a/n- Well here is the first installment in my new story. It is actually the second installment in what I hope will be a trilogy delving into the life of Teresa Lisbon. I took so liberties, as I always do, but I think my slightly AU world is decent enough. And being a fanfiction writer is about taking liberties. This one is teen-rated but the first story is M and will be posted when I reach 18 (less than a year).

This story follows a time period that is AU after about halfway through season 2. Rigsby and Van Pelt have broken up but are still not ready to move on. Lisbon and Jane are of course still in their usual relationship and Cho is Cho. This period of time continues on until the beginning of Jane and Lisbon's relationship and the demise of Red John. (I know how this will end.)

Prior to this there is a fic that Follows Lisbon from her mother's death until the beginning of the TV series and the fic that follows this examines Lisbon and Jane as they develop a relationship and move on from both of their sordid pasts.

Do enjoy and please leave a comment or two on what you think.

Genre: Drama/ Crime/Mystery/Romance

Disclaimer: Obviously I do not own the Mentalist but I do own anything my mind created, Mrs. Carter, Maria, Kailey…

Teresa Lisbon kept her past separate from her work-life for two reasons: first, because Jane and Van Pelt would read too much into it and try to 'help' her in some way and Rigsby would look blankly at her in shock and second, because it was sordid. Not in a dirty sense of the word but in a truly disturbing, slums version of sordid. Her team knew of her mother's death and she'd done her best to keep the fact that she had raised her three younger brothers and protected them from her father's abuse out of their line of sight but occasionally a part of that seeped through the cracks too. But there was one part of her past that no one, save for her superiors knew: she was a mother.

One expected that many people became cops because their livelihood as children had not allowed them to progress into higher society. That was not what had happened in her case. She had kept up with school and gained academic scholarships to UCLA for the study of chemistry, another thing she had never told anyone, and had a bachelor of science. Originally she had wanted to go into criminal forensics but the field had caught her eye and she'd moved there and trained with the SFPD for five years before the CBI scooped her out of Sam Bosco's pocket. No Teresa Lisbon had not given up when she had become pregnant at fourteen, nor when fifteen, or sixteen, or seventeen. She had not given up when she had a miscarriage following a beating so brutal that she had though the blood from it alone should have killed her. And she did not give up knowing that the children she had given birth to were her sisters as well as her daughters. But now, today, she thought she just might have to give up, might have to break down and drink herself into a stupor because her daughters, her two beautiful girls were coming to live with her following a car accident that had killed their great aunt Christine.

Lisbon placed a finger on the button of the phone and let it up dropping the receiver onto the desk. The long tone of the disconnected phone line buzzed through her office. She took a deep breath and checked her watch. Child services would be there in half an hour, dropping them off at the HQ, rather than her home. The brunette agent licked her lips, pulling from a drawer of her desk a picture of her, bruised and broken, holding her younger daughter Kailey in her arms. The other girl was there to, with the same green eyes as her and the same dark hair that every Lisbon had. If there was one thing that was known it was that there was a strong resemblance between the members of the Lisbon family. She tucked her bottom lip into her top and then pulled out a few more pictures. One of Davy, Evann, and Shane stood out to her. She smiled and set it nostalgically on her desk.

A knock sounded on her door and her head snapped up quickly dropping the pictures back into the drawer. Van Pelt stood in the doorway, very obviously fighting the temptation to know exactly what had just happened.

"Boss, what do you want me to do with," her voice lowered a bit, "The 'events' from the Marino case?" She asked, red hair swimming about her neck.

Lisbon took a moment to steady herself before speaking, "Just leave the papers on my desk. I'll finish them later."

Van Pelt stepped hesitantly forward and placed the folder on the desk. She opened her mouth as if to say something, but her boss' expression deterred her and she closed it again, "Thanks Boss," She turned to walk out of the office, and Lisbon almost let out a relieved sigh, but then the red-head turned to look at her, "Oh and Jane asked me to tell you that he wanted discuss something over a burger."

Lisbon raised an eyebrow and took a deep breath before nodding, "Thank you, Van Pelt. Would you tell Jane that if he wants to tell me about something he can tell me in person?"

Grace left quickly and Teresa watched the young woman join her colleagues in the bull-pen. Lisbon crossed her arms on the desk and lowered her head to them, her nearly black hair cascading around her in a wave. It seemed she couldn't get a break with her life. She had relinquished her custody of her daughters to her aunt because she had wished to get through college but now? She was a state agent for Christ's sake! It wasn't as though there was a way she could raise two teenage girls with her job and her hours.

Lisbon let out an exhausted and exasperated sigh. "You just love to knock me down," she commented rhetorically. A knock sounded against the door frame. She lifted her ahead again expecting Jane.

