Disclaimer - The Mentalist belongs to Bruno Heller and CBS. Not me. Obviously.

A/N - Hello one and all, and welcome to my second Mentalist story. The first one was well received (thank you!) but this one is a little different to the last one, with much more action and drama, and a little more investigating too. It's set after the season five finale, so just to warn you, there is a chance of spoilers for anything up to that point. I hope you like it!

~ Chapter One ~

One Fine Day

He answered on the second ring.

"Where the hell are you, Jane?"

Patrick Jane rolled his eyes as he climbed out of his blue Citroen, an amused smile dancing at the corner of his mouth. Thankfully, since he was on the phone, Lisbon couldn't actually see that he wasn't taking her seriously. As much as he liked annoying her, he knew that he could usually only push it so far, and since he was approximately an hour late for work already, he'd probably already reached his quota for the day.

"I'm nearly there, Lisbon, my dear," he told her, juggling the phone between his shoulder and neck as he tried to lock his car. In truth, he wasn't actually anywhere near the crime scene yet, although the white lie wouldn't do any harm. Probably.

"If you've stopped to buy fruit or something, God help me…"

He had actually. Jane frowned. Perhaps he'd become a little predictable, but in his defence, ever since he had shown Lisbon the message left by Red John, he'd been a little preoccupied. Red John, through Lorelei, had destroyed months of work by naming Jane's entire list of suspects, and had promised, again through Lorelei, that the rules had now changed and that he was going to kill again. Often.

So far though, even though it had been weeks since that moment, nothing had happened, and although he would never admit it aloud, Jane was more than a little on edge.

Why the hell hadn't anything happened yet? What was Red John waiting for…?

"Jane…"

"Oh, lighten up, Lisbon," Jane replied cheerfully, shaking away the thought, and he could almost feel Lisbon roll her eyes on the other end. "It's a beautiful day. Perfect for some fresh oranges…"

"Dammit Jane," Lisbon muttered down the phone. He could hear her sigh in that long-suffering way of hers. "Just get here as soon as you can."

"Of course, my dear," Jane replied with a grin that he knew she couldn't see. Lisbon hung up without another word, a sure sign that she was mad with him, but Jane didn't let it dampen his good mood. Maybe if he got her some of those red delicious apples she liked so much, she'd forgive him for being late…

Jane strolled cheerfully over to the fruit stand by the road. On days like this, Jane had really learnt to appreciate the good in life. The birds singing, the sun in the air, the smell of fresh fruit.

"Hola," Jane said as he greeted the fruit vendor with a smile. The smile was returned and the two of them chatted away together like old friends as Jane chose his fruit. It had taken him a while to come back to a fruit stand after that whole fiasco with his kidnapping a couple of years ago – admittedly not one of his better memories – but now he was glad he had found the guts. There was something beautiful and pure about a fruit stand. Maybe it was the middle-of-nowhere location…

"Liam! Put that down."

Jane glanced over to his right. A woman and child were making their way over to the stand, her hand gripped tightly to the boy's as she pulled him away from the area he had been exploring. The boy – Liam, it seemed he was called - must only have been around ten, but by the looks of him, he was quite the trouble maker already. Jane hid a grin as he observed them.

Obviously the child was not her own, Jane noted curiously. He had brown hair, she had blond, and there was no familial resemblance whatsoever. Possibly a nanny. Or a step-mother.

"But it's only a small bug…"

"Put. It. Down."

"Fine."

The boy seemingly did as he was told, and scowled as he sauntered over to the fruit stand, hands deep in the pockets of his jeans. He turned to look at Jane with a glare.

"What are you looking at?"

"Oh, nothing," Jane said, hiding his grin as best he could. The boy was acting like a teenager already. It really was quite amusing.

"Whatever," the boy muttered as he leant against the stand. The woman gave him a stern look before turning back to the fruit on sale.

