A/N: Gosh, bad few days. Thank you so much for the reviews and kind words you guys have sent me. It's helping me through a really rough patch. No kidding. Anyway, as this is the tenth update, I'd like to thank everyone who's reviewed in no particular order.

PhoenixWytch (thanks for the prompts, too!), Madaboutthementalist, sprntrl grl, SpaceAnJL, kitten4979, Divinia Serit, x-gemarrrr, WildDaisies10, JollyRancher543321, mwalter1, FallIntoAHellCalledLove, Ebony10, Frogster, EastAngels2009.

Thanks for making my days a little brighter. :-)

x tromana

Title: Bloodlust
Author: tromana
Rating: T
Characters: Jane, Frankie O'Keefe
Spoilers: 1.02 Red Hair and Silver Tape
Summary: It broke Jane's heart to see the boy so caught up in rage.
Disclaimer: Not mine.
Notes: Episode tag to 1.02 - Red Hair and Silver Tape

Bloodlust

It practically broke Patrick Jane's heart to see little Frankie O'Keefe so desperately caught up in rage. Vowing to avenge his elder sister's death. And with an axe, of all things. It was only natural, he mused. The young lad loved his sister desperately; she'd always been around and now there was an empty void which the pretty redhead used to fill. For the past three days, he's probably woken up, expecting her to be clattering around in the kitchen, making coffees and cussing because her toast had burnt.

It would have been bad enough when she'd gone to college in fall. The house would be emptier, as it is now. But this was different; she'd been taken away permanently, instead of just being a telephone call away. And Jane knew only too well how that felt like.

Somehow, it wasn't right for Frankie to be carrying around the desire to maim, to kill. He had his whole life ahead of him - he could go to college, meet a girl, have kids, a fulfilling career. Anything he wanted was all at his fingertips. He hadn't wasted half his life lying and cheating his way to the top. To waste all those opportunities when he was barely a teen was ridiculous.

Lisbon would say he was being hypocritical. That it was okay for his mind to be filled with bloodlust, but not the boy's. But this was different. He was the reason his wife and beautiful little girl were murdered. Frankie's sister was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. And yet, it probably hurt him just the same.

It was different… wasn't it?