A/N: Thanks for your great response to part 1 of this tag. I promise to catch up on those replies very soon. Now, here is a much lighter part 2. Well, sort of.

Part 2: Jane and Lisbon

Jane made his escape from Van Pelt's probing questions and solicitation of advice, smoothly passing the buck back to her. It wasn't so much that he didn't care that she was finally confronting the issues that came with killing her fiancé, it was more that he'd always felt dealing with these things was a deeply personal thing. Yes, best that Van Pelt figured things out on her own, even if her subconscious mind was presenting her with hallucinations of her dead boyfriend.

Jane was considering leaving and actually sleeping in his own rented bed when he walked past the interrogation room where he'd questioned Luis Osorio earlier. Someone had left the light on, and he was about to help California conserve energy and flip off the light, when he noticed someone was occupying the room.

"Lisbon," he said in surprise. She jumped at his voice, then quickly moved her hands out of sight. Jane's eyes narrowed in amused suspicion.

"Jane. I uh-thought you'd gone home. Or to your attic…"

"No." He walked all the way into the room and stood before her, trying to read her deliberately blank expression. She was clearly hiding something, but what and why?

"What's in your hands, Lisbon?" he asked casually. Her cheeks grew slightly pink at his question.

"Nothing," she replied, like a child who's been caught red-handed but still lies anyway.

"Come on, Teresa," he said condescendingly. "Show me your hands."

Slowly, sheepishly, she brought her hands from beneath the table and set three familiar red and white playing cards down before her. The bent cards he'd used to play three card monty. He grinned, his expression nearly proud.

"You've been practicing," he said cheerily. "You watched me teaching Osorio and you just had to try it yourself."

She didn't deny it, but her face colored even more from embarrassment.

"Now what would a CBI agent need with street con monty cards?"

She sighed in defeat. "Nothing. I simply had a childish desire to see if I could do it as well as you. You make it look so simple. But then, you've had years to perfect your con artist abilities." The last sounded accusatory, not so much that he was once a con man, but that he was better at this particular con than she was.

"Well come on, Lisbon. Show me what you got."

She looked at him a moment, gauging his sincerity, then reluctantly began sliding the cards around on the table. "Where's the queen?" she asked after a few seconds of fancy handiwork.

"The middle," he said confidently, having of course perfected this game long ago. She turned over the suggested card, and, low and behold, he was wrong.

"What?"

He pulled out the chair across the table from her and sat down, the look on his face intense and befuddled at the same time.

"Again," he nodded. She repeated her little bit.

"Where's the queen?" she asked him.

"The left."

"Wrong again," she said, showing him the queen was in fact on the right.

"What the hell? How'd you do that?"

She shrugged. "I grew up in Chicago, Jane, practically where the street con began. What can I tell you? It's in my blood."

"Let me see those cards," he demanded. She innocently passed them to him. He examined them with expert eyes, then proceeded to move them around just as he'd shown Osorio earlier. They were the same cards he'd used, alright, creased and folded by his own hands.

"Okay, Lisbon, I give up. Tell me how it's done."

"If I don't tell you, are you going to hypnotize me into spilling the beans?"

He glanced sharply at her, his hands pausing over the cards. "You knew what I was doing to Osorio?"

She rolled her eyes. "Of course I did. Your back might have been to me, but it was pretty obvious when he started talking that you'd put him under your spell."

"You didn't even try to stop me though. Didn't even read me the riot act afterwards."

She shrugged. "I've learned by now that while your actions might not always be…aboveboard, the ends usually justify your unorthodox means."

"Well, well, well, Lisbon," he grinned proudly. "You've been reading Machiavelli for Dummies, again, haven't you?"

She refused to let him bait her. "'He who wishes to deceive will never fail to find willing dupes,'" she quoted good-naturedly.

"Uh-huh," he said skeptically. He turned his attention back to the cards. "Okay, then. Well at least show me your moves again, Lisbon, until I figure out how you do it."

"If you can't, you owe me twenty bucks," she said, eyes twinkling.

"Deal," he agreed, never one to back away from a challenge.

Ten minutes later, Jane reluctantly forked over a crisp twenty-dollar bill.

"Someday, promise you'll tell me how you did it."

She flashed him her best Cheshire cat grin. "I don't know, Jane," she replied, slipping her cash down the front of her blouse. Jane's eyes widened at the uncharacteristic sexiness of her action. "A girl's got to be allowed some little secrets."

He rose from the table, stifling a yawn.

"Well, I was just on my way home for the night. Thanks for the entertaining evening. Well done, Lisbon. You conned the con." He grinned at her in grudging admiration. She took the compliment with a confident nod.

"Good-night, Jane," she said, watching him leave the interrogation room and walk toward the elevator. When she'd heard it ding, the doors slide open and shut, she stood, looking toward the one-way glass.

"Did you see that?" she said excitedly. "I told you I could do it."
Cho and Rigsby came out of the observation room to join their boss in the hallway, clearly surprised that they'd just witnessed their straight-arrow boss pulling one over on the sharpest hustler they knew.

"Okay, guys, pay up," she commanded, holding out her hand. The men each pulled a twenty from their wallets and reluctantly paid their lost wager.

"I never would have believed it if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes," Rigsby said plaintively.

"Yeah," said Cho almost suspiciously. "That was a mean trick."

"Well, boys" Lisbon said, pocketing her cash. "Nice doing business with you. See you tomorrow morning."

"Night, Boss," they chorused, heading toward the elevator landing. Lisbon listened in amusement to them debating how she'd done it.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

He'd been waiting in the darkness beneath the building's front portico when suddenly he materialized before her. Lisbon automatically reached for her gun, but Jane held up his hands and stepped into the glow of the security light.

"Whoa! It's me, Lisbon." He grinned at her surprised reaction.

"Geeze, Jane! You scared me to death. You're lucky I didn't shoot you." She holstered her weapon.

His smile widened, his teeth white in the near darkness.

"Okay, my brilliant little shill, where's my take?"

She reached into her pocket and handed him twenty dollars.

"They never knew what hit them," Lisbon said smugly.

"That was beautiful," Jane said, straightening his ill-gotten gains with a snap. "And you were brilliant, improvising that bet with me." He handed out his hand in wait for the twenty she'd "borrowed."

"What? No way I'm giving that back," she told him obstinately. "Call it a finder's fee." She patted her chest and he could hear the faint rustling of crisp paper beneath her top.

"Hey," he protested. "That means I made nothing on this deal. I do believe I've created a monster." But he sounded almost affectionate when he said it.

They walked to her vehicle and she pressed the remote to unlock it. He held the door open for her while she slipped into the driver's seat.

"Be careful what you wish for, Dr. Frankenstein," she said, her grin almost cocky.

He watched her drive away into the night, his smile fading as he contemplated her words.

A/N: So, obviously, this is an allegory as to how concerned I am with the road Jane is leading Lisbon down. For all Jane's talk of being changed when chasing monsters, I think he's going to come to realize he's created one along the way.

Oh, and please forgive my poetic license in this fic. I realize that Rigsby had already left with Sarah by the time Van Pelt had her conversation with Jane. I hope you'll forgive my messing with the space-time continuum for the sake of storytelling.

Thanks for reading. Reviews are always lovely (hint hint).