Thanks for the reviews and follows! Just a quick note in response to one particular review: I don't hate Patrick Jane (I actually love him –who doesn't?), but I think we all have potential for good and bad within us, and for the start of this fic it may appear that more of the 'bad' of Jane comes out.

After that kiss in her office, Lisbon was planning on spending the next few weeks avoiding Jane and pretending it never happened. She wasn't even that angry at him any more (although in her mind breaking your wedding vows was never something she could deem acceptable, regardless of the circumstances), but worried about what might happen between the two of them if she let her guard down at all. In the evenings she had started leaving earlier and spending an hour or two in the CBI gym, until it was safe to return to her office and get some paperwork done without the danger of Jane coming in to try and talk to her.

These tactics worked really well for all of a month yet somehow, they ended up kissing in an empty alleyway when leaving a crime scene. If it hadn't been for the sound of Rigsby and Van Pelt chatting as they rounded the corner, she was fairly sure that neither of them would have stopped for a long time. She had no idea what had happened to her. She was so used to being in control of herself; she didn't know how to cope with this uncontrollable urge for Patrick Jane, even if every fibre of her being knew it was wrong on so many levels.

Jane hadn't mentioned his wife since that night hiding in the suspect's cupboard, and Lisbon had noticed that she hadn't once seen him wearing a wedding ring. She could think of a variety of reasons for that, but the one which she most hoped was that he had been telling the truth – he and his wife's marriage was basically non-existent. She told herself time and time again that this made her feel slightly better simply so she didn't feel guilty for the past - nothing whatsoever to do with the possibility of further encounters between them in the future.

Every time she felt her mind touching on the subject of Patrick Jane, she reminded herself of all of the reasons she should stay far away from him. First and foremost, the fact that she was his boss meant that CBI regulations stated that nothing was allowed to happen between them. This hadn't been an issue on the first case they had worked on together, since he wasn't technically an employee at that point, but by kissing him twice in the past few months she had actually broken this rule. Well, she was fairly sure she had anyway. She hadn't bothered to do any digging into the precise wording of the clause because she had an inkling that consultants weren't treated like most normal employees, and she felt much safer believing it was against the rules.

Secondly, he was married. Regardless of what he claimed about the state of his marriage and his wife's infidelity, she would never be in a position where she felt comfortable being in any sort of intimate relationship with a married man.

And thirdly, he was infuriating. The two of them had barely made it a day without arguing in the past three months of working together. They simply weren't compatible. A little voice in her head tried to remind her of all the nice things she had started to notice about him recently, but she pushed it away. So what if he brought her coffees and pastries in the mornings? And was it really that big a thing that he had spoken back to some sheriff who insinuated that she wasn't capable of her job? Both Cho and Rigsby would have done that had they been there at the time. The little nice things he did were very easily offset by his cocky nature and need to irritate people.

oooooooooooooooooooo

"Morning Lisbon, Cho, Rigsby, Grace" Jane greeted them all as he wandered into the bullpen grinning.

Somehow, the rest of the team had come to like him. Then again, he hadn't betrayed any of them in quite the same way, Lisbon reminded herself.

"Morning Jane" Van Pelt replied from beside Lisbon, as she showed her something about their latest victim's bank records.

Lisbon ignored him. How could anyone be in that good a mood at this time on a Tuesday morning?

After a few minutes she realised that Jane hadn't taken his normal seat on the brown leather couch, and was instead standing behind her and waiting patiently to be noticed.

"What?" she demanded, turning round to look at him.

"For you" he said, handing over the polystyrene cup "and there should be one each of these" he procured a paper bag from somewhere behind him and placed it on Van Pelt's desk, ripping it open so they could help themselves to the pains au chocolat.

"How come we don't get coffee as well?" Van Pelt asked.

"Because you don't get so grouchy when you haven't had your early morning caffeine hit" he told her, smiling at Lisbon.

