Purrson of interest

by denxuement

AU: Lisbon's cat keeps somehow escaping her apartment and going into her (annoying) neighbor's home, forcing them to keep interacting.

A.N.: Hey guys!

This story came from a silly discussion on twitter about if Lisbon was a cat person (she is) or not. And it delved into this monster. Please, don't take any of it too seriously, it's supposed to be a fun story, with not a lot of depth. This is an AU, so I changed around a few details about the character's background so that it could make them lighter for this story. In this AU covid also doesn't exist, I should say lmao

Huge thanks to chanandaler94 on twitter for beta-ing and helping me out with everything. This story would not have been posted at all without her. And, as always, this was also posted on ao3, and you can find me there as denouement.

Also, for those of you following my other story, I am working on it.

(Since starting this story I've been thoroughly schooled by my girlfriend on the fact that cats do, in fact, watch TV. Thought ya'll might like to know that too.)

---

i.

Lisbon groaned, as the blaring sound of her phone ringing woke her up. Not again. It was the second time in 3 weeks that she had to get up before 6 AM because of a new case. Couldn't criminals keep a more 9 to 5 schedule? Her sleep-aided brain would be thankful.

"Lisbon." She said, picking up the phone.

The cat stretched beside her, annoyed at being awoken so rudely, too. He stared at her and she stared back, while paying attention to the instructions that were being laid on the other side of the phone call.

She gave a brief goodbye, and shot a message to her second in command, Kimball Cho, to let him know her ETA, and with that, got up to shower.

"DD, I'm leaving for the next few days. I don't know when I'm coming back, but I will, like always. I'm gonna call Emily to check up on you, okay?" She said, looking back to the cat who had just started getting settled back to sleep and did nothing more than open his eyes to stare at her as she talked to him.

Lisbon was quite sure that if anyone from work ever heard the way she talked to her cat as if it were a real person, she'd be instantly institutionalized. And, well, it's not like it made any difference to the cat, but it did make a difference to her. It did make her feel like she was not just abandoning him, that he knew she was coming back and that he'd be taken care of. So really, it was not exactly a bad thing.

It all started about a year ago, what Lisbon stupidly called inside her own brain The Loneliness, as if it were an entity, or something. She didn't know if it was the fact that she was well into her 30s now or what, but the great philosopher Britney Spears had never made more sense than in that moment. Well, she could kinda tell why it was happening. The truth was that, besides work, Lisbon didn't really interact with a lot of people. She had friends, of course, from college and life that she'd get together with for lunch sometimes, or long calls on the phone to catch up. But even so, the people closest to her were probably her team. Lisbon tried not to wonder what that said about her

Another thing was that she hadn't really had a relationship in more than 10 years. Not any serious ones that counted, anyways. Of course she had been with people, she wasn't a nun, but none of it lasted more than a few months. The truth was that people were complicated, they had feelings, they needed time put into them, and Lisbon wasn't so sure she could deal with that. Not at the moment, at least. She had just recently been promoted to Senior Agent, she was leading her own team, she was finally getting where she wanted. Which made time for a personal life almost nonexistent; ergo, relationships weren't really a thing she could deal with. When she did have personal time, she liked to spend it watching something mindless on TV or reading a book, doing some self care… She didn't really have time for someone else. That, and also the fact that she had her own shit to deal with most of the time. Almost no one got how being a cop changed her, the odd hours of the job, the fact that sometimes it came before her wishes and needs. It mostly just left the possibility of dating another cop, but, besides the CBI regulation prohibiting relationships between employees, most of the available people were either assholes, not interested, or looked down on her for her age and/or being a woman.

So… a pet. It seemed like a good, logical solution. Lisbon had had dogs when she was little, and she remembered them being great fun, but they were also way too high maintenance for the little time she actually had available now. So a cat it had been.

After having her sudden epiphany and agonizing over it for the better part of a month, Lisbon finally went to the rescue closest to her place. The entire ride there her hands had been sweating and she was way more nervous than she had been expecting, running over all the supplies she had acquired, after having extensively read on everything she might need. The moment she saw him, though, she knew she had found the perfect companion for her. Didymus had been this tiny, skinny, yellow and white old cat, with a front tooth sticking out that made him look extra menacing and uninviting. Lisbon couldn't tell exactly why, but the moment she saw him, all she could think was yes, that's him.

The rest, as they say, is history. And here, a year later, DD was looking at her in his grumpy way as she entered the bathroom and she couldn't help but smile. He really got the spirit down for this whole morning.

---

Four days later, Lisbon exhaled in relief the moment she entered her apartment. God, she hated sleeping away from home. It always felt like she couldn't quite relax, needing to be on her guard all the time. As a consequence though, now she felt like she was just a tad more stiff than usual, her lower back hurt like a bitch, and she felt uncomfortably full after the case closed pizza she had with the team before making their way back.

She left her bag beside the door, opened a few windows so some air could come in, and then went straight to the couch, collapsing on it.

The case, at least, had been easy. Mostly open and shut, the local PD had surprisingly made a great job at securing the scene initially, and seemed to have a good handle on things. They had only been called, really, because the victim had been friends with the AG's brother, or something along those lines. Halfway through day three they had secured a confession, and the case was closed. The rest of the time mostly was spent making sure all the evidence was properly collected and filed, and filing paperwork. So, after their pizza lunch, they all made their way back to Sacramento.

Lisbon took off her boots and put them beside the couch. She called for DD and waited for the cat to come to her. All that was missing now, really was him cuddling up with her, and she could nap on the couch for a little, and then, maybe, get herself some wine with take out and a long, hot bath. She laid down more comfortably, and closed her eyes to wait, pulling down the blanket from the back of the couch and smiling at how good it felt to finally be home.

Next time she opened her eyes, it was already dark outside. She had probably napped for a good 5 hours. Thank God, she had really fucking needed it.

Lisbon stretched, getting up and fixing up the blanket back in its place. She went to close the windows she had left open earlier and froze.

Oh, no.

She had left the windows open. In her tired haze, she had left the windows open and she hadn't seen DD at all since she arrived. Oh no.

After forcefully closing the windows, and trying to lure the cat with wet food to no avail, Lisbon began to frantically search every room in her apartment.

"DD, come here, come here!"

Nothing in the bedroom, nor the bathroom. And it was not like the apartment was huge, so where the fuck could the cat have gone?

By her third run around the apartment, she could feel herself starting to get overwhelmed.

Fuck, fuck. How could she have been so stupid? What if something had happened? What if he was lost, cold, scared, and hungry somewhere because of her irresponsibility? She didn't know how she would deal with herself if anything happened to him, Lisbon would probably never forgive herself. The one thing in the world that depended completely and uniquely on her, and she failed at it.

Lisbon shook her head trying to dissipate her panic. Letting her mind go to dark places would not help now. So, after another run through all the rooms in the house she went to knock on the door directly in front of her apartment.

Her neighbor opened the door with a bright smile.

"Hey, Teresa! How is DD? All good with your work?"

"Emily, when was the last time you saw DD?"

Emily, the 20 something year old college student that Lisbon paid a few bucks to look after her cat every time she had to stay away for more than a full day, looked confused back at Lisbon, smile slowly diminishing.

"This morning when I went to check on him. Everything was okay, though. Is something wrong, Teresa?"

"I… I fell asleep with my windows open and he's not home now."

The look of pity the other girl threw at her was enough to sober Lisbon up.

She took a deep breath and pushed all the feelings out of her mind so she could work properly, trying to reach her Senior Agent Teresa Lisbon persona. It took a couple more breaths, and Lisbon was completely mortified that the girl had seen her in this state, but it's not like she could go back on it now.

As she calmed, though, she knew that this was exactly what she needed to do. Yes, this would help, because Senior Agent Lisbon could handle a simple cat disappearance. Lisbon would find him, no matter what.

"Could you help me ask the neighbors if anyone's seen anything?"

And with that, both women spent the next 30 minutes knocking on all the 12 apartments in the condo that were occupied. Each of them would search for two floors, hoping that someone saw something and could help them. Lisbon knew that a lot of their neighbors had pets, so she hoped they'd be sympathetic, at least.

But nothing.

They reconvened in Lisbon's kitchen, and Lisbon was having a harder time by the minute of keeping it together. For as hard as it had been earlier to do so, now it was as if Lisbon was trying to hold water in her hands, and it just kept spilling and spilling.

Besides all the thoughts that plagued her of how he could be hurt, in pain, somewhere, she also had no idea what she was even gonna do if the cat truly never came back. How do you even start searching for a lost pet, in an effective way? It's not like he was a perp, she couldn't simply elicit law enforcement to help her, but she also couldn't just put a few posters up and hope the world righted itself suddenly. She had to do more.

Lisbon put her head on her hands and tried to come up with something, anything that she could possibly do to change things. To somehow right this, to somehow bring him back.

"Did you try the new guy at the end of the hall?"

That caught Lisbon's attention. She looked up at the girl across the table, who had been jotting down all the places they had searched where they had not found the cat.

"New guy?"

"Oh yeah, you weren't here. He moved in the day you left for your last case. Four days ago?"

Lisbon nodded, trying to tamp down hope. He hadn't been found anywhere else, there was no reason why he would've moved into this one specific apartment. But still, a small sliver of it got away from her.

"You think we should ask him?" Emily said, seemingly in deep thought.

The poor girl seemed to be doing worse than Lisbon herself, her eyes red, and more than once Lisbon had caught the girl sniffling as they met on the stairs to share if anyone had seen anything. Or maybe Lisbon herself was just a little better at hiding it, she didn't really know, nor did she have time to really consider it at that moment.

Lisbon didn't answer, she just got up and left her apartment in the direction of the one at the end of the hall, the big 401 on the door staring at her.

She knocked on the door, a little more forcefully than she probably should have, and waited. When the door wasn't answered within 20 seconds, she knocked again, but halfway through it, someone finally answered.

"Geez, you-"

Lisbon barely noticed the guy, besides the fact that he was blonde and seemed to be about her age, not even letting him start as she let out the words she had repeated a variation of 6 times now.

This was her last chance of this turning out to be less terrible than what she was expecting, so, she was a bit less than polite. Whatever. Sue her. She had more important things to do.

"Have you seen a cat, yellow and white, about 7 years old, with a front tooth sticking out, anywhere lately?"

"Oh, yeah, he's watching TV." The guy said casually, pointing to the inside of his apartment.

That had been the last thing Lisbon had been expecting. For a second it felt like her insides had been whiplashed.

She just blinked up at the man.

"He's… He's what?"

Before Lisbon could make any assumptions of the guy's sanity, he simply stepped aside, and behind him, on a leather couch, was DD, in all his glory, without a care in the world, laying down, slowly blinking at whatever was going on on the TV.

The immense sense of relief that filled Lisbon immediately left her rooted to the spot. She felt a hundred years older, the weight of the world being suddenly lifted from her shoulders. Her brain seemed to still be a little foggy, all the emotion clouding it.

Only then did the guy's words register in her mind. She looked up at him, ready to say something, but he was looking at her with a mix of curiosity and something she couldn't quite place that made her slightly uncomfortable. Like he was looking inside her soul, like he knew things she didn't. She realized then that he was quite attractive, with his blue eyes, blonde hair, and slightly disheveled look. It all lasted a single moment, and Lisbon looked away, awkwardly.

The best course of action, she decided, was to get the hell away from this place as soon as possible. She walked purposefully over to the couch, trying her hardest not to stay too long, nor look at the apartment too much. It seemed to have the same layout as hers, and the living room was cozy, with a leather couch, a TV, a coffee table and 4 bookshelves full, from what Lisbon could count on her quick glance.

She looked down at DD, who was looking at her expectantly. Lisbon picked him up, muttering a low "yeah I bet you're uncomfortable at being picked up, you asshole" at the cat's grunt of displeasure.

Not low enough, apparently, since the guy let out a chuckle behind her.

Lisbon's brain wasn't really used to dealing with this many emotions in such a small space of time, and that seemed to leave her extremely volatile after the day she had, running from desperation to relief to exasperation in a matter of seconds, with little input from Lisbon herself.

She hated feeling out of control, but the next thing she hated the most was being made fun of, and she was not about to be made fun of after the hell the last hour had been. Who the fuck did this guy think he was, anyways?

Holding DD close to her chest, Lisbon walked out of the apartment, turning around once she was outside only to glare and say:

"Thanks for keeping him, Sir. But, just so you know, cats don't really watch TV."

---

ii.

It had been exactly one month since The Great DD Incident of 2021, and things had been going quite nicely. It took almost two whole days for Lisbon to work herself up to opening the windows at her place again, and only by making sure DD was always within her line of sight.

