Hi guys, thank you all for the feedback on last chapter, I was really happy that you liked it! :)
Here is the new chapter I really hope you will like it!
Also, sorry for any mistakes, I tried to check it a couple of times but I can't be 100% percent sure it's error-free…:)

Disclaimer: I don't own the show or the characters…

Chapter 6

Lisbon rushed out of the elevator in a flourish. Her hair was messy and her cheeks were red and she tried not to concentrate on the fact that she was half an hour late. This hasn't happened since she went out with Jane. Back then it was sort of usual because it was his favorite morning habit to, well... to distract her.

She made a quick round in the bullpen, grateful for her agents when none of them commented on her late arrival or her disheveled look.

Then she hurried to the kitchen to have a coffee before she started her day. She made her way into the room and stepped straight to the espresso machine. She put her stack of papers on the counter beside herself and sighed.

"Wow Lisbon, after the third date, huh? So you are kind of old school in this..." she heard the playful voice of Patrick Jane behind her back. She spun on her heels and faced him with a shocked look.

"Excuse me?" she asked with a raised eyebrow. She had a pretty good idea what he was talking about but she dared him to say it into her face.

"Come on Lisbon... Flushed cheeks, crumpled blouse and you're late. We both now what that means..." he said in his usual, observing tone.

"Jane, it's none of your business!" she hissed and grabbed her mug of fresh coffee. Now she desperately needed it.

"You're not even denying it..." he hummed in an amused tone. "Interesting"

She stormed out of the kitchen without saying anything. She heard his disapproving 'hey' but didn't slow down, only once she was in the safety of her office.

Yes she had slept with Morrison. Yes it was their third date. But how did Jane know? And why did he care?

She threw her stuff on the desk and ran her fingers through her hair.

Her heart was racing and she felt an uncomfortable clench in her gut.

She thought back on last night and she knew what the problem was.

Derek was a wonderful guy that was revealed on the first date. And she wanted to give him a chance, she really did. He was charming, witty, and good looking. On their second date he took her to the movies and made her laugh with his jokes during the otherwise rather boring film. Then he walked her to her door and without any rush gave her a soft goodnight kiss, and left.

She liked him. But that wasn't the reason why she had slept with him. She knew it was wrong but the main reason as to why she had sex with him was because she wanted to erase Jane. She wanted to get his kisses and touches out of her system. Get rid of his memory altogether, even if only for a few hours. And she wished it would have worked. She wished she didn't imagine Patrick Jane kissing her passionately, his hands embracing her and making sweet love to her.

Lisbon hoped that she just needed time to get used to Derek. She was willing to give it time. Not that it was so bad... She was actually having fun with him, enjoying herself despite the fact that Jane always stayed in the back of her mind. So she would give this a chance and ignore the painful flutter of her heart every time Patrick Jane showed interest in her personal life. That made it all so much more difficult. To see that he was interested. She didn't know why when it was him who ended their relationship. He shouldn't care. And she shouldn't care that he cares...

"Hey guys, do you think Boss is serious about... You know Detective Morrison?" Grace asked her fellow agents silently. Cho turned his head to her with a doubtful expression and Rigsby grinned while shrugging. She searched for the blond consultant with her eyes to hear his opinion too, but she found him with his eyes closed, pretending to be asleep. Though the barely noticeable frown on his face gave him away, Grace knew he was awake.

"Jane, what do you think?" she asked directly from him. However, he didn't answer her, instead he made a low moaning sound and turned his back to her and the rest of the bullpen.

VanPelt sighed, but left him alone. She looked back at Cho and Rigsby who were waiting curiously for Jane's thoughts as well. They exchanged a meaningful look, all three totally aware of the fact that Jane was most likely jealous as hell. They didn't really know what happened between their boss and Jane but none of them dared to ask.

"Well, I think she looks happy..." she said with a girlish smile, getting back to her work on her computer.

"Oh yeah, she was practically glowing this morning!" Risgby agreed.

"I think we shouldn't discuss her private life in the office. Or anywhere else for that matter..." Cho said calmly and VanPelt felt herself blush. Cho was right, it was none of their business and Lisbon would think the same. Sometimes she just couldn't help herself. Maybe she could simply ask Lisbon, she may feel like talking with a friend.

She jumped in her seat a little when Jane let out a short but loud snore, breaking the comfortable silence that fell on them. She looked at him and shook her head.

