I wrote this a while ago and never posted it, I'm not sure why. Just short piece of Jisbon fluffiness.
When you don't review it makes me unhappy and when I'm unhappy you're less happy.
I still don't own The Mentalist or Simon Baker mmmmmmm… Simon Baker.
CBI Agent Teresa Lisbon stepped of the elevator, squared her shoulders and walked rapidly through the serious crimes bullpen. She kept her gaze resolutely forward, ignoring the slightly apprehensive looks from her subordinates, well two of the four, Cho was too engrossed in his book to bother looking up and Patrick Jane was, as usual, napping. Arriving at her office she opened the door, stepped in and quietly closed it behind her.
The click of the door latch seemed to break the spell of stillness that had settled over the four left in the bullpen. Van Pelt let out the breath she felt like she had been holding forever, Rigby took a bite of the candy bar that he' d held, momentarily forgotten in his hand, even Cho glanced up, a look of surprise briefly flickering over his face before it returned to its usual impassivity. Only the occupant of the couch seemed to show no reaction, though a careful observer would have seen an almost imperceptible relaxation of tension in his body. Patrick Jane counted to thirty in his head and when no scream of "get in here Jane!" came from the still closed office door he decided he had been patient enough. He sat up slowly and giving a slightly theatrical yawn, "wouldn't do to look to eager" he thought to himself, stood up. Acting as nonchalant as possible he ambled over to the door and as was now customary walked right in without knocking. Once in, he turned to shut the door and to wait for the complaints of "why don't you ever knock?" When none came he turned around and instead of meeting the annoyed eyes of a senior agent he saw an empty desk. A slight scraping noise drew his gaze to the corner where the petite Teresa Lisbon stood, a few books and pictures in her hand. She bent over and placed them in the box at her feet and having finished with that shelf she pushed the box across the floor with her foot, recreating the scraping sound that had initially drawn his attention.
"It's the wrong time of the year for spring cleaning woman," Jane said, his "teasing Lisbon" smirk firmly in place. He got no answer, not even a "bite me!" Lisbon just calmly continued to empty the book shelves of her possessions and place them side by side in the box. "Oh so it's the silent treatment huh?" Jane continued. "So what's it 'gonna take to get you to talk to me? Do I have to go steal one of Rigby's chocolate bars for you?Should I make you another origami frog? I didn't bring any paper with me so I guess I'll just have to use one of your case reports," he continued to tease.
"Go ahead," Lisbon replied finally turning around, "they aren't my problem anymore."
Jane was so happy to finally get a reaction from her that it took a few seconds for her words and the expression accompanying them to register. She looked sad, empty, resigned but at the same time relieved. As if she had to make a terrible choice and now she was just dealing with the consequences, glad the decision had been made.
"Lisbon?" he said her name like it was a question, and then once again but softer "Teresa?"
"Hightower fired me," Lisbon said. She looked at Jane, smiled softly and repeated, "She fired me," then answering the next question, said "I'm okay" before he could even open his mouth to ask.
"She can't do that!" he exclaimed. His anger was cut short by Lisbon chuckling and saying "Uhh, she's my boss, so yeah, I'm pretty sure she can". He looked at her surprised that she wasn't raging at him, throwing things, cursing; even tears were preferable to the look of amused acceptance on her face. "I'll get this taken care of" he said decisively "this isn't going to happen, don't go anywhere until I come back."
"Jane" Lisbon called as he turned towards the door."Jane!" As he continued walking and finally "Patrick!" grabbing his wrist as he started turning the knob. "Just listen to me for a second" she said pushing herself in between him and the door.
"Later," Jane replied as he removed his hand from the knob and placed it on her shoulder, trying to move her out from in front of the door, "I have to get to Hightower before she files that paperwork." He tried to shake off the hand still holding his wrist until Lisbon tightened her grip and yanked at it saying sharply "Patrick, no!"
She had finally had his attention judging by his stillness and the incredulous look on his face, but not in the way that she had always dreamed of, she thought. "Just please, sit down, and listen" she said gesturing to the couch.
