Thus comes the last chapter…hope you will enjoy the ending :)

Nathalie: I thought it would be kinda obvious, but so realistic in the context…Patricia/Patrick and of course Baker xD. She's him but in an older and wiser female way xD And yeah, sorry, but all good things have an end.

Sen: Hee glad you liked it :D!

The Agent and the Host

20

Jane and Lisbon separated immediately reflexively and reached for covers as they spotted their intruder. Red John was standing in the doorway, pointing a gun at them, a wicked grin on her face.

"Oh how long I have waited for this moment" she whispered nudging her firearm. "I can't wait to see you drowning in your own blood." Her eyes set on the brunette. The woman shivered uneasily at the malicious glint in the madwoman's eyes. "And I swear I will enjoy every second of your agony."

Lisbon cursed at the thought of her gun in the nightstand; even if she moved, one bullet and she would be done.

"Please, you must have some better comeback. Those comments are so clichés from bad guys."

Lisbon blinked and stared at Jane in surprised. He looked rather cool, not exactly overconfident but not exactly nervous either. As if a madwoman pointing a weapon at him while he was in his bed and naked was a recurrent event. Rouge chuckled.

"Playing the sarcastic till the end. You will never cease to intrigue me, Patrick." the corner of her lips remained turned upwards as she glanced appreciatively over his chest. "I have to confess, you are the only man that caught my attention so long. You made Dumar and Betty jealous, you know? I had to tell them I would take care of you pretty soon to sooth them." Her slight smile turned into a pout. "I swear it's really too bad you wouldn't join us. You would have been such a good...asset."

Her amused laugh made Lisbon's guts twist. She quickly glanced at her partner, see how he was coping and did not expect that look of concentration on his face. The same she had seen the night he had broken her jaw. And Lisbon knew he was waiting for something. Again.

"You are so quiet Agent Lisbon." The brunette returned her attention on Johnson as she felt Jane tense. "Tell me, does Patrick call you 'Teresa' now? Is he a little more protective of you?" the woman smirked: "Do you call him 'Patrick' too? Is he good in the sack?"

A gunshot echoed in the room and Rouge cried out in pain. A red spot grew on her shoulder. She turned towards the corridor, where the shot had been fired, and returned the fire. The momentary distraction was enough for Lisbon to pull Jane into the ground on her side of the bed and reach for her own weapon. A firm stare urged Jane to stay down and unmoving and then Lisbon pointed her gun to the intruder and fired at her shoulder. Johnson stumbled backward, disappearing behind the door in an attempt to duck for cover.

"Drop the weapon Johnson." Lisbon shouted warningly.

Red John's gun showing from her hideout was the only answer. Bullets fired blindly, some hitting the mattress and the plaster on the wall, but sparing them both.

"Like hell it's going to happen!" she heard the woman reply.

The agent spared a few seconds to analyze her situation: Johnson was stuck between the door of her bedroom and, if she wasn't mistaking, another shooter taking cover in the kitchen. Although she had no idea how well-trained her unknown ally was, she knew the killer had no way out. Except maybe...The sound of a window opening was all Lisbon needed to peek again and take a chance to spur into action: Red John was trying the only exit available: the corridor window.

"Stop it right now or I'll shoot!" she warned, preparing herself to pull the trigger. The woman shot in the wide in retaliation making Lisbon take cover and by the time she checked again, Johnson was gone. A quick glance confirmed her fear; she had landed on a bush nearby and was racing to a red SUV, limping from her fall. She was gone in a blink of an eye.

"Clear," she muttered angrily, mentally noting the driver's license place and putting her weapon back in place.

"You guys alright?"

Lisbon was not expecting to see Brooke Harper sneaking out from the corridor, hand firmly clenching a gun. The agent suddenly remembered her state of undress and nodded her thanks before rushing back to her bedroom for some clothes and next, her cell phone to alert the headquarters, if the neighbors hadn't called the police yet. Patrick had put his pants back on and walked out of the bedroom in turn. The young man and the ex-con were left alone.

"Well, thanks for the hand." he said. "Pretty sure we needed the distraction."

Brooke snorted and shook her head.

