A/N: Thank you for the reviews and PMs on the other stories I never responded to- as always I treasure them. I apologize for no responses and no story updates. I've had months of no internet access interspersed with very brief periods of spotty access while my cable/internet provider updated everyone to Digital. Fortunately, it was just my internet service and not my tv that got totally screwed up by this update! Unfortunately, it took time and multiple house rewirings, etc. to get everything back on track. As you can see, I'm now back for the good or the evil of it! I hope to return to the AU, old stories over the hiatus as soon as I can coax my muse out of hiding. She didn't take the whole internet thing well along with other tumultuous up and downs in RL that have now evened out! Hopefully, the new story will inspire me to finish the old ones. At least the two or three that aren't totally crackers at this point.~Calla

#

Struggling to open her eyes, Lisbon realized she had awakened to the softest of voices calling her name.

"Jane?" Propping up in bed she glanced at the clock before patting the bed beside her. "I didn't mean to sleep so late. I suppose Abbott and Cho are gone?"

If they weren't they'd missed their flight by a good hour and a half.

"They're halfway to Austin by this point if their flight left on time." Jane confirmed as he leaned in to kiss her unmindful of porcupine head and morning breath. "I took them to the airport and returned Abbott's rental car three hours ago."

"I feel sorry for them." Lisbon said as she stretched ignoring Jane's eyes on the rise and fall of her breasts. "They didn't get much sleep and it's your fault."

"Yes, it is." Jane agreed without an ounce of remorse in his voice as he settled on the mattress beside her. "I'd do it all again."

Especially since Abbott had decided they needed some private time to get their ducks in a row. He'd given them the rest of the week including the weekend to ostensibly "wrap up loose ends" on that high profile case he'd so callously reopened for personal reasons. They'd both known the man meant something else entirely although completing the last of the paperwork in the best light possible was certainly part of it. All that their boss really cared about was that debacle they'd pulled out of the flames at the last possible second ended up in the Closed Case Files never to be seen again. Oh, and that they figured out how to neutralize the water cooler gossip before it became an unnecessary distraction around headquarters.

Jane also figured their absence would give Cho time to come to terms with the reality he'd been way off the mark when it came to them. To come up with a plausible excuse why he, after years of observing them, had failed to see what Abbott had noted in a matter of months. It had to rankle the talented agent he'd failed so miserably to accurately interpret years of events playing out under his nose. Maybe Kimball, like Rigsby, hadn't wanted to see.

Or maybe he'd hoped what he was seeing wasn't true.

Or maybe he and Lisbon were simply better actors than he'd give either of them credit for being especially her. Who really knew? He didn't. What he did know was Cho failed to comprehend that while they had been the best of friends for a very long time, they had never seen each other in a remotely sibling light…Not unless the seriously screwed up alternate universe they unwittingly inhabited found incest a socially acceptable habit…So not happening…While Jane couldn't speak for Lisbon, he could certainly speak for himself. He'd been having impure thoughts about the woman for quite some time. A scandalous number of years in fact….

He'd just been rather good at hiding it.

"I bet you would." Lisbon smirked. "I'd do it all again, too." She captured his lips with hers. "Well, maybe not all of it…That whole airplane thing was really embarrassing."

Not to mention all the "talking to" she got from everyone from her fellow passengers to the flight attendants to the pilot for goodness sakes. They hadn't cared Jane was a wolf in sheep's clothing or that every last word he'd said about himself was true. They hadn't even cared he wasn't a particularly good man and Marcus was. All that mattered was he obviously loved her and he loved her that way. The general consensus was she'd be a fool to turn him away. While it had taken her a while to actually make it off the plane and even longer before anyone would let her see Jane, she'd felt the same.

There was no way Patrick Jane was getting away. Not now that he'd uttered the "L" word. He might as well just give in and give up.

Admit she'd so won this round.

Catching Jane's inquisitive stare, Lisbon recalled every second of their interview from the moment she'd slipped into that holding room until she'd slipped outside to wait for his release. The look on his face as she'd slid into that chair had taken her breath away. He honestly hadn't believed she was coming. He thought he'd misplayed his hand and forfeited everything. For a while there, she hadn't been sure he wasn't right. She'd been so mad at his latest betrayal she'd called Marcus and told him she'd marry him without really thinking about it. She'd still been mad when she'd listened to Jane bearing his soul in front of countless witnesses on that plane. She'd been mad when she'd told him it was too late. She was still mad when her feet hit the tarmac and beyond.

