Shout-Outs: Guest, LouiseKurylo, and Jane Doe51

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Rated: T

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Chapter 7

"You look like you had a long night," Bosco said as Patrick came into the bullpen the next morning.

"Women are more trouble than they're worth," Patrick answered.

"Trouble in paradise?" Bosco asked.

"There is no paradise," Patrick replied, rolling his eyes. "We're just friends. At least, I think we're still just friends. I don't know. . . for the first time in my life I cannot read a situation and it's driving me crazy. She's driving me crazy."

Bosco grinned. "Oh, I am loving this! Were you like this when you were dating Angela?"

"I am not dating Teresa Lisbon!" Patrick said flatly.

"You keep telling yourself that."

"Do you have any other leads on the Jill Jensen case?" Patrick asked, changing the subject abruptly. "Anything I can follow up on?"

"Nope. We're probably going to arrest the employee who hired her though, for obstruction of justice. But other than that, we've got nothing. He won again."

"It's too soon to give up," Patrick told him. "We can't. . . Jill's parents need to know who killed her. Jill's friends. . . I hate him, you know that? I hate Red John and if it's the last thing I do, I want to find him and see him burn in hell for everything he's done."

"Get in line," Bosco said dryly. "I would love nothing more than to see him tarred and feathered or strung up by his toes from the nearest tree. You're still young and even though I know that you've already been through a lot, sometimes you still need to be reminded good things happen to bad people. Life is not ideal Patrick Jane. You don't always catch the bad guy. You don't always get the fairytale ending."

"If you know that to be true then why do you keep pushing me towards Teresa Lisbon?" Patrick asked.

"Because people need somebody to go through life with, to face all the bad stuff together. You don't really want to spend the rest of your life alone. Do you?"

No, Patrick thought to himself.

"I don't want to get hurt again. It's better this way, its better alone," he said instead.

Bosco laughed. "I know you don't really believe that for one second. But I'll let you think that way for now anyways; arguing with you isn't really getting me anywhere. Come on, let's go and see if we can finally get that guy to talk. It's worth one more try, isn't it?"

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With an impending prison sentence staring him in the face, William Miller was more willing to talk to them.

"You have to promise me that if I tell you anything, there will be some means of protection though. I mean, my boss is a dangerous guy. He's hurt people for a lot less than talking to the police about him."

"There's nothing to be afraid of, we're not going to let anything happen to you," Bosco promised. "Now talk to us William. Your boss had you solicit sex from a minor; you had to have known that was a criminal offence."

"The thing is I didn't know she was a minor!" William answered. "He didn't tell me anything about her when he had me hire her for the evening. All he gave me was her name. Okay? If I had known, I would have never. . . listened; I don't want a record, okay? I'll tell you whatever is that you want to know to help you out. No deals, no ultimatums although I wouldn't mind if I had some kind of protection for it."

"Don't worry, we'll make sure you're protected," Bosco assured him. "Now, start talking William."

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"Sure, I had William hire a kid prostitute for me," Timothy Carter answered in a low, almost feminine voice. He leaned back in his chair. "It isn't something exactly I'd do myself, what would my wife think?"

"So, you are admitting to having relations with Jill Jensen then?" Bosco asked, raising an eyebrow in his direction, like a buddy would over a few beers after work.

Timothy coughed. "What do you mean by relations?"

"Did you have sex with her?" Bosco answered.

"Is this off the record?" Timothy asked.

"Mr. Carter, a girl that you hired to have sex with is now dead. I suggest you stop playing games with us and answer the question," Bosco said, his ire rising slightly.

"Once," Timothy answered. "I only had sex with her once. After that, I never saw her again. But I might have mentioned her to another friend of mine. . ."

Bosco looked like he was going to punch the man sitting in front of him, so Patrick put his hand on his shoulder in an attempt to calm him down.

"Are you going to give me the name of this friend?" Bosco asked, glaring at Patrick.

"Why would I do that? It doesn't do any good to piss off people in high places Agent Bosco; I would just stop while you were ahead in chasing down Red John. He's going to win in the end, you know."

"You don't care that he's going to get away with it at your expense then?" Bosco asked, angry enough to spit. "At William's expense?"

"I can't say that I do," Timothy answered.

"What about your wife and kids expense?" Patrick interjected. "You have to care about them? If you take the fall for Red John, you know that you'll be going to jail. Their livelihood will disappear with you."

"My wife is very resourceful, she won't have any problems without me," Timothy replied, with a menacing kind of chuckle. "And besides, whose saying I'm going to go to jail?"

"You slept with a minor," Bosco said. "That alone is a criminal offence."

"She knew exactly what she was doing; I don't see why I should get into trouble for that. It isn't like I drugged her and forced myself on her," Timothy retorted, sneering at them. "Besides, Red John has very loyal friends. You can arrest me and put me into jail, throw away the key if you want to. But I won't be there for very long, we never are. But you already know that."

"If that's the case then just give us a name," Bosco said. "Think about Jill Jensen's family, her friends. They deserve closure, don't they?"

Timothy shook his head. "Do you want the truth? The truth is I killed her. I slept with her and then I murdered her afterwards."

"Where did you murder her? It wasn't in the hotel room unless you played somebody to scrub it clean afterwards, and even then something would have turned up when forensics did a sweep of the place."

