Disclaimer: If I owned The Mentalist we would not be having this season 7 problem.

A/N: Whoop so I haven't written fanfic properly in god knows how long, but I got 1000+ words into this during history lecture on Wednesday and I decided to ride with it. The Pisbon bit at the start was hard to write but necessary, please bare with it. Also: as you read this you might come to wonder "who is Gates?" and the answer is I don't have a clue man but I needed him to propel the story forward for obvious reasons so he's there.

"You didn't," Lisbon was saying in genuine, if not rather polite, amusement.

Marcus grinned, "No no, really!" He replied. He was telling her the messy story of his first arrest. Certainly a memorable moment, when you leaped off a small bridge onto a moving motorboat and tackled the suspect into the water. Of course, compared to the hoops Jane and the old team had gone through Pike's story was little more than tame. She supposed that's what she liked about him most; he was easy. "So," he was saying, "I showed you mine, you show me yours. What was your first arrest like?"

"Oh, I don't know that you really want to hear that story."

"Come on, tell me!"

She didn't really feel like opening up to him, even about something like that, and fortunately she didn't have to as her phone started ringing conveniently. Marcus made a face, and she shrugged teasingly.

"Lisbon," She answered her phone lazily, still smiling.

"Lisbon, it's me," Jane.

"I'm at lunch, Jane," She replied, maybe more out of spite than she intended but no one seemed to notice.

"I, uh, I found Gates' hideout."

Lisbon immediately became focused and unamused, "You what?"

"I found Gates' hideout," He replied simply.

"Do you have backup?" Marcus shot her a questioning look but she ignored it and stood up.

"No, but I don't think he's here."

"You don't think-" She shook her head and gave up, "Where are you?"

"Well, 1162 Pleasant Ave.."

Lisbon gathered her things and continued ignoring Marcus, "I'm coming over there." She tossed some money on the table for her food.

"I don't want to interrupt your lunch," he sounded vaguely upset but she ignored that too.

"Just stay where you are, don't get in any trouble. I'll be-" There was a noise in the background on Jane's side. "What was that?"

"Uh-" He started.

There was rough voice in the background, "Who the hell are you?"

"I was just leaving," Jane replied, but Lisbon could hear the nervousness in his voice.

"Who are you talking to? Put the phone down." The voice demanded. Jane must have obeyed because the line went dead.

Lisbon stood stunned for a second, and then looked over at Marcus who had now stood up as well and was looking at her curiously, "We have to go," she told him, "Jane's in trouble."

They made the drive to 1162 Pleasant Ave. in relative silence. Marcus tried to talk to her a few times but she shot him down. They had called for dispatch immediately but the drive was significantly shorter from where they were; only a couple minutes. It was a dreary looking block building and Lisbon was fairly surprised Jane had gone in alone, but she didn't linger on that for too long. She started towards the entrance.

"Wait, shouldn't we wait for backup?" Marcus looked concerned.

"You can," she responded sharply. He frowned but followed her inside, where they both instinctively fell silent. They had entered into a dimly lit hallway, with a staircase leading off immediately to the left and a few doors on the right.

She signaled for Marcus to go check those and he nodded, then she took a deep breath and descended the stairs. They were concrete, fortunately, so they didn't make a sound. It got cooler and darker and danker with every step and she wondered why anyone would ever want to come down here. Finally she reached the bottom and shined her flashlight around the small, concrete hallway. It felt like a dungeon, she wanted to run right back up the stairs and out into the open but instead she tested the door closest to her. It swung open to a small, empty room, illuminated by small smudgy windows lining the room at the top of the wall.

But the first thing her eyes really fell on was Jane, standing right in the middle. She relaxed when she saw him and took a step instead, but he looked alarmed. Before she could think to look around there was a strong impact to the back of her head, knocking her gun out of her hands and throwing her forward onto her stomach. Her head buzzed and she almost blacked out.

Dammit, she thought, dammit dammit dammit. Her hands roved frantically across the floor for her gun but lights were still bursting at the edge of her vision. There was a swift kick to her abdomen and she collapsed again, but before she knew it rough hands where lifting her up, up, up by her neck, until her feet were off the ground and she was struggling to breath.

She had nearly lost consciousness again before the man, Gates she supposed, finally let her go. Her head whirled so intensely for a moment that she wasn't sure if she was standing or lying down. Then the concrete under her palms told her she was lying. Through the sound of her blood pounding in her head, she heard Jane call out to her and she opened her eyes (which she hadn't known were shut). He was knelt with his eyes downcast, in front of Gates who was holding a gun at him and turned slightly away from her. With a final jolt of anger and fear Lisbon pushed herself to her feat and stumbled forward. Her hands felt numb and lights burst in her eyes again; there was a loud noise, and then suddenly, everything felt frozen. She was standing in front of Jane, who was looking up at her in horror, with her hands on his shoulders. Then she became aware of a shattering pain spreading out from her lower back and she crumpled forward, barely able to breath.

There was a second gunshot that she would only later know was Pike shooting Gates, and then Jane yelling at him to get an ambulance. Oddly enough, Lisbon's head felt clear finally; she could feel Jane's hand on her back over the bullet wound that was sending pain straight through her. He was holding her upright, still on their knees, and whispering just above his breath.

"You're okay," He murmured, holding her more tightly. She wanted to lift her arms around him but she couldn't, "You're gonna be okay." He brushed her hair out of her face and cupped his hand around her jaw and neck, "Look at me, Lisbon. Don't you dare leave me."

She wanted to reassure him but then she wasn't so sure she could. Was she dying? All she could think was there wasn't enough time. There wasn't enough time and she needed to apologize. "I'm sorry," She choked. Jane looked even more mortified than before, and they locked big, scared, teary eyes for a second.

"You're going to be okay," he insisted once more, but she almost thought she heard his voice crack. The edge of her vision was starting to get dark and tears stung the corners of her eyes.

"Jane," She tucked her head against his chest. All she felt was frustrated. Frustrated that she couldn't fight off the unconsciousness invading her brain, frustrated she might not have the time to say everything she wanted to say. "I love you," She murmured. Jane held her tighter. She vaguely thought she heard the sound of sirens before everything faded away.

A/N: Ahhh so, I haven't written in a really long time but I just had to crank this one out. It'll probably be around 4 chapters? Who knows, but I gotta stick with a short-ish story or I might not finish properly. This is also a short chapter, but my attention is not a main virtue of mine so keeping it short helps me organize things. Why I called it "Fall" I also don't know but it seemed the thing to do. Please let me know what you think!