A/N: long!chapter! Well, for this fic anyway. And kitten is behaving suspiciously. I'm sure you all needed to know that.

Thank you to: Viktorija, autumnftw, Jisbon4ever, Frogster and Famous4it for reviewing part four and to Yana for betaing. I'm very grateful for it. :-)

x tromana

Part Five

"Have you managed to contact Bracey yet?"

"No, Boss… sorry."

"Well, keep trying, okay?"

After a surprisingly nervous Van Pelt nodded in agreement, Lisbon disappeared back into her office. They needed to get a damn break in this case, but nothing seemed to be working. Instead, she found herself trapped in old routines, old habits. Picking up a stack of files, she straightened them up before laying them back down, ensuring they were at a perfect angle compared to the rest of the desk. She barely knew what she was doing, but it was better than doing nothing, better than letting everything else eat her up from the inside.

She jumped as her telephone rang, knocking over her pencil holder, sending pens flying across the room. It was an internal call, from Hightower to be precise, not that it made too much difference either way. Work was work and Lisbon quietly hoped that her superior was about to supply her with some sort of distraction. Ever since Jane had left the CBI, the two women had been on much better terms. After all, Hightower had no need to continue threatening to fire Lisbon, then congratulating her every other week. Everything was a lot more consistent and they both knew where they stood with one another.

"Lisbon."

"Come to my office immediately, please," Hightower spoke sharply and Lisbon knew that it was a direct order. "I have news about the Ellery and O'Mara cases."

"Boss?"

"My office, please," she repeated patiently, almost as if she was speaking to one of her children. "See you in five minutes, Agent Lisbon."

She headed there immediately, not even stopping to tell her team what she was up to. Arriving earlier than Hightower had instructed, Lisbon spent a good two minutes simply pacing outside, waiting for the seconds to disappear so she could knock on her boss' door. Time always seemed to pass by painfully slowly whenever you were waiting for something, almost as if there was a sense of impending doom. After a final glance at her watch, Lisbon knocked sharply on the door and breathed a sigh of relief when she was instructed to enter. Though Hightower's request had been odd, she hoped desperately that whatever information she had, that it would actually give them some answers instead of throwing up yet more brick walls.

"Sit, Lisbon."She hadn't even had a chance to open her mouth and greet her. Lisbon, however, obeyed almost instantaneously and perched herself on the same chair she always did whenever she found herself in this specific office. Hightower was leaning against her desk, her face unreadable and the senior agent found herself growing apprehensive yet again.

"Somebody else has appeared to be murdered by the same killer as O'Mara and Ellery," Hightower stated, briefly flashing the folder before Lisbon's eyes.

"Right…"

"The victim has already been identified," she started, sounding rather more tentative than beforehand. "By a sibling. I believe he was the one to discover his body."

"What is it? What's happened?"

"It's your brother. Andrew."

Lisbon glanced to the floor as her blood ran cold. While she didn't have the same problems with Andy as she did with Tommy, she still hadn't spoken to him in a long while. It was because of a series of excuses, the same old ones: work, complete lack of time, work again. She'd been meaning to talk to him, find out how he'd been doing since his wife had left him. Now, if Hightower was to be believed, she never would.

"Are you sure you can continue with this case? What with the personal interest?"

"I'm sure I'll be fine, ma'am."

"Let me know if you change your mind."

"I will."

"And I don't want you going to the scene of the crime."

"But…"

"Send the rest of your team, but you stay here, look at the paper trails," Hightower stated, the look on her face stating she meant business. "I mean it, Lisbon."

She slammed the door shut as she left Hightower's office. The only thing she felt at that specific moment in time was an absolute numbness.

000

Jane threw the files across the room in sheer irritation, loosening the sheets of paper and sending them sprawling across the room.

Useless. Completely useless. Why the hell couldn't he see the links anymore? What was clouding his judgment? Was he still trying to read between the lines too much? With a sigh, he scrambled to his knees and started trying to tidy up again. Though throwing the innocent reports across the room had been rather cathartic, he hadn't achieved anything, instead making a mess in doing so. He hadn't even managed to scuff the wall in his little act of violence. That was disappointing.

He glanced towards the kitchen area of his home, considering a cup of tea, but he'd already had one quite recently, as well. Then, he glanced at the radio, wondering if the background noise was what was clouding up his thoughts, getting in the way of his work. Nodding decisively, he rose to his feet and went to press the button. It was a news report, by all accounts, something he usually saw as being terribly boring. They never delivered the facts straight, always skewed them to say something so much more interesting than it actually was; all deceit and lies and nothing much more.

He froze though.

They'd just mentioned a relative of Lisbon's. One of her brothers. Either that, or somebody who coincidentally shared her surname… but he was sure she'd mentioned an Andy once. There weren't that many coincidences in the world.

He'd been killed, murdered to be precise, by a serial killer, who wasn't Red John.

