Welcome to my first FF story! I've been promising this one for a while but have finally decided to pubish and be damned. This is extreme AU but whereever possible I use characters from the show, but in different roles eg. !evil Reede Smith, !avuncular Virgil Minelli, !superheroine Madeleine Hightower (hang on, this sounds just like the show...). It's still an FBI story, but everything is a little different. Jane and Lisbon are younger for this tale (Jane 28, Lisbon 30) - that's just how I needed it to be in my head. Red John etc. still happened - but a lot quicker, and Jane had/lost his family a lot younger, obviously. My Jane, although he hopefully displays some of the Jane adorableness that we know and love, is less cocky, less confident... hell, less mature. I'd just binge-watched The Guardian when I started this story and I'm imagining Nick Fallin's quiet, low-key personality and beautiful, sulky face when Jane starts to suffer! And he does suffer here.. a lot. Jane Pain all the way - I don't know why but I love it so. My Lisbon is weaker here than I perhaps wanted her to be, but she does get very ill and I don't blame her for a thing! There will be non con later on, hence the M rating, but I will warn. I think I've given away too much (and probably confused the hell out of everyone...). Just a couple of shout outs - to the wonderful Thornton and Louise Kurylo who have encouraged me to get on here and do it! A special mention to Louise Kurylo for inspiring my only major non-show based character, Kim's father, Don Fischer (not at all a nice person here either, I'm afraid...) and for giving me the idea that kicked this whole story off. It's going to be a multi-chapter and I can't wait to hear what you all think!

And finally - Michael Sheen and David Tennant are going to star as Crowley and Aziraphale in Good Omens! I know, right?!

MID AUGUST – Austin – Trick and Lisby

She had already told him she was going back home. That she had a life now in Lafayette. That she was neither his plaything nor his term of employment for the FBI. The fizz of excitement and utter joy she had experienced on seeing him again after two endless years had been supplanted by that familiar uneasy sensation akin to being blindfolded and spun around that he seemed to engender in her. He was already playing his games again – conning and running rings round them all – well not her, not any more.

He was utterly contrite (again) and full of promises of how it would all be different. "I came back for you, Lisby – only for you!" he swore. She had to keep running to Sam in her head to try to stay immune from his magic…

The night before her flight he'd invited her to dinner. He would, he vowed, be going to Abbott on the morrow to tell him to 'shove his job up his FBI ass' and that without her, he, Trick, would happily go to prison after all, it was only what he deserved…. (Emotional blackmail, much?) but could they please have a 'final' dinner together? God help her, she had said yes, just like she always did.

Pete and Sam's tiny girl, Juniper, had baptised them Lisby and Trick, trying to say their names on a long ago visit, when Pete had swung Jane into the air as though he was no bigger than his daughter, and Sam and Juniper had taken Lisbon to see Daisy, the elephant. Trick, muttered Lisbon to Sam, was the most appropriate name for Jane she had ever heard. And he had called her Lisby, from then on, whenever she let him.

Dinner, at a Caribbean restaurant that Trick had managed to 'discover' in only a few days of freedom, had been huge fun. He was at his most entertaining, and the meal had somehow ended up in a drunken, spontaneous poker game involving kitchen and waiting staff, as well as the head chef himself. Having merrily fleeced them all, Trick kept back only half the price of his and Lisby's (very expensive) dinner and engaged in a little redistribution of wealth in returning the staff's money. His charm was such that not even the head chef appeared put out, pressing a bottle of his finest Jamaica rum onto them as they finally headed out into the muggy Austin night.

Trick insisted (of course) on walking her back to her hotel and they passed the rum happily between them as they strolled. It was First Thursday on South Congress (another Trick discovery which she wondered if any of the Austin FBI agents she had met had even heard of), and the lively street scene made her feel as though they were on holiday in Trick's beloved Venezuela. They stopped to listen to music, joined in impromptu dancing, Trick chatted up vendors and bought her a vividly coloured scarf, shot through with her favourite emerald green, which he wrapped around her neck, cheekily brushing her lips as he did so. Fifteen minutes away from her hotel the heavens opened and they were instantly soaked to the skin by warm, but incredibly heavy, rain. Trick pulled her into a doorway, wrapped his arms around her and brought his face close to hers, kissing her lightly on the lips. Raindrops trembling precariously on his ridiculously long eyelashes, his curls flattened damply to his head, his light blue shirt sticking closely to him and almost transparent with the rain; she had never seen anything more erotic.

