Lisbon sat up in bed, blinking sleepily and wondering why she'd been awakened. A glance at the clock showed the glowing numbers read 2:00 AM. A glance to the other side showed the reason for her abrupt awakening. The other side of the bed was empty.

Where was Jane?

She swung her legs over the side of the bed and stretched, standing to grab her robe off of a hook by the door before heading into the hallway. She didn't hear anything, so it was a whim on where she should look, and on chance that she chose the living room.

There was only one small light on, next to the the window side of the couch. It was there Jane sat, holding the calendar from the wall in his hands, staring at it.

Lisbon stopped just inside the living room, uncertain as to what she should do. "Jane?" She called softly.

"Lisbon," he said, without looking her way.

"What are you doing up so late?" she asked, stepping closer and pulling her robe around herself. She felt like she was intruding on something, but at the same time, she wanted to know why Jane was up in the middle of the night looking so morose.

"Just enjoying the quiet."

She walked towards him, softly inquiring, "And what are you doing with that quiet?"

"Just thinking," he responded.

"About?"

"You should be in bed," he told her.

"So should you," she retorted, stubbornly refusing to be given the runaround.

He finally glanced up at her, and she saw the lines in his face and the sadness in his eyes. "Lisbon," he warned.

She closed the gap between them and sat down beside him. "Jane," she warned back. "Tell me."

He shook his head. "I don't want to-"

"Hey. I want to help you, Patrick. Let me," she said softly. There was only silence, and she was worried she'd pushed him too far, but he finally answered her.

"It's her birthday." The words were so quiet, she almost didn't hear them.

"Who's?" She asked. She was sure she knew, but she wanted to hear it from him.

"Charlotte."

Ah, so that was it. She knew the date of Angela's birthday, but he'd never spoken of Charlotte's. She was his daughter, and no doubt held a very special, and painful, spot in his heart. She'd never heard him speak of her, and he never directly answered a question regarding her; always manipulating the subject somewhere safer.

She wanted to touch him, but his body language strongly directed her to keep her distance. She kept silent, waiting to hear if he had anymore to say. She didn't want to force him to talk about it.

She heard him heave a sigh. "She'd be sixteen. She'd… she'd be learning to drive."

Lisbon thought that keeping him from looking at it in quite such a morbid fashion would be a good idea, so she said, "You think she'd be pestering you about her first car?"

He smiled a little. "She'd be begging me for a convertible, no doubt. Angela would be completely opposed to the whole idea and make sure I knew about it."

Lisbon just smiled in answer as they traded glances. His smile faded before hers, and he glanced away.

"Jane," she sighed, "Look. You don't need to hide your grief from me. I know you're going to miss them. You should. It's completely natural."

"But, Teresa," Jane said, "I don't want you to think that you're competing with them."

"You've already told me that. And I don't, even if I feel that way on occasion. I know better."

"It's not fair to you," he said, trying another line.

"Yes it is." she said gently, wondering how on earth she was ever going to get it through to him that dealing with it properly was the only way to live.

As if reading her thoughts, he said, "I thought I'd dealt with it."

"Dealing with it does not mean forgetting, Jane." she reminded him.

He didn't have an answer for her, instead returning his gaze to the calendar.

She allowed him his time to think, sitting quietly watching him, hoping he was remembering the good memories, and still refraining from invading his personal space. After an hour or so, she knew they had to get back to bed if they intended to get to work the next day.

"Patrick, please. Come back to bed? At least for me?" she pleaded.

After another moment of silence, he nodded slightly and stood up. "Alright," he agreed softly.

Hoping that things would be better in the morning, she followed him into the bedroom.

In the morning, the alarm going off jolted her awake, what felt like much too soon. She smacked it off and hauled herself regretfully out of bed.

She was immediately greeted by the scent of pancakes, and her attention was thus directed to the other side of the bed, which she found empty.

Throwing on her slippers, she followed the scent, and padded into the kitchen to find Jane at work on said pancakes in front of the stove. He glanced over his shoulder as she approached, making a beeline for the coffee pot.

"Good morning," he said.

"Morning," she grumbled as she poured herself a cup.

