Author's Note: Okay this one is most assuredly AU. I tried not to make the characters OOC, but they've never been in this kind of situation so I didn't have much to go on. Hopefully it's not too bad.

Chapter 1

Jane had finally emerged from his attic after spending the entire afternoon working there. Well maybe not working the whole afternoon, but a person needs a catnap from time to time to recharge the brain cells. Anyway, he'd just finished making himself a cup of tea and was heading to his couch in the bullpen when he glanced through the open door of Lisbon's office. What he saw made him do a double-take and freeze mid-step. Lisbon was sitting at her desk doing paperwork, nothing unusual there, but how and with whom she was doing it certainly was.

She had her left leg propped up on the desk, her right leg folded up under her so she looked like she was sitting half Indian style, and her left arm holding a (wait for it) baby, a year old or so, securely in the makeshift human cradle she had constructed with her limbs. With her last remaining appendage, her right hand, she was writing her reports. Besides all this the woman was shoeless, shocking!

Jane moved toward Lisbon's office door in astonishment, his mouth hanging open slightly. What in the world was Agent Teresa Lisbon of the CBI doing cradling a baby in her office while writing reports?

Normally Lisbon would've noticed Jane standing conspicuously in her doorway, however, at the moment the only person she was paying any mind to was the bundle of joy making goo-goo noises at her. She set her pen aside and gave the infant the sought after attention. She cooed at the baby in soft tones unaware of the audience currently staring at herself and the child.

Jane shook himself out of his daze and cleared his throat in an effort to make himself known. As soon as Lisbon looked up at him Jane gestured to her small guest and fixed her with a quizzical expression.

"Oh, hey Jane."

She smiled at him, obviously she was unembarrassed by the position her consultant had found her in.

"This is Mickey. Cho and I found him when we went to question that homeless guy. He had a note with him. His name and a number were on it."

"Whose number was it?"

"His grandparents. They'll come get him as soon as they can. They live on the east coast so probably sometime tomorrow."

"So, why isn't he with Child Services?"

"They couldn't take him for some reason. I said I'd keep him 'till his family gets here."

Jane nodded his head in acknowledgment then watched as Mickey grabbed a fistful of Lisbon's hair and pulled. She didn't seem at all annoyed by it; she simply extracted her hair from the baby's grasp and replaced it with her finger. The little tyke apparently appreciated it given the way he pulled it not his mouth and began to suck loudly. This didn't faze Lisbon either; she merely stroked Mickey's soft downy brown hair and spoke tenderly to him.

"Aww, poor little guy. I'll bet you're hungry, huh?"

Jane walked toward Lisbon and Mickey, placed the teacup he had brought with him from the kitchenette on the desk, knelt down beside them, reached out his hand and smoothed over the soft skin of the baby's cheek with his forefinger. Mickey's dark brown eyes shifted from Lisbon's to Jane's face. Suddenly he released her finger and shot the newly discovered adult a toothless grin. The consultant sent back a (toothy) grin of his own. The kid them commandeered the finger Jane still had to the boy's face and stuck it in his mouth with a happy gurgle. Above him Jane heard, to his surprise, a soft giggle. In all the years he'd known her he'd never heard Lisbon giggle. It was a rather cute sound and Jane found that it made him feel comfortably warm inside.

"Sorry buddy," she apologized. "You won't get anything out of that."

"Do we have anything here we can give him?" Jane asked.

"No, but I sent Rigsby out to get some stuff for him. He should be back any time."

Mickey, upon finding Lisbon was indeed right and that neither hers nor Jane's finger yielded the wished for result, pushed Jane's hand away and started to fuss.

"Oh, it's okay honey," Lisbon soothed. "You'll get something to eat soon."

Securing her hair over her shoulder with one hand, Lisbon leaned down and pressed a make-it-all-better kiss to the imp's tummy. Mickey burbled happily his hunger momentarily forgotten.

Lisbon's action had brought her face much closer to Jane's and suddenly he was feeling more than a little tingly and a bit overheated.

Abruptly he stood, mumbled that he had to do something or other, picked up his cup of now cold tea, and bolted from Lisbon's office. He headed back to the kitchenette to make himself some fresh tea, and, after having finished, returned to the attic. He needed to clear his head.

Later that evening Jane came back from his now gloomy and dimly lit thinking room. Walking into the bullpen he saw the light on in Lisbon's office. He thought it somewhat strange that she hadn't already gone home, especially as she had Mickey for the night.

He made his way over to her office and opened the door only to stop short for the second time that day at the sight that greeted him.

Lisbon was lying on her couch with Mickey. They were snuggled comfortably on the large sofa. Lisbon was on her side her head resting on one of the arms acting as a sort of guard so the child couldn't roll off the couch, the other was wrapped protectively around the baby. Mickey had burrowed himself into Lisbon's chest and was sucking his thumb contentedly.

It was quite literally one of the cutest things Jane had ever seen. A small adorable woman and a precious baby curled up together both sound asleep.

A surge of warm affection spread through him as he stood and stared at the two. He had a momentary wish for a camera, but he supposed it didn't matter much; it was an image that was now firmly implanted in his memory palace anyway.

As much as Jane wanted to leave them sleeping, he knew Lisbon wouldn't be happy in the morning if she woke and found that she'd fallen asleep on her couch with a baby and slept all night in the CBI.

Jane walked over to the sofa and knelt down by the two sleepers. Not wishing to wake the baby Jane shook Lisbon's shoulder lightly to wake her up. He received no response from the clearly exhausted woman. Babysitting the young squirt had definitely taken its toll on her, and she hadn't been sleeping too great lately besides.

