A/N: Thanks for reviewing, favoriting, and following this story. I appreciate it. Thank you, also, for accepting this story in the spirit and context it was written.

Since I've started posting this, I've wished I'd turned it into another long, more dialogue driven story; but, it wouldn't have been written in a couple of days and given me that quick emotional fix I was seeking! I'm not a big romantic, but that whole Pike thing really aggravated me when I thought Lisbon and Jane should have been working out everything between them. They didn't need a manufactured distraction. They had enough hurdles to cross just being Lisbon and Jane! Yes, I'm laughing at myself for getting this worked up over a television show!

That being said, the story will stay mainly narrative for another couple of chapters both of which are emotionally rough. Lisbon's mood towards Jane continues to be harsh and, in my opinion, he's earned it. Will things smooth out? Yes, they eventually will. ~Calla

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Cho's favorite four letter cuss word starting with an "s" and ending with a "t" echoing through her head, Lisbon contemplated throwing Jane's tea cup and saucer in the trash. What was his stuff still doing at her place anyway? He hadn't dropped by for a casual cup of tea since their break up. Better yet, she could smash the china in her hands to smithereens against the hard tile floor. Forget that whole trash thing. As satisfactory as the gesture would be, she'd just get left with another Jane mess to clean up. Removing the man from her intimate life wasn't nearly that simple as she'd hoped it would be.

It was even less so now.

Pouring her coffee down the drain, Lisbon hung her head in defeat. Lifting her slumping shoulders, she cursed Jane for screwing with her life yet again and her for letting him. Staring into her spotless stainless steel sink, she admitted she should have stayed with Marcus all those months ago instead of telling him they were over. She really should have. Her life would be a lot less complicated now. She'd probably even be reasonably content instead of p.o.'d at circumstances of her own making.

Or, more accurately, she'd have convinced herself she was happy and that would have been good enough.

But, in true Lisbon style, she hadn't used her common sense when she really should have. Doing so was much too simple. Nor had she refused to answer the door when she knew she should have. Oh, no, she'd had to react as she always did. She'd finished taping that box closed before rising slowly to her feet and heading for the stairs ignoring the voice screaming in her head. The one demanding she let that doorbell ring until the peals fell silent and dejected footsteps faded into the night.

She hadn't done any of that.

She'd opened that door setting a fateful ball in motion instead...One that had gotten her from there to here in the blink of an eye….

Less than a year ago, she'd been joining Marcus in D.C. for her fairy tale life and then she wasn't…Three months later she'd been tangled up with Jane and then she wasn't….

Now, she was back where she'd started….

As alone as she'd always been still cursing the stupid bastard who should have done what it took to keep them together the first time around…It wasn't that hard…She wasn't that demanding…She really wasn't….

She'd even given him a second chance.

Shaking the cobwebs from her mind, Lisbon snorted in disbelief. As tempting as it was sometimes to abandon her vow, she wasn't going back for that third go around. Jane wasn't that fantastic a lover and he certainly wasn't that good of a man.

No man was.

Pike had raised her expectations of what a relationship should be and Jane had failed miserably. Sometimes it was still hard to believe how easily she'd thrown a terrific catch over for Jane. Then again, it really wasn't. With hindsight, maybe Marcus wasn't all that great a catch either. At least Jane had shown up at the last minute to stake his claim even if he'd pussy footed around much too long before he'd finally grown some man parts and done what he should have done from the start.

Unlike the man she'd almost married, there'd been a determined glint in Jane's eyes that night clearly conveying while his lips were saying one thing, he wouldn't have given up without one hell of a fight if she'd tried to stay in D.C.

She'd been surprised that Pike, on the other hand, hadn't really fought at all to keep her when push came to shove. He'd more or less accepted what she said without a battle. She'd been slightly shocked by his ready acceptance. It was almost like he'd always known what she hadn't…That Jane was much too deeply woven into the fabric of her soul and had been for much too long to simply make a clean break…Somewhere deep inside, she'd known it as well.

In the end, Marcus had been gracious enough to let her know if the thing with Jane didn't work out to give him a call.

While he wasn't making any promises, he might still be around. If he was, he wasn't against giving their relationship another try. She'd told him she'd keep that under advisement and thanked him for being a bigger man than she was. She'd also let him know, if anything ever came of Jane and it didn't work out, she wouldn't be tangling him in her mess again. It wouldn't be fair to him. He was a fine man and he deserved better than second best. It seemed he'd taken her at her word.

