A/N: So, I'm quite a keen drabbler. Mostly because I love just how much you can say in so few words. I've collected together quite a lot of drabbles now and thought it about time I updated them onto here. Each update will contain 10 drabbles, hopefully.

I mostly drabble on the Mentalist Big Bang Vent community and on Paint It Red, the Mentalist fan forum I co-run.

Speaking of Paint It Red, we are hosting our first ever Gift Exchange! (or Secret Santa, if you would rather call it that.) If you're interested in participating, please join and sign up! Sign ups close next week on Wednesday. The link to the forum is in my profile.

x tromana

Title: Threads
Author: tromana
Rating: Various (Predominantly K+ to T)
Characters: Various
Summary: How much can you say in one hundred words? Quite a lot, when you come to think about it.
Disclaimer: If I owned the Mentalist, it would have already premiered in the UK!
Notes: Currently spoiler-free for season 4. That is likely to change when it finally hits UK screens...

Need

Away from her seemed like a very good place to be right now.

She was mad, furious even. It was a very rare occurrence that he had ever seen Teresa Lisbon so angry.

And it was his fault.

Of course it was, when wasn't it? He was the thorn in her side, the bane of her very existence. This was just the final straw.

But really, it was all he could do. It was a defense mechanism, to stop himself from doing anything he might regret. Anything that was too risky.

Still, he knocked on the door. He needed her.

Family

"Do not move, hands behind your head."

Her voice was laced with authority, just as it always was. Cho tried to ignore the slight catch in her throat as she barked instructions at the perp. He didn't need to be told to know who this was. It was obvious; the resemblance was striking.

This was her brother.

He admired the way that she dealt with him, as if he were any other suspect. He would have intercepted, but he knew that she wouldn't have wanted that. Arresting her own brother may have been difficult, but she was still the boss.

Misdirection

"You're going the wrong way. We should have taken the last left!"

"No, this is right. I know where we're going."

"Lisbon is going to kill us if we're late."

Van Pelt slouched back in the chair and folded her arms angrily. She wished that Rigsby had allowed her to drive for a change. Sometimes, he was overprotective of her and she found it draining.

At least it was all in the open now. Everyone knew they were dating and were more or less happy for them to continue to do so.

Didn't change the fact they were lost though.

Teasing

"Wasn't Jane meant to do that?"

"No, you were."

"Really?"

Rigsby leaned back and looked at Cho skeptically. Sometimes, he found it impossible to know when the man was telling the truth or teasing him. He liked Cho, really, he did, but sometimes the slight digs grated a little. Everyone made him out to be the fool and sure, he made the odd slip up, but he was a good agent. If he wasn't, he'd have lost his job a long time ago.

"No, I'm sure Lisbon said Jane was gonna do it."

"Yeah, I was just messing with you."

Dreams

She'd done it. She had actually done it.

People had always said she was too young, too inexperienced to take on that case. Really, it had all just been euphemisms for 'she's a woman'. Somehow, people thought that that meant she simply couldn't handle the major cases.

But Red John was dead, gone.

She had nearly died, but that was just a part of the job description. If she had been so worried about her own mortality, she wouldn't have become a cop.

Her eyes sprang open.

If only.

But she needed to do it. She needed to stop Jane.

Later

Now.

Now, he was going to apologize. Say he was sorry.

That Craig hadn't turned out to be the man of her dreams. That she had had to kill him in the line of duty. That she had had her belief in the system and more importantly, herself, shaken by what was seemingly uncontrollable.

For not fighting for her when he had the chance. He should have insisted that he'd leave. That he'd never hate her - how could he? That they could have had the life they'd always dreamed of.

He placed his cell phone back down.

Maybe later.

Fun and Games

"See? It's easy."

"Yes, if you say so Jane."

She avoided the temptation of rolling her eyes as she walked away. Really, she should never have bothered humoring him in the first place. There was a time and place for games and in the middle of a murder investigation was definitely not that.

Still, she couldn't deny that he had injected a little fun into the workplace. He made it something she actively looked forward to. Not that she didn't love her job, mind.

But he still wasn't going to convince her that card tricks were easy any time soon.

Sorry

He's not sorry for killing Red John. Why would he be? It's all he's ever wanted. Of course, there's all the little problems, like actually proving it was Red John he'd shot, but that'll be dealt with later. What he does feel sorry for, however, is the repercussions. Jane had spent so long trying to push people away beforehand, but the stubborn fools just couldn't see sense. In a way, he had just given up. Not because he wasn't scared for them, but because their persistence wore him down. Their lives are a mess and he's to blame, yet again.

Petty Revenge

"Lose something?"

"No, no, I just… temporarily misplaced them."

"Oh really, is that what they're calling it?"

Lisbon flopped down beside Jane as he desperately searched her couch. It made a nice change, seeing him so agitated. Still, she knew she had to put him out of his misery, else they wouldn't get to work on time.

"Okay. What have you done with them?"

"I don't know what you're talking about," she answered coolly before laughing and handing him his keys.

"That's not fair."

"Looks fair to me."

"I was distracted!"

"How so?"

"Like this," he answered before kissing her.

God Complex

Her heart was pounding.

She hated it when it ended like this. Hated it. Why did things always have to spiral out of control?

Eventually she put her gun away. It was safe now; nobody was trying to shoot her.

They hadn't even suspected these kids as being the killer; just witnesses. And yet, because they were a gang, they had assumed that she - and her team - had thought that.

She felt like she was the one who had to choose if others should live or die.

And that was wrong. She wasn't God; she never would be.