Author's note: Written for the Paint It Red December 2012 Monthly Challenge - prompt: "when lies become the truth".

Everybody's Got to Learn Sometime

"Here's your tea."

"Thank you."

She watched him more closely as he gingerly took a sip of his favorite beverage. There was something different about him, as if he'd inexplicably lost his self-assurance over the last few weeks. He looked decidedly forlorn now.

"Are you going to tell me why you've come here at all?"

Jane shrugged. "It's Christmas Eve. No one should spend it alone."

"You could've asked your friends."

"Maybe I wanted to spend it with you then?"

"Liar."

He didn't even bother to counter what she'd just said. "Your new apartment looks cozy. I like it."

"Yeah. And you covered the six-hour drive from Sacramento in order to take a look at it."

Another shrug. Even the gift of gab seemed to have failed him somehow.

Lorelei was about to speak again when he suddenly put down the teacup and closed the distance between them. Her eyes fluttered shut when she felt his lips brushing tentatively against hers.

For the briefest of moments she wished she could shut off the voices screaming inside her head. Enjoying a man's company without any strings attached to it would be such a welcome change after the years she'd spent at a serial killer's beck and call.

Except that she should stop getting entangled with manipulative men; she owed it to herself after all she'd been through.

Eventually she found the strength to pull back. "I'm not doing this, Patrick."

"Why not?"

She looked him straight in the eyes. "Last thing I need right now is trying to step in someone else's shoes. It's time to move on, for both of us."

"That's what I'm attempting to do. We've lost our loved ones to the same monster; we should understand each other better than anybody else."

Something in his eyes made her finally realize what the man sitting next to her was desperately trying to hide. She shook her head slowly.

"I think you're simply overwhelmed with your newfound freedom. Red John's dead, and you feel like you owe me something for helping you bring him down. And yet I didn't do it for you at all; I just wanted him to pay for what he'd done to my sister."

"I can understand that. I've been after revenge myself for almost a decade, you know."

"I know."

Jane leaned towards her again, running his thumb on her cheek.

"We're both broken, and feeling lonely. What's wrong with seeking some comfort into one another?"

"I can't be a surrogate Teresa Lisbon for you, Patrick. I'm over and done with that."

She knew she'd just hit a raw nerve, for he blinked a couple of times in the vain attempt to conceal his feelings. Even a honed conman could be an open book in his rare moments of weakness.

"I don't…"

"Oh, you do, believe me. The only thing I can't understand is why you're not with her right now."

He dropped his hand and suddenly looked away. "I don't want to lose her as happened with my wife."

"That means you'll lose her nonetheless."

"Maybe it's for the best. Surely she deserves someone better than me."

A wry smile showed on her lips. "Meaning that I don't. That's very nice of you."

"Well, no offence, but any man would look positively perfect in comparison to your late boyfriend."

She couldn't resist the urge to smack him on the arm. "He wasn't my boyfriend."

"Whatever."

"And you're just an idiot. Go back to your girlfriend, I bet she's waiting for you."

"She's not my girlfriend."

"Yet."

Jane tilted his head as he considered her point. "Maybe you're right."

As she showed him to the door Lorelei sighed between herself. As much as she liked Patrick, she was glad to know that she wouldn't have to put up with him anymore.

If there was a woman that could easily deal with such a pesky task, that was Teresa Lisbon. She was almost sure that the feisty little cop was going to get the better of him in the end.

The thought made her smirk as she burrowed herself among the couch cushions, enjoying the quiet of her newfound home.