Summary: Season 4, Episode 4. The Lightman Group investigates a series of pickpocket incidents, and a congressional aide gets caught up in the trouble.

Disclaimer: I write to feed the fanfic troll under the fanfic bridge. Not because I have any claim on the show. I have nothing to do with this show or it's characters. I just love them and want them to live on in fandom.

A/N: This one has a bit more ship in it than a real episode would have, and probably a lot more explanatory detail in it too. Sometimes that's needed to get the heart of the story across when it's not in script form and in a visual format. If I'm not getting the balance right, I welcome the feedback.


Chapter 1

He was flirting outrageously with the woman at the bar, looking her up and down with blatant desire every chance he got. She was indulging him, finding him cute but if not for the charm and the expensive suit she may not have been so open to his antics. He wasn't her usual type, he was short, brash, and occasionally borderline rude. But there was something about him. She'd been to this bar a few times over the last few weeks and been hit on by plenty of guys. This one had something that kept her attention. And she was most definitely keeping his.

He leaned a little closer to her and cheekily whispered something in her ear. She would never usually do this kind of thing. But tonight, she nodded to him and stood her tall frame up and squeezed his arm, then picked up her small purse and light jacket. Everything was perfectly matched, from her form fitting clothes to her designer bag and heels. He couldn't believe how lucky he was tonight.

He smiled and reached into his pocket to pay the bar tab for the drinks they had been sharing for the last hour or so. He came away empty handed and confused. His wallet was gone. She looked to him with disappointed confusion, presuming this was a trick from a no-good loser who charmed her and then conned her into some free drinks. He was humiliated and furious. The scorned blonde woman reached into her purse and angrily threw down a few bills and then stormed away and left him floundering.

Dylan Walker headed home having given his details to the bar staff to charge to his company expense account for the tab. He stewed in his fury for two days. And then he decided to go to the police. He was sure that he hadn't lost his wallet as the hotel staff had insisted he must have. He had thought it through, he had looked everywhere he could think of. He hadn't noticed anybody in the bar close to him or suspicious in the entire time that he was there, but he wanted this investigated, certain now that he had been robbed. He had a reputation to uphold. He was a wealthy, well known and well-respected philanthropist in D.C. and when he wanted the cops to take him seriously, he got what he wanted. He went to his local police department close to his offices in Baltimore and insisted that a collaborative operation be opened up with the DCPD to get to the root of this. And he demanded that they get their best people on it.


He walked into the hotel bar with eyes roaming. His swagger through the entrance of the room suggested to anyone paying attention that he was on the prowl. He was looking for someone to entertain him tonight.

He spotted her sitting on a bar stool, legs crossed at the knee, upright with perfect posture. Her hands folded in front of her while she waited for service.

She was gorgeous. Wearing a short, deep crimson red dress, Louboutin heels that made her legs look endless despite her short stature, with perfect make-up, neither too heavy nor too light, done in a style that showed she was a sophisticated and elegant woman. She looked, to the casual observer, like someone with high expectations who took herself far too seriously and suffered no fools. Unapproachable and unattainable. So of course, every guy out for a good time was trying both. Including him.

He scoped out the room to see if there was anything else of interest besides his quickly chosen target as he approached the bar and took a stool close to her, leaving a gap of one seat for the time being while he anticipated how this might go.

"Come here often?" he asked with a wry smile in his thick London accent.

She spared him half a glance before turning her attention back to the mirror behind the bar and chucked to herself, shaking her head.

"What? Too cliché for you?" he tried again. She had smiled at least. He bounced himself from the seat he occupied to the one directly beside her and leaned toward her in a near slump, sliding his arm across the bar to just in front of her body. "Alright, how about this? If we were in a hotel room and you could order one thing from room service-"

"What makes you think I'd get a hotel room with you?" she turned to half face him now, turning her head fully to stare at him with a raised eyebrow and a cheeky half smile. Good God she was gorgeous.

His own smile broadened at her retort and he diverted his eyes away in a concession of defeat and took in the other occupants of the room, avoiding her gaze. Still though. She was looking at him, and she was still smiling.

He straightened himself up in the seat with another excited bounce and extended a conciliatory hand to her, "Tell you what, to apologise for my terrible pick-up lines; how about I buy you a drink?"

