FIC: Duplicity (2/7); The Mentalist
Title: Duplicity
Disclaimer: Nope
Rating: T
Summary: AU 4.24- Her last words, much like the temptress of a woman who had spoken them out loud, could have held more meanings and there was only so much time left for them both. J/L.
1-
After Jane had spent several hours in a Las Vegas jail cell for what he had thought to be a bunch of bogus charges, as he hadn’t even done most of the assaulting, the bailiff led him from the small jail cell and motioned for him to step up to the caged desk without a single word.
“Sign that.” The gruff officer commanded of his clipboard. Jane hurriedly penned down his own name, as he struck up a conversation with the uniformed man.
“Why am I being released? I didn’t raise bail.” His eyes focused on the papered clipboard, while he waited for the officer to respond to his question. He hadn’t hypnotized anyone within the jail system and he hadn’t been able to pay bail, due to his isolation from the other inmates and due to his lack of cash.
“Somebody raised it for you.” Jane snorted quietly at the officer’s words. He couldn’t believe the audacity of that woman, who apparently had found him after months of no contact.
“Who was that?” Though Jane had a pretty good idea of who had raised his bail, he was slightly surprised that Martins and her team weren’t waiting to lecture him for his behavior.
“I don’t have that information.” The officer replied, as he took the clipboard from Jane.
“Lorelei Martins is my guess.” Jane answered with a grin, before he rocked on the ball of his feet in amusement at her extremely well hidden saving people complex. “Hm? Martins?” The officer fixed him with a humorless stare.
“I don’t have that information.” The officer repeated once again. Jane wondered if Martins had anonymously posted his bail, just to teach him several lessons in scaring her half to death.
“Okay, you don’t have that information.” Jane responded, brushing off the once full manila envelope of materials toward the officer. “You can keep that, thank you.” Jane moved to dot at his sweaty brow and face with a napkin from his personal belongings, before he turned on his heels and stuck his hands in his pockets.
He carefully opened the painted door from inside the jail, as the bright sunshine stung at his eyes, with the hopes of catching Martins outside, but she wasn’t there. Nobody stood outside the single door and as he clamored down the unfenced road, onto the busy bus and off again across from his motel, he realized that maybe, just maybe, Martins hadn’t been the one to post his bail.
Jane leisurely unlocked the door to his motel, before he turned on the light switch, only to be greeted by a sea of tacky red furnishing and as always, an empty room with sparse belongings.
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The unexpected knock at his motel door brought him from his slumber atop the velvet red sheets with a soft groan, before he stood from the bed and peered through the shorter peep hole to find Teresa Lisbon outside the locked door.
Jane glanced around the small room in surprise. How had the brunette known where he was staying? Sure, Red John probably kept various tabs on him, but her showing up was a bold move for everyone involved. He slowly opened the lightweight door to greet her with a wan smile.
“Hey.” Teresa greeted; he immediately noticed that she had freed her brunette hair, which made his smile grow. Jane had understood that her job required her hair to be worn a certain way, but he thought she had a natural beauty about her with her hair down around her face. Her casual attire surprised him though, as he had thought she’d be a little more risky than just a green short-sleeved, buttoned blouse paired with light blue denim jeans.
“Hey.” Jane replied in a mutter.
“Surprised?” Teresa asked him and he slowly nodded. Why wouldn’t he be surprised? In his six months of staying at the motel, he had never had a visitor until then.
“Tessa, right?” Jane inquired, though he obviously knew her name.
“Teresa.” Teresa politely corrected, before she bowed her head. “I’m sorry, this was a mistake.” She turned on her heels to leave, which made Jane think on his feet. If she left, his plan to catch Red John would never work and he needed it (and her) to work for him.
“No, no, no, no, Teresa.” Jane nearly had his hand out the door to try and grab onto her green short-sleeved shoulder, when she stepped back into his line of sight. “No, I’m very happy to see you. It’s just…” He tilted his head slightly, before he responded in a low mutter. “…I’m a little out of it. It’s been a rough week.” Jail, no matter how many times he had been in there, was never a fun place to be, he thought with a chuckle.
