A/N: Thanks to Canterlevi once again for proof reading! You're awesome.
Chapter 9 Making Observations
Jane sat on his sofa, with his blue cup in one hand and the matching saucer in the other. He lifted his cup to his lips and took a sip of his hot apple blossom tea as he watched the room. Watched Van Pelt work on her computer, Cho talking with a cop from another unit, and Rigsby on the phone; and he didn't just watch—he saw things too. Van Pelt was tense, from having been at her computer for several hours, and kept rolling her neck. Cho wasn't fond of the cop he was speaking with, which was evident by his stiff posture and his tight jaw, but he remained professional as always. And Rigsby was more than ready to get off the phone, taping his foot and scratching at his desk with his fingertips, not out of irritation but because he was anxious for the day to end and having trouble focusing on menial tasks.
Jane crossed his legs, before he took another sip and then continued with his observations. This was not uncommon of him; he was a Mentalist after all. He was paid to observe, and even if he wasn't paid to observe he'd do it anyway. As far as he was concerned there wasn't much as enjoyable as people watching. He especially enjoyed the reactions he got from his team when he would watch them.
Rigsby would look up and down nervously between his desk and Jane, or at his clothes, perhaps thinking he'd spilled something. Van Pelt would typically put up with it for a minute then would either relocate to a place he couldn't see her or she would engage him in a conversation, and Cho would either ignore him or tell him to knock it off.
Cho finished speaking to the other officer and made his way to his desk, just as Rigsby hung up the phone. The two of them started talking about the case; Jane's mind wandered. The case was solved and he was bored. He wondered what Lisbon was doing—shut up in her office. Had she already eaten the bearclaw he'd left on her desk this morning? Was she finishing up some paper work? Talking on the phone? He thought about going to her office and seeing what she was doing, but decided against. With the case they were rapping up he knew any minute she'd be out of her office to talk to the team and to thank him for the pastry. He could be patient. He took another sip of his tea and waited.
Lisbon had always been his favorite to watch. Even though she made it difficult by having an office and even when she wasn't in her office she would be out in the bullpen talking about a case with the team and dragging him into conversations, making it near impossible to be the silent observer.
Today was different however. Today, he had a peculiar interest in observing his partner, and he was determined to do so. Ever since they'd hugged in her office two weeks ago, he'd felt an unusual interest in her. He and Lisbon had always had a wonderful rapport and banter established. They'd been close practically since the day he'd joined the team. It had just been that easy for them, but he had to admit that their hug had added a new dimension to their relationship. It had deepened it, intensified it and since then he felt as if he were seeing Lisbon with new eyes. Noticing things he hadn't before—interesting things.
His brow scrunched as he uneasily resituated himself on his leather couch recalling his discovery of her preference for Hercule Poirot over Sherlock Holmes. It just didn't make sense. It was as upsetting as a bad tea. Like the one Archer Braddock, a murder victim from a little over a year ago, had tried drinking to rid himself of cancer. His nose crinkled at the thought. What other intolerable things didn't he know about her? Or for that matter what tolerable things didn't he know about her?
Jane was abruptly pulled out of his thoughts when Lisbon stepped out of her office. Jane's eyes found her immediately and he sat up a little straighter as he watched her make her way toward the kitchen. She had a small smile playing at her lips and held the empty white paper bag her bearclaw had been in. It was crumpled in her hands. She dropped it by the trash as she went by it, but it hit the rim and fell to the floor.
Jane smiled briefly in anticipation of her reaction. Her face dropped and changed to exaggerated exasperation as she took a step back, reached down and grabbed the paper with the tips of her fingers, her left leg lifting ever so slightly as she did. Then she stood to full posture, threw it into the trash and brushed her hands together. She smiled again. She was in a noticeably good mood today.
Jane repositioned himself a little on his couch to better see her as she moved around the kitchen, making herself a cup of coffee. For some reason he felt surprised by just how feminine her movements actually were. She was tough, she had to be for her job, but it wasn't like he'd been oblivious to the fact that she was a woman. That had always been obvious, but there was something shocking in the way her pinky finger went up as she lifted her coffee mug to her lips, and something almost alluring even about how she closed her eyes for her first sip. Had she always done that, or was this a first?