After she'd fortified herself with several sips of Jane's surprisingly good (for a tea drinker) coffee, she said, "You don't look so good this morning." He looked tired and rumpled, although he was hiding it relatively well. She and Cho would probably be the only ones not fooled. Well, perhaps Mira too.

He pretended to give her a once over. "You're not looking so hot yourself there, Lisbon. Certainly not professional at any rate."

"Jane," she sighed, "Not this early in the morning, please. Are you sure you're alright?"

"I'm fine, Lisbon," he said, in a tone that suggested his story would not be changing anytime soon. "Your pancakes are done."

"What are you doing up so early, cooking breakfast?" She asked, as she sat down to eat.

"Meh, well, I couldn't sleep any longer and thought I may as well put the extra time to use and make us a lovely breakfast to start the day with," he said, as sat down across from her at her small table.

"Uh-huh," She said in a disbelieving tone, "Which just means you couldn't sleep, right?"

She was unfortunate enough to caught him in the middle of a mouthful of pancake, which gave him time to come up with an answer.

"Actually, I was thinking more along the lines of, you never eat enough of a good breakfast. An egg here, some toast there… when's the last time you had a real breakfast?"

She gave him her best "that didn't sell" expression, but she didn't get to make her retort, because Jane's cell phone ringing interrupted her.

With a lofty smile -which Lisbon wasn't quite certain was real or not, but was inclined to think not- Jane answered it almost immediately, apparently glad to escape the conversation.

"Hello. Oh, hey Mira… yes, I remember it… it did. I see. Yes, we'd be happy to… What? Why?... Well, I know that, but how does that mean?... You're sure. Well, alright, we'll try it. See you there."

He clicked his phone off and started to absently put it back into his pocket. It appeared he had no intention of mentioning the purpose of the call to Lisbon, who waited impatiently, watching as he took a bite of his pancakes. "Well?" she said, finally, tired of waiting.

"Mm!" he held up a finger to forestall her queries, gesturing vaguely towards himself to signal that he was busy. She watched and waited as he finished his bite of pancakes.

"Mira says the results from the lab are back on her uh, what did you call it…"

"Mercury tube," she supplied.

"Right," he said, "and the prints belong to one Sid Hawking."

"Well, great. Did they run him through the data base, see if we can figure out where he is?" She asked, deciding that it would be best to temporarily presume everything was normal, and let Jane work this out on his own- at least for today, she thought. She wasn't about to let him deal with it alone, though, not after watching him do that for twelve years.

"Mira says there was no need. She knew who he was already, used to associate with his brother. She texted you the address, we'll pick him up on the way in."

She raised her eyebrows. "Isn't that a bit of a gamble?"

Jane waved a dismissive hand. "C'mon, Lisbon, for once, do something that isn't by the books," he said teasingly.

She sighed and shook her head. Maybe she was just being easy on him today, but she'd let him talk her into that, for once.

.M.M.M.M.M.

They pulled up to the address slowly, trading glances. "Jane, if this is, you know, the guy, please tell me you'll contain yourself." Lisbon said.

He shook his head. "No, this one won't be the one in charge. He'll just be someone unfortunate enough to work for him."

She raised an eyebrow at him.

"And yes, I will behave."

She nodded and slid out of the car. They walked up to door and knocked; it was opened by a middle aged woman. "Yes?"

"I'm Agent Lisbon with the FBI," Lisbon said, displaying her badge, "and this is Patrick Jane. We're looking for Sid Hawking."

The woman stood perfectly still for a moment, before shaking her head slowly side to side. "You didn't know?"

"Didn't know what, Ma'am?" Lisbon asked.

"Sid's been dead for two years!"

.M.M.M.M.M.

"That is the last time I let you talk me into doing something that isn't by the books!" Lisbon grumbled as she and Jane entered the FBI bullpen.

"I'm telling you, Lisbon, don't look at me. I'm not the one that said that's where he was."

She heaved a put-upon sigh. "Okay, that's the last time Mira talks me into something like that. It's the last time anyone talks me into something like that. It was one of the most inappropriately awkward things I've had to deal with on the job."

"Yes, well, while it was awkward, it was also beneficial." Jane said.

