So, Lisbon and Jane walked away from a crime scene in the late afternoon. The killer had been precise not to leave them any trale behind. As in: there were no fingerprints involved. No DNA found on the woman's body. There was also no blood-loss. No visible injuries and no signs of struggle either. No nothing.

This was a weird case that desperately needed Patrick Jane's expertise. So Lisbon let Jane snoop around until her unit was finished so they could all go back to the office together.

She watched with wonder how fast Jane's eyes tracked something odd. He just got to his knees, smelled the hair of the killed widow named: Elenore Dunnovan. Her prone well-dressed body lay flat on her stomach. One hand on her neck, the other neatly held against her side. Her face was frozen in shocked matter. This all just mentioned by Jane.

"Her hair is recently washed with coconut oil, still wet like she just came out of the shower. And yet, her left hand is still kind of dirty. Mud or inky colored stuff is still stuck under her fingernails. A woman this well dressed and rich should always take care of her nails right? Am I right?" Jane gave Lisbon a questionable look. Even though he already knew he made his point. There was a lot more info to get from a crime scene if you looked a little longer, with a little more effort.

"Rigsby?" Jane asked all of the sudden. Rigsby came by with a cellphone in hand for Lisbon and looked down at the former conman.

"Can I borrow your plastic glove for a sec?" Rigsby handed him one in wonderment. And as soon as Jane pulled down the poor woman's collar there was shown a puncture mark, right in the neck.

"Looks like the victim is killed by some kind of a dart."

But the dart was missing.

"So, this is definitely a murder, I tell the Boss, let him know that we need to be very careful with touching the body, she might be poisoned. You did a great job, Jane," Lisbon smiled. Rigsby gave her a phone in hand and mumbled something Jane didn't hear. Or didn't care to hear. He retrieved himself from the body and tried to figure out where the dart should be now. With a curious frown he picked the woman's hand up without touching the skin, by using the glove. Within her hand he found a tiny little needle made of wood. The pointy side had the same inky stuff on it like that what was under Misses Dunnovan's fingernails. He tried to sniff it, but there was no smell.

"Found the dart," he finally said after a while. He carefully handed over to one of the agents with the plastic baggies and got to his feet.

"Job well done, Jane." Lisbon was always so nice when he spoiled her all the details of the murder. That was so amusing to Jane. He grinned and put his hands in his pockets. He also liked the little game they played. Lisbon would be a great mother someday. Babysitting him all day had made her a better person. Or mom. Again, Jane smiled to himself. Feeling all mean and secretly loving it.

Without any word he walked to the open window that showed him the beautifully manicured rose garden. Of course this was the only place for the killer to make the shot. This wasn't done with a gun. It had to be one of those pipe thingy's from the ehh tribes in the rainforest. Who were they called again? Jane gave up on the mind struggle as soon as he saw something lying in the bushes. He opened the window further and jumped out to the garden. The direct sunlight was warming him up immediately. It was strange that he felt cold just a minute ago with all the layers of clothing. But that wasn't important. Jane was way too busy now with finding out what he just saw in from the other side of the window. Soon he was knelled on the dirt. With great care he reached at something colorful. But when he touched it briefly, it didn't feel good. First, it looked like some kind of gemstone with a nice blue shiny shade of purple in it. But it wasn't a stone. It felt wet and slimy. And Jane jumped on his feet again, immediately stepping away from the small colorful dead frog.

"Lisbon!" He yelled whipping his hand against his dark blue under jacket. "Found something!" He knew he was screwed when he felt his fingertips burn.

And when Lisbon wasn't coming as fast as he hoped he yelled again. "The frog, Lisbon! I'm poisoned!" His hand felt numb at first. It gave him time to think about this. Then he ran back at the house and stumbled up on a confused Cho and Rigsby. He pushed them out of the way and got right to the fridge. Vastly he took some frozen meat out of it and pushed it to this index finger. That was the only one who felt the wet stuff still burn like fire. His heartrate was speeding. His head started swimming. Voices turned wrong like the seasounds out of an dirty old cd player. Sea only sounds great when it's real... Why was he saying that to himself? I am mumbling... I am mumbling now. Oh God, I am going to die! Never touching a shiny frog agian... Oh God...

