A/N: This is it. Thank you for your company on the journey and I hope this final chapter is a suitable ending.
Chapter 9
The night plodded along with Jane fast asleep on the sofa. The sleeping tablets had definitely knocked him out as there wasn't even a twitch to be seen. The observer patiently waited and kept a keen eye on Jane, occasionally writing notes. Lisbon, Cho and Abbott went undetected as the night started to turn into morning.
When the sky was slowly brightening and there had been no movement from Jane, the mysterious man seemed to give up. He packed away his notes and binoculars and dug his phone from his pocket and dialled a number.
"He has been fast asleep all night," was how he started once somebody answered the phone. "I suspect he has been given sleeping tablets," he continued rubbing his face as he listened to the other person.
"No, there is no point in waiting. We better bring him in tonight for another session," he confidently said. "Last time we had only few hours, so we should be able to complete the imprinting if we have him for the most of the night."
"Agent Lisbon might be a problem though if she arrives before we have a chance to return him," the man said as he frowned and looked over at the sleeping form of Jane. The other person seemed to have a reassuring answer for him as his features smoothed over.
"Well, that should work if she is staying at the hotel. We can get a warning if she starts moving and can distract her easily enough," he continued seemingly satisfied.
"Yes, I have enough epinephrine and glutamate, however I need more amphetamine and Rohypnol. You need to ensure that I have everything I need for tonight. I also need the ECT machine back." After giving these instructions the man seemed to be satisfied and terminated the call.
As Lisbon had been listening to his list of required items, she had been getting increasingly worried and terrified. She didn't know why all of it was needed or even what ECT machine was, but it didn't sound good.
She glanced at Cho and Abbott to see them also looking grim and getting ready to make a move. They had agreed to wait in the hopes that the man would again call his partner and then apprehend him. That way whoever it was wasn't alarmed by the lack of contact and they had better chances of tracking the phone call.
Once the man started moving towards his car, all three agents jumped up guns drawn and surrounded the man. In the dusk and with his hood up, his face wasn't visible, but his body language gave his surprise and agitation away.
"FBI, put your hands on your head!" Cho gave a terse command. The man seemed to hesitate, but more because of confusion rather than because he was resisting. Cho approached him anyway and roughly pulled his arms behind his back and handcuffed him while Abbott and Lisbon kept their guns trained on him.
Cho pulled the hood down to reveal a white man in his thirties with mousy hair and thick glasses. He looked terrified, but determined at the same time.
"I have done nothing wrong!" he declared as he tried to look defiant. Cho started reading his rights as Abbott went to get his car so they could drive back to the FBI building for proper interrogation. Lisbon had frisked the man in the meantime and withdrew the phone from his pocket and removed his backpack.
"You can't take that," their prisoner wailed as Lisbon slipped his phone into her pocket. Cho had had enough of the man's protests and pushed him roughly towards their car. When he had been manhandled into the back, Lisbon gave all the man's possessions to Cho.
"I'm going to check on Jane and stay with him until he wakes up," she said.
"I'm also going to have a shower and change my clothes and then take him to Dr. Carter for them to continue. Just in case if we can't get anything out of this guy," Lisbon said as she yawned and rubbed her eyes.
"This guy has no chance in hell," Cho deadpanned and Lisbon completely believed him.
"I'll see you guys in the office a bit later," Lisbon said as she stepped into her own car and watched Abbott drive away with a wave of his hand.
XXX
Jane felt wonderfully heavy and warm when he was rising out of the dreamless sleep. For a second he just lied still gathering his bearings and was instantly aware of the smell of coffee and the muffled sound of shower. He felt panic rising in his throat, surely Lisbon hadn't stayed in the house, but then remembered their plan for the night. The sleeping tablets had done their job and hopefully the presence of Lisbon back at home meant that they had been successful in apprehending his stalker.
He got up suppressing his groans as his muscles were very stiff and sore after having slept in the same position all night. He slowly made his way towards the stairs and climbed up only to come across Lisbon emerging from the bathroom with only a towel around her.
He stiffened and stopped dead in his tracks when he saw her fully. The crimson blood was slowly welling up along the front of her throat and it was making rivulets down her chest and soiling her towel.
Lisbon stopped and looked at him worryingly.
"Jane, what is it?" she asked as she approached him.
Jane blinked few times and swallowed convulsively and the blood disappeared and it was only a very wet Lisbon in front of him. Looking up at him with a concerned look in her eyes.
"Sorry, I thought I saw something…" his voice trailed off as he lifted a hand and gently traced Lisbon's collarbone. She stilled under his hand but didn't withdraw.
"It's the visions again isn't it?" she asked and covered his hand with hers. Jane mutely nodded.
