Title:Beauty and The Beast
Author:Little_firestar84
Rating: K
Characters: Patrick Jane, Teresa Lisbon.
Summary: "You are just like Belle. I was a self-righteous, self-centered, egoistical man, full of myself, and Red John punished me for this, just like the faery did with the prince. Only, my prison wasn't a castle, but an obsession, and my punishment wasn't an ugly appearance but a lonely existence and the darkness of my soul."
Disclaimer: Uhm. well, my father is called Bruno, but since it's Negro and not Heller, I'd say that I don't own the rights to the Mentalist.
Notes: the weird things that happen when I ahve too much time to think, lol.
She played absently with the dark curls of the baby girl, Irene Lisbon, James' youngest daughter. The baby was just five, but she was a real sweetheart, just like when she looked at the TV. Many kids her age couldn't stand still, and yet here she was, enamored with the old DVD, completely taken by the Disney fairytale.
She definitely loved Beauty and The Beast, like her aunt loved her. Looking over the child- something that had happened quite a lot in the last few months, after James and Ginevra had another child and had moved to Sacramento - was kind of a test for her. She wasn't so young any longer, but she had reached a point in her life where she was comfortable into having a family of her own. Age was an issue, she knew she wasn't that young any longer, and that there weren't many chances she could get pregnant on her own and bring to term a pregnancy, but there was also adoption. She hadn't really talked about it with anyone, but she assumed that Jane knew. Jane always knew everything, after all. Sometimes, even before she did.
Like he had red her mind- something she sometimes wondered if he could actually do - he joined them on the couch, Irene in the middle. He smiled at the bundle, she was such a lovely creature. She had taken a lot from the Lisbon's side, her dark hair, her facial expression, how petite she was; only her eyes were of another green, more azure than anything.
She was also very sleepy. It had been a very hard and stressful day for the child, who had visited her soon to be school. She had played a lot with kids her age, or just slightly older, and was now very, very tired. As much attention as she was doing to the screen, the mentalist could see her closing eyes. She was fighting a battle with sleep, and she was losing it.
He took her in his arms, and was about to bring her to the guestroom, where she usually slept by them, when she started fighting him. Nothing too big, she was just arguing about the choice of the two adults of getting her to sleep.
"No. Wonna see it ending." He didn't need to look at her to know she was pouting. She was just like her aunt.
"Honey, you've already seen it. You know how it ends." Teresa sweetly told her, yet again playing with the curls on the forehead of the child.
She pouted again. But really, even at five she couldn't answer to that. It was true, after all. Like it was true that she had consumed already a DVD of the movie, so many times she watched the whole thing.
"Ehy, listen, I'll tell you a secret, and you'll go to sleep, ok?" like in everyday life, a bargain was Jane's way of solving problems. But, since she nodded, he couldn't be any happier.
He went back to the child's temporary room, and put her in the baby bed - neutral, so that all the Lisbon kids could use it - and then he kneed at her side.
"I know the real Belle." he whispered. How he thought she could have stayed asleep after such a revelation, he didn't know, but at the time, it had seemed appropriate. "Yeah, and do you know who she is? It's your aunt. She is my Belle, because she saved me."
He kissed that baby goodnight, and then proceeded to join Teresa, waiting for him at the doorstep of the room with tears in her eyes. Obviously, she had heard it all.
"It's true, you know? You are just like Belle" he told her, without letting her go, without releasing her from his embrace, even when they fell in bed still completely dressed, but spent after a day after such a baby, so full of energy. "You are just like Belle. I was a self-righteous, self-centered, egoistical man, full of myself, and Red John punished me for this, just like the faery did with the prince. Only, my prison wasn't a castle, but an obsession, and my punishment wasn't an ugly appearance but a lonely existence and the darkness of my soul."
"Oh, Patrick..." she whispered his name, cupping his cheek. He shook his head. He needed to let it out.
"Belle loved the Beast despite everything, she gave him chance after chance, and you... you, Teresa, you've seen the worst of me, and yet, you've been at my side, even when I hurt you. You are a beautiful soul, my love, and your kiss saved me. It saved me from the nothing I've become."
There was also another similarity into their story, but that wasn't a part they liked talking about, nor he was going to share it with the child sleeping in the other room. There was no way that he would tell Irene about how Red John - a real Gastone, but clever as none other they had ever met - almost killed him when he saved her life. That had been when she had kissed him, crying just like Belle in the movie, when she had assumed she had lost him, before he could hear from her lips of her real feelings.
"You know, though, there is a small difference between fairy tales and reality. The stories often picture reality with a twist, and yet, the characters are somehow left dead at the end. Metaphorically, I mean. They are frozen in time. Nobody knows what happens after happily ever after, nobody asks. Us, though... we live, we move on, we change." he paused, turning to face her with a knowing smile. "maybe, we even have children. Sometimes, things happen, when you least expect them to, when you aren't believing any longer."
She blushed, and was almost going to finally tell him of her desire, when he kissed her fully on the lips, smiling content. His left hand, showing off a ring matching her own, went to her belly, massaging it.
He always knew everything. Even when she didn't. Even before she did.