"What do you want no…" She stopped halfway through her annoyed exclamation as Agent Hightower stood in the door frame, "Agent Hightower." The brunette managed to stumble and then she continued, "I apologize I thought you were-"

"I know who you thought I was agent Lisbon," Madeline Hightower replied a normal smile quarking over her lips as though it was revealing something she knew. That smile irritated Lisbon because she understood what the supervisor thought she saw. She was a detective too. She knew how a person reacted if they read actions a certain way, "I just wanted to let you know that social services called from the main gate saying they were sending them up."

Lisbon paled. It was not often an occurrence but it happened them on one of those rare times. She pulled herself up from her seat and straightened the papers on her desk.

"Thank you for letting me know, I'll just…" She didn't finish the sentence, but pushed past her boss, hurrying down the brick-walled hallway toward the elevator doors.

"Agent Lisbon!" Hightower called.

"Yes Ma'am," Lisbon replied pausing in her step.

"It's nothing to be ashamed of," the woman answered cryptically and then disappeared into her office.

Lisbon stood staring for a moment, caught off guard by the statement and wondering whether the woman meant one or the other or both of the things she knew, or rather though she did. The agent hurried to the elevator and pressed the button to descend through the levels of the CBI HQ.

Patrick Jane parked his silver Citroen in the parking lot next to the social services van and walked, with a swagger the befitted only him, into the large brick building. He passed through the visitor's metal detector and placed his metal belongings into the basket for x-ray. He retrieved his things after their journey had been completed and whistled on his way to the elevator. A few other people waited there. He smiled spotting a familiar brunette standing just ahead of him.

The consultant reached out his hand and grabbed Lisbon's shoulder.

"Hey watch it! Don't touch me unless I tell you to!" the woman spun and Jane saw that it truly was not Lisbon but someone who look very much like her. He was shocked at the similarities but buried his surprise under a bright, charming smile.

"Let me guess," he stepped onto the elevator and turned to press the button for the third floor, "You're going to the third floor in search of your Aunt." He pressed the button and received a glare from the social worker.

There was a heavy silence that stretched during the boarding of not one, but two young Lisbons and the social worker accompanying them. Then the elder of the girls spoke again, her arm draped protectively around her younger sister.

"She's not my Aunt, she's my mother," the girl replied snappishly, her eyes glaring with a fiery look at Jane, "And it's not really your business is it."

Jane was momentarily taken aback. For once his surprise showed outwardly. The thought of it, Lisbon being their mother, or a mother, had not occurred to him. And she had not told him. He quickly hid his expression of shock and addressed the girls again.

"So Teresa Lisbon is your mother?"

"Yes." The eldest girl replied, "Why is it any of your business?" Then she gave him a horrified look, "You're not her boyfriend are you?"

"Na, he can't be. Not mom's type; it's usually brown hair, not that gold stuff," the youngest commented.

Jane felt hot under the intense scrutiny of both of the Lisbon girl. It was not often the consultant felt so uncomfortable, but there was just something about them saying he wasn't their mother's type so he couldn't possibly be her boyfriend. He heard a snort somewhere to his left and saw that the uniformed social worker was appearing unable to contain her laughter and was snickering into the back of her hand. Jane ran a hand through his uncomfortably.

"Besides, Mom would never go for someone that was so stuck on themselves," the youngest child went on.

Jane was never so happy to hear the bell of the elevator doors. He stepped off of the lift and into the hallway, putting on a face that clearly showed to the rest of the world that he was completely comfortable with himself and then ushered the three girls along in front of him.

"I can take it from here," he told the social worker.

"My job is to deliver them to their parent or guardian directly."

Jane extended a hand, "Patrick Jane, I will be one of their guardians. So you have officially completed your job."

"Not so fast Mr. Jane. I was informed that Ms. Lisbon was to be their only guardian." The social worker argued.

"Well the government doesn't know everything. Teresa and I are partners," he leaned closer to her, "In everything, if you catch my drift," he was turning the tables now and the woman blushed and stepped back onto the elevator clearly just trying to excuse herself from the conversation.

"Very well, Mr. Jane. My job here is done. Just make sure they get to their mother."

"Will do, Ms. ?" he paused, holding out his hand again.

"Carter," The social worker shook his hand and then pressed the button in the elevator. The doors closed and it descended back through the floors.

Jane turned to look at the two girls, bot of which looked somewhere between horrified and flabbergasted. He gave them a broad, shit-eating grin and the herded the two girls like lambs with a sheepdog toward Lisbon's office. The same grin was still on his face when he jerked open the door.

