She was standing in front of the door of his office, staring at the nametag in front of her that read 'Marcus Pike', planning on knocking on the door. Emphasize the word 'planning', because she was definitely going to knock on his door, but she couldn't find the courage to do so. Last time she'd seen Marcus, she had behaved like a total bitch and she had said some nasty things to him.

And then she finally decided to take action, but instead of knocking, she just opened the door. Her body was screaming to run, yet she was paralyzed looking at him. He sat at his desk with his phone sticked to his ear. She strained to keep her gait casual as her heartbeat hammered in her ears.

"Yeah, right. Bring him to the place we've talked about. No, the other place. " he said, looked up and noticed her awkwardly standing in the doorway.

"Oh, I gotta go, give me an update as soon as you've got one. Don't forget." he ended the conversation and put his phone away in one of the pockets of his trousers. He then looked at her with a pleased look.

"Teresa. What a surprise. I wasn't expecting to see you here."

"Ehm, I wanted to talk to you about something, but I see you're busy. We can talk later." she bit her lower lip. In fact, she was hoping he'd let her stay. They could get some coffee, go to the park, do it all again. But this time, in a manner that was nice for the both of them. 

"Yeah, you're right. We'll talk later." he smiled, gently pushed her out of the way and closed his office door behind him. He waved at her, turned his back and walked in the direction of the elevators. Lisbon sighed in disappointment, not believing he'd just impassively walk away from her like that. That was the second guy today who had rejected her, and she had enough of it. Well, it wasn't sure if Jane was actually cheating on her. But what other reason would there be to go with an attractive looking woman without telling her? It couldn't have gotten something to do with Red John, could it? No, Red John has been dead for a couple of years, there was absolutely no way... And other than that, Jane hadn't even called her to tell her he was going with that woman, to even tell her he was going somewhere. No, he was definitely cheating on her, but that wasn't Jane-like, was it?

She just needed someone to talk to, to express her how she felt, to hear someone else's opinion. Now it might not have been the greatest idea to seek help at her ex-fiance's office, but she knew he'd take cases like these serious. Yet, he was leaving right now. 

"Wait! Marcus, I think Jane is cheating on me. Please, just..." she confessed, ashamed of the choice of words, she wasn't even sure if Jane was really cheating on her.

He stopped in the middle of the hallway, smiled with his mouth shut but made the smile disappear again before turning around to face her. "Cheating on you?"

-

"What is your name?" asked Jane. They were walking in the city, slipping through the enormous crowd, a river of people all moving in different directions. Still focusing on the back of the woman walking in front of him, he observed people walking past him from the corners of his eyes; business men talking on the phone, late-comers hurrying to get on time, kids who lost their parents in the crowd, couples arguing, couples holding hands, the list doesn't end. The couples reminded him of Lisbon. Was it okay for him to go with this strange woman? Lisbon knew him, she knew he wouldn't possibly cheat on her, right? 

"Aliah." 

"Nice to meet you."

"Right. You can stop honeying me Patrick." 

Well, this woman surely wasn't the brightest apple at home. She did look quite fancy though, her milky white jacket and sky blue trousers with two black stripes on both sides definitely fell out. Which meant she had either a well paying job, or a husband with a hell of a fortune. But, he hadn't seen a wedding ring, which meant she wasn't married, or she was hiding it from him. 

"So, where are we going?"

"Shut up." she snarled.

"Only because you asked so nicely." he mocked, pulling out his phone from his pocket, meaning to call Lisbon to give her an update on the news. Abruptly, Aliah stood still, turned around, and looked at him with eyes narrowed to crinkled slits.

"You can't use that thing now."

"Why?"

"Because I told you so. Now give me the phone." she said, reaching out to fetch it from him. People around them gave the two weird looks, but kept on walking as they assumed it was just one of the thousand couples having an argument on the streets. "You don't wanna cause a scene, do you?"

He shrugged. "Well, that's what I usually do..."

"Give it to me. You'll get it back later." he knew she was lying, but he didn't really have a choice since one; everyone was looking at them, and two; this was the only way to get to see his daughter again, if she was still alive. So he handed the only way of getting in communication with Lisbon over to Aliah, who put it in her pocket. Then, she turned around elegantly, and continued walking. 

-

Marcus poured in some coffee in a plastic cup before he sat down on his comfortable looking desk chair. She was sitting on a rather uncomfortable plastic chair next to him. He had asked if she wanted to trade chairs, but she declined politely. He wasn't her boyfriend anymore, so she didn't want him to act like one.
The office looked, apart from the swivel chair she was sitting on, quite fancy in her opinion. Chaotic, but fancy. On the grey desk in front of her sat a desktop computer, a notebook lying open, and a stack of papers sitting under a turtle-shaped paperweight. In a corner the air conditioner was blasting at medium. A bookshelf, bursting with books was in a corner, with yet another stack of papers under a paperweight that was shaped to look like a tuft of grass. A few pens were lying on the papers, but some had fallen onto the top of the bookshelf.

