Hee, new chapter and next half done, Guess I'm in the mood for writing lately xD,
Thanks to winka; PetitJ; Viviskilener-jisbonist4ever; Heartwing; Jisbon4ever; The HongKonger; 1832TeaQL; Dubbers; Chiisana Minako for their reviews :D thanks for the alerts and favourite too :3
And thanks to my amazing half-beta for checking this :3
Disclaimer; I only own my twisted imagination! Hope you will enjoy this :D (won't blame you if you don't ;3)
Payback's a Witch
7
That night, Lisbon had a hard time falling asleep. With Jane's fussing around with her and his witty reminders of all the night they were going to spend togetherd, it had been a miracle she hadn't skinned him alive or died out of embarrassment for him knowing she had...kissed him. It was just the forehead, but she knew how intimate the contact could be –for her and him- and they hadn't talked about it yet. Her desire to avoid this discussion was part of the reason why she was already dressed up and heading towards the bedroom door at six in the morning. It didn't work out as she wished it would though.
"You're going somewhere?"
His voice surprised her. He rested on his elbows, and she had a nice view of his bare chest. Damn, where did the man hid these nicely-shaped abs? Thankfully, she had enough self control not to ogle him shamelessly.
"I didn't build my schedule around you" she snapped, narrowing her eyes at him. He grinned amusingly.
"Maybe, but I know you are more tempted to come back and crawl under the covers with me…" he added, rolling his eyebrows suggestively.
"Oh shut up Patrick" she replied, but not managing to restrain a soft smile; that was her Jane all right. His expression became serious again.
"I still want to know something before you leave. Why did you pretend you didn't recognise the two unidentified bodies? Weren't they the two women who came to visit you two –rather three days ago?"
Of course, count on Jane to take notes on details.
"You didn't see the pictures" Lisbon suddenly spoke up, narrowing her eyes suspiciously at him. The man shrugged.
"Madeline showed them to me and asked if I happen to know if they were some of your acquaintances. No need to be a genius to recognise the leftovers of the clothes. Tell me Teresa, where had you met them before?"
Lisbon sighed and resigned to her fate of answering a few of his questions.
"You know I have been under WP a few months." He nodded. "I met them then. As you guessed, we were friends at first. Then things started to become… wrong. We had a disagreement once, and it… broke our friendship." The woman hesitated to say more, but decided she could tell the full story avoiding the magical subject. "There was a fourth girl, Nancy Downs. She took my… breaking up with them badly and led them in attempt to kill me."
Jane frowned deeply and stepped out of bed. Lisbon tried to persuade herself she did not follow appreciatively his bare chest as he came closer to her.
"What happened next?" he asked gently. The dark-haired woman had to blink a few times before realising he was speaking to her and replied automatically:
"Nancy was interned in a hospital for mental cases. I never heard of her or the two others since then."
"Do you think that Nancy is behind those two murders?"
Lisbon sighed. She didn't even need to answer that question; she knew her former best friend was responsible.
"I don't know" she eventually replied, facing the blond man in the eye. "That's why I'm here. I want to find out."
He didn't answer. Instead, he cupped her cheek and let his thumb run over her mouth. She let him do it. She liked the warmth and comfort his hand delivered.
"I wonder what you did. How did you betray them, how deep enough to make them want to kill you?"
Lisbon escaped his grasp and looked away.
"If I tell you, I'll lose you" she whispered.
He stared at her with wide eyes.
"Wh… why?"
She couldn't face him. Especially not when her last words understated that he meant more to her than she ever said up till now.
"I told you before Patrick, its way above you. This isn't one tricky case you can pull stunts and manipulate everyone into following your schemes to win. There are laws that cannot be transgressed without consequences." The powers of Manon were not to make fun of. Nancy had made that mistake once, and she had been the one to repair the damages. Lisbon couldn't drag Jane into this mess. "I can't let you in this time."
"What if I want to get in? What if I want to know?" he stepped closer and brushed her cheek, an expression of mixed sadness and slight anger on his face. "What's the burden you're hiding Teresa? I promise I won't freak out."
If only he knew how scared she was. She wanted to trust him, and she did trust him, but not with that truth.
"Please, tell me."
Lisbon closed her eyes and turned her back to him.
"You know I won't" she replied dryly. "Stop pushing me Jane."
He caught her arm and pulled him against her. His eyes had darkened in irritation but she didn't care. If making Jane angry at her meant him being safe, then that was what she'd do.
"You can't keep avoiding this subject with me forever Teresa. I almost lost you once; I am not leaving you again. Why can't you trust me?"
Once again, she didn't answer. And once again, he did something that took her completely off guard. He leant closer and closer, his face mere inches of hers. His pupils were dilated, and she knew hers must had been too.
"Why?" he whispered again, and his hot breath tickled her mouth. The longing to feel his lips over hers was becoming overpowering, and Lisbon slightly shut her lids, leaning forwards in turn. They were about to kiss when it hit her.
The feeling of being watched.
Lisbon suddenly pushed Jane away and looked around, panicked. How… how stupid of her! She shouldn't have done this. She shouldn't have given in and let him try to kiss her! If Nancy was indeed observing her every move, then no doubt she knew now that the blond man was much more than a friend to her.
"I… I need to go. Talk to you later."
If Nancy doesn't kill me first, she added to herself. She hurried towards the door, opened it quickly and hurried in the corridor. She had to put an end to this whole business now.
