Alright here's the last chapter I'm sorry it kind of rambles on I wasn't sure how I wanted to end it. So I hope you enjoyed it, I know I had quite a bit of fun writing it. So please read and review, and as usual I don't own anything.
I opened the door just as slowly, looking from the smiley on the wall to the body on the floor. It was almost poetic that he was lying under his own smile. I went over and picked up my gun and stuck it back inside my vest. It had been sitting in that pocket ever since Lassiter called, and now I can go put it back in my perch where it would stay forever. I felt two other things in my pocket, one was the letter, and the other was a small box.
The small box reminded me of the promise I had made myself, a promise I had never really forgotten, while at the same time starting to doubt that I would ever get a chance to fulfill.
"What are you doing up here all by yourself?" Lisbon asked peeking in the door.
"Thinking." I didn't look at her but I could feel her come all the way into the room and close the door behind her.
"About what?" She was right beside me now.
"The future." I smiled, I could finally say I had a future.
"You really must be a mind reader, because I was thinking about the same thing." She wrapped her arms around my waist. "You haven't taken his mask off yet." She stated as a look of concern crossed her face.
"It doesn't matter, who he is. He's dead now, and you and Juliet are both alive." I stated, looking down at the body on the ground, and the red face on the wall. "It's almost poetic that he died under his own smiley face."
"Do you think he planned it that way? He made it kind of easy to catch him." She followed my gaze to the body.
"I think so," I nodded, She didn't need to know that he had been planning on killing her just to send me back into my depression that it had taken me so long to finally break free of.
"Patrick I need to tell you something." She let go of me and backed away. "Well I was going to tell you sooner but I didn't know how you were going to react, and then Detective Lassiter called you, I knew I couldn't tell you then." She started rambling, she was so adorable, "I just have to say it." I nodded but remained silent. "This would be so much easier if you could actually read my mind." She groaned, looking from me to the ground.
I pulled her close and smiled, "You're pregnant." I laughed, she looked up at me with a frown, "Teresa I've known probably almost as long as you've known."
"Why didn't you say anything then." She frowned, pulling away.
"I was waiting for you to say it." I answered, trying again to pull her close, but she backed away.
"How did you know?" She was frustrated, but I think it was more with herself for not realizing I had known this whole time.
"I did have a pregnant wife once before." I sighed, giving up on trying to get a hug. "You were more moody that usual, you spent some extra time in the bathroom every morning, oh and you're shooting at the range has been off." She looked at me as if deciding whether or not my reasons were good enough. "But it's my turn to tell you something."
"Do I want to hear it?" She groaned, I smiled, but reached into my vest pocket and pulled out that little box. Right there in the room where my wife and daughter were murdered, where I had just shot and killed their murderer I got down on one knee and looked up into her face.
"Teresa Lisbon, will you marry me."
"Patrick?!" She starred at the ring I was holding out to her. "When did you get that?" was all she could say.
"I asked you first." I smiled, not getting up.
"Yes, yes of course." She smiled back at me as I slid the ring on to her finger, before getting up and pulling her close. Right there in the room where I had lost my family I was getting ready to start a new one. "You still haven't answered my question."
"Well when you turned down that emerald necklace I needed to find something to spend my money on." I smiled.
"That was over five years ago." She answered, hanging onto me.
"I know." I whispered before gently kissing her lips.
"What took you so long?" She pulled away before kissing me back.
"I had some unresolved business to take care of." I answered.
"We should do something about the body." She stated, but didn't pull away. "Call the police or something to get rid of it."
"You are the police." I replied.
"I meant a medical examiner or someone like that." She corrected with a grin.
"I'm sure the team will be here soon enough to take care of it." I answered.
"What about Juliet? Don't you want to go make sure she's okay?" She wondered.
"Am I really so unbearable to kiss that you need to think of these excuses?" I smiled, finally letting go of her.
