Chapter 5

"Sir!" a panicked female voice called out from somewhere behind Jane, but Jane continued as though he hadn't heard a thing until he came into clear view of every table that sat in the hotel's restaurant. It was a little after noon and the restaurant was surprisingly empty. The piano man was dutifully playing Dean Martin's Everybody Loves Somebody, and Jane wondered how often he was required to play music from the rat pack. Frequently, would have been his guess in a hotel like this. Ms. Lonely Hearts sat in a booth nursing a fruity concoction and Jane felt a sudden burst of empathy for her. Aside from those two was Jacob Brown and Jason Gibbs.

He'd seen them on his laptop when he'd watched Lisbon and Pike make their way to his room before he headed here, which was precisely why he'd come.

"Sir," the voice said again, this time directly behind him, "I'm afraid that there is a dress code for the restaurant."

Jane turned and looked at the flustered hostess who was holding her arm up indicating he leave the restaurant as she made a quick nervous glance toward Brown and Gibbs.

Jane looked down at his bare chest with a towel draped around his neck, his swim trunks and flip flops, then leaned more heavily on his crutch. "Well, at least I'm not dripping," he told her making no move to leave.

He'd sent Dennis ahead of him up to the room and had given him the laptop, which made limping around on the crutch much more bearable.

The hostess gave him a tight grin and once more gestured to the door of the restaurant. "Regardless, I'm going to have to ask you to leave."

"Fair enough," he said raising his chin in an attempt to seem haughty, "but not until I see a menu."

She glanced over his shoulder again and this time he followed her gaze, meeting the eye of Jacob Brown. He held his gaze for a moment before turning and looking back at the hostess. "The menu?"

"I'm afraid I can't show you the menu in here while you're dressed this way. If you could change and come back down…"

"Nonsense," Jane said in a voice that was loud enough to be heard throughout the restaurant. "For the price I'm paying a night for the presidential suite, I can see the menu now."

Her face reddened and this time Jane could see her fighting the urge to look back at Brown again. Instead, she simply nodded. "Yes, sir. If you'll follow me to the front, where the menus are…"

Jane nodded and followed the fifteen feet to the front of the restaurant. She handed him a menu and he opened it, taking his time to peruse each item. After several minutes he looked up and the woman who now had a very harried expression on her face and smiled. "Lovely, I'd like to make a reservation for tomorrow at noon."

She went to the computer behind the counter where he stood. "Yes, sir. Can I get your name, please?"

"Stewart."

"Patrick," she asked, never taking her eyes off the computer.

"The one and only," he said.

As she continued typing he noticed someone enter the restaurant, but didn't realize who it was until she'd passed him. Allie made her way to the table where Brown and Gibbs sat, now dressed in a slinky dark green dress. She sat down next to Gibbs who promptly rubbed his hand over her butt and pulled her flush against his side.

"How many people will be in your party," the hostess asked.

"Four," Jane said without looking at her. This was a golden opportunity if ever he'd been given one. He'd wanted to get Brown's attention and Allie had given him the perfect impact. Now, instead of being just an annoying guest, he could be a threat. Even if not directly to Brown, being a threat to his partner was enough.

He kept his eye on Allie until she noticed him, then he smiled his full rakish smile and waved at her. She blushed and looked down, causing Gibbs to look up and at Jane for the first time. Jane held eye contact with Gibbs and watched as the man's face contorted in rage.

"You're all set, Mr. Stewart," the hostess told him. "We'll see you at noon."

He looked at her. "Thank you," he said before taking his leave.

"If you know what's good for you," Abbott told Jane the moment he stepped through the door, he'd obviously seen Jane coming and had headed him off in the hall of the suite, "You'll stay out of it."

Jane felt his brow furrow as he continued on in to the suite. It hadn't occurred to him to slow down and ask Abbott what he meant, his only thought of getting to Lisbon and wedging himself between her and Pike.

"What?" he asked belatedly as he entered the main room to find that Lisbon and Pike were no where t be seen. It'd didn't take long for him to figure it out though as he heard loud talking coming from behind his closed bedroom door. He came to an abrupt halt and Abbott came around front of him and shoved his hands in his pockets.

