A/N: Okay, thanks to all those who reviewed chapter 7. Again you made me laugh. I honestly hadn't realized how many times I called Jane an idiot (though apparently it was six in case anybody's wondering), but really, he deserved it! I hope you enjoy this one as well, though it's not quite so much fun.

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Chapter 8

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Lisbon had given Bill, as he'd told her to call him, a brief tour of the Serious Crimes Unit before handing him back to Hightower. She'd been pleasantly surprised by her companion. He'd been interested in her work, but not too intrusive. He'd asked a couple of questions about the case they were currently working on, but Lisbon put that down to general politeness coupled by the fact that he apparently had a lot of experience in tracking down corporate espionage and information thieves based on their paper trails. Well, that and the Jenkins case had been in the news a lot lately. Special Agent Elliot had also gotten along well with her team when she'd introduced them. Everyone seemed to like him. He was charming and funny but not overly so. He wasn't trying too hard; his interest didn't feel like an act. His behaviour simply felt natural. To be sure, she still didn't know much about him; he hadn't really talked about himself or what he was doing at the moment, other than that he was taking some time off. But Lisbon supposed his reticence was only natural. Especially if he was, as Hightower had said, between assignments, or even taking time off for personal reasons.

All in all she'd quite enjoyed her temporary distraction. It sure beat paperwork. His arrival was probably the most exciting thing that was going to happen to her all day.

Turns out she was wrong. About an hour later she heard a knock on her door.

She looked up to see Special Agent Elliot standing in her doorway. "Agent Lisbon," he said. "I was wondering if I you had a minute."

"Of course," she told him. "Come on in."

"Thanks," he told her with a smile as he sat down across from her. Lisbon couldn't help noticing again that he really did have very nice eyes. She gave herself a bit of a mental shake and focussed on what he was saying. "Hightower told me a bit more about what you guys were doing and how you were kind of up against a wall, with your case I mean. I thought, well... I do have some experience with this sort of thing, so I thought I'd offer my services with the case," he told her.

"Oh, we couldn't take up your vacation time with this stuff," she told him. "Plus I think we've got it covered at the moment. But thank you," she added, trying not to get ruffled by the offer. She told herself he was just being nice; the offer wasn't meant to highlight the fact that, on their own, her team wasn't really getting anywhere.

"You sure?" he double-checked hopefully.

"Yeah," she told him. "If your first job at the CBI is something this boring you'll never want to join us and what'll Hightower say then? But I'll tell you what, give us a few days and if we could still use your help I'll definitely give you a call."

"Alright," he said.

"Did you need anything else?" she asked when he didn't immediately get up to leave.

He shot her another charming grin. "Well, since work fell through as an excuse to spend time with a beautiful woman, I guess I'll have to be more direct. Would you like to have dinner with me tonight Agent Lisbon?" he asked.

Lisbon was surprised but flattered. Oh what the hell, she thought to herself. What could it hurt? "Sure," she told him with a smile. "That sounds nice."

Bill did stand then, "Great!" he told her. "Hightower's got me pretty busy for the rest of the day, but I'll come by and get you when I'm done, okay?" he asked. "I figured we'd go somewhere casual so we don't have to bother changing, if that's fine with you of course."

"No that's fine," she told him. Actually that was more than fine with her. By the end of the day she'd be in no mood to go home and stress over things like hair and make-up. Casual was better. "I'll look forward to it."

"Me too," he told her. With that he really did leave.

Lisbon turned back to her paperwork, biting her lip to stop the grin from erupting on her face.

After the week she'd been having dinner with a nice guy was sounding like a better idea by the minute.

Unfortunately apart from Bill's offer of dinner, the rest of Lisbon's day offered few distractions. She passed most of the afternoon pretty much buried in paperwork and endless internet searches. If she never looked through another financial database again it'd be too soon. But Lisbon knew that even if the team did get another more pressing case it wouldn't make any difference. She was still restricted to her desk for the rest of the week as a mere matter of course thanks to the Jenkins shooting.

