Authors Note: For this to work, let's pretend that the last scene of "Bleeding Heart" (the confession by Rigsby and Van Pelt)never happened, we just need Grace to be frustrated, but not pissed off, like she was after "Redline" (the cars). Also, I'm not from Sacramento, so let just assume that I got all the info in here right.

Disclaimer: If I owned them the conversation at the end of Bleeding heart never would have taken place (not that their a bad couple,I just don't care for them together).

Spoilers: Assume that if it's in the show it's fair game, but specific spoilers for "Red John's Footstep's".

Chapter 2

Grace tried not to show any reaction when they pulled up outside the restaurant. She'd only been to eat there once since coming to Sacramento, but she'd had take-out from there on several occasions. She loved the almost formal atmosphere that the restaurant had, while still managing to be casual enough for her to wear work clothes and not feel out of place.

"So, Grace," Jane said after they were seated and looking at the menu, "When was the last time our dear boy took you to dinner?"

She glared at the menu. "We don't usually go out to eat, Jane; didn't we just have this conversation?"

"No, you said you don't usually make it past ordering drinks and food to go, so, when was that?"

"Maybe a week." She still wasn't looking at him. She already knew what she was going to order, but she wasn't thrilled with the conversation at the moment.

"Ah, well." She almost held her breath, waiting to see if he would continue his questions about her and Rigsby's relationship. "Do you know what you want?"

"Um, yes." She hadn't expected him to drop it so quickly. "I usually get the lamb korma."

"Good, I think I'm going to get the chicken tikka masala; we can share."

"I don't know Jane; this really isn't that type of restaurant."

Jane chuckled slightly as they laid their menus on the table. "Don't fret, my dear; I'm not an overgrown teenager incapable of knowing when to stop sampling a friend's dish. I don't think the staff will mind if we exchange plates half way through, or even shuffle some food around when it comes to the table." She gaped at him; how did he do it? Eighteen months with the unit and she thought she would be used to the way he seemed to carelessly read her mind. "But if it makes you feel better we can order an appetizer to share as well. What do you think about vegetable pakoras?"

"That sounds great." The waitress came and took their order and they were left sitting in silence. "Why did you come to my house tonight, Jane?" Grace said when she couldn't bear the uncomfortable silence any longer.

He ignored her question. "It's a nice night out tonight isn't it? Not too cold, not too hot. Maybe when we're done with dinner we can go for a walk down by the river."

"Ok, sure, that's fine." Really, she loved the river. It almost reminded her of home, though the rivers where she was from were more like wild creeks than the full-blown river that ran through the middle of the city. Thinking about it made her smile and she spoke without thinking. "When I was growing up we used to float down the river by our house every summer. It was the best way to cool down and be free. We'd take the old inner tubes from the big trucks used on the local farms and just have fun. It took about two hours to go from the top to the bottom, and when we got done we'd all hop in a truck, and start over. Usually one of our parents would drive."

"Sounds like fun." Jane said, looking in her eyes in the way he did that made her slightly uncomfortable.

"Yeah, it was. When I went home to visit last summer I went with my niece and nephew, first time they'd gone."

"Always the good aunt, I see." They stopped talking as the appetizer arrived, and ate in silence for a few minutes before Jane spoke.

"One summer when I was a kid we were in a town that was on a river." He stopped talking, as if wondering about going on. No one on the team talked about their pasts, Jane especially; and Grace wasn't going to stop him. "I remember one afternoon I went down and watched the kids playing in the water. They weren't floating down like you would; the water was too shallow, more like an overgrown stream, but they were having so much fun. I remember playing with them that day…" he trailed off, as if not wanting to share the rest of the memory.

"There was a little creek near my grandparents' farm that we used to play in like that. It was too shallow for much more that gathering tadpoles and pollywogs and getting very wet, but it was still a blast."

"Do you get to swim much now?"

"No, not as much as I'd like. There's a pool at my gym and I try to do laps once a week when we're not busy at work."

