Chapter 6
"No! I refuse!"
Charlotte groans loudly as Lisbon puts a stack of papers in front of her.
"I just need you to organize these and then you are done for the day."
She slumps in her chair at the kitchen table totally defeated.
"But we're not even at the CBI!"
She wines and Lisbon just roles her eyes at Charlotte who is acting like such a baby.
"What's going on?"
Jane chimes in as he enters the kitchen, the Court had decided Charlotte would work for Lisbon for three months and this was week one. Lisbon and Jane agreed that on RJ cases she wouldn't be allowed in the CBI and Lisbon would simply bring her paperwork to his home. This, of course, made Charlotte irritable and angry but then again a lot of things did. No one knew what was going on with her, just that something is very wrong.
"Nothing."
His daughter replies as she begins to shift through the ocean of paperwork in front of her. Jane looks concerned but Lisbon shrugs it off, thinking that this must be a stage all teenagers go through.
"Well in that case tell me about your day? How did it go at school?"
"Fine, it was fine."
Now Jane was even more concerned, even in the midst of her anger there was a hint of sadness in her voice, the fact that she went to school early and left late not to mention the quiet nights and short temper pointed towards bullies at school. But why was she a target? And who was attacking his daughter in the first place? She was losing weight, the bullies must be girls. The popular ones, could be cheerleaders. If only he had Charlotte's yearbook, he could pin point the girl(s) and fix this.
Jane doesn't know how wrong he is.
"So as it turns out,"
Lisbon's voice cuts through his thoughts.
"I have another meeting today, someone went through case files again and Minelli wants to tell me who did it. Said it was important."
"What about dinner? Don't you want to stay...?"
Lisbon shakes her head no and gives him a smile. He really needs to find another excuse to get her to stay.
"Minnelli was pretty serious, I should go and look into it before hand. I'll fill you in tomorrow?"
"Oh, well...alright."
Jane's a little disappointed, it had been a long day and he was hoping that she would stay. Something was bothering him: out of all the RJ cases he went through this was the first one where RJ did...nothing? It wasn't like him to simply steal a file, let alone his wife's file and not taunt him about it. It was weird and immensely uncomfortable. Lisbon was the only one that made him feel secure about things, she could clear the fog easily.
"Well?"
Charlotte chimes in once Lisbon leaves.
"Well what?"
"What happened today?"
"What? Oh just another case..."
"You mean a Red John case?"
Jane waves her off to avoid this conversation.
"Charlotte why don't you put the paper away and set the table? I'll make your favorite dinner!"
"Dad...you never really, um, talk about-"
"We are not discussing this. Set the table."
That night was like any other night: Charlotte would try to talk to her dad about her mother and he would evade every question. Jane never talked about her mother and he made it clear that she was not allowed to ask, it was an unspoken argument between the both of them. This silence usually continued when they cleaned the dishes but this time was different, Jane broke the silence.
"So I was thinking."
He says as he puts another dish into the sink.
"How would you feel if, well, Teresa and I started going out?"
"What?"
Charlotte accidentally drops the glass she's drying and it shatters on the floor. Her confusion immediately turns into rage, all of her pent up emotions taking complete control. There was no bullying going on, no rejection, it was Jane's silence that was getting to her.
"Dad are you kidding me!? You can't just go out with her! What happened to mom?"
"Charlotte-"
"No! How can you just let her go like that!? She's my mother! She's your wife and now you're just going to push mom aside for some-some agent!?"
"It's been five years!"
"Exactly! Five years and you still can't tell me anything about mom but oh sure you're just going to move on and date someone else?"
"I only kept quiet tonight because there's a new Red John case, Charlotte he is a danger to you! I have to keep you safe!"
"Don't you get it yet? There is no Red John case! I took mom's file, I had access to the file room I learned where the Red John files were and I took it! It was me dad it was all me and I know that it was the wrong thing to do but what else was there!? Daddy I envy you, you know everything about mom! Where she likes to go, her favorite food, what makes her laugh, everything. I don't remember anything, all I remember is living with you and Miss Tess and Grace and the rest of them and being constantly told to stay inside or have an escort and you arguing over wether I should go to school or not!"
"You stole the files!?"
"I don't care about Red John, I'm tired of hearing about him! For all I care he's just another freak in a mask that apparently murdered mom and captured me! Why can't we be normal for once? What if you just told me about mom and then pursued Tess? I'm not saying she's bad, I really appreciate her I like it when she comes over but I hate it when you push mom aside so casually just to hang out with Tess!"
"Alright, alright, how about I tell you about mom and you give me the case okay? Have you opened it yet?"
"No..."
"Then hand it over and I'll tell you everything."
She lets out a sigh.
"You promise?"
"Cross my heart."
"Okay..."
