A/N: A big thank you to those of you who reviewed my last chapter!
Chapter 2
A Month Later
Lisbon sat at her desk, her head rested in one hand while she typed with her free hand. She knew she probably should've taken a personal day. She was moving in two days and she still had packing to do, but she'd wanted to spend her last official work day in Austen, actually in the office. Now, however, she was starting to think the entire idea had really been fool hardy. She'd been up half the night packing, and was exhausted.
She sighed, trying not to be too loud, but her head was killing her. Jane had been particularly distant of late. It made her chest hurt, but she couldn't really blame him. Ever since he'd shown up on her porch a month ago, she'd done better than her best to make sure they were never alone together. She'd been so angry with him for apologizing for kissing her and the last thing she wanted was to talk about it. It had brought back some very unpleasant memories of when he'd taken back his "love you." It had hurt. A lot. She'd gone right to Marcus and told him she was coming with him and she'd effectively shut Jane out for anything not case related.
They'd barely even spoken in the last week, and while she'd chosen Marcus and was happy to be going with him, she still cared about Jane. Still wanted to say goodbye to him. She knew that at very least he had valued her partnership and she had valued his. There was no way she was going to leave without acknowledging that. It wouldn't be fair, to either of them.
A clap of thunder startled her and she jumped. She turned in her chair and looked out the window at the dark clouds swirling in the sky and saw two more lightening strikes back to back. Her jaw dropped, it'd been blue skies only thirty minutes ago.
She felt the hair on the hair on the back of her neck rise, and not from the thunder. Her eyes lowered to Jane's face unwittingly. He was staring at her not unlike she had probably just been staring at the sky. With wide eyes and rapt attention. Her stomach clenched.
They stared at each other for a moment. She wanted to say something, it hurt that she didn't feel like she could, but in all fairness that had been her fault. She couldn't blame him for acting shut down when all she'd been doing to him for a month was shutting him out. She swallowed and opened her mouth, but no words came.
She looked at her lap and almost turned back to her computer when he spoke. "You all packed?" he asked.
She looked up and couldn't decide if she wanted to smile at the fact that he had taken pity on her, or frown at the topic he'd brought up. "No, not yet."
His face remained placid. "Everyone's clearing out early," he informed her. She had seen people leaving. There was hardly anyone left. "There's supposed to be a monsoon. You should probably hit the road too. You wouldn't want to get stuck here." He stood up and made his way into the kitchen after that.
She felt like she'd just been slapped in the face. A lump formed in her throat and she could feel tears pricking at her eyes. She reached up and wiped at her cheek, then looked back down at her computer. It started to rain heavily and she watched as the last two remaining agents on her floor that she could see got onto the elevator. He was right, the sooner she got out of here, the better. She grabbed her phone and pulled up Marcus' number, then changed her mind and sat her phone on her desk. She went to her email instead and printed her flight itinerary and then got up and walked to the printer.
The printer told her that the machine was out of paper, so she opened up the drawer under the printer where they normally kept the paper, then slammed it when she saw it was empty. She headed for the storage that was down the hall from Abbott's office. She reached the closet, opened the door that was slightly ajar and stepped inside, kicking something at her feet into the small space.
She stopped abruptly, and the door hit her back. The space was lit by a small light the swung overhead, giving her a perfect and unexpected view of Jane. He was holding a box of tea in each hand and looked as though he had been deciding which flavor he should take. Now he just looked like a deer in the headlights.
"Teresa, what are you doing here?" he asked.
She glared at him and cocked her head to the side to see the shelf to his left. There were at least fifteen different boxes of tea. She rolled her eyes and stepped into the room and to the right, toward the printer paper.
"Wait! Don't let that close!" Jane said lurching past her.
She fell into the shelves as he pushed by. "Jane! What the hell?"
He grabbed the knob and pulled, but it was too late. He took a deep breath then turned to look at her. "It's locked." He bent down and picked something up off the floor. It was a small pencil. "It was keeping the door from shutting. You kicked it out."
