Mentalist fic: Amalgamation - 07. Still Here

Title: Amalgamation: 07. Still Here
Author: Cat
Rating: T
Fandom: The Mentalist
Pairing: Jane/Lisbon
Summary: What if Jane and Lisbon were already married when the series started? Episode Tag fic; one episode per chapter.
Spoilers: Up to Seeing Red (1x07)
Beta: fading_ripples -- your support (fic-related and life-related) is never-ending and I truly appreciate it.
Dislcaimer: All characters were borrowed for non-lucrative purposes.
Author's Notes: 7th part of the Amalgamation series: Amalgamation series tag.

~o~


Amalgamation:

07. Still Here

~o~

Lisbon obviously didn't believe that Kristina Frye was a psychic, but unlike Jane, she didn't think the woman was a murderer beyond doubt. Clearly, Jane wasn't comfortable with a reminder of his fraudulent past. Lisbon knew she would have to deal with a childish consultant throughout the case and that's not even counting the rants she'd have to endure when they're home. She’d already had a sizeable sample last night. Nevertheless, Jane was right that she may be, at the very least, a valuable witness. One that certainly was a bit of a pain in the ass.

"Truly, I would love to help you," Kristina Frye told them, "but my practice is bound by the same client confidentiality codes that all doctors abide by."

"You have a professional therapist license with the state?" Lisbon asked, surprised.

Without skipping a beat, Frye answered, "Yes, I do," glancing at Lisbon for a brief second before turning her attention back to Jane.

"Your client's dead," Jane pointed out.

"Her earthly vessel is dead. When her soul completes its journey, I can ask her if it's all right to share her problems with you in more detail. I've recorded all her sessions on CD. If she says yes, I'll give them to you."

Lisbon watched Jane as Frye spoke. As annoying as the woman was, the sparring between Kristina and her husband was quite entertaining.

"Why bother with that?" he asked her. "Why not just ask her who killed her?"

"Of course, I will, but she may not know. Death doesn't grant omniscience."

"You're good."

"I like to think so," Frye replied.

"Yes, you do."

"I think it's important to love oneself. How do you feel about yourself?"

Jane threw his head back, laughing softly. "You tell me. And forget about the $500 an hour. I'm on civil pay."

"Okay. For free then," Frye answered and Lisbon looked down, listening intently. The woman was obviously good and she was curious about what she was going to say. "I think you act assured and arrogant, but inside you are troubled with deep guilt and self loathing. A recent trauma in your past, perhaps? But you're more than a little unstable." She turned to Lisbon. "You have your work cut out for you," Frye told her, looking at her square in the eye. Something passed between the two women. Lisbon cocked her head to the side a bit, almost asking a silent question to the other woman. Kristina Frye looked at her, answering the silent question.

She knew.

Damn California law with having marriage licenses being public.

"You are good," Van Pelt commented.

"Please," Jane retorted, "not to boast but I am quite a well known horrible tragedy. Maybe a half hour on the internet would tell you I'm consumed with guilt and self-loathing."

"One look in your eyes would tell me that. What makes you think I would spend any time researching you on the internet? A little self-involved maybe?" She asked Lisbon, "May I go?"

"Yes. Thank you for your time."

"Feel free to call me," she told Lisbon, "any time."

"We will." Lisbon repressed a smile and then gave a meaningful look to Jane, trying to tell him that Kristina Frye knew.

"What?"

Totally clueless. Definitely self-involved.

~o~

They didn't have time to be alone until Jane got home that night, but as soon as he walked through the door, Lisbon asked:

"You know she knows about us, right?"

"What?" Jane's mind had been somewhere else. "Oh yeah, of course she does," he said once he realized what she was talking about. "I suspect checking marriage licenses was the first thing she did after looking me up online."

Lisbon groaned. "Who checks marriage licenses?"

"Psychics. They try to get as much information on their client before a session, or in Kristina Frye's case, showing off."