Lisbon stood in the lobby wondering whether her boss had been playing a cruel joke on her, telling her of the social worker's arrival. In annoyance the agent stormed back over to the elevator door and roughly pressed the button. The few people that had lined up behind her backed away slightly. She had a reputation as quite possibly one of the worst people in the office to tangle with when they were in a temper. The other elevator dinged and a single woman in a uniform stepped out. She was a social worker.

Lisbon hurried over to her and caught her arm disregarding the fact that the elevator was now ascending through the building again as quickly as though it were aiding the other workers in their escape from her irritation. She paid it no mind and turned the social worker to face her.

"Oh I just left your girls with your boyfriend," the worker smiled a wide smile, "He said he'd bring them to you. And don't worry, your secrets safe with me. I won't tell a soul."

"What?" she asked, her voice was strained and terribly rigid. Even uttering the single word was difficult for her. She watched the woman squirm. Though, Ms. Carter was considerably taller that her it was clear that the little woman before her had her complete and utterly intimidated.

"Your girls are upstairs with a man that was on the elevator with us. He was getting off at your floor and promised to take them to you as he was partial guardian." The woman shrunk back and looked longingly at the doors.

"Thank you for bringing them," she spun on her heal and march purposefully back to the elevators.

Several people there murmured about forgetting things in the car or having to go to the bathroom and left quite abruptly so that she was left to ride the elevator alone up to the third floor yet again. Lisbon stepped off and walked angrily down the hallway. Once she rounded the corner and saw the blonde man near her office knocking on her door with her three daughters around her she yelled at him.

"Jane!" her voice was loud and clear and very angry.

IF she had been properly paying attention to her surroundings, she would have noticed that work on the third floor had slowed in pace and had all but completely stopped. Cho looked up from his book, The Stand, and was focused intently on the hall outside the bull pen. Rigsby paused while holding his many case folders and walking across the room, his face was also focused on the hallway but his slack jawed appearance gave him the obvious look of gawking. Van Pelt looked up from her computer, neither surprised nor deterred by the anger in her boss' tone. She examined the scene with something that appear polite interest since it was "impolite to stare".

Lisbon drew back her hand and punched Jane hard, ignoring the fact that her daughters were watching, she dragged the man into one of the interrogation cubicles by the front of his shirt and threw him down into one of the chairs. Then she slammed the door behind her. Teresa rounded on him with the same tactic that she gave the most arrogant of her suspects and the tactic she gave teenage boys who thought she was "hot".

"Why Lisbon, you look lovely today, is that a new shirt?" Jane had chosen his usual angle, vague and ignorance of his actions.

"Don't do this Jane, don't you play coy with me," she slammed her hands into the table hoping he would jump. He didn't.

"You know Lisbon, you should really try something new. I've interrogated with you. I can predict what you're going to do."

"Oh really Jane. Well why don't you use your incredible omniscience to tell me why I am so effing pissed at you right now?" She crossed her arms, her legs place shoulder width apart and her teeth clenched.

Jane studied her for a moment and it seemed he decided playing the fool would work no longer so instead he pretended there was nothing for her to be angry about.

"Oh Lisbon, come on now. Have a sense of humor," He crossed his arms over his chest a different more arrogant grin on his face now, "I was just kidding. It's not as though anyone actually believed me when I said it."

Lisbon looked at him as though he had gone insane she'd backed up from the table and started pacing but now she slammed the butts of her wrists down on the table so hard and so close to him that this time Jane did actually jump, forcing his chair back away from her. Her face was so close to his that she could feel his breath on her face, she let out a mad huff of air and then answered him.

"That's the problem Jane. The social worker did believe you and, I'm pretty certain from the stares I got coming up here that a few other people who heard did too," She leaned even closer, "Those girls you met up there are my responsibility Jane. I don't think you understand what I mean by that. I need this job Jane, and you going around and telling people that we are together, does not help the 'me having a job' part of that statement. Hightower is watching my team's every move. If you mess up, I take the punch remember?" for once Lisbon wished she had something to throw at him very hard but instead she allowed herself to be satisfied with the bruise that was growing on his left cheek where her fist had made contact. She backed up and walked to the door only to notice on her way out that the light on the observation room camera was on. As she watched it went out so fast that she thought she must not be seeing properly. Shaking her head she stormed out of the room, slamming the door hard behind her.

Van Pelt transferred her gaze to Rigsby who transferred his gaze to Cho. Each knew the other was wondering exactly the same thing. What exactly had happened and why was Lisbon so very angry? And who were the three girls who looked so much like their boss, herself.