Truthfully, mad was an understatement.

In fact, she hadn't been sure things were going to work out when she'd gotten off that plane and entered the terminal. She had been sure she owed them both that one last chance. If Jane said the right things, they'd be all right. If he didn't, she'd be on her merry way without a backward glance.

Fortunately, he'd answered every last one of her questions openly and honestly. It hadn't really mattered he couldn't quite vocalize those three precious words again. As much as she'd wanted to hear them, they weren't necessary. He'd already said them loud enough for everyone to hear. Besides, between the look in his eyes and that kiss, he'd said them without saying a word.

Or he had until some jackass made his presence known smack in the middle of the best kiss of her life she'd waited years to receive.

Well, the jackass could keep on protesting. They weren't about to stop sucking face until they were good and ready. So put that in your pipe and smoke it. Once Jane was sure she was thoroughly convinced she knew exactly how he felt, he'd released her and she'd let him. She'd then sent their interloper with the really bad timing her best "Bite Me!" look before she'd turned back to Jane and returned the favor by kissing him so thoroughly she'd knocked every thought out of his head. Once she was satisfied he knew his feelings were reciprocated, she'd risen to her feet and sashayed out that door like she owned the place leaving a stupid, sputtering, intrusive jerk to stand fish faced in her irreverently sassy wake.

Unfortunately for everyone involved, nothing was simple after that.

It had taken the rest of the night to get Jane released into Lisbon's custody with Abbott vouching for the man's behavior. He'd called in some pretty high ranking favors to make Jane's actions go away. Although Abbott never said it, it was clear Jane owed him and he owed him big. It was a favor Jane was glad to owe. It was also clear, while he didn't appreciate another Jane Mess; their boss was pleased with how things had come together once the dust settled. In the end, they'd laid an embarrassing Cold Case haunting the Agency for five long years to rest and a valuable Agent he couldn't afford to lose had decided to stay.

Once Jane was free, they'd all gone back to the resort where a certain consultant had gotten a severe dressing down, Lisbon had gone off to her room to make an unpleasant but necessary telephone call, and Cho and Abbott had snatched a couple of hours sleep in a very nice double suite courtesy of Jane's personal credit. Much to Lisbon's chagrin, she'd slept through her wakeup call and missed seeing her comrades off to Austin. Maybe that was a good thing. Lisbon wasn't sure she was up to dealing with Cho's disbelief and her boss's omniscient, self-satisfied pomposity.

Dealing with Jane was bad enough.

"I'm truly sorry for that." He genuinely was. "If there had been any other way, I wouldn't have done that to you. Unfortunately, nothing worked out as I'd planned."

"It never does." Lisbon smirked. "Although everything was fine in the end."

"Better than fine." Jane agreed. "We got the bad girls and I saved you from making the biggest mistake of your life." The Lisbon eye roll was totally expected. "What do you say to getting an early lunch and hitting the beach for a while?"

"Sounds like a plan." They still had a lot to talk through like where they went from here. "Why don't you order Room Service and meet me here in a half an hour?"

"I can do that." Jane agreed his mind already on the rather elegant brunch menu. "If you need more time, give me a call."

"I won't; but, if I do…." Lisbon left her sentence hanging as she rose to her feet, gave Jane a peck, and sent him towards the door. "Now, go, or we'll never get to the beach."

They wouldn't.

They'd just sit here staring into each other's eyes longingly which wasn't that bad a deal all things considered. They certainly weren't jumping into anything. Not if she had anything to say about it and she had plenty. Jane wasn't ready and she'd just dumped her first lover in years. Nope, they were taking things fairly slow and easy. Just because they loved each other didn't mean they needed to act like a couple of horny teenagers. Watching Jane walk through the door between their rooms, Lisbon turned the lock behind him. The last thing she needed was him meandering back into her domain before she was ready trying to sneak a peek. Not that she thought a lock would stop him. It wouldn't. But, maybe he'd respect the sentiment behind the gesture.

It wasn't like he didn't know she was hurrying to join him as fast as she could.

Or she would be after she made yet another necessary telephone call. In all the excitement she'd forgotten to call Van Pelt and update her on the latest turn of events. While they might not live in the same state any more, they were closer than ever. Close enough Grace would never forgive her if she wasn't in the loop sooner rather than later. Deciding to keep it short and sweet, Lisbon hit the familiar button on her cell and waited for the squeal that was sure to come when Van Pelt figured out who was actually calling her.

