I suppose I am an idiot cramming one more thing into my schedule, but I had a strange dream the other night, and I decided to turn that dream into a fic! An angsty oneshot, possibly multi-chapter, if I get enough requests :)

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

He was making his way through the frustrating crowd at City Hall, searching for the one face he had been longing, aching, needing to see for the past five years. Rumor had it that his old CBI team was at this very banquet. It felt good to be back in California, and as soon as he was in town, he headed straight for City Hall.

Everyone was dressed in elegant clothing. Women wore backless dresses, hemlines falling to the floor. Men wore black ties, just as he did. He looked around anxiously, desperately trying to find the woman he had forced himself to spend half a decade without. The woman who he hadn't realized he loved until after he left. He wanted to see her. He needed to see her.

He spotted the other three first.

They were all gathered around a table in the corner of the room. Grace wore a floor length red gown that accentuated the red hair that was now weaved into some sort of design on her head. Rigsby and Cho wore tuxes, just like all the other men. They had glasses of champagne in their hands, chatting, smiling. He made his way over to them in a hurry. Grace was the first to notice him, and when she did, her entire face lit up, and she set her glass down, running to meet him halfway and throwing her arms around his neck. "Jane!" she shrieked in his ear.

He couldn't help but smile. He had missed her. He had missed them all. He put his arms around Van Pelt and let out a laugh. "Hi Grace."

The other two were now rushing over to him. They peeled Grace off of Jane and gave him awkward side-hugs.

"Hey man! What the hell happened to you?" Rigsby exclaimed, grinning.

"Did you fall off the face of the Earth? We haven't seen you in years!" Despite Cho's patronizing words, an unfamiliar smile was beginning to form on his face, clearly happy to be reunited with his friend again.

"Seriously!" Grace added. "Where have you been?"

He smiled at all of them, amused by their interrogating questions. "Vermont, actually."

They all stared at him, until Cho spoke all of their minds.

"What the hell were you doing in Vermont?"

"Living there." He paused. "After Red John was killed, I decided I needed a fresh start." He pressed his lips together. "That's why I left."

They all exchanged glances, but shrugged it off and offered him a glass of champagne.

He shook his head, declining their invitations. "Actually, I'm looking for Lisbon. Is she here?"

Their smiles faded, and they looked at one another again, worried expressions on their faces.

Oh no. She can't be…

He cleared his throat. "She's not… dead, is she?"

"No!" Grace cried. "No, she isn't dead. She's, uh, she's here." She turned and looked around for her. "I'm pretty sure I saw her near the dance floor talking to LaRoche."

Jane made a disgusted sound. "LaRoche still works for the CBI?"

They all nodded gravely.

He sighed. "Alright. I'm going to go find her." He turned to leave when he felt a hand on his arm.

"Jane, wait. Why don't you, um, stay and talk to us for a while?" Rigsby suggested, looking at the others for support, who all nodded. "We haven't seen you in five damn years! We probably have some catching up to do!" He walked over to Grace and took her hand, the corners of his lips curving upward. "Like… did you know that we're married?"

Jane's eyes widened. "What about the rules?"

"Lisbon found a way to have them altered." Grace smiled. "We just celebrated our second anniversary. And…" She set a hand on her stomach.

Jane gasped. "Grace. You're pregnant?"

Wayne and Grace both nodded ecstatically. "I'm only about six weeks along," Grace explained. "But yes. We're having a baby!"

"Wow. Wow! Congratulations, you guys." He was in a daze. "Just… wow." He had missed so much. A lot could happen in five years!

Cho held up his left hand, revealing a gold wedding band. "I proposed to Elise last year. We got married in June."

Patrick's eyes got impossibly wider, guilt all of a sudden washing over him when he realized how much he missed while he was away. "Wow," was all he could say. Despite how happy he was for every single one of them, he still needed to find Lisbon. He glanced around for her again. "I really don't want to be rude, but I need to find Lisbon." He turned and walked away without giving any of them a chance to protest. He immediately regretted just walking away without promising to return later, but he knew if he turned back, they'd make him stay.

As he walked - sped walked, really - he passed many familiar faces that glanced at him in surprise, obviously shocked by his return. But they offered him polite smiles and occasional hellos. He returned them, but kept moving. He was on a mission.

A mission to find lost love.

He caught sight of LaRoche, chatting with people Jane had never seen before. He rushed over to him and rudely interrupted their conversation. "Hello, sir. Remember me?"

The agent looked at him irritably, but his expression softened when he saw who was standing before him. "Patrick Jane?" he whispered, then laughed humorlessly. Very LaRoche-like. "Well, I'll be damned. What are you doing here?"

"I'm here to visit my team."

LaRoche eyed him suspiciously. "How have you been?"

Jane resisted the urge to huff. He wasn't looking for small talk. Especially not from LaRoche. He wanted to find Lisbon. "Well. Yourself?"

"Good."

"Glad to hear it," he lied. He looked around, searching for the one he was really looking for. "Have you seen Lisbon?"

"Teresa? Yeah, I was just talking to her." He pointed to the opposite end of the room. "Behind that crowd of people is where I thought I saw her go."

"Thanks." He hurried away, weaving through the people that were packed together so tightly they might as well all be holding hands. He even had to politely squeeze himself through a couple that was swaying to the music because there was just no other way around them. He looked this way and that, for the face that had been planted in his head for five years.

