A/N: Wow! Waterbaby134 and I are overwhelmed by the response to that first chapter! Thank you so much for all your kind words, favorites, alerts, and overall enthusiasm for this fic. Now, I have the responsibility of rising to meet the high bar she set for chapter one! No pressure...Deep breaths...Here I go...

Chapter 2

His announcement was met with silence, and he glanced over at her, meeting a stare that was so direct even he began to grow uncomfortable after a few moments.

"What? No comment? No giddy 'I'm happy to be stuck with you'? Or an annoyed, 'stuck like a cow's foot in the mud'? I do so love those down-home expressions of yours."

He was just talking now to fill the silence, which was totally unlike him. Being away from her, from the company of a real person, had put him terribly out of practice. Maybe she didn't want to be stuck with him after all, he realized, feeling a little panicked at the thought.

"I guess I could still leave." The words sounded petulant even to him.

Teresa put her thumb and two fingers at her temples, closing her eyes and massaging at the tension absently.

"I don't want you to go, Jane," she whispered.

He'd heard her perfectly, but couldn't resist saying, "What?"

She dropped her hand and looked at him wearily. "You heard me. And I don't want to hear anymore of this 'I'm staying to protect you' crap, because that's just what it is: crap. The truth is, you need us as much as we need you. Besides," she continued, a small grin hovering around her lips as if she'd stumbled upon an epiphany. "We've got Lorelei in custody here, and there's no way in hell you'd want out now." She walked closer to his cot and he sat up at her determined expression.

"The more I think of it, all this 'I saved all your messages' jazz is you buttering me up, leading me to believe you'd actually missed me. Oh, poor lonely Jane, holding on to the only connection he had with Teresa Lisbon—her voice mail and text messages. How touching. You can take your conman games and...and stick them where the sun don't shine. Is that down-home enough for you?"

He couldn't help but wince at her slightly mocking tone, mainly because she might think she had him pegged, but what she'd said about his being lonely, about him holding on to her messages, was actually the truth.

Here it is, he thought. Here is my way out of those words that unexpectedly slipped out before I shot her, a way to deny all these feelings that are close to the surface because I'm so damn grateful just to be in her presence again.

His face relaxed into his familiar, unaffected grin. "Okay, Lisbon, you got me. I couldn't risk you suddenly realizing you were better off without me. You know there's nothing I wouldn't say or do to get Red John."

She looked hurt all of a sudden, and he wished immediately he could take it all back, stop being the coward she claimed he wasn't and reassure her that he wasn't conning her. That he hadn't forgotten he'd told her he loved her.

"Well, that's pretty damn obvious now, isn't it?" She said. But then the venom in her tone left her in a tired sigh. "Look, you know I'm not going to keep you from Lorelei. As a matter of fact, we're using you just as much as you are us, Jane. If anyone can break her, it's you. And Jane... for what it's worth...I did miss you. I am happy to be stuck with you, and I can't think of a better way to characterize what I am Jane—what we both are—stuck. Neither of us can pull ourselves out of the mud, at least not for more than six months at a time." She smirked a little at the end.

Her words hovered between them like a tangible thing, and Jane experienced a sudden lightness almost on par with seeing her again in the church a few days ago.

"Well. Okay, then," he said, busily re-pocketing his phone. Lisbon narrowed her eyes at him. He looked almost...happy.

"There was uh, actually a reason I came up here," Lisbon ventured, almost shy now after the wringer they'd just been through. She took out her own phone and glanced at the time.

"You mean you didn't just come to enter into a war of words with me?"

She ignored him.

"Lorelei is about to be remanded to Federal custody. If you want another stab at her on our turf, you have about an hour. I'm sure you wanted to say good-bye."

Jane's heart skipped a beat in anticipation of confronting Red John's girl again. Before Lisbon had entered his attic hideaway, he'd been working out in his mind his strategy for breaking her. It would be a slow, tedious process. Just by talking to disciples like Rebecca and Dumar, and now, Lorelei, he knew Red John had sunk his talons so deeply into their psyches that it would take incredibly dextrous deprogramming to remove each claw, digit by digit.

