Author Note: So this is my first time posting any fan fic. I've written it before, but never actually published anything. This idea just popped into my head when I was doing my homework the other night, and it would not go away until I wrote it down. Sorry for any grammatical errors, I'm not going to school to be an English major; although I did proof read it, so it should be ok. Re-uploaded with some grammar and spelling errors fixed. Still can't claim to have gotten all of them :)
Disclaimer: I do not own The Mentalist, but I sure wish I did.
It had been a long day at work. The suspect had a pain in the ass attorney that made it difficult for even Jane to get close enough to him to get a confession. They were probably going to have to rely on just the forensic evidence, and it had been a long time sense they had to do that. It annoyed her. It made her mad.
She was in the kitchen attempting to try to figure out what to make for diner (take out or frozen) when her phone rang, Caller ID showed her brother. She was not in the mode to talk to her brother right now; maybe it was one of her nieces or nephews wanting to say hi.
"Hello?" She answered the phone
"HI Aunty Teresa!" A small voice on the other end called out
Teresa pulled the phone away from her ear for a second waiting for the ringing in her ear to stop. "Hi there sweetheart how are you?"
"I'm good. Mommy says you need to come to visit 'cause the new neighbors a hottie."
She rolled her eyes. Despite living half way across the country from them, they still tried to be matchmakers. "Is that so?" she asked.
"Yea, Daddy says that you really need a man in your life, 'cause then you wouldn't be so grumpy all the time" in the background she heard her brother yelling at the kids to give him the phone and the kids giggling wildly as he took it from him
"Sorry sis, I didn't know they were going to say that when they asked to call you before bed."
"That's all right" she said, she knew they didn't know any better. Little kids were notorious for lacking tact. She was however pissed off with her brother. "What I want to know is why you think that you need to discuss my love life in front to the kids."
"Be rest assured we do not discuss your love life."
"Yea right."
"It's your lack of love life that we were discussing."
"I am perfectly happy with the way my life is."
"Oh come on, you don't mean that."
"Yes I do."
"You mean to tell me that you never come home to your tiny dark apartment at night and whish that there was someone to great you, or kids waiting to jump all over you and make you realize that no matter how awful the real word seems, at home it will always be alright?"
"I just don't…I don't know." She paused, "I just had a really bad day at work. A wife killed her husband, and her lawyer wouldn't let Jane get anywhere near her. So, we're going to have to rely on forensic evidence, or wait for one of his ridiculous schemes to get her to confess without her lawyer, which will just get thrown out of court anyway. Even if we manage to convince her to talk to her without her lawyer, he will probably still say it was coursed, and I just can't think about the fact that the only guys in my life are in love with other people. And then you call and get your kids to give me a guilt trip because I don't have a man in my life…"
"Woe, slow down there sister, where the hell did that come from?" In the background, she could hear the kids giggling and squealing that daddy had said a bad word. "GO TO BED KIDS!" He hollered away from the phone. "What do you mean all the men in your life are in love with other people?"
"Rigsby is in love with the new women on my team, Grace Van Pelt."
"Yea, but you've never liked him, right? I mean he's just a friend."
"Yea, but it still makes me so...I don't know. And Cho, well, you know Cho; it fills like he's got another woman every week. I'm sick of seeing everyone else happy."
"Is that seriously all the men you know? There has to be someone who is as miserable being single as you are."
"Wow, you're really good at making a person feel like crap you know that."
"Sorry, but it's the truth."
"The only other guy on my team is still in love with his wife," she said with a sigh.
"Divorce is never pretty."
"He's not divorced, she was murdered, his daughter too, and he's got a guilt complex bigger than Alaska. He blames himself, that's the only reason he's on the team."
"I didn't realize that there was another man on your team, what's his name."
"Patrick Jane"
"What, Jane is a man, I thought he was a woman, you only ever call him Jane."
"Well, yea, I mean, that's what everybody calls him."
"All this time you complain about this person named Jane, and I thought you were complaining about a woman. I thought that you were getting upset with her because you were two dominant females competing for the same spot, but I was wrong. You like this guy!"
"I do not. He is a pain in the ass. He is one to the most annoying men that I have ever met. He thinks it is funny to get me mad."
"Sounds like he likes you to."
"No he doesn't, he's still beating himself up about his families deaths that happened five years ago, he thinks it was his fault." Just then, a knock sounded at the door. "I got to go bro, there's someone at the door.
"Yea, right, I believe that one. Anyway, I love you sis."
"I love you to, talk to you later." The knocking came again as she hung up the phone and was walking to the door. "Hold on, I'm coming" she shouted.
When she got to the door she looked threw the peephole ad saw a familiar smile staring back at her. She sighed, thinking of the conversation she had just had with her brother and reluctantly opened the door hoping that her face wouldn't give away the conversation she had just had.
"What do you want Jane." She said standing in the doorway.
"I know that you had a hard day, and took this case hard, so I thought I'd try to cheer you up." He held up a pizza and a six-pack of root beer and flashed her one of his killer smiles.
"Root beer? Seriously?"
"Yea, we both have to work in the morning, we can't have hangovers."
"Come on in." She said as she turned and walked toward the kitchen. Wow, he is hot, she though as she walked. I think my brother's right; I do like him. This is not good. She tried to clear the thoughts from her mind, no need for Jane to see them right up in front, that would be the last thing she needed.
