I wanted to write a fic with Red John as one of the main characters, but I wasn't getting any plot bunnies. Then I was doing the 30 Days meme on Tumblr, and while making a photoset for season one, I got this idea. Set, of course, in and around Red John's Footsteps.

I don't own anything, just the lovely Dell that I typed this all up on.

Red John had suspected that perhaps the trap he had set for Jane would not work. He'd 'known' the man a while now, and he wasn't completely susceptible to the serial killer's plays. He knew how to one up a lot of people, and Red John would have been a tad disappointed had Patrick Jane not attempted to pull said one up on him.

So, in order to stay one step ahead, Red John had to plant seeds. Seeds that might sprout immediately, seeds that might sprout a decade down the road…and seeds that Red John had control over when and how he wanted them to germinate. Make Patrick Jane think that he was going to win this time, while instead the consultant would be performing, being the data in an experiment of Red John's manufacturing, giving the killer information that he could use to torture Jane for years to come.

The way to stay one step ahead of Patrick Jane was to make two plans. The first one, the plan that Jane was expected to figure out, the plan that Jane was expected to try and one up.

And then there was the second plan, the secret plan, the real plan, the plan that worked because Jane tried to foil the first plan.

But for this one to work, Red John needed a tethered goat.

His plan was a year in the making, from the moment he had gotten back in touch with Sheriff Hardy, a man deeply in love with a girl in his town, a man who would rather die than not be with her, and a man who knew he'd have to risk death to have that chance.

A man in love was a perfect plaything. A perfect tool.

He contacted Hardy, and they bonded over the person that they'd had in common, the sheriff's late father. He let the man believe that they were friends, took him to his lover's house for Thanksgiving, and told him that he was as worthy a companion as his father had been. And then he told him of his plan.

Kidnap the twins, kill one, take the other – Hardy's beloved – to the house. If the CBI got close enough, try and get Patrick Jane alone. When sure that Jane wasn't being trailed, take him to Red John. Simple enough. And his reward? A life with Maya.

Hardy agreed willingly. He'd do anything to be with Maya, and he wasn't exactly Patrick Jane's biggest fan. It'd be fulfilling for him to deliver the man that Red John wanted so badly into the killer's hands. He promised to faithfully execute the plan.

But wait, Red John said as Hardy was rising from his chair. There was one more thing. If Hardy couldn't have Maya, he would rather be dead, was that correct? Hardy affirmed that it was.

Very good. Then there was one thing that Hardy must do if he was somehow captured.

Hardy had failed. He knew this, Maya was in the hands of the medics and he himself was handcuffed on a gurney, ready to be taken into interrogation, where they would attempt to get him to talk. To give up the man who had given him his only chance to be with the woman that he loved. To betray the man who had been his sole source of hope ever since his father's death.

Never.

So Hardy began fiddling with his handcuffs. He had one more thing that he had to do for Red John. He had to put him one step ahead.

Get free, if you can, the killer had told him. And grab a gun.

Hardy jumped up and reached, robbing one of the officers of their firearm.

Point it at Agent Teresa Lisbon.

Hardy rotated, the barrel of the gun aimed straight at a fatal region of the senior agent's small body.

And wait.

Hardy hesitated, holding the gun out, not firing. Taking in the terrified look in the woman's eyes.

Waiting for someone to shoot him.

And then someone did. And it was the exact someone that gave Red John the one up that he was hoping for.

Patrick Jane.

Hardy felt the bullet pierce his hide and he fell, somewhat surprised that Jane had actually done it. He was their lead, their one 'advantage' over Red John. A part of him didn't think that it would be Jane to put him out of his misery. But it was.

Jane threw the gun down as if it had become radioactive, and he ran over to his downed prisoner. Hardy looked up at him. "Red John…" he said, and Jane fell for it, thinking he was going to give something up, thinking he would use his last breath to put Jane one step ahead.

Jane was wrong. Jane had been the one to put Red John one step ahead. And he had absolutely no idea he had done it. Hardy found this incredibly hilarious.

He literally died laughing.

Red John, barely fifty yards away, watched his successfully brainwashed 'protégé' do his bidding, die for the cause of a man who didn't care of the other's fate in the slightest, given him the ultimate advantage in his little game.

Patrick Jane would kill the one man who could potentially give up information on Red John in order to protect Teresa Lisbon.

Very interesting.

This was information, a seed, that Red John could hold in his hand, observing, and he could make it germinate whenever he chose. Teresa Lisbon, from the moment Jane fired that gun on, became a target. A target that Red John could pursue whenever he so chose.

And she had no idea. Neither did Patrick Jane. Neither did her team.

Not yet, anyway.

A slow smile spread over Red John's face. This was going to be fun.