Title: It's not what it looks like…wait, maybe it is…

Author: Shannon – shannyfish

Disclaimer: I do not own "The Mentalist" or its characters, Warner Brothers and Bruno Heller do. This is merely for entertainment purposes only.

Rating: G

Summary: Jane the Free Spirit. (Prompt: Free Spirit)

Part of the "Red Hot Days" series: a series of different scenes both case and non-case related scenes. This can be read as part of the series or can be read on its own. Different POVs used for different stories. Lisbon/Jane shipping and most likely

Warning: Takes place during season 3, so spoilers during season 3 are fair game. So currently, that's up to "Jolly Red Elf".

Author's Note: #3 in the series

...

CBI Headquarters

Lisbon had to admit that Jane was flat out irritating her. He'd been like this ever since they'd solved their last case. Jane had been far more of pain since. His explanation of his prancing was just that he was a free spirit. Lisbon wasn't sure how Jane professing himself as a free spirit was any different than how he acted before except the more annoying factor that was currently in full effect.

Patrick Jane was literally dancing around her office…again.

It was amusing the first time. And she'd found that he'd been doing similar things with everyone else too. Jane was far more bouncy right now.

A free spirit…

In their previous case, they'd found out that their homeless John Doe victim was in fact not homeless. He was just a man who had bad luck and had ended up with an injury and not remembering who he was or where he lived and had just took life as he came at him from that point on. The people that knew him had called him a free spirit. And ever since then, she swore that was Jane's new excuse for everything he did.

Lisbon knew that Hightower wouldn't take 'well, Jane's a free spirit' as a very good defense in anything that Jane did that ended up ultimately getting her into trouble. She sighed and pushed the paperwork aside. "You must want something…" Lisbon said finally. After all, Jane always wanted something.

"I'm just trying to cheer you up."

Jane didn't stop his jig. Lisbon wished that he'd stop. It only made her worry about what the future held for her. So far, it didn't look good. She really needed to start job searching, back-up plan. "How is this cheering me up?" she asked.

"You should dance with me," he said and stopped and held out a hand to her.

"No…" Lisbon said and looked at his hand absurdly. Jane was insane if he thought that she was going to dance around her office and CBI Headquarters like he'd been doing. She didn't think anyone would describe her as a free spirit and she was okay with that.

"You know, you should…you need some joy in your life," he told her. "It's the simple things in life, Lisbon."

She tilted her head. "Did you have some kind of life changing experience during the last case and I missed it or something?"

Jane stared at her for a moment. "No. I still plan on killing Red John slowly when we find him. That doesn't mean that in the here and now that we shouldn't actually live a little…"

"I'm living…" Lisbon told him.

This was the side of Jane that scared her. She could see the darkness in him. It scared her, scared her to know that he had such dark thoughts and that those thoughts differed from the outcome that she expected would happen in the near future. There was also something extremely sad about it…

"No," Jane argued. "You're dying…slowly… This bureaucratic paperwork bullshit is killing you, Lisbon. How many hours a week do you spend doing it? How many hours a year? You're wound too tight and stressed. It's not good for you. For five minutes you should just relax and let yourself be free."

"I do that…"

"When?"

"When I sleep," she said with a smirk before pulling her paperwork back to her and starting to work on it once again. She heard Jane's frustrated sigh and it made her smile brightly down at her paperwork. It amused her to frustrate him. It was good for him.

"You probably do paperwork in your sleep…and stress about what the next day will hold," Jane said. "You, Lisbon, may not be a free spirit…but it wouldn't hurt you to try to be one for a few minutes a day…"

"What is it going to accomplish?" Lisbon asked.

"Nothing," Jane admitted. "But I bet you'll feel better."

"I'll look like a fool," she said. "I thought that that was what you do best." She knew that in one context those words were harsh and mean, but she didn't think that Jane would honestly take them to heart. After all, he was their circus act.

"How about you dance with me?" he asked and held out his hand again.

"Dance with you?"

"I wasn't so bad at that reunion," he pointed out.

He had a point. She'd enjoyed that, actually. It had been nice. She distinctly remembered being happy and relaxed. "There's no music," she pointed out.

Jane smiled brightly at her. "I can hum some," he offered as he moved to the door and pulled it shut before systematically going through and pulling closed every blind that was in Lisbon's office. "Shall we?" he asked again, offering his hand to her once again.

Lisbon decided that it wouldn't be so bad and that it would get Jane to leave her alone, so she took the offered hand and stood up. She smiled when he started to hum something random. It sounded familiar and classic but she couldn't place it. It didn't matter though. Her hand went into his and the other went around his shoulder. She felt his hands pull her close and one hand held hers while the other snaked around her waist. It was nice. She had to admit that it did feel good. He continued to hum and she closed her eyes and they slowly stepped about in a kind of dance, every now and then she'd be aware that they'd shifted and made a turn.

"See…I knew you could be a free spirit," he teased.

She laughed and found herself resting her chin on his shoulder and holding him as closely as he was holding her. Their hummed music continued and she allowed the dance to continue as well.

"What the hell is going on here?"

The voice pulled Lisbon from the content world that she'd been living in for the last few minutes and pulled her back to the stark reality of her boss standing at her door. She pulled away from Jane as she tried to think of the best things to tell Hightower, things that wouldn't get either of them fired. "Ma'am…it's not what it looks like," Lisbon started.

"No, it's exactly what it looks like," Jane interrupted. "Lisbon and I were dancing."

"Why exactly?" Hightower asked, her arms crossed over her chest.

Lisbon frowned; she really didn't want to answer that. Before she could even open her mouth to respond, Jane was already speaking.

"Why not?" Jane countered.

"It's very odd, Mr. Jane."

Jane shrugged. "I'm a free spirit."

"Really? That's your response?" Lisbon snapped at Jane. She'd had enough of that damn reasoning. Her eyes widened a little bit and she turned back towards Hightower. She wanted to be able to appease the beast without getting into anymore trouble than she already probably was in with Hightower. She allowed her breathing to level and she hoped she sounded calm and level headed. "Ma'am…you know how Jane is. He was spinning around my office, so I figured if I wanted to get any work done then I'd have to give in for a few minutes. I promise that I'm working on the paperwork from the last case."

Lisbon noticed that Hightower seemed to approve of her explanation with a nod. She was happy that it seemed like there wasn't going to be any problems. Of course, that very well may depend on whether or not Jane could actually keep his mouth shut for five minutes. So, she waited there quietly and as patiently as possible.

"Mr. Jane, perhaps you should head home so that the rest of the team can finish up their paperwork in peace," Hightower suggested.

"Where's the fun in that?" Jane asked.

"Jane!" Lisbon chastised as she glared at him sideways.

"What…I want to help in some way, I just like to think of it as keeping morale up."

"Then go do a food run," Lisbon told him.

Jane smirked. "See? I can be helpful," he said before leaving the office.

Lisbon turned back to Hightower who was still standing there. "Sorry about that, Ma'am."

"Let's try to keep the shenanigans to a minimum," Hightower said.

"Yes, Ma'am," Lisbon said and watched her walk away. She waited until Hightower was out of her office before opening the blinds again. She didn't miss Van Pelt, Rigsby, and Cho acting like they'd been working the whole time. Great, just what she needed, rumors flying…

…