"To who?" Lisbon demanded.

"I believe you mean, 'to whom', Lisbon." he said helpfully.

"Jane." She was so not in the mood for that.

"Well, the woman got to get the grief out of her system. Sometimes a good cry is just what we need," Jane said in a pacifying tone.

"With an FBI Agent?" She hissed. She did not wish to relive the most humiliating and saddening moments of her entire year again. That poor woman had all her ghosts dug up by an FBI agent and had "dealt" with said ghosts with said FBI agent as well.

She also chose to ignore the fact that she wished a certain consultant would allow a certain FBI agent to help him deal with HIS ghosts.

Nope. Not thinking about that one at all.

"Tell you what, Lisbon, you can tell all that to Mira instead," Jane said, as they entered the bullpen.

The scene they found included Cho at his desk as usual, ignoring the activities around him, and Fischer also at her desk, but only pretending to ignore the current festivities. Wylie was just openly staring, and Mira was seated on the couch, apparently still finding Team Two's bullpen to be on the other side of enemy lines.

Rudy had everyone's attention, standing in the middle and juggling. Yes, juggling- a tape dispenser, a (hopefully empty) stapler, and an empty coffee cup.

"Colburn!" Lisbon snapped as she approached the couch.

Jane shook his head and mouthed, "Look out," at Mira, as he seated himself on the far side of the couch.

Mira raised a questioning gaze to Lisbon.

"Sid Hawking is dead.," Lisbon said, and Jane stifled a smile. He knew he shouldn't enjoy this so, but… he did. He had to admit to enjoying it when Lisbon was temporarily miffed with him, but when it happened to someone else… well, it was even better. And besides, he'd rather consider the fact that Lisbon was cute than the many other things he could be considering right then.

Mira raised an eyebrow. "Well, for your sake, I do hope it was in the name of self-defence."

"He's been dead for two years," Lisbon continued, "and it was very unprofessional of you to send us there to dig up old memories for the poor woman."

Mira blinked blankly up at her. "Ah… dead? For two years?"

Jane decided it was mostly safe to interrupt. "Did you know him?"

"Not personally." Mira said. "But there is not the faintest chance of Sid being deceased for two years."

"The woman was grief stricken at the loss of her son, Mira-"

"Yes, and two years ago, Sid's brother was informing me of his brother's latest venture, and his hope that it went well."

"How do you know his brother anyway?" Jane wanted to know.

"Let's just say that one makes connections when one works undercover," Mira said dryly, glancing in his direction. She then returned her gaze to Lisbon as quickly as possible, diverting the conversation back to safer ground. "Sid's untimely demise, now, that I find believable. Said demise occurring two years prior to now? Completely untrue. Surely the woman conned you."

Jane shook his head. "No, she really thinks he's dead." He knew what he'd seen. The woman had been telling her perceived truth.

Mira nodded once, trusting his judgement. "In that case, someone is surely conning her. Either way, Sid Hawking is very much alive."

"Why would he fake his death?" Lisbon wondered, her ire melting away after she realized the situation was not intentionally caused.

"I can think of a few reasons a car bomber would want to be dead to the authorities." Jane said.

Mira nodded to him. "Precisely." She glanced to Wylie. "Why don't you see if our fine technological wizard over there is capable of uncovering these nefarious details."

Jane glanced to Lisbon, who nodded.

She turned back to her desk and was confronted with Rudy and his… his juggling fiasco. She'd been too caught up in things to ponder that for very long. but now she found herself staring, in surprise, wondering how he knew how to do that and why he was doing it in the middle of the bullpen.

"You juggle?" She finally got out, still standing there in surprise.

Rudy caught all of the objects in midair and turned to her with a lopsided grin. "Yeah. Have since I was a teenager." He shrugged self-consciously. "Jane figured it out. Doing this until Meller gets here is how we're settling the bet."

"Which you lost," Mira said. It was not a question.

"Yeah," Rudy said with a shrug.

"What was the bet?" Fischer wanted to know.

"Uh..." Rudy glanced at Jane, trailing off in his explanation.

