AN: Thanks for the amazing response to last chapter. I was blown away by the wonderful comments you all left. Here's part II of Jane and Lisbon's conversation.
She feels Jane lower his lips to her hair, feels him breathe in deeply. She shivers when he breathes out, the air tickling her skin. He sighs. "Typical of me," he says. "I never once asked how you were doing. The past couple weeks must have been hard on you as well."
Her response is automatic. "I'm fine," she says without thinking. "Really."
Jane pulls back, and Lisbon's eyes flash up to meet his. "Right," he says, scoffing. "Do you really expect me to believe that?"
"No," admits Lisbon wryly. "I was hoping the combination of pain and intense medication had dulled your superpowers."
Jane chuckles. "They have, to an extent," he says. "But I pay special attention to you, so it roughly evens out." Lisbon ducks her head, looking away, but Jane won't be dissuaded. "Tell me, Lisbon," he says softly.
She glances up at him, not expecting for her vision to become locked onto his – but once their gazes meet, she cannot look away. And she cannot say no, not to him.
"You don't have any reason to be jealous of my relationship with Sam Bosco," she says. "Especially considering what he said to me the moment you left my office."
Jane doesn't say anything, waiting for her to continue.
So she does. "He knows I slept with you," Lisbon says. "He could tell from observing us together in the hallway."
"And?" Jane's voice is gentle.
"Turns out Bosco is the jealous type, too," says Lisbon.
"What did he say to you?"
Lisbon has to look away at this, knowing she can't bear to watch Jane's face when she reveals the answer to his question. She chooses to look instead at their intertwined fingers, which have twisted together of their own accord.
"He told me that I didn't sleep with married men back at SFPD," she says, her voice low.
Jane is silent for a second too long. "What happened between you two back in San Francisco?" he asks eventually, and from his tone Lisbon knows Jane is uncertain about whether or not he wants to hear the answer.
Lisbon moves her thumb back and forth absentmindedly on the back of Jane's hand. "We got assigned a case not long after we became partners. A serial killer targeting young women. It was slow going. Really slow going. Finally, after a few years, we figured out who he was. But he was smart – we couldn't tie him to any of the scenes. We had absolutely no forensic evidence linking him to any of the murders, nothing that we could use to build a case that would stand up in court." Lisbon glances at Jane. "Then he became interested in me."
Jane's hand tightens around her own, and she lays her other hand on his chest over his heart.
"I found a note in my apartment after I came home from work one evening, and I didn't even have to read it to know it was from him. I panicked, naturally, and went straight to Bosco's. He assigned me a couple cops as a protective detail, but it never felt like that was enough. I don't think I really slept for a month." Lisbon takes a deep breath. "Anyway, a few weeks after I found the note, Bosco suddenly called me into his office one night to say he was withdrawing my protective detail. I was surprised, as you'd probably expect given that Bosco had insisted on the protective detail in the first place, but he told me not to worry. 'Everything has been taken care of,' he said." Lisbon shakes her head. "Jane, it was scary – I've never seen him like that before. It was almost like he was the calm in the middle of a hurricane. I'm not sure how else to describe it."
"Bosco killed your stalker," deduces Jane.
"I never found out for sure," admits Lisbon, "but there were no more bodies with that particular MO. The timing can hardly be coincidental."
Jane lets go of Lisbon's hand and wraps his arm around her shoulders, pulling her close. "I can't say I disapprove of the end result," he whispers.
Lisbon ignores this. "To answer your question, nothing happened between Bosco and I," she says. "But it almost did. Before I left his office that night, he told me the case caused him to reevaluate his life and his choices. He said he had about a million regrets in his life that he could live with, but there was one that he couldn't. Then he told me that he wanted to give us a shot – that he didn't want one of us to die one day without knowing what we could have been like. Together."
Jane's arm is warm and steady around her, and Lisbon focuses on this. "And then?" Jane asks.
"I couldn't think straight," Lisbon continues, "so I said something obvious like you're married. I think he offered to leave Mandy, but I was running out the door at that point. And I kept running – I put in an application for the CBI the next day."
They are silent for a few minutes, and Lisbon can feel Jane's heart gradually slow to a normal rate under her hand. Finally, he speaks.
"Stay," he says. "With me."
Lisbon immediately protests, albeit halfheartedly. "Jane, I have to be at work early tomorrow morning for my appointment with the shrink. It's mandatory after a shooting –"
"You can reschedule. Say you're not feeling well. It's not like that would even be a lie."
She pulls back to look him in the eye, and that is her first mistake. It's mesmerizing, she realizes, his ability to hypnotize her without even a word. Her second mistake is letting him do so.
"Lisbon, please. Just…just stay."
He's already leading her toward the bed before she answers, and he turns down the corner of the comforter, letting her slip in before he does. She toes off her shoes, and he follows her lead. Then he pulls her against him under the covers.
She feels his leg wrap over her own, covering her in warmth, and she relents, leaning into him.
"Okay," she exhales.
