A/N: I've always wondered what happened between the scene where Jane blackmails Abbott re the Blake Association names in Green Thumb and the scene where Lisbon tells Jane he brought the FBI to their knees and provides him with those adorable socks. Plus I always felt that Lisbon and Abbott had unfinished business after he helped dismantle the CBI. This one shot is a result of my ponderings. Hope it doesn't seem too disjointed as I've been dipping in and out of writing it over the past few weeks.

Disclaimer: As if it really needs to be said, I don't own The Mentalist or its characters.

Careful Negotiations

He noted her demeanour immediately through the lenses of his black framed glasses as she stood in the doorway to his office, one foot in and one foot out, unsure she should cross the threshold willingly. As if by doing so she'd be siding with the enemy.

Definitely frosty.

Scratch that.

Downright glacial.

He removed his glasses and nodded to her with a warm smile. "Chief Lisbon, please come in and take a seat. Thank you for coming back to Austin at such short notice."

She remained standing where she was. "I'm only here because you told me I could visit Jane, Abbott," she said, her stare unyielding and unafraid. "I didn't come all this way again to involve him or myself in another case you need solved urgently."

"You have a problem with serving your country?" he asked with a small smile.

"I do that every day in Washington," she replied immediately.

"Yes, those DUIs there are a threat to national security, certainly," he replied with a raised eyebrow.

She took a few steps closer, her agitation growing with each one. "Let me be clear. I'm not willing to become the carrot every time you need his help with a case. Only to throw him back in detention afterwards again. Now, can I see Jane or not?"

He sighed and nodded towards the chair in front of him. "Yes, you will see Jane, but take a seat, please. I want to speak to you first."

She narrowed her eyes at him but acquiesced, crossing one leg over the other after she sat down and holding the large bag she carried in front of her like a bulletproof vest. She quirked a questioning eyebrow, signalling for him to speak again.

"Tell me, did you speak to Jane after the Schneiderman case?"

She blinked in confusion and he had his answer to his first question. So she had no idea about Jane's plan to blackmail him with Blake Association names. She had been as much in the dark as to Jane's plans as he had been. It was gratifying that she hadn't lied to him outright but mystifying that she should still show the man such loyalty after effectively ditching her as soon as he'd seen her again.

But Jane had also made her his top demand prior to that. Maybe ditching her was his way of protecting her from any trouble his temporary escape may have caused her. She could claim truthful deniability. He'd read their CBI personnel files. It wouldn't have been the first time he'd left her out of the loop. On the contrary, it seemed par for the course in the early days they'd worked together.

Theirs was clearly a much more complex relationship than he'd considered until this point. Or maybe the old adages applied. Love is blind. Love is strange. Though neither one of them was ready to admit they were in love with each other though their actions had long spoken otherwise in his eyes.

"What does that have to do with anything?" she bristled.

Abbott, lost in his thoughts, took a few moments to respond. "Never mind." He cleared his throat. "Lisbon, tell me, if a position were available to you here at the FBI, would you take it?"

She shot him a withering look. "So, this is your new play? Offer me a job and hope he caves on the rest of his demands, huh?"

Abbott leaned forward and intertwined his fingers on the desk. "Actually, it's already been approved by the powers that be that the FBI meet all of Jane's terms. And one of those was a job offer for you. He was quite adamant on that point, in particular, if you recall."

She blinked rapidly and opened her mouth. She stammered, "You-You're going to release him? Really?"

"Yes." He shook his head. "No tricks. No lies. He's a free man who's agreed to work for us on a contract as he has stipulated. What can I say; the man is more...persuasive than I had anticipated."

Her posture slackened and she smiled faintly. Pride swelled in her. Two years away had dampened none of his cunning. Jane had won the battle with the FBI. Somehow he'd been able to outfox them and she couldn't wait to see him to know how he'd managed it. She looked to her bag and smiled inwardly. Those socks in there were now a get out of jail present for him now, it appeared.

"So, what do you say?" Abbott enquired. "Want to work for the FBI?"

