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Teresa knew that this party was a stupid idea, but like always, she could not say no to Jane and his confusing yet intriguing plans. There were so many people walking around this large house and she found it hard to breathe in the skintight dress she was wearing. If only that was the problem… If one more man was going to look at her breasts she was either going to hit him or Jane for picking out this dress. „You must be Teresa“, said a voice behind her. „I sure am“, she replied, forcing her voice to be higher than usually. It made her feel very stupid. „I heard your husband?“ „Boyfriend, actually“, she interrupted. „Well, yes, your boyfriend, was a rather famous host. I ought to talk to him about some - business.“ She showed him where Jane was supposed to be at the moment and retreated again, searching for someplace a bit quieter. The agent, who just asked her about Jane, was only there to make it clear to Pulaski that Jane was the centre of attention. He was supposed to look as intriguing as possible. Well, still less intriguing than Kim, but still.
As she watched Jane talk to his supposed guests and charm them with his words and gestures, she wondered once more how he could be such a good actor. She thought that she knew this man better than anyone else, but could it be that she was just as easily fooled? He certainly had a way with words and she was sometimes too naive for her own good. So absorbed in her thoughts had she been that she did not notice Jane approaching her with a broad grin. That could not mean anything good. „Teresa, honey, the guests just asked about how we met.“ She forced herself to laugh a little and to not flinch as his arms instinctively wrapped around her waist to pull her close.
She could feel his hesitancy as if he was asking her whether this was alright for her. He was always so focused on not making her uncomfortable. It made her want to die a little. Softening her posture, she eased into his side to tell him that this was alright and that he did not need to worry. „Well, Patrick, I hope you are only telling them the good bits.“ She grinned at him in a flirty manner and put one hand over his chest, right where his scarf was ending. Maybe she only imagined it, but she could have sworn that his heart rate had quickened. „With you, there are only good bits.“ He said it with a mocking undertone, but still something about that statement cut her right to the core. „You always tell it better than me, babe. I am sure this time will be no different.“ She smiled at him encouragingly, knowing that she could not lie to for the hell of it.
It was always fascinating and sobering at the same time to watch him lie to a bigger audience and make them believe every word he said. „Okay, I shall begin then“ he said, pulling her closer to his side. It amazed her how well they fit, but really, it should not come as a surprise that after many years of working side by side, they somehow became a puzzle that fit perfectly. „The first day I saw her, I knew that she was the one“, he began. She could still remember the day they met like it was only a week ago. „Her hair was a lot shorter and she was not yet used to my attitude. I thought it was cute how she reacted to me. How she reacted to my mocking and my jokes. To be honest, I was at a bad place, but she somehow managed to give me hope.“ He paused for a moment to catch his breath.
She fought so hard to fight whatever she was feeling, because this was fake. Everything he was just saying were lies. There was no way that this man - this liar - was feeling the same as she did. „I am fairly certain that she despised me at the beginning. She was my boss of some sort and I just walked in and made her life a lot more difficult by introducing new methods of working. Her boss was no fan of me, but that did not matter. He was arrested for committing some sort of fraud. You know how it is in the tech business.“ He forced a laugh at that part and some people who were listening to them alughed along.
Except for the part about the tech business, this sounded dangerously like what they had lived through for the past years. „This does not sound good for you, Patrick. How did you get her in the end?“, a guest asked from somewhere amongst the listeners. „I think we both were in love with each other for quite some time before we even realised it. And after that we were both too proud to admit it and too afraid to loose what we already had. In the end, I left her for some time and while I was away, I realised that I could not live without her ever again. I came back to the states - only because of her - because I realised what she meant to me. What she means to me.“
She felt a lump in her throat as the people started looking at her, expecting her to say something. She did not know what to say or do. Jane‘s retelling of how they‘d fallen in love sounded so much like what had happened that it hurt her physically. When she was about to make an excuse and find a quiet corner to gather herself, she saw Kim leading Pulaski up the stairs. That was her cue. She coughed a little to find her voice. „Honey, Kim is leading a man into our bedroom again. Would you mind stopping her?“ She looked up at Jane with big eyes and a small pout, hoping to convince the onlookers that were not agents of their romance. Jane just looked at her for a moment before gathering himself and walking after Kim and Pulaski. Before letting her go entirely, he pressed a small kiss on her head and then went up the stairs.
The guests were still looking at her and she could not let them know that this small gesture affected her so much. „Who wants more to drink?“, she asked cheerily to change the topic. Jane was right, she was such a bad liar, her voice a few pitches too high for it to sound normal.
