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 2x19 "Blood Money". This was an interesting one, as I had no idea what I wanted to write until I actually started writing it; I just knew I had to do one for this episode. I tend to write dialogues first, so Jane and Lisbon took it in a completely different direction than I had thought it would go; you'll see.

Loving Him was Red

Faith

After leaving CBI HQ, Jane accompanied Lisbon out to a quick session at the shooting range, as he'd suggested. If she hadn't been so eager to blow off some steam she might have wondered what in the world he was doing there with her. After all, it was a well known fact that Patrick Jane hated guns and loud noises, yet he stood there at the back, holding his noise-cancelling headphones to his ears and visibly flinching at every shot as she fired round after round at her target until her clip was emptied and the paper sheet was covered with bullet holes right in the middle of the drawing of the man-shape.

After going through another couple of clips, she sighed audibly, lowered her gun and relaxed her shoulders, feeling much less frustrated than before. Primal and violent as it was, there was something about firing a gun that was oddly calming to her. Maybe it was something about focusing solely on the task, taking her aim, keeping her stance, feeling the gun's weight in her hands and the firing motion, the rebounding vibration on her arms as the gun cocked back and the shell casings fell to the floor.

As she removed her headphones and turned around, Jane noted Lisbon seemed to be in a better mood than before. "Ah I hope that means you no longer feel the urge to strangle me," he said jovially, also taking off his headphones.

"Yeah, feeling much better," she said, actually rewarding him with a smile. "So, want to grab dinner?"

"That's why I'm waiting here," he smiled back at her and rubbed his hands in anticipation.

They left the shooting range and went to a nearby hole-in-the-wall Chinese restaurant that was open late into the night. Jane claimed it had the best dumplings in the area and Lisbon was not disappointed. Not that she had any reason to doubt him when it came to food.

They'd been making light, inconsequential chitchat for most of dinner when they reached a lull in the conversation and Jane looked at her for a moment, his eyes analyzing something that seemed only visible to him.

"You know that even if you are correct in your predictions and I am the reason you get fired someday, I'll make sure to fix things for you. You know that, right?" He said, his tone calm and light, revisiting the conversation they'd had while they'd been trapped in the container the other day.

She lifted her eyebrows at his sudden change of topic in their conversation, yet took it in stride quite readily. "I know you'll try, but you can't guarantee you'll fix everything."

"I swear to you, Lisbon, I am always going to save you. You can trust me on this," he told her in that quiet, intense manner he had whenever they talked about this sort of thing. "I would never leave you suffering as consequence of my actions."

"Uh, I beg to differ," she said with her usual defensive sarcasm that she used when Jane made such comments that would make her uncomfortable. "Our day to day interactions are proof of the opposite."

"Oh stop. Be serious now," he asked her with a quiet smile. "What about today, huh? I screwed up and then I fixed it. We solved the case, caught a murderous, corrupt ADA and I got you back from your suspension," he listed his actions by lifting his fingers one at a time in cadence with his words.

"We almost got killed by mobsters, then we were stranded in a cargo container in the middle of the Mexican desert and you got arrested, again," she countered at once, also ticking off the items on her fingers. "Not to mention the fine you need to pay to the court, which, by the way, I'm not contributing with one cent."

"Don't worry about the money, I'll handle it," he said with a light frown on his forehead and a dismissive hand gesture before raising an eyebrow at her. "You're always so glass half empty. You should have a little faith. Aren't you the Catholic one here?"

"Yeah, I have faith in God. He knows what He's doing and His plans always work out in the end," she agreed as she nodded along her words. "Your plans? I'm not so sure."

"My plans have always worked out perfectly so far," he said, thoroughly enjoying himself and the discussion they were working themselves into. "Besides I should point out that your logic is flawed because if you claim God exists and if he has a plan as you say, then he put me in your life for a reason."

"Probably to make me suffer and pay for my sins and guarantee my place in Heaven," Lisbon drawled out, her lips twisting in a sarcastic smile. "Also to have me keep people from strangling you to death for all the crap you pull on them," she added almost as an afterthought before taking a sip of her drink.

"Well, if that is true, I'm glad he put you in my life," he replied, his tone calm and gentle, something she hadn't been expecting just then, throwing her a little. Jane noticed that and added, with a twinkle in his bluish green eyes, "not that I believe in any of that, of course."

She lowered her drink slowly and looked at him for a moment before speaking again, curiosity lightening up in her green eyes. "You think it's just coincidence that we met and got to be in each other's lives?"

He puckered his lips in thought for a moment, his head bobbing slowly from side to side. "Not so much coincidence as a long series of chain reactions of cause and effect."

"So it's just random?" Lisbon raised her eyebrows at him. "You don't think things happen for a reason?"

"We see so much death and destruction every day," he replied, shaking his head a little. "People do horrible, senseless things to each other for the most various reasons. How can you do this job and still think like that?"

"How can you do this job and not think like that?" She frowned at him. "Without going crazy, that is."

"Maybe I am a little crazy." Jane lightly conceded to her point, his eyebrows flickering up for a moment as he looked out into the distance, seemingly lost in his thoughts.

Lisbon raised her eyebrows at his words. "Well, you're certainly different, unique even," she commented, drawing his eyes and his attention back to her. "But I don't think you're crazy," she gave him a small smile before adding in a drier tone, "not clinically, anyway."

"That's always nice to hear. Thanks," he smiled sincerely back at her.

The two of them carried on sharing their dinner and making light conversation. Most days, catching the bad guys was enough. Most days, keeping each other company like this was also enough. Jane could say whatever he wanted about her faith, but if there was one thing Lisbon believed in was that they'd met for a reason: To help each other out, if nothing else.