her to manipulate technology. His perseverance was odd and she couldn't help but feel that element of distrust again. Angrily, she made him know just how useless she thought he was and slammed the door as she left the room. As she stormed away from Carmen's office, she made her decision. It was time to stop being so set in her ways and accept that maybe, just maybe, Jane's hypnotism skills could be useful. Lisbon choked back a sob when she spotted him, still in a state of disbelief that it had actually come to this. It was strange, the CBI was the one place where she had always felt most comfortable and now, she was now technically unwelcome there. What made her feel all the worse was the concept that she might never be welcome back and that she was now having to place her trust in Jane's hand in order to try and salvage her career and her life.

***

Under any other circumstances, Jane would have been thrilled if Lisbon had taken him home with her. Still, as he walked through the door, he reacted exactly how she expected him to, if only to try and keep some level of normalcy to this bizarre situation. It was interesting though, seeing another little snapshot of the woman behind the badge - something he hadn't really had the honor of seeing for a good few years now. Certainly not since they had been reacquainted and everything he's learned about her since, he has had to work hard to find out. He'd been observing her particularly studiously of late; she'd been more sluggish lately, more worn down, something which hinted at side-effects from prescription tablets. An overdose could explain the blackout, but he couldn't be sure. And that was why he had decided to attempt to induce the trance without her actually realizing it. He certainly didn't want her having an abreaction and it leading to her being more stressed than beforehand.

She fell into the trance surprisingly easily, but then again the whole sorry situation had lead to her being far more vulnerable than usual and therefore, that probably had made her more suggestible. When she had stopped dozing on his shoulder, he slowly maneuvered her to the beige chair and sat in front of her on the footstall. As she answered his questions, he began to breathe slightly easier until she could see nothing and started panicking. Immediately, he pressed his hand against her forehead and allowed his fingers to (rather guiltily) graze against her inner thigh.

Still, despite the fact he finally knew why she hadn't responded, she didn't give him time to actually tell her. Lisbon looked so fragile, so broken, that when she begged to be left alone, Jane found that he just had to comply with her wishes. Instead of going far, he simply sat outside in his car, formulating plans while absentmindedly flipping a quarter. He was fairly certain Lisbon wasn't taking any prescriptions that were likely to give her side effects; she would never stand for such a thing as it would distract her from the focus on her career. And the only person, excepting himself, who fixed her drinks on a regular basis was that psychologist, the one whose appointments he'd wormed out of as soon as feasibly possible. What would be his reason for setting up Lisbon though, why would he want to kill McTeer? For the first time in a long while, Jane regretted not seeing the doctor. If he'd stuck at it for long enough, then maybe he'd know silly little things like his motive for framing Lisbon for a crime she obviously didn't commit. He dropped the quarter when his cell phone buzzed at him.

"Cho, what have you got?"

"Dog."

"What about him?"

"Our murderer charged $10,000 to just drag McTeer to the alley. Van Pelt and Rigsby are trying to unscramble the money trail."

"Good," Jane paused. There was a reason he didn't usually tell the team his immediate hunches, mainly because he didn't like to appear wrong in front of them. This was a different case for all of them though, so instead, he continued. "I think Carmen is the one who is trying to frame Lisbon."

"I'll check his cell phone records and see if he links in somehow."

"Meh, check his office for drugs. You're looking for diazepam, flurazepam or maybe lorazepam."

"Right," Cho responded with no need to question Jane and his hunches but paused slightly, tentative about his next question. "How's Lisbon?"

"She'll be fine," he answered dismissively. "Listen, I have a plan. This'll only work if Carmen's guilty, of course. Don't tell anyone else, but…"

***

"And what if he's not?" her voice quavered as she gripped hold of the seatbelt. "What then, Jane? Everyone will think…"

"When were you due to see Carmen again?"

"Today, why?"

"How are you feeling?"

"Tired… but what has that got to do with anything? I'm stressed Jane, it's what happens when people are stressed."

Ignoring her plaintive statements, Jane continued questioning her as he started his car. They had to hurry up and get to CBI before the psychiatrist left for the day, preferably.

"You saw him Tuesday too, didn't you?"

"Yes, but…"

"He's been drugging you and that's what's causing the blackouts," he answered and turned to face her before driving off. "You're not a murderer, Lisbon."

"How do you know that? You weren't with me Tuesday night."

"No, I wasn't, but Cho called me three minutes ago to say that they found lorazepam in Dr. Carmen's desk at CBI."

"What?"

"Lorazepam," he repeated as if speaking to a small child. "It's what's been making you drowsy. It what caused the memory loss."

"Even under hypnosis?"

"Even under hypnosis," he confirmed. "So are you with me?"

She nodded slightly before speaking. "Jane?"

"Yes, Lisbon?"

"Why are you doing this?"

"Because you deserve it."

"Oh."