That was particularly interesting, especially given the fact that it was Red John she'd escaped from and arrested, not this new guy.

Ignoring the Red John files, he walked towards his couch and slipped on his jacket again. If he was of no use when it came to trying to catch Simon Morton once more, he might be able to help Lisbon find this new killer. All the anger he'd felt at being reprimanded and fined had suddenly dissipated; it was hard to be angry with somebody mourning the loss of a relative. Besides, she'd probably need to see someone, to talk about it. Nobody else really knew how to make Teresa Lisbon actually talk. They just believed her little white lines, her stubborn mantras of 'I'm fine' and 'nothing's wrong'. Nobody else dared to push her like he did. Everybody else would just leave her to it, when really, she would be hurting inside. Listening to her would help too.

And if nothing else, he might be able to stop her from traveling down the slippery slope of revenge that he had fallen down so long ago.

000

The office was quiet, almost painfully so.

Lisbon had actually listened to Hightower's instructions and only sent the rest of the team to the crime scene. They were due to report back within two hours to tell her what they found. That left her, alone with her thoughts, typing away mercilessly at the computer, trying to work out what the hell was going on. She hated being stuck in the office, especially during such a vital case. It wasn't particularly important to the D.A. or any politicians or even Hightower especially, despite the fact that it appeared to be a serial killer, but it was important to her, right here and right now. This was her brother they were dealing with, her younger, sweet brother whom she'd completely doted upon. Whoever was responsible, she was going to bring the bastard to justice. She owed it to Andy and it was all she could do for him now. Yet here she was, stuck in her office, doing absolutely nothing, while the rest of the team scoured the crime scene.

She couldn't even pretend that it wasn't him, that the victim hadn't been formally identified and therefore, a mistake could theoretically have been. Tommy had been the one to find him, to identify him. She'd even shelved her foolish pride to listen to the youngest of her brothers, to let him recount the harrowing tale of opening the front door and seeing Andy just hanging there, from the banister. She told him that everything would be okay, that they still had each other, that maybe, just maybe they should meet up with one another and catch up. They'd already lost both parents and one sibling now; enough was enough.

The sound of footsteps dragged her away from her daze. It was too early for the others to be back and the office was virtually dead. She glanced at her clock; lunch hour, of course nobody else would be around when there was food to be eaten, coffees to be drunk, and gossip to be swapped. The CBI was sometimes worse than a school playground when it came to rumors and Lisbon genuinely wondered whether or not Hightower thought she was in charge of a bunch of kids rather than highly trained state agents. That, however, didn't explain this lone individual approaching her now. Lisbon rose to her feet as the footsteps grew closer, her hand flying to her hip, ready to unhitch her gun, just in case.

She almost drew it just as she saw Patrick Jane in the threshold, sighed, and placed it firmly back in place. Though he shouldn't actually be there, she knew that physically speaking, he was just about as harmless as you could get. He wasn't about to inflict any bodily wounds on her. Mentally or emotionally, however, he was pretty deadly though.

"You were going to pull your gun on me," Jane said, sounding pained. "That isn't a very nice way to greet somebody."

"What are you doing here, Jane?"

"I wanted to see you."

Deciding there was little point in questioning his motives; they'd only become clear in three or so days' time, after he'd managed to carry out some kind of ingenious plan which confused everyone but him. Instead, she offered him a seat and took her own. For a short while she ignored him; there were a couple of things she needed to do on her computer before she could give him her full attention. It was hard enough to focus at work without unexpected interruptions, but she was determined to get through the rest of the day in one piece. Besides, of all the people to come and visit her at work, Patrick Jane was pretty near the bottom, especially after their most recent incursion, but that didn't matter too much. She'd been vaguely looking for a distraction, at least from everything that was going on in her head and Jane was just about as distracting as they came.

Eventually, after a little small talk, Jane told her about his plans. That he wanted to help them out again. Lisbon suspected there was more to it than that, but didn't have the energy to fight. Not today. Her brother had just been killed and not only was she stuck at work, but she was set the grizzly task of trying to work out who the hell had murdered him and why. She always tried to remain relatively aloof when it came to her cases, but this time she didn't have a choice but to allow it to become personal. Somebody else, this serial killer, whoever he was, had decided that for her.

Quirking an eyebrow, she stared at Jane, trying to work out exactly what his motives were. Eventually, she nodded. Provided that Hightower agreed, she was more than willing to let Jane help them out, the case was at a dead end as of now. Jane grinned, looking as if all his Christmases had come at once and Lisbon wondered whether or not she had made a fatal decision. Half of her didn't care though. All she really wanted to do was go home and allow herself some time to adjust to the news.

During the lull in conversation, she glanced again at the database search she'd set up for Farrington and Son's. That was weird. Andy had no affiliation with them whatsoever.

He didn't fit the pattern.

TBC…