Digging up old memories

Chapter 6

Jane's POV

Jane was sitting on his couch watching Lisbon in the conference room through the steam of his cup of tea. She hardly worked at her desk anymore. Things were just getting worse. He'd missed her in a way he hadn't thought possible during his exile. The only option had been to come back and be with her... but he didn't want to be a fugitive... so he had put a plan in play hoping to get a bite and it had worked. It had all been worth it when he'd seen her again that day in the conference room.

She was the only person that matter the most to him in the entire world now. When she had been angry with him and told him off on the plane to New York, he had been shocked. She'd accused him of trying to run her life without asking her what she'd wanted... that had been unexpected, he thought she would be have been grateful. She'd accused him of not knowing her anymore, maybe she was right, but it's not like she gave him the opportunity to fix that since she avoided him all the time. He never considered that he would be missing her more being right next to her than when was in exile.

He'd made a few attempts to reach out to her. He'd tried to talk to her in the parking lot, but she ignored him. He tried again when he saw her in the kitchen, but she just ducked out and left. It's been like that for a week now. She was quite upset, and everyone was noticing. He was getting a lot of pitying glances from the team and it was becoming annoying. He kept smiling through it, acting as though it didn't bother him that his partner was completely avoiding him – but it was getting harder to keep up the façade.

He remembered that day all those years ago... it took him a couple of hours to recover all the details of his memory... she was upset because she thought she'd been a mark and she wasn't exactly wrong in that assessment – her mother had been the mark. His father had dispatched him to get Teresa out of the way and so he had. That day had been special to her all those years ago, but it was also special to him too. Although he could understand why she was mad, it didn't make sense. It happened years ago... she was crucifying him over something that happened when he was no more than a kid. Something else had to be going on.

Jane put his cup down and laid on his couch to think. Abbott came into view and he closed his eyes to avoid interacting with him. Lately, he kept making comments in passing about letting Lisbon get away, like he had any influence over her choices. It was really starting to irk him. Just this afternoon he had stopped him in the bullpen and asked him how long he was going to let 'that' go on and nodded his head towards Lisbon and Pike.

Abbott wanted him to break them up and after some reflection, he concluded that he was concerned that he'd leave the FBI. This was interesting because it meant that what he'd heard about Lisbon was true – that Pike had accepted a new position in D.C. and had ask Lisbon to go with him – she'd even had an interview of sorts for a dream job. None of this info came from Lisbon – all second hand and it hurt him that she didn't even talk to him. He'd been so sure that she wouldn't go to D.C. when he first heard, but now he was uncertain, and it made him contemplate his future without her and he hated it.

She'd accused him of ruining her career, her life and her memories and although it stung to hear it, he could see her point – he was guilty. His quest for revenge on Red John had done some collateral damage to her life and he did incinerate her career – but that's why he came back... to find a way make it up to her and selfishly because she was the closest thing to family he had.

Jane relaxed and cleared his mind. He was being ridiculous. Lisbon wasn't going anywhere. She'd been mad at him before, angrier actually and she always got over it. This would boil over soon, she just needed a bit more time... she just wanted to make him suffer a bit more. Happy with that conclusion, he decided that this would be something they would both laugh about later in the future.

He felt someone standing by the couch and looked up. It was Fischer. He smiled up at her. His game with her had gone a little too far and he could see now that she had a crush on him. He had to end the flirting...