"Let me get dressed and then I will tell you what happened last night," Lisbon changed the topic, "Then I will take you back to Dr. Carter and you can continue to sort this out," she said gently hugging him.
Jane held onto Lisbon tightly. He was so afraid of himself that he was willing to do anything to get to the bottom of these false memories. Dr. Carter was willing to consider even wild theories and he was the only one that Jane was comfortable to be hypnotized by.
He released Lisbon slowly, who took one look at him and frowned disapprovingly.
"You also need a shower and change of clothes. Go on, I'll see you downstairs," she said and practically pushed him into the shower.
XXX
Once Lisbon was drinking her coffee and Jane had his tea, she told him about the previous night.
"Are you sure that you heard him correctly when he gave his list of items that he needed?" Jane asked frowning.
"Yes, why? Do they mean something to you?" Lisbon answered as she rinsed her cup, grabbed the car keys and they both made their way to the car.
"Yes, and it's nothing good," Jane said, but didn't elaborate further. Lisbon decided not to push it and made a note to make sure Dr. Carter knew what the items were.
XXX
Once they got to the office, Lisbon accompanied Jane to Dr. Carter's office. He was ready for them and guided them in to sit on the same sofa as before.
"Well, you look more fresh and rested Patrick. How are you feeling?" he asked.
"I was feeling better, but the flashbacks and visions are more and more frequent," Jane answered.
"We got the man last night and he definitely has something in mind for Jane," Lisbon interjected quickly before they got side-tracked and proceeded to tell everything that had happened.
"Hmm, sounds like last time they had only few hours with you to plant these memories and by the sound of it, had to be pretty heavy handed. That's probably why the false memories are bleeding through and you are having these visions and flashbacks," Dr. Carted mused.
"I still don't know when they had me," Jane said in quiet desperation, "I can't remember anything like that."
"The ECT machine is most likely culprit for that," Dr. Carter continued to think aloud.
"What is it?" Lisbon asked as it sounded ominous.
"ECT stands for electroconvulsive therapy that is commonly used for treatment for example in severe depression," the doctor answered, "It's known to induce amnesia and with Rohypnol, I can imagine that the effect is quite long lasting, if not permanent," he continued frowning.
"The other chemicals are known to induce false memories, although I have never before heard anybody mixing them like that," he explained to alarmed Lisbon and Jane who looked more and more worried.
"How do you feel about me hypnotizing you today?" Dr. Carter asked carefully while looking at Jane to gauge his reaction.
"I don't like the idea, but if somebody has been using me as a lab rat, I want to know," Jane said, sounding more like his usual confident self.
Lisbon knew that Jane wouldn't want her there and stood up.
"I'll leave you to it gentlemen," she said as she started to make her way out, but not before stopping next to the arm chair where Dr. Carter was sitting.
"Please, take good care of him," Lisbon said quietly, quite sure that Jane heard the exchange.
"Don't worry, my dear," Dr. Carter answered with a warm smile and ushered her out with hand gestures. Lisbon closed the door quietly behind her.
XXX
She made her way back to the office to see Abbott looking triumphant.
"What have you found out?" Lisbon asked as she walked to stand next to him looking at the big display with several screens on it.
"Plenty," he smiled and turned to Lisbon. "Turns out that our man couldn't resist Cho's charms very long and he started spilling the beans faster than Cho could write the details down."
"Meet Bobby Harper. A forensic psychiatrist who was fired from his job in Napa County Jail due to some unorthodox experiments he did," Abbott started to fill Lisbon in.
"He was befriended by Sheriff McAllister who was sympathetic and interested in his research and gave him facilities to continue with his experiments and provided him with test subjects," Abbott continued.
"Mr. Harper never stopped to question where the people came from or where they went afterwards. He was only interested in his research." Lisbon had started to feel ill at this point. Of course Red John would have found somebody like this wannabe Dr. Mengele to his liking.
"Once McAllister was unveiled as Red John, he lost all access to funding and test subjects. He relocated and built a new lab in his basement, but he was back to square one," Abbott carried on and before Lisbon could ask he continued, "We have a search warrant and will leave shortly"
"His phone was very interesting," interjected Wiley who strolled up to them holding his tablet as he tapped away to enlarge a screen on the display.
"We traced the last phone call to a woman named Terry King and at first she looked like there was no connection to Red John or Jane," he said as Abbott and Lisbon looked at him.
"Then I found an old picture in the local newspaper of a charity event that McAllister attended and guess who was his date for the night?" Wiley brought up a photo showing McAllister with a blonde woman holding onto his arm.
"It was difficult to find any details as she barely has any online footprint, but finally I managed to confirm that indeed she had lived with McAllister for many years."
"Harper confirmed it was her who contacted him," Cho said from behind them. He had quietly returned and had been listening. Abbott, Lisbon and Wiley turned to him to listen to the rest of what he had to say.