Lisbon shrank back into the car seat, genuinely concerned about Jane's plan and simply pulling it off. Of course she'd worked undercover before, but on this occasion, it wasn't a stranger she had to persuade she was going insane, it was her work colleagues. People who she had spent years gaining the trust and respect from. And now? She was going to be undoing all that hard work in attempt to clear her name simply on a Jane hunch. Even if she did manage to prove her innocence, the damage done could be irreparable. The mere thought of life without her career shook her, but in reality she was struggling to think of what else she had. No social life to speak of, just a smattering of dates and one night stands over the years, a family who resented her (and especially, her dedication to the career that was slipping through her fingers) and that was about it. While waiting at a red light, Jane turned to face her with a softened gaze and encouraging smile.

"You'll be fine, Lisbon."

She felt terrified and hoped that Jane knew how concerned she was. But once she was in CBI headquarters, pretending to be on the verge of a mental breakdown, she came into her own, because she needed to. Lisbon felt a little guilty; poor, terrified Van Pelt who genuinely appeared to believe that the boss she admired so much was losing it and there was nothing she could do to console the red head. After she threw the chair through the window, an action which was strangely liberating, she was visibly shaking. It was a relief when Jane and Cho both wrapped their arms around her and led her outside.

While Cho drove her back to her apartment in silence, she kept apologizing profusely for scaring him. Jane was staying behind, needing to help push Minelli in the right direction, to get him to send Carmen over later and Lisbon knew that, but she didn't know that Cho had been informed of their intentions. It had surprised her that Jane had communicated with anyone else on the team; normally it was a case of him telling only those who he thought needed to know. She thanked him profusely when he dropped her off at her home, but knew she still had work to do. They were only part of the way through Jane's plan, after all.

***

It was easy to manipulate Minelli into sending Carmen over to check that Lisbon wasn't going to do anything stupid. Jane was concerned for her, just in a very different way from how the director was. If this wasn't successful, Jane knew that he'd made her position all the worse and she'd never forgive him for that. After all, it had taken the breakdown of her confidence to make her willing to trust him properly for the first time at all. He couldn't really blame her for not trusting him though. Jane knew that he was dangerous, what with his interest in Red John, reckless with his plans and of course, she always thought he was on the verge of humiliating her just to get his own way. Everyone knew that he wasn't above blackmail, so it was hardly a wonder she didn't trust him to keep their little secret from others.

As soon as it was obvious that Minelli was going to send Carmen over, Jane rushed back to Lisbon's apartment. He didn't want her to be alone with that psycho. Sure, he knew that she was more than capable of looking after herself and that if anything physical happened, he was usually more of a hindrance than a help, but that wasn't the point. To be fair, the only reason he really wanted to be there was moral support but he wasn't sure how accepting she'd be of that. Jane paused before knocking sharply on her door and jumped when he saw her, gun in one hand and whiskey bottle in the other. It didn't take him long to notice the expose skin either. Her oversized jersey drew all the attention to Lisbon's legs and he couldn't help but stare.

"Jane!" she squeaked, sounding surprised. "What are you doing here?"

Quietly, he slipped through her front door and slammed it shut behind him. He didn't want anybody else seeing her like this, least of all Roy Carmen, the lecherous bastard. Jane could already imagine him practically devouring her with his eyes and he found his hackles rising. Quite frankly, Jane just wanted to keep the view to himself. With a sigh, partially in frustration at not having an answer and partially because she just wanted the night over and done with, she placed her gun back down on her table only for Jane's arms to encircle her waist and hold her flush to his body, pinned between the table and himself.

"Jane? What are you doing?"

"Shh, Teresa."

She trembled slightly as his fingers danced across the bare skin of her neck, catching slightly on the neckline of her jersey. After a couple of seconds, he allowed her to turn and gently, he brushed her bangs out of her eyes. Staring into his eyes, she watched him carefully as tentatively, he leaned forwards. She jumped however and pushed him away from her immediately; a car had just pulled up outside and if she was in a betting mood, she was willing to bet it was Carmen. Lisbon had no idea what the hell he was up to, but he needed to go and hide. If the doctor spotted him, their cover would be blown and then they'd have no chance at leading him into the trap they'd set up.

***

A few hours later and Jane was damn proud of her. Lisbon had kept her cool, used clever words in order to let the shrink trap himself. And all of it recorded on the device she'd hidden in her knitting basket. It was already late, but she'd insisted on heading back into CBI, wanting to go and set her office back up immediately while Rigsby, Cho and Van Pelt tied up a few details. Bosco was in there, talking genially with her and she was torn between feeling comfortable and on edge with the other senior agent. Somehow, without her gun and badge, she appeared smaller than usual, but Jane could tell that she was happy to be back.

She'd also be starving considering that he knew she hadn't eaten properly all day. That was why he was giving her the donut, just to keep her going. And also, it provided the ideal opportunity to interrupt Bosco. He had been meaning to talk to her about earlier, about what happened just before Carmen had arrived. Instead, he found himself bantering with her on reflex, as if they were both relieved that everything was 'back to normal'. Jane figured that she had probably just written it off already, putting it down to the stress of the situation and heightened emotions. Instead, he chose just to let her relax and enjoy the feeling of normality instead of shaking everything up again.

There was time for talking later and besides, he was the one who had to get his head straight now.

TBC...