The last she'd heard, Pike was dating a nice Agent in Counter Terrorism who looked an awful lot like her.

Throwing the dishcloth violently in the sink, Lisbon called Jane every vile name in the book. He'd earned every last one of them. Why couldn't he let her be? She'd been content in the life she'd built over the two years he'd lain low on that island. Well, maybe not exactly content. But, her existence wasn't unpleasant and her job was doable with her eyes closed. The best part was she was still working in the profession she loved.

While being a small town Sheriff was about as exciting as watching paint dry, she'd been lucky to land on her feet after the CBI incinerated. She'd also been welcomed with open arms by the people she'd sworn to protect. That meant she was well respected, well paid, and the benefits package was nothing to sneeze at.

She could have retired comfortably in not too many years.

But, no, Jane couldn't leave well enough alone…He'd had to slink back into her life like he'd never left…The rest was a repeat of things the way they had always been.

At least since the moment Patrick Jane entered her life.

She'd known the man was going to end her existence as she knew it the moment she set eyes on him. She'd had that sense of foreboding even then. Enough of one she'd spent a long time calling him "Mr. Jane" and keeping those walls firmly in place between them. She'd refused to acknowledge he was quite the looker even rough around the edges. She'd definitely ignored how handsome he'd been under happier circumstances. Her tactics had worked for a while.

Long enough she'd been quite proud of herself.

But, it hadn't taken that long for Jane to worm his way under her skin. To break through her carefully constructed defenses. Once that was done, there was nothing she could do about it. She'd been in too deep before she knew it. Minelli had tried to warn her and she'd known he was right even as she casually dismissed his "ludicrous" concerns. She'd tried to listen to her surrogate dad. She truly had. Unfortunately, Virgil's warnings came much too late.

Somewhere in the midst of her denials, she'd slipped over the jagged precipice she'd battled so hard to avoid at any cost.

For the good or the bad, it had taken a few years longer to realize she'd willingly jumped over that slippery slope. Actually, it had taken a lifetime for either of them to admit at some point on their twisted journey they'd developed feelings inappropriate for partners and friends. Unfortunately, there'd been another person involved by this point. Someone who didn't deserve the pain they'd caused him.

Feeling that ever present jab of guilt, Lisbon decided not to dwell on Marcus.

That was all water under the bridge. While she was glad he'd finally moved on, she was a little envious of the other woman. Of what she now had…The man she'd so willingly given away…With hindsight, Lisbon admitted she should have dealt with Jane before she ever went out with Pike in the first place. Or, she should have done it soon after; but, she hadn't. It might have given them a real chance.

Unfortunately, she'd been just giddy enough at finally having a normal relationship with a normal man she hadn't given those feelings swirling on the periphery of her consciousness a second thought. She'd fully expected them to go away as her relationship with Marcus deepened. Once she'd gotten to know the man better, she'd jumped into their relationship with both feet and never looked back. She hadn't wanted to. Those niggling feelings were too easy to ignore in the face of the sudden "rightness" of her life. It hadn't taken long to realize she actually wanted what she'd never had.

She'd wanted it bad…just not bad enough.

Mind caught in the same unpleasant never ending loop, Lisbon recalled the look on Marcus's face when she'd met him at his townhouse in DC. He'd known something was terribly wrong and she hadn't tried to pretend otherwise. She'd felt she owed him the courtesy of a face to face meeting and a chance to dissuade her from this newest path if he wanted. As for Pike, he'd indicated he'd known something was off by her tone of voice. When she'd told him they needed to talk instead of simply confirming her ETA, he'd known it. Lisbon knew, if that call hadn't been a dead giveaway, the small overnight bag looped over her shoulder when he picked her up was.

It didn't take a brilliant mind to know one piece of luggage didn't bode well for her having come to stay.

To Pike's credit as an Agent, he'd figured out Jane might cause problems before they were done. To his credit as a romantic, he'd believed they'd weather the storm. To his credit as an honorable man, he'd bowed out gracefully when he'd learned otherwise. He hadn't bothered putting up much of a fight. As much as Lisbon wished he'd been less than gracious and fought harder to keep her by his side, that wasn't the case. He'd simply let her go wishing her every happiness. He hadn't even called her on her less than honorable actions. He'd even let her sleep on his couch and taken her to the airport to catch her return flight the next day sending her on her way with a comforting kiss on the cheek.