Lisbon looked at him, amused. "Are you actually criticizing the woman for showing off? Hypocritical much?"

"Meh, I show off my true abilities. She shows off real abilities under false pretenses," he explained. "Also cops."

"What?" Lisbon asked confused. What did cops have anything to do with showing off fake psychic abilities?

"Cops. They check marriage licenses." He added with a smile, "For victims and suspects, not colleagues or superiors, or even consultants, for that matter."

"This is going to bite me in the ass one day, I know it," Lisbon groaned and added, "By the way, didn't I tell you to play nice with Kristina Frye?"

Jane shrugged as he took his jacket off and put it on a chair. "I did play nice. I could have been much worse."

"Well, play nicer next time," she ordered.

~o~

"Heard from Rosemary's probate lawyer, " Rigsby said to the team the next morning. "Guess who she just added to her will?"

"Kristina Frye," Jane guessed without missing a beat.

"The ink wasn't even dry yet," Rigsby confirmed.

"Kristina told us she knew in advance that Rosemary was in danger," Van Pelt defended Frye. "Why would she tell us if she's guilty?"

"How diabolically clever of her," Jane mused as Lisbon's eyebrows rose in surprise. "Make us dismiss her as a suspect because she made herself look like one."

Lisbon considered this as Van Pelt continued defending Frye. "Or maybe, just maybe, she has a rare and precious gift and is trying to help us."

"A rare and precious gift," Jane repeated. "Tell me," he said to Van Pelt as he got up from the couch to stand next to her, "who gets these gifts anyhow? How come no one has the gift for seeing horse race results? And how come dead people always talk such tedious drivel?"

"Play nice," Lisbon told him. "Van Pelt is entitled to her opinion."

"Not if it's wrong. This is like believing in the Easter Bunny."

"Who says there's no Easter Bunny?" Rigsby quipped.

They all smiled at Rigsby's humor as Van Pelt's phone rang.

"Van Pelt," she answered. "Oh, hi. Wow. Thanks. Got it, we'll be right over." Van Pelt hung up the phone and turned back to the others. "That was Kristina. She says she's picking up on something."

"Hm," Jane murmured, unimpressed.

"Something that might help us," Van Pelt deadpanned.

"Why don't you go talk to her?" Lisbon suggested to Van Pelt, who smiled appreciatively.

"I'm coming," Jane announced as he put his jacket on.

"Does he have to?" Van Pelt asked her boss.

"If she's conning us," Lisbon explained, "we need to know."

"She isn't," Van Pelt said. "I can tell."

"Behave," Lisbon reminded Jane as they left.

~o~

Lisbon stood by the lake, watching a car being pulled out of it.

"If anyone needs arresting, it's Kristina Frye," Jane told Lisbon as he came to stand next to her. " She knew that Rosemary was in danger. She knew where to find the car. The murder weapon. Which means that she either does have supernatural powers or she was involved in the crime."

"Come on," Lisbon protested. "She simply did what you do so well: with an air of confidence, she made an educated guess. Where else would you dump a car around here? She's a good guesser."

"Well, yes," Jane conceded. "That's a possibility too."

"Yes, and that's what you object to, isn't it?" Lisbon taunted him, amused. "Not that she's a con artist but that she's so good at it. Maybe even better than you." She sure loved to tease him.

"Not at all. I... all right, yes." Lisbon smiled triumphantly, still highly amused.

"Not better than me, mind you, but she is good. And it's the good ones that are the most dangerous," he added somberly.


For a second, she wondered if he was talking about himself.

~o~

Lisbon looked around the bullpen, but couldn't see Jane anywhere. She realized that he must have gone home already. She took a deep breath and tried not to chicken out. She would have preferred talking to Jane before doing this, but at the same time, they kept the marriage a secret for her sake, not his. This was ultimately her decision.

She knocked on Minelli's door and let herself in when she heard "Come in."

