Chapter 37 The End Part 2
There was a flurry of people around them. Police from SacPD had started flowing out the back door, and had come upon the team hovering over Lisbon. They tried to talk to the team, with no success. They were all focused on Lisbon.
"She's a cop!" Haffner yelled.
"Teresa," Jane said as he let his hand drop to her chest were he searched for the bullet wound. He found the hole in her shirt where the bullet had entered and stuck his finger in it, then ripped her shirt open. Her cross gleamed brightly in the sun above her bullet proof vest. He sighed in relief and reached up to touch where the bullet had lodged into the vest right above her heart. He removed her jacket and now ripped shirt.
"Get a paramedic," Cho ordered.
Van Pelt dropped to her knees by Lisbon's head as Jane checked her pulse. It was there but weak. He reached up to her mouth to feel if she was breathing, but felt nothing.
"Grace, help me," Jane forced himself to say, his voice shaking. "Help me get this off her." He started pulling at her vest and Grace, with slightly steadier hands, helped him remove it. He threw it to the side with a thud and heard a gasp from someone not on the team, followed by officer talking. She gasped as the weight of the vest came off her chest, then rolled to her side and started coughing.
"Is she okay," Rigsby asked from behind Van Pelt. His voice was shaking.
Jane could feel his heart beating frantically in his chest as he pulled her into his arms and hugged her. "Teresa! Oh…You're all right. You're all right."
"Thank God," Van Pelt sighed, as she scooted a little closer.
Jane felt Lisbon's hands come up around his back. "Patrick?" He squeezed her tighter. "Ow!" she yelped pushing him back.
He kept hold of her shoulders, but set himself back to look at her. She was now fully alert, her eyes looking at the officers around her.
Her hands moved from his back. She looked down at the large, circular bruise over her chest, reached up and touched it. She hissed. "Son of a…I got shot! Who shot me?" she demanded.
Jane could feel himself shaking as he gripped her shoulders tightly.
Cho moved in and sat next to her too. "Haffner is coming with the paramedics, boss."
Jane watched her face carefully and saw the moment it all came back to her. "Bertram?" she asked. She tried to peer around them.
"He's dead," Cho told her.
"Very, very dead," Rigsby agreed.
Lisbon's face dropped as she turned her attention to Jane. "Are you okay?"
He laughed. "You're the one that just got shot, woman!" He pulled her to him again.
"Jane, careful," she hissed.
He pulled away and made eye contact. "I'm sorry! Did I hurt you?"
She lifted her hand and made a small space between her thumb and index finger then said, "A little." Then placed her hand very carefully over her chest again.
He felt a tear stream down his cheek as he looked her over once more, checking for anymore injuries. It was in this moment that she realized that she was almost completely naked from the waist up except for her bra. She grabbed the peices of her shirt and tried to pull them around her body at Jane's appraising gaze. When he looked her in the eyes again, he was pleased by the look on her face. She knew he was only checking for injuries, but he'd still made her blush. She also started noticing the other officers looking at her.
She swallowed. "Who shot Red John?" She'd asked to change the subject, but now that the question was out, he could see the panic written clearly across her face. She reached for his hand and squeezed it.
"We all did," Grace said, "but I think Haffner fired first."
Lisbon's eyes started to glisten as she looked back at Jane.
He smiled, lifted her hand and kissed it. "Not all of us," he said. "I didn't have a gun, remember?"
She didn't have time to answer him before Haffner came running back with a paramedic in tow, but he'd seen the relief written clearly across her face.
A Week Later
Lisbon walked into Esquire grill and looked around from Ray Haffner. She made it in two steps when she saw him sitting at a booth toward the back waving at her. She waved back and made her way over to him.
"Hey Ray," she said as she took her seat.
He smiled and tilted his head to the side to look at her. "Hey yourself. Not looking any worse for wear, I see."
"Still sore," she said alluding to where she'd been shot, before picking up her menu.
He nodded. "No one knew you were wearing a vest?" his voice sobered.
She looked away from her menu. "No. Jane may have suspected if his attention hadn't been so focused elsewhere."
"Why did you do that?"
She sighed and sat her menu down again. "I knew I'd be a target if Bertram got near me and figured he'd aim for my head if he thought I was wearing a bullet proof vest."
He cringed. "You thought I was Red John, didn't you?"
She looked across the table at his worn expression then leaned forward. "Yes, we did. For a moment. Listen, Ray. I want to thank you and your team for the part you played in catching him. The confession we got was good, but it was even better with the evidence you provided."
