A/N: I've surprised myself at the fact I've managed to get part two written so quickly, especially since this is so not my usual fare. Because of that, I'm especially intrigued to know what people think!

Thank you to: ararablue, TwilightLover-CarlisleandEsme, idonthaveaname, Flowerfaries, Miss Peg, Brown Eyes Parker and SincerelyTruly for reviewing Part Two.

Not sure when Part Three will be up. Hopefully very soon... but reviews do feed the plot bunnies. ;-)

x tromana


Part Two

17th October 2012

Lisbon perched behind her desk, studying the manila file placed in front of her with great interest. Having spoken to De Souza's widow had only made her feel more depressed about the situation. He'd grown up, and had two young boys of his own. His wife was now going to have to try and explain, somehow, that daddy wasn't coming home. Sometimes, it was easy to switch off about the repercussions of the murder and just focus on catching the killer, but having more of an insight into the victim always made them that little bit more tangible.

She sighed; nothing was popping out at her and as far as she could tell, Rigsby had done just as thorough a job as she had expected of him. In a way, she was kind of glad because it meant that De Souza had stuck to the straight and narrow. The good young kid she'd known had turned out to be a respectable man. However, it also didn't give her any explanations as to why somebody would kill him, what their motive would be. And that kind of thing was always perplexing to her. Even worse was the fact that Jane could always see a motive in strange cases like this from a mile off. Which, she had always considered, was completely unfair considering she was the trained professional and he was the consultant. He was meant to assist them in cases, not the other way around.

Automatically, she glanced up, briefly wondering where the man himself was. The office felt too quiet and if he decided to leave with one of the others, he usually informed her, regardless of whether or not she wanted – or needed – to know. Unless, of course, he was trying to sneak out and wreak havoc, but that was a different matter entirely. Seconds later, he practically waltzed into her office and Lisbon immediately attempted to make it look like she was busy. Despite the fact that he often gave her a welcome reprieve from boredom, especially when nothing was happening, she never liked to stroke his ego too much. He already had enough of a problem keeping it in check as it was.

"Hello, Lisbon," he said brightly.

"What do you want, Jane?"

Her tone was intentionally insufferable, but she suspected that he would see straight through it. After all, he usually did. Still, she couldn't help but wonder. Perhaps he was here to give her some foreknowledge about a reckless plan he was about to carry out, so she could do some damage limitation? No, she wouldn't be that lucky. He always claimed that deniability was her best friend, but as far as Lisbon was concerned, prevention was better than a cure. However, Jane would never see it that way as he always seemed convinced that not telling her would protect her career better. Instead, Lisbon knew that it just made her look like she had no control over him whatsoever. And she loathed looking so unprofessional in front of her bosses. Still, it was going to take more than one conversation with Jane to change that.

"You're hungry."

"No, I'm not," she answered back, balking slightly. She hadn't expected that statement.

"You haven't eaten since breakfast," he replied, smirking as she glanced away. "And you had that ridiculously early."

"I'm fine, Jane."

Really, she wasn't. The last thing she needed was him worrying about her, which was kind of ridiculous, given the fact it was well known that she was more than capable of looking after herself and he was the one who had problems. And besides, she had to wonder what it was that had triggered his sudden bout of concern. She watched nervously as in one swift movement, he grabbed her jacket and swiped her cell phone off of her desk at the same time.

"Hey, I need that!"

She glared at him as he pocketed it, still smiling. As he turned to head towards the door, she stood up, her irritation with him growing.

"Jane!"

"If you want it back, you can come with me."

Lisbon rolled her eyes in response. It looked like this was going to be one of these times when it was going to be quicker to give into him than fight him. Then again, it was too often that way. Sometimes, it forced her to wonder what the hell had happened to her backbone when it came to him. It was always then that she remembered she found him too damn endearing to stay mad for too long.

"You better be paying," she growled as she snatched her jacket back.

"Oh you drive a hard bargain, woman," he answered, chortling a little. "Of course I'm paying, but only because I'm driving too."

It wasn't long until she was sitting at their favorite place, with a meatball sub in hand. It had been way too long since she had last had one, and as she took her first bite, she grudgingly decided that Jane had made a sound decision, for a change. Besides, until Van Pelt and Cho got back from De Souza's employers and they could have a briefing session to catch up on the case, there was very little they could do. And it felt good to be out of the office, it meant that she could look at things with a slightly different perspective of things.

"Jane?"

"Yes, Lisbon?"

"Do you ever wonder if things would be different, if…"

She trailed off. The line of thought was ridiculous and pointless. It was another one of those 'what if' moments, something she couldn't change. Instead, there was just the lingering guilt and regret for not having jumped at the opportunity when it had presented itself in the first place. It was impossible to change the past, however much she wished she could. She needed to stop thinking like this, but in a way, she knew she couldn't help it. Coming across De Souza's body this morning had opened up a whole can of worms that she had kept shut for a long time.

"If?" he prompted, just as she expected him to.

Lisbon shook her head. "It doesn't matter."

Slowly, Jane reached out and covered her left hand with his own. The look of sincerity in his eyes at moments like this always caught her off guard. There was something about the way Jane looked at her sometimes which made it feel like he was boring into her soul. Lisbon always found that sensation especially uncomfortable. People had secrets for a reason and she didn't like the idea that somebody could get them out of her so easily.

"Of course it matters. Why would you have started to say so?"

