Holiday For Two
A Jane & Lisbon Story
By Brown Eyes Parker
Summary:
Jane and Lisbon spend Thanksgiving day by themselves. Part of my AU "A Boy Friend For Christmas" series.
Rated: T (just to be safe)
Disclaimer:
I own nothing, not even the title because it comes from a Dave Barnes song, and I don't even own the Dave Barnes song on iTunes. I heard it on somebody else's mix on
Author's Note I:
Real quick, this story is totally random. I just sat down and free wrote, and got really excited because all the holidays are right around the corner. So, if this story is all over the place, I'm apologizing in advance. And maybe you should go read the other stories in connection with this story, A Boyfriend For Christmas, the Second Time Around, I'll Never Stop Loving You (part of my Valentine's Day 2012 collection), Some Stuff in Between, and Scarlet Fears. You don't have to, but they're available if you have time on your hands and want some new stuff to read.
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Teresa Jane hummed along with Vivaldi's Fall as she lit Autumn Wreath candles from Yankee Candle while her husband, Patrick prepared a Thanksgiving dinner just for two in their kitchen. Everybody on their team had invited them to share a meal with them, but in the end they had decided to spend their first Thanksgiving as a couple alone.
"Dinner's almost ready," Jane said as he joined her in the living room and kissed her bare neck. "Hope you're hungry for turkey cutlets with a cranberry sauce glaze."
"You've been watching the Food Network again, haven't you?"
"I might have flipped through the Food Network magazine in line at the grocery store the other day," Jane answered. "Because I certainly haven't had time to actually watch the Food Network, I'm either at work into the late hours of the evening, and when I'm not at work then I'm here we're looking for a house or watching our backed up DVR."
"I was kidding," Lisbon replied, tossing the candle lighter on a bookcase. "I knew you haven't had a chance to watch the Food Network in a while."
"You say that like watching the Food Network is a bad thing," Jane said, spinning her around so he could kiss her lips.
"I didn't say it though."
"It was implied," Jane retorted playfully, before pulling her closer and kissing her sweetly.
"You better go and check your dinner," Lisbon whispered after a second. "I think the sweet potato casserole is done, I can smell the marshmallows burning."
Jane cursed and pushed her away gently. "I never burn a sweet potato casserole! Be right back."
Lisbon laughed and followed him into the kitchen. "Your first burned sweet potato casserole, I'm sorry but I'm not missing this for the world."
Jane pretended to glare at her as he grabbed a towel and yanked open the oven door. He put it down on the stovetop and sighed in relief after a brief examination proved that it had browned perfectly.
"Too bad, I wanted to see you fail at something. It isn't easy being married to the perfect man," Lisbon said, peeking at the dish from over his shoulder.
Jane winked at her and checked on the turkey simmering in a frying pan. When he had determined that they were done cooking, he shooed Lisbon out of the kitchen and told her to wait for him at the table while he got their plates ready.
Lisbon went back to the living room and dimmed the lights before going to the stereo system and switching the classical music over to a mixed CD that her best friend, Noel, had given to her at her bachelorette party.
The first strains of At Last filled the air and she smiled to herself as she walked to the dinner table, gently resting her hand on her stomach, quietly singing to the child growing inside her womb as she waited for Jane to come out of the kitchen with their supper.
.
All Jane could do was watch breathlessly as his wife rubbed her hand up and down her stomach, singing lyrics from songs that had almost withstood the test of time. He knew that she was waiting on him but the sight of the love of his life singing to their unborn child was enchanting and he didn't want to break the spell that seemed to have been cast over the room.
He knew though that soon she would realize he still hadn't shown up yet and come looking for him. So, with great effort, he went to join her at the table, knowing the instant she saw him that she'd stop singing and act like she had been sitting and waiting for him quietly.
"What took you so long?" Lisbon asked as he approached her and deposited her plate in front of her.
"Took me so long?" Jane repeated, sitting down across from her and putting his own plate of food down. "Really, I wasn't that long."
"You were watching me, weren't you?"
"Nope," he answered as he popped open a bottle of sparkling white grape juice and poured her a glass of the beverage.