Timothy clammed up after that, not even demanding his lawyer and a frustrated Bosco booked him, distributing him to a police officer for delivery to the local jail until the rest of the details could be ironed out. He had barely been there for an hour when they got the call that he had died, just like all the other friends and associates of Red John had died before him.

Bosco swore for a while while Rigsby, Van Pelt and Patrick watched and Hightower tried to calm him down before finally giving up and calling Mandee to come pick him up for work. After he had gone, she told the rest of them to go home for the day.

Patrick watched as Van Pelt and Rigsby snuck off together and decided that he couldn't face his apartment all alone for twelve hours or longer.

As much as he didn't want to, he found himself at her apartment again. She was outside, planting herbs in pots.

"Am I interrupting anything?"

"Nope," Teresa answered, smiling at him. "I was just about to clean myself up and go to the hospital to visit the kids. Do you want to come with me?"

"I'd like that a lot actually," Patrick replied.

"Okay, well, I'll run in and get changed. You can come with me, if you'd like. I mean, you can come in and wait for me while I get ready."

"If you don't mind," Patrick said.

"Of course not! Come on in. Do you like iced tea, you can have a glass while you wait for me," Teresa said as she let him into her house and moved around the kitchen, getting a couple of glasses out and filling them with ice.

Patrick shrugged. "I guess I could drink a glass of iced tea while I wait."

She poured him a glass and held it out to him before pouring herself one. "I'll be right back," she said.

"Okay," Patrick answered, taking a sip of his drink. He sat down on her couch and looked at the stack of books on her coffee table. They were all children's books and from the Boxcar Children series.

He smiled at the sudden image of her browsing through the children's books at Barnes & Noble, looking for just the right story to read to her group of kids at the hospital but gravitating towards the stories she had loved as a little girl.

Except some of them like The Mystery on the Ice and the Mystery of the Purple Pool were newer titles and not the ones he had read as a little boy camping underneath the stars in between states and carnival runs.

Teresa came back out from her bedroom wearing a skirt, white t-shirt and a denim jacket with white Converse sneakers. Her hair was in a loose braid and she was applying Bonnie Bell Chap Stick.

"Okay, I'm ready. How about you?"

"Ready," Patrick answered, putting his glass down on the coaster. "Which Boxcar Children book are you reading to them?"

"We just started the Chocolate Sundae Mystery," Teresa replied, grinning at him. "Patrick Jane, are you offering to carry my books for me?"

"Don't make it into something more than what it really is," Patrick said, smiling at her inspite of himself as he picked the slim novel up from the top of the pile. "I'm just a boy, carrying a girl's books for her. No ulterior motives included. Unless of course, you have a hankering for a Coke after you're done at the hospital."

"Are you paying?" Teresa asked, locking the door behind them.

"Why not?" Patrick replied.

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He watched her sit in a rocking chair with two kids on her lap and the rest of them all gathered at her feet, reading to them and doing all the voices as best she could, including that of the youngest Alden child's.

"Please, Jessie, just a small cone," she said in a tinny voice, so obviously trying to imitate a little boy. "I promise it won't ruin my appetite."

When she was finished, she looked at him and smiled. "Would you like to read the next chapter?" she asked.

Patrick swallowed, he hadn't read aloud since the night before Charlotte had died. He was sure that it wasn't something you would ever really lose the ability to do, but he was certain that he'd stumble over the passages in his rustiness and disappoint her. But he knew if he refused her, she would be disappointed by that too.

"Of course I'll read the next chapter," he answered, taking the book from her.

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"We didn't catch Red John," Patrick told her as they drove to a place to get ice cream afterwards.

"So, there is no justice for Jill Jensen then," Teresa said.

Patrick sighed. "We thought we found her killer but he killed himself as soon as he got to jail. They all kill themselves; you have to wonder if this man is even worth protecting. They all do his bidding, and then take the fall for it. But I'm not sure Timothy Carter was even worth protecting. He didn't even care that he slept with a minor because she knew what she was doing. . ."

Teresa put her hand over his, looking at him in the setting sun and shaking her head. "Don't think about it right now. You're going to get him one day, I promise."

"Because you have faith in me?"

"Yes," Teresa answered.

He looked at her, straight in the eyes and saw all the faith that he didn't have in himself there and a hint of something else that he couldn't quite define, but he knew very well. He looked away; still not ready to talk about that.

"Thanks for trying to help me today," he said instead. "You should see Bosco, he's going crazy."

"I'm sure Mandee's helping him out just fine," Teresa answered. "She's always been good at keeping him out of his own head. A cheeseburger and beer, and he'll be as good as new tomorrow. And you will be to, if I have anything to do with it."

Patrick finally smiled at her. "Thank you. But. . ."

She shook her head. "Don't say it, you aren't past saving or helping. Not if I have anything to do with it."

He didn't know what to say to that. He didn't know if there was anything to say to it, because he appreciated the sentiment and in the back of his mind, he really hoped that she could save him.

Because he really wanted to be saved.

TBC. . .

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Author's Note:

A few things, I am still going to post stories as long as the fans will read them. So, even though the show is ending on Wednesday, I am going to write a few more stories if my readers will stick with me. Second of all, I am so FREAKING excited for White Orchids, it's almost making up for the show ending. Third of all, I hope you guys all enjoyed this chapter. Things are going to start picking up, I promise! Lastly, I hope you all have a very VERY Happy Valentine's Day. I love you all!

Love,

Holly, 2/13/2015_