A/N: I apologize in advance if it seems at all disjointed. I meant to read through it one more time before putting it up, but decided I just needed to post it.

Chapter 9

"I'm so hot," Jane heard Lisbon groan into his ear. As a matter of fact he was starting to feel very warm himself, and disoriented. We'll actually it was just half of him that felt warm, but it wasn't all together unpleasant. He shook his head a little and started to stretch, listening to the sounds of blankets rustling. Then Lisbon wriggled against him and he abruptly stopped moving. His eyes flew open and over to the petite woman plastered to his side. He suppressed a moan at the sight of her, the feel of her against him.

Her eyes were closed, and her face flushed. He felt an immediate tug at the corners of his mouth, then once again disorientation. He wondered if he should expect to feel that way from now on. It was something that in the past he wouldn't have thought he'd like. He liked being the one disorienting, not being disoriented, but he had to admit that with Lisbon, he didn't seem to mind as much as he thought he might have. He sat up, causing her to fall off his chest and into the pillows. She continued to moan as he looked around. He was in his guest room.

He remembered that. That he'd gone to sleep in the guest room—alone.

They'd spent the entire day together yesterday; giving her a tour had been especially exciting for him. He hadn't realized how much he'd actually done for her until he was showing it to her and waiting for her reaction. She'd been right about the coffeemaker; it'd been sitting on his counter since he'd purchased it a month earlier, ready to brew. He remembered how excited he'd been to show her the dining room, the little breakfast nook, the unfinished basement the bedrooms, although showing her the master bedroom had been a little...interesting. In his enthusiasm, he'd jumped on the bed telling her that it was the best on the market. He'd then patted the spot next to him. It'd been completely innocent, of course, but they'd both left a little more intense than when they'd gone in.

It had been a mostly pleasant day, except for the moment she started scolding him for his behavior on the case and he'd only made it worse by being completely unapologetic and smiling at her as she'd gotten more and more flustered. He'd fixed it by kissing her again, and he had to admit that by then and since their first kiss, and if he were being totally honest the moment she'd turned crimson in his bedroom, he'd been thinking about it…a lot.

They'd made out like teenagers on his couch after that, but she'd still managed to tell him, through kisses, that he wouldn't be able to just kiss her and make problems go away in the future. He knew that to be absolutely true, so decided to take advantage while he could. After that, and some time later, he'd proved that he could be well behaved by making her dinner. They'd enjoyed it out on his porch. It was dark by then and he turned on the white Christmas lights he'd strung over the porch, inordinately pleased when her eyes lit up. He'd even done that for her, but again hadn't realized it 'til then.

When she'd started yawning, he'd felt an unpleasant nervousness in his stomach, knowing she'd want to go home soon. She'd surprised him by asking if she could crash in his guest bedroom. He'd been thrilled and it'd shown.

In the end, he'd insisted she take the master bedroom and that he would take the guest room. He really had wanted her to try his mattress. He almost laughed now thinking on how he'd been subconsciously hoping that if she liked his mattress that it'd make him look good. Especially since she'd apparently found her way into the guestroom and bed with him anyway. That was what he had no memory of.

"It's hot," she mumbled again.

He looked down at her buried in the thick down comforter and smirked. He'd given her a big t-shirt to sleep in last night, but hadn't gotten to see her in it, but hey, if she felt comfortable enough to climb into bed with him, then he couldn't be blamed for looking at her in his shirt in his chivalrous efforts to cool her down, right? He threw the cover off.

His jaw dropped. "Teresa, no wonder you're warm," he couldn't hide the incredulity in his voice, "you're fully dressed."

She opened her eyes, her face still quite red from being overheated, then rolled off her stomach and onto her back. He watched as she squeezed her eyes shut, and rubbed them with the palms of her hands before stretching. He swallowed when she arched her back and he caught a small glimpse of her taught stomach under her peach blouse. At that, he looked away and at himself. He most certainly was not fully dressed. As a matter-of-fact, he'd gone to sleep in nothing but his boxers.

"Where am I?" she asked after a moment. He felt her hand on the back of his arm, and was immediately powerless to her touch. He turned to her and lay back on his side, propping himself up on his elbow and resting his head in his hand so he could look down at her.

"My guest bedroom," he said pushing a lock of hair off her forehead. "You didn't like my mattress?"