Meanwhile Jane was trying not to be too obvious as he listened to the agents. He wanted to know what they thought about Morrison, but asking would have been too suspicious. When Cho played the 'it's none of our business' card he couldn't repress a snort because a,that was exactly what Lisbon said to him and b,he knew just how much Cho cared for Lisbon. He knew it from experience and even though the agent made him pretty uncomfortable back then, he was grateful that the man was looking after Lisbon as well. Of course Cho didn't have the same feelings for Lisbon as Jane had, his feelings were more like a brother's concern than love but Jane realized just how strong the bond between the agent and Lisbon was when Cho had pulled him over to have a talk with him.

It was a day after the team caught them making out in the elevator. Jane was making tea in the kitchen, planning how to convince Lisbon to go to the beach on the weekend. He knew she needed to relax but also knew that there was no way she was going to make his job easy and admit it.

When his beverage was ready he turned to go back to his couch and noticed Cho in the doorway, his arms across his chest, looking at him sternly.

"Hello Cho!" he nodded with a bright smile, but he knew that his charms never worked on the stoic agent. "What can I help you with?" he asked.

"I would like to talk to you about Lisbon." Cho said, straight to the point. Jane smirked, not at all surprised. He had been expecting to receive a preach ever since yesterday.

"Well then, I'm listening." he put his teacup down and looked at Cho almost challengingly.

The agent stepped closer and scowled at him, clearly not very impressed with his light attitude.

"If you hurt her, I'll hurt you twice as much!" he told Jane in a quiet, rough, threatening tone.

He resisted the urge to laugh and mocking his posture leaned to Cho.

"I won't!" he said "I will do my best to be the man she deserves and believe me Cho my friend, I would do anything to protect her. So I will try as hard as I can not to hurt her."

Cho eyed him suspiciously and Jane couldn't decide whether he was grateful that somebody was looking after Lisbon or found it ridiculous that Cho threatened him.

"You better!" he muttered then without further words left the kitchen.

Jane took his tea in his hand and hurried after him. He was a few steps behind Cho when the agent entered the bullpen and Jane could see the other two team members turning their head towards Cho.

The asian man shrugged and strolled to his desk while Jane walked to his couch, pretending like nothing had happened. He felt VanPelt's eyes on himself and he looked at her with the most innocent expression he could muster. She shot him a warning eyebrow-rise then got back to her work.

Jane was just settling down, squirming on the sofa until it enveloped his back perfectly when Risgby stood up and went by him. As he was just next to Jane he stopped and turned his upper body to the blond consultant.

"Hey Jane, seriously, don't hurt her!" he said, almost whispering then left the bullpen.

Jane took a sip of his tea, swirling the liquid in his mouth and he pondered how much her little team loved Lisbon. He couldn't even ask for better guardian angels for her...

He never told Lisbon about this. And somehow Cho never shot him.

Jane turned on his back and tried to clear his mind, let his troubled thoughts slip away. As he drifted into a light sleep he decided that he would finally do like he promised to Cho and do his best to protect Lisbon. From himself. Because he was no good for her. He would stay away from her and let her be happy with Morrison. Even if it broke his heart.

They got a new case later that day. The victim was a young woman who was found on the riverside. Jane only took one glance at her and stated that she was a call girl.

"How can you tell?" Lisbon asked skeptically and rolled her eyes.

"Look at her Lisbon! She's got prostitution written all over her…" he told her and stepped next to her. He was standing so close to her that Lisbon could feel the warmth radiating from his body.

"She's pretty and she's wearing a short skirt. Her nails are manicured, and she is wearing a lot of make up! But that's all, that doesn't mean that she was selling her body..." Lisbon shook her head.

"Her heels look fancy but they were probably rather cheap. Her perfume is way to ostentatious. She's got a package of condoms in her purse..." he motioned towards the victim's open bag not too far, the contents of it lay on the ground. "And she's not wearing any underwear..." he added but didn't look at Lisbon as he said it.

"What...?" she asked and as she took a step closer to the woman's legs she instantly saw that Jane was right. No panties. "All right... Uhm, Cho?" she called out for her agent who was having a conversation with an officer nearby.

"Yeah?" he turned to her when he heard his name.

"Do we have an ID?" she asked, but he immediately shook his head.

"No. No ID, no credit cards, no driving license... Seems like whoever did this took her identifications." he shrugged and opened his notebook. "However, a witness saw a blue van drive away at around five thirty, said it was in a rush." he reported.

"Thanks, let's get surveillance tapes and look for that van. See if we can find the owner!" she ordered and with a nod Cho headed to the SUV.

"Hey Boss, the ME said that the woman's clothes were wet, but they are almost sure that cause of death isn't drowning." Rigsby said from behind her and Lisbon turned to him.