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She waited for Jane to come back and passed her time making small talk with some people standing near by. When a hand carefully came to rest on her back, she did not need to turn around to know it was Jane. „Relax, everything goes according to plan“, he whispered quietly in her ear. „Now, we only need to get the people out.“ His breath grazed her neck and she felt herself tense a little under his touch. Looking at the guests in front of her she spoke up. „I think it‘s time for you to leave“, she told them. With Jane still hovering near her ear and her shivering at his touch, she knew what picture they must be conveying and felt her face grow hot with the thought of it. Luckily, Jane was already walking through the house and telling everybody to leave. Within minutes, the house was empty and Pulaski was the last person to go. „Do I need to call you a Taxi?“, Teresa asked, but he assured her that he‘d get home without one and went out the door shortly after.
She hoped that their plan had worked and waited for some minutes before going up the stairs and entering the bedroom. In front of the Van Gogh was standing a man who looked like trouble. „Excuse me Sir, I believe the party‘s over. I ask you kindly to leave our property.“ The man gave no answer at first. „I would like to talk to your partner. He seems to know his art.“ Before she could say something, Jane was already standing behind her, emitting a nervous energy. She knew how much he hated to be confronted with those kinds of people and she was sorry that he had to put himself in danger that often. „I believe you were looking for me“, he supplied. „Is that a Van Gogh?“, the intruder asked. Jane looked at the man as if analysing his every word. „Only a fake one. Look at me, I could never afford the real thing.“ He laughed then a little. The only thing that sounded fake about his lies was his laugh. Oddly enough, he had never perfected that.
„What do you work as, again, Patrick?“ „Software.“ His smiled at the man, knowing he had been caught in this lie and thus achieving exactly what he wanted. „I do not see a single computer here.“ „You know what they say, never bring your work home.“ Again, his obviously fake laugh, but the man did not seem to care. „I‘m sure you know this already, but I‘m Patrick.“ He extended his hand for the man to shake. He did. „MacKaye.“ Lisbon stepped closer to them and extender her own hand. „Teresa.“
„It is a pleasure to meet you both, but stop lying to me. You don‘t actually work in software and these aren‘t fakes, these are stolen.“ Jane smiled. „Ah, someone knows his art. Are you in the business yourself then?“
While they talked about business and MacKaye told Jane to stay away from his territory, Teresa watched them carefully, waiting for MacKaye to do something, but he never did. They just talked about stealing Manet‘s „Violets“ and how they would do it. Jane gave off the impression at first that he did not want to include MacKaye in his scheme, but that was the plan all along. They needed MacKaye to think that he had them in his hand and then they would play him.
As good as this plan seemed to work, she saw Jane flinch when Mac Kaye threatened to hurt them. Almost instinctively, his head turned towards her and she saw the fear in his eyes. He knew that his plan would work but he was still afraid of being hurt, of being the cause that she was hurt. „We would not want to get hurt“, she interjected. It was all she could do at the moment - while they were watched. Finally, they came to an agreement and MacKaye left the house; not without reassuring them what would happen to them if they were to betray him.
When he was gone, Teresa turned to a camera and gestured for them to be turned off. She had told Wiley that it would not be necessary to watch over them during the night. If they saw what was happening around the house, that was enough. „Are you alright?“, Jane asked from behind her. „I will be when I can finally take this dress off“, she joked. He smiled at her. His smiles with her were always fond. She never received one of the loud fake laughs. „I am going to sleep. Good night, Teresa.“ „Good night, Jane.“
She knew that Jane had a weird obsession with couches and would probably sleep there, so she went upstairs to change into her pyjamas. She thought about calling Pike to inform him that everything went smoothly, but that felt stupid. He was able to see everything through the cameras. There was no need for her to call him. And she was too tired to call him now anyways. The whole day of holding up a facade has tired her. She had no energy left to uphold a polite phone call with a man who may or may not be interested in her, but that was another story. And she was hungry.
Quietly, she made her way downstairs again, hoping to find something to eat in the kitchen. To her luck there were still some appetisers left. She did not even bother to carry them back upstairs and just stood in the kitchen, eating whatever she could find that looked edible enough.
Soft snoring came from the living room and she could not resist going over there to look whether Jane was sleeping comfortably. He was spread out over the couch and the blanked was draped over it next to him. That could not be comfortable, she thought to herself. Carefully, she grabbed the blanket and draped it over him so that he would not get cold during the night.