Her brow furrowed and she propped herself up on both her elbows and looked around the room, then plopped back into the pillows and covered her eyes with one of her hands. "Crap."

He reached over and tried to pull her hand from her eyes, but she wouldn't let him. "So, I guess you didn't sleep walk in here then?"

"I'm so embarrassed," she said, rolling on to her side and burying her head in his chest.

He felt an immediate warmth fill him from head to toe at her reaction. "Why? It was a lovely surprise waking up to you moaning about how hot you were in my ear."

She grunted. "I didn't mean it like that."

"I really think I could get used to it," he started rubbing his hands over her back in a soothing way. "The only thing that could've made it better is if you weren't still in all your clothes, down to the bullet proof vest, combat boots, and Glock." He pushed her hair away from her neck and kissed her below her ear.

She slapped his shoulder. "Stop it," she said lifting her head from his chest to look in his eyes. "I'd only bring those things to bed on special occasions."

"No handcuffs?"

She chuckled lightly then rested her head on his chest again. "I couldn't sleep, and after a couple hours decided to see if you were still awake. I thought for sure you would be considering you only ever sleep at work, but nope, you were out like a light. You looked so peaceful, so I just climbed in." She slid her arms up his chest and around his neck.

Jane felt his brow furrow as he pulled her closer. He'd slept like a rock. He couldn't actually remember the last time he'd slept that well. It'd been years. He hadn't even dreamt. However, when he'd woken up his arm had been wrapped around her back as she had been half draped over him, so he knew that, at least subconsciously, he had been aware of her getting in bed with him. That made him smile.

He placed a kiss on her forehead. "You're welcome to climb in bed with me anytime you want."

She bent her head back to look him in the eye. "Jane," she said hesitantly, "do you even want to come back to the C.B.I.?"

"I quit because I thought you were going to torture me by seeing other men and flaunt them in front of me, beyond that I didn't give it much thought." He leaned forward and planted kisses across her jaw line.

She took a deep breath, pushed out of his embrace and sat up, before looking down at him. "I'm being serious. You need to think about it."

He felt a little bereft at the loss of contact, but rolled onto his back and looked up at her. "If you're worried that I won't be able to get my job back, you don't need to be," he said. "I'm sure I'll be able to come up with a way to get it back eventually."

She shook her head. "No, that's not what I'm worried about, at all. I'm worried that you don't really want to work there anymore. You said you came back for me…"

"I did," he said intently.

She smiled weakly at him, then bent down and placed a quick kiss to his lips before resting her forehead against his. His hands came up instinctively, one to her face, the other to her back, and hers rested on either side of his face.

"I love you, Patrick Jane," she said. "Things aren't perfect. I still have some trust issues that I'm going to need to work on…"

"We're…we're going to need to work on," he cut her off.

She continued as though he hadn't said anything, "…but before anything else, I need to know if you really want to come back to work." She pulled back to look in his eyes, and he could plainly see that his answer to this meant a lot to her.

"I always want to be with you," he started, then paused to think about it. He'd always thought he'd come back, he didn't have anything else to do with his time, but even with that Teresa had always been his biggest motivation. Now that he had her, he supposed he didn't need to go back if he didn't want to. Still… "I'm good at what I do."

She chuckled. "Yes, I'd definitely say so."

The smile in her eyes was all he needed to make his decision. "Yes, I would very much like to come back," he said and meant it, and suddenly the desire to do so was almost as strong as his desire had been to get Teresa.

"And not just for me?"

"As much as I have loved and will love working with you, it's not just that. I can help people, can stop bad people from doing what Red John did to me, and make sure that those who would murder are punished accordingly." He felt himself getting choked up. "All those years chasing Red John, I allowed myself to become blinded by my quest to stop him. I barely recognized the good I was doing, but I can see clearly now and there's no job I'd rather spend my time doing that would be as satisfying as this."

As he stopped speaking he realized that he'd been staring into space and forced himself to look at Lisbon. Her eyes were glassy and a single tear was hanging on the edge of her eye. He watched as it brimmed and slid down her check.

She reached up and wiped it away. "Okay then."

He smiled up at her. "Teresa, I didn't realize you were so sensitive."

"Yeah yeah," she said before slamming her lips against his.

His eyes bulged and for a second he was too startled to do anything, but then she wrapped her arms around his neck coming to rest over him and he instantly became an active participant. His arms came up around her back and he allowed his hands to slide up under her shirt, feeling for the first time the soft skin of her back. She shivered against his touch, and he seriously considered ripping off her shirt, but thought better of it, knowing she wouldn't be happy if he did.

