Hey there, everybody. It feels great to be back :) I know I didn't update Saturday, but I decided updating every Saturday and Wednesday gives away too much in one week ;P So I'll simply upload once a week from now on. All clear? Cool (: Now, thanks to everyone who read&reviewed last chapter, you guys are amazing! I can only hope I'll please you as much with this chapter, where the first meeting of House and Jane continues. Enjoy!!

Disclaimer: None of this belongs to me, tragically...

Chapter Six: Alone Time

There was a silence.

"Thank you for just crushing my self-esteem by offering no applause. Now," Dr. House said dryly, turning to Jane. "What do they call you, blondie?"

"Jane. Patrick Jane."

"Not every day you meet a man with a woman's name," House remarked, snapping a manila folder opening in his wrinkled hands. "Now, it says here you were attacked, you don't know who, you don't know why, and you're a tourist." House nodded. "That just about sums this up."

"It was my fault, Dr. House, I sent him off to find help-" Lisbon started.

"After this guy nearly puked in my lap," Cho growled, pointing to Rigsby.

"-and he called me, almost dead, saying he needed help," Lisbon finished, ignoring her team.

House glanced between the three of them before noticing Van Pelt. "Hey, blondie, is this your hooker?"

Rigsby bristled, and Van Pelt looked taken aback. "No, I work for the CBI. I'm a part of this team."

House twitched his nose. "Pity. Waste of a hot woman. Anyways," he continued, turning to Jane. "Right, the reason I'm here. You. Okay, blondie, tell me where it hurts."

Jane gazed at House like he was reading a book. For sure, Gregory House was by far the most complicated, interesting man he'd ever come across. "Ah, hurts. Well, it hurts where I was punched, and beaten."

"You've got a firm grasp of the obvious," House said coldly. "Do they know what you were punched and beaten with? A chunk of wood with rusty nails? A hammer? A garbage can lid? Always thought those things looked harmful."

Jane chuckled. "Uh, no, actually, they're not sure. Whatever it was, however, they said was blunt, and it wasn't the sharpness that hurt me, but how hard my attacker beat me with it."

"Yes, in other words, they didn't want to hurt your pretty face, just smash you unconscious for some reason," House retorted. He thought a moment, then tossed Karla the folder and snapped on some white rubber gloves.

"Team, hooker, Karla- you can all leave. Blondie and I need some alone time."

Jane smiled brightly. He waved to Lisbon and the others. "I'll be fine. I can manage this guy."

"You sure?" Cho asked seriously. He didn't like House all that much.

Jane laughed. "No."

* * *

The sun was high in the crisp November sky, like a golden flower blossoming across the endless horizon. Birds flitted through the cloudless blue like little dots, and leaves fell gently from the trees all around Van Pelt and Rigsby.

"I've never been to New Jersey before," she said thoughtfully as they crossed a street. A girl walking several yapping dogs crossed by them.

Rigsby glanced at Van Pelt. "Really?" he murmured. "I came here before, once, with my parents for a vacation. It was pretty boring though, now that I look back on it."

Van Pelt laughed, tugging her scarf closer around her neck. It would be December pretty soon. But hopefully by then, they could be heading back to California, where they didn't have to really deal with a cold wind.

"It's a pretty place though, isn't it?" Van Pelt murmured.

Rigsby smiled as he gazed at her. "Yeah. Very pretty."

Van Pelt caught him looking at her, and her red hair bounced as she playfully hit him. "Not now, loser," she laughed.

Rigsby laughed. "Well why not?"

Van Pelt laughed and they walked along the sidewalk.

It was hours after they'd first met House. Everyone had gone their separate ways: Cho went up to see if he could help the police with the investigation, while Lisbon went to the hotel lobby to wait for her brother, and Van Pelt and Rigsby were left with some alone time.

They were quiet for awhile. Rigsby finally knew he had to break the silence, and bring up the dreaded conversation.

"So... has Lisbon brought up the... you know, underwear thing yet?" he asked tentatively.

He was startled by how fast the happiness drained from Van Pelt's face. She stared at him, suddenly hasty and unhappy. "Not yet," she murmured in reply.

Rigsby tugged at his jacket collar, suddenly feeling like it was too tight. "Look, I'm really sorry about that, Cho was on my side of the room and I begged him not to..."

"Wayne, if Lisbon finds out about... well, us, and what really happened while we were swimming last night," Van Pelt said severely, "we're in so much trouble."

"It's not right. Why do we have to hide this, Grace?" Rigsby stopped and grasped Van Pelt's hands, standing in front of her and gazing deep into her eyes. "What we have is beautiful, and something only one in a million truly
have. Why do we have to pretend it's not there? I love you," Rigsby said, so passionate and honest that it squeezed Van Pelt's heart.

She gazed at him, red hair billowing gently, eyes sparkling with what might have been tears. "I love you too, Wayne," she murmured. "But we can't act like she'll always give us the blind eye because she cares for us.