Besides the lasting effects on her psyche that apparently included her making sure she could see DD every single moment of every day, and the cat being quite clearly done with how overly affectionate she had been, but quite happy with the extra wet food, everything seemed to have gone back to normal.

Work had also been nicely slow. The two murders they had had to deal with had been committed within work hours, so she had managed to come back home at a respectable time, which to Lisbon meant around 10 PM. Paperwork had been easy, no big cases, just slow, steady work. She had even managed to go out for dinner with her team the previous week, something they hadn't done in almost two months.

So, overall, things were good.

Except for the small pestering problem that was that her new neighbor seemed to always be arriving home at exactly the same moment as her.

The first time it happened she was so embarrassed by how out of sorts she had been when they first met that she pretended she didn't see him at all, and hurriedly entered her apartment. But when it kept happening every other day, Lisbon thought that some higher power had something against her. He'd make sure to meet her eye every single time, and smile at her, a beaming, knowing smile that always left Lisbon slightly unsettled.

At least she had managed not to be stuck in the elevator with him, so far. Lisbon did have to take the stairs more than once to avoid it, though, to his utter amusement, and Lisbon's utter annoyance. He'd smirk at her as he got off the elevator, without saying a word, and Lisbon, panting from having run up four flights of stairs, could feel her blood boiling. Something about the guy's aura just pissed her off.

One time, she had tried a different route, waiting 15 minutes on the ground floor, then catching the elevator up. But the moment she arrived on the fourth floor, it got opened by no one other than him.

"Trying new methods, I see." He said, holding back laughter.

Lisbon just glared at him and marched to her apartment.

She knew she wasn't really being fair, especially since the guy had apparently taken really good care of DD last time it had shown up at his place, and he hadn't really done anything at all. But he just seemed to look at Lisbon with a weird know-it-all air that just got to her. She couldn't quite put her finger on it, he just seemed… untrustworthy. So, yes, she had been steadily avoiding the guy for the past four weeks. Not that it had been going well, because, apparently, the man made a point to unsettle Lisbon any way he could. But she was trying her damned best.

That is, until DD did another one of his disappearing acts.

This time, instead of being worried, Lisbon was pissed. Well, of course she was worried, but it was majorly tampered by her terrible mood. It was 7 AM and she was already late, she hadn't had her coffee, and she had no fucking idea how DD could've gotten out of the apartment. She had been looking for him for the past hour, she had tried three different ways of calling him over with the wet food, which had been, once again, foolproof, in the last month, and nada.

As soon as what was happening got past the fog of sleep and lack of caffeine, Lisbon realized that the first place she should look out of the apartment was probably the last place he had gone to when this had happened, but she refused to think that she would have to deal with that blonde jerk this early in the morning. Instead of straight away going there, Lisbon made herself a cup of coffee and put it in a mug to go. She sent Cho a message, telling him to hold down the fort because she would be late, took a deep breath and decided to face the music.

It took almost 10 minutes for the door to open this time. Lisbon was about to knock again, for the fifth time, when the guy opened it, clearly having been woken up from bed, with his old man pajamas, puffy face and half closed eyes. Behind him, the apartment seemed to be in disarray, the leather couch that she had seen the previous time now full of boxes, a couple on the floor before it. A few power tools seemed to be scattered around too.

No wonder the man seemed tired.

"Yes?"

Lisbon finally looked up at his words. She had completely forgotten what she had been doing there in the first place, being completely lost in the snooping she was doing. Lisbon shook her head to focus, but before she could finally ask about the cat, however, a big meow was heard from inside the apartment, and soon, DD was rubbing up against both of their legs.

"I gather he escaped, again."

"Well, yeah, he is inside your place, after all."

The guy chuckled and Lisbon winced. Before she could apologize for the harshness of her words, however, he shook his head and smiled, letting her know it was okay.

"I'm Patrick Jane." He said, extending his hand at her.

Lisbon looked at the hand as if she had never seen the gesture in her life. Her brain really wasn't at it's prime this morning. Just her luck that she'd have to spend a part of it interacting with someone she was less than enthusiastic about.

After a few seconds of no response, the guy - Patrick Jane, apparently - was about to take his hand away, awkwardly, when Lisbon finally shook it.

"Teresa Lisbon, nice to meet you. I'm down at apartment 403."

"I'm aware."

She nodded, trying to somehow fill the silence that followed. It didn't help though, and when it became almost too overwhelming, Lisbon picked up DD from the floor and nodded once again at her neighbor.

"Thank you, once again, Mr. Jane. I'm sorry about waking you up so early."

With that, Lisbon simply turned around and left, thanking God that this situation hadn't been as terrible as she had been dreading, even if she'd rather have avoided it at all. It had been one of the best interactions she had had with the guy so far, honestly. At least it was all awkward silences and harsh words, not him looking at her like he was observing her way too closely, like his eyes were about to devour her or something. That was a win in her book.

"Hey, Teresa?"

Lisbon stopped in front of her door. What could the man possibly want? She wanted to just go back home, make sure DD wouldn't leave and go to work. But apparently the world had other plans.

DD was already wiggling in her arms wanting to be put down, so she quickly opened the door and put him inside the apartment, before turning back to her neighbor.

"Yes, Mr. Jane?"

"Could you give me your number?"

"E-excuse me?"

Lisbon couldn't keep the shock out of her voice. Did she hear him right? Was this guy coming onto her? Seriously? After making fun of her or making her uncomfortable for an entire month every time he saw her, he had the audacity of trying to ask her for her number?

She could see him getting ready to answer, a frown on his face, and Lisbon was sure that whatever came out of his mouth next was about to make her annoyance reach new heights, and she did not want that. So before anything else could happen, she continued.

"I don't know who the fuck you think you are, Mr. Jane, but no. Thank you for taking care of my cat, but that doesn't give you the right to my number."

And with that, she entered her apartment, and made sure to close the door with a little more force than was necessary.

---

iii.

Lisbon spent the next weekend trying to find where the hell the cat could've gotten out from, but no such luck. All her windows were closed, the doors were closed, so how the fuck had the little demon escaped? She was about to start taping shut every nook and cranny in her apartment that could possibly fit a cat into just so that he would stop his neighboring strolls.

The biggest problem with her not finding whatever DD was using as an escape route was the progressively more likely situation where he once again went into Patrick Jane's apartment, and if there was one thing Lisbon wanted to avoid with all her being was having to interact with the man again, especially after the stunt he had pulled.

The entire weekend, every time she thought about the situation again, she felt angry at the audacity of the man for having used her cat to try and hit on her. No wonder he made her feel so uneasy- he was one of the sleazy types, Lisbon could feel it.

The following week, in fact, Lisbon had made sure to stay an hour or so later at work just so she wouldn't run into anyone once she arrived home. And it worked. For all of a week and three days her life had been blissfully Patrick Jane-free. No blonde hair, no blue eyes and, especially, no off-putting smile.

Just peace.

That is, until they caught their next case, and the next week saw Lisbon barely getting any sleep, since it was turning out to be a harder one than initially thought. They currently had 3 cases going and she couldn't even imagine the amount of backlog and work they'd have to do if they didn't close one of them soon or if anything new happened in the next few days that added another case to the pile.

So, that week, all she did everyday was get home, get a quick shower and pass out on the bed with DD beside her.

Until the following Friday, when she got back home to a note taped to her door.

"Hey!

Come over once you get home, I got a surprise for you! =)

P.J."

Lisbon sighed and held the bridge of her nose, feeling the residual annoyance from the last time they had interacted make itself known. Thank God at least for the fact that work had been mostly just tiring. If today had been one of those days where she had to deal with uncooperative witnesses or perps or politicians, she wasn't sure she could handle coming home and having to deal with Patrick Jane on top of that.

She kinda felt like just going back home and sleeping, but she knew she never slept well without DD somewhere near so she could know he was safe. So, she had no choice, really.

For an old cat, DD was sure as hell getting her into more trouble than she had ever imagined.

Expecting for it to be a quick visit, where she would only get the cat and then leave, Lisbon didn't even drop off her bag at home, just went straight to her neighbor's door. Sighing, she steeled herself for the inevitable interaction and knocked.

A Patrick Jane that had clearly been doing some sort of manual labor opened the door, if the sweat on his T-shirt and the curls stuck to his forehead were anything to go by.

"Is the surprise my cat?" she said, focusing on the man's eyes, refusing to look anywhere else at him.

"Good evening to you, too, Teresa."

Lisbon could feel her cheeks heating at how impolite she had been. She tried looking around Jane and into the apartment, trying to find the cat for a quick exit, but all she could see was that the living room seemed to be a lot cleaner than the last time, with no boxes whatsoever laying around. But also no DD.

When she looked back at him, he was looking at her amusedly, and the heat in her cheeks only grew. Damn this man and the way he managed to make her feel so awkward and out of sorts around him.

"I made dinner a little earlier, can I offer you some as an apology for how things ended up last time? I'll put it in a tupperware, and you can take it home so you don't have to interact with me more than necessary." He said, when she finally found strength in herself to look up at his face again.

The words were already on the tip of her tongue to refuse, but now that he had mentioned it, the smell inside the apartment was amazing, and the last time she had eaten had been more than 10 hours ago. A little food couldn't hurt, right?

He looked almost pleadingly at Lisbon, and she could feel herself giving in, in spite of herself.

He could be quite charming when he wasn't looking at her with his condescending air of superiority from the elevator.

"And yes, DD is sleeping in the bedroom."

Lisbon just nodded as she stepped inside, and then his wording hit her.

"How do you know my cat's name is DD?"

Jane just smiled back at her, a bright open smile, as he led her to the kitchen in the other side of the room.

"I'm psychic. I read your mind."

Lisbon snorted.

"Do your psychic powers get any intel from Emily, over at 402?"

The man just chuckled, which was enough confirmation for both of them. Apparently besides having to deal with office gossip, she'd have to deal with condo gossiping as well now. Great.

He turned his back to her and started putting some of what Lisbon guessed was lasagna into a tupperware for her, and she took the moment to finally take a look at him.

Since they had met a month or so ago, Lisbon had made sure to spend as little time as possible paying any attention to the man in front of her, or at least trying to, because every interaction they seemed to have, seemed to be an opportunity for him to unnerve her, either with the way he looked at her, or with the way he acted, or just… by being himself. But, right now, it seemed almost like a waste to not at least look a little.

She had known from the first day he was quite attractive, she had just never really let herself give it too much thought. Looking now, though, the jeans and T-shirt he was wearing were actually doing wonders for his physique, at least from where she was standing. The guy was attractive from almost every angle, really, with his blonde curly hair, blue eyes and blinding smile. Not that it meant much, when more often than not he was being quite sleazy around her.

Lisbon shook her head to disperse the thoughts. No point in going there. If there was one thing she had learned over time is that no matter how attractive people are, it doesn't make up for being annoying. Especially not guys.

She decided a much better use of her time was to look around the apartment. Even if the layout was the same as hers, most of it seemed to have been recently remodeled, unlike hers, that had been much the same as the last tenants had left it.

When he turned around, handing her the tupperware, Lisbon couldn't help but ask him.

"Are you remodeling?"

"Little by little, yes. It's one of the reasons I got this apartment, to fix it up while I'm still not working."

Lisbon let out a small oh and nodded, storing all the new information she had learned about the near stranger for later.

"I'm gonna go get DD for you, okay?"

"No, don't worry, I can get him, he doesn't like when other people pick him up."

Jane didn't pay Lisbon any mind, chuckling as he went into the bedroom.

"Okay then! I won't pay for your doctor if he scratches your eye off!" She shouted after him.

A few moments later, Jane came back with a purring DD on his arms.

Lisbon had to hold back the shock at the image. She didn't know if it was because she found this man that so far had been nothing but mildly attractive and overwhelmingly annoying, so endearing in that moment, with the way his fingers were so, so gently scratching behind the cat's ears and the way his eyes crinkled as he looked down at the pet, or if it was because DD allowed no one, not even Emily, who had been looking after him for as long as Lisbon had had DD, to pick him up.

"He… He likes you."

Jane finally seemed to realize that Lisbon was waiting for the cat, and looked up at her then.

"I'd guess that since this is the third time he escaped into my apartment, that was fairly obvious."

Lisbon decided to ignore the barb and just extended the arm that wasn't holding both her bag and tupperware to get the cat.

"I hope that tells you something, Teresa."

His eyes felt a little more heavy on her, and Lisbon decided that was a great time to leave, thanking him for the food, and promising to send it back the next time DD pretended to be Houdini once again.

