"CBI, put your hands in the air" Lisbon shouted as the team raced into the victim's bedroom.
The woman jumped sitting on the bed jumped up in shock, standing on Jane's foot by accident.
"I'm arresting you for the murder of James McCorley. Anything you say can be used against you in court…" Lisbon reeled off, cuffing the shocked woman as Jane rubbed his foot, wincing.
"You ok?" Van Pelt asked Jane.
"I'll think I'll live" he joked "we got her though"
"Yup, didn't you say she was innocent?" Van Pelt pointed out, smirking slightly at him.
"I just risked my life to catch your killer and this is the thanks I get?"
"We were waiting outside the door all along" Van Pelt reminded him, rolling her eyes "come on, I'll drive you back. I'm sure there's an ice pack somewhere at the office"
An hour later Lisbon returned to the CBI to find Jane lying on the couch in her office, with an ice pack resting on his right foot.
"The case is all wrapped up, I was just about to order pizza" she told him "how's your foot?"
"I have a nice stiletto shaped bruise on it. But hey, a dangerous killer is no longer out on the loose" he shrugged.
"Will you be able to drive home with that?"
"I'll just stay here; I forget how comfortable your couch is sometimes" he mused "Not quite the same as mine, but it'll do for the night"
He grinned at her, a smile that was ever so slightly cheeky and mysterious. Lisbon felt her cheeks colouring a little as she remembered the time he had spent the night on her couch in her apartment, and hoping that his smile didn't mean that he was thinking about the same thing. The continued intensity of his gaze only made her blush more, leaving her with little doubt about what was on his mind.
"Did you want pizza?" she blurted out suddenly, forcing them both back to the present.
"When have I ever refused case closed pizza? I thought you knew me Lisbon"
Jane's grin widened, and the blush which had been slowly receding from Lisbon's cheeks returned with ferocity. There was something about the way he was smiling at her that made her feel like he was looking right into her soul. She was used to feeling like he was reading her mind (he did it on a daily basis, after all), but she hadn't felt so…vulnerable for a while. Well, not since that fated Christmas dinner in fact. Despite the quantities of alcohol consumed, she could still remember what had happened that evening in quite a lot of detail. In particular, she knew that the cheeky grin on his face right that moment was exactly the same one that he had worn as he had undone her bra. And…well, she knew where that had gone.
"Ok, I'll…order an extra one then" she turned and left her office quickly.
She stood outside her office for a few moments, contemplating what had just happened. She wasn't sure why this sudden sexual tension had appeared between them after weeks of increased normalness, but she definitely knew that was a bad thing. Aside from the potential damage to their friendship, it was completely unprofessional to be thinking about such things at work. She was a homicide detective; she should be out catching killers, not fantasizing about her consultant. And his hands…and the look on his face as he entered her…and the feeling of him moving deep inside her…
Stop it Teresa! She chastised herself. She pulled her phone out of her pocket and called the local pizza company, determined to take her mind off Jane. Anyway, she had no proof that he had even known what she was thinking about. He'd just been smiling, like he did from time to time. She'd just gone and assumed that his mind was on the same track as hers, maybe he was genuinely just thinking about how comfortable her couch was, and how much he enjoyed pizza.
Jane however, was most definitely thinking about more than couches and pizza. He was frustrated at himself. He had been trying so hard to move on from that night, so that she could see how much he loved her as a person, and then he'd gone and done that. He would be kidding himself if he pretended that she had thought nothing of it. He had seen how red her face had gone, and he had enjoyed the knowledge that she was thinking about him like that. But he'd also watched how she had become flustered and rushed away. That had hurt. It reminded him of their talk where she had called the night a 'mistake' and wanted to forget all about it. After agreeing with her by accident then, he had been determined to be more honest in his actions and to show her that it was never a 'mistake' to him. Making her feel uncomfortable by reminding her of it only reiterated her thoughts of it meaning nothing to him. Jane knew how Lisbon thought; he knew she would have taken his flirty smile as a means of embarrassment rather than a flirtatious gesture. Not that he blamed her for that; that was exactly how it had looked. Ignoring the shooting pain in his foot as he placed it on the floor, Jane stood up from the couch and stretched, before making his way to the bullpen. They had closed a case after all, he should go and celebrate with the team and put all inappropriate thoughts of Lisbon behind for a bit. If he could, anyway.
