[the Mentalist, Big Bang fan-fic] Red Hair Black Heart - Chapter 5
[Porlogue] [Chapter One] [Chapter Two] [Chapter two.Five] [Chapter Three] [Chapter Four]
Chapter Five
mso-ansi-language:EN-US">According to what the Sorcerer says, it’s in a rich mansion by the sea that Carter will hit next, a place that, even if rich, transmits beauty and peace. It’s something like they have never seen before- not Mashburn’s place, huge, void of taste, just an instrument to show to the world his money, a place where, in the last year, she has been once or twice to consume their fling, a relationship made of sweating and quick and hard sex with no feelings involved, a place she is quite happy she is no longer frequenting -probably, stopping calling him back has been the sanest decision she has ever made; he isn’t her kind of man anyway, that wasn’t much more than sex that isn’t even that good and she has better things to do than wasting time with a man who keeps sleeping around, even when he does sleep with her, and has no intention of settling down permanently with one woman for good and even less of temporally turning into a monogamist.
mso-ansi-language:EN-US">Besides, she has to think about Jane and being there with him when he needs her and when he can’t skip out of the darkness on his own. Like now.
mso-ansi-language:EN-US">She holds his hand once, gun ready yet, and looks at him, sensing how uneasy he is right now, how scared. Scared because of Red John, because of what is going to happen, the endgame finally there for them, after so long, and uneasy because that place may be like nothing that he has never seen before, even dealing with the super-riches and the politics, but it’s definitely something that reminds him of his past, another home by the ocean, just few miles north, another beautiful and classy and peaceful home where a family has once been happy and has been later destroyed by the hands of that same monster who’s going to try to steal another life, the last one, before finally reaching his ultimate objective, stealing the lives of the whole world.
mso-ansi-language:EN-US">His family, his home, his house, Red John.
mso-ansi-language:EN-US">She stops as soon as they are at the door, ajar for when the husband will be back first thing in the morning, back from Paris where he is for work. She regains her composure, her gaze still on Jane even if her orders are for everybody she could order around, her voice a hissed whisper that breaks the silence of the cloudy and silent night. “Rigsby, Cho, search the immediate perimeter. Van pelt, you are inside with me, if we are right, Carter will probably be down the hall, right on top of the stairs from the garage, the first thing the husband will see once back, but I want to know if someone else is inside. There’s no trace of Sally Carter, and if she is one of his followers as we believe, they may be together. Jane, you’re not to leave my side, ok? We’ll leave Strange, Mr. Hellstorm and your friend Johnny do their thing, and we’ll get into the action in due time, all right?”
mso-ansi-language:EN-US">He nods, not too present, and again she takes hold of his hand, looking for his eyes. “Jane, Listen, I’m here, and you are with me, ok? You told me you wanted to give me the chance of taking control of the situation, and that’s me, taking control of the situation. Let me at least try, and if you feel like doing something stupid, just take my hand and squeeze it, and remember I’m here to help you out, and not to hurt you. I don’t want to hurt you, Jane, but if you’ll do something stupid you know I’ll have to, right? I’ll have to cuff you and arrest you and bring you to jail, and it would break me, and you promised to never break me. And you don’t want me to think it was just another broken promise of yours, right?”
mso-ansi-language:EN-US">He shakes his head in a silent no. He isn’t going to break a promise, not this one, can’t break another promise he made her. He told her he was always going to save her, but, yet, when O’Laughlin was shooting bullets at her, he wasn’t there. He already broke one promise, and broke another one the first time he fired at Carter, breaking a tiny little piece of her heart. He can’t end what his blindness, what his thirst for revenge has already started, he will not. Not when it comes to her.
mso-ansi-language:EN-US">“I can do it. just… let me come. I want to be there. I need to be there.” He squeezes her small hand in his bigger one, smiling sad, but grateful, and she nods, reciprocating the smile, eyes almost teary, again feeling the need to make him feel better, to take him in her arms and cover his forehead with kisses and stroke his curls, running her fingers through them.
