Title: Recruitment - Part Two
Author: smolder
Disclaimer: I own neither Buffy the Vampire Slayer or the Mentalist.

He looked up as she entered the interrogation room expecting another cop. Not one of his team, he knew they wouldn't be aloud to talk to him, they were to close.

In a way he was disappointed. They had become like a family to him and he wasn't sure if he would ever be allowed to see any of them again.

The woman who sat down across from him had long red hair and green eyes that regarded him calmly.

"You aren't a cop," he said.

It wasn't a question but she answered anyway, "No, I'm not."

For a few moments they simply sat starring at one another. It wasn't a tactic to make him talk, he had experienced that and many others first hand in this room, it was simply an oddly comfortable pause in conversation.

"You aren't the least bit remorseful for what you did."

It wasn't a question but he answered it anyway, the same way she had, "No, I'm not."

Her mouth curled in an understanding smile and there was no condemnation in her eyes; only the same unwavering calm.

There was another pause and he was beginning to be curious as to who she was and why she was here but before he could break the silence and ask, she spoke again.

"They're going to have to prosecute you and you will be sent to jail."

He smiled, "We seem to be making a lot of rhetorical statements."

Her lips twitched in and answering grin. "Yes, we are. We're also answering each other anyway. So I might as well keep on with the trend. You're wondering why I'm here."

Continuing the game he replied, "Yes, I am."

She suddenly became serious. "I'm going to answer you question but first I'm going to tell you a story."

She looked down, breaking eye contact for the first time since she entered the room. She took a deep breath and seemed to gather herself before meeting his eyes again and when she spoke he was captivated.

"There once was a little girl who, like all little girls, wanted more than anything to love and be loved. Her parents might have loved her but they were never around so she could never be sure. A little boy though was around and the girl loved him with all her heart. And the boy loved the girl, but not the way she wanted. He loved her like a sister and although she craved more, that was enough for the girl. But then she met another boy and he wanted her the way she wished the other boy had. They grew to love one another. And it wasn't perfect, there were problems, there always are, but the girl was happy and she was content."

"But he wasn't. The boy was troubled and his eyes wandered and one day the girl caught him with some one else and soon after that he was simply gone. The girl was heartbroken and thought she would never love again. Then came Tara."

The woman's voice had been even through the whole tale but she breathed the name like it was the most painful and ecstatic thing in the world. Like it was life itself.

"Tara." she repeated, swallowing hard and when she continued her voice was thick with emotion.

"She was the girl's soulmate. Her everything. When she looked at the girl the girl knew she had found what she had always been searching for; she loved with all her heart and she was loved in return."

Again the woman paused and he could tell that this was incredibly difficult for her, could guess where this tale was going, but he couldn't bring himself to stop her. He had to hear it.

"There were problems, the girl messed up a lot and for a while she left and the girl was alone. But although what the girl did to her had been unforgivable she still came back and the girl had never in her entire life been happier."

"Then she was killed. Shot. Stray bullet from and idiot who was trying to kill the girls best friend. She laid in the girls arms as she died."

The devastation in the woman's voice was unmistakable; the look in her eyes was broken. But as he watched, they came back alive darkened with pure hate and he knew there was more to the story than he had originally thought.

"The girl could do nothing to save the one she loved from dying but she wasn't helpless and she could not allow the one that had fired the gun to get away while the best part of the girl's whole universe was gone forever."

"She chased him into a forest, played with him like a cat would a mouse before she cornered him. Then the girl strung him up between the trees, taunted him, tortured him, and when she tired of his desperate pleas for forgiveness and mercy she sewed his mouth shut. But, he wasn't dead so the girl wasn't finished. She skinned him alive and set him on fire."

The room should have felt tense after this pronouncement. He should have felt horrified. Instead, he ended the story for her saying, "And she wasn't the least bit remorseful for what she did."

It wasn't necessary but the woman responded anyway, "No, she wasn't."

The two shared a smile that contained no joy, only grim satisfaction and a sense of kinship.