Disclaimer - The Mentalist belongs to Bruno Heller and CBS. Not me. Obviously.

A/N – Sorry for the delay with this one. I've been busy recently - too busy to think, let alone write - but I finally found some time to get something down. To make up for the wait, I've added a little action into this chapter, so hopefully this update will be a bit more exciting than usual. I hope you enjoy it!

~ Chapter Seven ~

Plan A

Jane scrunched his face up in concentration. "Okay…erm, is it an animal?"

"Nope," came Liam's confident reply.

Jane feigned surprise as he furrowed his eyebrows in concentration once again. They'd been playing the game for a good couple of hours already, but for some reason Liam wasn't bored of it yet. Jane didn't mind that so much though; he'd always loved playing games like this with Charlotte, and – although he felt immensely guilty for the thought, considering the fact that they were still in incredible danger – Jane found that he was glad he was being given another chance to have this kind of interaction.

"It's not an animal?" he asked, exaggerating his surprise. "Are you sure?"

Liam nodded seriously. "It's not an animal, I swear."

"Alright," Jane replied, pausing to give the appearance of intense thought. He had to supress his smile though. "Let me see. Hmm...is it an alien animal?"

Liam giggled loudly at Jane's ridiculous guess and Jane allowed a large grin to cross his face. They had been left alone all night by Jane's best guess, and both of them were well and truly fed up. Jane figured that it was probably morning – a good few hours after dawn now – so they could probably expect a visit from the 'goons' any time now. And when someone did eventually come and check on them…well, Jane had a plan.

Not a particularly good one, he admitted to himself silently, but since he had recently been drugged, knocked out and punched in the ribs, he was rather impressed that he'd managed to come up with any sort of plan at all.

Jane shook himself slightly and shoved those particularly depressing thoughts away as best he could, forcibly turning his attention back to the boy beside him. Plan or not, Jane knew he had to keep Liam's spirits up, hence the game of twenty questions of course. The fact that Jane was also having fun was just an added bonus…

"No it's not any kind of animal," Liam reiterated, although his grin told Jane that he was amused rather than annoyed. Good.

"Okay," Jane said slowly, smiling slightly. "Is it a plant?"

Liam rolled his eyes. "Yeah, it's a plant.""

"Right," Jane continued. "Is it…"

His voice trailed off as the sound of footsteps reached his ears. It was faint, but clear. Someone was coming…

"What - ?"

"Shh," Jane hissed to Liam, and the boy immediately closed his mouth. Jane took a deep breath to try and calm his heartbeat. No sense in panicking Liam as well. "Listen to me, okay. This is very important. I need you to be very brave. Can you do that Liam?"

Liam nodded, but fear lit up his young face. Jane felt apprehension clench his stomach as well, but he did his best to shove it back down. He needed to be strong.

It was time to implement his plan.

He'd done a lot of thinking last night and had come to only one conclusion. He had to contact Lisbon. He was well out of his depth here, and truthfully it was only a matter of time before the goons got rid of them, with or without the ransom. If he'd been on his own, Jane might have waited it out a bit longer, maybe until the ransom was finally demanded, but with Liam to think about, he knew he had to act sooner rather than later.

No matter what the price, he would make sure Liam was safe.

Jane squared his shoulders slightly as he looked back to Liam. He had the boy's undivided attention. Good.

"Okay," Jane whispered, well aware that the footsteps were almost upon them. "Liam, I have a plan, but I'm going to need your help, okay?"

"Are you going to get us out of here?" Liam replied quietly.

"I'm going to try," Jane said hoarsely, his mouth becoming drier the longer he considered how risky his plan actually was. Jane shook himself slightly. "But I need you to be really quiet okay. Go and lie down over there by the corner and pretend to be asleep. Can you do that?"

"But – "

"No, Liam," Jane whispered frantically. "It's very important, okay. No matter what happens, no matter what they do to me, you need to stay quiet. Don't get involved, alright? Keep pretending to be asleep"

The boy looked back at him, terrified eyes boring into his. Jane swallowed, praying to a god he didn't believe in that this stupid plan of his wasn't stupid enough to get them both killed.

"Okay, Patrick," Liam eventually mumbled after a long moment, and without another word, the boy walked quickly over to the corner where they'd slept and lay straight down on the floor to rest his head on the makeshift pillow.

"Good boy," Jane said softly as he turned his attention back to the door. It was not a moment too soon as well, because whoever had come to check on them had finally arrived at the bolted door. The bolt was removed, and Jane saw light flicker into the room as the door began to squeak open. He steeled himself as best he could.

It was time.

"Anything, Grace?"

Lisbon watched as Van Pelt looked up from her notes, glancing worriedly at the rest of the team, who were all sat around the conference table and eagerly awaiting news. Lisbon sighed slightly; she was just as eager at the rest of them of course, but she was trying desperately not to give in to the feeling. She was the boss, like it or not, and if they had any hope of finding Jane, Lisbon knew that she needed to stay calm, in control, and as objective as possible.

"I've checked with the Crime Scene guys," Van Pelt told the team, "But there was nothing at the scene to link any Jane's past clients to the scene."

"And the kid?" Lisbon asked, trying to taper back her worry. "Have we seen any sign of him?"

"Nothing so far," answered Cho.

"So he could be alive then, boss?" interjected Rigsby hopefully.

"For now we're going to work on that assumption," Lisbon decided. "It can't be a coincidence. Both Jane and the boy were last seen at that location. We're going to treat this case as a double kidnapping until we know otherwise."

"What do you want us to do now then, boss?" asked Cho with a nod of acceptance at her decision.

"You and Rigsby, go talk to the boy's family. See if they've heard from the kidnappers yet about a ransom."

