Well-rested and floating on the memory of sweet dreams, after a wonderful night with Marcus, Teresa ran into Jane right as she exited the FBI elevator.
"Morning Lisbon!"
"Hey Jane!" She answered - with too much enthusiasm, in Jane's estimation.
Things must be going well with Pike, he thought, with equal parts pain and gladness. His plan to bottle up his affections - or redirect them - and allow Teresa to be free of himself would be so much easier if she fell in love with Marcus. But he couldn't completely think-away the nausea he felt, the moment that overly-chipper reply sprung from her lips.
Kim joined their morning chat before he could find out more about the reasons for Teresa's abnormally good mood so early this morning, though he probably wouldn't like the answer, anyway, he told himself.
Abbott began the morning briefing, explaining they had orders to check out a murder at a rural location more than 100 miles away.
Jane badgered Teresa incessantly about her dinner plans with Pike, easily convincing Kim that the FBI should give them a chopper for faster travel times.
Not only was Fischer delighted at the thought of Lisbon being off the market as a romantic partner, she was also glad for the chance to see Jane sooner rather than later, that evening, herself.
"It's fine either way." Teresa insisted, waving away any rush or import. She had always been uncomfortable with her personal life being a point of conversation at work, so wanted the topic at hand to move on as quickly as possible. Plus, she didn't mind having the increasingly rare chance to be Jane's partner again.
As the helicopter made its way to the crime scene, Dennis Abbott briefed his agents on the case.
"The body was found outside a men's club in Hill Country, Texas, called the Forager's Club. A park ranger found the body, and asked for our help, since murder is outside of their experience." Dennis explained as they flew to the site. "There is some confusion, too, because the victim is a young woman, but the Forager's Club leadership insists that she's not an employee. They further insist that no female guests are allowed on-site at the club. Ever."
"There's nothing else out here! Not for miles and miles!" Lisbon shouted in disbelief at the leadership's claim. "She had to have had contact with that club somehow!"
"Well reasoned, Lisbon!" Jane glowed with admiration, fully impressed with his astute partner. She had come so far over the many years they'd worked together. "I agree!"
Lisbon grinned, doing her best to control her infuriating endorphins, which were fluttering madly at Jane's acknowledgement. What am I, a puppy looking for praise?! She glowered to herself.
Once the team was on-site, it didn't take long for Jane to make an impression on the leadership at Forager's. Especially when he noticed how completely dismissive they were of Agent Lisbon. He deduced that they were discounting her importance and her intelligence simply because she was a woman. That reality angered him greatly, and he made a point to tweak each and every club member who openly underestimated her.
As Jane began his plan to find the victim's killer while also ensuring comeuppance for every sexist pig on the grounds at the club, Kim called Jane with an update. They'd ID'd the victim and were on their way to interview her sister.
"Good to hear your voice, Kim."
"Having trouble being understood again, Patrick?" She flirted, reprising his line from the island.
Jane glimmered and let go a short chuckle "Something like that. Will I see you tonight?"
"I hope so." She answered seductively.
"Mmmm… look forward to it. Bye Kim."
Jane continued strategizing. Things were going to plan.
Lisbon and Jane took a moment for lunch at the Forager's Club dining room. Though they shared some typical small talk, Teresa was definitely distracted - texting like crazy.
"Tell Pike I say 'Hi!'" Jane guessed correctly.
"How do you know it's Pike?" She asked, a bit defensively, before typing in "Jane says Hi."
"Yeah, he seems like a good guy." Patrick forced a smile.
"He is!" Teresa sparkled, heartened that her trusted partner had noticed that fact, too. It helped validate her own read on the personable agent, no matter how conflicted her heart was, about the blue eyes that were currently glistening at her.
"Good. Because you deserve to be with a good man."
"Thanks!" She smiled, despite sensing something in Patrick's tone. Typical 'Jane' self-image, assuming that any good man she deserved to be with was definitely not himself. She intentionally thought: "YOU are a good man." as she thanked him, hoping he would read that truth when he looked into her, as he always did.
Jane proceeded to sniff the hair of every waitress there, interrupting Lisbon's deep thoughts with his odd actions.
"What are you doing?" Teresa asked, bewildered at his latest quirk. This was unusually eccentric - even for him.
"Checking for the scent I smelled on the hair of the murder victim."
