A/N: This little snippet was inspired by the photos where Simon was trying to fix Robin's hair on set. Doesn't contain much of a plot or sense though, so be warned:)


Winds of change

They were walking side by side amongst the thick trees, away from the crime scene. The wind nipped at them, chasing its own tail around the trees causing more leaves to fall to the bare ground. The sky could be seen peeking through the thick canopy with darkening clouds promising rain, but so far they had held back their load.

Jane and Lisbon were discussing the case and Jane was typically sprouting his wild, albeit correct, theories while Lisbon was trying to stick to the facts they knew. They were bantering back and forth while walking around the trees trying not to trip on their roots.

Jane stepped out of the woods to the open field with low grown bushes and the wind took hold of him with its full force making him to take a couple of side steps just to stay upright. He turned around to warn Lisbon, but she had already stepped from the cover of the trees and the gush of wind had attacked her too, making it a struggle to stay upright, but what made it even more difficult was her hair, which was getting tangled with itself in front of her face so she couldn't see.

Lisbon tried to brush the hair away from her face but failed miserably as the strong winds kept playing hide and seek with her dark locks. This combined with her small frame and the uneven ground made the fall inevitable.

Jane could see Lisbon's struggle and first he started laughing, but when he saw Lisbon starting to fall he quickly closed the distance between them and caught her in his arms. Lisbon had grabbed a handful of his jacket in her effort to stay upright leaving her hair to whip around.

Without a thought Jane started running his hand through her hair in a futile effort to try to smooth it away from her face. Lisbon had stilled in his arms and when in the brief lull in the wind he managed to tuck her hair behind her ears, he was met with wide eyes with a deer in the headlights-look.

Jane realised with a start that he was stroking Lisbon's hair rather than just trying to remove it from her face. He removed his hand looking at it incredulously, like he was blaming his hand having a life of its own, and took a hasty step back from Lisbon. She had released her hold of Jane's jacket when he moved back and was now standing completely still, only her eyes following Jane's every movement behind her hair that had started flying around again in the wind. Jane muttered something inaudible glancing at Lisbon before turning and practically running to their car.

Lisbon slowly followed with a small smile tugging at her lips as finally she had managed to get Jane all flustered and speechless. The smile disappeared though as she thought back to the look in his eyes as he fled. He had looked at her with a barely disguised longing and tenderness,which had quickly turned into shock and pain.

Jane wasn't overtly keen on physical proximity, although he had been more comfortable with Lisbon recently. But dancing at a high school reunion didn't quite come up to what had just happened in the scale of intimacy. And as far as she knew Jane hadn't been close to a woman in any way since the death of his wife.

Lisbon had been waiting for Jane's conscious mind to catch up with the deeper currents that were displayed more frequently as unconscious lingering touches and looks and it looked like that day might be coming sooner than she had dared to hope.

When she climbed into the car, Jane was already sitting in the passenger seat, his charming mask already plastered on his face, his eyes showing only a slight wary hint of what had passed. Lisbon started the car, but before driving away, she reached over and gently removed a stray leaf from Jane's curls while he was frozen in his seat unsure of what was happening. When Lisbon showed him the leaf, while smiling softly, he visibly relaxed and smiled with a veiled gratitude in his eyes.

"One small step at a time," thought Lisbon to herself when they drove away, the banter already back in place.

The end