A/N: Jane + Lisbon + Closet = the prompt I got from Chibs = this fic. That's pretty much it, even if it is insanely long (I always wonder if I should split the fic up when they're this long, but this felt like a one-shot). Minor spoilers for S7, but honestly if you've read the episode description or seen the promo, I imagine you're covered.
Closeted
xxx
i.
It's a rare thing for a woman to wind up in a closet without a clear idea of how she got there.
Teresa Lisbon was well used to rare things.
(Or maybe more accurately, she was getting re-used to them.)
And she was definitely now in a closet, the result of a motion she'd have been hard-pressed to define.
She was pretty sure it'd involved both a pull and a push.
The push against the small of her back, the pull acting on her left hand.
Another (slightly stronger) pull to send her stumbling into body heat as the door shut behind her.
"What are you...?" she sputtered, as her eyes adjusted to the near darkness, enough to make out the shape of a series of shelves and an assortment of maintenance equipment behind the man standing opposite her.
Her companion cut her off. "Pike's in the bullpen."
The pleasure radiating out from Lisbon's heart stilled with that slap of cold reality. "What?"
"You didn't know?" the words so close to her ear they didn't need to be louder, even if there hadn't been another reason for quiet (the last thing they needed right now was to be caught together in a maintenance closet at the FBI).
"Of course I didn't know," she glared but kept her voice down.
She saw Jane's shoulders relax. "He didn't tell you?"
"No."
"Oh."
Lisbon decided her response needed qualifying. "Though neither of us was exactly at our best the last time we spoke."
Jane winced. He could well imagine. And contrary to what anyone might think, it had never been his intention to cause Marcus Pike (or the woman across from him) pain. "Well, Pike's here now, talking to Abbott," he told Lisbon. "I thought you should know." He hadn't wanted her to walk into that conversation unprepared.
"Okay..." Lisbon drew out the word. She decided she did appreciate the warning. Then something else struck her. "Wait, you thought I did know."
Jane paused, caught. "I thought you might," he admitted eventually.
Thanks to the confines of the closet, he was so close to her that he could feel her stiffen.
He tried to explain. "Lisbon, Teresa..."
This time it was Lisbon's turn to cut him off, her tone clipped and sarcastic. "What else did you think? That I'd see him and crumble? Agree to go to Washington after all?"
He squeezed the hand he still held in a panic, shifting infinitesimally closer in the process.
She didn't appear to notice.
"That's what you think then? That I'm so indecisive, so uncertain, so malleable, that I'll fold under the nearest strong argument? That I'll see Marcus and after five minutes be hopping on another plane?" she demanded.
Jane didn't know what to say. That was actually pretty much his nightmare, well, minus the indecisive and malleable part. But Lisbon might be swayed by a strong argument, especially if it was coupled with subtle guilt. She was Catholic, and had the conscience to prove it.
Besides, it wasn't like he was a solid bet.
Pike was solid (that had been half the problem).
Lisbon was focused on other things. "So what is this little meeting in the maintenance closet then?" she asked gesturing to the ladder leaning against the wall to her right. "A warning so I can steel myself against my ex-boyfriend's powers of persuasion? Or do you think I'm such a lost cause that you're planning on hypnotizing me into staying?"
"Oh, now you're being ridiculous." He hadn't even thought of hypnotizing her.
Lisbon drew herself up to her full height and met his eyes square on (deciding to ignore the hand that was still warm against her back and the breath she could feel against her cheek). "Or is this a pre-emptive attempt at getting your own arguments in early? Like you think you need to convince me to stay? Like I haven't already made that decision?"
Actually, Jane had been thinking of trying to convince her of just that. The difficulties with physically getting himself on the airplane aside, it had been remarkably, well not easy, but something like it, to convince her to stay, once he'd managed to get any words out at all. His argument hadn't exactly been well-articulated. He'd been babbling and rambling and stumbling over the words, trying to get anything at all out on the tide of emotion that couldn't be stopped once the dam broke. In the end, all he'd had was the truth.
After a lifetime of cons.
With her, it was the truth that had worked.
And he'd, well, he'd wanted to give her that again.
Before she went to face Pike.
So Jane interrupted her (probably well-deserved) rant in his direction. "I love you, Teresa Lisbon."
