A/N: Well, we've come to the end of the road, at least for this installment of my series. This is my second chapter this weekend, so if you haven't read ch. 7, please go back and read that first so you'll understand what the heck is going on in this one.

The Epilogue is rated "M," and dedicated to my good friend, Shani8, because she asked for it. Hope you all like it!

Chapter 8: Royal Treatment

"Stop!" Lisbon screeched, as Jane's face was pushed into the carpet, his hands pulled painfully behind his back.

"Oww! Hey!" Jane said, struggling all he could, before Jeffries's knee on his spine stilled him. The rest of the CBI team were now gathered in the doorway, mouths open in shock as they beheld Jane on the floor like a common perp. Lisbon was helping the prince none too gently to his feet. Hightower took in the scene and her first reaction was outrage at the treatment of one of her own.

"What the hell is going on here?" she demanded.

"This man attacked the prince. He must be working with Max," Jeffries said from his position on Jane's back.

"No, I'm not!" came Jane's muffled voice as he spoke directly into the carpeting. "It's all a misunderstanding. I can explain."

"Let him up," Hightower ordered, using that principal tone that made Jane smile even then. Jeffries and the CHP man seemed unable to refuse her, and Jane was unceremoniously flipped over and allowed to sit up, but the two men still held him fast by the arms.

"Ma'am—" began Lisbon, trying to explain the situation. Hightower shot her a silencing look.

"Jane," she said, dangerously low. "Would you mind telling us all why you punched our royal guest in the face?"

Jane looked over at the prince, who was dabbing at the corner of his lip with a handkerchief, reliving that moment when he saw the man's hand on his woman's ass, and her cry of protest at this uninvited manhandling. His usual ability to see humor in a situation faded as the primal instinct to protect her came rushing back. His throbbing hand only enhanced the feeling.

"The bastard was assaulting Lisbon," he said coldly.

Everyone's eyes flew to Lisbon. "Is this true?" asked Hightower, at the same time Jeffries exclaimed: "Nonsense!"

"Well, not exactly-" Lisbon said shakily, avoiding Jane's darkening eyes.

"It is true," came the heretofore-silent prince. "I was expressing my gratitude to Agent Lisbon for rescuing us, and the emotion of the situation got the better of me. I'm afraid my gratitude was not entirely appreciated." He tried to smile a little, then winced in pain. "Mr. Jane clearly misunderstood and came to the rescue of his…colleague."

"Is this true?" asked Hightower, her mind awhirl trying to decipher the truth, feeling as if she was clearly missing something, some strange undertone that none of the three participants was willing to acknowledge.

"Yes, ma'am," Lisbon replied, grasping at the prince's explanation like a lifeline, "but I take no offense and would prefer to drop the whole thing if Prince Alexander is willing to." Her eyes silently appealed to him. He could make an issue of this, press charges against Jane, and her entire relationship with the consultant would have to come out. Her career would go down the tubes, and Jane could be brought up on assault charges.

The prince looked at his attacker, noting with amusement the fury clearly written on the man's face. Alexander had enjoyed kissing Lisbon, had wished fleetingly that he hadn't been sick the night before so that he might have experienced what this man on the floor felt was worth hitting a monarch for. If the taste he'd had just moments ago had been any indication of what she'd be like in the bedroom, he could fully understand Jane's desire to protect what was his.

"It was a misunderstanding, and I must apologize to Agent Lisbon for my…overly enthusiastic display."

"No apologies necessary. Thank you, Your Highness," she breathed in relief. No one else caught his conspiratorial wink, well, except for Jane. His eyes narrowed as the full meaning of that wink began to register.

Lisbon looked over at Jeffries. "Would you mind helping Jane up, please? He's hurt."

"No," protested Jeffries. "This man assaulted a member of the Royal House of Tremania. I demand satisfaction!"

