Author's Note: Now that Wild Card is finished, I was looking forward to writing some one shots. Then I had to say good-bye to my elderly kitty and have struggled to put any words together at all. Hopefully this bit of fluff is worth reading anyway. I decided to tackle a question that's been bugging me since White Orchids aired. The bracelet didn't seem like something Lisbon would buy, and from what she said about her family, it's doubtful she inherited it. The obvious answer is a gift from Jane, so here's how I think it happened.

Jane was the first back to the Airstream, which didn't surprise him. Lisbon's task of gathering up her wedding things would take much longer than his call to Judge Hamilton.

He was glad for the chance to think, though. Lisbon wasn't often emotional, and her tears over their rapidly mutating wedding plans were unusual enough to give him pause. Was she having second thoughts?

No. Nothing else she had said or done supported that hypothesis. She seemed eager for the elopement, which wouldn't be the case if she had doubts about marrying him.

Not that he expected any. It was clear to him that she'd been thinking about marriage long before he had. She'd sacrificed an engagement (however hasty and ill-advised) to be with him, so it was only natural that her expectations tended in that direction. Her only doubts were about his readiness, which he had to admit wasn't unreasonable. He was still working through his own neuroses, which he feared would be a lifelong process, and his old coping method of running off on his own was no longer an option. Even for Lisbon, there could be only so many second chances.

The proposal and the ring had removed some of her doubts, he thought. He was a little ashamed at how long it had taken him to give that to her, but the whole process had made him a nervous wreck. The last woman he'd proposed to had lived to regret it, after all.

He'd fumbled his way through their entire courtship, beginning with the wreckage of his elaborate con on Islamorada. His younger self would have rolled his eyes in disgust. It was going to take a long time to make that up to both Lisbon and himself.

At least he'd managed to lay the foundations: the proposal, the rings, the beginnings of a home together. But once the grand gestures were exhausted, he'd be left with the much harder task of overcoming his selfishness daily. Maybe that should be part of the wedding vows.

No, Lisbon's head would explode if he so much as hinted at the idea of writing their own vows. They would stick to the tried and true. Besides, there wasn't a selfish bone in her body; this vow was for him to make, not her. But how to go about it?

Inspiration occurred, and he got to his feet and dug into one of the storage areas until he found the long, flat box. The diamond bracelet was still snug in its velvety bed, its simple design belying its value. When he'd bought it, counting cost was the furthest thing from his mind. No price would have been too high to convince Lisbon to abandon her plans and stay with him.

But when it all fell apart and then miraculously turned out better than he could have hoped, he hadn't had the courage to give it to her. It was part of the con, after all, which continued to be a sore spot with her. She'd made him return the dresses, even though she admitted she liked them, and he'd realized the last thing they needed was any reminder of his manipulations. So the bracelet, which was to have been presented during a moonlit walk on the beach, stayed tucked away in his luggage and then the Airstream.

Whatever was behind Lisbon's current state, diverting her was his best strategy. He knew from experience that being pulled away from the thing that was bothering her could allow her to get some distance from it, maybe reframe it in a more useful way. Then he could figure out what it was and how to fix it.

When he heard her car pull up, he tucked the box away in his jacket pocket, then went outside to help her carry things inside.

"Turn around!" she demanded as he came outside.

He obeyed, smirking a little. "Can I help with anything?"

"After I hang the dress up, you can. And no peeking!"

He couldn't help a chuckle. "I thought you weren't superstitious."

"I'd just like to surprise you for a change," she retorted.

He obediently stood with his back to her, despite the temptations of the rustling of a plastic bag right behind him. He didn't even try to use the Airstream's side mirrors. If she wanted to surprise him on their wedding day, he would go along with it.

As she came back out, she said, "Okay, all clear."

He turned and gave her a quick kiss. "What can I help carry?"

"There are a couple of bags in the back. Are we staying by the cabin tonight?"

"No. I think we should go to a random campground." Keller was out there, and even though the cabin was a new purchase, he might be able to locate it. Jane preferred to be somewhere entirely unpredictable.

"Good thinking," Lisbon replied, grabbing a plastic bag out of the back seat and leaving the duffel for him. "I brought dinner."

"Perfect." He smiled, thinking of the role reversal and wondering if she spotted it. He fondly remembered the days at CBI when he devoted a part of his scheming prowess to getting reasonable meals into her. Now, it seemed, she was the one making sure they ate. Maybe that was due to becoming part of a household again. If so, he would happily enjoy the perk.

