A/N: Thank you again for all the lovely reviews!
Chapter 7.
Lisbon was following the instructions on her GPS, but she would have known which house it was on the dark street anyway. The ambulance had just arrived and she could see Cho jumping out of his car that he had left haphazardly on the street. Lisbon stopped the car close to his and ran out of the car leaving the door open. Cho had seen her coming and was silently waiting, a gun drawn, so they could approach the house. The paramedics knew to wait until the site was secured, hanging back in their vehicle. In the distance blue lights and the preening of sirens was coming closer telling Lisbon that the back up was arriving.
Cho was still silent as Lisbon had explained what little she knew, hence it was pointless for him to ask any questions. He was worried, but didn't need to share that verbally as he knew Lisbon would know it just by looking at him. She also shared the feeling based on the look on her face and knowing his boss, there was no point in drawing attention to it. They had work to do, no time to discuss their feelings.
She nodded at the grim looking Cho and they approached the house noticing that the lights were on but the side door was open. It was quiet, except for the noises the neighbours were making, coming out of their houses to see what was going on in the middle of the night. Lisbon heard the police officers who had now arrived to take care of it and she shut off all the noise in the background. Lisbon carefully nudged the door more open and it swung back to reveal a kitchen and two men lying on the floor. Cho was providing backup when they stepped forward to take in the blood splatter the arteries had sprayed when their throats were cut. The small room was practically coated in blood.
It was clear that the men were dead and no threat to them so they carried on. They were highly strung and alert, but the house was still eerily quiet, which didn't bode well. When they had taken few steps towards the front of the house, Cho noticed a smell coming from a door on the side. He gestured to Lisbon, but then they heard a noise coming from the kitchen door and turned around pointing their guns at the noise. To their relief it was only Rigsby and Van Pelt. Lisbon gestured them to secure the rest of the house, they were going to check the basement with Cho.
Lisbon had already stepped on the stairs and was slowly descending. The smell was becoming stronger. She also saw light at the end of the stairs, but still no noise. She came to a second door, which was cracked open, revealing that the origin of the smell was definitely inside. Lisbon felt Cho's presence behind her and they took their positions on both side of the door to secure their entry and Cho got ready to kick the door open.
What Lisbon remembered later, was the sequence of snapshots. The first thing she saw after bursting from the door, was Red John's signature on the wall, grinning down at them. The second snapshot was left from the smiley, a dead man nailed to wall, his bowels trailing onto the floor from the massive wound in his stomach and the blood covering the floor. Immediately Lisbon knew it wasn't Jane. The third snapshot was Cho's back as he had frozen in place and Lisbon had to walk slightly to the side to see what had caused the uncharacteristic behaviour. The fourth snapshot was Jane and time lost its meaning.
XXX
Cho was the first to recover as he started yelling at Rigsby to get the paramedics and cutters. This also broke the spell that Lisbon was under and she ran to Jane to check his pulse.
"It's weak, but it's there", Lisbon sighed to Cho her fingers finding the weak pulsing in Jane's throat. She kept her hand on his pulse just to make sure that it didn't disappear, just to confirm that the man was alive, that nothing was going to snatch him away. She reluctantly removed her hand from Jane's throat when Cho went to envelope Jane in a bear hug in an effort to support his weight. He knew that it was dangerous as he didn't know what other injuries the man had suffered, but he couldn't just stand there doing nothing.
Rigsby ran in with the cutters followed by the paramedics who took the scene in, but held onto their professionalism and didn't throw up although the younger one was definitely looking green. While Cho was hugging Jane to him, Rigsby lifted the cutters and cut the shackles causing Jane to slump into Cho. Lisbon helped to ease him on the stretcher and was then gently but firmly pushed aside by the paramedics.
By this time more officers had arrived and few had ventured down to the cellar, all but one fleeing the minute they saw the room and took in the smell. One old, grizzly officer stayed at the door watching their backs just in case they had missed someone in their search of the house. Even he avoided looking in to the room.
While the team looked on in despair as the paramedics worked on the still form of Jane, Cho heard Minelli's voice coming from upstairs. He glanced at Lisbon, who seemed to be in shock. She was pale, shaking and frankly he was surprised that she was still standing. Cho looked at Van Pelt, who looked sick even with Rigsby supporting her. He caught her eye and nodded at Lisbon, Van Pelt understanding straight away what was needed. While she moved towards Lisbon to put her hand on her shoulder leaving a confused Rigsby to stare at them and at Jane alternatively, Cho slipped away to meet with Minelli.
Cho climbed the steps quickly and was met with an angry Minelli as the officers tried to tell him not to go downstairs if he didn't want to have nightmares for the rest of his life. When he saw Cho, his eyes widened and he rushed forward.
"What happened to you? Are you all right? Where are the others?", Minelli was asking while holding Cho by shoulders. Cho looked at him confused, what was the man going on about? He decided to ignore those questions and told Minelli in a logical and chronological order what had happened since Lisbon had woken him up with her frantic call about Jane being in trouble. This was his way of staying in control of his emotions, although this time it left him tightly coiled.
Minelli was aghast and clearly disturbed and worried about Jane and still to Cho's surprise was going on about paramedics having a look at him. Finally Cho realised what was going on when he glanced down at his sweater and sweat pants. He hadn't had time to change either and now his clothes were coated with Jane's blood.
"This is Jane's blood. None of it is mine", Cho said quietly and Minelli stopped in his tracks, just staring at him.
"He's in a bad way", Cho said once again and this time it seemed to really sink in as Minelli started looking sick and leaned against a wall which was luckily fairly clear from blood.
"And Lisbon is in shock", Cho continued to which Minelli nodded, not looking particularly surprised. They had all noticed that Lisbon and Jane shared a closer bond than the rest of them although if confronted with it, they would have denied it.
They were interrupted by the paramedics carrying the stretcher past them, a pale, blue lipped Jane wrapped securely in blankets looking already as good as dead. Both Cho and Minelli could only look as he was taken away in obvious hurry. Lisbon, Van Pelt and Rigsby followed, Lisbon seemingly having recovered a bit as she was hurrying after the paramedics after telling Cho and Minelli that she was going to go the hospital with Jane.
Van Pelt and Rigsby came to stand next to Cho and Minelli outside the house, taking in all the action around them. Minelli asked in a gruff voice, "Where are they taking him?"
"To UC Davies, they have the best trauma facilities", Rigsby answered still slightly dazed at what had happened.
"Go on. We have it covered", Minelli said and saw Cho, Rigsby and Van Pelt take off immediately to the hospital. Minelli was left standing alone, with the weight of the world on his shoulders until he drew a deep breath and strode back into the house bellowing commands.
TBC
