Title: Under the Mistletoe
Disclaimer: I do not own the Mentalist
Pairings: hinted Jello
Warnings: bad word, slightly angsty, no real fluff
Rating: K+
Spoilers: I don't really think there are any, except that this is my interpretation of the general 'mood' of season 3, so...
AN: I just needed a little mistletoe since the writers didn't give us any in the x-mas ep... unfortunately I've been Jello-angsting quite a bit and have been just a little bit frustrated with the TPTB and the things that have happened this season, so that is going to shine through... also this is not really fluffy, even though I totally intended it to be... not IMO anyway.
Thanks to Autumn for doing the beta work!
Under the Mistletoe
Lisbon stood in the gift shop, staring down at the body. Somehow this man had managed to drop dead with no visible sign of foul play. Of course, he wasn't some old senior citizen that people expected to die at some point in the near future (callous as that thought seemed to her). He was a young guy; dark hair, strong jaw-line, gentle eyes. Somehow death hadn't taken that quality from him. Her type, actually. She frowned. Someone please tell me that I did not just think about how hot the dead guy lying in front of me is.
Cho turned up next to her and started to give her the details he'd gotten from one of the officers who had first arrived on the scene – Right after the paramedics spoiled most of the evidence in their attempt to resurrect the dead. The thought caused a wry smile to flit across Lisbon's face, until she looked over to Rigsby and Van Pelt, who were busy questioning a witness... a blond, long-legged, mini-skirt-wearing female witness that already had Rigsby under her spell and was currently busy pissing Van Pelt off by ignoring her questions and only answering to her male companion.
Jane was nowhere in her direct line of sight, and considering the almost palpable distance that had worked itself between the two of them – his dark moods and her often volatile temper – it was probably better this way. Then again, not seeing Jane usually meant not being able to control him... not that he ever really listened to her. How a grown man could be unable to follow three simple rules (No touching! No pissing people off! Absolutely no hypnotism!) was beyond her.
"Jane!" Her yell made Rigsby flinch and Van Pelt grimace, but it didn't magically return her wayward consultant to her line of sight. "JANE!"
"What?" His head suddenly popped up behind a huge cardboard-display box that looked like it held at least ten thousand candy canes.
Lisbon rolled her eyes. "Would you mind doing some actual work while we're here?"
The blond blinked owlishly at her. "I really think I'd rather do some shopping, but if something interesting happens..."
"Jane! Start doing your thing, or I swear you won't get a paycheck at the end of the month." She turned her back on him, intent on asking the officer that Cho had been talking to another question. Her head was still occupied with thoughts about the huge amount of money Jane had been forced to pay to the DA's office a couple of months back and his mostly empty bank account. She had just managed to open her mouth and suck some air in when a loud crash interrupted her.
Whipping around, she saw the candy canes on the floor and Jane and a small boy looking at them with a mixture of disdain and apprehension on their faces.
She took another deep breath, forcing herself to mentally count to ten. Slowly. Before she took a step forward. "Jane?" Her voice was deceptively low.
"I had nothing to do with that." Big blue eyes were staring straight at her, his most hypnotizing gaze hitting her.
The boy turned to stare up at Jane, then looked over at her and used his most innocent puppy eyes. "I didna do anythin'." His green eyes reminded her of her younger brothers.
"I believe you, sweetie. Did the blond man push the candy canes over?" She asked the little guy with her friendliest smile.
"Yess! Can I go back to my granny now?"
"Sure... do you know where she is?"
The kid nodded. "Yes, some-mwer over there." He pointed towards the toy-section.
"Cho, would you mind taking him back to his folks? I've got a situation to deal with."
Cho nodded and took off with the boy, who happily talked about the man and the candy canes and the nice lady and the teddy bear he wanted for Christmas and... Lisbon found herself watching them walk away, feeling the longing rise up inside of her from where she had stuffed it the last time it had surfaced. It wasn't the right time; it probably never would be. Still... having a little boy like that someday...
"You know that the kid was lying, right? I really had nothing to do with that thing falling over, and..."
Lisbon sighed. She felt tired. Drained. A sharp pain pierced her as she realized that she used to feel alive when she was around Jane, used to feel more vibrant, up to her game. Not anymore. "I don't care, Jane." She murmured, her voice acknowledging defeat. "I don't care." With that, she walked over to the display and helped the clerk who was stuck re-stocking it with the fallen candy, ignoring the man's ranting and Jane's stare.
She was on her way out of the mall, the body on the way to the morgue, and her team dispatched to various destinations when she heard someone call her name. She stopped her long strides, waiting for Jane to catch up to her, though she felt no desire to talk to him. Another thing that had become much more regular lately.
He just stood there, looking closely at her. She raised her eyebrows. "What?"
He blinked before he looked away from her, letting his gaze swerve over the people carrying bags full of stuff they would probably never use, the decorations, a fake Santa talking to a kid on his lap a couple of feet away. She watched as his eyes zeroed in on one thing, then another; reading faces, gathering information, drawing conclusions. For a moment, she wondered if it was as exhausting for him as it sometimes felt to her.
Suddenly, he was looking at her again. Then he leaned forward and into her space. She didn't have time to back away before she felt his lips brush over her cheek. When she looked up at him, bemused expression firmly in place, he just smiled. "Mistletoe."
She frowned and looked up, discovering that they were indeed standing right under one of those damned sprigs of green. By the time she lowered her gaze back to where he had been seconds ago, he was gone. She closed her eyes as she felt her heart shatter into a million pieces. There it was... the feeling she'd been missing, the tantalizing feeling of being so close... yet so far from something real, something genuine. She allowed her eyelids to close and shut out the world as she enjoyed the way her heart was racing in her chest.
She didn't complain about him nearly as much as she should. She engaged in his antics, listened to his theories, and backed up his crazy plans. Lately, she had been wondering why she did all those things, why she didn't even care if she put her career on the line for him. Now, she remembered the reason that had been eluding her for the last couple of months.
He made her feel alive.
The end
AN: What I really wanted was a return to the season 2 banter and so on... I imagined Jane walking up to Lisbon and kissing her with no reason (well, mistletoe, but...), and her fuming all the way back to the CBI... somehow that story just didn't want to be written... Still, I'd really appreciate it, if you would tell me what you think... so Reviews, please *puppy dog eyes*