Disclaimer: I do not own the Mentalist! Red Hot was proof of that!
Patrick Jane was officially bored. They hadn't had a case in a few days, so Hightower sent everybody home except for a few people, just in case of a case. Lisbon was still at the office, filling out paperwork. Jane was practically lived in the attic, so he went "Home" when Hightower sent everybody home, although Lisbon insisted that "upstairs" did not count as "home".
He was getting a little tired of the attic, after being in it for so long, so he started downstairs, to go bother Lisbon.
On the way down the stairs, he hears a noise, and after quickly considering ignoring it and going to bother Lisbon anyway, he stepped over toward the office that the noise came from. When he opened the door, he saw immediately what had made the noise: sitting on a couch, looking very bored, sat a blonde, green- eyed, little girl!
The woman at the desk, obviously the girl's mom, was a bit worried when the door opened- They weren't supposed to have kids there- until she saw it was Patrick. He loved kids, so he probably wouldn't say anything.
Meanwhile, Patrick was studying the little girl.
She wore a pink tutu and a Disney Princess shirt. She smiled at him.
"Hey there! I'm Patrick," He said softly. "What's your name?" "Gracie Lisbon! I am seven years old!"
"Lisbon? Who are your parents?" "Rebecca Grace Lisbon and Thomas Edward Lisbon! Will you tell me a story?"
"Gracie!" Her mother exclaimed, "I'm sure he is far too busy to-"Patrick cut her off.
"Actually, I was bored too! What kind of story would you like?"
"One I've never heard before!"
What nobody knew was, Lisbon was getting worried about Jane staying up in the attic, so, she had been heading upstairs to order him to leave, so she saw him go into the office, and was now listening closely to the conversation from the other side of the door.
Jane telling a fairy-tale? This she had to hear!
Meanwhile, Patrick thought for a moment before smiling. He sat down on the couch, motioning for Gracie to do the same.
"Once upon a time there was a prince. He had everything he ever wanted: A beautiful wife, a wonderful daughter, a huge palace-"
"No, silly, that is the END of a fairy-tale!" Lisbon smirked at her niece. Obviously, her niece had not figured out that Jane was not exactly normal.
"Who's telling this story? Me or you?" Jane pretended to be annoyed. Gracie giggled.
"You, but…"
"Yes, it's my story! Now, where was I? Oh, yes. Now, this prince had everything he wanted. Then, one day, a dragon flew by his house, and burned it up. He was not in the house at the time, but he had nothing, and," He added, answering her unasked question, "He had no one." Gracie's eyes got huge.
"It killed his wife and child? This is a terrible fairy-tale!" Lisbon silently agreed.
"No, Gracie, it gets better, I promise!" Does it? Lisbon thought bitterly.
"Well, ok. Go on."
"Thank you. Now, where was I? Oh, yes. Now, after the dragon burnt his house down, the prince joined the king's knights. He wanted to kill the dragon, despite the laws that clearly said 'Do not kill dragons' –They could punish them better by putting them in a cage-because he felt it deserved it, and the best way to kill it would be to be right there when they caught it. He swore that he would kill the dragon, and he swore that he would never fall in love again." Gracie gasped. Lisbon was seriously about to burst in there and hit Jane over the head, but something she couldn't quite name stopped her. She decided later that it was hope- hope that the prince was not a lost cause.
"So, as I said, the prince became a knight, and was put under the authority of a female knight," Lisbon grinned.
"And he fell in love with her?" Even though she was blushing in a major way, Lisbon had to smile at her niece's innocent question.
"Hold on, hold on! I won't answer that, but I will say that when he first started working for her, he swore he wouldn't fall in love with her, because if he did, he wouldn't be able to kill the dragon,"
"Why not?" Gracie cut off, her face scrunched up in confusion.
"Well because he'd be put in a dungeon, and she'd be an idiot to wait for him while he sat in the bottom of a castle for the rest of his life!"
"Oh, I get it."
"Yeah, so, he kept his promise for about…four years, and then he realized exactly how much it scared him when she was mad him." Lisbon wasn't moving. She was doing good to breathe.
"He gave her a golden frog, and he dismissed the panic as a need to have her trust him when they caught the dragon." Lisbon slumped against the door. She knew, she had known since the beginning, but that didn't expect to hear it, or want to.
"It didn't take him long before he realized that it was something else." Lisbon stood straight up. Oh?
"He dismissed it as a petty crush,"
"Why would he have crush on her?"
"Why not? She was beautiful, smart, funny…" Lisbon blushed, but a crush wasn't enough.
"Anyways, He dismissed it as a petty crush until she told him that she didn't trust him." Lisbon didn't have time to process this. She was too busy watching her niece recoil in horror.
"He asked himself later why it bothered him so much, but deep inside he already knew. He, shortly after, gave up his obsession with killing the dragon, and focused on pursuing the knight. However, she was… shall we say 'Good with her sword', so, he was a little afraid to be totally honest, and," Lisbon smirked.
"As it goes, he met a princess, and was immediately sure that he was in love with her. They had so much in common, and she even accepted his old dream, and encouraged him to follow it again." Lisbon was fairly certain that this knight had the initials K.F., and she was extremely irked.
"Wait, what did the knight say when the prince told her that he was giving up the dragon?"
'Good question' Lisbon thought,' as the "Prince' forgot to tell the "Knight'" She was extremely irritated by then!
"Well, he never told her in so many words, he just hinted at it, saying things like, 'I'll always save you' something a little hard to do from a dungeon, but she didn't get it." Lisbon closed her eyes. How could she have missed that?
"Anyways, where was I this time Oh, yes. So, he was sure he was in love with the princess until he had a fight with the princess, and it was the knight who encouraged him to talk to her. He knew then that it was the knight he loved, would always love, and the princess was just a crush, one he quickly got over."
Lisbon was now so happy, she felt like bursting in there right then, and falling into his arms, but she wanted to hear the rest.
"So, what happened next?" Gracie asked after almost five minutes of silence. Jane smiled, and replied,
"Well, I don't know." The door silently opened. The first sound Jane heard was a voice, the voice of the last person that he wanted to have heard the story.
"Well, Gracie, how would this fairy-tale end if it was normal?" Gracie thought for a moment, before replying,
"With the knight kissing the prince."
"And it does." And she did! Gracie looked her mother, who just grinned. At least her sister-in-law wouldn't be telling any bosses that she had a kid there!
A/N: Oh, I am damsel in distress! Please save me! The only way to save me is to review! Please! (Just kidding. But seriously, a review would be nice!)