Chapter 37 The End Part 1

Lisbon and the team watched Jane, dressed once again in his three piece suit, sitting in the hotel restaurant gingerly sipping at his tea. She'd rolled her eyes when the waitress had brought his hot water and he'd waved away the teas she was offering, only to pull his own tea out of his pocket. She still couldn't believe that on their, little over, two hour excursion back to the hotel that they'd had been five minutes away from, that Jane had insisted on stopping for tea. This was the man she'd fallen in love with.

She was in love with him. She'd come to that conclusion sometime in the middle of the night last night, amidst whispered endearments and butterfly kisses. She flushed a little just thinking about it, but more out of irritation than anything else.

She understood why he hadn't wanted to make love to her, but that being the case she would've appreciated it if he'd just kept his hands and lips off of her. But no, instead he insisted on spending the better part of the evening driving her insane. The bastard.

Lisbon looked at her team, grateful once again for their willingness to participate in this craziest of Jane's schemes. They were all holed up in the security offices of the hotel watching Jane in the Restaurant. Van Pelt and Cho sat directly in front of the monitors while she and Rigsby stood behind. The hotel was well equipped with security cameras, but they'd added a few more to the restaurant last night, along with mics that they'd tapped securely under the tables. Cho had a lap top set up in front of the hotels cameras with a feed to their own cameras. Light chatter could be heard from the restaurant, as the mic caught every sound. They'd been watching him for a half an hour, but nothing exciting had happened yet and she was getting antsy.

She hadn't been at all surprised when she'd woken up this morning and saw that he was gone. He'd told her would be gone between kisses last night. Her face heated up at the thought.

"Teresa," Jane whispered against her shoulder before planting a wet kiss there then slowly moving his way up her neck.

Teresa swallowed and tried to shake off the fogginess in her head. She couldn't believe what Jane had reduced her to; a blithering mass of desire. "Hm?" was all she managed.

She felt him smile against her skin and then pull away from her. She grumbled, but eventually opened her eyes. He was staring at her, had been waiting for her to make eye contact with him and he was smiling. It took her a moment to compose herself.

"What is it?" She hesitated then with a bat of her eyelashes added, "Patrick?" His eyes darkened and lips suddenly crashed down on hers once more. She smiled against his lips and wrapped her arms firmly around his back hoping to keep him distracted from whatever he'd just been thinking about.

It worked for a minute, but he pulled away once more and rested his face in the crook of her neck, taking several deep breaths. "Vixen, indeed," he said. "I know you figured out that I am incapable of not kissing you when you use my name."

She smiled again, taking several deep breaths herself, recovering from his last kiss. She'd suspected that he was kissing her every time she said his name, but started to put that theory to the test a little over an hour ago. She hadn't been disappointed. She opened her mouth to try it out again, but he threw her a warning glare.

"No," he pulled away and looked her in the eyes again. "Don't."

She obliged, but only because she was suddenly curious as to why he was so serious. She knew her face had gone grave when he smiled indulgently at her.

"I must say," he continued, "I was surprised you figured it out so quickly."

She reached up and cupped his face. "I'm a detective and right now my keen detecting skills tell me that you have something you want to say to me. At least you'd better. I was really enjoying the way you were nipping at my neck," she said sounding a little disgruntled even to her own ears.

His smile widened. "You liked that?"

She returned his smile with one of her own. "Yeah, it was nice."

"Well, there's more where that came from," he said leaning in toward her again.

She slapped her palm to his mouth. No way was she letting this slide now. She was already, unhappily, out of her daze and wanted to know what had prompted him to stop in the first place. She'd seen his face crumpling as she told him she knew he had something to say, and now he was trying to back pedal. She raised her brows at him and pursed her lips.

He pulled her hand from his mouth. "I don't want to hurt you," he said quietly.

She sat up on her elbows, pushing him back as she went. "What's this about? You're frightening me, and that's saying a lot considering what's happening in a few short hours."

He rolled away from her and onto his side, propping himself up on his elbow and resting his head in his hand to better look at her. "I won't be here when you wake up in the morning," he told her.

She looked away from him and closed her eyes, then plopped back against the pillow and threw her arm over her face. "Is there a reason why?" She tried not to sound too upset.