Instead he rolled her over on to her back as he trailed kisses down her neck. The deep moan that came from her as he found the v of her shirt and placed kisses on the warm flesh above the silky fabric, was enough to make his hands come up to the top button and pop it open. He kissed the newly exposed flesh, savoring the feel of her hands in his hair and reached for the next button. Her hands slid out of his hair and around to his chest and he moved up to her mouth kissing her for everything he was worth.

He hadn't expected this, for things to be moving so quickly, but then again their relationship had never been normal. They'd both been repressing so many feeling for so long, each trying and sometimes succeeding in convincing themselves that they were nothing more than friends, work colleagues, familial because they were both so caught up in the same thing, catching Red John, that they never really had an option but to be. Sometimes they'd succeeded in convincing themselves and other times, not so much. Either way, it made sense now that they'd both admitted their feelings that all those latent desires would come slamming to the fore.

Jane reached down and popped the next button open, then pushed her shirt open a little further, smiling at the sight of her simple, yet sexy white bra before he saw her hickey. She pushed away from the bed, wrapping her arms fiercely around his neck and kissed him again.

He relished the feel of her pressed against him, the enthusiasm with which she wanted him, and immediately cursed his over active brain and the hickey. He remembered their second ever run-in with Walter Mashburn, how he'd pushed her at him and how she'd slept with him. He remembered the sick feeling in his stomach when he realized she was in Walter's room and that he'd spent the night convincing himself that he was happy for her.

What the hell was I thinking?

He was never making that mistake again. Had convinced himself and her that he wouldn't, which was why they were currently tangled together and very enthusiastically working toward claiming each other in a way that they'd only ever dreamed about, and oh man, did he want to make those dreams a reality. He popped the last two buttons on her shirt as she writhed against him and all he could think was how much he wanted to stake his claim, remove any traces of Walter from her forever.

He slid his hands into her now completely unbuttoned shirt and started pushing it off her, when he unexpectedly felt her hands pushing him away. He was especially confused, because as her hands pushed at his chest, her mouth followed his. He eventually pulled away from their kiss and looked at her with furrowed brow.

"Teresa, love. You're kind of giving me mixed signals here."

Her eyes were heavily hooded and a small smirk crossed her face, as she leaned up and kissed him one more time, before sliding out from under him. "Sorry," she said, but from the look on her face he could tell she really wasn't. "You have to go get dressed, so we can go."

He scrubbed his hand over his face. "What? Go where?"

"It's a surpr—hey!" she said after noticing her unbuttoned shirt. "Did you do this?" She signaled to her blouse.

He nodded with a pleased smile, then moved onto his knees and reached for her. He looked at the bruise that had covered her side, seeing that it was almost completely gone now. He skimmed it with the tips of his fingers, then let his hands slide into her shirt. He pulled her flush against him, and started playing with the back clasp of her bra. "A surprise?" he asked watching as her eyes began to widen at the feel of his hands teasing her. "What kind of surprise?"

She swallowed hard. Her hands came up to his shoulders. "Not that kind, but I think you'll like it. Or maybe you won't…" She glanced into space, eyes wide, trying to decide how he'd feel about her surprise.

He leaned forward and kissed her pulse point, catching her attention again. "If I'll like it now, I'd be willing to bet that I'd like it in a few hours too."

She snorted. "A few hours? Please."

"Mmhmm," he hummed against her skin making her shiver. "I'm feeling…very motivated."

"I'm sure you are," she said not bothering to hide her sarcasm, "but, awww…."

Her words died on her lips as he slipped his fingers up under the back clasp of her bra and stroked her skin there. He leaned forward and claimed her lips, then slowly started pushing her back toward the bed. His fingers fumbled with the clasp, when he felt her hands skimming down his abdomen. They stopped at the elastic rim and he sucked in a breath as she gently slipped a couple fingers under the elastic and pulled. It wasn't until it whipped back into his skin that he realized she hadn't been pushing his boxers down, she'd simply pulled it out so that it would snap back into his flesh with a painful little sting.

"Ow!" he whined.

She pulled back and looked at him. "Serves you right for being so fresh. Now, go get ready, or this moment will be your fondest memory of me."