Jane barely noticed Wiley sitting on the couch with headphones on next to Cho, but at the moment it seemed wildly unimportant. Cho stood up and Jane could see his discomfort, see his jaw clenching. Wiley removed his headphones. He could hear muffled conversation coming from two voices who could be none other than Pike and Lisbon.

"How long have they been in there?" Jane asked.

Cho placed his hands on his hips. "They went in there the moment they got in the room."

Jane forced himself to take a deep breath then moved to sit on the couch.

Abbott breathed deep and followed.

Wiley smiled and waved at him. "Hi Jane."

"Hi," Jane replied.

There was an awkward silence in the room as Abbott and Cho both sat down and as the four men listened to the unintelligible voices speaking animatedly from the other room.

Jane had decades of practicing his poker face and was never more grateful for it than in this moment. His stomach was doing summersaults and the last time he'd felt this sick was when he was sitting in the holding cell at the airport before Lisbon had come in. He'd thought the days of worrying about whether he'd lost her were gone.

Jane suddenly couldn't take the silence anymore. "What are you listening too?" he asked pointing to the headset around Wiley's neck.

"Oh," Wiley's face lit up. "We set up microphone's in various locations throughout the hotel. Most of it will be unintelligible at first, but if we need to we can separate out conversations later.

Jane didn't really care, but tried to stay in the conversation regardless. "Is that legal?" he asked.

Abbott sighed and nodded. "We got a warrant for public areas…"

"Yes, but we can still get ears in rooms with this," Wiley held up something that looked like a little satellite, his excitement getting the better of him.

"We are capable, yes, but we'd need cause that we don't yet have," Abbott said giving Wiley a stern glare.

Jane sat up. "Wait," he said, "You mean we can listen through walls with that?"

Wiley smiled again. "Yeah, isn't that cool?"

Jane looked toward his room.

"Jane, no," Abbott said firmly.

Jane reached out a hand to Wiley. "Give me that."

Wiley quickly took his headphones off with a perplexed look on his face and handed them to Jane.

"Jane," Abbott protested, "you don't honestly think spying on Lisbon is a good idea?"

Cho leaned back into the cushions. "Sometimes I forget you've only been working with Jane for a year."

Jane started playing with the satellite looking device and Wiley helpfully took it from him, turned it on, and faced it toward the bedroom for Jane.

"That's not fair Teresa," Pike's voice said suddenly—clearly in Jane's ears.

"This is neither the time nor the place to be having this conversation," Lisbon responded.

Abbott leaned back in his chair. "Fine, it's your funeral."

"She's forgiven mush worse," Cho said quietly, earning a glare from Abbott.

"I'd argue that it's a much better place than over the phone," Marcus returned. "I think I deserved more than that."

There was a short silence before Lisbon responded. "You did—you do."

Jane's gut clenched.

"I don't want to make you uncomfortable, but I think you owe me an explanation," Pike continued, "I love you. I believed I was going to spend the rest of my life with you and then you dump me…hours, mind you, after accepting my proposal?"

"I'm sorry," came Lisbon's repentant voice. "I never meant to hurt you."

Jane heard the rustle of fabric and tried not to image what it might be from.

"I suppose that's why you didn't tell me about Jane? I mean, I assumed you changed your mind because of him…"

Jane's heart gave a painful thud. He'd just assumed that Lisbon had told Pike about him. He supposed it made sense that she'd keep that to herself to save Pike the pain of being left for another man and herself the embarrassment of appearing fickle, it stung that she hadn't.

"I hoped to spare you," Lisbon started.

"From hearing Jane proclaim his intention to marry you a week after we broke up? Do you love him?"

"Please…" she begged her voice straining from her hurt.

"Are you going to marry him?" Pike's voice was so soft, Jane barely heard him.

"No," she responded immediately. "I…"

Jane heard movement, the rustle of fabric, then Pike whispering, "I love you."

There was another moment of silence and Jane thought bitterly that he needn't be psychic to know what was going on. He then heard more noise, another rustling of fabric and then Lisbon's clear voice. "Stop," she said firmly. "If you want to talk about this later, not here, I'll be happy to, but you have to respect my wishes."

"As long as you agree to hear me out," Pike said loudly enough to hear clearly and with a little more enthusiasm than Jane was happy about.

"Fine," Lisbon replied and he could hear two sets of footsteps moving.

