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The team worked the Red John case for several days before they were assigned another case that took their attention. It was a missing kid case, which wasn’t usual for them, but since local police found the kid’s shoe in the gutter making it a potential abduction and homicide, it became their problem. Jane wasn’t happy to stop working on the Red John case, but helped the team anyway because Cho asked nicely.
When Jane led them to the kid’s body, they found a wooden star at the scene, which Jane claimed represented black magic. This put the team on edge, even with all different beliefs about the topic. The investigation brought them to the local Wiccan witch, who looked likely for the murder. She ended up showing them a spell, to explain her process, and performed the spell on Cho, much to his chagrin and Jane’s amusement. Cho was not amused at all and he began to worry the spell could be real. Jane tried to be a good boyfriend and lessen Cho’s fears by explaining how it’s not real, but it did nothing to calm Cho down.
That evening, Jane went to Cho’s to stay the night again, something he’d been doing every other night since they finished the Renfrew case. He entered the apartment to find Cho fretting about the spell, claiming to feel different. Jane led Cho to the couch and wrapped his arms around the man.
“There’s nothing to fret about. Witches are as real as psychics, Kim.”
“Just because you’re not a real psychic doesn’t mean that some of them don’t exist.”
“Don’t spew junk like Van Pelt. We both know you don’t believe in them, not really.”
“Witches are different than psychics. They communicate with the forces of the world, or demons. Powerful stuff.”
“That also don’t exist.”
Cho didn’t respond. He believed in demons, but didn’t want to admit that to Jane.
Jane picked up on Cho’s hesitance. “Even if they did exist, why would they care about a young girl and her fake spells?”
Cho had to admit that that made decent sense. “Even so, you gave her my name even when you knew I wouldn’t like it.”
“I was just having a little fun, but you’re right, I shouldn’t have used you to prove a point. I’m sorry, Kimball.”
Cho nodded. “It’s okay.”
Even after their conversation, Cho was a little on edge for the rest of the case, causing Jane to actually feel guilty. After they solved the case, the father murdered his own son, Jane gave Cho a jar of ashes, explaining it was from the witch and it ended up calming Cho down since he believed it meant the spell was broken. Jane felt a little guilty again about the lie, but he believed it was for the best.
For the next couple of weeks, Jane continued to stay the night at Cho’s place every couple of nights. They came close to sleeping with each other several times, but each time Jane backed out. After awhile, he could see that Cho was starting to feel rejected and also guilty for seemingly pressuring Jane, both of which were bullshit feelings in Jane’s mind. His actions had nothing to do with Cho, and everything to do with his own mindset. He knew he owed Cho an explanation.
Following the art forgery case, Jane made the decision to talk to Cho that evening. He picked up Cho’s favorite pizza, without pineapple, and headed to Cho’s around 7. When he got there, Cho’s hair was still wet from his shower, and the man was dressed in sweats and a skin tight t-shirt. Jane’s mind instantly wandered, and he had to force himself to focus when Cho said his name.
Jane smiled and greeted Cho with a kiss. They then grabbed plates and headed to the couch to eat the pizza. Jane waited until Cho was on his second piece before bringing up what he wanted to talk about. “Kim, I wanted to talk about something with you.”
Cho recognized Jane’s serious tone. He set down his pizza and turned to face Jane. “Okay.”
“I know you’ve been feeling rejected.” Cho immediately went to protest, but Jane cut him off. “Don’t try to deny it, I can see it all over your face. So I wanted to explain what’s been going through my head.”
Cho nodded and let Jane continue.
Jane took a deep breath and let it out. “Angela and Charlotte were my everything, the only thing that ever came before them was my work, and I regret doing that every day. When I married Angela, I thought she was my one and only, the love of my life. Only recently did I realize she was only one of my loves, not the only. Changing my mentality on the subject has been hard, it’s kept me up at night. It’s left me feeling sick and guilty, like I was betraying her.”
Cho grabbed Jane’s right hand and rubbed the back of it with his thumb.
“But I’ve come to realize that she would want me to move on. As long as I don’t forget her, she would want me to find happiness again. Which I’ve begun to find in you.”
Jane saw that his words affected Cho, especially when he smiled a little.
“Choosing not to sleep with you has been hard, but I needed to get my head on straight before we took that next step, so I wouldn’t end up hurting you. You’ve become too important to me to rush into things…and the ring, I don’t wear it to insult you, but it’s the last thing I have from my Angela and I can’t bring myself to part from it…it reminds me that her memory is still with me.”
Cho nodded.
“I know you’ve been patient with me, but I ask you be patient just a little longer, because I’m falling in love with you, and losing you now would…”
Jane watched various emotions flit across Cho’s face.
Cho stilled. Jane was falling in love with him, he’d just admitted to it. Cho didn’t know what to think immediately. First he was surprised, then panicky, then happy and thrilled. Cho had recently decided he was falling hard for Jane, which is why he’d been feeling rejected, thinking Jane didn’t feel the same. But he’d just admitted to feeling the same.
Cho didn’t know how to react. Jane had just admitted to a lot of things, and he wanted the man know he’d listened. So pulling the man into a deep kiss seemed counterproductive since Jane had asked him to be patient. A hug didn’t seem sufficient enough to show how he was feeling, nothing really did.
In the end, Cho kissed the back of the hand he was holding and smiled at Jane. “I’m falling in love with you too, Patrick.”
Jane smiled his kilowatt smile and pulled Cho into a kiss.