She was considering getting a cup of coffee that she didn't even want, just for an excuse to relieve some of the boredom. She was just about to start searching her in-box for unfinished paperwork to distract her when her phone rang.

"Lisbon?" she said, as she picked it up.

"How's sifting through the endless stack of documents going?" she heard Minelli ask.

"Shut up," she told him playfully. She'd brought him up to speed on what had happened in Monterey when she'd first gotten back to Sacramento. She'd tried to skim over some of the details, but he knew her too well and had been able to read between the lines. She figured he was alternating between being irritated at Jane and being concerned about his ex-consultant. The only think Lisbon knew for sure was that Virgil was relieved that it had been Lou with Jane in the bushes and not herself. Still, she figured she'd soft-peddled on the details enough that Minelli wouldn't outright kill Jane on sight, if he ever saw him again of course.

"That well huh?" Minelli remarked, bringing her attention back to their current conversation. "This is why I'm glad I'm retired," the ex-agent added.

"Yeah, well, I think I'm a ways away from that," Lisbon reminded him.

"Let's hope so," he replied.

"Did you need something?" she asked him.

"Always right to the point aren't you Lisbon?" he asked with a grin, knowing she wouldn't be offended. "But as usual you're right; I'm not just calling to chat. My wife has just informed me that she's having a bunch of friends over to play bridge tonight..." he started explaining.

"So you're looking for any excuse to get out of the house," Lisbon guessed.

"Absolutely," he replied. "They're wonderful women really, but eight to one would put any man at a disadvantage."

She laughed at the hint of panic in his voice. "And you thought of using me as an escape, I'm flattered sir."

"Yes well," he said, "How about it Teresa? Will you let me take you to dinner? Rescue me from a hoard of gossiping women?"

"Normally I'd love to," she told him. "But I can't tonight," she said somewhat regretfully.

Minelli huffed in annoyance, "If you tell me you have to spend your evening going through paperwork on the Jenkins case I'm coming over there and dragging you away myself," he warned her.

"It's not the case," she told him indulgently.

"What's this I hear?" he asked, interested now. "Does Agent Lisbon, the consummate workaholic, actually have plans?"

"And you call your wife's friends gossips," she chided him. "But yes, I'm going to dinner with a friend of Hightower's from the Secret Service, a Special Agent Bill Elliot. Do you know him?" she asked. Despite his retirement Minelli still kept up his contacts. If anyone could tell him anything about her prospective dinner companion it was her former boss.

"I know of him," Minelli clarified. "Everything I've heard about him is good, though admittedly I haven't heard much. Still, from what I have heard, he's good at what he does. Why?" he asked suddenly. "Have you heard anything that suggests otherwise?"

"Oh no," Lisbon told him. "I was just curious. Thought you might know a bit about him."

"Well, like I said," Minelli told her. "From everything I've heard Elliot's a good agent."

"Hm," Lisbon said. "Well, Hightower's hoping to lure him over to the CBI," she told her boss. "I'm sure that's partly why he asked me to dinner."

"Oh yes, I'm sure that's the reason," Minelli said sarcastically.

"Sir," she said in warning.

Minelli sighed but he knew better than to press the point. "Well, since you have other plans, I guess I'll have to find someone else to save me from a well-intentioned if nosy gaggle of women."

Lisbon smirked, "Good luck with that. I'll talk to you later. I should probably get back to work."

"Alright," he agreed. "And Teresa?"

"Hm?"

"Try and have some fun tonight would you?" he asked her. "For me?"

"Goodbye Virgil," she told him firmly before hanging up the phone.

Still, she supposed her ex-boss had a point. Dinner with a handsome man certainly had the potential to be quite fun.

Suddenly she heard a knock on her door. "Hey Van Pelt," she said. "Come on in."

"Hey boss," Van Pelt said as she walked into the office. "I've been through the files we found in Jenkins' spare room under the bed. Nothing."

