A/N: Uh. This is kind of an epic... buckle yourselves in for a long ride. Bit of a departure from my usual fare, as I have attempted an actual plot. This was inspired by the promo for 4x24, but does not follow the events of that episode. Goes AU immediately after 4x23.

Spoilers: Up through 4x23.

Rating: T

Disclaimer: I don't own these characters, and I'm certainly not making any money off them.

xxx

"Jane, don't do anything rash. We can work this out. We'll fix it."

He smiled wryly. "I doubt that."

"I'll come by your place tonight. We'll talk it out, okay?"

A soft, sad look in his eyes. "You're sweet."

"Let me help you," she pleaded.

And then the doors closed in her face.

xxx

She gave him a five minute head start, and then went after him.

She went to the motor pool and signed out a CBI issue vehicle. She chose the most common, nondescript one they had available, not wanting to alert him to her presence with the usual black SUV's the team normally used. Jane could spot a tail a mile away, and he definitely seemed to have a sixth sense as far as she was concerned, so if she was going to have any hope of figuring out where he was going, she'd have to be beyond discreet.

She took a risk and guessed that he'd headed west on 18th street; it fed to most of the major interchanges, so there was a fair chance he'd go that way unless he was going somewhere really obscure.

Her guess paid off. She caught sight of his Citroen heading towards the onramp for Highway 50. She stayed well back, not allowing herself the luxury of worrying if she lost sight of the car for a few moments, and keeping her fingers crossed that she'd see it when he exited.

She did. He pulled off after only a few miles and when she recognized the neighborhood she dropped back even further, surprised and perplexed.

Ten minutes later, she pulled up behind the extended stay motel he'd been sleeping at as long as she'd known him. His car was in its usual parking place. She sat in her car, considering. She'd told him she would come to his place, and here he was. She hadn't expected this. She'd thought… well, she'd had no idea what he was going to do, but she thought if she followed him she could figure it out and try to stop him. Surely, he had some plan of action, some scheme in the works. Yet here he was, exactly where she'd told him she'd look for him. Was it possible that he actually planned to allow her to help him?

She dismissed the thought. No. She'd seen the look on his face. He had no intention of letting her anywhere near the toxic mess he had created. Had he known she was tailing him and come here so she wouldn't find out his true purpose- his next move? Would it be better to wait for him to leave again so she'd have some idea of what he was planning to do?

She sighed, resigned. If he had noticed her following him, he was hardly going to just wait for her to go away. He knew her better than that.

She got out of the car and climbed the steps to the second floor, her feet feeling heavier than lead. The truth was, she was shaken, and not at all sure of her purpose here. She'd been horrified when she learned he'd buried a man alive, of course—in fact, she was scared beyond reason of what he'd shown himself capable of. How could he do something like that and be so utterly convinced that what he'd done was right?

But in a way, what he'd done to Wainwright was almost worse. Giving the killer a taste of his own medicine had been an awful, awful thing to do, but at least she could understand his logic, even if she didn't agree with it. But taunting Wainwright like that… it was so pointlessly cruel. He'd deliberately provoked the man, but to what end? She shuddered. Wainwright was young, yes, but he wasn't a bad person. He wasn't even a bad boss, even if he was inexperienced. But Jane had gone after him mercilessly, his eyes cold as he'd mocked the younger man as only Jane could, honing in on the one thing that he knew would push the other man over the edge, the thing that no one else would ever see or acknowledge. If she knocked on his door right now, would he do the same to her? He knew her so well. She had no doubt he could destroy her with a few carefully chosen words, if he had half a mind to. Given the current state he was in, she feared that he wouldn't hesitate to do so if she got in his way.

But the alternative was to walk away and leave Jane to his own devices, alone with his own dark thoughts. And she simply wasn't willing to do that.

She raised her fist to pound on the door, but it opened before she had the chance to knock, and he stepped outside, clearly on his way back out.

He looked surprised to see her. "Lisbon." He hesitated. "I thought you were coming by later."

She wasn't sure if she was distressed or relieved that he was so out of sorts that she could actually see that she'd taken him by surprise. Jane never betrayed mundane emotions like surprise. She was convinced that if he ever actually experienced the emotion, he was accustomed to lying to make it seem like he hadn't—"Lisbon, I knew it was him all along. It was obvious from the outset the butler did it." Yeah, right. But the fact that he was so distracted by whatever the hell was going on in his head that he hadn't noticed her tailing him, or hadn't guessed that she was going to, was in the end more disturbing than comforting.

