Well, after some delay here's the sixth chapter! I hope everyone enjoys! I would also like to extend a thank you to everyone who has read, reviewed, favourited, and subscribed. You guys are amazing! :)
Chris - Oh I love you too! Thank you! :3
Disclaimer: I do not own The Mentalist. I asked for it for my 18th birthday, but I doubt I can get it.
Chapter Six: Everything Comes Into Focus
Cho leans back into his desk chair and clicks his pen three times. For the past five minutes he has been staring intently at the black telephone sitting on the edge of his desk. Last night he had called Kaitlin Stark – Jane's lawyer – in hopes of speaking to her before she went to bed. This plan had failed and he decided to retry in the morning at around ten.
"Hey Cho, watcha doing?" his gaze moves from the telephone up to the tall agent walking into the bullpen, "Because you've been staring at the phone for awhile. What's the matter?"
Cho shifts in his chair and leans forward to drop his pen on the wood desk. He breathes audibly and looks up at his friend, "I have been trying to contact Stark since last night."
Rigsby quirks his eyebrow and leans against his desk and crosses his arms over his chest, "Kaitlin Stark? Jane's lawyer Kaitlin Stark?" Rigsby remembers her entrance into the CBI headquarters a little over seven months ago.
Rigsby looks up from his barely engaging game of Hearts just in time to see a woman in her late twenties to early thirties walk into the bullpen. She is well groomed – her brown hair deftly pulled into a tight bun and her suit void of wrinkles. She clutches a briefcase tightly as she stands firmly in the bullpen's entrance with a melancholy expression on her face. Wordlessly, Rigsby already knew why she is here.
Ten hours ago Patrick Jane had killed Red John and has since been refusing a lawyer, especially a good one. He sits in an interrogation room with his hands handcuffed together behind his back. The last time he – Rigsby – had walked into the observation room behind the one-sided glass, Jane's gaze remained fixed on the metal table before him. He made absolutely no movements and behaved as if he was in shock.
"Hi, my name is Kaitlin Stark, and I am Mr. Jane's attorney," she straightens her suit jacket, "Agent Hightower called me."
Rigsby nods and moves to stand up, "Uh, right this way," he moves towards her and she moves to the side to let him slide through the entrance.
He gestures for her to follow him, "Jane killed Red John ten hours ago. He's been in the interrogation room ever since," he says when he stops in front of a door, "Would you like to speak to Agent Lisbon?"
He knows where Lisbon is. She is exactly where she was since Jane came in, and that was behind the one-sided glass. She sits and watches him with tears barely running down her cheeks as she tries to remain stoic and void of emotion, but Rigsby knows that she cannot help but feel like she had not done her best to keep Jane from killing Red John.
Stark shook her head, "No, Agent Rigsby, that would not be necessary," she offers him a small smile and moves to push the door open. He stays by the doorframe and quickly glances inside the door to see Jane in the exact same position. Except this time he is crying for his lost family and Lisbon.
Rigsby looks down and walks away.
"Yeah, I remember Stark," Rigsby nods, "Why?"
"I have an idea. The coroner said that Red John had died twelve hours before Lisbon called it in. Maybe we can prove that there is a problem with the timing and get Jane out of jail."
Rigsby steps forward and leans onto Cho's desk, "Wait! It was twelve hours before? There's a two hour hole?" Cho nods, "That could mean that Jane didn't do it! The boss said she found Jane right after he did it, and she wouldn't lie about this type of thing. Not with Red John. I mean Jane was telling her over and over that he killed Red John…"
"And he was covered in the man's blood," Cho states bluntly, "But he could have easily smeared it all over himself and planted his prints on the murder weapon so the evidence would point to him. He wanted Red John dead by his hand, it could have been his only reaction to finding him already gone."
Rigsby blinks at his coworker, "So do you really think we could get Jane out of jail?"
Cho nods, "I do."
Lisbon sits across from Jane, her hands resting on top of her swollen belly. A month has come and gone since they had reconciled, and this meant she was a month closer to having their baby. She tries not to think about the fact that Jane would not be present as she delivers the child in her womb and tries to make up for it by seeing Jane on average three times a week as of late. She laughs and feels the corners of her mouth move upwards. How the man before her could make her laugh and cry within minutes is beyond her, but she now treasures these moments.
"How is the baby?" he asks her, his smile still bright and cheerful, "is he giving you much trouble?"
