AN: SPOILERS for Season 6 Episode 8, including Red John's identity. Set during that episode.

Written in less than an hour, for the "disaster" challenge at fan_flashworks.

This is a disaster.

That's the thought that's running through Lisbon's head without pause, even as she desperately tries to make out what's going on outside the car. This is a disaster in so many ways.

It's not that she's been arrested, not really. Even if it is going to make it that much harder to get a job in any police force later… Jane's hunting Red John with her car and her gun, which she willingly gave to him, she was always going to have trouble with that; and it's worth it to take Red John - Bertram - out, it really is.

It's that the team are here too. Her team, that she built, that she's always fought to protect. Her team that aren't officially her team any more, but still call her boss - and even if she tells them not to, she loves to hear it, it makes this whole horrible nightmare just a little better. They wanted to help, and she was happy to see their loyalty, the way they stood together, but she never meant them to be here. Never meant to risk their futures too. And now they're arguing, fracturing, splitting apart already… how will it end?

It's that everything has gone wrong. Of course the FBI was going to track Jane down eventually, but she'd always hoped it would take them long enough that Jane would get to Bertram first. In a way, it's her fault they found him so fast, too; she should have guessed Abbott would have put a tracker on her somehow. She'd been watching for a human follower, been careful not to let him put anything on her, but hadn't considered her car being bugged.

It's that Jane's alone. Although perhaps that's not entirely bad. If she's completely honest with herself, she's not sure she could have just stood by while Jane killed Red John; but would he ever have forgiven her if she'd interfered, cost him his revenge? Not that she'll ever know the answer to either of those questions now.

It's that Jane doesn't care what happens to him, as long as he kills Red John. Doesn't care if he lives or dies. It's that as they've got closer to Red John, he's become more and more single-focussed and unstable… He doesn't care that he's almost certainly walking into a trap, and yes, he surely has his own plans, but Red John's always been one step ahead of them, so why won't he be now? It's that if she were there, she could watch Jane's back, guard him, protect him - she could dosomething.

But she's not there, and she can't do anything. Oh, she can stop the team from arguing, she can pray for him - and she is, unceasingly, desperately, achingly - but she can't help him. He'll have to do it alone, racing against time.

Oh, Jane. Don't die for your revenge. Please. Please God, protect him. Protect him now I can't.