"Fine," she agreed reluctantly. "Do you ever wonder if seemingly insignificant decisions you made as a child have serious repercussions on your adult life? Do you ever think what it would be like if you could change the path you chose to took if you were younger?"

"Like?"

"Oh, I don't know. Like marrying your first crush or-"

Jane glanced away and yet again, Lisbon felt that creeping sensation of guilt overcome her.

"Oh Jane," she whispered and took hold of his hand more firmly. "I'm sorry, I should never…"

He looked up at her, eyeing her seriously.

"All the time," he answered back.

xxx

14th July 1986

Just as Angela had done to him mere minutes earlier, Patrick tapped the girl lightly on the shoulder. Her family was planning to enter Pete's House of Mirrors, so he saw it as the perfect opportunity to catch her attention. She wheeled around on her heels and almost smacked him in the nose, but Patrick still found he couldn't care less. As far as he was concerned, she was still that petite beauty she had been a year ago. And she had, quite obviously, grown a bit since he'd seen her last, but that was unsurprising. In a young girl's life, a year was quite a considerable passage of time. Still, to Patrick's eye, she was clearly developing into a beautiful young woman.

Half of him wished he could see her every single day. If only his lifestyle wasn't so erratic, if only he had the means to leave the carnival…

Still, he'd learned to make do with these brief moments, just once a year. It was better than nothing at all.

"Hi, Teresa," he muttered softly down her ear.

"Daniel," she whispered, looking nervously over her shoulder at her mom. "You scared the crap out of me."

"Don't exaggerate," he chided, using the exact tone Angela had used when he'd said the very same words minutes earlier. "You knew I'd come and talk to you, sooner or later."

Years ago, when he'd been embarrassed about being the 'Boy Wonder' and had just wanted to escape for a couple of hours, he'd told her his name was Daniel. That Patrick had been his twin brother, who was chronically shy, unless he was putting on the show. Despite some initial skepticism from her part, she had eventually bought the lie. Somehow, he'd managed to keep it up all these years. Patrick knew that one day, he'd have to tell her the truth, that Daniel Jane was just a figment of his imagination. In the meantime, he was more than happy to just escape to a place where nothing could hurt him, whenever he saw young Teresa Lisbon.

"I'll be two minutes."

Patrick nodded and held back. He watched as she scurried up to her father, quickly making excuses to leave with him. When the man looked in his direction, Patrick held his head down reverentially. The last thing he wanted to do was offend her parents. Eventually, the man cracked a smile and finally seemed willing to send his daughter off for a brief break from the family. She was a growing girl; being with her three brothers, and another young boy, was probably stifling for her. Really, she needed some space just to be herself.

And Patrick liked to think he offered her that perfect window of opportunity. It was easier to convince Mr. and Mrs. Lisbon of his intentions now. At least he wasn't trying to whisk their seven year old daughter away anymore. Besides, they had grown used to his presence and practically expected him to interrupt the yearly family trip to the carnival now.

However, he was also more than aware that Teresa was beginning to reach a very tender age, one where most fathers grew incredibly protective of their daughters. He was faintly surprised that the man hadn't bothered to approach him and give him the whole 'what are your intentions to my daughter?' speech. Then again, he was just carnie folk and he probably didn't see him as any threat whatsoever. Teresa barely got any chance to spend any time with him. Thus, he was probably considered as simply that amusing, simple young boy with the precocious twin brother within the Lisbon family.

That was a charade he was more than happy to continue playing, provided it meant spending more time with her.

"Sorry about that," she muttered darkly, clearly embarrassed. "He said I have to find him again in two hours."

Two hours wasn't long. Patrick, however, masked his disappointment, reminding himself it was better than nothing. After all, there had been no guarantees that she was going to come this year at all. The family could have moved out of state, gone through some sort of crisis or simply just decided not to bother at all. So, he slipped his hand in her own and tugged her along, weaving through the crowds. He knew exactly where he was taking her; somewhere where his father and Angela couldn't discover them. Somewhere where he could just catch up with her and spend the two hours just staring into her beautiful green eyes.

He always forgot just how stunning that shade of green was. This time, he was determined to commit them to memory. It always seemed like such a waste to forget just how beautiful they were.

There was a hill which overlooked the site which the carnival camped out on every year. This time around, the tigers were located closest to it and Patrick allowed Teresa a brief moment to admire the mighty beasts. They were, after all, a relatively new addition to their carnival and quite obviously, a huge crowd pleaser. The look of delight in her eyes made Patrick wish that he could show her around early one morning, before they opened the doors to the general public. She would have loved the opportunity to feed the menagerie of beasts they had.

He cast the thought aside, albeit temporarily. It was plausible that she could somehow sneak her in the morning, he considered. Maybe he'd ask her, when he wasn't too busy admiring how beautiful she looked in the sunlight, even with the floppy sunhat on to protect her fair skin.

Eventually, they reached the top of the hill and both of them collapsed in a heap, breathing heavily. Then, for no reason whatsoever, Patrick started laughing and Teresa soon joined in. When they calmed down, he rested a hand on her cheek and stared deeply into her eyes. Last year, he knew that she would have shied away from such a gesture, but this time she held his gaze. In fact she even rested her own palm on top of his hand.

Patrick took a deep breath and slowly leaned in.

He was more than relieved when Teresa responded immediately to his kiss.

TBC...