She felt her face blanch and pushed past him to the door, grabbing the handle. He backed up as she shook it several times, more and more frantically until finally giving up. She turned to Jane, who looked as horrified as she felt.
"Did you do this?" She jabbed a finger in the direction of the door.
His eyes widened and he shook his head. "No, there's a note on the door. It's broken, hence the pencil." He lifted the pencil again.
"Can you pick it?"
He shook his head. "No, there's nothing to pick it with. Do you have your phone?"
She felt a small tingle of relief and reached for her pocket, and when finding it empty, remembered that she taken it out of her blazer to call Marcus and had left it on her desk. She sighed. "It's on my desk."
Just than a crackling boom sounded over the building. They both flinched at the earth trembling thunder they'd just heard then looked at each other. The moment they made eye contact, the light flickered out.
There was a time, Jane thought, when he might have fantasized over the idea of getting locked in a closet with Teresa. He'd fantasized about her frequently enough, but they usually involved her deciding to stay here with him. Still, he could see merit in the idea of being locked in a closet with her for hours, or in this case three hours. Maybe they'd banter a little about how they'd get out, she'd roll her eyes and eventually they'd end up making out, because there was nothing better to do, until they were rescued, preferably by Pike who'd open the door just as she was running her hands up his shirt. The very idea thrilled him to even think about, however his fantasy was far outdoing his reality.
Jane sat on the floor with his back to the wall, facing Lisbon who was seated across from him, with her back against the door. They had barely said a word since the lights had gone out. As a matter of fact, he hadn't even tried once she turned and started yelling for help interspersed with kicking and hitting the door. He'd seen her kick in doors before, so he'd been surprised when the storage door had stood strong. Apparently the FBI took guarding their office supplies very seriously.
She'd gone hoarse about thirty minutes in and had sat with her back against the door. Now she was randomly banging it against the door, over and over and over again, every few seconds or so. Had been doing so since she'd stopped screaming.
He jumped when the back of her head once again made contact with the door. "Would you stop that!"
Their eyes had long adjusted to the dark room and he could see her glare at him. "Not unless you have a better idea of how to get us out of here."
Jane stood up. "All right, that's it. I can't take it anymore."
He moved over to where she was sitting, reached down and grabbed her under the arms, bringing her to a standing position.
"Jane…" she was startled, "what are you doing?"
He turned them both, then let her go and backed up to the door. "I'm not letting you bang your head up against the door anymore. Clearly the building has been vacated. You're going to give yourself a headache, if you haven't already. Just, go sit over there." He pointed to where he'd been sitting.
She shook her head, but didn't argue and moved over to where he'd been sitting. He was a little surprised that she hadn't fought with him, but things were different now. They hadn't had a conversation alone since the night he'd gone to her house, and now she was moving off with another man. All his intentions to get her alone and express his love for her had gone right out the window, she'd seen to that through avoidance. She had clearly made her choice and it was not him.
He waited for her to take her seat before sitting himself.
Several minutes of silence passed before Lisbon finally spoke. "You know, Jane, you're a real ass."
Not banter, per se, but after three hours of silence I'll take what I can get. "Excuse me?"
She leaned away from the wall. "oh, uh, I called you an ass."
Then again, maybe the silence was better. "Yes, I heard Lisbon," he said indignantly. "I guess I was just wondering what I could have possibly done since being locked in here, three hours ago, to deserve that?"
"Well, for starters, you were born."
Jane could feel his brow knit as he pondered how quickly this was becoming ridiculous. "But not in the last three hours."
She leaned back against the wall again with a huff.
"We could be locked in here for hours, Lisbon, so why don't you just tell me what's on your mind. Get it off your chest."
"You're The Mentalist, figure it out," she seethed.
"Yes, a Mentalist, not a mind-reader. I'm not exactly on top of my game right now. I can barely see you, and you're impressively guarded and we've hardly spoken in a month, not exactly an ideal candidate, you are, for Mentalism."
"Oh please, you solved a case once when you were blind, don't give me that crap."