"Jane?"

"An hour's not much," he complained.

She shrugged. "Who knows when they'll let you at her again? The Feds are pretty territorial about this kind of thing. They'd taken over the Red John case before you left, if you recall."

"Oh, I recall," he said grumpily. He hopped up off the cot and straightened his vest and jacket.

"You look fine," she said softly. He met her eyes, feeling suddenly like she was watching him prepare for a date with another woman. His stomach lurched a little at her melancholy expression.

"Thanks, Lisbon, but I'm not trying to impress her. I want her to see that she doesn't ruffle my feathers. You'd do well to do the same when next you meet."

"She didn't ruffle anything of mine," she said defensively. "It seems to me, lover, that you're the one who should be a little more...guarded."

So it was back to that. Funny how it kept coming back to that. He grinned, for there could be no other way to describe her reaction than jealousy.

"An hour, eh? Well, Rome wasn't built in a day, I suppose."

"Or even six months," she quipped, following him out of the attic.

"Touché, Lisbon. Touché."

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Back for more?" asked Lorelei, sitting back in the interrogation room chair like she was about to receive a relaxing spa treatment. She smiled prettily. "I suppose you're no different than any of the other men I've known."

"Including Red John?" he asked mildly, taking his seat across from her. He felt Lisbon's eyes on the back of his head as she watched the interview from the other side of the one-way window. For the first time in memory, showing off for her was not going to be pleasurable.

"He's the exception, I suppose. But then, he's the exception to every rule I can think of."

"Right," said Jane sceptically. "In what way? Please, enlighten me. I'd like to know more about him. How he thinks. What motivates him..."

"Oh, Patrick. You're wasting time asking questions you already know the answers to. Why not ask me what I thought of your performance in bed? All men like to know how good they are. They're so insecure about those things."

Jane tensed, but forced himself to relax. From the way she glanced at the opaque window, she'd likely guessed Lisbon stood behind it and she was clearly trying to get a rise out of him. He wouldn't give her the satisfaction.

"I told Agent Lisbon what I thought of our encounter," Lorelei continued at his silence. "Didn't she tell you?"

"Agent Lisbon is a professional. She wouldn't discuss personal matters with me unless they were important to a case." Yeah, right, he finished to himself, knowing full well that Lisbon was likely frowning on the other side of the window.

"Aw, she may be a state agent, but she's a woman first. She'd be curious to know what a future prospect would be like in the sack."

He wasn't going to touch that assertion.

"I'd much rather know how good Red John is," he said, attempting to put the conversation back on a more productive keel. "What kind of lover is he? Rough? Gentle? Kinky?"

She grinned dreamily. "One can't quantify a love that transcends the mere physical."

"Hmmm...so you were lovers, then?"

He'd always wondered if sex played a part in the overall seduction of the serial killer's followers. Red John had taken Rosalind Harker as a lover, but she wasn't a typical disciple, wasn't brainwashed like the others. She'd been an exception, perhaps because she was blind and could never categorically identify him. Whether Lorelei knew it or not, she'd just given him valuable information he'd be able to use against her later.

"Don't be jealous, Patrick. Nothing can take away what we had together."

"Unfortunately," he murmured.

"Now you're just being mean. In case you're feeling inadequate, though, I did tell Agent Lisbon your heart wasn't completely in our night together. But I recognized your potential. That thing you did with your tongue—"

"Are you finished?" He interrupted, raising a sardonic eyebrow.

She smiled in that simpering, self-satisfied way that at first he'd found mildly charming. Now that she'd finally revealed her true colors, the sight of her made him sick. Sick with himself. He'd shown himself how far he was willing to go to get revenge, even breaking his vow to remain faithful to his wife. He'd taken a chance, felt his sacrifice had been worth it. How tragic if all of this came to naught, if he lacked the skill necessary to extract the secrets of Red John from Lorelei's psychopathic brain.