She pointed to the glass of wine that she had been served while he was on his stalk towards her when he entered the place and looked sideways at him with a 'hard luck' gesture of her brow and twitch of her mouth. He slumped once again in his seat with a release of frustrated breath and just as he was about to call her out on making life difficult for him, her face finally broke into a beautiful smile and she said, "How about I buy you one?"

His smile returned in an instant as he leaned forward again towards her. "A lady of a modern age, I like it".

She laughed openly at him then, she couldn't help it, and signalled the bar tender.

"Scotch?" she asked him, and he nodded agreement to the bar tender.

"How'd you know?" he asked her as the man behind the bar travelled the short distance to retrieve the requested drink.

"English guy in a suit. It was either going to be lager or scotch, wasn't it?"

"Suppose so. Why'd you pick scotch?"

"I hate beer," she answered. "Call it wishful thinking, I guess."

"So if I said lager, you'd have left me drinking alone?" he asked her as the drink was placed in front of him and he nodded his thanks to the server.

"Maybe."

They sat nursing their drinks together, making small talk, all the while she kept diverting her gaze to the mirror behind the bar and he kept darting his attention around the room. They looked for all the world like a newly acquainted pair shyly getting to know one another, hoping for more than just a drink.


In front of the hotel in a claustrophobic van three figures sat huddled around surveillance equipment impatiently.

"This is insufferable," Will Mallory spoke up, "Why do we have to sit here listening to these two play some weird role play game instead of doing proper police surveillance work?"

"Because, proper police surveillance work could take weeks and if our suspect is in there tonight they could have them spotted within an hour or less?" answered Wallowski.

"She's right. As painful as this is to witness, the two of them can do this way faster and easier than your 'traditional' methods," added Eli Loker.


"So," he asked with entirely false shy reserve, "Do you want to get a hotel room with me?"

"What kind of girl do you think I am?"

"I'm hoping that you're the kind of girl who wants to get a room with me."

She paused, as if to give it some thought. She looked again in the mirror, taking in the room behind her. Then she turned back to face him and confirmed their pre-agreed signal. "No. But… how about you come back to my place?"

"Are you certain?"

"Oh yeah. I'm certain."

She reached into her purse and left a few bills on the bar, then took his hand and led him from the bar, he turned to look behind him once more taking in the room and then leaned in and whispered something in her ear. She nodded in reply and they left the hotel together.


The rear door of the van opened on their approach to allow the couple to enter. Cal hopped in first and turned to offer Gillian a hand as she climbed up into the van, doing her best to keep her dress from climbing too far up her thighs.

"You're sure you have a suspect?"

"Check out the woman with the black dress and short red hair carrying the long black coat," Cal said, "there," pointing at the monitor and tapping Loker on the shoulder.

"She was eyeing us up the whole time we were talking and when we stood up to move she looked away suddenly, diverted her eyes down to the left and the corners of her mouth tightened up slightly before she started to look around at other couples. She's talking to some guy she doesn't know, and he seems completely oblivious to the fact that he has barely half of her attention," Gillian explained.

"There, see? She's got her eye on that pair there over by the piano. You'll have her now, she's about to swoop in, they're about to start making out like wild animals."

"How can you possibly kn- oh," Mallory's question was interrupted by his own concession to the fact when the aforementioned couple did exactly as Cal said they would.

They watched as the red head moved so subtly, excusing herself to her unwitting companion, presumably to go to the rest room, and moving so smoothly passed the distracted couple that the most expert of surveillance teams likely would have missed it without knowing who to look for.

Loker used their equipment to rewind, zoom in, and replay the footage in slow motion. Just barely, the woman could be seen pulling off what could only be described as a magic trick as she managed to take the man's wallet from his suit jacket pocket and even the watch off his wrist without anyone noticing.

Stunned, Mallory simply said, "Move in. Go get her."

Cal turned to Gillian with his expected smugness, checking her out with a lustful once over. She caught it immediately and decided to have some fun with him.

"You know, you're going to have up your date night game. This one was pretty lame."

"What are you talking about? You're the one who didn't want to get a room with me."

She smiled indulgently at him as she carefully lowered herself into the other vacant seat beside him. Loker rolled his eyes at the couple while Mallory tried to pretend he was anywhere else.