Because she's not our mom, she's our boss."

Rigsby sighed, and kissed Van Pelt's fingers. "We'll figure this out, Grace," he told her. "I promise."

Grace reached up to the tall man and stroked his hair. "I know we will," she said softly, soothingly. Slowly, the fire died from Rigsby's eyes, and be took a step back from her, nodding. They slowly began to walk away, hands
brushing but not quite holding.

As their feet strolled along the rough sidewalk, it curved them past a certain Bob Evans, where, unknowingly, they were walking past their boss.

Through the darkened windows with a blast of welcome warm air, past rows of talkative people eating their lunch, over clinking forks and rustling newspapers, sat a dark-haired woman and a man with bristly,
chocolate-brown hair.

"So you're not married," the man was confirming.

Teresa Lisbon laughed, shaking her dark hair. "Nope."

Her brother chuckled. "Well, do you ever plan to marry?"

Lisbon paused, and glanced at the table. She wondered how Jane was doing. "Eventually, when I find the right man. Maybe."

William Lisbon gazed at her through bright brown eyes. Lisbon had almost forgotten how handsome her brother was; his chiseled face had grown a goatee, and maybe his brown hair was not quite as thick as eleven years ago, but he still had that charm, that somehow reminded Lisbon of Jane.

"What about you?" Lisbon said quickly, turning around the conversation. She hated it when it stayed on her for too long. "Do you want to get married eventually?"

William laughed. "I might."

"Molly?"

"We've been dating for a year now, it's... possible, I suppose."

Lisbon smiled slightly as a tall guy with a little name-card revealing his name to be Mark scrambled up to their table, gently laying down plates of their lunch.

"Chicken salad?" Mark inquired.

"Me," Lisbon directed, getting out her napkin and smiling in thanks.

"And grilled cheese with extra fries?" Mark asked, grinning, as he handed it to William.

"That's me all the way," William chuckled.

"Call me if there are any problems... any at all," Mark added, looking at Lisbon.

She blinked uneasily, then cleared her throat. "We're great, thanks."

Mark nodded and trotted away.

William laughed as he glanced back at Mark.

"What?" Lisbon exclaimed.

"That," William said, jabbing a thumb to where Mark was currently helping another table, "is why you should get married. I'm sure you're hit on all the time, my pretty little sister, why can't you wake up and smell the burning
toast?"

Lisbon laughed. "Will, I don't need you to be my Dr. Phil, I can handle this."

William sighed and shook his head, smiling, and took a bite of his grilled cheese.

Lisbon was surprised by how well they were getting along. She hadn't realized how much she missed her big brother until she'd first seen him enter the lobby to pick her up. Despite all the years of quiet racked up between them, it was easy to pretend it had never happened.

Van Pelt's question rang softly in her mind. Why aren't you close to them anymore?

Sighing and stabbing a piece of fluffy green lettuce with her cold fork, Lisbon began to have her lunch.

"So did you ever figure out the mystery of the wedding invitation?" William inquired as he took a gulp of his lemonade.

Lisbon swallowed her salad. "Well... no. We think it might be connected to the fact Jane got hurt, like this was some sort of set-up, but we can't get all paranoid. It's hard to be for sure. But it sure is strange."

"Yeah, almost like the plot of some movie..."

Lisbon chuckled darkly. "My career can be like that sometimes."

"Well, in any case, I'm kinda glad they sent that fake invitation. It gave me a chance to see my little sister. Well, not so little any more," he added, pausing and thinking for a moment. "The last time we saw each other was..."

"Dad's funeral, yeah," Lisbon murmured. Old memories swirled in her mind like smoke, memories she had fought hard to lock away, memories no child should have.

They were quiet for a moment.

"He'd be disappointed, you know... that we haven't seen each other in so long. When was the last time you saw Tyler or Anthony?"

Lisbon touched her forehead, sighing. "I... I'm not sure. And you know, Dad would probably be too drunk to even remember my name, to remember to be disappointed about us," she growled, that old flame rising in her heart.

Abruptly, cold tears pinched her eyes, and she furiously blinked them away. This was not how she'd pictured her lunch with her long-lost brother to be...

"I know," William said quietly. "I just... I think you know he didn't really want to hurt us."

"But that didn't stop him from what he did, huh?" Lisbon murmured, her anger subsiding as she chewed on her salad, calming down. This was not the place to discuss something like that.

William reached over and touched her hand. She paused and glanced up, swallowing.

"Thanks for coming to see me today," he said quietly. "It means more to me than you probably think, sissy."

Lisbon was quiet, and just nodded.

Very interesting... we get to finally meet one of Lisbon's brothers. And the mystery deepens about the invitation... who did send it? Why the heck would anyone bother to do such a thing? Guess we'll all just have to find out... in a later chapter ;P

See you guys all next Wednesday. I'll love ya to death and back if ya review!! I'm curious to know what everybody thinks about the latest chapter in this epic House-Mentalist story lol (:

~Sarafina