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

A/N - Hello one and all! Yes, believe it or not, it is another chapter! I'm not usually this quick to update (quite the opposite really) but your reviews after the last chapter were so kind and uplifting that it inspired me to write this, and with very little cajoling needed on my part as well. I won't say much more since I left the last chapter on a bit of a cliff-hanger, but just know that I really appreciate all your support and I hope that you like this newest instalment!

~ Chapter Ten ~

Knights in Shining Armour

All Jane knew was pain. Mind-numbing pain, the kind that was hot and cold, stinging and achy all at once. It was the kind of pain that made it difficult to think about anything else, to even comprehend life free from it. It covered his whole body, sinking deep into bones and his mind, making him lose something, some small part of himself in the process.

Reality mixed with dreams, pain with numbness. Vaguely he got the impression that he was lying down, but he couldn't confirm even that, so stressed was his body. He groaned, somewhere between consciousness and black oblivion, memories flashing through his mind with alarming speed, though they were interspersed with snapshots of what Jane suspected was reality. Everything looked blurry, out of focus and unnaturally bright, and yet Jane was equally certain that his eyes were closed.

God, he hurt...

He floated through his mind, his body unmoving and useless, no more in control of his journey than he had been during the kidnapping. That thought brought more flashes of pain, some dizziness, as well as the urge to throw up, so Jane shoved the thought as far away from his memory palace as he could.

Dammit, he really hurt…

He couldn't ever remember feeling in this much pain. There was no part of him untouched, no part of him that didn't feel like ten thousand knives were jabbing through his skin. He heard himself groan again, but the noise sounded far off, as if it hadn't even been him at all, and his heartbeat, his pulse, thudded loudly in his ears, almost like a ticking clock, counting down the seconds until his life ran out. He groaned once more.

At least he thought it was him groaning. Maybe someone else was hurt, Jane considered tiredly, though he couldn't even imagine anyone feeling any worse than he did at the moment. Pain flushed through him once again, making him sick to the stomach and he groaned again.

Oh, that had definitely been him. Even his heartbeat hadn't been able to drown out that pathetic sound. Damn.

Heat flushed through him unexpectedly, and Jane panicked slightly, half-expecting his heart to give out, or his lungs to stop breathing in air. Each breath stung as if his lungs were on fire, but they were keeping him on this earth. Pain was...well, painful, but at least it was a reminder that he was alive. He clung to that thought, at least until the pain in his head flared up again. Then he went back to wishing someone would just put him out of his misery.

Oh, this was not good, Jane thought, grasping on to that one erratic thought with everything he had. Lisbon would kill him if he died.

That thought led him back to the hope that he was still clinging to with every ounce of strength he still had. Lisbon was coming. He'd called her, she'd answered, and Jane knew she would come. Even if it was too late for him, even if he didn't quite survive long enough for her to rescue him this time, Jane knew that not only would she seek justice for him, but she would make sure that not a hair would be harmed on Liam's head.

God, Liam...

Guilt tore at his chest, momentarily overtaking the very real pain that he could still feel there. He should have protected Liam better. Now the kid was on his own, with no one to save him. If Lisbon somehow didn't get here in time…

Jane pushed that thought away as well

His despair and fear was a little harder to get rid of, however. The truth was, his greatest weapon – his unbreakable fortress of a mind – had been nullified and beaten into submission. He was vulnerable now, not just to further physical pain – although that seemed to have stopped for the moment, he realised – but to the nightmares that he was usually able to hide. They crept up on him now, taunting him and haunting him with every mistake he had ever made, every life he had ever screwed up, including his own. Faces flashed before him in his increasing delirium, memories better left forgotten that were now shoving their way to the front of his mind. Pain ravaged his body but the ache in his heart and mind rivalled anything he had ever felt in his physical being.

Whether it was the drugs, the beating, the no doubt serious head injury…Jane couldn't be sure. All he knew was that he no longer the person he had been. No longer confident, arrogant, sure of himself. Now he was just tired, somewhere between life and death, hoping for nothing more than for peace, and knowing more than anything that he didn't deserve it.

She took a deep steadying breath.

This was it, Lisbon said to herself as she watched the men and women sat around her in the back of the van, observing silently as they checked their weapons and donned their bullet-proof vests.

