Chapter 21 - Pancakes for three
Even the dull ache of rarely used muscles could not diminish Jane's contentment as he lay with Lisbon's arm slung over his chest. Despite the playful preamble, their coupling had been tender almost languorous, a synthesis of touch and longing. Permissions had been sought and granted as they shyly navigated their way round in a voyage of discovery. With the awkwardness of two friends becoming one put to one side, they were less self conscious when the second wave of passion overwhelmed them.
Later in the depth of the night Jane woke with a start at the sensation of someone being in his bed. Old memories awakened, it wasn't wholly unexpected. He swiftly removed himself to the bathroom to compose himself in private. He splashed cold water on his face as he regulated his ragged breathing and stared into the mirror behind the vanity basin. The reflection that he saw was of a very different man from the brash young man who had so recklessly endangered his family. The deeply etched lines in the face attested to the fact that this man was older and wiser, if not completely reformed. The debt would never be fully paid, he couldn't bring his family back, but in his heart he knew Angela would not begrudge him a second chance at happiness, although he found it hard to justify it to himself at times.
Hiding in the shadows of the past was just an excuse to avoid emotional involvement, and to protect himself from being hurt again. He needed to embrace life, and make his sorry existence count for something. He truly loved Teresa, and maybe he should get round to telling her one day, but words were hollow. What they had was deep and heartfelt, beyond mere words that get thrown around like cheap confetti. The rose tinted spectacles had long since been discarded, each other's foibles and insecurities had long been accepted. Quick to anger, but unstintingly loyal Lisbon could be a real enigma; she had the ability to doggedly stand her ground in the face of his most persuasive arguments when it mattered. She was the only person who could truly hold him to account and be his equal.
Reconciled with his conscience for now, he slipped back into bed before the muted light of dawn started to break through the curtains. In the half light Jane observed the rise and fall of Lisbon's chest as she softly purred in her sleep, with her mouth slightly open. It gave him the chance to finally observe her at close quarters; the paleness of her skin was punctuated by the freckles she tried so hard to avoid. The delicacy and fragility of her features belied her strength and stamina, her tiny body was toned but perfectly proportioned. She looked so young and artless with her hair spread out on the pillow, all her burdens washed away in the afterglow of their coupling.
Yet for all the delicate beauty before him, it was the more spirited version of Lisbon that really set his pulse racing. For all his affectation of appreciating the finer things of life, there was nothing more exhilarating than seeing badass Lisbon in full flight tackling someone twice her size. The reflexive way she licked her lips in satisfaction of the takedown, always made him seriously hot under the collar.
Jane drifted in and out of sleep for a while, to the point where sleep finally evaded him. He gently lifted Lisbon's arm from his chest, and then manoeuvred himself round to the edge of his bed to pull his pyjama bottoms on, before drowsily making his way to the kitchen to put the kettle on.
The smell of fresh coffee permeated through to the bedroom just enough to trigger Lisbon's consciousness, her eyes opened slowly adjusting to the light and taking in the strange surroundings. Aware that she was not alone, she looked up into Jane's smiling face, still feeling slightly grouchy in the moments after waking up, her face scrunched up slightly as the awkwardness of their first awakening sank in.
"Morning grumpy," he teased as he wafted the coffee in front of her. She groaned incoherently, reaching out for the mug and taking a sip from the coffee, before shyly raising her eyes to him.
"Mmm. Morning to you too." She finally smiled back at him and pulled herself into a sitting position with the comforter pulled tight to her, conscious of her state of undress.
Jane smiled at her bashfulness, they had some adjusting to do before they would be entirely comfortable, years of living solitary lives had made them value their own space and privacy. He leant in and trailed the softest of kisses along her shoulder bringing his face up to hers for a solitary kiss before leaning back out. He retrieved his pyjama top and passed it over to her. "Here you may want to slip this on. I'm just going to have a quick shower while you readjust to the morning."
He left Teresa in her reverie reflecting on the night before; it slowly sank in that Jane had stitched her up like a kipper, forcing her to make all the moves. When he emerged from the shower shaking his tousled damp curls he looked over to where she innocently lay, only to be taken unawares by the pillow hurled straight at him.
"Ow! What's that for?" He grinned.
"You sneaky bastard," she muttered. "That played out exactly as you planned it."
"Language Teresa please, that's no way to address your beloved."He desperately tried to keep a straight face.