---

iv.

After that, a new normal had started.

Work was still the same, and life was still the same, except for the fact that DD, the little asshole, seemed to have acquired a taste for sleeping on leather couches and on beds that were not Lisbon's, apparently. So, his escaping was part of the after. A couple times a week, she'd have to deal with coming home and not finding her cat.

What she couldn't, for the life of her, figure out was how DD was getting out. Lisbon had already mostly given up on trying to keep DD inside the apartment, or on closing her windows, because she knew the cat would get out either way, so there was no reason for her to deprive herself of a freshly aired apartment by trying to keep all the windows closed.

She had invited Emily over one weekend, prying her with a couple of beers and free take out, and they tried once again scanning the entire place for the exit route. DD watched them from above the kitchen cabinets the entire time. Lisbon felt like if he could talk, he'd probably call them stupid or something.

No such luck though, still a mystery.

So, after a while, Lisbon also stopped looking for the escape route. Especially because her relationship with Jane had become… Almost friendly, she could say.

Every time DD escaped, Lisbon would get home to a note taped to her door, that ranged from a simple "cat over" to a "I've got your bundle of joy" to "I require ransom to give the feline back" . From what Lisbon gathered so far, he was home most of the day, only leaving some afternoons, so maybe that's why DD was there, for company.

Jane had also apparently learned that plying her with food was a great way to get her to lower her guard, and that's how their relationship had been progressing for the past month: Lisbon would arrive home on a random night, a note would be taped to her door, she'd grab it, stuff it in her bag, and knock on the door of apartment 401.

Most days, Jane would open it so fast Lisbon wondered if he had been waiting for her. Others, he'd be arriving at the same time as her. And there was also the rare night where he'd answer the door having just finished fixing one thing or another around the apartment, and Lisbon had to try very hard to pretend she was not staring. More often than not he'd catch her staring. Lisbon felt slightly mortified, but he never called her out on it.

After that, they'd both proceed to the kitchen, where Jane would bestow upon her one of the delicious meals he had prepared, while DD either slept in his bedroom, on the couch, or ran between the two of them, rubbing against their legs.

"Where did you learn how to cook like this?" She asked, around the fourth time they did this dance.

He looked back at her, surprised. So far, the previous times they had done this Lisbon didn't really talk, and neither did he, really.

That had been one thing Lisbon did not expect to happen between them, but somewhere around the second time he had invited her to get some food, their silence became a comfortable one. Jane seemed comfortable just working with his food, finishing it up or reheating it for her and putting it aside, and Lisbon could use those few moments to look at the place, try to find another piece of the puzzle that was the new neighbor, or to run over the case they were working on, checking a few emails on her phone, or just… look at Jane. He was a very good sight, after all.

So that had been their go to, up until now. Silence, food and DD.

"I took a few classes years ago. When I moved here I started taking them again. It's why I arrive home at the same time as you, sometimes."

Lisbon nodded. That explained a lot. She knew how to cook, had been doing so since she was 10, first helping her mom and then having to feed her brothers on her own, but she could not cook like that. All the food Jane had made so far was so delicious Lisbon almost wondered if he wasn't lying to her and just ordering from some local fancy restaurant. (She said that to him around the 6th time, and the laugh Jane had let out still rang clear as day in her mind.)

The mystery that was Patrick Jane started to become clearer over time, with every new piece of information Lisbon could glean from their conversation. She had learned, for example, that he liked to read pretty much everything, and would freely lend her his books, she had learned he had never had pets ("Besides DD" he had added, and it had derailed into a not so nice conversation, that left Lisbon leaving with an annoyed cat and no food), and, there had also been hints at some sort of dark past, that they were still too early into this friendship to pry into. Lisbon could tell by the way he would sometimes start talking about someone and never finish, start phrases that he'd drop when he realized where his mind was going, his eyes suddenly losing their shine and his face becoming somber. Whenever that happened, Lisbon would just smile at him, understandingly, and after a few moments, he'd pull himself together, and they'd go back to whatever they had been doing before.

Following her lead, Jane too had started asking about her life. After Lisbon had first asked him about his cooking skills, it seemed like the 5 minutes it took for Lisbon to pick the food and DD up were always filled with a game of 20 questions.

A couple weeks after their "heart to hearts" had started, Jane seemed to finally breach the subject of her job. Lisbon had been asking herself when it would come, because she knew it would eventually. It always did.

"So, what agency do you work for, Agent?"

Lisbon usually avoided talking about work, but more often than not she had come into Jane's apartment straight from work, so it's not like the man didn't know she was a cop. If he had any issues with it, she was sure he would've said so before now.

"California Bureau of Investigation, Serious Crimes Unit."

"Wow, leader of the Serious Crimes Unit. At such a young age, you must've stepped on quite a few toes."

Jane's back was turned to her, and Lisbon was glad for that, because she didn't really want him to see the blush that took over her face. He had hit a bit too close to home.

"Yeah, you could say that."

Another silence followed, like it always did between their conversations, before he continued.

"And what is it that you handle? Murders, kidnappings, heists?"

"Murders, mostly. We can handle other types of cases sometimes, but only in very specific situations."

Jane turned around with a smile and handled the tupperware with some sort of beef.

'You know, Agent Lisbon, if you ever need help, I used to be a psychic, helped in quite a few cases with the SFPD."

Lisbon snorted. One of the things she still hadn't managed to find out about him and she was always wondering about was what exactly the guy did for a living. He seemed to be quite well off: he owned his apartment, he was remodeling it, he did fancy culinary classes, and Lisbon more than once saw the collection of liquor that all together cost quite a bit more than her yearly salary on his cabinets.

She knew he was currently out of a job, he had told her as much, and that all he was currently doing was the renovation of his apartment. But from that, to believing he was a psychic and had a career as one? Yeah right.

What sort of job could he have that was so embarrassing that he wouldn't tell her about it, anyways?

Jane's smile seemed to be frozen for a second too long on his face, and Lisbon had the weird realization that, oh god, he was telling the truth.

"Y-you were a psychic? Like… 'I see dead people' psychic? How is someone an ex-psychic, anyways?"

Her tone was jokingly, a smile lighting up her face, but Jane didn't seem to follow in her lead. He was still smiling, but it didn't reach his eyes. Lisbon had come to realize that the man smiled a lot, but rarely ever did it seem to be truly, truly genuine. And now for sure was not one of those times.

"There's no such thing as psychics. Besides, if anything, it'd be the 'I hear dead people' kind."

Lisbon nodded, and got up from her seat, holding the tupperware protectively in front of herself. She thanked him for the food, picked up DD and went back home.

That night, Google provided her with another piece of the Patrick Jane puzzle, in the form of a news article, from around 5 years ago. "Celebrity psychic, Patrick Jane, in a severe car accident."

Jane had had quite a successful show, back in the day in Vegas, it seemed, which was why there were a few articles about the whole situation around the internet. There were even some about how he had been offered a few TV deals, but apparently none of them had come through. Lisbon imagined it had been because of what happened.

Apparently his wife, Angela Ruskin Jane, 28, and their daughter Charlotte Ann Jane, 7, had died in the car accident. Angela had been driving, they had been making their way back from Las Vegas to Malibu, where the family resided, when the car was run off the road by another car. All the passengers in the other car had also been killed instantly. Jane had been the only survivor, spending almost an entire month in a coma, and then disappearing from the public eye.

To reappear, 5 years later, here, in Sacramento, in their apartment building.

Lisbon went to sleep with DD curled against her head, on her pillow, and a weight on her chest that came from learning painful things about her new maybe friend.

---

After finding out about Jane's past, Lisbon started feeling something she hadn't felt in a while: she started getting nervous about them meeting again. She knew it was inevitable, that DD was going out every time in more frequent intervals, but it didn't mean she wasn't dreading it all the same.

What was she gonna do? The man had been either a conman or was an actual spiritual guide of some sort (which Lisbon doubted, because he did say psychics didn't exist, or whatever) that had tragically lost his entire family, and apparently had disappeared for 5 years. Not that any of it did change her opinion on him, because he never did reveal anything that could go against what she had found out and Lisbon knew one thing or two about losing loved ones tragically and how it affected you, even if it wasn't the same way Jane apparently did.

It sucked, but she couldn't help feeling a little sorry for the guy. She just didn't know how to act around him now, she didn't know if he was gonna act any different now that she knew about his past, nor if she should act any different. Plus, on top of all that, she had started enjoying both the food and his company, so she really didn't want to blow this up with her inability to properly maintain a personal friendship.

She'd do her best, and she hoped that it was enough.

It took an entire week for another note to be taped to her door (making ravioli from scratch, wanna try it out? DD has already approved), for which Lisbon was thankful, so that she could recompose herself, even if a little. She had also brought a buffer in the form of the abridged versions of two of their currently open cases, just in case things turned more awkward than she was expecting.

Apparently, all her preparation wasn't enough, however, because the moment Jane opened the door, he took one look at Lisbon's nervous smile and said:

"You googled me, didn't you?"

"Yeah, I did", she said, her shoulders slumping a little. There wasn't really any point in denying it. "I'm sorry for what happened to your family, Jane."

Lisbon put her hand on his arm, trying to offer some sort of comfort.

Jane seemed a bit uncomfortable with the attention, decidedly looking at a point beyond Lisbon's head in the corridor, but the moment she started removing her hand from his arm, he instead captured it with his own, holding hers firmly between his hands. He shook his head, apparently composing himself, and said a quiet thank you, without properly looking at her, before turning and going to the kitchen.

A moment later, everyday Jane seemed to be back already.

"Are those case files? Are you trying to test out my psychic powers?"

"I thought you said there's no such thing as psychics, Mr. Jane."

He chuckled, and started taking a tupperware he had lent Lisbon already a couple of times down from the cabinet. Before she could really register what she was doing, though, Lisbon started talking.

"I… I thought we could both eat here, since it seems you just finished cooking… That way we could go over the files while we eat… What do you think?"

That… hadn't really been the plan, but the more Lisbon thought about it, the more it made sense for them to do that. She didn't want to leave his place once again on an awkward note, and she did need help with the cases because both of these were going on 3 weeks open, and they had reached a dead end. She was about ready to try anything at this point.

The moment he turned, however, with a beaming smile, she realized she was about to be mercilessly teased.

"Teresa, are you asking me out on a date in my own apartment? My, we are skipping a few steps here, aren't we?"

Lisbon couldn't remember the last time her cheeks had gotten so awfully heated so fast.

"No! It's not a date, Jane! I just…" She let out a breath. "I really need help with these cases. I'm even willing to let you look at it. You do seem like a smart guy, and I asked a couple of people from SFPD and apparently you did give them really valuable information, so I guessed… why not, right?" She sighed. "Please don't make me regret it."

Jane's smile still hadn't left his face. Apparently he still wasn't ready to let it go. He brought all the plates close to Lisbon and then patted her hand that was on top of the island.

"It's ok, Teresa, you don't have to admit if you're embarrassed. I'd love to have this dinner with you, even if you keep using work as an excuse."

Her cheeks seemed to heat even more, and she rolled her eyes in annoyance.

The one thing that didn't change in the almost 3 months they had known each other was the fact that Patrick Jane could annoy her like no other. He seemed to know just which buttons to push, and he seemed to take immense pleasure in seeing her flustered and out of sorts. Everything that had annoyed her about him on their first few interactions was still there, it was just now counterbalanced by conversations that were more stimulating than any others she could remember having in the past few years and the fact that Jane seemed to be a guy that was quite sensitive and respectful - when he wasn't trying to push all her buttons, that is.

Lisbon shook her head and started setting the table with the plates and the silverware that Jane had handed her, sitting them right beside each other, just to make sure it didn't even remotely look like a date, while he brought the food over and served their plates.

The moment they sat down and started eating, a desperate DD came running from the bedroom, meowing to be fed too, preparing to jump onto the table. Lisbon was about to shoo the cat away when Jane opened up one of his raviolis and offered the meat inside to DD, who happily ate it up, only to then go back to his spot on the couch.

"That's why he likes it here. You're fattening him up."

"I guessed that if the way to your heart was through your stomach, then DD's probably was too, seeing as pets usually end up acting like their owners."

Jane smirked at her, in what he felt was quite a charming way, Lisbon was sure, but all she could feel was like a deer caught in the headlights. She had not been expecting Jane to be so overt with his flirting. They had done a little bit of harmless bantering and flirting before, of course, but this felt like it had intent behind it, and that Lisbon didn't really know how to deal with.

After a few seconds, Lisbon just went back to eating her food, way faster than she had been before, and Jane finally decided to take pity on her.