Fine, if she wanted to play it that way. "Okay, you asked for it. You're mad at me for not giving you the warm and mushy goodbye you were hoping I'd give you, and pissed that you're locked in here with me and I'm still not giving it to you. We'll you might as well get over it Teresa. Because it's not going to happen. You chose to leave, you chose to break up the team, you chose Marcus. I'm not going to pretend I'm okay with that, so you can leave with a clean conscience."
He heard an angry intake of breath, a fumbling noise seconds before he saw a small square-ish object flying at his head. It hit him in the face, a sharp card-board box corner dug painfully into the middle of his forehead, before dropping to his lap.
"Ouch!"
"For your information Jane," Lisbon said as he lifted the offending object and stared at it, "I wasn't trying to clear my conscience! I told you when you came back from your little island that I didn't want to put the rest of my life on hold to be your side-kick."
"You threw my tea at me?" he asked feeling completely befuddled and a little impressed that her aim was so good even in the dark.
She continued as though he hadn't interrupted. "Marcus is a good man and he loves me. He's a chance for me to have a family, a life outside of work."
Jane chucked the tea box to the side, feeling unexpectedly offended at her exclusion of him as family. "I'm not family?"
"No," she hissed. "You're just part of my 'team,' like you said, right? And like I said I'm not putting the rest of my life on hold for a 'team'. No matter how much I may care about them."
She still cared. He felt stupid now that he'd spent the last month doubting that fact. He felt confused. He could only recall a handful of times in his life he'd ever been confused and he hated it. "You couldn't honestly expect me to hug you and wish you well when every time I have tried to talk to you over the last month you avoided me. I acted how I thought you wanted me to," he said in a subdued and sad tone. This wasn't an ideal moment, she was moving in two days, they were both angry and trapped in a stale, musky closet, but he really saw no point in hiding his emotions from her.
The room went quiet again, and as much as Jane wanted to say something, he knew that the ball was in her court and it needed to stay there. He'd made his play and now it was her turn.
"Did the tea hurt you?" she asked a few moments later. He felt alight flutter of hope at the concern in her voice.
"Yes," he said immediately. "A corner hit me. I probably have a concussion."
A small bark of laughter escaped her. "Good," she said then abruptly dropped her head to her hands and started crying. It took Jane a moment to realize that was what she was doing. At first he thought she might still be laughing, and she wasn't sobbing, it was just a barely there noise that betrayed her. He felt his stomach clench.
He fought the urge to go to and comfort her. It was something he would have done in the past, but he still felt on shaky ground with her, and being locked in a closet with her for hours was doing nothing to settle it.
Instead he gave her what he thought she wanted. "You're right Teresa, Marcus is offering you something that the team can't. I'm sorry I've been so selfish, you've just been a part of my life for so long that the idea of going back to how it was on the island is really hard for me. You deserve to be happy, though. You deserve to be with the man you love. You'd be a fool to stay here for anything less than that. When we get out of this closet, and you leave, I promise to be on my best behavior. I'll wish you luck and give you a goodbye hug. Or, if you prefer, I'll got lost. Whatever you want, just please don't cry."
She looked up at him and even though it was too dark for him to be sure, he could imagine the tears in her eyes. "I don't want to say goodbye, Jane."
He choked up at her words, but swallowed. "Okay, then I'll leave. You won't have to see me. Won't have to say…"
"That's not what I meant, Jane. We've worked together for a long time. It's hard," she said.
He could hear the stress in her tone and it cut him to the core. "Yes, it is, but it's not like we'll never see each other again. You'll visit, I'll visit. You can show me the sights and protect me from muggers."
She chuckled again. "Sounds like fun."
"Yes, I'm sure Marcus will be thrilled too," Jane added unable to resist.
"What's your problem with him anyway?" she asked all seriousness again.
He's stealing the woman I love from me. "Nothing," was what he replied. "He's a perfectly nice man, I suppose."
She guffawed. "Oh please, you hate him. I've worked with you for over a decade. Don't think I don't know when you hate someone. I may not be a Mentalist, but you've never exactly been subtle about dislike."
