New chapter! So lovely to see some new people reading/following the story, and thanks as well to my loyal readers. Hope you enjoy this chapter, it's a little longer than the previous ones have been. Also, since I have gotten PMs about this, yes, each chapter (as I think I've said in a previous A/N) is a song title. Sometimes just the title is relevant to the chapter, sometimes the entire song is. If you want to know the artist of any song title, then just ask me and I'll let you know. :)

DISCLAIMER: I have not come into ownership of any of this during the duration of the fic. If I owned The Mentalist, you guys would have your promo by now. :)

"Now you listen to me, Jane," Lisbon said. "If child services find out about this, they're take Kara away. Do not tell anyone, do you understand me? Anyone."

"What are you going to do?" he asked.

Lisbon turned slightly to see Kara, who was busy braiding Pony Jane's mane. She swallowed and took in a shaky breath. "You're sure about this?"

"I had…a friend…run the test for me." Jane sounded genuinely sorry to be the bearer of bad news. "I'm sorry."

"Well," Lisbon said, sighing, "I'm going to ask Sarah if she can keep Kara for a few days. And we're going to figure this out so by the time that child services finds out, it will be taken care of."

"We?" Jane asked, sounding amused.

Lisbon didn't appreciate his apparent amusement. "God dammit, Jane, I bust my ass for you on a regular basis. I need you on this one."

"Well, if you're going to beg…" Jane said teasingly. Lisbon felt her eyes well up, she didn't need his attitude right now, but she didn't snap at the consultant again. Now that she knew what was happening to her, she could make sure that Kara stayed safe and ensure her own health.

Ending the phone call, Lisbon wiped her eyes and let out another breath. She couldn't let Kara see how unstable she felt at the moment, so she put on a smile and walked back to the girl and the pony. "Having fun?"

Kara grinned. "Yes! I love Jane!" She extended her index finger and poked the pony's muzzle. "His nose is so soft!" She giggled. "Does Mister Jane like that you named it after him because he's cute?"

"Mister Jane doesn't know that," Lisbon said, smiling. "He thinks I named it that solely for the "annoying" part. Though I think he's secretly flattered." At Kara's mischievous grin, Lisbon dropped to her knees next to her. "And you are not going to tell him!"

Kara's continued giggles made Lisbon reach out and pull the girl closer, tickling her sides. Kara shrieked and playfully tried to get away. Pony Jane jumped away from the fence and regarded the two humans curiously.

After a few minutes, Lisbon stopped her tickle assault on the younger girl and pulled her into a hug, her stomach against her little cousin's back, her chin resting on Kara's head. Kara put her hands over Lisbon's and giggled a little more. Then she craned her neck around and looked up at the cop. "I'm happy I live with you."

Lisbon pressed her lips together and smiled. "Me, too."

By that evening, Lisbon had dropped Kara off at Sarah and Rigsby's house, thanking them up and down and promising to return the favor if they ever wanted a break from Benjamin. She pulled Rigsby aside. "Did Jane talk to you guys?"

"Yes," Rigsby said. "I can't believe this is happening to you, Boss. Grace wanted me to tell you that she is running the videos of everyone who has come in and out of the CBI in the past month and checking the health records of everyone working in Serious Crimes. No one has reported an exposure to arsenic."

"So it's definitely someone targeting me," Lisbon said, wondering if the knot in her stomach was from nerves, the poison, or both. "Kara doesn't seem to be affected, so I'm the ultimate target. It's important that she stay away from me for the next few days so she doesn't get exposed."

"We've got your back, boss," Rigsby said, smiling thinly. "You know, for a moment there Cho and I thought you might be pregnant."

Lisbon smiled. "You need a little more of a personal life than I do to get pregnant," she said wryly, a moment later wondering why the Hell she'd shared that little bit of info with a co – worker. "I mean…I never told you that."

"Told me what?" Rigsby said easily.

Lisbon stopped at the store on the way home and bought several tubs of ice cream, crackers, and bottled water. She didn't trust anything at her house anymore; Kara might not have any symptoms, but that didn't mean whoever was poisoning her hadn't been in her home, as much as that thought scared her. She wasn't taking any chances. They had managed to get to her water at the CBI offices, after all.

She put all the ice cream in the freezer aside from one jug and turned on the TV, forgetting it had been turned off the night before with the DVD player still on, and she felt tears come again when Tarzan came on the screen. She'd lost count of how many times she'd seen that movie in the past month, it and the other three that she'd bought for Kara.

