Distracted Chapter One:

"So, did you have a nice night with agent Wilson?" Jane asked. He took a sip from his hot tea.

Lisbon threw him an angry look. "Jane, for the last time, stop asking me these questions! I will not discuss my sex life with you! Mind your own business!"

Jane smiled. "I find it remarkable that you said sex life, not love life. But then again, there was that guy at the bar last Friday, and the office plumber last month, so it probably isn't love…"

Lisbon looked something between embarrassed and angry, but before she could form some snidy remark, Jane continued amusedly.

"Hey, Lisbon, don't be angry with me. I just want you to be happy, but I'm not so sure if those kind of men are right for-"

He got cut off by the sound of a ringing phone, which the increasingly annoyed-looking Lisbon answered faster than a forty-year old single after a hot date.

She stated her name, said some "yes-sirs", and "right away sir" and hung up. She looked relieved. "Sorry, Jane, that was Wainwright, I have to go," she said triumphantly. Jane smiled as she walked away, and decided to stay put on her couch.

When she entered Wainwright's office, she saw assistant district attorney Oscar Ardiles standing in front of Wainwright's desk with his hands in his pant pockets, looking annoyed as ever. Lisbon wondered what was going on. She looked at Wainwright expectantly.

"Lisbon, good-morning," he started kindly. "How are you and the team? Not too busy, I hope?"

Lisbon gave him a friendly smile. "No, sir, we're managing just fine. No case at the moment, just paperwork." She heard Ardiles huff and cast him a glance.

Wainwright saw the exchange and decided to jump in.

"Lisbon, assistant D.A. Ardiles here has complained to me about your managing style and professional skills. He feels that you are either too incompetent or too indifferent to handle Jane's antics. I assume you know that Jane's unorthodox ways of solving cases provides the D.A.'s office with a whole lot of extra work to make the cases stick."

Lisbon's smile had faltered. "Yes, sir, and I'm sorry about that, but I'm neither incompetent nor indifferent, I can assure you. I think Mr. Ardiles and I just have different opinions on managing styles."

"Yes, that's exactly what I thought, too. And that's completely normal, considering that you both have very different job requirements. But I can't help but notice that Mr. Ardiles has had more problems with you and your team over the last few years. Therefore, I figured it would be a wise investment to have you form a better idea of what you're both doing on a daily basis. To be able to do that, I think work shadowing is the perfect solution. That way you can achieve a better understanding of each other's point of view when it comes to decision-making. You might even be able to learn things from each other!", Wainwright ended cheerfully.

Lisbon and Ardiles both looked something between shocked and extremely dismayed. Ardiles was about to use his lawyer skills to talk himself out of it, but Wainwright knew better than to let him start.

"Mr. Ardiles, I think this is the best solution to the complaint you filed. You either learn to get a better understanding of each other's positions and might even get along, or you can make Lisbon's upcoming weeks a misery, if you think that seems fit."

"Boss..!", Lisbon said offended.

Wainwright focused his attention on her. "Of course, agent Lisbon, the same goes for you. Because for the next two weeks or so, Mr. Ardiles will tag along with your cases, and you will work with him on his work too. Try to intertwine both your jobs, otherwise you will have a very busy two weeks. Granted, your jobs should not be badly affected by this, but try to help each other as much as possible for the optimal results."

Ardiles had taken his hands out of his pockets during Wainwright's speech and had given away a whole show with his gestures and body language. It had been hard to miss that he wasn't very happy with the way his complaint had been handled. Lisbon had remained rather still during all this, glancing sideways to take a little joy in the expressions on Ardiles face. But the fact that she would have to work two jobs at once with him over the next two weeks didn't appeal to her as well.

After the news had settled with the two people in front of his desk, Wainwright sent them on their way with a simple "that'll be all, thank you."

Lisbon and Ardiles walked out of the office still quite shocked. They waited by the elevator for the doors to open. Ardiles was having that lawyer "wait-till-I-got-to-the-bottom-of-this"-expression on his face while muttering under his breath. Lisbon got increasingly annoyed by this, but decided to wait with arguing until they were out of Wainwright's sight. Once they had gotten in the elevator, she tried to do the smart thing and stay friendly.

"I know it's not what you – what we need right now, but I just want you to know my team and I will do everything we can to make this cooperation go smoothly."

Ardiles turned to her. "Lisbon," he said, "the times that I've had to have to do with you and your team, things went anything but smoothly. When it comes to you people, smoothly is the last word to describe you." With that he turned back to face the elevator doors.

Lisbon looked down to hide her anger and embarrassment, because there were other people in the elevator. "Let's discuss this further in my office", she said, ending the discussion.

When they entered her office, Jane was still laying down on the couch. He got up as soon as he saw Ardiles coming in after Lisbon. "Ardiles!", Jane said looking as if he'd been genuinely happy to see him. "I can't believe you've found the time to pay us a visit, seen as there are still so much more innocent people you have to put in prison!" Jane's smile broadened when he noticed Lisbon was struggling to keep a straight face and failed. Ardiles sighed. Lisbon decided now was not the right moment to make fun of Ardiles considering the fact that she had to spend two weeks with him. She put on a stern look. "Jane!", she scolded. "Mr. Ardiles and I have some business to discuss, would you mind?" Jane looked at both their faces to see if he could find out what was going on. "Not at all.", he said and left Lisbon's office.

Lisbon went to sit behind her desk. Ardiles remained standing, rubbing his face.