"What do you want, Jeffries, muskets at dawn?" Jane asked sarcastically. "Well, sorry, but I don't think I'll be firing any weapons for awhile, since I think I broke my goddamn hand on his royal jaw." The throbbing was becoming unbearable, along with a new, different kind of pain. Lisbon and the prince had pulled one over on him. He'd been party to too many such plans himself not to recognize a con job when he saw one, especially such a poorly executed one. He couldn't believe he'd fallen for it. He suddenly saw how his blindness where Lisbon was concerned could be a liability in his pursuit of his own revenge.

"Help the man up, Jeffries," Alexander ordered firmly. "I would prefer to forget the entire thing and quickly evacuate this godforsaken city."

Jeffries was clearly torn, but he obeyed his prince without question. Jane stood on his feet, brushing past everyone to find somewhere quiet to lick his wounds.

"Jane—" Lisbon called after him, but he ignored her, walking past the reclining, smirking princess, who held an icepack delicately to her forehead.

"Goodbye, Mr. Jane," she said, having witnessed her brother's violation of Lisbon with much amusement. Jane's obvious overreaction to it all was just icing on the royal cake, as far as Alana was concerned. "Good riddance," she muttered to herself at the audacious man's refusal to acknowledge her. With that, she dismissed him from her mind. After all, there must be something wrong with a man who wasn't at least tempted by her charms. She turned her smiling attention to the delectable Agent Cho.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Lisbon caught up with Jane in the back of the ambulance. An EMT was applying an ice pack to his right hand and assessing his index finger.

"Looks like it's broken, Mr. Jane. I'll tape it up, but you should go to a doctor and have it x-rayed."

"Thanks," he mumbled. "You have something for the pain?"

Jane looked up to see Lisbon there, slightly out of breath, her brow furrowed in concern. She flashed the EMT her badge. "Could you give us a minute, please?"

"Uh, sure," the man nodded, giving Jane a couple of pain pills and a bottled water. The EMT jumped from the ambulance, and Lisbon climbed inside, closing the doors behind her. She sat on the bench the man had vacated.

"Are you okay?" she asked.

"Fine," came his clipped reply. Jane tried awkwardly to open the cap of the bottled water with his left hand. After listening to him cuss a moment in frustration, Lisbon finally took it from him and opened it. He nodded his thanks and took the pills.

"I'm sorry," Lisbon said finally.

He met her eyes, and she was taken aback to see the anger still there, simmering just beneath the surface.
"Sorry for what, exactly? For my broken finger or for colluding with the prince to make me jealous?"

She looked at him in surprise, but immediately wondered why she was, considering he always managed to figure things out in the end. She sighed.

"For both. The prince and I hatched this plan yesterday, after I caught you kissing the princess. I was pissed off, and he was more than willing to help me get back at you."

He snorted humorlessly. "Yeah, I'll bet he was."

"Well, you and I made up last night, and I hadn't had the chance to tell him the plan was off. Before I could say anything, he grabbed me, you saw, and…here we are." She gestured helplessly.

"Aren't we above these kinds of games, Teresa?" he asked, the anger suddenly draining from him, leaving him feeling empty and cold as the ice pack on his aching hand. But unfortunately, his words suddenly rekindled the anger in her.

"Why yes, Patrick, I thought we were too. Hmmm…let's see now." She tapped at her bottom lip in mock contemplation. "Who was it who went against my express request that he not attend the weekend's festivities, hmm? And who was it who seduced me and made me look bad in front of my boss and the Tremanians when I neglected my duty? And I still think something was fishy about how we ended up in Cho and Rigsby's room. Don't give me crap about my games, Jane, and don't get mad that I tried to give a little back for a change. And as I recall, it wasn't me making a fool out of myself by punching a prince in the jaw."

"I could tell you didn't want to be kissed by that entitled asshole. I was defending your honor!"

"I could've had that guy on the ground in two seconds if I'd wanted to, and you know it." At the hurt look on his face, she forced herself to calm down, reaching for his uninjured hand. "But I appreciate the gesture, no matter how ill-advised it was." And then the humor of the situation hit her, and she chuckled softly. "You hit him pretty hard, Jane. I didn't know you had it in you."

