The smell was off. That's the first thing she noticed. It was expected, of course, since the scent of a house is created by the people living in it, and Teresa's neighbors haven't lived there for a long while. If she concentrated, she swore she could still smell that omnipresent scent of Italian foods that she loved so dearly as a kid.

She tried not to let her mind wander to the bad details of the moments she spent in that house, but the two men lying dead on the floor in front of her didn't exactly trigger the rainbows and smiles of her childhood.

Teresa stood in the middle of the stuffy living room, staring down at the bodies. One was a small, blonde man - bloody and beaten. The other was slightly bigger, but with no marks on him besides a horrible pallor and glazed eyes. Being a CBI agent, Lisbon never had any problems with gore and corpses, but the sight of them lying on the floor where she used to play with her Barbies? It disturbed her greatly.

She watched as Jane bent down over the bodies, sniffing them and measuring them with his usual curiosity. She felt eyes on her, waiting for her to give her verdict, but she just couldn't.

The anxiety closing in on her throat proved that point.

With a small jolt of her heart, she saw the rickety staircase and her feet started to itch with the longing to go up those stairs once more.

Without a word to the others, she made her way to the staircase and climbed them ever so slowly and quietly. There was only one room that these stairs led too, and she felt that voice in her head screaming "Go back! GO BACK!"

But Agent Lisbon doesn't take orders from a weak subconscious.

There it was; a small brown door – though, Lisbon remembered it to be white – that smelt of fresh paint. She turned the doorknob, not allowing herself to turn back now.

The room was quite different from the way it was all those years ago, but the sight of the closet was all she needed to trigger a flashback that made her knees weaken.

Little Teresa Lisbon, 15 years old, tears running down her freckled face as she ran down the street from her horrid house. The sun was shining. All Teresa could think was that the sun's presence was completely inappropriate on a day like this. At a house like this.

"Run, then, you stupid girl!" she heard her father's slurs echoing behind her – the swishing of the ever-so-familiar beer bottle in his hand.

Her brothers were away at their friend's house, thank the lord. Though, that didn't do much for her own luck. She felt the throbbing across her face...her arms...wrists...the sting of every slap, every punch...

Despite being blinded by the perpetual flow of tears coming from her emerald eyes, she ran faster than the speed of light to the next door house. She didn't knock. She turned the door knob and stumbled in, sobbing, heaving.

"HELP ME!" she screamed, louder than she thought possible. Hysterical. Her scream had startled her neighbors, who sat peacefully on their couch, oblivious to all that happens in the neighboring house -Teresa's house.

Patty Reynolds was the name of the old woman that ran to her aid as Teresa fell to her knees, clutching her chest, unable to breath.

'Can't breathe,' was all she thought. 'Can't breathe!'

"What is it, hunny?" she heard Patty say through the ringing in her ears. She could vaguely remember the woman dragging her to her feet, pulling her up the stairs as her father came banging on the door. She guided Teresa to the closet and said;

"It's okay, Teresa. Stay here, Teresa."

"Lisbon? It's okay."

Lisbon? Patty didn't say that. Patty didn't call her Lisbon...

"Teresa?" said a voice.

Jane's voice.

Lisbon sat on the bed, staring at the closet, silent tears moving down her face and the same claustrophobic feeling in her lungs...

Can't breathe.

A horrible jolt of panic went through her body, and suddenly she forgot she was a CBI agent, forgot where she was, forgot who sat right next to her.

She grabbed Jane's arm painfully hard and looked around the room in a panic as she gasped for breath that didn't seem to come. The sobs began and she shook so hard and...

I'm going to die, was all she thought. I'm going to die.

She felt Jane's hand on her shaking arm and he started to speak in that soothing, quiet voice he used on those he hypnotized...

"That's good, Teresa. It's okay. You can breathe its okay..." he whispered, staring at her with those blue eyes and he made all the world melt away with those simple words...

She found she could take one large gulp of air and relief flooded through her. She squeezed her eyes shut and she took in another breath. And another. Another. She opened her eyes and found Jane and he welcomed her with a little smile.

In other circumstances, Lisbon wouldn't have let him see her that way. No one should see her that way. But then she remembered that he already had...he'd seen her cry when she was accused of murdering a man. All of a sudden, she found she didn't care anymore. She let herself go, just this once, because Jane had been through so much already and she knew – even if she didn't want to admit it – that he would understand.


Author's Note: Next chapter will basically be Teresa talking to Jane in more detail about her childhood, and you will see that they get closer when they can relate a little more. It'll be cute. You'll see! :-) I hope I haven't disappointed so far. Next chappy will be up soon!