2/8
the Best Man
Author: Brown Eyes Parker
Artist: Caitriona
Link to art: coming soon
Word Count: 10, 718
Rating: K+
Summary: She wasn’t like other women. She could play the smiling best friend, pretending that she wasn’t in love with him.
Disclaimer: I own NOTHING.
Notes: This story started out as a one-shot, but it didn't want to be a one-shot. So, it turned into the multi-chapter it is now. I have to thank Nerwen Aldarion's encouragement or my cousin, who kept me company on Skype chat while I wrote and rewrote this, and made a million different soundtracks. Also, I have to thank the Lizzie Bennet Diaries, because the awesomeness between Lizzie and William the last few epiosdes was TOTALLY my inspiration to get the last of this written. And as always, thank you to my parents who let me be who I am and allow me to have access to their laptop so I can write my fan fiction.
And there in the bathroom I tried not to fall apart
“How are you holding up?”
Even though she’d been expecting the question ever since Virgil Minelli had issued the invitation to have lunch, she still wasn’t fully prepared to answer him. Next to Jane, he was the last person that she wanted to know how she was truly feeling.
“I’ve been doing well-” Lisbon started, feigning ignorance about what his question really meant.
“Come now Teresa,” Minelli chided gently. “Don’t play dumb with me; you know that I wasn’t asking about how you’re health. Now tell me, how are you holding up?”
Lisbon sighed and pushed her glass of lemonade away as she avoided his careful gaze. “Why do you want to know?”
“I’ve always thought there was more than friendship between the two of you-”
“You were just reading into things then,” Lisbon told him. “We were never anything more than just friends.”
“Just friends!? Just friends with a man you’ve put your job and your life on the line for?” Minelli scoffed.
“I would have done the same thing for Cho and Rigsby-” she started.
“Bull!” He interjected. “Just try and convince me that you’d do half the things for them that you did for Jane.”
Lisbon set her jaw, ready to refute his point, but as soon as she opened her mouth all her arguments were gone.
“Virgil, if there was something more than friendship between Jane and me then he’d be engaged to me right now. Not Erin,” she replied, willing herself to believe the words that were spilling out of her mouth.
Minelli bit his tongue, refraining from telling her that there were probably a lot of reasons that Jane had decided to marry somebody else instead of her. He knew it wouldn’t be something that she wanted or even needed to hear.
Instead he took her hand in his and forced her to look at him, his gaze unblinking. “If you really love him then you need to let him know, Teresa. It won’t be the easiest thing to let him know how you feel, but getting it out in the open will be better than living the rest of your life with the regret if you don’t say anything.”
“I can’t tell him! It wouldn’t be right. . . ” Lisbon answered. “You see, I’m- he asked me to be his best man! So, you see? If I did have feelings for him, I couldn’t tell him how I felt in good conscience. I wouldn’t feel right- I’m sorry, I-” she got up from the table abruptly. “Excuse me.”
May frowned slightly as she watched Lisbon disappear down the hall and into the bathroom. “You upset her, Virgil! I told you not to-”
Minelli patted her on the hand and then pushed away from the table. “Don’t you worry your pretty little head May. I’m sure that she’ll be fine.”
.
He found her sitting on the edge of the bathtub with her face buried in her hands. She looked so much like a broken-hearted teenager that his fatherly instincts towards her were doubled. He knelt down in front of her and gently touched her knee.
“Teresa?”
“I’m okay,” she said, looking at him, her green eyes completely dry.
“You know you don’t have to be strong all of the time,” Minelli told her. “Sometimes it’s fine if you cry.”
“I-”
“It’s fine,” Minelli repeated, pulling her into his arms and holding onto her tightly. “It’s just the two of us, so if you have to cry then cry. I promise, I won’t tell anybody if you do.”
Lisbon cleared her throat, fighting back the tears that were begging to prick the corners of her eyes because of her former mentor’s words. After a moment, she choked on an unwanted sob and for the first time since she had found out about Jane’s engagement, she started to cry.
Minelli didn’t say anything; he just let her cry on his shoulder as he rubbed her back gently.
She looked at him after a moment, trying to catch her breath. “Do you want the truth?”
“Teresa, you don’t have to-”
“No, no. . . I do,” she replied, sniffing slightly as she dabbed at her eyes with her sleeve. “The truth is I’ve loved him for years now. The truth is I allowed myself to imagine that Jane and I had a future together after Red John was finally out of the picture. I put up with all of the different women that came in and out of his life, because I was so certain that he would always come back to me. I just took it for granted that he’d never actually ask one of the other women to stay.”
Minelli grabbed a tissue from a box on the window sill and wiped away the tears and traces of mascara from her cheeks. “I can’t speak for Jane, but I know what I saw when I was working with the two of you. I would swear in a court of law that he’s in love with you too.”
Lisbon sighed. “You-”
“Don’t even try and tell me that I’m wrong,” he interrupted. “I’m not blind Teresa; I can tell when two people love each other. Now, I don’t know why he isn’t with you right now. But I am one hundred percent certain that it doesn’t have anything to do with his not loving you.”
“I still can’t help but thinking if that were true, we’d be together right now.”
“Maybe you should talk to him then,” Minelli said, putting his hand in her’s. “See what’s going on in his head. You were always good at that.”
“I can’t. Here’s some more truth for you Virgil. I’m afraid of what he’ll say if I bare my heart to him. I’m trying to be strong, trying to be happy for his sake. I’ve already been rejected to a degree, I don’t want to lose him completely,” Lisbon replied as she began to cry again. “He means so much to me that I would be willing to spend the rest of my life just being his friend. Because having him there would be better than nothing.”
“Is everything okay in here? You two have been gone an awfully long time. Lunch is starting to get cold-” May stopped short and looked at
Lisbon with the kind of empathy only another woman could have.
“I’m sorry,” Lisbon said, turning away from the older woman, so she wouldn’t see her tear-filled eyes.
“It’s okay,” May assured her gently as she joined them in the bathroom and knelt down in front of her, gently swiping at her cheeks with her thumbs.
“Crying’s a good thing. So, you just cry.”
And there in the bathroom, with two people who cared about her, she completely fell apart.
(part 3)