COLLIDING

The shadows were growing long, but still he stood, deep in regretful thoughts. Deep in his yearning… in his aching for lost loves.

Angela and Charlotte were gone because of his arrogance and pride.

Teresa was gone because of his cowardice.

"A good man, indeed," he snorted to himself, with loathing. "I don't even deserve this sunset," he grumbled, then turned on his heels and marched back toward the parking area.

He strode with such purpose, intent on his self-hatred and pain, that he didn't see the small, shadowed, freckly figure who was marching straight toward him.

She was transfixed by the sun, quenching itself in the sea, and was deep in a faraway thought. She was reliving the last moment she'd spent here, wondering how life might have been different, if they had just not let go of that embrace. She looked down for a moment, and took in a deep breath of sea air. Glancing back up toward the beach, she – OOF!

"Watch where you're going, you idiot!" she snarled at the silhouetted stranger in her path.

"Lisbon?!" whispered the stunned, broken figure before her.

"JANE?!" She exclaimed.

"Yes, it's me… and I… I deserved that, as I am most certainly an idiot." He said, despondently.

Without a word of argument, Lisbon leapt forward and wrapped herself around him, a river of relieved tears flowing down her cheeks.

"I've been looking for you! I was so worried Jane! How could you leave without telling me?! I've been desperate to find you! You were dead and I was dead inside at the thought of it! But it was just a nightmare! And Marcus wasn't really there and neither were the kids or the house and Farson isn't even the name of a real agent but - THANK GOD you're safe, Jane!"

She continued to spill the entire contents of the past 72 hours in jumbled groupings that Jane's superior brain wouldn't even have been able to comprehend had he been in better spirits, at the very top of his game: The details of her nightmare. How she fell out of bed and realized there was still time - and that he hadn't really died. How she burst in on Abbott and how he told her about Jane's leaving. How his breathing technique had led her to the ocean. How she wished he'd been there to pick the lock at his Malibu house. How she'd prayed for him & his girls at the chapel. How the rabbit was sent to lead her to Angela. How she'd confided in Angela about her love for him.

What did she just say? He thought, wide-eyed. Her love for me?

Teresa explained how her words to Angela mirrored his words spoken at this very spot all those years ago. That the echo of those words had led her here. And that, once here, she discovered the messenger swan. And now she'd finally found him.

"Well! You've had quite the adventure, my dear Lisbon!" He managed (though he was not at all impressed with how trite and flippant he sounded, after she'd said she loved him & all).

"But wait..." he paused… "you spoke to Angela and told her that you what?"

Jane's eyes outshone the stars. And what remained of the sunlight illuminated the crazy edges of his adorable curls.

Lisbon melted inside, as she whispered: "That I love you."

Her eyes were glistening with tears and the setting sun.

Jane couldn't form any words at all, he was so surprised.

She went on: "And I read your message in the swan, and was remembering that night… I was thinking of how our lives could have been so different if we'd just never let go of each other… But what I know FOR SURE is how completely devastated I was when I thought you'd been killed. That brought me to my senses immediately and I knew where my loyalties lie, and to whom my heart belonged. I called Marcus within minutes of waking up, the realization was so strong. And then when Abbott said you were gone, I was still so close to the nightmare that I misread him and nearly collapsed from grief right in his office."

Jane remained in stunned silence. But his face showed what he wasn't able to say: That he wanted to heal the pain & fear her nightmare had unleashed; He was so in love with her, and was so pleasantly shocked by this moment; And her lips looked good enough to -

Words, as it turned out, were unnecessary.

He gently captured her lips with his own, and life momentarily moved in slow motion. After a few glorious moments of the softest, deepest, most tender kisses she'd ever experienced, he found his voice again:

"Oh, Teresa, Teresa!" He breathed excitedly, eyes glowing in the twilight, "I am absolutely over the moon at hearing you say that you love me! I cannot fathom why your heart chose me over him, after our history, and especially at this very spot, but I find that I'm so overjoyed that I truly don't care why!" He laughed, eyes shining, holding her tightly in his arms.

"Patrick, I can't make any sense of it either, especially after all the times I've wanted to punch you in the nose," (they both laughed at that), "but you are like oxygen to me, and I don't ever want to be apart from you again."

He truly could not believe what was happening. He had so steeled himself to a lifetime of loneliness and pain, but here she was… and she wanted to be with him, always… It was almost enough to make him believe in God… ALMOST! - he laughed to himself.

"So what if we try your idea?" He asked

"Which idea do you mean?"

"Well, the sun has nearly set. We both are now aware of what we mean to each other. What if we, from this point forward, cling together and never let go?" He asked with both his words, and his unbelievably hopeful eyes.

She wiped a tear from her face as she sighed, her other hand caressing Jane's stubbly cheek, "Patrick, there is truly nothing that I want more."

Her smile was so radiant that he didn't even miss the sun that had sunk into the sea. And the glow in the sky painted a gorgeous backdrop, as their silhouetted figures embraced, with unsurpassed passion & unquenchable longing.

He had no intention of abandoning her this time, and she had no intention of letting him go, ever again.