“Yeah,” Teresa agreed softly, “I can imagine.” He didn’t doubt that either, as she had come to him with something in a brown paper sack. “I brought you some food; chicken soup.” She held up the brown paper sack with a kindred smile and Jane heard his stomach growl in response; it had been hours since his last meal.
“For me?” Jane doubted the brunette had poisoned the food, considering she didn’t seem like the type of person, who would be partial to using poison.
“Of course!” Her eyes didn’t move from his and he stepped back from the door.
“Come in,” and she did, “excuse the mess.” Jane slammed the door shut behind them both, before he motioned for her to sit down at the lone table. Jane sat across from her seconds later and leveled her with a cool stare. “How did you know my address?”
Teresa slowly pulled the soup from the bag, which he took from her. “The bails bondsman gave it to me.” Jane eyed her in a mixture of surprise and confusion; the only people who knew bails bondsman were the bailers and the individuals jailed.
“How did you know who the bails bondsman was?” Jane finally voiced, as Teresa gave a slight laugh.
“What are you here? A detective with the third degree?” They both chuckled out of politeness, even though his laugh had an edge to it.
“I’m sorry,” not that he meant it though, “I’m just a little curious.” Teresa sat the bag down on the table and crossed her arms against her chest, before she took a deep breath.
“I knew he was, because I was the one who posted your bail.” Jane continued to eye her. Had she done that on her own accord or had Red John forced her to do it? He couldn’t see the possible advantages of a serial killer posting bails, but it was yet another question he just couldn’t voice to her.
“That’s a lot of money,” Jane responded to her confession and he watched her bite her lip, “I’ll pay you back, as soon as I can.”
“Don’t worry about it.” Teresa stated with the small wave of her hand.
Jane paused briefly, before he continued to speak. “Why did you do that for me?” He watched her face closely for any sign of obvious deceit.
“You seemed down on your luck and I just wanted to help you, which I did.” Jane could tell that she was only telling half of the truth, but he couldn’t tell which part was truthful. “You don’t need to say thank you, okay?”
But he did anyway, which caused her to blush. Teresa either apparently hated being told thank you or hated anybody owing her anything, which continued to add to his initial confusion of her.
He hurriedly popped open the lid on his soup and gave her a glance, as he took in the amazing scent, “do you want some?” She shook her head and he ate some in silence. “Did you make this?” A little light conversation had never hurt anybody.
“I did.” Teresa admitted with the nod of her head. “I hope I didn’t add too much salt.” Jane shook his head with a smile; the brunette, even though she worked for Red John, surprisingly knew how to cook.
“You added the perfect amount, really.” He ate another bite to prove his point, which made her smile in response and it made him wonder how a woman like Teresa-someone with a good heart and mind-could end up being a minion to a psychopath serial killer.
Jane finished off the rest of his soup in silence, before he glanced at her again. “Do you have to leave right away?” Teresa shook her head and he saw a plan forming before his very eyes; Red John had sent her to his motel room for a reason, which meant if he asked her to say with him, she couldn’t say no. “No? We could watch television together, if you’d like.” She nodded without hesitation. “I hear three out of the sixty stations you’re supposed to get actually work.”
He watched her laugh again, before he stood up from the table’s chair and threw himself atop the bed, where Teresa joined him at his request several moments later. Jane flipped on the television to something involving animals, as Teresa kept an inch of distance between them both. He had half expected her to scoot closer to him when the lioness tried to slaughter the zebra, but she didn’t and he turned his head slowly to find that she had her lips slightly parted and her entire attention focused on the small screen.
In the near darkness, he took advantage of her non-wavering attention, as he pressed his lips against hers. Show completely forgotten, he moved to bury his hand in her brunette locks, while she responded to his advances with her moist tongue in his mouth.
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