The moment of truth was here. They had a probable location, they had their likely suspects, and they had the necessary back-up to deal with them. Once the raid began, there was no going back. Lisbon knew that she needed to accept that now, before they got to the abandoned office building they had uncovered, before they found out whether they had acted swiftly enough, or whether they had been too late.

They would either find Jane or they wouldn't, and Lisbon realised, in a way that she had never considered before, how much of her life from this point on depended on the outcome. Jane had been annoying and troublesome from the moment she had first seen his handsome face and his tortured eyes, and yet somehow, at some point, he had wormed his way into her heart. She wasn't even sure if it had been intentional on his part, but her life depended on his now; not in a physical sense, for she would still go on living if he died, but in a somewhat more spiritual sense. She simply could not imagine a world without him in it.

When had that happened? She wondered about that as she checked and rechecked her own gun, keeping her hands busy so that no one would see how much they were shaking. She frowned. When had Jane become that important to her?

When he had saved her life, perhaps, shooting down a Red John accomplice, sacrificing that life – a life that could have helped him immeasurably in his quest for revenge – in exchange for hers?

Or had it been during one of the occasions she had saved his life? That had been a more frequent occurrence over their strange partnership, and yet never had she felt beleaguered by that, never had she felt that it was anything less than the most important thing to do. She didn't resent him for putting himself in danger, for risking his life; no, she felt linked to him, as if it made them even closer. Somehow, it meant that she would always save him, that she would always be there to save him.

She frowned as the van began to slow down, clearly nearing its destination.

Or had it been when he had said those fateful words. Love you. Said with honesty and regret and such feeling that she had almost stopped breathing as a result. He had denied it later, but she knew, deep down in her heart, that he had meant it, that he still meant it. And what's more, it had only made her realise how deeply she returned those feelings. Her confusion over it all had long since stopped her from acting upon it, but she could no sooner deny it than she could stop breathing.

Lisbon shook her head forcibly, almost as if she was trying to shake away the very feelings that she could no longer deny. No matter when those feelings had sprung up on her, they were there now, and Jane, with all his schemes, lies and manipulation, was important, and she would do anything to get him back.

She clenched her fist tightly around her gun and glanced around at the other men and women who were sharing the back of the van, pushing her desperation and apprehension as far to the back of her mind as it was possible to go. She knew, with instincts that had been long honed on the job, that concentration had never been as important as it was now. This was a risk – one that everyone here was willing to take, for sure – but a risk none the less, and any number of things could still go wrong. They could have the wrong office building after all. There might be more 'goons' - as Jane had called them - than they were prepared for. Jane and Liam might already be dead...

She watched the agents in the back of the van with her, taking in their steel gazes and determination, the sight lightening her heart slightly despite the apprehension that was threatening to overwhelm her. Oh, these people were well aware of the dangers, and, like her, were quite prepared to take the risk. No matter what happened during the raid; whether they found Jane or not, whether they had made it in time or not, these people would give everything they had to the job. No one, least of all her, could ask for more.

'We're coming Jane,' she thought, eyes gleaming with her own determination. 'We're coming.'

They went in hard and fast, guns blazing and adrenaline pumping, no further doubts in their minds.

Their brief surveillance on the building had confirmed it. This was the place.

Lisbon followed Cho, gun raised steadily, her heart beating forcibly in her chest as adrenaline coursed through her. The teams split up, searching for the culprits, searching for Jane and Liam, hoping to find them alive. Lisbon stayed with Cho, following him up a flight of stairs into an empty corridor, eyes focused on her surroundings as they made their way down it.

When they turned the next corner, a large man jumped in front of them as if from nowhere, gun raised and face mirroring their own steely determination. Without pausing to think, Lisbon shot, the bullet hitting right between the eyes. Cho's own bullet had caught the unknown assailant right in the forehead.

They looked at each other, a unspoken moment passing between them, then they moved on.

They continued to search, Lisbon all the while praying that when they turned the next corner, or opened the next door, they would be greeted with Jane's silly grin and dishevelled blond hair. So far though, nothing. Her heart ached with every second that they searched without finding any sign of him. Maybe he hadn't been here after all...

Lisbon's radio crackled. It was Rigsby.

"Boss, we've got the boy. He seems fine. No sign of Jane though."

"Keep looking," she replied, her own eyes scanning every inch of the corridor as if it would give her the answer she was searching for.

Where the hell are you, Jane?

