A/N: HEY EVERYONE! SO I'VE BEEN REALLY MISSING RIGSBY AND VAN PELT AND I THOUGHT I SHOULD WRITE ABOUT THEM THIS TIME. IT'S STILL A JISBON STORY THOUGH. A LITTLE BIT OF TRICKS AND MAGIC HERE AND THERE. I HOPE YOU'LL LIKE IT.
"Pick a coin, any coin."
"Okay. But don't look."
"I have my eyes closed."
"No. Turn around."
"Seriously Rigsby! It's not like I'm doing it for the first time."
"Well it's definitely not your last trick either, Jane. "
"Fine. I have my back towards you. Alright?"
"That's better. But you better close your eyes, huh."
"I'll watch him." Kim spoke in excitement and stood near Jane. Even as a kid she had loved magic and fairy tales. And watching Jane do a trick stirred her childhood memories in the best of ways.
It had been a long time since Jane had performed any tricks. Although he surely did a performance last night with Lisbon but it was more of a trap to lure the killer. The tricks were no longer the same like he used to have with his team in Sacramento. He liked working at the FBI but there were times when Jane badly missed his old team. After all, they had been together for almost a decade and Jane knew almost certainly that if it weren't for them, he would never have caught Red John. They were a family, they always will be.
And when Rigsby and Grace paid a visit to the FBI this morning, Jane could no longer resist the temptation to flaunt his skills. He loved teasing Rigsby with his tricks who would watch it fascinatingly like an 8 year old.
Rigsby waited a few seconds ruminating about the coin to pick as Van Pelt rose from the chair to ensure Jane wasn't up to any kind of mischief. Cho sat blandly in his chair, his eyes glued to yet another mystery novel. And the junior version of Rigsby, Agent Wiley was busy hitting the letters on the keyboard, with his eyes on the coins that rested on the table beside him.
"Okay Jane. I've selected the coin." Rigsby spoke as he took one of the three coins in his hands.
"Very good! Now put it back on the table."
Rigsby did the same and placed the coin on the table. He had an intuition that Jane would decipher his coin by the shift in their positions so he made his best efforts to put the coin in the same place as before.
Jane turned around taking a quick glance at the three coins on the table.
"Hmm…" Jane murmured tapping his fingers on his chin in anticipation as he carefully examined the rounded nickels. He took each of them one by one in his hands and looked closely, taking longer than he usually did.
Cho looked askance at Jane, finally breaking his hour long meditation with the book.
"It's fine Jane. Anyone can hit a dead end." Rigsby spoke with a real panache which sounded more like a mocking than a consolation.
"Meh!"Jane rolled his eyes. He stepped forward in his direction without breaking the eye-contact.
"Here" Jane took the coin in his hand and slammed it on Rigsby's palm "Not the first, not the third but the second coin. There you go."
"But how did you?" Rigsby stuttered, completely perplexed.
"I win. So where are we headed for lunch?" Jane asserted rubbing his hands together "I'm really in the mood for some Italian"
"No. But how? I put the coin exactly where it was before."
"The pen stand" Cho intruded "You were watching him through the silver plated pen stand over there", he gave a deadly glance to Jane.
"Actually "spoke Agent Wiley, who had been quietly watching the scene for some time now "Jane had his eyes closed all this time."
"Now that's my man", Jane gave one of his charming smiles to the analyst.
"He's Jane. He cheats." Cho said plainly.
"I may be wrong but this high-tech eyes sensor hardly mistakes." He turned his laptop towards Cho. The other agents also reeled in."It's actually a software used with the polygraph machine on the criminals and detects their eye movements. I thought I'd use it here. It's cool isn't it? Plus, since the pen- stand was at an angle of 180 degrees in the direction of Jane and Mr. Wayne was standing exactly behind him, there's no way the pen stand could have reflected the coins."
All the agents looked at Wiley, mouth half-opened. With that statement he'd completely clarified his position on the FBI team.
The utterly baffled Rigsby flashed a wistful glance at Grace. He was again defeated at the hands of Jane. Why did he even bothered to make a bet with Jane, he knew he'd never win.
Grace shrugged; she could understand exactly how it felt losing to Jane. After all, back at CBI ,she had been on the other side more often than him. But she knew well enough that he'd make up for their spent money in so many ways. Well, she didn't breed her full set of Louboutins out of nowhere.
Grace stood up; her eyes were searching for somebody.
"Looking for Lisbon?" Jane questioned, which was clearly meant to be a rhetorical one.
"Yeah! I haven't seen her since I came here. Where is she?"
