Their Second Christmas
Jane lay on the couch, eyes closed, listening for her to leave.
It was Christmas Eve, everyone had been gone for awhile except of course Lisbon, always the last to leave. He would know, he waited for her to leave every night before he would go... if he left, sometimes he just stayed.
She wasn't going to Chicago again this year he noticed, he'd come to suspect she'd not traveled back home for the holidays in a long time... if ever. After last year, he realized she was spending Christmas alone as well. He thought things must have been pretty tough for her that she'd rather spend the holidays alone than with family. He'd learned a little about her childhood since working together and knew it wasn't a 'white picket fence' type of upbringing. He felt sad for her, she was such a good person, she deserved so much more than that... than this.
He heard her door open, she was walking toward him.
"Hey" he said, watching her walk toward him. He sat up, encouraging her to sit down next to him.
She sat softly on the cushion next to him. "Hey."
"Have you talked to your brothers yet?"
"I'll call tomorrow", she smiled.
There was a short silence before Jane spoke.
"Do you have plans for this evening?" His question was bold but inquisitive. They'd spent plenty of time together, but there were things they didn't talk about... holidays and family were two of them.
"Not really"
"Would you like to grab some dinner?" He expected her to turn him down, it was Christmas Eve after all and she acutely protected the fact that she spent the holidays alone.
"I'd like that." She was relieved he asked her to do something. She thought it was better than him spending the night alone remembering what he once had.
"...But I've already ordered a pizza. We could go eat it at the restaurant?"
"Sounds good to me." He got up and offered a hand to help her up.
Jane and Lisbon had shared a number of meals together over the year. More often than not it was pizzas with the group or lunches on the go, but occasionally they would grab dinner together as Jane would pop in her office at the end of a day and ask. They'd become friends... when she wasn't angry with him anyway.
This dinner was no different than the others, same comfort, same camaraderie as always. They chatted about cases, took gentle jabs at the other, and contemplated the situations of other customers.
About 3 hours after they'd left Lisbon pulled up to the CBI near Jane's car. She felt bad just dropping him off to be alone on Christmas.
"Jane", her voice stopped him as he was getting ready to get out of the car and he looked at her, waiting for whatever she had to say.
She didn't know what to say and there was a long pause as they looked in each others' eyes, recognizing once again the sadness between them.
"Merry Christmas" she said finally.
"Merry Christmas Lisbon" he smiled before getting out and heading toward his Citroen.
He hoped their dinner had made her holiday a little better, more bearable. He noticed that it also had made his a little better.