"Who were you on the on the phone with earlier?" Asked Jane as he sat the pizza down on the counter.
"How did you know I was on the phone?" She asked as she put the drinks in the fridge and turned to grab plates out of the cupboard.
"I heard you talking when I walked up to the door. You're not the type to talk to yourself, so you must have been on the phone"
She couldn't believe at she had head her talking. She quickly played back the last few minute of her conversation with her brother. Had she said anything that would be bad for him to overhear, only her talking about his life, she felt like such and idiot. "Just my brother, the kids called to say Hi and we were catching up." She turned around now with the plates, and hoped that her face wouldn't give her away.
He looked at her in a way that made her feel like he could see right through her. "Is that all you guys were talking about?" Jane asked with his trademark smirk on his lips
"Uh, we talked about the kids and his job, you now stuff like that" she said quickly.
"You're lying, cops make awful liars." He was smirking at her, that smug look he always got when he knew what she was thinking, but wanted to make her say it out loud.
"Fine, we were discussing my personal life, or lack thereof. He and my sister-in-law are under the impression that I need a man in my life, and now apparently so do their children."
Patrick looked at her, studied her face. Was that sadness in her voice? Was she really sad that she didn't have a man in her life, or was she sad that her nieces and nephews were concerned about it? They should be concerned; she worked in a deadly job. She had guns pointed at her regularly, what if one of them went off, who world take care of her?
She was getting nervous with him looking at her like that. She always felt like she was under a microscope when he was looking at her. "I think I might just start lying to them. They'll never know, not everyone is a human lie detector you know. If they thought that I was going on dates they probably would just leave me alone, for a few months at least." She said with a smile.
"That might work" was his response. He thought for a second and then started talking to her about the case they had just finished, and then one that she was going to testify for in court next week. They talked easily for a little bit while they ate, both enjoying the company. They had reached a lull in the conversation, not bad, just a lack of talking.
"Do you want desert? I think I have ice cream in the freezer." She asked.
"That would be great," he responded and watched her as she got up to look for it.
"I have chocolate and funny green stuff." She said looking in the freezer and taking two cartons of ice cream out.
"Funny green stuff?" Patrick questioned.
Teresa held up a carton, "Mint chip, we used to call in funny green stuff growing up, it just kind of comes out, you know."
"Yea, I do," he smiled, "how about a little of both?"
"Can do" she said and started to dish out ice cream. As she was doing that, the phone started to ring.
"Should I get that?" He asked.
"No, it's probably just my brother again, just let the machine pick it up."
"Why do you still have a land line? Why doesn't your brother just call you on your cell phone?"
"He has my number, but he knows that I use it for work, so he tries to only call it in an emergency. Besides, this is a good number to give to people that I really don't want to get a hold of me no matter where I am." She gave him his bowl and sat down just as the machine picked up and gave the standard recording about not being home and to leave a message. Her brothers voice started coming into the kitchen threw the small speaker in the phone.
"Hey sis, I know your home, but if you don't want to talk that's fine. The boss here says I need to call and apologize for giving you such a hard time earlier, not everyone is lucky enough to get a great catch like me" You could almost hear the grin in his voice. He continued "I know that you work really hard, but you need to look after yourself sometimes you know, maybe just one date every couple of weeks, that wouldn't be so hard would it."
Suddenly Patrick, who had been sitting there listening intently to the message and looking at Teresa getting even more embraced as the seconds went on, picked up the phone,
"Hello?'
"Umm, who's this?" Teresa could hear her brother still through the answering machine that was still recording the message.
"This is Patrick, Teresa's date. She can't talk right now, she's a little indisposed right now, she's going to have to call you back." Patrick looked at her a grinned. Her mouth had fallen open the spoon full of ice cream hanging in the air half way to her mouth.
"Umm, ok. She didn't mention that she had a date tonight."
"I surprised her. It's our anniversary. She didn't think I was going to remember, so she probably didn't say anything to you." He was practically laughing out loud now, and Teresa's face was turning a brilliant shade of red.
"Umm, ok, well tell her to give me a call when she gets a chance."
"Can do, bye." As he went to hang up the phone she could hear her brother in the background yelling to his wife that his sister had managed to scrounge up a date after all.
"I could have lied to him just as well as you did you know." Said Teresa when she had a chance to collect her.
"I know, but this is much more fun." He said with a smile still playing on his features, although he was no longer on the verge of laughing.
"Yea, but now he's going to want to know how long we've been together and what anniversary we were celebrating." She said with frustration.
"We are celebrating an anniversary," he said with a grin. Teresa looked at him like he was crazy. "This is the anniversary of the very first case that we worked on together. Don't you remember?"
She did, but she just sat there nodding, still in too much shock that he had to say anything.
"Have a good night Lisbon," he said when she still hadn't said anything. "I'll let myself out; don't forget to lock your doors." He said with a grin as he walked out of the kitchen.
She seemed suddenly remember that he was there and called out "Good night, see you at work tomorrow," as she heard the door closing. She just sat there for what seemed like forever before she got up and followed his advice to lock the doors. As she walked through her apartment getting ready for bed she couldn't help but thinking that maybe her brother had been right after all.
Authors Note: OK, so that's my first attempt. My kids really do like to call my sister for the fun of it. She lives three states over from us (we live out west, so the states are really big). They wouldn't do the relationship thing, but my babysitters' kids would. If you liked it let me know, let me know if you don't like it, but please be gentle, thanks!