Jane smiled at her, but pulled back and slid off the bed. "I'd take that bet if I weren't so curious about your surprise," he said as he walked to the door. He stopped and looked back at her with a devilish smirk. "You might want to re-clasp your bra."

She looked down at the fabric that was now loosely covering her chest and yelped. She hastily pulled her shirt about chest and he grinned at the fact that she hadn't noticed when he'd undone it. Maybe he wasn't as out of practice as he feared he might be. He hadn't seen anything, that wasn't his intention…wasn't entirely his intention, mostly he'd just wanted her to know that he could play dirty too. Besides, their time would come. He stepped out of the room and made his way to his bedroom.

Sick, sick and nervous to be precise, were the emotions that were currently taking up residence in Lisbon's stomach. She reached up and knocked on the penthouse door of the Citizen Hotel and waited. Her eyes landed on the tacky carpet and she immediately started counting the flowers on it as a way to distract herself.

Jane had very dutifully taken her home, and while he'd been nothing less than frustrated at the idea of leaving her for any amount of time, he'd done it. She'd told him to meet her at the Capitol in two hours, to meet with the new Director. He'd agreed, but had seemed more suspicious than she'd ever seen him outside of a Red John case.

But before she could do any of that she knew she needed to talk to Walter, not that she told Jane that. He was a more jealous than she'd ever realized and further, her relationship with Walter was none of his business. She liked Walter. Sure he was a player, but she truly believed that he hadn't been playing her—that he had real honest to goodness feelings for her. He'd gone out of his way lately to be around her and she felt he deserved at least something more than the hasty goodbye she'd given him yesterday.

She'd quickly showered and put on a new outfit, Jeans and a green blouse she knew brought out the color in her eyes, and she curled her hair, hoping that Jane would notice she'd made an effort for him. She'd almost changed again, however, when she realized that making herself up before visiting Walter might not be very nice. In the end she'd decided against changing for the sake of time and had gone out to her car.

Cho had sent her a message last night, checking up and to let her know he'd taken her car home. She'd been a little irritated that he hadn't brought it to Jane's house, but she supposed she had deserved to be stranded there after what she and Jane had been putting him through lately. Jane had told her that Cho had known he'd been back in Sacramento for several months and she'd been a little sore with him until Jane had made a point of telling her that he'd made Cho promise to keep it quiet. It also helped her to forgive him when she found out that he had put Jane in a headlock.

The door to Walter's penthouse opened and he smiled wide at the sight of her before stepping aside and letting her in. He was always happy to see her, which made her feel guilty. That and his nose was still a little purple. She made her way into the living area, and was careful to have her back to the sleeping area and stuck her hands in her front pockets. She didn't want him to get any ideas.

"What brings you here this morning, Teresa?" he asked moving toward the bar.

She had to fight to keep from sighing. "I thought I owed you more than the brush off I gave you yesterday."

He opened an Aquafina. "Can I get you anything?" He held up the bottle to her.

She shook her head. "No, thank you. This—it's not a social call."

"Oh, no?" He poured the sparkling water into a glass and squeezed a lime over it. "Then what is it?"

She watched as he turned to her and allowed the sigh to slip this time, deciding in that moment to be a straightforward as possible. "I never wanted to lead you on Walter. You're a wonderful man, but…"

"You're in love with Jane?" He took a sip of his drink.

Her hands came out of her pockets and she lifted them. "Yes, I am…apparently."

He chuckled. "You sound surprised."

She made eye contact. "I am, a little. I guess it's been under the surface for years now, but until six months ago and more specifically a week ago when he came back and made himself more than known, I was suppressing it. I can't do that anymore. It hurts too much, not being with him." She smiled at Walter, but it didn't reach her eyes. "For years Jane and I worked together, for years neither of us dated. Neither of us had the time or inclination. And when I think back on it now, I realize that it wasn't just because we were on this crusade, which was a big part of it, yes, but it was also because we were both fulfilling an emotional need in the other that during that time was enough."

"How romantic," Walter said with a big smile on his face.

She shrugged. "It didn't need to be. There was a time where I might have said that it was feelings out of convenience, but the truth is, Jane and I…we've always complemented one another. When he left, both our feelings were thrown into sharp relief. I love him and I know he loves me, but I think it's more than that. We need each other. Apart one year, suffering the whole time and all we managed to do was miss each other, hurt each other and annoy Cho." She shook her head. "And it all could've been avoided."