"I think I may need to join your gym," Jane mumbled under his breath, but not so low that Grace couldn't hear him. She knew that he appreciated her form; he'd told her so on more than one occasion, but not since she had started sleeping with Rigsby.

"So a walk by the river for sure when we're done eating," Grace said. She saw the waitress coming towards them with their plates piled high with heavenly smelling meats and sauces and mounds of fragrant rice.

They didn't talk much as they started eating, savoring each bite, Jane stealing chunks of meat off her plate and replacing them with piece from his meal until she rolled her eyes at him and he stopped, only to start back up again when she looked around at the other patrons in the restaurant.

They had asked the waitress to package their food up to go when Jane reached across the table to place his hand on hers. "So, dessert here or would you rather we get something somewhere else?"

She tried to ignore the feelings that shot through her with the gentle touch of his hands, but couldn't quite manage and so instead decided to just answer his question and move her hand away. "I don't think I could eat anything else right now. Maybe we can get something after the walk?"

"Sure, sure, anything you want." She tried to figure out the look on his face. He couldn't be disappointed that she had moved her hand, could he?

Jane paid the bill and they went back out to his car to drive down to the walking path by the river. They'd done this before, walking along the river, after Jane had shot Hardy. He'd surprised her when he showed up at her place a week after that night… a night that she hadn't witnessed, only heard about. She really hadn't expected him there; she'd thought he would seek comfort from another woman, but he chose her, and it wasn't the first time.

They had come walking along the river; they hadn't talked, at least not at first. And then out of the blue he'd started talking about how his wife had wanted him to quit the psychic world, leave it all behind; the lies were starting to pile up and it was getting hard to keep them straight – but the money was too good. And he promised her, just the one last television appearance and he would be done, but that was the one that had done him in.

Grace hadn't done much talking that night, just listening as Jane had told her about walking out of the cabin and seeing Sheriff Hardy with a gun. How he'd seen Hardy shooting one of his own deputies, and threatening to do the same with Lisbon. He couldn't do it again, he told her, he couldn't lose another person he cared about. That shot gun on the bed of the truck just called to him and that was it, and he'd killed the one link to Red John.

Shaking her head to bring herself out of the past she shivered slightly as a breeze came over the water.

"Penny for your thoughts?" Jane asked, bumping her shoulder, his hands in his pockets.

"I was just thinking about the last time we were here on the river." As they walked Jane slipped his hand into hers and this time she didn't pull away, but rather twined her fingers in his, looking down at their hands joined, remembering other times, other places where it was more than just hands that had been joined. "Why did you come to me?"

"Well," he hesitated, and for a second she thought he wasn't going to answer. "I knew that I could trust you. I knew that if I confided in you, you wouldn't try to help me other than what I wanted, what I needed."

She thought about what had happened after that walk by the river all those months ago. It wasn't the first time, and it wasn't the last, that they had found physical comfort in each other, but it wasn't something that happened regularly, or that they talked about after words. She wondered what was going to happen tonight. Hadn't she wished for a slow smoldering evening, where she didn't just get sex, but where her needs were met in a way that Rigsby just wasn't capable of?

They came to a small bench that faced the water and sat. "This river isn't like the one that we have back home. This river is brown and muddy, back home it's clear and cold."

"I'd like to see it sometime. Maybe. When you and Rigsby get married." Said in a joking tone, like it's the old jest about Rigsby being head over heels in love with her, but with a new twist. This is the first time he's teased about them getting married.

"That's not funny, Jane." She tried to pull away from where she had been nestled in his arms against the cold, but he held her back.

"I know, I just… I needed a reality check." His voice sounded sad in her ears and she moved her head to see his face, realizing for the first time exactly how close they are to each other.

"Why?" Though she thought she knew the answer already.

"Because, the thought of you and him, in a relationship, is the only thing keeping me from doing this right now." And with that he leaned in, closing the almost nonexistent distance between them, and kissed her.