"Of course not," Lisbon muttered.

"Also, no sign of another bank account yet either," Van Pelt told her. "But I'm still waiting for a contact to get back to me so we'll see."

"Okay, thanks," Lisbon told her.

"No problem," Van Pelt replied.

Lisbon noticed that though she was obviously done summarizing what she'd found, Van Pelt didn't appear to be making a move to leave her office either. "Is there anything else?" Lisbon asked her.

Van Pelt's face blossomed into a knowing grin. "Dinner with Agent Elliot huh?" she asked suggestively.

Lisbon blushed and ran a hand through her hair, forcing herself to sound nonchalant. "He's interested in the CBI," she told the woman grinning across the desk at her.

"Of course he is," Van Pelt agreed readily. "Some parts more than others," she added significantly.

"Grace!" Lisbon said with a laugh, trying to sound stern. But the effect was somewhat ruined by the use of her friend's first name.

"Oh come on Teresa," Grace said, slipping into the more personal as well. She'd been friends of a sort with her boss for years now, and she knew the woman well enough to know when something was going on. Besides, Agent Elliot was cute. A little encouragement wouldn't hurt. "He was interested," Grace assured her boss. "A blind man could see it, the way he was looking at you earlier."

"Yeah well," Lisbon said running her hand through her hair again, "It's just dinner."

"For now," Van Pelt pointed out with a grin.

Any response Lisbon may have made was cut off when Cho knocked on the door, "Sorry to interrupt girl-talk," he told the two women. "But boss, I thought you'd like to know, Jane's in the bullpen."

"Jane?" Lisbon repeated completely shocked. She'd told her ex-consultant that he knew where she'd be if he needed her, but she hadn't really expected him to take her up on the offer. And even if he had, the most she'd been expecting was a phone call.

"Yeah," Cho repeated. "Patrick Jane. You know, not quite six feet tall, blond hair, kind of irritating, strong affinity for couches, used to work here?"

Lisbon stood up a little too quickly. "I know who he is Cho," she told him a little irritated. "I'm just surprised he's here. I thought he'd stick around Monterey a little longer."

Cho shrugged, "Okay. Like I said, I thought you'd like to know."

Lisbon shared a look with Van Pelt. The younger agent looked just as surprised as she felt, though Lisbon thought Grace also looked pleased. Which made sense, Lisbon reminded herself. Everyone on her team liked Jane. Lisbon cleared her throat. "Yeah," she agreed. "Thanks for letting me know." Now why on earth was she nervous? The two of them had cleared the air a bit after the accident. She was pretty sure Jane wasn't here to cause her any trouble. She turned to Van Pelt abruptly. "Well, I guess we'd better get out there," she said. "See what's going on."

"Guess so," Grace said with another grin as she followed her boss out of the office.

xxxxx

Jane was trying to tell himself that he absolutely wasn't nervous, that he wasn't going to be escorted out of the building on sight, that he had no reason to be unsure of his reception. Well, he thought to himself. That last one was probably true, at least when it came to the team. He was less sure about the rest of the building.

"How you doing man?" Rigsby asked, clapping him on the back.

Jane ran a hand through his hair. "Pretty good," he replied truthfully. Things obviously weren't perfect, but he was trying to deal with what happened.

Rigsby nodded in understanding. "I wasn't expecting to see you back here so soon," he admitted. "How's Lou?"

"Oh, she's good. Her Doctor's say she'll be fine, eventually at least," Jane told him. Out of the corner of his eye he noticed Lisbon approaching, flanked by Van Pelt and Cho. He tried not to swallow guiltily.

"Good," Rigsby said definitively. "I'm glad she'll be okay."

"Sheriff Granger?" Lisbon checked as she walked up to the pair of them. When Jane nodded, she continued. "I wasn't expecting to see you so soon Jane," she told him.

"You and Rigsby both apparently," Jane told her. "I thought you might need my help finding if any of the information Jenkins copied was actually ever leaked."

