Fic: Waiting for Justice
Title: Waiting for Justice
Author: miss_peg
Rating: PG
Summary: New Year’s Eve can be the start of something new, or it can be the reminder that time is passing by.
Notes: Written for the Paint It Red monthly challenge for January, using the prompt “An optimist stays up until midnight to see the new year in. A pessimist stays up to make sure the old year leaves.” (Bill Vaughn) Also for the mentalistprompt 75: You won't give up the search for the ghosts in the halls.
'Fantastic party, Rigsby,' said Jane as he nibbled on a carrot stick. A rather crunchy carrot stick. If he was honest, the carrot stick was probably the highlight of the night.
Patrick Jane didn't much like to celebrate on New Year’s Eve. It reminded him too much of the things he fought hard to forget. A new year was supposedly a fresh start, ergo, it was supposedly a positive event. He knew better.
After eight years of welcoming another year without his wife and daughter, Jane had found the whole point of the party rather meaningless. If anything it was a checkpoint in his master plan. The only resolution he made was to capture and kill Red John, if he hadn't achieved said goal in the three hundred and sixty four days before then he spent the next day berating himself for it.
This year, however, he was at an impasse. Whilst he hadn't succeeded in his goal of slaughtering the son of a bitch who killed his family he had killed the next best thing. The man he, at the time, assumed was Red John and so he'd almost gained some closure on that chapter of his life.
He didn't though.
The man, who was actually Timothy Carter, had merely been another pawn in the game that Red John played.
Jane crunched on the last piece of his carrot and stood in the corner of the room. If he couldn't enjoy the party like everyone else he would enjoy it like he enjoyed any other social event; through the eyes of everyone around him.
Cho stood across the room with Elise and though they hadn't told anyone yet, he had asked her to marry him. She played with her ring, a ring she'd placed on a different finger yet moved frequently back and forth. They had their whole lives ahead of them, together, as man and wife. It couldn't have happened to a better man.
He expected great things from Cho. He was, his stern expressions aside, someone who held his cards close to his chest. Jane had always had the utmost respect for him, as a man, as an agent and most importantly as someone with the strength to overcome fears and conquer dreams.
He may have come across as sullen and unable to hold a conversation and yet there he stood talking away to Elise as though his life depended on those words. He may have said little, but what he said mattered most of all.
Rigsby, as the host, had a firm smile on his face and his new girlfriend on his arm. He was the epitome of happiness, of a man looking forward to a new year and all of the challenges and excitement that came with it.
His girlfriend, Sarah, appeared equally happy. Jane expected a proposal before the end of 2012. They were more in love than he had first expected. Rigsby had always been so wrapped up in his feelings for Van Pelt after all. It was good to see him happy for a change.
Van Pelt, on the other hand, was sat on a couch in the opposite corner of the room sipping champagne and looking rather doleful. He'd seen her smile of late, which he was thankful for. He didn't like her being too heartbroken over what had happened. He knew he had blame to share in Van Pelt's lost love. Not that he would admit it.
She was on the verge of something ultimately bigger, however, a cacophony of feelings that he wasn't sure she could quite handle in a public location.
She had more reasons than most to want rid of the year just gone and on the same side of the coin, she had more reasons than most to want a new one. That night, however, he suspected she would feel the brunt of her loss. She was alone in a room full of people who didn't quite understand what she was going through. If only he had the strength to let her know that he understood.
At the other side of the couch, equally on her own, was Lisbon. His dear Teresa, the woman who made him smile on a daily basis and want to seek out a happier and more prosperous new year. His desires would never come to fruition, not least because she would never let him have that place in her heart. Sometimes he wished he couldn't see quite as much of a person as he did because instead of seeing a woman who wanted nothing to do with him in the romantic sense, he saw a frightened girl unable to let her defences fall.
Maybe next year.
As the final seconds of the year approached and the room began to countdown, Jane looked again at his colleagues. Lisbon and Van Pelt stayed silent, sharing slight smiles as they watched the other partygoers go through the motions they didn't care to participate in. Rigsby and Sarah stared into each other’s eyes as they counted down to a new year in each other’s lives and Cho held tightly to his fiancés ringed hand with a sense of ownership and pride.
When they reached one the room erupted into celebration and applause. Kisses were shared, strangers embraced and Jane promised, as he did every year, to finally bring Red John to justice.