The Red Curtain

By: S.K. Knight

Disclaimer: I do not own the Mentalist or its characters. All rights to rightful owners.
A/N: This is a gift for my lovely friends Erin & her brother, Cory because they gave me a prompt. The Jisbon is for you, Cory. ) And the turmoil and chaos is, as always, for my anti-twin, Erin. Prompt stipulations will appear at the END of the fic. Don't skip because it gives away plot details.

"Oh, my God, Jane, for the last time I said no. Don't you understand that? Who am I kidding? Of course you don't, you never do what I say anyway. Why should now be any different? God forbid you actually followed orders." Lisbon said, giving the blonde consultant an annoyed glare.

"You're not even listening, Lisbon. Rosalind Harker is the only person who has been in direct contact with Red John and may be the only person alive who can identify him." Jane persisted, following her into her office.

Lisbon whirled around to face him, angry. "This is going to be another one of your wild goose chases, I can feel it. Red John gave us those names for a reason. How do you know he isn't just screwing with us?"

Jane looked straight into her eyes and she suddenly felt exposed and uncomfortable, like he could see into her soul. Yet something troubled her, she wanted him to see inside her. She wanted him to see everything about her but most of all, she wanted to trust him. But she couldn't see how in the world letting Red John's mistress loose with a room full of suspects was a good idea. Lisbon worried she might tip one of them off.

"Because Lisbon," Jane continued, "I know him. I've been chasing him long enough to know when he's playing me."

Lisbon shook her head. "You're too far into this, Jane. You've been chasing him through this rabbit hole and I'm afraid you're close to falling in."

"I have my sanity, Lisbon, I've always had it." Jane reminded her.

Her eyes flashed and before she knew what she was doing, she slapped him in an attempt to get him to see reason. "Stop it. Stop it right now. I can't lose you like this again, do you hear me?"

Jane rubbed his jaw and looked slightly stunned. "Lisbon…"

"What?" she answered, a frown still evident of her face.

He lowered his voice and studied her face, tilting her chin up with his finger. "You could never lose me. You just have to trust me."

"Jane, you better not go behind my-"she started in a low voice, but then she felt his lips touch hers, and she was astonished to find herself kissing back.

"Trust me." He whispered in her ear, and she watched him leave her office.

"Dammit, Jane." She muttered.

She didn't know what she was more worried about: the fact that he was surely going to go behind her back or the fact that he had kissed her…and that she'd liked it. Meanwhile, Jane hurried into the bullpen and the team cast strange glances in his direction, but he ignored them and dialed the phone. They'd heard part of the fight, but had decided it was between Lisbon and Jane. But nonetheless, it didn't stop them from wondering what it was about; even though Jane and Lisbon bickering was not an uncommon occurrence.

"Hello, Rosalind… Yes, it's Patrick Jane. Can you come to the CBI right away? I have a favor to ask…thank you." Jane said quickly, hanging up.

Lisbon wanted to kick herself. She should've pulled away or pushed him off or something. But there was something about that kiss and that man that stopped her from pulling away. Lisbon looked out her office window and frowned. She saw Jane escorting the red-headed mistress of Red John into the bullpen.

Lisbon scowled. He's dead, she thought, in fact he's whatever's worse than dead. I don't care if he kissed me or not. She stood up angrily and marched out of her office and into the bullpen, grabbing his arm and leading roughly to a corner.

"Jane, so help me God, I will shoot you. I am this close right now." She hissed venomously.

"No, you won't. It's too much paperwork and I know how much you despise that." He replied smugly.

She let out a huff of frustration using every ounce of strength she had not to kill him. "You know what? You're being a jackass right now. I specifically told you not to bring her here, didn't I?" she reminded him heatedly.

Jane looked into her eyes. "And I told you to trust me."

"Screw trust. I can't trust you when you disobey a direct order and go behind my back. How do you know she won't tip one of them off or something and then Red John will walk? Do you want that?" she questioned.

"Of course I don't, Lisbon, but she helped me when I asked her about Timothy Carter and she'll help me now."

Lisbon scoffed. "Right, and then she'll betray you." "I'm confident she won't." he said sternly, turning away and headed towards the bullpen again. Lisbon closed her eyes, pinched the bridge of her nose & sighed.

Jane and Lisbon watched from the observation room as Rosalind slowly made her way down the line of the last seven possible suspects for Red John. Lisbon bit her lip, looking for any signs that Rosalind was involved in a tip-off, but she found none. They watched Rosalind move from Stiles, to Bertram, to Haffner, to Smith, to Kirkland, to Macalister. When she made it to Partridge, she paused, as if contemplating. Then she moved on. Jane brought her inside the observation room.

He took her shoulders, and looked straight into her eyes conscious that she couldn't see him.

"Rosalind…do any of these men seem familiar to you?" he questioned, almost eagerly.

"The last one; he feels like Roy." Rosalind said in her light, airy tone.

Lisbon and Jane looked at each other, recognition dawning on their faces.

"Partridge." Jane muttered.

"Are you sure, Rosalind?" Lisbon questioned seriously.

"Yes," Rosalind said with certainty.

"How can you be sure?" Lisbon inquired again.

"It's quite easy, really. I've seen him." Rosalind answered simply.

Lisbon looked confused, glancing at Jane. "But you're blind…"

Jane just nodded understandingly at Rosalind and Lisbon supposed he had figured it out a long time ago.

Rosalind smiled. "Roy suggested I pretend to protect his identity. He didn't want anyone knowing who he was."

"Why help us now?" Jane said.

"Because I know that no matter what you do to him, my Roy will always come back to me." Rosalind explained.

"How did you get your sight back?" Lisbon asked.

"I lost it in a car accident when I was three and I just fell and bumped my head one day and it came back." She explained. "Thank you, Rosalind. You can go." Jane told her, opening the door for her as she left.

