Disclaimer: I do not own The Mentalist, but if I could buy it off of Bruno Heller and sell it to HBO, I would.

Author's Note: This is the final chapter of Three Secrets; however, I will be posting a short epilogue soon. Thank you all for your kind words; I hope you've enjoyed reading this fic as much as I have enjoyed writing it!


"So that's it, Jane. That's my last secret. In the end, I couldn't leave you behind because I'm in love with you."

He had hoped.

For years he had hoped, but he had never let himself believe that she could love him as deeply as he did her. For so long it had seemed to be an impossible.

In order for his world to keep on turning, Jane must love Lisbon. He could never quite accept that the reverse might come true.

But it just did. She had laid her heart on the line, had bared her soul, and he was left feeling unworthy of her, of her honesty, of her brilliance. She burned so brightly in front of him sometimes that he was almost forced to turn his head.

Jane was aware that he needed to say something, anything, to fill up the silence gathering between them, but words had never been enough to express what he felt about Lisbon. However, Jane's words were often all that he had to fall back on.

He could tell her all the plans that he had concocted to prevent her from leaving.

He could tell her that he'd been digging around in the cold cases, trying to find something that the team could latch onto, forcing her to stay a little longer. Jane had been desperately trying to squeeze seconds out of whatever time they had left together.

Jane had thought of everything he could think of, and it wasn't enough. He had retired to his trailer that night fully expecting to have to say good-bye to Lisbon in the following days and the thought had nearly killed him.

"I would have chased after you," Jane blurted out.

The confused look on her face prodded him to continue. "If you had left―if you had boarded a plane and jetted off to D.C., I would have followed after. I would have begged you to come back. I had all these plans, you see. All these half-cocked ideas just waiting to be hatched because I was desperate for you to stay. But in the end, I couldn't do it. I'm selfish, Lisbon; I'm self-absorbed and it had to be you that agreed to stay, because you wanted to stay.

"I have memories, too. Thousands upon thousands of little moments built inside my memory palace. There are entire floors dedicated to you, Lisbon, and it's not nearly enough.

"When I came back, I had so many ideas about the two of us. But I messed it up from the start. I tried to control your life without consideration of your wants and needs. And you called me on it. So, I backed off. I thought that was what you wanted. I thought that you had given up on me, on the possibility of us, but I couldn't stop looking at you. You shine so brightly in my dark world, and for years you have been my only source of light.

"I'm not being metaphorical, Lisbon. Okay, I am, but I never had any intention of outliving Red John. It had always been a murder-suicide plan because I couldn't conceive of another way that it might play out. You changed all of that for me. You became a reason that I woke up in the morning and dragged myself to work. I hate murder, Lisbon, looking at death day after day is painful and damaging, but for you I closed cases. You make this job, this life, infinitely more bearable just by being near me.

"I wasn't lying when I said that all I want is your happiness. I just left out the part where I wanted your happiness to be me, well, us. Together. That's my last secret, Teresa Lisbon. Even though all my plans to make you stay fell by the wayside, I would have chased after you to the ends of the earth because I never quite mastered the art of living my life without you in it."

What Jane felt for Lisbon went beyond love. There were times that he almost couldn't bear the weight of it, but then she would smile, and he would realize that the weight was not heavy on his heart. She was a joy that he carried within himself.

He looked at Lisbon, half-naked in his bed, tears running down her cheeks, and she was the embodiment of everything that was good and right in the world. Her love redeemed him in a way that he had never thought would be possible.

Jane knelt before and began to wipe her tears away.

"You are the very best part of me, Teresa. Loving you makes me feel like a better man, but being loved by you makes me want to be a better man."

Lisbon had begun crying in earnest and her tears were coming faster than Jane could wipe them away, but he knew that despite the heart-wrenching sound and appearance, hers were tears of joy, hope, and probably relief.

