Story 14 – I Met You

A Jane & Lisbon Story

By Brown Eyes Parker

Shout-outs: Special Agent Baker, Little-Firestar84, Totorsg, and Wldwmn for leaving reviews on story 13. I loved the feedback guys.

Author's Note I:

Happy October everybody! Hope this month is fabulous for you guys. This story is actually for the October challenge on Paint it Red. This month's challenge is "Amnesty. We got our pick from about a year's worth of challenges. I picked June's challenge, "3 little words that can change your life forever". It probably doesn't follow the challenge that well, but I did try, and that's important.

Warnings:

Does getting inspired by a movie that a lot of people probably didn't watch warrant a pop culture reference warning? And there are slight spoilers for the movie because I kind of borrowed from a scene. But I won't tell you where. . . just in case you ever decide to watch it.

Disclaimer:

Sadly, I don't own a thing. . . if I did, I'd be a ton richer than I am and be able to afford the tights that I need for church.

.

"I met you."

Larry Crowne_

"Have you seen Jane anywhere?" Lisbon asked, coming out of her office one day a few weeks after they had finally caught Red John.

"Not since yesterday," Van Pelt replied, tugging at her necklace nervously. "He said that he was going to take some time off and get settled in his new place. He didn't think you'd mind much, he actually told me that you'd probably be glad to see the back of him for a while."

Lisbon frowned. "He didn't tell me that he was leaving though."

Van Pelt shrugged. "I guess he was afraid you'd try to force him to stay, or something. Besides, he's only taking a couple weeks off. It isn't like he's going away forever."

"Did-did he say anything else?" Lisbon asked tentatively.

"Yeah," the red head admitted reluctantly. "But he asked me not to say anything to you or Cho and Rigsby."

Lisbon's frown deepened, she couldn't believe that Jane had confided in Van Pelt but not in her. She almost felt cheated that he had shared something intimate with a woman other than her. She swallowed hard and tried not to let disappointment show on her face.

"But I didn't make any promises," Van Pelt continued, after seeing the poorly concealed emotions on her boss's face. "So, I could tell you what he said. I could also give you his new address, if you'd like."

"I really couldn't ask you to betray his trust. . ." Lisbon said, but only half-heartedly.

Van Pelt got a pen and quickly jotted down something down. She handed it over to Lisbon with a school girl grin.

"He told me that he'd be back because being on this team changed his life," she said.

"Really?" Lisbon asked, not even bothering to conceal her shock this time. "Why'd he say that?"

Van Pelt shrugged. "He didn't."

"Oh. . ." Lisbon trailed off and looked down at the neon orange sticky note in her hand. She touched the adhesive backing and sighed thoughtfully. "I-I think I'm going to take the morning off, take a ride and clear my mind. . . maybe get some breakfast. I didn't really get a chance to eat this morning."

"Okay," Van Pelt said as she hid a knowing smile behind a sip of coffee. "I hope you have a good morning, I'll see you this afternoon."

"Thanks," Lisbon replied. "You too."

.

"You're here!" Jane said, slightly surprised to see her standing on his porch at nine 'o clock on a work day. She never missed work, not even when she was really sick. "Shouldn't you be at the office, catching the bad guys and closing cases?"

"I should be," Lisbon answered. "But I wanted to talk to you. You-you left without saying anything."

"I told Van Pelt to tell you that I was coming back," Jane answered defensively. "I just needed one week. Things have been so hectic lately, I needed a mental break. Besides, I had to move in this week, or my landlord was going to give the apartment to somebody else."

"You could have told me though," Lisbon said, trying not to sound hurt.

"And have volunteer to drop everything so you could help me out?" Jane replied. "I didn't want to do that to you."

"I wouldn't have minded," Lisbon told him.

"I'm sure," Jane answered evenly, folding his arms across his chest and shuffling his bare feet. "So, my dear what brings you here on this fine morning? I don't think you stopped by to chat about the weather."

"No," Lisbon replied, swallowing hard and looking at her feet. "I just-just wanted to see you and make sure everything really was okay."

"As you can see it is," he told her. "I'm still sober and sane, I promise."

"How do I know that for real?" Lisbon asked. "You could be using your bio feedback tricks to lull me into a false sense of security."

"Lisbon, I promise that if there was something wrong with me, I wouldn't have even bothered to opened the door when I saw it was you. Because for some reason you can see right through me and tell when there really is something wrong with me."

"Oh."

"So, tell me why you stopped by to see me today," Jane said, leaning against his doorframe and studying her carefully.

"Van Pelt told me that you said being on my team changed your life," Lisbon replied, looking at him seriously.

Jane looked slightly surprised at the betrayed confidence. "She wasn't supposed to say anything to you about that."

"She told me that she hadn't made any promises not to say anything," Lisbon said. She lowered her voice and looked away from him again. "What does it mean exactly Jane? That being on my team specifically changed your life?"

"Well," Jane said as he came over and took her hand in his while lifting her chin so they were looking into each other's eyes. "I met you."

Lisbon smiled, her heart stopping just slightly at his admission, before she could stop herself, she was on her tip-toes and pressing her lips against his. She knew it was probably too soon for it to happen, but she didn't care. She had wanted some sort of physical contact with the man in front of her for longer than she could remember.

It took him a while to register what was happening; he couldn't believe that Lisbon was actually kissing him. Not that he minded her kissing him, but up until now it was something that he had only dared to dream about.

He sighed inwardly before he let go of her chin and hand so he could wrap his arms around her and give her the kind of kiss that she deserved.

After a few minutes of urgent kissing, he pulled away because of his desperate need for air. He took a deep breath and looked down at her wordlessly.

"What?" She asked as she smoothed one of his unruly curls away from his forehead, her cheeks flushed slightly by their excursion.

There was an I love you right on the tip of his tongue, but he couldn't bring himself to say it quite yet.

"Would you like some breakfast?" He asked instead as he tentatively ran a hand through her hair. "I was just about to make French toast before you knocked."

"I would love some breakfast," Lisbon answered; smiling at him as she allowed him to take her hand again and he lead her into his apartment.

_The End_

Author's Note II:

I didn't expect to have anything ready for this series so soon, I was fooling around with a Summer/Cho one-shot, but they never bring in a huge amount of readers. So, I decided that the next story I was planning on posting for this series was my Halloween one. I have notes written for it and everything. But I'm not giving anything away for it.

Sorry.

Anyways, hope you enjoyed this story. I've had a portion of it written since June. But I didn't get a chance to finish it because I missed the deadline for the PIR Challenge, and I didn't see any point in finishing it because the whole reason I had chosen the quote was for that specific challenge. Drop a review and tell me what you thought. Reviews are love.

And I will be updating "the Writer and the Consultant" soon, I started working on part II this morning. Although, it'll probably be chapter 2 by the time I'm done writing it.

Until next time!

Love,

Holly, 10/1/2012_