Chapter 7

Lisbon didn't sleep again. She was tired and couldn't help to wonder if it would become a routine. It didn't sound so farfetched considering everything that she'd experienced lately. The brunette was dying to have some time off for the first time in years, but with a secret organization and Red John lurking around, it wasn't a real option.

She was the first one to arrive on their floor which wasn't surprising. Lisbon opened her office door and sighed in relief when she saw her white couch empty but after a second the agent started to felt nervous.

What if she didn't see Jane didn't today? Or what if she did see him?. The brunette shook her head trying to get rid of those kinds of questions and handed out her black leather jacket on the coat rack.

A second later, Lisbon felt his presence before he even opened the office door. "Hey," Jane whispered to her back. It was so familiar and implied much more than a simple greeting. Lisbon turned around and saw him resting against the doorframe. He was wearing the same suit from yesterday and his hair was untamed which meant that he spent the night in the attic or on his couch.

"Hey yourself." She answered back unable to deny herself the familiar greeting and fought against the need of crossing her arms. The fact that she had to treat lightly around him was exhausting and frankly, she didn't want to fight with him anymore. She already said everything that was on her mind last night (Lies whispered a voice in her head). And the truth was that they still need to work together.

"Listen Jane, about last night—"She started but he interrupted her with a shook of his head.

His face was somber and intense. "I'm sorry that we argued. I thought about what you said and I realized that you were right, Lisbon." He said decidedly. It was easy to notice that his armor was in place but she found it comforting; because right now the senior agent Teresa Lisbon could handle the annoying, troublemaker, funny consultant but she couldn't handle the vulnerable and honest Jane from last night.

The irony wasn't lost to her.

"It's for the best and it's not like I'm leaving. We still work together." She said offering her own olive branch. "And...You are still my friend Jane." She added quietly hesitating about that last part but Lisbon knew that her greatest weakness has always been her inability to put her foot down where he was concerned. She couldn't set herself apart from him, not completely.

"You are my friend too, Lisbon." He replied looking at her eyes, his voice was reduced to a whisper. She smiled feeling better already. Maybe they could find an even ground instead of hanging on a precipice all the time.

And despite what she said last night, Lisbon had to admit that on some level Jane actually cared about her. He saved her life without any hesitation, and he always tried to help her when she was in trouble (His meanings were well-intended). And he protected her even when she didn't want to.

"Now what about some of that dark, bitter, dreadful drink that you love so much?" Jane asked with a soft smile doing a sweeping gesture in the direction of the kitchen.

"It's call coffee, Jane." She said with a smile.

"Nah, you say Potato I say potahto." He answered guiding her last few steps with his hand on the small of her back. His touch felt more than before.

Lisbon stepped away from his hand reaching for her mug in the cupboard as an excuse. They'd acknowledged the unspoken attraction between them last night and just because neither of them was planning to act on it, meant that the attraction magically disappeared. Their feelings were still there and with a simple touch, her body had vibrated. Lisbon needed to be careful around Jane.

Both of them prepared their favorites beverages in comfortable silence and went back to her office. Lisbon decided to follow him to her couch instead of sitting on her desk noticing how much she'd missed his company. The brunette took a sip of her coffee and closed her eyes enjoying the bitter taste in her tongue.

"I'll apologize to the team," Jane said after a couple of minutes. Lisbon felt relieved; it was so much easier to work together when the team was on the same page. Not that Jane was a big fan of teamwork but it was better to have a comfortable work relationship instead of being at each other throats.

"I'm glad." She said softly before taking another sip of her coffee. "Any ideas of how to approach this thing?" She asked softly.

"The dirty cops' secret organization? Not yet, I'm afraid." Jane admitted after he put the empty blue teacup on the table next to him.

"Really?" She asked surprised.

"Well... I was preoccupied at the moment." Jane started. She tilted her head looking at him curiously. The consultant was fidgeting with his fingers. A common gesture on him when he was analyzing information. Jane paused and looked at her. Evaluating her. For a second, Lisbon thought that he was referring to their previous arguments but then the consultant voiced aloud the rest of his thoughts.

"I've whittled my list of suspects down to only those men who could have possibly been at all Red John murder sites. I have a list of five names." He explained looking dead serious.

Five names.

Lisbon was frozen in her spot. He was really close for the first time in almost ten years. The brunette tried to form words but quickly realized that the agent didn't know what she'd say if she could speak. Lisbon resisted the need of reaching for her cross.

"What an uncommon reaction, Lisbon. I was expecting you to demand that I tell you all the names on my list." His tone was joking but his face was serious as he lifted his eyes to hers. Lisbon dropped her eyes, not being able to maintain contact with his intense green-blue stare. Patrick Jane in obsession mode was a force to be reckoned with. He became single-minded, oblivious to anyone who would attempt to interfere with his pursuit.

