A colossal thanks to those of you who are reading this story! I really appreciate it.

This is the song for this chapter: Maybe by Ingrid Michaelson

watch?v=wrAtSFm00ug

I have had these first two chapter written for a while, and I am working on the next two. This one works around the episode The Crimson Hat. Thank you again for reading!

DISCLAIMER: I wish I owned the Mentalist, but I don't, so I just tinker.

Chapter 2~ Maybe

Lisbon stood there racking her brain for a solution. Her many attempts to bring the situation under control- excuses, rationalizations, all's well that ends well statements, even a plea for a time out- had been in vain. Everything she had tried so far had back fired on her and exploded in her face. Jane had not helped his own case at all; he was countering her excuses, and then he started to tease Wainwright.

"Jane, stop." It was the first thing that popped out of her mouth. Not that it helped either.

Jane had an insane capacity to tease people and make them completely fly off the handle, but this took the cake. Taunting Wainwright was totally out of line- but Wainwright's reaction? Slightly out of character for the head of a major law enforcement agency. Cho and Rigsby tackled him, while Lisbon fixed Jane with a look of utter disbelief.

Wainwright took a deep breath and straightened himself.

"On second thought, you're not suspended. You're fired."

Teresa didn't even register what he had said at first. But with that smirk on Jane's face, and watching him walk away, it all came crashing down on her.

She should be doing something to fix this. Think of something Teresa!

So she did what was natural to her, what she had been doing for years: She followed him. Ran after him.

Her thoughts were chaotic, and her heart was doing something crazy inside her chest.

Don't let him do this Teresa. Don't let him leave. Not after this!

She caught him at the elevator.

"Jane! Don't do anything rash. We can work this out. We'll fix it." Lisbon struggled to keep the slight desperation that was rising in her belly from coming out with her words.

"I doubt that."

"I'll come by your place tonight; we'll talk it out, okay?" More desperation now.

That gentle smile that pulled at his lips was so hard to read.

"You're sweet."

Lisbon totally cast aside the idea of trying to be calm and collected. This was wrong. Jane didn't say things like that unless he's about to do- or had already done- something stupid, and he knows it.

"Let me help you."

As the doors closed, her heart sunk. This can't be happening. He can't be leaving.

After standing there for a few moments in a stupor, Lisbon slowly walked back to the bullpen. Wainwright was gone, which was good. She didn't know if she could stop herself from doing some serious damage if she saw him right now. It didn't look like the team had moved an inch since she had ran out. Poor Grace was a mess; Rigsby seemed slightly horrified; and even Cho looked shocked. Teresa didn't even want to know what she looked like.

She slowly continued on her way to the office, but not before taking a long hard look at the couch. Jane's couch. It seemed utterly wrong for it to be empty.

Teresa gathered up her things and went back out. She needed to get out of here. She needed to think. She couldn't even find the words to say good night to the team. She just left.

She drove for what seemed forever, not thinking of anything, just trying to clear her head. There was an ice cream shop that she stopped outside, but she didn't buy any, even though she wanted some. It felt wrong to go there without Jane. He would want some. Even if he wasn't hungry, he would want to come to reap the enjoyment of stealing some of hers, through all sorts of trickery.

Lisbon looked at her watch, while briefly remembering times when Jane would grab her wrist to look at her watch, even though he had his own. This felt like a good time to go find him. It had been nearly three hours since she had left the CBI. She grabbed a pizza and headed towards his house in Malibu.

It was quiet and dark as she pulled up the drive. Teresa had always hated that he had kept this house. Sure, it was helpful for bringing him out of fugue state, but hardly conducive to good mental health in any other way. But she understood, though. Moving on is a hard thing, especially when love is involved. She could relate to that in so many ways.

"Jane?" she called as she stepped in the front door. "Jane, I have food!"

Frowning slightly, she set down her things, and rested her hand on her gun. Something didn't feel right. She proceeded up the stairs, while flipping on every light switch she saw on the way. Then she saw it.

His room was entirely turned over. Drawers open, closets empty, and bathroom cupboards rummaged. He was just gone. It was obvious he had left for an extended amount of time, and there wasn't even a note.

Lisbon quickly grabbed her phone and hit two on her speed dial. There was no answer. Neither was there any the next two times she called.

Grabbing her things, she drove back home. Maybe he was at her house. Maybe he had left the country. Maybe he was sleeping. That made a bit of sense, except that anyone who really knew Jane (meaning only her really) knew that Jane didn't really sleep. If he ever managed to catch any, it certainly wasn't enough to cause him to miss a phone call. No, it was something else.

As she came inside her own house, she tried again. After five more calls, there was still no answer.

She knew what that meant. He was avoiding her. He was purposely not taking her calls. He didn't want her help, and he was going off on his own. HE never used to include her in his schemes; that wasn't until recently that he started doing that. So she didn't understand why it hurt her this much, that he had shut her out again. After all, he was just her annoying, pesky, problematic consultant. She should be glad he was gone.

Lisbon sank into her bed, and shook her head at herself. Who was she kidding? Yes, he was all those things, but where would she be without him? She had to make him come back. She could do it. She could convince him that it was better to stay with her and work it all out.

Large, solitary tears began to slip down her cheeks. Jane would be back within a week; two weeks; a month, at the absolute longest. She hoped she could make it that long.

Six Months Later

The ring of a cell phone pierced the silence of the dark apartment.

"Lisbon. Yeah, got it. 1031? Thanks, Grady. Yeah, bye."

A year ago, she would have been upset by catching a case at two in the morning. Not anymore. It wasn't like she was asleep anyways.

Lisbon quickly called the team about the location of the new vic, and hopped in the shower.

