Shout-Outs: TeresaLisbonCBI , Jane Doe51, Marcia Santos, Tina, and Nerwen Aldarion

Rated: T

Disclaimer:

I have to break it to you, nothing belongs to me.

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Chapter 15 – Patrick Jane

One Month Later

"Hey," Lorelei said as she sat down across from him. "I was beginning to think you wouldn't come and visit."

"I promised you that I would, didn't I?" he replied, silently taking in her appearance.

She was a former shell of the woman that he had met weeks earlier. Sadness was starting to set into her beautiful features and she looked like she had aged ten years during her first thirty-one days in prison. Soon, the bitterness that overtook most of the inmates would overtake her and she would barely recognize herself when she looked in the mirror.

"Yes, you did. I never should have doubted you," she answered, getting a far off look in her eye. "Kane always said that you kept your word. I think that it was one of the things he disliked the most about you."

"How are you?" Jane asked, ignoring her statement.

"I'm in jail, Patrick. How do you think I am?" Lorelei answered, sarcastically.

"How's the baby then?"

"She's healthy," Lorelei answered.

Jane smiled. "So, it's a she then?"

"Well, I'm hoping that it's a girl. But I don't want to know, I don't want to get attached anymore than I already have. . . I can't keep it, you know."

"I know," Jane answered, his smile faded. "I'm sorry—"

"Don't be," Lorelei interjected. "It's my own fault; I should have never gotten involved with Ray Haffner in the first place. If I could do things differently, I would."

"If you had never gotten involved with Ray Haffner in the first place then you would have never met my brother," Jane replied. "And maybe he would still be alive today, helping a serial killer commit his bloody crimes. In a way, you saved him."

"I killed him," Lorelei answered quietly. "If I had never gotten pregnant, he would still be alive today."

"Even if he were still alive right now, he'd still be working for Red John. He died doing the first noble thing in his life. That alone should bring you some comfort."

"Did Agent Lisbon feed you that crap?" Lorelei asked, smiling inspite of herself.

"Actually, she did. But that doesn't make it any less true."

Lorelei sighed deeply. The last thing that she wanted to talk about was a couple that actually got a chance to make it work. She pushed away the bitter resentment building up in her chest and folded her hands on the table, her handcuffs clinking. "I need to ask you a favor, Patrick."

Jane shook his head. "I'm sorry, but I can't do it Lorelei. It would be too painful."

"Then will you at least make sure that she gets into a good home and that they're raising her right?" Lorelei asked. "I really would like for her to at least know her uncle. . . and her aunt."

"Aunt?" Jane repeated, raising an eyebrow.

"Do it and you'll never hear from me again," Lorelei promised. "Not even when I get out of prison."

"Okay," Jane answered. "I'll do it, for Kane."

"And you'll check in on her occasionally as she grows up? You'll let her know that you love her, and that her real family always wanted her? That we always loved her and that we always wanted her?"

Jane waited for a beat and then he nodded, his heart clenching slightly. "Yes."

"You have to promise me that you'll do it," Lorelei pleaded.

"I promise," Jane conceded.

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"You were gone a while," Lisbon said, putting down the Better Homes and Gardens magazine she had been paging through. "I almost thought that you had run away."

Jane smiled inspite of himself and joined her on the couch. He pulled her into his embrace and rested his chin on her head, breathing her in. "Why would I run away when I don't have anywhere to go?"

"I'm sure that you could find somewhere to go," she replied, closing her eyes as his fingertips brushed her knuckles. "So you weren't running away. Where were you then?"

"Visiting Lorelei in prison like I promised that I would," Jane answered, moving his hand from her fingers to her shoulder.

"Oh. . ." Lisbon trailed off and released a deep breath. "Is everything. . . okay?"

"As good as it can be, I guess."

"Not very well at all," Lisbon concluded.

"She regrets a lot of things," Jane said. "She wishes that things had turned out differently."

"Everyone wishes that," Lisbon answered quietly. "But we have to make the best of the situations that life has given us."

"You do that well."

Lisbon gazed up at him and gave him strangely angled kiss. "I think that you've done a pretty good job at making the best of yoursituation."

"It's taken me a while to get here though," Jane answered, returning her awkward kiss for one of his own.

"Anyways, Lorelei. . ."

"She wanted me to take her baby after she has it," Jane replied.

"That isn't much of a shock," Lisbon said as she adjusted herself so she was more comfortable. "It makes sense that Lorelei would want her child to be with family."

"I told her that it would be too painful to do it," Jane answered. "Was it wrong to reject one of my only living family members?"

"I don't blame you for saying no," Lisbon told him gently.

"I did tell her that I'd find the baby a good family to live with and that we would visit her sometimes to let her know that we love her, that we did want her."

"So, it's a girl then?" Lisbon asked a hint of a smile in her voice.

"Lorelei seems to think it is," Jane answered. "She doesn't want to know for sure though. She's afraid that she's going to get more attached than she already is. You can't blame her. I don't think I'd want to know either."

"Everything's going to be okay," Lisbon whispered, sitting up so she could look him in the eyes.

"I know," Jane said.

"Do you?" She replied, leaning in to kiss him again. "Do you really know?"

He nodded, tangling his fingers through her hair and giving her another kiss. "Yes, I'm just struggling to really believe it."

"I'm very patient," Lisbon said earnestly.

Jane laughed. "Well, when it comes to things like this you are. I'm not sure about the rest of the time though."

Lisbon playfully punched him in the arm, thankful that the tension that had followed Jane into her apartment was starting to ebb away. "Are you hungry?" she asked. "Because I was thinking we could go and grab some dinner if you're up to it."

"Dinner would be great," Jane answered, rising to his feet and pulling her with him.

He knew it wasn't the end of the discussion. That it would still take a while to get over his brother's death, and the fact that he didn't get to see Red John die first hand. But things were getting easier; he was realizing that life did indeed go on. And against all odds, he was moving on. Learning how to recreate a life outside of revenge, the deaths of his family, and a serial killer that had dictated his every move. . . his every decision.

The soulful looks, the kisses, and the nights he and Lisbon shared together weren't colored by darkness anymore. He could love and be loved freely again. His laughter was genuine, his sorrow not as great.

For the first time in the better part of a decade, he wasn't doing everything in him to kill off the good in his life. He could get close to somebody again without the fear of losing them.

For the first time in a better part of a decade, he was truly happy.

_The End_

Author's Note:

That's all I have. I hope that you enjoyed this story. I'm still trying to work on the alternate chapter to 14, but I can't promise that it'll be finished before I leave for the beach on Saturday. In the meantime, tell me what you thought about this chapter. It was a real struggle to write for me.

Love,

Holly, 6/26/2013_