mso-ansi-language:EN-US">“Good, let’s go.” And they move as soon as she says the words, everyone going into position, silently, not daring to talk, to try to communicate, scared of the thousands of possibilities, of all the scenarios, running them all in their minds. This is the end, they know it, something will be over this very night of summer in California. Only, they don’t know what yet. It could be simply them. It could be Red John. Or, worse case scenario, it will be the end of the entire human race with the Reign of Heavens and the reign of Hell, the end of everything that it is and will ever be. Such a weight on their shoulders, such a huge weight for Lisbon’s tiny shoulders.
mso-ansi-language:EN-US">At the end, they slowly, silently and carefully walk for less than five minutes, walking across the empty and cold, but loved, home, across memories and hopes, before finally reaching a hall, an open space, quite huge, where a double door at the end of the room makes good show of itself, probably the stairs from the garage they saw on the blueprints and few friends of the family told them about.
mso-ansi-language:EN-US">And here there is, what they hoped, what they feared to see, and without further encouragement, Jane at her side, almost hiding behind her tiny frame, Lisbon lifts her gun, pointing it at the monster, at the one who, even with human blood running through his veins, a human he will never be.
mso-ansi-language:EN-US">“Timothy Carter, hands where I can see them, you are under arrest!” The man known like Timothy Carter stops, and stands, leaving the poor woman on the pavement, leaning on the cool marble, already bleeding amply from many, tiny cuts all over her stark white body; he takes a big breath, like exasperated and annoyed, somehow bothered by their very presence, like they were just a minor nuisance, something minor like a fly or a mosquito, and he looks at them, but not exactly mad or crazy, there’s something else. They can all see this, even if he is wearing glasses, they can see it through his eyes. He is calm, and quiet, he is like one of those good teachers trying hard to stop a boy to be nosy, he isn’t irritated, much more like….slightly bothered. They look into the face of craziness, and craziness looks right at them. And it is scary. As scary as he is his tender smile, one of reassurance, like everything will be all right, everything will be well.
mso-ansi-language:EN-US">He starts walking towards them, hands in the pockets, calm, reassured. Lisbon keeps pointing her gun at him, but her hands are trembling. She is scared, like everyone of them, like even the mystical ones are, because they are not facing any criminal, and it’s not even because this Red John and because she has to keep attention to Jane as well because Red John and Jane just doesn’t fit into the equation together.
mso-ansi-language:EN-US">She is scared because if everything it’s been said it’s right, then, this man, this creature whatever it is, it’s the very incarnation of evil, it’s sin made flesh, walking among them, and there may not be a way to stop him. The devil’s son, walking among them, trying to follow his father’s path of destruction, of corruption of souls, trying to bring hell on earth, through fear and chaos and death and even literally. There’s everything to be scared of. But she should have thought better, because this isn’t just the devil, a devil, this is Red John, and Red John has his MO, doesn’t matter who he is.
mso-ansi-language:EN-US">He doesn’t work alone.
mso-ansi-language:EN-US">A barrier of light appears between them, dividing the room in two, and at the same time Sally Carter is on Lisbon before she could say anything, attacking her from behind, in an amateur way but still quite efficiently, and while the gun ends on the soil, the women follow, struggling to get each of them the upper hand.
mso-ansi-language:EN-US">Jane just watches, frozen in time and space, like the moments before he shot Timothy carter in the mall, few days prior.
mso-ansi-language:EN-US">Cho and Rigsby are outside, checking on the perimeter. Grace is,. Somehow, nowhere to be seen. Strange and Daimon are trying to bring the wall down with spells and chants, looking with fear, sweat running on their foreheads in small rivulets, while Timothy gets closer and closer to the girl, the astral alignment they talked about almost complete, as almost complete is his task, if that woman dies, when Red John will have claimed another “wife” of his own, the end of days will come for humankind.