"You really are a mind reader." She said for the second time tonight. I backed away and feigned hurt, making her laugh. "You know what we haven't done yet?" She asked.
"Called the team to tell them what happened." I shrugged.
"Again with the mind reading." She smiled, "I'll call Cho and the guys you call Detective Lassiter." Suddenly she was all business, so I just went along with it. I followed her out of the room and back downstairs.
"Spencer what's going on? What happened?" Lassiter practically yelled through the phone. I could here cars in the background, he was still on the interstate.
"Juliet's alive, she's in the hospital, bruised but alive." I answered, I could hear a sigh of relief on the other end, and then he passed the information on to whoever he was in the car with.
"And what about you and Agent Lisbon?" He asked, as more of an afterthought.
"We're alright." I assured, "and Red John is dead." There was no response on the other end for a couple minutes.
"Are you sure?" He needed to know.
"I'm sure." I grinned.
"Okay, well Scott is with me. Chief Vick is in the other car with Cho, Rigsby, and Van Pelt, we'll all be there in about a half an hour." He explained.
"Meet us at the hospital Teresa and I will finish things up here." I told him. He agreed, and we both hung up. I wandered into the living room where Lisbon was no longer on the phone with Cho, but had taken up the task of calling the local cops to come take care of the body. So I decided to walk back into the kitchen and make myself a cup of tea, along with searching the near empty kitchen for some coffee for Lisbon.
By the time she joined me her coffee was ready and I could hear sirens in the distance. "What did you tell the police?" I wondered.
"That we had the body of a serial killer here, and that the victim had already been taken to the hospital." She explained, taking a sip of the coffee I handed her. "I told the others to meet us at the hospital."
"I told Lassiter the same thing." I nodded, as the police started coming in the door.
"Agent Lisbon?" The man in charge asked, looking more than a little confused at the petite women in front of him with a mug of coffee in her hand. "You said there was a body here."
"Upstairs in the room at the end of the hall." She answered, taking another sip from her mug. The man was so startled by her lack of concern.
"And do you know who killed him?" He questioned.
"Oh that would be me." I cut in offering my hand for him to shake. If I thought he looked confused before it was nothing compared to now.
"Excuse me." He stated.
"He was pulling a gun on me, and had another women unconscious in the room." Lisbon clarified. The officer thought we were putting him on our something, but went upstairs with the other officers anyway. "What was his problem?" She frowned taking a sip from her mug.
"He was confused because we were so calm about there being a dead guy upstairs." I laughed.
"Oh my god, the smiley face on the wall." The officer came running down the stairs. "I thought you said you killed that man. The smiley face."
"The smiley face is dried on the wall from over eight years ago." I answered setting my tea down. "The body on the ground is the man that put it there."
"That body is Red John?" He looked from Lisbon to myself in shock.
"Yes he is, and I shot him dead." I answered picking my cup back up. "We're willing to make our statements, but we do have to get to the hospital soon." From there it took us about twenty minutes to explain what happened.
"Can we get a ride to the hospital?" Lisbon asked one of the officers nearest us.
"Teresa, we have a ride remember." I grinned.
"Oh no, not that again." She whined.
"Well we can't just leave it there." I retorted pulling her out the door and down the block to where we left the bike.
"You're killing me." She smiled as I placed a kiss on the top of her head before putting the helmet on for her. I laughed, and helped her onto the bike before taking off down the street. She started screaming again, only this time it was different there was excitement and joy in her voice.
"What are the guys going to think of you?" I laughed, glancing at her over my shoulder. "Screaming from the back of a motorcycle with that ring on your finger."
"Oh shit what will we tell the team?" She worried, laying her head on my back.
"Let them figure it out on their own." I shrugged, pulling the motorcycle into the hospital parking lot. As a large SUV pulled in behind us, and a smaller navy car followed that one. I couldn't help but laugh even harder as I parked the bike.
"Oh my God boss!" Van Pelt shrieked jumping out of the SUV and running toward where Lisbon was taking off her helmet. "Where did you get the motorcycle?"