"Yet here you are on your way out," she said flatly.

"Yes, I was going to come back later."

"You're lying," she said coldly. "You were not going to come back. You were going to disappear and leave me to worry myself sick over where you'd gone and what you might be doing."

His mouth tightened into a thin line. "You shouldn't have come."

"What the hell? Of course I was going to come, you jackass!" she exploded. "You knew I was going to come, and that's why you were leaving, so you wouldn't have to face me, you coward."

He ignored this. "You're getting to be a better liar, Lisbon. My congratulations are in order. I believed you when you said you'd be coming by later."

"That's because I wasn't lying, you son of a bitch," she said through clenched teeth. "I meant what I said. But as soon as I saw the look on your face when I said it, I knew that you were going to make damn sure you weren't around when I showed up."

"Did it ever occur to you that there was a reason for that?" he nearly shouted. "That I had a plan, which you are now screwing up beyond belief, you infuriating woman!"

Not for the first time in her life, Lisbon was sorely tempted to deck him. "Of course I knew you had a plan. And you know what? I don't even know what it is, but I know that it's a bad one, because Red John is involved, and you go crazy every time he's in the picture. You have a blind spot a mile wide when it comes to him, Jane, and there's no way I'm going to let you get yourself killed by that psychopath just because you were too stubborn to stop and listen to reason for once in your goddamned life!"

Jane took a deep breath, clearly struggling to maintain a semblance of his usual calm. "All right. It's clear we aren't going to resolve this by shouting at each other out here. If we must talk about this, can we please do it inside?"

"Like mature adults?" Lisbon said sarcastically.

"If you like. I was thinking more along the lines of away from prying eyes," he muttered.

A chill went down her spine. "You think you're being watched?"

"Tan van, near the third streetlight on the right," he said in a low voice. "Don't look right away. Wait ten seconds, then hit me on the shoulder and angle your body so you can take a look without drawing attention."

Lisbon did as he said. She didn't even feel bad when he winced when she hit him on the shoulder. The bastard deserved it. He was right about the van, though. There was a Caucasian man sitting idly in the driver's seat who could have been anywhere between his early thirties and late forties. She doubted she'd be able to identify him in a lineup from her brief glimpse of him- he was too far away, and he was wearing a hat and sunglasses which obscured most of his face. "Shit."

"Yes." Jane gestured for her to enter his room, and she did so, keeping a wary eye on him lest he take the opportunity to lock her inside and bolt from the scene.

He didn't, however. He closed the door behind him and ran a hand through his hair, looking weary. A pang shot through her chest at the sight of him. God, he was maddening. Why couldn't he see this would be so much easier if he just let her help him?

"Do you think the place has been bugged?" she said in a low voice.

He shook his head. "No. I swept it before. It's clean."

She nodded, accepting his word on the matter. If it were anyone else, she would insist on double checking, but she knew Jane would have checked the place thoroughly. He'd have thought of the most likely and unlikely possible places for a bug, and he was so tuned to his surroundings he would have noticed even the slightest difference from the norm. But if he was being watched… this was even more serious than she'd imagined.

She put the tan van out of her mind and focused on her more immediate concern. She folded her arms across her chest. "What's going on, Jane?"

He scrubbed his hand over his face but didn't answer.

She tried a different tack. "Where were you going, just now?"

"Out for a pack of cigarettes," he spat at her.

Okay, obviously he wasn't going to tell her. She considered the possibilities. Why had he come back here? He hadn't realized she was following him, so it wasn't to throw her off his scent. He must have come back here for something specific. To pick something up, probably. It had to be small, because he hadn't been carrying any luggage or anything when she caught him coming out of his room. Which meant it must be hidden on his person somewhere.

Lisbon had had enough of asking nicely. She was going to get answers from him whether he cooperated or not. She stepped towards him, a predatory glint in her eye.

His eyes widened. "What are you doing?"

"Nothing you need to worry about," she tossed back at him, continuing to advance towards him.

He stepped back hastily, but she was quicker than him, and with one more step, she was able to close the distance between them.

She reached out and slid her hands up to grab the lapels of his jacket, pulling him closer to her. She could feel the warmth of his body radiating against hers.

"Lisbon?" His voice was calm, but she could see his pulse point jumping in the hollow of his throat. Master of biofeedback, her ass.

"Jane," she said, meeting his eyes. "Believe me when I tell you that what I'm about to do is for your own good."

And then she hooked her foot behind his ankle and took him down with one swift move.