She felt his hand on her arm, felt him moving it out of the way as he scooted closer to her, and then felt him kiss her lightly on the cheek. She kept her eyes firmly closed, too anxious to look at him.

"I'm afraid," he whispered.

Her eyes flew open and she turned to him. "You don't have to do this. There's got to be another way."

He looked sad. "Please, don't say that. You know we have to go through with this. I don't want you to be tempted to talk me out of it in the morning, or now, because I'm afraid that I might give in, and we have to go through with this."

She felt her insides turn to mush as she looked at the concern etched across his face and she knew. He was right. They were stuck in the middle of a big fat mess, and not just them, but the team as well. Jane had been reckless with his life in the past where Red John was concerned, and he would be one more time, but she couldn't bring herself to be angry with him about it. For crying out loud, he'd just confessed that she could talk him out of it, and a part of her wanted to, but a bigger part of her knew he was right. They had to go through with this, whether she was afraid or not; whether he was afraid or not. And he was, but wanted to do it regardless, and she loved him for it.

She loved him. No hemming or hawing about it. No reservations about this, that, or the other. Whatever her concerns about him or them had been they were gone. He was doing something totally insane, not just for revenge's sake, but because it was the right thing to do. He was being brave, and selfless.

Tears started to well up in her eyes, but she held them at bay. Crying would help nothing right now. He was right; she would try and talk him out of it if given a little more time to think about it and the opportunity. She was in love with him, how could she not. Unable to find her voice she nodded her consent. Before she knew it he had her in his arms again, holding her tightly to him.

"I love you," he whispered into her ear.

"Boss," Van Pelt said. "He's here."

Lisbon jumped, startled from her thoughts, but quickly pulled herself together and looked at the cameras. Bertram was making his way slowly through the tables and to Jane.

"Are we recording?" she asked.

Cho nodded.

"I still can't believe it's Bertram," Rigsby said. Teresa looked over at him and noted the look of distress on his face; it was the same look that Cho and Van Pelt were both wearing. She couldn't blame them, she was sure she'd looked very much the same after Jane had told her in the cab yesterday. Yea, he'd had a fifty-fifty chance, but it was still very upsetting.

Cho pointed at a different monitor. "Sinclair just walked in." Jane had found a picture of the actual Sinclair last night and made sure the team knew what he looked like. Lisbon was pleased he'd thought of it, because if she were being honest it was the last thing to have crossed her mind.

She watched as Sinclair made his was to the restaurant. Randle had been the first to arrive, taking a seat a couple tables away from and behind Jane's table. She knew Randle didn't have a lot of experience with Jane, but she would've at least thought he'd have been smart enough to do some research. Apparently that wasn't the case though, because he appeared to be under the allusion that Jane wasn't completely unaware of his presence.

As a matter of fact she was sure Jane had picked out every single San Francisco police officer in the room long before Bertram arrived. She sighed feeling suddenly grateful so many had come to her aid. She hadn't been so sure they would when she'd called him from the cab yesterday. But she had been well liked and they had wanted to help, and even more than that they wanted the opportunity to help put the man responsible for Bosco's death behind bars. They'd even been eager. She was just glad she had someone she could call—especially since she didn't know who to trust at the CBI.

"Boss…" came Van Pelt's tentative voice. "Um, I think you'd better see this?"

Lisbon tore her gaze off Sinclair and moved it immediately to the table where Jane was. He was holding a thumb drive in his hand, then did something and it disappeared into thin air to Bertram's apparent delight. It had creeped her out how quickly his countenance had changed from the surly boss she knew to the blissful serial killer he was. If she'd had any doubts they'd flown out the window at the way Bertram was eyeing Jane with a joyful smirk. She'd seen killers go through this transformation before. One minute they're proclaiming their innocence and the next, once they realize they'd been had, become proud and boastful, finally free to tell the world of their accomplishments.

"What is it, Grace?" She couldn't see anything particularly wrong with Jane as of yet. He was still breathing for one, and at this point that was her top priority.

"Haffner," she said pointing to a screen in the lobby.