Lisbon tilted her head slightly. "It's not that we don't want your help," she told him. "But you could have stuck around for a couple of extra days Jane. We certainly don't need you desperately to look through these case files. Everyone would have understood if you needed more time."

Jane looked confused, "Why was everyone so certain I'd want to stick around Monterey?" he asked

"Why?" Rigsby scoffed. "Nice try man. We all saw you two together."

Jane stared at the other man in disbelief. "Lou and I?" he double-checked. When Rigsby nodded Jane explained. "There's nothing between Lou and I," he told the other man calmly.

"Nothing?" Cho double-checked.

"Okay, I kissed her that night at the bar," Jane admitted. Rigsby snickered. "But it was only once!" Jane insisted. "I mean, she's a lovely woman, don't get me wrong, but I never had any intention of... Neither of us did. She was the one who told me to get lost and move on with my life! I mean, of course I stayed for a while after she got hurt. It was my fault after all and..."

"It wasn't your fault," Lisbon interrupted.

"That's nice of you to say Lisbon," Jane told her. "But we both know that it was. Anyway, Lou got hurt, and it was because of my idea. I couldn't leave her there by herself. So I just sort of, I don't know, stayed for few days. I visited her, apologized. She also informed me that what happened wasn't my fault by the way. Both of you are lying. Then her doctor came in. And let me tell you, it was plain to see that Patrick Jane had been replaced in her affections. That's about when she ordered me to move on, in case you were wondering."

Lisbon smirked. "I'm sorry Jane."

"No, no. Perfectly understandable," Jane said with a wave of his hand. "Like I said, it was a bit of fun, but neither of us had any real intentions."

"Oh, I don't know," Lisbon told him. "I saw her that night at dinner. She seemed pretty interested in what Patrick Jane had to offer."

He grinned, his ego appreciating the lie. "Well thank you for that anyway Lisbon. But trust me, it really doesn't matter. Besides, her doctor looked like he'd walked right out of a television set. He's also closer to her age. And I think we can all agree, a doctor's much better than a travelling consultant. Good for her," he added. He really didn't want to talk about this anymore. He'd had no idea the entire team was under the impression he was interested in Lou. He just tended to flirt with everybody; it was his way. Plus, she'd been young, and pretty and fun, and clearly interested in him. What man could resist that? It'd been a brief distraction; that was it. "I'm just glad she'll make a full recovery," Jane concluded. "I'll be forever grateful that I didn't do any lasting damage."

"Jane," Lisbon said taking him by the arm. "I know I've said this already and I know you don't believe me, or Lou apparently, but it really wasn't your fault. There was no way you could have known Jenkins would have a gun. It absolutely wasn't your fault." She figured if she said it enough times he might believe her.

"It was," he insisted.

"It wasn't," she repeated obstinately.

"It was my idea," he told her softly.

"She was the law enforcement officer, not you," Lisbon reminded him. "She could have said no. She didn't."

"You would have," Jane told her, a hint of affection in his voice.

Lisbon smiled. "Well, I would have at least brought back-up," she acknowledged with a shrug.

Jane grinned softly. "Anyway, like I said, since the local sheriff basically ordered me out of the county, I thought I'd come back here and see if I could help you guys tie up loose ends," he told her.

Lisbon smirked, "You want to help go through piles of paperwork?" she asked raising her eyebrows sceptically.

"Well no," Jane told her honestly. "But I thought there might be some other way I could help. Another set of eyes and all that. Besides, I thought I might have a flash of inspiration of some kind. What was it you used to call it, a Jane-hunch?" he asked her with a soft smile. Now he just had to pray that she didn't say no.

Lisbon eyed him closely for a moment. Jane fought the urge to squirm under her gaze. Slowly she grinned. "I guess your couch is still free," she told him.

Jane couldn't resist answering her smile with his own. He moved ever so slightly closer to her and opened his mouth to say something else when they were interrupted.

