Good PatRiot (boyxboy)

Portrait of a Killer

They were seated in an interrogation room. Jay watched with interest as Patric described the man he had been chasing to the sketch artist.

The man was obviously fit. From what Patric said he had been chasing the guy for a while only making small progress with closing the distance between them. He was wearing a black hoodie with the hood up and a brown leather jacket over that. There were leather gloves on the man's hands and a pair of dark blue jeans on his legs. And Patric's shoes on his feet, making the criminal's shoe size a twelve.

Patric said the man was probably an inch or so taller than his own height and he seemed to have a pretty solid build. Probably went around 180 pounds. The sketch artist noted all of these characteristics, but what they were really interested in was the face of this man.

Jay decided to push this little process along by telling Patric what the sketch artist wanted to hear. "She wants to know more about the man's face," he smirked kindly at the timid sketch artist who blushed, giving him the best puppy dog eyes she could muster.

So not interested. Jason had to fight not to roll his eyes at the misguided girl.

"The face?" Patric asked for clarification which also succeeded in taking the girl's attention off of Jason and back on her job.

"Yes," she whispered.

"I have to warn you, I wasn't really concentrating too much on his face. I was kind of trying to catch him," Patric began.

Jason had the sinking suspicion that he might not have even seen the man's face. After all, Patric was chasing him and the guy in question had been wearing a hood. It wouldn't be too farfetched to not even catch a glimpse of it.

"Did you see the guy's face?"

"Yeah," Patric sounded like he was trying to convince himself that he saw the suspected murderer's mug.

Jason gave him a look that screamed that he needed to be more convincing with his answer than that,

So Patric thought about it. Thought back on chasing that man across half the town. Right when he started the chase he had called out to the man and the guy had looked back.

The only thing Patric had really registered at the time was the flash of fear in the man's eyes. He hadn't expected to get caught, or be chased. Patric remembered wisps of hair fluttering out the side of his hood at times meaning the guy had longer hair. And judging by the shape of the hood concealing the murderer's features, he had a more oval shaped head. Patric also knew the man was Caucasian.

"Yes," he answered more confidently this time.

Jason motioned for him to get on with the description.

"Uh, oval face," he started, then closed his eyes trying to picture the man in his mind as the sketch artist got to work.

"Brownish-blond hair, it was longer, probably a bit past the ears," Patric made a motion to show some kind of hairstyle. "Maybe a layered cut?"

"The guy was definitely Caucasian too."

There was a significant pause in Patric's description where the only thing that could be heard was the sound of pencil on paper as the sketch artist brought the killer to life.

"Did you see anything else that might help?" Jason asked gently coaxing Patric to continue his description.

"Nothing that really stood out, no," he shifted nervously, "I was too far away to pin down an eye color and... I mean, well, the hood cast a lot of his face into shadow. I'm lucky I saw that much."

And Jason had to agree. He thought Patric was lucky enough to get that much of a description while chasing the hooded man.

"This is what I have so far," the crippling shy sketch artist showed the portrait to the two men.

It, unfortunately, wasn't something that narrowed their search down too much. A non-descript white male with blond-brown hair that was about six foot and weighed 180 pounds was fairly common in this area.

"Thanks," Jason said trying not to sound too disappointed. "If we learn anything else we'll let you know," he didn't think they'd be seeing her again.

He walked over to the door motioning for Patric to follow him.

When they were back in Jason's office Patric glances up at him from under those long eyelashes of his, "Sorry I couldn't be of more help."

Jason swallowed thickly, "It's okay, that was enough for now."

At those words Patric looked hopeful. That made it sound like maybe they weren't going to cart his ass off to jail. Jason realized Patric wasn't the only person waiting for him to continue, Montoya and Izzy had stalled in their bickering and Sophie was watching them from her seat at the table, tea cup in hand, all waiting to hear if Patric was in the clear.

Scrubbing a tired hand down his face Jason began, "There's still not enough evidence to take your name off of the suspect list," here he watched everyone's face fall.

Montoya growled, "Bullshi-"

"But," Jason continued as if Montoya had never spoken, "there's also too much pointing against you to say you are the killer. We're supposed to look more into this hooded guy."

Jay fixed his gaze on Patric so he would know that what he said next was really important. "But you should keep an extremely low profile."

The smile on Patric's face was so wide he thought it might split him in two. Sophie let out a breath she had been holding in and Montoya hooped and hollered while Isabelle just let out a relieved laugh. Jason felt himself smiling too.

And then his heart was hammering in his throat as Patric leapt towards him and hugged him. He excitedly kissed Jason on the corner of his mouth which caused the man to turn a bright red.

Seeming to realize what he'd done, and in front of who, Patric pushed himself away and looked to the floor shuffling his foot awkwardly. When nobody broke the uncomfortable silence, Patric muttered something about going home and quickly fled the room.

The four team members continued to stare at each other, Jason daring each one of them in turn to make something of the scene they had just witnessed.

Isabelle was the first to break the silence with a sing-song of, "Awkward."

And just like that the floodgates of tension were lifted. "You're into guys?" Montoya asked like it was the most unbelievable notion in the known universe.

Sophie just smiled that sweet smile that Jason was so fond of and decided, "You look cute together."

Montoya continued to stare at him incredulously, "You're into guys?"