Chapter 48 - A Long Shot

Jane rocked back on his rear and dropped Stiles' hand. He appeared to have no awareness of his injury and instead continued to stare despondently at the lifeless body beside him. Lisbon swallowed hard at the dejection she was witnessing and bent down to try to catch his eyes. Softly, "Come on, there's nothing else you can do here. He's gone, Jane."

He continued to gaze at the body. "He knew who he was and he was going to tell me. I'm sure of it, Lisbon," he said quietly. "But Red John must have figured out he was going to talk. Either by following us...or him-"

A cell phone sounded in Stiles' pocket. With a heavy heart Jane prodded his way through the slick red to retrieve it from the dead man's inside jacket pocket. He glanced at Lisbon, the first time he'd looked at her since Stiles had been killed. She blinked at the tiredness and defeat in his eyes, her breath catching in her throat. Both knew who the caller was likely to be. "Don't answer it, don't give him the satisfaction," she said softly with a shake of her head.

But a second later he couldn't help himself and answered the call, putting it on speaker as he sighed. A nasally laugh filled the eerie silence around them in the park, now devoid of people after the shooting. "Did you really think I wouldn't be one step ahead, Patrick?" Red John taunted, followed by another laugh. "Now what, my friend? I'd say that was check in this game of chess, wouldn't you? Now just to capture your Queen before the White King is checkmated. Shame about poor Bret, though. We used to be so close."

Jane's eyes flickered immediately to Lisbon at the threat to her life before the call disconnected. "He's messing with you. Nothing is going to happen to me," she said to him. "Don't let him get into your head."

"Bit late for that," he said quietly, worry etched on his face for her safety. Cho came hammering back towards them, out of breath. "No sign of the shooter."

Jane chuckled humourlessly and got to his feet, wiping the backs of his pants and dropping the phone to the ground. "Well, of course there isn't," he said with a bite to his words, utter devastation turning quickly to anger.

Lisbon addressed Cho. "Call it in. Stay here and cordon off the scene. Make sure you get people here you can trust. Tell Wainwright I'll call him later with a full report."

"What'll I tell him until then?"

She shrugged, "As little as possible. Tell him I ordered you to come here for back up but didn't tell you why we were meeting Stiles."

"Boss-"

"Kimball, please. Tell him you don't know anything and were acting on my orders. I'll...I'll figure out what to tell him later on."

As Cho got on his phone, she said to Jane, "Come on, we need to get you to the Hospital. We can make our statements after, once we decide how much information we're planning on sharing with Wainwright in light of this."

"I don't need to go to the hospital, I was barely nicked. I'm fine," he snapped back at her.

"No, you're not. You've been shot, you damn idiot. You're just too hyped up on adrenalin to feel it at the moment."

He bore down on her and she raised a defiant eyebrow when she saw he was about to release the frustration and rage he felt towards her in place of where he actually wanted it. He took a large breath and nodded an apology for his earlier tone.

"We'll find another way," she told him, although her cadence sounded more crushed than hopeful.

"Yeah," he said, the word coming out over a long moment with a sigh. He pressed his right hand to his left where he'd been grazed. "Starting to hurt."

"Yeah, walking into bullets flying will do that to you," she said, glaring at him.

"I wasn't thinking," he said with a shrug.

"No, you rarely do where he's concerned," she glowered.

He rolled his eyes. "Any chance of me getting some painkillers before you yell at me some more over this?"

"Jane, if I had done something as stupid as that-"

"I know. I'm sorry, okay? Sorry," he said with a weary sigh as he raked his right hand over his face.

Any other day she most probably would have continued in her rant but he'd lost enough already today. They both had. She could admonish him for putting himself in harm's way another time.

"You'll go to the hospital, no complaints?"

He frowned at her and then nodded slowly. "Yes, we have to go to the hospital now."

She frowned back, worried by how he'd just worded himself. "Jane, are you okay? You might be in shock."

"Let's go to the hospital, Lisbon."

He hadn't agreed to the no complaints rule and Lisbon listened to him berate the nurse who was attempting to stitch him up in the emergency room. "Jane," she said, pulling back the curtain between them roughly and shooting him a death glare.

"Sorry," she added to the nurse, apologising for his behaviour with her eyes. "He's a pain in the ass."

"It's okay," the nurse assured her, "the men are always the worst when it comes to a little pain. Little kids act tougher than they do," the rounded woman in her mid fifties informed her.

"Thank you, Nurse Ratchet," Jane said pointedly in her direction as she secured a bandage on his upper arm. It only ensured she pulled on it tighter and he scowled in Lisbon's direction with an eye roll. She shot him an unimpressed look back that said, 'well, what do you expect if you insult her?'

