Life as We Know It

Chapter 7 - Mother & Hard as Nails Cop

A/N - Sorry it's been so long since I updated! I'm focusing more on my story "Into the Past" at the moment which is a Harry Potter fic, but I'm aiming to have this story finished by the end of August!

DISCLAIMER: I own nothing!


When Lisbon and Jane walked into the bullpen with Lily asleep in her car carrier the team were already gathered there waiting.

"You said you got a lead Boss?" Rigsby asked when the pair put Lily's carrier down next to Jane's couch.

Lisbon nodded, "Jane and I were sitting at home discussing the case and we noticed that her grades were really low for someone who was going to do law at university."

The team seemed confused so Jane continued, "She obviously bought her way in but her family were pretty lower class."

"So she had an illegal way of making money." Grace voiced and Lisbon nodded, "Yep, we weren't sure what because Jane was pretty certain it wasn't drugs or prostitution."

"But then I thought of a way to make money fast and I remembered the gang killings in Susanne's area not so long ago and how the cops thought it was a hitman." Jane said, and he saw the lights go on in their heads as they realised where he was going with this.

Grace was immediately at the computer typing in, "I've got her phone records." She said, scrolling through them, "The only contact who is related to the university is a Daniel Jones, he's one of the application administrators and they exchanged 2 phonecalls, one was a half hour long conversation 2 months before she died and the other was a 5 minute long conversation 3 days before she died."

Lisbon and Jane shared a look, they had been right then, or at least it looked that way, "We'll need to interview him first thing in the morning." Lisbon said with a glance at Lily.

"Can't we pick him up now?" Jane asked, checking the time on his watch.

Rigsby shook his head, "We could only do that if we were arresting him, and a couple of phonecalls isn't enough evidence to arrest someone on."

Lisbon nodded her agreement and sat down on Janes couch, deep in thought, "He probably doesn't have anything to do with her murder anyway." She said.

"He's just the guy she's bribing with the money." Jane elaborated for the benefit of the team.

"The person we're looking for is the person who was paying her to kill those gang kids." Lisbon added, "And I have no idea who that could be."

Grace was immediately at the computer, "I'll cross-reference gang killings with known hitmen on the database." She informed the others and Jane nodded, sitting down next to Lisbon on the couch, Lisbon stifled a yawn, "I'm exhausted." She muttered.

"Was Lily up last night?" Jane asked, vaguely aware of the team watching the interaction between them. Lisbon nodded, "Yeah, I was up with her at 5am this morning, she's started having her morning bottle later though so hopefully it will move to 6am soon." She yawned again, leaning back and closing her eyes.

Jane said, "I'll get up with her tomorrow morning, you can sleep a little longer that way." Lisbon mumbled, "Thanks." as she opened her eyes and rubbed them.

"Got something Boss!" Grace called and Lisbon was immediately alert and fully awake, she stood and walked over to where Grace was sitting at her desk by the computer, "What have you found?"

Grace looked pretty proud of herself as she explained, "It was pretty small, if I hadn't been looking closely I would have missed it but I think this could be our guy. 3 years ago there were 5 killings, all believed to be gang related in the same area but they were carried out by a young hitman under the orders of the leader of a rival gang, this guy, Alfonzo Armani."

"Okay so he's the leader of a gang in the area?" Lisbon asked, ready to gear up and get this guy, they definitely had enough to go on now.

Grace nodded, "Yeah, the Sacramento Vigilantes." She said.

Lisbon raised an eyebrow at the redhead, "Original name." She said sarcastically, "And what is the name of the rival gang in that area?"

A few seconds of typing later Grace replied, "The Sadistic Skull Bangers."

"They sound like a charming bunch." Jane joked and Lisbon smiled at him, "The 5 victims," She began, picking up her file, "Belonged to different gangs, all except two, Daryl Logan and Dwayne Starr were both a member of a gang called 'The Death Doctor's', got anything on that Grace?"

"These guys suck at naming things." Jane commented from where he was now gently rocking the carrier back and forth to lull Lily back to sleep.

Grace chuckled and looked at Lisbon, "Yeah, his gang had some territorial disputes with that one."

Lisbon glanced down at the file again, "And our 3rd victim, Kloe Cooper was a member of an all female gang called 'The East Coast Barbies', anything?"

Grace nodded, "Yeah, the leader of the East Coast Barbies took Alfonzo to court on the allegation that he had raped one of her gang members but the girl refused to speak at the trial so he wasn't convicted."

"Chances are that the girl was Kloe then." Lisbon realised, "Our 4th victim, Josh Finlayson was the second in command of the gang 'The Trigger Happy Tigers', they are a nasty piece of work by the way, this guy must be powerful to overpower them."

"I'm thinking the same." Grace agreed, "But there is a connection, local police filed a report that there had been a gang fight between the two leaders but one had brought in his second in command which hadn't made it a fair fight, someone was stabbed in the fight but no one was killed."

"I think we've got enough to arrest him on but for arguments sake our last victim was Rebekah Saint of the 'Lakeside Posse', got a connection?" Lisbon asked, closing the file and putting it back down on Grace's desk. She glanced over at Jane who was now holding Lily and was trying to rock her back to sleep, the little girl looked wide awake so she guessed it wasn't working.

