A/N: If the posting rate is getting too much for people, let me know and I can slow it down a bit. As previously said, I have a scarily high amount of 'things to post' this month and I don't want to be too overbearing, especially to those who have +alerted me. So, let me know somehow. Reviews always work. ;-)

Thank you to: autumnxwinds, Frogster, anthropologist, TwilightLover-CarlisleandEsme, Aeidhryn and Miss Peg for reviewing part two.

x tromana

Part Three

"What did you do that for?" Lisbon hissed as she and Jane followed Mrs. Stevens through to her lounge. "You know there's better ways of doing that."

"She wasn't going to let you in until you said anything," Jane answered back, just as quietly. "Did you really want to waste time, on her porch, until you were forced to give up?"

"Still, you of all people should understand the concept of breaking that kind of news to someone gently."

Jane didn't answer. They both knew that when he had discovered that his family had been killed, he had been the one to find the bodies. Still, Lisbon had hoped that over the years, he had learned the concept of tact. Then again, it was Jane and she didn't know anyone with less tact than him. He wasn't doing anything he wouldn't ordinarily do and thus, she should have expected it. Instead, she dropped the matter and continued to follow Mrs. Stevens through into the lounge, where the baby was promptly placed into a playpen.

"Can I offer you a cup of coffee?" she asked, her voice sounding distinctly smaller than it had done at the front door.

"No thank you," Lisbon answered politely.

"I'd prefer tea if you have it."

Mrs. Stevens nodded. "The kitchen's through to the left."

Lisbon sat carefully down on the couch and glanced briefly at the baby, who was trying to eat his own fist. She smiled slightly. It reminded her a little of when Annabeth was that age, all gurgling and endearing, rather than cheeky and manipulative. Not that she didn't love her niece dearly, however. It was just, sometimes, she wished that she could be a little less like Tommy was.

"How old is he?"

"Nine months next Thursday."

"He's lovely."

"Thank you."

Quickly, Lisbon dug out her pocket notebook as Jane returned holding two mugs. Immediately, he passed one over to Mrs. Stevens, who accepted it with a stunned silence, before he started making his rounds around the lounge. The woman eyed Jane warily, obviously unsure about having a stranger rifling through her possessions, but Lisbon was used to it. This was just his way of trying to understand what made the family tick, to try and find out if there were any obvious incongruities that he could expose to help further their investigation. Unfortunately, they were usually the kind of secrets that people hoped would remain private. Which just seemed to make it all the more interesting for Jane.

"Tell me about Amie," Lisbon said quietly as Mrs. Stevens sipped at her coffee.

"She's wonderful. The perfect daughter," Mrs. Stevens said proudly and her voice cracked a little, "was. Was the perfect daughter. I'm sorry, it's just..."

Briefly, Lisbon reached out to touch the woman gently. She was relieved when she seemed relatively accepting of the gesture. This was a difficult situation for the woman, especially given the fact that her youngest child was still obviously very small. A new child was always a big upheaval for the family and losing a child in such a shocking manner was another. Lisbon suspected that the Stevens family had just adjusted to one major change, only to have to adjust to another.

"It's okay. Take all the time you need."

"I'm fine, thank you."

"Did she get along with her brother?" Lisbon asked.

"Everyone loved Amie and she was brilliant with Padgett."

"But not her step-brother?" Jane asked, despite the fact he was looking at the family photographs.

"Nobody got along with Tristan."

"Oh, I seriously doubt that," Jane said flippantly and he joined Lisbon on the couch. "He's probably just resentful of the fact that you married his father."

"I think I know my own stepson."

"Your husband always wanted a daughter, didn't he?" he continued blithely and Lisbon watched nervously. He obviously had yet to get rid of all that pent-up energy. "And there she was, a ready-made daughter…"

"Excuse me?"

"Jane, you know, I'd really like that cup of coffee now, if you don't mind making it for me?"

"Oh, of course," Mrs. Stevens replied, balking slightly. "Go ahead, Mr. Jane. Please."

Jane narrowed his eyes at Lisbon slightly, but obeyed the instruction. She didn't really want a coffee and they both knew it. Lisbon was relieved that he took the hint to get out of the room before the woman clammed up entirely. It was obvious that the whole interview process was difficult for her and that Jane was making it all the worse. Still, she knew that he would give her hell for it later, that it was such an obvious distraction for her to use. That was why she had been so stunned by the fact he had actually willingly gone along with it. Usually, if an instruction had such an obvious reason behind it, Jane assumed that it was more of a suggestion than a demand.

Quickly, she rattled through the rest of her questions. How Amie had gotten her job as an elf at the mall, who her friends were, if there was anyone who would be likely to hurt her, excepting her stepbrother. Diligently, Lisbon recorded each and every piece of information down and only paused for thought when it came to the ex-boyfriend. You never knew what exes were capable of, especially if they were the spurned party. However, she didn't even need Jane to come back and place the coffee in her hand to realize that he was far more interested in the brother.

"So," she said as she placed down the coffee. "Do you know why Amie broke up with Henry?"

"She didn't say. She was pretty upset, at the time."

"That's weird, especially if she was the one to instigate the breakup," Jane stated noncommittally.

"Jane…"

"No, no, it's a fair statement," Mrs. Stevens said, though her eyes clearly stated 'this time'.

"She was forced?" Lisbon asked.

