The Joys of Children

Chapter 4 - Are We There Yet?

They had been in the SUV for 5 minutes when it began. Lisbon was driving, Jane was in the passenger seat, Van Pelt, Rigsby, Cho and Lucy were in the back.

"Auntie Tessie, are we there yet?" She asked and Jane smiled slightly as he became immersed in a memory.

"Daddy, are we there yet?"

"Not yet Rosie." Was Patrick's chuckled response.

There was a sigh from the back seat, "But I'm bored."

"I know honey, not long now"

5 minutes later, "Daddy, are we there yet?" had come from the back of the car again and the same discussion happened all over again.

He snapped back into reality when he felt Lisbons hand brush his as she reached behind her to give Van Pelt her handbag.

Having missed part of the conversation he watched as Van Pelt raked through the bag, finally pulling out a colouring book with pencils attached to the front.

Happily drawing away she remained quiet for the rest of the drive, Jane however didn't, "So you're babysitting her tonight then?" He asked, casually, but she knew he was fishing for information.

Lisbon nodded, "Yeah, all weekend actually. Tommy and his wife are in Rome so I asked for this weekend off, but we still got called in." She sighed, checking on the girl in her mirror, "I promised her a weekend of cinemas, shopping and doing fun stuff together, but now I'm going to have to drag her around crime scenes."

Jane shrugged, "I think I know who did it anyway." He said, causing Lisbon to roll her eyes, "Sure you do Jane." She said as she pulled into the parking lot of the hotel where the murder had been committed.

Turning to the people in the back of the car she said, "Cho I want you to question the witnesses, Rigsby talk to the staff, Jane and I are going to check out the scene."

With nods the two Agents left the car, Lisbon turned to where Lucy was still drawing and Van Pelt was watching her, "Sorry for leaving you here with her, I know you want to work."

Van Pelt just smiled, "It's alright Boss."

"I'll take over once I've checked the scene out." She assured Van Pelt, "Alright Lucy I have to go and do some work stuff." She said gently to her niece who looked up from her drawing, "Okay Aunt Tessie." She said as she walked to the front of the SUV to hug her Aunt from where she sat in the driving seat.

"Love you Aunt Tessie." She said as she kissed Lisbons cheek, Lisbon smiled genuinely at the girl, Jane could tell Lucy had her Aunt wrapped around her little finger, "Love you too honey, be on you're best behaviour for Grace alright?"

Lucy nodded and feeling more than a little guilty for leaving her niece in the car with her co-worker she jumped out and Jane followed her, by the time they reached the hotel doors he was walking by her side, "Don't feel guilty, it wasn't your fault that some guy had to go and get murdered." He commented lightly.

Lisbon just rolled her eyes, "Stop reading my mind Jane." She whined as she walked ahead of him to the crime scene.

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It was lunchtime and the case was half-solved already, thanks to Jane of course. They knew it was the ex-wife who had killed the victim, because Jane had managed to call her and ask her some questions that he decided made her a mad killer, the problem now was tracking her down because she had fled on the same day as the victim had been murdered. Forensics were just in and apparently some of her blood was mingled with the victims so he had clearly put up a fight.

Lucy was still as happy and bouncy as she had been in the morning, but she had been working on a drawing all day that she wouldn't let anyone see until it was finished.

It was now 12.30pm and the team (+Lucy) were in the office.

"Aunt Tessie, I'm hungry." Lucy told her Aunt from where she was lying on the couch of Lisbons office, drawing on her notepad.

Lisbon looked at her watch and remembered Lucy usually ate at 12pm, it was incredibly difficult to fill in the paperwork for the case and watch her niece at the same time, she had completely lost track of the time.

"Okay sweetie, let's go and get lunch." She told Lucy as she stood up and held out her hand, Lucy closed her notepad, jumped up from the couch and took her Aunts hand.

Lisbon popped her head into the bullpen on her way to the elevator, "I'm taking Lucy for lunch, call me if you find anything." she told the team. Van Pelt nodded at Lisbon and waved goodbye to Lucy who giggled, she had taken quite a shine to Van Pelt.