"Right, get this poor girl to the morgue and I want to know if she had been engaged in any kind of sexual activity in the last day." she said, earning a smirk from Jane. As much as she wanted to smack him she resisted and just shot him a warning look. "Jane and I will head back to the office and browse through missing people's lists... Maybe someone misses her already!" she announced and started to walk back to her car. She was standing next to her door when she noticed that Jane wasn't at her side. He was staring at the river with a pondering expression, his hands deep in his pockets.

"Jane!" Lisbon exclaimed and he finally looked at her with surprised and curious eyes. "You coming?" she asked and he glanced back at the water one more time before he got a move on and jogged to his side of the car.

They got inside, and once they left the busy crime scene and the soft sound of the engine shut out all the noises Lisbon felt Jane's eyes on herself. She refused to take her eyes off the road but her cheeks were practically stinging from his stare. If she wasn't mistaken he opened his mouth to speak twice, but changed his mind and closed it again. Then finally after seemingly endless moments he turned his head away and regarded the houses and gardens they were flying by.

"I'm sorry about earlier. It really isn't my business. If you're happy, then I'm happy..." he murmured when the silence was starting to become suffocating. Lisbon gripped the wheel harder, but still kept her gaze at the street in front of her.

"Thanks." she managed to say. She wanted to tell him that she wasn't anywhere near happy, that she missed him crazily. But she couldn't. Because he didn't want her, he broke up with her, she wasn't what he needed. And Teresa Lisbon wouldn't force anybody to be with her, especially not because of pity for her.

No, she could act like a big girl. And she would get used to Morrison- Derek, she corrected herself. She had to stop calling him by his last name. It was possible she could even fall in love with him.

So she stayed quiet and pursed her lips together for the rest of the trip.

Lisbon straightened her back and rolled her head from side to side. She still had a pile of reports to look through and she had already drank three coffees in the last hour. Her eyes were tired, her headache making it even more unbearable.

She sent the others home a few hours ago, not long after they got back from the crime scene. She hadn't got a clue where Jane was, but she still felt weird because of his sudden apology.

When the knock at her office door interrupted her thoughts she slightly jumped in surprise. It was way too late for anybody to be there except for the janitor and maybe Jane. And while one wouldn't have the reason to come to her office in this late hour, the other wouldn't bother to knock.

She turned her head to the door and her lips curled into an automatic smile.

"Derek! Hey, what brings you here?" she greeted him and with a wave of her hand invited him inside.

"Hi! Well, I was at home, sitting on my couch, staring at the Tv and I realised that I missed you." he admitted as he wandered closer to her desk. Lisbon felt her cheeks go red and she fiddled nervously with a piece of paper. "Am I bothering you?" he asked shyly and she looked at him at last.

"No. Please take a seat!" she smiled widely at him and expected him to sit down into one of the chairs in front of her desk but with two long strides he rounded her desk and stopped beside her.

He leaned down and cupping her cheek with his right hand he pressed a sweet kiss to her lips.

"Thanks." he murmured then without a word he went back to the other side of the table and sat down. Then he watched her as she shook herself out of her bewilderment and got back to her work.

He never said a word while she was reading. Sometimes Lisbon had doubts that he was even there but when she glanced up she found him right there, looking at her with patient, brown eyes. They shared a small smile then and Lisbon always had the strong urge to leave the reports and just go home with him. But he never pressured, never even asked her to put off her work for him.

He waited until she was finished and only when she put the last page down and lifted her eyes to him did he speak.

"Ready?" he questioned in a gentle, understanding tone. Lisbon realized that he probably knew what her work meant to her and also that she needed to get these things done. That was where his patience came from, he understood her.

"Yeah, for today." she nodded and stood up. She let him help her coat on and when he held her hand tentatively on their way to the elevator she squeezed his reassuringly.

Yes, this could work after all.

So, this was it…. I would absolutely love to hear your opinion about it guys, so pretty please don't be shy and leave me a few words in a review!
Now, I'm in a serious writers' block that seems to have no end… Also we got to the part of the year when every single teacher thinks their own subject is the most important one and that we students have no other desire than to write as many exams as we possibly can before the Christmas break… So, yeah… I've been kind of busy and didn't have time to write. I just hope that said Christmas break will be efficient for this story!
Anyway, I would be grateful to read some inspiring words from you, please tell me your thoughts! I would really appreciate some cheering up… Or just some feedback that I'm doing good… Or bad. What do you think? :)
I will try to update this story between Christmas and New Year's Eve, however, I would like to wish you all a Very Merry Christmas in advance! You guys are certainly the best!
Thank you for reading and reviewing! :)
Until next time, xxx