mso-ansi-language:EN-US">Jane still just watches, turning his head from side to side, trying to think but almost unable to.
mso-ansi-language:EN-US">The moon hasn’t reached its top yet and until that very moment, the darkest hour of the day, Johnny is nothing but a common mortal, not the terrible Angel of vengeance, not the Ghost Rider, made of bones and fire and power.
mso-ansi-language:EN-US">Sally has her hands around Lisbon’s throat, and Jane can hear her, can feel it in his body almost, the life leaving her body, the woman chocking, less and less, until almost no sound leaves her mouth.
mso-ansi-language:EN-US">Jane watches. And his eyes fall on the gun, Lisbon’s gun.
mso-ansi-language:EN-US">He hates guns. But he cares about Lisbon. He hates guns, but he once used one to save Lisbon. He hates guns, but he fired at Timothy Carter once, thinking of having killed him, sure of it, not feeling regret for having taken a life. He hates guns, but he promised to always save Lisbon and to not hurt her, and he hurt her because he didn’t allow her to stop Carter as she wanted that time, didn’t give her or the team time. The least he can do now is saving her, it’s the only thing he can do.
mso-ansi-language:EN-US">His own words has robbed the world of Angela and Charlotte through the hands of Red John. He’ll not allow one of the madman’s minions to rob humanity of someone like this fiery, petite woman. She is worth living (worth living for, even), and she is strong and tenacious and brave and she cares about him even if…even if she saw the worst of him, she still cares about him, still accepts him, his Lisbon.
mso-ansi-language:EN-US">Seconds that feel like an eternity later, Sally collapses on top of Lisbon, open eyes, mouth wide, lips parted in an obscene way.
mso-ansi-language:EN-US">Jane looks at the scene, guns still in his hand, aimed at the madwoman, his blue eyes meeting Lisbon’s. Lisbon who’s scared, Lisbon who’s on the verge of tears, Lisbon who’s unable to form a single syllable, Lisbon who runs to him, and takes him in her arms, drawing soothing circles on his back through the silky material of his vest while she takes, gently but still with force, the gun away from his hand, the man not making any fuss about it, barely understanding it, barely noticing it. He just notices one thing, he just understands one thing - Lisbon is still alive and he saved her, even if he is not sure he’ll be able to keep this promise for too long, if they’ll not find a way to stop Red John.
mso-ansi-language:EN-US">The madman just chuckles, still on his knees near the body of the young woman, still unconscious, but who’s showing signs of an imminent return between the living ones. He can’t wait to have all of her attention, to get to his piece of art. “Well, I still have her, don’t I? And you are over there, far, far away from me, unable to stop me. Has to be terrible, isn’t it, Mister Jane? Being that close to your objective, but still having it out of reach. But don’t worry, you’ll not feel that for too long…”
mso-ansi-language:EN-US">“Yes, because I’ll get you and I’ll kill you. I’m just sorry that I’ll not be able to do it as slowly as I would have liked, then, once dead because of me, you’ll definitely be in my reach!” Jane is no longer talking, more like hissing, and even if Lisbon can’t see his eyes, her own face still hidden in his chest, trying to get him to come back with them, in the moment, she still knows what he does look like right now.
mso-ansi-language:EN-US">She has seen the worst of him, and this is the worst of him, yet again, because he is like that only when the killer is involved, otherwise, she has seen him, has felt him, got to know him. He is a good man, was a loving father, a faithful husband, and he cares about people, about his family, about them, about her, as much as he cared about his real one. He is a good man, who helps people out, always had, in his unique way. But not when Red John is involved, and there’s nothing she can do, just holding him, stronger and stronger, feeling his body rigid under her muscles, trying desperately to keep him there, with her, trying to make him remember where he is supposed to be, not with his body but with his heart, with his friends and his family and the ones who care about him.
mso-ansi-language:EN-US">“Oh, well, I guess you’ll just have to wait, Patrick. I’m kind in the middle of something right now.” Red John just scrolls his shoulders with complete nonchalance, barely sending them a glance. It’s just an instant, but for few of them, for special people, it’s enough...
