It was with extreme prejudice that Jane had agreed to hear Danny's plan for Alex and the gag that would hopefully get eyes and ears on the interior of Pike's house.

They remained at the FBI offices, for the meeting. Jane had reasoned that it was easier to access necessary information on the case that way. Plus, he freely admitted that the house was off-limits. He didn't want Alex anywhere near his family's home.

To Jane's surprise, Alex's response to being barred from his estranged son's residence was to, in turn, readily agree that he had, indeed, been a pathetic father. The man went further, groveling for forgiveness, which Jane actually had expected. A pathetic half-baked attempt to get away with his past transgressions, no doubt.

Alex claimed that his reasoning, in part, for agreeing to Danny's plan was that he knew he would never be able to convince Jane of the legitimacy of his regrets for past neglect and abuse by just telling him. He hoped it would have more impact if he showed him instead, by helping to rescue his family. "It's not enough to tell you, I have to show you," he said. Jane was temporarily stunned at hearing his marquee phrase being uttered by his estranged father. But then, calling his bluff, he answered tightly: "Try me."

Alex spent the next several minutes putting his feelings, apologies, and excuses into words. He ended with sincere and glowing words of pride for his grown son, who had made something of himself and found happiness despite Alex's lack of parenting.

Jane was in disbelief at hearing supportive words of any kind fall from his father's mouth, and viewed Alex's speech as utter tripe - not trusting the snake oil aficionado any further than he could throw him.

"Son," Alex started.

"NEVER call me that!" Jane snarled suddenly, cutting him off and causing poor Danny to jump with a start.

Magnanimously, Alex responded with an even tone. "I deserved that. I'm sorry, Paddy… I mean… I suppose you prefer Patrick now?"

"Yes, please," he replied with a piercing stare. "Paddy is a name reserved for only the dearest old friends and loved ones from my past. Outside of Angela and perhaps Danny, Sam or Pete, everyone else calls me Patrick or just Jane."

Trying but failing to hide his hurt at the backhanded barb his biological offspring had just landed in him, Alex continued. "I deserved that, too... So, Patrick, I can make this undercover thing happen. Danny has the details for the rest of the gag."

"That's true!" Danny chimed in, relieved to be through the previous moment of family tension. Danny briefly took Jane aside, reminding him of what was at stake, and reminding him how much they needed Alex's help right now. Jane calmed enough to hear out their plan. Though he still didn't trust Alex, he had come to trust Danny over the past several years. So, he agreed to listen - but warned that he would chime in with his own thoughts, as he felt necessary.

Danny nodded, and started his run-through. "For backup and for eyes on the outside of the house, Abbott has gotten help from the DC streets department to allow undercover agents to work a fake road project near the house. With disguises being a possibility for those roles, Cho said the Lisbons, and also Sam & Pete, would be safe to join in. They will scope out the house a day or two before, then will keep eyes on the place when Alex arrives and while he's inside. Abbott says them just being there will help keep Alex and your family safe, since there are so many possible witnesses nearby."

"That's smart!" Jane agreed, glad to hear that Abbott's connections had helped, and that more of the people he knew and trusted were able to be involved.

With care and with pride, Danny began explaining the finer points of his grand scheme, which involved Alex playing the part of a cleaning products salesman, and convincing Pike to sit through a free demonstration.

Jane sat thoughtfully, eyebrows squeezing together in concentration, with a finger to his chin. He stifled a snort, at the last part - thinking that Alex would most likely be simply so annoying that Pike would say yes, if only to finally get the old geezer off his doorstep. Then he shared a thought.

"So, Alex, you should use some background music during your schtick." Jane handed Alex a CD of Willie Shubert tunes. "Teresa is an avid fan of this artist and if she was within ear-shot she would know immediately that something was up."

