Author's notes: Thank you to LouiseKurylo, Jane Doe51, Wolfhound159, shepweir always and Azucar for their kind reviews, it was a pleasure reading them. Here's Jane's point of view, I hope you like it. I haven't closed this story yet as I may do one more chapter.
Jane stares at the box with some trepidation. Teresa's been so excited about this present he only hopes his reaction will be satisfactory. He has no idea what's inside, only that it's important to her. He hears her urge him on and he looks at her and gives her a smile.
His breath catches as his whole body registers shock as a familiar turquoise cup is revealed. Then his pulse rate doubles and a warmth infuses his whole being, not just any cup, it's the cup, the one he left in pieces on the CBI floor.
How well he remembers that day, he'd worked out who Red John was and he had a plan forming and there was Abbott dismantling his place of operations, his work, his home, they were taking his couch! This was something he had hadn't calculated on, that they would close the agency that had uncovered the corruption that expanded all areas of law enforcement, not just the CBI. Then the cup was knocked out of his hand and as it smashed in to pieces he wondered if his plans to get Red John was doing the same. He couldn't stay there, he left immediately, with this wonderful, patient, forgiving, person sat next to him, trailing in his wake.
As he stepped inside the elevator and turned to see her there, an image flashed into his mind of this same elevator, the same concerned face. Then he'd walked out of her life for six months, he wasn't doing that again, at least not yet. He left her with the promise that he would call.
She'd collected up the pieces. He looks at her with no attempt to hide the astonishment in his features. He doesn't want to, she deserves it. He tries to speak but the words catch in his throat. He tries again.
"You kept the pieces."
She worries about whether she actually managed to confound him, when how could he ever guess such a thing. He hasn't given the cup a second thought, it was gone, just like the life he'd known. Yet, now here it is in front of him, in his hands. It's beautiful, feels just the same in his hand, like an old friend. It doesn't look exactly the same, there are tracks of where the pieces have been glued together. No it's not the same, it's better, it's beautiful.
A symbol of love, one he never expected to have in his life again, and in the quiet moments when he did contemplate it, while never actually acknowledging it to himself, he never imagined he still had a chance with the woman he'd used and abused over the years. His rock, his supporter, his sounding board, his best friend. But here he is sat outside his airstream with birthday celebrations before him and the woman who knows him better than anyone, the woman he's deeply in love with and incredibly loves him too, at his side. Staring at a cup, put back together by her, just as she'd done with him, he knows he loves her with all his being and he never wants to lose her.