"I'm only just beginning...lover," she said, and his mouth formed a straight line.

He couldn't do this anymore, not with Lisbon watching. It was time to wrap things up; coming back in here without a fully developed plan had been a mistake. He rose to his feet.

"The Feds are on their way to take you to your new home," he told her. "Just thought I'd pop in to say good-bye. For now, at least."

"How sweet," she said, sounding sincere. "Oh, Patrick...before you go, you could help settle a bet I had with Red John..."

He smiled benignly, but a warning voice inside him told him he had to leave now, before she drew him into yet another trap. He ignored it.

"You and Red John make bets?"

She laughed. "It must have been because we were in Vegas. Anyway, when I told him what you'd whispered to me that night, that you hadn't done this in awhile, he bet me a hundred dollars you hadn't been with a woman since your wife. I said that couldn't possibly be true. I mean, I could tell you were out of practice, but that's been what—nine years? And look at you, such a handsome, passionate man, putting yourself out of commission for that long? No way—"

But despite her enthusiasm, she was watching his face carefully, and she must have been well trained by her master to recognize a man's weaknesses and hone in on them like a spider. He'd felt the involuntary tightening of his jaw at her words, saw her moment of triumph when she recognized Red John had been right about him.

Jane swallowed against his dry throat, but said evenly, "Good-bye, Lorelei."

She chuckled again, her eyes dancing merrily. "Oh, my God. He was right!" She shook her head in amazement. "Oh, Patrick, you should have told me! That must have felt like losing your virginity all over again. Had I known, I would have been much gentler with you. But at the time, you didn't seem to want gentle—Anyway, I have to say, I feel honored, truly." She brought her cuffed hands up to heart in feigned sentimentality.

His hand paused on the doorknob. To enhance the realism of his con, he'd shared with her a bit of the truth because he wanted to gain her trust, wanted her to go back and tell Red John how far he had lowered his guard, how ready he was to move on with his life. As much as he wanted to ignore her and escape that room, he couldn't let her have the final word, not on this topic, not while Lisbon was likely standing there in renewed shock. He turned back to face his prisoner.

"Don't feel honored. It had been nine years, sweetheart; by that point, all it would have taken was any warm body."

"And yet, you chose mine."

He fished his wallet out of his inside jacket pocket, pulled out a hundred dollar bill and set it on the table in front of her.

"No, lover," he said mockingly, leaning toward her, "you chose me."

Her face fell a little; no woman, no matter how low, liked to be equated with a prostitute. But then Lorelei, a much worthier opponent than he'd given her credit for, reached for the bill. He got a glimpse of painfully familiar cleavage as she pulled her t-shirt low to slip it inside her bra.

"Thanks for the loan," she said, noting with satisfaction where his eyes had been. "I'll be sure to pay Red John first chance I get." She patted her chest with renewed confidence.

Jane didn't trust himself to say another word, and her soft laughter followed him out of the interrogation room.

He stood outside in the hallway a moment, pulse racing, trying to come to grips with the huge mess he'd made of that travesty of an interrogation. His feathers were decidedly ruffled. He'd horribly underestimated Lorelei's power to get to him on a personal level. Well, that wasn't going to happen again. Couldn't happen again.

Lisbon had warned him this wouldn't be easy. He knew now he had to better distance himself from the guilt he felt for sleeping with her, turn it around and use it on Lorelei. Most importantly, however, he had to make sure Lisbon wasn't witness to any more of his interrogation sessions.

"That went well," said Lisbon dryly, emerging from the observation room to stand before him.

He sheepishly met her eyes, then looked away in annoyance.

"Bite me," he muttered, walking away to find a comfortable couch where he could silently lick his wounds.

Lisbon grinned as she watched him go, but she had the surreal feeling that their roles had suddenly been reversed.

A/N: So, Lorelei obviously wins this round. But have faith in our heroes! Waterbaby's turn is next. We'll see what she can do with the mess I left :). And I'd love to hear if our styles are meshing well, whether it's too jarring a shift between our chapters.