He stirred and mumbled something that suspiciously sounded like „Lisbon“. She waited to see if he would still fall asleep, but he slowly began to sit up and blinked at her quizzically. „I‘m sorry, Jane, I did not mean to wake you. I just thought you would get cold without the blanket.“ He motioned for her to sit down next to him and so she did. „I remembered that I wanted to talk to you about something that happened earlier. I‘m glad you have given me this opportunity just now.“ „Okay.“ She smiled softly at him, too tired to hide her fondness.
„When people asked how we got together, I tried to lie as little as possible. With feelings it‘s harder to conceal them, so I wanted to tell a story that was not as unlikely. I‘m sorry if I have overstepped and told things you rather I did not tell.“
So that was what he wanted to talk about. Despite their plan working and MacKaye threatening to hurt them, this conversation was what did not leave her hin peace too. Jane was looking at her expectantly through his heavy lids. He had rarely looked so peaceful and she felt herself absorbing every second of it.
„It‘s alright. You did what you had to do.“
He nodded and she just sat there. It was obvious that neither of them wanted this moment to be over yet, but both did not know what to say. „Can I confess something?“, he interrupted the silence and she felt her heart jump at his words, hoping for all kinds of confessions from this man. She nodded shakily, not trusting herself to speak yet.
„When MacKaye told me that he was going to hurt you, I was scared. I‘m still scared. I know that I was the one who wanted this plan to happen, but know that I know that something could happen to you, I‘m not so confident anymore. It was alright when it was just me on the line, but it‘s not alright anymore when it‘s you.“
She carefully took his hand into hers and felt him flinch a little at the touch. „Nothing will happen to me. You planned everything and it will be alright. I am used to men threatening me who think that they are so much stronger, but they are not. We always get them in the end, don‘t we?“
They just looked at each other again, feeling the impact of the words they had just said finally settle. Their hands were still interwoven and the silence was growing heavier. Teresa knew that she should go to bed and wait for the next day before she did something she might regret later, but she did not find it in herself to get up and leave Jane behind.
„Is it true?“, she asked into the silence. Jane stirred as if he did not expect to hear these words aloud. She assumed they both know what she meant, but she needed him to be honest with her even if it was just this once. „What you said about us getting together. Do you feel like that?“ She waited a moment for him to answer, but he remained silent. „I know that you are an exceptional liar and I am rarely able to catch you in a lie, but what you said there, that felt real. I‘m scared that you have lied to me that often that I can‘t even see the lies anymore, but I am sure that this was not one. Please, Jane. Tell me.“
He sat up straighter and looked at her with an expression that she could not decipher for the life of her. „For my part, it was.“ He spoke quietly. „When I first started working with your team I was way too broken to see what was directly in front of me, but Teresa, you were my flicker of hope.“ She had to muster all her strength to not start crying on the spot. „I do not know when I fell in love with you, but somewhere, sometime it just happened. I hardly know what life feels like not being in love with you. It was not a lie. While I was away, I realised that I could not live without you. I wrote you letters, but that was not enough. I needed you near me. Kim always thought I came back because of her, but that is not true. I came back because of you, Teresa. I came back, because I realised how little worth my life had without you.“
Now she was definitely crying. The hot tears streamed down her face and she was quietly shaking with sobs. Jane looked helpless seeing her in this state and through her tears she could have sworn to have seen him crying, too. She knew that she had to answer him. He deserved to know that she felt exactly the same, but all her words have left her. She let herself fall forward and was softly caught in his embrace and they just stayed like this. Crying with relief and maybe also the pain they felt finally having spoken these words aloud.
When both their sobs had ebbed out, she looked at him and saw that he had put no guards up anymore. She saw every emotion written on his face and knowing how rarely he allowed people to read him like that made her want to cry again. He was afraid and yet there was so much love in his eyes that she could hardly bear it.
„I do too. Love you, I mean. I think I don‘t remember when I have fallen in love with you, but when you were blown up and turned blind, the pain that I felt there was not something I would have expected to feel. Or when you helped this mother and her daughter reunite before you took my hand when we stepped into the rain. Back then I did not know that what I was feeling was love, but it‘s so clear to me know. Jane, I think a small part of me has loved you from the day that I met you.“
Some tears were rolling down his cheeks again and she carefully wiped them away with her hands. He leaned into her touch and they locked eyes. She did not know who started moving first, but suddenly his lips were on hers. They tasted like tears and she could not tell whether they were his or her own.
The kiss was softer that she ever dared to imagine. After some time they ended up on the couch tangled together and fell asleep like that. Wrapped around each other and finally being able to absorb the warmth and love of each other.
They were still scared of what would happen the following day, but now they at least had each other and while Jane was holding her, Teresa could not help but feel safe.