Comfortably seated before CBI monitors in the very hotel room that Clair Wolcott had been killed in, Ronnie drew her knees up to her chest and leaned her head back against the hard wood of the chair. The monitors displayed a somewhat grainy view of the spa bar, where numerous wealthy men and women sleazed from table to table.

"Here he comes." Seated next to her, Jane leaned in close, a wicked grin on his face.

Behind them, Lisbon paced on the stained rug. "Easy on the chit chat," She rubbed a hand through her hair. "Don't distract him."

On the monitor, a man in black stepped into the bar.

From the toes of his patent leather shoes to the top of his over-gelled head, Kimball Cho had entered with an aura of dark mystery.

Ronnie saw him swipe his sunglasses off and swagger into the room, confidence ebbing from every pore. She couldn't help the reflexive snort of laughter. "You look like such a douche, Cho."

Jane elbowed her, also enjoying the view. "That's the point. Hush, don't get into his head."

Holding her tongue, Ronnie watched with the greatest delight as her normally subdued partner made his presence known, sauntering right up to the bar. He took a slow turn, leaning against the bar with an air of arrogance. "I'm in position."

Jane clapped his hands together excitedly. "Okay. Look for a likely target."

"Yeah, someone who looks like she'd be into tall, dark, and jerkish." Ronnie agreed, and promptly heard Rigsby snicker behind her.

"Will do." Whether or not Cho was responding to her or to Jane or both remained uncertain, but he rolled with it. They saw him turn back to the bartender. "Hey. Bourbon on the rocks, make it a double."

Ronnie recognized his mean interview voice, the one he used to press particularly abhorrent men into an admission.

He continued to scan the room before finally alighting on two women at a table nearby, both attractively dressed and pleasant looking. "Those two will do, I guess."

Ronnie manipulated a camera view to highlight the table as Jane praised Cho's choice.

"Good; now listen up. Relax, and I'm gonna talk you right through this. Keep it smooth. You have to be calm and confident."

Cho was already moving. "Yeah, you told me that already. I have the general idea." He stalked straight towards the table.

Thoroughly enjoying this venture out of his comfort zone, Ronnie leaned in towards the mic. "Jeez, Cho, you look like you're going to kill them."

Jane smacked her away. "He's doing fine, stop psyching him out."

Rigsby leaned in between them and flashed Ronnie a teasing smirk. "So, you're saying this wouldn't work on you?"

She shivered with discomfort at the thought of a strange man marching up to her with that much surety and assertiveness. If at any point a man made her feel like prey caught in a trap, she'd probably be instinctively forced to flip the script. That's how it had always been before. "I think I'd shoot him."

"Hello, ladies." Cho's voice sounded through the speaker. "I'll be right with you." With that, he turned away from the table and left them flabbergasted and completely intrigued behind him. He snagged a waitress and pulled a wad of bills out of his pocket. "Start a tab for me, would you? Room 206." He passed her a few of the bills. "That's for you." Before the waitress could fully respond, he was back at the table again.

"Hi. My name's Kimball, what are your names?" He gestured to the one on his right. "You first."

Confident, assertive, completely arrogant—Cho played quite the convincing fiend.

Ronnie chortled in complete shock. "Gol-ly this is amazing. Does anyone have popcorn?"

"Darby—"

"Darby?"

"Sarabeth."

"Hey, Sarabeth." Cho rolled right on as though he hadn't heard his partner sniggering immaturely in his ear. "Tell me about yourselves." He took a seat at their table as though he had no awareness of the utter bewilderment—and heightening interest—of the women before him.

While they stammered their way into a very unexpected conversation, Jane shrugged acquiescently at the monitor. "Well, that's not exactly textbook, but he figured it out."

Rigsby rose from his chair once more in disbelief behind them. "That worked? 'Hello, ladies'?"

"Eh, he's kickin' it old school." He flashed a smile at Lisbon, who ignored him for the sake of noticing a newcomer on the monitor.

"There's Fricke."

"Where?" Van Pelt leaned over Ronnie's shoulder.

"With the two blondes."