She saw Walter swallow. "I've never needed anyone."

She moved to stand in front of him. "I'm sorry I hurt you," she reached forward and rested her left hand on his right shoulder, "but maybe one day you'll find someone worth needing."

"I already did," he said, "but it was too late."

She gave him a sad smile and headed for the door.

"Teresa," he called out. She looked over her shoulder and he continued, "it was always too late, wasn't it?"

She nodded and left.

The door to Walter's room shut with a soft click and Jane let out a deep breath. He'd hidden in Walter's room behind a sliding door. He stepped out from behind and looked at the back of Walter who was still staring at his door.

"Did you hear all of that?" Walter asked turning to face him.

"Yes," he felt as though his heart might explode from the overwhelming emotions of love he was experiencing.

"I have to tell you that it's much more fun hiding her in my room than you," Walter said matter-of-factly, "but I suppose you already knew that?" He raised his brow.

"You knew I knew she was in your room?"

Walter stuck his free hand in his pocket, then took another drink from his glass before responding. "The man who sees everything, of course I knew. I was just trying to save her from embarrassment of discovering you knew."

"How gentlemanly."

"She nodded a 'yes' to my last question," Walter told him.

Jane took a deep breath. "I know," he whispered. He hadn't seen it, but some things you didn't need to see to know and he knew Teresa better than anyone. She was a hundred percent correct, they did complement each other, and they did need each other. Apart they caused problems; together they fixed them—both personally and professionally. "I told you she loved me."

"I figured you were in love with her. I mean, how you could you not be, especially working so close to her all those years. She's beautiful, intelligent, witty and just the right amount of stern, but as far as she was concerned…" he took a step toward Jane, "I was completely surprised. I hope you know how lucky you are."

"I do," he said, feeling a little wistful. He managed to look at his watch. "Is that really the time? I have to go."

"You're not going to stay for lunch?"

"I can't I'm supposed to be meeting Teresa at the Capitol. She's going to try and convince the new Director to keep me around," Jane explained heading toward the door.

"Oh yes, the petition. She had me sign it as well," Walter said setting his now empty glass back on the bar.

Jane came to an abrupt halt and turned to Walter. "The what now?"

Walter looked at Jane, brow furrowed. "The petition? She's been collecting signatures from law enforcement, and the families and friends of victims you've helped since joining the CBI, including those affected by Red John. She has hundreds of signatures, and almost as many testimonials. She must have started collecting them months ago." He lifted his hands in a supplicating manner. "Didn't you know?"

Jane's chest convulsed painfully. He shook his head.

"Do you have any idea of how many complaints Mr. Jane has received over the years?" Director Smith said.

Jane peeked in the office that had once been Bertram's. Grateful to see that at very least the new Director had changed the apparel and lay out of the office. A quick flash of him sitting in here with Bertram after the Timothy Carter incident, popped into his mind. At the time it'd been Lisbon that had been punished for his mistakes. Now he could see the duplicity in it. Could see that Bertram was probably just trying to figure out how much he cared about Lisbon to feed to Red John. The thought still gave him chills.

Now, it was he who was being punished, and Lisbon defending him. Either way, he didn't like it. She'd been punished enough and had had to deal with his messes enough to last a life time.

Cho saw him at the door and took a step forward, blocking him from Lisbon's direct view, while giving zero indication that he'd seen anything. It was probably a smart thing to do. If this didn't go down as she planned, they'd both be incredibly upset about it later. He was surprised however to not only Rigsby and Van Pelt there, but also Laroche, and the man appeared to be on their side.

"How many complaints he's had should only matter if it's damaged his ability to close cases," Lisbon said, "and you know as well as I that he's closed every case he's ever been assigned."

Director Smith leaned back in his chair and scrubbed his hand through his salt and pepper hair. "I asked if you knew how many complaints he's received."

Cho rested his hands on his hips. "Under a nine-hundred."

"Eight-hundred seventy-eight complaints," Lisbon said, "and that includes the last case."

Director Smith sat forward in his chair, eyes wide and looked at Laroche. "Is that right?"

Jane looked at Laroche and watched as the man nodded. "I don't know the exact numbers, but if anyone does, it'd be Agent Lisbon. She's had to apologize for nearly every complaint he's received."

Jane's stomach sank. This wasn't new information to him, but he loved her and he had never intended that she apologize to anyone he offended. Had even told her not to, but always the dutiful cop, she had anyway.

