Don't kill me, please don't kill me! I'm a poor university student and spare time is not my friend! So, now that I've established that I'm a poor university student, I want to thank everyone who has previously read, reviewed, favourited, and followed. You're all the best and I hope that no one abandoned reading this (because you guys have every right because I fail at updating in a timely fashion).

Guest 1 - Thank you so much! :)

Guest 2 - It's not abandoned, I actually think about it often in the shower. Thank you for reading!

Disclaimer: I don't own The Mentalist, and I surely don't own the last section (dialogue) of what's happening in that bit.

Chapter Twenty-Four

November 10, 2008

It was late when she found him on the roof. Jane's shirt sleeves were rolled up to his elbows and his vest unbuttoned; his hair was a mess as he occasionally ran his fingers through it as he paced.

Lisbon leaned against the doorframe, clearing her throat to pull him from his thoughts. A soft breeze swept by as he slowly turned to face her, and her heart stopped for a couple of seconds. Jane's eyes had a tell-tale swell around them that was an angry red.

Jane immediately looked away and rubbed at his eyes in an attempt to rid his cheeks of tears. It didn't work, and Lisbon found herself leaning farther into the door frame and crossing one foot over the other.

"Jane," she started, "what's going on?"

"Nothing."

He rubbed at his eyes some more and looked over at her nervously. In response, she quirked up her brow and crossed her arms over her chest as she shifted her footing.

"Jane." Her voice was sharp and demanding, but at the same time lacked any trace of anger. Though, she would admit that she did feel a slight annoyance at his inability to admit what was going on inside his head.

Jane rolled his shoulders back and brought his eyes up to Lisbon's. He offered her a soft smile and moved past her through the door frame. "Goodnight, Teresa," he said.

Stiffening, Lisbon glanced over her shoulder as she saw Jane move through the door leading toward the stairs. She turned back until she faced forward and sighed softly before she too moved away from the door frame.

As she made it down the stairs and toward her office to pick up her briefcase, Lisbon assumed that his tears had had something to do with Kristina Frye.

It was late when Jane arrived in his motel room. Upon entering, he tossed his keys on the nearby table and stripped himself of his jacket and vest and tossed the garments aside to lie on the dresser. It had been a long and annoying case that ended in heartache. The only relief, other than being correct about the killer, was that Kristina Frye would be out of his life forever. He will never have to see her again and he found it quite exhilarating.

He flopped down on the bed, feeling some of the dust shoot up upon his impact. His eyes slipped shut and he remembered Kristina's words and he felt a surge of anger rise deep in his belly. How dare the charlatan even speak of his family, he thought. She had no right to even mention them. She didn't know—, he was pulled out of his thoughts when he heard a sharp noise pierce through the room.

Jane sat up, alert, his eyes moving toward the dresser on the other side of the room. Eager at the prospect for a distraction, Jane moved away from the bed and picked up his jacket. It took him a few moments before he found the correct pocket, and let out a smile of triumph when he held the little device in his palm.

TERESA LISBON, said the caller I.D.

Jane fumbled a bit with his phone before he was able to flip it open and hold it up to his ear. "Lisbon," he said into the device.

"Mister Jane!" an excited little voice said at the other end.

At the sound of his young and living daughter's voice, Jane's hard swelled with love. He breathed in a sigh as he felt his body relax.

"Rosie…." He drifted off with a smile on his face as his daughter rambled on about her day, and he knew that all would be well tonight.

Lisbon watched her young daughter babble away on the phone and a small smile reached her lips. The past case was…weird. The very idea that a woman could talk to the dead seemed too good to be true, so she had agreed with Jane that the woman was a fraud. Though, she'd never tell him outright that she agreed with him about Kristina Frye.

Obviously, before he had left the CBI, Kristina had said something that deeply haunted the man. It was not known to see Jane with another emotion other than the little mischievous glint (and when something in relation to Red John is discovered) he got in his eye before one of his 'grand' schemes. To see him teary eyed hurt, and she was quite surprised she had felt it. Ever since he had returned to Sacramento, Lisbon tried to maintain a stoic and impassive attitude towards him. It raised question, sure, but there were hardly anyone around from his 'first round' at the CBI still working within the building. Therefore, what had previously had happened was not common knowledge.

Thank God.

"…and then we go sit on the fairy wheel?"

Blinking, Lisbon's eyes refocused on Rosie as she sat on the edge of her bed, her little feet dangling off the sides. The little girl had a bright smile plastered on her face as she spoke to her father. Lisbon could see Jane making a promise to Rosie; no doubt he was telling her that they could ride atop a Ferris wheel.

Rosie yawned and moved away from the edge of the bed to lie down on her back. The little girl kicked her feet twice and yawned again. "A-and then we can eat candy?"

That was another thing Jane enjoyed doing; the insufferable man loved to load Rosie up on various candies and then send her back to Lisbon. And Lisbon knew the little girl had no objections because that was a rather strict rule in the Lisbon household: no candy unless for a special occasion. Lisbon didn't consider Rosie going out with Jane to be a special occasion, but the consultant seemed to feel that way.

"It's not past my bedtime, Mister Jane!" Rosie giggled into the phone.

Lisbon raised her eyebrows and moved over toward the bed to sit next to her daughter's wiggling form. She smiled and brushed a piece of hair from her daughter's face. "It is past your bedtime, sweetie."