"So, what are these cases that you want me to look at? Run me through them."

The next hour and a half (the longest time Lisbon had ever spent inside Jane's apartment, some part at the back of her brain remarked) was spent going over every lead and every suspect they had ever pursued, again and again. Lisbon was quite sure they wouldn't really get anywhere, not after three full glasses of some fancy red wine that Jane said would go extremely well with the pasta (he was right). She felt quite mellow, she was sure she was slumping a bit against the back of her seat, her day finally seeming to catch up with her.

Jane, however, was completely enthralled. He was reading one of the suspect's files for the third time already, with no end in sight. Lisbon sighed and checked her watch.

It was already close to midnight. That's why she was feeling so tired. She should really be getting home, even if tomorrow was Saturday, she needed to get as much sleep as possible.

"Jane, I think I'm gonna go."

Finally, after what felt like forever, he looked up at her. Lisbon had thought so far that Jane had been completely unaffected by the alcohol, with all the attention he was putting into the casefile, but the lazy smile that stretched across his face made her realize that he was also a little bit tipsy, just as she was.

"Teresa, why won't you call me Patrick?"

"Oh."

That had not been what she was expecting. Lisbon had to search her brain for an answer.

"I just… I used to call you Mr. Jane, but then that felt too formal. So..." She awkwardly gestured between them, trying to explain the connection. When he kept on looking expectantly, she continued. "It's better than referring to you as 'the guy' as I was initially doing inside my head."

As soon as she finished, Lisbon winced. That had not been what she was meaning to say. She tended to ramble about stupid things when she got a little alcohol inside herself. Great time for that tendency to make itself known.

Jane just chuckled. Apparently his drunk brain was also a bit slow, because sober Jane would have started teasing her right away.

"You can just call me Patrick, you know." He said, putting a hand on her shoulder, and slowly twirling a strand of her hair that had been close to his fingers.

Lisbon looked down at the hand, trying hard to ignore the warmth the simple touch was bringing her. She was sure it was just all the wine, and she didn't want to make too much of it. Jane had been increasingly more open with her lately, and Lisbon did like it, but she was not sure if she liked where all of this was going, so ignoring it all seemed to be a great course of action.

She looked back at him, and Jane was looking pointedly at her, his eyelids a bit heavy from the alcohol but the mirth in his eyes was quite clear.

"Ok, then, Patrick."

Jan- Patrick, she corrected herself, kept on looking at her, and Lisbon felt almost locked into his eyes. She had always known that his eyes were too beautiful, that they held a danger of her losing herself in them, but it had never made itself known as strongly as in that moment.

When Jane seemed to slowly start to lean in, Lisbon leaned back. Jane nodded and moved back, removing his hand from her shoulder.

"I- I really think I should go. I- I need to sleep, I've been sleeping like shit this week, gotta get it in where I can, you know how it is, the job and all." Lisbon rambled, awkwardly, picking up the files and going over to the couch to pick DD up.

Lisbon went straight to the door, and she was about to open it when Jane called her.

"Teresa."

Almost fearful, Lisbon turned around.

"Look into the brother, in the Wheeler case. I think he was stealing funds from the store. And in the Banks case, check out the boss. Something about the way he is handling the company, doesn't really sit right."

She nodded.

"Thank you, Ja- Patrick. For everything. Dinner was amazing."

Patrick smiled at her, and she left the apartment without looking back.

---

v.

It turned out Patrick was right. A week later, both cases that Lisbon had brought for him to review were closed, and for the first time in what felt like forever, the backlog of open cases seemed to diminish. For two peaceful days, Lisbon could concentrate on only one case and nothing more. It felt like years since they last had been so free to just investigate one case. And the time did help, with them making more progress in two days than they had in the entire previous week.

But the peace didn't last long, as a triple homicide was assigned to her team the following Monday. It took exactly 10 days to close the case, which was quite fast compared to the average closure time of the SCU, but dealing with an entire family murdered had been weighing heavily on Lisbon. Seeing families and children hurt always seemed to chip away a bit at her soul.

So, the next few days, Lisbon had been insanely overwhelmed with work. She even saw Patrick a couple of times on the corridor, waved at him from afar and went straight into her apartment. She knew she was probably being impolite, that she should stay and chat a bit, but, honestly, she didn't really have the energy to do anything else. She thanked God every time she got home and DD was there, just so that she could have a few more minutes of sleep.

The following Friday, after the triple homicide case was closed, came another note taped to her door. It read "A cat told me you could use a relaxing night, so I got a few movies, beers, candy and some popcorn, what do you think? (promise it's not a date)".

Lisbon shook her head, a smile spreading on her face. A relaxing night was really what she needed right now, and if she was being quite honest, by this point, Patrick was one of the people she liked to spend the most time with. If their last dinner had been anything to go by, they could talk for hours without the conversation running out. Ok, in that particular case it had been about work, but most of their other conversations had not.

Sure, he teased her, he made fun of her, got on her nerves, but around him she also felt lighter than she usually did the rest of the day. He made her laugh, made her forget the terrible things she had to face daily, and he was also amazing with DD (Lisbon was starting to feel a little jealous of the fact that her cat seemed to prefer lounging in her neighbor's house than her own, and that he also seemed to prefer cuddling him than her, apparently, but she was not about to let anyone know about that. Especially not Jane.).

So what was really the problem? She was just going to a friend's house to watch a movie. No problem whatsoever in that.

She stopped at home, showering quickly and putting on some comfortable home clothes: yoga pants, a tank top, flip flops and her hair up in a ponytail. She, then, grabbed the 6 pack she had sitting in her fridge for God knows how long, and went to her neighbor's apartment.

Patrick opened the door with a smile, one of the ones that seemed to light up the entire room, and Lisbon felt mesmerized for a second, just staring at him. And then a loud, impatient meow was heard from inside the apartment.

"Apparently I wasn't the only one who missed you, Teresa." Patrick said, opening the door a little wider so she could come in.

"Aw, you missed me?" Lisbon snickered.

"Of course, DD is not such an amazing conversationalist. Besides, it does get kinda boring here when no one is getting annoyed at me."

Lisbon lightly swatted at his upper arm with a smile as she entered the apartment and went to the kitchen to put the beers away. DD came trailing behind her and she stopped to pet him for a bit, before starting to reorganize the fridge so the beers could fit in. Apparently she didn't even need to have brought them, because there were several bottles of some sort of artisanal local brewery.

"Have you finished all the renovations, by the way, Patrick? I don't think I asked that last time. And how are the dance classes going?" Lisbon picked one of the artisanal beers, quickly opened it, and turned around, taking a sip. It wasn't as bad as she was expecting. "What are these anyway?"

Patrick's eyes snapped up to her face the moment she turned, a flush spreading across his chest and cheeks. Had he just been…

"Uh… I'm part owner of the brewery. That's why there's so many. You really didn't need to bring anything."

Lisbon couldn't help the big smile that took over her face at finally being on the other end of one of these interactions. She knew Patrick was more than aware of how attractive she found him, he had used it to make her embarrassed more times than she could count. But she hadn't really had any indication he felt the same, not except for a couple of remarks on how beautiful she looked, but he could very well just be wanting to make her blush.

This, however, was proof, and Lisbon couldn't help but feel a little triumphant at it.

It's not like she really wanted anything to come out of this harmless bit of fun she and Patrick were having. In fact, she had decidedly been ignoring how the last time they had spent so much time together had ended. Lisbon knew Patrick was slowly and deliberately worming his way into her heart, but she wasn't really sure if she wanted a relationship right now. In fact, that was the reason why she had gotten DD in the first place.

DD's loud meow, asking for attention again, seemed to bring them both out of their thoughts, if Patrick's stunned face when Lisbon looked back at him was anything to go by. Lisbon picked DD from the floor and went to the living room.

"So, what did you pick for us to watch?" Lisbon said, settling into the leather couch, putting DD beside her, who slowly walked to his favorite spot on the middle of the couch and laid down.

The couch really was extraordinarily comfortable. She could see why DD loved it so much.

The coffee table was filled with several packages of candies and a huge bowl of popcorn. Damn, Patrick really wasn't kidding when he said she didn't need to bring anything, he had clearly prepared for the occasion.

A second later, Patrick sat down on the other side of the couch. DD, seeing him and Lisbon both sitting, stretched until he could touch both of them at the same time. Lisbon smiled and put her hand on the cat's belly, slowly stroking it.

"Ok, so, I actually have a game that we can play. If you want to, of course."

Oh, this sounded interesting. Lisbon smiled turning to Patrick. He was smiling at her expectantly, his arm stretched on the back of the couch. Lisbon nodded for him to continue.

"I picked up a heist movie, Ocean's 8. Have you watched it?"

"Yeah, a couple of times already."

"And do you like it, or you wanna look for something else? We could look through Netflix."

"No, no, I think I prefer a movie where I know what's gonna happen, so I can just relax."

"Perfect, then." With that, Patrick picked up a paper from the coffee table and scribbled something on it, then passed it off to Lisbon. "I never watched it, so here is my guess about what's gonna happen in the end."

Lisbon examined the paper cautiously.

"What do I get when you lose?"

Patrick smiled. "Confident, are you?"

"Well, I just think there's a big chance that you're full of shit, Patrick."

Shaking his head, he said "If you win, you can get whatever you want."

That gave Lisbon a pause. What was the game they were really playing here?

"Whatever I want? That's an awfully big bet. What do you get out of this, then, if you win?"

Patrick adjusted himself on the couch, sliding slightly closer to Lisbon, enough so his hand could easily reach the back of her neck. DD wasn't too happy about the development, groaning and readjusting himself between them.

"If I win," He started, as his fingers slowly, very slowly, started touching the back of her neck, as if the tempo of it would help the touch get past Lisbon's defenses. Apparently it worked, because, by the third run of his fingers up and down her neck, all she could do was close her eyes at the sensation. "If I win, you agree to go on a date with me."

So that was the game.

Lisbon's eyes shot open at his words. He was way closer than she had remembered before she had closed them, and she realized she had barely paid attention to anything besides his touch on her skin. It felt too good, the little massage against her tired muscles, the barely there hint of nails every time he'd run them down again, but this really didn't feel like a good idea.

"I-I don't know, Jane."

"Come on, Teresa… Live a little."

She finally looked into his eyes, and the moment she did it, she knew it had been a bad idea. It was like she was back in that moment during dinner, where she was drowning in his gaze, only it was a hundred times worse, with the added heat against the back of her neck, him being close enough that she could see, at the edge of her vision, his chest rising and falling a bit more erratically.

How had she let this get out of control so fast? She needed to do something and soon, because she knew where this was heading, she was not stupid, and if there was one thing she did not need right now it was to fall in bed with the person who was becoming one of her closest friends.

Lisbon just needed this tension to end, so she could think properly. There was a fog in her brain that was mostly made up of the smell of his cologne, what it felt like to be touched by him and his proximity, and Lisbon needed to disperse it, so she said the first thing that got past the haze.

"Yes, okay."

At that, Patrick stopped moving his fingers, and just rested his hand on her shoulder.

"You're sure, Teresa?"

Now that he had stopped touching her, it was a bit easier for Lisbon to concentrate. She looked down at her lap as she went over her options.

If she was being honest, a date wasn't the worst thing she could agree to. She knew it was probably a bad idea, that it could go terribly wrong, that she didn't really know if she wanted a relationship now at all, that she could end up hurting Patrick, but mostly, she thought that it could be fun, and one thing Lisbon had been severely lacking in her life was fun.

Patrick was actually a pretty nice, smart, funny guy, there were a lot of worse people out there for Lisbon to go on a date with. On top of that she was sure he could clean up very well. He made her laugh, and she was sure he would prepare something memorable for them to do. Just because she agreed to a date didn't mean she had to agree to anything else, after all.

Besides, the chances of him actually winning this whole thing were very, very small.

"Yes, I'm sure." She said, looking back up at him.

The smile he gave her as an answer made Lisbon's heart beat just a little off pace.

He extended his hand at her, and after a second she shook it, sealing the deal.

"Put the movie on, Patrick, my beer is warming up."

And just like that, all the tension of the previous moment dissipated, and both of them turned to pay attention to the movie. Neither of them made a move to go back to their side of the couch, both so close now that their legs were touching. Having his spot utterly compromised, DD had decided that it was best to lounge in the bedroom and had abandoned both of them to their devices.

Halfway through her fourth beer, a whole bowl of popcorn, two candy packages and the forty minute mark in the movie, they were well and truly cuddling in the middle of the couch. Her head was resting on his shoulder, his arm was around her. Neither of them was really paying any attention to their position, both being completely enthralled in the movie. Well, Patrick, really. Lisbon was finally enjoying some peace and quiet.