Lisbon glared at him and then took a sip of the drink. Annoyingly, he had somehow worked out exactly what her favourite brew was.

"Ok" she said, after taking a few more sips "which one of you wants to come with me and talk to Bryson?"

"I will" Jane offered.

Rigsby and Van Pelt looked at each other and shrugged. Cho remained expressionless, still eating his pain au chocolat.

"Ok, Jane it is" Lisbon muttered "meet me in the parking lot in 10 minutes"

Jane was already in the parking lot when she got there, 7 minutes later, leant against her car with his arms crossed and eyes closed.

"Nice of you to join me, Lisbon" he said without opening his eyes "and for once you can't avoid me"

"I haven't been-"

"Oh come on, running off to hide in the CBI gym every night isn't fooling me" he shrugged, getting into the car.

They said very little to each other for the journey there, and then Jane vanished to 'use the restroom' almost as soon as they arrived. Lisbon had quickly learnt that this was a euphemism for 'have a poke around the house', but she let him do it. It often turned out interesting pieces of information she wouldn't have come across otherwise. He reappeared 5 minutes into her conversation with the grieving friend, telling her that they could go – in other words that this wasn't their man.

"Damn, I think I left my keys in there" Lisbon muttered as they walked down the drive, digging around in her pockets.

"You didn't" Jane told her, dangling them in her face and then returning them to the safety of his pocket.

"I'd rather walk back then let you drive, give them here"

"Nope"

"Jane seriously, give me my keys"

"You know, I haven't driven an automatic for years. It'll be a nice change from my little Citroen" he commented.

"Jane" she warned "hand them over. Now"

"Just trust me a little, Lisbon. You know I wouldn't do anything which could damage this beautiful face of mine – or yours for that matter"

Lisbon glared at him for a while, and then decided that he probably was too vain to risk messing up his appearance.

"Fine" she said eventually, climbing into the passenger seat and slamming the door shut.

Halfway back, Jane took a turn off the highway and parked in a lay-by.

"Why have you stopped?" Lisbon asked, as he turned off the engine.

"Because" he turned to look at her "we need to talk, without you running off or someone interrupting us"

"About…?"

Lisbon already had a fairly good idea what this was going to be about, but part of her hoped that it could be about one of their open cases.

"Stop avoiding me, Teresa"

Lisbon didn't bother denying it, so instead she glared at him a bit.

"Look, we work well together and I know how much your job means to you. This" he waved his hand to indicate the pair of them "is messing with it. So stop avoiding me"

"You could have just come to my office and told me this" she pointed out "there was no need to steal my car keys and park in the middle of nowhere"

"And would you have stayed there long enough to listen to me?"

"Fine"

"What?"

"Fine, I'll pretend everything is ok between us. Can you just take me back to the CBI now?"

"Your wish is my command"

Well that was weird, Lisbon decided. Then again, he had a point. Her attempts to avoid him had been affecting their working together, which in turn made catching criminals more difficult. The thing was, she was really struggling to put her finger on what exactly she kept finding so attractive about him, which didn't help one bit. In the past she'd always had a thing for people who were fairly like her – hard working, married to their jobs, not looking for a serious relationship - so what was it about this conman-turned-consultant with a disregard for authority that she found so enthralling? This married conman-turned-consultant, even. Then again, when she'd first met him she had had no idea about the married part; he had simply been a complex yet attractive man who challenged her in ways she'd never yet known, which is how he ended up in her bed in the first place.

oooooooooooooooooooooo

"Ok. Rigs; take Van Pelt and cover the back. Cho and I will get the front"

The team were seated around the van, putting their vests on and preparing to bring in their most likely suspect.

"What about-" Jane started.

"Stay here and try not to get in anyone's way"

Jane shrugged. The guns and violence was his least favourite part of working with the police, he didn't mind staying a long way from all of that.

As they clambered out of the van, Jane followed them and stretched his arms.