"You ready to grab some dinner Lisbon?" Special Agent Elliot asked from the door of the bullpen. "Or do you need me to come back a bit later?"

Lisbon took a step back, shooting Jane an apologetic smile. "No," she said glancing at her watch. "I can leave now," she told the agent. "Just give me ten minutes alright? I'll meet you downstairs."

The other agent nodded, and then he noticed Jane. "I'm sorry," he said holding out his hand. "We haven't met, Special Agent Bill Elliot."

"Patrick Jane," Jane said as he shook it. If he recognized the man from that night at the pub he didn't show it. Lisbon held back her smile when she realized her ex-consultant was taking the man's pulse. She supposed old habits die hard.

"The consultant?" Elliot asked. When Jane nodded he looked impressed. "I've heard stories about your work," he admitted. "I'm Secret Service myself, but I'm considering a move to something a little closer to home."

Jane just nodded politely.

"Well," Bill said abruptly. "I'll let you all get back to what you were doing. I'm sorry for interrupting." Then he turned back to Lisbon. "I'll see you in a few minutes."

They all watched him go. Lisbon turned back to her consultant, "Sorry Jane," she said, genuine regret in her voice. "I've got to go, but we'll talk more tomorrow okay?" she promised.

"Sure," he told her with a smile. "Go have dinner. After all, Special Agent Elliot certainly seems quite interested in the CBI. Wonder why that is?"

Lisbon swatted him in the arm. "Shut up," she told him. "It's just dinner. He wants to hear about the case and what it's like to work here."

"Sure he does," Jane told her.

Lisbon shot him a look before turning to leave. At the doorway she turned again, "Are you sure you're alright Jane, because I could cancel..."

Briefly Jane selfishly considered taking her up on her offer, but then he shook his head. "No, go ahead," he told her. "I'm fine. And I'll be here tomorrow."

Lisbon sent him a wide smile. "Okay then."

The second she was gone the smile slipped off Jane's face and he looked thoughtful.

He turned to Cho, intending to fish for information about the possible new (and in Jane's opinion unnecessary) addition to the CBI family.

Before he could say anything Cho broke the silence first. "You're an idiot," he told Jane.

Jane ignored that. "What do you know about Special Agent Elliot?" he asked the agent.

Cho shrugged. "Not much. Hightower knows him pretty well. I heard Minelli knows who he is, seems to like him."

"Of course Virgil likes him," Jane muttered.

Cho continued on as if Jane hadn't spoken. "Everything about him seems perfect."

To anyone else that might have sounded like the highest compliment, but Jane knew Kimball Cho better than most people. "Seems?" he double-checked.

"Well, he is between assignments," Cho pointed out. "Gossip around the water cooler is that he has been for a while too. That doesn't happen to perfect agents."

"What do you know?" Jane asked conspiratorially.

"Nothing specific," Cho told him. "But I hear things. And word on the street is that Agent Elliot might not be quite the blue-eyed boy Hightower seems to think he is."

"Could you find out anything else?" Jane asked.

Cho shrugged. "I've got connections," he told his friend.

"Do I even want to know who?" Jane asked.

"I wouldn't tell you anyway," Cho replied. "It might take a couple days though."

"Doesn't matter," Jane told him.

"Hey man, why do you care?" Rigsby asked, suddenly rejoining the conversation.

"No reason," Jane told him. "Just a hunch. "Besides, gotta make sure he's a good guy if he's planning on sticking around, right?"

"Sure..." Rigsby muttered.

Jane just winked at him and Van Pelt, before dropping back onto his old couch. He acknowledged to himself that things could have gone far, far worse.

He glanced over at Lisbon's empty office with a frown. On the other hand, he had to admit that things could have also gone far, far better.

Jane decided his best course of action at the moment would be to try and solve the mystery of the information thief without a buyer. Wrapping up her case for her would be guaranteed to get her attention.

Deliberately focussing his eyes on the ceiling Jane was comforted by the fact that Elvis at least was still around.

xxxxx

TBC