Lisbon shrugged unsure of what to say. She looked at him again and noticed how his eyes narrowed a fraction of an inch. He was trying to read her. Her phone office rang breaking the connection between them. Lisbon stood up and went to her desk to answer the call. A new Red John case. She sighed hanging out. Jane was quiet during the conversation between her and the officer.

"We got a call on homicide in a motel in East Sac," Lisbon informed him.

"Red John?" Jane asked blankly without really expecting an answer. He already knew it.

"That's what they said." She replied nervously.

The consultant stood up from the couch. "Shall we?" Jane said taking her purse resting on one of the chairs in front of her desk. Lisbon took her jacket and SUV keys. On their way to the motel, she called Cho and Rigsby. Jane was quiet during the ride to the motel and she didn't pursue their last conversation. Lisbon didn't know what to say.

It was a Red John case.

And Red John made sure to remind them that during the all case.

First, Red John dragged Jane to Stoney Ridge, a traditional carnie layover where he grew up. Then, they discovered that their Jane Doe was actually an Eileen Barlow, a girl from Jane's carnie. Lisbon felt something traveling through her spine when Jane shared his childhood memory with her.

"I'm about twelve years old or so, and there's music playing. There's a... a young girl laughing as she's being lifted into the air by her father. Eileen Barlow. Well, people called her Leelee back then. Uh... I don't think I ever saw her again after that day. She's just a memory that made me smile. And Red John killed her. I... I-it's like he just reached into my head and killed a happy memory."

But the cherry on the top was listening to Sean Barlow's opinion about her feelings for Jane in front of Jane.

"Lying in bed, thinking of Patrick. You're a little in love with him, eh? But he's so secretive and controlling. That's hard, isn't it?" Sean said with a cooky smile.

Teresa had to resist the impulse of screaming in frustration. She was getting really tired of dealing with men who always believed to the smartest person in the room.

In the end, the accomplice of Red John was Miriam Gottlieb: the director of Child Protective Services in Carson Springs who wanted to raise Eileen's baby as hers. "Tell about Red John," Jane demanded with a flat voice and dead eyes.

"He's been a good friend to me," Gottlieb answered freely as if they were talking about the weather. Red John's accomplices were getting crazier each time.

"Why did he kill Eileen?" Jane asked.

"Mm, I don't know. You don't ask him questions but it had to be her. It was important to him that it was her. He told me this might happen, and if it did, that I should give you something." She said reaching for something in her purse.

Lisbon's hand went to her gun when she saw Gottlieb's movement. "It's okay. I mean you no harm." Gottlieb said showing a CD that she gave to Jane.

"I'm done talking." The director exclaimed quietly.

Gottlieb died in the police car and Lisbon wasn't surprised to be honest, she kind of expected. Red John's accomplices seemed to die faster than flies once that they were discovered.

She took the baby to her father, Roddy. Barlow would never get his hands on that baby.

"Thank you, pepper," Pete said after she gave the baby to Roddy. Lisbon nodded at the big man uncomfortably under Sam's dark eyes and went to the SUV confident that the baby will grow up safe and sound. The brunette arrived at the CBI and went straight to the attic. She took a deep breath and knotted the door.

"What's on the disc?" Lisbon asked looking into his eyes after Jane opened the door. He stepped aside letting her into the attic. He closed the door and stared at her, his gaze fraught with a look she couldn't determine. His eyes flickered from side to side looking for something in her face.

"Are you sure that you want to know, Lisbon? Because no one else can know about it, Lisbon. We tell no one. Not even the team." Jane exclaimed looking dead serious. She swallowed and Jane inched closer to her, trying with all his might to read her but the brunette avoided his eyes.

"I haven't been able to tell what you're thinking during the case," Jane admitted after a second without letting her answer his question.

She quirked an eyebrow at him. "Really?" Lisbon murmured surprise not believing his words.

"You're used to be transparent," Jane said. "But in the last months, you've gotten much better at hiding what you are thinking. Now you shut me out before I can read you." He continued to look at her calmly, closely.

"I'm not that good. You said it all the time," Lisbon exclaimed once she recovered her voice. His words sounded like a trick, Jane had never this problem before especially not with someone that he has known for almost ten years.

"And I do want to know what is on that disc." She shot back crossing her arms against her chest before he could reply. Jane looked back at her eyes and Lisbon got the feeling that he allowing her to see a glint of his mental state for the first time in months.

"I'm trying to do the right thing here, Lisbon," Jane exclaimed looking frustrated. Lisbon was confused because for all that they talked to each other; neither of them tended to say half of what they were thinking.

Her gaze drifting as she thought about the progression of their relationship over these last few weeks and the brunette had to admit that Jane has been honest with her lately; he'd shared his conjectures and theories with her. She'd come to the realization that she wasn't getting away from him or whatever it was on that disc.