"Apparently King was well aware of McAllister's double life as Red John and once he was killed by Jane, she went into a rage." Cho continued as he sat down on the end of the desk.
"She knew about Bobby Harper and his experiments and hired him to perform his technique on Jane. To implant false memories of being Red John that wouldn't fade," Cho said with distaste.
"They had their chance when Jane was detained by the airport authority as one of the guards had been working for Red John. They knocked Jane out and took him to Harper's makeshift lab here in Austin where he infused Jane with his cocktail of drugs and then hypnotized him to brainwash him," Cho's voice getting stonier the more he explained about the actual event.
"They thought they would have much longer before having to return him without anybody being none the wiser, but Lisbon screwed up their plans by leaving the plane and staying behind," Cho explained, "They only managed few hours and that's apparently why it has taken this long for any of the effects to come through and why they are so random."
"King's ultimate goal was to make Jane kill Lisbon with the trademark Red John style and make sure the press knew about it. She wanted him to suffer in the knowledge that he had killed the woman he loved and also brand Jane as Red John instead of McAllister," Cho finished.
Lisbon recoiled in horror, "She almost succeeded."
"But she didn't and now we have her," Abbott stated and carried on, "Grab you gear, we are going to get her now before she realizes that she has been exposed."
The team slipped into Agent mode and started gathering guns and vests to get ready before making their way to their cars. Luckily they didn't have to drive too far as Harper had claimed that King was supposed to be in his makeshift lab getting everything ready for Jane tonight.
XXX
Back at the office Dr. Carter and Jane made a plan how to proceed. They wanted to be careful as now they knew what experimental regime had been tried on Jane and the long term effects of the mixture of the drugs together with the ECT was unknown.
They were both also aware of the suppressed memories Jane had and especially Jane was wary of getting too close to them as if he had deemed them too painful to remember, he was well advised to steer clear of them. The only problem was that hypnosis was probably the quickest way of trying to pinpoint exactly what had been done and to try to reverse it. Jane agreed that suggestions under hypnosis might work and they had started the process.
As Lisbon and the others left the building, Jane had gone under hypnosis and Dr. Carter had started to gently navigate through Jane's complicated mind.
XXX
For once everything went without a problem. The team apprehended Terry King, Lisbon getting the honour of cuffing her while King was shouting and screaming at her. They basically had her confession there and then as she didn't seem to care what she said. As she was stuffed into a car and transported away, Lisbon dusted her hands on her thighs and turned to Cho who had come to stand next to her.
Cho was looking at her seriously and quietly said, "We got her. Jane is safe now."
Lisbon nodded appreciating that Cho took the time to reassure her.
"I certainly hope so," she said as they both stood looking after the departing car.
XXX
The atmosphere was definitely lighter and more positive as Lisbon, Cho and Abbott stepped back into the office. It was already getting dark outside when they fell into their chairs.
"Good work agents," Abbott beamed at Lisbon, Cho and Wiley and waved at his hand at a nearby table where steaming pizza boxes were stacked up.
"I took the liberty of ordering food to celebrate," he said smilingly as Wiley sprang up from his seat and practically ran to the food. Cho and Lisbon got up more wearily and went to get few slices for themselves. As they returned to their seats to munch the pizza Dr. Carter walked towards them.
"I'm glad I still caught you here," he said looking serious. Before he could say anything else Wiley had launched into explaining the arrest and what Terry King and Bobby Harper had been up to and what they had found from the lab.
Dr. Carter finally lifted his hand to stop the avalanche of words.
"I'm afraid I have bad news," he said and looked directly at Lisbon who dropped the piece of pizza she had been nibbling as the cold dread spread in the pit of her stomach.
"The hypnosis worked and we were able to find and identify the false memories. I managed to correct most of them with Jane's help," he said.
"But that's good, right?" Wiley commented as he carried on eating.
"Well, yes. That part is good. The bad news is that one particular suppressed memory surfaced causing Jane to become extremely agitated. So much so that I had to sedate him," Dr. Carter slowly explained and sighed deeply.
"Since then the drugs should have worn off, but he is still unresponsive and almost catatonic. I believe he has reverted back to his condition immediately after finding his family murdered," he continued and then hesitated. He looked undecided and looked up at Lisbon in an effort to find guidance.
Lisbon had become stone still and her mind had frozen. She couldn't comprehend anything what Dr. Carter was saying, she could only stare at him as her worst fears had come true. Jane had finally fallen apart, just when everything started looking brighter.
"What is it?" Cho asked quietly as the doctor didn't immediately continue.
Dr. Carter took a deep breath before continuing.
