Well...I'm officially a high school graduate and set to attend college in the fall. I'm trying to finish up this story (which shouldn't be a problem, I think) and 'The Immortals' and 'Once Lost, Now Found.' 'The Immortals' is next on my updates list, I promise. This one was just begging to be written - and I'm also kind of glad that I got this chapter out of the way so things can un-angst-tify. Yes, I created that word just now.
I would like to thank everyone who read, reviewed, subscribed, and favourited. You guys are amazing :)
BrightLights: I really love writing Lisbon in general - especially hormonal pregnant Lisbon! Don't worry, I intend to keep on writing Once Lost, Now Found, and thank you for reading and taking the time to review :)
Disclaimer: I'm sure Bruno Heller doesn't get lost in a city he's lived in for a few years...even with a GPS. That gives him the amazing rights to this show.
Chapter Ten: Come on, Give it a Try
Jane shifts uncomfortably in his suit. He happily welcomed the change of clothes other than a blue jumpsuit that Cho had brought him, but because he isn't used to dressing like this anymore...he feels awkward. Though he is happy about the re-trial starting today and hopefully also ending soon, he just wishes he could get into more comfortable clothes as fast as possible.
Sighing, Jane reaches up and rubs his freshly shaved cheek. When Cho had come and brought him the clean suit, he also brought a razor and shaving cream. Scissors too. On account of having very limited hair cuts in the last few months, Jane's hair had become extremely long and his curls had run wild. With one look, Cho quickly moved to one of the offices and requested a pair of scissors and snipped away, much to Jane's protest. Smiling at the humourous memory, Jane leans back into his seat at the defense table.
Trying to pass the time, he starts to bounce his leg up and down in one place and whistles. His lawyer, Kaitlin Stark, sits beside him and casts an irate look in his direction. Jane pauses and cocks his head in her direction. The corners of his mouth begin to form a smile at the young lawyer and he turns back to face the front of the courtroom and continues to whistle.
"Please stop it."
He stops and looks at the woman, "Why so grumpy? Are you angry because you had to miss out on a lovely morning with your boyfriend?"
Stark shifts in her seat and refuses to turn to him. So he continues in a low voice, "Do you think I should stay in jail after I killed a man? A man that killed my wife and child eight years ago and meant to kill Agent Lisbon, and who haunted the state of California for years?"
She breathes in and out quietly and slowly turns to Jane. Stark blinks at him, "I'm 'grumpy' because you left Agent Lisbon all alone."
"To protect her."
"But you acted as a vigilante, and you shouldn't have done that," she turns back to face forward.
Jane studies the young lawyer for a moment. She isn't angry about his actions – she very well agrees that Red John should have been taken down, and that the method didn't really matter. It was deeper – more personal – as to why she was acting so grumpy with him.
He shakes his head, "It isn't about that. You wanted him gone too." Stark turns to him, "You are upset about Lisbon, and believe me, I am too. But you're also upset because this case has cost you something personal."
Stark leans back into the bench seat and takes a deep breath. She looks over at Jane, and by the look of her hazel eyes he can tell that that she definitely lost someone she loved. Maybe not to death, but the feeling of abandonment is still there and it still stings. Because of that, Jane feels guilty. He feels guilty for leaving Lisbon alone for all these months – even though his actions saved her life – and because it has obviously hurt a young woman who had been in love.
"My fiancé left me a couple of days ago. He was tired of me being at the CBI for so many days and didn't like me working this case. I came home to an empty apartment," she says quickly without looking at him, "I tried to call him an hour ago to tell him something, but he wouldn't answer his stupid phone. I mean he has it all the time!" she nervously starts chewing on her thumbnail.
Jane shifts away from her, "I don't blame you, Mr. Jane." Her voice is so soft and she looks over at him, "I don't blame you for killing Red John." Her eyes flicker in his direction and for the first time he sees something he should have noticed months ago. Her hazel eyes were the exact same as someone else's he gazed into. Jane remembers them every night in his sleep and always awakens when they begin to fog over.