-PW-
Jane lay back on the mattress and sighed. This was not what he had expected from Agent Lisbon. As much as he loved trying to pierce all her secrets, for she had remained a mystery for a long time –and still was, this one seemed to be extremely tricky. At first, he had just thought the visit of these two particular old comrades had shaken her a little, but when she had knocked on his door in the middle of the night and hugged him like there was no tomorrow, he had started to suspect that whatever had pushed her to break ties with her friends was deeper than he originally thought.
Now, he knew Lisbon's 'secret' was not something she took lightly. It was something so deep and dark she wouldn't even spill the whole story to him. The blond man frowned again. She should know he would eventually find out. That was his job after all, discovering secrets, right? And whether she knew it or not, she had tipped him off a little more each time she mentioned that incident, giving small information, pieces of a puzzle for him to solve. A few points were escaping him though. What had she done to anger other teenagers so much? What was the thing she wasn't telling him? Given her earlier reaction, this Nancy Downs was behind these murders; then why did she refuse to tell Hightower about the connexion?
He had never seen her so… scared. Like a frightened animal, about to get crushed by a predator. Her pride would no doubt forbid her to accept any kind of protection, but still… could it be related to drugs, prostitution, or something along those lines? That would make perfect sense and then no wonder why she wouldn't be keen on mentioning it. But still, she knew she could trust him with that kind of information, didn't she?
Another point that bothered him, yet that he hadn't dare mention to her, the flying box in her apartment and how suddenly the weather had cleared at the airport. He wasn't stupid. He knew she had been as surprised as him, but not the same kind of surprise. He couldn't place the finger on a reasonable explanation, aside from that nagging thought that would keep on whispering that maybe, maybe it had something to do with… the supernatural. Thinking about it, the use of magic would be the most obvious answer. That would explain her strange behaviour, her discourse on rules that mustn't be transgressed or other sentences he hadn't completely understood.
What if Teresa Lisbon… was a witch?
Jane pushed the thought away immediately, frowning at himself for even thinking about it. Magic did not exist. There was always a trick, or a rational explanation behind strange events. A little conspiracy theories added to the weakness of human mind and things were immediately catalogued as supernatural. No, he said firmly to himself, magic did not exist, Lisbon was not a witch and he was a fool for having that thought.
Still, it would be the most logical explanation…
Grumbling to himself, Jane stepped out of bed and headed to the bathroom to take a shower. The water helped him cool his mind and focus on essential details and searched for a place to start. He knew little about Nancy Downs, so he needed more information about her. Perhaps a little digging on those two dead women could help him understand the full length of this business. Stepping out of the shower, Jane grabbed his phone and dialled a familiar number.
"Hello Grace? Yeah, it's me" he said on a cheerful tone. "Listen, could you please do me a favour? I need to do a little research…"
-PW-
It wasn't until someone knocked at the door that he realised it was already nightfall.
A little earlier, the victims had been identified and a link had been made between them and Lisbon. Same high-school when she was under Witness Protection, just as Lisbon had confessed earlier. While the senior agent was proven innocent of their crime –it occurred while she was still at the office and couldn't have possibly done it- Hightower had been extremely clear in her intentions on bringing back Lisbon on the case, or at least, giving her some protection. And when he had mentioned the name of Nancy Downs, he had been stunned to learn the woman had been dead for a while. When Van Pelt had asked him why he was interested in her, the blond man had merely replied he would call back and hung up.
That was seriously compromising his theories. Was Lisbon really chasing a ghost, or someone else? The whole day had been spinning so fast, he hadn't realised thinking had took him so long. No wonder why he had such a headache.
The knock became more insistent and Jane stood up, walked to the door and opened it. He blinked in surprise when he recognised his visitor.
"Lisbon?" he asked, frowning yet. "I thought you took the key… oh well, did you find what you wanted?"
The woman shrugged and stepped in.
"Sorry, I guess I forgot them somewhere on the way. And no, not yet. Guess I'll have to search better tomorrow."
Jane stared at her, slightly puzzled by her attitude. The woman looked completely different from this morning, a lot more relaxed and… somehow nonchalant in a un-Lisbon kind of way. Some nagging feeling warned him something was dead wrong, but he shook it away. Lisbon was investigating on her side about a past… 'case'. Of course she would act a little odd.
Suddenly, she turned towards him, caught his collar, brought him down and kissed him hard. At first caught off guard, Jane didn't react immediately and didn't oppose any resistance when she pushed him back on the bed and straddled his hips comfortably, her lips not leaving his.
"Lis-" he tried to speak before being hushed by her mouth again.
"You're spoiling the fun" she whispered huskily.
Another hot kiss was exchanged, during which Jane found it rather easy to clear his thoughts. This woman looked like Lisbon; she smelt like Lisbon, wore Lisbon's clothes of this morning but something was amiss. When they parted a second time, he immobilised her head in his hands and stared at her straight in the eyes.
"Answer this question" he asked seriously. "What's my name?"
The woman grinned wickedly and took his hands off her face, pinning them on the mattress.
"What are you playing at? Don't you like this?"
That did it for Jane. He didn't want to believe it at first, but…
"You are not Lisbon."
Her grin widened even more and she pulled back, not getting off his hips.
"Nice, sweetie. Your mind is too complicated to follow, even for me… but very nice for someone who isn't a believer. And I was hoping for some fun."
Jane tried to straighten but realised he couldn't. For some reason, his limbs wouldn't obey him anymore. Fear started to creep inside as he watched the fake Lisbon snicker in amusement.
"What have you done to me? Who are you?"
He could only stare in dread as she pulled out a shining blade out of her pants and pointed it at him.
"Sorry sweetie" she grinned wider. "But tonight, you're gonna die."
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