The quietly (they were still hiding in a closet after all) angry tirade stopped as her breath caught.
There was just enough light in their makeshift meeting room for Jane to see her lips quirk into a smile. Actually, he didn't need to see the smile to know it was there; he could see it in the tilt of her head and feel it in the way her hand left his and slid up his chest to his shoulder.
And most of his worries slid away.
"Someone's pleased," he murmured, slipping his fingers into the ends of her hair, and increasing the pressure of his other hand on the small of her back.
Lisbon scowled briefly (even she knew it wasn't her best effort). "Yes, heaven forbid that I enjoy hearing from my boyfriend that he is in fact in love with me. I must be crazy."
Jane would have replied, but his brain was too busy exploding from the sound of her voice saying the word 'boyfriend' for the first time when it was in reference to him.
He didn't get much of a chance to dwell on it though, because Lisbon wasn't done. "Now listen carefully, Patrick Jane, and put that super-memory of yours to good use, because I'm only going to say this once. I've told you how I feel about you, and I meant it. And yes, I was planning on going to Washington to be with Marcus. He's a nice guy. He cares about me. His offer to move to Washington with the new job and the new home could have been a good life for me. And it seemed like..."
Lisbon took a deep breath and tried to explain. "When you contrived for me to move to Texas and join the FBI, and work with you again, it was an easy decision. I wasn't really leaving anything behind and the job here was better. When Marcus asked me to move to Washington, the job seemed just as good, maybe even slightly better, and he was offering me a shot at a real relationship. Someone to come home to at night. It wasn't an easy decision. I'd miss the team here, and Cho, and I knew I'd miss you, and our friendship. But I realized long ago that our friendship wasn't enough for me to put the rest my life on hold indefinitely. Especially not without a cause, not without a Red John."
She swallowed. "And I'm so sick of going home alone every night, or I was. I want someone in my life, someone who cares about me, someone I can rely on. And Marcus was offering to be that person. Jane, when you first came back, I knew you cared about me, but I didn't think you wanted to be, or even could be, that person. I didn't think you wanted that type of relationship, not with me at least. Maybe not with anyone. You certainly never said anything, and I gave you plenty of opportunities."
Lisbon felt his arms tighten around her. She turned her head and pressed her forehead into Jane's vest, and forced herself to keep talking, to get it all out. "And then you told me you loved me on that plane. And at first it was awful and I was so angry with you for doing that to me, after I'd agonized about the decision for so long. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized. I realized that I knew you weren't lying, not about that, even though you lie about practically everything else. And I forced myself to admit the real reason I'd agonized over the decision for so long, and that it had never felt quite right, even though it should have. And suddenly I knew I couldn't leave, not if there was a chance the relationship I really wanted might be possible."
She raised her eyes to meet Jane's. "So yes, I like hearing you say you love me. And as long as that's true, you don't need to worry about me getting on a plane anywhere else."
Jane was reeling. Rather than trying to pull together enough brain power to form some kind of coherent reply to that, he decided it would be far easier to just kiss her.
Because the closet was dark, and warm, and Lisbon was so close, and so very much what he wanted, and it wasn't like he really even needed a reason.
She loved him, and she was kissing him, and those two things made his life was so much better than even a few days before that nothing else mattered. He was still getting used to the feeling of her lips on his, to the way she angled her face towards his, to the height difference, to the feeling of his hands on her skin. But as long as he never gave her a reason to doubt how he felt about her, then he might have enough time to get used to it.
He figured a decade or two might be enough. Maybe three.
With a final squeeze of his shoulder, Lisbon pulled away slightly, dropping an absent kiss on his chin along the way. "You're damned lucky I'm in love with you."
Actually, Jane considered luck to be something of an understatement. He was so far past luck there wasn't even a word for where he was.
He tucked her head under his chin as he wrapped an arm around her. "I like the way you say it too," he murmured.
Lisbon smiled, before reminding herself something else that needed to be said. She poked him in the side.
"Ow!"
"Got your attention now, don't I?" she said.
"You already had it," Jane groused.
"Guess I did. We are the only two people in here," she laughed. Then she turned serious. "I almost certainly owe Marcus more of an explanation than I gave him. And I am going to give him one if he asks. And you are not going to interfere."
"Teresa..."
"Not unnecessarily, at least," she amended. "I'd rather deal with this myself. I owe him that."