"Beloved my ass! You set me up and reeled me in last night." Try as she might, she couldn't keep from smiling for long.
"Well I know you're partial to a bit of girl power." He laughed, recalling her inexplicable penchant for the Spice Girls.
Jane started on breakfast while Lisbon showered, but he was interrupted by the sound of the door bell. He sauntered over to the spy hole and was surprised to see Cho standing there. Knowing it must be important for Cho to visit in person he opened the door, feeling a bit self conscious in just his pyjama bottoms.
"Sorry to disturb you, I've been trying to call you and the Boss but can't get through to your phones." Jane averted his gaze guiltily, he had turned both of their phones off. No doubt there would be repercussions for that.
"No problem come in, I'm just making breakfast. Grab yourself a coffee." The freshly brewing coffee would have been a giveaway, had Cho not already seem Lisbon's car in the car park last night. He was glad they were finally moving forward, and besides it was none of his business. "Someone called the office. Clyde wants to hand himself in, thought the Boss would want to know."
Jane was unphased by Cho's tacit acknowledgement of the situation, however that all changed as Lisbon made an appearance. Crap, he hadn't had time to warn her. Freshly showered and drying her hair, she was just wearing Jane's pyjama top. She stopped dead in her tracks when she saw Cho in the kitchen."Jeez Jane, you could have warned me." She shot an accusing look across at him.
The traces of a smile briefly passed Cho's lips as he assessed her predicament, in an involuntary response he took more than a passing glance at her slim legs, he was human after all. "Morning Boss. Nice pyjamas." He deadpanned them as he looked from one to the other.
Taking refuge standing behind the sofa, Lisbon demanded "Cho what are you doing here?"
Jane smirked, it was time to level the scores a bit."He was in the vicinity. Judging by his distinctly uncoplike appearance, he's on his way home after a night out." He looked pointedly at the hickey on Cho's neck that was just visible under his open necked smart shirt, "I'd offer to lend you a tie to cover that, but it wouldn't match your shirt." Cho maintained his equanimity refusing to rise to the bait, he had told Claire about doing that before.
Reverting to cop mode, he explained to Lisbon that Clyde had made contact and would be calling her mobile in the hour. Lisbon shot Jane a daggers look when she realised he had turned her phone off, and quickly disappeared to get dressed, hastily retrieving a few discarded items of clothing on the way back to the bedroom.
Looking down towards the consultant's bare torso Cho muttered, "You might want to put some clothes on as well, it's kind of distracting."
"There's some pancakes there, help yourself. I'll be back in a minute, assuming Teresa doesn't kill me for not warning her." He disappeared with a grimace on his face. Cho could hear the slightly raised voices coming from the other room and chuckled as he sampled Jane's pancakes, umm not bad.
The warm glow of the morning was gone as Lisbon glared at Jane in anger "You never turn my phone off, without telling me." Jane held his hands up in apology, whatever his reasons he knew it was unforgivable in Lisbon's eyes to do anything that would reflect on her professionally. "Sorry. Shouldn't have done it," he responded simply and unequivocally.
Taken aback by Jane's apology, that was a first, Lisbon tossed her head before walking back out with what remained of her dignity intact.
Cho had made himself at home in the kitchen and he poured himself another coffee. "You really need to try those pancakes Boss." He held his hand out for her cup, rinsing it before pouring her out a fresh coffee. Lisbon found the whole experiencing slightly unsettling, the shared domesticity of taking breakfast with her agent, while her consultant, now lover, cooked up a second batch of pancakes felt slightly odd.
"So what else do you know?" Lisbon asked Cho, vainly trying to retain a veneer of professionalism.
"Nothing apart from a man purporting to be John Robie, aka Clyde, has been trying to contact you." Cho helped himself to more pancakes.
Lisbon was starting to get her head back in gear. "Have there been any reports of disturbances in the Folsom area, shootings, car chases anything that might suggest a stepping up of the hunt for Clyde?"
"I'll get Van Pelt on to that straight away." Cho pulled out his phone and passed the instructions on to Van Pelt, before finishing off his pancakes.
Jane placed another batch of pancakes on the table and sat down to join them. Lisbon pondered, "do you think our investigations may have triggered this?"
"Unlikely, unless Haffner's team have a rogue operator who has latched on to this." Jane thought this most unlikely.
