Disclaimer: I don't own the Mentalist but I do own a picture of a car identical to Mr. Jane's.
A/N: So I've been hoarding this for quite a while now and with the tension boiling in tumblr and apparently on facebook too, I think its time for some fluff. I wrote this when I was stuck in the hospital for almost a week and I had nothing else to do but school got in the way of posting it and there's that other thing when my computer completely wouldn't work anymore and the rest of my fanfics are gone same goes for Surf's Up's epilogue.
If you guys haven't heard or saw for yourselves yet, Mr. Simon Baker owns an instagram account now... He is Mr. Snappytoes go have your fun.
I know the math isn't right and I hope you wouldn't be too disappointed.
Lisbon just sent in her RSVP for the 20th high school reunion to be held two weeks from now in Chicago and has already sent out her request form for her leave the day before. She is somewhat excited to attend this specific reunion since she missed the last one because of a certain torture loving serial killer. Her 10th reunion was spent in her office rushing off to finish multitude of paperwork to help expedite the sentencing and the serial killer's lethal injection. Her team's peace of mind was worth a few all nighters especially the severely tormented consultant, Patrick Jane. Capturing and making sure that Red John would never get away this time was a must and nothing can take her and her team away from it. So going to meet her old friends was just to wait.
This coming reunion is different since Lisbon feels more confident now to face some old friends and all time nemesis compared to the last times she had to meet old school friends. She wasn't going by herself this time and won't feel that bad when they rehash about the good old times and brag about their lives. This time she's the one with the bombshell to share and not just be at the receiving end of someone else's accomplishments and other good news.
High school wasn't such a horrible experience for Lisbon like most people would share since she was on the top part of the food chain, not very high up but high enough. Her reputation of a track star was enough for Teresa Lisbon to be envied and hated by some.
Ten years ago, she was not happily married, nowhere near married actually since she had a Chinese takeout temple in her fridge and a nonexistent social life and neither was she a proud mother to incredible twin seven year old boys with their father's hair and her green fiery eyes. Her life used to revolve around her job and nothing else mattered. Now she's only known as 'Director Lisbon' or just 'Lisbon', for the ones close enough to her to attempt calling her so. Teresa Lisbon only existed in the walls of the CBI since she legally carries her husband's name and she's mostly 'mommy', 'Teresa' or some other heaven knows whatever nickname her husband came up with for the time being.
2 weeks later...
Lisbon grabbed a blank name tag and scrawled her name on it. She clipped the tag on her blazer, not the typical blazer she wears to work but the one she usually uses to top of an outfit for a night out with her husband.
"Reese!" screeched an all too familiar voice from behind.
Lisbon recognized the voice immediately and whipped around as fast as she could to meet the owner of the voice. It wasn't tough at all since she heard it throughout her middle and high school life including the summers in between and then there's college and now, the weekly lunch venting. Adrianna Park, the walking Asian stereotype; the typical straight As student, spelling bee champion, first chair violinist, class valedictorian senior class president, Mu Alpha Theta Vice President, varsity volleyball player and Teresa Lisbon's best friend.
"Aide! How was your trip here?" she asked and the other woman immediately tugged her in for a tight hug.
"It's been great! Not that you don't already know and I'm not the one who haven't heard of the invention of this new gadget called a phone where you punch in numbers to call your best friend with," that got her a playful smack in the arm, "What Reese? Everybody's got one." Her Asian friend showed off her pearly whites as Lisbon shot her a glare.
"I'm sorry, you know how busy I am with my job and the boys," she explained what seems to be an already rugged excuse but her friend understood and let it go.
"Speaking of the boys, where are they?"
"The kids are back in Sacramento with Annie since my husband isn't comfortable leaving the kids with just anyone. You know how he is," Lisbon looks down at her wrist and noticed that her husband is running a little late.
"And where is he exactly? You've been looking at your watch every thirty seconds since I've seen you," Aide inquired.
"His flight was supposed to leave two hours after mine since he had to wait for Annie and he should have been here by five, just enough time to get settled in the hotel and be here but he hasn't called yet."
