Author's Note: this one shot has ceased being a one shot as per the request of bulletproofweeks. Poor Lisbon. A third chapter will follow. Poor, poor Lisbon.

---

"You really do drive too slowly," Jane said in the passenger seat as Lisbon drove him home.

"You drive too fast," Lisbon answered. "Your speeding ticket proves it, Jane. I win this argument."

"This argument hasn't even begun," Jane said.

Lisbon gave him a look.

"Okay, maybe you win," Jane said. "Turn here."

Lisbon turned down the street leading towards Jane's house. "Nice place," she said, seeing it at the end of the road.

Jane shrugged.

"It's big," Lisbon said.

"Bigger than the little box you live in," Jane said.

"My little box is just the right size," Lisbon said. "Seeing as I'm the only one that lives in it."

"Indeed," Jane said, eyeing his huge empty house at the end of the drive.

"I mean-" Lisbon said, realizing what she had implied.

"It's nothing," Jane said, shrugging again. "Never mind."

Lisbon stopped the car in front of the house. "Try not to do this again, Jane," she said.

Jane grinned. "Well, it's one way to spend the night in good company," he said flippantly as he opened the car door and stepped out.

"Yes, well, next time you want company, don't get arrested, ask me for a date; it's so much easier," Lisbon replied quickly, trying to match his flippant tone. And then she realized what she said. And then she turned bright red.

Jane gave her a look. "Did you just say that you're easy?" Jane questioned and then started laughing. He shut the car door as she gave an indignant squeak and started out toward his front steps, waving good-bye behind him.

Lisbon sat in the car for a minute as Jane went inside, feeling her face burn bright red before she pulled away and drove back to her apartment.

---

Lisbon was, for once, the last person to make it into the CBI office in the morning. Jane, Rigsby, Van Pelt and Cho were already sitting around their desks, doing absolutely nothing.

"So, do you have any plans for Valentine's Day?" Rigsby was asking Van Pelt, while Van Pelt looked rather uncomfortable at the question.

"Morning, boss," Cho said.

"Right," Lisbon said with a scowl. She gave a look to her team. "Don't you have paper work to be filling out or something?" she said.

The team immediately tried to look busy as Lisbon headed into her office.

"What's that about?" Cho said as soon as she was out of the room.

"Don't mind her," Jane said. "I kept her up all night."

Cho gave Jane an odd look but before he could reply Van Pelt asked him, "Hey, you haven't seen the witness statements from the Branicky case, have you?"

"Yeah, I have them," he answered and started riffling through his desk to find them.

Jane took his usual place sprawled out on the couch, looking to take a cat nap just so long as they had nothing for him to do. Patrick Jane did not do paperwork.

Lisbon came out of her office a while later nursing a cup of coffee, which, judging from the improvement in her demeanor, had to be her third or fourth of the morning.

"All right. So, the Branicky case," she said drawing her team's attention, "Jane, sit up. I know you're not asleep."

"Yes, boss," Jane said, sitting up with his cat like grin.

"I want to talk to the mother again," she continued. "We know she hasn't told us everything."

"True," Jane said, catching Lisbon's eye and grinning again. "She knows that her daughter was about to break up with her boyfriend so that she could date his younger brother."

"And you know this how?" Lisbon said.

"Oh, it was a lot of things," Jane said. "The pictures in the girls room, her friends' statements, they all said that she was about to break up with Brad to go out with Jason, and her mother knew because Katie told her mother everything."

"Right," Lisbon said.

"But it wasn't Brad that killed her," Jane said. "He would have killed Jason, too. Or he would have killed just Jason and lived happily ever after with Katie."

"Right, Jane," Lisbon said. "All that tells me is that we need to talk to Brad and Jason again, too."

"If you like," Jane said. He grinned at Lisbon again. "It won't get you anywhere." He thought for a moment. "Well, not unless Jason killed Katie. But for the moment that seems unlikely. He was in love with her."

Jane caught Lisbon's eye again and grinned wider.

"What?" Lisbon said to him. "Stop doing that." He kept grinning and suddenly she began to turn red. "Damn it, Jane" she said. "I am not easy!"

Van Pelt, Rigsby, and Cho's eyes all went wide at that. Van Pelt and Rigsby looked completely dumbfounded. Cho, who at the very least could usually be counted on for a pithy comeback was reduced to, "Um."

"Well," Jane said. "That was awkward." Then he started laughing.

"I-" Lisbon stuttered. "Well- I-"

"Yes?" Jane said.

Lisbon said. "You drive me insane," Lisbon said to him.

"I know," Jane said.

Lisbon closed her eyes and began to rub her temples. "Never mind," she said. She opened her eyes and glared around at her team. "I said nothing," she said. Her face was still burning.

"Of course not, boss," Rigsby said quickly. Cho and Van Pelt nodded their agreement.

"Of course not," Van Pelt said.

"Well," Cho cracked a smile. "I may remember it."

Lisbon gave him a dirty look. "Come on," she said. "We have a job to do."

As they walked out to the CBI truck Van Pelt caught Jane's eye and then looked to Lisbon, then back to Jane, questioning. Jane shrugged. As she was looking at Jane, Van Pelt didn't notice when Rigsby looked between Jane and Lisbon and then looked to Van Pelt hopefully.

All of it made Jane laugh.