[the Mentalist, Big Bang fan-fic] Red Hair Black Heart - Chapter Two
It’s quite late in the afternoon, and not early morning when, jacket of his grey suit in hand, Jane strolls with a smirk and a mischievous light in his eyes out of the penitentiary, already foretasting what’s to come, the final battle. He has an hunch, that the circle is going to close around Red John, that with the help of the team, this time around he’ll make it, find him and make him pay, taking a life for the two the killer has robbed him of, and all the other who he has taken along in the process of making the life of so many people miserable.
Besides, everything will be easier now. He has seen her eyes, Lisbon’s soft gaze, and now he knows. She is empathizing with him, she understands him, at some level. He knows she’ll still be hurt when everything will be said and done, but it will not be as painful as he thought at the start of his quest, because, somehow, right now they are almost on the same page. Now he knows- maybe, deep down she’ll not agree with his method, but she’ll understand, in some ways, and she’ll not hate him. Not as much as she would have at the beginning of their partnership or when he told her about his plan for the murderer, at least.
His smiles reaches his eyebrows when he sees the Citroen parked right there. Only one person could have the courage to actually drive that “trap on wheels”, and that person is Teresa Lisbon. Besides, even if she’ll not admit it, not even in a court of law, she loves the car, is quite fond it, and she thinks it’s sexy in an old fashioned way, even sexier that those fancy and flashy sports cars Mashburn used to drive her around back in the days of their short-lived affair.
That’s probably why she is hiding somewhere. Poor woman, being ashamed of him noticing how much she loves the “deadly contraption”…
“Oh, Lisbon, how nice of you to bring me my beloved car! Now, tell me, are you planning of keeping insulting her? Because, trust me, if she allowed you to drive her, it’s because she likes you as much as you like her, and….” The breath dies in his throat, and all he can do is stop and stare at the unbelievable picture in front of him, for it’s not Teresa Lisbon approaching him with quick steps from a corner of the penitentiary, cigarette in hand ready to be lighted , nor any other member of the team. It’s someone he knows, though, someone he hasn’t seen in almost twenty years, a man who was still a boy last time they saw each other, back when the carnie was the world they both belonged to, together with their girlfriends, Angela and Roxanne, and their fathers.
The man smirks, still the arrogant, leather and denim clothed, jackass he used to be back when they both were merely 18, he smirks of an arrogance Jane had too, but lost once tragedy touched him in that faithful night, but not this man, not him, maybe because, once upon a time, he was everything Jane wished to be but wasn’t, he was richer, more famous, always under the spotlight, and not the little psych from California, but he was travelling with his own truck all over the world, staying years at time in Vegas with his own number, one named after himself, a real celebrity, and not a class B like the fake psych used to be.
The man smirks, but the smile isn’t fully sincere, doesn’t reach his eyes, and it’s when Jane sees it, a shadow behind the happiness, probably fake anyway, the hint of a broken soul, all things, signals Jane knows too well, recognizes from his own experience, all lines tracing his own skin after that faithful night of almost a decade before.
“Johnny?” Jane wonders if he is the one who spoke, because the voice who spoke was so low, he isn’t sure he recognized it at all, it seems alien, coming from a place that’s not inside his own body.
“Johnny Blaze at your personal service, Paddy!” Blaze smiles, all the while patting Jane on the shoulders, in a friendly but yet manly way, almost forcing him inside the passenger seat of the Citroen. Jane frowns, obviously at uneasy with this sudden new development, by how weird it feels not being the one driving his own car, and yes, by his long lost friend’s behavior and presence.
He can see Johnny is nervous, looking over his own shoulders, checking his surroundings, like to spot someone looking for them, following them. He doesn’t like, he doesn’t like it because he remembers being young with Jonny, he remembers the young man he used to be, one always looking for troubles even when troubles weren’t there, a man who loved complications and danger and risking willingly his neck, his old number being the first evidence of this. He can see him, getting in troubles still now, with the wrong people, especially after the spotlight abandoned him and Johnny Blaze has suddenly turned into an absolute nobody, just another man fighting to arrive at the end of the month.
“C’mon, let’s go, I’ll bring you back to your motel” Jane sees it, Johnny checking his surroundings one last time, and then entering the car, clenching and unclenching his fists on the wheel, his knuckles turned white for the effort, breathing erratic, dilated pupils, not in need or want but in fear and desperation.
What did his friend do this time? Is it really that bad? And why coming now, of all the times, to him for help? He knows another one would talk about coincidences, but Patrick Jane is a firm believer of the theory that everything is connected and happens for a reason… so, it’s no coincidence Johnny’s appearance after he shot Red John. Is the killer connected to this man? Is that another little game or what? If that’s the case…. He finds himself wondering how feeling about this. Being relieved because the killer made a move he shouldn’t have made, making Jane closer to him than in a long time, or is it dangerous, having him so close, trusting a person Jane himself trusted once upon a time, testament of how he could touch and transform in rotten beings everyone the killer lies hands onto?
They drive away from the prison. Slowly, Johnny’s hands moving with grace on the wheel and the change, almost like an hypnotic dance, beautiful, but definitely wrong. Because Patrick Jane knows Jonny Blaze, and Blaze never did slow, wasn’t the kind of man, he hated slow, but still… here he is, driving slowly in the half-empty Sacramento Streets, not so slow to retrieve attention or suspicions but slow enough to awake something in Jane. Besides, he keeps checking the cars following them in the mirrors, and that means the world. It means he has been right: Johnny is in trouble, probably with the worst kind of people, the ones you shouldn’t want to get involved with, the ones you don’t want to get mad at you.
Is it the leverage Red John used on him? Or, simply, there’s nothing about it, and Johnny just appeared out of the blue to put him out of his misery and get something in exchange for being nice?
He changes road, shifts a bit from the usual, and keeps checking, exhaling an irritated breath when he gets a good glance of what he is looking for; at his side, Jane merely frowns, uncomfortable in his own skin like he hasn’t been in a long time- probably since that time he went undercover to solve the mystery of the dead Santa, or when he had to make that dam video with that cold-blooded and hearted reptile of Erika Flynn.
“You obviously know where my motel is, but yet you are taking a longer road to get there, changing direction every now and then but keeping a slow speed, which, let me tell you, it’s unlike your usual behavior, and few minutes ago you started driving in circles” Jane states, looking in front of himself, still in shock- for the facts of the last few days, or what is happening right now, he isn’t sure. “We’ve been followed” Johnny doesn’t answer, nor nods, but his body language is screaming for him, telling Patrick Jane everything he needs to know and more. “Uhm I hope you didn’t get in troubles with mobsters in Vegas. Heard you had a number outside one of those big casinos…”
“Hate to break it to you Blondie, but contrary to common belief I’m not the one who’s a magnet for troubles.”
Jane grins, a part of him delighted by the way his “friend” is feeling. He has been, after all, the one at uneasy not long before, it’s just right that Johnny could get to feel it as well. “I think it’s the charming personality. People loves me, I’m kind of… mesmerizing, we can say.”
“I’d dare to call you even hypnotic”
“Nice one, I like it” they pause, and look around, sides, front, back, everywhere. “So… am I wrong if I assume this is related to me shooting Red John?”
“You got close only because he wanted to, and he wanted to only because the endgame is getting closer and closer. He knew he’d have survived, and wanted to make you suffer, and awaken the seed of doubt into your very soul.”
“Why do you claim the endgame is near? Does he want to kill me? Does he really want to leave the killing scene as he claimed? And how can you know all of this? Unless you are part of the conspiracy, of course… but I highly doubt it. I know you, Johnny, and I’m a good judge of character. My guts tell me you have nothing to do with him…”
“I have everything to do with him” he whispers, more like talking aloud to himself. Jane, though, he isn’t scared nor worried by the last statement. He knows like others may read it, but he doesn’t see that way. Johnny isn’t helping Red John, there’s more to it than it meets the eyes, there’s something hidden behind the veil he has yet to uncover, a truth that, he knows, will be stunning. And he is quite sure it will help him in getting closer to Red John himself.
