Author's notes: Thank you to everyone who reviewed, followed and favorited, the first chapter. I really appreciate your support of this new little story. I hope you enjoy this chapter.
Lisbon waves them off. As Grace and Wayne's car disappear around the corner she turns and enters her home. She says it out loud:
"My home!"
She stands with her hands in her pockets in the living room, which contains her own couch, bookshelves and coffee table. Well not strictly her own, they come with the rental, but she's never had stuff so nice and she's never rented a whole house. There are cartons piled against the wall, but Wayne and Grace helped her with the main stuff, the kitchen's unpacked, her clothes, the bed's made. It's mainly books and other nic nacs that are left.
The timer pings in the kitchen signalling the pizza in the oven's ready. She'd invited the Rigsby's to stay but they had to get back, but not before a promise to come for dinner the following week, after all she had to thank them for all their work. She puts the pizza on the coffee table and places a slice on her plate and sits down cross-legged next to a carton to unpack.
She looks at her watch, it past ten, time to stop and go to bed. She hadn't meant to work so late, but the time passed quickly. She peers inside the carton she's working on, there are only a few more things, she'll finish up and then shower and go to bed.
She brings out more books, some cd's. She places the books on the bookcase and the cd's in the drawer underneath the cd player. Looking inside the carton all that's left is a pale blue square box which she picks up and sits down with it on the floor beside the packing carton. She places it on the floor and brings her knees up to her chin and stares at the box.
She'd hadn't packed this carton, a neighbour did it, she told her to just pack everything. She knows what's in the box, but she'd forgotten it was there. She doesn't understand why she still has them. She should just throw them away. She leans over and picks up the box and lifts off the lid. The smell of stale tea hits her senses as she stares at the fragments. Images of Jane flash across her mind of him holding his cup. How he loved his tea, a shadow crosses her face. Does he have tea where he is now?
She guesses it's somewhere near the ocean, he loved the water, he was always turned into a little child at the beach. At least she like to imagine that's where he is. Imagine that it's hot, lots of sun that he can bask in. Is he doing something productive with his life, or just surviving? She tells herself that she hopes he's happy, but, somewhere deep down inside that she doesn't acknowledge, there's a part of her that wants him to be missing her, wanting to come back.
She wonders if he has any idea of the mess he left behind. Not a mess of his doing, not most of it anyway, that was McCallister and Bertram's doing. They destroyed the CBI, they weakened the whole police force of California with their Blake Association. She was left without a job and without a reputation. Despite being the one who helped bring the organization to light, she was severely tainted by it, they all were, especially Jane.
The killing of McCallister wasn't seen as the death of a serial killer, at first, but a power play for control of the organization. Jane's name was held alongside McCallister's as corrupt and evil as the monster himself. The headlines tempered down a bit as the truth dribbled out, but the stink never comes out of your clothes so here she is in Washington, a County Sherriff. What would Jane make of it all.
The pain hits her heart as if hit by a baseball. She misses him. What she would give just to have him standing by her side, his scent filling her senses, his breath warming her skin. She misses his playing banter, his merciless teasing. She looks at her couch and the image of him lying there, a twinkle in his eye, a smile playing on his lips, as he teases her about the fragments in the box.
"Couldn't cope without me. I see."
Tears prick her eyes and she whispers:
"Sometimes I don't think I can…but I need to try."
She puts the lid back on the box and stands up. In the kitchen she opens the cupboard door under the sink, the trash can is full, She places the box on top of the counter.