A/n: This story has been resident into my mind for quite a while in some kind of larval state, to be more accurate, since last october, but I never got to write it down, too busy with other things- other fics, my driver license, work, family, friends and so on. Untill... Untill, this week, I was talking with my one of my best friends on the net, PetitJ, and told her about a couples of lines I was thinking about a possible fiction, and she told me to go on because she liked the idea. I decided to listen to her, and today I put down a couple of chapters. So, I cna tell you I know where I'll go with this one, but I don't know how long it will take me nor if I'll be able to keep regularly the updates...
Another thing I wanted to make you notices is that, even contrary to what I was thinking when I started conceping this story into my mind, this creature is now inpsired by the books "3 times the bridesmaid" by Nicola marsh, and "Asking for trouble" by Elizabeth Young and the 2005 movie - that I loved!- "The wedding date"... AND there will be small references to episodes, especially if they had a Jisbon moment inside, but no spoiler, I promise!
Oh, yes, the damn disclaimer: seriosuly, do we really have to do it? Because, Jeez, if I'd own them, I'd not be here writing it, I'd be the writeer of a TV Shows and, well, we'd have the LIsbon romance for real...meanwhile, I just "write, draw, create, dream, hope and believe in Bruno, waiting for him to be blessed bu the light of reason..." (No, this discalimer isn't mine, it belongs to one fo the girls who wite Mentalist fiction on the italian site efpfiction, but don't tell me many of you don't share this vision...). Also, I don't own none of the aforementioned titles.
THE PROPOSAL
Sitting on her brand new white couch in her office, courtesy of none other than Patrick Jane, Teresa Lisbon reflects, sighing, on the piece of paper she is rolling between her fingers. It's just a piece of paper, even a small one, but in her hands, it weights like it was made of steel, and Teresa Lisbon knows too well why. It weights that much because it's yet again an invitation to another wedding, a wedding of her last unmarried brother, a wedding where she'll be yet again maid of honor (for the third time), a wedding she'll have to attend yet again alone, where yet again she'll see someone younger than her getting married before she could. Tommy is getting married to his long-tome girlfriend, the one she introduced him to years prior, Claire, and she is well aware that, like James and Linda and Marcus and Carol they are all worried for her because she isn't getting any younger. She knows that it's not exactly out of pity that every time she is in Chicago they try to set her up on blind dates, but because they care, but, still, she is sick and tired of this, she is sick and tired of them playing cupid. She knows that, if she'll not bring someone along with her at the wedding, they'll try to put some "hot, charming, single and uptown guy" as the best man, hoping that they'll end up falling head over heels for each other – it doesn't matter that half the times they are smaller than her, stupid, jerks and liars and a couple of them had even a family back home. All she needs is someone smart, funny, handsome and who looks good, even better, great, in fancy clothes in order to make them stop, and she is pretty sure there's a good chance that she'll never hear the end if it, but, still, if she plays her cad well, she could trick him for once, besides, he owns her, since, yet again, she bailed him out of jail risking her own career and gaining a really nice outburst form Hightower.
"Uh, I see you're finally putting at good use your brand new couch, gift of your precious and infallible genius of a consultant that I am." Like he has read her mind, Patrick Jane, pain of her existence but still one of the most handsome men she ever met, enters in her office, and goes to sit at her side, smiling his usual mega-watt smile and offering her a cup of her favorite coffee, while drinking himself his usual cup of tea as he loves it. For an instant, Lisbon would like to make some smart-ass reply, because the man is really full of himself, but, deep down, she knows he is right. Even if, before him, they closed cases, they didn't do it at this rate, besides, she has always had a soft spot for him, and she'd never be able to deny the man anything. AND, let's not forget, she needs a favor, and even a big one. "So, Lisbon, let's hear, why does that tiny little piece of paper trouble you so much?" Trust Jane to arrive right at the point without beat around the bush, and to know what's wrong, especially if it concerns her. Maybe, just maybe, he'll help her, Teresa thinks between herself, because he seems to have a soft spot for her as well: after all, he is the one who likes to ask for her to trust him (even if he doesn't, or maybe it's not because he doesn't trust her that he always refuse to share things with her, but she'd rather prefer avoiding thinking about this, because the repercussions of something that big would be, well, big.).
"Jane, just the man I was looking for" she tells him, smiling a bit, but blushing at the same time, embarrassed, already playing into her mind different scenarios, ways to play this thing and ways to avoid everything, from the wedding to having to ask Jane to go with her as a fake boyfriend.
"Meh, I knew that you'd eventually surrounded to my ways. Let's hear, Lisbon, what do you need me to do? Do I have to blackmail someone? Cold read someone you think murdered someone? You want to me to arrange the perfect murder? Or do I have to break in inside a house?" He stops to savor his tea to lean in her direction, grinning like the cat that got the canary, like he was foretasting the victory he knew he, eventually, was going to get. Under his scrutiny and his gaze, those wonderful blue eyes she can't stop thinking about, Lisbon shivers, and for a while she battles with herself, scared of what the outcome of what seemed a brilliant idea may be.
