When they got back to the CBI, Lisbon was surprised when Jane followed her into her office and made a point to stretch out on her couch, showing every sign of settling in for the long haul.

She raised her eyebrows. "Your couch in the bullpen suddenly not good enough for you for some reason?"

Jane folded his hands behind his head and looked at the ceiling. "Let's just say it's been rather crowded out there lately."

Lisbon snorted. "What, are you afraid one of your brothers is going to come in here and hit on me again if you don't keep an eye on me?"

She'd said it sarcastically, but Jane's startled and guilty look told her she'd inadvertently guessed something close to his real motive. She stared at him. "Seriously?"

"I'm sure I don't know what you mean," Jane said, raising his eyes to the ceiling again.

"Jane." She crossed to the couch and prodded him to force him to sit up and make room for her. She sat down next to him and fixed him with her gaze. "Why won't you tell me what's really going on with you and your brothers?"

He fidgeted. "I told you. I don't want to dredge up the past."

"Seems to me you're just wallowing in it, instead," Lisbon observed. "Some dredging might do you good."

He sighed. "You're not going to let this go, are you?"

"Nope."

He was silent for a long moment. "All right," he said finally. "I'll tell you."

Lisbon looked at him expectantly.

"I was always the best at the psychic shtick." He looked down at his hands. "All the lying, cheating…it came naturally to me. Dad had a good thing going when we were younger, with the magic show. The disappearing, reappearing Boy Wonder. People were amazed how a kid could be on stage one minute, and literally across the tent the next minute. It suited him fine, for a while, incorporating the three of us into his show. But over time, he started to set his sights on bigger prizes. The ticket sales from the show weren't enough—he knew the real money was in private clients. And nobody was going to pay big money for a few magic tricks. The only thing that would get the kind of money he was after was connecting people to their lost loved ones. So he started grooming the three of us in earnest for bigger and better cons."

"Chris really was the worst of all of us," he said ruefully. "He'd get distracted, daydreaming, or wander off to play with the animals. Dad tried to work with him, but he just didn't have the heart for it. Daniel was pretty good, and he wanted so desperately to please Dad. He worked hard at it, and he had an aptitude for it, even. But he would occasionally push the con too far. Hit the wrong note, and people would get suspicious. But me—" he smiled without humor. "I never hit a wrong note. I held back. Knew that I could get more out of people if I made it seem like they wanted more out of the exchange than me."

Lisbon remained silent, listening intently.

"Me and Daniel were very competitive with one another," he went on. "It came naturally to me, like I said, but Daniel was so determined. He worked hard at it, and that pushed me to work at it, too. So we both got better and better. By the time we were twelve, we could have sold the Brooklyn Bridge to the right kind of sucker."

He fell silent again. "I wish you could have met my mom," he said abruptly. "You'd have liked her, I think."

"What was she like?" Lisbon asked softly.

He smiled wistfully. "She was wonderful. Full of mischief and adventure. But she was also kind. More…balanced than my dad. She'd kiss scraped knees and fuss over us when we were sick. She used to set up scavenger hunts around the carnival for us. Those were ten times more magical than anything my dad could come up with in his show."

Lisbon couldn't help smiling at the image of three little boys excitedly racing around the carnival, searching for treasures. "She sounds pretty special."

"Yeah." Jane sounded subdued now. "She was."

"It must have been hard, not seeing her much after your parents split," Lisbon commented.

Jane shifted uncomfortably. "It was okay."

"Hang on," Lisbon said. She turned to Jane questioningly. "Daniel said you told the judge you wanted to stay with your dad when they got divorced."

"That's right," Jane said gruffly.

"You couldn't have wanted to be separated from your brothers, though," Lisbon said, frowning. "You must have been so close, growing up the way you did. And you all thought your dad was a jerk and that your mom was wonderful."

Jane shifted again. "Yeah, well…" he trailed off, not finding the end of the sentence.

"Your dad was giving your mom a hard time about the divorce," Lisbon said slowly. "And you were the best at conning rich clients."

"The best boy psychic west of the Mississippi," Jane said bitterly.

"You struck a deal with your dad," Lisbon realized, the truth dawning on her with awful clarity. She stared at him, horror-struck. "You told him you'd tell the judge you wanted to stay with him if he let Daniel and Chris go with your mom without a fight."

Jane didn't meet her gaze. "It didn't seem like it would be so bad, at first. I figured I could wait it out til I was eighteen, then leave Dad and the show behind and go be with Mom and Chris and Daniel." His shoulders slumped. "But then she got sick, and all of a sudden she was gone, and I was never going to get that time back after all."

Lisbon's mind worked rapidly, sorting through all the pieces. "Did your brothers know?"

Jane shook his head. "I never told them."

Exasperating man. "Why on earth not?"

He shrugged. "I figured they'd try to talk me out of it. I guess I wasn't sure my decision could hold up against a dedicated campaign."

"So then…once you were eighteen, what did you do?"

"I went out to California. I was able to spend the last couple months with Mom. I'll always be grateful for that. But after—I couldn't stand being around my brothers." He looked sad and exhausted, telling the tale. "I resented that they'd had all those years with Mom when she was happy and healthy, when every moment I had with her those last couple months she was in terrible pain. I was horrible to them, after. Shut them out completely. I went back to the carnival one last time to persuade Angie to run away with me. We moved out to California, and I made a point to build a fancy, comfortable life that they weren't a part of."

He looked down at his hands. "I guess I could make the sacrifice, but I couldn't do it gracefully," he said, his voice low.

"Oh, Jane." Her heart ached for him. Without thinking, she put her arm around his shoulder, leaned over, and kissed him on the temple.

Jane looked at her in surprise. "You kissed me," he said, startled.

"Yes," Lisbon said, flustered. "On the temple. Because you were upset."

He kept his eyes on her. "Still counts."

She quirked an eyebrow at him. "Counts as what?"

A slow smile pulled at the corners of his mouth. "Just sayin'."

"Hush," she said. She shoved him playfully, then got up to go back to her desk. The unplanned kiss, no matter how chaste, had left her off balance. She went to her desk feeling a little physical distance would help restore her sense of equilibrium. But once she was seated at her desk, she stole a glance at Jane, who'd stretched out on her couch again, and secretly had to admit to herself that she was glad he wasn't too far away.