Jane sighed. He could understand that. "Okay."
"And next time could you just talk to me, instead of pulling me into a closet?" Lisbon asked.
"I pulled you into a closet to talk to you!" Jane insisted. "I needed someplace private."
"And this is the only private place you could think of?"
He shrugged. "I improvised."
"Well, improvisation's over," Lisbon said. "I'm leaving first." She turned to leave, pausing before opening the door. "Thanks for he heads up."
With that she was gone.
Jane leaned against the ladder beside him with a small smile. Then he sighed. He'd give her a minute or so, before joining the rest of the team in the bullpen.
It was time to abandon the safety of the closet for a potentially awkward reality.
But feeling awkward was better than panic any day.
Lucky really was a staggering understatement.
xxx
ii.
The familiar footsteps behind him made him smile. She had a stride like no one else.
He paused when he realized the steps were quicker than usual (even for her).
He spun, barely having time to register the sight of his lover striding towards him, before she'd yanked open the door to his right and shoved him inside of it.
The next thing he knew, they were in the dark, her hands were buried in his hair, her lips were practically bruising his, and...
And a shelf was digging into his back.
Hard.
He grunted in pain and tried to shift to a slightly more comfortable position in what he now realized was the maintenance closet that they'd used for a quiet moment just a few days earlier.
Only to find another shelf in the way.
"What?" Lisbon muttered after his second groan of pain.
"Shelf, or rather shelves," Jane muttered, trying to simultaneously find her lips and a non-painful position.
"Oh for Pete's sakes," she growled, pulling back log enough to switch places with him, turning them both until Jane's back hit the smoothness of the closet door.
He couldn't help but be impressed by the efficiency with which she managed the move.
"Better?" she muttered. "You would make everything complicated, even making out in a closet."
Jane opened his mouth to defend himself.
She beat him to it. "Shut up," she whispered, before kissing him again.
Jane relaxed against the door behind him (which really was far more comfortable for leaning against the shelves directly opposite). Resting a hand on Lisbon's hip to help keep her steady, he decided to let her do what she would with him.
Particularly when what she wanted involved her tongue against his.
When she pulled away for breath Jane took advantage of the ability to speak. Just the one word.
"Teresa," he drew out the syllables, watching her answering smile in fascination. He'd paid a lot attention to what she liked over the past few days, and those slow smiles were one of his new favourite things.
Then her lips found edge of his jaw line and Jane decided it was time to stop thinking for a while.
Lisbon let her hands slide up and down his vest. She'd just needed to touch him.
She knew she shouldn't at work (in fact she'd all but ordered him not to), but...
But he'd arrived in the bullpen today wearing a vest, and he'd brought her breakfast, and he'd smiled, and...
And sometimes she just...
She needed...
She kissed his mouth again, smiling when one of his hands gently cupped her chin.
That same hand slid into her hair when she decided to let her lips travel down his neck. She gasped when she got to his pulse. Because while Jane's hands felt steady and sure against her body, his heart was clearly beating nearly out of control.
In less than five minutes, she'd pushed him to his limits.
The rush of power had Lisbon pressing even closer, pushing Jane harder against the door, and praying the latch held.
Part of her didn't care if it did.
Patrick Jane, the man who she'd seen once control his heartbeat well enough to fool a doctor, had been pushed beyond those limits. By her.
The man had spent years poking and prodding and manipulating her, and now...
She grinned against his skin.
Now it was time for payback.
Jane seemed to sense the change. "Lisbon what are you...?"
She tilted her head up and her smile turned feral.
She heard a sharp intake of breath.
Slowly, she shifted her hands to his hair (god, he had great hair), and stretched up on her tiptoes, letting her entire body slide against his. Now both his hands gripped her hips, and Lisbon wondered if maybe even they weren't quite steady anymore.
She pressed a little bit closer.
"Given that we're at work, I'm guessing we've only got another five minutes or so before people start noticing we're missing. I have no intention of wasting a second," she informed him huskily.
She gave him barely a second to let the words sink in, choosing instead to suck his bottom lip into her mouth.
His muffled groan was her reward.
It was nice to know she drove him at least as crazy as he drove her.
With a hum of pleasure, she felt his hands slide lower.
Thank god for closets.
xxx
iii.
"I love you."
