Disclaimer: I own nothing.

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Agent Teresa Lisbon is nearing the end of her eighth month of pregnancy, and maternity leave is beckoning. She'd spent the last two months on desk duty, and even before then, her tasks had been limited to things that wouldn't put her in danger – though she and Patrick Jane had had quite a few arguments about what 'staying out of danger' meant.

Jane was even more protective than usual when a serial killer had struck in California – a serial killer that was going around killing pregnant mothers. There had been seventeen deaths to date.

The FBI and another CBI team were working the case in a joint operation. They'd even brought in a team of behaviour analysts and psychologists to try and determine who the killer might be. Now finally, after four months of work, they had a suspect: Agent Brady Kissinger, an FBI agent stationed in California working the 'Mum Killer' case.

Their plan for determining if Agent Kissinger is in fact the serial killer is to put him face to face with a pregnant woman in the workplace and see how he reacts. When Jane finds out that they'd picked Lisbon as the agent to do the questioning, and that she'd agreed to it, he lost his cool and stormed into her office, not caring that he is interrupting a phone call that she is having with the agent in charge of the operation.

'You're not doing this Teresa,' he yelled, yanking the phone out of her hand and hanging up the call.

'Excuse me?' steamed Lisbon, standing up and placing her hands on the desk in front of her, going nose to nose with Patrick Jane. 'You can't tell me what I can and cannot do,'

'The killer is out there killing pregnant women. I'm not putting you near a guy that may be a serial killer. I won't let you do it.'

'I will be perfectly safe here. There are agents everywhere, and everyone will be watching it. They'll be video cameras set up, and I'll be wearing an earpiece. It will be fine.'

Frustrated that she wasn't stepping down, Jane fumed. 'You can't be sure of that. Anything could happen.' Taking in the sight of his little fireball with her arms now crossed over her chest, resting on her swollen abdomen, he lowered his tone. 'I can't lose you,' he uttered softly.

'That's exactly why I have to do it. Jane – this bastard is going around killing women who are just like me, and I'll be damned if I'm going to stand aside if I can do anything.'

Staring into her unwavering eyes he admitted defeat. 'I'm not going to be able to change your mind am I?'

'I don't like your odds' agreed Lisbon, uncrossing her arms.

'I want to be on the other end of that earpiece,' Jane added firmly.

Looking at him exasperatedly, Lisbon responded. 'If you hadn't hung up my phone call before, you would have known that I was telling Special Agent Humphries that you would be the one feeding me the instructions.'

Having the grace to look a little sheepish, Jane personally hands his wife the phone when it rings again. Taking a seat opposite her desk as she takes the call, he waits for her to finalise the details for the operation. Conversation complete, she turned to Jane. 'It's going ahead.'

Sighing heavily, he walked around her desk and knelt before her. Grasping her hands he looked her in the eye. 'Promise me you won't do anything stupid. So help me god, if anything happens to you...'

'It will be fine,' she promises, squeezing his hands. 'Now get out of here, I've got things I need to do.'

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Two days later finds Agent Lisbon seated in her office, decked out in dark clothes to hide her pregnancy as much as she can.

There were three hidden cameras in the office, and she had on an earpiece. Jane was at the other end of it, sharing a room with two profilers that he'd spent the last two days hounding and playing mind games with. Needless to say they weren't too impressed that Jane would be calling the shots to Lisbon, but knew they had no choice.

With Jane's cheery 'Let's get this show on the road' Agent Brady Kissinger is called for.

Knocking on Lisbon's door, Agent Kissinger has arrived. 'Agent Lisbon? You wanted to see me?'

Looking up at the new arrival, Lisbon instantly felt distaste and a sense of ugliness about the man. Pushing it aside, she issued her instructions. 'Yes I did. Please be seated.'

Once he was seated, she continued. 'The 'Mum killer' case is being transferred to the Homicide division now. My team will be leading the investigation. You'll be my team liaison to the FBI. Tell me what you know.'

As Kissinger outlines the basic facts of the case, it becomes clear that this is no ordinary serial killer. He was not making any mistakes. With the order from the shrinks around him to tell Lisbon to reveal her pregnancy, Jane relays 'belly' to Lisbon.

As Kissinger starts to wrap up his brief, Lisbon asks a question about the killer's MO and any links that there might be between victims. 'How are they being selected, and how are they being killed?'

Kissinger launches into a superficial explanation of the modus operandi and victimology, whilst Lisbon continues to nod at his comments before abruptly standing up and heading toward her filing cabinet.