Two weeks later, and thankfully Lisbon had not had any more embarrassing encounters with Jane. Their banter was still its slightly flirty self, but without the suggestiveness that had appeared that evening in her office. That didn't mean to say that Lisbon had stopped thinking about it by any means. In fact, it seemed to have got worse. He had started appearing in her dreams at night, something which was making her feel particularly uncomfortable. It was one thing to drift off into a reverie of happy memories out of choice, but to have them appear in her subconscious made her feel very out of control. She blamed it on the fact that he had been the first man she had slept with for about 3 years, and therefore it was entirely natural for her mind to cling onto that encounter as the only sexual contact it could properly remember. But deep down she knew that this wasn't the truth. Why else could she remember little things about him in such detail? Like the way he had looked into her eyes as he had slid himself inside her, with such burning intensity she had been unable to move for a moment. Then the sensation and the realisation that she was actually having sex with Patrick Jane had overwhelmed her and she had broken their eye contact and turned to kissing him instead. Or maybe he had just zoned out because of the alcohol and had caught her eye whilst trying to concentrate on other things. Maybe she was attaching too much meaning to it. He had made it clear that he was happy to forget about it, she was just getting her hopes up by imagining that it had actually meant something to him.
A frustrated groan escaped her mouth and she let her head flop onto the paperwork. It was so distracting, the way he crept into her thoughts all the time when she was trying to work.
"Boss?"
Cho stuck his head around the door, hiding any surprise at finding that Lisbon had face-planted her paperwork.
"We caught a case"
"Ok, brief me on the way" she responded wearily, forcing herself to her feet.
"Rigsby and Van Pelt are already heading over there, they happened to be in the neighbourhood over lunch"
Of course they did Lisbon thought to herself. It was no secret that every time Rigsby and Van Pelt went out to buy lunch that they just so happened to end up in the same place. Lisbon had been unlucky enough to walk into a random café for a sandwich to spot the two of them bumping into one another by accident. Tongues and all.
"Jane, we have a case" she told him as her and Cho passed through the bullpen.
He was sitting on his couch, sipping tea from his favourite blue cup and staring thoughtfully into the middle distance.
"Oh right. Can I finish my tea first?"
"Can't you just pour it into a travel mug?"
"Tea from a travel mug Lisbon" he shook his head at her "what an abomination"
She rolled her eyes at him as he admitted defeat and stood up, gulping down as much tea as he could.
They arrived at the crime scene not long after, and Lisbon spotted a small smile creeping onto Jane's lips at the setting - a psychic's office.
"Please try to contain yourself, Jane" she warned him as they walked up to the front door.
"When have I ever had any trouble containing myself?" he shot back.
Lisbon bit back a highly inappropriate retort, and settled with a small glare.
They were greeted by a tall, middle aged woman with greying hair at the door. She was draped in scarves and fabrics of all different colours, and Lisbon avoided looking at Jane, knowing exactly what he was thinking.
"Welcome"
Her voice was surprisingly deep and quite breathy.
"I'm Rhonda, John's spiritual advisor" she explained, pulling a hanky out of her sleeve and dabbing her eyes theatrically "please, come in"
"When did you discover the victim?" Lisbon asked as they followed her through to the crime scene.
"This morning, I had just come back from my sun salutations. I do them every morning in the park"
"What time was that?"
"Oh, I try to avoid measuring time in minutes. It's so very confining"
And convenient for if you don't have a solid alibi, Lisbon couldn't help but think. They met the local PD officer in the room where the victim had been found. He briefed them on what they knew so far, whilst Rhona started muttering things to the corpse and spraying a perfume around the room.