He was saved from responding by Lisbon's "Wait, Meller's not here yet? Did hell freeze over?" She knew that she and Jane were late, and Meller was usually the first one there, after Abbott, because… well, of course she was. She was Meller. The idea that she would be the last to arrive was just as absurd as the sun rising in the north one day.

Mira smirked. "And the devil himself has learned to ice-skate."

Cho glanced up with a shrug. "She isn't in yet. We haven't heard from her."

"That's really strange," Lisbon thought aloud, sitting down at her desk.

"I'm sure she has a reason," Jane said, with a light shrug.

"I've got the footage from the gas station," Wylie announced, leaning around his computer.

"Did you find anything in it?" Jane asked.

"No," Wylie admitted.

"I told you," Jane said. "They put it on at Lisbon's house." Not that it would help, of course. There were no cameras out there and Mira had already discovered the clue, which had led them to a dead man. Or, a supposed dead man.

Lisbon went over to talk to Wylie regarding the disappearance of one Sid Hawking, and Mira turned to Jane.

"You're settling the bet with stunts, Patrick," Mira observed.

Jane shrugged. He knew it wasn't a question; after all, Mira would surely have gotten all this information from Rudy long before they arrived. "Some embarrassment might do him some good. He's rather conflicted about Meller, you know. Giving him a chance to see all of her sides will be good for him."

"Conflicted?"

"Well, you know." Jane cast a sly glance in her direction. "Meller doesn't like you, but Rudy definitely does. He also respects Meller because she's his senior and boss and does what he hopes to one day do. It's a conflict of interest."

"I see." Was Mira's only response to that observation. Jane wasn't sure if she was just being… well, Mira, or if she really hadn't made note of that situation. Perhaps, she also liked Rudy, in which case, said situation could be a blind spot for her.

Or, it could just be her playing uninformed.

He never knew with her. It was both a frustrating and stimulating friendship.

"You must be going soft, Patrick. Settling bets made with monetary gain in mind with such… unconventional methods is, to say the least, not something I would have expected of you." Mira's voice interrupted his thoughts.

"Oh, like I said... it does him good." Jane had to admit there was a time when he'd have gone for the money every time, but… well, Rudy really hadn't known what he was getting into. If it was Cho or Fischer or even Mira, he'd have taken the money, because they all knew better than to bet against him, and if they did it was there loss. Rudy on the other hand, he hadn't realized that Jane hadn't lost a bet in over thirty years. He could be allowed to get off easy this once.

"Mm-hmm." Mira leaned back into the couch, falling silent. After several moments of the comfortable silence, Jane found himself watching her. She watched absently as Rudy made a complete fool of himself, looking, but not seeing.

Jane didn't have to be able to read her to know what she was thinking.

There was, after all, a rather large pink elephant sitting right there between them on the couch, and he was not the one who was going to bring it up.

Unfortunately- several moments later- she was.

"Ah, Patrick…" she licked her lips and diverted her eyes so that he couldn't catch them- not that he was looking anywhere near her, either. "You do realize what day it is."

Jane wondered if he could possibly get out of this conversation. "Friday."

The corner of her mouth quirked up a little, as she said, "Come now, Patrick. Flipantry doesn't suit you nearly as well as you may think."

"Lisbon seems to think it does."

"Agent Lisbon puts a bit more stock in your need for privacy than I do." Mira glanced pointedly at him.

Jane looked away and sighed. He was having this conversation whether he liked it or not, apparently. "It's her birthday." When Mira didn't say anything right away, he added, "Sweet sixteen."

There was a moment of silence. Then Mira said, with an air of mild amusement, "She'd want a convertible. Angela would not be at all pleased."

Jane smiled a little. "Yeah. She'd, uh, be pretty pissed at me."

"Because you would buy her one. Without consulting Angela first."

Jane chuckled, but the amusement faded quickly. He really didn't want to dwell on it. He wanted to focus on the happy life he had now. But… well, he still felt a little guilty about that. Just a little.

Mira patted him on the leg. "Charlie would be positively delighted with the current state of things Patrick, and she'd be simply appalled to find you so morose on such a special day. You know that as well as I do."

With that, she disappeared into the bullpen to drink.

