-ep2.03 'Red Badge' I always pegged Lisbon as 'Blondie' fan, myself, was quite horrified by her musical taste...-

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Dancing in the Dark

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She sways through her living room. Doesn't need the alcohol – excitement bears her up. Conscious that she has an audience, still does a few little dance steps, smiles when she knows that he is stifling a laugh. The liberation of acting crazy – is this how he feels, every time he steps off the edge, allows the moment, his mouth and his mind, to take him, them, to the realms of the strange?

He watches her legs, pale in the gloom, wonders if she chose that jersey on purpose to drive him insane. But no, she has no idea what she does to him.

"You're supposed to be acting wild and out of character." he murmurs.

"I am." Gives him a flirty look, little wiggle of her hips. Jane closes his eyes, groans silently.

He dropped into the post-room earlier in the day. No reason, except to cast an eye around. The new guy is good-looking, in a very obvious Latin way, and he's a little miffed that his Lisbon should be so undiscriminating. Thought she might value personality and charm over such things. Not that he cares. Not that he should care.

He had wanted to wrap her in his arms when she had cried. Had startled himself with the surge of protective anger.

He wants to walk down those stairs, right now.

Wonders if she would put her arms up around his neck. If they would sway together in the moonlight. Too long since he has danced, a woman in his arms. But he dreams of it, and now his dreams have shape and form.

Ever since he hugged her, one moment of unbounded relief that she has not thrown him away. Ever since she fell into his arms, let it all go. Startles him how easy it is to hypnotize her, and then revelation comes. She trusts him, more than she knows. 'Humble' has never been a word in his vocabulary, but he has a sense of wonder. And he knows that he will never let anyone hurt her.

She dances for him. This is not the game-plan, but she doesn't care. She told him that she did not want him in her head, but he's already there. This is wild and crazy, but it isn't out of character. This is who she is, when she does not have a gun and a badge and the responsibility of it all. And she wants him to see it. Perhaps it is the drugs, perhaps she can blame it on that, but she knows that it isn't.

00000000000

He hears the honesty in her voice, the pain. All that she locks away, locks down to get through her days.

And he knows how she releases it, now. Loses herself in the music. Not the passive calm of the classics, such as he listens to. He can be swept away in the intricacies, the disciplined emotion, finding patterns and order to calm the chaos in his mind. And for Lisbon, she lets the order go, gives herself over to the blood music.

Her beautiful smile, as she springs the trap. Huntress takes her prey.

The psychiatrist is not the only one caught.

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(a/n Does anyone else worry about what might happen to that post-room guy?)