Lisbon's gaze moved to where Van Pelt was pointing. Haffner and his team were moving with purpose into the lobby. Haffner showed his badge to one of the employees at the hotel desk, who immediately came around the desk and started leading him and his team to security. Her eyes bulged. Cho stood up and looked toward the door. Jane had told her that Haffner would show up, but she hadn't actually believed him.

A moment later the door pushed open and in he came followed by two of his team members. She hadn't even seen the other two in the lobby.

"You set me up," Haffner said, after making eye contact with her. "You placed that case file out for me to see."

She placed her hands on her hips as Cho and Rigsby moved to either side of her, while Van Pelt kept her eyes firmly on Jane and what was going on with him. "Well, it wouldn't have been much of a set up if you had maintained professional boundaries and kept your nose out of my business," she said without a hint of remorse.

He stepped forward. "I would have helped you if you had asked."

Now she did feel bad, but she couldn't exactly tell him that she couldn't have asked, because they still weren't sure he wasn't Red John. "I'm sorry for being underhanded, but at the time it couldn't be avoided."

He made and held eye contact, his hands going to his hips. He didn't look angry at her anymore. As a matter of fact she wasn't sure he ever had been. Frustrated, was probably the right word for what he was. Finally he nodded. "I won't say I'm sorry I snooped," he said, "because I have something for you."

She felt herself smiling at him. "Something good, I'm guessing, by the way you barged in here."

He breathed out and looked deeply uneasy. "Well, if you were trying to prove that Bertram's Red John, then yeah, I've got something good."

"What?" she all but shrieked. She saw Cho and Rigsby stand at attention by her sides. Even Van Pelt chanced a quick shocked glance at Haffner.

Lisbon moved forward and grabbed his arms. "What, what is it?"

He looked over his shoulders at his men and then gave her small weak smile. "Proof…"

"Boss, boss!" Van Pelt broke in. Lisbon immediately noted the panic in her voice and released his arms. She pushed back to the monitors.

"What is it?" She looked down at Jane.

He raised his hands, then not a moment later he yelled. "Lisbon!"

Jane felt fear course through his body as every living person in the restaurant, minus the employees, started pulling out guns. He'd known there weren't any real customers in here the moment he'd entered. Lisbon and the team had made sure the hotel kept the room off limits for any real customers, had told them to keep the staff to a minimum. He also knew that at least a third of the group belonged to Lisbon's old division back in San Francisco.

But as he'd looked around, he knew that the other two thirds belonged to the three men sitting at the table with him, all pointing guns, at least a couple in his direction. He knew that as soon as Randle and Sinclair saw the flash drive that they'd assume it held, in Randle's case everything his wife had stolen from him, and in Sinclair's case that it gave up his true identity. He'd told them as much when he'd sent them messages yesterday.

What Jane hadn't expected was that guns would be pulled so quickly. He was actually rather hoping that the men would sit and that he'd be able to mess with them a little longer, hopefully get them to divulge a little as he had Bertram.

Now with all three men, Bertram, Sinclair and Randle believing their lives were on the flash drive, things had gotten out of control a lot faster than he thought they would. Both Randle and Sinclair had two guns on them, and while they'd tried to be subtle with their first guns by sticking them under the table and table cloth, they were being anything but with the second two, and he was pretty sure that was why everyone else in the room started pulling their own weapons. Bertram only seemed to have one gun, but sadly he was pointing it right at Jane.

Jane couldn't actually remember calling out to Lisbon, but he heard his voice echo through the room afterwards. Everyone seemed to be momentarily thrown by his cry, but soon after the room was filled with shouts calling out things like, "Police, drop your weapons," and "Don't make me shoot you!" and finally it was so noisy, that he heard nothing at all.

He wasn't exactly sure how it happened, but somehow Bertram had grabbed him and was effectively dragging him through the crowd, with his gun pointed into his side. He heard a gun fire and ducked in response. He glanced over his shoulder just in time to see Sinclair and Randle ducking behind tables, as they flipped over. He saw two men he knew were cops tackle another guy, and a few more bullets were fired off.