Her tight top does little to hide the fact that she was pregnant, and her bump is even more apparent in profile. The shrinks had gone into a tizzy around Jane when they'd noticed Kissinger's reaction to Lisbon. He was displaying a huge degree of lust and anger. Tensing as he realised that Agent Kissinger was in fact most likely the serial killer, and that he was now in a room with his woman, Jane nevertheless kept his voice neutral as he continued to relay instructions.

When she'd leaned down to retrieve a file, Kissinger had stopped talking. Picking up on the silence, Teresa turned to him. 'You were saying?'

Laughing, the agent shook his head. 'Sorry, just lost my line of thought. How far along are you?'

'Eight months.'

'Better be careful. There's a killer out there.'

'Oh. He has a thing for last month pregnancies then, does he?'

'Yes,' was Kissinger's quick response - just a little too quick.

Sitting down once again, she follows Jane's orders to make her pregnancy as obvious as possible. Each movement saw a change in intonation from the agent in front of her as he struggled to remain on topic. Each time she rubs her belly or comments on how her child is kicking, Kissinger gets distracted and drops the conversation. Lisbon is quick to fire back questions – some fed by Jane, and others self-guided – as Kissinger fumbles.

Knowing they need more than this, Lisbon prepares to take a risk. She needs to get into his personal space. It could backfire badly on her, but if it stops the bastard from killing more women, then it's justified.

Praying that her husband wouldn't shoot her later, the next time Baby Jane kicks she makes it as obvious as possible. When Kissinger flounders, she stands up, places her hands on the desk and leans close toward him as she slams another question at him.

What Lisbon sees next sends a chill through her bones. Brady Kissinger's face morphs from the mild mannered agent into the cold look of a killer. Wondering for a second if perhaps she'd gone too far, Lisbon freezes, unable to move.

Meanwhile in his room, Jane knows that something is wrong. Whilst it didn't look like Agent Kissinger was moving, he knew his wife's expressions well. Something wasn't right. Making his concerns known to the shrinks and agents around him, he is ignored under the guise that they need more.

When the killer lunges toward her, all Lisbon can do is watch him coming at her. But just before he can touch her, Cho throws open the door and Rigsby wrenches the man away from his boss. Kissinger struggles against Rigsby as he faces Lisbon. 'You could have been my number twenty one,' he spat out.

As Kissinger is taken away in cuffs by the FBI, Lisbon sags back into her chair, one hand resting on her belly and the other propping up her head.

'You okay boss?' Nodding in Cho's direction, she struggles to get her thoughts together when Agent Humphries enters the room with his congratulations. 'We'll take Kissinger for interrogation now.'

Nodding as the agent left, and unable to fight the urge to retch any longer, she reaches for her trash can and upends the contents of her stomach. This nausea that had been building up ever since Brady Kissinger had entered her office and she'd known without a doubt that this was the serial killer.

This is the sight that Patrick Jane is greeted with when he dashes into the room and pushes past Cho, Rigsby and the newly arrived van Pelt to enter her office. As teammates look on in sympathy, Jane quickly makes his way over to hold back her hair. Accepting van Pelt's offer of a tissue, he helps her to stand.

Suddenly weak, Lisbon leans back against him. 'Don't you ever ask me to do that again.' Knowing better than to correct her, he simply runs his hands up over her arms. Lisbon hated public displays of affection, but in this case she was willing to allow it, even needed it, to get rid of the awful sensations post-interview.

When the head shrink entered the office soon after, he congratulated both Jane and Lisbon on their work. 'Honestly, I had very little hope of success with you two. I swore that some of that man's prompts were going to get to you wrong, but amazingly it worked. The two of you could certainly teach my newbies lessons on communication.'

Lisbon shook the psychologist's hand, as Jane offered up his services as a teacher any day! The shrink left with a promise that they'll see the bastard goes away for a long time.

Stepping out of Jane's embrace, Lisbon orders her team back to work. The operation was over, but there was plenty more to be done. Knowing that arguing with her would be futile, Jane swore that he'd get her home that night at a reasonable hour.

Sure enough, come five o'clock Jane suddenly shot up off his lounge, startling van Pelt, as he imperiously declares to all that it is 'Hometime!' and ushers Lisbon out the door, refusing to listen to her complaints of unfinished paperwork.

Lisbon rebels against Jane the whole drive home, and continues to complain about his treatment when they enter their house. But Jane has the last laugh when he finds Lisbon sound asleep on the couch as he came to fetch her for dinner.