DISCLAIMER: I do not own The Mentalist or any of its characters. No, but I do own two doggies :)

A/N: A special shout out goes to Tardisfreak for this prompt. *virtual hugs*


***SPOILERS- Series Finale***


TALES FROM THE FAMILY JANE

Chapter 7- Bittersweet Birthday

Teresa rolled over and stretched her arm out across the bed to reach for her husband. She frowned to herself at the feel of the cool, empty sheets beneath her fingers. Teresa opened her eyes and saw that Patrick, in fact, was not next to her. About a year and a half ago, Patrick's disappearance would have frightened her but those fears have long since been quelled. She knew that he was not going anywhere because he was truly happy for the first time in a long time.

Teresa sat up and stretched momentarily before reaching over to her nightstand to turn off the baby monitor only to discover that it had already been turned off. She smiled to herself. Whenever Patrick was missing, Teresa always knew where to find him. Her soon to be one year old son, Matthew, and her husband were practically always together. Patrick simply adored his son and Teresa could tell that Matthew just as equally adored his father. Throwing the covers back, Teresa got out of bed to go in search of her menfolk.

Heading downstairs and turning the corner toward the living room, Teresa spied the telltale blond curls peeking over the top of the couch. She walked over and wrapped her arms around Patrick's neck and kissed his cheek.

"Good morning," Teresa said to her husband.

Her attention then immediately shifted to the sweet little face of her brown haired little boy and she smiled. The toddler looked up at his mother and gave her a gummy smile.

"And good morning to you," Teresa said as she scooped up Matthew and cuddled with the little boy.

Matthew smiled and giggled as Teresa held him to her after taking a seat on the couch next to Patrick. "So, what are you up to?" Teresa asked Patrick.

Patrick turned the laptop that he had been using that rested on the coffee table in front of him so that his wife could see.

"I'm designing invitations for Matthew's birthday," he explained. "Do you think that this is enough?"

Teresa leaned forward and counted the number of invitations that Patrick had been working on.

"Patrick, how many people do you think we're inviting to Matthew's birthday party?" Teresa exclaimed. "He's only going to be turning one!"

"Exactly!" Patrick replied.

He reached over and took Matthew's little hands in his, moving them up in down as he spoke in a high pitched voice, pretending that it was Matthew that was speaking. "But Mommy, I'm going to be one year old! That's a big thing! This is my first birthday! I only get one first birthday!"

Matthew laughed as Patrick moved his arms back and forth, causing Teresa to chuckle.

"I understand that, but you saw what happened with our wedding, Patrick. It started from being just the two of us with the justice of the peace to suddenly exploding to well over fifty people."

"Well, we have a big family," Patrick said with a shrug.

Teresa opened her mouth to reply, but just smiled instead. She let out a breath.

"Okay, but, please, don't overdo it."

"Teresa, when have I been known to overdo things?" Patrick retorted, feigning that he was offended.

Teresa just stared at him.

"Is that a trick question?" she said.


Teresa returned home from work at the FBI. She dropped her things on the end table in the foyer of their house and then made her way toward the kitchen, where she spied Matthew in his high chair. He was being fed by Patrick, who was making faces at the toddler to get him to open up his mouth, while he was speaking to someone on the phone.

"And what is the price?" Patrick asked the person on the other end of the line.

Teresa kissed her son on the head before walking over to the counter to grab a helping of the pasta that Patrick had prepared for them for supper. She took her bowl, along with a drink that she had poured for herself and sat down at the table to eat as she watched her husband curiously, wondering who he might be speaking to on the phone.

"Well, that sounds perfect," Patrick continued. "Yes, I'd like to book it...perfect, thank you."

Patrick ended his call and placed the phone on the table next to him. He looked over at Teresa and smiled. "Hi, honey," Patrick said, standing up slightly to give Teresa a kiss. "How was work? Save any lives today? Take down any evil masterminds threatening the safety of our fair city?"

"Nothing too exciting. Just following up on some new leads on the Stevens case." Teresa replied. "Who were you talking to?"

"Oh that?" Patrick said, making faces as he continued to feed Matthew. "I was booking some entertainment for the party."

Teresa tilted her head in curiosity.

"What kind of entertainment?"

"Well," Patrick began to say. "I booked a bounce house, a clown, and a pony ride. Oh, and I had the invitations printed and I sent in the design I came up with Matthew's birthday cake into the designers."

Teresa, who had taken a drink of her beverage at this point, nearly spit out her drink.

"Wait, what?" she coughed out.

Patrick began to repeat what he had just told his wife when Teresa waved him off. "Oh, I heard you alright," she said. "But, honey, is all of that really necessary?"

"Of course. It's Matthew's birthday." Patrick said matter-of-factly.

Teresa reached over and put her hand on top of Patrick's.

"Patrick, I know you love our son but is all of that necessary? He's only going to be one year old; how much of this will he be able to do? And more than that, how much of this will he be able to remember?"

Patrick pondered what Teresa had said for a moment.

"I suppose that a bounce house wouldn't be the best thing for a one year old," he admitted. "But I'm sure that Stan's kids will enjoy it,"

"I'm sure they will but, like I said, please don't overdo it."


It was bath time for Matthew and he was enjoying playing in the soap and bubbles with his various toys while under the watchful eye of Teresa. She put her hands in the soapy water and then messed up Matthew's hair, causing the toddler to giggle. Patrick opened the bathroom door to talk to Teresa, but paused at the sight of his wife and son playing together. There was no sight more beautiful than the simple moments like this. They never ceased to bring a smile to his face, especially when Teresa molded Matthew's hair into a little mohawk.