His tone was as gentle as the tug of his hands pulling her with him into their occasional refuge. She needed a refuge today.
"What?" Lisbon whispered in surprise. Not at the sentiment itself, but that he was saying it now.
"You looked sad," was Jane's answer. Like that explained everything.
And in a way it did.
Even if they had just caught a killer, there'd been far too many lives ruined (too many children now missing half a home) to truly call it any kind of a win.
Still there were appearances to be kept up. "I'm fine..."
Jane ignored that. "I want you to know that I love you. I'm telling you that I'm here for you, I'll be here for you..."
He ran a hand through her hair, stroking her temple with his thumb along the way.
Lisbon never took her eyes off his. 'Will you?' they seemed to ask, those wide eyes that never could conceal a thing.
"I'm here," Jane assured her again. "If you need me."
After a few tense moments, Lisbon nodded.
Jane let out the breath he hadn't known he was holding. Then he kissed her. Gently. Because she still looked sad.
And when she broke away, it was to wrap her arms around him and ask a question that shouldn't have been a question. "Stay with me tonight?"
He didn't always, still trying to find his footing, still terrified to push her too hard (and away).
"For as long as you want me," he promised.
"Okay," she exhaled, shifting out of his embrace (and presumably soon out of the closet).
He decided not to let her go.
She still needed a hug. (Or maybe he did.)
Lisbon didn't seem to mind stealing a few extra minutes. "Jane?"
"Hmm?"
"Love you too," she whispered, with an extra little snuggle.
"I know," he assured her.
He did, though he still couldn't quite believe it.
He relaxed slightly when she did, turning her face into his neck.
He felt the smallest hint of a smile.
It seemed she was feeling better.
Good.
Good.
xxx
iv.
"I need to talk to you."
"About the case?"
"In a way."
Jane's answer to her quirked eyebrow was to glance up and down the hallway before opening the door to their glorified broom closet, and ushering her inside.
Lisbon stepped in demurely, but when she turned to face Jane, she was surprised at how close he was standing, even given the confines of the closet.
Particularly as this time, he didn't look like he was about to kiss her.
"You asked to be paired with Cho."
His words were unexpected and had her frowning. "What?"
"Today," Jane explained. "When Abbott was handing out general tasks. He was about to suggest that you and I go talk to the victim's family, but before he could you volunteered to interview witnesses with Cho."
Lisbon paused, remembering the meeting in question. "Yes," she said slowly.
Now it was Jane's turn to frown. "I thought we were partners."
She raised her eyebrows in surprise. "We are."
Jane didn't blink. "And yet..."
Lisbon's surprised amusement at the turn of the conversation started to turn to irritation when Jane trailed off suggestively and she realized he wasn't kidding. "Are you serious? Are you serious? My asking to go with Cho to talk to the other dog breeders had nothing to do with you! It was, well, case-related."
"Because you're suddenly an expert on dog breeding." Jane asked sarcastically.
She shook her head in frustration. The idiot was blowing this all out of proportion. "No, of course not."
"Oh, well then I can only assume that..." Jane abruptly stopped talking, another possibility obviously striking him.
Lisbon decided she didn't care to hear it. "And what's it to you if I volunteered o go with Cho for a day? I don't need a reason to offer to give Cho a hand with something. I don't think I ever signed anything stating that I would always partner with you. Hell, you went to talk to someone with Abbott yesterday while I stayed here and made phone calls!"
"Because he asked me too!" Jane remind her.
Lisbon took a deep breath, determined to be rational. "I know. Jane, what's..."
"This is the first time you've volunteered to work with Cho, since..." Jane tried to explain.
"And it probably won't be the last, Jane. I've known Cho a long time, remember? Even longer than I've known you." Lisbon shot back.
She watched the man looming barely inches from her struggle for control. Suddenly he seemed to make another connection.
"This has nothing to do with me," he said slowly. He replayed their conversation in his head.
"No, it doesn't," she snapped. "What makes your behaviour all the more..."
"Cho doesn't like dogs," Jane murmured, watching her closely. Her flinch was barely detectable, but it was still there. "He really doesn't like dogs. How have I not...?"
"If he doesn't," Lisbon interrupted. "That's his business."
"How did I not know about this?" Jane asked, ignoring her attempt at deflection.