"I recognized Johnson's car in the parking lot, so here I am playing the hero;" her expression turned serious again. "Walter's needed in England and we'll probably be staying there for a while. I just came to resign and cut all ties definitively."

Jane smiled slightly, amused by the sudden uneasiness in her eyes.

"I get it, don't worry." To lighten the mood, he added, teasing: "Did he manage to make an honest woman out of you?"

"Something like that" she replied with a smirk. "Are you going to let her make an honest man out of you?" she added, nodding towards Lisbon, standing in the corridor, barking on the phone. Jane shrugged.

"It'll depend on what she wants."

The ex-con smiled gently.

"Don't mess up Patrick. You deserve your happy ending too."

"Yeah, well, good luck putting up with your beau. I heard he wasn't easy to handle."

They both exchanged a firm handshake, knowing this was probably the last time they would see each other. Then Brooke turned around and left the room.

-AH-

The red suburban's wheels hissed as their owner crashed the gas to stop the vehicle. Rouge stumbled out clumsily, clenching at her bleeding shoulder. She limped inside the warehouse and tripped over the first steps. A loud curse bypassed her lips as she hit the ground.

"Betty!" she yelled angrily. The pain in her shoulder and leg increased drastically and she had to crawl inside the house before shutting the door close with a kick. The blonde should have been there, ready to back her up. And obviously, she hadn't shown up. Johnson cursed herself; she knew how partnership worked. She should have known that even the most loyal follower turned out to be faulty one day. "Betty!" she called again.

The time, the woman slowly stepped out of the end of the corridor, dressed in black leather, her face paled with make-up. Had Red John been more attentive, she would have noticed the butcher's knife attached to Betty's belt and the gun in its holster. Had she not been so angry, she would have seen the murderous intent in her eyes.

"You lousy slut! Unreliable! At least help me get up now." Rouge ordered dryly. The blonde didn't bulge.

"Why should I?" she asked in reply. Red John stared at her partner in disbelief.

"Are you disobeying me?"

Betty shrugged and took a step closer. Instead of helping her up though, she smashed Rouge's hand under her foot. Red John yelped in pain.

"What the hell are you doing!"

"I told you going that was a dangerous move Rouge." Betty started slowly. "You could have listened to me, but no, you had to do it your way as you always do." She paused, narrowed her eyes. "Up until now, you have dictated my life, supervised my every moves...You taught me to stay under radar, hide evidence of your dirty work, how to enjoy the feeling of a kill and yet you never let me have a taste of it! You had your fun, and now it's my turn." She knelt, pulled her own gun out of the back of her belt and held it against Rouge's forehead. "Your body will never be found; you should thank me." A sad yet sadistic smile grew over her face: "Red John shall never be arrested."

-AH-

"I don't think she'll be back."

Lisbon glanced up. Jane was standing nearby the couch, a paper in his hand. She almost asked who was the 'she' the young man was talking about when she spotted that particular expression on his face. The one he usually bore when that woman was mentioned.

After the late house invasion, the search had lasted longer; Rouge Johnson's portrait was broadcast on TV and a picture of her could be seen in every newspaper. While neither Jane or her thought the woman would make a move on them any soon -if she had not left the country yet, he hadn't offered to move out of her apartment and she hadn't hinted he should go. If the woman had been honest with herself, she didn't want him to leave. Their life had turned way too comfortable.

"Why?" she asked, using a cool, soft tone. Then, she realized he was holding a letter. "What's that?"

"A...good-bye gift I suppose" Jane reply quietly. He sat next to his lover and handed it to her. "I'm not sure what to make of it honestly."

Lisbon took the piece of paper and unfolded it. There wasn't much to see through. A golden eye-patch tainted with blood was scotched along with red hair to a small hardback card, accompanied with a single scribing: THANK YOU FOR FREEING ME, B. A red and black Yin-Yang was drawn on the lower left side. The woman asked uneasily:

"Is this what I think it is?"

"If you mean Red John's eye-patch, I think so." The young man stared at the note. "I don't recognize the writing style but I'm pretty sure that thing belonged to her."

A heavy silence fell in the room as they glanced at each other again.

"B as Betty?" Jane suggested. Lisbon shrugged.