"My beautiful, beautiful, Lisby." Gazing, entranced, into her eyes, he clearly felt the same way… She should have stopped him then – she should have stopped him….. "Come on." He grabbed her hand and they were running through the downpour and she had never felt so alive.

It was getting light when her gently vibrating phone awoke Lisbon. Automatically she grabbed it and put it to her ear. "Hey, Reese, this is your 5am alarm call, as promised. Don't want you missing your flight back home to the man who's going crazy without you."

Lisbon scrambled out of bed, snatching at a towel to cover herself as though Sam could see her and Trick.

"Did you turn in extra early?" Bosco was asking. "You didn't answer any of my texts." She looked down at her phone, seeing the text alerts, realising that Sam's existence had literally been erased from her head for the past 8 hours by that blond devil, lying sprawled on her bed, still dead to the world (a rare sight for him), with lips slightly parted and hair dried back to a golden halo - looking more like an angel.

"Sam", she breathed, wriggling quickly into jeans, t-shirt and sneakers and slipping quietly out of the room, "I did.. I.. I just wanted to be fresh for today and…"

"Well I spoke to Abbott yesterday-" her heart stopped – "and he said you've been invaluable on this case, that you figured out some outrageous fingerprinting scam to identify a perp-" and started again – Abbott had kept his promise not to breathe a word about the Jane factor, instead making her summons to Texas appear to hang on a recommendation from Cho… – "-and that he'd hire you in a heartbeat" He paused. "But I know how much you love our life here…" He paused again – waiting for her to confirm. Relieved (somehow) she jumped into the space.

"I can't wait to be back, honey."

Once she had reassured Bosco, and received in return his order than she would not be seeing herself home as he would be picking her up from the airport she found herself walking aimlessly along the same streets that she and Trick.. Jane.. had explored last night, before they had… before she had utterly betrayed the man who had been there for her when NO-ONE else was… least of all Patrick Jane.

In the grey dawn light the streets, still displaying their bright, tawdry garlands, looked shabby and tired, and Lisbon turned a dispassionate inner eye onto the dilemma in which she now found herself. Last night they had gotten to her room door and Trick still hadn't said… hadn't asked.. she had opened the door and he had caught her hands and looked deep into her eyes…. "Lisby…."

And she had pulled him into the room and then… they had simply fallen upon each other, she… had wanted, needed every part of him to be a part of her… his eyes… had looked into her soul… he had cried… she had cried.. he had whispered words of love, endearments… she had given herself to him utterly and taken all of him in return…. She remembered now… as she was finally drifting off in his embrace he had whispered "Stay with me…." and she had murmured "Always….."

But this morning, the streets were faded and the man who had stayed with her was waiting for her to come home. Whereas the man who had run away from her so many times before… well, less than 48 hours into their reunion, yep… he had of course run away yet again, from the FBI and her, making Lisbon (the Jane whisperer) look like an fool in front of everyone, then he had strolled back like the little bastard that he was.. and you know what, he would run away, again and again, and she couldn't….

It was colder this morning in the wake of the thunderstorm, and Lisbon shivered in her lightweight t-shirt and wrapped her arms around herself as she walked. Sam Bosco loved her and she trusted him. She felt safe, and protected in his love – it was pitiful, she supposed wryly, but she had never felt safe and protected before – not even in her childhood. Trick.. couldn't protect himself, never mind her. "I couldn't protect my own family…."

Oh, Trick, Trick! Lisbon huddled in a doorway and rubbed her fists savagely into her eyes. She loved him, God, she loved him, she loved him, she would never love another soul the way she loved that beautiful, damaged man but she couldn't…..

No more. No more hurting people. Not herself. Not Sam. She owed Bosco her sanity, maybe even her life. She'd begun to dare to wonder about children… She and Sam would be good parents together… Trick and Lisby, well … maybe there was such a thing as too much love… too much pain… too much...

She walked slowly back to the hotel, barely able to see through her brimming eyes.

Jane, still in bed but at least awake now, greeted her with a beaming smile but his face fell instantly when he caught her distress. "Could you… could you get dressed… Trick… we really need to talk."