"Spencer I can't believe you still have that thing." Lassiter commented, looking at the ancient bike. "I thought Juliet made you get rid of it when you where dating."
"Yeah I didn't." I shrugged. "But we can discuss the things I did and didn't do later." I saw Scott standing by the car, and decided to lead the way into the hospital. "We're looking for Juliet Seaver." I told the lady at the counter.
"Are you family?" The nurse asked.
"He is," I pointed to Scott, "And their cops." I added motioning to the rest of the party.
"Right this way." The nurse nodded, I followed while listening to the conversation taking place behind me.
"Did you really ride six and a half hours on the back of a motorcycle?" Van Pelt asked. I knew Cho and Rigsby were listening as well.
"That's not what I want to know?" Rigsby interrupted. "Is he really dead?"
"He's dead." I turned around, to face all of them. "He's finally dead." I watched as relief, then concern, and then relief again crossed all of their faces.
"Juliet!" Scott rushed passed us all to Juliet's bedside. I stayed outside the room with Lassiter, chief Vick, Van Pelt, Rigsby, Cho, and Teresa. We watched as Scott sat at Juliet's bedside getting her what ever she asked for. After a little while Lassiter and Chief Vick went in too.
"You should be in there." Teresa stated, holding my hand.
"I would just be intruding." I shook my head.
"You saved her life." She tried.
"I'm also the reason she was taken in the first place." I responded, but at the same time Scott came out.
"Mr. Jane, thank you for saving my wife." He came over and shook my hand.
"Of course." I nodded.
"Please you can come in and talk to her." He invited.
"I don't want to intrude." I stepped away.
"No, you couldn't possibly be intruding." He smiled, so I grabbed Teresa's hand and dragged her in with me.
"Patrick, I thought you were to afraid or something." Juliet teased, sitting up in her bed.
"Afraid, of course not." I laughed, looking around the room realizing this was the first time Juliet, Lassiter, Chief Vick, and I had been in the same room together in seventeen years, the same thought must have just crossed Juliet's mind because she was looking at the four of us while glancing at Scott and Teresa as an after thought. "How are you feeling?"
"Much better." She smiled. "How about you?"
"I feel like a weight has been lifted." I decided.
"Was it easier than the first time." She questioned.
"I didn't have time to think about it this time." I stated.
"I don't want to know when last time was do I?" Chief Vick frowned.
"Probably not." Lassiter stated.
"Oh I took your advice." Juliet looked at me.
"What advice would that be?" I smiled at her.
"The last time we saw each other, you said if it was a boy we should name it something." She prompted, and I couldn't help it my smile grew.
"You had a boy." I celebrated, walking over and kissing her on the cheek, "Congratulations!"
"Yes and we named him Shawn." Scott stated, he realized he was missing something, but still really unsure of what that was.
"He knows." Juliet smiled watching only me.
"Shawn was the guy who helped you out of witness protection, so you could come find your sweet heart." I nodded remembering that day clearly.
"How did you know that?" He asked, looking at me, and then at everyone else in the room.
"Well you were pretty hard to track down, and my friend didn't tell me I was tracking down the ex boyfriend of the girl I so desperately wanted to date." I replied.
"Your Shawn?" He questioned, looking me up and down. "In that case I owe you a huge thanks for so many reasons. First for getting me out of the program, second for leaving Juliet for me, and third for saving her life."
"Not a problem, well two of the three weren't anyway." I nodded to him. I could feel Teresa grabbing my hand again, it was nice to know that I had someone to.
"Wait a minute!" Juliet shrieked.
"What?" We all turned at once.
"Is that a ring on your finger Agent Lisbon?" She kept shrieking, I didn't even have to look to know that Teresa was blushing as I pulled her close to me.
"Well you know what they say Spencer, third times a charm." Lassiter teased.
"Carlton!" Chief Vick scolded.