"Are we partners or what?" Lisbon asked softly taking a step closer to him. "Show me what it's on the disc, please." The brunette begged him softly knowing that she was playing her trump card. Lisbon saw how the battle in his eyes ended it and her heart hammered in her chest. They locked eyes for what felt like an eternity, her pulse racing like crazy.

Jane sighed tiredly. "Ok. Come here, partner." He said putting his hand on her low back and guiding her to the desk, she sat on the chair and he pressed play hovering over her. A hand ghosted along her arm.

'Hello, Patrick. As you can see, things didn't go as I planned...'

Lisbon's breath got stuck in her throat when she saw Lorelei's face on the laptop screen.

'Right now, I want you to take out your list of suspects and look at the names. I'll give you a moment. Okay.'

Jane gave her some small photos that she put over the laptop. The faces that Lisbon recognized left her shocked. Now she understood why he didn't want to show her the disc contents.

The names are... Bret Stiles... Gale Bertram... Raymond Haffner... Reede Smith... Bob Kirkland... Sheriff Thomas McAllister... Brett Partridge. There. See? That's clever. But fair's fair, Patrick. You've changed the game, so there are new rules now. Eileen Turner is the first of many. I'm going to start killing again. Often. Until you catch me... or I catch you.'

When the video finished Jane extracted the disc from the laptop and broke it with his hand. Lisbon looked at him terrified. "How did he do that? That tape was made months ago." She asked scared. "Red John knew the names on the list of suspects before you did. I mean, how is that even possible?"

"Eh, it's a trick." He said dismissively looking back at the window. She noticed how calm Jane looked. He wasn't even tense. This wasn't his Red John reaction; there weren't any cold eyes or set jaw. She'd been expecting a different reaction from him.

"A trick how?" She asked confused.

"Well, I'm guessing that he got help from the dirty cops' organization or stole somehow the information that Kirkland took from here and put the pieces together." He explained quietly. Lisbon looked at the pictures again.

"You said that you had a list of five suspects. Here are seven," she said looking at him.

"Well Kirkland is dead and I'm seventy percentage sure that Stiles isn't Red John. He knows more than what he says but I'm pretty sure that all this is just good entertainment for him." Jane said taking both pictures away. His precise and careful movements had a calming effect on her. Lisbon looked at the pictures again.

Gale Bertram.

Raymond Haffner.

Reede Smith.

Thomas McAllister.

Brett Partridge.

One of them was Red John.

"And what about Eileen Barlow? How did he know about your memory? You said it yourself; you never told it to anybody." She asked shifting the direction of the conversation, not ready to discuss his suspects yet. One of them was her boss and another one offered her a job.

"I don't know." He admitted looking tense for the first time since she saw the video. The consultant hummed a little bit and tilted his head; a combination of gestures that she recognized every time that Jane was about to say something that he was unsure about. "You have to be careful, Lisbon." Jane finally said looking death serious.

Lisbon knitted her brows together, shook her head. "Jane, I'm a-..." She started but he cut her off getting down on a knee in front of her, his eyes were at her level.

"Teresa," Jane said her name as an anchor – to keep her from drifting off. "You saw the video. Red John is changing the rules. It doesn't take a genius to know that you are important to me. He will go after you, Lisbon." Jane was concerned. Almost downright hovering. His mask slipped again and she saw how scared he was for her.

"Ok. I'll be careful," Lisbon said breathlessly with a soft nod. The agent watched how the tension evaporated from his body with the breath he let out. He touched her hand softly before he stood up and face the window one more time cutting the connection between them.

"I need to observe the suspects," Jane said. "what are your instincts telling you?" The consultant asked her. Lisbon looked at him surprised; usually when it was something related to Red John he won't take advice or opinions from anyone but now he was asking for her opinion something that she appreciated.

The senior agent took another look at the pictures in front of her. "I don't see Partridge as Red John and I can't imagine Smith or McAllister seducing Lorelei," She admitted without taking her eyes away from the pictures. That left Bertram and Haffner as her main suspects. "But if any of them is Red John, they had to a very good actor, wouldn't they?" Lisbon felt a knot in her stomach thinking about the possibilities. Jane took a few steps back to the desk and took her hands between his making her face him; his eyes were clear and calm.

"Hey, It will be ok. Trust me." He said tentatively, Jane's voice sounded quite like when you try to calm a wound animal, that was when she realized that she was breathing quite fast.

"Don't worry, my dear," Jane said confidently and that made her laugh hard.

He looked at her confused, his eyebrows were furrowed. She snorted. "Yeah right, because that has worked me so well in the past," Lisbon answered feeling a little bit better.

Jane pretended to look offended."I found your lack of confidence discouring, Lisbon." He said with a soft smile and for a moment she believed his words.

They would be ok.

A/N: Hi it took me a while to update because I hadn't been inspired lately besides I celebrated my birthday and my mothers' birthday recently, I hoped that you enjoyed it.

I don't feel that confident about the story but I will do my best to finish it. sorry, and thanks for your reviews, follows, and favs.