At that moment Jane jumped up from his couch and grabbed his jacket, Lisbon raised an eyebrow at the man, "What are you doing?" She asked.

He grinned, "Coming to lunch with you, if that's all right?" He was asking Lucy more than Lisbon and the little girl grinned, "You never told me Patrick was coming too Aunt Tessie!"

Lisbon smiled at her niece, but as soon as she looked away from her Aunts face she shot Jane a glare, but he only grinned as he began to walk towards the elevator with them.

Lisbon had decided that with the case being so important and so close to an end they would have lunch somewhere near the CBI in case anything important popped up. The nearest café was a 5 minute walk away and as they were walking down the street Lucy, who was already holding Lisbons hand grabbed Janes.

Jane smiled at the little girl, but Lisbons cheeks turned scarlet at how the scene looked, she and Jane walking outside the CBI, on the side of Hightower's office with a child between them, not good for the rumour mill at all.

Jane apparently sensed this too from the way he glanced up at the building, but it didn't seem to bother him as he found himself chatting away to Lucy.

"So you don't sit on your couch all of the time." Lucy said rationally, "You go in the car and get lunch too."

Jane smiled, "So I'm not lazy anymore?"

Lucy shook her head, "You're still lazy, but you're not as lazy as my Uncle Mark, he sits in his house all of the time and I don't like it when he looks after me because he gives me cereal for my lunch and my dinner!" The look of annoyance on her face made her look very much like Lisbon and he found it hard to believe that they were only related through her brother.

He had seen photos before and they did all have bright green eyes and dark hair, he supposed he could see where the resemblance came from, but some of the expressions she pulled made her look so much like his boss it was funny.

"Well that is very lazy, cereal is only for breakfast," He told the girl as though it was the most obvious thing in the world.

Lucy nodded, "My Mommy makes me cereal for my breakfast, but when I stay with Aunt Tessie I get pancakes, but I'm not allowed to tell my Mommy because she says Aunt Tessie is trying to make all my teeth fall out!" She told Jane giggling as though telling him this was like telling him a big secret.

"Bad Aunt Tessie." Jane tutted with a grin Lisbons way, which resulted in her giving him a classic Lisbon eye-roll, of course this only made Jane grin more.

When they reached the café and sat down with their sandwiches and drinks, Lisbon on her usual coffee, Jane with some form of herbal tea and Lucy with a large chocolate milkshake the trio ate in silence, but when Lucy was finished her sandwich her chatter started up again.

"You know my Aunt Tessie says that she didn't used to like her work much." Lucy told Jane matter of factly, "She said it was boring, but she liked it because she had nice friends." Lucy continued and Jane watched her intently, wondering where this was going, "But she likes it more now because she gets to work with you."

Lisbons cheeks flushed as Jane turned to her smiling, "So you do like working with me after all." He said, sounding rather proud of himself, "All the 'I hate you Jane' and 'I wanna shot you Jane' stuff, I knew it was just an act."

Lisbon glared at him, "It really wasn't a act" She said and Lucy jumped in, "Aunt Tessie once told me that she would shoot you, but she didn't want to go to jail because guns and jail is bad." She finished nodding to herself.

Jane nodded back, "Guns and jail are bad, that's why you're Aunt Tessie would never shoot me." Grinning a little cheekily at Lisbon he added, "And she loves me too much."

Lucy's eyes widened, "My Aunt Tessie loves you?" She asked and Lisbon cut in, "He just means as a friend Lucy, I love all of the team as friends." She said, saving herself as Lucy nodded, "I love all of my friends too and I love Patrick and Wayne and Grace and even Kim, but he's a little scary."

Lisbon chuckled, Lucy couldn't pronounce Kimball right so she had taken to calling the man 'Kim' much to his annoyance, but he found the girl so adorable that he didn't have the heart to show his annoyance at her. She had melted all of their hearts, even Cho's.

A/N- I wonder how Cho would react to being called Kim? Haha would certainly be amusing!

Thanks for reading!