“And what it is, this everything you have to do with him? You are not one of his minions, of that much I’m sure. This only can mean you are, for some reason, after him. The question is, why? I don’t think it’s because of me. Of course we were friends, but our relationship was one that brought benefits to each of us. We were friends because it had its benefits, not because we particularly liked each other, that we got along pretty well was just an added bonus. I had the charm, you had the bikes. I had the look, you had the personality. Together we were a perfect magnet for girls, the rest didn’t count, so, at the cost of being trite, you aren’t doing this because of me or because of Angela. I highly doubt you are somehow connected to some other victim, otherwise I’d known, because believe me, I know everything there is to know about Red John” he changes, like he has changed so many times in the past, the happy go lucky man leaving place to the beast, thirsty for blood and death. But Johnny doesn’t seem impressed by this all, nor scared. He keeps driving, barely sending glances in the direction of the man he used to call a friend a long time before.
“You know Paddy, as much as it probably breaks you, you are not the center of the universe. Not everything people does is because of you or to gain your precious attention. There are few billions of other human beings out there, each one of them would die to get my help in a situation such as this one you get yourself into, so, if you feel the need to say please or thank you, make me the favor of listening to that tiny little voice in that thick skull of yours and, for once in your life, act according to it..”
“Are you telling me you are some kind of…. Urban super-hero? Someone like Batman, reborn in the aftermath of his parents’ killing? Did the shock of your father’s death turned you into some kind of… revenger? I knew you were upset because security wasn’t enough compared to how dangerous the number was, but he is the only one to blame, and you know it. Going around looking for someone else to put the blame into, trying to hurt people, getting yourself into troubles… listen to me, Johnny, it’s not worth it. It’s wrong. And dangerous.”
Johnny doesn’t answer, even if Jane believes that the man hissed something at low voice, whispering words he has never heard before between his teeth (he understands just something, the word “strange” and something close to “demon”, but he isn’t sure), and just stops. And Jane’s heart loses a beat when he suddenly realizes where they are, that they are parking in the exact spot he parks almost every night he isn’t sleeping at the CBI. This isn’t good, this is dangerous, maybe even too much. He loves traps and endgames, and sometimes, very often, actually, he improvises to get what he wants, but this…. this is a move he didn’t see coming. Maybe he wasn’t looking so well at it. Or maybe.. maybe he has simply been wrong, and Johnny really is helping the murderer.
“With all due respect, I think it could be seen as dangerous coming here, to my motel, if someone connected to Red John is really after me as it seems, even following us. Not that I don’t appreciate the sentiment, but as much as I love my suits I don’ t need them all the time. Rally, I can make it without them for a couple of days, maybe even more. If- sorry, allow me to rephrase that, since there’s a serial killer with huge connections after us, don’t you think we should try to evade him instead of waiting for him at open arms? Because I don’t have a plan yet, and I don’t feel like improvising. Unless you have some idea I’m not aware of yet and Lisbon and the team figured everything out and are waiting for them for a secret team-meeting outside the walls of the rotten CBI ...” a pregnant pause, nothing is said while they leave the car, faking a calmness they are both far from feeling, Jane first, everything getting more and more complicated by the second. “I assume that your silence means that you don’t have a plan and Lisbon isn’t involved at all.”
“Lisbon? You mean the hot chick, brunette, huge emerald eyes, the one who’s attacked to you by the hips?” Johnny stops halfway to the room, his eyes falling to the wristwatch on his right pulse. Lines of worries appear suddenly on his forehead, almost transmutating his features, and a curse is whispered between his teeth, followed by a quick Sign of the Cross- something that make Jane stop and stare, something so strange, something so different from the young man he knew back in the day. The just probably both grew up in something entirely different, even if back them none of them knew what faith was like. “Damn, we took too long to get here. It’s almost the sunset…. We have just few minutes left and they are almost here”