A Mentalist fanfiction (Patrick Jane)

Acting Is Only Necessary - A Mentalist fanfiction (Patrick Jane)

VANPELT'S P.O.V

“We need to release an arrest to the public that isn't Charlotte.”

“... We don't have any suspects. At all,” Lisbon pointed out after a beat of quiet, and I acknowledged my head toward her with a shrug.

“Oh that doesn't matter, bring that Jason kid back in, or charge Finn,” Jane muttered, waving his hands, “But we have to do it now.”

“Why?” Cho asked, flat, business-only voice echoing around the empty unit and bouncing back to us and Jane paused in his pacing, flattening his hands against the table with a serious gaze.

“What almost happened to Charlotte due to her being framed?” Lisbon shifted moodily in her seat at the word 'framed' and Rigsby looked down, so I opened my mouth after some thought.

“We almost sent her to jail?” I guessing, smiling brilliantly when Jane nodded at me.

“Exactly,” he murmured, “So how will the real killer feel when we arrest someone who isn't Charlotte?”

“Well what if Charlotte was just the easiest person to frame?” Rigsby protested, and Jane tilted his head to the side as his nose wrinkled in distaste.

“Eh... Possible, but unlikely, considering the careful steps taken to make it look like Charlotte.” His gaze traveled over us and finally stopped at Lisbon, who had, apart from her first question, refused to take part.

“Lisbon,” Jane started, and then bit his lip. “Teresa. Please, I'm asking this as a favor. No tricks, no plans, no costumes. If you do this for me I will tell you exactly what I have planned and how I hope it will turn out. When, where, everything.”

Boss met his earnest stare over the table after a moment of stubborn hesitance, and then rolled her eyes with a small, slow smile.

“Fine, Jane. What do you need?”

XXXXX

LISBON'S P.O.V

I gulped as I met the glare of all the cameras and prayed to God that Jane was right.

“We believe we have found Danny Norwell's killer, and we are charging him immediately after this press conference. Renaldo Finn will go to jail for her murder and many other narcotics charges. We'd like to thank the public for all their help and input.”

“What about the sister?” a reporter called out from the crowd, and I resisted the urge to bite my lip and hesitate.

“She was proven harmless and guilty,” I lied, smiling as if at a fond memory of Charlotte, “We let her go.”

“But you released a search on her recently, as well as requested information from the public on her where-abouts,” a second journalist chimed in, and I clenched my teeth briefly.

“Mistakes of a stressed office,” I said breezily, brushing off the comment with my best I'm-a-cap-so-listen-to-me voice.

Despite my commendable acting skills, however, the reports looked ready to question me all day long, so I motioned to our publicist to signal that enough was enough and turned away from the podium and, more importantly, the microphones, to sigh.

“Excellently done Lisbon,” Jane congratulated me instantly, with a warm smile, “You practically had them eating out of the palm of your hand. You could have said that the murderer was a fairy with a pet elephant and they would have happily published it.” I held back my amused smile and glared.

“Stop sucking up to me because I agreed to go along with your plan,” I snapped, rolling my eyes a second later at Jane's hurt expression. He looked around quickly and then motioned for me to follow him, and I frowned as I sensed a change in his posture to a more serious and urgent feel, scurrying after him.

We stood on the side walk in front of his gleaming car and Jane lowered his head to speak.

“All 'sucking up'-” he said the words distastefully, “-aside, that was a very well accomplished job. The public now thinks the killer has been put away, Cho's CI is spreading the word that Charlotte is back in her home sweet apartment, and the real killer is bound to hear about it today.”

“And what makes you so sure she'll go for the bait?” I asked, brow furrowing as I thought. This was all sounding like quite a long shot. Jane gave me a look as if I were being stupid and I glared right back.

“First of all, Charlotte is not bait. Bait is often in harms way and occasionally gets hurt. There will be no chance of that this time, correct?” Jane watched me forcefully for reassurance and I flapped my hands in an agreeing gesture.

“Good. Now then, Norwell's killer took careful, planned steps, first stalking Danny so as to kill her at an opportune moment and leave her body on display, then stalking Charlotte for, at least, a few weeks. Then, when the killer roughly know Charlotte's living patterns, she sneaked into Charlotte's house and stole a knife, and committed the murder on a night she knew Charlotte would be home alone and, therefore, unable to prove her innocence.” I frowned.

“But the bartender at Deluxe Xtreme identified Charlotte in his club on the night of the murder,” I protested, and Jane held up one finger,, eyes alight.

“Ah, but you're wrong. He identified Charlotte's impersonator, who made a convenient appearance near the murder site and then disappeared a suspicious half an hour before the deed was done.” Jane waited until I nodded to show my understanding, and I interrupted him quickly as my curiosity became overwhelming.

“But... what relevance does that have to you're theory that because we've not arrested Charlotte, the real killer will try to find her?” Jane pressed his lips together.

“You don't target one sister and blame the other for no reason,” he muttered finally, and I wondered if I was imagining the rough edge of emotion in his voice, “The killer wanted Charlotte in jail for life. If she doesn't get that, I think we can safely assume the killer will murder a second sister.”

Jane met my concerned gaze and I was immediately stricken with the fierce, flaming worry in his eyes.

“And you'll... you'll find Charlotte and have her in her house, at the right time?” I asked gently to distract him, quickly adding on, “With our protection, of course.” He inclined his head toward me and suddenly his face was wiped clean, small, amused, warm smile in place like usual. I blinked.

“Yes, I will. I should go do that now, in fact, thank you for bringing it up.” I smiled helplessly, my concern experiencing a sudden spike at the way Jane had smoothly covered his emotions and then inconspicuously dismissed himself, as if dodging people was no big deal.

As if he did it all the time.

Without thinking, I reached up and slipped my arms loosely around his shoulders, tippy toeing as I hugged him. I felt stupidly small against his chest. Jane embraced me tightly after a moment, hands gentle on my waist.

“You should go brief the gang on the plan,” he murmured in my ear, and I nodded, “And I'll collect Charlotte and meet you at her house when I text.”

“You make it sound like you knew where she was all along,” I muttered, smiling weakly, a soft, teasing accusation in my voice.

Jane pulled away and opened his car door, offering me a grin before pulling it shut behind.

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I literally can't explain to you guys how damn sorry I am for the HUUUUUGGGGEEEEE gap I took. It's inexcusable.

Except, well, except for the fact that My Chemical Romance broke up. Because of that, there will most definitely be a break coming up, and I apologise in advance for it.