This gave him just the distraction he needed to get away. He pushed Bertram and fell to his knees, crawling under a table. A bullet shot past his right arm, and he heard Bertram yell behind him. He moved back toward Sinclair and Randle, hoping that Bertram would follow. When he looked behind him, he saw several men, who he knew as CBI agents huddling around Bertram. Bertram yelled at them and fired another shot in Jane's direction. He rolled out of the way, just as a chair to his right exploded.

Angry and frantic screams filled the air around him. A man fell next to him and Jane couldn't for the life of him tell if it was a cop or a bad guy.

"Jane!" Bertram yelled and Jane ducked under another table and away from the body. He got to a vantage point where he saw Bertram barking orders at what Jane safely assumed were his minions. He saw two cops tackle a man with a gun as another cop, handcuffed a man to a beam.

Sinclair and Randle's men had sectioned off facing each other with their men, and were firing shots across the room.

"Cowboys!" Jane snapped as he crawled toward the table where he'd been sitting before Bertram dragged him off. He was sure the team had caught Bertram's confession, but he'd placed his own tape recorder under the table and was determined to get it.

He reached the table and saw that it had flipped over and his tape recorder was right in the middle. Going after the recorder would leave him exposed, but he got to his feet and ran to it, dropping under a hail of bullets. He grabbed the recorder and was about to dive behind another table when he suddenly saw a big angry man standing over him. He looked up just in time to see the man, he assumed worked for either Randle or Sinclair, aim his gun right at him. He closed his eyes and heard a shot, then a thud, and the collapse of a body next to him. He opened his eyes, and saw the man alive and well, with his face smooshed into the carpet and Lisbon kneeling on his back, putting him in handcuffs.

"I can't leave you alone for a minute," she snapped.

Another man came up behind them and Jane acted on instinct. He lifted the tape recorder he'd just retrieved and threw it, hitting the man behind Lisbon square in the forehead. His tape recorder shattered. The man dropped his gun and Lisbon kicked back hitting him in the groin. He fell to the floor in a mass. Jane reached for her hand and pulled her with him under another table.

"You were supposed to wait outside!" he yelled at her.

"How could I when you were screaming out my name?" She barked back as she looked him over for damage.

He swatted away her hands. "I didn't mean to, it was a reflex," he told her feeling a little chagrinned and defensive at the same time. "Besides, you promised me."

"Well you promised me that Randle and Sinclair were coming alone," she said as she took her gun out and cocked it.

"No," he said peering out from under the table briefly before returning his gaze to her. "What I said was I told them to come alone."

She rolled her eyes. "Come on, we have to get out of here." They lifted the table cloth and peered out. Jane could see Rigsby and Van Pelt standing at the door and Haffner and Cho were dragging a wounded officer toward them. Two more of Haffner's men had joined the officers as they were trying to get Randle and Sinclair's men to stop shooting, and Bertram was heading toward a back exit with a small group of men trying to escape.

He looked at Lisbon and saw that she'd seen Bertram as well, and while what she really wanted to do was get Jane out of the line of fire, she signaled to the team instead. They all looked where Bertram was heading, then nodded. They exited out the main door of the restaurant and vanished as Bertram and his men went out the back exit.

Lisbon turned to him. "You stay right with me, do you hear?"

He nodded. They stood up and ran to the side wall of the restaurant just as SacPD made a roaring entrance. The room flooded with police and Sinclair and Randle's men started dropping their guns and putting their hands up. Jane followed Lisbon as she ran to the exit where Bertram had gone and threw the door open. She took a quick look in the hall and pulled back to let him know it was clear, then went in.

Jane glanced back into the restaurant before following her. It was a disaster with tables flipped, holes in the wall, the chandelier was hanging sideways, dishes were strewn everywhere, but Jane was happy to note that there didn't appear to be many casualties. Three total from what he could see, and the way the police were acting, he was sure they weren't cops.

He stepped into the hall after Lisbon, and couldn't help but feel a streak of pride that the gorgeous, jean and leather jacket clad cop in front of him was his girl. At the same time, he was really annoyed with her. She had pulled her hair into a bun, which was a look he loved on her, especially with her bangs laying lightly on her forehead, but he was irritated, because he realized now that she'd pulled her hair back so it wouldn't be in the way when she came to his rescue. Maybe he should have stayed with her this morning after all.