"You don't want me here, Abbott, there's no point denying it."

"I don't want anyone working here who doesn't want to be here, that's true. But if you're ready to get back to more...challenging work than you've been doing, the offer is there."

"You're only offering me the job because of Jane."

There was no point in denying the truth in that statement. Initially he'd wanted to keep them apart, feared their close and secretive working relationship would derail his finely tuned plans for utilising Jane's unique talents. But he'd since begrudgingly learned that Jane was unwilling to be utilised in any capacity unless he wanted to co-operate. And Teresa Lisbon had a way of making him feel more at ease and willing to co-operate whether she realised the power she held over the wayward consultant or not.

"Yes, I admit that if Jane had not returned to the States the offer would not have been made." He paused, running an index finger slowly over his lips. "But perhaps that has long been an oversight. Tell me, Lisbon, why didn't you apply to the FBI after Blake? No charges were brought your way, despite your obvious lapses in judgment over the years. You had the same opportunity as Cho but you chose to be a police chief in the sticks as your next career choice instead. Why?"

"My lapses in judgment, huh?" she replied with a shake of her head and a sigh. Louder, "I don't regret the decisions I made at the CBI, Abbott. You never understood that though, did you? Those decisions caught people who would never have been caught otherwise. And, if you really believe you can work with Patrick Jane without those boundaries being crossed sometimes then you're frankly living in a dream world. He's important to you because he will cross the lines you won't even imagine or think of crossing. And catch the bad guys you can't catch because of it."

He smiled at her, impressed with her impassioned argument on behalf of both herself and Jane's past and possible future actions. He wasn't sure if he bought all of her decision making as clean cut as she made out but she certainly made for an incredible ally once someone had her trust. But that was clearly to be earned, not given, no matter the position of power held. He replied carefully, "You never answered my question. Because you blame us for the CBI closure? Because you blame me? Or...because you believe you failed?"

She paused for a second as she thought about each of his questions."You were only doing the job you were assigned. I get that. Got that then, too. But yes, I didn't appreciate how you handled it. Treating me and my team like the enemy while you sorted through Blake. We could have helped. Wanted to more than anything after the good people we lost but you tied our hands." She sighed with weary resignation. "But that's all in the past."

"Is it? Because your defensiveness would lead me to believe it isn't."

She shrugged noncommittally.

"I was wrong," he said with absolute seriousness. When he saw her look of surprise he clarified, "I approached Blake with a heavy hand. I had to, it was my directive. I'm not apologising for doing my job. But you are correct, I should have seen you for the asset you could have been at that time. I did not. I screwed up."

"Okay," she replied, some distrust still in her voice but less confrontation.

"So-"

"What did you mean by saying that I failed? We would have captured Bertram if you'd given us another chance."

He removed his glasses and rubbed the line between his eyes. "That's not really the failure I was referring to." He put his glasses back on and gazed at her, his last statement left hanging in the ether.

She frowned, feeling increasingly like an insect under a microscope by his penetrating stare. "You mean with Jane," she said eventually.

"I interviewed many people interrogating Blake members. Some of them CBI agents as you know. After conducting those interrogations I quickly realised it was no secret as to Jane's intentions when he caught Red John. And, having interviewed people who worked with you for years, I doubt Teresa Lisbon's beliefs in vigilante justice fell in line with Jane's in that regard. At least, not when you first met him. You tried to dissuade him from his mission of vengeance, didn't you?"

She kept her face expressionless. "McAllister would have continued killing. And with Blake behind him, he would either never made it to prison and escaped or would have continued through proxies. He had to be stopped," she said with conviction.

"But you never wanted Jane to be the one to do it, did you? We listened to the calls to his phone as part of the investigation, Lisbon. I listened to you telling him he was throwing his life away that night his house exploded. I heard the desperation in your voice."

She looked away, embarrassed her plea to Jane that night had been listened to in some room full of FBI agents afterwards.

"I'm not trying to ridicule you, Teresa," Abbott added, softening his tone.