"Jane! What's going on?" Lisbon asked terrified.

"Frog. Dead Frog. I-In the ehhh G-Garden. He was looking so beautiful. I-I need to do something but I can't think straight. I might die from a heart attack, just like poor Misses Dunnovan."Jane was all but his calm old self now. "I-I don't know what to do." Eyes almost near crying. Lisbon looked at a man who was so scared that he almost couldn't breathe anymore. Jane was sweating and panting and his entire frame was shaking. It was no pretty sight at all. "I am going to die, Lisbon," he repeated again and again. Until his legs gave out. With shock she just looked at it while Cho and Rigsby tried to stop the fall. And ambulance was called already.

…

A lot of things happened after that. Jane didn't track it all. But soon he fell to the ground feeling nothing but pure exhaustion. The arms of Cho and Rigsby were strong but they didn't know what to do with him other than holding him against his own convulsions. Jane couldn't stop it. Nor give a damn about puking and wetting his pants affront of them, anymore. Some words like: 'Seizing', 'Hand' and a lot of 'Oh my God' from his sweet friends caught his ears before he didn't hear of see or feel anything anymore.

He was gone. He was so... ssssoooooo gone. Jane was sure of it.

…

It was the fastest trip to the hospital of all times. Jane was flat-lining three times until the paramedics wheeled him into the ER. Everyone was instructed not to touch him without gloves on because he was now a biohazard. And no matter how they tried to keep Jane from dying, this poison had no antidote.

"Please let Jane life," Lisbon whispered to the sky with her hand on that little cross she carried around her neck.

For a long time they had to wait in the hallway. Behind the doors, were they all stared at for nearly two hours, was Jane; still fighting for his life. The fact that no doctor was coming out of that room meant that Jane was still alive. Unless there was a backdoor somewhere, and Lisbon really didn't wanna go further on that self-note.

…

It took a little longer until a doctor finally gave them some news. But, My God, the man looked puzzled.

"How is he, Doctor?" Rigsby asked anxiously. Apparently not able to read the Doctors look either.

"Patrick Jane is still alive at this point," he announced with great wonderment. He gave them some time to react at this cheerful news and expected some relieve from them but nobody looked any better.

"Is he going to live?" Cho asked.

"Can't say… Listen, people… Why he survived this amount of poison intake is a miracle itself. I don't know how he did it but… he is doing okay for now."

"What do you mean 'for now'?" Grace asked as terrified as everyone at this point. She may not saw Jane collapse in a horrifying way, but when she joined the others and saw Cho uncharacteristic pale she knew it must have been bad.

"Maybe the amount the dead frog had on him wasn't enough to kill him in an instant like it did with the other victim, like you said. I have no other explanation, that to the side; your partner is very lucky." The elder doctor was scratching away on his scalp in wonder.

"So Jane is going to make it?" Grace asked hopefully, totally not expecting this. A tear escaped from the corner of her eye.

"It seems so. Hard to say at this point. But he is holding on his own. The patient won't be conscious for a while, though. We gave him some Tetrodotoxin and Saxitoxin to stop the poison from settling further into the damaged cell aria. Those are strong anesthetics. He will be sleeping softly with no pain or realization of what is going on with him. More we can't do. As you already know, up until this day there is no antidote for that kind of poisoned frogs."

"Can we see him?" Lisbon asked. Forgetting that she could if she showed her badge again.

"Of course. But I have to warn you, it's not pretty. We had to hook him up on some machines to keep the organs working. We are trying our best to filter the blood and kidneys. His heart is weak so we had to put him on a few machines for that too. His right hand is a little swollen and discolored. But we just bandaged that up. Everything else looks fine."

"Thank you, doctor," Lisbon mumbled kindly, eventhough the doctor scared her even more.

Then she walked to the door and opened it with a frog of her own caught in her throat.

Jane...

A/N: My first Mentalist fanfic. I was always a fan of this show but never dared to write about it. I still think this was a big mistake posting a chapter, uns beataed and all. But, as you might know: I am Dutch and never learned to write English properly. I just learned it from you all ;)

Please let me know what you think about this hurt-comfort fic! I am very curious(X.X)

X

Josie