A/N: This idea just wouldn't leave me alone. It's been years since I've seen the entire episode, so I might be slightly off canon here. Hope you'll enjoy this. Would love to hear from you.
Together
Wayne Rigsby let out a deep sigh as he listened to the sound his shoes made on the concrete as he walked. He swallowed the lump that seemed to have nestled itself in his throat after Grace had left his desk, had left him. His eyes were red and puffy from crying and anyone seeing him now would think something was terribly wrong. And there was, he had lost the woman he loved, all because of some stupid rules and fear.
He found himself at the park he often went to when he needed to think. It was empty and dark, but he didn't care. He found his favorite bench and sat down, dropping his head into his hands as more tears started to fall. He didn't understand what she'd meant when she'd told him that she knew who she was. He knew that as well, didn't he? She was the love of his life, had been for a long time and for a while he thought nothing would ever break them apart. But the rules did, well, Grace wanting to stick by the rules did.
That's why he had offered to leave the job to be with her. He had plenty of experience and would've been able to find a job elsewhere in no time. He wouldn't have hated her for it, as she had so eloquently put it. His life with her was far more important than his work at the CBI. He could've seen them go the distance, buy a house together, have a family. But that dream had been torn apart by her.
Cho made his way back to the bull pen after a meeting downstairs, frowning to see the light at Rigsby's desk still on. When he walked over to turn it off before leaving the office for the night, he saw his phone. Rigsby never left without his phone. He couldn't help but immediately worry about his best friend. He did the only thing he could think of, he called Van Pelt.
Grace grabbed her phone, sniffling once more to make sure that whoever was on the other line wouldn't hear her crying. "Van Pelt," she answered, silently cursing the slight tremble in her voice.
"Hey, it's me," Cho replied, "Do you have any idea where Rigsby is? I was about to leave the office when I saw his phone was still on his desk."
Grace wiped at her eyes, worry immediately settling in her stomach, leaving without his phone was out of character for Rigsby. She couldn't get involved however, not right now, not after what had happened. "I have no idea," she replied truthfully, "I'm sure he's just forgotten it, don't worry about it."
"So he's not with you then?" Cho asked, frowning slightly. His two friends seemed to spend every waking moment together, and hearing they weren't together tonight worried him slightly. "Is everything okay?" He asked as he heard her sniffle on the other end of the line.
Grace shook her head, even though he wouldn't be able to see that. "He's not… we uhm… I broke up with him a few hours ago," she admitted as a fresh batch of tears threatened to fall.
"Really?" Cho asked, he hadn't seen that one coming. "I'm sorry," he added. "So uhm… do you think this has anything to do with that?" He asked carefully.
"Possibly," Grace admitted as she wiped at her eyes again. "I think I might know where he is. I'll uh… I'll go talk to him," she said and hung up. She hoped he would listen to her, give her time to explain herself a little bit more.
She hopped in her car and drove towards the CBI building, which she'd left mere hours earlier. She knew there was a little park a couple of blocks down which he loved to go to whenever a case was bothering him or he needed to talk. She stuck her hands in her pockets and walked towards the park, seeing his back turned to her once she was close enough.
Rigsby heard her approach, knowing it was her by her footsteps and the smell of her perfume he loved so much. "Don't," he said when he heard the footsteps stopped. "I don't need to hear it again, you've been pretty clear," he added as he fought against his tears.
Grace walked around to the other side of the bench and sat down, keeping her distance from him. "You know hurting you was the last thing I wanted to do," she said, her own voice having the same tremble as his. "But you know this is for the better right?" She asked, needing his confirmation that she'd made the right choice.
But she wouldn't get it, because he didn't feel it was for the better. "It's not Grace, and you know it," he replied, not looking up at her. "The only thing this is… the only thing I learned from this is that you value your job more than us…"
"That's not true Wayne…" Grace started, but knew she couldn't tell him that she would've left the job if he'd asked her to. "I know your job is important to you, you've worked so hard to be where you are and you're too good at it to go do something else. You would've ended up resenting me, I just know that."
"You don't know that Grace, apparently you don't know me. I thought you did," Rigsby responded. "I would've left it all for you, to be able to wake up to you every morning and to kiss you good night every evening. I've pictured our marriage, our kids…" he trailed off before swallowing, a tiny strangled sob escaping his throat. "Forget it, I can't have this conversation, not now. Goodbye Grace," he said as he got up from the bench, leaving a crying Grace behind.