Was he going to lose her again? Well not if he could help it. "Of course – sorry for still…" Suddenly shy and awkward Jane immediately hopped out of bed and dodged into the bathroom. He closed his eyes under the shower, tilting his head back in bliss and went over his game plan. Not that it was a game plan of course, this was… just the rest of his life.. he was not going to screw this up!

Finally, after all the years of fear created by Red John, he felt able to show the love he had felt for Lisby from well… in some ways from that very first day when she had rescued him from Hannigan. And then all the times she had rescued him since.. from bad guys, bad women, , their bosses, himself…. She was so tiny, so unutterably beautiful, and so, so strong. And her soul… her spirit just… sang out to him.

(For while Patrick Jane had no truck with spirits in the afterlife, or indeed an afterlife at all, the mentalism he credited to honed skills alone was in reality sharpened to its prenatural level by the enormous amount of empathy he unknowingly possessed - he most definitely resonated with spirits in this life.)

Last night had been joyful, cathartic, he had lost himself in her and to her. His wedding ring had stayed on, but its significance had changed forever – he felt at peace now with his memories of Angela and Charlotte. But he ached for Lisbon. He smiled to himself as the water cascaded over his face – humans were undoubtedly peculiar – always had to strive for something.

All she wanted was for him to be honest and open with her, and, while there was still the small matter of the FBI threatening to throw him in jail for murder (not that the kind of jail he would end up in would keep him for long), now was the time to fight his strong inclination to hide what he knew – no pretence – he had to be honest. He would bare his soul to her.

Wrapped in a towel, he emerged briefly from the bathroom, grabbed his clothes and disappeared again. On his re-appearance, Lisbon, clutching a much-needed coffee, presented him with a cup of tea and invited him to sit. Perched around the tiny breakfast table the hotel provided she felt incredibly uncomfortable, not helped by Jane waggling his eyebrows at her as he sipped his tea.

She took a deep breath. "Tri- Jane…. " Jane's face fell at her use of his more 'formal' name. "Last night was…." She hesitated, irresolute. He resisted trying to fill the pause… waited. "No, I'm not going to say that last night was a mistake (how could something like THAT ever be a mistake) but… for me it was… it was wrong."

Jane nodded carefully. He had to let her tell him first. She soldiered on. "Jane, I'm not… there's… there's someone else now….." Biting his lip, he nodded again. There was a beat. Lisbon stared at him. "You knew," she said flatly. It was not a question. "Of course you bloody knew. Why wouldn't you know?" Her anger was rising now. "Tell, me, Jane, what else do you know?"

Jane hung his head. "I'm pretty sure it's Sam Bosco…" he muttered, then dared to look up at her with a glimmer of hope in his eyes. Misplaced, as she greeted his look with a furious slap. He put his hand up to his cheek and gazed at her, hurt.

Lisbon pushed him away as he leaned forward to try and comfort her. He tried to speak but she was shouting now. "You knew! You probably knew from the first time you saw me, right? No… you'd probably had it all figured out back on your island. But that would mean you would have had to think about me, which you clearly didn't as you didn't send me so much as a FUCKING TEXT!"

"But I did! What about all my-" started Jane.

Lisbon was far from finished. Her voice was quieter now, but the words were venomous. "Not only did you know, with your bloody bloody supernatural bloody powers, but you then decided it was ok to pretend you were all innocent again and… what? Just claim back what you think is yours? Knowing - you were making me - into a cheat!" She punctuated her last words with angry shoves to his chest with the heels of her hands. They were both off the chairs now and he ended up stumbling backwards onto their rumpled bed. She stood over him, panting from the force of her anger. "Well, Jane? Was that the big plan? Nice two year vacation, no doubt sleeping with all those lovely island girls, waltz back home and just help yourself to poor old, lovestruck, Lisbon. Because you're good at helping yourself to things, aren't you? That's what you do! Doesn't matter that I nearly fell apart after you left. Doesn't matter that I had no-one, no-one until Sam came along. The only man who GIVES a shit, but no... Patrick Jane is back, so you'll just step in and…" She paused for a second, Jane frantically regrouping, but she was off again. "You never liked Bosco. Always made him feel like an idiot, he told me."

"Not a stretch.." muttered Jane's mouth, before his brain could kick in. "NO! I'm sorry Lis-" But she'd hit him again.