She'd squeal again when she heard the news.

Lisbon was sure of it.

Rigsby would just ask if she'd lost her flipping mind.

#

Walking down the beach hand in hand, Lisbon questioned whether stuffing herself on Eggs Benedict and a couple of Peach Bellini's was the smartest move she could have made. Her head was a little woozy from one too many libations and her defenses were down. She was pretty darned sure Jane realized that and he'd take advantage of the moment to the extent she'd let him.

He wouldn't be Jane if he didn't.

"As much as I hate to ask, did you make that telephone call?" Jane couldn't bring himself to say Pike's name. "The one you were dreading."

So much for so casually saying Marcus would get over it. The woman beside him still hated the thought of hurting the other man in her life unnecessarily. She wouldn't be Lisbon if she didn't.

"What do you think?" Lisbon asked. "I owed him that much. Marcus would have known something was wrong when I didn't show up at the airport anyway. I couldn't leave him hanging now could I?" Frankly, Jane thought she could have; but, he wasn't about to say that and show himself in a negative light yet again. He'd already done that in front of too many witnesses during a panic induced confessional aboard a stalled late night flight. He'd rather not have a repeat performance. "Fortunately, I got him before he'd left his place and we were able to talk."

"How did he take it?" Jane had the decency to sound genuinely concerned. "I'm sure not well."

"Not great; but, he'll get over it with time." Lisbon sounded more like she was trying to convince herself than him. "I don't think it came as that much of a surprise."

She could tell Jane didn't think it had either by the look on his face. If Marcus hadn't realized something was off the night she'd stepped outside her door to speak privately with her "partner," he certainly should have when she hadn't immediately said "yes" to his hasty proposal in Austin. If that hadn't set the warning bells pealing in his head, the anger in her voice when she'd called to take him up on his marriage offer should have. Something clearly wasn't right about her sudden acceptance. Like the fact maybe she wasn't quite right in her head. Whether Marcus was willing to admit it or not, he'd known deep in his soul something was seriously amiss long before she'd admitted they were done.

In fact, he hadn't needed to ask about Jane's involvement…He'd already known.

"It shouldn't have." Jane said quietly. "There was no way he hadn't heard the rumors about us long before he asked you out."

"What rumors are those?" Lisbon turned to lean into his chest. "Those stupid "are they" or "aren't theys" following us from California?"

"Those would be the ones." Jane agreed. "It isn't like we haven't added a little fodder here and there along the way. Since I'd say Marcus is the kind of man who'd at least ask in a roundabout way if there was any fire accompanying that smoke, I'm assuming you lied to him and said we weren't involved."

"I didn't lie." Stepping away from him, Lisbon plopped on her bottom in the sand to watch the surf roll in. "We weren't."

"Not in any tangible way." Jane agreed as he sat down beside her and gripped her hand forcing Lisbon to look at him. "But, we both know we've been involved intangibly for years."

"Intangibly doesn't count." Lisbon stated firmly. "If you can't see it or feel it, it isn't there."

"Really?" Jane said quietly. "I'd say you've seen and felt what's between us for years. We both have. We wisely chose to ignore it for the greater good."

"Maybe." Lisbon reluctantly agreed. "It still doesn't count."

"Sure it does." Jane said quietly. "The heart wants what the heart wants whether we acknowledge that need or not."

"Fine." Lisbon huffed. "What I don't understand is why you didn't do something about the intangible before now? It's not like you didn't have plenty of time."

"Maybe I was waiting for the right moment to make my move." Jane said.

"And maybe I got tired of waiting." Lisbon stated softly.

"Maybe you should have made the first move then." Jane said.

"Maybe I felt that wasn't my place to push until you were ready." Lisbon said quietly. "That doesn't mean I was willing to give you forever."

"Maybe we should stop with the maybes." Jane lifted her hand to his lips. "They almost cost us everything."

"Yes, they did." Leaning her head against Jane's shoulder, Lisbon closed her eyes and thought of all the opportunities they'd missed both before and after Red John was gone. "Did you mean what you said that day?"

"What day?" Jane asked absently too caught up in the pleasure of rubbing his palm against Lisbon's bare arm to really pay attention to what she was saying. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"Sure you do." Lisbon prompted. "The day you shot me."