"No surprise here, I have a connection." Grace said, and Lisbon turned away from the girl she had begun to consider as her daughter, she looked at Grace pointedly and the younger Agent said, "Another dispute about which streets were whose but there was a fight this time and one of the Lakeside Posse was killed by the leader of the opposing gang, aka Alfonzo but the police couldn't track him down."

"Well, we definitely have enough to arrest him on, he's wanted for murder. He won't be at his known address so do some digging and see if you can get an idea of where he might be." Lisbon ordered Grace, "Yes Boss." She said, going back to work immediately.

Lisbon sank back down onto the couch, the moment Lily saw her she started struggling to get out of Jane's arms so Jane handed her over with a chuckle, "She really does prefer you."

Lisbon smiled fondly at Lily, "She likes you too though, I think it's just because I'm a woman, most babies prefer women because they remind them of their Mom."

"You are her Mom though." Jane said, smiling a small smile at her, "You might not think it yet but she does, to her you are her Mother."

Lisbon looked at the little girl thoughtfully and then turned her gaze on Jane, "What does that make you?" She asked curiously.

Jane hesitated for a second before answering with an air of forced casual, "Her really cool Uncle Patrick."

Lisbon was a little disappointed with Jane's answer but she didn't let it show, she just smiled at him, at least she hoped she hid her disappointment, she was so tired that it was hard to think straight at the moment. She had been up for 19 hours.

"Got an address Boss! He's there, I brought it up on the security camera's outside the apartment block." Grace called out and Lisbon sighed under her breath, she didn't want to get up, Jane seemed to see this and stood up, "Go check it out Grace, take Rigsby and Cho, Lisbon and I will stay here with Lily."

Lisbon smiled her thanks at Jane and looked at the three Agents, "This guy sounds dangerous so I want you all to wear a vest, call me if anything changes, got it?"

"Yes Boss." The Agents echoed as they left the bullpen and entered the elevator. Lisbon yawned and leaned back on the couch, closing her eyes, "It's past Midnight." She said sleepily.

"I know." Jane said, "Sleep, don't worry I'll wake you if your cell rings or if the team come back, I promise."

Lisbon smiled her thanks at him and let herself drift off, he was right after all she was exhausted.


When Lisbon woke up the CBI was light and she was lying alone on Jane's couch, frowning she rubbed the sleep from her eyes and looked around, where were the team? And Jane and Lily?

Lisbon stood, and smoothed her clothes down, it became apparent as she heard the chattering that Jane was in the kitchenette. She walked in, hopefully not looking too bad to see 4 or 5 women swarmed around Jane and Lily, they were all commenting on how cute she was.

When they saw Lisbon they cleared off and Lisbon chuckled, making herself a cup of coffee, "Why didn't you wake me last night?" She asked as she poured the hot coffee into her mug.

"I fell asleep too." Jane said honestly, "Being an insomniac with a baby isn't very good for you."

Lisbon was shocked at his words but she tried to hide it, the way he'd said with a baby made it seem like he considered Lily to be his child, she smiled at Jane and said, "I guess so, where are the team?"

"Escorting Mr. Armani to prison I believe." Jane said, leaning against the wall, he was sipping his tea with one hand and holding Lily with the other.

"Prison?" Lisbon asked in shock, with a small smirk Jane nodded.

Lisbon seemed very impressed, "They managed it all without me."

"Yeah, they said they didn't want to wake you, even Hightower said you looked like you needed all the sleep you could get and the team had it all under control." Jane informed her, handing Lily to Lisbon as the girl reached her arms out for the woman.

"I'm very proud of them." Lisbon said truthfully, holding Lily on her hip as she walked into her office, she was aware of Jane following her. They entered the office and Lisbon set her coffee down on the desk then set up a little pillow fort on the floor where she sat Lily down in the middle. She could sit up but she couldn't crawl yet which was fine because when she started crawling Lisbon would have to be so much more careful about what she left lying around her office.

"Lily's been fed by the way, she woke up at about 6am and I fed her and took her out for a little walk because we were out of tea." Jane informed Lisbon as he sat down on the floor in front of Lily's pillow fort.

"She always wakes up later when its your turn to feed her." Lisbon said, rolling her eyes, "I'm going to wait and see if we get a case, if by 11am nothings come in I'm going to go home with Lily and assume we aren't getting one."

"I think that's a good idea." Jane agreed, glancing at the time, it was still early morning, "The others were up all night, they'll be exhausted, they could used some extra sleep."

Lisbon nodded, "I really hope we don't get a case." She said hopefully and silently Jane agreed with her as he handed Lily a rattle and started to play with her. Lisbon watched them with a small smile playing on her lips, it was an adorable sight and lately she'd found herself watching Jane more than Lily which worried her a little.

Lisbon had always known she had feelings for Jane and the way he teased her she'd assumed he knew too but this was something completely different she was feeling now and that scared the living daylights out of her.

To Be Continued =)

Sorry for taking so long to update! I really want to get this story finished before I go to uni!