Then, he caught a glimpse of unmistakable raven-black curls.

His heart stopped, and his breath hitched in his throat.

She wore a stunning emerald gown, and just by his memory, he knew that the dress would accent her eyes. There was no doubt in his mind. Her back was to him. Her hair was worn down, and longer than he remembered, flowing a little past her shoulder blades. She had a glass of champagne in her right hand, and she was talking to a woman he didn't recognize.

This is it, he thought. Tell her how you feel. How you've felt.

So, he found his courage, and started to make his way over to her. As he got closer, various memories began rushing through his mind. He thought back to the time when they danced at that high school reunion. He thought about when they had been kidnapped together by that insane Rachel girl. He remembered all their bickering and fighting.

He replayed the day he left. How he left her standing there, tears streaming down her face, and he didn't even look back.

Little had he known that just three days later, he would realize that he loved her.

He shoved that thought out of his mind and continued on his mission.

He was getting closer, only about ten feet away, when something happened that changed everything.

"Mommy!" he heard a little girl's voice call. He stopped in his tracks. He watched Lisbon turn her head in the direction the voice had come from, and he gasped at her profile. She was even more beautiful than he remembered.

It took him a second to process what was really going on.

A girl, who couldn't have been older than three years old, came running into view wearing a pink dress. She hurled herself at Lisbon, who was now kneeling down with her arms outstretched. She cocooned the little girl and stood up straight, smiling apologetically at the woman in front of her, who smiled back and waved goodbye. The girl pulled back too look at her mother, a giant smile on her face. She had the same black curls and startling green eyes.

Before Jane could piece his brain together and realize what was happening, a man approached Lisbon, grinning. Jane's old boss turned her head, smiling, and let the man plant a short kiss on her lips.

Patrick's heart was now beating at a rapid pace.

And it was breaking at the same time.

Lisbon and the man exchanged a quick conversation before she handed the little girl over to him. He turned and walked in the opposite direction, kissing his daughter on the cheek.

Jane watched as Lisbon dropped her hands to her side, and it was only then did he notice the ring on her left hand.

Rigsby was right. They had had some catching up to do.

His head was spinning. His eyes were blurred with forbidden tears. His hands were clenched in fists. He was biting his bottom lip so hard he could have drawn blood, but he didn't care. His heart was broken. He'd put himself through pain and hell for the past five years, convincing himself that returning to her would be a huge mistake, and that she wouldn't want to see him. When he finally builds up the courage to face the woman he loved, he finds her with someone else. Married. With a child.

He couldn't watch this. He couldn't do this.

But just as he was about to flee, she turned.

And she noticed him.

The pleasant smile faded from her lips, replaced with a look of pure shock. Her eyes filled with confusion as they locked with his. She held his gaze, the familiar look of hurt settling over her features. Oh no. He recognized that look. He remembered it all too well.

He didn't know what to do. Should he run? Stay? Talk to her? Anything but stand there like an idiot and stare at her all night!

She made it easy. She slowly made her way over to him, and his heart sped up. She never took her eyes off of him while she walked. Her face never changed its emotion. Jane didn't move, either.

She stopped when she was in front of him, and just stared into his eyes. At first, he feared she was going to punch him. He probably wouldn't blame her. He deserved it. But she didn't hit him. Instead, she opened her mouth and spoke, but it wasn't what he expected her to say.

"How much of that did you see?"

Hearing her voice after so long made his stomach do that stupid flip that he hadn't felt since his teenage years.

He smiled sadly. "All of it."

She nodded understandingly, carefully reading what was beyond his eyes. "A lot has changed since you went away."

For whatever reason, her words stung him.

The two just stared at each other for a while, attempting to guess what the other was thinking. They tried to look past the fake smiles to see just how much pain the other was in.

It seemed as if Lisbon snapped out of the frozen state she was in and she smiled. "It's really good to see you," she said. She took a step toward him and hugged him briefly, catching him off guard, and he resented himself that he was too surprised to hug her back.

He tried to smile. "You too," he croaked. From across the room, he saw Lisbon's - or whatever her last name was - husband and daughter, and his heart sank a little more. "How old is she?" he whispered.

She followed his gaze, and smiled at the sight of her little girl. "My baby? She just turned three."

"What's her name?"

"Avery." She looked back at him.

That was a beautiful name. "Last name?"

She knew exactly what he was saying. He wasn't asking for the child's last name. He was asking for her last name.

"Our last name is Corbin."

Jane looked across the room at her daughter again. "She really is beautiful, Lis-" He stopped, eyeing her questioningly. She wasn't Lisbon anymore.

"Teresa," she said, clarifying things. "And thank you."

"She looks a lot like you."

She nodded, smiling again. "Yeah, we get that a lot." She paused. "Jane, what are you really doing here?"

An overwhelming sensation of pain shot straight through him. Was she really that oblivious? "What the hell do you think I'm doing here, Teresa?" he whispered.

A look of hurt flashed in her eyes. She sighed. "I have to get back to my family." She smiled softly. "It was really good to see you." With that, she threw him a little wave, turned on her heel, and left him with nothing but confusion and a newfound heartbreak.

And he thought back to the day he left, remembering everything…

So? Continue? Or leave it as a cliff-hanging, heartbreakingly angsty oneshot? If it does continue as a multi-chapter, just know it will be extremely angsty, and you may not like how it turns out, if you're a Jisbon fan. Your call. Thanks for reading!