The door to the room opened, snapping Jane out of the scene he'd been imagining in the bedroom and bringing him abruptly back to the living room.

"Jane?" Lisbon said as he looked up and at her. "Wiley, what?" She was dressed now and Jane reminded himself that there was a bathroom in that room with a door that locked. No way she'd go as far as changing in front of Pike.

Jane pulled the earphones off and Wiley's head whipped in her direction. Her face fell when she realized what must have been happening as Wiley slowly slid the device down and behind the cushions, before turning away from her with a horrified expression.

Pike came around her just then and looked at the four men sitting in the room. "What's happening," he asked innocently. "What did we miss?"

Wiley leaned forward and dropped the device under the coffee table, before toeing it further under.

Jane made eye contact with Lisbon, and knew that he must have looked angry and while he was interested in figuring out what she was thinking, he didn't want to make a scene, so he looked away.

Abbott seemed to catch on and quickly jumped to answer Pike. "Wiley was just about to explain what he's set up."

Wiley smiled and pointed to the screens. "We had agents come in early this morning and place microphones throughout the hotel, it's not likely that we'll catch anything incriminating, but we're hoping that between those and the cameras we'll get an idea as to how to proceed. Right, Jane?"

Jane smiled at him. He hadn't given them the entire plan yet, which included some serious subterfuge that he hoped would cause Jacob Brown to feel threatened and to lash out, but he figured that explanation could come later. Much later. "That's right. Everything is falling into place. We just need to keep an eye on Jacob Brown and his business partner Jason Gibbs, and Allie…" Jane pointed to the screens at the three sitting in the restaurant where he'd just left them.

"Allie?" Lisbon asked, sitting on the arm of the couch next to Cho.

"I saw you wave to her in the restaurant," Cho said breaking his silence. "What was that about?"

"In chatting with Allie earlier I learned that Gibbs is very territorial," Jane explained, ignoring the fact that Pike had come up next to Lisbon. "They have the home court advantage here, so we'll need to make them feel their on uneven footing."

"Why the cameras?" Pike asked.

Jane looked over at him and tried not to scowl. "I need to know Brown and Gibbs' every move. Learn their patterns."

"That sounds like quite the process," Pike inserted again. "You could be here awhile sounds like."

You wish, Jane thought.

"How are we handling the cameras?" Pike asked.

Abbott spoke up this time. "Cho and Wiley will stay with the cameras most of the time and Jane, Lisbon, Fischer, you and I will rotate the shifts with them. Fischer and Lisbon the night shifts and the men during the day."

"Ah," Pike said. "That's why you had Teresa take my arm, Jane. She and Fischer are supposed to be prostitutes."

"Call girls," Jane and Cho both said curtly and in unison. Abbott smirked at them both. Both he and Cho glared at Abbott. Jane might have felt bad for Cho—he knew how uncomfortable it was for him having Lisbon and Fischer act like prostitutes, and knew exactly why that was the case—but he was too busy feeling sorry for himself when he realized that Lisbon might have to hang on Pike again at some point.

Pike ignored their outburst. "Won't they be suspicious when they realize Wiley hasn't left?"

"No," Wiley said animatedly. "I put all the cameras on a loop of empty halls for ten minutes and Cho snuck me up the stairwell. They'll never even know I was here."

Lisbon looked at her watch. "But I'm guessing they'll know exactly how long I've been here. I think it's about time I leave."

Both Jane and Pike looked up at her.

"I'll walk you down," Cho said.

Lisbon smiled at him. "Thanks."

"Just make sure you fill Fischer in before she heads over," Abbott told her.

"Yes sir."

"And Jane," Abbott said nodding at Jane's attire, "You might want to change into something a little less comfortable."

Jane suddenly felt a cool breeze cross his chest and his abdomen tightened as everyone turned and stared at him from their fully dressed positions. They all looked away just as summarily and Jane felt something that he assumed was close to, if not quite, embarrassment. It wasn't that he was out of shape, as a matter of fact he felt pretty good about his physique, and this morning had been excited to see Lisbon's reaction to him, but now, with Pike standing there in his suit looking lean and worthy, Jane felt indignant.

He stood up at that, grabbing his crutch and made his way as quickly as he could around the couches and into his room. He shut the door behind him and went to his suitcase and pulled out his suit.