It was true. Haffner had two of men follow Randle's men, and Randle's men had gone to Bertram's house. Randle's men had then confronted Bertram and he had shot them both in cold blood, unprovoked according to the law. After that he'd shoved their bodies into his car and taken them off to a field where he buried them. Haffner had told his men not to get involved, but when he didn't return to his home, Ray ordered them to search his home. They'd found ample evidence to convict him, including the locks of hair Bertram had gloated to Jane about.
She shivered, recalling the way he'd been smiling at her, his face covered in blood, even after he was dead. She was just glad it was over now.
"I hate to say it," Ray said, "but it was Jane's scheme that caught Red John, not us. We may have aided in providing evidence, but I think Bertram would have ran and if he had we never would have caught him. Plus he put two of California's biggest crime bosses out of commission." He looked down at his hands. "The whole plan was dangerous and stupid, but it worked. Jane is certifiable, the restaurant was destroyed, but no cops were killed and only three, counting you were wounded. And the way Jane handled the management at the hotel, giving them credit in the capture of Red John so they wouldn't sue? That's, it's impressive."
"Wow," Lisbon said with a smirk, "did you just pay Jane a compliment?"
Ray picked up his menu. "Don't tell him," he said with a smile.
She chuckled. "Your secret's safe with me. Now, what's good here?" She opened her menu.
"Teresa," Ray said. "Why did you agree to go to lunch with me?"
Her brow furrowed as she lowered her menu. "I told you I would…"
"I know you and Jane are together," he said with a sparkle in his eye.
She sighed. The last thing she would ever want to do is discuss her relationship with Jane to anyone, but she wasn't willing to deny it in order to avoid it. "Yes, we are. It's still new."
"But you love him," Ray pushed.
She simply smiled at him then shrugged.
"No need to be coy. Why else would you run into a room with bullets flying in every direction to tackle a man right in the middle of it?" he asked.
She tried to hold back a scowl. "Because it's my job." She would have done it for anyone of her team, and there were other people, innocents, she probably would have done it for as well.
"Yes, but that day you did it to save Jane." He picked up his menu again. I hear they have a avocado bacon burger to die for."
Lisbon got out of her SUV at the park near Tower Bridge and pulled her phone out of her pocket. On her way out of lunch with Haffner, she'd gotten a text saying they had a case here, but she couldn't see a thing. She crossed the street from the parking lot and made her way down the stairs and into the park. A young couple, holding hands, were walking up the path and in her direction. She shoved her hands in her pockets and continued down the path.
She was about to call Cho, when she heard Jane calling out her name. She looked around until she saw him off the path, sitting on a blanket overlooking the river. She smiled at the odd sight of him, on the blanket, with his suit jacket off, vest unbuttoned, and sleeves rolled up.
After he was sure she'd seen him, he lumped up his jacket and lay back on the blanket, shoving his jacket under his head. She approached him slowly and stopped at the edge of the blanket. Her shadow covering his face.
"Hello dear." His eyes were shut.
"Jane," she fidgeted.
"How was your date?" he asked her.
She rolled her eyes. "Delicious," she said provocatively.
He opened his eyes and looked up at her. She smiled at him. "You like making me jealous, don't you?"
"Oh, is that I was doing?" She shrugged.
He smiled and patted the blanket next to him. "Have a seat."
"It's two in the afternoon. I've already taken a lunch hour. I need to get back to work and so do you," she said reaching up to shove a lock of hair behind her ear. The sudden movement made her cringe as her shirt and jacket rubbed over her still very nasty bruise. She supposed she must have made a hissing noise, because next thing she knew Jane's eyes were wide open and he was sitting up.
"Are you all right?" he asked reaching for her hand.
She nodded as he pulled her to him. "I'm fine. It's still a little sore."
He urged her to her knees in front of him, then pushed her shirt aside so he could look at her bruise. "It looks better," he said. "It's not as angry as it was last week."
He leaned forward and placed a soft kiss on her bruise, before pulling back. She watched his face as he examined her bruise then as he slowly looked up into her eyes. The concern she saw in face melted her heart. They hadn't had much time together since Bertram was shot, and she had to admit she had been difficult with him and insisted that they minimize their time together. It wasn't that she didn't want to be with him, after she discovered she loved him she wanted to be with him all the time, but she wanted him to have time to recover and fully realize that his hunt was over.
She still hadn't told him she loved him. She'd been too afraid that whatever decisions he was now making for his life would be influenced by it. She wanted to be sure he was ready.
"There's still a huge lump under the skin," she told him.
He wrapped his arms around her waist. "Have you been icing it?"
"Of course," she said resting her hands on his shoulders. He leaned forward and placed a kiss on her neck. She pushed him back. "What are we doing here, Jane?"
He leaned back and smiled at her. "We having a date."
"A date?" she looked at the blanket.