Jane went on to explain that, even when Teresa was dating Pike, the dolt was never interested in her musical tastes - actually, he'd never paid much attention to any of her likes or opinions, so wouldn't catch on - but that Teresa would snap to attention at the first note from Willie's saxophone, she was so familiar with his playing. Jane was one of the few people who knew about her love of smooth jazz stylings, so he hoped she would take the hint that he was nearby once she heard the music playing.

Alex agreed to work that into the sales pitch. He explained that he would then commit as many details of the house - and who, if anyone, he saw there - to memory. "Also, I'll need some clue to 'accidentally' leave behind that would only be decodable by Lisbon, and most likely not noticed by Pike."

At that, Jane had an idea. With the wide, lazy smile of a man in love, he conveyed the story of Teresa's first visit to the carnival, with the climactic scene being the carny ring toss gambit - complete with the ridiculous pink stuffed gorilla. After an affectionate chuckle at the pleasant memory of those early days he and his love had shared, his eyes grew sad again with concern for his current reality.

Determinedly, he shifted back to focused, planning mode. "So, the clue Alex mentioned could be a small plush pink gorilla. Would be easy to leave it with Pike, as an advertisement and 'free gift' from his company. Maybe the gorilla is the company mascot? Maybe a business card is attached or sewn inside?" He took a moment to think, tapping his pursed lips, then snapped his fingers decisively. "The business card should feature a pink gorilla logo, with 'Alex Main, traveling salesman' on the front, Teresa might put two and two together just from that! I'll think of some code or shorthand or hand drawn clue for the back of the card, too."

Danny and Alex nodded, taking notes as Jane went on.

"My thought is that if Pike truly believes they are his family," he shivered with disgust at the thought of that psychopath feigning any relationship at all with any of his loves, "he might give the stuffed toy to one of the children to try and gain favor. But once Teresa catches sight of a pink gorilla - especially if it comes on the heels of Willie Shubert music - she will know beyond doubt that both are signals from me. My hope is that she would closely examine the toy and find the business card clue inside. BUT the beauty of the business card angle is that Alex can leave multiple cards at the house, upping the chances of one of them being seen by her or the kids."

Danny chimed in. "Okay this might be too over the top, but I remember Teresa talking about loving movies?

"Yes! She especially loves those 80's films where the geek gets the girl. Though, I'm not sure what that says about me…" All three men shared a quick chuckle at that.

"Very funny!" Danny snickered, "But it's one of those exact films that came to mind just now. Isn't 'Say Anything' the one where the dude stands holding the boombox outside the chick's window?"

"It is…" Jane was curious where this was going. "It's actually one of her all-time favorites."

When they'd watched it together the first time, Jane had told Lisbon that her overachieving-self reminded him of the female lead. While he didn't favor kickboxing, like Jon Cusack's character, he had noted, too, that his background was nonetheless equally 'outsider' and that their pairing might seem equally unlikely, and equally romantic.

"So," Danny speculated, "What if the tagline on the pink gorilla business cards is: 'Say anything! We'll launch an assault on grime!'?" He grinned, with his outward-facing palms fanning to the sides, as if painting a picture of the design into the air.

"It's a believable tagline, I'll give you that." Jane spoke thoughtfully, still thinking it over. "And it would definitely be something she would notice – with the play on the words 'grime' and 'crime…' and the mention of assault might give her pause…" He still wasn't convinced that she would figure all of these clues out in time to take cover before Cho's entry team breached the house, though. He needed something totally obvious, and something that could happen precisely on the timeline grid they'd developed for the whole operation. It couldn't be left at all to chance - Lisbon's firm and timely knowledge that it was the good guys breaking down the door. His face slowly grew into a huge smile and he started laughing at some thought.

Amused, Danny called out, "This should be good - Spill!"

"Okay, speaking of 'too over the top,' what if, minutes before the breach, I reenact the pivotal scene from the movie. Maybe I'm a road crew guy on a lunch break? Or I could be checking for gas lines that branch into his yard from the street? Some excuse that allows me to position myself outside the house nearest to whatever window Alex guesses is the closest to Lisbon, with a boombox blasting our wedding song? Pike tried to crash the wedding itself, but was nowhere near the reception, so has no idea and wouldn't recognize it. Teresa should be hyper-attentive by this point - especially if the gorilla/business card exchange works smoothly. With any luck, Pike will just assume it's music coming from the road construction site. For insurance, though, I'll scheme up some diversion with the 'road crew' to redirect the oaf if something doesn't feel right."

