#poor pike

He hadn’t called back. He’s pretty sure he knows the reason for her sudden change of heart, but he’s not enough of masochist to hear it from her own lips. 

Maybe he should have called. Gotten closure. Then he wouldn’t be here, at her desk in Austin, jotting down a note to see if she wanted to grab a drink. He doesn’t really care to look deep into his own motives. Teresa Lisbon is one-of-a-kind: brilliant, sweet, beautiful, and deeply good. She’s perfect. If there’s a chance…

"Uh, excuse me, can I help you?"

Marcus exhales, then makes himself stand and turn around. There it is. The reason. 

Patrick Jane.

The first thing Marcus notices despite himself is that Jane looks good. He’s still in shape, but a little fuller, when before he had tended toward a little too thin. He is tan, golden almost, as if he had just spent two weeks in the sun. Most of all, though, there is an indiscernible quality to him that is unfamiliar. If Marcus had to name it, it would call it lightness. 

He forces a smile. "Jane," he greets, wishing suddenly to be anywhere but here.

Jane stops a few feet away, eyes searching. "Pike. Hello."

Marcus drops his pen on Lisbon's desk, straightening up. He only has about an inch of height on Jane, but he plans on using it. "I was, uh, looking for Teresa."

Jane gives him a look, and Marcus, not for the first time, wouldn’t mind knocking him down a few pegs. Of course, that was probably obvious. But Marcus prides himself on his honesty. His honesty is something Teresa loves about him. He's pretty sure that Jane wouldn't know honesty if it bit him.

Maybe that’s why he's here, Marcus realizes. He's sure Jane did something to Teresa, confessed something. Maybe kissed her. Made her doubt her own feelings. But surely, two weeks is enough to come to her senses that something's not right. That Marcus is the right choice, not an ex-conman who had spent ten years hunting down his wife's killer. A murderer.

"I’m sure she's around here somewhere," Jane offers, walking a few steps closer, but Marcus knows that Jane probably saw him come in, probably sent Teresa to run an errand or something. 

They exchange a few meaningless platitudes before Marcus decides to make his move. "So, it’s… you and her, huh?"

Jane avoids his gaze, slipping his hands into his pockets, altogether the appearance of submission. Marcus catches the glint of his ever-present dead wife’s wedding ring and almost nonsensically wishes that men could still fight each other for a woman's honor. 

Despite Jane's appearance of submission, however, he steps closer until they’re less than a foot away, and Marcus feels the threat. "Yeah, um…" He looks up, meeting Marcus' eyes. "I’m sorry," he admits, shaking his head. "We didn't intend for it to happen like this. I know it was the last thing on her mind… the idea of hurting you." 

Marcus feels the sting of that double-edged sword. He knows Teresa didn't want to hurt him. But Jane, probably intentionally, is making it clear that Marcus was the last thing on Teresa's mind when it happened. He wonders what Jane did. Something romantic probably. A con, most certainly. He knows Teresa better than anyone; Marcus is sure that he knows how to push her buttons until she gives in. From Teresa's stories, he's done so for over a decade now. 

"I know that," Marcus agrees, studying Jane for a long moment. Then, he goes in for the kill. "So do you have a plan?"

To his surprise, Jane looks noticeably taken aback before his expression closes off again. Marcus could cheer at his small win. "I don't really understand-" he begins.

But Marcus won't have it. "Well, I was offering her life. A home. A family, if she wanted it. A future." He tries to do the same examining gaze that he's seen on Jane himself. He hopes it is successful. "Have you thought about any of that?"

"I don’t see how it's any of your business what I'm offering her," Jane says, his voice a little lower.  

Marcus tries to stand up a little straighter. He doesn't like the knowing look in Jane's eyes. Sure, his feelings are probably obvious. He doesn't mind that. Jane should make his more obvious; that's what Teresa likes. "I care about her," Marcus replies, ignoring Jane's faint hum in response. "She's a good woman. She-"

He's cut off by the sound of familiar heels coming from the hallway. Teresa appears, also more tan than when he last saw her, and somehow more beautiful than he remembers. Her green eyes are sparkling, a secret smile playing at her lips, but both things die when she sees him. 

"Hey," she greets him with her hands in her pockets, clearly uncomfortable, and her eyes quickly skip over him to land on Jane. The two of them share a long, unreadable look. It gives Marcus an opportunity to look her over in earnest. His eyes, trained as they are by law enforcement, immediately catch on a big difference in her appearance. 

Along with her mother's cross around her neck, hangs a man's wedding ring. 

He tries to conceal his sharp intake of breath. It must be her father's, and all the pieces come together. That's it! Her father had passed, and Jane had been here instead of him to pick up the pieces. He must have taken advantage of her grief, and Teresa, the saintly person that she is, had broken up with him because she thought he deserved better. Well, he can forgive her. He's a good man. He's never lost a parent, but he understands that grief must be terrible. 

"Excuse me," Jane says, turning to make his way into the hallway. 

He hasn't made it past Teresa before Marcus can't hold it in. He can prove that he knows Teresa just as well as Jane. "I’m sorry for your loss, Teresa," he says, who looks at him, confused. Jane is also turning toward him with an uncertain look on his face. Serves him right. He's not the only one who can read people. Marcus nods toward the ring around her neck. "It was your dad's?" 

Surprisingly, Teresa says nothing to him. Instead, she turns immediately to Jane, who has stepped so close to her side they are almost touching, with her eyes wide. "Jane-" She says, a note of pleading to her voice that he recognizes from the many times Jane called while they were together. Marcus notices that she sways toward Jane automatically, as if drawn in by his sheer presence.

"No," Jane says, his tone almost conversational. He's looking at Teresa, but he's speaking to Marcus. Then, he reaches for her neck, carefully and completely unnecessarily readjusting the chain. He runs his thumb along the band, and Marcus can see Teresa's breath hitch before she shifts just far enough away so Jane's no longer touching her. Jane lets her go, but he's not done speaking.

"It's mine."  

Marcus' heart drops to his stomach as he quickly finds Jane's left hand again. It's a different band, he realizes, trying to fight the uncomfortable heat and redness rising to his cheeks. White gold. Jane’s old ring is yellow gold, like the one around Teresa's neck. Thinner. A little less shiny from wear. This new one is gleaming, even in the room's limited sunlight.  

"Jane-" Teresa tries again, lower, but she doesn't resist as Jane places the final puzzle piece. He reaches for Teresa's hand, still deep in her pocket, and pulls it out. There, taunting Marcus with its perfectly cut diamond and matching white gold bands, sits proof of Jane's plan. The one that Marcus was so sure did not exist. 

With that, Jane squeezes Lisbon's hand once before dropping it and continuing to the hallway. Marcus wonders if he's be brave enough to start whistling like he so clearly wants to. Lisbon looks a little upset with Jane and clearly sorry for Marcus as she approaches him, lips pressed together. He's sure that she will be kind and gracious and brilliant, and she will surely apologize profusely and wish him well in his future endeavors, but none of it matters anymore. The battle is over.