Leaving On A Jet Plane

All my bags are packed, I'm ready to go
I'm standing here outside your door
I hate to wake you up to say goodbye
But the dawn is breakin' it's early morn
The taxi's waiting, he's blowing his horn
Already I'm so lonesome I could die

-John Denver, Leaving On A Jet Plane

All around him, people were laughing and enjoying themselves. He hadn't expected it to be so popular an event, and he felt extremely overdressed in his usual three-piece suit, as many had dressed down to their denims and dress tops for the night. He imagined that several women around him actually used this night as a shopping excuse. But he hadn't expected it to be such a big party – his going away party – he imagined many people would show up just to make sure that he really did leave, but instead people were genuinely wishing well. He'd been overworking things for a long time, when they had finally closed in on Red John. The serial killer had received the death penalty, and since then Jane had felt at a loss with himself. He had, as it seemed, no life purpose anymore. Since he was simply a consultant and at liberty to leave whenever he pleased, Hightower had managed to talk him into taking extended leave. He'd decided to spend a year away, get away from it all, so to speak, and find a new direction for his life.

He'd hesitated, but something had made the decision final for him. Lisbon. He'd mentioned it in passing to her, and she simply gave him a shrug, telling him that if that was what he wanted to do then...well, she'd left the sentence there. 'If that's what you want to do, then...' and then she walked off to refill her coffee. He knew she was hiding something, and he knew that there were words she was desperate to speak, but they died on her tongue and remained unspoken.

But she hadn't told him, so he was now all packed, leaving for a rented cabin on the outskirts of Florida. It had been one that a friend of a friend owned, and that he could rent for twelve months. It would be easy enough to cover the temporary bills with his extravagant savings, so he could easily get by.

But he didn't want to leave her.

Lisbon.

She was what had made him survive up until this point, the reason he was able to take his extended vacation rather than spend the rest of his life rotting in jail for murder. They hadn't spoken properly since Red John's capture, but that had been his fault. He'd pushed her away after the serial killers reign of terror was over, and though she'd tried to talk to him repeatedly she'd ended up surrendering and deciding to let him wallow in his pity. He wished that she hadn't. She wished that just once, she'd push him enough to actually force him to open up, but she hadn't.

He kept looking around him, trying to spot her in the bar not far from the CBI headquarters. He finally saw her with Rigsby and Cho, sitting at one of the tables in the corner. From what Grace had warned him about a while earlier she'd been drinking pretty much the entire time they'd been there. Tequila – something that you should never find yourself on any side of Lisbon when she's been drinking. Tequila lead to some interesting moments, some treasured, some forgotten, and some hazy – one involved a trip to the emergency room and another broken nose, one involved some drunken confessions she still couldn't recall, and one involved a passionate night that ended with the two of them collapsed in her bed.

He approached the table, not prepared to leave Sacramento until he had a chance to speak to her. The fact that she was drunk beyond belief may actually make it easier, and it was impossible for a drunk Lisbon to cover her emotions or lie.

"Hi," he said, when he reached the trio.

Lisbon was looking beautiful tonight, he noted, in an emerald green shirt which accented her eyes wonderfully. She had been giggling insanely at something until she saw him nearing them, and instantly stiffened and ignored his presence.

"Hi," Rigsby greeted in return.

"Lisbon, can I talk to you for a second?" he asked, placing his hand on the back of her hair and waiting for an answer.

Cho and Rigsby looked at each other, then at Lisbon, who had turned her head away from Jane and was now concentrating on her shot glass. They returned their gaze to Jane. "No offence, man, but I don't think she could even recognise you right now, let alone talk sense."

He nodded, understanding but still a little disappointed. Lisbon had every opportunity to give him a reason to stay, but she was acting like a child. Or was he acting like a child? Someone was acting like a child. Perhaps they both were? He stared down at her shot glass, which she was clumsily trying to pour the last of the tequila into. "Have you tried taking that off of her?" he asked the others.

Cho stared at him blankly. "We tried. She threatened to kill us."

"When are you heading off?" Rigsby asked him. "On your trip, I mean."

"Tomorrow morning," he answered, casting a look at Lisbon to see her reaction. Nothing.

"Decide where you're going yet?" Cho asked.

Jane was about to answer, but Lisbon chose this moment to break her vow of silence. "He's going to Florida," she slurred. "You know, that different state that's the other side of the country. He could have gone to San Francisco, or Stockton...or Davis! But no! Frickin' Florida!"

They stared at her strangely, each taking a second to decipher the slaughtered words she was speaking. "Yeah, I know a guy with a cabin a few hours away from Port Charlotte, so I'm heading that way for a while."

"He's just leaving," Lisbon continued, as if Jane had never answered. "It doesn't matter that he's spent ages for us to...to be his friends...and his fam'ly...and no one else is leaving! Did anyone else notice that? We're all staying because we're...we're awesome, and he's not! He doesn't care about that. That would be silly. He doesn't care that I'm in love with him either. He's just going to run away to Port Frickin' Charlotte, wherever the hell that is."