Lisbon sighed and gave up for the moment. "It's Cho."
Jane nodded absently. "Still..."
"He had a bad experience with a German Shepherd before you joined the team," Lisbon explained, feeling like she was betraying a confidence, even though Cho had never asked her not to tell anyone. "He doesn't like to talk about it. It makes him uncomfortable, so don't bring it up. Before there was always Rigsby to distract him."
"But now, even though you're not his boss anymore, you couldn't let him go into a room full of kennels alone," Jane surmised. He should have known. If he'd been anywhere near rational, he would have.
Lisbon waved her hand in the air, trying to explain. "Cho and I, look, he's helped me out more times than I can count. We're friends. We trust each other and we always respect each other's privacy. Which brings me back to your stupid behaviour."
Jane winced, knowing he was in for it now. "Teresa, I.."
"Snapping at me and acting like a possessive idiot because I went out in the field with a colleague, as part of my job. And even if it hadn't been work-related, you do not have an exclusive claim on my time. You don't in my personal life, and you definitely don't in my professional life," Lisbon reminded him. This thing she had with Jane was actually going shockingly well, most of the time. But sometimes she had to remind him of a few things.
"I know that," Jane assured her. This had never been about trying to monopolize all of her time.
Lisbon was sceptical. "Do you? Because from where I'm standing..."
This time it was Jane's turn to interrupt. "I thought you were mad at me." And she hadn't been since their relationship had changed, not seriously at least.
His words were so unexpected they stopped lisbon's argument in its tracks. "What?"
"Obviously we don't partner together all the time, Teresa," Jane said, subtly emphasizing her first name. "But you've never specifically asked to go out in the field with someone else instead of me, before now."
"Not everything is about you," she reminded him again.
He smiled slightly. "I know that."
She didn't back down. "Sometimes I'm not sure."
"Well, how was I supposed to know that Cho had a secret fear of dogs?" Jane asked in exasperation.
Lisbon ticked off the reasons on her fingers. "One, you ever mention that to another soul, or even out loud again, and I'll kill you dead, and two, just because you can't think of a reason doesn't mean there isn't one."
Jane stilled.
Lisbon shook her head. "You're an idiot."
"I panicked," he said quietly.
That knocked her out of her stride for the second time in less than a minute. "What?"
Jane tried to explain. Irrational or not, at the time her apparent choice to avoid him a work had seemed a genuine reason to fear the worst. "I don't know, I thought you were mad at me. And well, you were right when you said that I don't know how to have a real relationship. So I didn't see the straightforward explanation. I just saw the..." He swallowed. "Sometimes, I can't help expecting..."
Lisbon softened in spite of herself, tilting her head closer to his. "Jane, name one time in the past decade that I've been mad at you and managed, or even bothered, to hide that fact from your notice."
He reached for her.
Lisbon was pretty sure she was still more than a little irritated with him, but she let him.
"I wasn't mad at you, you idiot," she assured him, the softness in her voice at odds with her words. "But I might be now."
"I'll get better," Jane murmured, pulling her towards him.
"I'm not going to just start avoiding you," she muttered, snuggling slightly into his jacket.
"No, because you've never tried to avoid things you don't want to talk about," Jane replied over the top of her head.
Lisbon tilted her head up to glare at him. "Seriously? You think that's a wise choice of argument right now?"
She watched him smile. "You really have no idea what you mean to me"
"You've told me." She reminded him, laying her head back against his shoulder, pleased when she felt his fingers running back and forth against her hip.
"So I have," he murmured, dropping a kiss to the top of her head. Then another.
Lisbon shut her eyes, sliding a hand inside his jacket and around his waist. "Mmhm," she agreed softly. He was an idiot who sometimes came to the most ridiculous conclusions, but he wasn't bad at making it up to her. And any number of other things.
"I'm sorry I assumed disaster, dear," he whispered, still punctuating the words with kisses in the region of her temple. "I'm sorry I'm terrible at being in a normal adult relationship."
Lisbon growled low in her throat, frustrated with him for doubting her, for doubting them. "My first relationship in years where I don't feel at least a little uneasy or uncertain, you had better damn well stop saying you're terrible at this." She ignored the arms tightening around her. "And who said this was a normal relationship? We're having this conversation in a utility closet in the FBI building!"