Alex spoke up, quoting one of his favorite movie lines, then: "It's so crazy, it Just. Might. Work!"

Meanwhile, in Pike's basement, little Meghan had come clean about the 'secret passageway' she found when she'd gotten her 'magic water.' It turned out that a forgotten door in the ceiling of the basement utility room - made accessible by the near position of some climbable furnace ductwork - led to a crawlspace. That narrow tunnel led beneath the kitchen (where she had wiggled through an opening, at the base of the far cabinets, to get to the 'magic water machine') and ended within Pike's 'special room' via a slightly-larger-than-Meghan-sized air intake, left disconnected and loose, embedded in the floor of a doorless storage closet.

One night, Lisbon had slowly snuck through that very tight passageway to obtain a loaded 'glockenspiel.' In its place, she had left a frighteningly realistic 'play gun' she'd found in Pike's poor excuse for a toy box, downstairs.

(When she'd first found the toy, she had rolled her eyes. Pike was much too dense to realize that no child of Jane's would ever play with guns. And even though they knew she carried them, the kids also knew that they weren't to be played with. She had taught them what they needed to know about gun safety at their ages, and they knew the weapons were only to be handled by trained individuals.)

Stealthily, she'd crept back to the opening, lowered herself into the passage, and replaced the air vent (in the nick of time, with Pike's voice getting ever closer as he spoke into his phone). Once she had shimmied back through the furnace room door, she'd found a safe, but accessible-to-her, hiding place for the firearm.

During their clandestine trips through the passage, Lisbon and Meghan had noticed that sound traveled more freely from upstairs to the basement when that ceiling door by the furnace was left open. That inspired in Teresa both excitement at being better able to hear what was going on in the special room, AND fear that if they forgot to close the door, Pike might notice noises from the vent in the closet, as well as discovering their secret passage.

On the day of the FBI's reconnaissance mission, the fake road crew were in full construction gear, working loudly and realistically in front of the house next door. Annie was especially believable with her tough-girl shades and huge wad of chewing gum, and no one would dare mess with Pete in his current getup.

In the moments before Alex's planned arrival, Cho, Abbott, Danny and Jane kept digital eyes and ears on all sides of the house from a fake 'utility van' command center one block away. The whole team was careful to use a secured communication channel that had come into use well after Pike's dismissal from the agency, to avoid him listening in or catching a fragment of the wrong conversation.

Jane was too amped up for his own good. He couldn't stand knowing that Teresa and the kids were so close to him, yet he still couldn't make contact or hold them. It was absolute torture. Having Alex to worry about was actually a welcome distraction.

Just after lunchtime, Alex pulled his 'Pink Gorilla Cleaners' car into Pike's driveway. After a few minutes of digging in the trunk of the car for his presentation materials, he walked up the path, climbed the three porch steps, and cheerfully knocked on the front door with all the enthusiasm of a traveling salesman from yesteryear.

It was not Marcus Pike who answered the door.

"Who the hell's this guy?" Cho asked with irritation. They didn't need any surprises today.

Abbott leaned closer to the screen. "Ah! That's Pike's old buddy Eric. They were at Quantico together, but Eric flunked out. Once Pike was arrested, Eric bought the house from him - keeping the property out of the courts and out of any future lawsuits stemming from Pike's crimes. It's also why the authorities weren't all that insistent on thoroughly searching the place when Pike escaped." Abbott said with annoyance. "They did a quick walk through, but since the house was no longer in his name, they didn't push the issue, figuring he was making a run for the border."

"So is Pike not even home?" Cho wondered.