He knew he should have said goodbye to Lisbon, but the entire situation had him walking on eggshells. He was hurt and angry, which he wasn't entirely sure he had the right to be. He was also scared and worried that he might do something that would make her second guess her decision to be with him. He was already pretty sure he was in the doghouse for having spied on her conversation with Pike. So he'd left without a goodbye, because he'd simply did not known what else to do.

He sat down on the bed with his clothes and stared at his foot. It was throbbing, but there wasn't really much he could do about it right now. He needed to change and get back out there. It took him an awkward and slightly painful moment to get out of his swim trunks and into his boxers, and even longer to get his pants on. He was panting from the effort and looked down at the clock, noting that it had taken him ten minutes to get this far.

He heard the front door shut and knew that had to be Lisbon. He sighed heavily and reached for his shirt. At least this part would be fast and easy. Both arms were in his sleeves and he had just started to button up his shirt when his door opened and Lisbon stepped in. He stopped what he was doing and looked at her as she shut the door behind her. She held the headphones he'd used to spy in one of her hands as she made her way over to him.

"I thought you'd left?" he said waiting for her to read him the riot act. Instead, as soon as she reached him, she threw the headphones on the bed next to him and herself into his arms.

"I'm so sorry, Jane," she said in a hoarse whisper. "I didn't…what you heard…"

She was on her knees between his thighs, her arms around his middle, her head resting against his clavicle.

"Aren't you worried about what Pike will think, you being in here with me?" He'd meant to sound accusing, but it came out concerned as he unwittingly wrapped his arms around her.

"Abbott took pity on me and told Pike he wanted to show him something downstairs." Jane stiffened at her unsavory response, but she continued unaware. "Don't be angry. I don't know what you heard, but I swear nothing happened."

He vaguely remembered being worried she'd be angry at him for spying, but with her apology came a sense of entitlement and he suddenly wanted answers. "So you didn't kiss him?"

She pulled back and looked at him. "No," she said quickly, defensively.

He narrowed his eyes and she closed hers and sighed deeply. "He kissed me, but I pushed him off."

Jane felt sick, but determined to hear it all, no matter how painful. "Did you change in front of him?"

Her face clouded over with righteous indignation. "What you take me for?"

"A confused woman who's being fought over by two men she loves," he said quickly and watched her face dropped. He felt his ire rise when she didn't deny she loved them both. "He's seen it all before, right? Cho said you two came straight in here when you got back."

She tried to pull away from him, indignation clearly written on her face, but he tightened his grip on her. "I changed in the bathroom, with the door locked." She signaled to the bathroom.

He clenched his jaw. "Are you really going to give him a fighting chance?"

She looked away from him and this time he allowed it when she pulled back and sat on her knees on the floor. "I chose you Jane. I want to be with you, but he's right—I was going to marry him. I was moving to D.C. to be with him. He deserves more than the phone call he got."

"The phone call in which you conveniently forgot to tell him you were with me," Jane said sharply. He shoved back the memory of her crying in the shower after she'd talked to Pike.

She closed her eyes and shook her head. "I just didn't want to hurt him like that. I thought I'd never see him again, Jane. I didn't know that not telling him would end up hurting him and you. If I had known…"

Jane slid to the edge of the bed. "What are you going to do?"

She opened her eyes and tilted her head up to look at him. "I'm going to let him talk, but that doesn't mean you need to be worried."

"Right," Jane said. He moved quickly to the floor in front of her, on to his knees and pulled her body flush against his before slamming his lips to hers.

She gasped at the unexpected contact and fierceness, but Jane was pleased to note that not only did she not fight him, she also returned his kisses with equal ardor. His hands slid down her back and to the top of her skirt and he started tugging at her shirt, pulling it from its confine.

"Jane," she gasped, "What are you doing?"

"Erasing his kiss from your skin," he said finished his task and slid his hands up her shirt and over the bare skin of her back. He didn't add that he was also making sure she could think of nothing but him until she was back with him again.

"Stop," she said halfheartedly.

"No," he replied kissing his way down her neck as his hands continued their explorations over the skin of her back.

