A/N: Thanks to everyone for the kind reviews. If anyone has any prompts they would like me to tackle, feel free to leave it in a review. I can't promise to write anything quickly, but I'll do my best. x tromana
Title: Escape
Author: tromana
Rating: T
Characters: Lisbon/Jane
Spoilers: None
Summary: There are times when Lisbon really hates her job.
Notes: Written for the http:// jello-forever . proboards . com July '09 challenge. Prompt: Beach Time.
Disclaimer: Not mine.
Escape
Her footsteps slapped reassuringly against the warm, damp Californian sand as she pushed herself onwards.
Here, she wasn't Senior Agent Teresa Lisbon. She wasn't anyone's boss, not for a weekend, at least. Right now, she was just Teresa, taking a weekend out from her job like any normal person does.
Not that anyone can truly take a break from her line of work.
Teresa only ever ran for pleasure on the beach. She had heard from somewhere that the sand absorbed more of the shock and caused less stress to the bones in the legs. Whatever the reasons, biologically or otherwise, she simply found the noise therapeutic - especially when coupled with the orchestra of waves accompanying it.
This was it. Her escape. The perfect place to run and hide. To work through the moral dilemmas she faced on a day to day basis. She stopped and flopped down onto the sand, hugging her knees to her chest. Two kids were happily frolicking in the sea in front of her. They looked so innocent and carefree. Teresa literally couldn't remember a time when she had been without responsibility. She had killed. Again. What would their parents think if they knew their beloved children were playing in front of a murderess? The CBI could quite happily dress it up all they liked - self defence, maintenance of law and order, whatever - but boiling it down to simple facts still didn't change that she had taken the life of another human being.
It was the part she loathed about the job. The death, the destruction. It was just an extension of the carnage she'd lived through during her childhood. She thought that entering the profession would do some good, but instead pain just followed her wherever she went. Teresa knew she was good at her job and it brought about justice - there were just times she wished there was another way.
Another Monday rolled around all too quickly. Lisbon had managed to burrow away the horrendous sense of guilt over the weekend and strode into her office with an air of confidence. Jane was flaked out over his couch and she smiled as he stirred and made eye contact with her.
She barely got around to shutting the door when he was there. That man woke up far too quickly from the little sleep he obtained. He grinned as he handed her a bottle of after sun.
"Next time," he whispered gently before he stroked her burnt nose gently. "Talk to me? We don't need you punishing yourself with sunburn down the beach each time a case goes wrong."
end