Ever since he had found out that their baby was a boy, Jane could not help but hope that his son would act just like him. For some reason it just seems so fitting that the whole "like father, like son" thing would apply to them. Of course he hopes some of Lisbon's personality traits will be noticeable within the baby, but he secretly hopes that it will be mostly him. He always smiles at the thought and spends moments of his days telling Norman how his son will be just like him sans the whole going to jail part.
She softly nods her head, "Yes, your son likes to keep me up at night and punch at my bladder."
He cocks his head to the side, "I'm just curious. Why is he my son when he keeps you up at night and causes discomfort?" a smile begins to betray his seriousness, "and then why is he our son when he starts giving you soft little jabs that make you grow so emotional?"
Lisbon straightens, "Because…" she mentally kicks herself when she cannot articulate a better and wittier comment to say. All she can easily think of is that Jane is a hyperactive and overgrown child that can also get on the nerves of people easily, and the baby gets like that, all she can think of is how much this baby is already like Patrick Jane.
"Because what?" he teases and smirks at her.
She presses her brows together, "Because like his father he can never settle down when he should," she places one hand on the side of her belly when she feels a quick jab right next to her belly button. The sudden kick makes her jump, a slight "Oh!" coming from her mouth before she can even stifle it.
"What's wrong?" she finds it funny that he can go from teasing to over protective in less than a few seconds, "Did he move?" she nods at him and he waits for a few moments before saying something else, "Can I feel your belly?"
She stands up from her stool and walks around to lean against the metal table. Reaching down, she takes her smaller hands in his larger ones and brings them up to rest against the side of her belly. She watches as Jane's smile grows larger as he softly strokes his fingers up and down her rapidly expanding abdomen. His fingers barely brush over her cloth-covered swell as the baby begins to set off a series of kicks. Jane's eyes widen and he presses his hand more firmly to her and feels the baby's pokes and prods. He looks down and his eyes water around the corners.
"That's our baby, Teresa."
She nods, "I have something for you," she shifts and reaches down into her blue jean pocket. She slowly pulls out a piece of paper that looks as if it has been folded numerous times. Taking in a deep breath, she holds it out to him and he reluctantly moves one of his cuffed hands from her belly and grasps the paper. Flipping his finger underneath the fold, he opens it up and he nearly feels the dam break.
On the paper was their son. In his hand he sees a picture of his son that dates a week ago, and he can easily make out the head, body, and little hands and feet connected to the limbs. He smiles and leans forward to press a soft kiss on Lisbon's swollen belly, and right over their unborn son.
Once again in the last year Rigsby sits across from Kaitlin Stark. The only difference is, that this time he has Cho by his side and both of them are determined to remove Jane from his prison. Stark sits delicately on Grace's wheeled, her hands folding over her lap. Today she is supposedly on vacation, but has been called in by Cho to discuss "serious urgent matters."
The two agents brief her over the discrepancies that they have discovered, or actually Cho, in the last few days. She just blinks at them, wondering why the hell she was never informed of some of this information months ago. Back then she could have had the chance of keeping Patrick Jane out of jail all together despite how badly he had wanted to give up on living his life freely.
"So you're saying is that Red John was killed two hours earlier than what Agent Lisbon claims?" the agents nod at her, "Are you sure this is a legitimate claim?" they nod again and she sighs, "Well, I can reopen this case and start a new investigation, but I highly doubt that this will get Mr. Jane out of jail. He admitted to doing it, he had the Red John's blood on him, and his fingerprints on the murder weapon. Agent Lisbon could have easily gotten there later."
Cho crosses his arms over his chest, "But that does not explain why she had dried blood on her body when she brought Jane in. Red John could have easily been killed by someone else, and Jane could have easily felt like he had been cheated and acted out on those feelings."
Stark nods, "That is true. Agent Rigsby, what do you think?"
Rigsby nods, "Yeah, I think that's possible. Jane really wanted revenge on the murderous son of a bitch; I wouldn't be surprised if he got angry if he figured out he was already dead when he found him. Red John was wearing gloves, right? He could have killed himself and known Jane would do something stupid."
The young attorney nods again, "I'll talk to Agent Hightower, judge, and the DA. Then I'll make some calls."
Any little boy-name suggestions? ;)
On a more serious note, a good childhood friend of mine was recently diagnosed with cancer. Please, please keep her in your thoughts and prayers!