She is Red John's child.
"All rise," the bailiff says as he stands straight with his hands on his belt buckle.
Lisbon stands to her feet and rests her arms underneath her pregnant belly. Today is the day that she will try to get Jane out of jail as a free man. Honestly she will readily admit that she feels that it is a long shot that this will work, but she tries to remain hopeful for their son's sake.
The judge gestures with his hand, "Let's begin," and then gestures again for everyone to sit back down.
Lisbon grimaces as she slowly slides back into her seat, her hand flying to her lower back as a twinge of pain welcomes her. Rigsby turns his head in her directions and mouths her the question "are you okay?" and she nods her head. Back pains weren't uncommon in her third trimester, and she has been dealing with them for quite some time now. They were nothing new and her team knew this.
Sighing, she looks back up as the judge goes through the new evidence he has before him. All eyes are on him now as he turns another page and looks in Jane's direction – the man that he had sent to jail all those months ago. Lisbon pauses and clenches her hand into a fist by her belly as she suddenly fears that this judge may try to keep Jane in jail, regardless of the new evidence they have come up with. It was a known fact that Judge Klasen hates Patrick Jane more than anything on this planet. She knows even with new evidence, the odds really aren't in Jane's favour. That is, unless the jury decides otherwise.
"Mr. Jane, you told this court that you killed Max Clemenson, also known as Red John, to avenge the death of your wife and child and to protect Agent Lisbon," Judge Klasen looks over at Lisbon over his spectacles and furrows his brow when he sees the swell of her belly, "Why the sudden change of heart?"
Jane simply shrugs his shoulders as if it were nothing, "Well, you see, I really wanted to kill him," Lisbon feels the sudden urge to strike the man, "but when I arrived at the scene of the crime he was already dead. It upset me that I never got to kill him myself, so I told everyone that I had, and everyone believed me."
The judge leans forward, "Because all evidence points to you, Mr. Jane," Lisbon really wants to hit Jane when he shrugs and mouths a "meh" as the judge continues his monologue, "Your fingerprints are on the murder weapon and you were covered in his blood!"
Jane leans back, "I wanted people to think that I had killed Red John," he then leans forward again, "Tell me Judge Klasen, if your family was killed by a madman and you vowed to them you would avenge their death, you would feel a bit peeved if you arrived on the scene to find him already dead would you not? So naturally I pretended that I killed him."
Lisbon shuts her eyes for a couple of moments and blinks. She knew Jane had to go about this case like this so it would be more convincing. Cho told him when he also brought the change of clothes this morning. Taking a deep breath and as she is about to reopen her eyes, she feels a sharp kick to the side of her belly. She jerks upwards and her hand lands over the area where she was just kicked. Baby Jane seems to agree with the story that his father has just fabricated…or because he was made in the time discrepancy that is about to be spoken about.
"Mr. Jane, you are admitting to lying in a court of law. That is another serious offense."
"With all do respect, Judge Klasen, I wasn't really in the most sane state of mind."
Judge Klasen took a long blink and Lisbon has to fight back a chuckle. After this court appearance, Judge Klasen would no doubt need a whole entire tub of aspirin because of Jane.
After a long pregnant pause, Stark stands up from her place and rounds the corner to stand closer to Judge Klasen's podium. Clasping onto a government-issued CBI folder, she stands before the court. Flipping it open, she turns a couple of pages and settles on one, "Your honour, I would like to enter this statement in the chain of custody."
She takes a couple of steps forward and hands the papers to the judge. He looks them over and his eyebrows rise almost immediately. He leans back into his seat and looks down at the young lawyer then back at Patrick Jane. He rubs his chin and then reaches up to push his glasses back up his nose. "This is a medical examiner's report."
Stark nods, "Yes. Red John was killed two hours earlier than what was previously claimed in the last trial. For some reason, instead of going by the medical examiner's report earlier, we went by Mr. Jane's testimony of just killing Red John as soon as Agent Lisbon had found him. We have witnesses that state that she was right behind him and arrived on the scene right after Red John was killed and that she immediately called it in." Stark takes a deep breath and continues.
