Happy Wega Wednesday! As always, thanks to everyone who reviewed, and thanks for your patience in waiting until the night for an update – I usually have Wednesday off, but I did have to work today.


When Jane and Lisbon returned, Cho gathered them all in the bullpen. "Based on our findings today, we've determined that Jeb Frasier and Keven Kells are our two most wanted. Frasier is currently just downtown in Austin, working his shift as a day custodian at a nightclub. Kells is an hour or so away, somewhere in the radius of this cell phone tower," he pointed to the graphic on the screen. "Vega, you and Lisbon track down Frasier. Wylie and I will go talk to Kells."

"Ah, Cho," Jane said, partially raising his hand, "I think it might be best if Wylie and I go talk to Kells. Frasier is the domineering one, if the sibling we interviewed earlier is any indication. A cop coming to talk to Kells might make him run. He's not the violent one; Kells is. We should go and feel him out."

Cho considered it for a moment, then gave a brief nod. "Okay." He turned to Vega, "you up to that?"

"I laugh in the face of danger," she deadpanned. Wylie and Lisbon snickered.

"Okay," Cho said, nodding as everyone began to rise and move off. "But vest up, everyone."


"I thought this wasn't a stake out," Vega said, dropping her sunglasses down onto her nose. "We've been sitting here over an hour."

"It's not," Lisbon said, "but until those delivery vans leave, I don't want us engaging."

"Gives him too much cover if he runs?" Vega said.

Lisbon nodded. "Yep. Plus there are too many cars. If he get violent I don't want a room full of people." She turned to Vega. "You been feeling okay?"

"Mostly," she shrugged. "Just the nausea and the stiffness. Since my last surgery, everything's been okay. I really don't ever believe I'll be one hundred percent, though."

"No one really is," Lisbon said. "You do just fine."

Vega smiled. "Thanks. There they go." She pointed at the two vans pulled out of the parking lot. Let's go."

"We'll have to be very careful," Lisbon said.

"Look," Vega said, "it's been lightly raining for two days now. Most of those cars have their windows down. They're dumped here, their owners aren't around at the moment."

Lisbon raised her eyebrows. "Impressive."

Vega grinned.

She and Lisbon matched strides as they head into the nightclub. "This place looks really weird during the day," Lisbon said casually. Vega's eyebrows shot up. "Oh, like you and Wylie never go anywhere."

"May I help you?" Said a tall, thin woman who came from around a corner.

"Yes," Lisbon said. "I'm Agent Teresa Lisbon, this is Agent Michelle Bonaventura, and we're with the FBI. We're looking to speak with Jeb Frasier."

The woman looked confused. "Jeb didn't come in today...his shift was supposed to start a few hours ago, but he called in."

"Did he say why?" Vega asked as Lisbon's phone rang and the older woman stepped away to take it.

She shrugged. "Family emergency, I think. I didn't speak with him on the phone, Polly did. I can get her for you if you'd like?"

"Please."

Lisbon returned. "Um, Bonaventura..." she turned to the woman. "Can you excuse us a moment?"

"Sure," she said. "I'm Thelma if you need anything else."

"Okay, don't freak out," Lisbon said to Vega. "Cho has lost contact with Jane and Wylie. They were supposed to call him after interviewing Kell, and..."

Vega pulled her cell phone out of her pocket, dialing Wylie quickly and holding it up to her ear.

The number you have called is unavailable at this time...

"In all likelihood, nothing is wrong," Lisbon said, "they might just be out of range, but we're only about forty minutes from where they were..."

"Let's go."


"Can you drive any faster?" Lisbon asked.

"Believe me, I've crashed quite a few cars in my day," Vega said, gritting her teeth as she cut a yellow light a little too close. "This is as fast as we can go."

Lisbon's phone rang, and she put it to her ear. "Hello?" Hello?"

"You didn't answer it."

Lisbon realized her phone was still buzzing. "Right. Hello? Cho! Uh huh...uh huh...oh my God...yeah, yeah we're close...where are you? Okay. Thanks."

"What?"

"Cho is near the scene. They've found their car. It's empty. The breaks have been cut; the car crashed into a fence near where they were heading to Kell."

"How did they find out we were coming?" The car jerked as it fluctuated in speed in a response to Vega's impatient, nervous tapping of her foot.

"My guess is that brother who pretended he hadn't seen Frasier in years was pulling one over on us," Lisbon said.