She'd spent the rest of her flight to Austin dissecting the situation. Neither she nor Jane had really done anything dishonorable… Not sleazy or unhanded anyway…Not if you didn't count acting like a couple of fools until the last possible minute. They certainly hadn't touched each other. They hadn't done that for several months after.

She hadn't wanted the complications and Jane had been willing to give her that much needed time.

Besides, hearing Jane say, "I don't want you to go and not because D.C.'s boring." added to the sight of that ringless finger was enough to hold her until she'd worked through her feelings for Pike. It seemed her reaction to his words was enough to reassure Jane for which she was grateful. She wasn't quite ready to move on yet. Fortunately, Jane had understood just because ending her relationship was the right thing to do didn't mean it was easy. Or that she hadn't loved Marcus dearly. Jane had seemed to know she had.

Just not "dearly" enough when compared to her feelings for him.

She clearly loved Jane more, and if she was honest, she still did which was precisely what had gotten her in the pickle she currently found herself in.

Staring at her pocket calendar as she bounced the box in her hand, Lisbon shook her head as her other hand came to rest over her belly. She didn't need a home pregnancy test or a doctor's confirmation to know what was going on inside her body. She didn't need those spooky senses Jane had been vocally denying for so many years to see the writing on the wall. Suffice it to say she could feel the answer in her toes. She was healthy as a horse and she was never late. Or, she never had been. Not after having unprotected sex with a lover because, hey, she'd never done that.

Not even once.

She was always very circumspect. Or she had been. This was the one thing she'd never wanted to happen for a lot of different reasons. Not the least of which, there wasn't really a place in her life for any of this. Her work still consumed her as it always had and she liked it that way. Who wouldn't enjoy playing with things that go boom and catching bad guys? There was just something about being a small chick carrying a big gun that really did it for her. Now she'd messed up her near perfect life.

Damn it all.

There was no excuse for what she'd done and no denying this was all her fault. She'd come on to Jane and he'd taken her up on her offer. Not without a fair amount of internal struggle she'd watched play out across his face. But, in the end, he'd capitulated and they'd spent a very active night together. Unfortunately, the game changer she'd known, and he hadn't, somehow slipped her mind and not because she was drunk.

She'd been in control of all of her faculties which was why she was fighting a near over whelming compulsion to beat her head against the wall for her stupidity. How she'd conveniently "forgotten" she'd stopped taking contraceptives the day after she'd ended their relationship was beyond her. In her infinite wisdom several months ago, she'd thought tossing her pills would serve as a solid deterrent to rekindling her steamy relationship with Jane. She'd known he would be a temptation hard to resist for a while.

They worked too closely together and the sex was too damned good for it to be otherwise.

As much as she was regretting her choice at the moment, Lisbon had to admit it was a move that had worked quite well in the past. Now, she couldn't believe she'd been foolish enough to believe anything so lame would apply to Jane. It certainly hadn't held true in practice. Her partner was too overwhelming for that.

He'd always been able to get around her carefully erected defenses almost from the start. Over the years they'd both come to realize there was something special between them. Something they'd both called "friendship" she'd realized was something entirely different when she'd committed to making a life in DC.

She'd had to face the cold hard fact she'd always reacted to Jane in ways she never had to other men, including Marcus. No matter how deeply she'd loved Pike. Enough so she'd nearly followed him to DC knowing m-a-r-r-i-a-g-e was waiting at the end of the Yellow Brick Road. As crazy as it was to think now, she'd been okay with Marcus putting a ring on her finger. She'd never once felt any desire to cut and run as she always had in the past. Probably because Marcus was an undeniably decent man she'd genuinely fallen for.

One of the best she'd ever known.

So decent, in fact, she'd never doubted his affection was anything but that stable, forever kind of love she'd never had before and always wanted. She'd adored his company even if he had pushed things forward too fast to be entirely comfortable for her. If that wasn't enough, he'd actually spoiled her. She'd enjoyed that as well. If she was honest with herself, she'd wanted to marry him. Wanted it badly enough she'd done everything in her power to make that fairy tale happen. She'd thought she'd succeeded.