"Would you mind not spraying that? It might disturb the crime scene" Lisbon asked politely after receiving a face full of lavender mist.
"Oh of course. I'm so sorry. I didn't want any of your souls to be tainted by the negative energy" she gave a sad look to the body on the floor, sniffing slightly.
Lisbon forced herself not to roll her eyes, whilst Jane decided it was time to take action.
"Is this where you meet clients?" Jane asked.
"Yes, I find the barrier between our world and others is at its lowest here"
"I could feel that when I walked in, it has such a…freeing atmosphere"
Jane closed his eyes and took a deep breath through his nose.
"Yes, it does" she agreed slowly. She stared at him in wonder for a few moments, as he remained standing peacefully with his eyes shut.
"You have a very strong aura" she told him "if you just opened yourself up, you could let your gift free"
"I did used to" he admitted, looking at the ground as if it was a very difficult topic for him "But I learnt that my gift is better…contained"
He shot Lisbon a look as he echoed her earlier words.
"Yes, I can see now…I'm so very sorry. But that doesn't mean you have to lock it up" she muttered, placing a hand on his arm.
"Jane, any insights?" Lisbon asked "You know, on the case?"
"Well he wasn't killed here, judging by the lack of blood. Carried in by two or more people, given that there are no drag marks"
"Anything that forensics won't be able to pick up on?" she pushed.
"He was happily married, couldn't have children but they had a dog instead…a Labrador if I'm not mistaken?"
He pointed to the dark hairs that were caught on the knee of the victim's trousers.
"You're right" Rhonda said, nodding "he first started seeing me when they couldn't conceive. Mr Jane, your gift is there, whether you want to accept it not"
"Ok, Jane we're done here. Let's go"
Lisbon was eager to get Jane away before Rhonda had any more chance to mention his 'gift'. Jane took both of Rhonda's hands in his and looked into her eyes for a moment.
"Do you think John will make contact with you?"
"I…I don't know, it can take a while for spirits to pass through. But I will keep trying, and I'll contact you if I do"
"Thank you" he said, bowing his head respectfully.
"Ok, what was that all about?" Lisbon asked Jane as she pulled away from the drive.
"All what?"
"You! Not making fun of her, pretending to feel the 'energy' in the room" she explained.
"I was trying to see if she was bluffing"
"And?"
"Completely crazy. And completely innocent. She genuinely believes everything she's saying"
"She's still a suspect; the body was found in her house, and sun salutations don't exactly count as an alibi"
"Yes, someone is obviously trying to put this on her, but she didn't do it" he affirmed.
"How can you be so sure?"
"I just am; I know what physics are like. Invite her to join the investigation if you want to be certain" he shrugged.
"Yeah right, like we did with Kristina?"
Jane didn't say anything in response, and Lisbon immediately felt guilty for reminding him.
"Sorry…I shouldn't have mentioned that" she said quietly.
"It's ok. It could be quite fun to have her on the investigation though, don't you want a free snapshot of your future?" he joked.
"I'm quite happy not knowing right now"
"Really Lisbon? You don't want to know who your handsome future husband is?"
"Or wife" she pointed out "you never know"
"Oh, I do" he muttered under his breath, just loud enough for Lisbon to hear.
"But really, if there's any chance she could be the killer – although she's definitely not – would it not be better to have her under our noses?" he continued quickly, determined not to head down the same path as he had done a few weeks ago.
"I'll consider it. You just like being told how special you are with your 'gift'"
"Well, I am very special"
"Here, chamomile tea" Jane told Rhonda, placing a cup in front of where she sat at the desk in Lisbon's office "has he tried to contact you again yet?"
"No, not yet" Rhonda said, sighing deeply.
Lisbon looked across the office and rolled her eyes at Jane, who shrugged and offered her a small smile. The three remained in silence for a few minutes, save for Rhonda's occasional sips of tea.