Jane shut his eyes briefly. "I'm going to kiss you now, Teresa," he muttered, angling her head towards his.
She ruthlessly ignored the little voice in the back of her brain telling her that they really had to stop being quite so unprofessional at some point, choosing instead to hold herself flush against him as he attached his lips to hers.
And she slid into familiar heat.
After a few minutes, his hands traveling along her shoulders and lower back became less frantic, and she pulled back with a half smile.
"You're about to tell me we're going to have to leave this closet soon," he murmured.
"Yup," she confirmed.
He brushed her hair behind her ear. "I really don't think I want to."
She couldn't help her chuckle. "Deal with the disappointment."
"I will be disappointed," he assured her, but his tone was playful and affectionate again, so Lisbon wasn't worried.
"Before I go," she said, straightening her shoulders. "Now that your craziness is temporarily dealt with, about the thing with Cho..."
Jane met her eyes square on. "What thing with Cho?"
She blinked, then found herself smiling again.
He raised her hand to his mouth and brushed his lips against her knuckles. "I'll keep your confidences, Teresa."
She nodded, suddenly sure that he would. And that, that was... There actually weren't words for that right now. "See that you do."
Then she pulled her hand back slowly and straightened her jacket. "Give me a three minute head start," she ordered, before slipping out of the closet. "We have actual work to do."
She caught his quiet, "Yes dear," before the closet door shut behind her.
And had to spend the rest of the walk back to her desk biting her lip to conceal a truly ridiculous grin.
xxx
v.
She really had to stop making out with her boyfriend in closets.
While, in a closet really.
As if reading her mind (what little of it was left still functioning), Jane bit down gently on her lower lip, before tracing it with her tongue.
And Lisbon decided that maybe she didn't need to stop quite yet.
After a few minutes they managed to separate. It was something of a mutual decision, or maybe it was just the point beyond which they both realized stopping would be difficult.
"We should probably stop doing this," Jane muttered.
Lisbon glared at him. "Yeah, you've really been a help on that front so far."
"Hey!" Jane objected. "Who was the one who practically dragged me in here the second you noticed the coast was clear?"
"Well, have you seen the way you look at me in the bullpen sometimes?" Lisbon demanded. The way he watched her, sometimes it felt like it was a miracle she could breathe.
Jane's face lit up at her admission. "I have not," he conceded. "That would be quite the trick. I'll just have to imagine, since you rarely seem to gaze at me with what I would consider an appropriate degree of adoration."
"Shut up."
"There's probably video footage of the expression in question though," Jane mused. "We are at the FBI."
Lisbon dropped her head against the door behind her. "I'm so sorry I said anything"
"Sorry that you admitted to finding me irresistible, love?" Jane asked. "I'm slightly hurt."
She glanced up at him. "No you're not."
He ignored her. "Even though I already suspected it to be the case, because there really is no other explanation for your behaviour."
"You're enjoying this far too much," she muttered.
Jane reached up to wind one of her curls around his finger. "Never. Just appreciating a situation that requires you to seek out the safe haven of our favourite closet to act on your more unprofessional urges."
Lisbon shut her eyes and decided to let him talk it out of his system. Sometimes it was simplest. The man was lucky he was a good cuddler, and he smelled good.
And well, there were other things too.
"Although, given the number of security cameras in this building, it wouldn't surprise me to learn there was one in here," Jane continued cheerfully.
Lisbon's eyes popped open, as she whipped her head off his shoulder. "Don't even joke."
She swore she could see his eyes twinkling even in the low light of the closet. "I wouldn't worry, the only one likely to watch any footage is FBI security, who would probably just turn the tape over to Abbot, and he already knows."
Lisbon swore she felt her heart stop for a second. "What?"
"Well, not that we've been meeting in closets, at least I don't think he does," Jane clarified. "But he definitely knows we're, well, us."
Lisbon could do nothing but stare. Was he kidding? And if not, why was he so calm? "Are you serious?"
There was a brief pause before Jane answered, and when he did his words were slow and incredulous. "I borrowed his car because it had a siren and I needed to literally chase down your plane. You didn't honestly think Abbot bought your explanations about not being sure enough in your relationship with Pike to warrant yet another move across the country, that you'd just started with the FBI anyway, also you were enjoying working with Cho again, and clearly someone needed to look after me anyway?"
