A/N: This is my second fanfic, but my first for The Mentalist. I would like to thank my friend and editor, Serena. Please R&R!
Disclaimer: I do not own The Mentalist or any of the characters, Bruno Heller does!
It was a chilly December morning-or at least, as chilly as it could get in Sacramento, California-and Patrick Jane was asleep on the comfortable, brown leather couch in CBI headquarters. When he finally woke up at 5:43 am, he stayed on his back, staring at the Elvis shaped stain on the ceiling. He was wondering who would be the first to come into the bullpen that day when a voice interrupted his thoughts.
"Jane?" called the voice of Teresa Lisbon. He turned slightly onto his side and craned his neck. Yep, he was right again, Lisbon was the first to arrive. Crisp-looking as always, she wore dark blue jeans, and the white collar of a women's dress shirt peaked out from the top of the green-grey sweater she was wearing. "Have you stayed here all night? Again?"
"Hello Lisbon, good morning to you too!" Jane smiled, jumped up from the couch, and ran his fingers through his blond, curly, 'bed-head' hair. Lisbon walked over to him holding four cups of coffee in a coffee tray in her left hand, and a clear thermos filled with peppermint tea in her right. They were hot drinks for the whole team. Lisbon handed the tea over to Jane.
"I can't believe you slept here last night!" Lisbon gave Jane a disapproving look as he took a sip of the peppermint tea. "It's the 23rd! Two more days until Christmas and this whole week you've been staying inside the office!"
"I barely ever go home for specific purposes you and I both know about, and last night I did not feel like staying in a motel room. Instead, I slept on the couch, as I so often do," Jane answered calmly, still sipping his tea. He ignored the part about him not getting out often enough.
"You didn't even sleep with a blanket or pillow," Lisbon countered, gesturing to the empty couch. "You know what? Today I'm going to make you go outside and I will make you enjoy the holiday season if it's the last thing I do! I might even bring the rest of the team with us!"
"For the first time ever, I think I'm actually wishing for a case to work on."
"You? Work?" Lisbon smirked and started to laugh. "It must be a Christmas miracle!"
Lisbon had dragged Wayne Rigsby, Kimball Cho, Grace Van Pelt, and even Jane to the mall after she cleared it with the director of the CBI, Gale Bertram (or not).The mall was playing Christmas music and there was red and green fluffy tinsel wrapped around each white pillar.
"Whoa... That's beautiful!" Van Pelt exclaimed, talking about the huge Christmas tree in the centre of the mall. It was decorated with big red butterflies and white round Christmas ornaments. The rest of the team gaped with her. Even Jane was in awe. Lisbon smiled. Suddenly, idea hit her.
"We should have a Secret Santa exchange!" She exclaimed and everyone nodded.
"Good idea Boss," Cho said (still monotone). He pulled out a note-pad and a pen and wrote down everyone's name, each on a different piece of paper. Cho ripped out each sheet, folded each in quarters, took off his baseball hat, and put all the names in it. Everyone took turns picking a name from the hat. Rigsby got himself so he had to re-draw.
"Goodbye everyone! I am about to be the most wonderful Secret Santa a CBI consultant has ever been in history!" Jane called over his shoulder.
Rigsby smirked and mumbled, "don't let that go to your head," once Jane was out of ear shot. The rest of the team all shared a laugh before embarking on separate journeys to find the perfect gift.
Lisbon looked down at her folder paper and opened it. She wondered who she'd be Secret Santa for.
There, scribbled in the middle of the sheet, was the name:
Patrick Jane.
Van Pelt finished her shopping first and waited by the meeting place (the Christmas tree in the middle of the mall). She'd gotten a call from Lisbon saying that she had to leave early and not to wait for her. Of course Van Pelt was curious, but thought better of questioning the boss.
"Hey!" Jane called out, walking toward Van Pelt. His present was nowhere in sight. Van Pelt decided it was small enough to hide in a pocket; meanwhile she had to wrap her jacket around the bag she was holding as to hide the store name and logo from sight. Cho came next, claiming he decided what to get his person and that it wasn't at the mall. Rigsby was the last person to come, and when he made eye contact with Van Pelt, turned red in the face. He put a hand on top of where his inside jacket pocket would be, as if everyone suddenly developed x-ray vision.
The ride back to the CBI was irritating, especially for Cho, who surprisingly did not enjoy the car radio during the winter season. Jane insisted that Van Pelt keep the radio on, despite Cho's complaints stating all the channels played were annoying Christmas songs that were getting on his nerves. Little did anyone suspect waiting for them at the CBI was a bigger problem than carols...
"My couch! Where is my couch?" Jane exclaimed, feeling the air that had took the couch's place. He felt like nothing was the same in the bullpen without the presence of the couch—like a 1000 piece puzzle box only containing 999 pieces. He decided to talk to Bertram. "Where is the couch, Bertram?"
"It is with a needy family. We gave it away in the spirit of Christmas!" Bertram replied. Jane gaped.
"No," he said. "No, you're lying! I can tell!" Bertram sighed.
"Okay, fine," he started. "I just thought saying we gave it away would seem better, more self-less, but if you must know, we sold the couch," Jane's eyes bulged out of his skull. "The money went to the CBI. Besides, it's not like the ratty old couch really was of use anyways."
Jane excused himself from Bertram's office and quickly dialled Lisbon on his cell phone. "We have a crisis at hand."
The next day was slow. The team had no real work to do because, apparently, crime does take a break during the holidays. All everyone had to look forward to was the Christmas Eve party held at Lisbon's place after work.
Lisbon surprisingly had no more paperwork to fill out, forcing her to stay with the others in the bullpen, doing nothing. She just sat on a desk. Van Pelt was mindlessly searching random things on her computer, Cho was deep into reading A Christmas Carol, Rigsby was in the kitchen eating all the yogurt from the fridge, and Jane was trying to get over the missing couch by lying down on the floor where the couch should've been.
"On the first day of Christmas my true love gave to me," Lisbon started to sing. Van Pelt perked up at the first line of the song. Even Jane stopped moping to sing along. Cho continued reading, but didn't complain. By the end of the song, everyone was laughing (except Cho, but at least he let a smile form at the corner of his mouth).
At that moment, Rigsby came back from the kitchen. "What did I miss?"