Jane watched her go, knowing what she meant but wishing he didn't. Mira had a sense of innate cheer that seemed to prevent her from dwelling too heavily on these things. Jane, on the other hand… did not.

But maybe, just for today, he'd try.

For Lisbon's sake, at least. It wouldn't do to worry her.

.M.M.M.M.M.

"Lisbon," Wylie called, chasing her down in the hallway.

Lisbon turned to face the voice calling her. "Wylie?" It was a question as much as it was a greeting.

"It took some digging, but I found this," he said, pushing a folder full of papers into her hands.

"What is it?" she asked, thumbing through the papers. She saw page after page of transactions and phone calls, GPS locations and security footage screenshots.

"Sid Hawking and his associates at the time faked his death two years ago in a bust gone wrong with the ATF. In actuality, he's still alive. He's a computer expert, so he's been able to keep his digital footprint completely hidden under private servers and encryption firewalls, while deleting the information from original sources so that only he could have access to it."

Lisbon followed him down the hall towards the bullpen, continuing to scan the papers as they walked, and listening to Wylie recite the facts. "He was last seen in Dallas a couple months ago, so he's probably doing something big right now if he's gone to the trouble of covering his tracks completely. Every so many months, there are big gaps where the information has been totally deleted, I guess to protect operations."

Lisbon closed the folder. "Why not just delete everything, all the time?"

"Well, it's a lot harder than you might think to delete something so completely it can never be found. It's really not something you want to do all the time. I guess he only does it when he doesn't have a choice."

"Thanks, Wylie," she said as she hurried into the bullpen with this information.

"No problem," he said, heading for his desk.

Lisbon approached the bullpen area she resided in quickly, looking down at her folder. "Wylie just found some information on our guy. Looks like he faked his death in an ATF bust."

"What are you going to do about it?" Jane wanted to know.

Before Lisbon could come up with an answer to that, they glanced up at the sound of a voice.

"Agents... how goes the war?" Abbott asked, coming into the bullpen with a cup of coffee in hand.

"We have a suspect, sir. We just have to find him." Lisbon said.

"Good, because we have a problem." Jane and Lisbon traded glances. "Jane, my office. Now. And bring Colburn along."

Jane found Mira on the way, and one carefully arranged look was all it took for her to hurry after he and Abbott.

Once inside Abbott's office, door safely shut, Abbott turned to them. "This is turning into a high profile case. It's impossible to keep something like this under wraps… everyone and their next door neighbor thinks the guy down the block is a serial killer."

"But this isn't a serial killer. It's at least three people, maybe more, with a very personal thing against us." Jane argued.

"We know that," Abbott sighed, "but the media doesn't. Neither does the public, and we can't let them because the PR department would murder us. We have orders to keep this as close to our chests as we can."

"And if I may be so bold as to ask, Mr. Abbott, how is this an issue?" Mira asked.

Abbott didn't look happy at all. "The guys above me are sick of this case and the lack of progress. They want this fixed yesterday, and they're not thrilled with the budget either. We have two teams busy and the other departments picking up slack. That can't go on forever and you know it. The overtime is killing them." He glanced through the glass of his office, towards the end of the hall. "They see us with the best case closed rate in the building, they see us add another team solely to double that, and they see us stuck on this case for well over a week. It doesn't look good, and they're suspicious something is going on."

"What kind of 'something' are they worried about?" Jane wanted to know, looking calm, but feeling like this case would be the death of him yet.

Instead of a direct answer, Abbott just nodded to the end of the hall, where a man in a very expensive looking suit was talking to someone. "He's got far, far more clearance than any of us ever will. He's an investigator. He's been sent to look into our department- you two mostly, but Mira especially." He glanced to the owner of the name. "He's suspicious that the case appeared after you did."

Abbott stopped pacing and sat down in his chair. "Now, I've got a guy who can help us get out of this mess, solve that case, and be done with this entire messy affair. We're not going to let him do anything to us. I already know everything I need to about Jane, but… That's why I need to know, Mira… is there anything you need to tell me? Anything in the past that might come up… something we should be prepared for?"

Mira leveled her gaze at Abbott. "I've worked for the CIA, Mr. Abbott. I don't care how much clearance that man has. There is no chance of him possessing enough of it to hear about anything I've ever done."