They both did.

Until Jane had let her know in no uncertain terms he hoped she wouldn't go.

That was all it had taken. In the end, it seemed her too observant Boss was right. Jane hadn't realized she'd really intended going until she'd almost been out the door. She hadn't realized he'd cared like that until he'd made it apparent in that clear-as-mud Jane kind of way. Things had snowballed from there. The truth had crashed down on her like an avalanche. She'd known she couldn't go. She couldn't leave Jane behind.

He'd been too integral a part of her life for way too long.

And while he hadn't precisely said he wanted anything more than what they already had, a friendly partnership, she'd known. She'd seen the truth in his eyes as she was sure he'd seen it in hers. If that wasn't enough, that bare ring finger said it all. However, they'd both known it wasn't time. There was still unresolved business she'd had to attend to. Business of the painful kind better handled in private.

As agonizing as the confrontation had been, both she and Marcus had faced the truth in the end. While she loved him, she truly did; the madness she felt for Jane was so much more. He'd been a constant too long to completely sever their bond even for that elusive chance at true love and happiness.

Staring at her reflection, Lisbon firmly decided she'd spent the past hour mired in the same broken loop that wouldn't quit playing through her head over and over again. She'd contemplated her past from every angle. She'd dissected her relationship with Marcus until there was nothing left but bloody emotional detritus. She'd done the same with her relationship with Jane as far as she was willing to go.

She'd also conveniently ignored any thoughts of the future.

She was too busy confronting her present to deal with anything else.

As disappointed as she was in herself, her actions that night said everything. All it had taken was shooting a kid in self defense, a stiff drink, and the smell of Jane for her to have him naked beneath her and up to something. Unfortunately, she'd failed to inform him he needed to grab one of those handy dandy packets from his bedside drawer before she'd taken him into her body. She'd been too far gone in her lust to act responsibly. Nor had she thought of it any of the other times they'd come together during the night.

In fact, she hadn't thought of it all until the next morning when she realized she'd allowed Jane to spend himself within her several times without the benefit of protection. Eyes widening in shock at her oversight, she'd quickly gotten her feelings under control. In the end, she'd decided not to tell Jane what she'd realized. There was no reason to alarm him without just cause. She had promised him there would be no ugly ramifications from their actions.

Now, she was fairly certain she'd lied through her teeth.

She just needed to pee on a stick to prove it.

Rolling her eyes, Lisbon tried one last time to dissuade herself from opening the box she'd bought on the spur of the moment last night. She couldn't possibly be pregnant…They'd only been together one night…But, it certainly hadn't been one time…Besides, everyone knew one time was all it took…It hadn't been that long since she'd stopped taking her pills and it took time for fertility to be restored…While that might be true in some cases, it wasn't true for everyone or her college roommate wouldn't have gotten pregnant after missing only one pill…She was older now…She shouldn't get pregnant as easily as a younger woman…Yeah?...She wasn't that old…Deciding to stop wasting her time, Lisbon peeled the wrapper off the box and studied the directions.

Honestly, there wasn't that much to it. All she had to do was follow the instructions. She'd have her answer in no time in duplicate. Sighing in resignation, Lisbon did just that and laid the plastic sticks aside. Closing her eyes, she counted in her head waiting patiently for enough time to pass. Opening one eye she closed it again wanting to block the sight of those unmistakable double lines out of her mind.

Well, there was nothing for it but scheduling a discrete appointment with her doctor. Once she got confirmation, she'd figure out her next step. It wasn't so much a question of if she'd tell Jane. She would. He was her child's father and he had every right to know. It was more of a question of how she'd go about doing it. Somehow just popping out with, "I'm pregnant and you're the father." didn't cut it. Especially considering their relationship in the weeks since conception had been anything but intimate.

In fact, she'd made it clear from the start that their momentary lapse of judgment wasn't happening again. That aspect of their togetherness was over and they weren't going back. They'd had a moment of weakness. That moment had passed. She'd even reminded him why they'd ended and laid the demise squarely at his feet. Jane had reluctantly agreed with her stance and their lives had fallen back into the familiar pattern it had always been.

For the time being, they were partners in every way but the one that counted.

It seemed stupidity and the Universe was conspiring to change that circumstance.

Jane's reaction was the only wild card in the mix.