Weeks passed and the tension in the bull pen was high every time Rigsby and Grace were in the office together. Rigsby couldn't help but steal glances every once in a while, to see if she was feeling as miserable as he was. He missed her terribly, but he was too proud to say anything. She had made her choice and that was that.
Grace knew Rigsby was watching her as she typed away on her keyboard. She was searching information on their most recent suspect and felt his eyes on her as she focused on the task at hand. Ignoring him was becoming harder and harder every day. She couldn't help but feel regret. Would she dare talk to him again? Would he be open to the conversation?
She bit her lower lip, an action not unnoticed by Rigsby. She finished up her file and sent it to Lisbon before getting up, heading over to his desk.
Rigsby quickly looked down, pretending to be reading the case file that was on his desk, not realizing the file was closed and there was nothing to read. He looked up when she cleared her throat, giving her an awkward lopsided grin. "Hey," he said.
"Hey, want to uhm… grab some coffee?" Grace asked, wanting to take him out of the office for the conversation she wanted to have with him.
"Sure, as long as you're paying and I get to order a donut to go with it," Rigsby teased as he got up, grabbing his jacket.
Grace chuckled, "You should really do something about your sugar addiction," she said as they walked out, on their way to the nearest diner. Once there they sat down in one of the booths and after ordering she cleared her throat. "So uhm… I want to apologize," she started. "I wasn't thinking clearly when I did what I did…"
"Grace, it's over and done with, I'm over it," Rigsby said, the last part being a lie. He looked up at the waitress when she brought the coffee over, giving her a smile. He then turned back to Grace. "You were right, we both value our jobs too much to transfer, so it's better this way," he said, the words almost burning in his mouth, leaving a bad taste.
After taking a sip of her coffee, giving her a moment to think, Grace finally raised her eyes to meet his again. "But what if I was wrong?" She asked, her voice small. "I miss what we had Wayne. I miss going to your place after a tough day at work, knowing you're there to hold me," she added in a voice only merely above a whisper.
Rigsby looked up from his coffee. "I can't Grace…" he replied sorrowfully. "You leaving me hurt so bad… I don't think I would survive it another time."
"You wouldn't have to," Grace replied, her voice hopeful. "I wouldn't leave you again."
"You would…" Rigsby spoke up as he looked deeply into his eyes. "I don't what it is, but something deep inside of you is not ready to open up to me. And that's fine… but it would also be the reason we would break up again," he said as he took another sip. "So like you said, it's better this way."
When Rigsby arrived at work after the weekend he was surprised to see Grace's desk empty. Everything was gone and the only things left were her computer and phone. He walked towards Lisbon's office and peeked his head in. "Where's Van Pelt?" He asked, his brows furrowed slightly.
Lisbon looked up, frowning as well, "She hasn't told you? She transferred to the FBI's office in San Francisco," she explained. "They offered her a job on their new cybercrime unit a while back."
Rigsby shook his head, "I didn't know," he replied. He stood in the doorway for a moment before turning on his heel and heading to his desk. He sat down with a deep sigh. He couldn't believe she was gone, just like that, without telling him. Then again, he'd made quite sure that there was nothing between them anymore and that there couldn't be. A decision he started to regret. How could he do his job without seeing her every day?
Grace walked over to her new desk with her small box of personal belongings. She started to decorate it, her fingers lingering on the picture frame Jane had given her. It was a picture of the entire team from when she's just joined. She ran her finger over Rigsby's figure and let out a deep sigh as she set the frame down next to her computer screen.
A couple of weeks passed and Grace was done with her final training, officially part of the cybercrime unit now. She liked doing this job, but she couldn't help but think back to the excitement of working at the CBI. Her new job was a desk job and she missed being out in the field. She missed the adrenaline rush of taking down a suspect and she missed Wayne.
"You should give her a call," Jane suggested as he sat down on the corner of Rigsby's desk, having caught the man looking at the still empty desk on the other side of the bullpen.
"Oh yeah? And what should I tell her?" Rigsby asked, slightly defensively as he let out a deep sigh. "I'm sorry. I just thought I'd be able to adjust to this, to working without her," he admitted, "but it's hard. I miss her."
"You don't just miss working with her," Jane smiled as he sipped his tea. "Look, I might know something about a position at the arson department just downstairs. I was thinking you could apply… Grace would be able to come back to the team because God knows she hates her new job… and you two can continue where you left off a couple of months ago."