"How the hell did you know it was Bosco?" She asked suddenly, still breathing hard.

Jane tried to pull her to sit next to him on the bed, but she yanked her arm away. He was desperate to neutralise her anger. "Because… (who else would it be?)… I knew his wife had left him not long before…. I left and that he was just waiting -" He could see from Lisbon's face that this was coming out all wrong.

"What, just waiting to pick up your leftovers because his wife had dumped him?" she spat out. "Your arrogance is mind-blowing!"

"That's not what I meant!" Jane tried unsuccessfully to grab her hand again. "I didn't know anything on the island… When I saw you I knew because… I just…. know you. I could tell by how you were that you were with someone and that you were struggling to hide it from me but you felt you had to for the moment because everything was just so... new and all… and I guessed that it was Bosco because…. because of what he told me before and because of how he was with you… I didn't want to say anything - not to lie to you…. again…. but because I felt I had to leave that to you!" Lisbon tried to interrupt, but he kept going. "and then last night was just… I knew you were leaving and it didn't look as though you were going to say anything so I… I… wanted to show you the truth of how I feel! Lisby, I love-"

"Hang on." She grabbed the arm that was reaching for her. "What did you mean when you said 'because of what he told me before'? What are you talking about?"

This was not going at all the way Jane had hoped. He tried to take her hand again (she put his arm firmly down). He had to be transparent with her but there was an element of floodgates opening here, this was all going to fall apart. He sighed. "When I had to work with Bosco's team I kind of… teased him about… his feelings for you-"

"You are such a-"

"-because he was telling me to stay away from you.. because even though we weren't… everyone thought we were … except Cho…." he trailed off. Lisbon gaped at him. "What did he tell you, Jane? You had no right to say anything to him – it was none of your business!"

"I knew he'd hurt you before – your affair – he was married, Lisby! And then he was back and after you again and still married! How was that going to end up?"

This was too much. Lisbon began pacing back and forth across the room. "So you accused him of-"

"No! I didn't say anything to him, I'm just saying that's why I -"

"Just because you wear that goddamn ring on your finger like some badge of honour you think that gives you the right to pass moral judgments on stuff you know nothing about! What about the rest of your life, Jane? Face it, you're so caught up in your own dishonesty you have no idea how to act around decent people!"

Jane looked like she'd slapped him again. "I… I… Well, that's what he said as well….. He said that I should stay the hell away from you because… I was a lowlife carnie grifter and how dare I presume to… 'even try to interact with decent people'….." He scrubbed his hands over his face. "Do you really think that of me, Lisbon?"

Lisbon felt her anger begin to dissipate, but she couldn't let this go. "I don't know anymore Jane… I just…. No Jane, not what he said, of course not…" she felt shattered suddenly, and she had to start getting herself together or she'd miss her flight… "But Jane, you've got to understand… I have to take care of myself now and Sam Bosco is a good man -"

"You're right you know," interrupted Jane. "I don't like him. I may be a lot of things but… I would never try to control you or lie to you like he does -"

"Hah! What do you call refusing to do work for the FBI unless I'm on your freaking team then – Jane come on! Stop this now! He does not lie! And he does not try to control me." She started to hurl her stuff into a bag.

Jane was getting scared. She was leaving. "Lisby he does, I -"

"No! Enough! Jane, I am getting on my plane back to Lafayette on my own and I am not coming back! I'm with Sam now, and I'm sorry you can't be happy for me but I guess I understand that at least…" Weary now – "You have to make a life for yourself Jane… Patrick. Sure.. work for the FBI for a few years, then get your pass and learn to live again. The whole…. Red John episode of your life is finished now. You're still only a young guy…"

Jane had his face in his hands. He looked up and tears were rolling down his cheeks. "I only came back for you, Lisby. I wrote you letters every day.."

"Jane! There were no letters!" She was crying too. "No letters Jane! No phone calls, no nothing! Not a word from you in two years! There was only Sam Bosco! Who loves me and takes care of me, damnit Jane! I can't do this with you I just can't!"

He tried to put his arms around her "I'm so sorry – I love you so, so much, Lisby! Please give me a chance please, you mean everything in the world to me-"

Still sobbing, she shoved him, hard, so he stumbled over his feet again. "Just go, Jane! Please… if you care for me at all just get out now. I need you gone! Please!"