He stood for a moment and started to unbutton his shirt. There was nothing teasing in his movements, just a simple economy of motion, but it had the desired effect. Lisbon's hiccupping sobs began to ease, and her tears slowed. She raised an eyebrow, a wry gesture that was slightly ruined by the presence of her tears, "Really, Jane? You lay those beautiful words on me and then you start taking your clothes off? You're a sly old dog."

Jane gave her a pained glance at 'old dog' jab. "Are you going to be mentioning a 'new tricks' cliché next, Lisbon? Tsk, tsk, my dear, I thought you above such petty ploys."

She wiped the last of her tears away and stood up to help him with his task. "If the shoe fits, Jane, you have to―"

"Eat it?"

That got him a laugh.

"Foot-in-mouth syndrome is nothing new to you, Jane. Sixty percent of complaints about you, if not more, were a result of that unfortunate tendency of yours."

She made for the button on his pants, but his hands stilled hers before she could progress. "Lucky for you that you don't have to process those anymore. However, Abbott is always very vocal about the grief that I cause him. I have long suspected that you had a word with him and told him to nag me at every opportunity about it."

Lisbon smiled up at him, "I'll deny that to my grave."

Jane bent down and gave her a soft kiss, "That won't be necessary. That little admission is proof enough."

Together they unbuttoned and unzipped her pants, and she drew them down his legs, allowing him to step out. Lisbon let out a small snort at the sight of his boxers. "Not really what I had pictured you wearing, Jane."

"You object, Lisbon? I'll have you know that these are classics, and they are deserving of your respect. Besides, everybody needs to feel like a superhero sometimes."

Lisbon took a step back and twirled her finger in the air. Jane obediently made a small turn.

"Well, I guess that have a certain appeal."

"Thank you, my dear, for that glowing endorsement."

"Give it time, Jane, they'll grow on me. I might end up wearing them one day." The remark, followed by her sly grin, caught him off guard. The image of Lisbon wearing his clothing was a tantalizing one. He caught her around the waist and drew her into him, giving her a deep kiss in retaliation. When she pulled away, breathless, Jane reached for the button on her trousers. The memory of what he had done to her earlier was resurfacing with a vengeance, and his breath caught as he eased her zipper down, listening to the teeth click one by one.

"I know you said that nothing else was going to happen tonight, Lisbon, but I would very much like to hold you in my arms and whisper sweet nothings to you while you wear nothing but a smile."

Lisbon shivered under his hands. "I don't think you'll find me objecting to those plans, Jane."

She reached behind her and unsnapped her bra. Jane pulled her pants down to the floor and was treated to the glorious sight of Lisbon leaning over him, breasts swinging above his mouth, as she stripped herself of her panties.

She stood before him, completely naked, and utterly devastating. Jane felt the air rush out of his lungs, and the breath that he drew back in was audible. "I don't have the words to describe you, Lisbon, but I can promise you that I will spend the rest of our lives trying to find them."

He stepped to her side, giving her a quick kiss and a small grope, and turned down the sheets on his bed. He turned back and gestured to her, "Ladies first." He handed her into the bed and followed close behind.

Jane snugged himself up behind Lisbon, doing his best to imprint the feeling of her naked body up against his partially clothed one. A comfortable drowsiness settled over them.

Jane heard Lisbon's sleepy voice mumble, "Next time, Jane, we do this without the boxers."

Jane determined that it was time to start whispering the sweet nothings, "Which time, Lisbon? I'm hoping for a lifetime of them. I want a house with a white-picket fence. I want you to have a dog; I want to give you a child (if that's what you want); I want to wake up every morning and see you in my bed; I want…"

He heard Lisbon's breathing even out as she slipped into sleep.

"I want to love you until the stars stop burning."

And then, one final sweet nothing before sleep claimed him as well, "I want to marry you, Lisbon."


Author's Note the Second: I've posted a link to the boxers in my profile. I had a little giggle at the thought of Jane wearing them...