Tonight, lonely and afraid, she felt a lot like Tarzan's adoptive mother, who had taken the baby in when his parents had been killed and loved him as her own child. Then she was afraid she'd lose him to Jane…Lisbon smiled as that thought entered her mind, Jane and Kara certainly had hit it off. She certainly was afraid of losing Kara, and if the social workers found out that someone was likely trying to kill Lisbon with arsenic poisoning, they'd take the girl from her in an instant. She knew she was being selfish, but, she rationalized, Kara loved her too. Kara wouldn't want to leave.

I will protect you from all around you.

Lisbon turned off the television. It wasn't distracting her enough. Her mind raced as she tried to establish motive for why someone would come after her. She'd sent a lot of people to prison, that was for sure, but most of them ended up more pissed off at Jane or Cho than her. The CBI had been fairly quiet lately, at least the Serious Crimes unit had.

She reached for the phone and dialed, holding it to her ear as she tucked her legs up underneath her. Jane answered on the second ring. "Hey, Lisbon."

"Hey," she said. "Are you busy?"

"I'm reciting the digits of Pi," Jane said. "It's not terribly interesting, though."

"Oh," she said. "I was wondering if you wanted to throw out some theories on who could be wanting to poison me, but you sound pretty occupied, so…"

"I'll be right over," he said.

Lisbon had thought they would just talk over the phone. "You don't have to drive out here," she said.

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah," Lisbon nodded even though she knew he couldn't see her. "Just…have you thought of anything off the top of your head? Anyone you remember that was extra angry at me? Maybe someone who threatened me to you or Agent Cho when I wasn't in the room?"

"Not that I can recall," Jane said. "Normally everyone gets mad at me."

Lisbon laughed. "That's what I was saying!" Her phone beeped. "Call waiting, one second," she told Jane, smiling at the caller ID on the incoming call. She pushed 'accept' and put the phone back to her ear. "Hello, Annie."

"Aunt Teresa."

Lisbon could tell something was wrong from her niece's tone of voice. "Annie, what is it? Is your father okay?"

She was worried, very worried, Annie never sounded like that, but somehow she wasn't expecting the word no to come through the phone and meet her ear. "What?" she repeated, even though she had heard good and well. "Annabeth, talk to me, what is it?"

"He was going to bring someone in," Annie said, and Lisbon could hear her suck in a breath. "And his fiancé was there, and she…" the girl let out a shaky breath. "She shot him. Twice."

Lisbon felt like she was going to fall over, and she was sitting. "Oh, my God!"

She heard a sob through the phone. "He's in surgery right now. They said he has a chance…"

Lisbon's mind was racing again. She wanted to go to Tommy and Annabeth, but she had Kara to worry about, and if someone was trying to kill her, she didn't want to be around her family when it happened lest they fall in danger too. "He's alive," she said, even though she knew it. She let out a breath of her own that, by chance, synchronized with one of Annie's. "Sweetheart," she said, "it's going to be okay. I'm sending you and your father hugs, just keep praying."

"I will," Annie promised. She took in another breath. "I will."

"Call me as soon as you know anything," Lisbon said. "I can't get out tonight but I'll be there when I can. You call me whenever you need to, okay?"

"Okay. Thank you, Aunt Teresa."

Lisbon hung up the phone and held it tightly in her hands, staring forward but not seeing anything. It was too much, it was all too much; she couldn't take everything happening like this all at once. She couldn't take being in this empty house wondering who was going to kill her and if she'd be able to keep Kara and if her brother was going to survive and what would happen to Annie if he didn't. She got up, but she already knew pacing wasn't going to help. She did it anyway, walking back and forth around the living room for several minutes before letting her death grip on the phone ease up. She dialed and put her shaking hand to her ear again.

It seemed like forever before the ring was cut short by the receiving end of the call. "Lisbon," Jane said in greeting.

Lisbon thought she was going to tell him that she'd have to call him back in the morning; something came up, she couldn't theorize with him right then. Or, maybe, she was going to tell him that she was ready to talk for the rest of the night about who might be after her, determined for a distraction. But that wasn't what she blurted out before she even had time to think.

"Come over."

Just another disclaimer, because I know I'll get asked - no, this is not going to turn into a romance story.