"I guess I never saw any point in hiding it," he said trying to sound as off-handed as possible.
He heard her mumble a little and knew she wanted to say something else on the topic, but when she spoke again, she said something different. "Well, you're going to have to if you come visit. You can be mean to the man who's hosting you."
Jane cringed and felt grateful for the dark. The idea of staying in the same home as Teresa and another man, sleeping in a room next to the one she was sharing with another man, held about as much appeal as getting shot at. He had to change the subject. "There's a vent on the ceiling in here, if it's not bolted shut I think you could fit through and get out that way."
She was silent a moment. "Okay."
Lisbon's emotions were all over the place. She was still in shock a little by what Jane had said to her. That he'd so wittingly given up, apologized, told her that he'd give her the goodbye she wanted. It relieved and upset her all at the same time. Although, right now, she was feeling a little irritated.
"Jane, get your hands off my butt," she spat down at him.
He rolled his eyes. As much as he would like to cop a feel, this was not how he imagined it going. "And where exactly would you like me to put them? If I move them you'll fall."
She had one foot resting on the edge of a shelf and the knee of her other leg on Jane's shoulder as she was reaching for the vent. He was holding the bulk of her weight, but she'd started wobbling and now he was pushing her up by her butt.
She huffed. "Fine."
"Lisbon, hurry please, I don't have a very good grip on you and I feel like you're about to fall."
She burst out laughing at the absurd comment and reached up for the vent. She stuck her fingers through and started yanking at it. "No good, it's screwed shut. Help me down."
Jane started to help her to the ground when the foot she thought she'd planted firmly on the shelf slipped. She flailed her arms and fell into Jane, he caught her and held her until she regained her balance. She revealed in the feel of his arms around her and the way they were pressed together, and she suddenly wanted her goodbye hug now. She tightened her arms around him and buried her head in the crook of his neck.
He stiffened and she felt a lump form in her throat, but didn't let go. "Jane, you promised me a goodbye hug. I want it now. Just give it to me."
The last thing she expected was that he would. He tightened his grip around her back and buried his face in her hair and the lump in her throat grew. She was so grateful. Grateful for this moment, that things felt easy and comforting.
He inhaled deeply and she slid her arms down from his shoulders and up under his arms, grabbing chunks of his shirts. She had to will herself not to cry. She supposed she should be grateful for this time. A few hours ago she thought she wasn't going to get a goodbye at all, being locked in this closet sucked, but at least it would give her something happy to remember
She sighed, "I'm going to miss you, Jane."
His grip tightened on her. "I know you don't want to hear this, but I have to say it. The night I came to your house…"
"You're right, I don't want to hear it," she said as she started to pull away from him.
She wasn't sure if she should feel comforted or ticked when he didn't let her.
"Well, tough," he said. "You're going to hear it anyway. I love you and…"
She leaned away from him and looked up. She felt confused. What did this have to do with the night he came over? "I love you too, Jane, but I can't stand to hear you apologize for expressing tenderness toward me again."
"…and I don't want you to go," he finished over her. Then his face fell. "What?"
She felt her face heating up. "You heard me…"
He pulled back from her as well, allowing his hands to rest on her hips. "What are you talking about?"
She looked away. This was very quickly turning into a conversation she hadn't expected nor, now that she was in it, wanted. The last thing she wanted to admit was that she was only leaving with Marcus because he had failed to give her a better offer. She pulled out of his grasp and faced the door.
"Maybe if we both put our shoulders to it, we could get it open?"
He grabbed her arm and turned her back to face him, then grabbed her shoulders and hunched down to look her in the eye. "You think I was going to apologize for kissing you?"
"Well, weren't you?" she asked trying to sound nonchalant.
His eyes grew wide. "Are you nuts? Like any man in his right mind would apologize for kissing you. I came to apologize for throwing up on you, and then…you know, trying to kiss you again. Weren't you just listening to me? I came to tell you I loved you and not to go."