He swiped his hands over his eyes, tried to control his shaky breathing, grabbed his socks (her socks, that she'd given him) and shoes, opened his mouth to say something, then simply raised his hand in farewell to her and slipped out of the door, with no other plan now than to run, and not to stop running until he disappeared.

Cho, who had promised Lisbon a ride to the airport, was surprised to meet Dennis Abbott in the hotel lobby, pointing out that Jane was surely in detention, when the wily senior agent explained to him why he was there.

"I 'forgot' to lock him up last night, assuming that he'd have another go at convincing Lisbon to stay… Hopefully it's worked out, otherwise I see all sorts of trouble ahead," mused Abbott.

Cho still wasn't getting it. "But this is Lisbon's hotel," he explained patiently.

"Really?" Abbott rolled his eyes at his colleague. "You really don't know about those two?"

"Lisbon's with Bosco…"

"Oh come on, Cho, path of true love and all that! I just hope they got somewhere…" he finished thoughtfully.

His hopes were almost immediately dashed with the appearance of a barefoot, dishevelled and utterly distraught Jane in the lobby. He caught sight of the agents and tried to run. Cho's brain did not even need to engage, he instinctively tacked the runner to the ground and Abbott had handcuffs on him seconds later. He looked him up and down sadly. "Didn't go well then?"

Cho, who had hauled him upright, spun Jane around to face him. "Is Lisbon ok?" he snapped.

Jane, captured, slumped in Cho's grasp. "She's been better.." he said softly.

Cho slammed Jane against the wall. "What have you done!"

Abbott had worked things out, and put his hand on Cho's shoulder. "Easy, Kimball, I have a feeling they've… well…" he looked at Jane, "… I'd say broken up but you never really had a chance to get together did you?" Now he touched Jane's shoulder. "I am sorry," he said.

Cho, still not quite believing Abbott's interpretation of the Jane-Lisbon relationship, released Jane by throwing him against the wall again. "All yours," he snapped at Abbott and stalked off to find Lisbon. Abbot unlocked the cuffs only to cuff himself to Jane. "I've heard you can get out of those," by way of explanation. He waited while Jane managed to put on his precious socks and dropped shoes and then steered him out of the hotel towards the waiting SUV – glad he'd had the foresight to bring a driver.

Headed back to incarceration, Jane tried one last time. "Please let me go, Abbott. I promise I'll disappear – you'll never hear from me again. I don't want to work in law enforcement at all – if you keep me you'll have to send me to jail – think of all the hassle and the bad press…"

Abbott looked sympathetically at the younger man but his words gave no hope. "Jane, I'm genuinely sorry that you didn't manage to work things out with Teresa but you will still have to work for us. Your… recapture was instigated and financed higher up the food chain than me – I'm just the guy who figured out how to get you. I have no desire whatsoever to say no to these guys. And the more stubborn you are, the worse your deal is likely to be, and the less choice you'll have in what happens to you, bear that in mind."

Jane simply looked sorrowfully at him, leaned his head back against the seat and closed his eyes. Abbott, feeling a migraine starting, gazed silently out of the window as they headed back to the detention centre, with no idea how prophetic his warning would turn out to be.

Cho discovered a red-eyed but resigned Lisbon, bags all packed, finally putting a brush through her hair. "Are you ok?" he asked.

"Fine, thanks Cho," she sighed. "Just... tired."

It wasn't until they were 20 minutes away from the airport that Cho broke the silence. "I saw Jane in the lobby. What happened with you guys?"

Lisbon opened her eyes to glance at him in surprise. Cho never enquired about personal stuff – it was a quality she greatly appreciated in him. He must be pretty worried to do so now.

"Oh… you know… he wanted me to stay... I wanted to go… we both got upset…"

"Ok." Realising he wasn't going to get the full story out of her. "Well, Abbott's taken him back to detention – I guess we'll have to see how it goes."

Lisbon felt a pang and realised she'd hoped that Jane would have managed, somehow, to run again. Hopefully he would before long – his was not a soul that could live in a cage.

"Cho… I think it's best that, just for the moment, can you… just keep me out of the loop about Jane? If he asks for me again or anything. I just need…. to work on my own life for now."

In Lafayette, Bosco greeted her rapturously, and if he noticed she was so devastated as to be virtually in mourning, he kept it to himself.