Smartly choosing silence until the nurse had finished with him, Jane bounded off the stretcher without another glance at her. "Satisfied now? I'm all patched up," he said to Lisbon instead.

"Fine."

As they reached the corridor the morning's events hit her squarely. "You okay?" she asked with concern, glancing at his arm.

"It's just a flesh wound, I'm fine," he said softly.

They stopped walking and she shook her head at him. "Now what the hell do we do? He was our last hope of this nightmare being over soon."

Jane bit the inside of his cheek and moved them towards a quiet corner. "Not quite," he said gently.

"What do you mean?"

His eyes darted upwards and she continued to frown before she realised where he was going with this. Of course, their colleague who was recuperating three floors up. She shook her head. "No, Jane. Grace doesn't even remember anything about that night and...and he wore a mask in any case-"

"You know I can help her remember. And, even if she never saw his face, he would have spoken to her. I'm sure of that. He may have let something slip about who he is...look, I admit...it's a slim chance he did that but-"

"We can't do that to her, Jane. She's lucky he didn't kill her, for Christ's sake. We can't make her relive that night when it's this much of a long shot!"

Her raised voice attracted some attention from passersby and he lowered his tone but fixed his eyes on her steadily, coming closer to her face. "You think I want to do this, Teresa? I could have suggested this days ago but I didn't. I held back. I-we've tried everything else. We're out of options now. It's time to try."

"No, I can't allow it. Not until we have time to regroup, think things through. Maybe look at traffic cam footage around the park-"

Abruptly, he left her while she spoke, walking briskly towards the elevator instead and jabbed at the button with the arrow facing upwards. He shook his head slightly at her as she followed him. He sighed, "I'm sorry, but it's not your decision, Lisbon. It's hers."

"I want to try," Van Pelt said to Jane as he stood by her bedside. Lisbon hovered at the back of the room, uneasy with the entire situation and still annoyed that Jane hadn't taken some more time before he'd acted and made the request. She knew why, of course. Red John's words that he was coming for her had pushed him into a last ditch attempt at finding a quick solution. Rigsby's eyes flashed wide at Jane's appeal to hypnotise his fiancée and he shook his head. "No, Grace. You don't need that kind of stress on your mind, sweetheart, you've only just got your speech back."

"I know what I'm doing," Jane told him. Softer, "I promise I'll be careful with her. If anything, she'll feel better, not worse. She's stronger now...she can handle it."

"Wayne, it's not up to you," the redhead said to Rigsby. She looked at Jane again. "You think I can help?"

He shrugged. "I...I don't know for sure but...I'm out of ideas presently. Stiles was my major play and...I have nothing else." He shrugged.

"Boss?" Van Pelt said, raising her head towards Lisbon who, in turn, walked closer to the bottom of the bed. "What do you think?"

Rigsby looked at her with the same question in his eyes. Some days she hated being the one in charge. She glanced quickly at Jane who was pleading to her with his eyes to allow him to try this course of action. "He'll make sure you're okay," she said to Van Pelt. "He'll make it like you weren't even there but watching it on television."

Jane let go of a breath and nodded his thanks to her. She told him with a hard look back that he better do just as she had promised.

"Okay, then," Van Pelt said with a small smile. She said to Jane. "Let's get started."

He smiled at her. "All right." He looked to Lisbon and Rigsby. "I need the room."

Rigsby started, "No-"

"You're a distraction," Jane told him. "The best way this works is with absolute quiet and Grace will focus better on my voice if we're alone."

"It's okay, Wayne," Van Pelt said to her fiancé. "Jane knows what he's doing."

"I do," he said to Rigbsy.

Seeing the tall agent was still uncomfortable, Lisbon stepped in. "Come on, let's get you a sandwich or something, let's leave Jane to it."

"Thank you," Jane said to her sincerely as she ushered Rigsby out of the room a few moments later.

"Be careful with her," she commanded him in response.

"Well, that's better," Jane smiled at Van Pelt as he pulled a chair up to her good side. "So, how are you doing, haven't had much time to talk to you lately."

"I'm okay. The morphine here is pretty good."

He grinned, "It is. I got a shot of it myself today."

She nodded to his upper arm. "First gunshot wound, eh? You're a real cop now," she smiled.

He laughed. "Hardly. And it wasn't like I got it doing something courageous, just something incredibly stupid."

"Lisbon's pissed with you about that."

He nodded and bit the inside of his cheek. "Yeah, but don't worry. Just temporarily but I'm willing to pay my penance for however long it lasts," he smiled. More seriously, "Actually we're good, I took your advice."

She suddenly noticed his wedding ring finger was bare and her eyes widened. "You took off your ring! So that means...?"

He smiled again. "Some detective you are, it's been off my hand for days now."

"Yeah, been kinda busy," she said with a roll of her eyes.