Lisbon frowned, but decided not to push the subject any further. He was a master at deflection and in the end; she'd wind up more frustrated than anything. Besides, she knew that he could watch her if he wanted to. He wasn't doing anything illegal, this was his living room and she was his wife.
So, she cleared her throat and smiled at him as she dropped her napkin in her lap. "You did a good job honey, everything looks delicious."
"Thank you," Jane replied, looking pleased with himself as he took her hands, knowing she wouldn't allow him to forget their compromised prayer on Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Easter Sunday. "I'm guessing you want to say a blessing?"
"If you don't mind," Lisbon answered.
Jane nodded, watching as she bowed her head and said a traditional Catholic prayer of thanks over their meal. He echoed her amen and smiled at her when she lifted her head, keeping a firm grasp on one of her hands as he reached for his glass and lifted it in salute to her.
"To all the newly-weds out their celebrating their first Thanksgivings together and to you, my darling Teresa, for agreeing to marry me in the first place, because if you hadn't then we wouldn't be here in the first place tonight. Happy Thanksgiving."
"Happy Thanksgiving," Lisbon repeated, taking a sip of her drink and wrinkling her nose slightly as the bubbles tickled it; she cleared her throat and pulled her hair out of its clip, letting the dark tresses fall over her shoulders. "Tell me your favorite Thanksgiving memory Patrick," she said.
"You mean my most absolute favorite Thanksgiving memory in the whole entire world?" Jane asked.
"Yes," Lisbon answered, smiling slightly. "Your most absolute favorite Thanksgiving memory in the whole entire world."
Jane took a bite of his sweet potato casserole and shrugged. "I don't have one really. Most of my Thanksgiving dinners were cheeseburgers washed down with black coffee in non-descript diners. I should say my favorite Thanksgiving memory was the first one my wife and I were together, but I had to drive three hundred miles just to bail my father out of jail. She had spent a whole month planning the perfect menu and then we got the call from my dad when she was in the middle of cooking dinner. I can say that we made it work and found a little place that was open late on our way home where we ate day old pumpkin pie and turkey sandwiches, but I can't. We spent our first Thanksgiving fighting. . ."
"What about after your daughter was born?" Lisbon asked, tightening her grip on his hand. "You must have good memories from those Thanksgivings—"
Jane shook his head. "No. By that point, I was more worried about keeping up appearances to worry about making good Thanksgiving memories. My first wife and I would throw huge dinner parties for our friends and stick the kids in front of the newest Disney movie."
"Oh."
Jane smiled at her. "What about you? What's your absolute favorite Thanksgiving memory in the whole entire world?"
Lisbon took a deep breath and thoughtfully licked the cranberry sauce glaze off of her fork. "Probably the last Thanksgiving with my mom, some of the relatives we never got to see came in the day before to spend it with us. And my cousins, two of my brothers and I camped out in the living room with the television on the whole night because we were waiting for the Macy's parade to start. The next day, we tried to played football while our mothers and grandmother worked on dinner and our fathers and grandfather watched the game on television. I think it's my absolute favorite memory in the world memory because we were all together and for that perfect moment in time everything was the way it was supposed to be—"
Jane pushed his chair away from the table, stood up, walked around the table and pulled her to her feet. "Come here," he whispered, pulling her into her embrace and holding her as close as he possibly could, trying to comfort her with his touch. "I love you."
"I love you too," she replied, allowing him to sway her gently to the music as she fought back tears.
"I love you," he repeated as he moved them to the middle of the room and started to slow dance with her, their dinner forgotten.
"I love you too," she said again, resting her head on his shoulder.
"I love you," he murmured into her hair.
"I know," Lisbon answered, moving her hand up and down his back. "I love you too."
He lifted her chin up so that they were looking at each other. "I love you."
It was spoken like a prayer, reverently and in a whisper before his lips crashed into her's and her eyelids fluttered shut, answering his kiss like a sailor answered a siren's call as they continued to move together to a song about a harvest moon.
"I think that we should finish dinner," Lisbon said as he finally broke away from her. "You did work really hard on it."
"It was nothing," Jane answered. "Just wait until we have your family and the team for Thanksgiving dinner next year. Then you'll really see hard work."
Lisbon chuckled and leaned up to give him a chaste kiss. "I'm looking forward to it."