The past few days had truly taken a toll on her, and it was only now that she finally slowed down enough to truly feel its effects. Physically, she felt like her joints hurt a little more to move, her limbs felt a little heavier. Mentally, before this night, she had been a mess.

She always needed some winding down after a particularly hard case, and this seemed to be exactly what the doctor ordered. Since entering the apartment, the dark thoughts that usually occupied her mind during the work hours were nothing more than a distant memory, something she could easily push aside. Normally, they'd take root in some unwatched corner of her brain, and pester her, again and again, until she could do nothing except compartmentalize the shit out of it.

It was an interesting experience, to say the least, to find a new way to deal with them. One where she had more… alluring things to occupy her mind with other than the horrors of everyday life. Other things, like the way Patrick smelled, or the goosebumps it left on her skin when he touched her, or the little comments he would make here and there about the movie's veracity.

"I know they're not gonna get caught cause this is a movie, but let me tell you. Eight people being involved in a con and not one of them gets turned? Only in Hollywood. A good con runs only with a few people. The more people you bring in, the more chances of it going wrong." Patrick had said, around 15 minutes into the movie.

Lisbon chuckled, and looked quite seriously at him.

"So, you pulled a lot of heists off in your previous psychic life?"

"No, unfortunately. Heard they were quite exciting, however. Angela's brother, Danny, did quite a few though. We had to bail him out a couple of times."

Worry started creeping on the edge of Lisbon's mind at his words, and she started getting herself ready to comfort him. It was rare for Patrick to bring up his family, especially if Lisbon didn't somehow bring them up first, and every time, it had seemed to bring him great pain.

But, this time, he was just smiling at the screen, seemingly happy with the memory, more than pained.

Lisbon felt a warmth settle in her heart, at knowing that Patrick could remember his family and rejoice in the good times. Even more so that he was finally feeling comfortable enough to share it with her. She squeezed his hand gently, and got up from the couch to grab them a couple more beers.

Handing him a beer once she came back, Patrick simply opened his right arm and Lisbon settled against him as if this was an everyday occurrence and they had been doing it for forever. Neither of them seemed really willing to question it, so they just let it be.

The night was shaping up to being one of the best Lisbon had had in so long.

Her body against Patrick's felt like it just fit. She couldn't remember ever feeling so safe and so relaxed, she didn't know if it was the hypnotizing patterns he was drawing with his fingers on her arm, the slight beer buzz or something else entirely, but Lisbon was sure that if she closed her eyes this exact moment, she would have one of the best nights of sleep in... forever.

So that's what she did.

She barely woke up an hour later, when Patrick adjusted her on the couch, putting a pillow below her head and covering her with a blanket. She did wake up, however, in the middle of the night when DD tried throwing her off the couch so he could lay on his favorite spot. Lisbon just pushed him away, turned around and went back to sleep.

That couch was really very comfortable.

---

The next morning, Lisbon got woken up by a stretching DD pushing her head aside, and the smell of coffee and bacon. She was confused for a second before remembering the previous night and the fact that she had fallen asleep cuddling with Patrick Jane.

She could feel her cheeks heating at the mere thought.

"Good morning, Sleeping Beauty."

Oh, no. He is awake.

Lisbon slowly raised her head over the back of the couch, and looked back at the kitchen.

Patrick was sitting on the stool on the kitchen island, his back to her. And he was not wearing a shirt. Only the pants of what Lisbon had always called his old man pajamas, since the first time she saw them, and brown slippers, one leg crossed on top of the other. He seemed to be looking at something on his phone - probably reading the news, Lisbon remembered him mentioning once that that was one of the first things he did in the morning - and sipping what Lisbon guessed was tea.

"You coming? I made bacon."

Patrick still didn't turn, and Lisbon took another moment to admire the way the muscles on his back moved every time he adjusted himself or raised his arm.

And then he started turning around, ready to ask her what was taking so long.

Lisbon shot up from the couch, almost falling on her face when her feet got tangled up on the blanket he had apparently covered her with. She stopped and folded it carefully before making her way to the kitchen, only to find an amused Patrick Jane watching her when she arrived there.

"Did you sleep well?"

Lisbon took a deep breath and began.

"Yes, I did. I'm sorry for overstaying my welcome, Patrick. You really didn't have to go through all this trouble."

Patrick waved his hand at her.

"Nonsense, Teresa. It's good having someone around again. It feels better to cook for more than one person."

The weight of the words seemed to be a bit too big for an answer, so Lisbon just nodded.

She picked up the plate and cup that had been set aside for her on the table and went to get herself some food and coffee.

They ate in silence for a total of five minutes, and then Patrick started to expectantly dart his eyes up at her. Lisbon pretended she didn't see, but it worked for all of three seconds, and then it started grating on her nerves. It was still too early for Jane's special brand of attention.

"What?"

"So?"

"So what, Patrick?"

"Did I win?"

Lisbon looked at him like he had grown a second head. It truly was too early for this, she did not have enough brain power to try and decipher one of his games.

"I see someone is not a morning person."

No shit, Sherlock.

Lisbon just sipped her coffee, refusing to engage at all.

"The movie, Teresa. Did I get the ending right? Where is the paper?"

Oh. She had completely forgotten about that. After another sip of her coffee, she picked the paper from the inside of her yoga pants, where she had tucked it against her hip, just to make sure Patrick wouldn't cheat.

"There's a con inside a con. Both of them succeed. No one gets caught."

"Ok, no, that's cheating! That could be the ending of any movie!"

"How is that cheating?" Patrick huffed, indignantly. "I won fair and square, Teresa."

Lisbon crumpled the paper in her hand. She hated to admit, but he was right.

She looked back up at him and nodded.

Patrick's face lit up with a smile.

"Great! I'll pick you up at 8 next Saturday, does that sound good?"

Instead of answering, Lisbon groaned, sipping her coffee.

"I know. I'm dying with the anticipation too."

Lisbon just stabbed a piece of bacon on her plate.

---

vi.

Wednesday morning Lisbon found a note taped to her door that read simply "Wear something comfortable. We are not going anywhere fancy. I'm looking forward to seeing you". She smiled and stuffed it in her purse as she left for work.

She hadn't given much thought to the date before that, But with the note, it was all she could think about. Agent Lisbon would never admit, but for the next three days, she was not really sure what exactly she had put into any of her paperwork. She was just inordinately lucky that they didn't get any new cases.

When Friday did arrive, Lisbon could barely deal with the anticipation. She had taken the afternoon off to deal with the process of getting ready. First, she had made an appointment to get her legs waxed, her nails done, her eyebrows trimmed and her hair moisturized.

She left the beauty parlor feeling way more feminine than she had in months. Amazing how a couple of mindless beauty processes managed to take Lisbon away from her daily Agent Lisbon persona. It felt refreshing, after so long.

It had crossed her mind a couple of times that she was investing way more in this date than she should if her goal was to stay completely in the friends-only zone with Patrick. But the truth was she hadn't actually been on a date in more than six months, and Lisbon missed having something to get dressed for. She missed the nervousness, the process of doing her hair, make-up, wondering if she was gonna look beautiful. So she was treating herself, really.

That's what she was telling herself, at least, so that's what she was choosing to believe.

It took her forever to fall asleep on Friday, and when she woke up, at 8 AM on Saturday, it felt like she hadn't slept at all.

To deal with the nerves, then, Lisbon decided that a bubble bath was in order. DD, seemingly sensing her nerves, didn't leave her side the whole day, having gone as far as sleeping on her chest the previous night, something he rarely ever did anymore.

Despite the fact that it seemed to go extremely slowly, the rest of the day went pretty well, if Lisbon said so herself. She had a light lunch, spent a couple hours getting caught up on her work emails, and then started the process of getting ready for her date.

She chose to let her hair down in their natural waves. She had chosen a black halter sleeveless top, and some designer jeans she had gotten from Karen, Stan's wife, last Christmas and had worn only a couple of times so far, and small heels that would give her a bit of an advantage, but wouldn't hinder whatever it was that Patrick was preparing for them.

Lisbon wasn't really great at doing her makeup, so she got started on it fairly early, and she was glad she did when she ended up having to start over twice because she fucked up her eyeshadow.

By 7:45 PM, however, she was ready. She turned around to DD, who was lounging on the bed.

"What do you think? Think your friend might approve?"

The cat barely raised his head from his position at realizing he was being addressed. He just looked at Lisbon, and went back to sleep.

"Yeah, that's what I thought too."

She started preparing her bag with all the things she might need for the rest of the night, when she heard the knock on the door.

Lisbon checked the bedside clock. 7:50. Someone was eager.

She smiled and shook her head, grabbing her bag and going to the front door.

"Hey" She said, opening the door.

"Wow." Patrick said, taking a moment to look her up and down. "You look… You look beautiful."

Lisbon smiled. She could say the same about him. He was wearing something different from his usual home work attire. He wore grey slacks, brown leather shoes and a white button up shirt, with the top two buttons undone. He had the whole balance between formal and just slightly undone that it looked attractive instead of unkempt down to a T.

"You don't clean up so bad, yourself."

Patrick smiled brightly back at her, as he offered his arm for her to take. Lisbon took it and they went in the direction of the elevator.

On one of their first conversations, one that had been about Jane's extensive book collection, Lisbon asked him how he managed to have such a big memory, remembering every single one he had read, plus quotes and all sorts of information. What proceeded was a quick explanation of something Patrick had called a memory palace, where you can apparently store things in your memory. Lisbon didn't really know how it worked, but lately, every time he smiled at her, she wished she knew, just so she would have a place to put every single one of them and never forget.

The car ride was lulled by some pop tune from the 80s that was playing on the radio, Patrick drumming his fingers against the steering wheel in the rhythm of the song. Lisbon watched him in expectation, and every few seconds he'd look back at her and smile, not bothered at all with the attention, it seemed.

When they were already driving for close to 15 minutes, the anticipation finally got the best of her.

"So, where are we going?"

Patrick chuckled. "I was wondering how long it would take for you to break."

"I think I did well, considering how much I hate waiting." All Lisbon got as an answer was another chuckle, so she continued. "And anyways, don't change the subject. Where are we going? Fancy restaurant? Outdoor place? Boat ride?"

"I thought you didn't like boats."

"I don't. Was just making sure you remembered."

"I remember everything you told me, Teresa."

Lisbon's mouth dried at the sudden intensity and she just nodded as an answer.

Patrick kept surprising her at every turn, and Lisbon felt a little lost as to how to deal with it. Not that it was a bad thing, he was for sure one of the most interesting and engaging people she dealt with in… forever.

Also one of the most difficult, but it came with the territory, she guessed.

Before she could ask again about the location of their date, the car started slowing down.

"Is that… The State Planetarium?"

"Yes it is."

They both got out of the car and Patrick once again offered his arm to her, which Lisbon took willingly, and soon she was being led through a maze of back rooms, with security guards just nodding at Patrick as he passed them.

"Have you ever come here before?"

"Once, after they finished construction, with the whole team."

Patrick just nodded, and then opened the doors of the main room, as if ready to show her to a whole new world. She guessed that was an apt description for what he was doing, after all.

The projection was already going in the dome, and no one else was present in the room. It was beautiful. Like the night sky in a room just for them. Lisbon just stood there mesmerized for a few seconds after going in.

"Wow. I had forgotten how pretty that is."

Lisbon could feel Patrick's hand on her back, and she slowly stopped looking at the dome, following him to a place closer to the back, where a picnic basket was sitting in one of the seats. He picked it up and sat down, offering the seat beside him for her.

"I have sandwiches and wine. Juvenile, I know, but I thought it'd be best to keep it simple, so we didn't get everything dirty, especially not ourselves."

With that, Patrick pulled out two plastic cups, passing one off to Lisbon.

"It's perfect, Patrick." Lisbon answered with a smile.

Patrick answered in kind, pulling out a picnic towel to put on top of both of their laps, then taking out the two sandwiches that were wrapped in aluminum foil, and the wine.

"At least it's a Bordeaux, so not that juvenile." He chuckled.

"Aren't those, like… More than a hundred dollars a bottle?" At his nod Lisbon couldn't help but feel her jaw drop a little.

Oh, he really was going all out on this. Lisbon didn't know if she should feel flattered that he was pulling all stops on her like this or panic, because he was clearly as invested into this as she had been. Or maybe more. And that was even more terrifying.

Before the panic could even take root inside her mind, Lisbon decided to charge on.