Trying again Jane reached out and laid his hand gently on her forehead then leaned over, brought his mouth close to her ear, and whispered her name. It worked. Lisbon's eyes opened to stare sleepily at the man hovering over her.

"Jane?"

"Lisbon, you need to go home."

"Hmm?"

"You need to take Mickey home."

Her eyes popped open fully.

"Oh, shoot. I fell asleep."

Holding the baby securely in her arms, she rose from the couch slowly so as not to wake Mickey.

Now standing she looked up at Jane, who had stood from his kneeling position on the floor, and whispered, "How do I get him home? I don't have a car seat."

"I'll drive you."

"Thank you Jane, but I said I didn't have a car seat not that I didn't have a car." Her tone was dripping with sarcasm.

Jane went to her desk, picked up the duffel bag Rigsby had filled with baby supplies, her briefcase, jacket, and keys while muttering, "Great, a grumpy and sarcastic Lisbon. My favorite."

"Oh I'm sarcastic?" She would've put her hands on her hips in an irritated gesture for emphasis had she not been holding Mickey.

Jane ignored her comment.

"What I meant was we take your car. You can sit in the back and hold Mickey on your lap."

"That's against the law Jane. We'll get in trouble."

"Oh, come now Lisbon. You're only in trouble if you get caught."

"Yes and how would that look? An officer of the law getting arrested for negligent child care."

"Stop being so dramatic. Nothing bad is going to happen. You won't get arrested. Now come on, let's go."

She huffed softly.

"Fine, but drive carefully. You hear me?"

"Absolutely. What do you take me for?"

Lisbon rolled her eyes in an exasperated and tired manner.

"I think it's a little too late at night for the amount of time it would take for me to answer that," she said as she walked passed him and headed toward the elevator.

Jane stared at her retreating back, and insulted expression on his face.

When they arrived at her apartment Jane found that Lisbon had fallen asleep during the drive. He woke her again and led his sleepy boss up to her front door.

Once inside Lisbon looked at Mickey, who was surprisingly still asleep, and said, "I guess I should get him changed."

"No, no, I'll do that," Jane insisted. "You go get yourself ready for bed."

He gently took Mickey from her arms and nudged her in the direction of the stairs.

"Go on, there's a good girl."

"Jane," Lisbon growled, "I am not a little kid."

"Never said you were dear. Now, shoo-shoo," he answered and made a skedaddle motion with his head.

"You're impossible," she said wearily.

She decided that while Jane was taking care of Mickey she would have a quick shower. When she'd finished she walked into her bedroom with her towel wrapped around her and started rummaging around in the dresser for her pajamas. She found them and was just about to take off the towel so she could slip into her nightclothes when Jane's voice made her jump nearly a foot in the air.

"You might not want to do that. There is a baby in the room after all."

Lisbon spun around to gape at him. He was sitting on her bed holding, a now awake, Mickey. Her cheeks flushed somewhat at the realization that she'd very nearly given her consultant an eye-full.

"Jane," she said, slightly breathless from the shock he'd given her. "What are you doing in here?"

"Well, you don't have a crib. He's going to have to sleep with you."

Lisbon put her hand to her forehead.

"Yeah, of course. I should've thought of that."

"I can stay if you want," Jane offered.

"No that's okay; it'd be too much trouble. You've done more than enough already."

"I've done hardly anything," he contradicted. He didn't want to leave he'd been having fun with Lisbon and the baby. He wanted it to last a little longer.

"And it wouldn't be any trouble," he continued. "Besides, you're dead on feet. If Mickey wakes up during the night I can take care of him."

Lisbon bit her lip in thought. His reasoning sounded pretty good to her. She was tired and it would be nice not to have to wake up in the middle of the night to change a dirty diaper.

"Okay," she answered at last. "Now, out so I can get dressed."

"Just the baby or me too?" he replied cheekily, trying to get her to blush again. He loved eliciting that kind of response from her on the very rare occasion he could. The woman didn't embarrass easily.

But apparently embarrassment was not a reaction she was going to reward him with. Instead she looked him in the eye and fixed him with a stern glare. Jane shivered dramatically.

"Brr, some people just can't take a joke. Come on Mickey, we know when we're not wanted."

Lisbon would've been tempted to throw a shoe at Jane's back if he hadn't been holding the baby.

When everyone (Lisbon) was sufficiently decent, the three of them snuggled up on Lisbon's queen sized bed. Well, not really the three of them. Jane was sitting on top of the covers with his back against the headboard, while Lisbon snuggled down with Mickey beneath the blankets. Lisbon had communicated with Jane in a subtle sort of way that she didn't want him in the bedroom, but he'd argued that he had to if he was going to keep Mickey from waking her up in the event he woke up during the night and started fussing. Jane, of course, won the argument. Strangely enough, neither of them seemed to think of the option that Jane could stay in the spare room with the baby.

Both Lisbon and Mickey were soon asleep once again. Jane watched the pair in silent affection. Their faces were illuminated by the soft warm lighting of the lamp in the corner of Lisbon's room. They were beautiful, both of them.

In an impulsive gesture Jane leaned down and placed a soft kiss on the top of Mickey's head and a gentle kiss to Lisbon's temple. At that moment an ache took up residence in his heart. A longing that someday, maybe not too long from now, he and Lisbon could repeat this evening only next time with a child of their own. Once Red John was gone, perhaps that could happen.

Jane spent the entire night watching over the two of them (except for when Mickey woke up in need of a diaper change) like a mother hen guarding her chicks. Not the most flattering comparison, but it kind of worked.

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