He smiled a little in return, reaching up to finger a lock of her hair. "You bring out the protectiveness in me, Lisbon. When I saw him pawing you, I literally saw red. It was the kind of anger I only feel when…"

He didn't need to finish that statement. They both knew the other times when he was driven to a similar kind of madness, and his confession scared her a little.

"You don't have to doubt me, Jane. For one, I can take care of myself. For another, I love you, and there's no doubt about that."

"You doubted me last night, with the princess," he reminded her.

"No," Lisbon corrected. "I never doubted for a minute that you love me. I was pissed that you let that bitch in heat have a taste of what is mine."

He grinned at that, the smile lighting his whole face, shining from his eyes in happiness. "It seems we both have possessive natures…I think I like that."

She smiled back, because she couldn't help it. "That may be, but it's really not conducive to a healthy relationship. Let's decide right now that we trust each other. There are no more Mashburns, no more Tremanian royals, no more gawking women that can shake what we have, okay?"

"Gawking women?" he asked, raising an eyebrow in surprise. "What gawking women?"

"Oh please," she protested, rolling her eyes. "Everywhere we go, women stop and stare at you. You know it and you flirt shamelessly with every woman in your path. I don't get upset by it because I know you can't help how charming you are." She leaned forward and kissed him softly on the lips. "How gorgeous you are. I haven't told you this because your ego is inflated enough as it is."

His smile returned, and he practically glowed, pleased through and through that she saw him this way.

"And yet, ironically, I only have eyes for you, dear Lisbon," he said sincerely. His kissed her, and his heart thumped in his chest like the first time he'd felt her lips beneath his. The crackling of the ambulance radio made them jump apart, and the EMT pounded on the door.

"Lady, we've got another call. You two need to get out of there now."

Lisbon and Jane hurried from the ambulance, Jane holding the ice pack to his hand as she helped him jump down. His index finger was still unwrapped and throbbing.

"We'll stop at the hospital on the way to pick up your car from the mansion," Lisbon said as the ambulance roared away, sirens wailing.

"You know," he ventured, as they walked back up the stairs of the Capitol. "It's really difficult to do things with an injured right hand. I might need someone to undress me, to bathe me, to feed me, and even to drive me to and from work."

"I'm sure the hospital will recommend a crotchety old homecare nurse for you," she teased dryly.

"How 'bout a crotchety old CBI agent?" was his sly rejoinder.

"I'll see if LaRoche is busy," she tossed back over her shoulder.

He barked out a laugh. "Oh, Lisbon, you are a bad, bad girl."

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Outside the Emergency Room of a nearby hospital, Jane met his waiting CBI team mates. His finger hadn't been badly broken, according to the x-ray, so it was just taped to the neighboring finger for the next few weeks to keep it immobile and to give it time to heal. The royals had taken their leave and were escorted to their private jet by the CHP for the next leg of their tour of the US—Chicago. No one was sad to see the troublesome twins depart, except perhaps Cho, who would always have fond memories of the night he'd spent with a real princess. Something to never share with the grandchildren someday.

Jane looked around the waiting area, but Lisbon and Hightower were nowhere in sight. According to Van Pelt, Hightower was outside smoking and Lisbon was in the ladies' room.

"So," began Rigsby. "I've been meaning to ask you. How was your night with the princess? Was she as good as she looked?"

Van Pelt gave an offended sniff. Men, she thought uncharitably.

"Fine,"said Jane and Cho simultaneously. The two men looked at each other, Jane grinning at Cho's stricken expression.

"It seems the princess was pretty free and easy with her…charms," Jane said.

"You mean you both-? Oh my God, what a tramp!" Rigsby exclaimed, although the way he said it made the harsh word sound almost complementary. He'd be envious too, had he not had his own night of passion with a certain red head who had yet to talk about what had happened between them.

"You have such a double standard," said Van Pelt in disgust. "Had you guys both slept with two different women in one night, you'd be high-fiving each other right now. But a woman, sleeping with uh, two, uh…" She found herself coloring and trailing off. "Anyway, you should be ashamed for talking about any woman that way."