"Is there anything… before that?"

Mira glanced away from him, and then back. "Nothing I may be held for longer than twenty-four hours."

Jane nodded. "In other words, there isn't anything he'd be able to prove."

Abbott shook his head. "He doesn't need to prove anything. I've seen rumors take down far too many good agents."

"Well, guess we won't let that happen, will we?"

Everyone turned to the door, half expecting to see the investigator himself. Instead, it was a short man in a suit that was most certainly off the rack, and probably a thrift store rack- but well cared for. Jane thought he looked honest enough.

Abbott smiled, standing up and holding out a hand. "Ah, Jane, Colburn, I'd like you to meet Agent Mason. He's on old colleague of mine from Internal Affairs."

Mason smiled and shook hands with everyone. "We aren't letting that snake out there mess with Abbott's people, lemme tell you," he promised them. "We can-"

His speech was interrupted by another, more curt knock. Everyone turned to see the one person they didn't want, waiting for someone to let him in. He didn't look like he expected to be denied.

Mason spoke quickly. "Keep him at bay, but don't offend him… we just wanna keep him from causing trouble, we don't want him hating you. I'll be in the back corner here," and Mason stepped aside, out of direct view, as Jane opened the door.

"Can I help you?" Jane asked, innocently.

The man pulled his badge out and displayed it. "Agent Snow. I'm here to investigate your department." He shoved past Jane into the office. Jane resisted the urge make him pay for the shoving, remembering Mason's words, and shut the door. He could pay the man back later.

Snow stood in the center of the room, studying everyone. "Abbott. I see you've been having a meeting… about me, no doubt. I'm flattered." He sat down in a chair, as though oblivious to the animosity in the room. His eyes roamed over and fell on Jane. "I hear you're good… and I also hear you're stuck on a case. Stuck on a very personal case." His eyes flicked to Mira, who met his stare levelly. "Funny thing, it happened right around the time this one showed up." He stood up, approaching her slowly, using his height to impose upon her. "I wonder if there's a reason for that?"

Jane wanted nothing more than read this guy and send him packing, but he knew that angering him would worsen their situation.

"The interesting thing is that every file I could pull on you was classified." He went on. "I don't suppose there's a reason for that."

Mira glared at him. "If you haven't deciphered the answer to that on your own, it is apparent you'll be no concern of mine."

Snow turned his head to the side. "Have we met before?"

"I don't believe I've had the pleasure," Mira drawled, in a tone lacking the implied "pleasure" of the situation.

"Flattery, Colburn?" Snow said.

"My heavens, no. I was taught to be kind to animals." she returned innocently.
Jane inwardly rolled his eyes. Leave it to Mira to be the one to say something inappropriate first.

Snow glared right back. "The CIA and its' contractors does things even the President doesn't know about. I wonder what the FBI would think of some of the things you've done."

Mira turned her head a little to the side, unaffected by his threats. "A pity we'll never find out."

Snow continued to glare down at Mira- who wasn't much taller than Lisbon, and as such, was looking almost straight up at a man who was taller than Jane.

"You'll be hearing from me," Snow finally said, turning to Jane.

"I look forward to it," Mira said dryly.

Snow turned his hard gaze on Jane. "And as for you," he said, "I know as well as anyone that I could have a field day with you."

"Unfortunately, you're wrong about that, Agent Snow," Abbott stood up behind his desk. "Jane and I have a contract that absolves him of any and all past wrongdoing. You can't touch him." Abbott levelled a foreboding look at the investigator. "And if you try, so help me, you will find your job a lot harder than you wanted it to be."

Snow swung his gaze off of everyone else and stuck Mason. "You can't stop me," he sneered at the man. "If you try, you'll wish you hadn't."

Mason un-leaned himself from the wall and drew himself up to his full height- not much taller than Mira. "Threatening a Federal Agent is against the law, Agent Snow," he hissed.

Snow looked at Abbott. "So is obstructing an investigation."

He turned his back on them all, making his way to the door. He paused just in front of it and turned to look at all of them. "You'll all be hearing from me very soon. At the moment, I have some more people to chat with." He turned and walked out the door, up the hall, and out of sight.