Jane smirked at her as he returned her to the table where they sat down and started to eat their meal again, barely noticing that the turkey had cooled down considerably while they had been making out and dancing.
"Tell me what you're most thankful for," Lisbon said as she swallowed a bite of cold sweet potato casserole.
"I think that should be obvious," Jane replied.
"Maybe," Lisbon agreed. "But I want to hear you say it."
"Okay," Jane answered. "This year I'm most thankful that our marriage gave me a tax refund."
She threw her paper napkin at him. "Jane!"
He laughed. "You know that I'm most thankful for you. Why do I have to say it aloud?"
She shrugged. "I don't know, I guess that I just do."
Jane nodded. "Then let me reassure you darling that this Thanksgiving and that every Thanksgiving – in the past and the future – that you're the person I'm most thankful for."
"Really?" Lisbon asked, looking slightly startled by his revelation. "Even last year when we weren't together, you were thankful for me?"
"Of course," Jane confirmed. "How could I not be thankful for you last year? It was right after Red John, and you didn't let me disappear physically or metaphorically, you kept me anchored down."
"And the first Thanksgiving we met?" Lisbon asked, her heart pounding slightly in her chest.
"You had showed me that I was good for something and gave my life purpose again," he replied. "And even though I didn't have a name for it then, you gave me a home."
"Oh Patrick—"
"What about you?" Jane interjected, taking her hand. "What are you most thankful for this Thanksgiving?"
"Well. . ." Lisbon said thoughtfully, rubbing her thumb across his knuckles. "I'm thankful for you, of course and I'm thankful that we've been able to start a family together because I never thought I'd be in love again, or have the chance to get married or have kids of my own. And you made both of those things possible."
"You did too," Jane answered, shaking his head slightly. "I didn't think that I'd ever fall in love again, and I definitely never imagined that I'd get married or have kids again."
"And I bet when we first met, you never thought you'd fall in love with me," Lisbon replied quietly.
"The thought did cross my mind," Jane admitted.
"Do you regret falling in love with me?"
"No," he answered immediately. "Actually, that's something else I'm thankful for this Thanksgiving. I'm thankful that I finally stopped fighting it and let myself love you."
Lisbon looked like she was about to say something before she shook her head and smiled at him as she pushed her plate away. "I'm craving dessert. What about you?"
Jane, who had expected her to reply to what he had said, quickly got over his shock and nodded. "Dessert sounds good. You were in charge of it, what do we have?"
"Well, you're in for a real treat," Lisbon said as she got to her feet and gathered up their plates. "I actually stopped by the Cheesecake Factory last night on my way home from work and I picked up some pumpkin cheesecake. The last one they had left."
Jane returned her smile. "I can't wait."
She winked at him. "Be right back."
A few seconds later, Lisbon returned with two dessert plates and the whole cheesecake in hand. She sat back down and cut them both generous slices, not able to stop grinning as she watched him the whole entire time.
"What?" He asked, his fingers brushing her's as he took the plate she was holding out to him.
"Nothing," she answered.
"Then why are you looking at me like that?"
Lisbon shrugged, not sure how she could explain the sudden love spells she was having for the man sitting in front of her, one look at his face and she knew she didn't have to because he was feeling the same way that she was.
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Eight Years Later
"Dad, what's one of your most favorite Thanksgiving memories ever?" Jane and Lisbon's oldest child asked a week before Thanksgiving. "My teacher wants the class to write a paper on one of their parent's favorite past Thanksgivings, and I decided to write it on you."
"Well, that's an easy one," Jane said as he put his slice of pizza down and smiled at his wife. "It was my first real Thanksgiving. . . the Thanksgiving your mother was pregnant with you—"
_The End_
Author's Note II:
Okay, sorry for the ending, I know it's cliché and probably what everybody was expecting, but my brain was screaming at me to write it. Anyways, I'd love to hear your thoughts on this completely bipolar piece of fan fiction.
And keeping in theme with my story, I'd like to take a minute to say how thankful I am for all my readers. You guys and your enthusiastic reviews make writing Jane & Lisbon stories worth it.
Lots of love,
Holly, 11/17/2012_