A/N: Thanks for the amazing response to this story, whatever you are a registered reviewer (and I hope I remembered answering you), anonymous or a follower. Thanks, thanks, thanks!

They walked for a short while after having left the secure home- it sounded almost ironic, and yet terribly scaring, in Teresa's mind - but when Jane saw a bust stop filled with people, he grabbed her for her wrist and walked her there; they got mixed with the many passengers, but left the vehicle after a couple of stops, and did the same again and again, for few hours.

It was night when they reached the terminal, but they didn't enter, thinking that Red John's men could have already been informed of their disappearance, for the first time in her life, Lisbon felt honestly scared. Right until that point, her name had been a leverage of some kind that kept her protected, but now, not any longer. Jane sensed her inner struggle, understood that, without her badge, she felt naked, vulnerable, and often took her hand in his own, squeezing it in reassurance.: when she got lost in his eyes, she could almost believe everything was going to be all right.

In the parking of the terminal, Jane checked for blind zones, where cameras couldn't take them, and once found the right spot, he studied the cars from afar, then, taking her hand and asking her to behave normally, he choose a Citroen DX, eggshell blue, and forced it smoothly, like he had never done anything else in his whole life.

"Don't you think they'll recognize it? I mean…" she tried to say, screaming at low voice, as he opened the passenger door from the inside. She looked around, making sure than no one was looking their way. She sighed, barely believing that she, the one who had always wanted to keep the law, fought so hard to become a cop, was stealing a car.

"It doesn't have a GPS tracking system, Lisbon. Plus, it's the easiest one here to force. Now, do you want to come with me and live, or do you prefer stay and see what Red John has in mind for you?"

When he put it that way, she didn't really have any choice, so, after a little debate with herself, she went in, and looked as his clever fingers worked their way into the ignition system, and like it was magic, turned on the engine.

"Nice." She said, smiling and smirking despite the dire situation they were finding themselves in. "Let me guess: that's not the first time you've done it."

"Meh, Lisbon." He said, sighing like the sound of the engines were music, the most marvelous tune in the universe, to his ears. "a magician never reveals his tricks."

"Oh, Jane, you are so modest." She mocked him, looking as they moved. Jane didn't go too quick, fearing that they would be pulled aside by cops, nor he drove too slowly, and in half an hour or so, Teresa found herself looking outside the window, at the Sacramento skyline disappearing in the distance. She sighed, her eyes glassy with unshed tears as she wondered what was going to be of her life, her whole existence: would she eventually be back to her apartment, her job? What was going to happen to her friends, her co-workers… to Wayne?

"You knew it was the only thing to do." Jane told her, keeping his eyes on the road. She didn't answer, there was no need to, after all. she knew he was right. but it didn't mean she liked admitting it- especially to him. Jane had been a thorn in her side since the first instant they met, she wasn't going to let him think things were any different, just because they were having this crazy… adventure together.

"So… now what?" she asked. Despite her name, she wasn't an expert in the breaking the law department, no matter what people said.

"I've got a plan." He said, but then he bit his lips, and made a sort of face she didn't like at all. "Sort of."

"I'm not sure I like the sound of it." she said. But then realized that it wasn't like she could do anything else.

"Can you just talk? I don't want to fall asleep." he suddenly asked her; she checked her watch, and saw that it was around two in the morning; it was a miracle that, with everything, he hadn't fallen asleep yet- he noticed that she wasn't saying everything, just opening her mouth again and again, like struggling to find a topic of conversation, so he rolled his eyes, and took matters in his own hands. "Seen any good movie lately?"

"Uhm… I don't really have time to go to the movies." She admitted, a bit ashamed. She felt like the not-so-good-looking girl no one asked out, while she was always simply too tired, sleepy to do anything different from sleeping (and maybe sex) at night.

"Ah. Uhm. Well then I guess we'll not initiate a discussion on Transcendence…" he sighed, mumbling between himself. "Ah. Uhm… sorry you had to leave your apartment after such a short time you've been here. I hope your landlord will be understanding and give it back to you when you'll return…"

The use of when didn't go unnoticed to Lisbon, who barely resisted crying. She was a strong woman, she didn't cry easily, but her whole life, her whole world was going to be destroyed, and she didn't know if she would find anything of what it used to be, if and when she'd be returned to her reality.