Paul Fricke was seating himself and his two companions at a table in the back, ignorant of Cho's own double-the-fun exploits.

Rigbsy uttered a sigh of exasperation. "I don't believe this guy. I give up. I do not understand women." He brushed past Van Pelt and threw himself down on the couch. "Never have, never well. Seems like the dumber you treat them, the better they like it."

Grace stared at him. "They're drunk women. You can't generalize all women in...general."

Meanwhile, Lisbon was glaring at Jane. "This is your fault." She hissed.

"No it's not, I'm just sitting here."

Ronnie rolled her eyes to the ceiling and stretched her shoulders. "They're insecure women, Rigbsy. A confidant woman will see you eye to eye if you just set the standard at respect."

He grumbled incoherently to himself in response.

A few long moments passed before Jane picked his moment. "Here we go. This is where we bring it. Time for phase two."

"Roger that." Cho answered, not at all caring that Darby and Sarabeth could hear him. "Phase two coming up."

"What's phase two?"

"Smooth work, Cho." Ronnie muttered.

Cho just leaned in to Darby and whispered something in her ear that had her expression turning instantly sour.

"Let's go, Sarabeth."

"What did he say?" Both women left the table without another word, one of them appalled by whatever Cho had uttered and the other somewhat aroused by it.

"Smooth work, Cho." Ronnie amended gleefully as he was left alone, sitting by himself. She didn't even want to know what he said to turn their attentions off cold.

Meanwhile, Jane was all but giggling.

"What did he say? I didn't hear it." Van Pelt wondered.

Still chuckling, Jane started to tell her and then changed his mind. "You don't want to know."

Cho had found his way back to the bar, nursing a new drink. A few chairs over, Katie had ended her shift by grabbing a glass of wine before retiring, and heard him sighing dejectedly to himself.

"Struck out, huh?" She inquired sweetly.

"Just unlucky in love," Cho told her. "Always have been."

Ronnie wondered at that. Cover or not, she'd never seen him with a woman. In all the years they'd worked together, she'd never actually noticed him go on a date. They weren't together all the time, and life wasn't all about work, but if he'd ever had a girlfriend, he hadn't mentioned it to her.

"I know how that goes." Katie murmured.

"Same story, huh?"

She smiled bitterly down into her drink. "Same story." In the next second, she was gazing over her shoulder at Fricke, watching through sad eyes as he laughed the night away with two blonde women.

Cho turned to look. "That guy?"

"Yeah."

"No offense, but I've been watching him operate this evening and the guy seems like kind of a creep. A player, no doubt, but a creep." Cho informed her sincerely.

She shook her head, looking embarrassed. "This isn't who he is. When we were together he was a sweet, caring, generous man. It was me who screwed it up. We had this terrible fight—I said some mean things. Mean things. All this is an attempt to prove me wrong, I guess." Her eyes found Fricke again.

"If I had a woman like you in love with me, you could say whatever you like." Cho returned flatly. "I wouldn't be out running around."

Ronnie pretended to fan her face. "Gosh, that was hot, Cho. Toxic, but hot."

Van Pelt finally laughed in agreement, while Jane just gave them both a wounded look. "He's being romantic."

"You know what we need to do? We need to make him jealous." Cho decided abruptly. "Let him see you out and about, enjoying yourself with another man."

"Smoooooooooothe work, Cho." Sooner or later, Ronnie would be just annoying enough to cause him to break character. It was a long running bet, since the beginning of their time working together. If one of them could get the other to break character undercover, the other bought drinks. Neither had won yet, but neither had too many opportunities to attempt to win.

Startled, Katie stared at him. "Are you hitting on me?"

"Yes I am." Cho returned as the waitress giggled shyly. "It's a good plan, isn't it."

"The kid's a natural." Jane cheered. "Look at him; look at him go." He grinned at Ronnie. "Your boy Cho's got game. The Cho. No business like Cho business."

Ronnie grinned back. "Now imagine Rigsby in there douching it up. No competition."

"Hey!"

Ronnie got up, grabbing the keycard to 206 as Cho laid out the plan for Katie. "That's my cue. See you guys." She left the room, sadly unable to hear any more of Cho's delightful douchebaggery, and headed for the elevator.

