Disclaimer: I do not own any part of The Mentalist.

Author's Notes: It's chapter 2. Red Hair and Silver Tape. Hope you enjoy! Do review! :3

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S01E02: Red Hair & Silver Tape

If there was one thing that everyone in the Serious Crime Unit were in awe about Teresa Lisbon, it was that she was able to take down men triple her size. Her tackles were famous within the unit. Her ability to handle Patrick Jane was another thing that had the unit looking up to her. Before Jane was under her team, he was passed around through most parts of the CBI. From Organized Crime to Narcotics, passed on to Immigration and backed to Organized Crime again. Nobody wanted the blond troublemaker. Minelli gave in and took him under Serious Crimes, and the higher ups were pleased with him. He was pleased with himself too, when he dumped the guy on Lisbon who just got promoted. What a way to treat his best agent. But leadership was of key importance of being the boss of a team. Her work life became a mess. Formal complaints and paperwork increased in numbers. Jane had managed to insult suspects, get the family of victims extremely upset and caused uproar in the CBI. But her patience never seemed to wear thin, and it turned out that Jane would actually obey her.

He just wanted to show that he was good at reading people. So rock, scissors, paper was one way to prove it. It was amusing to watch, really. But watching the sheriff trying over and over again to kick Jane's ass was irritating. They had continued the game all the way to the victim's house, and that was about a forty-five minute drive. How old was the guy? Still acting like a five year old. He poked around the victim's room and came up with theory that the victim had a secret boyfriend whose name started with an 'H' who nobody in the family knew about. That just made searching for the guy so much easier.

He was actually eating at the Shand Creek Winery. Question, not eating, she told him when they were alone. He grinned and nodded, clearly not listening to a word she said. As usual. She had to admit, sometimes, that he did speed up her work. Identifying who wrote the note was quickly settled, who knew the assistant chef would faint? Only Jane. So he was useful to the team. On occasion, that is. Getting the information for a timeline was easy, since the assistant chef was so cooperative. She wrote down the new information on the chalkboard and stared at it. It should be the secret boyfriend, she was sure of it. Van Pelt had called with more details about a similar case and suddenly, the consultant had a new theory about a killer obsessed with redheads and silver duct tape. Logical, maybe. Possible, doubt so.

They had found out who the victim's secret boyfriend was. It was obvious something was wrong. One moment, the person they were questioning claimed ignorance and in the next, she spilled the beans. Dammit, Jane had hypnotized her and Cho didn't do anything to stop him. Her authority would slowly be chipped away if this went on. Calling in Rigsby and Van Pelt, her team set out to bring in the boyfriend for questioning. And that didn't go well. He had ran after bursting out of a window and she had barely made it in time to catch to him. In a flash of black, he was on the ground and Lisbon had him in handcuffs.

The arrest of the boyfriend was nothing compared to questioning him though. He refused to say anything for the first ten minutes with her. Jane still believed that the killer was the obsessed psychopath, but she had enough evidence to charge Hector and close the case. They were having a light argument when Jane excused himself and left with the victim's younger brother.

He was gone for a long time. Not that she minded. No Jane meant having peace. She managed to clear some paperwork and got to read the report from Forensics. They had called to tell her that there were traces of blood of the victim in Hector's truck. She knew it was him from the start. The blonde consultant had finally returned from his trip and was telling her that he found something interesting and for her not to get angry.

"You can't make me angry," she had said. She knew she shouldn't have said that.

Turned out that the boyfriend might not have been the killer after all. Great, now they had to start all over again. Either that, or follow Jane's absurd theory. After a really misleading call by the blonde and an hour's drive, she was in a motel room with Jane watching her team go undercover. Without her prior knowledge. As he explained his plan, she had to resist the urge to hit him in the face. Whatever she had to do to shut him up. But they had nothing to lose, as he said. Why did she listen to him again?

His plan failed and she had to clean up the mess again. More paperwork, more problems. And he was the cause of it all. She was along the highway back to the sheriff's department when he called. She nearly snarled into her phone when she saw that it was the consultant calling. All she could hear was him saying "Do not move, do not move." Great, now he was in trouble. She did an illegal turn and sped back to the motel.

To save him, she killed two people today. It was necessary, but she still felt guilty. At the burial, Van Pelt expressed her thoughts about the psychotic killing couple. Jane had said that they were soul mates in a sick and twisted way. They killed one girl by accident, had nearly killed him and they were now dead. While walking back to the car, Jane placed a hand on her shoulder. She wanted to shrug it off, but she didn't. She needed it.

Sitting in her office, her frown deepened. More paperwork. Shoot a guy, fill in a form. She had to submit her gun for testing, she had a meeting with Minelli in an hour and she wanted to clear everything from her in tray by the end of shift. She hunched over her papers, writing ferociously. A knock on the door drew her attention away from them. Patrick Jane stood at her office door. He entered her office and stopped in front of her desk. They didn't say a word until he placed a bottle of red wine on the wooden surface.

"What's this, Jane?"" She placed her pen down, studying the label.

"Red wine."

She sighed. "I know it's red wine, Jane. I meant, what's this for?"

"It's for you. Lisbon. Like a thank you gift. To thank you for saving my life today. All that paperwork must be draining," she made a sound in agreement.

"I know you like red wine, you drink it to relax at home. So I thought I would get you a bottle. But you know, you wouldn't have to save my life if you had listened to me from the start. It seems fitting to say 'I told you so' right now," Upon seeing her smile melt into a grimace, Patrick Jane grinned and waved. He got the idea to not push it when Lisbon looked so murderously angry with him.