Disclaimer: I don't own The Mentalist or the episode "Fugue in Red."

Prompt #11: Tears - It's tough being tough on a day-to-day bases. It's even tougher to be vulnerable when you just want to cry.

Words: 748

She knew it was the only way to bring him back.

But it didn't mean that she liked doing it.

The old Patrick Jane - the con man, the shameless grifter who exploited people by making them think he was actually "psychic" - she hated him. She couldn't stand him. It was only the knowing that deep beneath that fugue state rested her Jane, the somewhat more honest con man who'd been trying to make amends, that kept her from socking the blonde-haired man in the face. Multiple times.

As he walked down the hallway towards that door, Lisbon wanted to stop him. Pull him back. Drag him out of the house and let him live his life without knowing that horror, that pain, that pressing need for revenge that threatened to destroy him.

But she couldn't. If their positions were reversed, Jane would have done exactly the same thing. She knew it. He'd want her back.

Jane hated what he'd been before he'd had his family. He'd hated what he did to people. Lisbon could never forgive herself if she let him go down that road again. So she had to show him. She needed to give him an anchor back in his present reality, not his past.

Nothing anchored him like his hate for Red John. Nothing centered him like the hunt for Red John. Nothing was strong enough to get him back to the person Lisbon knew, and respected, and cared for, than the thrall of his relentless search for a man who'd destroyed that shiny con man's shields and left behind a wreck.

Jane stopped at the closed door, then looked back. Blue eyes were confused at her sadness, wondering why she looked ready to cry. But curiosity made him look down again and grasp the doorknob, twisting it open and pushing the door inside. Lisbon could only imagine what he saw; the bare room, the mattress where he slept when he bothered to return to this empty house, and the dried brown smiley face on the wall that served as the constant reminder of why he stayed at the CBI.

Why he caught killers. Why he continued to live. Why he didn't just go crazy and leave them all behind.

Red John.

Watching Jane remember was like watching him age years in seconds. He reeled on his feet, his shoulders dropping ever-so-slightly with an unseen but familiar weight. He looked ready to collapse, but some strength kept him upright. One hand rose, just a few inches, to touch the doorframe as if to steady himself.

Lisbon forced herself to speak, to say something, but all she could come up with was, "I'm sorry."

He didn't react to her words, just stood in the doorway and continued to revert back to his normal self before her eyes. She felt like the worst sort of person for doing this to him. Biting her lip, Lisbon sucked in a breath and took one step towards Jane.

"Don't." That one word, spoken in a tired voice, stopped her from approaching further.

But she couldn't just leave him there. "Jane?" she ventured.

"Lisbon."

That's when she knew for sure. Con man Jane had only ever called her Teresa. Her Jane had called her Lisbon from the day they first met. "Yeah?"

He turned back to her, half of his face lit by the light. "I - I just..." he started to say, but the words stopped in his throat. Pain, raw and clear, was making his eyes glisten with unshed tears. "Lisbon, I - "

Lisbon quickly moved to his side, resting a hand on his shoulder. "I didn't want to," she said softly. "God, I wish I didn't have to. But you couldn't keep living like that, Jane."

Jane looked down at her, swallowing down his tears. "I understand, Lisbon. Thank you." He stepped out of the doorway (meaning he invaded her personal space in a way that, under normal circumstances, would have been cause for coarse words) and pulled the door shut again.

Lisbon noticed his discomfort and slipped her arm through his. "Let's get out of here," she said.

A shadow of his usual smile graced his face. "Lead the way, milady."

Needed a tag for "Fugue in Red" because it broke my heart when it ended like that!

Review please!