"So you think Jane is cheating on you?" he began, peering Lisbon's way as he drank his coffee slowly.

"I don't know. There was this fan who saw Jane leaving with an other woman. He hasn't called or texted me yet and I'm worried he's cheating on me..." she didn't even know why she was telling him this, but she somehow felt safe with him - not to mention he was a great listener too. It reminded her of the little talks they used to have after work, when they were still in a relationship. Look, she was sure she didn't have a crush on him, but talking with him - having someone who listens to you without  judging, is what she really needed.

He nodded and took another sip of his coffee. "Have you tried calling him yet?"

Snap, why hasn't she thought of that?

"Well..."

"Why don't you try? I'll get us something to eat from the canteen while you're calling him. What would you like?" he got up and walked over to the door, opened it, and waited.

"Nothing, but thanks anyway." she replied, and shot him a closed-mouthed smile. She really wasn't hungry right now, all because of this trouble, ugh.

"Okay. I'm gonna get myself a nice sandwich, sure you don't want one?"

"Really, i'm okay."

"Okay. I'll be back in a minute." he said, and then left the room, shutting the door behind her to give her some privacy.

She picked up her phone that she had laid on Marcus's desk, and wiped the screen awake. After scrolling through numberless contacts with some she didn't know the name of, she clicked on his name, and dialed it, and waited.

Beep. Beep. Beep.

There was some sound coming from the side, meaning he had picked up the phone. She let out a deep sigh of relief, happy he at least answered his phone.

"Jane? Lisbon here. Where are you?" she asked, sounding stern and determinded. He was in trouble, and she was gonna let him know.

"Patrick is pretty much occupied at the minute. Can I leave a message?" a strange woman spoke.

Lisbon froze at the place. Occupied? Patrick? No one called him Patrick, only serial killers and people rather close to him. Who was this woman? Had she kidnapped Jane? It could've been possible, since Jane was pretty easy to kidnap, but difficult to keep quiet - he was annoyingly talkative. But, where was he? And why did she pick up his phone?

"Who is this?"

"My question is, who are you? I hope he's not cheating on me with you."

"I'm sorry, what?" she swore she could just throw the phone against the bare wall out of anger and doubt. This woman, had either kidnapped him and was lying, or was really dating her boyfriend. But that couldn't be, he would never...

"I knew it. You're that skank he's secretly dating! Luckily, I won't break up with him since we really love each other. I'm so ready to marry him."

"What?" Okay, now marrying might have gone a little bit to far.

"Stop repeating yourself Bonnie. Can I call you Bonnie? Okay. Just give up on him girl."

Bonnie? What the freaking melons thought she was doing?  This woman was definitely that kind of stereotypical woman with blonde hair, tall, and beautiful eyelashes that every man would fall for. The populair cheerleader, the hot secretary - pretty, but bitchy at the same time. Would Jane rather date a woman like that, instead of her; a brunette, not that tall, without the perfect body, a rather comfortable choice of clothing, yet he was dating her. This was all so confusing.

"Where is he?!" she shouted, not caring if Marcus's colleagues would hear her, but, she secretly hoped the walls weren't that thin.

"In bed."

"What?!" was the only thing she could say, gasping. Her heart began to race, was he really... She refused to believe it. She didn't want to believe it, not yet.

"Well, you should be glad i'll forgive you for interrupting a special moment, ugh. See ya, I hope not. "

"Wait-"

"Bye Bonnie!" the woman interrupted. Then, a long beeping sound could be heard, she had hung up.

Lisbon was staring at her phone, mouth dropped open, eyes watered with damned tears she was holding back, looking at the screen that read Ended call with Jane, Patrick. Several thoughts were running through her mind, who the woman was, why Jane hadn't picked up the phone - it were questions that could only be answered by the man himself. But the real question was;

Where was Jane?

A/N; Aaaand, shit went downhill. Well, I hope I didn't make you guys too sad or confused with this chapter - but actually, I kind of do bc that's the reason I wrote it xD.

So this book has finally reached 1K reads! I'm so happy, you can't even imagine. I was looking at my reads last night, and there were 999 precisely. So I waited, and waited for it to go to 1K, but nothing happened. So I went to sleep, and in the next morning when I woke up and looked, there were 1K reads! Yaaay.
Thank you guys so much for reading, like, I'd love to give you a ginormous dinosaur, or cat hug but I'm probably from the other side of the planet and well - it won't work out.

And, if you're interested in art, I have an art book in progress, so be sure to check that out! 

Oh and I went to the cinema yesterday to see Batman Vs Superman. Has anyone seen  it yet? I didn't have high expectations, and good thing I didn't, because the movie wasn't that great. I liked Ben Affleck though, he was quite handsome and played Bruce Wayne pretty well. What are your thoughts on the movie? 

Toodles, ;D
Skye.