"I think Ray would have dealt with this himself, he's used to keeping his own counsel he wouldn't want anything to slip out accidentally."Lisbon thought it would be out of character for Haffner to let anything slip.
"Probably just coincidence then, don't forget they know his true identity and have been tightening the noose over the last few weeks. We came to this fairly late in the day." Jane reasoned.
"How do we know they won't follow him?" Lisbon was considering all the possible scenarios.
"We don't, but we will need the full team to help. We can't afford to outsource any of this." Jane looked to Lisbon for agreement, she nodded and Cho went off to call Rigsby.
"Hi Rigs, we have a problem. Clyde's about to surface and the Boss wants us all in." Cho could hear the sounds of a heated conversation in the background before Rigsby came back to the phone."Just tell me when you need me, I'll be there." Rigsby said determinedly, he would deal with the fallout later. Sarah had to accept this came with the job.
Cho checked in with Van Pelt, there had been a car chase down the I-50 by Lake Natoma, the vehicle was abandoned and the driver had escaped on foot. It may be something or nothing. Van Pelt would join them when the meet was arranged, and she would bring some bulletproof vests as a precaution.
Cho disappeared to get his go to bag from the car, so he could change into a spare set of work clothes. Jane sidled up to Lisbon "I really am sorry, I didn't have the chance to warn you about Cho." He smirked, "look on it as a bonding exercise, he knows us a whole lot better after this morning."
Lisbon arched an eyebrow giving him a cool stare, "having a subordinate checking me over may not be my idea of team building."
"Teresa believe me no red blooded male could possibly resist." He chanced his luck with a quick peck, then got his things together ready to make a quick exit when the call came.
Lisbon's phone finally rang, it was an unregistered number. "Agent Lisbon speaking."
"You know me as John Robie although the press call me Clyde, I need to hand myself in. It's not safe out here, someone is trying to kill me."
"I'm not sure this line is secure call me back on this number." She reeled off the number of a burner phone and waited for the call back. "Lisbon here. Where do you want to meet? It's probably best if we come to you in the circumstances."
"I'm hiding up in Alder Creek by the Church of the The Latter-Day Saints. If you park up by the woods, I'll come out to you when I see your car. Give me your registration number so I know it's you." He was clearly suspicious of everyone and was taking no chances.
"Ok we'll see you within the hour – call this number if there are any problems." Lisbon passed the information on to Cho.
They all bundled into Lisbon's SUV, leaving Cho free to make the final arrangements with Van Pelt and Rigsby. Van Pelt had the bigger car so Rigsby would meet up with her, and they would travel in together. There was enough room for Clyde and Cho to travel back with them.
In the car Jane started mulling things over "Cho, who contacted you about Clyde?"
"Duty officer." He realised straight away what Jane was thinking.
"Chances are that everyone already knows about this, we used a safe phone but I wouldn't be surprised if someone tries to follow us. For all we know they may have fitted trackers to our cars." Jane glanced at Lisbon, "it could be they know all our movements."
He knew Lisbon would understand the reason for that last comment, they had parked up outside Jennie Davis' place without out a thought of that. "Oh crap," Lisbon muttered, berating herself for not using a hire car that day.
Cho quickly warned the other agents that there was the possibility of them being followed, so everyone was on their guard. As Cho studied the road map he realised the road to the church was a dead end, and potentially they could be trapped in. After some discussion it was decided to park the second car outside the complex, so at least they had some means of escape in the worst case.
As they pulled into the side road they spotted Van Pelt's car pulled over just before the dedicated service road. They stopped to get the bullet proof vests off Van Pelt, Lisbon handed the spare vest to Jane ."Don't even think about arguing with me. Even if you are in the car you're not necessarily safe." He nodded and took the vest, now was not the time to argue. Van Pelt and Rigsby proceeded by foot following the line of the woods so they weren't too conspicuous, while Lisbon's group proceeded to the allotted meeting point.
Lisbon's phone rang. "There's two people out there, a red head and a tall guy." Clyde had spotted them making their way.
"It's ok they're our people, we're just about to pull in. Just wait a minute while we have a quick look round." Lisbon cautioned.
Jane and Cho surveyed the scene, they didn't like it one bit, there were too many vantage points where a sniper could hide. Moreover there was a second car park on the other side of the church, where people could pull up without being seen.