Cho and Rigsby looked at each other as if to say, Yeah, right. They'd worked with women long enough to know when it was time to shut up, however.

"Yeah," Jane intoned. "you guys should be ashamed of yourselves."

Van Pelt gave him an annoyed look because she couldn't decide whether he was mocking her. "I noticed you boys didn't say anything about Lisbon and the prince. I mean, first, we all heard their little tryst over our earpieces and then today's kiss in the Capitol. If you ask me, both of the royals were just as bad as they—"

Van Pelt had been so involved in her speech that she didn't quite catch Rigsby's subtle cutting motion over his throat, or Cho's wide eyes and slight head shake, or Jane's widening grin that would have clued her in to the fact that Lisbon had returned from the restroom. She flushed as Lisbon came to stand beside them. By her stricken look, she'd heard the entire thing.

"What exactly did you hear on the earpieces?" she asked tightly, looking directly at Jane, who was ready to explode with suppressed laughter.

"Uh, nothing, Boss," said Van Pelt. Cho and Rigsby shifted uncomfortably and avoided eye contact.

"Jane?" she growled.

To avoid laughing in her face, he cleared his throat, swallowed twice and managed to say: "Apparently you and the prince gave quite the pornographic radio show last night. I'm sorry I missed it."

Lisbon's mind raced, remembering her two interludes with Jane the night before. The second time, she knew she'd taken off her earpiece. But the first time, when he—"Oh God!" she turned away from them, hands covering her face in mortification. Van Pelt went over to offer her boss some comfort. If anything, this experience had reminded them all that Lisbon wasn't just their boss, she was a woman with a healthy sexual appetite. Nothing to be embarrassed about there.

"It's okay, Boss, really. We didn't listen for long, just long enough to figure out it was you."

"Oh God," she reiterated.

"And how lucky could you be?"continued the oblivious Van Pelt. "You and the prince. He's so handsome. The whole thing was like a fairy tale."

"The prince?" Lisbon said, peaking over her hands. "How did you know it was the—the prince?"

Van Pelt had the grace to blush. "Well, I had heard you with him when I went to check on the two of you after you left the reception. It sounded like you were really in to each other, so I didn't interrupt. A little while later, and we heard uh, other things."

"Oh, God." She turned back to the rest of her team sheepishly. "Does Hightower know?"

They all shook their heads. "No," responded Van Pelt. "And no one is going to tell anyone else, right?" she prompted, meeting the eyes of each one of her coworkers in warning.

"No,"reassured Cho.

"No way, Boss,"proclaimed Rigsby.

"Wild horses couldn't drag it out of me," Jane said, also crossing his heart for emphasis. Lisbon glared at him for keeping this vital little bit of information from her. He'll pay for that later, she thought, and Jane sobered immediately at the evil intent in her eyes.

Oh, God, thought Jane, and gulped.

Just then, Hightower arrived, smelling faintly of Camels and spring blossoms. She surveyed her team, sensing again that she'd walked in on something. She shook her head; she really didn't want to know.

"So, Patrick, everything okay with your finger?"

He held it up his taped fingers like an Oscar. "All set."

"Well, let's get the hell out of this place. I am so ready for this weekend to end, even though I'm not looking forward to my debriefing with Bertram on Monday. Remind me, Agent Lisbon, to decline any future shitty details that even the Environmental Crimes Unit passes up."

"Yes, ma'am," Lisbon said wholeheartedly.

"Well, I for one had a really good time, despite the broken finger," Jane chimed in as they began walking out into the afternoon sunlight.

"Shut up, Jane," said Lisbon.

Jane only grinned.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Epilogue

Four days later…

Candles flickered softly around the bubble-filled bathtub as Lisbon gingerly stepped into the steaming water. She sat down, then leaned back against the wonderful bath pillow that was Patrick Jane. Water sloshed a little over the sides as his arms enfolded her naked body, pulling her closer to sit between his legs as he kissed her bare shoulder.

"Awww…" she sighed, her head resting against his chest. "This is nice."