The woman shrugged and almost immediately after, the baby started crying. Lisbon froze, but Jane however, rose to his feet even before Mrs. Stevens had a chance to react. They both watched warily as Jane scooped the child out of the playpen, though neither stopped them. Lisbon knew it was fine, that the little boy would be in safe hands. She had seen him interact with children time and time again, and knew just how naturally it appeared to come to him. If she hadn't known him so well, she would have questioned his affinity to children. After all, each and every one must have, in some respect, reminded him of that he had lost.

However, at the same time children represented so much. Youth, hope, innocence. They were all things that even Lisbon knew Jane needed in his life. After losing his family, he had lost everything and had almost chosen to cut out all the positives. She could see that he had changed since he had joined the CBI, that he had slowly but surely warmed to company once more. However, staying in the company of jaded and cynical cops didn't do anywhere near as much good as a new life did. If anything, she knew that her line of work could sometimes bring him down. Yes, they did good and gave people answers, but how often did they actually save lives?

She smiled slightly as Jane babbled nonsense at him and young Padgett slowly settled down. Jane beamed back at Lisbon as he gently bounced the child up and down, soothing him as she did so. As Mrs. Stevens watched the three of them, she relaxed. The baby was safe and a crying fit had been swiftly averted in Jane's expert hands. When the boy had stopped crying entirely, she turned to face the mother once more. Although the sight of Jane with a baby was always very endearing, she still had an interview to conduct. The sooner this was done, then the sooner they could start to put some real effort into finding Amie Stevens' killer.

"I don't know," Mrs. Stevens answered eventually, realizing she still hadn't answered Lisbon's question. "Maybe?"

"By her brother?" Jane questioned.

"Yes, no. I don't know."

"You do, but you don't want to say."

"I think you should pass him to me now," Mrs. Stevens said stiffly, with her arms wide-stretched, ready to take hold of Padgett. "And I think you should leave. It's…"

"Difficult?"

"Yes."

"Thanks for your time," Lisbon said swiftly and caught Jane by the arm after he'd handed the boy over to his mother. "And thank you for the coffee."

Waving stupidly at the baby, Jane stood at the same time as Lisbon did. The raised eyebrow didn't go unnoticed by her. Obviously, he had noticed that she hadn't even bothered to take a sip of the drink he had 'kindly' prepared for her. For a start, she rarely drank when with persons of interest; you never knew and besides, it felt inappropriate. They were there to do a job, not too socialize. And besides, she genuinely hadn't been thirsty; she'd had enough of coffee at the mall, as it was.

They headed straight to the van. Lisbon wanted to get back to the headquarters as soon as possible; she needed Van Pelt to look up the boyfriend, as the girl's mother had been unable to supply them with too many details. As far as she was concerned, along with Amie's coworkers, he was the next person of interest they needed to investigate. Silently, she buckled up and waited for Jane to do the same until she bothered putting the key in the ignition.

"It'll be a sad Christmas for them," Jane said, musing. "The first one's always the hardest. And poor Padgett won't ever know a Christmas with his mom."

"His mom was there," Lisbon said with a frown. "We just questioned her, Jane. Are you sure you're not going crazy?"

"No she wasn't."

"She…" she started, before giving up. "Okay, what did you find out?"

Jane not having a skulk around would have been irregular as Rigsby going off his food, or Cho not having a book stored in the top drawer of his desk. When she had sent him to make her a coffee, Lisbon had anticipated that he would take the opportunity to investigate elsewhere. In a way, when he had returned ten minutes later, she had been surprised at just how well-behaved he'd been. Usually, when he'd discovered something ground-breaking about the family, he proceeded to poke at them until they spilled all. Because of this, she had simply assumed there had been nothing to reveal, and thus, Jane had decided that the family were boring, average people, excepting the brother, of course.

"Oh come on, you can't say you haven't worked it out for yourself."

"If I had, I wouldn't be asking."

"Lisbon…"

"You're not saying that Padgett is actually Amie's son, are you?"

"And the penny finally drops."

If she hadn't been driving, Lisbon would have taken the opportunity to punch him lightly. Instead she mumbled something incoherently about him patronizing her. She knew it wouldn't make any difference, but still.

"And what made you come to that conclusion? Why didn't you ask the mother?"

"Well, it's more of a hunch…"

"I thought you didn't tell me every hunch you had for a reason?"

"I don't. I'm just quietly confident about this one."

"You think it's the reason that Amie and her stepbrother don't get along?"

"Yes."

"I suppose you think we should try and track down Tristan Stevens immediately, then?"

"Well, naturally."

"Tough."

"What do you mean, tough?" Jane asked, surprised.

"We need to go back to headquarters first. Or do you happen to have an address for Tristan Stevens hidden up your sleeve?"

"Well, no."

"Well then," she said lightly.

Jane crossed his arms and slouched back in the seat. She knew that Jane was annoyed at the fact they would have to waste time for this little detour, but it was necessary. Sometimes, he it seemed like he forgot that they did have to do a bit of legwork before they could move on with the case. Besides, it didn't even mean that Tristan was a suspect. All it meant was that he possibly had a reason to dislike his stepsister and they had to ascertain whether or not that was enough to drive him to murder. And Lisbon knew full well that it rarely was, unless, of course, there was another trigger up their sleeves.

"Can we stop off at a Subway first?" he piped up eventually. "I'm hungry."

"You're always hungry."

TBC…