Lisbon sputtered.
Jane grinned at her. "Trust me Teresa, Dennis Abbott probably suspected I was in love with you before he ever met me. And after he did, it probably took him less than half an hour to be sure."
"If Abbot knows, then why the hell have we been meeting in a damn closet for the past few months?" Lisbon demanded. Half the reason for it was to maintain a modicum of privacy from their colleagues. "Why didn't you say something sooner?"
"You mean why didn't I say anything that might put a stop to a practice that resulted in the two of us crammed together in a space so confined that most of your body is a maximum of six inches from mine?" Jane double-checked. He ran a hand along her hip and back again to emphasize his point. "Can't imagine, dear."
Lisbon's cheeks felt like they were on fire. "Well, either way, we should stop. It's seriously unprofessional. And while our relationship may technically not be against protocol, if we get caught at work..."
The infuriating man brushed his lips against her ear. "Live on the edge," he whispered.
She gasped, and then she was sucking on his tongue, and pressing her hips against his, and god he knew exactly how to drive her crazy. It was like he'd made a study of it.
Far too soon, Jane was dragging his lips away from hers. "What was that you were saying about stopping unprofessional behaviour, love?"
She swore under her breath. "Quiet. You're no better."
"I don't know, I think you're the instigator when it comes to closet activities far more than I am." She was. He was keeping track, and if she persisted in blaming him, he'd provide her with the numbers. "I can't say I object, but..."
"Closet activities?" Lisbon sputtered.
Jane tried not to smile to hard at her scandalized tone. "Well, to be fair, sometimes we really do just talk."
"And cuddle?" she wondered.
He grinned. "How could I forget?"
She smiled back, before remembering that she was arguing with him. "And anyway, even if I do more of the dragging, at least where closets are concerned, you are at least as bad, if not more so."
Jane frowned, not following her logic. "I don't really see how."
Lisbon jabbed a finger into his chest. "You chased down a plane. That's pretty insane, even for you, Jane."
He just shrugged. "You were leaving."
She kissed him like it was a continuation of her argument, though Jane wasn't entirely sure her actions quite lined up with her message.
Either way, Jane was confident he was going to require lots of convincing.
Luckily, Lisbon was pretty emphatic.
And then she was the one to pull away before he was ready. "Now you know what I felt like."
Understanding hit him like a thunderbolt. Her continued anxiety over his permanence in her life, the idea that if she'd felt even a fraction of the pain he had when he'd left her, then she must love him more than he deserved, followed by the conclusion that he could never cause her a moment's doubt on that front ever again. Not even a moment's, not that pain, not at his hands.
"I chased down a plane," he muttered against her lips.
"Mmhm," Lisbon agreed, pleased that the argument seemed to be going in a direction she wanted it to (even if it wasn't the original direction she'd intended).
"Don't want a day where I don't see you," Jane added, kissing her anywhere he could reach.
Her reply was little more than a hum of pleasure.
"So it follows that I'm never going to leave you again," Jane whispered against her skin. "Not of my own volition at least."
Lisbon stilled, her eyes snapping to his in shock.
He met them, unflinching. "If I disappear, I haven't left, someone's taken me."
She buried her face against his neck.
Jane smiled.
After a moment Lisbon sighed. "Everyone really already knows?"
Jane considered the question. "Well, maybe not everyone..."
She sighed again. "Okay."
"Okay?" he double checked.
"They were going to find out eventually, or we were going to have to tell them," she pointed out. She wasn't sure she was ready to face a more open scrutiny, so she wouldn't mind if everyone pretended not to know for a little while longer, but mostly she was fine with it.
"That's true," Jane conceded.
Lisbon tilted her face up at him. "Jane?"
"Teresa?"
She grinned. "Think this means we can still meet in the closet?"
His chuckle was cut off by her lips on his.
He didn't mind. He hadn't planned on giving up their closet without a fight anyway.
xxx
The end
A/N2: On a somewhat unrelated note, if you've sent me a PM on this site because you want to chat (and you don't have an account), then I can't reply because this site removes all e-mail addresses and web-pages from private messages. I am not ignoring you. If you want to send me a message, you can try my livejournal (h_loquacious), or I'm now on Tumblr under hardly-loquacious. Though I am generally behind on my PM/reviews, for which I apologize.