He reached toward the built-in shelf for the glass of zinfandel he'd poured for her, taking a small sip before placing it in her hand. They sat in contented silence a few moments as she sipped her wine, enjoying the heat of the bath and the soothing light. This was just what they needed after a long day of chasing leads for the new case they'd gotten Monday, and had just neatly closed today. She played idly with Jane's hairy, wet forearms, as he nuzzled the sensitive spot just below her piled up hair.

"I told you this would be a good idea," said Jane, loving the feel of her pressed so intimately against him, the smell of the candles and eucalyptus bubble bath infusing the humid air. It even felt good to soak his sore finger in the hot water.

"Yeah, yeah. We long ago established that you're always right."

She felt him grinning against her cheek. "You are a very wise woman, Agent Lisbon."

She purposefully undulated against him, feeling his hardening reaction beneath the water and his sharp intake of breath at her sweet torture. She set down her wine glass and moaned when his left hand came up to cup her soapy breasts, his other sinking beneath the water to begin a circular motion with his thumb. A few moments of that and rest time was clearly over. She sat up in the tub and turned around to face him as he wordlessly moved forward to meet her. Her hands found him and began stroking him while he leaned forward and took a rosy nipple between his teeth.

They were both panting while the steam rose up around them, the added heat speeding things along at a dizzying pace. He moved his hands to her hips and lifted her up on him, and she took him inside of her body with a gasp of pleasure. She grabbed onto his shoulders and met his passion-filled eyes with her own as their sensual movements had the water sloshing over the side and splashing onto the floor. She didn't even care about the mess she'd be mopping up later as he brought his mouth to hers for a deep, soul-wrenching kiss. Minutes later, and they were both crying out their release, wave after wave of pleasure overtaking them. She wrapped her warm arms about his neck, pressing her breasts to his chest as their hearts pounded together and their shallow breaths punctuated the steamy air.

She played with his damp curls and leaned back to kiss his sexy mouth, at a loss for words at how much she loved this man, at how he made her feel so loved in return. She smiled when she felt him take a breath to speak—Jane was rarely at a loss for words, himself.

"That was definitely worth the wait," he grinned softly, reaching up to wrap one of the wet tendrils of her hair around his finger. "You're so beautiful like this, all flushed and hot, like a freshly boiled lobster."

She frowned unhappily at his unromantic characterization. "You say the sweetest things," she said dully.

"But Lisbon, you know how much I love lobster. I can never get enough, once I've had a taste. And lobster has long been known as a natural aphrodisiac. Why, the ancient Greeks thought lobsters were Aphrodite's playthings-"

Her hand came up to cover his lips and his eyes sparkled with love and mischief.

"You know, it would have been much more romantic to call me Aphrodite," she chided, "or even a mermaid or some sort of water nymph. But a lobster? Way to break the mood, lover boy."

He laughed and pulled her in for another searing kiss, taking his time to explore her mouth and get her heart skipping again. When she was well and truly aroused, he released her lips with an endearing smile.

"I love you, my sweet little crustacean."

The dunking she gave him took Jane completely by surprise.

Epilogue to the Epilogue

No one could ever trace who had posted the video of CBI consultant, Patrick Jane, punching out the Royal Prince of Tremania, but two days after the incident, the shaky cell phone video went viral. While it couldn't exactly be classified as an international incident, it certainly had the world laughing for a few days…

The End

A/N: So there it is, the ending of another story. I do hope you liked it, and I thanks to all of you who have read and given me such nice comments. There are definitely more stories to come, but first, I have an informal poll for you. I could continue on to another story in this series I started, or I could go back to the episode tag I wrote for "Jolly Red Elf," and continue that storyline. If you haven't read it, please do, and let me know which story you'd like me to continue. I'll go along with whatever gets the majority of the votes. Either way, I still plan to write more after "Royal Blood," it's just a question of which one I do first. Thanks for your participation. I love hearing your thoughts and suggestions! And with a new tv episode coming up this week, you might see an episode tag from me if inspiration strikes.