A/N: Before I forget, the 2010 Jellies are here! Anyone registered to the forum who wants to nominate, just send me a PM on there and I'll get straight back to you. Well, if I'm awake and online I will. If not, I'll message you as soon as possible.

Thank you to: Viktorija, autumnftw, Frogster, Jisbon4ever and Famous4it for reviewing part four. It's much appreciated.

x tromana

Part Five

He still had the migraine when he woke up, which he found overwhelmingly annoying. Normally, the solitude of the bullpen at night was enough for him to be able to sleep it off, but obviously that wasn't the case today. Still, it could have been worse, he decided. At least a migraine was easy for him to hide - he could have had it a lot worse - at least he could somehow operate them, unlike the majority of sufferers. He also knew how to be convincing enough to persuade others that he was absolutely fine. Unlike Lisbon, of course, who was ridiculously obvious despite claims otherwise.

He'd managed to get absolutely no answers out of her last night, which was unusual in itself. Normally it didn't take too long for her to get frustrated with him and spill all and he'd expected that the invasion of her privacy would have made her do just that, if only to try to get rid of him sooner. Instead, she just kept hiding things from him and that worried him. Though, he did genuinely believe she had no idea how she'd picked up her arm wound. She wouldn't have the energy to lie about it twice, would she? So, she was either blanking something out or it compromised her position and it was forcing her to cover up something. Neither situation seemed that promising and he wished he knew more about why she wouldn't actually talk to him. Whatever happened couldn't be that bad, could it? Maybe just a fight with her brother before his death leaving her with a minor injury? That would be something she'd want to cover up, wouldn't it?

Jane was relieved that the aura stopped causing him havoc by the time the rest of the team arrived at work. At least it felt like the proverbial light at the end of the tunnel - and it stopped the bright sunshine pouring in from the windows from hurting his eyes any longer. He smiled briefly when he saw Lisbon was already in her office, her head hunched over a sheet of paperwork. It wasn't unusual for him to find her in such a position, but it was weird that he hadn't even noticed her arrive. Jane disregarded it quickly though, blaming it on his poor health. But that wouldn't be so much of a problem now; he had something to focus on, something to ensure he could ignore the thumping headache. Besides, they would be going out soon and he would have new people to psychoanalyze. That was always good fun and an ideal distraction for him.

He was about to get up when Lisbon came storming over and kicked the end of his couch. Clearly, she was already in a foul mood. Hardly surprising; it was probably carrying over from last night to be fair. Jane also knew that she desperately wanted this case closed and fast, if only for personal reasons. Though she hadn't vocalized it, the injury was plaguing her thoughts as well. Could he persuade her to let him put her in a light trance again, just to see if they could work out what was going on? Unlikely, but he knew it might be worth bringing up later, just in case. He couldn't write it off until he'd at least tried, anyway. And if nothing else, it might plant the seed in her mind and then she might just approach him about it again, like the last time she was having problems with her memory. In saying that, that could be the exact problem. One of the many side effects of withdrawal from lorazepam was short term memory loss.

"Well, you're in a cheerful mood, aren't you?"

"I'm fine."

Jane raised a skeptical eyebrow as he followed her to the elevator. 'I'm fine' was pretty much her stock response to any question regarding her general well-being and she should have known that by now, it wasn't going to convince him that she actually was as well as she claimed to be. Besides, even her tone gave her away; it was a shade higher than her normal responses and a blatant attempt to sound a little too cheerful. If he had been feeling just a shade better, he would have taken it up with her. Instead, he decided to conserve his energy. They had some questioning to do - him more than her as she was still oblivious to the fact that he was going to carry on needling her for answers until he was happy with her responses.

The journey was mercifully swift and quiet. Jane still hadn't the energy to converse as freely as usual and he suspected that Lisbon enjoyed the reprieve as well. She was probably quite suspicious of it as well, though. Then again, whenever his behavior deviated ever so slightly from the normal, she grew disconcerted, so that wasn't saying much. Dealing with the gang was less simple, but it only took the threat of taking them back to headquarters and mentioning the possibility of pressing charges for them to settle. Within half an hour, they were sitting in a dingy office, Lisbon with her notepad out and a random gang member, Pierre, sitting nervously in front of them.

"How well did you know Thomas?"

Pierre shrugged. "Fairly well, I s'pose."

"Was his behavior anything out of the norm? Is it unusual for him to get involved in fights?" Lisbon ploughed on, seemingly determined to get something useful out of him.

"Well the Tom-meister, he's always getting involved in shootouts and crap, isn't he? Didn't think anything odd of it, except…"

"Except?"

"Except it was with a cop, wasn't it?" he spat, glaring at both Jane and Lisbon. "Bastards, the lot of them. Uh, no offense."

"None taken," Jane replied lightly, smiling tightly and glancing over at Lisbon, trying to measure her response. She didn't seem all that bothered, probably because she'd expected it.

"Have you any more useful information than just 'a cop'?"

"They all the look the same to me," he replied with a shrug, but decided to elaborate when faced with the hard gaze of Lisbon. "I dunno, smallish maybe? I ran as soon as they started shooting."