"Enjoying a little office rendezvous with our very own Agent Pike, I presume", he spoke in a cynical tone. There was no way the other agents didn't noticed the jealousy in his voice.
"Pike?" Grace inquired.
"Ah, you'll know soon enough." Jane uttered and rested on his favorite couch.
"I… I will go look for her." Grace spoke and left the scene.
Lisbon slapped the coffee machine in frustration. Instantly, the ever broken piece of junk started brewing with steam. Ah! Well, why bother having a mechanic when a slap works just as fine.
She was in a desperate need for a dose of caffeine after last night. What if you came with me? , his voiced echoed in her mind; probably a thousandth time now. The question had kept her awake all night; she had never thought Marcus would be so serious about their relationship. He had practically asked her to move in with him and she clearly knew where this step would lead. She wasn't sure she was ready for such kind of commitment yet. All this time, she had kept people at arm's length to avoid getting hurt and now there was Marcus, trying to break the walls that had kept her safe or at least given her an illusion of security.
She took a sip from the freshly made coffee. It jolted her senses and the warmth of the liquid substituted the coldness in her body.
She truth was - she was done taking care of herself, done being independent. All she wanted now was someone to take care of her, someone she could be vulnerable with.
The problem was that she was already feeling vulnerable… because of Jane.
She knew that she needed to talk to Jane. But she was afraid how he'd react or if he'd react at all. The latter thought made her shiver. What if he'd just let her go? That would mean she'd have to move on with Marcus.
"What you thinking?"
The sudden voice made her jump, spilling the hot coffee on the counter. "Jesus Jane! Do you even-"she turned and before she could analyze anything, her mouth was caught in a soft caress of lips. She moaned and gave herself into the kiss.
"Mmm… I missed you." Marcus spoke gazing deep into her hypnotizing emerald eyes.
"I missed you too." She managed to speak although Marcus was the last person she was expecting to be with right now.
Meanwhile, Grace hovered around the never ending bullpen of the FBI. She wanted to meet with Lisbon; she had a lot of things she wanted to talk to her about. Working from home isn't as glamorous as it sounds; it's like having to do your homework all day and never get the chance to go to school. And right now, she had no friends, no colleagues to share her gossips with; it's only clients and their complaints. And she desperately wanted to be with Lisbon who was the closest to what she could call a friend and a mentor. Her train of thoughts were disrupted by the whispers coming from across the hallway.
"So did you thought about it?"
"I did. But I…" Lisbon stopped in mid-sentence. She had actually thought a lot about it, it was just that she hadn't reached on a conclusion yet.
"Look, I don't want to pressure you into anything. If you don't wanna go to D.C., I'll tell them I can't take the promotion."
"I told you, Marcus. You can't just throw away an offer like this. You should go."
"I won't be able to live without you, Teresa. I want to be here, I want to be with you." He squeezed her hands.
"Well, I haven't totally decided yet. So let's not come to any conclusions."
"You take all the time you need."
"I'll tell you tonight. For sure."
"Okay." Marcus leaned forward to kiss her.
Seeing them together involuntarily made her legs spur into action and she stepped into the kitchenette to disrupt their intimate moment.
"Grace! What a surprise!"Lisbon spoke as she parted from Marcus.
"I'm sorry… I should come later I guess."
"Oh No! No!" Marcus got off the counter "Now is the right time."
"You must be Agent… Pike. Right?" Van Pelt offered her hands.
"Oh, Please! Call me Marcus." he smiled and shook her hands "I've heard a lot about you from Teresa."
Van Pelt shifted her gaze towards Lisbon. She was looking down , probably embarrassed with the abrupt encounter. Office romance weren't exactly her kind of thing and getting caught in one; it was the most awkward she could feel right now.
"It's so good to see you, Lisbon" Van Pelt leaned forward to embrace her.
"It's good to see you too. How you been?"
"Umm… I'll meet you outside. You guys talk, alright?" Marcus interrupted and gave a small peck on her cheek and marched towards the bullpen; saving himself from all the girl talks.
Van Pelt watched him go outside. "He seems like a nice guy" she turned to Lisbon.
"Yeah. He is." Lisbon nodded "Want some coffee?"
"I'd kill for a cup right now."
Lisbon moved to the counter and began to find her way through the coffee machine. She took a tissue by the counter and wiped the coffee she'd spilled earlier.
"How's Rigsby?"
"He's fine. Physical therapy is helping, means more chess and less football with Ben."
"Is it true?" Grace continued.
"What?" Lisbon turned, holding a steaming cup of coffee in her hand.
