Later that week, Jane found himself in the unlikely position of officiating a wedding in Napa. The team had taken on a case there - in part so Jane and Lisbon could discreetly vet McAllister's behaviors as a possible 'Red John' - And in the process a young couple's wedding had been thrown off track. Feeling slightly guilty about that, and being more curious than ever about the sheriff's intentions, the consultant had offered his services; allowing the wedding to go on as planned, and allowing the team's investigation to continue in the background.
"You are not legally ordained," Lisbon chuckled, giving Jane a playful shove.
"It's true! I could marry you off in a minute," he sparkled; his heart barely controlling its impassioned thumping at the thought of his partner as a bride.
"Oh please," she teased, struggling a bit with her own emotions as they bubbled over obnoxiously within her.
With delight, Jane crowed to the team in the bullpen: "Pack your bags everyone! We're headed to Napa!"
Lisbon was suddenly aware of surprised looks focusing on her from every desk; suspended in wait for her response of denial or confirmation. She stifled a smirk of amusement; her team was not used to orders coming from Jane – at least not before she'd had a say. With pride for her team's disciplined hesitation, she answered their tacit question: "Do what he says – it's true," she nodded decisively, setting off a flurry of activity toward the exits.
"You're adorable," Jane murmured close to her ear as he made his way past.
"Hush," Lisbon backhanded his arm in playful correction – absolutely refusing to blush.
The next day, the team were in wine country; setting up shop on the grounds of the charming wedding chapel and event center. Despite an occasional amateurish air, Patrick did indeed manage to wed the bride and groom in Napa. The eagle-eyed consultant couldn't help but notice during the proceedings that the bride's father had secured a priceless, historic bible for use at his daughter's nuptials. Jane suddenly had a clear picture of just how the bride's uncle had ended up dead. With a glance and a nod to Lisbon, he began plotting even as the couple kissed and the crowd applauded.
After the ceremony, Lisbon and Jane huddled in the back as the team oversaw the transition to the reception and the securing of the high-value bible.
"So, what are you thinking?" Lisbon inquired in a low voice.
"I'm thinking that bible should be in a museum rather than around cantankerous in-laws."
Teresa nodded in agreement. "You think that's what got Uncle Larry killed?"
"Could be. Between having both families at each other's throats, Larry's love of alcohol, and paying for a wedding in Napa I can think of lots of reasons someone might have tried to make off with the book."
"So, what's the plan?"
"Everyone knows we're investigating Larry's murder, and they also know the suspect pool is quite small. The only way out is to slip away during the height of distraction…"
"The reception," Teresa nodded.
"Exactly, my dear." This collaborative planning was going perfectly, Jane glowed.
The partners gathered the team and walked together to the event space. As they travelled, they discussed the strategy:
"So, we'll give it a couple hours, and if no one has left the reception by then we'll need to create a distraction – hopefully coaxing their hand," Jane shared.
Rigsby's eyes suddenly glimmered with an idea: "I can take care of that… the distraction, I mean."
"You sure?" Lisbon confirmed.
"Absolutely," Wayne cheered.
"Excellent!" Jane grinned, patting the man on the back. "I'll join in the party for a bit, but then I'll wander back over to the chapel and lie in wait. The guilty party wants to escape BUT they also want that bible. My guess is they'll make one last attempt at grabbing it on their way out."
The team agreed, and fanned out into the dancing throngs of wedding guests.
"Nothing is happening," Teresa grumbled after the two-hour limit had produced no suspects.
"Patience, Lisbon. Let Rigs know to go ahead with his distraction; I'll head over to the chapel."
Teresa nodded and gestured to Rigsby – who immediately downed a glass of spiked punch and grabbed the DJ's microphone.
Jane was suddenly very curious, so lingered by the exit with an amused look of suspense on his face as his colleague got the crowd's attention. He had a guess what Wayne's play might be, and had to see for himself.
"You might find each other again. But after so much time, there's too much heartache and too much history to ever find that magic again – or so I thought," Rigsby gleamed as he proceeded to surprise Grace with a marriage proposal, taking a knee to declare his love in front of the party.
Jane's chest heaved. Wayne's words about 'too much time' hit too close to home after the nightmare the consultant had last week. Feeling himself spiraling from joy into melancholy, Patrick waved quickly to Lisbon and left to surveil the chapel.
Lisbon's eyes snapped quickly back to the newly-betrothed agents, shining with emotion as she applauded their engagement. For a moment she found herself wishing for her own fairytale wedding; immediately feeling ridiculous for allowing such thoughts to enter her strong-willed, independent head. The senior agent quickly dried her cheeks with a jacket sleeve and looked around uncomfortably - just in time to catch the bride's cousin, Charlie, sneaking out the side door. "I've got movement," she spoke into her wrist microphone, emotions firmly in check. "Cho, meet me and Jane in the chapel."
Lisbon got to the sanctuary first, arriving to see Jane moping quietly in the darkened pews.
"Hey," she put a concerned hand on his shoulder.
"Hey," Patrick's expression reset with a start; all evidence of his malaise replaced by his trademark smile – right as Charlie was tiptoeing his shadowy way toward the million-dollar bible.
