Teresa Lisbon walked, as though on auto-pilot, through the dark office, making it to her desk without tripping or otherwise injuring herself.
As she sat in her chair, she let out a shuddering breath she didn't know she'd been holding.
"Early night?"
The unexpected voice, coming from nowhere, almost had her hitting the ceiling as she jumped in her seat, turning slightly to see blond curls glowing in the light of the moon from the window behind her.
"Jesus, Jane! Are you trying to give me a heart attack?" she turned away from him quickly, swiping at her eyes, hoping he hadn't seen that she was teary.
"Me giving you a heart attack? Me? Please, woman. Unless I misunderstand the situation, once again I'm napping and you've woken me up," he grumbled, "And just by the way, you take your Lord's name in vain a hell of a lot for a good Catholic girl. Sister Mary Margaret would not be impressed."
When she didn't take his bait, Jane frowned and moved a little closer. "What are you doing here?" he questioned, "I thought you were out with our fine Agent Pike."
"Don't start…."
Jane shook his head, "I'm not starting. I'm just wondering what has you so upset that instead of spending the rest of the evening with Pike, you're sitting in here in the dark, hoping I won't notice you've been crying."
"Jane…" she warned.
"I'm sorry," he replied softly. "I'm just worried about you. I want you to be happy. You don't seem happy."
Tentatively, Lisbon moved from her seat and sat at the opposite end of Jane's couch.
"Do you ever miss the way things were?" she asked him. "Not Red John," she hastened to add, "our team at the CBI. Just the five of us."
"I do," Jane admitted. "But we know Grace and Rigsby are happy, Cho is still around to give people death-glares, and you're still my partner, right?"
Lisbon nodded. "I miss the way we were a family, though. I feel like everything is falling apart."
"We're still family," Jane insisted. "Always will be."
"I don't know…" Lisbon shuffled a bit closer to him on the couch. "Cho's impressing all the right people and will probably have a team of his own before we know it, Wayne and Grace are so far away we hardly see them…"
"So it's you and me against the world," Jane joked. "We can handle that."
"Is it though?"
"You mean Pike?"
"Yes…. no… I don't know. Even if Marcus wasn't around, things have changed. We've changed."
Jane shook his head, "Nothing has changed. I will always be here for you, you know that."
She nodded and let out a frustrated laugh, "When did life get so complicated?"
"And again, I think we're talking about Agent Pike," Jane said gently.
Lisbon was silent for a moment, before deciding to get things out in the open. "If I tell you something will you promise not to overreact or get upset?"
"I can try…"
"Okay… He's asked me to move to DC with him."
Lisbon flinched, waiting for the inevitable Jane outburst and was stunned when it didn't come.
"Jane?"
When he finally turned to look at her, she could see that he now looked teary. "So it's more serious than any of us thought, obviously."
"Yes… I mean no. I don't know. For him it is. For me… I'm not sure."
Jane took a breath. "Do you want to go?"
"I don't know.. I panicked when he asked me. I had no idea what to say. I told him I'd think about it and said we should probably have an early night."
"Okay."
"I don't know what to do, Jane," she continued. "I really like him, but is that enough to just up and move states for someone? I don't want to hurt him, but I don't know if I want to start over in a whole new city either. I just found you and Cho again.. we're making lives for ourselves here…"
"The Three Musketeers," Jane murmured. "Do you love him?" he asked the question dreading the answer.
"Like I said, I like him a lot. I could probably get there, but right now… not the way he needs me to," she admitted.
"So I'm still number one on your speed dial?" Jane inquired, trying to make light of the situation.
"If you weren't you'd have Wiley hack my phone to put you back there, so why bother taking you off it?" Lisbon smirked.
"Well played, Agent Lisbon. Well played."
"I've missed you these last couple of months," Lisbon admitted, glancing at him briefly to gauge his response.
"Not as much as I've missed you, partner," Jane reached over for her hand, linking their fingers.
They settled into silence for a few moment, soaking in the quiet of the FBI at this late hour.
"What should I do?" Lisbon asked finally.
"You will do what's right. You always do," Jane replied. "I would be lost without you and miss you every moment of every day, just like I did on the island, but it's your decision. You need to do what's right for you. I can see it from Pike's point of view. You're smart, you're kind, you're beautiful… how could he not love you?"
She wanted to ask him, 'if I'm all that, how could you not, then? How could you say it and then take it back?' but restrained herself. He had to know that one word, one sign from him and she would drop poor Agent Pike like a hot potato. She would take this damaged soul over the perfect Pike any day.
Lisbon was dragged from her thoughts by a tug on her hand as Jane rose from the couch.
"Since you got back so early, I assume there was no dessert?"
"Not even a mouthful…."
"Well, you're in luck then, because I haven't had dessert either, and Fischer introduced us to a fine diner that has a pretty good apple pie," Jane grabbed her free hand with his, and pulled her up on her feet to stand in front of him.
Lisbon closed the distance between them, giving him a quick hug.
"Thank you," she said softly when she stepped back, avoiding his gaze.
"For taking you out for pie?"
"For not making a fuss about tonight. For not making me feel bad…. because I feel bad enough right now without any help."
"Well, we'll have to fix that," Jane gave her a smile and offered her his arm. "Come on, pie awaits."
Lisbon linked her arm in his, turning in the direction of the door.
"You know, I think I'd rather have ice-cream…."
"We always have ice-cream.."
"No we don't…"
"Seriously woman," Jane sighed dramatically, "if I didn't know better, I'd think I needed to stage an intervention. We could get Cho involved, he could look at you disapprovingly every time you had a spoonful. He was good at that with Rigsby"
"Fine," Lisbon replied. "Have your pie, I'll have a sundae."
"Oh, no you don't. You know that I have pie you'll want that instead of your ice-cream, we're splitting a sundae…"
Lisbon smiled to herself, gripping Jane's arm a little tighter. She had missed this. She had missed him. She thought the time she had spent with Pike would have dulled her feelings towards him. It hadn't.
The decision about DC just got a lot harder.