"Are you really gonna move to DC?" Lisbon was caught by surprise. "I'm sorry, I overheard you talking. Is it true?"
"Actually, I'm still thinking." It was all she could manage to speak as she passed the cup to Grace.
"Have you talked to Jane about this?"
"Jane, why?" she pretended as if she didn't know how Jane would figure out into all this.
"Why! It's you and Jane, Lisbon." Her voice came out louder than she intended "You can't leave him alone like this."
Actually I can. Just like he left me alone, for two years. Lisbon wanted to say. "He's big boy. I'm sure he'll understand."
"It took him 12 years to move on from Red John. How do you think he's gonna react to this?"
"Well, he seemed to manage just fine when you told Rigsby and you were leaving. He'll do it again."
"We're talking about you here. You know you've meant more to him than anyone of us."
"Being good friends doesn't mean I don't get to have a love life." Lisbon was being defensive now. That's what she always did when she was sad; pretend like she didn't care.
"Well you had 12 years to do that, why now?"
"I guess, I was waiting for a guy like Marcus."
"No, you were not. You were waiting for Jane."
Lisbon had no idea how to react to that. She actually was waiting for Jane, she always had.
"Plus, you don't even look at him the way you look at Jane." Grace continued.
"For God sakes Grace! You only saw him for about a minute." She was feeling uncomfortable and now the conversation was making her more annoyed.
"Yeah! But I've seen you and Jane for the past ten years; comforting each other at every step on the way."
"What do you want me to do, huh? Keep comforting him for the next 12 years to come while he still wears that wedding ring." Lisbon finally gave in to her feelings"He's stuck Grace. He can't move on."
"Well how can he, when you won't even give him a chance?"
"No. You don't get to say that. I've given him more chances than he deserved. He can never change himself and you know that too."
"Then why do you think he came back after all this time? For us? He came for you, Lisbon."
"I thought he did. But turns out, he didn't. And I can't go on like this. I can't keep lying to myself that he'll change one day."
"And you think lying to Marcus will help you with that? That man loves you enough to throw away a life that he's always dreamed of. Don't you think he deserves to know that you have feelings for Jane?"
"That's the reason I need to go to DC. I need to commit to Marcus so that I could be able to love him."
"Well last time I checked, it used to happen the other way round."
"I know that I'm being selfish, Grace. And I hate myself for that, I really do." She led out a sigh " But if I don't move on now, I'll always be stuck like Jane. And I don't want that."
"Then go tell Jane how you feel."
"Don't you think he already knows that?"
"I don't know, maybe the fact that you are dating Pike now just threw him off." Grace shrugged "Look, if Marcus loves you enough to let go of his dreams then Jane loves you enough to let you go with him."
"So you're suggesting that I break up with Marcus?" she felt helpless. Looking for support, she leaned on the counter.
"All I'm asking you is to be true to yourself." He voice was stern but solemn now "Every morning I get to wake up next to the man I love and I want you to have that too; even if it means holding on to what you want for as long as it takes."
Lisbon was silent now, trying to seep in what all she'd heard. When did her little Grace grow so much? She was exhausted but it felt nice, like a weight that had been lifted from her shoulders. But she still had a decision to make and she didn't know what to do about it.
Grace moved forward and pulled her into a warm and comforting hug. It felt just like the one her mother used to give whenever she was hurt.
"It's gonna be alright, Lisbon. It's gonna be just fine."
After some time…
"What the heck are they doing?" Lisbon spoke as she and Grace walked towards the bullpen.
"Oh! Jane was showing one of his tricks to Rigsby."
"Poor Rigsby! He always falls for that."
"Poor me, Lisbon. Now he's gonna torture me trying to figure out that trick. And he'll just end up making a fool of himself in front of Ben." She lamented "I wish Jane would just tell him how it's done."
"Jane, telling his secrets to Rigsby and lose one of his favorite audience. You really think so?"
"Teresa! Come here." Marcus called out. He was sitting on a chair beside the couch where Jane was resting.
"Hey Boss!" Rigsby got up from the table and gave her a hug. "It's so good to see you Lisbon."
"It's good to see you too, Rigsby."
"So what are you guys up to, huh?" Lisbon spoke as she broke from the hug.
"Mr. Jane here was showing me one of his tricks." Marcus said" I didn't knew you were a magician too. You're amazing."
"Well my tricks are nothing in front of yours" Jane got up from his resting phase and sat on the couch.
"I'm sorry. What trick?" Marcus sounded confused.
Jane saw Lisbon. Her eyes were swollen, a hint of redness spread through the corners of her eyes. She had definitely been crying. How could Marcus not notice that? He resisted the urge to bring it up in front of the other agents. Her expressions clarified what Jane had already been thinking.
