Chapter 12: Setting Things in Motion
Lisbon
Lisbon resolutely boarded the plane, suppressing a pang of regret at the separation. Her cop persona admonished, Suck, it up. It's only till the paperwork is ready. The woman in her hated any separation after two lonely, uncertain years that followed an intense, dangerous and confusing decade.
She put the flight to good use. By the time it landed, she had a list of the myriad tasks needed to wrap up life in Cannon Falls. She made calls during the drive home and arranged to meet a realtor friend that afternoon. She wouldn't list her house for sale until she got the FBI offer letter, but her friend agreed to do the up-front work without a contract so things would be ready to go.
Not until evening did she pause, a bit shocked she was going to go through with it. Fear crept in through the cracks of her uncertainty. Was she really going to disrupt her life – again! – on the strength of a few days with Jane? Quit her job. Move two‑thousand miles. Start a new job Take on the Blake Association. (Again.) Work with Jane. Be with Jane! Every careful, conservative, skeptical cell in her body trembled that her life would be swept away in an instant. Fortunately a late night call from Jane reassured her, flooding her with love and desire so intense she ached. Sometimes the sensible move was to grab the brass ring. A survivor, she knew she would always endure. This was her chance to soar. A wild, hopeful courage welled up. Not only could she do this. She dared anyone to stop her!
On Monday, Moore called to tell Lisbon he FedX'ed the paperwork to the Austin FBI as expected. Unexpected was Abbott's sudden trip to follow up a Blake lead. Abbott wouldn't be available to meet till late that week even if the FBI legal staff finalized the contract and offer letter right away. Lisbon planned to fly in for the signing. If the offer was as they agreed, she would fax her resignation to the county manager and her real estate contract to her realtor. She could start work at the FBI immediately.
Days she spent readying the PD for the transition. Nights were spent packing, hiring movers, touching base with the not-quite-friends she had made. And talking with Jane. It was always the highlight of the day and the last thing she did before turning in. However much she treasured the letters Jane wrote in exile, his calls were far superior.
The week passed in a whirlwind of chores. She gave the county manager a heads up about the impending job offer and her plans to accept. As with her house, she wouldn't actually resign till she had the offer in hand, but she felt better handling the transition responsibly. The PD had vastly improved under her leadership and one officer was capable of becoming the new chief. He would be the acting chief while the board deliberated and she hoped they would hire him permanently. The county manager let her use her vacation days to fulfill the standard two weeks' notice when she resigned. Lisbon thrilled to think she would soon tackle serious, demanding cases again with part of her old team.
Cho and Jane
Cho was worn out. A Jane unburdened by Red John or insomnia had limitless energy. Once Lisbon boarded her flight, Jane asked to check out the more interesting parts of the city. After miles of walking, Jane finally agreed to stop for lunch at the hotel. A few hours later, Jane was again restless, triggering more walking. Jane was dramatically more fit than he had been at the CBI, courtesy of two years of swimming and a month of exercise in detention. A footsore Cho regretted that fact.
Sunday set the tone for the week. Abbott's sudden absence left them at loose ends. Instead of signing the agreement and beginning FBI work, Cho found himself tagging along, theoretically guarding, a hyperactive Jane. Jane seemed incapable of spending more than a few hours at a time in the hotel suite, making Cho wonder if it was a side effect of solitary confinement. Jane wanted to explore as much of the city as possible on foot. Cho wondered if Jane had always been so keenly alert to his surroundings and passers-by, or whether he had forgotten Jane's habits during the two years away. Jane insisted on sitting at a far corner facing the entrance whenever they ate in a restaurant. That triggered Cho's wariness and concerns that the solitary confinement affected Jane more than he first thought.
Fed up with hoofing it around of the city, Cho dropped by the FBI building to fetch a dozen cold case files. They compromised. He and Jane would spend mornings working on files, wander around the city during the afternoon, and be back at the hotel after dinner. Jane's inexhaustible store of entertaining stories would amuse them if reading or TV weren't enough.
Cho and Jane, Thursday
Cho and Jane finished studying files for the morning.
"Now what?"
"Cobbler." Jane held up a bag. His faithful, battered footwear nearly succumbed to island saltwater, sand, dust, and mud. "Plenty of time before Lisbon's flight gets in."
"Surprised you don't sleep with the damned things."
Jane ignored the slight. "I'll get the leather uppers replaced before I start work." Jane was dressed in jeans, a shirt, and athletic shoes he had bought with Lisbon the previous Saturday.
"Haven't you had them re-soled a bunch of times?"
"Sure."
Cho's mouth quirked. "New soles, new uppers - new shoes."
