AN: Hello lovely Mentalist fandom! Thanks again for your support of Into the Blue. I've got the sequel all mapped out and am just starting to write it. In the meantime, an idea for this oneshot would not leave me alone all week, and I wanted to share it with you. It takes place right after Il Tavolo Bianco and is extremely fluffy. I had an absolute blast writing this, so I hope you enjoy it!

Disclaimer: I don't own The Mentalist. However, I did, once again, borrow some dialog from the show.

To Be Happy

"And I want you to know that I…I really want you to be happy.
And that is the most important thing to me—that you do what makes you happy. Okay?"

"Yeah," said Lisbon. Though the word came out just above a whisper, she felt like screaming. In fact, she felt very much like screaming at Jane, ordering him to say what he'd come over to say. Lisbon was no mentalist, but she knew the little speech Jane had just given her was only half the truth. She silently prayed that the water welling up in her eyes wouldn't spill over.

Jane turned away from her and stepped off of her front porch, and he was immediately swallowed up by darkness. Somehow this gave her the courage to let a tear fall, as if him being out of her sight meant she was also out of his.

She wiped the tear away angrily and almost turned back to her house. Instead, she froze, her eyes searching in the direction of the walkway.

"I want you to be happy, too, Jane," she said. Surprisingly, her voice came out steady—far stronger than the whisper she'd imagined would escape her lips.

A low, soft chuckle greeted her ears from the general direction of her mailbox. "I just told you I was," said Jane's voice. Lisbon's head turned towards him, her eyes desperately searching to find his outline. But Jane remained—determinedly, she guessed—in the shadows.

Lisbon shook her head, and she stepped down from the porch. "No," she said slowly. "You said that the most important thing to you was that I was happy. And before that, you said that you were happy if I was. There's a distinction there, Jane."

"An arbitrary one, Lisbon. You are happy—which, by extension, makes me happy."

Lisbon took another step towards the street, away from the light of her porch. "You're not getting what I'm trying to say here, Jane."

In her mind, she pictured the eye roll she knew Jane was performing right now. Another step towards him, and she could finally see the dark figure that was Jane, though she couldn't make out his features. The dark shape approached her but stopped just before the edges of his shoes stepped out of the shadows.

"What are you trying to say, Lisbon?" he asked.

"I want you to be happy," she said, trying and failing to locate his eyes. Damn that man! Why couldn't he move a step closer so that they could have this conversation eye-to-eye? "Your happiness apparently depends on mine. And it's obvious you're not…"

She trailed off, knowing she had failed to make her point. Jane took a step back further into the darkness. Lisbon stepped forward.

"Damn it, Jane!" said Lisbon. "Stop hiding! This conversation is hard enough without being able to see how you're reacting!"

He gave another chuckle, and Lisbon's eyes snapped up when she heard an almost inaudible sniff come from him.

"That's sort of the idea, Lisbon."

Lisbon put a hand to her mouth in an attempt to stifle the sob that rose up. She didn't succeed: the sob echoed in the blackness surrounding them. Her other hand dropped the bag containing the cannoli, and she raised the hand tentatively to what she could make out of Jane's face.

Jane tensed, but he didn't retreat. Lisbon's fingertips brushed across his cheekbone, their pressure lighter than snowflakes, and she felt her way to the corner of his eye.

Her fingers encountered salty tears.

"Jane," she breathed, and her other hand moved from her mouth to touch the other side of his face. She wiped the moisture from his eyes with her thumbs.

"We need to go someplace to talk."

A minute later, after she pulled herself together as best she could, Lisbon found herself standing in front of Marcus, who was sprawled out on her couch and flipping through channels on the television. He turned off the TV immediately after seeing her expression.

"Teresa, what's wrong?" he asked, starting to stand up.

Lisbon began to speak as Marcus approached her. "It's Jane," she said truthfully, knowing he deserved honesty from her. "He's really upset right now…and I don't think he should be alone." She paused, taking in his concerned eyes, and she wondered how it was possible for anyone to be so good, so right…and so completely wrong at the same time. "Would you mind terribly if I cut this short?"

Marcus' expression softened, and he planted a soft kiss on her temple. "He looked a bit off when I answered the door," he agreed. "I think you ought to be with him right now, too."

Lisbon sighed, simultaneously conflicted and relieved. "You're welcome to stay here," she said halfheartedly, gesturing to the couch.

"It's not nearly as nice when you're not around," said Marcus, smiling at her affectionately. "Don't worry about me—go look after Jane."

Lisbon nodded nervously, and Marcus grabbed his jacket and keys. He kissed her again gently before heading towards the door.

"Thank you," said Lisbon almost imperceptibly as he shut the front door behind him.

She waited for the sounds of his car starting and pulling out of the driveway to fade before she moved. Then she grabbed her keys and her light gray leather jacket and was out the door to the garage within ten seconds.

Lisbon was unsurprised to find her car unlocked and already occupied when she opened the driver's side door. She smiled.

"Do I need to change my locks?" she teased.

In a normal situation, he would have laughed. He might have even teased her back. Lisbon became worried when Jane did neither. Instead, he simply looked at her, the pain in his eyes evident. Lisbon opened the garage door and backed out quickly, eager to get to some unknown destination and fix whatever problem the two of them had.

"Where are we going, Jane?" she asked, at a loss for where to take him.