"I found the reason why Patrick seemed to first strangle his victim in his dreams before slashing them with a knife," he hesitantly continued, "but I don't feel comfortable in talking about this in an open office."
"Can we please move to my office?" he asked indicating that Lisbon, Cho and Abbott should follow him. When Wiley went to follow, he stopped him saying, "I believe this information should be available only for those who need to know." Wiley looked confused and mildly hurt, but he sat back down and watched as the others left the room.
XXX
Once they were sitting behind closed doors Dr. Carter finally allowed himself to show the signs of strain and stress.
"I want to make it clear that this is not exact science and I cannot say with 100 % certainty that this is what happened. Especially taking into account how much Patrick has had his mind messed with," he cautioned as he sat down heavily in the arm chair.
Lisbon sat at one end, Cho next to her while Abbott sat down on the other arm chair across the small table. Lisbon didn't really want to hear any of this, but knew that she had to in effort to help Jane. She was aware how close Cho was sitting to her, his solid presence comforting, but still keeping his distance to give her space.
"What I can gather is that Patrick figured out very early on who Red John was," Dr. Carter started.
"He had been having marital problems and came up with a complicated plan to make it all go away. He contacted Red John, threatening to expose him if he didn't play along and Red John seemingly agreed," he explained trying not to see the horrified expressions on everyone's faces. Especially Lisbon looked like she was about to collapse.
"His memories seem to indicate that he strangled Angela and Red John was supposed to then make it look like his usual kill. What Patrick hadn't taken into account was that Red John wasn't that easily coaxed into doing other man's bidding. While Patrick had attacked Angela, Red John had killed Charlotte, but mercifully having been quick about it. It had been the finding of her body that had broken him that first time around. It had been Red John's revenge," Dr. Carter quietly finished.
"We never understood why Charlotte had been killed as she was the only child Red John ever killed," Cho said slowly as he turned this new angle in his head, "This would explain it."
"How sure are you about this?" Abbott demanded.
"As I said, I can only speculate. The Patrick Jane that you knew has his mind fractured and it's very difficult to know what is real, what is false and what he made up throughout the years pushed along by his guilt and rage," Dr. Carter said wearily.
Lisbon's hands had been shaking and she was holding them tightly together to stop it. When she tried to speak, her voice broke and she couldn't get anything out. She couldn't take in what she was hearing. She was hearing the words but they had no meaning for her. Finally she managed to croak out, "Where is he now?"
Dr. Carter looked at her with deep sympathy that in normal circumstances would have made Lisbon to get up and slap him across the face. Now she could only wait in numbness and in equal measures of horror and longing to find out what had happened to the man she loved. The man she didn't know anymore, the man who had broken apart to be lost forever.
"I had him admitted to a secure psychiatric facility. I will take you there whenever you want," he answered.
"Can we go now?" Lisbon hoarsely whispered.
Dr. Carter only nodded and stood up and offered his hand to help Lisbon up. However it was Cho who helped her up and supported her when she stumbled. She leaned against him ignoring Dr. Carter who then led the way leaving Abbott alone to digest what he had been told.
XXX
They walked along the long, white corridor. It wasn't that bright as there were only night lights on but it was enough to make it clear that this was a high security medical facility. Dr. Carter stopped to talk to the nurse on duty at the nurse's station as another nurse showed Lisbon and Cho down the corridor to where Jane had his room.
Lisbon slowed down the closer they got and Cho followed her lead. He didn't touch he,r but he didn't leave her side either. He had never seen Lisbon this fragile and he vowed not to let her deal with this alone.
Lisbon stopped in front of the locked door. They had been told that Jane was heavily sedated as he had become animated and extremely agitated again few hours before.
"Open the door please. I want to see him," she said to the nurse who looked over her head at Dr. Carter who nodded.
"He's heavily sedated," the nurse warned her as he unlocked the door.
Lisbon stepped in leaving Cho standing at the door. Jane was wearing blue scrubs and was tucked underneath white thick blankets. His eyes were open but unseeing as he lay on the bed in the room that had white walls and a small table, but nothing else.
Lisbon stepped forwards and sat down next to him. The tears that she had been holding back finally broke free.
"Hi Jane," she choked out through her tears as she reached out to stroke his golden curls. Jane gave no response, his eyes stayed on the ceiling, his breathing steady. Lisbon carried on stroking his hair as her tears fell freely. Jane was completely lost to her. The realization hit her hard, like somebody had dropped a heavy stone on her.
"Goodbye Jane," she whispered and leant down to kiss his forehead before getting up. She would return one day, she vowed to herself as she took faltering steps to the door and gently closed it behind her. There was a sound of a key turning in the lock leaving silence behind that was only disturbed by the steady sound of soft breathing.
His body had stayed behind, but his mind was gone.
Patrick Jane was no more.
The end