Disturbingly, Lisbon and her team could find absolutely no indication whatsoever that the case they had been assigned was a false report, though they did nothing but search until they went home that night. Jane didn't call, and Lisbon didn't want to call him - what would she say, anyway? 'We need your help, please tell me you're coming back'? No. The danger of this super-celebrity status was already threatening to go to his head, and she didn't want to encourage it - it was her job to keep him as grounded as possible, as it always had been. Still, she prayed he would fix his head and come back to work.

Lisbon half-dreaded what she would find when she came in to work the next day, but there was Patrick Jane, ready and waiting for them.

"You're back," Lisbon observed.

"Yeah," he said, "I'm sorry about yesterday, I was just kind of confused about something…I'm okay now."

"I'm glad to hear it," Lisbon said half-mockingly.

"So what did I miss?" he asked.

Lisbon gave him the file. "Couple filed a missing persons report for their fourteen-year-old daughter, we can't find any evidence that the report was false, and they won't talk to anyone but you."

Jane looked through the papers as he listened. Then he looked up. "Did you tell them you would end up being the one to question them either way?"

Lisbon shrugged. "I tried to tell them that we were capable of doing our jobs, but they adamantly refused to talk to us because you weren't there," she told him.

"Their daughter is missing and they would rather wait for me to sort my brain out than get the best help there is right away?" There was something intense in Jane's eyes, something Lisbon had rarely seen there.

She nodded. "Yeah, that pretty much sums it up," she confirmed, "and like I said, we've tried, but we can't find any evidence that the report is fake."

"It doesn't look like it is, except for that," Jane said, almost to himself. He stood. "Let's go, then," he said; "enough time has been wasted as it is." And he started walking out without further pretense.

"Jane, I'll ride with you," Lisbon announced, going after him.

"Fair enough."

~o~

Of course, Lisbon regretted riding with Jane immediately, and not just because he drove like a maniac; it was incredibly awkward. Still, it was her job to look after the health and well-being of her team, and if nothing else, he was technically part of her team.

"Jane, what happened yesterday?" she asked at last.

"Uh…" He shook his head slightly. "I just…needed to think some things over." He glanced at her. "Like I said, I'm not used to this freedom."

She took a breath. "Look, was this all just about…" She couldn't say it. "…the thing?"

"What thing?"

"The…thing that happened? You know what I mean."

"Ah," he said. "No. No, there was a lot more to it than that."

"Do I want to know?"

"Probably not."

"Then I won't ask."

"That's smart of you."

There was a pause that wasn't awkward for the first few seconds. Then, out of nowhere, Jane looked over at Lisbon and said, "I'm sorry."

She blinked. "For what?"

"Just…" He bit his lip, as though there was something he wanted to say but he knew he shouldn't say it. This alarmed Lisbon more than any verbal response would have - since when did Patrick Jane care about whether or not he should say something? The man spoke his mind all the time, that was one of the main reasons being his boss was a nightmare.

"Just what?" she finally asked.

He sighed. "Look, I know I…make things hard for you sometimes," he said. "I need you to know that, no matter what happens, I…I never do anything without taking into account how it might affect you. Sometimes, that does mean hurting you, but…only if the alternative would have worse consequences."

Lisbon stared at Jane. Since when did he talk like this? Since when did he think like this? And… "Where is this coming from?" Lisbon asked.

He glanced at her. "Just…one of the things in my head I thought through yesterday," he said, but something about his tone made her think he might be lying, or at least only telling a half-truth.

"Should I be worried?" she asked.

"No," he said dismissively. "Don't worry. There's nothing to worry about."

"I'll hold you to that," Lisbon warned.

He nodded. "Fair enough."

And then they were there. Jane was the first out of the car; Lisbon and the others stayed behind him, since he was the one who had to get this thing started.

As before, the couple ran outside to greet their visitors. This time, however, they ran right up to Jane, and the wife grabbed his hand and shook it before he could even offer it.

"Mr. Jane, thank god you're here!" she exclaimed. "Please help us. Our daughter is missing, we don't-"

"Is it true that you didn't talk to the rest of the team yesterday because you were waiting for me?" Jane asked bluntly.

The woman froze mid-word, her mouth open. "I…well…yes," she replied. "Of course we waited for you. You're Patrick Jane! You're-"

"Human," Jane said firmly. "I'm not a miracle worker, I'm not a superhero, and you have no excuse for not talking to the rest of the team while I was out sick yesterday. I really hope the report you filed is false, because if it's not - if you really prioritized meeting me over your daughter's well-being - then you don't deserve to be parents. You should be ashamed of yourselves."

Husband and wife blinked.

"Now here's how this is going to work," Jane told them sternly: "I am going to go inside and take a look around. Lisbon is going to ask you some questions, and you are going to answer them. The rest of the team will do their jobs, and you will let them." He shook his head, glaring at the couple in disgust. "To be honest, if the way you've handled this situation is any indication of what sort of parents you are, I wouldn't be surprised if your daughter ran away, and I certainly wouldn't blame her."

With that, he shouldered his way between them, for no apparent reason other than to shove them, and walked towards the house, leaving everyone else behind.

His team was left almost in as much shock as the civilians. After a minute, Lisbon gathered her wits and ran after him.

"Jane!"

He turned. She ran up to him.

"What the hell was that?" she demanded.

"Oh come on, Lisbon, don't pretend I said anything you didn't want to say to them yourself," Jane said.

"That may be, but-"

"But nothing," Jane said, cutting her off. "I can't antagonize them because they still worship me, and they needed someone to tell them that they're being idiots." He shook his head. "Lisbon, I don't want my fame to cause problems any more than you do," he told her, surprising her.

She blinked.

He smiled. "You probably thought it would go to my head, didn't you?" he asked. He shook his head again. "No. This isn't something that should be encouraged, I'm fully aware of that."

