Jane slipped back into the 2nd bedroom and closed the door behind himself. Agent Potts turned her head when she heard the door open, but other than that, there was no indication that she knew he was there. He walked over to the small seating area, where she sat with the military doctor. The doctor rose to leave when she saw him coming.

Jane moved one of the chairs so that he was facing the woman who sat on the sofa. He sat watching her for a while before he spoke.

"How are you feeling?"

"I've been poked and prodded, probed, and pushed to talk. My boys are out there, in danger, and I'm stuck here. How do you think I'm feeling?" All of the fear and worry of the last few days had turned into anger and flowed out of her like lava out of a volcano, heedless of who it covered or burned. Her voice rose in her anger, and Jane winced inwardly, having an idea of how she would feel when this was over and she realized her colleagues were right outside the door, and she had made them an audience for this, whether she intended to or no.

Jane didn't say anything, he just let it spew out until there was nothing left. After a moment, the words subsided but her breathing was still shallow and uneven. Jane reached over and took one of her hands, half expecting her to yank it back at the last second, but she didn't.

"Shhh. Deep breath in. Hold it. Now out. Good. Again. In. Hold. Out. Again." He watched as she started working to control her breathing on her own. "Good. You're doing fine."

After the third or fourth breath, she started to calm down. "Better?", he asked. She nodded.

"I believe you have had some contact with the kidnappers."

She stared at him incredulously. "You think I'm lying?"

"No, I don't think you're lying. I think, in the stress of your children being abducted, you don't remember," he said gently. "I can help jog your memory."

"No."

"When we spoke before, I told you there were some things I was going to ask you to do that you wouldn't like very much. You agreed to work with that." He studied her for a moment. "Millie, we need a place to start looking for the boys. If there's even a chance you can give us that, don't you want to?"

"Of course I do." She sighed. "What do you want me to do?"

"Close your eyes."

She did so, and then, feeling a bit silly, opened them again. He waited until she closed them again and then spoke up.

"Tell me, Millie, have you lost any time in the past three days?"

"No. None that I recall."

"It might have been subtle—waking up at a time you don't usually sleep, finding yourself somewhere and not remembering how you got there, or doing something and suddenly realizing that you started something you didn't finish. It might feel like a dream that got interrupted in the middle."

"Now that you say it that way, I don't know. Maybe? I mean starting one activity and then flitting to another that I see that needs doing is fairly normal for me, anyway."

"This would be something out of the ordinary. Think back over the last three days."

Her grip on Jane's hand tightened, almost to the point that it was uncomfortable, and she said, "I had a dream—the night the boys were taken."

Millie saw herself lying on the sofa in her living room, asleep, with the tv murmuring quietly in the background. There was a half empty pizza box on the coffee table in front of her sofa.

"In it, I was asleep on my sofa and a voice woke me up."

She heard a voice, and woke up groggy, staring at the television, thinking that was what woke her.

"What did the voice sound like", Jane asked.

After a moment, she took the remote control from the table next to her and turned the tv off. The voice sounded again, from somewhere else in the house.

"Breathless. Laughing. Loud and with a bit of a raspy quality."

"What happened next?"

Millie sat up, fully awake now, with a terrified look on her face. She went to the coat closet by the front door and flung it open. When there was no one there, she breathed a sigh of relief, and then she grabbed a baseball bat that was leaning against the wall just inside the closet and hoisted it over her shoulder. Armed and as ready as she'd ever be, she followed the voice down the hall. She flung the door open to a really bright light, and she could just make out the figure of a person in the corner by the window.

"I was scared. There was someone in my house when I was supposed to be alone. I went to the closet by the door and got a bat, and followed the voice down the hall to the boy's room. There was someone standing in the corner."

"Was it a man or a woman?"

"I don't know. I couldn't tell. The figure was between the closet door and the window and the desk lamp was in front of them, so all I saw was a big ball of brightness that gave me blind spots."

"Then what happened?"

