A/N: Nearly finished uploading this - just 2 parts and an epilogue to go.

Thanks to: dogeatdog, Jisbon4ever, autumnftw, Viktorija and Frogster for reviewing - especially so to dogeatdog who logged in anonymously. Also to Div for betaing. I should have been saying that earlier, but I'm ill and I fail. Forgive me?

x tromana


Part Eight

Bosco stared at Lisbon incredulously, almost as if he was waiting for her to tell him that it was all a joke. When she returned his fierce gaze with one that was equally fiery, he realized that she was being deadly serious. With a sigh, he placed his polystyrene cup back down on her desk and sat down opposite her again. He needed to clear this up and fast; no wonder she had been so cagey around him for the past twenty four hours or so. But still, he couldn't help but feel a little insulted. Teresa Lisbon, accusing him of murdering her own brother. Sure, he made no secret of the fact he didn't like the man, but then again, neither did she. And he also knew full well how big a mistake it was to accuse a cop you respected and admired of murder. He himself felt like he still had ground to catch up on with her from a few months back. Or rather, he did, until just a few seconds ago.

"Sam…"

"I was with my wife and sister. We had a meal at Sukhothai - you know, that new Thai place. And yes, I paid by credit card if you must check it out. Then, we went and watched a DVD at Cathie's. I trust that's a good enough alibi for you, Lisbon?" Bosco queried, his tone frosty. "Or will you need Cathie to verify that?"

"Of course. She's here in half an hour to talk to Van Pelt."

"You're trusting Van Pelt to interview my sister?"

"She's an excellent young agent, Bosco and more than capable of talking to a person of interest on her own."

"If you say so."

"Don't be like that…"

"Let me know when you've decided to stop accusing me of crimes you know I didn't commit, Lisbon."

She watched as he slammed the door to her office shut, rather similar to the way she had reacted when Minelli had suggested she pass the case over to somebody else and implied she needed some time off. Lisbon didn't blame him though; she knew what it was like to be in his shoes. At least he had an alibi though, one which Van Pelt could verify for her within the hour. And it also meant she could stop doubting him and trust his instincts again, especially as her own were uncharacteristically letting her down. However, she would have to apologize for doing what she'd just done. She knew it would probably be best to wait until they had both cooled down a little. If she went charging after him now, it would inevitably only result in yet another argument. Instead, she decided to spend her time constructively, checking to see if Bosco's story actually checked out. Though she knew both Mandy and Cathie Bosco well enough to know they almost certainly wouldn't cover up for him, confirmation through his credit card records would go some way to easing her mind.

The rest of the day was quiet, almost too quiet. Van Pelt briefly popped her head around the door to deliver Cathie's statement, but disappeared almost as soon as she had said hello. She spent a little while typing up statements from the gang members, growing irritated at the discrepancies. Lisbon vaguely hoped that Jane's second attempt to talk to them would be more useful than the first. Then again, it was Jane, so it could bring up a whole load of nonsense until a week's time when he would launch into his supposedly glorious explanation of what he had been doing for the whole case. Still, at least he was out of her hair for the afternoon and that meant she didn't actually have to be exposed to what could probably be described as pure mayhem. She was stressed enough as it was; the solitude was doing her good.

However, it also caused her to over think things a little. Though she knew they were coincidences, how could she persuade everybody else they were just that? The flat tire, the wound on her left arm which she still hadn't dared to look at, the bullet casings… it would certainly seem as though she wasn't telling the full story when it came to this specific case. And if she knew Jane well enough, she certainly wouldn't be surprised if he decided to bring it all up sooner rather than later. He'd correctly identified murderers based on far less, after all. Even something as simple as cooking with too much butter was apparently enough of a warning sign for him. Or maybe all the circumstantial evidence was too much and he wouldn't bother. Her being responsible would simply be too obvious, what with the lack of alibi and perfect alibi. Lisbon consoled herself with that fact. Jane was probably undoing the gang's lies right now and would come back and announce one of them was responsible. That they had simply tried to blame it on a nameless cop because of deep-running animosities. Unfortunately, they were answers that she was unlikely to get until the next day. Unless Cho had to make an arrest, she wasn't going to be seeing either of them until the morning.

When she arrived home, she quickly decided a soak in the bath was in order. Normally, it was a luxury she saved for the weekends, or at least, nights when she didn't have work in the morning. It had been a long day though, especially the afternoon which had been predominantly filled with arduous paperwork. That had meant that the day had gone by especially slowly and at times, it almost felt as though time had been proceeding backwards. She deserved this time to herself. Besides, the dressing on her arm was beginning to look a bit tatty and she really ought to remove it.

