Work Text:
For the next two days, Cho and Jane went out in the evenings on dates and had a great time. They grew closer and their conversations became more personal. Jane even mentioned his daughter, Charlotte, a few times. They went out after work both days and at the end of both evenings, Jane kindly refused to come up to Cho’s apartment.
Cho was as understanding as he could be. He had a hunch that the dates themselves were big steps for Jane, and he didn’t want to pressure the man into anything.
The third day they got another case, this one involving a psychic. The whole team could see that the psychic irked Jane to no end. Van Pelt was a believer, Jane was vehemently not one. The whole case seemed to bother Jane, especially when Clara claimed that parents were supposed to look out for their kids.
Cho noticed a negative reaction from that statement on Jane’s face, but with everyone in the room he couldn’t comment on it. He didn’t like when the psychic came back and asked to speak to Jane alone. Cho watched them leave together, and Jane shot him a reassuring smile. Jane wasn’t worried.
When the psychic left and there was still no sight of Jane, Cho went looking. He found him in an interview room. His back was turned, but Cho could see his shoulders shaking, almost like he’s crying. Cho glanced up and down the hall before going into the room and closing the door behind him, signaling to Jane that he was there.
Jane stiffened and wiped his eyes, ready to pretend he wasn’t just crying, before he even looked to see whom it was.
“It’s me.” Cho said. He didn’t want Jane to pretend to be okay.
Jane stayed stiff but stopped wiping his eyes. He didn’t turn around, so Cho walked around in front him. Jane kept his eyes down.
Cho didn’t quite know what to do. He didn’t know if his touch would be accepted, so he stood with his hands in his pockets. He wanted to comfort Jane, help him out, but he didn’t know how; Jane would have to make the first move.
Jane didn’t like to be so vulnerable, but he was glad it was Cho and not someone else from the team. He tried to stop the tears from flowing, but the psychic’s words struck him hard. When Cho only stood there and didn’t do anything, he knew that Cho was merely at a loss of what to do.
After a minute of failing to calm down, Jane held out his hand to Cho. Cho immediately took it. Jane pulled Cho closer until Jane could lean his head against the man’s chest.
“Do you want to talk about what she said?” Cho asked.
“Not right now.”
“Okay. I’m sorry she upset you. I knew I should have told her to leave.”
“I was willing to talk with her…I needed to hear what she said.”
Cho nodded. They stayed there until Jane stopped crying and then for a little bit longer.
They left the room separately and returned to work.
After work, Cho went home and changed, then waited for Jane to show up. They hadn’t discussed it, but Cho had a gut feeling the man would come anyway after the day they had. He wasn’t surprised at all when someone knocked on his door at around 8.
He opened the door to Jane, who had a nervous smile on his face. Cho stepped aside to let the man in. Once inside, Jane headed straight to the kitchen and started making tea, Cho followed.
Cho watched and waited.
Jane finally spoke up when he was pouring the boiling water into mugs. “She said she’d talked to Angela.”
“We both know she’s a fraud, Patrick. Psychics aren’t real.”
“She said Charlotte was killed in her sleep and felt no pain or fear.”
Cho didn’t know what to say.
“That was one of my biggest fears…that my little girl had suffered in her last minutes on this earth.” Jane looked up at Cho, pain written all over his face. “It haunts me at night…the pain in her screams…”
Cho walked over and took the teapot from Jane’s shaking hands. He set it down and took the man’s hands in his own. “Maybe it’s okay to believe a psychic once in a while.”
Jane nodded. “Maybe.”
Cho pulled Jane into a hug and the man basically collapsed against him. Cho held Jane until their tea had long since gone cold.
The next few weeks went by without much incident. They got a few cases and closed them without issue, though with Jane they were closed with flair.
Jane and Cho continued to see each other on nights they’re free. They went on a couple dates, watched the next Harry Potter, and otherwise just spent time at Cho’s apartment. They didn’t sleep together, Jane not yet ready. They also didn’t tell the team, as they decided to wait for a while.
That was until Cho accidentally outed them to Rigsby, though he blamed Jane for getting trapped in a burning barn.
Jane had the crazy idea of getting a suspect to confess by scaring one out of him. He did this by pretending to be the man the suspect killed and threatening to kill the man. It was supposed to be harmless and Cho and Rigsby were meant to be outside waiting. However, it became an issue when someone threw a Molotov cocktail into the barn, setting it on fire and trapping Jane and the suspect inside.
By the time Cho and Rigsby got there, the barn was full of flames and Cho’s heart stopped. He cared greatly for Jane, and the idea of him being burned alive left him terrified.
“Jane! Patrick!” Cho called out.
“Jane!” Rigsby called.
The two of the ran towards the barn only to see Jane and the suspect running around from the back of the barn, safe and alive.
“Oh thank god.” Cho ran straight to Jane and checked him over, before pulling him into a tight hug.
Jane smiled. “I’m fine, Kimball.”
“Fuck, I thought I lost you.” He kissed Jane’s cheek before letting him go.
Before Rigsby could comment on any of it, Jane spotted the arsonist behind a tractor and Rigsby had to run off to catch him.
“I think you just outed us to Rigsby.” Jane said to Cho, not upset in the least. “Oh, and arrest this man. He admitted to killing Dave Martin.”
Cho nodded and put the suspect, Machado, into cuffs.
Once Jane finished interviewing and getting a confession out of the arsonist, all that was left was paperwork, which meant Jane was dozing off on his couch while the rest of them worked. Cho saw Rigsby get up to grab coffee from the breakroom and followed him in there. Cho grabbed himself a water from the fridge while he waited for Rigsby to say something.
“So you and Jane, huh?” Rigsby finally said.
“Yup.”
“How long has that been going on?”
“A couple months. Started shortly after the Red John Imposter case.”
Rigsby nodded.
“We decided not to tell anyone yet, see where it goes.”
“I get it. We’re supposed to keep our personal lives to ourselves, right? Isn’t that what Lisbon wants?”
“I would have told you if it became serious.” Cho defended.
“Seemed serious to me.” Rigsby walked out of the breakroom.
Cho wasn’t worried about Rigsby, he wouldn’t be upset for long. They were partners after all. But what Rigsby said caused Cho to pause. Was it serious? They’d been seeing each other a few months now, and Cho really liked Jane. He’d been devastated that brief moment he thought Jane was going to die in that fire. Was it becoming serious, feeling-wise? How serious could it be without having slept together yet? Maybe Jane didn’t feel the same. Was Jane serious about them? He was opening up to Cho, but did that mean anything? Cho thought it did.
Cho forced the thoughts away and headed back to the bullpen. Jane glanced over and smiled at him, Cho returned it in his own sort of way.