"Oh, he's there. Trust me." Jane said with confidence and an icy glare. "He's all about control. No way he would leave his prizes unguarded even for a moment - not even with a good friend." Jane's eyes never left the front door camera the whole time he spoke. He was so focused, that Cho wondered if the fake psychic was actually attempting to send mental messages to Lisbon.

The man at the door, 'Eric,' as Abbott had called him, held up his hands as if to wave off Alex's offer of a free demonstration. After Alex tried harder to make the sale, feigning some guilt trip about needing to get more demos to keep his job, Eric disappeared into the house.

Just as Jane's stomach had begun to drop, thinking that Danny's plan had failed, another face peered angrily out of the front doorway. It was Pike, and he had had enough of this crazy old man drawing attention to the house - especially with the construction workers starting to stare. So, he hastily agreed to a demonstration so that the old coot would be off his doorstep.

After a wave of disgust at seeing Pike, Jane had to laugh at the persistence of his old man. Patrick's instincts had been right in that Alex's annoyingly insistent demeanor was what had gotten him in the door.

Inside the house, Alex was talking up a storm while arranging his product line on the kitchen table. His earnest delivery and blundering persona were so believable that Pike and Eric didn't even notice when the old man's preparations included some slight-of-hand, with the affixing of a postage-stamp-sized listening device to the underside of that same table.

Getting the attention of the two men, he powered up his small Bluetooth speaker and started his longish sales pitch and demo.

Downstairs, Lisbon had sent the kids to one of the spare bedrooms, telling them it was a game and that they needed to hide and stay quiet until she came back. She had gotten spooked by some loud voices at the front door, and wanted the kids tucked away for safety (and so that she could prop open the door above the utility room to see what trouble she could hear from upstairs). She also checked on her glock, ensuring it was in place in case she needed it.

Standing just below the opening in the ceiling, Lisbon strained to distinguish the sounds from upstairs. She heard Pike and his friend, whom she now realized really was 'Eric' and not 'Erica,' along with a new male voice. The new voice sounded much older, but there was something oddly familiar about it.

Just as she was getting irritated with competing noise from the road construction that was happening nearby, she heard something from the utility room hatch that snapped her to attention immediately. "That's Willie!" She whispered to herself. If only she could place that third voice. What was so familiar about the old man?

She desperately needed to get a look. If she could observe from the kitchen opening without being seen that would be ideal. But, even if that was too risky she would still have a clear view from the closet floor in the special room. Quickly, Teresa tucked the gun in her waistband, and briefly checked in with the kids.

"Hi loves! How are you doing in here?"

Meghan answered for both of them. Brendan insisted on remaining silent, because Mommy had said so. And he wanted to win the game. "We're fine, Mommy! Is the game almost over?"

"Well, dear, the game is changing!" Lisbon said with as much manufactured excitement as she could muster.

Meghan wasn't buying it. "Mommy, is everything okay?"

Lisbon loved her little Jane so much. God she was just like her father - nothing got by her. Teresa smiled and sat down beside her young mind-reader. "Everything will eventually be okay, sweet Meghan, but right now Mommy has to be sneaky in order to keep us safe."

"From Mr. Marcus?"

"Yes, love. You know how we've been pretending since we got here?"

"Yes, Mommy."

"Well, that's because Mr. Marcus is a very dangerous man, who is keeping us hidden from Daddy in order to hurt his feelings."

Meghan suddenly looked hurt. "That's not nice! Poor Daddy!" Her eyes got round and shiny just thinking about it.

"No, it's not. I have to get closer to the upstairs so that I can hear what is being said up there about Daddy's surprise today, but I can't risk Mr. Marcus getting suspicious at hearing you or Brendan too loudly with the door left open behind me."

"I will make sure to stay quiet Mommy. And Brendan really wants to win the quiet game, so he won't make noise either."

"Thank you, sweet Meghan. I knew I could count on you!" Teresa flashed a grin to her daughter, who was looking quite proud of herself indeed. Then Lisbon slipped into the passageway, as silently as possible.