AN: Let me know if you find any mistakes.

One-Month Replacement

Agent Teresa Lisbon felt completely drained; the CBI's number of cases was on the rise, and that meant paperwork was on the rise. For a week now, she'd been forced to come in early and stay late just to keep up with it. Of course, the only reason behind this arrangement wasn't the CBI's caseload; it was the antics of ex-psychic Patrick Jane. He'd been increasingly 'daring' as of late, and it was really starting to get on her nerves.

She sighed and leaned back in her chair. The CBI's cases weren't going to burn her out; it was joining to be Patrick Jane.

Her ringing phone broke the silence, and Lisbon closed her eyes in pain. She had the beginnings of a killer migraine, and the obnoxious, shrill ringing wasn't helping.

"Lisbon," she answered brusquely. "Chief, y– I'll be right down."

Lisbon quickly left her office, wondering why her boss wanted to see her so early. She mumbled greetings to her arriving team as she exited her unit's offices. She reached her boss' shortly thereafter, and walked in.

"Close the door behind you," he ordered. "Alright, Lisbon, the CBI's been having some problems lately."

"What do you mean? We've had more cases than ever – "

"I mean Jane. He's been pissing off the wrong people, and they're filing lawsuits against him and the CBI. It's not good for our reputation. The Director isn't happy about it."

"Does he want you to fire him?" Lisbon asked, fearing the worst. "We won't close as many cases without him. That's bad for our reputation too."

Her boss hesitated; it seemed as though informing her of the bad news was not something he was looking forward to doing.

"No, the Director is blaming you. He thinks you can't control your team. He's ordered me to put you on suspension, so he can bring in a new guy."

"What?" she exclaimed. "You know how Jane is. No one is going to be able to 'control' him."

"I know. I tried to get him to change his mind, but he wasn't having it. If the new guy doesn't work out, you'll probably be brought back in, and the Director will decide what changes need to be made."

"I can't believe this. I can't even stay as part of the team?" Lisbon inquired sharply, shock fading to anger.

"The Director doesn't want you undermining the other agent's authority."

"How long?"

"A month. He's starting today. You'll have to remove the personal affects from your office."

Lisbon left his office after that, barely refraining from slamming the door shut on her way out. She packed the few personal items she had into her purse, and logged her computer off; she left the paperwork strewn across her desk. The 'new guy' could deal with it.

The angry agent took a deep breath in an effort to calm herself before stepping out of her office to address her team. It wasn't very effective.

"What's up, Boss?" Rigsby asked upon seeing her face.

Unsure of how to proceed, Lisbon got straight to the point, "I'm being suspended."

Their astonishment was immediate; after they recovered, they all began asking questions at once. She answered them as calmly as she could, but her self-control started slipping when her boss entered with another man. He introduced him as Richard Caine. He was in his mid-forties with short, graying hair. The look on his face told Lisbon that he spent most of his time being an ass. The two stiffly shook hands before she briskly left the office area. She should have known that she would have run into Jane on the way out; it was the only way the day could get any worse.

"Good morning, Lisbon," he greeted, grinning.

"Thanks Jane," she snapped back.

It was petty and she shouldn't have said it, but she was extremely irritated that she was being held responsible for the stunts he pulled without her knowledge. She brushed past him, missing the rarely seen puzzled expression on his face.

Jane walked in, noticing at once the tension in the air.

"Ah, you must be Patrick Jane."

"Yes, I am," he answered, extending his hand. "And you are?"

"Richard Caine. Your new boss," he added while shaking Jane's hand.

Jane didn't need to be a mentalist to piece together the situation; he must have been the reason behind Lisbon's departure. Jane didn't say anything more, and headed towards his couch. He was just starting to get comfortable when the team's new 'leader' spoke up.

"It'd be great if you could join us, Mr. Jane," Caine said in a tone that suggested it wasn't Jane's choice.

"Right. Of course, Richie," he responded, his infamous smile in place.

