The smell of fresh blood and the adrenaline made him feel utterly nauseated. The thought of what happened to Clarissa made it even worse and whenLisbon made another quick turn, not slowing down for a second he just had enough."Pull over!" he yelled, trying to be heard despite the loud motor rumbling. She glanced at him from the corner of her eye, her face ashen.

"I´m going to be sick," he yelled some more, already putting a hand over his mouth. Lisbon swore under her breath and slowed down, the last thing she wanted right now was a puking man in her car.

She stopped and let Patrick escape as quickly as possible watching him ran for a moment, or at least trying to, then falling on all his four, throwing up. She herself felt bad enough to do the same but one of them had to remain calm. Plus she wasn´t sure about standing up.

Her hand hurt like hell, she could feel herself shiver against the chair involuntarily. Perhaps it´s time to see the damage the bastard had done. Lisbon took few steadying breaths before rolling her bloody sleeve up, revealing her pale skin and scars. The last few inches of fabric was in the way of revealing the wound and yet she couldn´t do it. Her head fell back at the head restraint and she swore again.


Patrick got up trembling badly, his head spinning like a roller coaster, legs weak as a jelly. He tried to use some of his biofeedback tricks to calm himself down while he rummaged through his pockets trying to find a handkerchief when his sight fell on the car.

"Shit," he murmured and hurried to Lisbon who seemed to be passed out on the driver seat.

He opened the drivers door with shaky hands, ready to check for her pulse when he spotted the smoke.

She was not passed out.

She was smoking.

Bleeding, on the verge of fainting and smoking.

"I´m fine," she said quietly and took a long puff.

"You´re not fine! You´re insane, give me that you crazy woman!" Jane took the cigarette from her hand and threw it on the ground angry beyond raised her head to look at him and muttered "Jerk,"under her breath, closing her eyes kneeled down to be on her level and his sight fell on hand - pale and full of scars. Suddenly , the images from her case file came to his mind and his anger lessened. He read and saw what she went through, and she almost let the maniac take her again today in order to save his and Clarissa´s life. He sighed loudly.

"It´s not the greatest idea to smoke right now, you are on a verge of fainting and that is hardly a thing we want, okay? " he said quietly, anger fading already.

"Fine," she murmured again and made a face.

"We need to take a look at the wound, Teresa," he said as calmly as he could.

"Lisbon," she said.

"What?" he asked puzzled his hands already rolling up her sleeve.

"Call me Lisbon, you jerkass..."

"Okay," he said and rolled his eyes at her, "Fair enough, Lisbon it is, now, let me take a look, will you?"

She only nodded, and kept her eyes closed still. Jane rolled up her sleeve a bit, trying to ignore the scars, and finally revealed the wound. A huge rock fell of his chest when he saw it was just a graze. Badly looking graze, but still, just a graze. No bullet inside, no hole...just a graze.

Still, it needed to be cleaned.

"It´s just a graze, but I should still clean it,I presume you do have some emergency kit somewhere?"

Lisbon opened her eyes to see for herself. When she made sure it was indeed just a graze relief flooded through her. Doctors and hospitals started to creep her out during the last half a year. And it wasnt´t like she could just enter a hospital now...in this situation.

"It´s okay, we need to get out of here, somewhere safe. If you feel better get back in."

"What?" he asked still kneeled down, his mind experiencing a shut down. "We need to get YOU to a hospital and ME to a police station! That´s what we are supposed to be doing. Not trying to get us both killed while one of us, wounded one, is driving like a madman...woman! We should...we have to..." Jane stood up and started walking around, nausea hitting him again.

Lisbon sighed. Despite the pain and the dizziness she felt, she got up and walked, very slowly, to panicking Patrick Jane. She reached for his face as his breathing again started to sound more like a boiler giving a birth then actual breathing. She grabbed his face with both hands, ignoring the pain as much as she could, and made him stop walking.

