Disclaimer: I don't own The Mentalist or it's characters.
All mistakes are mine. This fic is just a cute little thing, that begged me to write it, 'cause I'm working on something a lot darker, and I guess my mind just needed a break. Anyways enjoy!
"Dad tell me a story pleeeaaase." The little girl whined as she looked up at her father with big green puppy dog eyes. How could you refuse that. The answer was you couldn't.
"Ok, Maggie, but then you have to promise to go to sleep afterwards."
"I promise, I promise" said the girl with glee in her voice, while jumping up and down on the bed.
"Now settle down, or you'll get in trouble with mom."
As the girl settled down and tucked herself down under the covers, the man went over to the bookshelves and looked over the colourful backs, while reading the titles out loud.
"So which story would you like. 'Little Red Riding Hood', 'The Ugly Duckling', 'Cinderella'," He made a dramatic pause, looked over at the little girl and said "'Sleeping Beauty,' Oh now see that's a good one right there."
The girl was far from impressed, even though she was only 4, she wasn't fooled that easily. "No daddy, I want you to tell me the story about the princess."
"The princess. What princess?" he asked innocently.
"The one with the princess in the pretty pink dress."
"That one, really? Again. But you've heard that a million times." He said pouting, she wasn't the only one, in this family, that could whine.
"But it's my favourite,"was her comeback, and he couldn't argue with that, so he went over to her bed, sat down on top of the covers and snuggled in next to her, then he put his arm around her and started the tale.
"Once upon a time in a land far far away, there was a beautiful red brig castle, fully equipped with a spooky attic, a dark dungeon and a romantic balcony. In this castle lived a king and his lovely young daughter, who had dark brown hair and beautiful green eyes."
"Just like me" came the excited cry from Maggie.
"Yes just like you" he said, marvelling over the effect the story still had on her, even after hearing it at million times.
"Were was I... Right, the princess was going to go to her best friend's wedding. She had been looking forward to this in months, and had had an outfit ready for just as long. A few days before the wedding she wanted to try it on to make sure it still fit. She went to her closet, and took out the pale pink dress, then put it on and tied the cream coloured ribbon around her waist, she took on her shoes and went over to her jewelry cabinet, opened it then stopped dead in her tracks. Her tiara was gone. She was 100% sure she had put it back the last time she had used it, but she still looked everywhere for it, and she made all her servants look for it, even the king looked, but no one could find it. Someone had stolen the princess' tiara.
The princess was sad, so the king promised to buy her a new one, but that just made the princess angry, because it had been her favourite tiara, and she didn't want another one, she wanted that one. The princess was a stubborn little thing, just like someone else I know."
The last sentence made the little girl scowl and say "Daaad" in the cutes little voice, that made her dad smile fondly at her.
"Okay, okay I'll go on. Now the king had no other choice than to find someone who could find the tiara and in record time too, because the wedding was just around the corner. So he made a declaration that he would pay an obscene amount of money to the person that could find the princess' tiara, and bring it back before the end of the week. Every day someone new showed up, hoping to collect the bounty. There were police officers, detectives, psychics, even farmers, blacksmiths and..."
"CBI agents!" Maggie almost shouted out.
"Yes and CBI agents." He said as his smile widened a bit more and he continued on "All of them showing of their skills, but alas none were able to find the tiara.
On the day before the wedding, everyone had given up hope of finding the tiara again, and the line of prospective finders that only a few days ago had been many miles long, were now nonexistent. At twelve noon there was a knock on the door, and in came a young man with a head full of golden curls, he was dressed in a suit, a dashing west and some old brown shoes."
"That sounds suspiciously like you, dad, except for the young part" said Maggie, and that remark was awarded with the most heart-warming smile he could muster, since this was the first time, she had caught on to that fact, and he found it hilarious that she thought he was old.
"The man went over to the king and the princess and announced loud and clear, so that everybody could hear, that before the clock struck twelve midnight he would have brought back the tiara to it's rightful owner. He could hear people snickering in the corners, but he didn't mind, being the confident person that he was. The king looked sceptically at the man and uttered that it would be some accomplishment given the fact that no one before him had been able to so much as find any trace of evidence of what had happened. 'What makes you so special? What skills do you posses?'.
He made his voice low and autorative, but still likeable. Maggie chuckled at his attempt to speak as a king.
"The man answered 'I don't see myself as anything more or less than any other person and I have no extraordinary skills, I'm just paying attention.' 'Well said the king, you might as well go ahead and give it a try, it can't possibly get any worse than it already is, and you're running out of time fast.' The man wanted to go and take a look at the scene of the crime, and the princess volunteered to show the stranger where the tiara was supposed to have been, and so of they went on their way up to her room.
He looked around for no longer than maybe 15-20 minutes, then asked her a few questions, and found out that she had only had it on once before at a party a few months ago, that she had no enemies.
Then he told the princess he knew what had happened and where the tiara was now. 'Where?' she asked and he explained.
'The party you went to was an invite-only thing, ergo someone there saw you wearing it, and since it's gone missing after that, we can assume the guilty person is among those people.'
