Title: Analysis
Fandom: : The Mentalist
Rating: PG
Length: 1023 Words
Content notes: I received an adopted character: Emma, mid-fourties, messy divorce, expert handwriting analyst and suddenly knew exactly who to have her analyze! :D
Summary: Jane meets someone new at the office.



Jane walked into the outer office with his mid-morning cup of tea and discovered a pretty woman standing over his couch. She was looking at a yellow legal pad that he had been scribbling on earlier, with a contemplative expression on her face. Taking a sip of his perfectly temperate tea, he contemplated this new person.

From her neat suit, and the slight hint of a name badge peeking out from behind the legal pad, he guessed that she was a consultant or part of a law firm, rather than a witness or plaintiff. He would place her at mid-thirties, either divorced or recently lost a child, to go by the lines around her mouth and eyes. She wasn't someone he recognized, so she hadn't consulted for the Bureau before - at least not since he had joined.

Taking another sip of his tea, he started towards her, interested in why she was looking at his things, and why she was even in the office. "Hello," he said, smiling winningly.

She calmly turned around, apparently not startled, and smiled politely. "Hello, you must be Jane."

"I am. And you are?"

"Emma. Emma Lightly." she didn't offer her hand to shake his, and Jane mentally flipped his analysis from 'death of a child' to 'very messy divorce.'

"And what kind of consultation work brings you to the CBI today, Ms. Lightly?" he asked.

To his slight annoyance, she didn't seem shocked at all that he had guessed her job, or the reason she was there. "The director brought me in to work on the Ferguson case," was her simple reply. 'We had worked together in the past, so he called me up when your team found the new evidence last night, thinking that I might be able to shed some light on it."

"Oh, so this is about the killer's office?" Jane asked. He began flipping through his mental rolodex of professions that might be called to consult on their find. She didn't strike him as an explosives expert, but if one had come in last night and determined that the strange drawings and ingredient lists weren't actually for explosives (as Jane had suggested they might not be) then she could really be from any one of a dozen academic fields, asked to clarify the documents.

"Yes, though I'm not certain the director would like you blurting out those kinds of details in the middle of an open office to a person who you barely know," Emma replied, her tone disapproving. "Not that you care what the director thinks, I know, but still, I'm surprised that when his attempts to discipline you in the past didn't work he didn't simply get rid of you."

Jane opened his mouth to smugly inform her of his indispensability to the CBI when Emma continued, "She must really care about you."

That stopped him cold, though he forced his smile to stay in place. She had to be talking about Lisbon, but that made no sense. How would someone, who had never been here before, know all of the details about his relationship with Lisbon and the director? That wasn't the kind of thing that would have just come up in casual conversation about the case, and it wasn't like the director to blab it all out to some consultant he didn't know that well. And Jane was sure that they weren't that close. She had none of the airs of someone who rubbed elbows and shared gossip with the top chains of this command, but rather a simple confidence that Jane was more used to in his previous line of work.

"That's an interesting analysis of the situation," he forced himself to say. "Of course, the sight of your name badge would have told me that you were here on official business, and since last night's find is the talk of the water cooler around here, I'm not sure why you think the director would want it all hushed up." he paused for dramatic effect before adding, "unless you think he's hiding something."

Emma smirked a little, but in an annoyed way, not in an amused way. "Nice try. But no. I've simply learned a lot about you in the last few minutes, Mr. Jane. And may I say that I'm not terribly impressed with you. Your legend leaves much to be desired, on paper." With that, she thrust the notepad into his hands, turned smartly on her heels, and stalked into Lisbon's office.

Jane watched her go, before flopping onto his couch. He glanced at his pad, which, as he had known, was simply covered in sketches and doodlings. He would need to do a little investigating to find out who this Emma was, and how she had made such excellent guesses about him. Sighing, he settled back into the cushions and closed his eyes, deep in thought.

A few minutes later, he heard the blinds rustling on Lisbon's door, and the clunking of her boots across the floor. "Hello, Lisbon," he smiled, eyes still closed.

"Nap time's over," she sounded a little more snippy than usual, and Jane wondered if Emma had rubbed her the wrong way too. "Get up and get to work."

Jane opened his eyes with a sigh and sat up, unsurprised to see Emma behind her. "Are we going back to the killer's office?" he asked, easily masking his eagerness.

"No. Emma's going to the office with Cho. You and I are chasing down a called in tip."

Jane allowed himself a pout as he cocked his head at Lisbon. "Why does she get to go to the cool crime scene?"

Lisbon frowned. "Because she's the expert handwriting analyst, and because the pregnant woman you insulted yesterday called the director this morning to complain. Now let's go!"

Jane's indignation over the director's decision was shoved aside by the sudden sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach. She was a handwriting expert? She had determined all that about him from a couple of doodles? He looked up and found Emma smirking at him.

This was going to be a long case.