Disclaimer: I will never own anything as cool as the Mentalist.

A/N: Alrighty here we go guys. Strap on your seat belts and please keep arms and legs inside of the vehicle at all times. We are about to embark on a heck of a ride. :) Okay my moment of extreme nerdiness is over now. I have a terrible headache so I had to make Lisbon feel some of my own pain.

By the way this chapter may seem a little lacking in explanations of everything but thats because this is just the what happened part. Explanations come forth next chapter.

Mentalist moment in everyday life: Friday I met a guy named Patrick. He's cute, has a great smile and he loves the Mentalist, we talked about it for two hours. Not to mention we exchanged numbers and he asked me to meet him again at the same coffee shop on Tuesday. :) Just thought I'd let everyone in on my random Mentalist moment.

Lisbon was tired, her head was starting to build an uncomfortable ache. She just wanted to go home and pretend this entire case was all a horrible nightmare. Except that couldn't happen; there was a family who needed justice for the murder of their little boy Mark and the kidnapping of baby Evan. She had to figure it out, she had to find the baby before anything bad happened to him. There was no way she'd be able to face the already grieving parents if she wasn't there to give them back the only son they had left. She couldn't bare the thought of having to tell them they no longer had any kids but she knew if that ended up being the case then she couldn't make someone else on the team do it either.

It was taking a toll on everybody. Even Jane was acting funny; she couldn't figure that one out. He had opted to stay, clean up and look after her little girl while they investigated a locked down super market for a kidnapper. Something was up but she couldn't dwell on the thought. They had just pulled into the parking lot filled with police cruisers. This was such a horrible case. Jumping down from the passenger seat Lisbon headed straight for the one in charge; a Detective Griggs. She'd met him earlier at the crime scene; he was a handsome man. Rather tall and well built. She couldn't help but notice, she was a woman after all and a single one at that. Jane was the one she loved but she knew he was still working though things.

"Agent Lisbon, I wish it were under better circumstances that we meet again."

"Me too. Do you have anyone covering the back exits?" Van Pelt and Rigsby were already making their way inside; obeying the orders Lisbon had issued while still in the car.

"Of course." The Detective led Cho over to the side entrance where two officers were stationed while Lisbon crept around to the back. Jane had said the man would have run, he wouldn't have stuck around. Since Jane had a tendancy to be right on these things, she figured their perp was long gone. If she were a criminal she would've taken the back door. Using that logic led her to believe if there was any evidence to be found it'd be near the entrance in the back.

As she made her way around the building, she expected to see uniformed officers waiting next to the door but when she rounded the corner a gasp fell from her lips. The two policemen who were supposed to be guarding the exit were both lying on the ground in pools of their own blood. Lisbon dropped to her knees next to the first body, quickly dialing Cho on her cell at the same time. The sick sight of the two men side by side, throats slashed from one side to the other had her taking a deep breath in attempts to calm herself. She'd be lying if she said that none of the cases ever took a toll on her, but this one was worse than most. It had her wanting to scream, pull her hair out in frustration, and cry all at once. Maybe she would.

"Cho? We have..." She caught movement out of the corner of her eye and whatever it was; it was close. Turning her head to face whatever had caused the sudden flash in her vision, she saw an arm lash out towards her. She felt the pain of something hitting her in the side of the head, and felt the blood trickle down her cheek. Once she hit the ground everything went black.

Cho was more than worried when she had abruptly stopped talking, even more so when he'd called her name about four times after and never recieved a response. He knew something wasn't right. It didn't take long to convince the detective either and within minutes they were running around looking for her. Cho couldn't let anything happen to her and if it already did he knew he'd be dead. Jane would kill him. Not to mention he'd never be able to forgive himself.

The sight that greeted them when they made it around to the backside of the building had hearts racing and stomachs dropping. The first thing Cho saw was the two dead officers, immediately he'd started thinking Lisbon shared their fate. She looked just as lifeless lying next to them but the rise and fall of her chest let him know she was alive. Crouching down he pressed his fingers to the bruise starting to form around the small gash on her temple.

"Boss? Lisbon, come on. Wake up." Lightly smacking her cheek rewarded him with a groan and the flutter of her eyelids. "We're gonna need a medic." He was talking to Detective Griggs and what he guessed was the man's partner. He hadn't introduced himself yet.

"No, no, I'm okay." Lisbon tried to push his hands away and sit up but a wave of dizziness took over her body forcing her back down.

"Mm, yes and I won the lottery last Tuesday, Boss." Pushing herself back up, she let a small smile take over her face at his words. Cho had always been able to crack her up, he never even tried.

"I'm okay Cho. Just help me up." She took his hand when he offered it and managed to make it into a standing position without falling. It took a few seconds to get used to the way her head felt. The pounding was now worse than it had been earlier which really pissed her off more than anything. The man who had done this was the same man who had killed a little boy and two officers. The sick son of a bitch would pay if she had anything to say about it.