"I…" she said, clearing her voice and looking at him in a strange way. "I've been living there since I was 26. Why do you think I just moved there?"

He lifted his eyebrows. "So… you are leaving, then?" he asked.

She looked at him like suddenly a second head had appeared out of thin air. "No, actually, I had just signed a contract for other two years…. Why do you think I was between places?"

"Oh." He said, smiling smug and arrogant, without adding anything else; he was… shining, like he had just gotten all the answers he needed.

"What do you mean, with that oh?" she demanded, her tone leaving nothing to his imagination. Lisbon, with those marvelous green eyes in flames, was a woman on a mission.

"Well, you'll admit that it's not so hard to understand what you may be feeling, as you've been living in the same apartment for five years and never unpacked your stuff…"

She grunted. "First, I only unpacked what was necessary, so I don't have all my stuff in boxes. And second, just out of curiosity, how do you know I'm 31?" He sent her a meaningful look. "Oh, God." she said, almost disgusted. "I can't believe Angela told you about me." Between orgasms, she mentally added.

"For the record, Lisbon, you don't look a day older than 25."

She smirked at his sassy remark. "You know flattery will not get you in my pants, right?" he didn't answer, just smiled with his mega-watt grin, and Teresa smiled at him in return, feeling a little better, light part of the weight that was on her shoulders had been lifted. "So… Transcendence… I'd never said you were a sci-fi kind of guy."

Jane smiled, and her heart lost a beat, her whole body filled with liquid fire. "Yeah, well… don't tell anyone, but I'm a die-hard Star Wars fan. The original trilogy, obviously. Don't let me start on what they have done with my beloved characters when they've made that awful thing that they dare to call a prequel."

She shook her head. "I bet you had a poster of Princess Leia in the metal bikini growing up." Then she bit her tongue, as she remembered that he hadn't had an home while growing up, only a trailer and a shitty father who used and abused him. "Jane, I'm…"

He shook his head. "That's ok, besides, consider us lucky for my shitty past; carnie friends can come in handy." He said as he entered in the parking of a semi-abandoned gas station with little to none traffic, somewhere along the coast. "But first… let's make it a little more difficult for people to recognize us. Go to the toilettes, I'll join you asap."

Strangely trusting him, she did as she was told, and entered in the bathroom labeled for the ladies. She closed herself inside, and started to pace the small room, taking big breaths and jumping at any sound coming from the outside, fearful for her life like she had never been, not even when criminals were pointing guns at her. Few minutes later Jane knocked at the door of the stall, calling her with her by her given name, and she allowed him in. She felt like hugging him, like for dear life, never letting it go, because for a short while she had been scared, and wondered: what if he left? What if Red John's men were going to find them? She kept in silence, though; after all, she had already learnt that there was no need for words with Patrick Jane, a look and he understood it all.

"Take off your shirt." He said, his voice low as he turned, holding his breath and shutting firmly his eyes, his fists closed as he tried his best to resist temptation; he could hear Teresa, taking big breaths every now and then, the rustling of fabric loud in the silence around them, heavy like a curse casted by an evil queen.

He took her long hair, middle-back, in his hands, and whispering "sorry" he cut them, a pixie hairdo just underneath her ears, then helped her to dye the silk locks in a red nuance; while he was waiting for rinsing her scalp, she did the same for him, applying the black carefully. She smiled a little as he moaned as she massaged his head, the curls as soft as silk under her fingers; they dried their heads underneath the jets of hot air of the dryer, Teresa's back against the cold wall as she watched in front of her, seeing and feeling only void and nothingness. Jane's hand found yet again her own, and she smiled, feeling that maybe, together, they could make it.

Maybe. That was how her life had turned out. In a huge maybe.

"So… now that I'm a redhead and you are a brunette… what are we going to do?" she asked, her voice as small as it used to be when she was a child asking for a mother who wasn't any longer, alone and lost in a world she didn't understand fully.