"Look at me," she said calmly, seeing he was starting to get into shock. To be honest, she did not blame him, not after he just experienced. All he wanted to do was to get lucky tonight with some pretty, dumb chick and instead a freaking serial killer came to visit him.

Well, and her.

That would be too much for any man.

"Look at me," she said slower this time as his eyes met hers, "I need you to breathe, in and out, like this. Slowly. Can you do that?"

He nodded, following her breathing.

"Good, good, you´re doing fine, just breathe, it´s going to be okay," she repeated, pretty much sure that nothing is ever going to be okay, again. But it worked. After a while during which they stood like two crazy persons in the middle of nowhere, Patrick sighed, blinking rapidly.

"I´m alright, I´m fine...Thank you."

Lisbon just nodded and released his face from her hands, hissing in pain. At that sound Patrick finally snapped out of it and he caught her before she hit the ground. He then half carried, half walked her to the car, both of them silent. When Patrick tried to help her sit at the passenger seat, she wiggled out of his hands, took few steadying steps and got into the driver seat, sighing loudly.

"Are you always so stubborn?" he asked after staring at her blankly for a while.

"Take a wild guess."

Patrick shook his head in disbelief, and sat at the passenger seat, feeling just like he looked. Terrible. Tired. Scared. Nauseated.

"We can´t call cops, or go to a police station if you want to stay alive."

"Oh, really? I thought it was the other way around. If you wanted to stay alive after a serial killer tried to end your life, calling the cops sounds like a good idea, you know, in general."

Lisbon sighed again and gave him a frowning look. For a second a smile played on her lips, smile which haven´t reach her eyes at all.

"Tell me Jane, what car was following us? The one you shoot at?"

"Wha -?"

"Just think," Lisbon said and licked her dry lips, aching for water of any kind. Preferably with a bit of alcohol in it.

Patrick closed his eyes and did as she told him. He thought. Even though his mind acted as a storage for anything that ever happened to him, and to others, all neatly stocked inside his mind palace, remembering this night was off the menu. But he did it anyway and suddenly he realized what was she talking about.

It was a police car.

Those three men trying to get a hold on him were most likely police.

Just like the man who tried to kill him. And her too.

"Got it, huh? Red John is not one man. It´s an association with lot´s of people, powerful people, involved. So...if you want to go to police and let yourself be killed, it´s up to you. I wont stop you."

Despite the heat, Patrick shivered. What she said made a lot of sense, he even thought about it himself while going through some of those case files Arnie got for him. It was highly unlikely that one man could be capable of cleaning up after himself for so long. No mistakes - no evidence. Not even in the early years when the murders started.

"Alright, what is your proposition then? To be on the run for the rest of our lives? Unlike you, I actually have a life, you know."

Lisbon grinned as the sun started to raise. "Ouch," she said sarcastically. "Look, if it weren´t for me today, there´d be two bodies at your residence right now...don´t look at me like that, you know damn well she´s dead."

Patrick couldn´t help himself as the panic start to rose again, his imagination giving him a perfect view of what probably happened at his residence. Suddenly, a small, cold hand covered his.

"I´m sorry. But you know that, he wouldn´t let her live. Not a chance."

He only nodded, head bowed.

"I uh...It´s just...it´s all my fault..."

Lisbon sighed. She knew exactly what was the man is going through. She made a similar mistake a year ago, claiming that to end the terror of Red John, gave a speech about it on a press conference as a senior CBI agent after the SacPD transferred the case to her team. Few months later, Red John left her a message - her friend and colleague, former boss, Samuel Bosco had been found dead at his house alongside with his wife Mandy - a red smiley face painted with their blood on the wall just above the deathbed.

After that, everything in her life went downhill, right to the moment when Red John came to visit her in her own house. She remembered it all too well, the weird feeling that something is not right just as she entered hers kitchen. The tingling sensation she felt on her neck, the one you feel when somebody is watching, spying...Her hand reaching for her gun instinctively...yet slowly. Too slow.

"Hello, Teresa, it´s nice to meet you in person finally."

A stunt gun buzzed as she felt a pang of pain run through her whole body.