He lifted his cup taking another swig of tea. Fascinating…
She did look particularly nice today. Her hair was straight and pulled back into a ponytail. She was wearing dark jeans that flattered her figure and a white button up blouse with red trim that she had tucked into her pants, and her makeup was spot on. Very natural, just enough to enhance her already striking features, her strong jaw, high cheek bones and bright green eyes. Why wasn't she dating anyone? She was smart, beautiful and intriguing. He knew she was amenable to dating, she'd gone out with Walter Mashburn after all.
He watched as she took another drink of coffee and made her way around the counter and into the bullpen. She looked at Jane briefly before stopping at Van Pelt's desk. The redhead looked at Lisbon as she began to talk, as did Cho and Rigsby. Lisbon gave them the last of their assignments for the case, with her hand tightly holding her mug and her other hand in her front jean pocket.
Jane knew she was pleased at how quickly they'd closed their last case, and he couldn't blame her. The team had faced a bit of a dry spell while he was gone and he was glad that his being back helped them to feel more a sense of accomplishment and purpose with their jobs, especially Lisbon. When she was happy he was… content.
Lisbon looked over at Jane briefly catching his eye. He noticed a hint of blush on her cheeks and a small smile before she looked away and answered a question asked of her by Cho. Jane couldn't help but smile a little to himself at her reaction. He knew he wasn't being subtle about staring, but since when was he ever subtle about anything? He watched as she leaned toward Grace's computer while the redhead showed her something. Lisbon's finger pointed at the computer, then bent it back into her palm as Grace said something to her, then pointed it straight again at the computer after Grace finished.
She stood tall and finished with the team. "Good work on this case. Just make sure all the loose ends are tied off." The team nodded and began working on what they had in front of them. Jane watched as she stuck her hands in her pockets, something he began noting she did a lot, and then faced him. He kept his eyes on her and took one last sip of his tea as she walked slowly toward him.
They made eye contact and Jane wondered if she might blush again as they held the eye contact. He was more fascinated now then he had been from watching her more discreetly before. She was taunting him—daring him to speak. She raised a questioning eyebrow, which Jane mimicked with a smile, but he had no intention of speaking first. After a moment of awkward staring she finally smiled, unable to hold it back in longer.
"Jane," she said, her smile dropping rapidly, "you've been staring at me for the last ten minutes, knock it off and do something productive."
"Who says this hasn't been productive?" he asked pointedly. Still he was amused by her candor and grinned.
"Just because you have some creepy fascination with staring at people doesn't mean it's productive." She was trying really hard to be serious.
"Oh contraire and it isn't staring, it's observing."
"It's staring and it's creepy."
Jane frowned. "Isn't my 'staring,'" he said mocking her tone, "one of the very reasons I'm employed with the CBI in the first place?"
"Making 'observations,'" she mocked him in return, "about suspects is one thing, but what could you possibly glean from staring at me that would be relevant to a case."
His smile returned. "That is the question, now isn't it?" Jane was very aware that their conversation was starting to draw attention from the other members of the team. He didn't care. He was smiling like a fool, and having fun. "Well for starters, I can observe what sort of mood you're in, which helps me know how far I can push suspects before you stop me." He pointed at her as she leered and rolled her eyes at him. "You didn't know I paid attention to that did you? I can also see when you're on to something, when you're willing to go along with my schemes or not, when you're sleepy and need someone to keep you alert, when you're hungry, or grumpy… and grumpy—those two often go hand in hand with you," her chin pulled back as he continued, "and when you're worried midst other things. By observing you, it allows me to know how I can adjust my actions to better help you solve the case."
Grace chuckled at Jane's remarks and Cho and Rigsby smiled lightly, even though they were pretending not to hear.
Lisbon rounded her shoulders. "Please," she said incredulously. "You do whatever you want whenever you want, whether I'm okay with it or not, and you know it."
He raised an eyebrow at her.
"Okay fine," she continued as she tapped the side of her coffee cup with her pointer finger, "then what has my body language told you this morning?"
Jane felt his brow furrow, momentarily. "You're pleased with the amount of cases you've closed since I've been back. Today, you're even feeling like maybe things have finally gone back to being normal," he felt an uncomfortable silence with the other team members at his remark, "and you're glad that we haven't had to deal with any political cases in a while."
Her right hand left her pocket and she pointed a finger at him. "First of all, we closed cases while you were gone..."
