Charging ahead. Thanks for the reveiws so far.
I do not intend to write a cop story, so the Red John stuff is all dressing. This is about two characters against their background.
BTW -How does one handle "travelling"? I mean the inevitable "she stood up and walked across the blah and sat on the blah"? You know the stuff bodies do in space and tv makes so effortless?
I try to cut it as I go. It seems better to imply than travel. I hope I got it partly right. Oh, heads, hands, arms and legs travel too. It's a pain.
The cards on the table chapter.
"We are wasting time." Jane was grumbling. "I didn't go through all that to miss this chance."
Teresa watched him across her desk. This complicated simple man that had stolen her. This unpredictable constant who had been at her side for eight years. He of the origami frogs and ponies. He of betrayal and pain. She was not going to let him play his game anymore.
Keeping the momentum of surprise, she came around to sit on the edge, near and above him. He blinked and looked up.
"I will release the hounds — well, the hound — but there's something you have to know first."
He leaped to his feet. "I don't know what's come over you Lisbon, but I like it." He motioned to the couch, "You don't mind if I sit over there? It's a little less mouse-cage-owl."
She smirked, relenting. He settled down, perching his fingers together.
"You like being the mouse?" She asked him.
"Not at all. And yet, I do. News to me."
"Well, get used to it. I've made a decision Jane."
He cocked his head to the side, "What have you decided Lisbon?"
"Call me Teresa." She said, not moving a muscle.
There was a long stretch of silence that made her wonder if it was still yesterday; if she was still running the scenes in her imagination.
Jane broke the spell, "Teresa," he was grinning like a fool, "You can call me Patrick. Now isn't this quaint?"
She grinned. He lit up. What do I look like to him, she wondered?
"I like Jane." Was all she said, but she looked down for a moment.
"Me too," he quipped.
He leaned back, "What's this about? The weight of office got you down?"
"Nothing of the kind." She sat next to him. "I was expecting to be out of a job. Bertram was too. Seems your agent Darcy had other plans."
"Ah." He nodded — dramatically, as usual.
She continued, "So, I get to stay. You get to stay. It all stays the same, only it can't."
He stopped nodding.
"I don't care anymore Jane." She said into the space.
He flicked his eyes to hers, his pupils question marks.
"I am not going to be stuck anymore."
This was it. Time to dispel years of ambiguity. Cards on table time.
"Stuck?" He prompted.
"Yes, the same-old same-old. Good old Teresa. Switch her on, switch her off."
Her words worked. He lost his smile and shook his head. She could see he was uncomfortable.
"Shh." She held a warning finger up, "I'm not done." He closed his mouth. She knew he'd heard the contraction.
"I'm a person Jane. I'm real. I know you have a mission of vengeance and I know everything that entails." She drew-out the 'everything' to make it clear
She leaned closer to him, saying it slowly, "And. I. Don't. Care."
She put her hand out to take his. He was gaping now, seemingly confused.
"I am taking what I want now." Her hands took his, enclosing.
"Teresa—"
She glared, he stopped.
"You come, you go. You breeze in and out. You shoot me and chop my head off."
"—that's not quite—"
"Hush."
"You say you love me," He scrunched his eyes for a beat. "—then you deny it. You want your cake and your toast, your icing and butter too."
She pushed his hand against his leg, letting it go.
"You cut me to the heart and then you throw me away." His head hung now.
"You can't treat a person like that Jane." She spoke quietly, touched his hand with her fingers. "You just can't and I won't let you do it anymore."
She stood up to get some space. He lifted his face.
"You want me to go Teresa?" He asked, pain lacing his voice.
"That's the question, isn't it Jane?" She drew-out the pause.
"You do!" He gasped.
She bored her stare into his eyes. "No. I want you to stay."
His eyes widened.
"I want you to stay all the way. I want you to wake up and see me."
Before he could ruin it with some damn-fool remark, she was at the door.
"I want you to decide." She took the handle.
"Because I have decided Jane. If you stay it's because I'm here and you want me."
"— I —" She shook her head to silence him.
"No doubts, no bull. I want you and you better get your shit together." She closed the door, leaving him alone.
..xx..
"Boss." Cho was hailing her. "We have a lead on—" the business of being a cop consumed her and the day took its own path. She didn't see Jane leave her office, but when she returned a few hours later he was not within.
Oh I hope that worked, she thought, feeling a moment of terror.
"Agent Lisbon?" It was Darcy, "I'm glad I caught you." The FBI agent looked tired.
"Me too, it's been quite a day. What can I do for you?" Teresa asked.
"Our suspect has been — difficult. Obstinate." The agent scowled. "Have you seen Jane? We can really use his help."
Teresa was surprised. "You mean he hasn't been in to interrogate Lorelei?"
Darcy shook her head, "Not hide nor hair of him all day."
Well — that was unusual. What if I? But she refused to be stuck any more.
"I'll find him Agent Darcy." She said.
"Anyone seen Jane?" Teresa asked Rigsby and Grace at their stations.
"No Boss," Grace replied.
Rigsby looked skittish. She tapped her foot. "Ah, I think I saw him head out a few hours ago. I thought he had a job or something." He quickly spilled .
"He's gone out?" She felt frustrated.
What was he thinking? Had she pushed too hard? Perhaps he didn't feel the way she did? Maybe her gamble, the fork chosen, was not going to pay off? Well no matter. It was going to be what it was.
Collecting her nerve, she changed the subject. She caught up on the latest, issued some orders and went to find him.
..xx..
Later — much later — she was home. She had not found him. Her calls to his cell had all gone to voice mail. Well, if he wanted to drop out then who was she to stop him? It's not like he had never left before.
What's plan B, Teresa? She took to her couch. Her empty apartment accused her. She could feel the long night laughing. Would this endless lonely bullshit never end?
Hell no. If Jane was not the man she thought he was then she would move on. Plan B was to get out into the world, that murky thing beyond the pale of cops and robbers and serial killers.
It was late, but she needed distracting. She flipped her cell open, hesitated and then called an old friend.
"Walter?" He had answered on the first ring.
..xx..
"Always nice to see you Teresa," the charming millionaire said as he opened his door.
She smiled at him, feeling purpose but pointless. Her mixed signals must have been glaring because he shifted gears and became sombre.
"You are looking blue," he said. They wandered through his palace, finding the path to the lounge where he mixed her a drink.
"Sit, sit. Talk."
She nearly did. "Nothing to say Walter."
"I know that nothing," he sympathised, handing her drink over. "I think I know what's eating you," he continued.
"Do tell."
"As much as I like to think I am the centre of the Lisbon world, I know when I am beaten." He held up his glass, clinked it against hers.
She sipped rather than trying to speak.
"He's a right bastard, you know? Leaving you for so long."
"What have you heard?"
"This and that. I know he's back."
She swigged the rest of the drink, held the glass up. Walter took it and went about a refill.
"Yeah, he's back. Our old Boss is dead. I'm the new Boss."
"Wow." He said, quickly doubling the drink.
"You can say that again," she replied, warning him not to.
He smiled to show he got it, handing her the second drink.
"You may as well tell me about it."