"Oh come on, you can just let one tiny little incident ruin your"/Jane/
"One tiny little incident, Jane!" Lisbon interrupted, her mask of calm finally starting to crack. "You got an off duty cop shot and completely pissed off the biggest political donor in the state!" she yelled.
"The slimy jerk was cheating on his pregnant wife with a college freshman!" Jane yelled back.
"I agree that the guys a bastard, Jane, but it was completely irrelevant to the case!" You only did it because the guy "irked you!" /Lisbon/
They stopped, both glaring at each other until Lisbon broke eye contact with a sigh. She turned towards the couch and still tugging at Jane's hand repeated "please just listen."
Jane slowly allowed her to pull him over to the couch and watched as she let go of him and sat down, gazing up at him expectantly and then looked at the opposite corner signaling where she expected him to sit. He returned her look and just to be perverse sat down in the empty spot next to her.
Lisbon, by this time used to Jane's contrary ways just waited for him to settle himself. Once he'd arranged himself to his satisfaction he gave her his attention, only it seemed that now that she had it she was unsure of what to do with it. She cleared her throat and open and closed her mouth a few times before she finally started. "You were right" she said and seeing his raised eyebrows and "aren't I always" look elaborated. "Hightower wants to use me. To keep you in line. She said she was firing me but didn't expect it to last, that you would go in there and rant and threaten and when she didn't back down you would promise to behave yourself and that you would, well at least for a little while" she added with a smile.
"I promised I would be there for you" Jane said smiling back at her, not the bright and shiny one he used to manipulate but a genuine smile.
"I know "she replied softly "So I told her that if she wasn't really firing me, I quit."
"What!" Lisbon!" Jane yelled, standing up abruptly.
Lisbon once again grabbed his hand and pulling him back down next to her said "please let me finish." Now holding his hand in hers, she started again "My whole life I've never felt like I was good enough." She held up one finger to stall the protest forming on his lips. "My mother didn't care enough to hold on to life. My father didn't love me enough to control his rage, his grief or his addiction. Minnelli didn't care enough to stay. Bosco said he loved me but never enough to leave his wife or lose his career. And you ask me to trust you but then you lie to me. You say you'll always save me but you're the one who puts me in danger and not just my job, Jane, but my life." Seeing that he was about to interrupt again she looked away and rushed on. "He said something to you, that night, Red John, he said something to you. When I asked you, you denied it but I could tell you were lying. So I waited and I trusted you and I hoped that it would be enough, that you would care about me enough." She glanced back at him and her tone changed to conversational, as if she were asking him how the weather was today or how he'd like his tea. "You know some times you mumble when you fall asleep on your couch? "Tiger, tiger burning bright"…, and you started to carry that book of Blake's poems around with you everywhere, the only page that seemed to be worn was the one with that poem on it, The Tyger. So I figured out your secret and then I realized that it didn't matter. If you don't even care enough to trust me with a clue that could save Red Johns next victim, even though that victim could be me or one of my team members, then why should I keep trying? I always knew I would never be as important to you as you are to me. I told myself that that the job, us putting away bad guys, that it would be enough, that it was all I needed. But I was wrong. I deserve to mean more to you than your ego, your desire to always be right, always be the smartest one in the room and yes, even your desire for revenge. I'm tired of not being enough, Jane. So I'm leaving. I'll find a job where they think I, just Teresa Lisbon, am enough and maybe if I'm lucky someone special who thinks so too and hopefully he'll be enough for me. If not than that's ok too but at least I'll know that I'm not settling for less that I deserve."
With that Teresa Lisbon pulled her hands out from where they twined with his in his lap and while he sat trying to process what she had said she stood up and leaning down, gave him a soft lingering kiss on the corner of his mouth. Jane closed his eyes and feeling her breath tickle his face inhaled the warm scent of cinnamon that surrounded her, when he opened them she was gone, the door clicking shut behind her.
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