He was, once again, already ahead of her. "There's a nice-ish park six streets down from you in the opposite direction of the road you take to work. It'll be closed now, so it's a good thing I have an officer of the law with me."

Lisbon smiled in spite of herself as she followed his directions. As they passed the streetlights lining the road, the interior of the car was periodically flooded with bright light, causing their skin to appear pallid. "Yeah," she said, "if a police officer tries to arrest you, I might have to protest."

She thought she saw him smile, but she wondered if it was a trick of the light.

Two minutes later, Lisbon pulled the car into a parking lot adjacent to the park. She stepped out of the car, taking in the playground, and Jane mirrored her.

The Austin grass was almost nonexistent save for a few brown blades. Lisbon stepped onto it, and the blades crunched under her shoes as she strode towards the playground. Jane followed in her wake.

Her original destination had been the swings, but they were bathed in moonlight and quite open for any wandering eyes. Instead, Lisbon climbed up the stairs to the playground and made for the tallest turret. When she reached it, she ducked underneath the pointed cone-shaped roof and motioned for Jane to follow her. Lisbon sat down and leaned against the protective siding, glad for its presence tonight. Though normally it kept children from falling out, tonight it kept prying eyes from looking in.

Jane ducked under the turret and sat down across from her. In order to fit, he had to bend his knees, which brushed against hers. She touched his hip gently with her toe.

"Is this alright?" she said.

Jane nodded and very pointedly avoided her eyes.

"I want to finish our conversation," said Lisbon slowly, and as she spoke a cloud moved in front of the moon.

"Yeah," said Jane. "You interrupted it at a rather critical moment."

Lisbon ducked her head. "We both know that there was no way in hell we were going to have this conversation with Marcus fifty feet away."

Jane leaned his head against the siding of the turret. "Marcus," he muttered.

"You don't like him," said Lisbon.

"I do like him, Lisbon," said Jane, "and that's what makes this even more frustrating."

Lisbon's eyes narrowed. "'This'?" she quoted. "What does 'this' mean, Jane?"

Jane sighed, and Lisbon was shocked to see the tears return to his eyes. "It means that—more than anything—I want to be the person who makes you happy. And it kills me that I'm not that person."

His eyes met hers for a second, steely blue staring into emerald green, but he looked away almost instantly.

"But he makes you happy, and I wouldn't take that away from you. Ever. I couldn't do that to you, Lisbon. After all the grief I've caused you, you deserve to be happy."

"What makes you think those things are mutually exclusive?" she asked sharply.

Jane's eyes flashed to hers again, and this time he didn't look away.

"What?"

"What makes you think that those two things—you being happy and me being happy—can't occur at the same time?"

Jane shrugged. "Well, obviously—"

Lisbon cut him off. "Apparently it's not so obvious," she said, grabbing his hand. "Listen closely, Patrick Jane, because I'm only going to say this one more time. According to you, when I'm happy, you are as well."

"I'm following."

Lisbon exhaled as she spoke. "Fact: you're not happy. What conclusion can we draw from this?"

Jane's hand in hers flexed, and he intertwined their fingers. "You're not happy," he whispered.

Lisbon smiled delicately. "It's simple logic, really," she said. The cloud moved away from the moon, and soft light danced through an opening in the turret. "Now ask me the next question our logic puzzle presents."

He leaned forward so that his back no longer was plastered against the side of the turret. "Lisbon, what would make you happy?"

In response, Lisbon leaned forward, bringing their faces to within an inch of each other.

"You," she said simply. "You, Jane. Just you. Exactly as you are. I want you—your smile, your laugh, your heart. Your family, your heartache, your pain, all of it. Your past, your present, and hopefully, your future. You—just you—make me happy."

The effect of her words on his expression was instantaneous. The worry lines faded, and his eyes almost shut with the force of the grin that spread across his face. Then he chuckled in equal parts disbelief and joy, and Lisbon couldn't help but join in.

"Well, that's lucky," he managed to get out before laughing in delight again. A beat later, his face fell, and he became intensely serious. "You really mean that? Are you sure?"

Lisbon nodded. "I wouldn't lie to you about this, Jane. I promise. And I've had the better part of two years to come to terms with how I felt—so yes, I'm sure."

"Why didn't you say anything?"

"You were never available. I knew that from the beginning."

"Things are different now," Jane promised. "I'm different now. I'm available—but only for you, I'm afraid."

"Good," said Lisbon. "That is something I'm going to have to insist upon."

"Insist away," said Jane. "Whatever you want, it's yours."

And he grinned again. She smiled back tentatively in response.

For the second time, Jane's face became serious. "What about Pike?" he asked softly.

Lisbon shrugged. "He'll understand," she said. "In fact, I think he already knows. I kept putting off his offer to go to DC—that by itself was probably a strong enough message."

"You're staying."

"Of course I'm staying. Don't be an idiot."

Jane grinned again, and this time the smile remained on his face. "I'm so happy right now I don't even care that you've started to insult me again. God, I must be ridiculously in love with you."

They both froze at his words, smiles plastered across their faces. Then Jane leaned over to kiss her, one hand holding her head while weaving through her hair and the other at her back, pulling her closer.

Happiness radiated through her veins, and Lisbon smiled against his kiss.

AN: Thanks for reading! I'm working on another oneshot that should be up soon as well, a request from a lovely guest reviewer, so look for that in the next couple days!