"We still need to change clothes. And…" his eyes fell on the valley between her breasts, burning a hole on her cross. Teresa understood immediately what he was asking of her, and shaking her head, she grabbed the relic like for dear life. She wasn't going to get rid of it. it wasn't just something from her past: it was the only thing left of her maternal family. Woman had passed it, from mother to daughter, that was her legacy, from her mother and to her daughter… if she ever would have one.

"Wait, there's no need to get rid of it. I have a better idea. Just… give it to me." slowly, never stopping eye-contact, she gave the chain to Jane. the (former) gigolo took the pendant, and he tied it to a leather thread, knotting it around her right wrist as it was a bracelet; then, he took a small bag from his pants pockets, red and velvety, old-fashioned. He emptied the contents in his palm, producing three rings, two wedding bands and a solitary, that he put on the chain.

"Here." He said, tying the jewel around her neck, and putting the band on her left hand; he did the same with the other ring, and Teresa couldn't help but notice the look of pain and anguish as he slid the ring on her finger, as he put his one on; the jewel fitted perfectly the tan-line she had noticed when they had first met, evidence that it was where it used to belong.

Who are you, Patrick Jane? she wondered not for the first time. Only, this time it wasn't because she wanted to prove he was a liar and a con-artist, just a gigolo; she wanted to know it, because… because she really didn't know. Maybe it was because he was willingly to risk his life to save her, or maybe it was because those agonizing eyes told so much and so little at the same time. She wanted to cup his face, tell him everything was going to be all right, hug him, hide her head in his chest and cry, and cry, and cry… because at the end of the day, they were both just unfortunate souls marked by their own families, and as she wanted to tell him everything, she wanted to hear him out too.

They got dressed with new clothes he had somehow provided- stolen or brought, she didn't want to know- and as she put on a floral, slightly hippy number, she looked at him putting her cut hair and the dyes in a shopping bag.

"We'll take it with us and get rid of it on the road." He explained as she silently nodded; few minutes later, they were walking along the road, the old Citroen left in the parking space at the gas station, Jane's hand never reaching her own. She moved her fingers, flexing them like she was missing something, and looked at his fists, his eyes low on the ground.

They walked like that for few hours, then, when he thought there was no one around, he got closer to the cliffs on the other side of the road, and threw the bag with their old belongings and the evidence of their new change in the Ocean. They heard a car approaching, and Teresa got closer and closer to him.

"What do we do now?" she asked, gulping down a mouthful of saliva.

"Now, we pretend to be a married couple who just got in a huge fight because we went to the coast with my vintage car despite you saying it was going to leave us stuck somewhere.." he said, grinning, as he pushed her away from him. As he saw the car approaching, he went into the middle of the deserted road, and signaled for the people on board to stop, all the while Teresa stood on the side of the road, arms crossed and an annoyed expression- but with Jane, it really wasn't that hard to fake annoyance.

The car stopped, and from the window, they saw the joyful face of a middle-aged man, bald and nice. "Ehy, something's wrong?" he asked.

"Yeah. Our car didn't start after we stopped at the gas station." Jane said, as he leaned against the hood of the car, looking at the man in the eyes. "Do you mind giving us a lift to the closest town? We haven't slept the whole night and there's no reception here…"

"Yeah, I know. it's because there are the mountains just at our back. Besides, it's not like there's so many people around." The man snorted as he signaled Jane with his head to enter. "Let me guess: wife's mad'"

"Yeah, well, the wife is mad," Teresa said as she entered in the car, closing the door in Jane's face. "I told the idiot that it was time to stop acting like a damn bachelor. But no, he loves his car, he says, just as much as he loves me. and I try to tell him that maybe we could at least rent something different, because, hello? I haven't taken a week off from the office in, like, years, but did he listen to me? Of course not! He always knows better, this one! And now my feet are hurting because of you!" she ended the sentence punching him in the shoulder as soon as he was sitting at her side in the backseat, then she offered her hand to the driver, sweet and charming like only she could be. "Ehy, I'm Charlie, the idiot's wife. For now."