"Mr. or Agent Caine."

"My mistake. It won't happen again Mr. or Agent Caine," he replied, still grinning.

Caine's face had grown increasingly angry, and he looked as if he was about to tear into Jane, but he was saved by the new hire that alerted the team they had a new case. Cho, Rigsby, and Van Pelt all volunteered to go check it out, and when it became clear that Caine would be joining them, they all offered to stay behind to catch up on paperwork. In the end, all three were ordered to go to the crime scene; they, excluding Jane, played rock, paper, scissors to determine who would be riding with their new boss. After winning, Van Pelt and Cho flipped a coin to decide the consultant's fate. As it turned out, Rigsby was the only one that was riding with Caine.

The crime scene was a popular restaurant that was placed on the line separating police jurisdictions. It didn't help matters that the victim was local district attorney, Jeff Briggs. Before it became an all-out feud between precincts, one of the commissioners called in the CBI.

As the team walked towards the restaurant, it became clear as to why all of them had been ordered to the crime scene. There was a substantial group of people crowded on the police side of the yellow tape, and they would all have to give statements. The steakhouse was large on the inside; the CBI agents would have to, at the very least, give a cursory glance of the scene.

"Where's the body?" Cho asked a nearby officer.

He led them to a far back corner. The victim was leaning back in his chair, and it appeared as though his face was covered in his soup. He was middle-aged and well dressed.

Van Pelt stared quizzically at the victim, "What's all over his face?"

"His soup. When we got here, he was face down in it," the young officer informed her.

"Was he here with anyone?" Rigsby questioned.

The officer pointed to a young blonde woman in a black dress, and Caine ordered Rigsby to go talk to her.

"He was married," Jane announced. "And that woman is not his wife."

"How do you know that?" Van Pelt asked.

"He has tan line from a wedding band," Jane said, pointing towards the man's left hand. "If that woman was his wife, he wouldn't have taken it off."

Cho's phone interrupted the conversation, and he moved off to the side to take the call.

"Cho," he answered. "Hey, how are you?"

"It's going just as you would imagine. Jane doesn't play well with others," he responded after a short pause.

Jane moved near Cho, "That's Lisbon isn't it? Let me have the phone."

The consultant could hear his 'former' boss telling Cho not to give him the phone as he took it from his colleague's hand.

"Hello Lisbon."

"I don't want to talk to you, Jane. Give the phone back to Cho."

"If you want to know what I'm doing you should just call me," he responded, grinning.

Lisbon's sigh crackled through the phone, "Fine. What are you doing?"

"Detective work. Were you happy or annoyed that I wasn't 'being nice' to our new boss?"

Lisbon hung up, and Jane, smiling, handed the phone back to Cho. The agents went through the process of investigating the scene, speaking with witnesses, and getting information from the police and forensics team. They spent at least a couple of hours at the crime scene before Caine ordered Rigsby and Jane to go talk to the wife, after the claim about an affair was affirmed by the mistress. Caine, Van Pelt, and Cho headed back to CBI head quarters to look into the criminals Briggs had put away. Later Cho drove to the D.A.'s office to talk to his co-workers.

When all four members of the original CBI team were together again, they couldn't help but feel irritated. The Director's decision to suspend Lisbon wasn't a good one. The team felt disconnected, and Caine only knew how to bark commands; he wasn't helping their investigative methods. He was hindering it. The man didn't give any credence to any of Jane's hunches, and as a result, they had hit a wall.

"This is so stupid," Rigsby complained, eyeing Lisbon's old office; he didn't want Caine hearing his remark.

"I know," Van Pelt sighed.

"Hey, where are you going?" Cho asked Jane, he had just risen from his couch, and was heading towards the exit.

Jane didn't respond before leaving the CBI. After a short drive, he reached his destination, and he entered the building. He took an elevator to the correct floor, and knocked on door 209. The door swung open to reveal an annoyed Teresa Lisbon.

"What do you want, Jane?"

Thoughts?