A/N: I have been away for a while and I'm out of practice, but hopefully you will read and enjoy this little story. I'm not too sure if I can stick to my usual daily update pattern, but I'll try my best:)

Spoilers for episode 3x16. As usual, I don't own The Mentalist.

Chapter 1

The lamp on her desk created a small circle of light into the dimness of the evening. The CBI building was quiet, air conditioning humming to itself in the background, only low murmurs of few people mingling with it. It was late and most people had gone home for the day. Lisbon and her team were around waiting for some information to finally make a break in their present case.

They had been busy with a case involving a family feud, a rich family's feud, and all the intricacies and lies had kept them busy for the better part of the week, especially as Jane had been absent. Since Hightower's escape the man had been spending more and more time alone in his attic and barely acknowledging their existence. He was evasive when Lisbon asked what he was doing and tried to avoid her and the rest of the team. Lisbon grudgingly admitted that the present case would have been solved quicker if Jane had been poking around and annoying those snotty people into revealing themselves sooner, although she wasn't going to admit that to Jane and his larger than life ego.

XXXXXX

Lisbon raised tiredly her head as she heard the approaching footsteps. She was too numb and tired to really care who it was, but it was her duty and she be damn if she didn't do her best to function as the lead agent. It was getting more and more difficult though and it spoke volumes of Lisbon's character that she was still hanging with her nails and teeth, making it through each day and each case. She had tried to put the tiredness, numbness and general weariness down to not sleeping well and being busy at work, but there was a tiny voice in her head telling her otherwise. It has started after the mess with Hightower, which was a shocking blow to Lisbon who had respected the woman and even liked her. As she had always prided herself to be a good judge of character, the reveal had made her to doubt her instincts. But she pushed all that to the back of her head, refusing to acknowledge that she was affected badly by Hightower's departure.

Cho popped his head and studied her carefully, his emotions carefully hidden, but the quick flash of worry didn't escape Lisbon. She appreciated his silence though as he knew how private she was. Lisbon was aware that her team were worried about her, but luckily they didn't push it.

Her thoughts turned to Jane. He should have been the one to read her like a book and offer some silly escape to distract her. Lisbon knew he was avoiding her and she let him. She didn't have the energy to mother him and it wasn't like her to ask when she needed something.

"We've got the location of the suspect, boss," he said calmly. This was the information they had been waiting for.

"Let's go then," Lisbon said and stood up wearily, but straightening her posture before stepping out of her office following Cho.

There was no need to let the others see her fatigue, she thought, unaware how they already knew that she was close to the edge, but not knowing how to stop her toppling over.

"Is Jane coming?" Lisbon asked the room in general.

"I asked him. He said he was busy," Cho replied stoically, although annoyance was clearly visible in his voice.

Lisbon looked at her agents who were ready to take down one more criminal, and gestured them to lead the way.

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Jane was flopped down on his bed in the attic when he heard the team leaving. He frowned absentmindedly, but put the thoughts of the team out of his mind. He was concentrating on how to spring a trap on Red John now that he must think that their defenses were slacker as Hightower has taken all the blame.

Jane had taken his own advice and hadn't told anyone about the innocence of Hightower and he planned to keep it that way. He was narrowmindedly obsessing about Red John again as he was sure that he was getting closer.

All the mundane job of CBI and the cases was nothing to him compared to this and he had withdrawn into his own world venturing out only when it suited his needs. He did feel a pang of guilt when he saw Lisbon and how tired she looked, but he kept telling himself that it was just the tiredness of working hard now that he wasn't helping them.

He went back to his scheming.

XXXXXX

Lisbon and the team drove to the warehouse and got out of their cars. They slapped on their vests and paused to look around. The warehouse wasn't large and other buildings loomed over it. Everything was quiet but they could see some of the lights on inside. A side door was open. They quietly and efficiently entered the building and started searching for their suspect who was suppose to be there. Cho and Rigsby took the second floor while Lisbon and Van Pelt continued on the ground floor.

Van Pelt was just coming out of a room along a long corridor when she saw Lisbon opening the door to a room on the opposite side. Lisbon whipped out her gun.

"CBI! Drop the weapon!" Lisbon shouted. Van Pelt drew her own gun and approached cautiously.

There was no answer to Lisbon's orders and Van Pelt saw her hesitate and lower her gun just a few inches. All hell broke loose.

A shot was fired and Lisbon was thrown across the corridor thudding painfully to a halt against the wall. Van Pelt saw a silhouette moving to the door raising a gun and she aimed at the visible hand and pressed a trigger. A painful yelp could be heard as a gun rattled to the floor.

Van Pelt cautiously approached the doorway not risking looking at Lisbon as her concentration had to be kept on the suspetc. She could hear Cho and Rigsby running and they arrived only a moment later. Cho was already calling the ambulance and crouched down to Lisbon and Rigsby helped her to apprehend their suspect who was crying foul play and police brutality.

XXXXXX

When Cho was running down the corridor and saw that Van Pelt had the suspect under control, he concentrated on the small figure on the floor. Even from this far, he could see that Lisbon wasn't moving and that there were dark stains against her neck. He pulled out his phone while still running.

"Agent down! We need paramedics now!" Cho barked and stuffed the phone back to his pocket when he reached Lisbon.

She was leaning against the wall in a limp heap, her head lolling to one side, her eyes closed. Her vest had taken two bullets but the third, a large caliber bullet by the looks of it had hit her in the junction of the neck and shoulder and she was bleeding profusely.

Cho shut down his emotions, leaving his panic and terror to clamour inside their cage in the back of his mind, as he shrugged out of his jacket and used it to apply pressure on the wound. This elicited a moan in response from Lisbon and her eyelashes fluttered.

"Hang on boss," Cho told her, "help is coming."

Lisbon managed to open her eyes a little, but didn't have any energy to lift her head.

"I failed Cho," she whispered.

"I hesitated, didn't trust myself..." Lisbon continued weakly.

"You did nothing wrong, boss. Now hush, save your strength," Cho told her while trying to stem the bleeding.

Rigsby and Van Pelt had come out of the room with their suspect and their eyes widened as they took in the scene. Cho glared at them.

"Take him away," he growled and the suspect visible shrank back in response to his voice.

Van Pelt and Rigsby started marching him out when the paramedics ran in and all Cho's concentration went into helping them to help Lisbon while her blood kept flowing in between his fingers.

TBC