Disclaimer: I don't even own Izzy. Though that would be funny.
A/N: Birthday present for dizzy-in-the-izzy. A day late... SORRY! I had some computer issues. Involving a broken charger, though my visiting cousin is kindly letting me use hers. But anyway - Happy 16th! =D
A/N2: I was kind of intrigued by the line where Lisbon says she tells people about Jane. It was funny at the time, and then I sort of thought... who? And then it was Izzy's b-day, and the result is this.
Everyone should have someone they are close to, someone they tell (most) of their secrets, someone they can rant to when they're angry and a shoulder to cry on when they're sad. And for the rest of the time, someone they can have fun with.
For Teresa Lisbon, this is her best friend Izzy. She lives while away from Sacremento, so they don't see each other very often, but when they do, she listens to Izzy's stories of her husband, her children, her classes in school.
In return though, Izzy listens while Lisbon rants about work, cases, Hightower, and mainly, Patrick Jane. When she hears of his latest antics, adventures, rule bending and breaking, she can't help but laugh even as Lisbon gets more and more frustrated. And occasionally, she tries to help her along a bit - not too much, just point her in the right direction with the occasional little hint. Nothing to obvious, she tries to be subtle, just dropping comments such as:
"For god's sake, Teri, why don't you just jump him already?
Lisbon threw a cushion across the couch at her. "I don't know where you get this from, Iz, I'm not interested in Jane.
Izzy snorted. "You are more than interested, you are infatuated, you are besotted, you want to kiss him, at this point her voice took a sing-song tone, "and hug him, and hold him…"
Another cushion hit her and she laughed.
"You're completely wrong," Lisbon protested. "Haven't I spent the last fifteen minutes telling you how annoying he is?"
Izzy checked her watch. "Actually, it's been more like half an hour. You've talked about him solidly for thirty-two minutes."
"And you still haven't got how frustrating he is?"
Laughing, Izzy just gave Lisbon a look, scathing, sarcastic, reserved for Teresa Lisbon, her husband, her eldest son, and her sophomore English class hen they were being pains in the ass - so, pretty much all the time. She searched for another cushion, but she'd already thrown them all.
"You have the wrong end of the stick."
"Denial is not a river in Africa."
Lisbon rolled her eyes. "Should I call for a take-away? What do you want to eat?"
At this point the door clattered open and the entrant yelled, "Hello?"
The look of horror on Lisbon's face told Izzy everything. She grinned. "This is him, isn't it?" she mouthed.
"Jane, I'm busy," Lisbon called back, ignoring Izzy.
He followed her voice through into the living room, eyes widening when he saw she had company.
"That's okay, the uninvited guest buys dinner, and I think I bought enough to go round," he grinned, lifting up the bags of Chinese food. He set them down to reach a hand out to Izzy. "Patrick Jane, I work with Lisbon. It's a pleasure to meet you."
She stretched up to shake hands. "Hey, I'm Izzy. Friends with Teri from way back. I've heard all about you."
The last sentence was said with a meaningful, and obvious, glance back at Lisbon, who cringed in embarrassment.
"Ah, well, I'm afraid I know nothing about you…" he looked her up and down, doing his Sherlock Holmes thing, "well, other than you're married, have at least two kids and work in a school."
"Wedding ring, photos on my keys… how did you know I'm a teacher?"
He just smiled and opened up the first of the take-away bags.
For Izzy, this was fantastic. Lisbon had been refusing to allow her to meet Jane for months, and she'd dreamt up many, many schemes about how to get around this. She'd eventually settled on ambushing him coming out of the CBI building before this miracle. Eventually they shifted down onto the floor so they could sit the food between them and lean back on the furniture. Izzy was struck by how at ease Jane seemed to be - and now he, like her, seemed to be taking pleasure in Teresa's discomfort. In fact, he hardly looked at Izzy, just enough to be polite, mostly his gaze was fixated on Lisbon. She just became more convinced that the two would be perfect for each other.
"So, what does Lisbon say about me?" he asked eventually, eyes sparkling.
"Oh, she tells stories mostly," Izzy said airily.
Jane grinned. "Oh, there are some great stories, did she tell you about the time..."
For the next hour Jane and Lisbon recounted anecdotes and told her about cases. Some made her laugh, others were thrilling, they worked together perfectly, picking up their own bits of the story so it all made perfect sense. Teri even seemed to forget how much she hated the idea of Jane and Izzy meeting.
Eventually, Lisbon took the empty Chinese cartons through into the kitchen to put into the bin, and then stuck her head back into the living room.
"I just remembered I need to take the trash out for tomorrow morning, I'll be back in a second," she said, shooting a distrustful look at both of them. She didn't much want to leave them alone, but knew she'd forget otherwise and the trash can was overflowing.