The water was a little hotter than she'd anticipated, but she didn't really have the energy to do anything about it. Instead, she merely stripped off and stashed her cell phone in a corner safe from splashes; Lisbon didn't like having it too far away just in case some kind of emergency arose. Eventually, she stepped into the hot water and allowed herself to sink briefly below the bubbles before coming up for air. It was only then that she remembered her arm at all and she sat up in order to peel the dressing away. It came off easily; the water having done its job and prevented it from pulling at sore skin and fine hairs. After throwing it across the room, she took the time to inspect the mystery wound.

She recognized the cause almost immediately; it was the type of wound she'd received twice before and always at work. It was unmistakably the result of a bullet, barely clipping her arm.

How the hell did she manage that?

000

Jane swiftly brought Pierre out of his trance and within seconds, the man disappeared, barely giving Jane and Cho a chance to bid him farewell. The hypnosis had clearly left him a bit disorientated and set his nerves back on edge and therefore, he couldn't wait to get out of their company. Probably because he'd just stated that their colleague and friend was guilty of murder. He clearly didn't want them to throw a barrage of questions in his direction, accusing him of mere fabrication, despite the fact Pierre knew it was the truth. Without another word, Cho and Jane headed back to the SUV, both of their minds too full of stuff to even start discussing it with one another just yet.

As he climbed into the passenger seat, Jane was actually surprised at just how much the revelation troubled him. He knew Pierre couldn't have faked the memory; the trance had been too deep for him to be able to forge a plausible net of lies to tell them. So, that meant Lisbon herself was responsible - but why couldn't she remember what had actually happened? Was she living in some kind of fantasy world where everything was fine, normal even, and the only thing that was unusual to her was the fact she was investigating the death of her younger brother? Terrible memories could easily be blanked out and that was probably what had happened, even though Jane knew that deep down, they were still there.

The problem was going to be convincing Lisbon to agree to hypnosis, when she was certain she was no more guilty of the crime than anyone else as the CBI was.

"What do we do?" Jane muttered, more to himself than anyone else.

"We tell her."

Cho stated, taking the question as literally as ever. Jane turned to face him, surprised at the agent's response. He'd assumed that Cho wouldn't want to let the woman know, to try and make the case die down. To become one of those cases that never got closed, an annoying blemish on all their records. Jane had honestly thought Cho was faithful enough to Lisbon to prefer that to the alternative.

"Do we? She's half convinced herself she was fast asleep when her brother died," Jane snapped back at Cho, who flinched at his words. "It will destroy her to find out she was responsible for her brother's death!"

"Even in self-defense?"

"Especially in self-defense."

"Fine. So where do you think we go next?"

"We have to get her to reclaim the memory she's omitted. It's only then that we can move on."

Cho shrugged his shoulders and seemed to accept that Jane was talking sense. It relieved him a lot; the last thing Lisbon needed was to know that her team was losing faith in her and to start insisting that she was the killer. It needed to be dealt with sensitively and though she believed that Jane had the sensitivity of a sledgehammer, Jane knew that he was probably the best person to break it to her. After all, most of his plans required a degree of finesse, even if the cops he was surrounded by didn't see it. That was because they were usually too busy looking at the bigger picture and the fallout that followed said plans rather than the small, equally vital little details that he dealt with.

When they reached CBI headquarters, Cho quickly bid him farewell, rushed off to his own vehicle and disappeared into the night. Jane knew that he felt uncomfortable with the sketchy plan they'd come up with, probably because it was so vague but also because it wasn't just anybody they were dealing with, it was Lisbon. Jane couldn't think of her as a murderer, because he was certain she hadn't been aiming to kill. Vaguely, he recalled what Pat had said at the scene of the crime, something about how Tommy's gun had been recently fired too. That meant that it was self defense as Rigsby had later told him that the only prints on the gun were that of Tommy's, and thus, ruling out a mocked-up suicide.

Theoretically, he could have gone straight over to Lisbon's house and disturb her two nights running. He was dreading this specific conversation and therefore, it was probably better to get it over and done with as soon as feasibly possible. However, he, who was meant to be so very good with words, was at a loss as to what to actually say. It was a little difficult to appear on somebody's doorstep and say 'hi, I think you killed your brother, can I come in?' In fact, such actions were likely to make him a murder victim and Lisbon an actual murderer rather than merely acting in line with the law. Besides, even if he wasn't going to inform her of what he'd discovered, it was unlikely she would be welcoming. Despite the fact her head clearly wasn't rooted in reality, it hadn't done anything to make her any more cheerful than normal. If anything, she was more morose than ever before and that was saying something. Maybe her own, incorrect, theories were dragging her down?

Jane glanced at the higher floors of the CBI building and decided against entering it. Somehow, it felt wrong to head up there. At least he felt much better than he did that morning; the work distraction had cleared up the migraine, even if it had troubled his conscience. Instead, he headed over to his precious Citroen, climbed in and slipped the key into the ignition. Driving always helped him when it came to thinking and Jane was hoping that today would be no different. He just hoped that whatever he did to distract himself overnight and wherever he found himself, it would help him come to a firm decision as to how to approach the inevitable conversation in the morning.

TBC…