Chapter Two!
"Hi Grace!" Lisbon said after opening the door. They hugged. "Come in! You're the first person to arrive!" Lisbon hung up Van Pelt's thin grey jacket. Van Pelt was wearing a green, knee-length chiffon dress with puffy short sleeves that went perfectly with her red hair. The dress had ruffles on the bottom of it and attached was a thin gold belt. Lisbon felt underdressed in black suit pants from Macy's, short sleeved red blouse, and the silver cross necklace she never takes off.
"Oh, I love your blouse, it's beautiful!" Van Pelt exclaimed. Lisbon blushed at the floor. When she looked up, she saw a vintage, 1972 Citroen DS 20 painted eggshell blue pulling into her driveway.
"Jane's here!" She exclaimed. Jane got out of his car and walked up to the house. He wore a red collared dress shirt under a navy blue three-piece suit. Cho and Rigsby carpooled and came soon after dressed in their work suits. Rigsby made Cho wear a Santa hat, and Cho made Rigsby wear a Rudolph nose and reindeer antlers.
"Rigsby the red nosed human reindeer," Rigsby started to sing a twisted version of the song. Everyone laughed. Cho smiled as he sang the Santa line.
"Then one foggy Christmas Eve, Santa Cho said: 'Rigsby I hate most Christmas songs, why did you have to start this one?'" At this point, Van Pelt almost choked on her own Christmas tree cookie. She had made a bunch of cookies for the party; trees, snowmen, and even reindeer and Santa Claus cookies!
After the song was done and they had gobbled down all the cookies, Lisbon announced it was time for Secret Santa gift exchange. She picked up a gift from the round, wooden table. "This one's for Cho."
Cho took the horribly wrapped package (even a cartoon penguin should most defiantly not look like that) from a Lisbon's hands. When he opened it, he found the book "A Christmas Carol" by Charles Dickens inside. He furrowed his brow and looked at the inside cover. There, where Cho expected it, was his writing. 'This Book is Property of Kimball Cho'. It was his copy.
"Hmm, my guess is that Jane was my Secret Santa and took this from my desk at work. All he did was wrap it," said Cho, then paused, "badly."
"I can't believe you Cho!" Jane exclaimed, faking a sad face. "You really think I would do something like that?"
"Yep," Cho respond, voice still monotone. "No offence."
"None taken," Jane started taking out a grey pouch from his inside jacket pocket, "because that's exactly what I did! Here's your real present." Cho opened the pouch and found a pair of sunglasses. Sunglasses worth $100. "They're to replace the ones I broke," Jane explained.
"Wow," a rare thing occurred... Cho started to smile. "Thanks Jane!"
"You're welcome!" He replied. "Alright, now Rigsby, open yours!"
"I wonder what's inside..." Rigsby said, trying to hide his giddy enthusiasm and excitement as he ripped open the red envelope addressed to him. "Oh my god! A gift card! For Ruth's Chris Steakhouse!" Food... It's basically Rigsby's main weakness.
"How much money is on the card?" Lisbon asked and tried to look over his shoulder.
"Seventy-five dollars!" Rigsby looked up from the card. "Okay, I give up. Who was my Secret Santa?"
"Me," said Cho. "Merry Christmas."
"Thanks buddy!" Rigsby grinned. "Alright, Boss should be next!"
"Thanks," Lisbon said to Rigsby, taking a yellow bag with pink polka-dots from him. She took out the red and green tissue paper and peered inside. "Oh, it's a dart board!" She exclaimed, pulling out the board and magnetic darts. She noticed something else inside and pulled that out too. It was a picture of Jane's face. Lisbon cocked her head to the right and lifted her left eyebrow which made Van Pelt rush to explain.
"It's for when Jane annoys you too much. You can shoot darts at him, yet nobody gets hurt!" Van Pelt noticed everybody starring at her, smile on their faces. It was then she realized she'd just given herself away. "Uh, I-I think..."
Lisbon hugged Van Pelt while Jane said, "looks like Secret Santa Grace was not very secret... How 'bout you open your gift now? Rigsby look positively anxious," Rigsby shot Jane a death stare. Van Pelt smiled and reached across the table for the last remaining present. It was a small box wrapped in snowflake wrapping paper.
"Oh Wayne... The wrapping paper is beautiful!" Van Pelt managed to whisper. She carefully took it off to save it. Van Pelt's eyes fell upon the word 'Peoples' on the box and her breaths caught in her throat. Inside was a sterling silver bracelet with a white sapphire snowflake on it. "This... Is gorgeous... Oh Wayne! It's-it's-it must have cost a fortune! It's so beautiful!"
"Not as beautiful as the person wearing it," Rigsby said after Van Pelt put on the bracelet. She blushed. "Honestly Grace... You're worth it," Rigsby reached for her hand and she didn't pull away.
"Thank you," she replied, looking into his eyes. "Thank you so much!" Eventually, Van Pelt jerked back to reality and realized there were no more gifts left, yet Jane had yet to open one. Jane noticed too.
"Where's mine?" He asked Lisbon, the only person who had not given a gift yet. She grinned slyly.
"Follow me..." She got up from the couch she was sitting on and led everyone to another room. A room holding something big, wrapped. Something the shape of Jane's couch. He quickly tore the paper. Yes, there was his beloved couch. He immediately jumped on it. "The couch is officially yours!" Lisbon announced. "It is no longer the CBI's; it is your personal property Jane! No one can sit on it without your permission, and no one can give it away except you if you choose to do so!"
"Thank you Teresa!" Jane said, still on the couch. "Today was absolute torture without the couch, so I'm not happy that you took it away, but thanks anyways-" Jane paused for a second and looked up at Lisbon. "You are going to put it back... Right?"
Lisbon smirked. "Another thing about it being your property is that you're the only one who is allowed to move it!" She turned around on her heel to walk away, but turned her head back one more time. "Good luck!"
HAVE A MERRY MENTALIST CHRISTMAS, AND TO ALL A GOODNIGHT!