Chapter Five
mso-ansi-language:EN-US">According to what the Sorcerer says, it’s in a rich mansion by the sea that Carter will hit next, a place that, even if rich, transmits beauty and peace. It’s something like they have never seen before- not Mashburn’s place, huge, void of taste, just an instrument to show to the world his money, a place where, in the last year, she has been once or twice to consume their fling, a relationship made of sweating and quick and hard sex with no feelings involved, a place she is quite happy she is no longer frequenting -probably, stopping calling him back has been the sanest decision she has ever made; he isn’t her kind of man anyway, that wasn’t much more than sex that isn’t even that good and she has better things to do than wasting time with a man who keeps sleeping around, even when he does sleep with her, and has no intention of settling down permanently with one woman for good and even less of temporally turning into a monogamist.
mso-ansi-language:EN-US">Besides, she has to think about Jane and being there with him when he needs her and when he can’t skip out of the darkness on his own. Like now.
mso-ansi-language:EN-US">She holds his hand once, gun ready yet, and looks at him, sensing how uneasy he is right now, how scared. Scared because of Red John, because of what is going to happen, the endgame finally there for them, after so long, and uneasy because that place may be like nothing that he has never seen before, even dealing with the super-riches and the politics, but it’s definitely something that reminds him of his past, another home by the ocean, just few miles north, another beautiful and classy and peaceful home where a family has once been happy and has been later destroyed by the hands of that same monster who’s going to try to steal another life, the last one, before finally reaching his ultimate objective, stealing the lives of the whole world.
mso-ansi-language:EN-US">His family, his home, his house, Red John.
mso-ansi-language:EN-US">She stops as soon as they are at the door, ajar for when the husband will be back first thing in the morning, back from Paris where he is for work. She regains her composure, her gaze still on Jane even if her orders are for everybody she could order around, her voice a hissed whisper that breaks the silence of the cloudy and silent night. “Rigsby, Cho, search the immediate perimeter. Van pelt, you are inside with me, if we are right, Carter will probably be down the hall, right on top of the stairs from the garage, the first thing the husband will see once back, but I want to know if someone else is inside. There’s no trace of Sally Carter, and if she is one of his followers as we believe, they may be together. Jane, you’re not to leave my side, ok? We’ll leave Strange, Mr. Hellstorm and your friend Johnny do their thing, and we’ll get into the action in due time, all right?”
mso-ansi-language:EN-US">He nods, not too present, and again she takes hold of his hand, looking for his eyes. “Jane, Listen, I’m here, and you are with me, ok? You told me you wanted to give me the chance of taking control of the situation, and that’s me, taking control of the situation. Let me at least try, and if you feel like doing something stupid, just take my hand and squeeze it, and remember I’m here to help you out, and not to hurt you. I don’t want to hurt you, Jane, but if you’ll do something stupid you know I’ll have to, right? I’ll have to cuff you and arrest you and bring you to jail, and it would break me, and you promised to never break me. And you don’t want me to think it was just another broken promise of yours, right?”
mso-ansi-language:EN-US">He shakes his head in a silent no. He isn’t going to break a promise, not this one, can’t break another promise he made her. He told her he was always going to save her, but, yet, when O’Laughlin was shooting bullets at her, he wasn’t there. He already broke one promise, and broke another one the first time he fired at Carter, breaking a tiny little piece of her heart. He can’t end what his blindness, what his thirst for revenge has already started, he will not. Not when it comes to her.
mso-ansi-language:EN-US">“I can do it. just… let me come. I want to be there. I need to be there.” He squeezes her small hand in his bigger one, smiling sad, but grateful, and she nods, reciprocating the smile, eyes almost teary, again feeling the need to make him feel better, to take him in her arms and cover his forehead with kisses and stroke his curls, running her fingers through them.