Cho walked in just in time to hear the man confess to Jane on the front platform of the church. Kimball foresaw what came next but he couldn't get his words out fast enough: "Jane, back away!"
A beat too late, Jane tried to escape, but was taken at gunpoint to the belfry and forced onto the rooftop while Lisbon and Cho attempted to chase.
Jane was struggling to focus on his balance while simultaneously talking down the gunman, when his concentration was jolted by a voice booming from rooftop behind:
"Hey!" shouted the weaselly voice of Thomas McAllister, accompanied by a gunshot knocking Charlie from the roof. The sheriff grinned eerily as Jane fell, fearfully dangling from the topmost shingles of the roof. McAllister climbed up quickly, slithering toward Jane while cussing under his breath about catching his hand on a stray nail. "Don't look down. It's a bad place for the spins," he hissed with laughter before pulling Jane to his feet and ushering him safely to the belfry.
Lisbon reached the top step just in time to see Jane parting ways with the sheriff.
"Bats in the belfry… how cliché…" Jane mused morosely after McAllister left.
"I'll say," Lisbon looked at her partner with worry. "What'd he want?"
"He… saved me…" Jane looked more spooked by that than he might have been, had the man tried to push him to his death.
Lisbon had no response. With knitted brow, she guided her shaken partner back to the reception to meet with the team.
Returning to the event space after his rooftop scuffle, Patrick's mind was reverberating with the memory of Wayne's proposal speech. Rigsby's words were frightfully on point with the fears Patrick had been harboring ever since his 'paradise lost' nightmare. Tonight, after being held at gunpoint by Charlie, along with his perilous rooftop conversation with Sheriff McAllister, life seemed more fleeting than ever; and the dream had showed what could happen if he didn't respect that fact. The consultant was growing frequently more tempted to daydream about a future with Teresa.
Conversely, alarms were going off in his mind about Red John: if McAllister was the one, then maybe all of this was a setup to force his hand with Lisbon; tricking him into making a grand gesture towards her that would cement the target he already feared was on her back. The smiley face painted on her had been a tease and a warning.
"So, hey - you missed all the excitement before!" Lisbon's voice interrupted his worries as she stopped their progress to grab a cookie.
"I did?!" Jane was incredulous. "Did you not see me on the roof just now? THAT was some excitement!"
Teresa shook her head; she hadn't seen a thing. "You were on the ROOF?!"
"I was," he grinned proudly at his own heroics. "Forced onto the shingled ridge by our murder suspect - and nearly fell to my death at one point." Jane's pride fell into pale fear at the memory.
"What?!" Lisbon gasped, and she gripped his jacket sleeve tightly.
"It's okay," he reassured, "and I'm fine…" Patrick quickly surveyed the crowd before leaning closer to share: "but the sheriff is the only reason I'm still alive right now."
"That's weird; what do you mean?" Lisbon asked, turning her head a bit in suspicious thought.
"I mean that I was dangling, losing my grip, when McAllister grabbed my hand and pulled me back up. Then he walked me safely back to the belfry. The whole thing was surreal and strange; I've never sensed such a simultaneous juxtaposition of care and suspicious disdain from a person."
"Told you; man crush," Lisbon joked without laughing.
"Yeah," Jane said flatly, "terrific."
Teresa didn't like the dark cloud she saw forming in her partner's mind. "We'll figure it out, Jane. And we have time; looks like we're staying in Napa a couple more days," she grinned wide, gesturing to Grace and Wayne.
"Really?! I caught the proposal but didn't realize!"
"Yeah - Rigsby said they'd waited long enough so wanted to take the plunge right here in Napa this weekend."
"It's understandable," Jane's eyes grew painfully sincere, "waiting is so very hard when it comes to matters of the heart…"
Lisbon's eyes got a little bit shiny as she glanced to the side, clearly touched. "Yes, it is," she breathed.
Shyly, Jane glanced down at his hands, immediately noticing something surprising and significant: There on the hem of his cuff was a bloody smear. McAllister had grumbled about catching his hand on a nail, hadn't he? Patrick worked quickly to access the memory of seeing the man's bleeding hand grab that very spot as he'd pulled him to safety. "Speaking of excitement; look at my shirt sleeve Lisbon!"
His partner grew alarmed: "Oh my god, are you bleeding?! Did he try to-"
"I'm fine Teresa," his eyes were buzzing with enthusiasm. "It's not my blood! It's his!"
She gasped, "You mean…?!"
Still excited, but leaning closer for privacy, Jane whispered with barely controlled anticipation: "Yes! Now we can do a test to prove my theory about your secret documents!"
"That's great!" Lisbon whispered back - through a frozen perma-grin, in case anyone was watching. In a low voice she charged: "we'll need to find an independent lab, obviously."
"Obviously," Jane cheered, covering the ominous tone in his partner's words with typical aplomb and control. Inside, though, he was unsteady: filled with dread about the need to find a lab that was both trustworthy and also out of Red John's sphere of influence - which seemed to be growing by the day; but also growing daily was the level of hope in Jane's heart. He eyed his partner with gentle care and tenderness. Soon, he dared to hope.