Jane looked at him seriously. "No! The cobbler uses these as the pattern and they are the same. You don't appreciate comfortable shoes."
He snorted. "Except for 25 mile marches in Afghanistan."
Jane's eyebrows rose. "Try taking tickets or manning a food stand for 12 or 15 hours. Standing in one place is worse."
Cho shook his head. "You keep telling yourself that. -Lunch after?"
Jane dropped off his shoes and they found a restaurant nearby. It was a touristy area lined with small shops carrying everything tourists might want. They parked and cut through to the next block using a narrow brick pedestrian walkway - a dressed up alley.
"Jane."
"Hmm?" His blond friend looked up from lunch.
"Tell me about the island, why you came back."
Jane examined Cho's expression for clues to the unprecedented personal questions. "Why?"
"Curious."
Jane smiled. "Why?"
"Know what I'm taking on."
The smile became a full blown grin. "You're worried I'm replacing one obsession with another. And that solitary confinement warped me more than you thought." He leaned back with a smirk.
"Your answer?" Cho repeated, long immune to Jane's deflections.
Jane sipped his soda and scanned the restaurant before replying. Softly, "Red John was dead. No need to waste another minute on him." He swallowed, "I had nothing but time to think about everything I'd put off for a decade." The server delivering their food was a welcome break. After a few bites, he continued. "For months I walked or swam till I was tired enough to sleep. Took a while to quit wondering how the team was doing. –I read about the upheaval in California." He shook his head in regret. "I shouldn't have left such a mess for–"
"–McAllister and Blake had to be stopped," Cho interrupted. "If you stayed Blake would have killed you." Quietly, "No one blames you."
Jane sipped more soda to overcome the lump in his throat. "Eventually I didn't think about it unless I wanted to."
"What about people there?"
"Nice people. Still strangers. I liked one kid who worked - works - for the hotel and speaks English. Smart." He smiled, "A dozen schemes before breakfast."
Cho grunted. "Another you."
Jane tipped his head. "Didn't speak Spanish well enough for other connections."
Cho looked at him hard. "Could have picked it up."
"Didn't."
"Didn't want to?"
Jane shrugged. "Maybe."
"Why'd you come back?"
"Nothing there for me."
"And here?"
He looked away. "Anyone I care about is here."
"And Blake?"
Jane frowned. "Have to deal with Blake to have a life." He looked up. "That's why I care."
After a moment, "Okay."
Jane turned to finishing his meal.
"And the solitary confinement?"
"What can I say, Cho?"
"You're acting paranoid."
"Blake's still out there."
"That's all?"
"Yeah."
They paid and left. A few feet into the pedestrian cut-through Jane told Cho to go ahead while he doubled back to buy new laces for his soon-to-be spiffed up shoes. Shortly, Jane exited and started down the walkway again.
Jane glanced back as an SUV noisily jumped the curb and accelerated toward him.
Jane ran, but knew he couldn't outrun a car. No place to hide. Locked store doors. Shallow doorways.
Jane sprinted. He launched up from a wooden planter. Desperate fingers gripped the second story window sill. He pulled himself as high as he could. The SUV roof cleared his bent knees by inches as it crashed through the planter below.
Jane's grip slipped and he dropped five feet, stumbling on the splintered wood. He fell forward, temple slamming into the brick walk.
Cho turned back at the squealing tires. He leapt sideways, nearly run over. Dark glass hid the driver, mud, the license plate. He pulled his piece, but didn't fire lest it was just an accident.
Adrenaline pumping, he pivoted back to the alley. Sure the SUV was gone, he ran to his downed friend. Dropping to his knees, he checked for pulse, relieved not to see any blood. Jane groaned and moved to rise.
"Stay still. You were hit by a car!"
Jane held his head with a shaky hand. "Not hit," he mumbled, "Fell." This time Cho shoved aside the splintered wood and helped him turn over and sit up. Jane's face sported bruises and scrapes. Cho checked but saw no blood in his hair. Cho fished out his cell phone and started to call for help.
Jane grabbed his arm. "No ambulance! I'm okay."
"Okay, but you're going to the ER. C'mon." Cho helped his dazed friend up and painfully limp to the SUV.
Jane, Cho and Lisbon
"Thank you," Lisbon told the ER clerk as she was directed to emergency treatment bay #3. Mouth dry from nerves, she tried twice before she could speak.
"Cho? Jane?"
"In here," Cho answered.
She slipped through the privacy curtain to find Jane seated on the hospital bed with his legs dangling off the side. Cho sat nearby in a plastic chair. Jane's chest was bare except for scattered gauze pads held on with tape. Impressive bruises bloomed blue and purple in a half dozen places. She blinked, setting aside momentary embarrassment as his partial undress. She suppressed noticing that, even if too thin, Jane was surprisingly ripped.
