A bit of fluff for the lovely kiryki. Happy (late) birthday, love!
"Oh, sh-" The exclamation from Jane's couch turned almost every head in the bullpen. He had jumped to his feet and stood hunched over in front of his desk, pawing at his eye as Lisbon emerged from her office looking concerned. Finally he straightened, holding a finger up with a pained expression on his face.
"What is it?" Lisbon advanced, peering at the finger.
"My contact. I think it tore." He rubbed the offended eye and for a moment looked like a petulant child. Lisbon beat down the urge to comfort him.
"You wear contacts?" Van Pelt asked from behind a full filing cabinet that obscured her entire body from the neck down. Several of the other agents looked surprised as well.
"Well, no one is perfect," Jane quipped with a smirk, though he sounded a bit testy. Lisbon jumped to his defense, frowning at Van Pelt and glaring the rest of the bullpen into submission. Work resumed as she turned to Jane, who had recovered his composure somewhat and was now fishing the contact out of his other eye.
"Do you have an extra pair?" she asked as he blinked and looked around with wide eyes.
"This was my extra pair."
Lisbon frowned. "What about glasses?"
"I haven't worn glasses since I was twenty-four. I doubt I still have a pair lying around."
Lisbon sighed. "We should probably go get you some, then."
Jane brightened, though his eyes were still unfocused. Lisbon waved a hand in front of his face and he flinched.
"How bad exactly is your vision?" she asked. Jane forced a grin.
"It's like opening your eyes in murky water. I'm like a fish."
Lisbon rolled her eyes and headed for the elevator, already regretting getting involved in this. Jane followed, still rambling.
"I'm like a trout. No, a salmon. If traffic's bad we can pretend we're swimming upriver."
Yes, she was definitely going to regret this.
:::
Ernie's Optical was all white lights and mirrors, people browsing and posing with glasses or taking sight evaluations in the back. Lisbon stood at the front of the store, looking a bit lost. She'd always passed sight tests with flying colors, so she was in unfamiliar territory here. She fought the urge to roll her shoulders; Jane had placed one hand lightly between her shoulder blades, the tips of his fingers making her back tingle in a not entirely unpleasant way.
As a sales associate approached them his fingers tensed, and Lisbon realized with a start that Jane was nervous. She berated herself silently – she hadn't even thought about how stressful it must be for him to be without his almost godly powers of observation. They'd been through this before, when he'd lost his sight completely, but back then she hadn't… Well, they hadn't known each other as well. She deliberately shut down the thought forming in the back of her head.
"How may I help you today, Mr. and Mrs.…?"
"Oh, no, no," Lisbon interjected before Jane could pull any nonsense. "Just friends here. Not together."
The young man nodded, but Lisbon could have sworn she saw disbelief flash across his features. She was careful to keep the same false smile plastered to her face, despite her suddenly mounting irritation.
"Well, if you'll both accompany me to the back of the store we can get started on the sight evaluation." He turned and headed deeper into the store and Lisbon followed, Jane stumbling a bit on her heels as she guided him. Suddenly, she was struck with an idea.
"So, how's school going, Jeff?" She was pleased to see the salesman jump.
"I- it's going well, thank you. How did you…?"
"Med school is pretty rough. You handling it alright?" She ignored his question, continuing to speak in the same casual tone. As they passed another mirrored kiosk Lisbon caught a glimpse of Jane's reflection. A grin was slowly spreading across his face, and she couldn't help but smile back. By the time an incredulous Jeff had turned to look at her, they both once again wore perfectly neutral expressions.
"I'm getting by. I'm sorry, do we know each other from somewhere?"
Lisbon turned to Jane as if consulting him, and Jane shrugged – rather more theatrically than necessary, Lisbon thought.
"No, I'm pretty sure we're strangers. Why?"
"Because I- you-" They had stopped at an eye chart, and Jeff seemed to be having trouble gathering his thoughts. Before he could recover his wits Lisbon jumped in again, cutting him off.
"Look, if we could move this along I'd really appreciate it. My friend and I need to get back to work as soon as possible." And there it was again, that little flash of disbelief, Lisbon was sure of it this time. Admittedly, Jane had now moved his hand down to the small of her back – her stomach ached strangely when she thought too long about it – and was standing firmly in her personal space, but that certainly wasn't anything out of the ordinary. They stood almost like this all the time.
"Yes, I- of course. Which one of you is getting glasses today?"
"Ah, that'd be me." Jane stepped forward for the first time, raising his hand as if answering a roll call.
"Yes, well, if you'll step up to the line, we can get started. That one there, yes."
Lisbon lost interest as poor Jeff began to walk Jane through the process and she turned back toward the rest of the store, smiling to herself. She was proud of her fledgling skills of observation. She'd learned a lot even just from watching Jane. I guess you can teach an old dog new tricks, she thought, and then frowned. She wasn't that old.
Now that she'd had some time to get used to it, the store was rather pleasant. The clear lighting and casual atmosphere were almost comforting, and she felt her shoulders relax as she looked around. She closed her eyes, relishing in the ability to simply take a moment to herself. It wasn't often that she got lulls in the day like this.
She didn't realize the evaluation was over until she felt a light touch on her back. As she opened her eyes Jeff swept past her, apparently too caught up in his role as salesman to notice as Jane leaned entirely too close to her face and breathed in her ear.
"Proud of you," he whispered, his nose brushing her temple. She barely stopped herself from gasping, but she couldn't be sure Jane didn't still sense her reaction. He walked away without further comment and she hoped that his temporary sight impediment had kept him from seeing the red in her cheeks.
She followed at a distance as they walked through the store, using the time to recover her composure. Jeff was at a counter showing a pair of glasses to Jane as she approached. She only saw him put them on from behind and as such wasn't prepared when he turned to her with a grin. She felt her jaw drop.
"That's much better," he said, looking about the store. Lisbon shut her mouth with a click of her teeth, though she still let herself stare. The man looked good in glasses.
"Oh, it's wonderful to see that face again," he said, and for a moment she thought he was going to reach for her face and kiss her. But then the moment was gone and she was certain she must be imagining the longing in his eyes.
"Well, now that you're useful again I guess we have to put you back on the payroll," she smirked. He feigned offense at her words, shaking his head with a horrified expression on his face, and of course she laughed, ducking her head to hide her smile.
As they headed out to the car he tried to cut her off on the way to the driver's side.
"Now that I can see, I can also drive," he said, blocking her way and holding his hand out for the keys.
"Just because you can doesn't mean you may." She wove around him and took off across the parking lot, and he followed, the both of them laughing all the way to the car.