fic: (Ment) Rainbow Tales - Part 5
Part One - Red
Part Two - Orange
Part Three - Yellow
Part Four - Green
BLUE - Reunion
There was this one thing, this one coincidence in her life Teresa Lisbon had never really been able to explain.
Every male person with a significant meaning to her life - and at any time in her life, starting with her childhood - had had a blue car. Her father had been the owner of one, as well as her first boyfriend. The two of her three brothers who had a driver's license also had blue cars at home. Those cars were in all shades of blue, but however, they were blue. And even the man she'd once thought she would marry came to her one day and suggested a family car - in blue.
There was something, something that connected men important to her and blue cars. Maybe she didn't know what it was, but she knew that whenever a man in a blue car showed up, he would leave marks in her life. And her heart.
The moment she met Patrick Jane for the first time, saw his old, grey-ish blue Citroën pull up in front of the CBI building she knew he would be her fate. And in more than one way she was proved to be right.
The years came and went and the man with the blue 70's vintage actually left marks in her heart. So many it sometimes scared her; just a little, but it did, nevertheless. Patrick often made her life harder - but then, in the end, also better. Her team became a family, and Jane a vital part of it. And although she knew that it wouldn't always be like this, Teresa still hoped that it could last. They all did.
Once he had told her what he planned to do when they found Red John. His words had never left her mind, her ears; for years, she remembered this moment. A moment that showed her another side of her team's consultant, showed how vengeful and bitter he really was. No one else knew that side; it was only her he showed it to. Over the years he had told and showed her so many things about himself. Except for one - what he would do after Red John was caught, and provided that Jane wasn't charged with murder.
The day came. Red John was found and Lisbon prevented Jane from killing the murderer of his family, who instead was sentenced to death and executed shortly after. With Jane watching.
The moment Red John was dead, Patrick vanished. And with him his car. Where once it had stood, day in, day out, now was an empty space no one dared to take. It was like the whole CBI was waiting for his return. Like they all respected that space that had almost always been occupied, as Patrick had practically been living in the building.
In the years they had been working together, there had been times she had hoped she wouldn't have to see this one special blue car - that he wouldn't be there. Because he was a pain in the ass, because he made her work so much harder, because of all the complaints against him and the work they gave her.
But then there had been times she waited for the car, and him, to turn up. Waited almost desperately.
Just like now, when she spent every possible second looking out of the window, hoping that he would return. If she could asked a favor, she would ask to see this blue car again. Because she knew it would bring along a person, a man she didn't want to live without anymore.
There was no one to grant her a wish. That particular wish. Patrick Jane was gone and she had to move on, just like all the others. Those who had lost dear ones. Loved ones.
In the beginning, she was still secretly looking out for it, for the Citroën and its owner. Whenever they were out in the field, she used a minute or two to scan the area with her eyes. But after a while, she gave up. There was no reason to think he would ever return, and there was no reason for her to look anymore. That's what she told herself. And it helped, to some extent.
Patrick Jane had taught them well in those years together. With a bit of his insight in human behavior, in the psyche, they solved their cases faster than any other team. Sometimes with unusual methods, yet always within CBI regulations. They were good, and everyone knew it. And those who didn't were confronted with the team's skills sooner or later.
Time went by, and almost every day brought a new case to work on. It was routine, it was always the same, and Teresa began to forget what once she had been looking for. Until that one day when she already felt in the morning that something was different.
When they arrived at the crime scene this time, Teresa never took a closer look. Too distracted she was by the vehicle that looked so familiar that she almost feared it was only a figment of her imagination. But there, on a dune nearby, stood that one car she had hoped to see again for so long. And when she neared the car, she also saw the person standing on the beach, with its bare feet in the water.
It was the first time she initiated closeness between them; closeness she had always tried to avoid all those years they'd been working together, fearing herself and her feelings. But now she didn't feel those boundaries anymore. All she felt was happiness. And so she ran to him and hugged him, and savored the feeling of him hugging her back.
.-.-.
Just outside the city borders of Sacramento, there stood a house. In the garden, children were playing - a boy of four with curly dark hair and a girl of about two with long, blond pigtails - while their parents sat on the porch of their house, watching their children with content smiles on their faces.
And next to their house - and a grey-ish blue 70's vintage Citroën - waited an ocean blue SUV for the next family trip.
END