The Mentalist
- You're Safe -

Jane's head hit the concrete so hard, that for a few seconds his sight was gone. Patrick felt a few drops of blood slide down his cheek, and he could feel the wound throbbing. But nevertheless, he pushed himself to his feet and relied on the side of his car not to fall to the ground again. The wounded consultant took a deep breath and slowly opened his eyes. His head still hurt and bloud was still dropping down his face, but what he cared about at that moment wasn't himself.
The entire building was lit up. Flames leaped from the windows and a thick, smothering, black cloud of smoke rose into the sky. Policemen inside the building came running out, coughing and shouting. Jane could hear Cho yelling into the phone, and he knew immediately who he was talking to. 911.
''LISBON!'', Jane cried out. He stept away from his car and almost fell over again, but he grabbed the side of the car once more and held it together. Breathing in deeply, he tried again, and this time, he didn't tumble over.
So he stumbled across the concrete, pushing his hand to the bleeding wound in his head. 'LISBON!'', he shouted again. No one answered, no one even looked at him. Patrick felt like he was invisible.
There were sirenes, far away, but close enough for Patrick to hear them. Firefighters. Maybe more cops. Probably. FBI and CBI policemen were running back into the burning building, grabbing their collegues and saving them from the flames, but no one ran out with Teresa Lisbon. She wasn't anywhere to be seen. Jane knew she was still in there, she was going to burn alive. If, she was still alive. If Red John hadn't murdered her already.
''CHO?! RIGSBY?!'', he yelled. Again, no answer. Cho was still on the phone, and Rigsby was helping others. Suddenly, the sound of shattering glass was deafening. Windows cracked and glass flew everywhere. The flames rose even higher, but the sirenes were still far away.
''Teresa'', Jane mumbled to himself. He stumbled further, falling over more than twice, and jumping to his feet again, determined to find Lisbon. He couldn't let her die. He couldn't let another person die because of him.
Tears jumped to his eyes and his voice cracked. ''LISBON?! CHO?! SOMEBODY!'', he screamed out.
No one heard him, everyone was screaming, running away from the fire or back into it to save collegues. People were on the phone and others were too wounded to do anything. Jane saw a FBI agent with big shards of glass in his body. He heard another agent screaming out in agony as Dennis Abbott pulled glass out of his face and hands, and Rigsby was running to the aid of an agent that came running out the building, covered in flames.
Then, Jane realised, the sirenes stopped. Jane's sight was troubled by tears as he watched the burning building. He knew she was in there. She was burning alive, or she was dead already. But he also realised the firefighters were here. So he turned around and looked at the firemen, screaming orders to each other and running towards the building.
''Please, you have to help her! Agent Teresa Lisbon, she's in there!'', Jane yelled at them, but none of them listened. They ran right past him. ''Please! HELP HER!'', he yelled again, louder. The tears that were in his eyes now ran down his cheeks, just like the blood out of his wound did. ''PLEASE!''. Patrick screamed as loud as he could, but the shouting, the screaming, the shattering glass, the flames, they were all louder than them.
A firemen came running towards Jane with high speed, and for a second, Jane thought someone had heard him, but the man ran into him. He ran into the consultant so hard, Patrick fell once more. His head hit the concrete, again, and he lost sense of everything. His sight went black, and his body went numb.

