Ronnie Masters | the MENTALIST (COMPLETE)

MISS RED : pt II

QUESTION TO THE READERSHIP: do we want Cho and Ronnie to have kids one day or are we grossed out by the pregnancy trope? (This is distant distant distant distant future so it's not technically a spoiler)

Just don't want to turn anybody off because of a highly controversial trope.

Enjoy, comment, and vote!!

"You really are dating Jane, aren't you?" Cho's flat voice questioned as they got out of the car in the parking lot of Gaia Matrix. He tossed his sunglasses onto his seat. He locked the doors and squared his shoulders, refusing to look at her as they headed inside.

She, on the other hand, couldn't get enough of his carefully guarded expression. He was eating up her ruse, left, right, and center. The man was so clueless in the way of human relationships. "I'm not ready to discuss this yet." She responded ambiguously, and opened the tall glass doors for him to enter first.

What was it going to take for him to understand that Jane wasn't some kind of cradle robber, but a kind and caring father figure? Why did he take every opportunity to be a curmudgeon when it came to Jane? Cho was her best friend. They'd been through absolute insanity together and he'd practically nursed her back to health—why did he fail to know her when it came to this?

A graying man in a wheelchair was waiting in the lobby for them, looking mild and unassuming in a purple collared shirt and gray cardigan. He smiled at them pleasantly.

Cho switched into agent mode as soon as he stepped through the doors, reaching to shake the man's hand. "Hi. I'm Agent Cho, this is Agent Masters, CBI."

"Stuart Hansen." The man responded, peering up at them both meekly. "I'll take you to Rick."

Ronnie shook his hand as well, politely greeting him.

He immediately began wheeling himself through the lobby, leaving Ronnie and Cho to follow him. "What's your job here, Mr. Hansen?" She asked conversationally, uninclined to spend the entire meeting marinating in Cho's sulking presence. Her prank was more fun when Jane was actually in the room.

The man gave an amused chuckle. "Jim hates labels and pigeonholes. I'm kind of the security chief, but that sounds so fascistic, doesn't it?"

It didn't, but Ronnie didn't say so.

"What I am, really, is the firewalls and encryptions and off-the-wall ideas guy." He came to a stop in front of the elevators and reached out to press the up arrow. "Rick's been in the conference room all morning, dealing with the fallout from Jim's death. He's pretty broken up. We all are." He turned a pitiful gaze up to the agents, prompting Cho to force a sympathetic nod before he went on. "Jim meant so much to this company. To all of us."

The elevator doors opened and Cho gestured for Stuart to wheel himself in first, and then let Ronnie enter before he followed.

Upstairs in the conference room with Jim Gulbrand's business partner, Rick Bergman, Cho took the lead on the interview, as he always did. "The company is co-owned by you and Jim, is that right?"

Rick confirmed the statement, his attitude subdued by the sullenness of the circumstances.

"How did that relationship work exactly?" Cho asked.

Rick's eyes flashed indignantly to Ronnie as he threw up a hand. "Jim was the creative brain behind Gaia Matrix. He was the visionary. I handled the business side." He shrugged forlornly. "We made a good team. He was a genius, but he wasn't aggressive. Me, I'm a jock; competitive; I like to win, make no apologies for it." He spared Ronnie a self-assured smirk.

She didn't have the patience for his ego. "Is that what got you into trouble with the SEC?"

Rick's demeanor crumbled a little, humbled by the blow. "My lawyers warned me this line of questioning might come up. This is all I'm prepared to say on that subject at the moment: I am currently under investigation by the SEC for securities violations due to my role here at Gaia Matrix."