"Jane, we've got a solid lead on the case" Lisbon told him, having just received an email from Van Pelt about the victim's bank account "Rhonda, do you mind if we leave?"
"No, of course not. I have a client to see anyway, her brother is trying to get through to her" she sighed deeply. Clearly contacting the dead was a very tiring pastime.
"Of course, thanks for your help"
"It's the least I can do" she stood up and rearranged her many scarves.
"Bye Rhonda" Jane said as she left "please, call me if you have any contact or insights"
"Of course"
"Seriously Jane, why are you still going along with her?" Lisbon asked the moment Rhonda had left.
"Why not? She's happy in her little world"
"Because normally you love telling people that they're wrong" she pointed out, grabbing her bag and keys.
"Not when they really believe in something"
"But-"
"Have I ever tried to tell you that your religion is wrong?"
"Well no, but-"
"Exactly, because I know that you believe in it and I respect that, regardless of my own beliefs"
Lisbon had nothing to say back to that, realising that not once had he ever tried to disprove her religion. She also felt slightly guilty for being so disparaging of Rhonda, who (if Jane was right – as he was the vast majority of the time) genuinely believed that she could contact dead people and wasn't putting it on to con people.
"What makes her psychic beliefs different to others we've come across then?" she asked as they crossed the bullpen, heading towards the lift.
"I saw how much she charges people. It would be a fairly pointless con if she was only earning as much as a waitress"
"Still, doesn't it seem a bit odd for her to be charging people at all?"
"Look at it this way: she's charging enough to get by so that she can bring peace to as many people's lives as possible. She would probably rather not charge at all, but she has little choice if she wants to have enough to live off and still be able to help people. She's even got a scarf business going along the side to bring in income"
Again, Lisbon was lost for words. It was so unlike Jane; normally he was convinced that all psychics were frauds and spent all of his time with them trying to pull them up on it. This time he had decided in a matter of seconds that this woman actually believed what she was saying (even if he was still convinced it was rubbish), and was perfectly content just to leave her to it, even going along with her to a degree. Maybe he'd had a change of heart, as if he'd mellowed a bit since the whole Red John business was over and he was no longer controlled by guilt and revenge. Whatever it was, her job was a whole lot easier when she wasn't constantly trying to stop him offending people, or filling in paperwork for the times she had failed.
To Lisbon's relief, they managed to solve the case fairly quickly. She didn't think she could take much more of Jane's passivity towards Rhonda and her beliefs. As much as she knew he had good intentions, it was too weird to watch when she was so used to his attempts to prove all psychics were frauds. They hadn't been assigned a new case yet, so Lisbon had spent most of the past few days going through paperwork and looking into cold cases with the team. Although she didn't want wish death onto someone, she wouldn't have minded catching a new case sometime soon, but for now all Lisbon wanted to do was go home and get an early night for a change.
"Bye Grace" Lisbon called as she left. Rigsby and Cho appeared to have already gone home, and Jane seemed to be fast asleep on his couch "see you tomorrow"
"Bye boss. Isn't it Saturday tomorrow? Are we working then?"
"Is it?" Lisbon frowned in confusion, convinced it was a Wednesday.
"Yes, definitely" Van Pelt said, checking her computer to be sure.
"Well see you on Monday then"
Once in her car, Lisbon pondered her confusion, deciding that the lack of a case was having a detrimental effect on her concentration.
Shit.
If it was Friday today, then it had been a whole 5 days since she had finished her last contraceptive pill pack. It hadn't worried her that her period hadn't come after 3 days, since it normally took a few pill free days for it to arrive, but knowing it had actually been 5 days was a different story. Maybe it was taking longer because she had run two packs together, meaning that she hadn't had a break in pills for six weeks instead of the three which her body was used to. Lisbon decided to console herself with this thought, determined not to even think of the alternatives. In fact, there couldn't even be any alternatives, since she took her pill at 8am every day which made them 99+% effective. Her period would probably come tomorrow, right in the middle of her morning run or at some other inconvenient time, she told herself. There was nothing to worry about. She was sure she could remember the doctor telling her that occasionally people just didn't get periods between packs. Maybe that was what was happening, and as per usual her mind jumped to the worst conclusion.