"Oh? Doing anything nice?" he grinned.

She started to chuckle then clutched her stomach. "God, don't make me laugh. Hurts."

"Sorry," he said softly. "I'll help you with some pain relieving exercises when I'm through. And, to answer your question, yes. Lisbon and I are together again. Like you noticed it's a little tense presently but just due to current circumstances. We're both on edge after this morning."

"You'll work through it; just have to keep talking to each other. And no secrets this time."

"Okay, Doctor Phil," he smiled. Then, with a deep breath, he asked her soberly, "You sure about doing this? It'll probably be a waste of time."

She nodded. "I want him caught. And if there's a chance I can help with that, then it's worth whatever I have to go through."

"Okay. Thank you, Grace."

She smiled then dropped it. "I can't believe Stiles is dead." She sighed. "He was always nice to me. Well, you know, for a cult leader," she shrugged.

Jane chuckled. "Yeah, apart from the mind control and the murderous background, he was a swell guy."

"Point taken. So how do we do this?"

Jane took a deep breath. "Just close your eyes, relax and listen only to the sound of my voice..."

"What's happening in there?" Rigsby asked Lisbon as they waited in the hospital corridor. He'd already eaten the sandwich she'd procured for him in two bites and was now pacing outside Van Pelt's room.

"Leave them to it. Can't interrupt them now, not if he has her under."

She glanced at her phone and at Wainwright's number as it flashed up for the fourth time in ten minutes. She hit decline again and rubbed a hand down her face. Visualize's leader getting gunned down in front of CBI agents was a shitstorm of epic proportions. There was only so much time she could hide out at the hospital before she faced the music.

The door opened and Jane walked out, nodding to both of them. "Well?" two faces asked him in unison.

He shook his head and sighed. "Sorry. Nothing that can identify him," he said with a shrug.

Lisbon's shoulders slumped. "Crap."

"Is she okay?" Rigsby asked.

Jane nodded, "She's fine. Go and see for yourself."

As Rigsby made his way back into the room, Lisbon sighed loudly. "I'm so sorry," she said to him. "I know I wasn't in favour of it but-"

"It's okay," he said, smiling at her faintly. "It was a long shot," he shrugged.

"We need to face the music with Wainwright," she said. "Give our statements about Stiles. Visualize will be going ape about this."

"Oh, yeah," he said, looking down at his shoes. "I guess so." He looked down the corridor. "Before all of that, I could use a cup of tea, would you mind? Arm's a little sore."

"Sure," she smiled. "Though the machine stuff on this floor is pretty crap, why don't we go to the cafeteria, talk about next steps?"

"Nah, machine is fine. Just need a minute on my own, too, if you don't mind. Been a long morning."

"I understand," she said softly, touching his hand. She attempted a breezy tone. "Okay, one cup of dishwater coming right up."

He smiled back at her and squeezed her hand before she strode off towards the vending machine at the end of the corridor. Once her back was turned, the smile fell from his lips. He looked at the doors in the other direction and, after a deep breath, began to make his way towards them. Ten steps later he stopped short of them and blinked. "What the hell are you doing?" he muttered to himself. Van Pelt's words and his own conscience pricked at him as he hovered in front of them.

"No," he told himself with a shake of his head, turning swiftly on his heels and heading back the way he came. He caught up with Lisbon as she spooned sugar into her coffee at a table beside the vending machine.

She barely looked him. "Jeez, give me a chance. I haven't even got your tea yet-" Then she read his agitated demeanour, the flush of his cheeks. "What is it? Is it Grace? Did you push her too far-?"

"She's fine," he said quickly. "Although I did make her forget again what she remembered, probably should mention that before I go on."

She shook her head at him, frowning, "What the hell-?"

Her eyes popped. "Oh my god, she remembered something! What is it!?"

A triumphant glimmer of a smile broke out on his lips and he paused for dramatic effect, forever the showman. Finally he declared, "I know who he is, Lisbon. I know who Red John is."

The mirrored smile that broke out on hers soon disappeared. "You weren't going to tell me, were you? You were going to go after him on your own. Damn it, Jane!-"

"I didn't though." He shrugged and shot her a sheepish glance. "Old habits die hard, I guess." He added, "I'm sorry. But only for a minute or two, I swear. Don't I get points for that?"

"Do you get points for doing what you should have done in the first place? Is that seriously what you're asking me?"

"Well, it's an improvement on what I might have done a while back, right?" he smiled.

Her head was in a spin and she emitted a small laugh in spite of her irritation. "I seriously give up with you sometimes. So?" she pressed. "Who is he? Tell me."

A/N: Last chapter coming up next! Hopefully in a few days if I can keep up this pace up. Then an epilogue to tie this one up.