Ok, so this chapter is a little more serious than the rest of my story, this is my own kind of version of what went on after the whole red john saga went down. We have been left with so many unanswered questions regards RJ, which annoyed me, 6 years of watching to find out, nothing, I was glad they ended it but felt they could have answers all the mysteries over the years thou, but I won't start my RJ rant today. That being said it makes it easier to invent scenarios in that massive 2 year gap we are given to play with. anyway everyone has there own take this is mine. Enjoy ;). reviews always welcome!

It was a little after 8pm, Jane & Lisbon were sat at a candle lit dining table situated by the beautiful poolside, awaiting for Walter to join them. Surprisingly, dinner turned out to be a very enjoyable affair for all, Teresa had worn the coral dress Jane had brought for her in Miami & Jane wore one of his island shirts, a pale green flower pattern, that Lisbon saw brought out his sea green color in his eyes. They were joined at dinner by the rest of the team, Walter was his normal witty, over confident, charming self, entertaining everyone with his lavish stories of the rich & famous. Wylie was instantly taken by the man, hung on his every word, asking him all sort of odd inquisitive questions.

Jane even noticed that Abbott had started to look more relaxed as the evening went on, even seeing him smile & laugh a couple times from across the table. Vega was also quite taken in by Walter, though most women were, Jane had to hand it to the man, Walter was a charmer & smooth ladies man, making the cold hard faced Agent Vega putty in his hands, they had spent the rest of the night flirting with each other, which Jane noticed was annoying the hell out of Cho, by the amount of beer bottles he was getting through, as well as all eye rolling that was coming from his side of the table, this definitely confirmed Jane's suspicions that something more was going on between his 2 coworkers.

After dinner they all moved to the pool bar for drinks, Abbott decided to call it an early night, he had been up for nearly 24 hours & was dead on his feet, the rest of team sat chatting & drinking cocktails late in to the night, Teresa stuck with water, claiming her head was still foggy from the wine the night before. Jane finally managed to get Walter away from Wylie to discuss the hotel, at first it seemed like a deadend, investing his money in a dying hotel wasn't something Walter was very keen on, that was until Jane mentioned that the Pennington corporation was also looking to invest, turns out Donald Pennington was an old time business rival of Walters, having scammed him in his early days out of $230,000, luckily for Jane & the hotel, Walter Mashburn is a man to hold a very large business grudge, he promised if Jane could get hold the list of all the other hotels the Pennington corp were looking at then he would give some serious consideration in investing in the Casa Del Mar.

Lisbon & Vega threw the towel in just before midnight, Lisbon leaned over to Jane, giving him a soft kiss whispering in his ear "don't stay up too late, I can't seem to sleep with out you...". Jane whispered back, "I won't, I promise I'll be along soon..."

Vega gave Walter a very long flirty kiss on the cheek goodbye, telling him she would think about his offer to fly to Rio with him tomorrow, Cho didn't look at all happy at her flirty gesture & decided to the call it night too, thou Jane suspected he wouldn't be heading to his room straight away. In the end it was just Jane & Walter left. Jane suggested a game of cards, he knew if he could use a distraction he may be able to get the real truth from Walter. After a few games Walter ended up losing $3000 dollars to Jane, Jane felt it best to quit early so not to piss him off too much letting him win a few hands back, he needed to keep in Walters good books, if he wanted him to try help the hotel out. At least Walter had covered the cost for Franklin's wedding & Jane had earned himself $1000 bonus on top in process.

By now Walter was quite drunk, Jane knew this was his time to finally try & get to the bottom of what was going on between him & Lisbon.

"So, earlier you seemed a little upset to discover me & Teresa are a couple? Bruised ego Walter? Or... are you just in love with her?"

"Huh... Love? Now why would you say that?"

"Well, it's obvious really, I mean, why would a rich, powerful man like yourself be "friends" with a woman like Teresa for all this time if you weren't in love with her... You're not sleeping with her & she has no money or business that you would be of interest, & she's hardly your 6'1 blonde Victoria secret model or glitzy Hollywood actress types you normally spend your time with, is she?"

"No. You're right, she isn't my "normal" type of woman, as you put it, but Teresa is a beautiful smart amazing woman & I suspect most men that meet her fall a little in love with her... She has a certain way about her that captures even the most cold hearted, selfish man, don't you find?... But yes, you're right... I do... care about her, we are now good friends."

"But... you don't like her being with me?"

"Honestly, no, Patrick, I don't. I like you, I always have, but you don't deserve a woman like Teresa..."

"And you do?"

... No, I don't deserve her either, I'm too self involved, I care for Teresa, but I care for myself & my money more..."

"Well... We at least we can agree on something..."

"But you're not willing to walk away from her are you?" Walter knew he hit a nerve when Jane looked away before answering.