He sat back down and laid his head on his jacket. "Slash nap." He patted the blanket next to him. You just went out with Haffner. I need to stake my territory."
She cleared her throat. "I am not your territory."
"That's a matter of opinion." He settled more comfortably into his makeshift pillow.
She huffed. In a relationship for a couple of weeks and he was debating with her over whether or not he could pee on her leg. "Jane…"
"Lisbon?"
"If you're going to be like this, then I'm leaving," she said as she started pushing herself up.
"All right, all right," he said. She went back to her knees. "But you have to see it from my perspective. I can't be quiet about this. I love you and I want the world to know. I want other men to know. You don't know how irksome it is when other men hit on you. It's been a long time since I've been a position to feel this way. You have to meet me half way."
"I have to?" she said a little more sternly than she meant to.
She waited for his flippant response but it never came. "There have been moments over the years where I have been jealous where you were concerned—the night you spent with Walter." She could practically see him bristling at the memory, he continued. "But now, it's ten times worse. I forgot how exciting and wonderful and at times painful being in love can be. With you it's all the more bittersweet, because of what we've been through together and because of what you've meant to me."
She smiled. "That's sweet. Okay, we'll figure it out. Now back to my original question. Why are we here?"
He leaned up on his elbows. "When we came here last week to talk to Haffner you were wistful."
She sat back on her feet and raised her brows. "I was not."
"Or sad, whatever," he raised his hand dismissively. "You were thinking that we would never be a normal couple." He grabbed her hand. "You've just had lunch and now we're going to take a nice nap in the park, before heading back to work. It doesn't get more normal than that. Only next time, maybe you could have lunch with me and not the guy trying to steal you away." She shook her head at. "You think I can be stolen?"
It took him a moment to reply. "No, but if this is what makes you happy, some normality, I'll do what I can to accommodate it. Especially if that's what keeps you with me."
She smiled, leaned forward and pulled him into a hug. Normally she would've been angry at him for reading her like that, it could be very annoying, but she had to admit that it had been a concern. And here he was not only telling her that they would try and have a normal relationship, but that he was going to be around.
The worry from the previous week and the enormity of everything that happened vanished. "I love you," she whispered into his ear.
She felt him smile against her face. "I know." They hugged a moment longer before he pulled back. "Now, enough of this mushy stuff, we only have a half hour before we need to get back."
He lay back and she went with him, resting her head on his chest, as his arm wrapped around her back. She closed her eyes and reveled in the sun warming her skin and Jane's chest moving under her.
She breathed in deeply.
"So," he hedged after a moment. "You busy tonight?"
She chuckled. "I was thinking about curling up on my couch in my sweats and wool socks, maybe pulling out my snuggie blanket and then having a Die Hard-rocky road marathon," she deadpanned. "I might even do one of those seaweed face masks; my skin has been feeling a little worn lately." She sat up and looked him in the eye. "Why? What did you have in mind?"
His face was screwed up. "Die Hard? Lisbon, don't you get enough cop stuff during the day?"
"It's not the same, besides I think it's kind of exciting," she said.
"I can think of more exciting things to do than that," he told her with a wicked smile.
She laid her head back down. "I'm sure you can."
"I'll bring the ice cream," he told her.
"Jane!" she poked him in the side and he winced away from her.
He laughed out right, then reached for her chin and brought her gaze back up to meet his. "I love you, too."
She leaned forward to kiss him, when her phone rang. He mumbled as she pulled away and grabbed her phone. She flipped it open as Jane threw his arm over his eyes, listening to her talk. When she was done she closed the phone and stood up. "We're up," she said. "There's been a murder at Lake Tahoe. Senator's wife. Might have to call the weekend," she said, helping him to his feet. "Rain check on the ice cream?"
"Forget that, we're getting ice cream in Tahoe!"
A/N: Well that's about it folks. Seems strange that it's done. I've been writing it for over a year now. Haha! I'll probably do an epilogue, if I can work out enough details to make it worth while. Thanks so much for reading this! I'd love to know what you thought. Also, if you're interested I posted a new story, that will also be a multichapter, called "Post Red". It will be owhere near as long as In The Details, but I'm hoping it'll be just as fun! Thanks again for reading!
Anonymous Reviews:
Ilovetea: Thank you for the awesome compliment! It's been a labor of love, this story. I wish they'd flirt on the show more. Haha!
Tina: Oh man! I hope this wasn't too long a wait. I'm glad you liked the team parts. I hope they all work together in the end to get Red John. I'm also glad you enjoyed the flashback. I wanted to surprise everyone, and it seemed to work out fairly well. Thanks for the lovely review!
Guest: Here it is! The end. I hope it met your expectations.