Apparently Herring had discussed Jane's improving condition with the hospital staff because the next day Jane was released back into the general population. Again Jane was placed into the lunchroom line and when he reached the serving lady she smiled.
"What will it be?" she asked him, Jane smiled back and replied, "The chicken." behind him the large man's eyes bulged.
"Ay! You done talked." he exclaimed.
Jane nodded, "I do believe I seem to be returning to myself." They received their food and sat down together on an empty table bench.
"So I'm Louie, Louie Catchatori. You are den?" the large balding man asked sticking out his hand, his thick Italian-American accent ringing off the white walls of the lunchroom.
Jane reached out and shook it, "Patrick Jane."
"So I hear you got Doc Herring as your shrink." the man began, his voice booming and his hands active. Jane looked the man over and wondered just who he was trying to fool. He was a forty odd man with a balding head who was about twenty pounds overweight and who wore way too much gold jewellery. The man was laughable and gave off an offensive atmosphere yet seemed to possess a kind aura which drew in Patrick.
Jane nodded to his question and then asked, "Have you met him?"
Louie rattled his head, "Nah. Unlike the rest of 'em Doc Herring don't see many of us patients." a smile crept up on his face and he moved in a few inches closer, "Rumour haz it that the ol' doc has some funny way's about him."
Jane was now intrigued and moved in as well, "How so?" he inquired.
Louie chuckled, "He got in here about a month or so and until then nobody had heard about him; they stuck him with some patients and everything was fine, your friend Louie has been here for a while and I know everything about this place." Jane got the feeling that Louie always knew everything about every place he was, he had this 'mob boss' feeling to him.
"Anyway," Louie continued, "apparently he had something go wrong with a patient and the men upstairs didn't like it so they cut down his patients to like zero."
Louie smiled and slapped Jane across his back, hard, "Dat was until you showed up." he bellowed, "None of the regular shrinks could get at you for sure!" he laughed full heartedly, "You're one tough cookie! So they all thought 'what the hell' and brought in Herring. They say he was a really good shrink once!"
Jane mulled this over for a moment, but truthfully this information held no real merit; Jane wasn't here to sift through his psychiatrists murky background, he was here to figure out some way to get out of this place, hunt down Red John and kill him. After that Jane knew that everything would feel much better and if it didn't, well he could always come back for another session couldn't he? It was at this moment that the noise of the lunchroom faded and another noise took its place. At the back of the lunchroom was a small and relatively ancient television set which was tuned into the news. An attractive woman with typical blond hair and a plastic expression was divulging the latest with a relativity predictable backdrop of a crime scene behind her. At the time Jane had not been paying any attention to the screen that was until the woman said two heart stopping words which caused Patrick to jump to his feet, his eyes drawn in. "Red John...She has been brutally murdered by infamous serial killer Red John in her home behind me just last night. 25 year old Sally Majors was a medical student who had only a year left on her residency. Her parents have released this statement..." Jane couldn't believe what he had seen.

Jane was laying on his bed, gazing up at the ceiling. Above his head was a water stain, it hung above him ominously as if it was trying to reveal something. It was as if the stain was striving to warn him that this world wasn't real, that these walls were only paper and soon it would all collapse around him. Then again the stain did look a little like Bob Dylan so perhaps, Jane thought, he was overthinking things. It was at this moment that the door to his room opened and Jane saw the face of Doctor Herring out of the corner of his eye.
"Good afternoon Patrick." Herring said, his emerald eyes seemingly brighter than last time. Jane didn't move. He didn't even acknowledge Herring's presence.
"Mr Jane?" Herring asked as he took a step forward than stopped.
He nodded knowingly, "Hmm, so you've heard." He reached down and flipped out the chair, sitting down across from Jane who still hadn't moved. Herring sighed, "Patrick, it was bound to happen." he began. Suddenly Jane popped up, causing Herring to jump slightly, crying, "Bound to happen?" he shouted, "How can you say that?"
Herring shook his head, "If you'd only let me finish." he took a breath and replied, "There is a reason why they call serial killers 'serial'. It denotes the circular nature of the condition. Most serial killers have a pattern that they must adhere to, in this way they are predictable. Serial killers kill to fulfil a need which cannot be sated otherwise. Therefore, Red John killing again was an eventuality."
Jane nodded slightly and fell back onto the bed. Herring always talked so frankly about everything, he never beat around the bush; if you asked him a question you would get the answer as best as he could give it. This seemed to Patrick both an asset and a drawback because although Herring gave the truth it seemed Herring didn't know how to soften it. Jane couldn't argue with the doctor, after all he was correct. What was he really expecting? Why would Red John just stop? There were bound to be others and yet just because it made sense, didn't make it any less hard.
"What would you do doctor if I told you that I wanted to kill Red John?" Patrick said slowly, his eyes still on the water stain above him.
Herring's eyes widened for a single second before he replied, "Well I do know what I should do which is report your intentions to the authorities, however as to what I would do well..." Herring's eyes rolled over Patrick and when they stopped to rest on his eyes he continued, "I'd ask you a question."
Jane rolled over, ending up sitting on the edge of the bed. He ran his hands over his face and then looked deep into the doctor's eyes replying, "And what question would that be?"
Herring smiled strangely then glanced at his watch, "I am sorry, but our time is up. Until next time Mr Jane." Herring stood and exited the room, leaving Jane to wonder about his strange doctor.

A/N: There is something not quite right about this chapter, so I'd love to hear what you think about it. All comments and suggestions welcome!