He felt her hands slide from his back to his sides and down to his lower abdomen and his stomach jumped at her touch. It took him a moment to realize that she was undoing the one button he'd managed to button on his shirt before she'd thrown herself at him. Once undone, her hands slid inside his open shirt and he froze as her fingers trailed lightly up his back. After a moment he got his wits back and moved back up from her clavicle to her lips claiming them once again, only this time in a much softer, much sweeter kiss.

He smiled against her lips when she tried to recall the passion of what had been there moments before, but pulled back lightly before leaning in and giving her a butterfly kiss. She again tried to breach the seal of his mouth, but he pulled away once more before resting his lips lightly on hers again and shaking his head so that they'd softly caress hers from side to side as he moved. "Uh, uh," he chided.

She whimpered.

"Lisbon," he whispered against her lips. Her eyes remained closed and her breathing was coming in harsh little pants. "Teresa, look at me."

It took a moment before she registered what he'd said and opened her eyes. She smiled lightly after seeing the smirk on his face. "Yes, Jane?" she breathed.

He'd intended on saying something to get her riled up, like "Let Pike top that," or "How much do I owe you," but was surprised when he whispered, "I love you," instead.

Her smile widened and she leaned in, resting her head on his shoulder with a contented sigh as she continued to tickle his back with her fingers. He simply tightened his grip crushing her to him. He thought he might be holding her too tight, but she didn't resist.

Several moments later, when their breathing had calmed she spoke. "I have to go."

"All right," he said moving away from her, "but if you think I'm paying for this your mistaken. Getting a man all lathered up like this and leaving—worst call girl ever."

"I'll take that as a compliment," she said. She stood up and helped him to his feet and then back to the bed. Once he was seated she leaned forward and pecked his lips once more. "And Jane?"

"Yes, dear?" he asked with a silly smirk on his face, until he felt her pinch his arm, and then he yelped. "Ouch! What was that for?"

She pointed to the headphones. "For spying on me, and if I catch you doing it again, I'll do a lot worse." At that she turned on her heel and strutted out of the room.

Around one in the morning, Jane found himself in front of the cameras, as Fischer slept soundly on the opposite end of the couch. Pike and Abbott had left around six that evening and it had been a real task for Jane to keep his mind off the real possibility that the man might at this very moment be with Lisbon. The only comfort he took was from the text she'd sent him at nine-thirty telling him she was going to sleep and to sleep well. If she was sleeping, she wasn't talking with Pike. And if she had spoken with Pike and decided to stay with him, she wouldn't have texted him to tell him goodnight.

Fischer had arrived around eleven, wearing a leopard print skirt and black boat neck shirt with a gold chain belt draped over her hip and gold sandals. He'd shaken his head when he'd seen her, not in the least surprised that she'd chosen leopard print. She'd gotten the idea from him after all. She'd immediately insisted that Cho and Wiley each take a room and get some sleep. Which seemed only fair, but Jane hadn't been happy when Wiley went into his room. Then he'd been even more irritated when Fischer had dosed off an hour later.

Not that he could really blame her. Nothing was happening. Even the concierge seemed to be asleep at the front desk.

Determined to stay awake, Jane had connected the earphones to Wiley's laptop and listened to every channel for each of the rooms where the speakers had been set up. He wasn't really sure why he'd thought that be fun or interesting, because if no one in the hotel was up, there would be nothing to listen to. Except the concierge, who as it turned out wasn't asleep, but humming a grating tune off key. He'd immediately unplugged after that and glanced over at Fischer.

He was tempted to wake her and insist she play twenty questions with him, when he caught sight of something on the floor under the coffee. He bent down and reached under the table until he felt cool metal under his fingers. He grasped the object and pulled it out, smiling at his discovery. It was Wiley's listening antenna. Jane had completely forgotten that Wylie had hidden it there. He fiddled with it for a moment before plugging in his headphones and aiming it at different walls as though it were a gun.

He heard nothing. Not even the crackling of dead air. He dropped the device on the coffee table in front of him, and made a mental note to ask Wiley how it worked tomorrow. He reached up to pull the headphones off when they crackled to life followed by a bloodcurdling scream.

A/N: I'm sure there are some grammatical errors in this, but I didn't have time to proof it. Sorry about that. I hope you enjoyed it though and will let me know what you thought. Thanks for reading!