Red Silences

Thanks to Frogster, lucy and Jisbon4ever for the reviews, I also want to thank everyone through the course of this story for the reviews, the reads and the alerts. I give you all hugs, and hopefully, an amazing end to such an angsty story.

In the very first chapter of this, I said something about writing a sequel...and I think because of how the last three chapters ended and especially how this one ended, I feel I should go ahead and write a sequel.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy the last chapter!

Chapter Twenty-Eight:

Gravity

"How are you feeling today, Teresa?" Lisbon shrugged, the long sleeved shirt, which covered the welts on her arms where Avery had beaten her, raised up an inch on her stomach and she hurriedly pulled it down, as she held her green gaze on Emily's blue. "This," Emily imitated Lisbon's shrug, as she leaned back in her own desk chair. "Is not an answer."

"I'm okay, I guess." Lisbon offered, quietly—the poison had been completely repelled from her body and the gunshot wound across her abdomen had almost healed nicely.

"That's good." Emily praised with a small smile. "What did you do today?" Lisbon shrugged again; and at Emily's look, she tensed, for a few moments, she thought she was back at Avery's; she shivered and clenched her arms tighter to herself, which had not gone ignored by the woman doctor. "Teresa? What's wrong?"

"Nothing," she lied, when in fact everything before her very eyes were falling apart; she couldn't even do anything without the flashbacks of her time at Avery's haunting her or the guilt still plaguing her at the memory of Jane's haunting screams from the burning of the curling iron, which always remained just below the surface of her restless thoughts.

She shifted in her seat, not only was her personal life in complete ruins, but the very people who had made her who she was, today, were tearing her professional life apart. Hightower had decided to strip her of all titles besides the Miss before her name due to her actions involving the three murdered women and her connection with Jane, the suspicion however; she could deal with... the worst part of everything she had to deal with. She also had to deal with the fact that everyone was ridiculing her statement on the events, laughing behind her back as she told them about the hypnotism.

"Teresa?" Emily softly called, and Lisbon glanced up from the sleeve of her shirt to glance at the woman, as she leaned forward—her brunette hair skimming her shoulders against the green suit jacket she wore.

"I was thinking…" Lisbon managed and Emily nodded.

"About?" Emily asked, after a few moments of silence.

"Death."

"Ah." Emily responded, gravely. "You aren't thinking about committing suicide are you?"

"No," Lisbon answered, truthfully. "I was just thinking about what Sam thinks of me now…" She didn't finish her sentence, but it spoke volumes between the both of them—Emily knew she thought of herself as a whore because two men had happened to sexually assault her, in a period of one day and yet, she had not almost castrated that asshole, like she had done to Jane.

"Teresa," Emily sighed. "It isn't your fault." Lisbon blinked, was she talking about Bosco's death or the sexual assaults, because both of them seemed like her fault. If she hadn't of gone and gotten herself too wrapped up in the Red John case, Bosco might have actually still been alive while if she had chosen to tell Hightower the complete truth about where she was going, she may have avoided the situation completely.

No matter what Emily said, Lisbon knew it was her fault for the destruction of her personal and professional lives but if it made her feel any better, Jane's personal and somewhat professional life was falling with hers pending a mental evaluation.

"I'm the only one of us, who can remember anything." Lisbon quietly stated. "And they won't believe me."

"Have you spoken to Alyson?" Emily questioned, and Lisbon shook her head. "Rhys?" Lisbon nodded.

"Last week."

"Did he have anything new to shed?"

"No." All he had said was that he wanted to end their relationship, but he still wanted to remain good friends.

"What about your unit?"

"They came in yesterday to tell me the good news." Emily nodded. "Cho and Van Pelt weren't suspended and Rigsby's pending trial is sometime this week."

"Would you want to go?" Lisbon blinked before she shook her head.

"Not really," Lisbon had not exactly wanted to leave her hospital room for the past few days, the tension of seeing other people besides the nurses or people she knew frightened her. "Rigsby can handle himself; I have full faith in him."

"What about Patrick then?" Lisbon glanced down at the floor before she took a deep breath.

"This morning." Emily eyed her, and Lisbon refused to continue—what had happened between her and Jane that morning was something private between the both of them and the doctor did not need to know about it.

Personally, Lisbon was still unsure about the whole conversation because Jane (who was not even supposed to be out of his hospital bed escaped from his room in a wheelchair) but reflecting over it, she realized it was not the worst thing it the world to happen to the both of them.

"He said he was sorry." Lisbon released and Emily raised her eyebrow in response.

"About?"

"Stuff." The "stuff" hadn't been specified, nor did she ask it to be.

Lisbon didn't have much of a chance to reflect on that however, as one of the nurses popped into the room to find the man but after he and the nurse had left, Lisbon wondered what all he had to be sorry about, she doubted he remembered that anyhow. It was not as if he remembered anything, and he obviously didn't remember his actions to her and she definitely did not want to tell him, it was painful enough being around him without wanting to scream or runaway.

For now, she was able to admit to herself what had happened and whether anyone else believed her or not was going to be slim to none.

Hypnotism, as Emily had said, was a risky subject to use as a weapon in any murder and had likened it back to the fact that hypnosis was thought to be apart of the imagination, she had almost laughed…Alyson's comment about hypnotism nearly three weeks ago had been dead on.

"I think this is where we'll stop for this week," Emily told her, and Lisbon hid her joy. "I'll see you the same day next week, at the same time." Lisbon nodded, hissing in pain at the tightness in her marked shoulder and Emily stood to walk the woman back to her room.

OoO

Jane stared down at his disfigured legs, the doctors had said that he'd be lucky if he'd ever walk again considering that the curling iron had done a number on his nerves; it would have seemed funny to him eons ago that one day he would be sitting in a wheelchair, possibly for the rest of his life due to the hypnotism.

Of course, he knew about it.

The bastard had given him two gifts in the last suggestion, one was to remember it and regret the choices he had made everyday and two was that he would never be able to speak about it, he wouldn't be able to tell the CBI, he wouldn't be able to tell Hightower, he wouldn't be able to tell Rhys and above all, he wouldn't be able to tell Lisbon he was sorry for what he had done.
While yes, a suggestion could never make you go against your moral character or will—drugs had diminished his moral character and will and he would never be able to tell her that.

He would never be able to tell her that he loved her either, not after he could see fear in her eyes this morning, and it literally killed him. The relationship he and Lisbon had worked on building for the past two years had been completely ruined in a course of one night, everything he had strived for had been burned down and now, he awaited a mental evaluation to see if he were fit, enough to stand trial for the murders that someone else had made him do.

Avery had gotten off lucky, life in a psychiatric prison while the four of them; himself, Rhys, Alyson and Lisbon would be paying the ultimate price for years to come.

They had gone from having everything, to having nothing at all and that was his fault and his fault alone.