"That is more complaints than I even knew was possible to get," Director Smith said.

"You obviously don't know Jane," Rigsby said. The director looked at him. He shrugged. "He gets complaints, because he'll stop at nothing to make sure cases are closed, even if that means offending someone's sensibilities."

Van Pelt nodded. "He's right. In the end I would rather have my feelings hurt and loved one avenged.

Lisbon stepped forward dropping a thick file on the desk in front of him. He stared at it as though he were afraid it might bite him.

"What is this?" Director Smith asked.

"It's one-thousand three hundred and seventeen signatures, and a little over six-hundred testimonials from people who he has helped. All them are asking that he be reinstated and are thanking him for his service," Lisbon said matter-of-factly, making and holding eye contact. "And since you seem so fond of numbers, you should know that there are two-hundred and four signatures from people who have made complaints about him and fifty-seven testimonials from the same group. Not to mention five from people standing in this very room."

The Director's eyes flew to Laroche's. "You signed this?"

"Yes Sir, and wrote a testimonial," Laroche pointed to the file. "Mine's on top. I only heard about this a couple hours ago, otherwise I would have done it sooner."

Cho stepped forward. "He may annoy people with his way of getting things done, but I would say that most understand why he's done what he's done."

Laroche spoke again. "I think you'll find the testimonials from the loved ones of Red John's victims, especially touching."

The Director looked around at each of the agents, then took a deep breath and folded his hands in his lap. "This is all very touching, but this doesn't take away the fact that he has received nearly a thousand complaints. If I let him work here another ten years I'm sure I can expect at least as many, and after the Red John scandal I've made it a goal to have one of the lowest complaint records in California law enforcement."

Van Pelt shook her head. "You'd rather have happy suspects than criminals in jail, then? There are many more people who are grateful to Jane for his efforts in giving them closure than there are complaints." She pointed to the file on the desk. "That proves it."

"Unfortunately, Agent Van Pelt, the California Bureau of Investigation doesn't keep a record of those who are grateful; it keeps a record of complaints."

"I'll make it simple then," Lisbon said. "Either you reinstate him or I'll quit and take all of these to every local news station and paper."

Cho folded his arms over his chest. "I'll quit too."

"Us too," Van Pelt and Rigsby joined in.

It was at this moment when Jane couldn't stand still any longer. He pushed into the room and toward Lisbon. "No, stop." He looked at the director. "They're not going to quit." He stopped at Lisbon's side.

"Yes we are," Cho deadpanned.

Jane felt his stomach wrench as he glared back at his friend. Cho didn't even look away from the Director.

"No, I won't let you sacrifice your careers for me," he said. He turned to Lisbon and took her by the shoulders. "Listen to me. This is your life. I can't let you sacrifice this for me."

She looked up at him with sad eyes. "It's not my life, Jane," the rest of the sentence, left unsaid, apparent on her face. "And you can't stop us."

"We're going to do this for you, Jane," Rigsby said with a nod. "You've always been there for us, it's our turn."

He looked at Van Pelt and she nodded as well. Her face determined. Lisbon pulled out of his grasp and back at the director.

"What's it going to be?" she asked, leaning forward and resting her hands on his desk so she'd be at eye level with him. "Are you going to be the Director with the biggest closed-case record in history and a slightly larger than normal complaint record, or the one who caused a scandal by turning away the man who stopped the infamous Red John?"

The Director sat back in his chair again. "What if I say that I don't believe you'll do either of those things. That I don't believe that you'd quit for this man, or that you would destroy the reputation of the CBI once and for all by taking this to the media, because that's what it would do, and in turn your reputations."

Laroche moved forward. "Oh believe it," he said. "I like this team, but they have their own definition of right and wrong and will do what needs to be done to serve what they believe to be the overall right course of action. They will do everything they've said they'd do and more." He took a deep breath and straitened his tie. "And so will I, because it is in the best interest of the Bureau to have this," he pointed at Jane, "man…working for us."

"Mr. Jane," the director said, "you quit. Surely you can talk them out of this."

Lisbon stood up and looked at him. He swallowed. "I did quit, but I want my job back. I'm not going to talk them out of it.