Rosie giggled and shook her head. "No!"

Hearing Jane chuckle on the other end of the line, Lisbon felt like the job was done and that his spirits seemed lifted in comparison to earlier.

"Rosie, it's time for bed. You want to be well-rested for Missus Norris tomorrow, remember?"

Rosie shook her head in defiance and pouted.

"She said she was going to take you to the park."

"And she may even buy you ice cream. That is, if you go to sleep."

Lisbon rolled her eyes and took the phone from her daughter, who pouted even more until Lisbon put the phone on speaker.

"Goodnight, Mister Jane!" Rosie said.

"Goodnight, Rosie." There was a slight hesitance until he continued on. "Goodnight, Lisbon. Sleep tight, both of you."

"'Night, Jane." Lisbon pressed the little red button and set her phone on the nearby end table. She turned to her daughter and smiled. "Now, where were we?"

The little girl smiled and shrugged against her pillows.

"You were going to bed, like all little girls do."

Rosie nodded and shuffled further up the bed so Lisbon could pull the blankets back. The girl moved back down until she was once again on her back and comfortably against the pillows. Lisbon pulled the blankets up to Rosie's chin and smoothed her hair down once more. She bent over, pressed a kiss to her temple and cheek, before moving away.

"Goodnight, sweetie."

"Goodnight, Mommy."

November 25, 2008

Lisbon walked out of an observation room with her mind swimming in annoyance with all things concerning Patrick Jane. He was giving orders, yet again, to her team. It was not his right to tell suspects that they can leave the interrogation room.

"Two notes here, we already have plenty on him. One, armed assault on Cho and Van Pelt, and two, a barn full of fire accelerant."

She fell into pace beside him. Jane acknowledged her with a small tip of his head.

"Well, the armed assault was in self-defence and the accelerant was a plant." He paused and looked at her. "Only two?"

Lisbon looked down a bit. "Actually, no. Where do you get off giving orders in the first place? I say who goes and who stays, not you."

They slowed their pace as they came to stand in front of her office door. "Well, that's uh, fiery." She shot him a glare over his shoulder.

Damn the man!

"You should try it with a more forceful hand gesture, like, I say who goes and who stays, not you." He practised it before her, demonstrating how she ought to have said it. Her annoyance was growing and expanding into rage and she clenched her jaw.

"I'm serious."

"So am I. If he's in here, how's the killer going to get to him?"

"He could be the killer, and even if he's not, we don't want the killer to get him."

Jane straightened. "Yes, we do. He's our bait, our tethered goat."

She internally rolled her eyebrows at the very thought of using a suspect as live bait. "And too bad if the bait gets killed?"

Jane took a small step back. "Well, yes. That's why you use goats, instead of babies and virgins in that matter." He offered her a small smile and Lisbon rolled her eyes with a sigh.

"Well, he's not a goat." She turned away from Jane and headed into her office with a dull sense of finality. She said it very weakly, she noted, therefore Jane would try to worm his way into this.

Jane poked his head in the door. "You're right, he's not actually a goat. He's goatish and deserves to suffer a little."

Lisbon sat down at her desk and rolled up forward a bit until comfortably seated. "Nobody deserves murder."

Pushing away from the door, Jane entered the office and stood before Lisbon's desk. "He helped burn Dave Martin alive out of greed."

It bothered her that Jane said it as if his crimes justified what ought to happen to him. "Jane, we're officers of the law."

He smirked a little. "You are, I don't care about the law. I care about justice. And justice says Machato deserves to suffer."

He said it so simply that it unhinged (and angered her further) a little. "That's not justice, that's vengeance."

"What's the difference?"

She took a deep breath and Cho moved into the office. "What do you want us to do with Machato, boss?"

"Let him go," she said.

Cho raised his eyebrows. "Really? Like, let him go, let him go?"

She nodded. "Really, like that."

Watching Cho's eyes shift from her to Jane, Lisbon pressed her elbows further into her desktop. "Okay," Cho said as he left the office.

Jane smiled. "Trying some reverse psychology?"

"You talk tough, maybe it's time you learned that there's consequences. If Machato gets hurt, it's on you."

He took a step back. "Fine with me."

She nodded her head and turned away as he did. When her hand closed around her computer mouse, she sensed his eyes on her and heard him sigh as he moved back into the room.

"We never discussed this." She turned away from her computer and back towards him. "Because I thought it went without saying, but when I catch Red John, I'm going to cut him open and watch him die slowly. Like he did with my wife and child."

Lisbon swallowed. In all her time of knowing Patrick Jane, she had never heard him talk as he did now. There were talks of his desire to capture the evasive Red John, but never what he wanted to do once the man was in custody.

He continued, "Now if you have a problem with that, we should talk."

"Then let's talk, because when we catch Red John, we're going to take him into custody and he's going to be tried in a court of law."

"Not if I'm still breathing," he said darkly, his expression sending a violent shiver down her spine. She did her best to mask it, but she was certain that he had noticed.

She took a deep breath. "If you try and do violence to him, I will try and stop you. If you succeed in doing violence to him, I will arrest you." Lisbon was proud that her voice did not waver.

"I understand," he nodded, his tone too light for her liking.

"I hope so."

It's short, and I apologise for that. The next chapter should have some more nice things happening as it's going to be very Red John-orientated. :)