chapter four

It was lunchtime.
Lisbon watched as the bullpen emptied out. Jane waved to her as he left with the others to go to lunch. Lisbon rolled her eyes and waved back.
They had invited her to come with them, and she had been wanting to try out that new Mexican restaurant. But Lisbon wasn't very hungry today. And the tower of papers on her desk hadn't shrunk at all. In fact, it somehow seemed to have doubled in size. The salad she had made would go untouched.
Uncapping her black pen, Lisbon got back to work.

- - - - -

Before exiting the CBI building, Jane made sure to stop by and ask Rachel who she was dating. The others stood in earshot, making sure Jane didn't con them.
Rachel barely knew Jane. But she happily told him all about her new boyfriend, while twirling a strand of her hair and giggling like a ditz. Jane confirmed that it was the man from the mail room. Cho had won the bet.

The Mexican restaurant was nice. The walls were painted a vibrant green, with various framed pictures and newspaper clippings here and there. There was salsa music playing. It made Jane want to dance. But he was too hungry.
Their waiter's name was Carlos, and he wore a sombrero as he took their orders. Carlos was very short, and the oversized hat he wore made him seem even tinier.
Cho had some fancy sounding dish. Rigsby ordered a really big order of tacos. Van Pelt had a salad ("you came to a Mexican restaurant to eat salad?" "It's a Mexican salad."). And Jane got nachos, with a rainbow of dipping sauces. They all ordered churros for dessert.

"You know, Lisbon's gonna find out about the whole instant messaging thing sooner or later," Cho said, taking a bite out of his churro.
"C'mon, she didn't even realize Rigsby and Van Pelt were going out. Why would she realize an IM program?" Jane had crumbs all over his shirt.
"We're going to be in big trouble if she does, though," said Van Pelt.

"I want another churro," declared Rigsby.

- - - - -

Teresa Lisbon was bored. Paperwork was terribly boring. Obviously.
She took a quick glance at the clock. Lunch break would be over in fifteen minutes. Not like hers had even started.
Lisbon stared out into the bullpen once again. It looked like an abandoned wasteland without any people in it.
Mini mountains of papers were stacked everywhere. Computers sat, waiting for their masters to return. The copier's tiny screen glowed green, someone had forgotten to turn it off. The empty bullpen was a whole lot different from the busy bullpen.
Lisbon was distracted from her work as she again wondered why everyone had been so chipper earlier. The previous explanation of good weather didn't satisfy her. It had to be something else. Something more interesting.
Rigsby's computer screen caught her eye. He had forgotten to log off. Lisbon immediately wanted to head out into the bullpen and snoop around.
No, she told herself. That's nosy and a complete invasion of privacy. Stop acting like Jane.
She tried to clear her head and once again got back to work.

Lisbon lasted about forty seconds before she caved in to the itch in her mind. Before she knew it, she was sitting in Rigsby's big chair, going through his computer.
He had a document open that was related to the case they had been working on. Nothing wrong there.
He had some work-related emails open. Nothing crazy there.
He had an instant messenger program open.
Nothing okay there.

Ding ding ding. Lisbon had a winner.
Sweeping her eyes down Rigsby's contact list, Lisbon also saw a gracievp, K-Cho, and PlainJane. Their statuses all said basically the same thing.
'at work!'

Ohh, were they in trouble.

Haha, I wonder how Lisbon is going to kill them. (: