Christmas Puppy
A Jane & Lisbon Story
By Brown Eyes Parker
Rated: K+
Disclaimer: I don't own anything.
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"Teresa, darling! I have an early Christmas present for you!" Patrick Jane called to his wife as he came into their little house.
Lisbon came out from their bedroom in a white tank top, denim overalls and a navy blue bandana covering her dark hair. "An early Christmas present?" she asked, brandishing a paintbrush at him.
"It's on the porch," Jane answered.
"It better be that crib we both decided on," Lisbon said, smiling at him.
"Lisbon, a crib is not a Christmas present!" Jane answered. "Besides, I'm pretty sure the Rigbys, Cho, Wylie and Abbott has all the baby's needs taken care. He's being born in a readymade family."
"She," Lisbon corrected. She sighed. "I'm going to cover the paint. When I get back you better have brought the Christmas present inside and it better be something that doesn't resemble the crown jewels in any way, shape or form."
"I promise, it doesn't," Jane swore. "You're going to like it. Go on, go on! I can't wait for you to see it."
Lisbon shook her head and laughed. "You are worse than a kid, Patrick. Do you know that?"
"You love me anyways," Jane said.
"Yes," Lisbon agreed, ducking into their bedroom. "Yes, I do."
When she came back, Jane was sitting on the couch with a dachshund puppy in his lap. "Do you like her?"
Lisbon's mouth dropped open. "Where did you get it?"
"At the farmer's market," Jane answered. "One of the farmers there had a pen of puppies. She was the last one left, the runt of the litter. Nobody wanted her, so I took her home. What do you think?"
Lisbon came closer and sat down beside him to get a closer look. "Patrick. . ." she started, before she could finish the puppy trotted over to her and curled up in her lap, falling asleep.
Jane grinned. "She seems to like you!"
"Patrick," Lisbon said again as she started to pet the dog's ears. "We can't take on a dog right now! I'm pregnant and we're renovating a house right now and we're still working part time at the FBI, I just can't see training a dog on top of all that."
"You're still working for the FBI on a part time basis," Jane reminded her. "I'm working with them on a need-to-need basis. I have plenty of time to train a dog and all the leading experts say that it's a good idea to have a dog before you bring a baby into the house."
"Well. . ." Lisbon trailed off, smiling. "She is kind of cute! But I'm a cop, shouldn't I have something like a black lab or a German Shepard?"
"I thought we could start small," Jane answered. "Besides, she was the runt of the liter. If I didn't adopt her then who would have?"
"I'm sure there's some twenty-something female out there who would have loved to adopt her," Lisbon said. "But since you can't return her, we better name her. Do you have any suggestions?"
"How about Columbo?" Jane replied.
"Columbo!?" Lisbon repeated. "After that detective who drove your car? Jane, he's a male!"
"But she's a detective's dog," Jane pointed out. "She should have a name that suits her."
Lisbon smirked. "Fine. How about Nora."
"Nora? Nora was barely the detective," Jane argued. "We could call her Nick."
"Nick!?" Lisbon said. "She does not look like a Nick! She doesn't even look like a Nikki. And don't you dare suggest Sherlock either!"
"How about Molly?" Jane proposed weakly.
"As in Sherlock's girlfriend Molly?" Lisbon asked. "No way."
"Molly isn't Sherlock's girlfriend," Jane told her. "Have you ever even watched Sherlock?"
Lisbon elbowed him in the ribs. "It's still a no."
"Fine. Do you have any ideas then?" Jane asked.
"Well, it is December and she is my Christmas present. Why don't we name her something based on that?"
"Mary?"
"You're not taking this seriously, Jane!" Lisbon said. "Are you not going to take this seriously when we start talking about our baby's name?"
"A baby's name is vastly different than a dog's name," Jane told her.
"I don't think so," Lisbon said. "A name is the foundation for their whole entire lives. We want it to be something nice."
"Okay. Christmas names then that aren't Mary then," Jane agreed. "How about Noel?"
Lisbon shook her head. "No. I don't think she looks like a Noel."
"Okay fine, then we won't name her Noel," Jane conceded. "What about Snowman?"
"No. She's a female dog, Patrick!"
"Snow Woman?"
"No way."
"Too sexist? Okay then, how about Snow Person?"
"You're the one who brought this poor creature home. You should be taking this more seriously, my love," Lisbon replied.
"I am taking it seriously," Jane answered, smirking at her.
"I don't think you are," Lisbon said, frowning at him.
"Okay in all seriousness then," Jane said. "How about. . . Fir Tree?"
"Patrick!" Lisbon whined, nudging him in the ribs again.
"What!? We can call her Fir for short!"
Lisbon shook her head. "No. No. No!"
Jane thought about it. "How about Snowflake?"
"Mmmh," Lisbon said thoughtfully. "Well, I guess Snowflake isn't too horrible even though it's a pretty big name for a small dog."
"We can call her Snow for short," Patrick answered.
Lisbon nodded. "Okay then, Snowflake it is. But you are half responsible for this dog, Patrick. If she makes a mess inside the house, you have to clean it up. Especially when I can't bend over anymore because my belly is getting in the way and you have to bring her outside when she wakes up to use the bathroom in the middle of the night."
"Deal," Jane said.
"You know, this was always sort of a dream of mine," Lisbon told him tentatively. "A house, a husband, a baby. . . and a dog. Of course I always thought the dog would be a little bigger than a dachshund but I'll take what I can get. But you knew that, didn't you?"
"Knew what?" Jane asked.
"My childhood dream."
Jane nodded. "Yes. I saw the picture on your bedroom wall. I want to give you everything you always wanted. Including the breed of dog."
Lisbon laughed. "Thank you Patrick. But we'll just start out with Snowflake and our baby on the way. If that all goes well then we can talk about adding onto the family."
"As you wish," Jane said.
Lisbon turned her head and gave Jane a long kiss on the mouth. "Now, how about we go and get our tree? I think we need to make the house a little Christmasy."
"Sounds perfect," Jane answered, kissing her back.
_The End_
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Author's Note:
Well. That's all she wrote. I hope you enjoyed this little snapshot into their first Christmas together. I do not know when I'll be back with another story about Jane & Lisbon. They aren't speaking to me the way that they used to and even this was a struggle to write. I do remember with fondness all the enjoyment writing about them used to bring me.
I hope you all have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Maybe in 2016, I'll be back with another one-shot about our favorite couple. We'll have to see what happens. In the meantime, I hope you'll tell me what you thought of this little one-shot.
Love,
Holly, 12/5/2015_