"Actually, Jane, I'd need you to be my boyfriend" she answers him, closed eyes to avoid contact with him and biting her lips, talking without breathing, like breathing could gave her time to change her mind. He gets closer and closer, even if he'd like to jump in surprise form the couch, and looks with eyes wide open at Lisbon, understanding that she is sincere. He'd like to… he doesn't really know. He just knows that his hear misses a beat, because he has never though she was going to ask him, and being so forward about the whole thing, even. Obviously, there was an extremely tiny part of him, that he'd deny even could exist, that hoped that she'd eventually come around and admit her own feeling for him and decided to ask him out, but…but, he has to admit, he had almost lost all hope. After all, the only time she had showed some kind of interest in him had been more than two years prior, at that high school reunion, when they were dancing on the notes of "more than words"; a honest and bright smile appears on his features as he savors the memory of Lisbon in his arms, pressed against him, of her perfume, of her soft skin against his one, of her silk dark hair against his chin… and the kiss. A kiss that hadn't been exactly a kiss, because, when they were only millimeters apart, and his hands were already in her hair forcing her closer and closer, Rigsby appeared, breaking the moment, a moment that they never repeated and never talked about without even having to agree on it, something he still regrets.
"You… you want to go out with me? My, Lisbon, thanks, I'm honored!" he asks, full of hope, but still hiding it behind his usual smile and grin.
"What? No! I don't want go out with you! I just need to go to a certain place with you!" she tries to explain, blushing dark red and almost in panic, clearly uneasy, not daring to face the man even if she knows that Jane is trying to find her eyes "it's just that… Tommy is getting married, and I've been invited to the wedding and a couple of other things, and… he is…was the last single between my brothers, and… I can't go to yet another wedding alone, also because they'd try to set me up with some loser, and so… I'd really need someone who'd like to…pose as a fake boyfriend." She ends the sentence in a whisper, looking at her feet, on fire.
"Lisbon, I'm flattered that you asked me instead of, let's say, our old friend Walt" he tells her, almost physically touching her with his shoulder, still grinning for both what she asked and because she asked him and because he always liked bring in old flames to annoy the hell out of her. "Now, let's hear, why did you think of me, my dear?"
She takes back a bit of dignity, and looks at Jane, rolling her own eyes annoyed, trying to maintain some composure, and hoping to avoid letting him know the real reason she asked him to pose as her fake boyfriend. "Listen Jane; don't picture weird things in that crazy head of yours, ok? The only reason I asked you to come is because I needed someone to come with me, and I don't see why I should waste precious time trying to find someone. Besides, we both know that normally men are quite scared of me because even if I'm short I'm more bully than them, and… let's face the truth, Jane, no one is immune to your charm, it affects a bit even me."Crap. I so just didn't say that aloud…. "It would be for just a couple of weeks and maybe a couple of days while Tommy and Claire will be in their honeymoon since they are going to stay in Santa Barbara…"
"Uh, I think I could agree with your little dirty game, but, tell me Lisbon dear, what did I gain in exchange for my astonishing performance?"
"C'mon, Jane, I bailed you out of prison just two days ago, AND I always save your sorry ass! It's always behind me that you hide when there's a punch waiting for happen and…"
"Meh, in exchange of your protection, I close cases. You say so yourself. I think, my dear "he says with a little of malice in his eyes "that I'll need further incentive"
"Ok, then…" she says at closed eyes, gulping, trying to not hide her amusement for what she is going to do "For the duration of the play, I'll get along with your ant… your plans without any interference, BUT as soon as it's over, we come back to Lisbon and Jane and we behave as always, got it?" she says, pointing a finger at him to underline better the meaning of her words. He grins, victorious.
"Like I said, woman, I knew you'd eventually come along!"
"Are you saying you agree, Jane?"
"Lisbon, dear, you have my solemn word!"
"Well, in that case… the play will start officially in three weeks time, when we'll have to be in Chicago to attend the engagement party. We'll have to both take a couple of weeks off, but don't worry; no one will say or suspect anything out of the ordinary. Now that I think about it, I should be the one asking for your vacation…. It's not like there's someone else here that can stand your "plans", not even Cho. They usually tell you to stay at home when I'm not around to damage-control you." She smirks, victorious, looking at Jane who has just understood what happened and she had tricked him. "Good! Don't worry, I'll think about the plane tickets, I'll buy them, it's the least I can do for you in order to repays such a favor!" Actually, Tommy is buying them, but, still… "Oh, and we'll revise on the plane, ok? After all, we just need the few things, I'm almost an expert on all things Jane and you know everything there is to know about me, so…. ok!"
"I'd stay a bit more with you small talking, but I still have a lot of work to do, and I'm pretty sure there's nothing you want to do more that napping on our couch!"Smiling a mega watt smile and kissing him on the cheeks, Lisbon runs out of the office, almost giggling and dancing, knowing too well that she is a little bit pathetic. What she leaves behind is a speechless and astonished and petrified Patrick Jane, something she has never seen before.