"Boss," Cho began, interrupting her thoughts as he stopped dead in front of her. "Can you hear that?"

She strained her ears desperately, hope pumping through her. Then she heard it, a faint groaning noise coming from what looked like a storage cupboard beside them. Jane...

She tried to handle, but found it locked. Without pausing to even consider a better solution, Lisbon took a step back, before ramming her entire weight against the door, channelling every second of worry she had felt over the last couple of days, every desperate moment and flash of anger.

The door snapped open, and Lisbon fell through, Cho following close behind with his gun raised.

"Jane!" Lisbon cried, striding over to her blond consultant without a thought to her own safety. All she could concentrate on was the man lying on the floor, bloodied, bruised, and not moving.

Was he…?

Without wasting another second, she dropped to her knees beside his broken body and thrust her hand forward, feeling his neck for a pulse, all the time praying that they were not too late. Her heart was beating loudly in her ears, so much so that she could barely hear anything else, and it was only when she concentrated harder that she began to feel his pulse too. His was thready, weak, but it was there. Then Jane groaned, and she almost collapsed in relief, sagging slightly to the floor as he began to shift slightly beside her. Only her stoic professionalism kept her mostly upright.

"How is he?" asked Cho as he moved closer, gun still raised protectively.

"Alive," Lisbon breathed, her hand shaking so badly that she had to clench it to stop it from showing. She tried to get a hold of herself, though it turned out to be easier said than done. "Cho, call an ambulance, get someone here quick."

Cho immediately got on the radio, and Lisbon was glad he'd been there as back-up because there was just no way in hell she was leaving her consultant's side, not now that they had found him alive. She turned back to him and brushed a hair from his forehead, but he groaned again and it made her still her movements immediately.

God, he was hurt, Lisbon thought numbly as if only just realising it for the first time. And badly...

Shaking herself slightly, Lisbon began to check his body for any serious injuries, relief slowly giving way to worry once again as she realised just how serious his condition was. Her eyes travelled from the top of his head, right down to his feet – still glad in his old brown shoes – cataloguing everything from the bruises and blood on his face, to the incredibly swollen shoulder.

"Oh, Jane…" she mumbled to herself. Thankfully, nothing seemed immediately life-threatening, although had they waited much longer, it might have become more serious. As it was, it looked like they had got to him just in time...

"Lis...bon."

Startled, Lisbon's eye's shot down to her consultant, only to find that his own eyes were open; glazed over slightly, and squinting in confusion, but definitely, miraculously open.

"Jane?" Lisbon breathed.

"Lisbon?" Jane mumbled, his eyes shutting once again, as if they had been just too heavy to keep open. "That...you?"

"Yeah, its me, Jane," she replied shakily.

"Hurts," he muttered, a grimace crossing his bloody and bruised face.

"I know, Jane," Lisbon replied softly, taking one of his hands in hers, gripping it lightly. "You're going to be okay. Help is on the way, Jane. You're going to be fine. We'll get you fixed up in no time."

"Not...hospital," he mumbled, groaning slightly once again. Lisbon felt tears come to her eyes. "Hate...hospitals."

"Sorry, Jane," Lisbon replied shakily. "The hospital is non-negotiable this time."

"Damn." A small smile crossed his face, and despite his condition, despite the pain she knew he was clearly still feeling, Lisbon felt herself return it.

"Lisbon...?" he mumbled quietly, and she moved her head closer to his so that she could hear him. He opened his eyes once again, though he didn't seem to be able to open them all the way.

Lisbon swallowed deeply. "Yeah, Jane?"

"You…saved me…again," he mumbled, eyes still closed. "Thanks. Sorry…so useless…"

"You weren't useless Jane," Lisbon said softly, cradling his head as her eyes met Cho's, imploring him to speed up the ambulance that was on its way. "We're here because you led us here."

But Jane didn't seem to be able to hear her anymore, his eyes glazing over once more as the pain seemed to take over him.

"Lisbon," Jane whispered, voice hoarse and weak.

"Yeah, Jane?" she asked.

"Love you," he muttered, and then he closed his eyes and said no more.

A/N – So, how was it? I must say, I really enjoyed writing this, especially this ending. I realise that there are quite a lot of loose ends to tie up, and I promise that answers will come in the next few chapters, but for now, I hope you enjoyed it and thanks for reading!