"This is not possible due to the two hour discrepancy. Red John had already been dead for two hours by the time Agent Lisbon called it in."
Judge Klasen leans forward and looks over at Lisbon, "Is this true, agent?"
She nods and caresses the swell of her belly under the table, "Yes, I arrived just after Jane came and I did believe him to have killed Red John originally."
Klasen looks at her more closely, "But you two left in enough time to arrive to the scene of the crime that two hours before. There are witnesses around the CBI that can easily testify to that."
Lisbon nods and fights the urge to bite her lip, "Yes, but the weather conditions were questionable," it was not a lie. She clearly remembers the rain beating down on the roof of her Chevy Traverse as they made love, "The tread marks in the mud caused by Jane's vehicle were still fresh when I arrived shortly after he did. When I arrived on the scene, Jane was standing over Max Clemenson's body with my gun in hand, but the blood around them had been dry for quite some time. It wasn't fresh, your honour."
Judge Klasen looked around the entire courtroom to search everyone's faces for any sign of lies. "So, who killed Max Clemenson?"
Lisbon shakes her head, "We do not know, your honour, but we also have Clemenson's prints on the gun as well. He could have easily committed suicide just to screw with Jane some more knowing that Jane would take the blame. Especially with the letter, also in that file," she points to the folder that Stark had given to the judge.
The Judge nods and flips through some papers and picks up the letter encased in a giant freezer baggie. He quickly looks over it and Lisbon can see him shiver. She leans back in her seat, "We have reasons to believe that Red John sent that letter to Jane knowing that he would come."
Judge Klasen looks back up at the court and swallows, "All right," his voice isn't quite being carried by the microphone situated in front of him, "We will recess for fifteen minutes."
Lisbon looks over at the other side of the court and sees Jane smile at her. He is hopeful, and so is she. Carefully she stands and places her hand on the side of her belly as she feels another strong kick. Jane winks at her and without much fuss is lead out of the courtroom. She looks down at her belly and rubs it affectionately and then turns back to look at the now vacant podium. Taking a deep breath, she leaves the courtroom.
Jane watches Stark hastily pull her hair into a clumsy bun. This is really the first time he has looked at her since his discovery of her parentage, and he is curious as to why she is helping him avoid his prison sentence. Or rather…get out of it.
"He's your father."
Stark pauses and lets her hands fall from her hair. She cautiously turns and looks at Jane and places her hands on her hips, "Yes, Red John was my father."
He takes a step closer, feeling awkward once more now that his hands are cuffed, "And yet you're helping me."
She shifts her footing and crosses her arms over her chest, "I didn't know what Red John was to me up until two years ago. He hurt my mother years ago and was a bad man. I have to sour feelings with you," she whispers to him and leans against a nearby wall.
Jane cocks his head to the side, his infamous curiosity getting the better of him, "How did he hurt your mother?"
She shrugs her shoulders, "He didn't kill her, if that is what you are wondering. My mother is blind at the moment, but when she met him she was just becoming so. He acted as if he loved her and they were together for five years before he just left." There was a sense of bitterness in her tone, "It broke her heart, and the only reason why he probably stayed with her was because she was going blind, and she couldn't see him for who he was."
Jane nods suddenly remembering the other blind woman that Red John had courted a few years ago. He seemed to seek human affections in the blind due to the fact that they could not see him and were not really reliable when it came to lining up suspects for all to see. Jane knows that he really should not be surprised that this happened this way.
"And I hated him for it," Stark finishes and Jane can tell that she will not say anymore about it.
He nods softly, "Thank you for telling me, Kaitlin," she nods at him and looks the other way. He smiles at her and starts to walk away, but first he waves softly at the guard who watches over him like a hawk. The guard nods in understanding that Jane intends to move to the other side towards the heavily pregnant woman sitting on a chair outside the courtroom doors.
