LANDING

She was glad to have caught a quick nap on the last leg of her flight. Once she left Burbank, things would get very busy, and she wanted to be as alert as possible during her search.

On her way to the rental car ramp, she noticed the nearby Amtrak station. Her imagination filled with images of an alternate reality where she & Jane traveled the California coast together by train, as partners in real life - not just the CBI. They could have been together…

She sighed. So much wasted time…

Remembering her current mission, she blinked away the regretful tears that had begun to form, and marched to the rental counter.

An hour or so later, the familiar beachfront structure came into view. She was amazed that she'd remembered the way there!

Jane had usually driven, the few times they had come here together. And she'd feared that her repressed memory would block the route she'd taken, on the night she'd been forced to jog his nearly-drowned, amnesiac memory, or when she'd watched him nearly explode, along with the Red John suspects.

As she pulled in, she noticed no other cars (or Silver Buckets) in the area. Still, she knocked on the front door, just in case.

No answer.

"If Jane were here he'd just pick the lock." She chuckled to herself, as she changed direction and walked around to the back of the house.

There were no signs of him anywhere. Not in the yard. Not on the beach. And she saw no evidence that anyone had been on the ocean-side deck in years, except for maybe some seagulls.

She found the railing closest to the water, leaned her elbows on the top, and took in the beautiful view. It would be exponentially more beautiful if he were here, she thought… "Where are you, Jane?" she whispered to herself, as the feelings of frustrated desperation and worry took over, again.

Not sure what she was even looking for, she pulled his phone out of her pocket, wishing it was an origami swan delivered with his trademark grin…

God she missed his smile.

Lisbon briefly held the device to her cheek, hoping he could feel how much she needed him, then flipped it open to find any clues to his whereabouts.

Jane wasn't very good with technology, so there wouldn't be any Wylie-style tricks to find. Still, maybe there'd be a phone number that would jog her memory. As she scrolled through the numbers, she noticed a file labeled 'pictures.'

Did Jane even *have* any pics on his phone?

She'd never seen him taking any. And he was never one to stare into a screen for very long. Curious and hopeful, she opened the file.

Her jaw dropped as she swiped though photo after photo, not believing how he had been stealthily playing paparazzi at crime scenes and in the bullpen and apparently everywhere! These were almost all pictures of HER! She felt a little flutter at that realization, thinking that he must have stronger feelings for her than he had let on.

But those flutters quickly dropped into guilt at her not having noticed those feelings in time to avoid his departure. He had probably been trying to stock up on memories for after she went to DC. How long had she known him? How could she have missed the signs?He could fool almost everyone, but she of all people should have seen how sincerely he looked at her.

Thinking back, maybe she had seen, but had just not allowed herself to believe.

With a quick shake back to reality, she swiped through a couple more frames until-

WOW! - Was that him?

He was more than beautiful! So young, and his smile just beaming! Her heart broke a little as she wondered who might have taken this photo? His young face was a giveaway that it had well pre-dated his appearance at the CBI. And the years just before that weren't years that would have fostered a smile that honest & bright.

Was he smiling at Angela here?

ANGELA! - Epiphany number two.

After mapping a route to the chapel & cemetery where he'd fought and killed Red John, and where his family lay in rest, she snapped the phone closed, got back in the car and drove.