"I would if could... But I... I love her, she is my world, she always has been, I was just too blind all these years to see it..."

"Well... I guess there's no point wasting my breath in trying to convince you to do otherwise is there?... Just try not to hurt her, she deserves better than that. We grew close after you left to go on the run, I'll admit I hoped for more than just friendship between us, but it wasn't meant to be... But I still feel protective of Teresa.

"I am going to try my hardest never to hurt her... "

"Good, then, we, Patrick Jane, won't have a problem, will we..."

"So, earlier on the balcony, what was that about? What is she hiding?"

Walter took in a big breath, "You need to talk to her about that Patrick? I made a promise to her & I'm not going to break that, not for the likes of you , she has had enough broken lies & promises in her life." With this Walter downed the last of his drink, he stood placing a friendly hand on Jane's shoulder to steady himself as the alcohol rushed to his head. "All you need to know is... she is ok now... I made sure of it... Well... good night Patrick..."

Jane turned in his chair to watch Walter staggering towards the hotel doors "Walter... If there's something I need to know..."

Walter stopped walking, not turning or looking at Jane he quietly said, low on his breath "... Look, she will shoot me if she found out I was were even having this discussion with you... your a smart man Patrick, you will work it out... All I will say is the apple never falls far from the tree Patrick... the apple never falls far from the tree...". With that Walter walked through the hotel doors, leaving Patrick alone, comtemplating his words.

20 minutes later, Jane let himself quietly into their room, he could see Lisbon's dark silhouette lying in the bed, he quietly place the key card on the dresser, perching on the end of bed as he slipped off his old brown shoes, he took a few minutes to compose himself, standing, he walked to Lisbon's side of the bed, he could hear her lightly snoring, he reached out brushing a strand of hair out of her face, she shifted a little at his touch & he leaned in placing a soft kiss behind her ear, before whispering "Teresa..., Teresa...wake up sweetheart..."

".. Mmmm...Hey you're back..." Jane couldn't see her face in the darkness, but could feel by his hand on her face, that she was smiling.

"Hey... Beautiful... I need to talk to you..." With this Jane moved his hand over to the side table & switched the bedside lamp on. Lisbon sat up, rubbing her eyes & squinting at the bright light invading her sight. She looked up to see Jane looking at her with real anguish & concern.

Ok, what's wrong? Has something happened?..." Lisbon sat up a little more leaning back against the headboard. Jane's hand was cupping her face, his thumb stroking her cheek bone staring deep into her eyes. He moved his hands down linking both his hands thru hers, gripping, like he was afraid. "What's wrong Patrick?"

"I need you to tell me what happened after... I killed Red John?..."

"I... I... Nothing, you know what happened?..." Lisbon pulled her hands away, drawing her knees up to her chest like a frightened child, Lisbon could feel her heart rating racing, her head was whirling, why was he bringing this up now? Was he drunk?

"Teresa... Please darling... What happened?..."

"Nothing happened? Why do you keep saying that?..."

"You're lying..." His voice was soft but firm.

"No, I am not, I'm not lying... nothing happened. Just drop it Patrick..." Lisbon voice had become defensive & she refused to look him in the eye.

"No, I won't drop it... Teresa, please tell me"

"Why? What does it matter now, it's over, it's done, We've both moved on, things are different... You never ask before so why now?..." She was breathing hard & fast, Jane knew he need to tred carefully if he didn't want her to totally shut down on him but he wasn't going to let it drop.

"Walter said..."

"Have you been discussing me with Walter? You had no right..." Lisbon felt angry they had been discussing her behind her back.

"Teresa, please darling, tell me..."

"I..I... can't..."

"Yes, you can..."

Lisbon turned her head, looking towards the moonlight shining through the glass patio doors, she was silent for a long time, whilst Jane just sat waiting for her to open up, he knew she found it hard talking about things & he needed to be patience with her.

"I...I... When you left...after killing Red... After killing him, things got bad. The CBI was shut down, I lost my job, my team, my reputation as a cop...you... I was interrogated by every law enforcement agency going, accused of being part of the Blake association, hounded by the media over Mcallister death, you going on the run, all of it..." She took in a deep breath before she continuing.

"things started to get on top of me...so I... I started to have a drink at night to help calm me down, help me sleep but 1 drink would lead to 2 & then before I knew it I was waking up on my bathroom floor with an empty vodka bottle by my side, at first it happen maybe once a week, nothing major... But then Abbott & his team found another property belonging to Red John, it was in his dead mothers name so that's why no one discovered it straight away..."