Oh, the woman was definitely a nanny, Jane concluded. It was obvious in her whole demeanour really, now that he'd taken the time to look a little more closely. The connection between her and the boy was clearly not familial, and he was slightly disappointed with himself that he hadn't noticed that earlier. Jane glanced back to the young child as the nanny began to choose her fruit.

"Don't worry, I won't tell her," he whispered conspiratorially to the boy when the nanny was once again distracted.

"Won't tell her what?" Liam replied nervously. "And who are you?"

"I'm Patrick," Jane replied easily, smiling widely. "And I won't tell her about the bug you're hiding in your pocket."

"I don't know what you're talking about," Liam replied, but his hand went automatically to his pocket in a protective gesture.

Really, the boy was terrible liar, Jane thought, doing his best to hide his grin. Truly awful.

"Right, of course," Jane replied easily. "I must be mistaken."

Jane smiled as he picked up his bag of fruit, taking out one of the oranges for the car journey. As was his habit, he took a long sniff of the fruit, revelling in the tangy scent of the orange. Wonderful.

"Adiós," he nodded, smiling his thanks towards the fruit vendor and sending a grin towards the young boy. Now all he had to do was drive to the crime scene in record time and hope an apple would be enough to make Lisbon forgive him.

He smiled as he dug a finger nail into the juicy fruit, walking back to his car with a cheerful saunter. Ah well, either way, this little detour had been worth it.

Lisbon was in a bad mood. A terrible, completely-caused-by-Jane, very bad mood.

She glanced at her watch as she tried to ignore the stares of the crime scene people who were waiting to process the scene. The same people who had been waiting over a hour now, just so that her ridiculous consultant could look at the scene untouched. Dammit, why the hell did Jane find it so difficult to be on time?

"Boss…" Cho said, having followed her gaze.

"I know," she sighed. "We'll give him five more minutes and then we'll let the techs do their thing."

"Right," Cho replied, his face blank as he looked back to the corpse on the ground.

"Five more minutes," she muttered once again, more to herself than Cho. Out of sheer annoyance, Lisbon took out her phone, intent on calling her errant consultant and giving him a piece of her mind. Before she could however, her phone starting ringing, and a scowl formed on her face as soon as she saw who it was.

It was the man himself.

She answered quickly. "Jane, get your ass – "

"Lisbon, it's…I need…your help."

Her stomach dropped, and she was sure that her face had just lost all its colour. The line wasn't great but she could make out enough to know that Jane was scared, and immediately her mind went to Red John. Had something finally happened? Her heart clenched in fear of what that could mean, and she found herself praying that whatever this was, it wasn't something that signalled that bastard's return.

Quickly she shook herself and focused on Jane, trying to pull herself together. God, if this was one of Jane's pranks, she was going to kill him…

"I…erm…I'm in a bit of trouble again."

He was whispering, and his usually confident voice was tinged with fear. She knew he was a good actor, but her instincts told her that this was real. Dammit.

"Jane, where are you?"

"Don't know," he replied shakily. "In a van, I think. Some…goons grabbed me. I was at the fruit stand near the turn off. My car's… I think it's still there. From what I can tell, we're heading west."

"Did you see who took you?" Lisbon asked urgently, trying simultaneously to grab Cho's attention.

"Didn't recognise them." Jane replied. "I managed to hide my phone from them, but I...they'll find it eventually. Can't believe it happened again. I think I'm actually starting to hate fruit…"

Lisbon was about to question him further when she hurt a hiss of pain down the phone. Immediately her concern doubled.

"Are you hurt, Jane?"

"Bit," he replied. "Lisbon, we're stopping. Got to go."

"Jane – "

The line went dead.

A/N - So, as you might have guessed, this is my attempt at a 'Jane is kidnapped' story. I realise this is a complete cliché of an idea, but hopefully I'll be able to make it somewhat original. How am I doing so far, and more importantly, who wants to read more? Let me know what you think!