Title: Red Window

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: R (to be safe)

Summary: Sequel to "Suffering is the Best Punishment". With Lisbon gone, Jane leaves CBI to set out to find her and to kill Red John. He won't let Red John kill his family again.

Warning: adult themes

Chapter 17 – "Christmas Raid"

Author's Note: Happy Winter Solstice! :D

Suffering is the Best Punishment Trailer - http: / www. mega video. com/ ?v = Q581AW2H

(take out the spaces for )

...

"Dreams, ideas, and plans not only are an escape, they give me purpose, a reason to hang on."

- Anonymous

Ketchum, ID

They'd set up their mobile headquarters outside of Simon Callahan's house. Of course, it was a good distance away and across the highway, but for Jane that was closer than he'd been in the last couple of months. So, he'd take it and he was grateful for it. The FBI that were there were being great hosts and seemed happy that they were there. They all knew how important it was for them.

"I have a team of my guys standing by," Clark explained to Cho, Rigsby, and Van Pelt. "They're going to go up and do some recon. Hopefully they can tell us how many people are inside and where they are. That'll make our lives easier. We may be able to extract your people easier than we're thinking."

"That would be nice," Van Pelt said.

"I know that I'd like to be able to get the child out without there being any guns or weapons drawn."

"Agreed," Cho spoke up.

Jane felt like they'd been there for so many hours already, but he knew it hadn't been that long. It was most likely anxiety building up coupled with the fact that their trip had been delayed. This wasn't where he had imagined he'd be on Christmas Day. He'd thought he'd be in California to start with and probably all alone.

"Who's in charge here?"

The voice made him jump and he'd noticed that the rest of the team had been caught by surprise as well by the all too familiar voice. He turned and found the owner of the voice behind him. Madeline Hightower was standing not more than a yard from him, bundled up in a puffy jacket with a fur trim hood. Damn. They were in so much trouble. He peeked back over at Cho, who looked frustrated. He didn't blame the guy, he was frustrated.

"I am," Clark responded. "You are?"

"Madeline Hightower, CBI," she introduced. "I'm their boss," Hightower added as she pointed them out. "And they were not given permission to come here."

"You didn't inform us of the DNA matches," Cho spoke up. "You said if it matched-"

"Agent Cho, it's Christmas Day. I'm sure you can imagine that I'd rather be other places. I've spent most of the morning in airports and on a plane. I didn't see my kids open any of their gifts and I have family expected over for dinner."

"If you leave now," Jane said. "You may still be able to make that dinner."

"Agent Lisbon-"

"Has been here for two months," Cho said. "I think that's long enough. I don't care what holiday it is. It's time to bring her home and I'm sure that Senator Millary and his wife would appreciate their daughter back."

"And it would be really good for the CBI to bring her home on Christmas," Jane added.

"Ma'am," Van Pelt spoke up. "Lisbon would do it for any of us."

"She's right," Rigsby said. "She's part of our family. She deserves to be out of that prison. It's taken us long enough to find her."

Hightower turned to Clark. "I assume you have a plan."

"I do," Clark said.

"So you're not going to try to order us to the airport?" Jane asked. He wasn't quite sure what she was up to or still what to make of her. All he knew is that she'd have to kill him in order to get him away from that place. To pull him farther from Lisbon.

"Not after we're all here," Hightower said. "Plus that bloody Red John calling card on the side of that hill was enough for me."

"What calling card?" Jane asked.

Clark frowned. "I was going to tell you. We saw it when we first set this place up. There's a smiley face drawn in what we can only assume is blood in the snow on the hill of the property." He turned around a laptop after calling up a picture so that they could all see. "It might be from your friend…"

"Lisbon has left enough clues," Van Pelt said. "We have to bring her home today."

"Working on it," Clark said. "As I was saying. My team will go in first and do some recon. Once we know what we're facing, then we'll go to phase two. We'll split up into teams and take the house from different sides. Hopefully we'll be able to pull out the girl first and without any problems or confrontation." Clark continued. "I'll have you three with different teams, but Mr. Jane I'm going to request you stay back until it's clear."

"I'm not staying here while you all go up there," Jane said.

"You have to stay back at the very least," Clark said. "That's the best I can do. I can't have you on the front lines when you're not trained and you don't carry a weapon."

"That's fair."

"What about me?" Hightower asked. "I'm here, I may as well help."

"You can come with one of our teams if you like, Ma'am," Clark said.

Hightower nodded.

…

"We're so fired," Van Pelt said as she leaned back in one of the chairs.

They'd grouped up away from everyone else. Especially away from Hightower. They needed the space and the FBI needed the space while Clark made sure that the recon team was ready to go on his orders. Jane was happy that at least he didn't have to worry about Hightower sending them home without Lisbon. He was pretty sure that she may have been surprised at them all refusing to do it.

"Even if we are, at least we're going to get Lisbon back," Rigsby said.

Jane just watched them all. He didn't think that Hightower was actually going to fire them all. He couldn't see her doing something so rash. He didn't quite know her yet, but he was pretty sure that that would look bad for her. To fire a team because they went the extra mile to bring home one of their own who had been held captive for months. At the very least, if it got to the papers Hightower would probably have to be reassigned or retire. He missed Minelli. He was more pliable.

"We'll be fine," Jane told them all.

"How can you be so sure?" Rigsby asked.

"Think about how that would look."

"Jane's right," Cho said. "The media would have a field day with a story like that. I'm sure she wouldn't want the press and the CBI wouldn't want it either. We made the right call. We all know that. And it's going to be worth it. Though, we may have official letters of reprimand put in our files. I'm pretty sure that it's worth it."

"It is," Van Pelt agreed.

Rigsby nodded.

He was happy that at least the FBI had been thoughtful enough to bring out easy-up covers so that they were somewhat protected from the snow. The chairs helped too, though Jane wouldn't have minded if they had brought a space heater as well. The FBI looked like they were well prepared for this weather, though so did Van Pelt and Cho and Rigsby…he was cold but not freezing. He'd be fine, but he couldn't wait to get Lisbon and then sit down for a nice cup of hot tea.

Soon, Jane thought. Soon, he'd be able to hold her and to tell her how sorry he was. Soon enough he'd be reunited with Teresa Lisbon. He didn't care if she hated him or loved him, he just wanted her back. Time felt slow right now, but he knew that it wouldn't soon enough…

It would all be worth it…soon enough.

…

TBC…