"Florida," Cho told her simply.

"That's it," she said, pointing at Cho. She downed the last of the tequila and reached for the now-empty bottle. The lack of liquid had her frowning at the bottle and she attempted to stand from her seat. Rigsby reached up an arm to steady her when she staggered. "M'okay," she assured him in a high-pitched voice. "Need more tequila."

She stalked off towards the bar, nearly falling over in the process. The remaining men looked at Jane, who was staring at Lisbon's retreating form in shock.

"Did she just...?"

"Say she's in love with you? Yeah," Cho told him.

"She's been saying it all night," Grace said, as she approached the table with another drink for herself and Rigsby. She slid into the seat beside him and half groaned. "And I mean, all night.

"Ever since she hit the third tequila shot," Rigsby agreed.

Jane, however, hadn't heard a word of their exchange. "She loves me," he mumbled to himself.

"That's what she said," Cho confirmed.

"She really does?" he muttered.

Rigsby looked between Lisbon, who was trying to get more tequila, and Jane. "Maybe you should go after her, or something?" he suggested. Jane looked at him strangely. "I'm just saying...since she apparently loves you and with you leaving the state tomorrow morning...just seems like the best time to really do something about that..."

"I'm...gonna go..." he looked in Lisbon's direction. "You know what, I don't know. I'm just gonna..."

With that, he walked away from the trio, heading towards Lisbon. When Lisbon saw him approaching her at the bar, she swore out loud, though no one heard her. Why had she said the word 'love'? She wasn't even as drunk as they thought, being a well practiced tequila veteran. The idea behind not telling him the feelings she'd begun to understand after Red John's capture was that he'd disappear for a while, and when he came back she'd be completely over him. Now, however, he was walking towards her and she started to try and tell him that she was lying about what she said, perhaps with an added elaboration and blaming it on the tequila.

She hadn't even had a chance to form the words when he was before her, and her lips were covering his – and the tequila coursing through her veins had her responding instantly. It was a fiery kiss, and a rather sloppy one considering she was rather drunk. She could feel every ounce of his passion for her flooding through the kiss, and for a moment, she felt like she was right where she belonged.

For a moment.

When they broke apart for air, ignoring the stares of the others around them who quickly went back to what they'd been doing before, Lisbon smacked his chest. Of course, she meant it to be hard, but her tiny drunken fists didn't even hurt him in the slightest. Still though, she had hit him.

"What was that for?" he asked her unfairly. He'd gotten the impression that she'd enjoyed the kiss as much as he did.

She looked at him with drunken annoyance. "If you think you can just come kiss me and that will make everything all right again, you're sadly mistaken, mister!" she said, poking her finger into his chest.

"I thought it was a pretty good apology," he defended.

"Oh, get off your white horse," she told him, trying to walk around him.

Before she could get away from him, he reached out and took her arm, pulling her back him closely. "Come with me," he asked her.

"What?" she asked him, confused.

"To Port Charlotte, to the cabin. Come with me," he repeated.

In her tequila haze, there was a part of her that wanted to go with him, and that part of her had the most control at the moment. She managed to get some control of her mind, though. "I can't," she told him.

"Yes, you can," he nodded. "You love me, come with me."

"No, I really can't," she explained. "I have a job, and a house, and a dog..."

"Then I'll stay," Jane decided quickly.

She frowned, her eyebrows knitting together. "But you want to leave."

"That was before I knew that you loved me," he told her. "I can't leave you behind," he said, bringing his face closer to hers so that his lips were grazing the skin on her forehead.

"So...you're gonna stay here...just for me?" she asked him.

"With you," he nodded against her. "I'll stay with you."

"And you...love me?" she asked.

"I love you," he smiled.

Lisbon thought for a second, hoping to God that this wasn't the tequila making her decision for her, then she stepped back from him. "Grace!" she announced. "I gotta tell Grace, she's not gonna believe this," she said like an excited teenager.

"Something tells me she might," Jane whispered, leaning back in to kiss her again. He kissed her passionately, making her so weak that she went limp in his arms almost. "Let's get out of here," he suggested.

"Already?" she asked him. "But we've never left this early before..."

He grinned at the idea that was going through her mind, but he knew that they didn't need another drunken mistake to mark the start of their proper relationship. "We're not sleeping together tonight," he told her. "We're taking it slow. We have time."

"But I shaved my legs..." she argued.

"And I shall admire them once I'm sober," he assured her. "Deal?"

"Deal," she announced, "I gotta find Grace now," she said, disappearing much too quickly for a drunk woman.

Things had gone relatively well, Jane realised.

Now, she just had to sober up and remember what she'd agreed to.

END.