She gave him a look. "Is this one of the things you figured out yesterday?" she asked.

"Yep," he replied, then he gestured behind her. "Now, ah, you have a job to do, and so do I; let's get to it."

~o~

With Jane having set the record straight, things finally got moving at a standard pace. They had been delayed twenty-four hours, which was undesirable to say the least, but at least things were progressing now.

Jane couldn't find any sign that the girl had run away of her own free will, nor did he believe that the couple had filed a false report. That left an accident or kidnapping, and Jane didn't have enough information to start out with to guess which was more likely.

There was, of course, another, more personal reason he was disgusted with the couple's stupidity: His own daughter was dead because of his carelessness. He knew what that felt like, and that two parents would risk that just for a chance to meet him and see him work was abhorrent; and regardless of the girl's fate, there was no chance the couple hadn't taken that risk knowingly.

Charlotte caught up with the team later that day, as she usually did - it was her job to report on All Things Jane, after all, and she had covered their other cases since they had returned to work as well. The team had found that this could be an asset no less than it was a hinderance - it provided a window to the general public, one through which they could address people who might possibly know something useful. This, in turn, was a mixed blessing, as sometimes people would offer completely useless tips, even false leads.

When the 48-hour mark had passed and the case still wasn't closed - though they were making progress - Jane couldn't help taking a minute to curse the careless parents who had cut their time in half. This was something he couldn't afford to let happen again. He could tell the world via Charlotte, of course, but there was no guarantee people would listen…but…as the case drew to a close, an idea started to form in his mind…

~o~

At the end of the case, around noon of the next day, Jane was the one to deliver the message to the girl's parents, Charlotte in tow; he hadn't told her whether this would be a joyful reunion or a tearful tragedy.

"We found your daughter," he told them tonelessly. "She wasn't kidnapped; what happened to her was an accident. The worst kind of accident: Trapped, alone, and unable to call for help."

"Is she okay?" the mother asked worriedly, her husband holding her.

Jane shook his head. "I'm sorry," he told them. "We were too late."

"No…!"

Jane watched the mother break down, falling to her knees, crying, her husband beside her, without even the tiniest shred of pity.

"If you had just let Lisbon and the others do their job from the start, this wouldn't have happened," he told the sobbing woman coldly. "It was a very near thing - if we had been maybe an hour sooner, she would probably still be alive. Your daughter is dead only because you prioritized meeting me over her well-being."

"Stop!" the mother wailed.

"I will not stop!" Jane spat. "I want you to remember this!"

"Have you no shame?" the husband demanded of him. "Why are you doing this?"

"I know what it's like to know that my child is dead because of my own carelessness," Jane said, and the man's eyes widened. "I know how badly it hurts. It's a wound nothing can fix. And I want you both to remember this moment, and all of you," he turned to Charlotte's camera, "to remember it as well. I am not worth risking someone's life. If you refuse help on the grounds that it's not me who's helping you, this might actually happen to one of you, and if it does, no one will forgive you, especially not yourselves."

"What…?" the mother choked, confused. "'Might'…?"

"Mom! Dad!"

Jane smiled and stepped out of the way as Lisbon released the girl to reunite with her parents. He let them hug and wail and cry, all far beyond words, for a minute. It was a beautiful thing, and Jane was truly relieved that reality had actually been kinder than the alternative.

"Your daughter is the most valuable thing you have," he said after a minute.

The couple looked up at him, still holding their daughter tightly.

"Don't forget that again," he told them.

They wouldn't. He could see it - they would never make that mistake again. He knew they wouldn't. To know that one's own child is dead because of one's own carelessness is one of the most ultimate forms of agony, and he wouldn't wish it on anyone; now that these two had felt it, they would never be the same.

He walked away as Charlotte wrapped things up.

Lisbon approached him.

"That was a cruel thing to do," she told him.

He nodded. "I know," he said, "and thank you for playing your part anyway - being cruel was kind of the point. Mind you, I knew full well what I was going to put them through for less than a minute, you can't say I didn't."

"Still…people probably won't respect you as much now," she said.

He smiled. "So much the better, then," he said. "I don't want people to worship me, Lisbon. I'm not like that."

Funny, she had always thought he was like that. But now…This person Jane had become now that Red John was gone was…well, different, but in a good way. She might even get used to this.

"I'm glad you took that day off," she told him.

He smiled. "Me too."

~o~

Of course, Jane's success - and message - were on live TV, so two certain people were paying special attention to it.

Rich was watching the report on TV when his cell phone rang; Brett Partridge was on the other end. Rich picked up.

"Are you seeing this?" Brett asked him.

"I'm seeing it," Rich replied; "what else would I be doing?"

Brett chuckled. "Yeah," he said. "Cold bastard, isn't he?"

"There's nothing that moron won't do," Rich agreed; "he deserves what's coming to him."

"Yeah, so, uh, about that," Brett said; "they closed a case. Do you want to do the thing tonight? Or should we wait until tomorrow?"

Rich thought for a minute. Charlotte was saying something into the camera, but in the background, he could see Jane and Lisbon talking…

"You know what?" he said. "Let's do it tonight."

"Yes!" Brett said excitedly, and Rich could almost see him fist-pumping in triumph.

Rich smiled. "I'll start setting up."

"Yeah, me too!"

"See you there."

"Bye."

They hung up. Rich put his phone away, and took one last look at the TV. Jane and Lisbon were still talking in the background…He had no idea what they were talking about, but they didn't seem to be fighting or otherwise disagreeing about something.

Then he saw Lisbon smile at Jane, and he shut the TV off.

Glowering, he stood up. Time to set things right, his vow to Dove on RJ's grave be damned. Surely, RJ would forgive him for doing what needed to be done…