"He better get here fast, Nicole Richards is spreading rumors about you in the bathroom about not being here before so she's assuming you've been hiding under a rock this whole entire time and nothing to show for it and she ran into you're lovely admirer," Aide clasped her hands together and held it against her heart and batted her eyelashes in rapid succession, "Michael Warren."
Michael Warren, six feet, shaggy dark brown hair, amber eyes and 190 pounds of pure good looks was looking for her, Teresa Lisbon. He used to ask her out but Lisbon, the heart breaker that she was, never took the bait and crushed poor Michael's heart. Apparently not hard enough since he's still won't leave her alone. When Teresa was younger, her mom used to joke around that if a boy were to like you, he'd fall under two categories, stalker or admirer, depending on how good looking they were. It was a little mean but it kind of stuck. Michael Warren was, or still is actually, of the latter.
Warren was the guy her husband nitpicked off of her body language last time they were at a reunion and he got it right, dead on. She did look at him from afar but she never dared welcome any of his advances. It wasn't because she didn't like him because clearly she did, it was just too complicated for her life at that time to split her already busy hours for more people when her brothers lives depended on her at home.
Teresa was just about to grab her phone to call her husband when Aide said, "Twenty years and she still hasn't changed and. Neither. Did. He." She said suggestively and pointed towards some other friends.
Just then someone from behind tapped her shoulder. She craned her neck and was met by an older version of the hottie she used to appreciate in high school.
"Hey Mike," she recalled he always hated Michael but it's been a while, "or is it Michael now?"
"It's still Mike," he grinned at her and appraised her from head to toe and it made her uneasy. Where was her husband when she needed a distraction?
"You know Teresa, you plagued my high school existence."
A man looking like he belonged though a little lost stepped in the hallway near the ballroom where the high school reunion was held and he walked with a certain charm and charisma which throws off the lost theory.
"Oh my god! Who's the hunk?"
"I'm sure he's not a batch mate," a former cheerleader mouthed to the next person, "I'd never forget those hot buns."
The small group around her was snickering uncontrollably.
"I'd pay a hefty sum of money just to snake my fingers through those fluffy looking curls," another sighed.
Nobody seems to know who the man was and he was certainly well liked and envied considering the looks around him. He was making a fuss throughout the people lingering near the entrance. A few women tried approaching the man as he passed through said entrance and in perfect timing, the man sweeps his left hand, clearly showing his wedding ring, through his hair. He seemed to be in search of someone and after a few seconds, his gaze landed on someone familiar.
He strode across the room and opened his arms wide enough to accommodate his wife's best friend, "Hey Aide," he gave her a brief hug.
"You're timing has always been impeccable," she said in awe while returning his hug, "your wife needs you to tear her away from a conversation she's too polite to say no to." Aide patted him on the shoulder and turned him to the direction where Teresa stood looking uncomfortable.
He was ten feet away from his wife and her not so avid conversation with a fellow classmate when the former cheerleader from the hallway caught up to him and held him by his forearm.
"Yes? Do you need something?" he asked the woman, not bothering to be completely polite since she basically grabbed him. There was only one person allowed to do that to him and she was busy mingling with someone at the moment.
"You do not want to do that," she said nodding off towards Teresa's direction.
"What is it exactly do I not want to do?"
"That," she said again while doing the same head gesture, "You do not want to get involve with the star crossed lovers or at least with that pathetic brunette Michael's speaking with," the cheerleader warned with clear disgust in her voice.
He flashed his well practiced smile, exposing his white teeth and said while removing the cheerleader's hand from his forearm, "Thanks but I'll take my chances, I have been for almost two decades."
The cheerleader look confused and insulted since the mysterious hot commodity just shot her down and continued on his way leading to the 'pathetic brunette'.
The look he gave her would have had the teenage Teresa Lisbon swoon for a couple of hours on the phone with her friend talking endlessly until she has to bail one of her brothers from trouble but, Teresa Lisbon was no longer a teenager and she isn't even a Lisbon, by marriage, anymore. Mike's heated look made her skin crawl, she would've been flattered but even before she told her husband 'I do' she barely welcomed any advances from men around her because she was already head over heals in love with him.
She looked at her watch again for the millionth time, Mike noticed and he chuckled. "Anxious to leave me already?"