"I never said you didn't," he spoke over her, "just not as many."
She continued as though he hadn't said anything, "and second who likes working political cases. I know you don't. And we closed plenty of cases without you."
He sat his tea cup down next to him on the sofa and looked at her plainly. "Okay in the six months I was gone how many cases did you close?"
Lisbon gave him a dirty look and he knew she had no intention of answering, but it didn't matter because Cho supplied the answer. "About half of what we've closed since you've been back."
"Half in six months of what we've closed in the three months I've been back," Jane said smugly, as he looked at Cho.
"Four months," Lisbon corrected.
He looked back at Lisbon, who was now scowling at him. Then he said, "Three and a half months."
"Whatever, we were managing just fine." Lisbon shook her head at him.
"See, grumpy and hungry. I'll take you to lunch." He uncrossed his legs and stood up.
Lisbon held up her hands. "No, I'm not hungry."
Jane's head tilted to the side. "Teresa, when are you going to learn you can't lie to me? I know this great little place. It's not far from here."
"I'm busy here," she told him trying to sound like she was still angry, but not quite managing it.
"No you're not and you're denial that you need me would be hurtful if I wasn't so intrigued by it." He told her while a grin spread over his face again. "Now come on." He took her coffee mug from her and sat it on his desk, grabbed her shoulders turning her and then took her by the elbow.
"What about everyone else?" she asked. Jane stopped in his tracks. They all looked at him. He was beginning to wonder if she was planning on being difficult all day.
"Rigsby just ate two hamburgers and a large fry, Van Pelt brought a lunch today, a chicken salad if I'm not mistaken by the smell in the refrigerator, and I doubt Cho would want to come, but I'll ask him anyway if it'll make you happy." Rigsby and Grace were giving Cho amused smirks before Jane could speak.
"Cho, would you like to accompany me and your grumpy boss to lunch?" he asked seriously.
Lisbon smacked Jane's arm. "I am not grumpy."
"Quiet woman, and let the man answer." Jane kept his expectant eyes on Cho and raised a questioning eyebrow.
Cho crossed his arms and looked at them, while Lisbon stared at Jane with a dumbfounded expression, then he answered. "Okay."
Jane looked at Cho curiously as Lisbon stifled a laugh. "Really?" Jane asked.
Cho gave him a disapproving stare then smiled. "Nah, I was just messing with you." He turned back to his desk.
Jane's look of confusion was replaced by a self-satisfied smirk that he hadn't read Cho wrong, before he turned to Lisbon and made eye contact. "There, are you happy?"
"Traitor," she told a smirking Cho, as Jane pulled her out of the bullpen and in the direction of the elevator.
"At this rate, I'll be grumpy too before we get there," Jane grumbled.
"Seems fair," Lisbon grinned.
Lisbon sat across from Jane at the café he had insisted they eat at. She wanted to be irritated, but she had been hungry and the food here was good. It was a nice restaurant, with linen on all the tables and candles for night dining. It was painted a pastel yellow and there were fresh sunflowers on every table. It was pretty busy as well. It wasn't a place that she would have picked for herself but they had burgers which is what she'd been craving. She picked up a fry and popped it in her mouth.
Jane sat his caprese sandwich down and smiled at her. "I told you you'd like it."
"It's not bad," she agreed. "But next time you're hungry you don't have to make a fuss to get me out of the office. I would've gone anyway. Most likely." She pulled a wrinkle out of the white table cloth to avoid eye contact.
Jane smiled. "You can deny it all you want, try and push it off on me, but I know you were hungry."
Lisbon laughed quietly. She couldn't believe how easy things had been between her and Jane lately and she was glad.
"That's nice," Jane observed, leaning back in his chair.
She looked at him curiously. "What is?"
"You—laughing." Jane leaned toward her and placed his hands on the table. "I bet it feels good too, doesn't it?"
Her smile dropped a little. "Yeah, it does." She looked at her plate.
She knew Jane wouldn't be able to keep himself from commenting on her abrupt shift in temper, but there was a topic that they needed to discuss. A pressing one that included a countdown, which by her watch left a week and a half before all hell broke loose. Things had been so nice that she'd been avoiding the topic, but she couldn't anymore.
"Teresa, why the glum expression all of a sudden?" Jane asked.
Lisbon slowly lifted her eyes. "Jane, we need to talk."