"Oh, that day." Jane continued his distracting actions. "Yes, I meant it…What I didn't mean was to admit it out loud."

"Why?" Lisbon ignored the stab through her heart in favor of listening to his explanation. "It would have made our lives so much easier if you'd just owned up to your feelings."

"In what way?" Jane asked. "That was the last thing I needed to do. It would only have put you in more danger and I wasn't allowing that." Not to mention the extra distraction of worrying about her. "You know what happened to people I got close to. That wasn't happening to you.

After he was gone there was too much too work through. Too much I needed to do alone. About the time I'd finally laid some things to rest, Abbott turned up. You know the rest of the story."

The day he'd briefly removed his ring suddenly played through Jane's mind in all of its questionable significance.

"I suppose I do." Lisbon agreed. "What I don't know is if you manipulated everything to eventually get to this point."

"As much as I wish I could tell you I did, I hadn't planned that far ahead." Jane said. "I can tell you I did everything in my power to get you back as my partner. Whether I would have overcome my fears to offer you more without Pike coming on the scene and threatening everything, I don't know. What I do know is might-have-beens don't matter. All that does is we're together now…Whatever the catalyst."

"Yes, we are." Lisbon agreed. "Whatever the cause."

"I missed you terribly while I was gone." Jane commented idly as he pulled her more comfortably against him. "There was a time or two when I almost sent for you…Not to bring you to the island…But I contemplated a place or two without an extradition treaty."

"Yeah?" Lisbon watched a gull dipping into the sea. "Why didn't you? I would have come."

As foolish as such a thing would have been.

"Because I couldn't be that selfish." Jane said quietly. "We both know Abbott was watching you. While they couldn't touch me, they could certainly touch you. You'd have been in a world of trouble. They'd have made your life hell. I wasn't letting what I'd done affect you any more than it already had."

"Right." Lisbon snorted. "That would be a first."

"Whatever you believe to the contrary, I've always had your back." Jane said. "I've always done my best to see that my schemes affected you as little as possible." Jane had the decency to look sheepish at his bald faced lie. "The last few years anyway."

"That I'll accept." Lisbon said quietly. "There was a time when you didn't care what happened to me or anyone else as long as your schemes got you one step closer to Red John."

"Yes, there was and I'm not proud of it." Jane agreed. "I'm not like that now."

"No, you aren't. You're a changed man." Lisbon smirked. "Now you ask me if I want to get into trouble with you. You don't just drag me in the middle of your crap anymore." Recent debacle excluded. "At least most of the time."

"There isn't much I can say to that." Jane agreed. "When you're right, you're right."

"You could have stopped all of this you know." Lisbon said quietly. "Not put any of us through this pain. All you had to do was say something in the early days and I'd have stopped seeing Marcus. I was waiting on you. Surely you know that."

"Whether I did or I didn't, I didn't think your relationship would go that far. I never thought you'd break up the team." Jane said quietly. She never had before. "When things between you got serious faster than I'd anticipated, I realized I didn't have the right to interfere. It wasn't fair to you. Pike was treating you right and you seemed happy. It was clear you cared about each other. Why would I mess that up? All I truly wanted was your happiness even if that happiness was with another man. I wasn't lying about that."

"But I wasn't as happy as I could have been." Lisbon said quietly. "Marcus wasn't you."

"No, he wasn't." Jane agreed. "He's a much better man."

"Maybe I never wanted the better man." Lisbon looked him the eyes. "I wanted you in all your imperfect glory."

"Yeah, well, while I'm fortunate that's true, some people would say you need your head examined." Jane brushed a strand of hair from her cheek. "In fact, I think most people would say that."

"Maybe I do; but, Marcus wasn't the right man for me." Lisbon stated firmly. "You are. You just wouldn't cooperate. Wouldn't do or say any of the things I needed you to. You kept urging me to go and babbling about my happiness when all I wanted was for you to ask me to stay. Do you have any idea how painful all of that was to hear over and over again?"

"Perhaps not; but, I do know how painful it was to say what I didn't mean." Jane said. "Especially when you refused to read between the lines and see that I didn't want you happy at the thought of the new life ahead of you. I wanted you miserable at the thought of leaving me. From what I could see, that just wasn't happening."

"Yeah, well, what you could see was a lie." Lisbon admitted. "I kept praying you'd change your mind and say what I saw in your eyes instead of the stupid words tumbling from your mouth. You just wouldn't do what Marcus did and admit how you felt about me, so I did what any smart girl would do. I went for the sure thing."