He saw a huge smile cross Lisbon's face before she reached down and took his hand. If she felt a need to do this for him, he'd let her. This was something she wanted to control. And he realized now that the only way this would ever work between the two of them is if he really and truly allowed her to be his partner, in every sense of the word. Just as he'd gotten her job back all those years ago from Bertram, she would do the same for him now from Smith and he loved her more than he'd thought possible for it.

The moment Jane and Lisbon stepped through the door of his home, he pinned her against the door and kissed her senseless, his arms wrapping up under hers. Her keys dropped to the floor next to his and a moment later both her jacket and his added to the pile. His hands once again found their way up under her blouse and he wondered how he'd ever stopped himself from touching her silky-smooth skin. Those thought immediately seized, however, when she wrapped a leg around one of his.

It'd taken all the self-control he had to not attack her outside of Director Smith's office, but he'd resisted not wanting to embarrass the rest of the team as his "thank you" for their part in getting his job back. He'd been irritated once again once outside the Capitol when he remembered that they were in two separate vehicles, and the car ride home had been a nightmare.

"Is this your way of thanking me?" Lisbon chuckled as he kissed her neck.

He pulled away and looked up and into her eyes, placing one quick kiss on her lips. "Thank you," he said willing all the sincerity he could muster into his thank you. "You have no idea what that meant to me."

Her hands went up into his hair and started rubbing his scalp lightly. "Maybe not, but I know what it means to me to have you there, and my team and well over a hundred officers, and hundreds of loved ones of victims all across the state."

He saw the pure love shining out of her eyes, knew that it had taken her the entire year he'd been gone to collect what she had, including the time she'd thought he'd cheated on her, and felt the overwhelming, painful sensation in his chest he'd felt at Walter's pent house. He loved her so much that it was causing him physical pain. Only she could ever have been so forgiving and loving. He could never lose her now, because he knew for sure that he would never survive it. He leaned into her once more, pressing her more firmly against the door as he kissed her, before pulling back and making eye contact. "I love you."

She brushed a stray curl off his forehead. "One day, whenever you're ready, I want you to read the things people have said about you."

He looked down, he didn't want to know what people said, didn't feel he really deserved it, but it came back to them being partners. It was something she obviously really wanted for him to hear, and he loved her, so one day, he would read them, for her. "Okay."

"Really?" she said sounding shocked. "I thought you hated thank yous?"

He pulled away from her a little. "I do, but if it's what you want…"

"You mean do I want you to see you for the good man you are?" She raised her brow at him, daring him to contradict her. "Yes, I would like that."

"Then I'll read them."

"And try to believe them?"

He moaned before pressing a long all encompassing kiss on her lips, and responded only when he'd pulled a moan from her lips. "I'll try."

She smiled. "That's all I ask."

He leaned in again, and brushed his lips over hers as he spoke. "You know," he said, "we're going to have a problem in the not so distant future, I think."

She tried to pull back to look him in the eyes, but only succeeded in giving him better access to her neck. He leaned down and started kissing her at her pulse point, ten trailed down.

Her hands found her hips. "Patrick?"

He hummed appreciatively when he reached the top of her blouse and was able to easily pull it back to reveal more skin. "I love this color on you," he said.

She blushed from her head down to her chest.

He smiled.

She harrumphed. "A problem?"

He nodded and looked up at her again, then smiled at the perplexed and slightly annoyed expression on her face. "Yes, because I'm not sure that I will be physically capable of letting you out of my sight for a good long while. I'm feeling a need to make up for lost time."

She smiled. "That's a problem? I like it here."

He leaned back and forced a scowl over his smirk. "You may not think it's a problem now, but eventually you're going to want to go home, or take a shower, or use the bathroom and I can't promise you that I won't follow you."

She chuckled. "Ridiculous," she mumbled.

"You think I'm joking?"

She shook her head. "I love you too," she said before pressing herself firmly against him and placing a soft kiss against his lips. He moaned. She continued. "But I think I'd love you more comfortably in a bed than against the door."

At that she dropped her leg and pushed away from him. He braced himself against the door and took a deep breath as he watched her sashay up the stairs. Then he remembered something and quickly ran after her.

"The master bedroom!" he called out. "You have got to feel my mattress!"

A/N: There it is folks! Thank you so much for sticking with me and reading. Your reviews kept me going when I had way too much going on; reviews are always appreciated. And please check out my new multi-chapter called The Fun House.

Anonymous Reviews:

Dutchie: Thank you for your review! It made my day!