She took a deep breath. "Are you all right? What happened?" She set down her carry-on. The rest of her clothing would arrive at Cho's apartment within a few days.
Jane gave her a crooked grin. "Fine. Like old times."
"He was almost run over. Waiting for x-rays to rule out concussion."
She searched Jane's face, relieved to see that he seemed okay. "Accident?"
"Intentional."
Cho bluntly explained. "An SUV cut through a pedestrian walkway to run him down. No accident."
"Who? Why?"
Jane gently rubbed the sore side of his head. "Blake, I suspect."
"God, that didn't take long." She looked stricken at how fast danger had materialized.
"Just been waiting for their opportunity," Jane said, matter of fact.
Cho looked at him sharply. Voice intense, "Dammit, you expected this!" making sense of Jane's recent behavior.
Lisbon could read the truth of that by Jane's expression. Eyes flashing, "You expected an attack and didn't tell Cho? What the hell, Jane. I should–"
A nurse swept aside the curtain. "You two, leave. I won't have you harassing a patient."
"But–" objected Lisbon.
"Now, or I call Security."
Jane grinned despite his headache.
Cho got up to leave. Lisbon hissed, "Jackass!" as she left.
Jane's voice carried as they left, "Now it's really like old times."
Jane was discharged once concussion was ruled out. He found Cho and Lisbon in the waiting area. By then they had calmed down. By then his amusement faded the nurse booting them out.
Cho, Lisbon and Jane, Hotel
Cho, Lisbon and Jane rode to the hotel in near silence. Lisbon brushed Jane away from carrying her bag and glared at Cho to squelch any similar impulse as they entered.
"Tea?" Jane asked hopefully, looking at the hotel restaurant.
"Talk first. Room service," Cho responded brusquely.
Lisbon dropped her bag off in the vacant bedroom while Cho ordered room service. Jane sat on the couch and propped up his leg, favoring his twisted knee. Lisbon and Cho took chairs opposite the sofa. He looked at them apprehensively.
Lisbon let Cho take lead. "Jane, time to talk."
Jane remained silent.
"You expected an attack and didn't warn me. Dangerous. And stupid."
"I didn't know for sure."
Lisbon couldn't help blurting out, "You put Cho in danger too. What the hell were you thinking?"
Jane replied in soothing tones, "I didn't know for sure, didn't want to trigger a search for something that might not exist. –Cho picked up on my caution, so he was forewarned after a–"
"Manipulating." Cho rose and paced, too irritated to sit still. "I haven't given Abbott my answer." He faced Jane, fists on hips, stiff with anger. "If I'm going to take Blake on – take you on, we need ground rules. Red John's dead, no more passes. Either it's a real team or I want no part of you."
Jane swallowed and nodded tightly.
"Three rules. No lying to me. No hiding things. And you clean up your own crap for pissing people off."
Jane took a breath, anger stoked by pain in a dozen places. "Not that simple."
"Why?"
"What's a lie? What's hiding? –I may consider a dozen possibilities without any panning out."
Cho stepped back and exhaled slowly. "Anything you're certain enough to act on, you tell me. You can't do that, say it now and save me the trouble."
Jane swallowed. Grudgingly. "I can live with that. But I'll be damned if I'm going to apologize for saying or doing what I need to solve a case."
Cho looked at him steadily as the silence lengthened. "I'll take the heat for actions directly needed to solve the case. You fix it yourself for messing with people for amusement."
Mockingly, "I can feel the love." Jane slumped. "Okay."
Cho sat down and sipped his coffee, anger subsiding. Lisbon sat mute for minutes. Jane gave her an easy smile, trying to downplay the situation.
Finally, "Jane, I want to work with you, be with you. But it's a real partnership or none at all."
Chastened, "Meaning?"
"Do you expect me to be careful with my life?"
He swallowed. "Of course."
"Then give me the same courtesy. You include me in your thinking and plans or I'll stay in Washington. I'll be damned if I'm gonna move two‑thousand miles only for you to get killed because of ego, or showing off, or whatever the hell else is in your head. Promise or forget it." She clenched her jaw, determined not to give in. Without his word, she wouldn't - couldn't - live with his reckless behavior. Not now. Not when he was past his family's slaughter and no longer tormented by a psychopath.
Jane reached for his tea, looking down. "I promise." It was almost too soft to hear.
She looked at him. "Say it again."
Louder. "I promise. I want you to be careful too."
After a few awkward minutes, Cho suggested, "Dinner? You can brief us on your thinking about Blake."