The next day, Jane's swooning, melancholy mood continued to swing like a pendulum as he quietly peeked in on the spontaneous Rigsby wedding. He wanted to soak in the celebratory joy and felt an almost familial obligation to be present. But he also did not want to be noticed; fearing he may be cornered into uncomfortable conversations about his own wedding, or that he might burst into tears of grief, ruining his friends' long awaited 'big day.'
"No more wasted time; I want to spend every day with you" Wayne spoke to his glowing bride with breathless affection.
Patrick lingered only a moment more, before slipping away to the quiet, grassy courtyard; sinking privately into his own feels… memories of Angela… their wedding day… his failings… He was overwhelmingly glad for Wayne and Grace; they had been dancing around their mutual adoration for years. But he was touched by more personal thoughts too: A tender nudge of honesty about who he now wanted to be with every day … the woman in his present life whom he never wanted to fail… twists in his stomach about the wasted time he'd foreseen in his dreams...
During the ceremony, Teresa had seen her partner out of the corner of her eye. She was caught up in the joy of the moment, happy that her friends could officially claim each other at last. But when she smiled to the doorway where Jane had just stood, he was gone. A lump formed in her throat… all these weddings might bring up painful memories for the man. She immediately wished she was with him to provide comfort or distraction if he needed it. But right now, Grace and Wayne needed her more; and not just as a witness - she had one of the rings! So, she put her worries about Jane to the back of her mind, planning to find him after the bridal farewell.
Once the newlyweds had been escorted away, Teresa searched the meadow near the property; she had an idea where Jane may have gone… Soon, she smiled with relief and self-congratulation upon seeing a familiar silhouette standing at the precipice, looking thoughtfully into the beyond.
"Hey."
"Hey!" He smiled with pleasant surprise, pulling his partner into a brief embrace.
"You okay?"
"Yeah… I'm happy for those two, and it's such a beautiful day for a wedding, but it's a little… I mean…"
"I understand. Weddings must be kind of hard to take," she peered into his distant eyes with great care.
Teresa's supposition was partially correct, but that wasn't the only reason for Jane's melancholy mood. He needed her to understand the full breadth of what was playing on his mind… 'No more secrets,' he had told her. Patrick broke from his distant gaze and looked deeply into his partner; time to put his money where his mouth was:
"That's part of it, Lisbon, but the truth is, that-"
"Still investigating, eh?" The sheriff interrupted, surprising the partners. "Woulda thought you city mice would be home by now?"
"Sheriff McAllister," Jane straightened into a neutral posture and feigned a confident smirk, doing his best to erase any emotion from his face. "Surprised us! Hunting again, are you?" He joked cordially to cover his alarm, but there was an undercurrent of warning in his tone.
"Ha! No hunting today - just doing one more sweep of the property after such an unusual weekend."
"It has been that," Lisbon agreed with a cop-to-cop nod.
"Well, you two have a safe trip home now!"
"Thank you!" Jane waved, wearing the cheery smile he always wore when he was faking confidence.
"That was weird," Lisbon said quietly, once the Sheriff was out of earshot.
"No kidding; uncanny timing… suspicious, even," Jane agreed.
"But hey, about the other thing: what were you saying? The truth is…?"
"Ah yes, that," he smiled as his eyes anxiously surveyed their surroundings. "Let's finish the conversation elsewhere."
Lisbon nodded with understanding, "Good idea; let's go."
The partners walked quickly back to the room Lisbon had booked once she'd realized the team were extending their stay. When the door closed and the two were confident the place was free of creepy sheriffs and of listening devices, Jane turned back to his partner, reaching to cradle her hands in his.
"So, as I was saying, Teresa… Yes, weddings tend to bring up some feelings for me… happy memories that are instantly crowded out by the gloom of tragedy and loss. That's only part of what the Rigsby's nuptials stirred up in my heart though."
"Okay?"
"The other thing – the more important one, mind you - is that today's wedding amplified certain truths," he stepped closer, his eyes mere inches from hers. "One of those being that while I failed my first love in the worst possible way, I never want to fail you, my dear."
"Jane," Lisbon blinked away a sudden sting of tears as she glanced to the side, briefly overwhelmed by feelings she didn't quite know what to do with.
The corners of Jane's mouth drew up into an adoring grin. She was so cute when she got like this. "Secondly, and more importantly, I realized I never want to be without-" he stopped short, battling some apparent nerves. "I mean…" Patrick took a deep breath… "Teresa, would you ever consider a partnership that was more… all-encompassing, and permanent?"
Lisbon could barely breathe as her mind spun through every possible implication in that question; being as thrown off by his words as she was giddy with hopeful desires she hadn't wanted to admit were within her. Her mind finally settled on one thought: No more secrets… "You know what, Jane? I would," she grinned, tilting her head to the side, in her adorable way.
Patrick sighed away a metric ton of angst as he gently touched his forehead to hers. "That is wonderful to hear, my dear," he glimmered warmly.