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The two men locked eyes and stared at one another. Jane, who had been strolling breezily across the room just a moment ago, was now stopped dead in his tracks, and the thin smile that had graced his lips fell slightly. He quickly regained his self-control- sipped his tea casually and continued on his way towards his couch. But Pike noted this momentary lapse of composure with a certain amount of satisfaction. The normally cool, unflappable Patrick Jane was a little rattled and definitely not happy to see him.

When Pike had arrived at the FBI office earlier that morning, he knew there was a good chance he and Jane would encounter one another at some point. But he had made the conscious choice to neither seek Jane out nor avoid him. The only person he wanted- no needed- to speak to was Teresa.

They hadn't spoken since their last phone conversation almost two weeks ago. It had been a brief, painful conversation early in the morning the day after she had called to tell him she was finally on her way to DC. Her words had been halting, her voice shaky. She kept saying how sorry she was, that as much as she cared for him, as much as she thought she could go through with it, she just couldn't marry him. She didn't love him the way he loved her, and he was a wonderful man who deserved better. She didn't actually use the dreaded phrase, "It's not you, it's me," but she may as well have. He had remained calm, tried to reassure her that they could take things slowly. She could get her own place while she settled into her new job. They didn't have to set a wedding date right away. He could be patient and give her all the time and space she needed. But she was as definitive as she was vague. She wasn't coming and that was it.

He had hung up the phone in a daze, trying to make sense of what had just happened. There must be something she's not telling me, he thought, some reason she's not giving because she's too afraid or too embarrassed to say it out loud. He knew Teresa was a private person, emotionally guarded. From what he knew about her troubled childhood and spotty relationship history, this wasn't surprising. But he was determined to talk to her again and soon. He knew he'd be returning to Austin in a few weeks to wrap up loose ends on a case. He could see her then, he decided. They would sit down face to face, and he could get to the bottom of whatever it was that was holding her back. There was still a chance to fix this, he told himself, and convince her to come.

At least that's what he had believed, until a few days later, when one of his new officemates stopped by his desk to see if Pike had heard the latest scuttlebutt around the water cooler: how Dennis Abbott's pet consultant had concocted some elaborate ruse that had brought half of the Austin office down to Miami on a wild good chase; how that same consultant had then ended up in TSA custody after illegally boarding an airline flight bound for DC; and that once Abbott had secured his release, the higher-ups had decided to let the whole fiasco slide because, hey, the guy closes cases and isn't that why we hired him in the first place?

Jane. The realization hit Pike like a ton of bricks, nearly knocking the wind out of him. Teresa didn't have cold feet. She wasn't scared of commitment or of uprooting her life. This was all about Jane manipulating her and pulling her into his orbit once again.

Pike wasn't blind. Even though he knew the two of them had never been romantically involved per se, he could see that the feelings Teresa had for Jane went beyond mere friendship. She almost lost her career because of the man and his need for personal revenge. She was completely loyal to him and had stood by him and defended his bad behavior for over a decade. Pike told himself that this devotion grew out of her compassionate nature and the sympathy she felt for him because of the tragic loss of his family. Perhaps she had even fallen a little bit in love with him along the way, Pike conceded to himself. But the way he saw it, Jane was too damaged and self-involved to have anything to offer anyone. Surely Teresa must see this, too. And yet she had chosen him and decided to stay in Austin.

Now the two men stood face to face with cool, even expressions, neither one of them willing to betray any emotion to the other.

"Good to see you, Pike." Jane was the first to speak. "Nice beard."

"Thanks. Where's Teresa?" No need for pleasantries, Pike thought.

"She's out on a case." Jane paused. "So, what brings you by?"

"I'm just here finishing up some work on the McKay theft and homicide case. His trial's set to begin next month."

"Ah, yeah… we had fun on that one, didn't we?" Jane grinned to himself and then back at Pike, as if they were two old friends reminiscing about the glory days. For some reason Pike found Jane's attempt at lightening the mood maddening. The smug bastard.

"Well, it was the first time I got to see you in action. You sure know how to run quite the con, don't you, Jane? Although it sounds like you really outdid yourself with that stunt you pulled down in Miami." The edge in Pike's voice was now obvious; he was done playing nice. "Tell me something, how did Teresa feel about being on the receiving end of that particular scam of yours?"

Jane's smile vanished. "She was furious with me and rightly so," he answered plainly, his voice a little lower.

"And yet you somehow convinced her to come back here with you." Pike shook his head in frustration, his bottled-up anger finally rising to the surface. "I'm assuming the two of you are together now- well whatever together can mean for someone like you, that is. It's not like you have a real life or home to offer her."

Jane's posture stiffened slightly and his face hardened. "Teresa is here because it's where she's chosen to be- not because I've tricked her or manipulated her in some way, as you seem to be implying."

"Yeah, well, I don't get it. I really don't," Pike continued, the volume of his voice rising. "Why couldn't you just let her be happy? Let her have a chance at a normal life outside of your damn shadow for once?"

As he finished speaking, Pike suddenly noticed out of the corner of his eye something (or rather someone) moving towards him. He and Jane both looked over to see Teresa there, standing just a few feet away from them.

"Marcus," she said gently, with warmth and pain in her eyes. "Let's go someplace and talk."

So, Teresa's side of things, her conversation w/Pike and the conclusion are up next … let me know what you think!