Lisbon shot him a look of confused disgust.
"Kim called. The sister says that the victim was gay, so I figured she stayed the night here, with a girl, and borrowed her shampoo. Find the shampoo, find the lover." Jane explained with a knowing shrug.
"Oh." Lisbon nodded.
Great. Kim called. She rolled her eyes. Even 100 miles wasn't far enough to have him to herself. Leaving Jane to his sniff-testing, she excused herself to check in with Abbott.
Dennis was on the hunt for a man named Kilgallan - the man was apparently in charge of the club's infamous clandestine 'fishing camp' brothel. Eventually, in the process of the investigation, he, Lisbon, and Jane happened upon the very cabin serviced by the victim, Madison Price - who had been working, off the books, as a call girl there. On the floor of that cabin, Jane found a coin that Abbott correctly identified as a golf ball marker.
"This marker is high-quality. Whoever was here last night must be a serious links man. But at a place like this, that could be a lot of people." Dennis noted.
"Meh!" Jane glimmered, "I think we can narrow it down." Caught up in the excitement of the new plan forming in his head, Jane didn't catch the way Lisbon was beaming at him with great pride.
She would never intentionally make any moves on him while he was with Kim, but Teresa couldn't hide how amazing she thought Jane was. She loved seeing him come to life like this when he had one of his crazy ideas.
Then she felt her phone vibrate with a text, and was immediately stricken with guilt. She had a date tonight with a wonderful man, and here she was drooling over her partner who was dating someone else. Way to go, Teresa, she thought, get ahold of yourself. The dueling chemicals between her affections for Jane and her new relationship with Marcus were suddenly blending to cause a bit of nausea. Anxious for a change of scenery, Lisbon drummed up an excuse:
"Can you boys handle the questioning? I have to call Cho."
"Sure thing, Lisbon. Tell Kimball he's missing all the fun here!" Dennis joked.
Teresa waved with a smile and exited to the woods outside. Before she could follow through on her chat with Cho, she got a call from Pike.
"I came looking for you but they said you're still in the woods? I'm disappointed!"
She smacked a palm to her forehead. She had lost track of the time, and had promised to call if there were any delays.
"I'm sorry. I don't know when I'm gonna be back." She silently reprimanded herself again for letting her unrequited feelings for Jane distract her from what may turn out to be a great relationship. "Could we do dinner tomorrow instead?
"No problem!" Pike bounced back, glad for the second chance. "What's holding you up?"
Teresa proceeded to tell him about the missing Mr. Kilgallan, and Pike offered a clever idea:
"Why not commandeer the use of some government satellites? We did just that on a big bust, last year, and it worked perfectly!"
"Check you out! Good looking and helpful!" Teresa growled flirtatiously.
"I look forward to dinner tomorrow, Babe!"
"Me too, Marcus. Sweet dreams!"
"My dreams are always sweet these days… They always involve you."
"Really!" she purred.
"I told you I wouldn't lie to you! G'nite Teresa!"
"Bye Marcus!"
Glowing, Teresa slipped her phone back into her pocket and marched to the Foragers office to check into Marcus's satellite idea. She completely missed seeing Jane's pained expression, as his head poked around the side of the open Cabin 9 door.
Patrick knew Marcus would be good for her, but he hadn't counted on the fierceness of his heart's turmoil at seeing her fall for the man. And to make things worse, the art squad agent had apparently come up with a notably shrewd idea that had impressed her - enough to procure the glow Jane had craved since he'd first seen it on her at the CBI; The expression of appreciation and awe that Lisbon wore when he'd so cleverly solved that first case. He had never seen her light up like that for anyone else. Until now.
Sigh. He had never been more morose about one of his plans coming together.
Jane took a deep breath and put on his showman face, excitedly sharing his Forager's plan with Abbott and Lisbon, along with Cho and Fischer back at the FBI, via conference call.
Phase one involved Abbott meeting up with a tax evader in cabin 9 at the fishing camp to discuss a fake bribe.
The next step involved Jane telling the camp owner that he'd be happy to provide a magic show in place of the speaker they'd had to cancel, on account of the investigation.
"It's the least I could do after the trouble I've caused." He sealed the deal by impressing the club president with a couple of close-up tricks, leading the man to confirm the booking with Abbott and Jane.