"How did you manage to pull this, anyways? Connections from your psychic days?"

He stopped, serious, for a second, and then turned to her.

"I've been offered a job as a lecturer at the CSU, in the psychology department.

"Wow, that's big, Patrick."

He waved his hand, apparently a little embarrassed.

"I'm not sure it's for me yet, too much structure." Then, his face lost all the seriousness as a smile started slowly forming as his next words came out. "But, I did tell them they could sweeten the deal if they helped me pull this off. Was quite simple after that, really."

Lisbon smiled back at him. She couldn't remember the last time someone had gone to such lengths to show her a good time. She couldn't remember the last time someone had gone to such lengths for her for any reason at all. Patrick was truly shaping up to be a one of a kind person in her life.

The realization that came with it was one of the scariest ones Lisbon had so far that night. She didn't really dislike it, not at all. All she could feel inside herself as their eyes locked, both of them so completely content and happy in that moment, was warmth. Happiness.

She reached over and held his hand.

"Thank you for doing this. It's amazing."

Patrick nodded and brought her hand up to his mouth to softly kiss it while still looking at Lisbon's eyes.

"It's been a pleasure, Teresa."

Lisbon felt herself locked in the sensation of his mouth on her skin, feeling it down to her core. She had no idea what it was about Patrick Jane that made him have such an incredible power over her, but here she was, completely frozen in her seat, reminiscing on the five seconds he had touched her that seemed to last simultaneously too long and too short.

Oh, this was not good, not good at all.

She mentally shook herself, trying to focus in the moment again. Patrick was looking at her like he knew exactly what he had done, looking the picture of the cat that ate the canary. That was enough to bring her out of her stupor.

Lisbon lightly swatted at his arm, then pointed at the wine.

"Are you gonna open it or you just gonna talk big about your fancy wine and I won't even get a taste, huh?"

Patrick chuckled, shaking his head, then got a corkscrew from inside the basket. After serving both of them, he put the bottle on the floor, a little to the side of them. They settled better into the seats and looked at the dome, just enjoying each other's presence and the beautiful surroundings.

After a couple of minutes, Patrick found her hand close to him and interlaced their fingers. At first, Lisbon felt herself tense up, expecting another Patrick Jane Stunt to see her blush, but when he just ran his thumb over the back of her hand, she slowly felt herself relax.

"Do you like the wine?"

"It's…" After searching her brain for a few seconds for something to make her sound more sophisticated, Lisbon realized that Patrick probably already knew about her not so refined palate, by the amount of times he commented over time about how she must not eat that well if she thought that everything he did was so good. "It's wine."

They both laughed at that, and then the silence settled once again.

"So, what sort of first date talk should we be having?" Lisbon asked after a couple more minutes, turning to him.

"I don't know, I haven't done one of these in… almost thirteen years, really."

Lisbon paused. Of course, he probably hadn't dated after what happened with his family. Lisbon didn't know if she should feel even more nervous with the fact that she had been the first woman he had taken out in God knows how long or just enjoy it while it was happening.

She was trying her hardest to not overthink the whole thing, but it was difficult when Patrick seemed to evoke such different feelings in her. She wanted to be around him, but he also annoyed her like no tomorrow, he seemed keen on embarrassing her and making her blush and Lisbon hated feeling out of sorts. She wanted to jump him sometimes, but she also wasn't sure she really wanted a relationship. Even with all the confusion that came with being around Patrick Jane, one thing Lisbon knew was that this, whatever it was, could never be just a one night stand. Jane wasn't the type of person you could walk away from, not without being emotionally devastated. And Lisbon didn't really want to walk away from him.

Before she could work herself into a hole mentally, Patrick squeezed her hand.

"What about a game of 20 questions, huh?"

Patrick looked at her softly, apparently having realized the inner turmoil she seemed to be in. She smiled at him, gratefully, and then sipped her wine.

"Okay, shoot."

"Favorite childhood memory?"

"Hm… Dad taking me and my brothers for a baseball game. I was 10, Tommy was 8, Stan was 7 and Jimmy was 5. Dad really loved it. He and mom would both make sure that they could both have a day off together, and we would make a big celebration out of every game, we'd make popcorn, and sit everyone in front of the TV. The three of us didn't understand a lot of the mechanics of the game at first, but we slowly got it, and it became fun for us too. I mean, me, Tommy and Stan only, Jimmy was still too little to actually grasp anything at all besides the fact that everyone liked whatever was going on so he liked it too. So, for dad's birthday, mom got the four of us tickets for a game of the Chicago Cubs. It was… the most amazing thing that ten year old me had ever experienced."

After a few seconds, Lisbon finally came back to the present instead of being lost in the memory, a small, nostalgic smile on her face. When she finally looked at Patrick, he was studying her like she was some sort of complex puzzle, his thumb still tantalizingly stroking her skin. Lisbon felt herself blush.

"What?"

"Nothing. It just looked like it was a really good memory."

"What about you? What is your favorite childhood memory?"

"You can't just turn my question back on me!" Patrick huffed, faking outrage.

"Not my fault you didn't make up any rules for this little game, Patrick. Answer the question."

He just shook his head at her, and then stopped to think, sipping his wine.

It took relatively longer than it took for Lisbon to arrive at her answer. She stored that information somewhere in the back of her mind because she was sure that it was supposed to mean something, but what exactly, she didn't dare wonder.

When she was almost coming up with an alternative question, Patrick answered.

"I don't think there is one specific moment, but, we'd have big picnics, everyone at the carnival, for big holidays, like 4th of july, and things like that. I remember they were the only times in the year where we could spend a little more money than normal, so we'd eat better, and all the kids - there was me and three other kids, I think - would run around, playing, and I remember the music, and the laughter… It just feels… You know, like those light moments amongst the dark."

Even after finishing, Patrick still seemed lost in thought, with a slightly pained expression on his face, that he seemed to be trying very hard to hide. Lisbon chose not to bring attention to that, instead, squeezing his hand, and trying to defuse the tension.

"So, you were raised in a carnival, huh? That sure explains a lot."

It had the intended effect, as Patrick chuckled, and went back to his usual lighter air. Lisbon couldn't help the small exhale of relief she let out. She could very well deal with annoying Jane, cheeky Jane, seductive Jane and whatever other version of himself that he wanted to throw at her, but Lisbon's heart squeezed painfully every time she came face to face with the person underneath, the clearly damaged man, who had been through more in life than anyone should go through, and still managed to come out the other side someone good, someone who knew how to smile, how to be happy.

When he showed this more vulnerable side of himself, Lisbon realized that what she felt for him was something that she was not sure she had ever felt before.

Lisbon was a pro at taking care of others, of taking responsibility for others' emotional and physical well being. That was her job after all, and, before that, it had been her duty as a sister raising her brothers. It was easy to take on the role of the person who gives everything and receives very little because… Well. She was not really sure she wanted to psychoanalyze herself at that moment.

What mattered was that, with Patrick, that's not what she wanted to do. She didn't feel like taking his pain away, making his troubles hers and leaving him burdenless while she carried enough for both of them, as she had done so many times before. She didn't want to fix him.

No. Lisbon wanted to… She wanted to be there for him while he managed to heal from his own pain, she wanted to see him smile when he remembered his family or some good memory in his past, she wanted to be there by his side while he managed to piece himself together, helping him make himself whole and complete.

And maybe, just maybe, have him do the same for her.

She, for once in her life, wanted to open up and let herself be seen. She wanted to share in on someone else's life, instead of feeling like she was responsible for it.

Before the realization could really hit her, Patrick asked his next question. Lisbon smiled at him, completely ignoring her previous train of thought, deciding that those things were definitely better left for a later date.

---

The next couple of hours were spent laughing, opening up, and playing stupid games while bathed by the stars. Even with how good the wine was, neither of them drank more than a cup, not wanting the night to be clouded by drunkenness.

Patrick hadn't let her hand go for one moment, except for when they ate their sandwiches. Lisbon, honestly had no problem whatsoever with it, in fact, she had been the one initiating the handholding in more than one moment. Patrick was bringing his A game when it came to being charming, and Lisbon was basking in it.

It had honestly been one of the best dates she had been on in… so, so long. Everything just felt organic, like it happened when it was meant to happen, one thing being the natural progression of the other. It made most of Lisbon's initial apprehensions with the date leave her, really. This was her friend. She had been around him enough times in the past few months to know that nothing would happen unless she was completely ready for it. So she chose to enjoy it all.

Later, after cleaning everything up, putting it back into the basket, on their way back to the car, Patrick said, casually, without turning to her.

"So… There is a jazz club close by that has a live band. Would you like to go there? We can also go home, no problem."

Lisbon interlaced her arm with his and stepped closer.

"I'd love to go there."

Patrick turned his head to her and smiled, leading her to the car with a new spring in his step. Apparently neither of them was quite ready for the night to end.

The moment they entered the car, however, something in the air seemed to shift, the tension suddenly too big for music or for either of them to talk. Lisbon nervously drummed her fingers on her leg.

Lisbon didn't know what exactly had made the tension suddenly rise so much, if it was the enclosed space, the realization that both of them seemed to be enjoying this far too much, or if her brain was just getting the best of her. Or maybe it was the prospect of possible dancing.

Oh god, there would be dancing.

"Relax, Teresa. We don't have to dance."

How did he...

"Did I say that out loud?"

By his chuckle, Lisbon could tell she didn't.

"I could see the smoke coming out of your head, you were thinking too much."

"Shut up, Jane."

Well, at least he had successfully stopped her from going back on her decision to just enjoy the evening without overthinking it.

A couple minutes later, they were pulling up in front of an old building with no indications anywhere of any clubs nearby.

"Where are we?" Lisbon said, frowning, as she got out of the car.

Instead of answering, Patrick grabbed her hand and took her through the front door of the building. The door was only manned by a security guard, whom Patrick slipped a couple of bills to while they passed. He then led her down to the very back, where there was a small staircase, leading into the second floor.

The moment they got close to the stairs, Lisbon could already hear the low sound of live music coming from wherever they were going. Patrick opened the door at the end of the stairs, and suddenly they found themselves in a bar of some sort. No more than 20 people seemed to be there, scattered between the booths and the bar, drinking and talking, while a band played at the other end of the space, a small dance floor, currently empty, in front of the stage.

Patrick went straight to the bar to order them something to drink while Lisbon found them an available booth. She settled on one quite close to the stage, a little to the side, slightly more hidden than the others. It was the perfect place, she could watch the band there and wouldn't have to be bothered with the chatter from the other tables.

The moment she sat down, Patrick appeared with a club soda for himself and a tumbler with a couple fingers of scotch for her.

They stood there, silently appreciating a couple of the songs, Lisbon nursing her drink.

When she was starting to consider the pros and cons of leaning her head against his shoulder, Patrick got up and extended her a hand.

"I know I said we didn't have to, but do you want to dance?"

At first, Lisbon was ready to refuse, the tension of the car still too fresh in her mind, but one look at Patrick's expecting face and she gave in.

By now there were two other couples on the dancefloor, but both seemed to be existing only in their own worlds, not preoccupied at all with what was going on around them. Lisbon smiled, thinking how good it must be to love so freely, to be so confident in your place in someone else's life. How good it must be to not be weighed down by life, or at least not so weighed that you don't mind sharing your burdens with someone else.

"Hey, where did you go?" Patrick said, as they settled a bit to the side of the dancefloor and he put one hand on the small of her back and held her hand with the other. Slowly, they started swaying with the rhythm of the song.

"Nowhere. Just got away from myself for a while. I'm here now, don't worry."

Lisbon smiled up at him, and he pulled her a little closer. With the move, her head automatically went to his shoulder, as they kept swaying.

In this position, there was no way Lisbon's mind could be anywhere but right here in this moment. Patrick's body warm against her, his breath against her ear, making goosebumps go down her back, the smell of his cologne and the heady air of the place, the music… everything seemed to be just tailored for Lisbon to lose herself in this one perfect second. She closed her eyes, and reveled in how safe she felt, in how far they both had come, in how this man had become the one person who knew exactly what to do to make her feel completely at ease, but also knew exactly how to unsettle her.

Slowly, his hand started moving up and down Lisbon back, while he left a small kiss on the top of her head.

This was the closest to heaven Lisbon had ever felt, she was sure of it.

They danced for what felt like hours, but Lisbon was sure it must've been no more than 15 minutes. Time with Patrick seemed to go both extremely slowly and incredibly fast.

When they both got tired, they went back to the booth to enjoy more of the music. As they sat, side by side, Jane casually settled his hand on Lisbon's knee, still looking at the stage, seemingly enraptured by the performance. Having already finished her drink, and being just buzzed enough that her inhibitions were slightly lowered, Lisbon only smiled and put her hand on top of his.