In the first few weeks, she had kept calling Jane each time they got a new case, in the hope that he would show up. What did she care that he had been fired? After a few weeks, she had stopped. But she had still kept calling him, every Saturday night. For three months she had kept that up. She always left a message, in the hope that perhaps her voice could shock him back to reality. Each time she asked him to come back, told him they could fix it. Then she had just stopped. Too many late night cases- it just fell by the wayside. He never answered anyways. But that didn't stop her from thinking of him.

She needed to let him go. She didn't want to, but it was the best thing. She let him go, and then she waited. The only way to really know if he would ever come back to her was to really let him go. Maybe in the future, he could come back to her. She was still waiting, but she knew he was worth it.

She would hear about him sometimes and his crazy behavior. She ignored them. Maybe if she erased him- not from her past, or her future- and just let him live his own present, he would come back. It wasn't like she had much experience with these sorts of situations. Normally when people left her life, she was glad they had. Not this time.

Everywhere she went, she was reminded of him. His empty couch, her empty couch, the tea-free kitchen, his too quiet attic, her lonely office, his barren desk, the friendless coffee shop, the friendless ice cream shop, the friendless diner- they were full of memories.

So she would leave the office when she didn't really need to, to chase down things that could have been done over the phone, or by someone else. It was kind of like Jane in a way- except she wasn't just out for a thrill. She was out to escape.

She tended to walk more, because just like everything else, the cars were filled with him too. Just because Cho, Van Pelt or Rigsby sat in his seat didn't mean he wasn't like he was still there.

Lisbon sighed as she got in the car. This was just too early to start the day.

Lisbon watched as Lorelei was handcuffed and let out of the interrogation room. It was great that they had her, someone who had been so close to Red John; but what that woman said and did was enough to drive her over the edge. It was just so offensive she didn't know what to say. Just let it roll off your back, she breathed to herself.

Staring into the bullpen, Lisbon saw Jane lying pretending to sleep on his couch, exactly where he should be. It had felt wrong without him sitting there like a permanent fixture in the months before.

For six months, all Lisbon had wanted was for Jane to be back, and be able to talk to and spend time with him. But now, because of the things that Lorelei had said, she wasn't quite so sure anymore. It wasn't as if Lisbon had any sort of hold on him herself, but hearing that woman call him lover was almost more than she could stand.

She shook her head at herself. She had begged him many times over six months, had prayed for a miracle in that church, and stuck her neck out for him to help him with his scheme. After all that, was she really going to let him slip away? Whatever it was that she was feeling towards Lorelei, she should throw it away. It didn't matter. She had gotten what she had wanted. That was what mattered. She had let Jane go, and he had come back to her, all on his own.

"Lisbon?"

Her head jerked up to see that Jane was no longer on the couch but standing in front of her.

"Get your stuff. We're going out."

"What? Where? I still have paperwork, and-"

Jane put a soft finger to her lips to stop her words. "It doesn't matter. It will still be here tomorrow. We need to talk. We haven't been able to do that for months. Come on."

His voice was gentle and tender, with something else she couldn't recognize.

Grabbing their things, Jane led Lisbon to the elevator, with his hand on the small of her back.

Jane drove his Citroen remarkably legally, as he stopped by the Chinese take-out, and then went on to Lisbon's house.

They bantered back and forth, falling into the natural order of things, not really talking about anything at all, until Jane cleared his throat and spoke with a serious tone.

"I want to preface by saying thank you. I would be dead or a servant of Red John right now if it wasn't for you. You are an amazing person for caring enough to help me out after what I did to you over the past six months."

Lisbon looked down, while Jane reached over to hold her hand, in the same way he had after she had rescued him in the desert- loosely grasping her elbow, and then sliding his hand down her forearm to her hand, like a caress. Her heart skipped a beat as she compared the two moments.

"Two days before I left, I was going to move on."

Lisbon looked up into his face immediately, her attention fully on him.

"I had decided that after the anniversary, it was time. And it wasn't in the way that Red John wanted either. It wasn't going to be giving up; it was going to be forgetting, and getting over it. Because you're right: I do need a new life."

"Then why didn't you? You could have ignored Red John."

"You know he doesn't work that way. You know that if I didn't give him a reaction, then he would kill again. That's how it works. There are only two choices: I either beat him at his own game, or he continues to kill. And all those women would just be more blood on my hands."

Lisbon cupped his cheek with her free hand. "We will catch him Jane. Us, together. Just no more of you going off all on your own, okay? Got it?"

With a small smile he nodded his head. "Got it." He took a breath. "I'm sorry; I should have told you about Lorelei. It wasn't fair to let you get blindsided like that."

Lisbon found it hard to ignore the warm circles that Jane's thumb was rubbing on her hand and wrist.

"Jane, you don't need to be sorry. That's your own business, not mine."

He nodded and stood up, swallowing her lie, while still holding Lisbon's hand. "It's late, and you look exhausted. But I have to say, you look pretty spritely for a dead woman."

Lisbon laughed and slapped him teasingly in response.

They both walked up to the front door and paused. On impulse, Lisbon pulled him into a hug, similar to the one just before he had shot her, but better.

"Thank you for coming back to me."

Jane pulled back and smiled.

"I will always come back to you."

He went as if to leave, but then spun back around and came very close to her. Close enough to feel his breath, and to make her look up into his eyes, as he looked into hers.

"Teresa, I have a very good memory. I don't ever forget anything for very long. I remember everything eventually, and when I do- I always do something about it."

He kissed her softly and sweetly on the cheek and then left, leaving her dumbstruck on her front door step. It took her a moment to understand what he was telling her, but what he had said made her want to leap for joy. There was only one thing she could ever remember him saying that he forgot, something she couldn't believe he'd forget. He was telling her that he would remember it. Because maybe, his love for her would come back, just like he had.

He was telling her to have hope.