Author's Note:

Thank you to Nerwen Aldarion for beta-ing this for me. You're amazing girl, love you!

Disclaimer:

I had a birthday a couple weeks ago, and I didn't get the Mentalist for a present. Okay?

Rated: T

Author's Note:

This is a sequel to "Spiked Eggnog" (story 16 in my "That's How It Should Be" collection), but I think it could stand alone. But feel free to go back and read "Spiked Eggnog", if you want to.

Chapter 1

Three Weeks Before Valentine's Day

"What do you think about Valentine's Day?" Patrick Jane casually asked one particular slow day at the CBI.

Teresa Lisbon looked up from the paperwork she was filing and frowned slightly. "I think that it's a holiday created by the greeting card industry to abstract money from the gullible consumer."

"So, you don't want to do anything on Valentine's Day then?" Jane checked.
This isn't some sort of trick that's going to come back and bite me on February fifteenth?"

"No tricks," Lisbon replied. "Besides, we've only been together for two months. Isn't it a little too soon to celebrate Valentine's Day together?"

"I don't think so. I mean, what else are we going to do on that day?"

"Go to work, solve cases, and catch the bad guys. Just like we do any other day," she answered, tossing her pen aside. "Unless. . . do you want to celebrate Valentine's Day, Patrick?"

Jane tried to look a little bit shocked at her suggestion. "What!? No! Really, I just wanted to make sure you weren't building up any false expectations about what was going to happen on February fourteenth. I agree with you, Valentine's Day is just a day fabricated . . . you know what, I have to go; I think Van Pelt just called me."

Lisbon frowned at her boyfriend's uncharacteristic display. "Van Pelt left an hour ago to chase down a lead on a case she's working on for another unit."

"Are you sure? Because I could have sworn that was her voice—"

"Nice try," Lisbon interjected. "But she's not here right now. Come on, you can be honest with me, Patrick. Do you want to celebrate Valentine's Day?"

"Honestly? Yes, I do. It's been a while since I've had anybody to really celebrate it with for a while. I know that we've given each other candy or something like that the past few years. But it isn't the same thing as actually celebrating the holiday when you're happy and in love."

Lisbon breathed in sharply. Even though they'd been together for two months, they still hadn't put whatever was between them into words. She knew that the 'L' word was going to come up eventually; but she always expected it would be romantic. She never expected in a thousand years that Jane would let it slip out so casually. It wasn't his style. . . nothing about him was casual.

She wanted to ask him if he really meant it. . . if he was really in love with her and happy. But when she opened her mouth to speak, nothing came out. So, she cleared her throat and pretended to look at the time on her computer's dashboard.

"Oh look at that, lunchtime's already passed. Are you hungry enough to go and grab a bite to eat?" She said.

Jane smiled. "Do you want to split an ice cream sundae while we're at it?"

"I think we could manage that," Lisbon answered as she capped her pen and stood up. "But you have to promise not to talk about making plans for Valentine's Day. Okay?"

"Only if you promise to think about making plans for that evening," Jane replied, resisting the urge to take her hand in his while they were still in the office.

"Fine," she agreed, almost reluctantly. "But don't nag me about it, or the answer will automatically be no."

"Don't take your time. All the good places reserve quickly this time of the year, you don't want to have pizza and cheap wine on the most romantic day of the year."

"I don't know," Lisbon mused quietly as the elevator doors opened on the ground level. "That actually sounds like it could be a pretty nice date."

"So, you want to do that then? Just say the word and I'll make it happen."

"We're not talking about it right now. Remember?" she answered as she extracted her car keys from her jacket pocket.

"Of course," Jane replied.

Lisbon could tell from the look on his face that he wasn't going to take no for an answer, and that he was going to do whatever it took to ensure that she said yes.

.

"I thought you might want to look at these," Jane told Lisbon the next afternoon. "They're menus for some of the most romantic restaurants in Sacramento. Why don't you just look them over and then tell me which one you like the most."

She frowned at him. "Jane, I still haven't decided if I even want to go out with you on Valentine's Day."

"Look the way I see it is that either way, we're going to be together that night. So, why not do it? Everybody else does."

"Why not give me a little more time to think about it?" Lisbon said. "Because if you don't then I'm just going to say no."

"If you say no I'm just going to have to make you change your mind," Jane told her.

"And if I don't change my mind?" Lisbon asked, raising an eyebrow in a silent challenge.

"You'll just have to wait and find out," Jane answered mysteriously.

For a moment, she considered the elaborate ruse that he'd come up with to get her to don an evening gown and make her have dinner with him at an expensive restaurant where everybody could see them. It was almost enough to make her give in and say yes to him, even though she really didn't want to give him the satisfaction of having his way without at least trying to fight him on it.

She shook her head. "Just give me a little more time to think about it. Okay?"

"Fine," Jane agreed, smirking at her. "But don't be surprised when I try to come up with ways to convince you to say yes."

"Believe me, nothing you could do would ever surprise me," Lisbon grumbled as she snatched up the restaurant menus and tossed them into a drawer, signaling the end of the conversation for the time being.

TBC. . .