"He's alright chief." I laughed, "I'm not running, and I'm going to do everything in my power to keep my mouth shut."
"Yea that's not happening." Juliet smiled.
"You haven't been able to keep your mouth closed for more than fifteen seconds since the day we met." Lassiter stated.
"The first time we met you got punched in the face because you couldn't keep your mouth shut." Teresa reminded.
"I guess some things never change." Chief Vick smiled.
"Don't listen to her, she's glad I got punched in the face because that led to her having to drag me everywhere with her the whole day. Which led to me getting hired as a consultant." I interjected.
"Which led to the most stressful nine years of my life." Teresa teased.
"I know that feeling." Chief Vick agreed, getting a nod from both Lassiter and Juliet.
"I see how it is I go through the heroic act of slaying a serial killer and then it becomes pick on Patrick hour." I retorted faking offended. Being in there company had almost made me say Shawn, but in actuality that's not who I am any more. I had to grow up, Shawn would never have grown up given the opportunity.
"Hey Boss," Cho came in, "Director Bertram here he wants to talk to you and Jane."
"We'll be right out." She answered, she waited for him to leave before turning back to the group of people. "It was nice to see you, I guess we have to go for now."
"Shawn!" Juliet called before letting me leave with Teresa. "I mean Patrick. You are going to come back to Santa Barbara sometime aren't you? I'm sure my son would love to meet his namesake."
"I'll come whenever I'm called." I nodded, "Or maybe I'll just show up sometime."
"Your always welcome." Scott added shaking my hand.
"Well then good bye for now." I smiled, following Teresa out of the room to where Bertram was standing in the center of the waiting room. He looked incredibly tired and very annoyed to be awake right now.
"Good morning Director." I grinned, noticing the clock behind him realizing for the first time that it was one in the morning.
"Please tell me the rumors are true and that I did not get dressed at one in the morning because of some stupid rumor." He groaned, looking from Teresa to myself.
"Yes the rumors are true, I proposed to Agent Lisbon." I watched, as Teresa blushed for probably the hundredth time in the past twenty-four hours.
"What, no not that rumor, I didn't even know that was a rumor." He shook his head, he was obviously not awake yet. "Is Red John dead?" He declared.
"Oh yes that's true as well." I nodded.
"And you shot him?" He questioned.
"Yes sir, but I was protecting two lives, well three if your counting my own, but I have a feeling he wasn't trying to kill me." I answered, "And it was a registered gun."
"For once he did everything by the book." Teresa agreed. "It was in self defense."
"Well then I better alert the media, because this is going to be one of the biggest stories of the decade. The media is going to want to talk to both of you." He warned.
"Well I'm not to big on talking to the media." I reminded.
"You just killed the most dangerous serial killer in two decades, your going to talk to the media." Bertram warned. "Oh and we will talk about what new team you get assigned to this afternoon."
"Excuse me?" Teresa and I questioned at the same time.
"Well no relationships with in a team." He reminded.
"No offense director but if I'm not working with agent Lisbon, I'm not working with the CBI." I responded, "You know after this news story breaks I think I might find someone else who wants to hire me."
"You behave and talk to the press. You stay on her team." He warned, "Any mistakes…" He started, but stopped he knew that if I left all the good press the CBI would get for stopping Red John would disappear as well.
"Don't worry, we'll behave." I teased, as he walked away. "Now my darling why don't we ride off into the rising sun on my trusty steed."
"If you mean a twenty year old motorcycle, I think I'll ride back to Sacramento with the team." She smiled. "But on the other hand they'll be asking a whole bunch of annoying questions."
I smiled as we walked out to the parking lot. Pulling out of the parking lot I realized, I was truly happy. Everything had worked out, and now I was riding into the sunrise with my bride to be. It was kind of romantic, that was until we pulled on the interstate and she started screaming again.
"I love you Teresa Lisbon." I smiled, tilting my head back so she could hear me.
"I love you to Patrick Jane." She answered leaning forward and kissing me.