Everyone traded glances, and Mason stepped around the desk. "That went well," he observed. "As long as we keep 'im guessing, the big wigs over him'll get tired of this and pull him out."

"How long will that take?" Abbott asked, with a tired sigh.

"Long enough," Mason responded. "Now we need to let the rest of your people in on this before Snow does."

Abbott leaned back in his chair. "I've already called both teams in for a meeting."

Moments later, the remaining members of teams one and two, minus Meller, who still hadn't shown up, were crowding into the office.

"Agents, we have a problem. The higher ups are suspicious of this case coming up when Team Two did, and of the case-closed rate stopping at that time- when we got stuck on this case. They've sent an investigator, Agent Snow, in to look for suspicious activity. Snow is determined to find something to pin on us. We need to keep him at bay and keep from insulting him too badly while he snoops around."

"You want us to be nice to this guy?" Cho said.

"Nice enough to keep him from trying too hard," Abbott said. He gestured behind him. "This is Agent Mason from Internal Affairs, he's an old friend of mine. He's going to help us keep Snow where we want him."

Mason nodded to the agents. "I've got my own personal reasons for taking Snow out. I promise you he'll not be a problem for long."

Abbott nodded. "In the meantime, we need to get this case wrapped up, ASAP. Do we have any leads?"

Lisbon said, "We have a lead on a guy named Sid Hawking. He's presumed dead, but his death was faked. He planted the bomb. We just have to find him."

"How do you intend to do that?" Abbott wanted to know.

"We'll need figure out who he works with. We have to track him down through someone else- he's made it so even I can't get to him." Wylie spoke up.

Abbott nodded. "Good. You do that. Remember, don't give Snow anything, but don't try to to be a hero." he scanned the faces in his office. "Where's Meller?"

Everyone shrugged. "We haven't seen or heard from her all morning," Fischer said.

"She didn't imply she would be absent for today's adventures, either," Mira said.

Abbott nodded. "Let me know as soon as you know what's going on with her, then. You can go on back to work," he told them, shooing them away.

As they all filed out to find Sid Hawking, Abbott turned to Mason. "You really think we can beat this guy?"

Mason shook his head and sank into a chair. "If he hurts your team, it'll have to be over my dead body," he growled.

.M.M.M.M.M.

"Okay, crunch time, people… we need to figure out who Sid Hawking works with," Fischer announced as they came into the bullpen. They stopped short at the site of Agent Meller, standing in the doorway of Team Two's bullpen. The fact that she was there alone was enough to stare, but the fact that she was wringing her hands- an action very much unlike the calm, cold, and collected Agent Meller they knew- was stranger yet.

Jane was the first to step forward. "Meller," he greeted her as normally as he always did, "We were just talking about you."

Meller just shook her head. "Agent Snow," she said finally. "Have any of you… spoken with him?" She had to clear her throat in the midst of the sentence, and her voice lacked its' usual snap.

They all traded glances. "No," Lisbon said, "Why?"

Meller cleared her throat again and stepped forward. "I was delayed by him. He was very determined to find something wrong with my conduct." Her eyes darted between her teammates. "You haven't… said anything about me, have you?"

"No," Fischer said, "Like Lisbon said, we haven't talked to him yet." She stepped forward with Jane. "Is there something we should know?"

Meller's cracking facade crumbled, and she turned away from their line of sight.

"Hey," Jane said softly, taking her arm and directing her to the couch. He sat on one side of her, and Lisbon on the other. "What's going on?"

Meller scrubbed at her eyes, hating herself for her lack of control. This was the last thing in the world she would have wanted when she agreed to transfer to this "new project" of Abbott's.

"As I'm sure you know, most people aren't a fan of my workplace attitude. It got me a lot of flak. And that got me rumors," she said. "They said I was on the take, that I sold out the undercovers I handled, that I covered the other double agents' tracks. "Agent Snow was sent to investigate me. He did for months, but he never found proof that would hold up. It didn't matter. No one cares what the facts are if they think you're on the other side. I tried to transfer to another city, but it didn't help. By then the rumors he'd started were everywhere. I didn't have backup when I went in, I didn't get benefits at work, and I was shot several times in the line of duty… I'm sure by my own teams at least once." She shrugged. "It's all in the past now. I will… understand, if you cannot side with me. It's a logical choice. I can't ask for a second chance."