She smiled awkwardly at her boss. This was going to be difficult.

"Good job on closing the case, Lisbon."

"Thank you, sir. There's something I wanted to discuss with you, if you have a minute" she said as confidently as she could.

"Sure. Sit down," he gestured to the chair in front of his desk.

She sat down and decided to get straight to the heart of the matter. "Jane and I are married."

Immediately, Minelli sprung forward and opened his mouth. Lisbon held up her hand, asking him to let her finish.

"We have been married since last March. We checked with Personnel and the fraternization rules do not apply with consultants. We have officially declared it to the Bureau and it is mentioned in our Personnel files."

"How come I wasn't made aware of this by Personnel?" Minelli couldn't help but ask.

"We asked for confidentiality," Lisbon explained. "I know I should have told you, but I was afraid it would get out. This could really hurt my career. Even though we're not breaking any rules, I am sure I would be seen as a joke if people knew that I married Jane."

"The fraternization rules are there for a reason, Lisbon. It doesn't really matter much to me that you have found a loophole. I should assign Jane to someone else's team."

"Please don't," Lisbon told him. "Married or not, I am able to keep a much tighter leash around Jane's neck than anyone else. He works well with my team. Besides, doesn't the fact that you had no idea about us prove that we're able to keep our personal and professional lives separate?"

"Hmpf," Minelli grunted.

"Keeping this a secret is forcing us to be extremely careful and we are professional around each other at work. Well, as professional as Jane can be."

"I don't like this."

Lisbon looked down, unable to meet her boss's eyes. "I know."

"You swear this has been cleared by Personnel?"

Lisbon nodded.

"And you keep this out of the office?"

Lisbon nodded again.

"That man will be the death of me. Not only do I have to deal with the AG office, various politicians and an insane amount of lawsuits, and you know I hate lawyers, now he's taken my best agent."

"He hasn't taken me away; I'm still here."

Minelli didn't say anything. She could tell he was disappointed. She had never thought much about his reaction other than his anger. She didn't expect disappointment. She wanted to say something, anything, to make it disappear. She couldn't un-marry Jane. She wasn't sure there was anything to say.

"I'm sorry about all this," was all she could say as she got up to leave the office.

When she opened the door and was about to walk out, she heard Minelli's soft voice, "so am I."

The depth of his disappointment had really been unexpected and Lisbon didn't know how to react to it. So she simply left the office.

~o~

That night she went to bed at around midnight, after waiting for Jane to come home the last several hours. When she married him, she had promised herself never to wait up for him and she had broken that promise more times than she cared to count. Tonight, she wouldn't, so she went to bed as soon as she started to fall asleep on the couch. Once in bed, however, she found herself unable to fall asleep as resentment toward Jane started to creep up in her heart. This absent, volatile husband was the reason why she had disappointed and broken the trust of a man who was as close to a father as anyone else had been in her life.

She heard the front door open and close about an hour later. When the bedroom door opened, Lisbon closed her eyes and forced herself into a deep, slow breathing rhythm. She most likely wouldn't fool him, but he probably wouldn't call her on it. He would guess that she was angry and hurt and would probably wait until the morning for a confrontation. When the mattress creaked under Jane's weight, she felt him roll her over. He wrapped his arms around her and held her as close as he could. Her face buried in his chest, she could hear his heart beating faster than usual and feel his rapid breathing. Something was wrong.

"Patrick?" she asked, leaning back enough to look at him.

He shook his head and buried his face in her hair. He obviously didn't want to talk about it. She wrapped her arms around him, and closed her eyes, trying to fall asleep. She knew she would wake up in the same position in the morning. He wasn't going to let her go tonight.

As sleep claimed her, Jane softly whispered in her ear, with an edge of despair to his voice, "I love you. I love you so much."

She slightly tightened her arms around him, telling him that she heard him and felt the same.

~o~


To be continued...