"Tricks, Agent Pike." He spoke "Two weeks with our Agent Lisbon and you're already taking her away from us."
"You know about DC?" Marcus reacted suddenly.
"Ah! So DC it is, huh. It's far… very far."
"How do you know?" he was perplexed "Lisbon, did you?" he looked at Lisbon. He knew they were best of friends and sharing about DC with him would only be apt.
"No. She didn't actually" Jane responded before Lisbon could even speak. To her ears, his words sounded like a complaint.
"I'm sorry Jane. I was gonna tell you about that."
The other agents were now staring at them, except Cho, who was busy reading his book. Their glares made the already weird scene even more awkward.
"So are you really going to Washington?" Kim questioned, her voice sounded worried. She had just started to make friends with Lisbon.
"I'm still thinking" Lisbon answered but her eyes were fixed at Jane all this time.
Even Marcus noticed the tension between them.
"Well you can always flip a coin, Lisbon" Jane broke the silence "Look! Here's three of them" he addressed the table beside her.
"I don't understand…" Marcus pitched in "Who told you about the promotion?"
"You did."
"I?"
"Look at you. All dressed up in one of your finest suit. Your shirt is brand new, you're wearing a tie and your cufflinks that says- I'm the best agent in town." Jane continued "It's highly unlikely that you're dressed like this for a date. You obviously don't need to woo Lisbon anymore; since she's already yours. Your outfit speaks more of professionalism, probably trying to make your mark amongst the higher agents."
Marcus seemed to take quite an interest in listening as Jane went on. "And as it's the transfer and promotion season going in FBI. What else could it be?"
"Wow! You're really good at this, Mr. Jane. I'm impressed."
"Often answers are right in front of us. All one has to do is look, Agent Pike."
With that he got up from the couch, tugged on his sleeves and clapped his hands "So, who's ready for some Italian?"
The other agents got up without further ado and scattered around their desks, packing up their things. Marcus was busy attending a call; he looked worried so the call was obviously from his boss who was pressurizing him to come up with a decision about DC as soon as possible.
Jane moved towards Lisbon's desk where Grace and Rigsby were sitting. Lisbon was fighting hard not to look at him.
"I'd ask you to come, Lisbon. But I take you already have plans with Pike." His voice was hoarse like it hadn't been used for a while.
"Hey, Rigsby. Get up!" Jane patted his shoulders "Remember, it's your treat?"
"Just… just a minute Jane." Rigsby was fiddling with the coins ever since he'd shown him the trick. Jane observed him; he looked sincerely desperate to know how it was done.
"Thermodynamics 101", Jane spoke.
"What?" he raised his brows in confusion.
"Heat from a hot body gets transferred to a cold body." He stated "When you picked up the coin, a little heat from your hands got transferred to the nickel. And when I felt each one of the coins later, I figured which one was yours."
Lisbon and Grace were thrown in shock. It was not likely of Jane to reveal his tricks; it might be the first time he told it to anybody.
"You never tell your tricks to anybody, what give you away this time?" Grace asked.
"Well, for a change, I thought that Ben might like it." He said "Make sure he shows it to him, Grace."
"So that's it" Rigsby was still taking it in "It was just so simple."
"Even the simplest of things can get hard if you keep thinking about them long enough."
"Thank you so much, Jane. Ben's really gonna love this." His face lightened up. He seemed happier than ever.
Rigsby got up and they both headed for the elevator and so did the other agents.
"Bye Lisbon" Grace adjusted her purse and sat up from the chair.
"See you soon" Grace hugged her and started to make her way towards the elevator where the other agents were waiting for her. But a thought made her turn back.
"Hey Lisbon."
Lisbon looked up."Grace!"
She was smiling at her "People do change. Don't you think?"
It was all she said before she turned back and continued on her way.
"They do." Lisbon murmured to herself and watch the elevator close on her.
She felt a nickel beneath her palm. Shifting her gaze to the table she saw the coins shimmering in the daylight. Maybe she should flip a coin. They say it's not about which side comes at the end but the one which you really wish for when the coin is finally flipping in the air.
Taking one of the coins in her hand, she threw it. Looking up, she traced the path of the coin making its way to the top and coming down under the effect of gravity. She caught the nickel in her palms but didn't bother to look at it. She finally knew what she wanted. She had known it for about twelve years .
She turned to Marcus. She had made a choice at last.
The End.
A/N: PLEASE TELL ME HOW YOU LIKED IT. REVIEWS ARE ALWAYS APPRECIATED.