A/N: I've decided that this story needs an epilogue, so you can expect one more chapter after this one. Thank you again to everyone for your kind reviews. I appreciate them so much.
The usual disclaimer applies.
Teresa glances up when she notices movement in her peripheral vision and sees Patrick opening the door to her office, balancing two cups in one hand.
She stands, for once somewhat relieved by the distraction, and goes over to help him. She takes the coffee with a soft "Thanks, Jane."
"I have something I need to talk to you about," he says, sitting down on the couch and cradling the teacup in his hands.
Those hands. Teresa blinks and forces herself to focus on his words. She frowns. "If this is about another complicated scheme to catch a criminal, I don't want to hear it."
Patrick chuckles. "No, not right now. This is much more important."
Teresa raises an eyebrow. He pats the seat next to him and she goes over to it and sits down. She takes a careful sip of her coffee and tries to not let her actions betray the fact that being this close to him gives her a rush so strong she sometimes wonders if she should dial back the caffeine a little. It started all those years ago at the carnival, and since his re-entry into her life, has not abated. If anything, it's grown stronger now that she's realised how much she really wants to be with him.
And she has realised that. She wants to be with this man; this broken, scarred, playful bordering on immature, scheming, manipulative, perfect, perfect man.
She isn't quite sure in what capacity she wants to be with him, but she knows, absolutely, that she doesn't want him to leave her life again. And maybe not right now, but some day, perhaps after the Red John case has been closed, she hopes that she could take another risk to become more than just his friend.
Patrick stands quickly, takes one last sip of his tea and puts the cup down on the table.
He flops playfully back onto the couch next to Teresa and turns to face her. He reaches towards her, takes her hand and turns it over, an object now lying in it that seems to have appeared out of the blue.
She smiles briefly at the sleight of hand, but then she registers what is lying in her palm and her eyes widen, her face a mixture of disbelief and questioning and the beginnings of hope.
It is the necklace that she gave to him before the carnival left almost fifteen years ago.
"You kept it? Through – during – everything?" Teresa asks, her voice scarcely above a whisper.
"I did. Although, this doesn't mean that I didn't love Angela. On the contrary, I loved her as much as it is possible for a man to love a woman. I allowed myself to keep this necklace because I didn't think I would ever see you again. I had put the attraction that I felt for you aside, but I kept this because I didn't want to forget your friendship. I didn't want to forget you. We only shared that friendship for a short time, but it was one of the most meaningful and special things I have ever experienced."
Teresa feels tears beginning to prick at her eyelids and she blinks hurriedly. Now is not the time to start crying, no matter how long she has been waiting to hear Patrick say those words.
"So you do remember me," she says, her voice shaking a little. She's not sure why she asked, as the fact he has kept the necklace is certainly proof enough of that. She's just struggling to forget how completely indifferent he seemed when they were first reunited.
His eyes soften and he reaches forward to give her a quick hug. "Of course I do, Teresa. I could never forget those beautiful, spell-binding eyes," he says when he pulls away.
She snorts and gives him a playful shove, and then makes sure to put her coffee down at a safe distance away from them. If there are to be sudden hugs from Patrick in her future, she needs to be prepared.
"What? It's true!" he exclaims, pretending to be insulted.
Then his face sobers and he looks at her intently. "But we're straying a little from the point. I came to your office today to ask you something. I know it's probably going to be an odd proposition, and we're going to have to figure out a lot of things as we go along, but... Teresa, when the carnival left I thought I wouldn't ever see you again, and now that I have, everything I felt for you when we first met is coming back. I know I can't promise you very much at this point, and I don't really have much of a plan in mind, but..."
Teresa leans forward and grips his forearms, the necklace still in her hand, now pressed tightly between her fingers and Patrick's jacket. "You're rambling a bit," she says gently, trying not to laugh at this unusual display of nerves.
He smiles. "Sorry. You sort of have that effect on me. Did you know that when I first saw you I almost walked right into you?"
"Yeah, I noticed," she answers drily, but then she gives him a small smile. "What are you trying to say, Patrick?" she asks.
He takes a deep breath. "I know I have a lot of healing to do still, but maybe after Red John we could... pick up where we left off, or get to know each other again; get to know each other better this time."
He stops talking with a somewhat desperate expression in his eyes and there is a moment of silence while Teresa considers his words.
He has pretty much just offered her everything that she could have ever hoped for from him. All she has to do now is accept it.
"Okay," Teresa answers after a while, and rubs her thumb over the fabric covering his arm.
Patrick realises only then that she never let go of him. He swallows and tries not to dwell on the implications of that fact for too long, as doing so would erase any shred of confidence he has to say what he is going to say next.
"But you're under no obligation to accept; I know that I am not exactly offering you a conventional relationship," he says. He knows that he needs to allow her to not choose him, but he hopes with everything in him that she will.
"No, it's okay, I want to," she says firmly, but then smiles a little. "I've rather surprised myself to be honest; I don't think that this is something I would usually consider doing, but I think that we could have something really special here. I felt that... connection with you when we first met and I still believe that it is something worth exploring further. Besides, I like you."
Here, she pauses and her hands move higher, curling around his upper arms and holding him tightly before she continues.
"The way you are. Patrick, I hope that you won't ever feel like you're not enough for me, because that isn't true. You have always been enough and you still are enough and I want to be your friend. I really do. I know things are not going to be easy, but I want to try. We'll work through this," she motions to the two of them, "whatever this is, together."
When he hears her words, Patrick joins her in a smile so wide it starts to hurt his face. He moves closer and pulls her into his arms. This embrace is far more intimate than the others, but still gentle enough that neither of them need fear that things are moving too quickly.
Teresa flushes to the roots of her hair after saying what she did and being rewarded by this hug from Patrick. She doesn't know what the future holds for them, but she wants it – and more of these hugs – so badly.
She's just a bit surprised that her longing to be with him has become a possibility so quickly. She had almost resigned herself to the fact that Patrick Jane was a beautiful memory from her past and that he would stay there. Now to find that he is back in her life, vibrantly and vehemently by the looks of things – and that she could work towards a real relationship with him – well, it has just overwhelmed her a little.
But it is the best feeling. She will gladly stay in this state of overwhelming, dizzying happiness for as long as he chooses to be the source of it.
"Are you okay?" Patrick asks gently when he releases her enough to see her face again.
Teresa glances away for a moment, suddenly shy, and then she looks back into his eyes and says, "I'm just really happy."
He grins and reaches up to brush his hand over her cheek. "Me too, my dear."
After a moment he takes the necklace from her fingers and stands up. He goes to the other side of the couch so that he can stand behind her, gently moves her hair away from her neck, and fastens the chain around it. The emerald hangs slightly lower than her cross and she puts her fingers to her chest, feeling both near her heart. She turns to look at Patrick and he drops into a crouch in front of her, his hands resting on her knees.
"Consider this a promise," he says, looking into her eyes. "The one thing that I can promise you right now. I'm giving this back to you because I intend to never permanently leave you again. I don't know where we're going to go from here or how the Red John story will play out. I don't know exactly how we'll go about navigating this... thing between us, but I want to promise you that no matter how long it takes to figure things out, I am not going anywhere. And if I do have to go somewhere, I promise to come back."
Teresa hears his sincerity, and the beauty of what he has just promised makes her heart swell with love for him. When he joins her on the couch again, she curls up into his side and rests her head on his shoulder.
"Promise accepted," she answers quietly.
He finds her hand, laces their fingers together, and they sit in comfortable silence for a while.
Then Patrick speaks again. "I will always remember you, Teresa."
She smiles. "I know."