His brow furrowed. "No." His expression showed that he knew exactly what she wanted to talk about. "We don't need to talk about that." He reached for a menu that he'd had the waiter leave and opened it. "Now, what do you want for dessert?"
"Jane," she reached across the table and grabbed his wrist.
He tensed, took a deep breath then lowered the menu and looked at her.
Lisbon made sure they had eye contact before she continued. "I know this isn't an easy topic for you, but we're running out of time and I can't just keep pretending that nothing's going to happen." Her voice was quiet. She pulled her hand back.
Jane closed the menu and set it aside. "I know you want to know and I will tell you. I'll have to, but not right now. Please, you're just going to have to trust me for a few more days."
"In this circumstance asking for a few days is asking for a lot." Her expression was grave.
Jane leaned toward her again. "I know," he all but whispered, "But I need you to give it to me?"
She hated it when he became all disarming like this. It made her feel useless to his request. What was she going to say? No? Of course not.
She nodded lightly. "All right," she conceded. Somehow the eye contact they had turned into a staring contest. She wanted to wince away, she hated feeling like he was reading her, but she didn't. These little moments had been increasing and while she wasn't totally comfortable with the idea of facilitating them, she didn't want to be the first to look away all the time either.
His eyes were sad again and nearly boring holes into hers. She couldn't imagine what a nightmare it would be being romantically involved with someone like Jane. The manipulation, the lying, the body language reading, and these stares—killing any chance you'd have of saying no. She blinked as he continued to stare, until she noticed something that drew her attention away from his eyes. She glanced down at his hand that was sitting above the menu. It wasn't now, but she was sure it had just twitched.
She looked back up at him, but he was now looking at the menu.
He'd picked it up again. "I knew you wanted dessert," he told her as he opened it.
"I hear they have excellent chocolate cake," a familiar female voice chimed in. Jane and Lisbon both looked up and away from the table in the direction of the voice. "I hope I'm not intruding."
Lisbon blinked a little confused by what she was seeing, but when her eyes opened again and there was no mistaking. She stood up, her chair flying back, and reached for her gun.
Jane was up before she could remove it from her holster and spoke. "Lisbon, don't."
Lisbon's eyes flew to Jane. "Jane! I don't want to hear it. I don't care what you think of her, she's a fugitive and I am going to arrest her." She removed her gun, took a step toward the tall, thin woman, with brown hair that hung just below the shoulder, and aimed her gun.
"Lisbon, she has bodyguards," Jane said, just as several of said guards made their presence known and aimed their own guns at Lisbon. Jane raised his hands, just as someone in the restaurant screamed.
"Drop your gun, Ma'am," one of the guards ordered in a husky foreign accent that Lisbon couldn't quite put her finger on.
"I'm with the California Bureau of Investigation and this woman is a fugitive of the law." Lisbon spoke clearly as she reached for her badge and showed it to them.
"I don't think they care about that," Jane told her, while rolling back nervously on his heels. She looked around the restaurant and the scared looks on everyone's faces, before lowering and holstering her gun. She left her hand above it anyway.
Lisbon narrowed her eyes at the woman who ignored her and turned to Jane.
"Patrick Jane, it's good to see you."
"Erica Flynn, I thought you were hiding abroad," Jane was trying to placate her. He looked around nervously at the men holding the guns; his arms were still in the air, his fingers wiggling.
Erica smiled coyly at Jane and Lisbon seriously considered shooting her despite the repercussions, then Erica looked at the man who'd just been ordering Lisbon about.
"It's all right Giovanni," Erica said in a saccharine tone. "They won't try anything."
Giovanni lowered his gun reluctantly; the other guards followed his lead.
Jane dropped his arms, stepped around the table and between Lisbon and Erica, cutting off Lisbon's view. She wanted to hit him.
"Last time I saw you, Jane, you were standing at the curb of a restaurant seeing me off," Erica said teasingly. "And I do recall you promising me you'd find me." The sound of disappointment was heavy in her tone.
Lisbon walked forward and stood just behind Jane and to the side.
Jane lifted his hand and rubbed his thumb over the top of his pointer finger. "Last time I saw you, you didn't have so much brawn surrounding you."
"Yes, well that's my husband's doing. He's so protective. I'm sure you know all about that." Her eyes were glimmering.
