Disclaimer: The Mentalist, its characters and universe belong to Bruno Heller and CBS. I'm only a fan, writing this for love of this TV show and personal pleasure.

A.N.: This is for 2x10 "Throwing Fire". I'm getting just a little bit creative with the Jane family history here.

Loving Him was Red

Bloodline

"Would you let me take you to the doctor?" Lisbon insisted as she followed Jane out to her car. "You've been woozy and prone to dizzy spells all day."

"Oh what is a doctor going to tell us that we don't already know?" Jane replied dismissively.

"You might have a concussion." She pointed out as she frowned in concern at him, unlocking the car doors and getting into the driver's seat.

"If that's the case then there's nothing to do. Just observe and don't let me sleep for a while, I know the drill." He countered as he got into the passenger's seat beside her.

"You might have a brain bleed!" She tried one more time, throwing her hands up in frustration after putting the car key in the ignition.

"Okay, I'll let you take me to the hospital if I actually pass out again," he proposed calmly, a half smile tugging at the corner of his mouth. "You can even call in an ambulance if that's what you want."

Lisbon pursed her lips in response, motioning with a hand for him to do up his seat belt as she started the car and drove them out of the baseball academy.

"How is your headache?" Jane asked conversationally after they were silent for a while.

"My headache?" She raised an eyebrow at him. "I'm not the one who got hit in the head."

"You know I saw you take something for your headache back at CBI," he said easily with a knowing smile. "Then you left the bottle on the table in an attempt to induce me to also take something for my pain."

Her lips twisted in a sign of annoyance as she rolled her eyes to herself. "My head is fine, thanks," she answered him after a moment.

"Good to know," he nodded at her, a smile still present on his lips. He glanced at her out of the corner of his eye. "You know I don't mind the pain."

"I know." She nodded in reply, her eyes focused on the road.

"Plus I needed to be sharp in order to catch the killer." He added with a casual hand gesture.

"Hmm." She murmured noncommittally, her eyebrows flickering up for a moment.

"What?" Jane raised an eyebrow at her.

She glanced at him. "Cho said you've been going off in daydreams, staring at nothing," she said softly. "So what's on your mind? If it's not because you were hit in the head, then I can assume something else has been bothering you today."

"Very perceptive." He nodded at her with a smile.

"Gee, thanks," she rolled her eyes sarcastically at him. "Sometimes you treat me like I'm not a detective at all. Maybe I can't read minds like you, but I can read your moods too, you know."

"Really?" His smile became quite bemused then. "Would you care to venture a guess, then?"

She glanced at him out of the corner of her eye a couple of times, her mouth quirking up into a smile. "I guess it's something to do with your father?" She said slowly.

Jane narrowed his eyes at her, turning in his seat so that he could look directly at her. "What did Cho tell you, exactly?"

"Only that you nearly fainted again and that there's something off about you," she replied easily. "But I remember that when we got here you said something about, what was it? Parents and big regrets we keep to ourselves?" She asked, glancing at him back and forth, attempting to read him even as she kept her eyes on the road. "You see, I listen to what you say, even though you think I don't." She finished with a smile.

"Wow. I'll admit I'm impressed," he said, raising his eyebrows at her. "Well done, Lisbon."

She accepted his praise with good humor, feeling rather silly for blushing a little yet unable to stop herself. "You said you used to travel with a circus with your dad," she commented, both to disguise her bout of embarrassment and get them back to the topic of Jane's father. "What was that like?"

"Oh I'm sure you can imagine," he said, an easy smile on his lips as he gestured casually with his hands. "A lot of fun and games, wild people, happy days."

"That bad, huh?" Lisbon asked softly, as if she could see through the rosy picture he tried to paint of his past.

Jane raised his eyebrows in surprise once more, the smile leaving his lips. He spent a few moments looking at her, deciding how to respond. "Well, sometimes," he said at last, his tone rather serious now. After some quick consideration, he decided to elaborate. "I didn't like some of the scams my father would have us pulling on people. He had a very particular view of the world in terms of us versus them. Either you were in with the show, or you were a sucker, a mark, someone to be taken advantage of. Not his fault, really." He said with a rather helpless shrug. "Most of the carny circle behave like this. Which is why I chose to get out."

"And that's when you started your psychic business?" She asked him, feeling curious that he was opening up so easily to her.

"I already had a psychic act with the circus, it was how I honed my skills," he explained. "When I got out I could focus on my mentalist skills and at the very least choose how to use them."

"How did your father take it?" She asked, frowning a little as she could guess what would be the answer.

"Like the biggest betrayal of all," he sighed. "Called me an ungrateful punk and several more lowly choice words that I'd rather not say here."

They spent a few moments in silence, the stretch of road rolling out in front of them before she spoke again. "I'm curious. How did your family end up with a circus carnival circuit in the first place?"

"Oh long family tradition coming all the way from Ireland. My parents had an act," he said, and this time his smile seemed more genuine. "He was a magician, she was his lovely assistant. My father taught me many of the sleight of hand tricks I know and the foundations on how to work with hypnosis."

"That must have been one interesting childhood." She observed and smiled at him.

"For the most part," he sighed once more. "Then my mother died after the summer I turned twelve." He paused abruptly and exchanged a look with Lisbon, her eyes widening in surprise. It was an odd coincidence that both their mothers had died when they'd been twelve years old.

"Anyway, my father never really got over it," Jane carried on, shrugging despondently as he knew she knew what that was like. "He just became bitter, resentful and greedy. His act tanked, but we couldn't leave the circus as we had nowhere else to go. He also had a bit of a gambling problem. He was nowhere near as good as he thought he was, so every time we made some extra money he'd lose it in poker games. And it was around that time he noticed how my memory and observational skills could be used on an act and that's how the Boy Wonder came to be."

"You were twelve when you started to perform on stage?" Lisbon raised her eyebrows in surprise at him. She had no idea he'd been in the game from such a young age.

"No, it was years before, actually," he clarified, surprising her even more. "I was about nine the first time I did my act, I think."

"Wow," she whispered softly in response. "You know, you are starting to make a lot more sense to me. Thank you."

"What for?" He turned to her, his eyes searching for something in her face.

"For telling me all of this," she turned to him, risking taking her eyes off the road for a few seconds to look him directly in the eyes. She knew he was a very private person with a basic M.O. of keeping secrets as default. The fact that he was willing to share part of his past with her seemed very significant.

Jane only smiled back at her in response. After a moment he grimaced and brought his hand up to his head.

"Will you take something for the pain now?" Lisbon asked, raising an eyebrow at him as she noticed his pain.

"Nah. There's no need for any pills. A nice glass of red wine should do the trick," he said easily, a smile returning to his lips. "Dinner?"

"Fine. Where do you want to go?" She replied, an easy smile also appearing on her face.

Just like that they moved on to the topic of dinner and which restaurant to choose.