"But how did Jane fall for it? Sorry," she said when Lisbon gave her a hurt look. "I know this isn't Jane's fault."

"Red John played Jane many times," Lisbon said. "Sometimes he has an off day. Other times the other person is just really good at deception. He's not a machine."

"I know, I didn't mean..." Vega slammed on her breaks as something raced out in the street in front of them. She wasn't fast enough; the car hadn't come to a complete stop yet when the person rolled up on their windshield, then rolled off and staggered toward a parking lot on the right side of the road, turning warily to look back at them.

"Oh my God," Lisbon said. "Jane!"

Vega's mouth hung open incredulously. "Jane?" She pulled the car off to the side, her eyes frantically scanning the surrounding area.

"Jane!" Lisbon shrieked again as she and Vega got out of the car, racing forward and plowing into her husband, causing him to stagger backwards, grunting. "Jane, you're okay?"

"Jane!" Came another voice. Vega saw Cho running toward them from the side of the parking lot that was near a building.

"Tell me you're okay," Lisbon said, her voice a pitch reserved for when she was relieved.

"Ah, yeah," he said, hugging her back and then straightening up, his eyes uncomfortably on the younger agent.

Vega strode toward him, her lip trembling. "Where is he? Where's Jason?" Tears sprung to her eyes. "Dammit, where's Jason?"

"They took him." Jane bent over, resting his hands on his knees, coughing. Vega and Lisbon looked alarmed at the blood that came from his mouth. As if he'd read their minds, Jane shook his head. "Bit the inside of my mouth," he panted. "They just hit us a few times. I got away, I..." he looked up. "He was alive when they took him."

Vega pressed her lips together tightly. "He was alive when they took him."

"We'll find him," Jane said. "I have the license plate, make and model of the car, I can recognize their voices..."

"Great, so when we never find him because they've taken him across the border, you'll be able to know what stolen car was used to do it."

"Vega," Cho said quietly. Her eyes flashed in his direction. "Hey," he said gently, putting a hand on her shoulder, "you know we're going to do everything we can."

Vega's lower lip slowly slid under as she gave a tiny nod. Then she looked up at Cho. "Excuse me."

Running over to the corner of the lot, she dropped to her knees and vomited, her tight abdominal muscles protesting just as violently. She stayed on her hands and knees, squeezing her eyes shut in a futile attempt to stop the tears. She didn't know how long she remained there, perfectly still, until Lisbon gently eased her to her feet and helped her to the car.


"You really should talk to us," Lisbon said gently.

Vega was lying on the couch in the bullpen, a blanket wrapped around her. She'd gotten oddly cold on the ride home; Cho said it might be shock. He and some others were in the interrogation room deciding on "the next course of action," leaving Vega out on the couch. Lisbon had just exited the interrogation room and was sitting in a chair next to the couch, having spend the past several minutes trying to get Vega to break the silence that had began in the car on the way back to the building.

"I don't know how," she said quietly. She'd hated the counseling she'd been asked to do at the FWTC. She didn't want to talk about how afraid she was.

"Just think out loud," Lisbon said, rubbing Vega's hands between her own. "You'll feel better"

"I guess I always..." Vega sniffed. "They say..." she exhaled through her nose in an attempt to make her breathing pattern more consistent. She didn't think it worked. "They say that you have to cherish every second you have together because it might be your last. And I know..." she looked away, the words too personal to keep eye contact with her co-workers, even with these co-workers. "I know that Wylie did. Did cherish every second, because he's lost me once, and he knows how that feels, and he remembers every day, every anniversary, every birthday, and I've always taken him for granted. And now..." she looked back at them, her words coming in a rush, "now he's gone and it's not because of something I've done, or something I haven't done..." but because life was cruel sometimes.

"We'll find him," Lisbon said. "You remember right before Jane and I got married, he was taken."

"I mean," Vega said, "I've heard."

"Right," Lisbon said, remembering where Vega had been at that time. "But it's happened. I was captured by Red John. We get out of things. We do. Wylie will too. He has a lot to live for."

"Yeah. He has to live so he can watch me die."

Lisbon frowned. "Vega."

"Don't lecture me," she said, looking away. She knew her prognosis was good now. It didn't stop her from worrying about how he'd react to losing her a second time. "I just want him here."

"I know," Lisbon said gently, in that tone she usually saved for Mimi. "I know."