Van Pelt and Rigsby joined them, Lisbon shouted out to Clyde and waited for him to appear as the others looked out. A shadowy figure started to emerge slowly with his hands held out to signify he wasn't carrying a gun. Rigsby shielded him with his body, but there was a sudden crack of a shot and Rigsby was felled. "I'm ok", he yelled "Just get him in the car."
Before they could do anything, the tell tale red laser light hovered over Clyde and he was shot in the chest. Lisbon rushed over to him, he was bleeding profusely, it looked bad. Clyde put his hand in his jacket and slipped Lisbon some papers in a last ditch attempt to make good. Lisbon had her back to the others and quickly slipped them into her pocket unnoticed. The others were more concerned with Rigsby at this stage. Lisbon held the pressure on Clyde's wound but he was fading fast. Jane came to join her and watched as she did her best to quell the flow. In truth Jane was a little shaken, anyone of them could have been killed, yet Lisbon just carried on regardless.
"It's too late, he's gone." Jane said softly to Lisbon, putting his hand on her shoulder. The sound of approaching sirens got louder, Lisbon and Jane exchanged looks – even if someone had reported the incident it was unlikely anyone would arrive that quickly. Lisbon wiped her bloody hands on the grass while Jane fetched her some wipes from the car, and gently helped her remove as much of the blood as she could before Folsom PD arrived. She quickly felt for the papers to make sure they were safely tucked away in her trouser pocket before anyone arrived.
The tall agent was looking pale, although it looked a deep wound it was unlikely to cause any long term problems. He smiled weakly at her as Cho applied pressure to the wound on his arm. "You Ok Rigsby?"Lisbon gently enquired. "Just a flesh wound Boss," the wound was the least of his problems, he knew this would cause major problems at home again. He shut his eyes and breathed deeply, dreading the confrontation that would follow.
"I can help with the pain if you want Wayne." Jane knelt down by the big man.
"It's ok the EMTs will be here shortly – I'm sure they'll have plenty of the strong stuff." Rigsby didn't want Jane inside his head.
The Folsom PD cars parked side by side across the service road, the team exchanged wary looks and were thankful they had made provision to keep one car off the complex.
The officers approached, and Lisbon pulled herself to her full height, she flashed her badge. "Teresa Lisbon CBI. I have a man down and one dead. You need to clear the road for the EMTs."
The officers looked at each other, then the one in charge nodded to indicate one of the cars would be moved. He sauntered over to Lisbon "Agent Lisbon, what brings you over to our neck of the woods? We weren't aware of any operations in our neighbourhood."
Lisbon didn't like his attitude one bit, he had a very knowing air about him. "This was a clandestine operation, we are not obliged to tell the local PD."
The officer looked at Clyde's body and Rigsby lying on the floor "Went well then?" He said derisively.
Lisbon's ire was rising. "If you want to be useful, you can check to see where the sniper was hiding. The church has cameras they may have picked something up."
"No need to be like that." The officer stepped forward to look at Clyde. "That the guy from the heist? He looks familiar." He bent down to look at the body checking the nature of the wound before looking up at Lisbon. "Well aimed shot, he wouldn't have lasted long. Did he say anything?"
"No, he was bleeding out and lost consciousness straight away." Lisbon coolly returned his look. " Now where are those EMT's we have an injured agent?"
There was little to be gained by remaining at the crime scene after Rigsby had left for the hospital, so once the formalities with the ME had been dealt with they made their way back to the CBI.
Jane looked at Lisbon. "You're hiding something from me, what have you found out?"
"Check the car Jane." He reached into her glove box, and took out the scanner surprised at her caution. The car was clean and Lisbon visibly relaxed. "I didn't trust those guys, just thought it best to double check, they obviously knew more than they were letting on."
"As do you my dear Lisbon. Come on spill the beans."Jane persisted.
" Right hand trouser pocket."She leaned back slightly to give him better access and watched as he pulled out the papers.
"What is this?" Jane looked puzzled.
"I have no idea, Clyde passed it to me just before he died." Lisbon was just as curious to find out.
Jane opened the papers to see printouts of the emails that Jennie had told them about. Clyde had obviously held back some of the information. Jane wondered if anyone knew about these printouts or whether Clyde's killing was just tidying up a loose end. Probably the latter he reflected, there was a possibility no one else knew about the emails. Jane wondered if these were the only copies in existence at this stage. Either way he wished they hadn't fallen into their hands, he knew Lisbon would feel obliged to do something with them.