Author's notes: Thanks for you kind reviews of Red Dawn. This is the ride back to headquarters after the take down in Devil's Cherry.
Lisbon looks over at Jane with concern. He's been very quiet on the ride back. Not his usual triumphant self after catching a killer.
"You all right Jane?"
He glances over at her, with a look that tells her that everything isn't all right.
"I'm fine."
"You're being very quiet."
"Ehhhh just thinking."
"You want to share?"
Jane doesn't answer for a while, his head's turned away from her as he watches the scenery go by and then:
"I'm thinking about Charlotte."
Lisbon nods, it's just as she thought.
"It must be hard now that she's gone."
"I imagined her all grown up, a teenager, a lippy one at that."
Lisbon can't hold back the chuckle
"How come that's not surprising."
Jane smiles.
"I apologised to her for it. It certainly isn't from her mother. I wonder why I imagined her as teenager and not the little girl I knew?"
"Perhaps you wanted to communicate with her."
"I didn't recognise her when I first saw her, although she looks a lot like Angela at her age."
"It's understandable."
"If I wanted to talk with her, I wonder what I wanted to say, or learn?"
"What was it you said to her?"
Jane's biting his lip a sure sign he's upset about something.
"I should've recognised her."
Lisbon's finding it hard to keep up with the constant changes in the conversation.
"She thinks I'm wasting my time searching for Red John."
"She does?"
"Yes, I told her I was doing it for them and she said there's nothing I can do for them, they're dead."
Lisbon nods her head.
"What do you think about that?"
Jane lets out a sigh and shrugs.
"Well she's right, of course."
He's staring out the window.
"She's really a lovely girl."
Jane's silent some more and Lisbon's not sure what to say. There's so much she could say but doesn't know if she should or how to begin.
"Obviously it was me speaking not Charlotte. She was a figment of my subconscious after all."
Lisbon treads carefully.
"What do you think you were trying to say to yourself?"
Jane looks at her with a wicked grin.
"She asked if we'd ever...you know...the two of us..."
Lisbon smiles back.
"She did, did she?"
"Yea, she likes you."
"That's good to hear."
Jane turns back to looking out the windscreen and is silent again. Lisbon's trying not to think about what the last part means. He looks so melancholy, after a while Lisbon breaks the silence.
"Would you like to come to my place?"
He jumps a little as if he's forgotten he wasn't alone. He turns to her.
"What was that?"
"Would you like to come to my place? We could get take out and watch a movie."
"Sounds good."
"Okay then."
"You know I think I'd like to be alone, if that's okay."
"Sure Jane, whatever you want. The offers there if you change your mind...We can talk."
His attention is back to the outside.
"She really was lovely."