"Don't worry" he reassured Lisbon "I'm not going to try and go in with you"

He watched Van Pelt and Rigsby creep around the back of the large house, whilst Lisbon tucked herself behind the pillar nearest to him. Although Kevlar vests weren't known for being a good look on people, there was something about the way Lisbon looked when she wore them with a gun in her hand that he found particularly attractive. This, of course, was the only reason he had decided to wait outside the van. You couldn't get quite the same view of her running around with her gun pointed at someone from through the tinted glass.

Just as they were preparing to go in, Jane looked at the house again and frowned. There was someone watching them out the window. He took a closer look and realised that the man had a gun drawn, and was pointing it in the direction of the door beneath him. Jane followed the direction of the gun and hit Lisbon's dark head.

"Lisbon" he shouted suddenly, making the man in the window jump a little and then re-aim his weapon at Lisbon.

Realising that there was no way to explain exactly what was going on to Lisbon before it was too late; Jane decided to take the only alternative action. He sprinted across the lawn and threw himself at her, colliding with her and pushing her backwards. The two of them landed with a crash in the bush, just as a loud bang went off from the window.

"Jesus Jane!" she exclaimed, as Cho sprinted into the building.

She went to push him off her and get up, but he held her where he was and touched his finger to his ear to indicate that they should listen. Gunfire sounded from inside the house, a few shouts were heard, and then Van Pelt walked out with their suspect in cuffs followed by the other two team members.

"Are you ok boss?" Van Pelt asked, spotting her superior still tangled up in the bush.

"I'm fine"

Lisbon got to her feet, wincing slightly.

"Jeez Jane, could you not have picked a less prickly plant?" she said, examining her arms and noting the deep scratches that the thorns had left on her.

"Well excuse me for saving your life" he muttered, clambering up beside her.

They returned to the CBI, where Van Pelt insisted on cleaning up the cuts on Lisbon's arms whilst Cho interrogated their suspect. Normally Lisbon would never let someone fret over her like this, but her rookie was particularly adamant and on closer inspection she realised that a couple of the cuts were actually quite deep. Trust Jane to manage to shove her into the only practically lethal bush in that garden. Well, he had saved her life whilst risking his own, but still, he could have aimed towards the nice leafy one or even just the grass.

"There we go, all done" Van Pelt said with a smile as she stood up.

Lisbon's arms stung from antiseptic spray, but at least the dried blood was gone and she wasn't going to end up with horrible infections.

"Thanks Grace" Lisbon muttered.

"Hey"

Lisbon sighed and looked at the door, where Jane had just appeared.

"What do you want?"

"And hello to you to, Lisbon" he grinned back "Grace, do you mind giving us a moment?"

"No problem. I'm finished anyway"

She put the equipment back into the first aid box and closed it, smiling at her boss before she left the office.

"Really Jane, I have a lot of work to do. This better be good"

"I'm actually here to check if you're ok" he explained, taking a seat on the couch next to her "you were nearly shot just an hour ago"

"I'm fine" Lisbon said quickly, standing up to put some distance between them "Thanks, I guess. For saving my life"

"Well it wouldn't have reflected well on me if I had just stood there and did nothing" he shrugged "I have a reputation to uphold"

"Of course, it was more about your image than my life" she muttered.

"I'm joking"

"I know" she said, rolling her eyes at him.

"I don't get you, Patrick Jane" she said suddenly "you're this kind, lovely man who gets me coffee and saves my life…and at the same time you manage to be a cocky arse who hypnotises suspects and cheats on his wife. What is going on with you?"

"Well, first of all she's not really my wife so it really isn't cheating. And secondly, there's a lot of ambiguity over what 'hypnosis' really is, so technically-"

"This is exactly what I mean!"

"Ok ok, calm down" Jane held his hands up "I get it. Hypnosis wasn't good, and to be fair to me I haven't done it since you got really angry"

"And the wife part?"

