"It must be nice," Jane commented lazily, propping himself up on his elbows and watching the clouds slowly drift across the sky. Lisbon, who had been resting her head on her folded arms in the grass next to him, turned to give him a curious look.
"What is?"
"Believing," he said it as if it were obvious, as if he had forgotten that not everybody thought about the same things all at the same time.
"Believing as in…" Lisbon returned her gaze to the skies, knowing that his expressionless features would likely remain that way.
"That you'll get to see your loved ones again, that there's a place of eternal paradise just waiting for you, and that no goodbye will ever be your last. In someone with the power to forgive you, because, really, that's what everybody wants, isn't it? To be forgiven for everything they've ever done wrong. I know that my only chance to be forgiven is here on earth, by the ones I've wronged, and it's too late for that now."
Patrick felt, rather than saw, Lisbon turn her head, and knew instinctively that her mouth would be open, likely in a soon-to-be attempt to comfort him. Taking this as his cue to leave, he stood up gracefully as Lisbon sat up behind him. He began walking away just as she started speaking.
"You know, it's never too late. To start believing, I mean. As long as you believe, you can still go to Heaven." She frowned, watching as he paused to turn and give her his characteristic charming smile, the one she knew he used to pretend that he was okay.
"I can't force myself to believe something as implausible as forgiveness for what I've done, no matter how hard I try. Some things really are too good to be true."