Patrick Jane was not having a good day. His car had broken down, he'd forgotten his ID and only gotten through because he'd asked about Craig's kid and oh yeah, his beloved wife and daughter were murdered exactly six years ago today.
He just... couldn't do it. After his release from the psychiatric ward he'd found himself freshly energised with mad purpose. Jane never forgot the reason for this purpose of course he just preferred to push it to the back of his mind. Which on a day like today, just wasn't an option.
They were his good and his purity in this twisted, corrupted world and without them he was just a desperate, furious shell seeking vengeance.
He could pretend he was fine with this as much as he liked, most didn't notice but there were always those select few like Lisbon who could catch shrewd glimpses of the corner of the puzzle. Perhaps if they were truly unlucky he'd show them exactly what he was capable of but sometimes, like now, he just wasn't up to it.
Curled over on his second-favourite sofa, the rather bruised man contemplated his reasoning, or rather lack of, for coming in today.
Subconsciously he thinks he had wanted company. To see Lisbon's irritated frown, Grace's concerned hovering combined with Rigsby's puppy-dog eyes and maybe even Cho's complete lack of expression.
Of course as his conscious brain was too busy grieving the rest of him took his body, along with it's disturbed mind, to work anyway. For a moment he'd even considered that to not be a bad thing, maybe a little bit of socialising, some practice of his more complicated tricks on an easily bewildered Rigsby, would make this whole thing simpler.
He should've realised he was fooling himself. Only a few hours in and he'd heard someone complaining about paying child support to their ex and all that anger he usually kept well hidden just... overtook him completely. He'd cornered the nearest guy who had a kid and ripped into him until he'd received a physical beating to match the emotional one he was already giving himself.
There were so many people out there who hurt their kids or ignored their kids, or like unsuspecting Mark Flint, just wouldn't fully realise the gift they had until it was gone. Jane may have been a selfish con-man but surely there were others worse than him, why was it him that had to have only good in his life torn away from him in such a cruel fashion.
Approaching footsteps drew the anguished consultant out of the dark hole his mind had slowly been sinking further into and he knew there could only be one person about to stride through the dark wooden door across from him.
Straightening up and smoothing down the unruly curls he'd been clutching Jane turned, time to face the music.
Lisbon for her part had used the short time it'd taken her to cross the bullpen to her office to contemplate the potential reasons for her consultant's behaviour. There was no denying that he did strange things on a frequent basis but this was a little out there, even for him. Not only was he typically unappreciative (understatement) of physical altercations, she also knew that while he could and would antagonise people for the fun of it, he'd rarely take it so far unless it served another purpose.
That meant that for Jane to have deliberately provoked Flint into hurting him something had to be seriously wrong. That last and undeniably worrying thought cause Lisbon to come to a complete stop in front of her own office. Patrick Jane was difficult to deal with on a normal day and though Lisbon usually considered herself to be good at reading people, the amount of facades he had were an entirely different story.
So what she needed here was more than a plan of action, she needed a full on army if she had any hope of bringing down his defences. Otherwise all that would come from this incident was Lisbon receiving yet another reprimand for Minelli concerning her inability to control the consultant attached to her team, as if he were a dog she'd made the mistake of letting of her lease. Despite the fact that Jane was the one who'd technically come off worse in this situation, everyone around the office was becoming wiser to his innocent act.
Lisbon at that point must have hesitated too long because she started when her consultant let out a drawn out groan from behind the door. This was followed by his signature mellow voice "Come in already Lisbon, we can't have you standing around out there all day or someone might start to think that someone was wrong."
The almost sarcastic lilt in his tone was hard to mistake though for now she was going to ignore it in favour of opening the door and having a proper conversation. Sadly this idea didn't seem to do much as she grasped the cool metal of the doorknob but couldn't bring herself to fully turn it, some animal instinct trying to warn her of the monster she would find within.
Okay, now she was just being ridiculous. Rolling her eyes at her own brain she gathered her resolve and pushed the door open, how bad could it be?