Still, all weekend she couldn't shake the worry that that wasn't the case. She also couldn't bring herself to get a pregnancy test to prove it wrong, just in case that tiny niggling worry was right. So she tried to push her worry away through exercise, running twice the distance she normally did on Saturday morning and even getting up early to run before church on Sunday. She spent the rest of her time catching up on errands, finally getting round to ringing her brothers, and going shopping (something she normally dreaded) for a couple of new work shirts.
On Monday morning she had woken up suddenly at 5am and rushed to the bathroom desperately hoping to find that her period had appeared overnight. It hadn't. Now worried that a whole week had passed and unable to get back to sleep, Lisbon left for work early and stopped at her favourite café on the way for a leisurely breakfast of coffee and a muffin. As soon as she arrived at work she realised a potential problem; she would have to see Jane, who would almost definitely work out something was up right away. Still, at least she could bury herself in paperwork and pretend to be coming down with something until they had a new case to take her mind off it. Or until she did a pregnancy test which would come out negative, and then she'd be certain that everything was fine.
From the safety of her office she watched Jane saunter in, looking slightly too cheerful for 8am on a Monday morning. She was glad that he had finally got rid of that motel room and bought himself a proper apartment, even if she kind of missed coming in to find him asleep on his couch, as she used to most mornings. Over the next half hour the rest of her team filtered in, Rigsby and Van Pelt sharing smiles which strongly suggested that they'd spent the weekend together. Lisbon suppressed a sigh; she really needed to talk to Jane and work out what his plan was for changing the fraternising rule. She was even willing to help him with it, so long as it didn't result in her losing her job. She watched with a small smile on her face as he made himself a cup of tea, concentrating carefully as he dunked the teabag in to make sure it was the perfect strength. Then he looked over and spotted that her watching him and grinned, before grabbing a mug to make her a coffee.
"Morning Lisbon" Jane greeted her as he entered her office. He'd had to use his back to push the door open whilst trying not to spill either of the drinks he carried.
"Why are you in such a good mood this morning?" she asked, taking her coffee and relishing in the rich scent that emanated from it.
"Why not?" he shrugged.
"Because it's a drizzly Monday morning and I'd rather be in my bed"
"Ah…so you didn't sleep well?"
Jane had noticed the slightly dark circles under her eyes and her fatigued posture. She chose not to respond to his question, sipping at her coffee instead whilst he settled himself on her couch.
"Jane" she began cautiously "did you ever come up with a plan to get rid of that fraternising rule?"
"Do you want to ask Cho out now?" he joked.
"No" she rolled her eyes at him "Rigsby and Van Pelt. I don't know why Gable hasn't mentioned it to me yet, it's so obvious"
"As a matter of fact, I have already started putting my plan into action"
"Why don't I like the sound of this?"
"Really, it's nothing bad. I just slipped a couple of things into conversation with him. Phase 2 is coming up soon, which you can help with"
"What's 'Phase 2'?" She narrowed her eyes at him.
"Calm down, it won't get you fired. We just need to send in a few of those anonymous request forms, nothing risky"
Lisbon spent a moment struggling to pick a hole in his plan. She found none. It was almost conventional.
"Fine, I'll help you with that"
"Brilliant" he grinned widely "Now what is it that's bothering you? There's clearly something up"
"Nothing, I'm just tired" she shrugged, followed by a timely yawn.
"If you say so"
Jane looked less than convinced but decided to let it go. Part of his new plan regarding Lisbon involved leaving of things that she didn't want to talk about, instead of forcing them out of her. As much as he wanted to know what was worrying her, he would have to let it go for now. What he did know, was that it wasn't a lack of sleep. When Lisbon was tired, she became snappy and grumpy, not slightly lost looking like she was now.