"Hey, you're Lisbon's team right?" a brown haired guy from the cybercrimes unit stuck his head into their section of the Bull-pen.

"Yeah," Van Pelt spun in her chair giving the guys a once over, something she knew her colleague wouldn't fail to notice, "Why?" her voice lowered slightly in tone.

The guys looked as though he'd finally gotten the chance to share something really really juicy with a friend. He hastened into the bull-pen and collapsed onto Jane's couch.

"Cat's out of the bag," he commented, "Rigsby, you like your boss too much, you owe me forty bucks, pay up."

"Why?" Rigsby tried to ask menacingly but he just sounded vaguely whiny.

"You lost your bet. You bet Lisbon and Jane would not get together because they work together and Lisbon is all about the rules." He grinned, "Turns out Rigs was wrong. Jane and Lisbon are partners. And those kids out there, they aren't your boss' brothers, they're hers. She has two teenage girls."

The team looked stunned for a moment and then the cybercrimes guy started laughing.

"You should see your faces, it's like someone killed your favorite pet." He was consumed by his laughter only to be cut off by the clearing of a throat from the doorway.

Lisbon stood there watching and then gestured with a hand, "Get back to work. We still have two cases to solve and a mess of paperwork. She turned and ushered her girls into her office. Once inside the confines of the glass room, she shut all of the blinds and turned to them, arms a small smile on her face and just a hint that there might be tears in her eyes. The younger, Kailey, rushed forward and wrapped her arms around her mother's middle.

"I missed you mom," Kailey mumbled into Lisbon's chest.

Teresa wrapped her arms around her youngest daughter, holding her tight to her body a tearful smile on her face, "I miss you too. Both of you. You have no idea how hard it was for me to give you up."

Maria stayed back, her eyes filled with silent tears that ran down her face. Lisbon looked up after a few moment and released Kailey. Both looked shocked but then she stepped forward to look eyes to eye at her eldest daughter. The piercing green eyes were there only her daughter's dark hair hung almost to her waist rather than the short cut her mother wore.

"Maria?" She asked tentatively, reaching forward and placing a hand on the sixteen year old's arm. This elicited more tears from the girl. Lisbon had honestly never known one of her daughters to be so completely emotional, she pulled her arms around her and pressed her head into her shoulder.

"Aunt Christine, died." Maria sobbed, "I was there, it was my fault, I distracted her. And then the car just shot through the light, heading right for us. I'd told her something and she was mad so she wasn't paying attention and she turned the car to the side when she saw the driver and then it hit her. She was there and then she wasn't. It was like some sick joke. And it was my fault." Maria pulled her Lisbon closer to her if possible.

"No it wasn't Maria, it wasn't your fault," Lisbon held her head tight to her shoulder letting the girl cry as much as she needed, something she'd never been allowed to do when she'd lost her mother, "It's never anyone's fault. Your aunt Christine, made the choice to give up her life. She never wanted you to spend the rest of your teenage years blaming yourself for it." She rubbed the girl's back, her lip momentarily tucked between her teeth, "It will all be alright. I promise. It will all get better with time. You will feel like this for a while but-" she was cut off as her daughter jerked away from her abruptly and ran from the room.

Lisbon lifted a hand to her lip as she realized she was bleeding. She lifted a Kleenex from the box on the desk and pressed it over the blood to stem it. Holding up a finger to her youngest daughter, she slipped from the room and followed her eldest. She there just in time to see the girl double over. Thinking quickly, more of a reflex than anything else, she shoved a trashcan from a nearby office under the girl's mouth, saving the janitor from cleaning up a mess. She let out a rough sigh and averted her gaze, vomit never having been one of her favorite things. She rubbed the girl's back hoping that that would at least help her feel more comfortable.

After about the third round of vomiting, Lisbon had become conscious of people staring. Mail carriers, dropping off the office mail, were gawking and several of the new serial killer unit, whose garbage can she'd stolen, were wandering in and out of their office quite frequently.

Maria stood up, looking pale and shaky. One of her hands was pressed to her temple and the other wrapped around her still unsettled stomach. Lisbon helped her sit down against the wall and place her head between her knees for a moment. When the girl sat back up, she looked at her mother with blotchy red eyes and a pale face and wrapped her arms around Lisbon's neck.

"I'm sorry Mom," she whispered hoarsely, "I never meant for this to happen. I was certain I couldn't but, please promise me you won't be mad, promise." Maria begged quietly and Lisbon drew back away from her, dreading the next line that she hoped and prayed to whatever god there was, wouldn't fall out of her sixteen year-old daughter's mouth.

"Mom, I'm-I'm pregnant," Maria looked at her weekly, tears still clinging to her eyelashes.