She moved quietly on the tiled floor, but quickly down the hall with her gun raised in front of her, then stopped when they came to a turn. He watched as she peeked around the corner, but stopped in his tracks when he heard shoes on tiled floor, and a discharge. He reached forward and grabbed her shoulders, pulling her back into him, just as the bullet punched out a chunk of the corner she'd just been looking around.

"Go back, Lisbon," Bertram's voice echoed back to them. "I don't want to hurt you."

He saw her face harden, as she jumped out around the corner, and fired off two shots. Jane heard feet running away and the distinct thud of someone falling, as Lisbon took off down the hall. He ran after her and caught up in time to see her kick a gun in Jane's direction, as she knelt to handcuff a man holding his bleeding knee.

"Pick it up, Jane," she ordered looking at the gun.

He did as he was told, but instead of keeping it, he removed the cartridge, then removed the bullet in the chamber in one swift motion. Lisbon raised her brow at him briefly then ran off again. She'd been expecting him to keep it, and he'd been sorely tempted, but he'd promised himself he wouldn't. They came to an emergency exit and stopped. It was the only possible way, they could've gone. Lisbon looked up at him and then pushed the door open. After that everything happened quickly.

Jane could hear the shouts of his team mates telling Bertram and his men to lower their weapons, before they came into view. They'd known exactly where Bertram would come out and circled around the building to head him off. The door closed behind them and Lisbon trained her gun on Bertram head.

"We don't want to hurt you, Gale," Lisbon said. Bertram had three men with him. He looked over his shoulder at her and smiled.

"No, I suppose you don't," he said lowering his gun a little.

She nodded in agreement. "Just drop your gun and we can all walk out of this alive," she told him.

Bertram stood fast. "I never told you how much I admired you Teresa," he said. Jane moved closer behind her. Bertram continued, "I understand why Jane loves you." He looked away from her, to Jane and smiled. "Can you ever really win if I'm still alive, Patrick?"

Jane looked at Lisbon and shuttered. He could feel her body stiffen next to him, but she kept her eyes firmly on Bertram.

"Drop it!" she demanded.

"I killed your wife and daughter, slit their throats while you were off pretending to be a psychic," he laughed. "And here's how you repay them? Years of hunting me down, to let me walk away now? You'd give up your promise to them, for what? A consolation prize?" He looked Lisbon up and down. "An amazing consolation prize to be sure, but still."

Anger swelled within Jane, but he took a deep breath to control himself. This was exactly the situation Lisbon had warned him of the night before. He wanted Bertram to die, but he wouldn't give up his second chance at a real life for it. "She's not a consolation prize," Jane said. "She's everything and I won't give you the satisfaction of spending life in jail, even though that means I don't kill you."

Bertram's face dropped as Cho and Rigsby managed to disarm two of his men while they were distracted looking at him. Jane felt a sense of relief start to wash over him, as Bertram lowered his gun, but then the door behind him opened. He turned as a reflex as Haffner came out, then jumped as he heard a gun discharge. He heard Van Pelt scream, then felt Lisbon's body fly back into him.

He heard several shots fired as he and Lisbon dropped to the ground. He barely noticed as Bertram fell to the ground in a lump with a smile on his red blood spattered face. And he didn't remember later that the team and Haffner then tackled and completely disarmed Bertram's men. All he could remember was falling to the ground with Lisbon on top of him.

He carefully moved out from under her and looked down at her face. Her eyes were closed and she didn't appear to be breathing. "Lisbon," he gasped, grabbing her shoulders. "Teresa!" He felt tears spilling down his cheeks. "Don't you dare die on me!"

A/N: Okay folks, one more chapter left and possibly an epilogue. I'll have to see how I feel at the end of the next chapter. I hope you enjoyed it. I'd love to know what you thought.

I'm super excited for the premiere!

Responses to anonymous reviews:

Guest: He can be, for sure. I hope he made up for that somewhat in this chapter.

Tina: Thank you! I hope you enjoyed this chapter as well!

Ilovetea: Whoa, that's a lot of reading. I hope it was exciting enough for you! I like surprises in stories too! Thank you for the lovely compliment. I hope you found this chapter enjoyable as well!