000

Lisbon glanced in the mirror with a heavy sigh. She looked tired, but then again that wasn't exactly an unusual thing; she always looked tired these days. When she'd visited her doctor, he'd warned her about this. Told her that she was likely to suffer from insomnia as she stopped taking the lorazepam and slowly managed to get it out of her system. Apparently, it would have been too dangerous just to stop taking it and she cursed the way it continued to mess up her system. As she applied her makeup, she quietly hoped that Jane would behave himself for a change. She could do without his brand of mayhem, if only for one day. It was wishful thinking, but it was better to live in hope than remain pessimistic all the while.

She met with Bosco, as usual, first thing in the morning. Despite her intentions less than twelve hours ago, she didn't bother to bring up her suspicions. What was the point? Lisbon knew there was little point in risking a friendship just because of a few unusual circumstances. If she had some cold, hard evidence that pointed in his direction then maybe, just maybe, she would change her mind. Instead, she decided she was just going to leave it alone and try to relax. She'd been too tense lately and if she wasn't careful, she'd make herself ill. Well, more ill than she already felt. Some sleep would be nice, but that seemed as elusive as ever.

Just half an hour later, she found herself taking out her frustrations on Jane's couch. It always felt good to kick the ugly leather monstrosity in order to get his attention. Besides, if he didn't want her to resort to violence, he shouldn't be napping on work hours. It was bad enough that he slept there overnight - she wasn't naïve, she knew that he did just that - never mind sleeping when he was being paid to work as well. He looked a little pale though and immediately, she felt guilty for bothering him but quickly dismissed the thought. After all, he was constantly disturbing her, regardless of whether or not the interruption was welcomed. Besides, he had a job to do. A whole gang of people to psychoanalyze and weird out. It was Jane's kind of personal heaven, wasn't it?

The gang were easy enough to locate - by the docks as they usually were. The men glared at her, automatically trying to intimidate her and were it suitable for the occasion, she'd have laughed at them. Instead of looking as fearsome as they hoped, the young men merely looked foolish and she almost felt sorry for them. They had thrown their lives away for a life on the streets and could quite easily land up in the same position as her brother. She shuddered slightly; though she had seen it several times before, it still saddened her. These young men could have done anything with their lives and instead, they wasted it on alcohol, drugs and gang culture.

The young men were typically cagey and Lisbon was surprised that Jane didn't offer - or even try - to hypnotize one of them. Most simply claimed that they hadn't spotted the perpetrator before Tommy took him (or her) on alone, those that did gave a description in the vaguest of terms. A cop, was wearing a protective vest, driving an SUV and the like. Half of the facts they gave contradicted one another too: he or she was either a blond or brunette, slim or of a larger build, petite or tall, male or female. In short, it could be pretty much anyone who was a police officer in Sacramento. At least they had all agreed on one thing: the murderer had been an officer of the law of some variety and there was probably some element of self defense involved.

But if that was the case, why had they ran? Regardless of whether or not they had been on duty, they would probably have avoided being charged, or at the very most, received a sentence of voluntary manslaughter. But they'd been protecting themselves from a known criminal, who had probably shot at them first. Though she hated thinking about her brother as being a lawbreaker, that was one of their few known facts. It wasn't exactly something she could avoid.

Feeling somewhat dejected, she left, dragging Jane away. There was absolutely no way she was leaving him alone with that gang. Who knew what kind of trouble he could get himself into if she did? Lisbon consoled herself with the fact that at least her consultant was beginning to look a bit better, beginning to brighten up a little bit. If Patrick Jane was in a foul mood, it seemed to have a habit of spreading like wildfire so it was a relief to see him looking a little bit happier.

When they got back to CBI headquarters, Jane grabbed hold of her arm and pulled her to one side. She knew what he was doing, well. Sort of, anyway. He was going to ask her something he didn't want the others to hear. That meant trouble, big trouble. With a heavy sigh, she agreed anyway. There was no point in putting it off; he'd just find another way to ask if needs be. She briefly wondered why the hell he couldn't have done it earlier; they'd spent half the day alone together so it seemed strange that he'd want a quiet word with her when he'd had plenty of opportunity to do so earlier. But still, this was Jane she was thinking about. Since when did he do anything that made any sense whatsoever.

"What do you want?" she snapped.

Her mind was still elsewhere though. Most notably, on the growing pile of paperwork that was on her desk and thinking about her meeting with Minelli later. He wanted a progress report on the case and probably to offer to transfer it to another unit again. This case was even more personal than the McTeer one so she couldn't judge her superior for being more than a little concerned about her well-being. Especially as it was his job to be and besides, she knew better than most people just how much Minelli favored her. Half of her wished he didn't; the bias didn't always go down well with the other senior agents, but she knew the director couldn't help it. He saw it as his duty to look out for her as nobody else seemed to have the capabilities of doing so. She shook her head quickly, her dark hair fluttering across her shoulder blades. Now was not the time to be thinking about Minelli, not with Jane about to hound her for answers to obscure questions.

"Can you remember anything about the night your brother died?" Jane asked and she opened her mouth to respond but he quickly cut her off. "I mean it, Lisbon. This is worrying me."

TBC…