He had already done some research on the subject, that was the royal family, beforehand and therefore he knew that even though the princess didn't have any enemies the king surely did. There had been quite the turmoil at the coronation. See the king's brother prince John had wanted the throne, and so he had gotten drunk and accused his brother of the most heinous crimes. The king had forgiven him, and they had gone their separate ways. However since he couldn't have the throne, prince John instead wanted revenge, and so he plotted to make life as miserable as possible for his brother. And as the young man told the princess, what better way to cause someone pain than to hurt their family.
Prince John also had a daughter about the same age as our princess, her name was Rebecca, and as it happened she had also been at the party.
Now the curly haired young man predicted, that the tiara would be found in prince John's castle, most likely in Rebecca's room. The king who wanted to think the best of people were at first outraged by this announcement, and threatened to send him to jail. No one seemed to believe him, except..."
"The princess, the princess believed him," came the excited voice from Maggie.
"Yes she did, because Rebecca had acted very envious of said jewelry, at the party. So there was at least a possibility of her having it. Therefore the princess calmed down her father enough to convince him to go and search his brother's castle. And what did they find..."
His hand went behind his back to take out the paper hat he had made a long time ago and put it on Maggie's head, as she said "The tiara" her voice just a bit more sleepy than before, but her eyes still sparkling as the paper hat came to rest on her head of curly brown hair.
"That's right, sitting on a shelve among Rebecca's other jewelry. As it turned out she had come back from the party and pestered her father about her cousin's superior jewelry. Prince John initially having other plans for his revenge changed them to accommodate his daughter's wishes, and made his henchman, Craig, steal it from the princess' room. Which he did the following day when she and her father had been out.
At eight o'clock at night, the day before the wedding, all was as it should be in the kingdom. The princess had her tiara back. Prince John, his daughter and Craig had been thrown in jail awaiting trial, because not only had they stolen the tiara, they had been plotting and participated in conspiracies against the throne. Now all that was left was the reward to the handsome stranger. When asked how much money he wanted however, his answer surprised everyone, because he didn't want any. Then they offered him different things, like gold, precious stones, land, but each time the answer was the same. At last they asked him if there were anything he wanted that they hadn't offered, because they couldn't just let him go away from there empty handed.
All he wanted he said was to go to the wedding with the princess, so he could see the tiara in the surrounding it was intended in the first place. And since the princess didn't have a date, no one could see any harm in him going with her, he was the one that found her jewelry after all. This was a simple wish and besides they got to keep all their money.
The next day they went to the wedding, the princess looking beautiful in her pale pink dress and with her tiara and the man who also looked handsome wore a completely new black suit with matching shoes. They had the most wonderful evening chatting about nothing and everything. And even though none of them really wanted the night to end, it did, and though the man swore he would never seduce the princess over a meal, he asked her out on a date. And before they knew it, one date had turned into another, and another and another. So many in fact that they were spending all their time together, the king weren't pleased at first but he warmed up to him, seeing how happy he made his daughter. And so the man married the princess and they lived happily ever after. The end."
Maggie being almost asleep, stirred a little by the mention of 'the end' and said in a corrective tone "No dad you forgot the last part."
"Oh that's right, then they had a beautiful baby girl who looked beautiful exactly like her mother, and they called her Maggie"
"and then they lived happily ever after," came Maggie's tired voice.
"Yes they did, and now you have to go to sleep."
He stood up, tucked the blankets in around the little sleeping form, then kissed her forehead gently, and was about to leave the room, when the door slowly opened, and a soft female voice said, "Hey, everything ok in here?"
He looked at her, then down at the little girl already half a sleep, then back at her and said in a hushed voice. "Everything is fine. Just as it should be."
"Then what was the hold up?"
"She wanted a story."
"Which one?"
"The one with the princess," came the muffled answer from the bed. This made them both smile.
"Is there any other stories" he said while she went over to the bed, bend down kissed her on the forehead also saying "You, young lady, are supposed to be sleeping." The little girl whose eyelids had become very heavy, yawned and managed to say: "Goodnight mommy" hearing her mom whisper "Goodnight princess" back to her before falling asleep and dreaming up her own fairy tales.
He turned on the nightlight, then they went out into the hall, leaving the door slightly ajar.
"It's amazing that she still likes that story, it's not even that good." She said with a glint of mischief in her eye.
"What are you talking about" he said raising his hands to his chest in a mocking gesture of hurt. "That's a great story, she obviously likes it, and it is mostly true."
"Or some version of the truth, is more accurately put, don't you think?"
"That's debateable. You know everything is subjective Reese, and to me you'll always be that angry little princess in that beautiful pink dress."
"Oh stop it, you know I don't even like that dress and I look ridiculous in it."
"Oh come on" he said taking her in his arms and giving her a light kiss on the mouth "I'm entitled to my opinion"
"Now see that's debateable." she said before kissing him again.
A few seconds passed while they stood there in each others arms, her head resting on his chest, both looking in through the cracked opened door at the peacefully sleeping little girl.
"I think we did pretty well, Lisbon"
"Yes Jane, we got our happily ever after."
A/N: Hope you liked it, I know the fairy tale plot was lame, sorry. Please review :)