Then there was blackness but only for a short time.

He kept her for three days, three long days...she wished for it to be over...and was - still is - ashamed of it till today.

Lisbon sighed. No good will come from thinking about that right now.

"Look, you´re going to have learn to live with that, self pity will destroy you. Take it from someone who knows."

She could her him sigh quietly. "I don´t know if I can do that."

Lisbon scoffed, "You can, it just takes time...but anyway I should be on the way -"

It was Patrick´s turn to scoff. "To where? What is our plan exactly?"

Lisbon looked at him with her eyebrows raised, "Our plan?"

Patrick turned his full attention to her. "Yes, our plan, granted if you let me be part of it, of course," he added after she scoffed at him again. "It´s...not personal just for you. Not anymore. Let me help you."

Lisbon looked out of the window watching the sun rise. Everything was bathed in bright orange, the road, grass, trees..."You might end up dead," she said averting his intense gaze.

"Maybe," he said, "maybe not."

Suddenly, Lisbon grabbed him under his neck with her uninjured hand, looking furious. "What do you meant it´s not personal just for me?"

"Calm down! I read your file! My agent got it for me...I-uh- needed the information for the show and we figured you´ll be the best source of it since you are the only one who...survived..."

For a short few seconds, Patrick was almost sure she is going to hurt him but despite what she felt, Lisbon let his shirt slip out of her hand, slowly gaining control over herself. "I´m sorry Lisbon...for all of it -"he said hoarsely before she cut him off.

"Don´t," she said and shook her head, "We need to get going. "

"Okay," he whispered, "I might have an idea where to go."

Lisbon only nodded, engine already rumbling. "And where that might be?"

"I´ll tell you, if you let me take care of your hand first."


Cho stood silently in his tiny living room, gawking at the News on the TV. "Shit," he muttered silently. Lisbon a murderer? Not in this lifetime.

His phone buzzed and he took it out of his pocket looking at the caller ID. Rigsby. Cho took a second before he picked it up.

"It´s Cho. Yeah I seen it. No, I don´t know where she is. She didn´t do it. I heard what the FBI says, she did not do it. I´ll try to contact her. Yeah, I´ll let you know. Say hi to Grace for me."

With that he hung up, his cold exterior not letting an emotion pass on his face. Staying calm. That is the key. Lisbon once let him a number to contact her if there is an emergency. They did not classify what an emergency is, but Cho was pretty sure this qualifies.

With gun already in his holster, Cho went to retrieve the little piece of paper he kept safe for almost a half a year, feeling like Frodo Baggins retrieving the ring for Gandalf.

He shook his head while heading into his cozy bedroom. He had been reading too much lately.


Arnie was sound asleep when a shady figure lockpicked his front door easily. He was still sound asleep when the intruder got to his bed, grinning over him. He had no idea what happened to him during a short while in which the intruder spoke to him, but when he woke up, he was quite sure that Patrick Jane is in fact a Red John copycat. He had that suspicion since they´ve met. This only proves it. He is glad to be alive - and will probably need a few police officers watching over him until his former client is caught.

Red John left Arnold´s house, happy that it all went even smoother than he expected. He called one of his most treasured men, one who was able to get into FBI high ranks and informed him about the whole situation.

Arnold stays alive. For now. He can always end his pathetic little existence later, when his purpose is over.

If he´s lucky, it will be soon.

They will find them sooner or later.


Patrick let her drive for another hour until her eyes closed again, this time long enough to almost hit the nearest tree past the road. He was fast enough to take the wheel and turn it to avoid the inevitable collision.

"Stop right now," he yelled at her when Lisbon finally opened her eyes and realized what happened. She jumped on the brake, tires squealing loudly.

"The fuck is wrong with you..." she said groggily when the car stopped and she put it into parking.

Luckily, the road was empty, as they headed to Patrick´s hiding place which was somewhere in the mountains. He used it more than once during his life, mainly after some of his bigger career screw-ups. Nobody knew where it was, because nobody knew that it existed. He hadn´t been there in months.