The use of her first name caught her attention and she harrumphed in return, her posture defensive again. "No?"

"No," he told her. "But you helped him the day he killed Red John. Why the sudden turnaround from just days before?"

"That's my business, not yours," she said. "And you already asked me why I helped him that day back in Sacramento years ago. Repeatedly."

"And you never gave me a straight answer then, either. You want my theory?"

"Not really," she shrugged. Her body noticeably stiffened in opposition to her nonchalant tone.

He let the matter go, though he wondered if she even had even asked herself that question and given herself an honest answer in response. Most likely she hadn't even admitted to herself the depth of her feelings for Patrick Jane.

"All right. Then my theory on why you never joined the FBI."

"I thought you'd already decided it was because I blamed it for the CBI closure."

"No, that is why you have a problem with me. Not the FBI in more general terms."

Her brow furrowed, she shrugged again, tried to make it seem indifferent. But she was curious.

He continued, "You told yourself you didn't deserve that opportunity. That you had failed in your mission to catch Red John. That you failed to see Blake in your midst sooner. That you failed Jane by not only being unable to stop him achieving what he wanted but, in the end, that you were unwilling to stop him. You aided him, knowing full well what the result would be. And probably you realised that by helping him that day he'd be out of your life – possibly forever, either behind bars or on the run. In short, you felt unworthy of your badge."

She blinked twice quickly. "I don't regret my actions that day as I've already told you." Her tone was a fraction shakier than before though her expression still held defiance.

"I can see that. But at what cost to you personally, Lisbon?"

She cast her eyes to the side and took a short breath before facing him again. "I want to see Jane now."

"And after that?"

When he saw a glimpse of apprehension, he added, "Whatever your reasons for choosing a life in Washington State it is a blatant waste of your talent to still be there after almost two years when you could be here instead. You proved that to me already in the Schniederman case. And that was without Jane's help. Cards on the table, it's time you got back in the game. And I intend for this to be the biggest game in town. You really think you won't regret making the most of this opportunity? Are you really that stubborn to turn it down because it's offered to you because of Jane? Think of it as his way of repaying you for all the trouble you had to get him out of in the past, if it's easier that way. Or think of it as making his return to the U.S. easier for him, if you want to view it that way. And I won't expect you to be his babysitter if that's what you think your role will be here, if that is the reason for your hesitation."

He smirked, "I have Fischer for that dubious pleasure. Good for training her interpersonal skills. Plus, she needs to learn from him. She's sometimes rigid in her methods and I need her to learn how to think out of the box more. You and Cho have already served that apprenticeship with him so he would mostly be partnered with her initially."

He cleared his throat, shifting slightly in his chair. "And...well, that perhaps would also assist you both with rumours that may circulate as to your sudden positions here together. Unfortunately, office gossip is as rife here as any other organisation."

She blushed mildly. Rumours abounded for years at the CBI that she and Jane were sleeping together. They infuriated her on the rare occasions she heard about them first hand but it was common knowledge neither of them had much in ways of personal lives and that they worked in close quarters for long days. People with nothing better to do simply added two and two and came up with five. Of course, Jane demanding her work with him and the letters he'd sent her meant it was no surprise the FBI rumour mill also might think the same now.

Abbott continued, "But I guarantee you that you will be treated with the same respect and propriety as all of the agents under my command. Any misapprehension or mistalk of your reasons for being here that comes to my attention will be dealt with swiftly, I assure you. Put simply, it will be up to you to progress and show me the agent I know you can be. You told me once you were still a good cop. I want to see it, with or without Jane beside you. So, what do you say, Lisbon? Ready to let go of the past and get back in the game?"

She thought for a long moment as she ran her tongue over her lower lip. Though in her heart she knew the answer to his question straightaway, the thought of interesting cases and working alongside two of the men she admired most in the world too enticing to turn down. And if Abbott was willing to start afresh with her then she could do the same with him. She would prove to both him and herself she was more than worthy of holding the title Special Agent.

She smiled as she nodded. "You bet I am."