Author's Note: This is just a quickie I thought up. Hope you like it.
After he'd proposed Lisbon knew she couldn't go through with this. Even if she ended up alone for the rest of her life, she couldn't do this. She had to tell him. But how? The last time a man had wanted to marry her she'd run away. But she couldn't very well do that in this situation. No, she had to break up with him outright. Marcus deserved that much from her at least. He was a good man.
She texted him. Mind if I come by your place after work?
It didn't take long for Pike to answer back. Not at all. I should be at home by 7pm.
The rest of the afternoon Lisbon felt a knot steadily growing in her stomach. She hated this. Why in heaven's name had she started this whole relationship in the first place. She should've known it wasn't going to work. And now she'd managed to hurt someone she genuinely liked just because she'd been trying to run away from Jane.
When she got to Pike's the knot tightened uncomfortably. She took a breath. Tried to relax. Come on, how hard could it be?
A voice inside her head answered snidely, 'I guess you'll find out, Heartbreaker.'
'Shut up,' Lisbon hissed to herself, then gave the front door a firm knock.
A few seconds later Pike opened the door.
She tried to keep her expression calm and cool, but that was pretty difficult at the moment. Looking at Marcus she couldn't help wondering, 'Does he already know what I'm going to say?'
The voice inside her balked, 'Do you even know what you're going to say?'
Lisbon bite her lip hard, focusing on the sharp sting of her teeth, trying to shut out the voice.
"Teresa..." Pike began to say at the same moment Lisbon blurted out, "Marcus, I can't..."
He looked slightly taken aback by her sudden outburst.
Lisbon took a breath and lowered her voice to a more normal decibel.
"Marcus, I can't go with you."
"I know," he answered simply and then was silent.
So he had known what she was here for.
After a few moments Lisbon rushed to fill the silence.
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to lead you on or hurt you."
He nodded.
"I know you didn't. It's my fault. I shouldn't have asked you out in the first place. I had a gut feeling you were in love with someone else."
Lisbon looked away awkwardly and said, "I'm just as bad. I actually knew I was in love with someone else and I still went out with you."
"How about we call it even then?" he asked with a slight smile.
Lisbon gave him an answering smirk.
"Ok."
Going up on tiptoe she planted a small kiss on his cheek, then smiled warmly as she stepped back.
"Take care. Have a safe trip to D.C."
"Thanks Teresa. You take care too."
"I will," she replied as she walked to the door.
As she was leaving Pike stopped her.
"Oh and Teresa... I hope that partner of yours wakes up and sees what he's missing. 'Cause he's missing a lot."
Lisbon opened her mouth to say something, but closed it again when she realized she really didn't know what to say to that.
Instead she gave him a farewell nod and closed the front door behind her.
When she was safely in her car Lisbon let out a sigh of relief. 'That's one down,' she said to herself. 'One more to go.'
Pulling out her phone she texted Jane. Meet me at that diner you like tomorrow at 6:30pm.
Lisbon looked at the digital clock on her nightstand. 3:30am.
Ugh, this was ridiculous. She'd been lying awake in bed for five hours now.
Well, obviously she wasn't going to get any sleep. So she might as well get up and do something constructive.
'Constructive, yeah, sure,' she said to herself sarcastically as she turned on the vacuum to clean her already clean living room carpet.
'Maybe I should break a glass or bowl, then I'd have something to clean up.'
"Would you just listen to yourself," she yelled out loud over the sound of the vacuum. "You're going bat-nuts crazy... and now you're talking to yourself."
I few minutes later she jumped as she heard a pounding on her front door.
She turned off the vacuum and went to let whoever it was in.
It shouldn't have surprised her that 'whoever it was' turned out to be a rather frantic looking Jane, but it did.
"Hey Lisbon," he said pushing past her into the apartment.
"Um... Hi, Jane."
He started pacing around her living room in an anxious sort of way and Lisbon began to get worried.
