A/N: Thank you for your patience. I'm sorry I disappeared for a while, but job demanded all available daylight hours of the day and then some.
Chapter 7
It was well past midnight when the dim light showed Jane falling asleep on the sofa. He was still sitting upright in vain attempt to stay awake, but the expression on his face exposed the deep sleep he had entered.
The man on the hill continued to watch, occasionally writing on a small pad. He didn't seem to be aware of Cho who was deeper into the woods. Cho kept quiet and still, dividing his attention between Jane and this new figure. He didn't announce himself as he wanted to see exactly what was going on and hoped that the figure would give some clues before morning came. Cho was getting quite stiff after staying still for so long, but he was hesitant to move as the sound might alert the other man, so he stayed glued to one spot.
Several hours went by and Jane was still fast asleep and it looked like nothing untoward was going to happen. Then Cho saw a small shudder go through Jane's form. His eyes were closed, but his muscles were twitching and it was clear even this far away that his body was rousing itself.
Jane sat up straight and stood up. His movements were perfectly normal and the only thing betraying his nocturnal nature was his tightly closed eyes and the lax expression on his face. He walked to the kitchen, opened a drawer and extracted a knife that he held carefully. The light spilling from living room was enough to dimly light up the kitchen so that Cho could see what was happening. Jane seemed to know exactly what he was after and where it was. After getting the knife Jane turned and walked towards the stairs and started ascending before disappearing from view.
The man on the hill was furiously writing on his little pad while keeping an eye on Jane's movements. Cho was hesitant for a second about what to do, but decided to let Jane's dream to play out as long as he didn't harm himself. They needed all the information they could get.
Jane appeared in the bedroom window, which was also visible from the slope. The streetlights provided enough light for them to see what Jane was doing. First Cho couldn't figure out what was going on. Jane wasn't holding the knife anymore, but was kneeling on the bed pushing down with his hands. It finally dawned on Cho that he was behaving like he was choking someone. After few moments, Jane turned and picked something up from the floor and the small glint told him that it was the knife. Jane turned back towards the bed and made slashing movements with his arm and then stood up and took few steps back revealing a disheveled bed with slashed pillow.
Jane lowered the knife out of sight and leaned down to touch the pillow before turning towards the wall and started to draw a smiley face with his fingers. He then returned next to the window, looking out as he leaned against the window frame and Cho could see a smile on his face although his eyes were still closed. After a while he turned back to the room and a large tremor could be seen on his back and he staggered back against the window frame.
Cho couldn't see his face until he turned sideways and found his eyes wide open and a look of pure horror and disgust on his face with guilt mixed in. Jane staggered out of the room and disappeared from the view. A light came on in the bathroom and it stayed on for some time before Jane returned to the sofa in the living room.
He sat down on it, his face in his hands and his shoulders shook as he sobbed. It tore Cho to pieces as he knew Jane needed help, but there was nothing he could do by going in now, he would be more helpful in trying to figure out the game of this mysterious scribbler who was still writing on his pad.
The morning wasn't far away and Jane hadn't moved from the sofa. He had been sitting on it for several hours now, staring at the wall not moving without any signs of him falling asleep again. Once the sky started to get pink, the mysterious man started packing things away before picking up his cell phone.
Cho perked up and strained his hearing, but the man was oblivious to his surroundings and spoke with normal volume.
"We are getting results," he announced and listened to the reply.
"He found a knife, used it in a manner of slashing a throat and drew a smiley face on the wall. Just like Red John," he continued which made Cho's blood run cold. What was going on here? Red John was dead and his associates dead, in prison or gone underground.
"I still don't know where the strangling is coming from and it might cause a problem," he said and answered to a question from the phone, "It deviates from Red John's MO as he didn't strangle his victims first and we need to get everything exactly right."
"I will come back tonight again to observe more and see if I can find a trigger for it, otherwise we might need to have him in for another session," he said and was seemingly dismissed as he then returned the phone into his pocket.
Cho didn't believe his ears. Somebody was definitely interfering with Jane, but how and why? He looked on as the man walked to his car and drove away. He would be back tonight so it was better to let him go and get ready to intercept him later. Cho felt that he first needed to talk to Lisbon and Abbott about this and then talk to Jane.
He turned his attention back to the house where Jane was still sitting silently on the sofa and decided to let him continue as it looked like he had found a way to stay awake and at the moment didn't seem to be in danger.
Cho finally moved and stretched his aching and stiff limbs and grumpily strolled away to his own car. He would need to get a shower, some breakfast and then he would meet with Lisbon and Abbott as they had agreed.
XXX
Jane sat still, breathing steadily and trying to maintain the focus on his breathing. He was still reeling from the night's dream, the same details, the same feelings over and over again. He dreaded the look on Lisbon's face when she saw what destruction he had managed to cause in the bedroom. He had to make sure that Cho kept Lisbon away as he was too dangerous. This thought made his insides twist painfully, but he had to finally accept that Lisbon wasn't safe around him. If she had been in the house, chances were high that there would have been a red smiley face on her bedroom wall and the news would have been full of stories about Red John's return. But he had killed Red John, he was sure of it. Wasn't he?
He violently brought his thoughts back and viciously concentrated on his breathing. Steadily in and out, think of nothing, just breathe. He made his fingers relax from the tight fists and continued to breathe.
XXX
Cho drove to the hotel after having had a quick shower. He had decided to have breakfast together with Lisbon as he had called her and Abbott and they had all agreed to meet in the hotel. That way Cho wouldn't need to repeat too many times what had happened.
He walked in to the hotel and made his way to Lisbon's room and found that Abbott had already arrived. They took one look at Cho's face and his grim expression before Abbott called room service to bring food up to the room as this was bound to be a discussion to be had in private.
"Is he okay?" was the first thing Lisbon asked as her eyes gave away the anxiety she was feeling.
"He was awake and sitting on the sofa when I left," Cho carefully answered, but Lisbon opened her mouth to demand more answers, however Abbott intervened.
"Let's eat something and then Cho can tell us what happened," he said as he looked at his two agents.
"Would you track this license plate first please?" Cho asked and handed a piece of paper to Abbott who raised his eyebrows in question, but got the phone out of his pocket and put the request in.
Cho chose his food and tucked in before Abbott joined him. Lisbon poured herself coffee but declined any other food. They ate for a while in silence and waited for Cho to get ready to talk. After he couldn't delay anymore, Cho sat up and looked at Lisbon and Abbott.
"We have a problem."
XXX
Cho told them every detail starting from arriving in the slope and leaving after the mysterious man had left.
"The license plate is his and just about the only thing I managed to get without being noticed," Cho said.
Lisbon looked shocked and hadn't said anything while Cho had been talking.
"Is Jane okay?" she whispered again.
"I believe he's very shaken," Cho offered as he didn't know how to explain how Jane had appeared.
Abbott looked thoughtful.
"This definitely confirms that somebody is tampering with him, but we don't know who, why or when this started," he said.
"I suggest we tell him everything and then I take him to see Dr. Carter who signed his psych evaluation. He seemed to get on with him," he continued.
Lisbon looked surprised.
"You found a psychiatrist that Jane could tolerate in the same room with him?" she asked.
"Before FBI would employ him, he had to go through evaluation and he managed to get through five doctors before agreeing to talk to Dr. Carter," Abbott answered.
"He knows his history and has a basic profile on him already, so hopefully he can make some sense what's being done to Jane," he continued.
Lisbon looked doubtful,l but agreed to the plan as it was the only one they could come up with. Now they just had to sell it to Jane.
TBC