Once she'd left, Izzy and Patrick looked at each other, not sure what to say, wanting to laugh. Izzy knew why Lisbon didn't want to leave her alone with Jane, and he knew why she didn't want him alone with Izzy.
"Awkward silence..." Izzy couldn't resist saying aloud.
Jane laughed. "You have to tell me, has she ever done something un-Lisbon like?" He didn't even really know what he was thinking, but it was rare to talk to anyone who knew Lisbon from anywhere but work.
"Maybe my Teri is different from yours," she replied, also wondering what 'un-Lisbon like' meant.
"For a start, she lets you call her Teri."
"I'm hardly going to call her by her surname, and Teresa is too formal."
He smirked. "I call her Teresa sometimes."
This Lisbon hadn't told her, and her eyes widened in shock. "And she lets you?"
"Mostly," he shrugged, pleased that this seemed to be a big deal.
"Do you have any idea...?" Izzy shook her head.
"Of what?"
"I don't know. How much she likes you. She forgave you for letting her think she was going to die. She let you hypnotize her," here she smiled. "And you didn't betray that trust."
"Actually... I asked her if she danced to her Spice Girls CD. So, you know, I maybe didn't entirely stick to the point."
Izzy laughed. "Oh yes, she does."
Jane grinned, and wanted to ask more about that sort of thing, but was aware that Lisbon would be back soon. "Does she really talk about me?"
"All the time," Izzy smiled.
Then Lisbon came back into the room, and they promptly shut up.
"What have you been talking about?" she asked, voice laced with suspicion.
Before Izzy could answer, Jane chirpily said, "You."
"I wish I didn't believe you."
Izzy stood, sighing. "This has been fun guys, but I need to get home at some point." She hugged Lisbon, saying, "Great to see you, Teri, you'll have to come visit us soon."
"Yeah, I will one of these weekends," she smiled.
"Nice to meet you," Jane said, hauling himself to his feet and hugging her.
She was surprised by how comfortable he was with it, but didn't mind, and told him it had been great meeting him to. She also took the opportunity to whisper, "Look after her."
Jane grinned, and said "Of course," loud enough for Lisbon to hear, just so that she'd wonder what had been said.
When she'd left, Lisbon looked at Jane and said, "Are you leaving?" It came out harsher than she'd intended, probably something to do with having been so tense through the evening, wondering what Izzy would say. To be fair, she hadn't been to bad, but Lisbon was still going to give her hell next time they met up.
"Do you want me to?"
"I don't mind," she shrugged. "I'm going to see what's on TV."
This satisfied him, and he thudded down onto the sofa. "Suits me."
Unable to resist laughing, she sat next to him and turned on the television. There was nothing on other than a few property programs and crap romcoms, so they flicked between channels whenever adverts came on, laughing at the fussy people trying to buy houses and cringing at the cheesiness of the films. It struck her that despite how she'd never wanted to go through the horror of Jane meeting Izzy, she was glad that he'd come over.
Jane was watching, but part of his mind was dwelling on Izzy's comments, the little insinuations - both subtle and, well, not - that had marked their conversation. He could tell that Lisbon was getting tired, and to his amusement, she nodded off next to him, head falling onto his shoulder. He smiled and repositioned her, lying her down so her head was in his lap and stroking her hair off her face. She looked so harmless when she was asleep, the one thing he knew for sure that she wasn't. He'd enjoyed hearing that a friend of Lisbon's thought that she liked him, although in what way he wasn't sure. It was still flattering though, and it did make them wonder a little about their... relationship. He'd been so nervous before coming over with the meal, though he'd never admit it, and at first he was disappointed she wasn't alone. He wasn't sure what he'd been hoping for, he'd just liked the idea of spending time with Lisbon outside of work, so he'd gone around to see her. Jane was aware that what he felt for Lisbon was more complicated than it should have been, but he enjoyed just going along with the flow, not worrying about it. He should do this more often though - bring her dinner, or go out places with her. It would be fun. He was sure she could be bullied into agreeing.
Lisbon made a noise in her sleep moved a little, but didn't wake. He didn't want to move, in case he disturbed her, and awkwardly leant down to kiss her forehead. Eventually, his mind full of things he and Lisbon could do together, places they could go, and feeling optimistic about the future, he fell asleep.
In the early hours of the morning, Lisbon felt herself wake up. She wasn't sure where she was for a second, and then she remembered and opened her eyes to see Patrick Jane, his eyes closed, looking blissful. She felt her heart skip a beat, and knew she should get up, pretend this entirely inappropriate situation had not happened.
She closed her eyes and drifted back to sleep.
So, I was going to go really Jisbon with it, then it just wasn't really working that way so I decided to make it more like a shift in their relationship, a slight turning point... or at least, that was the idea.
Hope you liked it, Iz.