"We have a…complicated relationship" he said slowly "we're more like roommates than anything else. Friends on a good day"

Lisbon rested the edge of her desk and crossed her arms, her left eyebrow raised.

"You want to know the story?" he asked eventually.

"Please"

"We got married in Vegas; it fell apart, and now she's in love with her manager"

"And yet you're still married?"

"She's worried a divorce would look bad for her career. We have a…sort of understanding"

"I still don't get it"

"And now you see why I didn't mention it all before" he muttered.

"I just…there was a photo of the two of you, months ago, and you look so…in love. I don't understand it"

"What photo?" he frowned.

"At some gala"

"You looked me up" he grinned triumphantly.

"That's beside the point; it's my job to look into potential members of my team"

"I'm a good actor" he shrugged "look, I've never had any reason to get divorced and it makes Angela's life easier if we don't"

"So you love her?"

"No" he said quickly "she's my friend, but I don't…I never really did"

"Right" she nodded "thanks for telling me then, but I've got a lot of work of work to do and I-"

"Teresa"

"What?"

"I…nothing. I'll leave you to your work, have fun"

oooooooooooooooooooo

Lisbon made it home to her apartment by 10pm that night. She'd had a long day, and all she wanted now was to sit down and relax. She changed into sweats and opened a beer before collapsing onto the couch. Realistically she knew that she would be better to have something healthy to eat and then take a long bath, but she just couldn't be bothered. A few sips into her beer there was a knock at the door.

"Before you slam the door in my face-"

"Jane, what are you doing here?"

"I want to talk to you" he said simply.

"How do you even find me? Oh god, you followed me home didn't you?" she groaned.

"Just listen to me for a minute"

"Fine, you might as well come in" she sighed, pulling the door open to let him in "you want a beer?"

"No, thanks"

"Ok, get talking then"

She sat down on the couch and looked up at him expectantly.

"I know that maybe you haven't had the best impression of me" he began.

"They do say you're a genius" Lisbon muttered.

"But I really like you, Teresa. I have done ever since I met you, and I really think you're the first person I've ever really..."

"Really what?" she asked.

"Really wanted to be with" he smiled "you're special"

"This isn't a joke, is it? I'm not part of one of your weird plots?"

"What? No. Teresa, this is real. I've been trying to show you for months but I admit that I haven't quite come off in…in the way I intended to"

"But you're-"

"Can you just forget all of the marriage stuff, and the working together stuff and history and all of that and just look me in the eye and tell me that you're not at all interested. If that's the case, I swear I'll leave it alone. I'll never mention it again"

"I…" Lisbon's eyes caught his and were held by the intensity of his gaze "I would be lying if I said I never thought about you…in that way" she said slowly. He was a mentalist, there was no point in lying to him "but we can't just ignore all of that stuff. You slept with me without telling me you were married. You bug me endlessly; give me tons more work to do; and if nothing else it's against CBI policy"

"It's not"

"Not what?"

"Against CBI policy. I looked into it"

"But there's still the fact that you're married" she said quickly, desperate to find a new excuse "and despite what you say-"

"Do you really see what Angela and I have as a 'marriage'?" he asked, eyebrows raised "after what I told you?"

"Well not traditionally" she reasoned "but legally, and morally"

"She's in love with another man, I haven't slept with her for nearly 4 years now" he said quietly "I haven't even seen her for three days, and she could be anywhere in the country for all I know"

Suddenly she was struggling to see him as her pain-in-the-ass consultant. All she could see was this good looking man who was baring his soul to her, to whom she was undeniably attracted. She stood up and took a step towards him.

"You promise me, this isn't one of your crazy plots?"

"On my life"

"Good"

Then she kissed him. He was so surprised he didn't kiss her back for a few seconds, and then he became aware of himself and threw himself into it with abandon. Their kiss was hungry and passionate, and it was only a matter of time until Jane was sliding his hands under her t-shirt and she was tugging his jacket off. When he was down to suit pants and an unbuttoned shirt, and Lisbon sported only sweatpants and a bra she paused kissing him only to murmur 'bedroom' before he scooped her up and carried her upstairs.

