*A/N – as with the last chapter italics signifies they are speaking in Russian!*

Chapter 5

"There is another Agent coming?"

"Yeah. Agent Rigsby. Also tall." Cho pointed out

"Also Gorgeous." Jane piped up

"Long legs." Lisbon added

"Amazingly blue eyes" Jane enlightened, confident that Steve now believed Rigsby to be a female agent about to arrive at the hotel.

"Really?" Steve questioned wanting to know everything about this agent. His senses heightened. He was interested

"I think this is the car."

Lisbon and Jane filled Cho in on the details of the two rookies' personalities and he agreed that he needs to be able to trust them. He also remarked that it would be a pretty cool wind up to make Steve think Rigsby was a girl.

Van pelt got out of the car first. Followed by Rigsby. They knew the basics of the joke so they planned it that way.

"Agent Rigsby, so nice to meet you. I've heard about your reputation" Steve bounced forward holding out his hand.

"Lisbon!" Van Pelt shouted

"Yes?"

"Who is this person and WHY did he just call me Rigsby?"

"You're not Agent Rigsby?"

"No"

"So who are you?"

"Van Pelt"

"So who is Rigsby?"

"That would be me." Came a gruff, MALE voice from the other side of the car. Steve noticed Rigsby for the first time – all of his attention had been on Van Pelt- His face fell. Rigsby was definitely NOT what he was expecting.

"Van Pelt. I need you to go and book you and Rigsby into the hotel"

"Yes boss." Van Pelt replied heading in the direction of the hotel.

"Phwoar. She's hot. Seeing anyone?"

"I believe she is. Anyway, if she isn't she's still off limits. Relationships between co-workers are prohibited." Lisbon pointed out to Steve, giving the smallest of winks to Rigsby. "Steve, Cody. Go find a Russian dictionary and learn some useful phrases like 'you're under arrest'. Jane, Rigsby, shall we?"

"I have an idea" Jane mused. Lisbon groaned. She never liked Jane's ideas.

"Professor. We would like to ask you some questions." Jane asked. He took his time pretending to look up what he wanted to say in a dictionary. In reality, Rigsby had told him what to say.

"Fire away" they had decided that Jane was to ask set questions and Rigsby was to note the response as it would look suspicious if they had a translator and didn't use him.

"Did your colleague keep a diary?"

"Yes"

"May we see it?"

"How did you know I had it?" Jane had anticipated that question and had an answer ready for him

"It wasn't in his office and you're the only other one with a key."

Professor Vyachyeslahv handed the diary over to Jane.

"You were last to see him?"

"Yes. We were double grading papers. It's standard procedure for senior's finals."

"What time did you leave?"

"10pm. He was alive and kicking. He said something about a tutorial early the following morning and we could continue the following night."

"Thank you for your time."

"How's your Russian? It's going to need to improve if you are going to read that!"

Jane looked the diary in his hand. It was all written in Russian. This was probably to ensure that no one could read it. He passed it to Rigsby who said:

"My Russian is a little rusty but I'm sure I'll cope." And they left leaving a very stunned man in their wake.

"So. Did we get anything useful out of that?"

"He was grading papers till 10pm. Then left. Professor Ahlyeksyey had said something about a morning tutorial."

"Time for dinner I think"

Dinner that night revolved around Rigsby, and his ability to speak fluent Russian. As the team knew his full history, it was Steve and Cody doing the questioning.

"So where did you learn Russian?"

"College"

"Why?"

"To get through my degree"

"You work for organised crime? They involve a lot of Russian Mafia types"

"No"

"So where do you work"

"Agent Rigsby is on loan, you do not need to know where from. Just that he is here at my request to help us in this case." Lisbon spoke with a tone that signalled the end of the conversation. Assuming that Rigsby was FBI (it was common knowledge that CBI and FBI share 'Special Agent' designations and that the two federal agencies did not see eye to eye, hence why they were avoiding answering the questions. So Steve turned to Van Pelt.

"So why are you out here? I thought only Rigsby was called in as backup?"

"Rigsby is not allowed to drive CBI vehicles 'till he clears his name"

"Clears his name?"

"I totalled a SUV belonging to the feds"

"Anyway guys I'm going to turn in. Feel free to do the same" Jane said standing up, yawning.

"I think I will. Need to sleep if I'm gonna translate that diary tomorrow."

"It was a long drive"

"Early mornings are gonna kill me"

"Night"

One by one the team made their excuses to leave the table, leaving Cody and Steve alone. The two rookies sat and drank a few beers congratulating each other on making it into this very close, slightly dysfunctional unit before hastily saying goodnight and leaving for their separate rooms. On the way to his room Cody saw Jane sneak across the hallway to Van Pelt's room. The rookie smiled to himself and stowed that information for later. It might come in handy if Jane's reputation was accurate.