"It would make sense. I just hope Johnson didn't train her to be a psychopath too." the agent paused and stood up: "Take the stuff with you when we leave for work. We'll see if this gives us any indication on her new hideout."

As it turned out, the blood on the eye-patch and the red hair did belong to Rouge Johnson, but no other print on the hardboard card or the letter gave any hint on her location. They had no idea about if the woman was still alive for that fact, and felt that unless she made a spectacular reappearance, they would never hear from her again.

"Teresa?"

At the faint whisper of her name, the woman shifted a little more on her back and glanced over her shoulder. As the eyepatch had given no information, they had returned to her apartment and since Lisbon was in no mood to stay alone, they had agreed he should stay over. They had taken a seat over her couch and had been watching TV when his voice interrupted the documentary on safari life. Her lover was wearing a pensive expression over his face.

"What is it?"

"Do you ever…" his voice trailed off, as if deep in thoughts. "Do you think Red John created a monster?"

"What do you mean?"

He shifted in his seat, faced her directly.

"Betty was mentally unstable and fragile, but she wasn't a bad woman at first." His face contorted into a pained expression. "We were just coworkers but I liked her."

"And you don't want to see her become another Red John?"

"Whether she becomes another killer is a choice she makes on her own." His fingers trailed over the curve of her shoulder, down to her arm and rested on her wrist. "I just don't want her to come after the people I love."

Lisbon smiled sadly.

"There's nothing we can do about it; but if it happens, we'll just have to deal with it in due time."

Jane nodded, but seemed unconvinced. He leaned closer and kissed the spot behind her ear. Small shivers shook her spine and Lisbon closed her eyes momentarily. When his fingers crept underneath her shirt and moved back north to capture a breast, she tensed. Since the Red John invasion, they hadn't been intimate, even though she had cleared the field and in all honestly, Lisbon hadn't been in the mood. Like she had underlined before, something always seemed to happen each time they fooled around.

"May I?" His voice was a tickle in her ear. His wandering hand released its prize and crept lower this time. He deposed another small kiss over her shoulder, brought his body closer. Lisbon felt him against her back and, taking her silence for approval; he bypassed the barrier of her waistband and stopped over the junction of her thighs.

"May I?" he repeated, more insisting this time. She rolled on her back, slid a hand behind his neck to bring him closer and kissed him as a response.

-AH-

The blonde woman lowered her binoculars and returned to her car. She had to drive up a savage hill to get the best vantage point to spy on Lisbon's place. Only one window was opened to view if one got high enough with the proper equipment, and Betty was glad Rouge had showed her that spot. So Patrick Jane was lost to that cop for good. Shame, she thought, recruiting him would have been fun. He might have shown some reluctance, but she had learned how to bring over people on her side from the best.

She decided she would change State, and start over. No need to involve her ex-coworker and the people who had nearly gotten Red John; she wasn't experienced enough to start an organization on her own yet. Her efforts would be rewarded if they were ever brought on her case, she concluded.

"Why hello lady."

The slur came from a drunken man tumbling toward her. In the outside rearview mirror, she evaluated his size (taller that her), strength (probably stronger than her, but the way he walked indicated he had drunk quite a bit and his movements would be uncoordinated) and palmed the contour of her knife hidden in her belt. Moments later, the man was lying on his back, a blade embedded in his neck and his stomach opened to view. Betty neatly cut out the organs and buried them in a deep hole. The man's body, now emptied of its organs and considerably lighter, was dragged into near bushes.

She had chosen this place as a temporary viewpoint, knowing it was mostly deserted. The unfortunate fellow's body would not be found before a very long time, if ever.

As Betty returned to her car and started the engine, she made a list of things she would have to change in her operating mode. Then, she selected a town to start anew and drove to reach the road.

Red John's reign of terror had ended. Now, she thought, wiping some blood off her face with the back of her hand, hers was to begin.

Before anyone starts asking, no, I won't write a sequel. As I said first chapter, this is an old fic I fixed a bit before publishing and even back then, I thought it better left as such. Open ending and all…my favorite kind :)

Thank you for reading so far and many thanks to all the people who favorite and reviewed this! I'll just say, until next time ^^