"Nice to meet you, Charlie. I'm Rob. And the idiot is.." Rob said as he shook hands with Jane.

"I'm Alex, and really, thank you."

They made small-talk for half an hour, then they finally arrived in a small town, and Rob left them outside an hotel. They decided to rob another car, as there was a chance the police was looking at the train stations, and that they would sleep taking turns, driving in secondary roads and switching car every day or so. They had been doing so for the next four day, and they had left California already- they were in Arizona - giving them a small advantage on the authorities, when Lisbon dared to ask him if he actually had a plan at all or they were just running in circles.

"Yes, I do, but I need a phone first." She nodded, and after an amount of time she wasn't conscious of, he stopped before a bodega, and before she realized he was gone, he was back in the car, throwing the burner in the back, carelessly. They drove again for a few smiles, switched car again and drove again until the next town, just to abandon the last vehicle and walk for a short while, sunglasses on while they pretend to be tourists, a young couple like any other, sweet and young and in love, freshly married and carefree.

In few words: the opposite of what they were in reality.

They went into a mall, and while they were having lunch- steak and salad and coffee for her, hamburger and fries and tea for him, he dialed a number he seemed to know at heart between mouthful of foods.

After a short while, somewhere at the other end should have answered, for he gave their approximate position and said yes and no a few times, before ending the call with an all right and thank you. They finished their meals, sharing a sundae, and while they were leaving he threw away the phone, careful that no one saw him, his left hand never letting it go of Teresa's fingers.

They walked for a while, went through shop after shop, bought few things they needed - the minimum indispensable - with money Lisbon didn't know how Jane had found, feeling guilty as never before. She remembered being a young girl, not a child any longer but not a woman either, and finally understanding who she was, and what her family did for a living. The shame and guilt and pain was still with her, but with time it had lessened: now, it was back full force, and she wanted to scream and hate and hit him because he was dragging her back into her past, but she couldn't. Because, after all, he was doing it to save her.

"Ehy…" he simply said, stopping and turning to look at her. She couldn't meet his eyes, and she lacked the words. She wanted to ask him what they were doing, and if he really had a plan; and if he did, was this how he had lived as a child, a young man, when he was out of the radar?

He checked the watch, and then, smiling, he grabbed her hand, but she could see there was something behind his smile. He was hunted, thigh. He was scared and worried, she could see it, and the idea wasn't comforting her. Since she had left her home as young woman, until the day they escaped, she had always been the mistress of her own destiny, had never allowed anyone, anything to hurt her, to drive her around in this or that way. She had been Detective Teresa Lisbon, a boss and a woman in command. Now? Now she was Teresa, Charlie, Sandra and many more- she had never used the same name twice- and she didn't know what to do with her life any longer. Jane was the only connection with the woman she used to be, the only chance she had to discover what was going on. It wasn't a matter of wanting to trust him: she had to.

"Let's go." They reached the dark subterranean parking lot, and Jane watched around, never letting it go of her hand, no matter what. Then, he suddenly stopped, and he left out a breath they both didn't know he was holding as the lights turned on in a car semi-hidden.

"We're safe, Teresa." He said only, as he saw a big, huge man, just a little older then him, leaving the car. With spring in his step, Jane approached the man, and hugged him, dearly, like they were dear brothers who hadn't seen each other in a long time, like their lives depended on that hug alone- and she swore Jane was actually crying, that for the second time since they met his mask was falling, leaving room to the men underneath.

"Pete, this is Teresa." Jane said as Pete looked around, making sure no one was looking at them; when he did, he opened the trunk, and touched an hidden button, revealing a hidden compartment with enough space for the two of them. "Teresa, Pete and my old friends from the carnie will help us."

She simply nodded, even if many questions were filling her mind, Is this how you escaped? How could you have lived like that? Are they really going to help us? But she kept it quiet. Instead, she simply nodded, squeezing his hand as they entered in the secret compartment. She cuddled against his side as they traveled, went away, for she didn't know how long, and his breath on her neck lulled her to sleep.

She dreamt of his hands exploring her body, of kisses on her neck and lips, and of a baby girl with blonde curls running in their arms.