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 2x22 "Red Letter" and 2x23 "Red Sky in the Morning" and basically my take on the whole Jane dating Kristina Frye thing.

Loving Him was Red

Dating

After taking a preliminary assessment of the crime scene at Marley Sparrow's home, Lisbon's team had quickly conferred with the forensics unit and shortly after vacated the place, leaving them to complete their work in peace. The interviews would be carried out in the morning, so for now there was nothing left to do. On their way back to HQ, Lisbon and Jane talked about his first impressions on the case and how this would be another Red John copycat. If that was so to masquerade and mislead the original crime, an actual accomplice of Red John or as a following to the famed serial killer, they still weren't sure. The aspect of the snuff filming that had ended up on the internet seemed to indicate the latter, but it was too early to rule out any possibilities.

Jane grew silent then, seemingly lost in his thoughts, hand poised against his chin as one finger ran repeatedly over his lower lip. As she drove, Lisbon watched him out of the corner of her eye, rather worried about him. Copycat or not, any case related to Red John had almost a physical and immediate effect on him, like he turned into a different person. Jane went from the almost light version of himself that she'd grown used to for the past couple of years, to an intense and fiercely determined man, a metaphorical fire burning in the depths of his eyes.

She wanted to lighten the mood and grasped at the first subject that came to her, one that she'd been actually wondering about on the back of her mind ever since first hearing about it.

"So. You went out on a date with Kristina Frye." She turned to him with a raised eyebrow, the corners of her mouth turning up in a smile.

Jane blinked up and slowly removed his hand from his face, turning to look at her. "Yes," he said simply, his mood rather unreadable.

"And?" Lisbon ventured, unfazed by his monosyllabic answer. "How did it go?"

He ran his hands over his face then and sighed before answering her. "Not so well."

"Yeah, I'll bet getting called in to work on a murder case would ruin any date," she raised a rather sardonic eyebrow at this observation.

"Oh no, that was actually a good thing," he found himself confessing right away, the words just coming out of his mouth before he had time to think about them and change his mind on sharing all of this with her. "I'd just been about to cut our date short when Van Pelt called me."

"You were? Why?" She frowned her eyebrows at him in curiosity.

"The whole thing was a mistake," he said, shaking his head despondently. "I don't know what I was thinking when I asked her out."

Truth be told, Jane had an idea of how he'd gotten to that particular situation. It'd all started with Madeleine Hightower's comment on how "the blonde one" liked him and her (somewhat true) assessment that he liked her as well. When she'd first started talking, Jane had assumed she'd been about to comment on Lisbon and how the two of them got along, despite their differences, and formed a good partnership at work. When she'd instead pointed out Kristina's interest in him, it'd started a very strange chain reaction that had culminated with Jane rather clumsily asking the psychic out on a date.

Now he wondered if Hightower's pushing him on the subject of dating had been out of some genuine interest in the matter (he supposed that was his fault, as he'd been the first one to start making observations on her marriage, opening the door for that sort of interaction between them) or if it'd been her own attempt at a sneaky manipulation to steer any possible romantic intentions he may have away from Lisbon. He wasn't sure how the two of them would classify in the CBI's rules on interpersonal relationships, as he'd never had any reason to wonder about it before. He was a consultant, so he wasn't like a regular CBI employee or team member. Lisbon liked to claim that she was his boss, but that wasn't really true, as his contract had been first negotiated with Virgil Minelli, and now with Hightower. Perhaps his new boss had been afraid of something romantic happening between the special agent in charge and the prized (if at times rather high maintenance) consultant and its consequences to their workplace.

Which was all just rather absurd, Jane thought to himself, as there was nothing going on between the two of them. They just worked together; in fact, he might have even come to call her a good friend nowadays. But that was it.

"Well, I did think it was a little strange," Lisbon commented, bringing him out of his private reverie. "But you obviously like her."

Jane grimaced slightly at her words. "I do and I don't," he admitted, bobbing his head left and right for a moment. "Okay, so she's attractive and I will admit I enjoy bantering with her. As you know, there's nothing I quite like more than a stimulating, spirited discussion, if you'll pardon the pun."

She nodded at him with a smile, knowing that well enough, as it was their basic mode of communication. "So? What's the problem?"

"She's also too confident in her skills, thinking that by tricking people she's actually helping them, and she refuses to admit it's all a gag," he said, growing frustrated as he thought about her behavior with their waiter during their date. "She reminds me too much of who I used to be." He added quietly, growing silent for a few moments before he sighed a little. "Besides other obvious issues." For a moment, Jane considered even confessing to her about his detour in the middle of the date to have a near panic attack in the bathroom, but then decided against it. He'd already told her too much. "It all just felt wrong." He finished, shaking his head to himself.

Lisbon had listened attentively as he'd explained his thoughts, letting him speak without interruptions until he seemed to be done. "I'm sorry," she told him gently in understanding. "Hey, you tried. That's a big step. You'll know when it's the right time."

"Eh," he gave her a quiet shrug in response, wondering if she could hear the words behind the gesture that said he wasn't sure if he would ever be truly ready for that. "The whole thing and then this case coming up just served to remind me that I need to focus on Red John."

Lisbon felt something twist inside of her at hearing those words, like they were a bad omen or something. They'd once talked about it, the prospect of dating and leading somewhat normal lives outside of all the focus they put in their jobs, and even though he hadn't said all the words she knew he'd never allow himself to think about this while Red John was still out there. How could he? He would first have to finish what he had started all those years ago.

But when she'd first heard he'd been on a date with Kristina Frye it'd given her some hope that maybe Jane had healed enough to let go of the past, to start moving forward beyond this grand plan of revenge that dictated just about every move and every thought he had. Now she was afraid that this bad experience and the reappearance of Red John on a case would undo any progress he might have made towards moving on, prompting him to shut off once more.

She had no idea just how right she'd turn out to be by the time they were done with this case.