Lisbon hurried in to grab Partridge while Cho and Rigsby escorted the rest of the men out but Jane stopped her by the door.

"Lisbon please let me question him with you." Jane pleaded.

Lisbon frowned. "Absolutely not. You're not stable enough to be in there. You don't want to arrest him, you want to kill him. There's no way in hell I'm letting you in that room."

Jane's eyes became cold as he watched Partridge smirk at him through the glass. He knew Jane was there, hoping he was losing his sanity, waiting for him to strike and it took everything Jane had not to take his bait.

"He killed my wife and child! I have a right to question him!" Jane told her.

"This is exactly what I mean. You've gone off the deep end. You're not going in there." Lisbon ordered him, glaring at him as if daring him to fight back.

She went into the interrogation room and Partridge turned his smirk on her. "Teresa, is it? It's such a pleasure to meet you. Patrick's watching, isn't he? He's undoubtedly standing behind that glass, watching, trying to quench the urge to come in here and rip my throat out." He said, smirking at the glass.

Damn right I am, you sick son-of-a-bitch. You're really lucky there's glass between us. Jane thought bitterly.

"Shut up. I'll ask the questions here, Mr. Partridge." Lisbon said sternly, putting a large file down on the table with a slap and taking a seat across from him.

"Feisty, are we?" Partridge commented, as Lisbon glared at him and opened the folder up toward him, putting each picture on the table with a slap.

"You've killed thirty six victims since 1998…all women, including the wife and daughter of one of my colleagues, Patrick Jane. Why is that?" Lisbon questioned evenly.

"Recognition, Teresa. I was tired of playing for the good side. I'm an artist and now everyone in the world knows my name. I'm not just Brett Partridge, now I'm the infamous serial killer Red John. Haven't you ever wanted to do something more with your life? Haven't you ever wanted to be recognized?" he explained, studying her.

"You're going to jail, Mr. Partridge. I wouldn't seem so happy about that if I were you." Lisbon advised.

Partridge chuckled. "Oh, Teresa, you're so gullible to think that things will be that easy. You see, I don't take Mr. Jane for a fool. I knew this day would come and I will get free and when I do, I'll kill you too and make him watch as you bleed and beg for mercy. And it'll be just like his darling wife and child. You're the last thing in this world he loves."

A look of surprise crossed her face for no more than a second. She knew Jane loved her but she didn't know it went that deep.

"So, he hasn't told you that yet, has he?" Partridge asked, fully enjoying her surprise.

In the observation room, Jane boiled with anger at him, resisting the urge to rush in there and punch him. Partridge wasn't supposed to tell her that, he was. But Lisbon, being the professional that she was, took it in stride.

"We're not here to talk about me or Jane. Now, I'm going to need you to sign this confession admitting you're guilty of all thirty-six murders." She said, gathering up the folder and then sliding the paper toward him. Partridge signed it with a flourish, almost ostentatiously, and smirked as she collected it. Brett stood up, wearing handcuffs as Cho came in and read him his rights. Lisbon stood up and headed for the door, but not before seeing Brett give her an oily smile.

"You're next, my dear." Partridge reminded her.

"Cho, get his ass out of here." Lisbon responded, annoyed. Cho roughly escorted Partridge to lock-up as Jane came out of the observation room, grim-faced and desperately in need of a strong cup of tea.

Lisbon put the Red John case files away and joined him in the break room. "How do you feel? We got him." She said with a small smile.

Jane stirred his tea, pensively watching the ripples the spoon made in it. "I would've felt a thousand times better if I'd have gotten to rip the irksome little worm's throat out." He muttered bitterly.

Lisbon touched his shoulder. "I know," she replied gently.

"When he threatened you, I nearly lost it." Jane confessed quietly.

"You know he can't escape, he'll be in a maximum security prison with the death penalty on the table. It won't be easy for Brett's attorney to talk them out of that." She reminded him.

Jane looked up at her, a deep sadness in his eyes. "True, but I just don't feel like it's over. I feel like I should've killed him for all he put me and my wife and child through."

"It's better that you didn't. I'm proud of you, Jane." Lisbon praised giving him a small smile.

"He was right about one thing, Teresa."

"What's that?"

"You are the only thing left that I truly love and you can punch me or slap me or whatever you want but it doesn't stop the fact that I love you, Lisbon. That kiss was definitely no accident."

After saying this, Jane braced himself for whatever amount of physical punishment Lisbon would inevitably give him, but it didn't come. Grace and Rigsby looked up with interest, trying not to listen.

"So, it's true," Lisbon confirmed slowly, trying to process what he had just said, "you love me?"

Jane nodded. "Yes." Lisbon paused for a moment and lowered her voice.

"If you tell anyone what I'm about to say I will shoot you but…I love you too."

Jane smiled and nodded toward her office. All the blinds were closed. He put an arm around her waist and kissed her.

Though surprised for a moment, Lisbon quickly kissed back.

As quickly as it had started, it ended and Lisbon opened her eyes but Jane was gone. She was just beginning to curse his name when something stuck on her desk caught her eye.

It was a light yellow sticky note that read, in his neat handwriting:

See you tomorrow, sweetheart.
I love you. –Jane

She chuckled lightly to herself and put the note safely into her bag, walking to the elevator with a smile on her face. Dating Jane was going to be a challenge but it was one challenge she was determined to be ready for.

A/N: The prompt stipulations were as follows:

For Erin:

- Jane and Lisbon disagree about whether they should take Rosalind to meet the RJ suspects, and chaos ensues.

For Cory:

- They find out that Rosalind isn't really blind.

- They argue alot, they slap and they kiss

So, how did I do? Did I meet their conditions? COMMENTS & FAVORITES ARE AMAZING!