mso-ansi-language:EN-US">“Good, let’s go.” And they move as soon as she says the words, everyone going into position, silently, not daring to talk, to try to communicate, scared of the thousands of possibilities, of all the scenarios, running them all in their minds. This is the end, they know it, something will be over this very night of summer in California. Only, they don’t know what yet. It could be simply them. It could be Red John. Or, worse case scenario, it will be the end of the entire human race with the Reign of Heavens and the reign of Hell, the end of everything that it is and will ever be. Such a weight on their shoulders, such a huge weight for Lisbon’s tiny shoulders.
mso-ansi-language:EN-US">At the end, they slowly, silently and carefully walk for less than five minutes, walking across the empty and cold, but loved, home, across memories and hopes, before finally reaching a hall, an open space, quite huge, where a double door at the end of the room makes good show of itself, probably the stairs from the garage they saw on the blueprints and few friends of the family told them about.
mso-ansi-language:EN-US">And here there is, what they hoped, what they feared to see, and without further encouragement, Jane at her side, almost hiding behind her tiny frame, Lisbon lifts her gun, pointing it at the monster, at the one who, even with human blood running through his veins, a human he will never be.
mso-ansi-language:EN-US">“Timothy Carter, hands where I can see them, you are under arrest!” The man known like Timothy Carter stops, and stands, leaving the poor woman on the pavement, leaning on the cool marble, already bleeding amply from many, tiny cuts all over her stark white body; he takes a big breath, like exasperated and annoyed, somehow bothered by their very presence, like they were just a minor nuisance, something minor like a fly or a mosquito, and he looks at them, but not exactly mad or crazy, there’s something else. They can all see this, even if he is wearing glasses, they can see it through his eyes. He is calm, and quiet, he is like one of those good teachers trying hard to stop a boy to be nosy, he isn’t irritated, much more like….slightly bothered. They look into the face of craziness, and craziness looks right at them. And it is scary. As scary as he is his tender smile, one of reassurance, like everything will be all right, everything will be well.
mso-ansi-language:EN-US">He starts walking towards them, hands in the pockets, calm, reassured. Lisbon keeps pointing her gun at him, but her hands are trembling. She is scared, like everyone of them, like even the mystical ones are, because they are not facing any criminal, and it’s not even because this Red John and because she has to keep attention to Jane as well because Red John and Jane just doesn’t fit into the equation together.
mso-ansi-language:EN-US">She is scared because if everything it’s been said it’s right, then, this man, this creature whatever it is, it’s the very incarnation of evil, it’s sin made flesh, walking among them, and there may not be a way to stop him. The devil’s son, walking among them, trying to follow his father’s path of destruction, of corruption of souls, trying to bring hell on earth, through fear and chaos and death and even literally. There’s everything to be scared of. But she should have thought better, because this isn’t just the devil, a devil, this is Red John, and Red John has his MO, doesn’t matter who he is.
mso-ansi-language:EN-US">He doesn’t work alone.
mso-ansi-language:EN-US">A barrier of light appears between them, dividing the room in two, and at the same time Sally Carter is on Lisbon before she could say anything, attacking her from behind, in an amateur way but still quite efficiently, and while the gun ends on the soil, the women follow, struggling to get each of them the upper hand.
mso-ansi-language:EN-US">Jane just watches, frozen in time and space, like the moments before he shot Timothy carter in the mall, few days prior.
mso-ansi-language:EN-US">Cho and Rigsby are outside, checking on the perimeter. Grace is,. Somehow, nowhere to be seen. Strange and Daimon are trying to bring the wall down with spells and chants, looking with fear, sweat running on their foreheads in small rivulets, while Timothy gets closer and closer to the girl, the astral alignment they talked about almost complete, as almost complete is his task, if that woman dies, when Red John will have claimed another “wife” of his own, the end of days will come for humankind.
mso-ansi-language:EN-US">Jane still just watches, turning his head from side to side, trying to think but almost unable to.