"Jane... What's the matter? Are you alright?" she asked, concerned.
"Yeah, fine," he replied. "I just need to tell you something."
"O-kay," she answered, sounding out the letters of the word slowly.
He kept on pacing.
"You've been wanting me to tell you how I feel about you going to D.C.," he began.
'Oh no,' Lisbon thought. 'Not good. Why didn't the idiot wait until tonight so I could tell him about Pike.'
'Uh, maybe because he didn't know you were going to tell him about Pike,' the voice inside her head answered. 'He probably thought he were meeting him so you could say goodbye.'
Oh no, this was horrible. He was going to blurt out something he didn't mean, just like he had four years ago.
She had to stop him.
"Jane, I..." she started, but her cut her off.
"No, please Teresa. Just let me get this out," he pleaded, facing her with an almost desperate look in his eyes.
"I don't want you to go..."
"Jane..." she tried again, but he ignored her.
"I want you to stay... and not just because you're my partner and my best friend..."
"Jane..." Still no response.
"I want you to stay because..."
"Patrick!" she shouted.
That got his attention. He stopped talking and looked at her. But for some reason she can't look back. Instead she looks at the floor.
"I called it off with Pike yesterday," she says clearly so no mistake could be made about what she'd said.
She risks a glance at him and once she has she can't look away.
The expression she can see in his eyes is mesmerizing.
He seems... relieved.
Is he glad now that she stopped him from saying something he didn't truly mean?
Is he glad because he actually does care about her as more than just a friend and partner?
'No,' Lisbon snaps at herself. 'You've been disappointed too many times. Don't do this to yourself again.'
But there's something in his eyes...
He moved closer to her, invading her personal space. Looking down at her with an expression that was making her feel like a dozen butterflies were fluttering around inside her.
His mouth opened and she waited for what seemed like an age to hear what he would say.
"I'm in love with you."
Lisbon felt like her heart had stopped beating and then it started up again at twice it's normal rate.
She swallowed back a lump that had suddenly formed in her throat and let out the breath she'd been holding for years.
He loved her. He really loved her. She'd heard it. She could see it. It wasn't some mistakenly blurted line. It wasn't a phrase meant to throw her off her guard so she couldn't see what his real intent was. He truly loved her.
Lisbon met his eyes squarely with her own.
"I'm in love with you too."
A sort of weight seemed to fall from his shoulders and it was as if his face had take on a kind of glow.
He stepped even closer to her and Lisbon knew what was coming next.
She's not scared she tells herself.
'Sheep dip,' the voice in her head says back. 'You're scared to death... and you love it.'
Jane reached out his hand and curled it gently around the back of her neck.
Lisbon trembled slightly at the feel of him touching her in a way he'd never done before.
She placed both her hands against his chest for support just in case her knees buckled.
He brought his face closer to hers slowly, giving her plenty of time in case she wanted to pull away.
But she didn't want to. She never wanted to pull away from him again.
Closing her eyes she waited for him to finish bridging the distance between them.
When his lips enclosed around her own she felt as if her heart was so full it was going to burst.
She moaned softy and slide her hands from Jane's chest to his neck. She buried her fingers in his curls and was rewarded with an answering moan from her partner.
Lisbon felt his arm wrap firmly around her waist and then something warm and wet pressed against her bottom lip.
She opened up to him willingly and he eagerly deepened the kiss.
They stayed like this for some time, learning more about each other in this new and very pleasurable way.
By the time Jane pulled back they were both out of breath and flushed.
He gave her a brilliant smile and Lisbon sent him an answering one, then he spoke.
"Will you go out with me Teresa?"
"As in a date? Nice restaurant? The works? " she teased.
"Mmhm," he murmured in the affirmative while planting a light kiss against her mouth.
"I'd love too Jane."
"Patrick," he said, urging her to use his first name.
"Patrick," she replied through a smile.
Thanks for reading. Reviews are just lovely. :)