Chapter 12.
Patrick and Jane are sat on the sofa in Lisbon's office; watching the interview proved too much for Jane to bear so he excused himself, asking Grace to come with him was a partial cover.
"I have to ask, how did you know it was him?"
"When we found you in that place, it was him that ran into you," Grace begins, "there was a noise at the other end of the room. Lisbon stayed with you, whilst the rest of us tried to chase the suspect. He went missing for about a minute or so during the chase, and I confronted him about this earlier. He made up an excuse, and well, I didn't believe him. He was off from the start, plus I looked at the rota, he was supposed to be on duty at the second crime scene, but he was excused as something personal had come up and needed his attention."
"And what made the noise?"
"The wind, there was a draft that made the door slam; he just went along with it to cover his tracks."
"He was under our noses the whole time," Jane sighs.
"Hey, we all missed him," Grace interjects, nudging him with her elbow.
They both look towards the door when they hear footsteps approaching from outside, seconds later, Lisbon, Rigsby and Cho enter the room.
"Right," Lisbon promptly starts, "everyone get comfy, we need to talk."
She locks the door behind them and brings her office chair out from behind her desk; Cho and Rigsby take a chair each and form a circle in the middle of the room, a little confused as to what is going on.
"After all that has happened, we need to be upfront about things," Lisbon tells them, a little uneasily, "even if they are against theCBI rules. So who wants to start?"
The room goes quiet, they all look at each other in turn; Van Pelt and Rigsby especially.
"Grace?" Lisbon prompts.
"Okay, well, errm…" she tries to find the right words.
"Grace and I are engaged," Wayne interrupts, his voice low.
They pause to take in the news, although the news is only new to two sets of ears.
"Okay," Teresa breaks the tense silence, "so, what is going to happen? You remember what happened the first time round?"
"We do, that is why we are going to sort out our career paths before we start planning anything," Grace replies, "we've thought this through, whether it means that one of us or both of us leave, we have to accept the fact if we want to be together."
"I'm glad that you've thought this through," Lisbon smiles, "you both deserve to be happy."
"Wayne breathes a sigh of relief, "who's next?"
May as well bite the bullet, Teresa tells herself.
"If we're going to get things out in the open," Jane pipes up, "I'm in…well, I'm seeing someone at the minute."
"Really, who?" Grace leans forward, intrigued.
"Well…" Jane looks up at Lisbon, smiling.
"What?" Grace's jaw drops to the floor, even Cho is surprised.
"When was this?"
"A few days ago," Jane answers, honestly.
"Well, this…is unexpected," Rigsby tries to act surprised, but it doesn't fool his boss.
"You knew, didn't you?" she asks him.
"No…of course not," he tries to get out of it.
"Jane, did he know?"
"Yes, but I knew about them so…"
"And you didn't tell me?"
"Okay, I'm out of here," Cho gets up, "this has nothing to do with me."
"Who wants to bet that he knew about Van Pelt and Rigsby?" Jane offers.
"I had suspicions," he counters, "but I knew nothing about you and the boss."
"So, what happens now?" Grace asks.
"We keep quiet," Lisbon tells them, "and that's an order. Nobody upstairs or out of this room needs to know anything about what's going on between Rigsby and Van Pelt, or Jane and me, understood?"
They all nod, knowing the consequences of what would happen.
"Good," Teresa sighs, "come on, let's all go home; it's been a long and exhausting day for us all."
Jane and Lisbon are curled up on his sofa, the fire crackles softly as the flames lick up towards the chimney.
"Why didn't you tell me about them?" Lisbon asks.
"I was none of my business, " Jane replies, before taking a sip of his wine, "but I'm glad it's all out in the open now, no more hiding or sneaking about. You know, saying 'Rigsby and Van Pelt' all the time is quite time consuming, maybe we could shorten it," he pauses in thought, "what about 'Rigspelt'?"
"Ha," she chuckles, "maybe we should combine ours too?"
"Okay, what about…"
"No, if we're thinking the same thing, it sounds all kind of wrong."
"Okay, but I will tell you this," he replies, "this morning, when…well you know…"
"Jane, you were scared, there's no need to explain," she interjects, sitting up.
"Yeah, but I've been kidnapped before and it's never had an effect on me, but this time was different. It was different because, now, I have you. I was scared because I thought that I might lose you," he admits.
"Oh Jane," she pulls him close, "I'm not going anywhere."
He smiles as he wraps his arms around her, planting a kiss on the top of her head, "I know."
A/N: Okay, this is going to be the last one for a while. I'm starting college soon and I need to do a lot of reading before, unfortunately, this doesn't include Fanfiction. Thank you again for all of the views and reviews, it's amazing! Lots of love, CallMeHannah. x