Episode: Red Christmas

Chapter 1: Before the party starts

It was a cold December evening in Sacramento. The CBI headquarter was decorated with all possible Christmas decoration and each team unit had a Christmas tree with many lights, baubles and a star on top standing in their office while the windows were wearing Santa drawings. About one week before Christmas, the CBI participated in a kids program where the kids drew for the agency and the agency donated money to those schools and kindergarten that were part of this program.

The entire of headquarters were gathered in the new huge conference room. A big Christmas tree was in the right corner of the room with Christmas lights, a Santa figure and figures of snow men were placed in the room. Lisbon's team were sitting on the right side of the room near the Christmas tree. The people were happy and this was supposed to be the last day of work for at least Lisbon's team. Then they would enjoy two weeks of holidays. Two deserved weeks. Almost everyone made plans of how to spend Christmas Eve and the holidays. Rigsby's idea was to have a good time with Ben and go to a theme park, a Christmas theme park of course. Cho was planning on visiting his family and Van Pelt made plans of seeing her family and having some good time with her girlfriends. Just two people had no plans: Jane and Lisbon. Lisbon actually wanted to see Tommy and Annie but Tommy had to take extra shifts and Annie was supposed to spend her holidays with her mom. Jane didn't care. He didn't have any plans of any kind. He knew that Christmas was a family thing but since he didn't have one, there would be nothing special about it.

Bertram prepared a speech and as he got up from his seat, the room went quiet:
"Good evening ladies and gentlemen", he started off "the CBI Christmas tradition is very important to me and this is why we are here today. For me, Christmas is a sort of a second Thanksgiving. You appreciate the people you spend it with. It also is an event of love. I hope you all will be able to spend it with your families. Family is the most important of all; we get to learn that here the most probably. But I don't want to make it boring for you, people. As you all know, we have a program prepared for tonight but for now, have a good time!" he smiled and sat back down.
Agents and officers started to talk to each other. Everybody seemed to enjoy this party a lot.

"So, what are your plans for Christmas Eve?" Lisbon asked Jane.
"Oh, well, you know, I don't have anything really planned yet. I just don't feel like I'm doing it right. I mean, I used to love Christmas but since I don't have anyone to spend it with, the magic kinda faded away." Jane said surprisingly not sounding sad. He smiled instead. He knew that she liked it when he was being honest with her.

"What about you?" he asked Lisbon giving a smiley look, hoping that she managed to invite Tommy over because she was talking about that lately.
"Oh, I think that if Tommy is gonna manage to come over, dinner but if not, then maybe I can just watch some TV and you know, eat some ice cream" Teresa replied not trying to sound sad or unhappy. But Patrick noticed right away.

"Aw, don't worry, Lisbon. You and I could like meet and grab a cup of tea, you know? I don't want you to be alone on Christmas Eve and I am really sorry that Tommy can't make it" he looked at her. Teresa nodded and Patrick gave her a hug. She didn't mind because she needed some comfort and she was actually very happy about the fact that Jane cared so much. Nobody else did. She hated it, being alone.

In about 40 minutes Bertram got up again and said that the Christmas show that everyone had been waiting for was about to start. Every unit was given one specific part.
"Okay, you guys" Lisbon started off waving Cho, Rigsby and Van Pelt over. They needed to get dressed because they had to perform. The team left the room and moved into Lisbon's office where their costumes were.

"I don't like dressing up as a snow man" Rigsby said grumpy.

"Hey, don't be such a Grinch" Jane replied as he put on a Santa costume. Van Pelt got the snow flake costume, Cho was Rudolf and Lisbon was playing Santa's mistress. The team worked really hard on their performance and Jane, as usual, was taking over the lead.

"Don't forget your lines, everyone!" he said as he was opening the door for everybody to leave.

Lisbon grabbed her glass of cognac and drank it empty. "Hey, I'm not gonna make a fool of myself in front of the entire department. At least I need some confidence" she said not realizing that she had said it out loud. "You don't need that, really. But give me a glass too, please" Jane asked Lisbon. She gave him the glass, he drank it and they both went over to the conference room where the people were really excited and couldn't wait for anything to happen.