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She sat impatiently on the chair next to his bed on the small cell. He laid there with his eyes closed, arms raised over his head. Teresa huffed a breath, sounding slightly annoyed, but she wasn’t really.
“You should take the deal Jane,” her voice sing-songy “I don’t need the job. I have a life, believe it or not.” He knew that. Two years is a long time. Twenty-four months are enough time to restart your life. New job, new friends, new house, new hobbies, new likes, new partners.
“You don’t need the job, but I sure need you to do my job” Jane answered in the same sing-songy tone she had used. “I was your consultant, I can’t do this without you, Lisbon.” Her laugh came out on a higher pitch than usual; she could not believe his words.
“I forgot you could be this funny, Jane. Don’t be ridiculous!” Lisbon knew he could lie better “You never needed us to solve crimes, most times I wondered if we were slowing you down. Just take the deal.” She was annoyed now. How could he be so stubborn and prefer to go to jail instead of getting all his terms of that dumb napkin contract?
“Never said I needed help solving crimes” he said smug, sitting on the bed, “I need you to do the job. The boring parts. The following rules, and laws, and regulations, and orders, and all the social conventions of it all” His hands were on his lap, eyes tenderly looking at her.
Lisbon observed Jane, his eyes gazing at. His eyes showed how truthful his words were. He was not joking. “What a idiot” she thought.
As Teresa breathed to begin to respond to his words, he continued, in a serious tone, looking down. “I know it’s not fair for me to ask you to do this. Not after everything. It’s not your responsibility to babysit me around.”
“Jane -” she begun.
“Just let me finish.” He exhaled. “Look, I want to do this. I want to make things right, Lisbon.”
He continued “When I started with CBI, I had no plan. I knew what to do, read between the lines, see the stuff people usually miss, my party tricks, you know.” She laughed “But you, the team, you kept me from trouble. I find trouble anywhere I go. If I find trouble now, after everything and with the FBI…” he stopped, looking up at her now, “They won’t be so kind again, Teresa. I can find criminals, killers, and answers, you are right about that. But without you, I will mess up again. I can’t go through this again.”
Teresa smoothly sat next to him on the bed, reaching and holding his hand, “Jane, you are my partner. You are my friend. When we worked together, I was not babysitting you. You had my back more times than I can count.” She tightened her grip. “I don’t think you messed up; you know that right?”
Patrick put his other hand on top of hers “I don’t regret anything, but that doesn’t make it right.” There was no need for specifics.
“Since when you care about technicalities?” she joked, a delicate gleam on her eyes, he chucked “I have your back Jane. I can do the boring parts of the job if you do the party tricks. Because I trust your skills, I trust your judgment,” Teresa leaned forward “I trust you, Patrick.”
He smiled wide and his eyes sparked with the light that came from the small window in his cell. They stayed there for a moment, holding hands firmly and looking at each other. Lisbon hadn’t said anything about agreeing to take the job yet, but there was no need. He knew, she knew. They were doing this.
“I need paper and pen,” she said, standing up suddenly to look for the required objects. Abruptly letting go of his hand and looking around for the objects.
Patrick blinked a few times, the abrupt emptiness of his hands and for the sudden change of tone in her voice, much more energetic than a few seconds ago. He also looked around for the paper she asked for, wondering what her plan for it was.
He handed her a notepad and Lisbon quickly began scribbling a list. Jane tried his trick of following the pen movements, but she felt his eyes on her and glanced at him with annoyed eyes, making him laugh and look away, pretending to be embarrassed of getting caught, playfully raising his hands in rendition.
In a few heartbeats he saw her spin in her seat and look at him once more, propping up the notepad, fixing her posture and announcing: “Okay, it’s ready.”
“I’m all ears, shoot” he said, giddy.
“One: Patrick Jane must tell Teresa Lisbon his plans before executing them.”
“Very formal, I see. I agree with this. To some extent, of course.”
Teresa ignored him and continued. “Two: Jane must keep in mind Lisbon is no longer a boss and will be brand new to the job before doing something crazy.”
“Duly noted, next.”
“Insulting persons of interest must be kept to a minimum.”
It took all his strength to not burst in laughter with his one “Lisbon, I never -”
“Shut it!” she said chuckling “This is serious.”
“Three:” she continued, trying to remain serious “Abbott will be their boss, so no funny business.”
“The way you phrase it made it seems like this is a rule for you too.”
“Huh, I guess I did” she huffed a laugh.
It wasn’t her intention. This whole thing was just to make him laugh, poking a bit of fun at him for his own demands to the FBI, while jokingly discussing some of her concerns with this new partnership.
This is not a state institution, there’s no leeway, there can’t be no what-ifs. What was done, was done. They had left it in the past, where it belongs.
This time will be different; it must be different. Right?
Before she fully slipped into her little madness, Jane tried to pull the paper out of her hands, pulling her out of her head and back into the reality of a small detention suite.
“Hey, I’m not done reading” she snapped “Just one more; Four: For the partnership to work, past mistakes will not be repeat nor mulled over.”
“This one is definitely for you; I have no regrets of the past Lisbon.”
“None at all? Ready?” She scoffed “Not even when you traumatized a grieving family by getting an old’s lady coffin opened to then reveal the victim we were looking for was not buried along with the poor lady?”
“Not a regret per se,” he said with witty in his voice “It was simply an unfortunate situation, a human mistake. A faux pas, Lisbon. A simple miscalculation.”
“I love when you have to admit you screwed up.”
“It wasn’t even a complete mistake, just a timing error. That dirty doctor was going to put the victim body on the coffin; I was just too early.” His tone was playfully dismissive of the situation. “If anything, I would think you’d mention the time I made you think you were dying from a deadly virus and the Airforce was going to nuke us” Lisbon looked at him horrified, having forgotten about the insane situation she had buried deep in her mind.
“I didn’t recall that, but you certainly aren’t remorseful for that.”
He laughed; she was right. “You are a hundred percent correct, that was one of my best works. But I will give you this:” a deep inhale and a smile flashing at her “I should have debriefed you on it, we do work better when you know all my plans. I’m sorry for that.”
“You are forgiven, Jane, I almost broke your nose for it. It’s fine.”
“It’s only fair, it has been so long.” He got up from the bed and effortlessly leaned against the wall opposite it. “So, for your contract, is that it? Because that’s completely doable, really easy stuff you put in there.” With his nonchalant style, he moved towards the paper and tried to get it from her hands, but she pulled back, gears turning in her head. “You could have asked for more, like I did. You are not a great negotiator, darling. I need to teach a few things.”
Before he could sign, she pulled it back “Not so fast, I will put more stuff down. Like asking you to get cleared by a therapist first or something.”
“Ha, sure you will. I will sign it regardless, but I will be disappointed because you know me better that” Jane reached for the pen and paper again and Lisbon let him get it. He signed it and she did the same.
Before she could say anything, Teresa feels herself being pulled into a tight hug by Patrick. She let herself melt into the hug as Patrick buried his face in her hair, smelling her coconut scented shampoo. Lisbon tightens her grip around him and laid her head on his chest, feeling their heartbeats sync up. It felt right and much needed.
They stepped back and smiled at each other, not saying anything. Patrick sat at the bed again “So, what now? When do we start?” he asked, giddy like a child.
“This will be a good time to let you know the FBI conceded to all your demands.”
“This'll be fun Lisbon, let's see what kind of trouble we can make.”