They finally caught a case around mid-morning, by which point Lisbon was on the edge of running down the shop across the road to buy a pregnancy test and dispel her fears. Instead of that, she ended up driving with Jane to the edge of town, where they found the body of a woman who should have been in witness protection. Five minutes on the scene convinced Jane that this was a consequence of the case for which she was testifying, but that it wasn't the defendant who had killed her. They headed back to the office not long after, and after an internal battle which lasted the duration of the journey, Lisbon had decided to bite the bullet and go for it.
"I'm just going to go and get some aspirin from the shop" Lisbon told Jane as they left the car.
"Don't they have that in the first aid box in the kitchen?"
"I need more anyway, I might as well get it now" she lied "see you in a minute"
She felt slightly embarrassed going to the counter to buy her pregnancy test, so she grabbed a couple of bars of chocolate with it, hoping that maybe the cashier wouldn't even register what it was. Thankfully the young girl on duty seemed too busy texting between transactions to notice much. Just as she approached the desk, she suddenly remembered her pretence for being there and picked up a couple of boxes of aspirin. It wouldn't do for her not to have any on the off chance that anyone needed to borrow some, and Jane was bound to notice.
As soon as she got back to the CBI building, she went straight into the toilets on the ground floor. Since most of the offices were on higher floors, she knew that the chances of finding herself alone there were much better. Plus, she couldn't face the idea of bumping into Van Pelt in this situation.
The wait for the result was excruciating. Lisbon tried to reason with herself; this was nothing compared to some of the situations she'd found herself in before. She'd been taken hostage by that crazy woman who had kidnapped Jane and tried to set fire to them; she'd had guns pointed at her, or even held against her head. But none of that seemed as tense as these three minutes. In those situations, she could have very easily just been killed, but she wouldn't have had to deal with the consequences. This was different; the result of this test would determine the consequences, and therefore the rest of her life.
She tried to tell herself that the result would be positive. Although it would be scary and new and very different, she knew deep down that she had always wanted children at some point, and even if this wasn't her ideal situation, at least she would end up with something that would inevitably outweigh all of the difficulties it brought with it. The image of a newborn baby lying asleep in Jane's arms suddenly popped into her head, along with an involuntary smile.
She fought back the urge to look at the result, and turned her mind to the other possibility; negative. Her life would be able to carry on like normal, with her career and her friendship with Jane. Sure, now she'd had the possibility of a child it wouldn't seem quite the same, but this way she would be able to find someone to marry and have her child with, so that her child of the future could grow up in a loving and secure environment, not with an overworked single mother.
She decided that this conundrum was God's way of punishing her for sleeping with Jane, and she couldn't entirely blame him (or her). It had brought home quite what a stupid thing she'd done, and she knew for sure that she would never get herself in that situation again. She'd learnt her lesson – not just from the awkwardness and tension that followed, but now from the worry that she may have left that night with more than just emotional baggage.
With a sigh she glanced at her watch. Five minutes had now passed, and the packet had only said two or three. It was time. She reached out a shaking hand and picked up the plastic stick. It took two deep breaths before she managed to turn it towards her and look at the result. Unfortunately, in her panic and stress before taking it she hadn't bothered to work out what the result would mean. This was only the second pregnancy test she'd ever taken (the previous when she was in college, where it had very clearly stated 'not pregnant'), and therefore the small thin lines meant nothing to her. She picked up the box from her lap and tried to read it, finding it very difficult for her eyes to focus on the words. Then she found it, and her eyes flickered between the test and the box for a few moments, comprehending what she now saw.
"No" she muttered, feeling the tears prickling behind her eyelids.
The test dropped to the floor and she stared at it in confusion for a bit, before grabbing it and shoving it in the bin alongside the box. She looked at the ceiling and fanned her face with her hand, rapidly blinking away the moisture from her eyes. When she felt like she had control of herself again, she left the cubicle and washed her hands, before taking the lift up to the Serious Crimes floor, her mind still replaying the past few minutes.