Coming Back, Coming Home

Hi guys! Okay, this is my first attempt on writing something for The Mentalist, so I really hope you are pleased with how it turned out! Also please note that my first language is not English, so I apologize for any mistakes! Enjoy, and let me know what you think please! :)

P.S.: It should be situated around the Dec. 1st or Dec. 8th ep. :)

It's around 1am; Lisbon is half asleep on her couch with the TV on. Suddenly, she's woken by knocking on the front door. She gets up quickly while grabbing her gun and the sudden rush makes her dizzy. She stumbles toward the door and stands behind it for a bit to clear her head and to make the dizziness stop. Who could it be at this hour? She looks through the peek hole and her heart stops.

She sees some gold locks and a scruffy face; he's turned sideways to the door, like he's thinking, or maybe reconsidering being there. She stares at the image that she sees and blinks a couple of times to make herself believe it. It really is him. After all this time, he shows up at her doorstep. A huge amount of thoughts and feelings make their way through her head and body, and she can't help but to shiver slightly. These feelings are intense; she's missed him so much, at the same time she was angry that he didn't call again after he got away, happy to see him like this, because he looked okay, a normal version of Jane, but more peaceful, like a lot of weight has been lifted from him, and it has. And also all the feelings that she thought had died when he left, started coming back again. Why would she start thinking this again? She wasn't happy about it, because those feelings were romance-like, and she wasn't really sure how he felt. Well, he cared enough to call her after he finished with Red John, but that's what friends do. Could he possibly care more thank that? After all he's been through, she found that sort of doubtful… with that, she realized that she's been standing behind her closed door for the past 2 minutes, and at the time, she saw Jane turning around as if he was planning on leaving. She quickly got herself together and opened the door.

''Jane.'' She took a deep breath after saying his name.

''Lisbon.'' He turned to her and a smile formed on his face.

She was struck with his smile, but she managed to do one of her half smiles in return. ''What are you doing here, Jane?''

''Well, it is late, I can come back tomorrow, if you want…'' He figured it really was late, and she must have been tired from work.

''No, I mean, what are you doing HERE.'' She knew he understood her, and she wanted a clear answer, because she's been confused about their ''partnership'' for some time now…

''Oh, well, I'm back. For good. And I wanted you to be the first to know. I missed home, I missed you, Lisbon.

At this point she was standing outside, 2 feet away from she felt all the emotions that she thought she'd shaken off while she was inside, coming back to her in waves. Waves of Jane. She started shivering slightly, and ducked her head that let her hair fall across her shoulders so he wouldn't notice. But he did. He always noticed.

''Are you cold?'' Before she could answer, he took off his jacket and covered her around the shoulders. When he looked into her eyes, they were watery. He stopped dead in his tracks, with his hands still on her shoulders; ''Teresa.'' That was when she cracked, she couldn't take it anymore. Tears slowly made their way down her cheeks.

''I don't see you, I don't hear from you for 2 years, and then you show up on my porch in the middle of the night out of nowhere and expect me to be okay? I couldn't reach you, I didn't know what was going on, I didn't know how you felt… Jane, I can't function like this, if you decided to leave me and your old life behind, why in the world would you feel the need to suddenly show up and expect everything to be okay?''

He needed a bit of time to process all of this sudden emotion. ''I'm sorry.'' ''I really am, I am sorry for what I've done to you and to the others, to drag you trough this, and to leave you selfishly behind, without a proper goodbye.'' ''I'm sorry, Lisbon.''

She was just looking at him, listening, and taking it all in. Her tears stopped running, but her cheeks were still wet.

''The only one, I truly cared about, the only one that meant so much to me in this entire process, that only one was you, Lisbon. So now I'm here, on your porch, I don't even know what I was expecting, but I wanted, I needed to see you. I'm sorry that I've upset you, so maybe it's best that I leave.'' He started to pull his arms that were still clenching her shoulders, away from her, when she stopped him by stepping one step closer. ''Jane, wait.'' From the look in her exes he could tell that she didn't want him to leave. And he couldn't. He couldn't do this to her again. Not ever.

They were just standing there, thinking about each other. his arms have now moved to her waist, and it didn't look like she minded. He leaned closer, he could feel her tense up, but she didn't move. He looked into those big green eyes that were still watery. She caught his look and held it for a moment. Then she glanced down, and he understood it as an approval. He leaned even closer and filled the gap between them. It was a quick peck on the lips, to show her gratitude, to show her he really cares. They pulled apart slowly, looking each other in the eyes. Their faces were still really close when he put his arms around her and pulled her close. She rested her head on his chest and suddenly, the calmness that she hasn't felt in so long, came back to her. They will sort this out. And she was suddenly pretty convinced he was staying the night. She needed him close, and something gave her the idea that he felt similar.

''I missed you too.''

THE END

Good? Bad? Horrible? Here, from where I'm uploading, is already December (we had our first 15 minutes of snow yesterday!), so reviews would be like Christmas came early! :) Thank you for reading! :)

M