Lisbon had brought Thai, so they ate before driving to a campground outside Austin that Jane hadn't yet tried. It was a small place, but full enough for the Airstream not to be remarkable, and he liked that the manager didn't seem to use a computer for recordkeeping. They'd be hard to locate here.

With no television or WiFi, their usual evening activities were reading and conversation. Jane enjoyed coaxing stories out of Lisbon, learning more about her with each one, and it was getting easier to tell her stories of his past in return. He loved the way her eyes lit up as she eagerly gathered more clues about his childhood. Discovering each other this way was almost as gratifying as the physical discoveries they made in bed, and just as intimate. It was no surprise that one often led to the other, in either order.

As they settled beside each other on the bench seat, Jane said, "Have I mentioned how grateful I am that you aren't superstitious about seeing each other before the wedding?"

"Oh, you mean you think I should have left you on your own with a serial killer on the loose?" Lisbon gave a little snort. "I guess if I wanted out of this, that would be one way to do it."

"Do you?" He couldn't resist the question.

She frowned at him. "No."

"Good."

She was still frowning. "Can't you tell? Have I done something to make you worry?"

There were her two broken engagements, but he thought it was wiser not to mention those. "No, my dear. Just making sure."

It took her a few moments to voice what she wanted to say next. "Are you...having a hard time with this?"

"Not at all," he hurried to assure her. He knew what she was really curious about, though. "This is nothing like my last wedding eve. Danny threw me a bachelor party, which I still suspect may have been a ruse to disrupt the wedding. But I was determined not to be hung over or worse, still drunk, when I met Angela at the altar. She would have been disgusted. It was bad enough that Danny and his friends exercised no such restraint."

Lisbon nodded. "So he was in jail for drunk and disorderly when you had to bail him out?"

"Partly. Also petty theft. It was a widely held belief that townies were all easy marks, and there was always kind of a contest among the younger set to see how much they could get away with. But it's hard to pickpocket drunk, or even shoplift. Danny got careless. For my money, it was the emotional mess he was in more than the alcohol, though. I think Angela understood. She always looked out for Danny."

"She was a good sister," Lisbon murmured.

"Yes, she was. I think that's why Danny always blamed me for our escape, even though she told him it was just as much her idea. After, when we started to have some money to spare, she offered to help him go straight too. He couldn't see himself doing that, though."

"Did she feel bad about leaving him?"

She must be seeing the parallels to her own situation, he thought. "Yes. But her parents were still alive, so she figured he'd be fine. And he was." His life had turned out better than hers had, in the end.

Lisbon laid her head on his shoulder, maybe sensing his thought. "That must have been hard."

"Yes. It always amazed me how strong she was." He cleared his throat and took a deep breath to steady himself. "She wanted to live a good life as a good person. She wanted that for Charlotte too."

"And for you."

"Yes. I was her big failure."

"You were not," Lisbon argued. "You made one mistake, that's all. I bet she would have convinced you to leave the psychic business if she'd had more time."

"We'll never know." He was far from certain. He'd been so sure of himself then, having so much fun, reveling in the things he could buy his family. He'd thought himself so different than his father, better than him. The reality was, though, his destructive tendencies had differed only in scope.

"Anyway," Lisbon continued, "you're a good man now. You have been for a long time. I think she'd be proud of you."

His heart squeezed painfully as he imagined the chance to speak with Angela again, even for a moment. But he had to admit she'd be pleased. Also amused. Maybe, he hoped, even proud.

There was one problem, though. "I'm still a con man. I'm still selfish."

"You use your powers for good, though."

"Not always." He braced himself. "Not on Islamorada."

Lisbon sighed, but she didn't tense up. "You were being stupid out of fear. We all do stupid things when we get scared."

He supposed the things he'd done to make her angry the last few months were, indeed, rooted in fear. "You don't."

"Are you kidding me?" She sat up so she could face him. "I agreed to marry a man I knew I wasn't in love with because I was too terrified to ask you how you felt."

He blinked. He hadn't thought of it that way, exactly. "So I guess we were both scared stupid."

"Yeah. But fortunately we came to our senses."

"Mm hm." He swallowed, then reached for the box in his pocket. "I have something for you. I...I've had it a while now, but I wasn't sure you'd want it."

She looked at it with with a light in her eyes he'd only seen when he showed her the engagement ring. "Because I'd have nowhere to wear it?" she suggested.

"I was planning to wine and dine you and take you dancing," he admitted.

The little line between her eyebrows made its unwanted appearance. "It was part of the con?"

"Yes. But the thing is, I thought you'd like it. And I still think so. Only now you can wear it tomorrow, at our wedding. And it can be a promise."

"No more cons?" She looked like she was rethinking the reflexive refusal that he hadn't let her voice.

