Written for the April Challenge on the Paint It Red forum (prompt: "saving the world")
When she was small, Teresa envied the heroes in fantasy books. Because they saved the world; because it was possible for one person to save the world. It would take far more than one person to save hers. But she always believed that just because you couldn't save the whole world, didn't mean it wasn't worth trying to save even a tiny part.
Deep down, that's why she joined the police, why she worked her way up to head of the Serious Crimes Unit. Because there, she can make a difference. She may not be able to save the whole world, but she can save some of it. And after all, every person saved means the world to someone.
Sometimes, though, she fears the job is costing her her soul. Not all of it at once, but the little bits and pieces torn away with the corpses, the brutality, the horrors she sees. At those times, she remembers the bible verse. "For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?" It doesn't seem a very fair trade at first. Taking her soul and not even giving her the world in return.
Then she begins to see all the times she is given the world – not all of it, but bits and pieces. She's given parts of other people's souls, to return to them. The comfort of justice, cold though it can be, to the grieving families. Sometimes she's even given whole souls. The lives she manages to save.
But in all her years as a cop, Lisbon hadn't ever seen quite how much an unsolved case, a murderer living free, could tear away at a person. Not until Patrick Jane became part of her life. Jane with his easy smiles and his teasing ways, a glitter meant to dazzle the eyes so they can't pierce through and see the broken soul beneath. It fooled hers at first, even though she knew his history. Sometimes he still fools her, or maybe she lets him fool her.
They haven't caught Red John yet. She doesn't know if they ever will, isn't sure if that will really fill the gaping cracks in Jane. Will it help him, to see Red John locked away? To see him killed? To kill Red John himself? She doesn't believe it will.
But perhaps there's another way. Perhaps she can help him put back the shattered pieces. Help him make something not like before – she doesn't think it can ever be exactly like before – but new. Whole.
So she listens. She tries to dissuade him from his plans of revenge that she is sure will only damage him. She puts up with his pestering, goes along with his crazy plans, defends him… tries to be his friend. Is his friend.
Perhaps this is the best way to save the world. One person at a time. It doesn't seem like much, not when you consider how many people there are on the planet, but she deeply believes each one is unique, and therefore irreplaceable. Worth saving. Jane is worth saving, because he's part of the world she wants to save.
Just how big a part of her world he's managed to become is really no-one's business but her own.