Even after constantly telling the detective and Cho that she was fine, they had still insisted that she get checked out which was the only reason why she agreed to sit on the back end of an ambulance whilst some Medic poked at her head. She would never understand why they had to find the most tender spot and then proceed to prod at it until you were squirming.

"Ow, damn. Are you done?" The man working on Lisbon let out a frustrated sigh and rolled his eyes.

"Look, Ms. Lis..."

"No, you look. There is a baby missing. Some man just murdered two police officers and I have better things to do than...."

"Boss, be nice. The man just wants to make sure you're okay." Van Pelt's voice came out of no where and the red headed agent soon followed. They had still been inside when Lisbon was hurt but the news traveled by way of cell phone rather quickly.

"Fine, but he needs to hurry up. You got the security cameras from inside and out yes?"

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There were so many things going through Lisbon's mind as they made their way back into the CBI building. She had let the man who murdered a tiny little boy get away. In the back of her mind she knew there was no way she could have known that he had still been near the bodies but at the same time she felt that it was her fault. As soon as Cho had parked, she was climbing out and practically running inside. It was her way to have a few minutes of alone time while the rest of the team lingered behind to give her some space. She really was thankful to have them around and later she'd probably tell them that, but her office was calling her.

As soon as the elevator doors opened up onto their floor, she headed to the door with her name on it but stopped all of sudden when she saw Jane. The man her heart ached for was flat on his back, head turned towards the back of the couch and holding a sleeping Arabella tightly to his chest. Lisbon had never seen anything so adorable. She walked closer eyeing the two people she loved with admiration. It was an absolutely beautiful sight and she couldn't help herself; taking out her phone she snapped a quick picture of the pair. Carefully squatting down next to the brown leather couch, she ran her hand over her baby's head and pressed a kiss to her cheek. She wanted to wake Jane to talk to him but she knew if she tried to shake his shoulder then Ara would wake. The same thing would happen if she spoke too loudly. Seeing no other choice, although she wasn't really looking for one, Lisbon leaned in close to his ear. When she whispered his name, she could feel her lips brush against his skin.

"Jane, wake up. Please wake up, I need to talk to you." Her hand rested against his arm gently rubbing up and down. "Jane."

"Hm..." A soft hum was her only response but when she pulled back to look at his face, his eyes were open. Barely, but they were open. The sleepy look on his face quickly changed when he saw the bandage over her temple. "What happened?"

"Shh, Ara's still sleeping. It's a long story and I want to talk to you." Cradling Arabella to him, Jane maneuvered himself into a sitting position and then slowly stood up. Amazingly the little girl in his grasp never wiggled. He didn't ask anymore questions until once they were inside the confines of her office and the door had been closed. Neither of them had noticed that the rest of the team had watched her wake him up.

Lisbon waited until Jane was in the process of laying Ara down on her couch to lock the door. She wanted privacy for this and the only way to get it was to lock everyone else out. Turning back to face him she was startled to find him less than a foot away. His fingers came up to brush against her cheek and trail up to the bandage at her temple.

"What happened?" They shuffled their way further into her office but continued to stand just as close as his fingers stayed pressed to her face.

"You were wrong. The guy was still there. I went around to the back entrance to check with the two officers posted there. They were dead and next thing I know I'm waking up on the ground to Cho's lovely face. Jane, this horrible man murdered a little boy and two officers with a knife...why did he only hit me in the head?"

"The man was outside yes? Hm, then I wasn't wrong. I said he'd leave the store. I never mentioned how far he'd go. The officers, slit throats?" Lisbon nodded, then winced in pain and wished she hadn't. "You were a surprise, he'd been expecting the two cops but not you."

"He could have just as easily..."

"Let's not think about that. Ara doesn't need to hear this kind of stuff. Are you okay?" Closing her eyes and letting the sensation of his thumb brushing against her cheek take over her senses, Lisbon tried to think of a way to answer truthfully.

"I don't know. My head is throbbing." Needing no further encouragement Jane pulled her into a comforting embrace. He didn't know what caused the spur of the moment act but as she wrapped her arms around his waist and buried her face in his chest, he found he didn't really care. Maybe Nellie was right, maybe he should just tell her. He probably would if there weren't so many complicating factors.

Lisbon breathed in his scent and clutched him tighter as he started to rub soothing circles on her back. It felt so good to be in his arms that she had to admit she'd been toying with the idea of leaving him asleep and crawling up there with them. There was room on the couch for three and it had been very tempting. The thought of her, Jane and little Ara, all curled up together; it was a nice little fantasy. This hug was better though, it was warm and caring. It was real. The man could be such a sweetheart at times.

"It'll be alright Teresa."

a/n: Next chapter we learn Jane's theory on the case. Thankfully my computer did not freeze this time so I only had to type this up once. Hope you liked it, personally I thought it was great. Yes, I left some things out but it was necessary so the next chapter wouldn't be a complete repeat of this one. And there will be some Van Pelt/Rigsby interaction in the next chap. ;) ~ Rina