A/N: Guess what? This is staying fluffy. Don't ask what came over me during the Secret Santa, I don't know. I'm just more than making up with it with Entropy and Addiction now. Hahaha. You can't have expected me to keep up with writing fluff for that long...

Thank you so much to my beta, Divinia Serit. We drive each other nuts. It's a mutually beneficial relationship. ::hugs::

Thanks also go to: hoshinekoyasha, lisbon69, Penelope Louise, Habeous Corpus, blondieland, Chiisana Minako, dizzy - in - the - izzy, Frogster, Divinia Serit, lisbonloafers, Jadestar1981, mwalter1 and mtm for reviewing part one. Thank you so much, guys!

And Hoshi, here's the promised cat. Now let go of it, 'kay?

x tromana

Part Two - Ruining a Reputation

"I didn't appreciate having my family trapped in that drafty hall for so long," the brunette sniffed. "A lot of them are elderly, Agent Lisbon. If it's done any of them any harm whatsoever, I swear that my husband and I will sue the CBI for all it's worth."

"I'm sorry, Mrs. Sayers, but we did need to carry out our investigation," Lisbon replied tartly, while thinking that trying to sue the CBI wouldn't really be worth her while. "I'm sure you understand that."

"Yes, but that's beside the point…"

"Do you want us to find the murderer of your stepson or not?"

"My son, if you please."

"Your son, then."

Christine 'Chris' Sayers caused Lisbon a great deal of hassle rather than actually giving her any useful information whatsoever while Jane scouted around the lounge, trying to uncover any new information without the family's knowledge. Despite the fact the woman was insistent that Lisbon referred to her stepson as her son, there wasn't a single picture of them together, in fact there was only one of the eighteen year old. Smirking, he approached Lisbon and leaned over to whisper the information in her ear, knowing full well that she'd find it inane and irrelevant. Really, he was just using it as an excuse to be closer to her than was entirely necessary in civil company. She glared at him in response and he backed away slightly, instead choosing to place a hand on her left shoulder.

"And you know of no reason why anyone would want to kill him? Nobody with a grudge?"

"Who would want to kill a disabled boy on his eighteenth birthday?"

"Yes, that does sound implausible," Jane agreed as Lisbon batted him away with an angry hand. "You keep saying you're proud of your son. Where are the photos then?"

"He was camera shy," she replied, a little too fast. "He was embarrassed by his wheelchair."

"Well, thank you, Mrs. Sayers," Lisbon replied quickly, before Jane could do any further damage. "We'll let you know if we need anything else."

The woman shrugged noncommittally but still stood to walk the pair to the front door. She hadn't approved of having them in her house, especially while her husband was out dealing with that floozy of an ex-wife. That woman was who real police officers should be dealing with rather than her. And that Jane character had freaked her out somewhat; it was like he could tell all of her deepest, darkest secrets, some which Chris wanted to keep secret more than others. But everyone had a few of those and he had no right nosing around her house as if it was some kind of museum. She was just grateful that her kids were out so they hadn't been exposed to the farce of a questioning.

"What the hell is your problem, Jane?" Lisbon hissed the moment that the front door was shut. "Give me some space, will you?"

Jane threw his hands up in a non-threatening gesture as Lisbon pushed passed him and stormed straight to the van. He smirked; someone had obviously switched her coffee for decaf in the morning. Of course, he had a shrewd idea who that was, mainly because it was him who had supplied her with it. It was all for her own good though - too much caffeine caused a whole plethora of unpleasant side effects including headaches, irritability and anxiety. If she just cut down a little, she would probably feel tons better and he had seen it as his responsibility to nudge her in the right direction.

When they reached CBI headquarters, despite the fact Jane had let her drive without a fight and despite the fact he had barely spoken to her as they traveled back, Lisbon seemed to arrive in a worse mood than when their journey began. He had no idea why. It might have had something to do with the fact that he had taken to staring at her for part of the trip, mainly because she was far more interesting than the passing scenery and the exposed skin of her neck was particularly fascinating. When her eyes had briefly flickered from the road to his face, he offered a broad smile, to which she scowled in response. Cho smirked at him as Jane despairingly watched Lisbon disappear into her office, slamming the door firmly behind her.

"You're hopeless, Jane," Cho stated. "And I thought Rigsby had problems."

Jane quickly screwed up the newspaper he'd absent-mindedly picked up while in Lisbon's car and attempted to chuck it at Cho's head. Instead, the agent caught it and swiftly threw it into the bin. The consultant crossed his arms in mock annoyance and Cho eyed him seriously.

"If you don't sort yourself out, somebody else is going to get there before you," he continued. "But then again, at the rate you're going, even that stray cat that's in the parking lot could probably get there before you."

With his head hanging in irritation, Jane slunk over to the couch and sank down onto it, relieved that the goading Asian agent was no longer in his line of sight and he stared at Elvis, lamenting. Cho thought a flea-bitten cat had more hope than he did and that was doing absolutely nothing for his credibility.

Lisbon only exited her office twice: once for coffee and the second time when Rigsby and Van Pelt appeared in the bullpen, after having gone to question the ex-wife. According to Rigsby, her temperament was as fiery as her hair had been, something which caused Van Pelt to glare at him. However, they hadn't actually managed to gather much more information and had had to break up a scuffle between the woman and her ex, something which nearly resulted in the pair of them being arrested. Apparently, the woman only saw her son sporadically, something which she naturally blamed on her son's father and his 'bitch of a wife', but according to her, she still doted upon her son despite his apparent disabilities. Eventually, she left them to get back to their tasks, simply wishing that they could get a break in the case somewhere, somehow. She needed caffeine again and fast. She smiled briefly when she caught Cho, waiting absent-mindedly for some water to boil for his coffee.

"Cho? Have forensics got back with fingerprinting yet?"

"You really expect them to be that quick?" he answered quickly.

"No, but I can hope."

The rest of the day went smoothly, though they still had no break and still no results from forensics. As people slowly started filtering home, Jane decided it would be safer to try and sneak out of the building late, when virtually everybody else except the cleaning and security staff had left. When quiet had descended upon the bullpen, he made his move. Once outside, he grinned as he looked up at the shining stars, partially obscured by the golden glow of street lights. There were a lot of people who thought the natural night sky was more important than pedestrian's safety, but he didn't mind much either way. What he wasn't impressed with, however, was spotting Lisbon in the corner of the parking lot, luring the CBI's stray out of its hiding place and doing a very good job at it, at that. She smiled brightly as the animal purred eagerly around her legs while she took a fork and dish out of the plastic carrier bag by her side.

Cho must have known that she'd been feeding it. Either that, or the cat was conspiring against him too.

TBC…