This felt good. This felt amazing. This was all she had been needing in the past… God knows how long.

She stopped for a moment to watch Patrick instead of the band. The lines around his eyes seemed less pronounced that night, or maybe it was the dark atmosphere, she wasn't sure. He still looked as handsome as ever, though. His hair looked so soft, the curls so inviting, that before she could second guess herself, she raised her hand and ran her from his nape into his hair, slowly running her nails through his scalp.

They really were as soft as she was imagining. In her slightly buzzed state Lisbon asked herself what sort of conditioner he must use, smiling at the silly turn her thoughts took.

After repeating the moment a few times, she realized his hand on her leg seemed just a bit heavier, and that he seemed frozen in place. He looked almost uncomfortable, and that was the last thing Lisbon wanted, so slowly, she went to remove her hand. She stopped, however, when Patrick shook his head, and looked sideways at her.

His eyes were full of meaning, as he squeezed her knee and moved his hand only a couple inches up. Lisbon felt her insides suddenly catch fire at the promise of the movement, especially when he repeated it again, going a couple inches higher this time. She didn't know if the lust she saw in his eyes at that moment was truly there or was just a reflection of what was probably in her own.

"Do you… Do you wanna get out of here?" Lisbon said, her voice kinda hoarse, like she hadn't used it in too long.

Jane just nodded and slowly got up from the booth, offering her a hand, that she took without a second thought.

The ride back to their building, much like the one to the club, was spent in utter silence, but the tension seemed to be slightly different than before. Instead of being filled with expectation and happiness, this once it seemed to be filled with lust and a note of something darker that Lisbon couldn't quite figure out what it was.

She couldn't help but notice that Patrick's hands seemed to be gripping the steering wheel just a bit too tightly, his mouth pressed into a thin line. She wondered what was going on through his mind, if he was second guessing whatever was about to happen the moment they entered one of their apartments, if he decided that he didn't want this after all… then what?

Now, without the haze of the music and Jane's proximity, Lisbon felt herself sober up a little. What did she really want, as well? She was the first woman he had gone out with since his wife, by his own admission. This was about to be a big thing for him, as well. Did she really want that? To have sex with Patrick Jane and… then what? That was it? They'd go their separate ways, with a weird case of shared custody of a cat? They'd start a relationship? They'd continue on being friends with only the memory to keep them warm at night?

She had already gotten to the conclusion that she did not want to walk away from him, but then what the hell was she doing?

God, what had she gotten herself into?

When they arrived home, instead of catching the elevator, they both silently decided to go up the stairs, that way they wouldn't have to just stand beside each other inside the elevator with nothing to do. Once they got up to the fourth floor, they both stopped in front of her door, each avoiding the other's gaze.

"Patrick…"

Before Lisbon could complete her thought, however, Patrick started.

"Look, Teresa, I… I don't know if this is the best time for saying this, really. We are probably the two most unlikely people to have found each other, you a cop, me, an ex-conman, and we both come with more baggage than we are probably even aware of." He smiled, tucking a strand of her hair behind her ear. "Tonight was the most fun I've had in years."

At that, Patrick took a deep breath and lowered both of his hands to her arms.

"But… I'm not a good man, you should know that. You probably already know that, but I feel like it needs reminding, on what this whole thing means. So… I'm gonna give you the choice, tonight. To walk away. To decide. To see if this is what you really want. To see if I'm what you really want."

Jane kissed her forehead, and with that, turned around and left for his apartment, without looking back at her.

Lisbon just stood there, lost, her mind going a hundred miles per minute, running through every single word he said, trying to grasp what had just happened.

Slowly, after what felt like hours, after going back and forth on the decision to go after him several times, she entered her own apartment, DD running and meowing at her right away.

Mechanically, she went through the motions of her nightly routine. She fed the cat, pet him, took off her clothes, her makeup, brushed her teeth and her hair, showered, got into bed. The whole time, she kept running over and over and over everything that happened during the night, analyzing every single situation, every thought she had, and every look Patrick had given her.

The moment she closed her eyes and finally slept, there was only one thing she was sure of.

She was in love with Patrick Jane. And she was quite sure he was in love with her, too.

---

vii.

The next few weeks went by so slowly Lisbon was considering murdering someone herself, just so that work would be a bit more exciting. Not that nothing had happened, it did, it just felt like it couldn't hold her attention as much as it usually did.

The first week after the date, they caught a case far away enough that they'd all have to stay in town. Lisbon made sure to call Emily, and explain that if she ever couldn't find DD he was probably at Jane's apartment.

It felt like a good reprieve, a few days away would maybe help her sort out her emotions, deal with her own shit and arrive on a course of action to the shit show she had made of her own life. (It didn't. Lisbon left feeling exactly the same way as when she arrived: confused.)

Overall, what she did was throw herself head first into the job, making sure to arrive as early as possible and leave as late as possible, just so she didn't have to interact with anyone outside the office. In Agent Teresa Lisbon's book on how to deal with developing feelings, not dealing with them was strategy #1.

It worked, but it still didn't stop her from tossing and turning every night, sleeping terribly, even with DD by her side. It didn't stop her from running around in circles in her mind, trying to decide what course of action wouldn't absolutely devastate her nor Patrick on the way.

She knew it was not healthy and unfair to both her and Jane to just keep postponing it, but the truth was that she had spent so long so sure of the fact that she didn't want a relationship, that things were perfect just the way they are, that she started to panic every time she thought of the possibility so clear in front of her now.

The world seemed unaware of her internal turmoil, however. The week after her case out of town, DD escaped more than once to Jane's apartment, and besides a very small "DD safe" nothing else made its way onto her door. No more invitations, no nothing. Lisbon would knock on Jane's door and he'd hand her the cat as soon as he opened the door, with a small "Good night, Teresa", and that would be it.

It had already been more than 15 days since their date. They had spent way more time without speaking before, but now it felt like a drought. An involuntary one. Even every time they did speak, it felt like all their interactions were stilted, cut short. Like both of them wanted to say more, but an invisible force kept them both apart.

On one hand, Lisbon appreciated the space, the time to think, to solve her own shit. On the other, It deeply hurt her, and she knew it must hurt him too. It felt like she went from having a close friend to nothing, suddenly. Like everything changed too fast and she wasn't really ready for it, but she knew that was not true. It, whatever it was between her and Patrick, had been growing, slowly, inch by inch. She saw it happening and she let it fester. In fact, she encouraged it more than once.

Because it felt good, it felt good to learn about someone new, to open up herself to someone and have it be reciprocated, it felt good to know there was someone in the world looking forward to seeing her. It felt good to slowly unravel the puzzle that was Patrick Jane, every new piece making her realize how beautiful the bigger picture was. He was intelligent, charming, funny, a master manipulator, extremely annoying, and Lisbon found herself loving every second of it. Being around him just felt.. Good.

Then what exactly was the problem?

The problem was the very likely possibility that all of it would go to shit. Lisbon hadn't wanted a relationship exactly because of the baggage it would bring, and if there was one thing she and Jane had a lot of, it was baggage. It wasn't exactly the baggage that was the problem, but what it meant. Lisbon knew she wasn't good at opening up, that she got angry too quickly, that she didn't always deal with things in the best way, and she sometimes couldn't stand herself. She couldn't subject someone else to dealing with her worst moments, with all the consequences of the trauma she carried. She was sure that's what Jane meant too, with his small speech in front of her door. So she got his hesitancy with the whole thing.

But he seemed to be willing to get past it, so why wasn't she?

Because she was scared.

Plain and simple.

More than once had she already gotten to the conclusion that she couldn't remember ever feeling about anyone else the way she felt about Patrick. And that thought completely terrified her. What could happen if… down the line they decided that it wouldn't work, that he couldn't deal with her job, that she couldn't deal with his penchant to create chaos… then what?

But worst yet… What if it worked? Then what?

Patrick had lost a family before, what if he didn't want one? Did Lisbon even want a family? Did she want to settle down, have little Lisbons that looked like herself or her brothers, or little Janes that looked like the little girl in the picture Patrick kept in his wallet? It had always been one of those things that exist in a distant future in your life, the one where you somehow find the one and build a future.

Was Jane the one?

How could she even know, how could she hinge her whole life in this one single decision?

Listen to yourself, Lisbon. You two haven't even kissed yet and you're already thinking of having his children.

Apparently Lisbon had a propensity for getting ridiculous when her brain was almost fried from thinking too much.

The crux of the whole problem was that she was left at an impasse. A crossroads between love and fear.

Lisbon felt like she was dancing with herself, and she constantly kept going two steps forward and two steps back. More than once she had stayed at her door, hand ready to open it and go after him, only to stop herself at the last moment because it was unfair to him to look for him without being completely sure.

Another week went by of Lisbon mostly ignoring the issue, and then going around in circles. This wasn't working, at all, so, on day 20 post date, Lisbon decided that she was gonna take matters into her own hands and decide it all if it was the last thing she did. A new method was needed, so, she spent a couple hours reading articles about relationship advice, most of them completely useless, and then moved on to articles on techniques to help you make decisions.

Most of them talked about abstract stuff like risk assessment, experimentation and framing. She had no idea what any of it meant, but she decided that most of them were worth a try. She was all out of options, anyways.

So, that Friday she left work early, bought two six packs, whatever she needed to make herself a quick dinner, and went back home. She was prepared to spend the whole night thinking, forcing herself to face the music once for all. With the aid of a little alcohol, of course. She needed to grease the wheels, after all.

Lisbon ended up turning the entire night into a ritual: the get your fucking shit together ritual. She made herself dinner in the company of her BFFs, aka the Spice Girls, and maybe she danced a little too while at it, but no one needed to know. DD stood on top of the fridge judging her the entire time, but Lisbon pretended she didn't see him.

The cooking inevitably left her thinking about Jane. She missed his amazing cooking, too, that would be another plus if they did get together. Say goodbye to not managing to eat properly due to lack of time or going entire weeks without having one home cooked meal. She smiled at the thought. Yeah, that would definitely be a good thing.

After eating and cleaning up the whole kitchen, Lisbon sat on the couch with her third beer, a notepad and a pen. DD trailed after her, quietly, and then settled himself beside the TV. She turned the TV on to some random sitcom, the added laugh track filling the space quite nicely.

Ok, apparently she needed to do some risk assessment, that had been the first step. A list then, seemed like the perfect way to get started. She picked up the pen and started a small list in the notepad.

Pros

1. Hot
2. Nice
3. Smart
4. Cares

Cons

1. We are very different
2. Baggage
3. Am I really ready to open up my life?

It took her a lot longer than she expected to write down just that small number of things, and by the time she finished the list, she was already halfway through her fourth beer. Lisbon kept staring at it, hoping that it would somehow make things clearer, but it didn't. All it did was make her feel extremely silly, trying to solve her entire life with a fucking list.

This whole thing was not helping as much as she imagined it would. It just made her second guess the entire thing even more. God, what the fuck was she doing with her life? She was 33 years old, for fuck's sake, she was not a teenager anymore. She should solve her shit like the fucking adult that she was, and instead, she was locked in her own brain, unable to move forward.

She seemed to have the perfect guy in front of her, just waiting for her say yes, and yet she was here, spending her night agonizing over something so fucking stupid. So what if, maybe, in the future, things didn't work out? What if everything went to shit? What if they hated each other? Was it really worth it, keeping her heart intact? When the consequence of protecting herself was not living at all? Letting go of the chance of something that could be incredible?

And who knew if things would turn out for the worst, anyways? Maybe things would work out for the better. Maybe things would just be good, maybe they'd just fall into each other's arms and life would be perfectly sweet from that point on. Maybe, just maybe, when things got tough, instead of a falling out, they'd help each other grow as people. Maybe Patrick Jane had been exactly what she had been looking for without knowing.

If she stopped and truly looked at it, without factoring her own feelings into the equation, she had an opportunity that most people spent their whole life waiting for. The chance of finding love, of falling deeply, madly in love, what the fuck was stopping her? What could possibly be worth sacrificing a chance at happiness? The certainty of loneliness? Was not being hurt better than living?

No, it wasn't, she decided. Things would always end, one way or another. She might as well make the best of it.

The moment Lisbon went to grab her sixth beer, it finally hit her.

She did it. She had gotten to an answer. She knew what she wanted.

A big smile spread across her face as Lisbon sat down on the couch once again and turned up the TV volume.

Tomorrow she would talk to Patrick, and, finally, something good would come of this mess.