"...In this house was a room filled with stuff... Mainly Pictures, of his past victims & his main obsession you. Turns out though that you weren't his only obsession, I was too... There was thousands of pics of me everywhere, taken over the past decade, outside work, on cases, shopping... Explains why he kept me alive in that derelect house, I suppose..." She paused looking up at Jane for the first time since she had started talking.

"... He had pictures of me sleeping in my bed..." She saw Jane eyes narrow, she could tell he was slowly processing everything, she saw his breathing speed up a little but he still just sat watching her, saying nothing. "That psycho broke into my house, into my bedroom, whilst I slept, Jane, he watched me, he took my stuff... they found my underwear, some of my jewelry, a hairbrush, my shampoo, my makeup. He had been in my house Jane..."

Lisbon voice was breaking as she spoke, her breathing started to get short & fast as thou she was panicking, she felt tears falling from her eyes wiping them away with the back of her reached for her hands, linking them with his, he rubbed the back of her knuckles trying to calm her but still not saying anything. She knew he was waiting for her to finish.

"Next thing I knew, I was being taken in by the FBI again, they thought I was one of his female followers, that I was another Lorelei, how else would I know about the 7 suspects? Why was my stuff there in his house? Question after question. Eventually they let me go, no real evidence, a few days later I was supposed to meet Walter for dinner & I didn't show up. He got concerned when I didn't answer my cell, he showed up my apartment..." Teresa gulped, trying to find the courage to say what she needed to say next.

"I... I... had accidentally overdosed on vodka & my pain killers for my wrist..." Lisbon was sat now her arms hugging her legs tightly trying to comfort herself, Jane could feel his own eyes filling with tears & took one of her hands in his again. "It was a mistake I never meant to... I just was too drunk, I'd taken too many painkillers in the last 36 hours. Anyway, I spent the next 3 days in hospital, Walter was with me, he never left my side, he was really great, I made him promise not to call my brothers, I was too embarrassed, I couldn't let them see me like that. I would never do that to them... Not after my father... But things were still bad for me. I was an ex-disgraced cop with a drink problem... no home, no job, no family... No you... Nothing..."

"Eventually the FBI found journals hidden in McAllisters property, he had written books & books documenting every crime, murder, rape, bombings, fraud, he ever done, since his days back with Visulize. Thankfully, these proved I was never involved with Red John. I was just one of his obsessions..."

"Anyway...Walter invited me to go stay with him in LA, just till I got back on my feet again... & I did... 5 months of being drink free & some psycho babbled therapist Walter hired to come visit me every day, eventually I got well again..Minnelli pulled some strings & I got the job in Washington as police chief. Which was a blessing because living with Walter Mashburn is an eye opener I can tell you..." Lisbon laughed a little but still had tears running down her face.

" And... Then the rest you know..." Lisbon looked at Jane, she could hear the blood pumping in her ears, he had tears in his eyes but she had no real idea what he was thinking, was he angry? Was he upset at her? For being weak? for not being the woman he fell in love with?

The next thing she knew, he had pulled her into him, wrapping his arms around her tightly, she felt his body start to tremble, heard his breathing deepen & began to feel wetness on her shoulder, it was then she realised she wasn't the only one who was crying.

He softly whispered into her hair, " I'm so sorry. I am so sorry baby, I never. knew... This is all my doing, all my fault... I'm so sorry Teresa... I'm so so sorry. Please forgive me, forgive me... I'm so sorry I left you to face all that alone..."

"Your... Your not angry with me?..."

"Angry at you... Teresa,why would I be angry at you?"

"I... I'm weak..."

Jane pulled back from her, moving both his hands to her cup her face, bending his a little lower so he was eye level with her, he spoke gently caressing her face with his thumbs.

"Teresa you are not weak, you are one of the strongest people I've ever known, you have faced things alone & made it thru the other side... You are the most amazing person I have ever met... & my wife was a very strong lady but she doesn't even compared to you... I love you Teresa, I always have & I always will. No matter what happens. I can never stop loving you, no matter what, do you understand me. You are never going to lose me, ever... Your stuck with me , forever, whether you like it or not."

Lisbon smiled at him, letting a small laugh out in pure relief, leaning forward, she gave him a soft kiss on the lips, then hugged him, knowing now that she should have just told him the truth from the start, that he truly did love her, all her of her, the good & bad, the strong & weak. She felt his arms slide down the top of hers, pushing her back so he could look her straight in the eyes again.

"Marry me Teresa?... be my wife... Marry me?"

He slowly lifted his left hand, pulling his wedding ring off with his other hand, unclipping the clasp of her necklace he slid his wedding ring onto her gold chain next to her cross. He then looked her in the eye again, waiting for her answer. Lisbon could feel tears streaming down her face once more, but this time they were happy tears. She smiled at him, throwing herself into his arms, wrapping herself around him, before saying.

"Yes... Patrick, I'll marry you..."