Wonder ~ Patrick Jane "the Mentalist" One-Shots

Traitor

Summary: Red John killed your father and you've been broken ever since. Only one thing has brought happiness back in your life but...will it last?

Warnings: Mild language. Also descriptions of blood and poison symptoms.

A/N: First before I forget, (y/f/b) is (your favorite book), (y/f/c) is (your favorite color) and (s/f) is (shampoo flavor). Ok so that aside, this is a One-Shot requested by @N1nasuc1 and I honestly had way too much fun writing this. It's angsty and less romantic but it's very interesting and I think would make a good fanfiction story on it's own even! Thanks for the request! I hope y'all like this One-Shot! (And yes...the title is kinda a reference to Traitor, by Olivia Rodrigo.)

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For a long time, you thought you could never be happy. Why should you find joy in life, while your father lay cold in his grave, roped off from the fruits of living. You asked yourself the same question every day since his untimely death. Why? Why should you be anything but angry and determined to get justice for your father's murder? He was a good man who did the right thing, but where did it get him? A one-way ticket to six-feet-under. All he did was break down Red John's mind the same way anyone with a degree in Violent Psychotic Behavioral Studies would in a book, except he ventured behind the camera. It wasn't his idea, though, and for that, you hold an eternal, righteous white-hot hate for the television show that hosted your father's 'Red John Portfolio' talk.

If they hadn't been so...so stupid as to think a serial killer like Red John would let himself be 'studied' so publicly without consequence, then maybe, just maybe, your father would still be alive.

Maybe, you could be happy.

That's how you used to think.

Before you fell in love.

Yes, it's cliche to think someone so broken and so bitter could turn their life around because of one person, but it's true. You were working with the CBI when you met him. Your first year with Lisbon's team, you were a consultant. But you trained under each team member until your skills matched theirs. Cho took you to the shooting range daily, the two of you bonding over guns and your stern outtake on life while Rigsby showed you the ropes of his own specialty; analyzing arson. VanPelt let you shadow her on the computer, gradually accolating you to the world of online crime and online justice; how to track down killers using coding and bugs and all that awesome tech stuff you'd never understood before. Lisbon mainly oversaw your training with everyone else, but the two of you went on runs together or did the occasional work out at the gym.

Jane, on the other hand, did little in the realm of teaching. The two of you were always too busy scheming for either to play mentor. Having both suffered at the hands of Red John, you and Jane naturally wanted your revenge. For Jane, he had both his wife and daughter to avenge. The day you met Jane, was the day you found your soulmate. Both of you, broken and driven by vengeance alone, latched onto one another as a life line. You locked hands in the midst of life's tumultuous seas and kept the other afloat. Together, you swore an oath to find Red John and make him pay for all the hurting he caused. You both wanted a shot at killing him and settled on the agreement that you find him together and whoever lays the final blow does it not for themself, but for the both of you.

Mutual revenge.

A rare yet wonderful thing.

So you served as a CBI consultant/apprentice and adopted a sense of purpose to chase away the emptiness in your heart.

That is...until you met him.

Brett Weston, an officer of the law out in Sheriff Hardy's district. The two of you met on a case out in the country. He'd brought everyone coffee and when he handed yours over, the tips of your fingers met for a world shattering, heart stalling second and suddenly, you fell in love.