She kept her eyes on the floor, listening for the first accusation.

It never came.

"Of course you can. If life worked that way, I'd be in big trouble," Jane said lightly, but with a more serious undertone.

"If you say they're just rumors, that's all that matters," Lisbon added firmly.

"If Abbott trusted you, so do we," Wylie stated.

"Besides, I would have no one to prevent me from doing something too unorthodox if something were to happen to my fearless leader," Mira drawled, in a tone laced with amusement, but also a hint of reassurance.

Meller finally drew in a deep breath, and looked up. She was very much surprised to see no disgust, no condemnation.

Lisbon, Fischer, and Wylie looked surprised, but understanding. Mira, Jane, and Cho's expressions hadn't really changed at all. And Rudy still had that somewhat hero-worshipy look he always got when she did certain things. In fact, it may have been more-so now.

"I think being honest makes you a better person than Snow says you are," Rudy said. Wylie nodded his agreement. Cho remained impassive, but his impassiveness was softened a bit… not by much, though.

She liked Cho. He didn't waste his words or expressions unless they were needed.

"Snow wants to prove I'm dirty. He is determined to succeed. If he can't, he will start the rumors," Meller said.

"We wouldn't believe him," Jane said. "We may not invite you to happy hour, but we don't think you're on the take."

Meller appreciated his honesty. She knew she hadn't exactly endeared herself to her teammates. She wanted it that way. At the very least, though, it seemed they trusted her. That was a miracle in itself.

"And you'll always have backup with us," Lisbon said firmly. "We take care of each other. We're a team. A team protects its' own."

Meller glanced up at Mira. "Snow also asked a number of questions regarding you, Colburn."

Mira's expression remained neutral as she asked, "What did you tell him?"

"I told him if he came near you I'd shoot him myself." Mira's eyebrows went up in surprise. Meller just nodded to her. "A team protects it's own," she repeated. "I may not agree with you, or your methods. But we are on the same team. End of conversation."

Jane ventured, "Did he ask about me?"

Meller shook her head. "No. He doesn't need to. Everyone already knows about you."

This statement drew knowing smiles to everyone's lips. Jane just shrugged, grinning.

"We need to wrap up this case before Snow gets any ideas," Cho pointed out.

"Someone needs to talk to the funeral home director from the first murder, regarding his coded messages," Meller said, rather forcefully scrubbing at her traitorous eyes. Mira silently produced a handkerchief, holding it out in her direction. Meller took it with a nod of gratitude.

"I'll go," Cho offered.

Meller nodded. She glanced at Mira. "You go with him."

Mira tried to protest. "Agent Meller…"

"Go on, Colburn." Meller ordered, in her usual, flat voice.

Mira sighed and offered her a mock salute. "Yes, ma'am," she said lightly, snagging her duster-style jacket off the end of the couch on her way after Cho.

Wylie called over to Jane. "Jane, come look at this,"

"What have you got?" Jane asked, coming up to him.

"Three years ago, Sid Hawking was known to associate with a gang of gun runners. ATF files say one of their top, contracted teams infiltrated the gang. The bust that went down was staged, and Sid Hawking was presumed dead." Wylie glanced up at Jane. "But here's the interesting part. The team suspected he wasn't really dead, and launched an investigation into it. Their bosses pulled the plug when it didn't seem to be going anywhere, since their team was shorthanded due to injuries from the latest bust. But the team leader looked into it further off the books. The information in his files suggest SId Hawking has associated with a Carl Raihmer after his presumed death."

Jane raised his eyebrows. "The Carl Raihmer?"

Wylie nodded. "Yeah, the biggest crime leader in Denver- who recently moved to Oklahoma. Chances are, Sid's working with one of Carl's associates. And I know the team who has the files on Raihmer. If we find a match in those files, someone who has no alibi… we could have Sid Hawking."

Jane nodded, clapping Wylie on the back. "Good work, Wylie. Let me know as soon as you have something,".