"No more cons. Not on you, anyway," he added quickly, because he hadn't decided if he'd ever go back to the FBI, and cons were a big part of his contributions there.

She reached for the box and opened it, giving a little gasp at the row of neat sparkling diamonds. "It's beautiful," she breathed.

"It will look beautiful on you." He waited to see if she was going to reject the gift, but when she didn't, he lifted it out of the box and fastened it on her wrist.

"You're not going to give me jewelry all the time, are you?" She tried for a wry tone but didn't quite achieve it.

"Not all the time, no. At special times, perhaps. Unless you express a preference for something else. I know you can't wear much jewelry at work, and you don't need adornment."

She smiled at him, pleased by both the compliment and his understanding of her. "And we need to save our money for making that shack into a home."

Jane shook his head. "I can cover that. Save your money for something you want."

Lisbon frowned for a moment. "I guess we should talk about things like whether we're mingling our money."

"I'm willing to let you decide," he said. "We will have some paperwork to endure once we're married, but why spoil our evening with it now?" He followed up his question with a light kiss. "You haven't thanked me for your wedding gift."

"Thank you, Patrick," she said sweetly, kissing him in return. "I'm afraid I don't have anything to give you for a wedding present."

Then she ducked her head, but not before he saw a secretive little smile. Hm, someone was planning a surprise. He looked forward to finding out what it was, but in this happy moment he was willing to wait.

"Agreeing to marry me is all the gift I need," he said, taking her hand in his and playing with her fingers. "Though if you have any doubts, any concerns, we can talk about them. We should talk about them."

"No, I—I know I was overreacting earlier," she said. "But that wasn't about you. I want to marry you. And the only thing I'm concerned about is you running off again."

It was definitely going to take a while to live that down, he thought, suppressing a sigh. "I won't."

"I know you mean that," she said slowly. "But if something happens again that you feel you can't handle, how will you deal with it if you can't just pick up and run? I mean, it was bad enough that you did it when we lost Vega, but—what if it had been Cho? Would you have left me to deal with that on my own too?"

Jane sucked in a breath at the thought of how painful that loss would have been. "I like to think I wouldn't have," he said after a moment. "I wanted to be there for you, Teresa. I did. But I was so caught up in the possibility of facing your death that I couldn't. I've started to work through that now, so I hope I wouldn't have the same reaction."

"Okay." She didn't sound entirely convinced, but she seemed willing to give him a chance to prove it to her, which was all he needed.

"We'll work through anything that happens together," he added. "That's what marriage means. We don't take unilateral action anymore."

"And when we disagree?"

"Then we keep talking until we reach a solution."

"Hm."

Her skepticism was warranted, he reminded himself. "No matter how long it takes. But we don't give up."

"Right," she said firmly.

He gave her hand a squeeze. "That's what the rings mean."

"So the rings mean we work through things together and the bracelet means no more conning me. I think I can deal with that."

"Good." He smiled. "So does that mean you're interested in one last round of pre-marital sinning?"

She elbowed him. "I just went to confession. Don't push your luck."

He could tell she was teasing him by the way the corners of her lips kept trying to turn upward. "Far be it from me to endanger your immortal soul with the pleasures—no, ecstasies—of the flesh."

"I'm glad we're on the same page then," she managed to say, just barely suppressing a laugh as she got to her feet. "I call dibs on the bathroom. Why don't you make up the bed?"

He did as requested, savoring the thought that tomorrow they would go to bed together as husband and wife. The fact that a serial killer was stalking him was a minor annoyance; he had faith in their friends, not to mention his fiancée, to catch him.

Lisbon emerged from the bathroom in a dark green lacy nightgown he'd previously expressed his preference for, and he grinned at her as he went to take his turn in the bathroom. To show he was listening, he put his pajamas on before he joined her under the covers, snuggling up against her face to face and cuddling her with his free arm.

"This time tomorrow, we'll be married," he whispered.

She smiled. "Yes. Actually, about fourteen hours from now."

"You're counting?" He was delighted.

"Roughly." She moved forward to give him a kiss. "You know, it does seem a shame to miss our last chance at premarital sex."

"See? We can work through our differences," he chuckled, kissing her back.

"Thank you for my gift," she said when they paused to breathe.

"You are very welcome."

"And I do have something to give you, but it's a surprise, and I want to wait until tomorrow."

"Whenever you'd like, my dear. Like I said, marrying me is all the gift I need." He wondered what she had up her sleeve. Perhaps she'd had better luck with Pete and Sam than he had?

As she kissed him again, he decided that, just this once, he could wait to find out.