When she approached the door to 206, she could hear Katie's nervous laughter coming down the hall behind her, emphasized by Cho's own deep notes every once in a while.

Ronnie let herself in and pulled out a chair at the desk and setting up her laptop. She called Lisbon to let her know that she had a recording feed open to the hotel room they were in, and then hung up just as the door burst open.

Cho and Katie spilled into the room, Katie still high on excitement and Cho instantly buckling down into work mode. "Okay, we're in the room." He dropped Katie's arm and marched straight to Ronnie, checking her computer screen. "Anything yet?"

Katie looked bewildered, totally disarmed by the unexpected turn of events. "What? Who is she? What's going on?"

Cho, however, was listening to the team on his ear piece, propping his hands on his hips and looking aggravated. "You hope?"

"Who are you talking to? Who is she?" Katie smiled nervously at Ronnie, who offered a gentle wave back.

"My colleagues." Cho stated plainly.

"Okay. Who are they?" The waitress seemed on the verge of tears.

Cho pulled his badge from his jacket. "We're state agents, ma'am. We're conducting an undercover operation regarding the Wolcott murder case."

"I don't understand."

"I apologize for the deception." Cho responded simply.

"You mean, you're not—you don't—"

"No ma'am."

"Oh. I'm so embarrassed." Katie let out another mortified laugh.

"That's understandable."

Ronnie's mouth dropped open at her partner's complete lack of situational awareness as Katie burst into tears. "Cho!"

Bewildered, his wide eyes flashed to hers. "What?"

"Some detective you are. Watch the computer." Ronnie jumped up from her chair, grabbing him by the arm and pushing him down into it as he stammered in utter confusion. She gave him an annoyed glare and went to console the poor woman, wrapping her arms around her loosely.

"Hi, Katie, I'm Ronnie. I know this has been upsetting, and I'm sorry." Ronnie grabbed the tissue box from the nightstand. "None of this was intended to embarrass you, okay? If it helps, I'll be embarrassing my friend Cho about the way he's all dressed up for years to come. I mean look at him."

The longer Ronnie talked, pulling attention away from the awkwardness of the situation, the quieter Katie's sobs became. Ronnie smoothed a calming hand down the woman's arm and pointed at Cho with the other. "He looks like Elon Musk, I mean come on."

Cho stared at her in disbelief. "Elon Musk?"

Katie actually laughed that time.

Ronnie let the woman go and sat herself down on the edge of the bed. "You should have seen the way he pulled this operation off tonight. Like a future poster boy for domestic abuse."

Cho threw a hand up indignantly. "Why are you sacrificing me over this?"

Ronnie nodded towards Katie. "Because you acted like an ass to the woman you exploited. Get over here and have a human conversation."

He quieted at that, and got up from the desk just as the monitor showed the maître d' bursting into the team's hotel room.

the MENTALIST

Moments later, Cho sat on the floor against the foot of the bed, Katie sitting next to him. "The problem is, I loved Paul." She muttered. "I know how he seems and I know how he's been, but at the end of the day, when I think of who I really wanna be with—it's him. That's crazy, huh?" She tilted her head to look at Cho.

Cho was stewing in his punishment, refusing to look at her.

Ronnie glanced up from where she sat before the laptop where she'd just seen the killer be arrested and interviewed.

Katie sighed wistfully. "Love is crazy I guess."

Cho met Ronnie's eyes.

For a second, she thought she felt more from that look than just bored annoyance.

But then Cho glanced away. "No, it isn't. You should seek psychiatric help."

Katie burst out laughing, actually surprising Cho into a pleased smile, collapsing against him and leaning her head against his shoulder comfortably. He let it happen, a trace of the smile still on his lips.

Ronnie rolled her eyes and turned away.

"You know, your partner's right, you really do look like a douchey Elon Musk."

[end of episode fourteen]

FAIR WARNING: if anybody knows the next episode very well, please adjust your expectations. I'll be rewriting almost all of the casework, but it will be to include Ronnie and Cho going undercover.