"Okay, boss," chorused the two of them.

"And me?" asked Van Pelt.

"Grace, I need you to see if you can find a link between Jane and the kid. Go through all his records if you have to. The kidnappers have taken them both for a reason. We need to find out what that reason is."

"Yes, boss."

Without another word, the team dispersed to tackle the tasks they'd been set. Alone once again, Lisbon ran a shaky hand through her hair as she pulled herself out of the chair and made her way back to her office.

Someone had taken Jane and an innocent child, and she was going to do everything she could to find out who was behind it.

No matter what it took, she was going to bring him back.

"That's so much better," Jane sighed, turning away from the urinal. Careful not to make eye contact with the goon who had escorted him to the restroom, Jane walked slowly over to the sinks as he pondered the best time to make his move.

Soon, he decided after thinking it over from every possible angle. Right now, Liam was still safely tucked away in the storeroom, so Jane knew that if he was going to act, now would be the best time to do it.

"Move it," growled the goon. The large man was standing by the opposite wall, his arms crossed threateningly, a gun - almost certainly loaded - held firmly in one of his ridiculously large hands. Jane gulped slightly. God, this was a stupid plan...

"Come on, hurry up."

"I am, I am," Jane mumbled as he washed his hands. As surreptitiously as he could, Jane cupped his hand so that he could collect some of the water. He steeled himself; now to wait for the perfect moment.

After a few seconds of waiting, the goon moved closed to Jane, trying to work out what was taking him so long.

"What –?"

Before the man could finish his sentence, Jane spun around and threw the water into the goon's eyes, causing the man to stagger back slightly as he threw a hand up to his face. Quickly, using the element of surprise to his advantage, Jane hit down onto the goon's other arm with all the strength he could muster, successfully managing to knock the gun out of his hand and send it clattering to the floor.

Good, Jane thought as he let out a heavy breath. Now for the next phase of the plan…

Jane charged at the man as hard as he could before the goon had any chance to recover, hoping that he still had the element of surprise over the much larger man. Jane collided with a thud, and although the wind left his lungs on impact, somehow he managed to knock the goon back slightly with the contact.

The large man soon recovered though, and quickly pushed Jane away from him, sending him straight into the wall. Jane managed to protect himself for the most part, but he still felt a shooting pain race across his shoulder as he hit the wall at speed.

Ow…

Before he could get into any position to defend himself, the goon was on Jane in a flash, grabbing his shirt as he yanked him away from the wall.

Jane braced himself for the impact he knew was coming. The goon's fist flew at his face before he could even register it though, and Jane's head snapped to the side from the force of the punch. His legs collapsed from under him, and it was only the goon's firm grip on his shirt that kept him upright.

"You little bastard," the goon growled, shoving Jane backwards so that he hit the wall again. He gave Jane no time to recover before he released another punch, this time aiming for his ribs. The contact was hard and fast, and sent the air from Jane's lungs. Pain clouded his mind, but he pushed it away as best he could.

"I'm…sorry…" Jane mumbled, still a little disorientated.

"Too late for that now," the goon replied angrily. "You're just lucky the boss said we should keep you alive. Not sure he'll be saying the same after I tell him about this little stunt."

"No," Jane mumbled. "Please…"

"Save it for someone who cares," the larger man growled. He yanked on Jane's shirt, pulling him to the door and out into the corridor.

Jane stumbled along as the man dragged him back to the storage room. He tried to keep his mind clear, but the constant ringing in his ears made that task almost impossible.

"Ow…"

"Shut it," growled the goon, yanking open the door to the storage room and pushing Jane in. Jane stumbled, but couldn't keep balanced, and he fell to the floor in a heap of pain.

"Ow..."

Before Jane could even think of pulling himself to his feet, the door had been slammed firmly behind him, leaving him in the dark once again. At this point, Jane couldn't really care less. God, that hurt…

"Patrick?"

"I'm okay," Jane replied hoarsely, trying not to cough in case he panicked the boy any more. He couldn't prevent a groan from escaping though. That goon had really do a number on his ribs…

"No, you're not," came the quiet reply.

"No, I'm not," Jane agreed, trying to pull himself over to the wall where Liam had been pretending to sleep.

"Did they hurt you?"

"A little," Jane replied as he pulled himself to sit next to the boy. He closed his eyes as he willed the dizziness in his head to calm long enough for him to get through what he needed to do next.

With a little more effort than it usually required, Jane turned his head and forced his eyes open so that he could see the kid. Liam was frowning at him, and Jane wondered if the boy was scared or just worried. Meh, he was too tired to work it out...

"This was your plan?" Liam asked, still frowning.

"Yep," Jane replied tiredly.

"It was stupid."

"Yep," Jane repeated with a nod and a small grin. Thankfully the dizziness was calming somewhat now, although his ribs were still aching fiercely.

Liam gave him a quick look, apparently taking in his haggard appearance. The frown remained. "Did it work?"

"Yep."

Turning his body slightly, Jane fished around in his trouser pocket until his fingers clasped tightly around his prize, his whole reason for the fight in the first place. With care, and no small amount of pride, Jane presented his 'winnings' to the kid, whose frown quickly turned into an excited smile.

It was a cell phone, pickpocketed from the goon during the fight.

Time to call in the cavalry.

A/N - So, how was it? The plot is definitely going to move more quickly now, and there's plenty more action to come, I can assure you of that. How do you think I'm doing with the action so far? Usually I'm much more comfortable writing dialogue than action, so I'd appreciate some feedback if you've got a spare moment. If not, thanks for all the positive responses I've had so far, and most of all, thanks for reading!