Lisbon caught up with them just after. She had discovered from the tech team that the victim may have had an audio recording on her phone that could have captured her own murder, but the process to retrieve the file from her damaged phone would take weeks.
"No need." Jane said with typical confidence. "We're gonna identify the killer today."
"How?" She had to hear this - especially if it got her back to Austin in time for dinner tomorrow.
"I'm gonna do a routine onstage with four objects I'll say I got from the club's lost and found. One of those will be Madison's phone. The killer will recognize it and try to pick it up at the lost and found, where we will be waiting." He glimmered at his own genius, waiting for the typical kudos - or teases - from his favorite partner. He didn't want to admit how much he still craved her acceptance and validation.
"Nice!" Lisbon was truly impressed! Both with the plan and with the sparkle in her crazy partner's eyes.
During the magic show that night, Jane called Lisbon up to the stage:
"I'm gonna need the assistance of the irreplaceable special agent Teresa Lisbon!"
As Teresa jogged up to the stage, Jane worked determinedly to banter to the crowd, while trying not to think about how true that statement was. His Lisbon was indeed irreplaceable. He could play house with Kim and try to trick himself about that, but he knew it would never be the same. Lisbon would always have his heart. Despite that, he told himself, he could never have her. She deserved the very best, and the very best was definitely NOT him.
Patrick was mostly successful with muting his feelings during the gag, but almost slipped up as Teresa tried hilariously to guide him to a chair while he was blindfolded.
"Just over here." Teresa laughed at the absurdity of the scene, as Jane tried to blindly find the chair, staggering like a drunken fool but trying to stay sly like a showman.
He spoke encouragement to his partner throughout this step of the act, in quiet, soothing tones. He knew how nervous she got in front of crowds, and he was determined to diffuse those nerves: "You're doing good Lisbon, you're doing good. Stay calm. Just relax just... let your beauty show."
The show must go on, so Teresa didn't have time to process that comment about beauty, and Patrick didn't have time to regret letting it slip. Waiting in the back, with Abbott, were Cho and Fischer - who'd flown in for the show and subsequent take-down. All of them were much too far away to have heard the comment, which was a relief to the showman's subconscious.
At the end of the gag, Abbott had lured the killer with the victim's phone, smiling as he heard the man being tackled outside the cabin door by his agents.
"Et voilà!" Jane glowed with glee as he presented the killer to Abbott.
The next evening, back at headquarters, Dennis was chortling with Jane at his couch, reveling in the fun he'd had during the investigations at the Forager's Club - from Jane's stage show to the tackling noises outside Cabin 9.
After Dennis was out of sight, Lisbon snuck in, wearing a stunning black mini-dress, scurrying to get her keys, unnoticed, and leave for a very delayed dinner with Marcus. Jane knew he had to stay true to his plan, but nonetheless could not let her go without a word tonight - not after seeing her wrapped in that dress.
"Look at you!"
"Don't start."
"I'm not starting. You look beautiful!" His eyes stayed wide, for as long as she was looking elsewhere. "I hope he's taking you someplace nice."
"Cloth napkins and everything!" She grinned, obviously impressed.
"Fancy!" Jane smiled, then laid back down, seemingly unaffected. "Well, you have a great time."
"Night Jane!" She said, intentionally prolonging her exit, giving her partner a chance to offer any other compliments, or maybe… hopefully… make some comment about wishing she'd go to dinner with him sometime.
"Night Teresa!" was all he said.
Lisbon started for the elevator slowly, a part of her secretly hoping Jane would ask her to stay. She allowed a brief, pained look to filter through on her face when he simply allowed her to go, without another word.
Teresa was truly intrigued by Marcus Pike, and she had no idea what she was expecting from Jane. Still, she felt strangely hollow as the elevator doors closed, cruelly shutting Patrick off from her sight, and symbolically cutting the cord of their once inseparable friendship.
Jane remained alone at the FBI, lying on his couch. It was clear that Teresa was happy, and also that Pike was doing a great job of treating her right, so far. Patrick was proud of himself for following through on his plan - this would be best for her. Still, he had to fight hard to keep from crying. Why couldn't he be the man who had her on his arm tonight?
You can do this, Boy Wonder… Jane thought to himself, despite his growing misery. He did not sleep a wink.