The following morning, Lisbon awoke wrapped in the arms of Patrick Jane, with her head resting on his chest. She could tell by the gentle rise and fall that he, too, was awake.

"Morning beautiful," he greeted her brightly, kissing the top of her head. "Are you ready?"

Lisbon shook her head slowly, causing Jane to let out a small chuckle. "Of course you are. You're Senior Agent Teresa Lisbon;you're not afraid of anything."

"I don't know, Hightower's pretty scary," she replied.

"Hightower's the least of your problems." Jane said seriously.

Lisbon pulled the covers back and started to climb out of bed.

"Hey," Jane said, getting up from the bed and following her. "What's wrong?"

Lisbon turned to face him. "What if..." She didn't need to finish her sentence for Jane to understand what she was talking about. He pulled her into a comforting embrace, allowing her head to be buried in his t-shirt.

"Shhh..." he whispered soothingly."Everything's going to be fine, I promise."

When he felt her body relax he pulled away. "Now why don't I get started on breakfast while you get ready for work?"

"Don't try and make anything too extravagant. Cho will be here in half an hour to escort us to work."

"Escort?" Jane asked,quirking an eyebrow.

"We're going to go in my car and he'll follow in his. It's just a precaution; I'm sure when I tell Hightower she's going to implement something much more formal," she answered with a slight smile.

Jane kissed her lips chastely before heading downstairs.

There were plenty of whispers when Patrick Jane, the consultant of the SCU and his boss, Agent Teresa Lisbon arrived at work in the same car. After all, it was rather suspicious that they'd both called in sick on the same day as well.

Normally, Lisbon would have hated to be the subject of office gossip, but today she was almost completely oblivious to it all. She had more important things to think about than how she appeared to her colleagues.

Lisbon and Jane headed straight through the bullpen and up the spiral staircase that led to the office of Madeleine Hightower. It was a walk they'd taken together many times, but this on this occasion it was different. This was probably the most scared Lisbon had ever been on a visit to Hightower. It was strange because this time, it wasn't as if she was in for a dressing down from her boss. Sure, Hightower would probably be angry that Lisbon didn't tell her sooner, but it wasn't as if it was a sacking offence. What concerned Lisbon was that by telling Hightower, this whole situation would seem so much more real. The threat to her life would feel a lot closer than before. Jane appeared surprisingly relaxed considering that this was about Red John.

When they reached the door of Hightower's office, Lisbon took a deep breath before looking up at Jane. Lisbon didn't know why, but when Jane gave her a reassuring smile and squeezed her hand gently, some of her fear seemed to wash away. She tried to return Jane's smile but she didn't think she managed it with any conviction. Then, Lisbon raised her hand and knocked three times.

"Come in," Hightower called from within.

Jane squeezed Lisbon's hand once more before letting go and pushing the door open for her. He followed her inside. Hightower was sat behind her desk, filling in some paperwork. They'd both been in the office so many times that they didn't need to wait for Hightower to ask them to take a seat; they sat down in the two chairs opposite Hightower that they'd occupied so many times before.

"Lisbon, Jane," Hightower greeted "I'm glad to see you're both feeling better. To what do I owe this pleasure?"

Ordinarily, Lisbon would have blushed at Hightower's remark but now she felt as if all the blood had been drained from her body.

"Urmmm...We...I have something I need to tell you," Lisbon began.

"If this is about your relationship with Jane," Hightower cut in, "I don't want to know. It doesn't violate CBI rules, so you don't have to tell me."

Lisbon opened her mouth to speak but closed it again, a little dumbfounded at Hightower's outburst. Jane merely let out a quiet chuckle before placing his hand gently on Lisbon's thigh. Unconsciously, Lisbon placed her hand on top of his.

"It's not Jane I wanted to talk about ma'am," Lisbon said finally.

"So you don't deny that you're in a relationship?" Hightower asked.

"No we don't." It was Jane that spoke, "But please, Lisbon really needs to show you something."

Lisbon took the letter from her pocket, unfolded it and handed it to Hightower.

There were a few moments of silence while Hightower read the words on the piece of paper in her hands. When she'd finished she calmly placed the letter down on the desk in front of her. "When did you receive this threat?" she asked.

"Five days ago ma'am."

"And you didn't think to tell me earlier?" Hightower sounded more concerned than angry, which was strange for her.

"I'm sorry; I didn't know what to do. I know I should have told you sooner but..." Lisbon trailed off, not wanting to reveal that her main motivation in not telling her boss was to prevent Jane from finding out.

"Have you organised any sort of protection for yourself?" Hightower asked.

"The team have been escorting me to and from work and they've been talking it in turns to stay on my couch," Lisbon answered.

"Okay. Well, because this is Red John," Lisbon felt Jane's hand tighten on her thigh at the mention of the serial killers name as Hightower continued. "I'm going to assign a specialist team to your protection. We're going to move you into a safe house so-"

It was Lisbon's turn to cut Hightower off. "No. This is our chance to finally catch Red John. If you move me to a safe house, he won't be able to come after me in two days because he'll have to find out where I am. Let me stay in my house with a team assigned to me. That way, Red John will be able to strike when he says he's going to and we'll be able to apprehend him."

"Lisbon that's a very risky plan, clearly Jane's been rubbing off on you," Hightower said.

"She's right, Teresa. Our priority is keeping you safe; Red John got past Kristina's protection. At least if you're in a safe house we're making it more difficult for him," Jane told her and she knew it was difficult for him to say something like that. She knew there was nothing more he wanted than to apprehend the man who'd murdered his wife and daughter.

"No Jane, if I've got agents in my house then I'll be fine..." Lisbon began; didn't Jane understand that she wanted to do this for him, for them?

"Lisbon, what if he attacks them? He could still get to you. He's smart Lisbon, he'll find a way." Jane sounded almost angry with her. Both of them had nearly forgotten that Hightower was in the room with them.

"I know you want to protect me, but just let me do this. You can stay with me Jane and we can get him. Isn't that what you want?" Lisbon asked sincerely.

"Of course it is, but I couldn't bear it if anything happened to you."

"Please Jane, let me do this." She met his eyes and knew that he'd let her do what she asked.

"You seem to have forgotten that this is my decision," Hightower interjected. Lisbon quickly moved her focus to the floor. "Agent Lisbon, if you really want to go ahead with this plan, so be it." Jane looked like he was about to protest but Hightower continued, "I'll get a team together, you can stay at work for today and they'll escort you back home. Several, of them will be stationed in your house. We'll have to try and get them in with very little fuss so as not to tip Red John off."

"Ma'am?" Lisbon asked.

"Yes, Lisbon?"

"Can my team be stationed in my house? I trust them and I'd feel more comfortable it was them," Lisbon queried.

"I suppose, but I also want two more agents in your house and three on surveillance outside," Hightower said firmly.

"Yes ma'am. Jane?" Lisbon was surprised that he'd remained silent throughout this discussion. He turned his head to look at Lisbon and she was surprised to see that he was smiling a little.

"We're going to get him aren't we?" he asked.

"Yes," said Lisbon returning his smile. "I think we are."