Jane instantly smiles and walks towards her, being careful not to alert his presence near her. He stops in front of her and he feels her pause knowing that someone is standing near to her in her own personal bubble. She looks up and her eyes light up at the sight of him, and is about to stand up when he shakes his head to tell her no.
"Hey," her smile grows.
"Hey," he says to her and leans down to be at a closer level to her, "How are you and junior?" he reaches his hands down and caresses the swell of her belly, feeling the baby kick back.
She leans back, "He has been so active during this whole trial," she places her hands over his and squeezes them, "It's very distracting."
"Really?" he smirks, proud that his offspring is distracting her.
Lisbon rolls her eyes and nods, "God yes. Your son has been active for the past couple of weeks now."
Jane pats her belly, "Well, he's just getting a little crammed in there. He wants out soon, you know."
She groans softly, "His mother wants him out soon."
Jane smiles and his eyes move to her lips, "In time, my dear," and he leans forward to press a quick kiss onto her lips.
When his lips touch hers, she is surprised. They have not been able to show that much open signs of affection while he has taken up residence in prison over the last few months. The fact that he just kissed her now, during his trial's recess, brought her back to the dilemma they would face if for some reason he is not pardoned.
They stay silent for a few minutes until they are being summoned back into the courtroom. As Jane turns and heads back to his friendly guard, Lisbon stands slowly, but firmly and grabs onto his arm. He turns and barely catches her as she moves close to him and presses her lips to his in a passionate kiss that says so much. It ignites something in him and he feels the urge to wrap his arms around her, but cannot due to the handcuffs trapping him. Instead he has to settle to reach up and gently caress the side of her cheek with the back of his hand. She presses one last kiss to his lips and steps back only slightly.
"I love you."
He settles back into his seat and is ready for the ultimatum. He knows that Judge Klasen had pondered everything that has been presented to him today during those fifteen minutes, and is no doubt still weighing the pros and cons of absolving Patrick Jane from his crime that he supposedly did not commit. At this moment, he also finds it appropriate to once again bounce his foot up and down against the floor, and this time Stark does nothing to stop him as she too engages herself in a nervous habit of biting her thumbnail.
Judge Klasen reaches up and takes hold of his gavel and runs his clubby fingers across the fine wood. He takes in a deep breath and the sweat beads up on his brow, "We have come to the verdict that," he pauses and once more looks around at the court, "That you, Patrick Alexander Jane, shall be pardoned and released from prison." He brings the gravel down and onto the base and the sound reverberates throughout the room.
Jane instantly looks across the room at Lisbon, whose look of sheer elation is no doubt a mirror image of his own. Grateful that he no longer had his handcuffs binding his wrists together, he gets up from his seat and runs to the other side of the courtroom, and no one stops him. Lisbon is standing by the time he reaches her and takes her into his arms. Pulling her closer to him so that her pregnant belly rests against his abdomen, he presses a loving kiss onto her lips. Her eyes flutter shut and she wraps her arms around his neck. He turns his head to the side, feeling his nose caress hers as he moves, and presses a firmer kiss to her lips.
People clap seeing the once broken man repair his heart, and Jane cannot help but move away from Lisbon for a few brief moments. When he looks at her once more, her eyes are open and he sees that she is crying and has a blush forming on her cheeks. Once more, she would no doubt blame this action on her sporadic hormones. He laughs in complete joy and pulls her to him again. He definitely knows that everyone that has a government job will know of this…and so will the media.
"Case…dismissed," and the gravel was brought done for the last time.
I put a twist in there, but it won't be explored. This story maybe has a chapter or two left now. I may do a little one shot series/collection type thing that moves in chronological order for awhile, so let's see how that goes. Oh, and I have a little one shot in the works called "The Pros and Cons of Men as Told by Teresa Lisbon" thanks to a conversation on Twitter with Jisbon4Ever. It's supposed to be humour, I'm sure that's gathered by the title. ;)