Jane's shirt was tugged off his body on the landing, and Lisbon's bra rested on her bedroom threshold, followed quickly by her pants and underwear.

"God, you're beautiful" he murmured between kisses, as she rubbed her hand teasingly over his crotch before pushing his suit pants and boxers down.

He kicked them off and then pushed her onto her back, leaning on his elbows to rest over her.

"Are you sure about this?" he asked.

"I swear to god Jane, if you choose now to be the considerate gentleman…"

"Alright, I get the message"

He leant down and kissed her again, and then groaned loudly as she ran her hand down his body to grab hold of his cock. She slid her hand up and down his length and smiled at him, a little too innocently for his liking.

"You are so going to pay for that"

oooooooooooooooooooo

Lisbon awoke the following morning feeling refreshed and relaxed. Her eyes remained closed, allowing herself to wake up slowly for once before her alarm sounded. She'd had a better night's sleep than she had done for weeks, all thanks to…

Oh god.

Her eyelids flew open and caught sight of the wavy blond hair spread across the other side of her pillow. She nearly let out a groan, but then she realised that waking him up was the last thing she wanted to do right now. She considered sneaking out of her apartment but where would she go? What if he didn't leave until she came back? Most importantly of all, what on earth had she been thinking when she let him into her bed again?

Unfortunately, she didn't have much opportunity to think up another plan when her alarm started playing. She grabbed her phone and turned it off, but not before the man in the other side of the bed started to shuffle around and awaken. He rolled onto his side and pushed his hair out of his eyes, grinning at her.

"Morning"

His voice was low and scratchy with sleep. His hair was ruffled, and she could just see the top half of his bare chest where the comforter was pushed down.

So maybe she could put off dealing with the massive mistake she had made for a couple of hours. There was no harm in that, was there? Not when he was looking so utterly delicious in the bed beside her…

"Hey" she finally replied "sleep well?"

"Like a baby"

He shuffled slightly towards her in the bed and pushed her hair off her face, leaning in to peck her lips.

"I'm glad, maybe you could do some actual work today" she joked.

"Oh I think I can do just that"

His grin widened and he ran his hand down the side of her naked form. She felt a blush flooding her cheeks as she realised exactly what he had meant. She couldn't do this, she shouldn't; they had work in a couple of hours and…

He started to kiss the side of her neck gently and Lisbon felt the last feeble attempts to resist him melt away. Once more wouldn't matter. In fact, it might just reinforce the utter foolishness of the whole idea.

It ended up being twice more. After a particularly energetic wakeup, he had followed her through to the shower and made a very convincing argument for conserving water. Now clean, dressed, and feeling more satisfied than she had for a long time, Lisbon was ready for work. Jane had made her coffee whilst she dressed and was watching her eagerly as she sat down to take a sip.

"It's lovely, thanks" she indicated the mug as she out it back down on the table "I don't mean to be rude, but…shouldn't you head to the CBI now?"

His face dropped a little and she felt bad.

"Not that I'm trying to get rid of you" she hastened to explain, although her brain was shouting at her that that was exactly what she should be doing "it's just it might look a little suspicious otherwise"

"Of course" he nodded quickly "I'll see you later then"

She walked with him to the door, where he stopped and gave her a long kiss that nearly caused her to drag him back upstairs to her bed and keep him there all day. As soon as the door was safely shut after him she returned to her kitchen and let her head rest on the table beside her coffee mug.

This time yesterday, they had been little more than colleagues with a slight history and a smidgeon of sexual tension. Now? She didn't dare ask what they had become.

She forced herself to sit up and drink the rest of her coffee. She had a feeling that she was going to need a lot of it to get through the day.