"I'm not sure how smart ruining the rest of your life would have been." Jane said quietly. "And we both know that's what you would have done."

"I don't see it that way." Lisbon said. "I think we would have been happy."

"I think Marcus would have been happy for a while as long as he didn't catch a certain look on your face when you though he couldn't see." Jane stared out over the ocean. "I think you would have done your best to pretend you were happy when you were bleeding inside over wondering what might have been."

"Maybe." Lisbon reluctantly agreed. "But I'd have made it work."

"I'm sure you would have." Jane agreed. "But no one should live that way…Wondering if what might have been is better than what they already have."

"Then I guess it's a good thing you finally manned up and did what you should have done a long time ago." Lisbon scooped a hand full of sand only to let it trickle through her fingers. "Talk about waiting until the eleventh hour."

"You know, there's no logical reason why I had to make the first move as I've already said." Jane wiped the sand from her palm. "You're a liberated woman who's done quite well for herself in a male dominated world. You could have told me how you felt at any point in time."

"I could have; but, it wasn't my place." Lisbon gently reminded him as though she hadn't said basically the same thing a few minutes earlier. "It was yours to tell me you were ready to move on…That you wanted to do it with me…You never did. If you think back over the last few years you'll realize I gave you plenty of openings you never took. Before and after Red John was done."

"It wasn't time." Jane said quietly. "I wasn't ready to completely let them go."

"No, you weren't and that's okay." Lisbon agreed. "I was willing to wait for a season."

Even when she hadn't known what she waited for.

"Yeah, well, you shouldn't have had to." Jane said. "I've known how I felt for a while. I just wasn't ready to deal with it. That isn't exactly true either. As long as I knew I was waking up to see you every day, I didn't have to deal with it. I could have my cake and eat it, too. Pike put a monkey wrench in all of that."

"You really are a bastard, you know that?" Lisbon resisted the urge to smack him. "You made both of us miserable because you were a big, fat chicken wallowing in your fears."

"I'm still a big, fat chicken." Jane said. "And I'm still scared."

"Of what?" Lisbon asked. "If you're worried about screwing things up, you've done a lot of that over the years and I haven't left you. If you're scared something's going to happen to me, that possibility comes with the territory whether we're together or not. If you're scared you'll make a lousy partner, we both know better than that. You were a terrific husband and father. What happened to Angela and Charlotte Anne rests solely on MacAllister's shoulders. The man was a monster with a twisted sense of justice. Nothing you said should have provoked his actions."

"Maybe I'm scared I love you too much." Jane said quietly.

"Then join the club." Lisbon snapped back. "I've felt that way for a long time. Maybe I didn't call it love; but, I knew I cared too much. Enough that I let your needs override my best interests. I'd worked too hard to get where I was to throw it all away. But, that's exactly what I kept doing over and over again when I knew better. It was like my whole world went insane when you joined my team. I resented the hell out of you for the longest time until I realized I couldn't imagine my life without you in it."

"I feel the same." Jane entwined his fingers through Lisbon's as he pulled her to her feet. "Not only can't I imagine my life without you in it, I'm not sure I could live it."

"You don't have to." Rising on her toes, Lisbon gave him a discrete smack on the lips that wouldn't garner unnecessary attention from the people ambling by. "Neither of us do."

"No, we don't." Jane agreed. "I guess it's time to head back. We still have that paperwork to finish before our time is truly ours."

"Yes, we do." Lisbon agreed knowing Abbott expected a copy to be waiting in his email when he made it into the office. Once he looked over their summation, he'd integrate their take into his and forward the satisfactory report to the appropriate parties. If he wasn't happy with the spin they put on things, they'd be rewriting that report until he was. Dinner reservations be damned. "Maybe we'll get through in time for another quick walk before dinner."

"Maybe we will." Jane agreed draping his arm around Lisbon's shoulders and pulling her close. "Maybe we'll make it a moonlit walk instead."

"Sounds like a plan." Lisbon agreed with her mind already leaping to which dress she was wearing to dinner instead of that pesky report waiting to be written.

It wasn't going to be the one she'd worn when things had gone so quickly from eager anticipation to hell in a hand basket although she fully intended to wear that dress some other time.

She'd looked too pretty in pink to simply throw the dress away because Jane had been a colossal ass as he would surely be again.