A/N: Writing this whilst hyperactive is surprisingly difficult. Again, blame boutondor. That's becoming my default statement for anything and everything - sorry Cat! But still, Wicked! And *those* seats... *grins*

Thank you to: boutondor, The Mentalist Rules, yaba, Divinia Serit, forthecoast, Frogster, Koezh, phoenixmagic1, April and anthropologist for reviewing part four. Especially so to April who reviewed anonymously - glad you enjoyed the chapter!

x tromana

Part Five

She wasn't quite sure what she was doing.

When she heard that Jane had gone to visit Jared Renfrew in jail, she'd been more than a little angry.

Lisbon had thought that Jane actually understood the integrity of her job, of the laws she followed from the time they had been married. Yes, it was far from perfect and she could see that. But it was the best that society had and if there wasn't somebody trying to uphold them, who would bother to follow them? The alternative to the law was too worrisome to even consider. And the very fact he was willfully undoing the hard work of the justice department on a fool's errand…

Well, she hadn't been best pleased to phrase it politely.

And even if he hadn't learned from those couple of years when they were together, there was all the time since they had started working together. During that time, he had been exposed to exactly how she worked and why she went about it that way. So, he might have cut corners on occasion but he knew that she didn't. Though, she could just about tolerate it when he did, if needs be. But there were certain things she never, ever did.

And this was one of those occasions.

To make things all the worse, she now found herself putting her job on the line to defy Minelli's direct instructions. Even willingly accepting a suspension in order to support her ex-husband and dragging her whole team down with her. Once, she had even promised herself that she wouldn't sacrifice her principles for a man, whoever they were. And now it seemed like she was sort of doing exactly that.

She certainly didn't need her boss' reminder of just how damaging this could potentially be to her career.

Just what had happened to her? She was meant to be the responsible one. Meant to be in control of him rather than chasing him around like some little lost puppy dog.

But she couldn't let him get ripped to pieces by the fat cats, it just wasn't in her nature. Jane needed their help and she wasn't going to let him down when he needed it. She may have broken her wedding vows to him, and mainly for selfish though entirely justifiable reasons, which meant if anything, she felt even more obligated to help him out now.

Lisbon may not have believed that Renfrew actually had anything, but there was that link and he was an innocent man. That was enough for her to support Jane to the ends of the earth, if only just.

But she definitely wasn't going to stay in Minelli's office long enough for him to point out the ex part of their relationship again. Especially when it was him who made Jane her consultant in the first place.

000

She had tried to get him to open up as soon as they left the dingy motel room.

It had been a long while since she last saw the effect that Red John had on him; his actions during those brief moments directly contradicted her memories of the man she married. Then again, during that time, Red John had remained relatively quiet, purely taking to taunting her, until he eventually scared her away.

He had disappeared into himself a bit, something he often did when something was troubling him - whether it was Red John or something else that was wrong, it didn't matter. It frustrated her back when they were married and still frustrated her now. His brooding wasn't constructive and hurt more people than he thought.

"So, what about that plan, then?" he eventually asked, when they were alone save for the taxi driver taking them to the airport.

"What? Masquerading as your lover to lure out Red John again? No way."

They'd been so close to the serial killer and he was already willing to throw everything at him, to try and prompt another incursion. The fact that he was willing to risk both their lives, especially when they had literally just seen first hand how many contacts and exactly how powerful Red John was. How could he be ready to try and face him again?

She'd be lying if she said she wasn't scared, even though she had predicted Renfrew's demise.

"Is it masquerading when we really love each other?"

"Jane…"

"Is it though, Teresa?"

She sighed and glanced at her fingers. Though she wore the rings Jane had given her for a brief time only, the bare skin still caught her off guard on occasion. It still felt unnatural, wrong, even. But there was nothing she could do about it though, nothing she was willing to do at least.

And Jane seemed determined to make everything ten times harder for her.

But she didn't answer him though, preferring to allow the silence to envelop them once more. She simply didn't know how.

000

Once back in Sacramento, Jane didn't broach the subject again. It was something she was relieved about, it meant that she could put the most recent Red John debacle behind her. Back to focusing on their relatively normal, run of the mill cases meant she had some semblance of normalcy back in her life.

Besides, Jane had almost settled down again and that could only be a good thing. Of course, he was still hinting occasionally that they should stop living a lie, rather than using Red John as a twisted sort of leverage.

It was a quiet day though. She'd sent Jane and Cho off to meet with a victim's wife and the other two were quietly working away in the bullpen. That left her, alone, in her office, to focus on a backlog of paperwork.

A knock on her door distracted her from her reverie and she smiled briefly as she saw her boss standing in the door frame.

"Lisbon?"

"Yes?"

Minelli looked pale as he entered her office.

"What's wrong, Boss?"

"It's a photocopy, naturally, but this was found by CSI after you left the motel in Tijuana."

Frowning, she took the piece of paper from his hand and it deepened as she scanned the words. She should have known that it would happen, that he wouldn't be able to resist taunting her like he had mocked Jane.

I called your husband, but I do so prefer the power of the written word when communicating with you. I know you're getting closer, once again. It's obvious in your whole demeanor.

Remember my last.

TBC…