Rigsby looked up at the man, shaking his head just slightly. "She hates her new job, huh? How do you know? Has she been talking to you?"
Jane chuckled, "Oh no, but the cybercrime unit is a desk job, and believe it or not, little Graces loves taking down bad guys," he replied and took another sip of his tea. "So… call her, talk to her, ask her to come back."
"I can't," Rigsby replied, his voice tight as he shook his head a little bit.
"Then get in the car and drive over there. It's only an hour and a half away," Jane said as he got up from the desk, heading towards his leather couch. "Trust me, she wants to see you. She misses you just as much as you miss her. And whatever issues she may have, you'll be able to work them out together."
Rigsby hated to admit it, but Jane was right. He grabbed his jacket without saying anything and headed downstairs.
"Rigsby! Where are you going?" He heard his boss call after him, but he didn't reply. He was on a mission.
Jane grinned, "He's going to bring our beloved redhead back," he said.
"Jane!" Lisbon chastised him, "How many times have I told you to stay out of the personal lives of our agents?" She asked. "Besides, they still can't be involved if she decides to come back here."
"I know, that's why Rigsby's transferring to arson, I already sent them his application," Jane grinned smugly.
"Jane!"
The drive to San Francisco seemed to take longer than he'd anticipated, probably because Rigsby was incredibly nervous. He hadn't even thought about what he was going to say to her. He wasn't even sure how he would be getting inside the office.
He parked his car on the visitor's lot and headed inside, walking up to the reception desk. "Hi… I'm from the CBI, I'm here to see Grace Van Pelt," he told the blonde behind the desk.
"One moment, I'll call to let her know you're here. What's your name?"
"Jane. Patrick Jane," Rigsby lied smoothly, knowing the chances of her wanting to see Jane were slightly larger than the chances of her wanting to see him.
"She'll be down in a moment," the blonde said and returned to her work, leaving Rigsby in the large hall.
"Wayne?" Came the surprised voice from Grace only minutes later. "What are you doing here? Why didn't you give your name?" She asked as she closed the distance between them, stopping when she was right in front of him.
"I didn't think you'd come down if I'd told the truth," Rigsby smiled sheepishly.
Grace couldn't help but smile a bit at that, "Hmm, I'm not sure," she replied and then smirked, "Of course I would've come down to talk to you. You're my friend."
"Yeah… about that…" Rigsby started and looked around. "Is there somewhere we can talk more privately?" He asked.
Grace frowned, but nodded. "Yeah sure," she replied and started leading the way to a smaller office. She closed the door behind them and smiled gently. "So… how's everybody been? I miss all of you."
"I've missed you too Grace… being apart like this…" Rigsby started and looked down, licking his lips. "I should've prepared this," he grinned with a blush. "I can't be without you anymore Grace… I thought I could do it after you ended things between us and that's the reason I didn't take you back when you offered… but being this far away from you, I can't do it…"
"Wayne…" Grace started, but he stopped her.
Rigsby silenced her by holding up his hand. "I know there are still quite a lot of issues we would need to resolve, but I know we can do it. It'll take time, but when it comes to you I've got all the time in the world. I want you Grace, and all the baggage you're carrying with you, I want to help you carry that."
Grace couldn't help but tear up lightly at his confession. All the walls that she'd built so carefully around her heart were starting to show cracks. "Really?" She asked, her voice trembling slightly.
"Really," Rigsby confirmed as he carefully reached out to cup her cheek. "Please come back with me?" He asked, his eyes pleading with hers.
"What about our job?" Grace asked, leaning into his touch.
"Apparently I'm starting downstairs with arson next week. Your desk is still free, if you want it," Rigsby said gently. "Unless you love your job here more…"
Grace giggled slightly and shook her head. "Let's do it, let's figure this out… together," she smiled.
"Really?" Rigsby asked, needing to make sure he'd heard her correctly as a wide grin started to form on his face.
This time she didn't verbally confirm, instead she moved both of her hands to his cheeks and leaned in to capture his lips in a deep and urgent kiss, which was immediately returned by him. "Together," she whispered, kissing him again. They would be okay, she just knew it. As long as they were together.
A/N2: Okay, I think this was the longest one shot I've ever written. I can't believe this is the third file I'm uploading on the site today. That coming from someone who hasn't written anything in a long time.