"No, it's not like that Mike, I'm just waiting for someone," she smiled at him and dug through her pocket to fish out her phone when the uneasiness suddenly subsided and she felt someone staring at her. She stopped what she was doing to look up and she saw Mike flaunting his confident stance, trying to intimidate someone behind her, probably trying to scare someone off from disturbing their conversation.
She tried to hide her smile and just when she turned her head to the left to confirm her suspicion, she was proven correct when her lips were met with the pair she's been waiting for all night for a quick peck hello.
"Hi," she greeted spunkily.
"I haven't seen you almost half a day and all I get is 'hi'?" he complained like she knew he would.
"Oh stop whining," she went on her tippy-toes and whispered, "I'll make it up to you later if you behave."
"Fine," he agreed with defeat.
She pulled out of her bubble and feeling like she was being rude, she looked back to the person she was speaking with and said, "Mike, I'd like you to meet my husband, Patrick Jane."
Michael Warren came to this reunion to scour for the woman he fell in love with during high school and see if she might show up and hopefully still available. He knew it was a long shot but when he spotted Teresa Lisbon signing in, he took it as a sign from the gods that this was the perfect time for him to strike up but the idiot that he was never checked for a wedding ring on her finger and not less than ten minutes he struck out. Bad.
He raised his hand with his index finger pointing up and ordered, "Tequila."
"Rough night Warren?" asked Max Gumble, fellow football player.
"You could say that," was his only reply until another voice joined in their conversation.
"Don't feel too bad, Warren. At least she didn't run then leave you with the ring you proposed to her with," came from Saint Mary's track star and formerly envied by the guys in the hallway for dating Teresa Lisbon.
"Since when did she get married anyway? Last I heard she was working as a cop in San Francisco," Warren continued their conversation bitterly.
"No, no, last time I saw the two of them, she wasn't married yet but she no longer worked for SFPD. She's a Senior Agent in some agency like the FBI," supplied the ex fiancé, Greg Tayback.
"CBI," supplied Ms. class president from thin air, "martini please," she directed this to the bartender.
The guys continued chitchatting about Teresa Lisbon who's apparently Teresa Jane now and Adrianna was handed her drink. Before she took off to look for the men's hot topic, she fed them a few answers, "Director of the CBI, married for about ten years with identical twin boys that resembles their father," she winked at them and cued her exit.
"So, was it Michael Warren you used to pine for from afar, my dear?"
"Stop being condescending , Patrick," she said with a smile in her eyes and entwined her fingers through his, "Come on, I have a few friends I'd like to introduce you to."
"I'm guessing they're the ones that don't call you 'Pathetic Brunette' from ten feet away," he teased.
"Nicole Richards, Homecoming queen, head cheerleader, in lust with both Mike and Gregg," she spat out information like she did intel during a case.
"And she considers you to be irksome because she thought you never deserved any of their attention. My tiny, little kick ass wife," he hummed in appreciation and kissed her temple.
The dance floor had couples and groups of friends dancing along with each other while Teresa's closest friends and their partners occupied a huge round table. It was filled with laughter and smiles as the jokes and jibes were all laid out on the table. When the couple heard the song that brought so much memory, Teresa looked down bashfully and slowly looked up to see her husband's sea green eyes.
"Oh God," she shook her head, "I used to love this song."
"Love this song?" Patrick played along.
I was grinning now, "I used to love this song,"
"You love this song. Obviously, you wanna dance."
"With you? NO!"
"Come on, I know that you know that I know that you used to worship me from afar even though I was cold hearted."
"You're such a jack ass," she shook her head and stood up with him, "No funny stuff."
"No? We're married, I think I'm entitled to some funny stuff," he engulfed her in pure Jane musk and she wrapped her arms around his waist, so different from when they first had their dance at someone else's high school reunion. This time she can be as close to him as publicly appropriate and not just a hand in his and the other around his shoulder. If people mistook them for lovers then, now it just settle they definitely were and more.
He brushed his lips across the shell of her ear and he was rewarded with a shiver, "what do you think about the boys playing the clarinet?"
And they lived happily ever after...
From Leah, with love :)