"So, what now?", Lisbon asks hesitantly. Ardiles looks at her with sheer frustration. "You figure it out! You got us into this in the first place, you solve it." Now it was Lisbon's turn to be frustrated and angry. "What do you mean "I got us into this? You were the one who went complaining to Wainwright! What is your problem with me anyway?"

Ardiles suddenly put his hands on her desk and leaned in, his eyes dark with anger.

"My problem with you, Lisbon, is your entire attitude. You say things like 'we're just doing paperwork'. 'Just paperwork!'With Jane, it cannot be 'just paperwork'. With that guy involved, you should be home with a burn-out from all the paperwork! You should have gotten a burn-out from having to deal with his stunts every day. But the fact that he has been working with you for over eight years shows that you aren't dealing with his stunts. You're letting him do whatever he wants because either you don't care about the problems he causes or you're just incapable of keeping him under control and resisting his mind games. Which leads me to the complaint I filed. If you think that I'm even considering to withdraw it to get you off the hook easily: you're wrong. I have every intent of showing you just what your and Jane's screwing up means for my work. And don't think that I'll go easy on you after a while because you're a girl or because you have a tough look or a cute pout. This won't be the type of cooperation where we end up being best friends, I don't care about your personal live or feelings, I just want you to do your job!"

Lisbon had been looking straight at him for the entire speech with an unimpressed look. That look didn't have anything to do with his use of body language. He did that well, Lisbon had thought to herself, those lawyer skills did come in handy when delivering a speech. But the speech itself hadn't impressed Lisbon at all, it just made her very annoyed.

"First of all, Ardiles, I'm not a girl. I'm a woman. And an agent. Think about that. Second of all, I do have a tough look, but with that comes a tough personality. That's about as much as I'm willing to share with you about my personal live and my feelings, so don't worry about us becoming friends. Now, I would appreciate it if you would stop whining and sit down so we can discuss our business like adults.

Ardiles had kept quiet and for once hadn't bothered to do his frustration dance of huffing and head-shaking. He sat down at the opposite side of Lisbon's desk. Lisbon continued.

"Now, I don't expect you to withdraw your complaint if you don't want to, but you may want to think about the extra work you're getting yourself from that decision", Lisbon said calmly.

"I'm not withdrawing my complaint", Ardiles stated.

"Okay, well then, let me just say, I don't expect you to go easy on me, but I won't go easy on you as well, just so you know… With that said, welcome to the team."

Ardiles snorted but when he saw Lisbon's stern look he refrained from further comment on the matter.

"I need you and your team to fully cooperate with me. Do not hide anything from me, just because it's easier. I don't want to be put in harm's way unprepared", Ardiles said.

Lisbon nodded. "Absolutely, I'll brief the team as soon as possible. Also, feel free to comment if you think any of us is doing something wrong. Just make sure you don't put anyone in danger." Ardiles just looked at her and raised an eyebrow.

They planned when they would spend time on Lisbon's work and when on Ardiles'. Since Lisbon didn't have a case as of yet, they agreed on going over Ardiles work first, as soon as Lisbon had finished the report she had been working on this morning before Jane had barged into her office and started asking her inappropriate questions.

Lisbon had gathered the team to tell them the news, but with Ardiles still standing behind her, she started to get anxious about their responses. Jane's response, actually. The others would be decent enough to hide any dissatisfaction, but Jane would take great pleasure out of showing just how much he disliked Ardiles. And that would be a bad start of two weeks proving Ardiles she did her job well.

"Guys, I have an announcement. You all know Mr. Ardiles here. He's going to join us for the next two weeks. I want you to fully cooperate with him and keep him in the loop. He's here to give us some tips on how we can do our jobs better so we can be sure the bad guys will get convicted. I expect you to be professional and helpful to Mr. Ardiles. Also, I will assist Mr. Ardiles with his work over the next two weeks, so I won't be in my office much. You can always reach me on my cell phone though. Any questions?"

Lisbon hadn't paused during her announcement to avoid comments and had kept looking pleadingly at Jane, as if to ask him to please don't make this harder on her than it already was. But Jane of course had already formed a suiting reply.

"Really? Ardiles, you're joining us? Wow, that should be fun...!", Jane smiled.

"Jane…", Lisbon looked at him warningly. She had expected him to say something much worse than this, so she waited for him to go on. But he didn't. He looked at her as if nothing was wrong.

"What, Lisbon? I'm just giving the man a friendly welcome."

Lisbon of course knew better than that, but decided to let it slide. Ardiles left soon after that, so Lisbon could safely retreat to her office.

Jane followed her and immediately laid down on her couch. "So, Ardiles…", Jane started.

"Don't want to talk about it", Lisbon responded.

Jane looked at her and was quiet for a moment. Then he started again. "So, promiscuous girl, agent Wilson..?"

Lisbon sighed. "It was an order from Wainwright…"

Jane looked amused. "Wainwright ordered you to sleep with agent Wilson?", he asked, feigning surprise.

Lisbon rolled her eyes. "Ardiles. Working with me, Wainwright ordered it after Ardiles complained about me."

Jane stared at the ceiling. "Ardiles…", he huffed, "Can you believe that guy..!"

Lisbon sighed again. "Can you imagine having to spend the entire day with him, the guy is more annoying than the sound of a drill at midnight!"

Jane smiled. "Makes you wonder why he's the one being annoyed all day."

Lisbon smiled too. "Probably annoys himself as well…", she mumbled, but Jane heard it and smiled broadly. Lisbon didn't though, because she knew she would be stuck with Ardiles for two whole weeks.