Beeping. The very regular and continuous sound of beeping. Patrick Jane felt something sharp in his wrist, and something soft under his back. He took a slow breath, and immediately, a flash of pain went through his head.
Patrick was in the hospital, he realised. That meant something was wrong. He suspected it was the wound in his head. That was the most logical option, after all.
Slowly, he opened his eyes. Patrick raised his hand and touched the wound on his head. He felt it was stitched, so Jane knew the wound was pretty deep. He remembered what had happened, but something ate at him. Something was wrong. But he couldn't figure out what or who that was.
When he pushed himself in a sitting position, his eyes fell on a woman that stood by the window, her back facing Jane.
''Excuse me?'', Jane asked, believing she was a nurse.
When the woman turned around and face him, Jane gasped and his green eyes widened.
The woman had long, wavy, blonde hair and the brightest blue eyes he had ever seen. She had a straight, narrow nose, full lips and just a few freckles on her cheeks. She was tall and skinny, her skin kissed by the sun. Jane recognized her immediately, and he looked at her with an open mouth, his eyes widened and tearing up, his troath burning.
''Patrick'', she whispered, and she smiled.
When Jane heard her voice, tears jumped to his each and his body shook from all the pain, confusion and sadness he suddenly felt. His wife. Victoria. She was here, just a few metres away from her.
''I was so scared for you'', Victoria spoke softly as she walked towards her husband.
''Victoria'', Jane said. He stayed quiet for a while, and then softly burst out into crying. He fought so hard to push back his tears but he failed. ''Where did you go?'', he cried as he reached out for his wife's hand.
Victoria Jane slowly took her husbands hand, and when Patrick felt her soft, warm skin to his, a shock went trough his body. He smelled her lavender parfume and he smelled the soap she always used to clean her hand. His beautiful wife, she was just there. He could talk to hear and touch her.
''I'm sorry, Victoria, I'm so sorry, I should've listened, I-''.
''Sssh, it's okay. You're safe'', she whispered immediately.
He cried softly and swallowed deep. Only after a few seconds, he dared to look at her again.
''Where's Charlotte? Is she here?'', Patrick asked, still softly crying. His breathing was fast and irregular, mainly because of his tears.
''She's safe. She's beautiful'', Victoria told him, and she smiled her bright, beautiful smile.
Jane couldn't help but smile too.
His wife sat down on his bed and gently touched Patrick's cheeks. ''I miss you'', she spoke, and she too teared up.
Patrick pulled her close and put his hands to the sides of her face. Then he kissed her, and it felt like it always did. Soft, sweet, safe. Her full lips against his, it felt like nothing had changed. Like the past six years had been a nightmare. A teribble, horrible nightmare. But though their kiss felt so normal, so safe, it felt more passionate too. He didn't want to let go of her lips, but when he tasted the salt taste of her tears, he opened his eyes and pulled away from her, looking straight into her eyes.
''I will find him, Victoria. I will find him and I will kill him, I swear'', Patrick said, laying his hands in her neck.
Suddenly, her eyes hardened. ''Don't'', she answered. ''I don't want you to go to prison for that sick, miserable man''. Her voice sounded determined, but her eyes looked unsure, and full of hatred and doubt. He'd never seen her look like this. So full of hate and grieve and sadnessand it only made him more determined to kill Red John.
''He killed our daughter, and he raped you'', Jane spoke, suddenly cool as ice.
Victoria's lip trembled, and she bit it to stop.
''I can't let you ruin your life''.
''You were pregnant'', Patrick then said to his wife.
She fell silent, her eyes widened, and then she smiled again. ''Yes. How did you know?'', she asked.
''I suspected, but the autopsy reports confirmed it'', Jane admitted.
''I wanted to surprise you on your birthday'', she sighed. ''June 13th''.
''You were killed on June 6th'', Patrick said.
She looked away from him and her jaw tightened. ''Don't say that. I don't want to talk about that. That's not why I'm here''.
Patrick looked at her and waited patiently, admiring her beauty like he always did when she spoke.
''I want you to be happy, Patrick. I want you to be safe. Charlotte and I, we try so hard to keep you safe and we succeed, most of the time, but you make it so difficult for us'', she whispered. ''I want you to find happiness again. Find agent Lisbon. She's a wonderful person. And I know, deep down, she loves you too'', Victoria said.
Patrick looked at her in awe, and swallowed deep. ''I still love you'', he said, and his voice cracked again.
Victoria smiled softly. ''I hope you always will. But you love her, and she loves you. Charlie likes her too. Don't be ignorant to your feelings, you unsensitive fool'', she said, and she chuckled.
Jane knew she was right. He did love Lisbon. But he wasn't sure she loved him.
''She's a good person, she'll make you happy'', Victoria said, and she stood up from the bed.
''Wait, please! Don't go'', Jane said.
Victoria brought her face to his and wrinkled her nose. Jane couldn't help but smile about it. She made a habbit of wrinkling her nose when she didn't know what to say.
''I'll always be around, we both are. How do you think you survive all of these murderers, Patrick?''.
''Luck'', he answered, raising his shoulders.
''Still a fool'', she laughed, and Patrick nodded. Yes he was.
''I love you'', he said.
''I love you too, so much'', she whispered, and she kissed his lips again.
Then she turned around and walked to the door, but Jane stopped her, once again, not wanting to lose her. ''What would it have been?'', Jane asked suddenly.
Victoria faced him and smiled. ''A boy. He would've grown up to look just like you''.
Jane smiled widely. A daughter and a son. How he would've been blessed.
''Go find Teresa'', Victoria said smiling, then she turned around and left.
Before the door closed, Patrick could hear her say goodbye, and for a split second, he believed to hear his daughter call out 'Daddy!', but then it was gone.

Jane fell asleep. And when he opened his eyes, his wife was gone, there was no sign of her being in his hospital room.
And then he remembered what she said. Go find Teresa. That meant Teresa lived. She was alive! Jane pushed himself upright as fast as he could and slammed the red emergency button above his head.
Immediately, a nurse came rushing in and she looked at him with a worried, curious face.
''Ah, yes, bring me to Teresa Lisbon, please'', Jane said, and he smiled widely.
The nurse sighed and as she turned around to do so, Jane said one more thing; ''Oh, and a cup of tea would be lovely too''.