AN: I am not a writer. I have never written or submitted anything anywhere and I am sure it shows. However, the pull of The Mentalist is a strong one and some of the fun in my head does not wish to stay there so I am putting myself at your mercy by submitting the first chapter in what I have recently been watching in my mind. Please be gentle.

Disclaimer: I do not, nor will I ever, have anything to do officially of any kind with The Mentalist. If I did, the show would probably go off the air. So be thankful.

**Lisbon POV**

He was trying to give off the impression that he was fine, that there was absolutely nothing on his mind that could possibly be troubling him. He breezed in with fresh doughnuts for the team. He flirted with Van Pelt, chatted with Cho and Rigsby about last night's Kings Game, and brought me a coffee before flopping onto his back on his couch. Mr. Calm, Cool, and Collected. That's our Jane.

I knew all wasn't well in Janeland, though. The way he scrunched his eyes and wiggled down into the cushions. The way he furrowed his brow and shifted around trying to get settled. His sigh as he turned and faced the back of the couch with his arms crossed in front of him. He couldn't get comfy and finally rolled back over, getting up and wandering to the break room. He had his tells; someone who knew him as well as I did could see that he was bothered by something. Unfortunately, I had a strong feeling that I knew exactly what it was. He was trying to figure out how to tell me that he was leaving us. Leaving *me*.

I always knew that Jane was going to leave once Red John was finished. We would either take down Red John ourselves and send him to prison leaving Jane to ride off into the sunset. Or we would be too late; Jane would confront Red John alone and would end up being hauled off in either handcuffs or a body bag. I honestly couldn't picture any other outcome.

What actually ended up happening? I wouldn't have guessed if my life had depended on it...

We had received a tip about Red John, a pretty credible tip actually. Credible enough that we had to move out right away. Only problem was that Jane was nowhere to be found. Empty couch, no car in the lot, no tea brewing in the break room. He wasn't answering his cell, either. Damnit. I left him a message to call me back ASAP. Seriously Jane? You're going to miss this?

He had finally called back as we were almost to the location. I pulled over to give him clipped directions and let him know in no uncertain terms that we were not going to wait for him. Not for something this big. I hung up on him as he was still talking and pulled back onto the road. Cho just looked at me silently and then nodded. Good. Good... But why did I feel the slightest bit guilty? No, I shouldn't. Were Jane here this could go very bad very quickly. It was better if he showed up after the smoke cleared, after we had taken control of the situation. When he couldn't ruin everything just by being the vindictive stubborn ass that he is.

Turns out, it still went very bad, very fast, even without Jane's help. Red John was there, and he had killed. Evening had fallen and the light was bad; it was hard to see what was going on As the electricity to the building was out. Rigsby wound up getting cut pretty badly. The same arm that had gotten burned, actually. If he wasn't careful he was going to end up losing it one of these days. Even with CBI agents surrounding him, Red John still managed to evade us. He had made it out of the warehouse and was trying to leave the scene when Jane came flying around the corner in his ugly little deathtrap. He hit him. With his car. On accident. Jane. Accidentally hit Red John. With his car. See kids, this is why you don't go jogging in dark clothes at night. When I ran up, Jane was sitting behind the wheel in shock. Cho ran to check Red John while I went to the driver's side door to check on Jane.

"I hit someone... Lisbon... I think I hit someone... He was just there..." He was pale, eyes wide. He had momentarily forgotten why he was rushing there in the first place. Horror that he had run someone down, had maybe hit one of us, had moved to the front. I glanced over at Cho, wondering about Red John. He stood up and shook his head. Dead. Jane looked at me horrified as I clasped my hands to my mouth in a frantic gesture to muffle my sudden hysterical laughter. It was over. Red John was dead. Jane had killed him. With his car. On accident. The whole thing was horrifically hilarious to me all of a sudden. I looked into Jane's panicked eyes and blurted "You ran over Red John" before giving a laugh that sounded like a sob and then suddenly I was crying in relief. It was over.

**TBC**