Hi all,

I'm just trying these characters on for size (so please excuse any anti-characterizations that may appear. Obviously I will be trying to create credible characters). This fic shouldn't be too long, at least I'm hoping it isn't :) It will be a multi-chapter... more notes at the end.

Lonely Secrets

Patrick Jane wandered down the CBI halls, joyfully awaiting the start of another day with his team, well Lisbon's team. But still, he claimed it for his own. And perhaps, he wasn't 'joyfully' awaiting the day, but there was semblance of happiness involved. There always was whenever he was surrounding by these people, these friends; the people who had someone filled a tiny part of the hole that his wife and daughter had left. Teresa Lisbon, Kimball Cho, Grace Van Pelt and Wayne Rigsby.

He heard the faint ping of the elevator, and took a peripheral note of the heavy, yet purposeful steps that followed. He turned slightly, to watch the figure approach Minelli's office. African-American, handsome by anyone's standards and definitely worked for national security. Possibly FBI, more likely CIA or NSA, maybe even homeland security. At the very least, the man carried a gun, which was much more than Jane did.

He set aside this nugget of information and proceeded to his couch. His lovely, friendly, lonely, little couch. Oh dear friend, he thought, did you miss me over the weekend? The team had been away for a case, and they had only returned on Sunday…so he had spent that one night at his house, too tired to let the normal demons terrorize him. He had been pleasantly surprised when he had woken that morning without a hint of a nightmare, a dream that was in fact a memory.

Van Pelt, Rigsby and Cho were all stationed at their normal places, fiddling with coffee cups and paper clips, attempting to make their Monday morning seem normal. Jane relaxed into the couch, feeling the leather slip and shift to support his frame; he really did enjoy this couch.

Lisbon's door was closed. But she was obviously in; it wasn't in her to be late. It was a good fifteen minutes before anything even slightly interesting happened.

Lisbon's door opened, and the fearless leader herself stepped out to make some coffee.

"I'll have a tea, if you're making some beverages." Patrick said quickly, allowing his usual teasing lilt to filter into his voice.

Her back immediately tensed, he knew she'd been hoping that he would continue his ruse of being asleep. He usually did do that, but today had been uneventful so far and a little Lisbon-teasing was in order.

She swallowed a sigh. "Anyone else want anything?" She hadn't even turned around, and she didn't believe in being about to read human behavior herself. It was common knowledge to her that the team loved to watch their interactions. Jane smiled; she really was rather adept at reading people. She just needed to trust herself more, look for the more subjective and interpersonal signals that people threw off, instead of merely relying on the factual and spoken. She had great non-verbal understanding, even if she didn't know that's what it was.

Cho spoke up suddenly, "yes thanks."

Rigsby and Van Pelt soon followed; their choruses of 'yeses' joining the hiss of the machine.

Lisbon smiled at the coffee machine; she had been going to ask anyway. How did Jane always know these things?

After Lisbon had finished making the beverages and had handed them out, with the help of the ever-helpful Jane, the sound of shoes walking toward their office could be heard. Uh oh, she groaned inwardly, couldn't they even get a day's break before the next case landed in her lap? She usually needed at least a twenty-four hour period before she could get on the Jane-chasing/preventing exercise wheel.

Van Pelt looked up eagerly, Minelli and a devastatingly handsome man stopped at the threshold of their collective office. Van Pelt tried not to smile too excitedly. Whoever this man was, she definitely wanted to be working with him, hopefully he wasn't conceited or annoying or an ass. Anything else and she was pretty sure she'd be trying not to ogle him for however long this next assignment lasted for. At least, she hoped he was here to work jointly with them, and not here to commandeer Jane for some psychic experience.

Cho watched the man intently. He had serious training, his body practically screamed 'I can kill everyone within this room with a paper clip and a sugar sachet'.

Rigsby was slightly more interested in Van Pelt's reaction to the mysterious man that he was actually interested in the mysterious man. Only slightly mind you, but considering how interested he was in the mysterious man's sudden appearance, that's saying quite a lot.

Lisbon hadn't reacted at all, and Jane knew exactly why. She was probably caught somewhere between rejoicing that there was a possibility that she might be Jane-free for the next couple of days and struggling with her possessive nature that someone might be taking her Jane away for the next couple of days. He grinned to himself. He couldn't wait to start teasing her about this.

Minelli stepped into the room, "Listen up people, Agent Carter here is going to be working a very delicate case here in California and he's going to need the co-operation of the entire team."

"I really only need the co-operation of one of your agents." Agent Carter interrupted.

Jane smiled. He glanced at Lisbon, odd. She wasn't reacting the way he thought she would. Van Pelt, Rigsby and Cho were; they were stuck somewhere between pride that Minelli wasn't going to let Agent Carter take Jane away from them and indignation that the man might think he could boss Minelli around. Minelli was like an extension of Lisbon, their loyalty to her extended, by default, to him.

He puffed up a bit, stretching the button on his vest. Hmm, might need to lay off the cinnamon donuts for a while. He couldn't wait for this Agent Carter to request his assistance so he could rebuff him and make Minelli make Lisbon make him accept the agent's request. He had every intention of helping this agent out with what was clearly a disturbing and highly dangerous case (from what he could gather off the man's countenance and Minelli's stance) but dearly wanted Lisbon to fight him over it. He loved the little exasperated looks she got when she had to force him into things.

"I don't care if you only want one of them. They're a team, my best team, and you'll take them all or you won't get any one of them." Minelli thundered. Jane was struck by the oddness of Minelli's statement. He was a bit too upset for this to merely be a request for the consultant. This case might actually be quite dangerous and Minelli was pushing for the inclusion of the whole team so that Jane would be safe. Huh, Jane realized, that actually didn't sound like Minelli at all. The only person on this team who could get Minelli this riled up was Lisbon. He'd noticed the man treated her as his protégée, Jane would even go so far as to say 'surrogate daughter'. That's when he realized Agent Carter wasn't here for him at all.

"All right Minelli, all right." Agent Carter said, moving toward Lisbon, hand outstretched. A tiny glint of gold reflected some of the fluorescent lights about the room, "Teresa, would you do me the great honor of marrying me…again?"

There you go.

Ever since the season ended I've been really interested in the Lisbon/Jane relationship, not so much their 'shipping qualities - although they are really fun, but just the way they're two sides to the one coin.

But also I've been really interested in Jane's 'psychicness', and the manifestations of that in their working life. Plus, I don't think that Jane knows everything about everyone, I think that he does have a gift for observation, but he does tend to look for the answers he wants...I thought it might be interesting if there were secrets from people's past that he hadn't picke dup on. Why would that be? and what would Jane do about it? Plus, Jisbon is always fun to explore, because I truly don't see the show being able to resolve anything until Jane gets his closure...

Eh, my opinions at the moment anyway!

Please let me know what you think...

Arc