"With me? Nothing! I am not the one who almost rode us into that tree. Lisbon, I am begging you, let me drive," he said pleading.

"i´m fine...just tired." She didn´t have to tell him about the long drive to his place.

"That´s why we should switch places. I am quite capable of driving, despite what my looks tells you. I drove much bigger cars than this since I was twelve."

Lisbon looked at him with those groggy eyes, giant black circles under them. Her pale skin made them even more evident. She looked like some kind of malnourished panda. "Like what?" she asked.

"My folks are...were, carnie people. We moved around a lot. I could park an Airstream before you could even ride a bike. This will be piece of cake."

She smiled. And this time Patrick was sure it was genuine. "I doubt it."

"Let me banish your doubts then, I´ll be more then happy to demonstrate my skills and as a bonus we might just survive the ride to my place."

Lisbon sighed silently. Her car. She never let anyone drive it, never. Not once. Not her brothers, friends, colleagues...well, Cho drove it once. She couldn´t resist his not so stoic face back then. Then again, she was indeed barely keeping her eyes open. Maybe if she rested for a while, it might help.

"Alright. Just once. And just because I´m tired as hell. Don´t get used to it."

"I wont," Patrick said while already getting out of the car when a phone rang, scarring the crap of both of them.

"Shit," Lisbon murmured and reached for the glove department. Opening it revealed her burner phone ringing. Only one person had her phone number. Cho.

Lisbon took the phone into her shaky hands and answered.

"Yeah?"

"Lisbon?

"Cho?"

"Yeah, it´s Cho. You okay?"

Lisbon looked at Patrick who was bowing down looking at her. She nodded at him letting him know that it´s okay but from his expression he already knew it.

"Not really. It´s already on the news?"

"Yes. The FBI says you and Patrick Jane killed a woman. They are looking for you, there is an arrest warrant for both of you."

"That was Red John. I...well, we escaped."

Cho was silent for a while. "What were you doing there, Lisbon?"

"I wanted to share a few words with mister Jane. I was not the only one. Red John was waiting there, probably wanted to kill Jane for what he said at his show."

"So you still hunting him," Cho said half accusing, half asking.

"Yes," she said stubbornly.

"Okay, where are you? You sound bad, are you wounded?"

When Lisbon didn´t answer right away Cho guessed it on his own.

"How bad?"

"Just a graze.

"I don´t believe you. You need help, tell me where you are."

"Why? So you come here and ruin your life? Your career?"

"I don´t have any. I quit. We all did."

Lisbon stared blankly in front of her not really looking anywhere in general. She just stared. Her vision started to blurry, colors leaving too, grass, trees, Jane´s wild curls turned into shades of grey.

"You what?"

"Quit, me, Rigsby and Van Pelt."

"Lisbon? Lisbon!"

Lisbon let the phone fell from her hands, the fatigue, blood-loss and thirst finally taking it´s toll. Patrick watched her slip from conscious state into unconscious one, the person on the other line still calling her name in vain. It took him three seconds to get to her, and when he made sure her pulse is strong and steady, he picked up the fallen phone.

"She fainted," he said with shaky voice.

"What happened?" a calm yet commanding voice asked.

"She was shot. It´s just a graze but she lost some blood."

"Is she still bleeding?"

"No, we stopped it."

"That´s good. Where are you?"

Jane told him. He told him where they are headed and when the man, who´s introduced himself as Cho, hang up with the promise in arriving as soon as possible to the given address, Patrick gently picked Lisbon up and carried her to the passenger's seat. He checked for her pulse once more time, listened to her breathing for a moment and when he was satisfied with his findings, he put his coat jacket over her. Despite the heat, her hands were cold.

Then he drove off pushing worry thoughts at the back of his head. He needed to focus now. A lot was in stake right now. He rode further hoping, pleading and despite being an atheist, praying to any God that might care, that nobody was following them.


Well, I tried, hope you liked it :) Thank you for reading and reviewing