Thanks to everyone who's left kind reviews again. It means a lot to me. I'm afraid this is the penultimate part. Enjoy. x tromana
Part Three
It didn't take long for the news that the dance class was Jane's fault to reach Lisbon. The rest of the team kept shooting furtive glances towards Jane who was laying prone on his couch, knowing that soon he would be thoroughly disturbed. Lisbon was a woman on a mission, positively raging with fury as she marched into the bullpen and kicked Jane roughly, awakening him from his nap.
"You hypnotised Minelli? Damn it, Jane. I tell you it's illegal and then you do it on your superiors. Tell me, how am I going to explain this?"
Lisbon's voice was as incredulous as he'd expected it to be. Only two days had passed since their first - and only dance lesson, and it had been Rigsby who had cracked over a pot of yoghurt. Lisbon knew exactly how to bribe each and every member of her team for information. When Minelli had stormed downstairs after checking the accounts, blatantly not remembering sending the team dancing at all, she knew she'd have to confront him.
"It was suggestion, not hypnotism," Jane mumbled before turning over in attempt to get a few more minutes sleep.
Lisbon kicked him again. Harder.
"Damn it, woman. Words, not violence. Words."
"If you want words, you'll get your sorry ass over to my office," she hissed.
And with that, she sauntered off, thoroughly unimpressed. Jane rubbed the sleep out of his eyes grudgingly. Van Pelt shot him a sympathetic look as he tentatively headed towards the Senior Agent's office. He shouldn't have been surprised that she'd found out so quickly - after all the unit was tight-knit and the rest of the team were very loyal to their boss.
Lisbon didn't even bother turning around as Jane walked into her office and shut the door behind him to give them that little bit extra privacy. She couldn't look at him; one look in his eyes could weaken the front she'd been specifically building up all day.
"It was a trust exercise, Lisbon."
"Trust? I can't even trust you in the office, never mind out in the field. You play mind games, you consistently go behind my back, you expect me to support your crackpot theories and yet you still ask me to trust you." She took a deep breath. "And now I have the Attorney General breathing down my neck. You do realise our superiors only tolerate you because you close cases?"
Jane shrugged. "It was good for the team."
"Oh yes, how so?" Lisbon asked. "You humiliate me in front of my team and force me to answer the unanswerable questions from those above. Not to mention that Rigsby and Van Pelt can barely talk to each other without blushing now. Only you and Cho seem to have come out of this farce unscathed!"
Lisbon eyed Jane warily, hoping for some kind of mature response. He seemed to have no opinion on the situation at all. She sighed heavily before pulling out a wad of paperwork which she would now have to fill in now because of Jane's actions.
"I don't have any choice," she told him. "You're bloody unrepentant. Minelli has requested punishment - suspension. I doubt you'll learn anything from it but it's protocol. You can't go around hypnotising people, Jane. Especially not those in charge!"
TBC...