"Husband?" Lisbon said making herself known again.
Erica pulled her eyes from Jane's and looked at Lisbon. "Yes. Perhaps you've heard of him. Alonzo Conti?"
"Alonzo Conti?" Lisbon's brows rose. "The Italian Foreign Minister?"
"Yes, that's him." Erica's voice was chipper.
Lisbon watched as a sly smile crossed Jane's face. He thought this was funny. Forget hitting him, she wanted to shoot him too. Maybe just in the foot, but still. She couldn't believe her luck. It was like fate was playing some cruel trick on her. Like Lorelei wasn't enough of a problem for her to worry about, now she had Erica Flynn in the mix too. Whatever he was keeping from her would be pushed to the back burner with Erica here, she was sure of it. He'd get all goofy, distracted and near useless, just like he had last time.
"So much for no political cases," Jane chimed in throwing an uncomfortable smirk in Lisbon's direction.
Lisbon grimaced.
Jane stood outside the restaurant with Erica Flynn at his side. Lisbon had left quite quickly after Erica had mentioned who her husband was and Jane had wanted to follow her, but his curiosity and pride had gotten the best of him. This woman was always trying to prove she was smarter than he was. He had to stay, figure out why she was here, and start working on a way to get her back in prison. He knew she thrived on showing him up, and he couldn't have that.
"I'm still not really sure why you're here," he said shoving a hand into his front pant pocket.
"I already told you, my husband is here on diplomatic business. I don't know all the details, a bit boring for my liking really."
"Yes, you said that already. What I'm wondering is why you're here—not your husband." Jane tapped his shoe on the pavement.
She gave him a mischievous look while pushing her purse up her arm. "He knows all about my past, naturally…"
"Naturally," Jane repeated in a mocking tone.
She held her smile and continued, "and so originally I wasn't going to come, but three weeks ago something," she paused so quickly that anyone else might not have noticed or thought much of it, but not Jane, "I just decided that I wanted to come and he made it happen. He's so accommodating. Such a lovely man."
Jane's face had slowly dropped. She was clearly hiding something, but he couldn't show her all his cards just yet. "So, he's not your true love then, I take it. He should watch his back." He glanced at the road as a limo slowly pulled in front of the restaurant.
"Very funny," she said sounding amused, "but no, he's not. Actually, I'm not really sure I believe in true love. The closest I've ever come to feeling anything remotely comparable was that day in my hotel room, with you." She took a step forward as one of her guards came around the limo and opened the door for her.
Jane looked at the very menacing man and then took a step away from her. "You think that you're untouchable, but I will catch you, and you will go back to jail."
She stepped toward him again and lightly took hold of his collar. "Oh Patrick, don't make promises you can't keep." She let her hand slide down his lapel, then turned from him, walked over to her limo, and got in while simultaneously putting on her sunglasses. She gave him a pouty smile and a wave as her door shut.
Jane didn't like this. Of all the times she could've picked, why'd she have to come now? He knew he'd have to work over time. He'd have figure out what Red John was up to, protect Lisbon, and get Erica behind bars. He didn't really see that he had any other choice. His stomach flipped, the nerves were starting to overcome him. It was almost too much. In the end, if it came to it, he'd let Erica go before he'd let anything happen to Lisbon, but he really didn't want it to come to that.
He was glad that Lisbon could at very least help him with Erica. Still, he wasn't sure how pleased Lisbon would be about the entire issue. Aside from the fact that Lisbon was a cop and Erica a criminal and it was her job to arrest criminals, he knew Lisbon disliked Erica and was even a little jealous of her. Jane looked at the sidewalk and kicked at the pavement with his right foot. Then he began to think about his next move.
What he really wanted to do was head right back to the office so Lisbon wouldn't have time to stress over him being with Erica. But he also knew that if Lisbon thought he was with Erica, it would provide him the perfect cover to go and talk to someone he'd been meaning to talk to for a long while now. He'd been with Lisbon so much over the last couple of weeks that he'd found it hard to contact him. He realized this might cause problems with Lisbon later, but decided that her good opinion of him wasn't as important to him her life.
He took a deep breath pushing back the knowledge of the hurt he knew this would cause Lisbon and whistled for a taxi. He needed to see Stephen Sinclair.
A/N: Things will be picking up here really quick. Thanks for reading!