---

The next morning, Lisbon woke up feeling like a hammer was pounding against her skull. The light coming from the window above the couch was killing her, and her body felt like it had been run over by a truck. Twice.

She apparently hadn't even made the trek to the bedroom, having fallen asleep on the living room couch amidst the 8 bottles of beer she had managed to drink the previous night, with the TV still on, playing some sort of infomercial now. She groaned, stretching. Her couch wasn't even remotely as comfortable as Patrick's couch.

Slowly, Lisbon got up and made her way to the bathroom. She hoped that a shower was all it took to wake herself up. That, and the extra large cup of coffee she was gonna make afterwards. She hoped she would be awake enough soon to talk to Patrick.

Lisbon felt herself smile at the thought. Maybe she would be the one to ask him out now, she would go over to his place and kiss him, and then say she was gonna plan their next date. She could maybe take him to a museum she knew he'd like, or they could maybe spend a couple of days on a beach, somewhere, just the two of them…

After spending way more time in the shower than was environmentally friendly, imagining all the fun ways her future second date with Patrick could go, Lisbon started cleaning the living room while sipping her coffee from her to-go mug, taking out all the bottles to the trash, throwing out the entire notepad, just so she never had to remember the shameful moment from the previous night.

When she went back to the kitchen, she saw one of DD's wet food packages standing there and decided to treat him as well. It was a special day, after all, everyone should be happy, especially the little demon that was the reason this whole thing started.

She shook the package a little and waited, but when DD didn't appear a whole minute later, Lisbon frowned.

"DD, where are you, you little shit?"

Lisbon went around the place shaking the package and calling for him. Not this again. God, it had been a nightmare last time, Lisbon really didn't want to go through this again.

And when she stopped to think about the circumstances, her worry went almost through the roof. DD had not once left the apartment when she was home, only ever leaving to spend some time at Patrick's when he was left on his own. So this was not something he usually did.

She went through every room in the house twice more, and still nothing. Before panic could get the best of her, however, she decided to check, just to make sure that DD hadn't made his way to Patrick's apartment.

Lisbon knocked on his door once, and then twice, and nothing. She knocked a third time, before remembering that Saturday afternoon Jane had some sort of dance class, he had always refused giving her a lot of details on it.

And of fucking course she didn't have Patrick's number, cause why the hell would he do anything like a normal person. He preferred putting notes on her door like it was the fucking 1800s instead of just texting her like a normal human being, and now she was left with no way to contact him, and DD could potentially be locked inside his place with no way out.

Wait. Even more unlikely than DD leaving the apartment when she was still home was DD going to Jane's apartment when he wasn't home.

Oh God, what if something serious had happened this time around? What if he had run away?

Lisbon took a deep breath and tried to recompose herself. She needed to try other things before Patrick came back. She couldn't just stand around, especially when there was a chance DD wasn't in his apartment at all in the first place.

So, Lisbon went to Emily's, asking her if she saw DD, but no such luck. Emily offered her help to find him once again when Lisbon explained the situation, but Lisbon still felt slightly embarrassed about the last time the girl had helped her, so she refused.

The next thing she did was go neighbor by neighbor, again. She started getting more and more desperate with every apartment she knocked on, only to be told that they knew nothing about DD. She knew things were not looking good when she almost exploded at Mrs. Williams, the old lady who lived in 102, who looked at her with pity and said,

"You know, dear, if you are not managing to take good care of your pet, maybe you shouldn't have one."

Thank you, Ms. Williams. That's exactly what I fucking wanted to hear right now.

Lisbon shot the woman a smile dripping with sarcasm, said a curt "thank you" and moved on to the next apartment.

She didn't know how many minutes later she had finally gone back to her floor, but she had found absolutely nothing. She left the front door open, just in case, so DD could come back in and started looking through the apartment again.

"DD? Come here, baby. You're worrying me."

"Teresa?"

Lisbon turned to the door to find Jane looking confused at her.

"Is everything ok?"

Lisbon turned to him, desperate.

"Have you been to your apartment yet?"

At that, his confusion seemed to worsen.

"No, I saw your door open an-"

"Can you check if DD is there, please?"

Patrick frowned.

"I don't think he's ever gone to my apartment when you're home."

"Please, can you just… just look?"

Lisbon ignored the way her voice seemed to break on the last word, but she saw Patrick's face soften. He nodded, said he would be back soon, and left.

Meanwhile, Lisbon kept looking through her own apartment, but nothing new seemed to appear. She had checked every single cabinet in the kitchen, every single drawer in her bedroom, every possible place a cat could hide, and still nothing. She checked her closet, the bathroom, the inside of the washing machine, and nothing. Still, she had hope. She prayed he would just be sleeping on Patrick's couch, having just gotten tired of staying home or something.

Lisbon was deciding the pros and cons of turning over the couch or just looking under it, when Patrick returned.

"He's not there."

She paused, and then ran her hands through her hair, nervously.

"Fuck. Fuck, fuck, fuck."

Patrick stepped close to her, and put his hands on her arms.

"Hey, look, we will find him, okay? It's gonna be okay."

Lisbon took a deep breath, stepping away from his arms.

"Look, I know you're trying to help, Patrick, but I've been having a shitty ass few weeks since our date, I have barely slept, and yesterday I had the great idea of getting drunk so I could finally figure out what the fuck I should do about us, and guess what! It worked! But then I woke up with the hangover of the century and my cat disappeared and now I can't stop worrying, instead of being at your place catching up on all the sex we could've been having the past three weeks if I wasn't such a huge idiot! And now all I can think about - especially after Mrs. Williams comment - is how terrible I am as an owner, since this is the second time this happened in less than six months! What if my cat hates me? What if this is his way of saying he wants a better place? What if I did someth-"

Before she could continue, Patrick hugged her. The moment her body crashed against his chest the fight seemed to leave her, and she just felt extremely tired. She felt mentally and emotionally tired, her head was once again pounding, and without even realizing, tears started leaving her eyes. She tried to stop herself, to pull away from Jane's arms, but he tightened them, and the more she tried to hold in, the more tears came out. When Jane started running his fingers through her hair soothingly, she let it go and just hugged him back as she cried against his chest.

They stood still, neither saying anything, for close to ten minutes while Lisbon cried it out. She didn't even know why exactly she was crying, out of extreme worry, out of pain, out of frustration. Jane didn't seem to be bothered by it at all, just holding her, running his fingers through her hair, and whispering a couple comforting words here and there.

After what seemed like forever to her, Lisbon felt all cried out. She stepped back, cleaning her face. She felt a hundred years older at that moment. All she needed was for this to end, and for DD to come back safe and sound.

"God, Jane, I'm sorry. This is so embarrassing."

He put his hand on her face and cleaned a stubborn tear that still came out from the corner of her eye.

"Don't worry about it."

She nodded, and smiled up at him, grateful.

The smile that took up his face the following second though, usually meant trouble to her.

"Catching up on all the sex we could've been having, huh?"

Lisbon groaned.

"Shut up, I was having a moment, okay?"

Jane smiled at her, but before he could say anything else, Lisbon continued.

"Maybe we should table this conversation and focus on DD for now, okay?"

Patrick nodded, sombering up and stepping away from her. Both of them, then, started preparing themselves to go look again.

The moment they were ready to go out the door, however, a grumpy meow was heard from the laundry room, followed by several grunts and hisses, and a second later DD walks in, all tangled up in one of Lisbon's tank tops, with one of the straps locked around his neck.

Both Jane and Lisbon froze on the door for a second, watching the cat desperately trying to take the clothing from his neck. Time seemed to stop momentarially, restarting abruptly when Lisbon lunged for the cat and Patrick let out a big laugh.

"Oh, you little demon." Lisbon said as she picked him up and got the top from his neck slowly, careful to not hurt him. Then she proceeded to hug him as much as she possibly could without making him uncomfortable. "God, you have no idea how much you worried me, you asshole."

DD, unaware of anything happening at all, enjoyed the attention for all of two seconds, and then was trying to claw his way out of Lisbon's arms.

She put him down and then filled his bowl with one of the packages of wet food and stood there watching him eat.

God, the love she felt for DD couldn't really fit in her chest sometimes. Lisbon caught herself wondering, after a second, if the little animal had any idea how important he was to her, of how much she loved him, and if it really mattered if he had any idea or not.

She guessed it didn't, it wouldn't really change the way she felt about him, nor the care she kept giving him.

Jane told her he was going to go out to let the whole building know they found DD, and Lisbon just nodded, still standing in the same place, just watching DD lick himself now that he had finished.

Lisbon then, played a bit with the cat, trying to squeeze as much interaction as she could from him without making him uncomfortable, just so her heart could feel a little less heavy. She knew it would probably take a while, last time it had been a whole week before she could stop blaming herself, but these little things and the little warmth that just being there brought her, sure helped a bit.

A couple minutes later there was a knock on her door. She went there to open the door for Patrick, smiling at him. Both of them went into the kitchen, where Lisbon started heating some water for her coffee and for Patrick's tea.

"How are you feeling now?" Patrick said, putting a hand on Lisbon's shoulder.

Lisbon exhaled and turned to Jane, smiling, making sure to still keep DD in her line of sight.

"Like I just popped three veins from worry, embarrassed myself in front of the guy I'm in love with, and made a fool of myself in front of half of the building. Again."

"Sounds like you had a full day." Patrick said, putting his hands on Lisbon's hips.

"And I need your number. I almost broke down your door when you weren't home." Lisbon said, stepping closer to him, their bodies almost touching now.

"Why do you think I asked for your number that first week?"

Lisbon frowned, trying to remember what he was referring to, and then, suddenly it was like everything clicked into place.

"Oh."

Patrick laughed, and tucked a strand of her hair behind Lisbon's ear, leaving his hand on her cheek, slowly caressing it.

"Yeah, oh. Don't get me wrong, you look very cute when you're all angry and flustered, but I had nothing but pure intentions at that point."

Lisbon slapped his shoulder and both of them chuckled.

"So…" Patrick said, leaning in. "You're in love with me?"

Lisbon shut him up with a kiss.

---

viii.

Lisbon exhaled as she finally managed to sit down on the couch in Patrick's arms. They had spent the better part of the weekend finishing moving her things into his apartment, and she was finally going to hand hers back to her landlord the following week.

Lisbon wrinkled her nose a couple seconds after sitting down. "You smell."

"Yeah, we did just move almost 20 boxes here and then unpacked them. You smell too, by the way."

She snorted.

"We can shower in a few, just let me catch my breath."

Lisbon could barely believe that it had been one year since they started their relationship. It both seemed like it had been yesterday and like they had been together for ten years instead of one. Instead of it being tiring or weighing down on her, like Lisbon had feared it would happen, every moment with Patrick felt more like a day spent with her best friend, easy, without pretension. She didn't need to pretend or to hide, and neither did he, and, honestly, that was all Lisbon could ask for the two of them.

As much as some things seemed to stay the same, or at least be a natural progression, some things had changed a lot. After finishing the renovations, Patrick had accepted the job as a guest lecturer at the CSU's psychology department, and, after one too many cases that Jane helped Lisbon solve, he also got offered a position as a consultant at the CBI, on an as needed basis. He took it without a second thought, teasing her mercilessly at home about how he was gonna be sleeping with the boss, but he hopefully managed to keep his trouble-making to a minimum at work. Which was not saying a lot, she came to find out very soon.

Them starting to work together had initially brought quite a bit of trouble to their home life, but after a big conversation, ground rules being clearly laid and a couple of compromises on Lisbon's part for the sake of closing cases more efficiently, it got resolved. Very satisfactorily, if she said so herself.

"We need to close off the old vent in the laundry room, now that you moved, too." Patrick said, twirling a couple of strands of Lisbon's hair on his fingers.

"The… what?"

"You know, the one that DD uses to come into my apartment." Patrick said, gesturing to the door of the laundry room.

"The what?"

So that's...

"You didn't know?"

"Of course not, do you really think I wouldn't have closed it down if I had known?"

"Honestly, I just thought you enjoyed my food too much."

Instead of answering, Lisbon squeezed his leg close to his knee, where she knew he was ticklish, causing him to squirm and wake DD up on the other side of the couch, who looked at them, annoyed.

She kissed Patrick's cheek and got up from the couch.

"Come on, let's take a shower. I got you a gift to celebrate the fact that I moved in. I can put it on later for you"

"Oh… that sounds interesting." He said, hugging her from behind as she entered the bathroom.

"Then watch what you say or you're not gonna see it at all." Lisbon said, turning in his arms, trying to hide the smile on her face and look serious.

"Yes, Agent Lisbon, whatever you want."