mso-ansi-language:EN-US">The moon hasn’t reached its top yet and until that very moment, the darkest hour of the day, Johnny is nothing but a common mortal, not the terrible Angel of vengeance, not the Ghost Rider, made of bones and fire and power.
mso-ansi-language:EN-US">Sally has her hands around Lisbon’s throat, and Jane can hear her, can feel it in his body almost, the life leaving her body, the woman chocking, less and less, until almost no sound leaves her mouth.
mso-ansi-language:EN-US">Jane watches. And his eyes fall on the gun, Lisbon’s gun.
mso-ansi-language:EN-US">He hates guns. But he cares about Lisbon. He hates guns, but he once used one to save Lisbon. He hates guns, but he fired at Timothy Carter once, thinking of having killed him, sure of it, not feeling regret for having taken a life. He hates guns, but he promised to always save Lisbon and to not hurt her, and he hurt her because he didn’t allow her to stop Carter as she wanted that time, didn’t give her or the team time. The least he can do now is saving her, it’s the only thing he can do.
mso-ansi-language:EN-US">His own words has robbed the world of Angela and Charlotte through the hands of Red John. He’ll not allow one of the madman’s minions to rob humanity of someone like this fiery, petite woman. She is worth living (worth living for, even), and she is strong and tenacious and brave and she cares about him even if…even if she saw the worst of him, she still cares about him, still accepts him, his Lisbon.
mso-ansi-language:EN-US">Seconds that feel like an eternity later, Sally collapses on top of Lisbon, open eyes, mouth wide, lips parted in an obscene way.
mso-ansi-language:EN-US">Jane looks at the scene, guns still in his hand, aimed at the madwoman, his blue eyes meeting Lisbon’s. Lisbon who’s scared, Lisbon who’s on the verge of tears, Lisbon who’s unable to form a single syllable, Lisbon who runs to him, and takes him in her arms, drawing soothing circles on his back through the silky material of his vest while she takes, gently but still with force, the gun away from his hand, the man not making any fuss about it, barely understanding it, barely noticing it. He just notices one thing, he just understands one thing - Lisbon is still alive and he saved her, even if he is not sure he’ll be able to keep this promise for too long, if they’ll not find a way to stop Red John.
mso-ansi-language:EN-US">The madman just chuckles, still on his knees near the body of the young woman, still unconscious, but who’s showing signs of an imminent return between the living ones. He can’t wait to have all of her attention, to get to his piece of art. “Well, I still have her, don’t I? And you are over there, far, far away from me, unable to stop me. Has to be terrible, isn’t it, Mister Jane? Being that close to your objective, but still having it out of reach. But don’t worry, you’ll not feel that for too long…”
mso-ansi-language:EN-US">“Yes, because I’ll get you and I’ll kill you. I’m just sorry that I’ll not be able to do it as slowly as I would have liked, then, once dead because of me, you’ll definitely be in my reach!” Jane is no longer talking, more like hissing, and even if Lisbon can’t see his eyes, her own face still hidden in his chest, trying to get him to come back with them, in the moment, she still knows what he does look like right now.
mso-ansi-language:EN-US">She has seen the worst of him, and this is the worst of him, yet again, because he is like that only when the killer is involved, otherwise, she has seen him, has felt him, got to know him. He is a good man, was a loving father, a faithful husband, and he cares about people, about his family, about them, about her, as much as he cared about his real one. He is a good man, who helps people out, always had, in his unique way. But not when Red John is involved, and there’s nothing she can do, just holding him, stronger and stronger, feeling his body rigid under her muscles, trying desperately to keep him there, with her, trying to make him remember where he is supposed to be, not with his body but with his heart, with his friends and his family and the ones who care about him.
mso-ansi-language:EN-US">“Oh, well, I guess you’ll just have to wait, Patrick. I’m kind in the middle of something right now.” Red John just scrolls his shoulders with complete nonchalance, barely sending them a glance. It’s just an instant, but for few of them, for special people, it’s enough...