"Looking good, buddy," Patrick said as he kneeled down next to Teresa in front of the tub. "So, I found a great deal on a face painter and temporary tattoo artist-"

Patrick stopped speaking when he saw the look on Teresa's face.

"What did I say about not overdoing it?"

"That's it, Teresa," Patrick raised his hands in mock surrender. "I'm not looking for anything else because adding anything else to Matthew's party would be overdoing it."

Teresa nodded slowly in confirmation, reminding her husband that he was right on the cusp of taking it a bit too far. Patrick leaned over and kissed Teresa on the cheek.

"Don't worry, honey," he assured her. "This party will not be overly extravagant."


Teresa stared at Patrick and she was pretty sure that her mouth was nearly down to the floor. In addition to the bounce house, clown, pony rides, face painter and temporary tattoo artist, Patrick had also hired various people to run concession stands, including snow cones, cotton candy, popcorn and French fries. Teresa just stayed quiet, rubbing her temples.

"Patrick," she began to say, trying to keep her voice calm and collected.

"I overdid it, didn't I?" Patrick replied, already knowing what his wife was going to say to him.

"Ya think?"

Teresa stood up from her chair and placed her hands on the kitchen table. "I'm going to go to for a run," she said. "Can we sort this all out when I come home?"

Patrick nodded.


Upon returning home from her run to clear her head, Teresa went in search of Patrick. She found him upstairs in Matthew's room, watching the toddler as he slept.

"Patrick?" Teresa said to get her husband's attention.

"Hi Teresa," Patrick replied quietly.

He was sitting in the rocking chair that faced their son's crib so he turned his head to look over at Teresa who was standing in the doorway.

"Can we talk?" Teresa asked.

"Yeah, sure," Patrick answered as he stood up from the rocking chair and followed Teresa out of the room.

They went downstairs to the living room so they wouldn't disturb Matthew. After placing the baby monitor on the coffee table in front of the couch, Patrick took a seat next to Teresa and prepared for the inevitable discussion about having overdone it.

"Okay," Teresa began to say. "Would you like to tell me why you've been acting like a bridezilla, except you're organizing your son's first birthday party instead of a wedding?"

Patrick stayed quiet for a moment. He already knew the answer to his wife's question, as he had time to think about his over extravagant party plans.

"Honestly?" Patrick paused.

Even though he had come a long way when it came to revealing his emotions to Teresa, it still wasn't the easiest thing for him to do. "Well, I wanted to give Matthew the best party ever. I wanted to give him everything that any child could ever want because..."

Patrick's sentence trailed off. Teresa placed her hand on top of her husband's.

"I know you love him," she said. "I do too. For a while, I never thought I'd have kids or even get married and yet here I am, and I am so unbelievably happy."

Patrick smiled at Teresa.

"Yeah, me too." he agreed. "I never thought I could be this happy. And that's the thing: I never expected to be this happy ever again. I never expected to find my true love. I never expected that I would get to be a father again. That's why I wanted everything to be perfect for Matthew's birthday; I'm just so happy to have him in my life that I sort of went overboard with the planning. I never thought I'd have the chance to see a child of mine grow up so I wanted to this day to be perfect because the day Matthew was born was such a perfect day to me, and to us. It's bittersweet because I know what I had to lose in order to find my true happiness."

Teresa gave her husband's hand a reassuring squeeze. She really had no words to say to his heartfelt confession because she knew that she would probably begin to cry because the beauty of his words was very powerful and struck a chord within her. Knowing that this was the case, Patrick wrapped his arm around Teresa and she rested her head on his shoulder. He kissed the top of her head.


Patrick and Teresa came to agreement on some of the party events and entertainment that they would keep for Matthew's birthday party. They sent out invitations to majority of the family, just as Patrick planned, and just about everyone agreed to attend. Before the party was set to start, Patrick and Teresa were decorating the house. Patrick was hanging streamers and a birthday banner while Teresa was filling up some balloons while Matthew played with them.

Teresa took one of the balloons she just finished filling and handed it to Matthew, who smiled at the bright red balloon. As Matthew played with the balloon, the static caused his dark brown locks to stand up which, in turn, made Teresa laugh. She grabbed another balloon and filled it up before giving it to her son, who played with it and made even more of his hair stand up. By this point, Matthew was laughing too, having a great deal of fun playing with the colorful balloons.

Patrick returned from outside, having finished hanging a banner outside in the backyard, where the party would be held. He headed to the living room and smiled when he saw Teresa and Matthew. Patrick went down to the floor and sat down next to his son, grabbing a balloon from the pile. He took the balloon and rubbed it on Matthew's hair, causing it to stand up completely. This made the little boy laugh even louder and his belly laughs never ceased to get his parents laughing as well.

Though he would never admit it, Teresa was right. Matthew didn't need a crazy and huge party, a trait that he certainly got from his mother. Instead, he was just happy to be playing with the balloons in the living room with his parents. And that, Patrick acknowledged, was just a beautiful moment that no big party could ever top.


Thank you to everyone who has sent in prompts for the story. I am working on them but want to take my time on them so I do them justice :) While I continue to work on them, feel free to send me more prompts. You can leave a review with an idea or send me a PM.

Thanks for reading :)