Chapter one: Night Out

It was Friday night. Jane and Lisbon were in their hotel suite. They needed to be out at 8.30pm for the limo to pick them up. Jane was dressed as usual but for this dinner party he put on a black tie. He looked very handsome in his smoking, or at least that was what Lisbon thought. Teresa Lisbon was, as every other woman, in the bathroom getting her make-up done. She was wearing a knee-short black dress with a round décolleté and wearing some Jimmy Choo heels. Just a red lipstick was missing and her outfit looked more than perfect. When she put that on, she walked out of the bathroom and turned off the light. "Oh wow" Jane was speechless. "You look stunning", he said. Lisbon smiled. She actually enjoyed it getting dressed for him. And since he bought her that small Chanel bag she always wanted but couldn't decide either to get it or not, Jane, by buying this bag, made her the happiest person. "It's time to go now. Otherwise we'll be late for the dinner party. And you don't really want to make Zoe and Drake wait, do you?" Patrick asked her as pointing at the door. "All right, all right. I'm just putting the lipstick in my bag and we can go" she said while reaching for the bag lying on their bed. "Okay. Let's go then" she smiled and walked out the hotel room first. Jane grabbed the keys and shut the door. Teresa already pressed the button for the elevator to come and it opened as soon as Patrick was standing right next to her. He gave her a smile and both walked in. When they arrived at floor zero, Lisbon could already see a black stretch limo waiting outside the building. She got excited but could hide it. Jane was cool about it. Before he was working for the CBI he got around a lot, and also limos were part of his fabulous life. The driver was opening the door for Lisbon and Jane to get in and so they did. Now, you could only see the wheels spinning and the car drove fast towards the big Plaza where the dinner party was expected to take place.

This has been the team's most difficult and longest case. Jane and Lisbon were undercover for six months by now. They were solving missing cases that kept on happening every two weeks. During their fourth months they finally found out who the kidnapper was but they had no evidence. And so they made it their mission to collect the evidence against him to put an end to the kidnapping. It was easier to say than to do so actually because he was really good. The roles of this undercover operation were clear: Lisbon and Jane would be playing an engaged couple coming from the upper class of the Californian population. Van Pelt, Rigsby and Cho were doing the paper work, finding papers on potential suspects, observing the suspects, interrogating them and everything they were used to. Occasionally they met Lisbon and Jane to get more information or inform the two about new leads they must check. There was no real contact between the team but some meetings were played out. This operation was planned much through and nobody could allow themselves any mistakes. Everyone was just already too much involved in this.

"Your names, please" said one of the waiter in front of the inner entrance to the restaurant in the Plaza. "Jess Andrews and Patrick Jane" Jane said. Lisbon smiled at him for pronouncing her undercover name in his softest voice. Over the past few months she got to love his voice. It was so kind and gentle and it would minor her fear whenever they were caught up in a scary situation. And they were, a lot. "Mr and Mrs Stevens are already awaiting you at table fifteen." the waiter gestured them to come in. "Thank you" Lisbon replied while Jane was putting her in front of him to go first. " Hi Zoe! Drake." Lisbon said when she finally saw them sitting at the table. "Oh Jess! You look … just wow" Drake started off. "Yes, sweetie. You look beautiful" Zoe smiled. Lisbon had to bond with Zoe. It was a "forced friendship" which Lisbon seemed to enjoy though. Zoe wasn't her type of person to be around with but she enjoyed having a girlfriend who she was able to talk to about anything. It was reliving. "Baby, what do you want to drink?" Patrick asked Lisbon. "I'm gonna take whatever you take, sweetie. I'm not picky with wine, you know" she replied while smiling at him. There was no strange reaction as usually when he called her any sweet names. She was used to it and she clearly enjoyed it, too. "You two are an amazing couple. I can't stop saying that. Right, Drake?" Zoe asked her husband while he nodded and turned to Patrick because he seemed to have something left to talk about.

Zoe and Drake Stevens were both working for the State of California. He was a judge and she was a local PR-consultant for the LAPD. However, they often met at Zoe and Drake's house. They became friends and so were also the conversations with them - never ending and very friendly driven.

Today, Lisbon and Jane wanted to finally find out who was solving the kidnapping crime matters at the LAPD because the actual kidnapper worked in this exact team. It was sad to know that it was one of the actually "good" people who are fighting for justice. But crime stays crime and so there was a huge need of evidence. The discussions lead them to a man named James Putchkin who was a colleague of Harry Fort. Lisbon knew that Putchkin has nothing to do with it but it was actual Fort who let all evidence disappear and who also was the man they were looking for.

The evening was quite long and they got a new lead on how finding some proof which would lead up to Fort but they couldn't do much. Jane and Lisbon would have to meet the team any time soon. They would give in the papers and documents they have collected so far. Maybe it will be enough evidence for Rigsby and Cho to get a search warrant? Lisbon was hoping for it.

She couldn't do much about it and so she decided to just have fun and talk to Zoe and Drake and drinking some wine with her "fiancé".