She pulled her chin back, then scrunched her eyes shut and shook her head. This was confusing. "I know you love me Jane…"
He shook her shoulders until she opened her eyes again and looked at him, or glared indignantly.
"What?"
"No, Teresa. I am in love with you."
Her heart jumped into her chest. "Buuu, I, munah," she said. Then shook her head lightly again as she tried to figure out what she was trying to say.
He didn't give her a chance to respond. "I'm in love with you. I thought you'd sent me away because you'd chosen Marcus, not because you thought I was going to apologize for doing something that I had only been fantasizing about for years. Granted, I'd pictured myself sober and there wasn't any throwing up either…"
Her face screwed up. "What…the hell, Jane." She pulled out of his grasp and stepped back. "I have been a mess for weeks! Trying to decide if I should stay or go, then trying to stay away from you because I thought you didn't want me, and now two days before I'm supposed to leave you tell me you love me!"
"Well, what else was I supposed to do?" He threw his arms up. "Just let you leave!"
"Yes! No…I don't know! This is such a mess," she was still yelling when she dropped her head to her hand. She took a deep breath than looked up at him. "You're an idiot!"
"Hey!" Jane yelled back. "I didn't see you trying to work things out with me. All you did was avoid me. Every time I tried you made some excuse to walk away or to start talking to someone else!"
"I thought…Ugh! I really hate you right now," she stepped forward and shoved his chest.
Right then the door opened, showing a very wet Marcus and Cho. Lisbon saw Jane's face fall and saw him shrug before she turned around.
"Is this a bad time?" Cho asked.
"Marcus?"
"How long have you two been in here?" Marcus asked.
Jane looked down at his watch. "A little over four hours."
Marcus looked uncomfortably between her and Jane.
"We'd never have found you if you hadn't been yelling," Cho said.
She felt her face heating up, but pushed down her anger. "Why are you guys wet?"
"We were supposed to meet your team for a goodbye dinner, remember?" Marcus asked. "When you didn't show up, and we couldn't get a hold of you we all decided we should come and look for you, what with the monsoon and all."
"The monsoon is still going?" Jane asked, coming to stand next to Lisbon. She crossed her arms and purposely avoided looking at him.
"No, but it's still raining. How'd you end up in the closet?" Cho asked, resting his hands on his hips.
"Tea," Jane said at the same time Lisbon said, "I was getting printer paper."
"Why didn't you call someone?" Marcus asked.
Lisbon sighed. "My phone is on my desk."
Cho pulled out his phone and pushed a button. A moment later, Jane's phone rang from his pocket. Lisbon's head whipped in his direction.
She rounded on him. "You had your damn phone on you the whole time?"
He glared at Cho, then looked back at Lisbon. "I didn't mean for us to get locked in the closet, but when we did I saw it as an opportunity to at least mend fences before you left."
"Looks like your plan worked well," Cho said.
"Teresa," Marcus placated. "He's your oldest friend. Maybe what he did was misguided, but his intentions were good."
Lisbon looked at Marcus then back at Jane who was staring at the man once again with open contempt.
"Pike," Jane said, "I don't think you want to help me right now." He took a deep breath, then step toward Teresa and made eye contact. "The perfect opportunity will never come. So here it is, on the table. I love you Teresa Lisbon, am in love with you. I want to spend the rest of my life with you and give you anything and everything you could possibly want. Marriage, a cute little bungalow of our very own, children even."
Lisbon felt her gut clench.
"Whoa," Marcus said. "Hey now…"
Jane ignored him and continued. "I know I'm late, and I know you're angry with me, but I'm here now. It's not too late. You can make an educated decision now on how you want your life to be and who you want it to be with."
She swallowed hard as he pulled his eyes away from her and looked at Pike. "I'm sorry Pike, but I don't like you."
At that Jane pushed past Pike and out of the closet. Lisbon took a deep breath then turned and looked after him.
A/N: Hope you enjoyed this! One more chapter to go. Reviews are almost as good as I am thinking tonight's episode will be! Eek! I'm so excited.
If you haven't checked it out, you should read Phoenixx2812's story Endgame. It's amazing.