"I wanted to run, but I couldn't. I just stood there. The shadow person moved closer and closer, and I had just thought about swinging the bat and something hit me hard and I fell on Lucas's bed. Right before I passed out, it felt like I was stabbed."

"Then what?"

"I woke up back on the sofa, missing the boys. It was a really vivid dream."

Jane said nothing. The silence grew, until finally, she opened her eyes, to find him watching her and thinking.

"It wasn't a dream, was it?", she asked.

Her words pulled Jane out of his reverie, and he said, "No. I don't think it was."

They lapsed into a somewhat awkward silence again. After a few minutes, Agent Potts spoke.

"Mr. Jane?"

He focused in on her. She spoke up again.

"Will you answer a question for me?"

"If I can."

"What did we just do?" Seeing the way he was looking at her, she continued, "It wasn't hypnosis—at least, not exactly—was it?"

"Would it matter?" Jane flashed her one of his signature smiles. She smiled back, somewhat sheepishly.

"No. I'm just curious. If I ever decide to share this story with the boys, I'd like to know what to call what we did."

"No, it wasn't hypnosis. It was something along the lines of a cognitive interview." He pulled himself out of his thoughts and said, "Come on. Let's go join the others, so we can all get out of here."

With those words, he rose, and motioning for her to go first, he held the door, and they walked together out to where the others waited.

(0o0)

Abbott nodded at them in acknowledgement, but otherwise said nothing when the two of them joined the rest of the group in the main living area of the suite.

"All right. You all have your assignments. Be aware, by FBI policy, each of the former members of the CBI team from California and Agent Potts, two agents will be assigned to each of your homes, and to you. They are there for your protection."

Jane was shaking his head. He had stayed quiet now as long as he could, but when he couldn't stand it anymore, he spoke up.

"No. They won't make a move as long as there are agents sitting on our houses. They're too smart for that."

"I'm sorry. That part came down from DC. It's non negotiable. Go home, sleep, we'll regroup at the office tomorrow and start working the plan."

Lisbon didn't need to be told twice. She immediately opened the door to the suite and headed for the elevator. Fischer, Abbott, and Wylie joined her in short order. That left Cho and Jane to wait for the next one or take the stairs. While they waited, Cho asked, "How bad do you think this is likely to be, Jane?"

"Well, you've seen the work of Tommy Olds, and you know what Volker can do. What do you think?"

At that moment, a loud Ding sounded and the door to another elevator car slid open. Jane stepped on and then turned back to Cho, who had stepped on behind him.

"I hesitate to say this tonight, but there may not be another time during this mission when it is just the two of us."

He definitely had Cho's attention, but when it came to it, he had no idea how the other man would respond, as they'd never really been in a situation like this before. Well, in for a penny…

"I don't know what you've told or haven't told Lisbon about Summer or your use of narcotics following that case where you were hit by a car, nor do I care, personally, but the fact that those things showed up in your text message tells me they may come to light during this case. She doesn't deserve to be blindsided by it if she doesn't know."

"So, you plan to tell her?

Jane shook his head. "It's not mine to tell. That's why I didn't have Wylie put it on the board. I'm just saying to you that the time when you get to control how she finds out and how much she knows may be drawing short. If you want to be the one to tell her, you probably want to do it soon."

Cho nodded. The two lapsed into the comfortable silence of two people who have worked together for a long time. Finally, just as the elevator stopped on the bottom floor, Cho said, "Thanks, Jane."

As the doors opened, the two men stepped out of the elevator and walked briskly through the lobby of the hotel and out into the parking lot. Just as they stepped outside the front doors of the hotel, two men walked up to them. One of the men said, "Patrick Jane?", while the other said, "Kimball Cho?"

Cho and Jane glanced at one another, wondering what was going on. Jane glanced further down the sidewalk to see Abbott and Lisbon waiting for them. Jane looked back at the man who had asked him his name and asked, "Who's asking?"

"Is your name Patrick Jane, sir?"

"Yes." The man reached into his bag and pulled out an envelope. He handed it to Jane. "You've been served."