Jack called dibs on sitting in the back with Beth, leaving Jane to sit in the front with Lisbon.
"Jane," Lisbon said, putting the key in the ignition and turning it, "if you try to pull anything, I will bring you serious physical pain."
"Lisbon!" Jane replied, acting shocked, "Would I ever do such a thing to you in public?"
"Yes." Lisbon pulled out of her parking spot and headed off in the direction of the grocery store. Jane smiled and looked out the window.
The ride to the store was quite short and the quartet got out of the car and went in. Beth insisted on carrying the basket. They all stayed together to get the basic things: bread, jelly, peanut butter, chips, and soda pop.
"Jack!" Beth said loudly, pulling on the man's sleeve, "Let's go pick out desserts!"
"Alright, my Lady! Follow me!" Jack demanded, and ran off with Beth in the direction of the aisles packed with junk food.
Jane chuckled at Jack as he nearly ran over a few people on the way. "I'm going to go ahead and pick out a few things myself. I'll find you in a few minutes," he said before strolling off with his hands in his pockets.
Lisbon stayed in the dairy section, figuring she'd be easy to find if someone needed to. She looked at the yogurts, hoping to find one that would look unappealing to Rigsby. She knew it was mission impossible, but either way, their stock was low. Yogurt was a must. It was something everyone would eat, and it was something good for them.
She grabbed an abandoned basket and threw some of the yogurts in before moving on to pick a package of string cheese. Lisbon wouldn't ever admit it, but she found it very amusing to watch people eat string cheese. They just looked so childlike.
Lisbon was comparing the labels on two packages when a woman came up next to her. "Excuse me…"
Lisbon looked up and stepped aside, thinking the woman wanted to get at the cream cheese she was standing in front of.
"Teresa?" the woman asked. Lisbon looked at her oddly. "Teresa Lisbon! Oh my goodness! It's you! I haven't seen you since graduation!"
Thoughts were running through Lisbon's head; she could not remember this woman to save her life. Graduation? That had to mean grade school or high school. She remembered the faces at her college commencement. Lisbon hadn't gone to her 8th grade graduation, so this woman had to be from high school.
"It's me! Charlotte! Charlotte Robins!" the woman exclaimed.
All of a sudden thoughts flooded into Lisbon's mind. She remembered. Charlotte Robins had been the only other person from her small private grade school to attend a large public high school. Oh, how she'd hated it. She had wanted to leave everything about grade school behind her; especially 7th and 8th grade. She had so been looking forward to going somewhere where no one knew about her past years. But no, Charlotte had run up to her on the first day of a new school, crying out about how fun it would be.
Lisbon smiled anyway. "Charlotte! How have you been?"
"Oh, I've been just fine! Got married 10 years ago, actually. Remember Mark Baker?"
"Vaguely," Lisbon admitted.
"He caught me." Charlotte smiled. "We've got three kids. They're not here though. Angie is hanging out with her friend all day today and then going to her first sleepover, and Ryan and Andrew are at their auntie's. Anyway, how have you been?" Something along the lines of concern were suddenly on the woman's face. Lisbon hated it.
She was glad her jacket covered her gun and badge. If she had only remembered one thing about Charlotte Robins, it was that she hadn't been approving of Lisbon's desire to be a police officer after the car crash.
Eventually she responded, "I've been pretty good."
"Are you still working all the time? Goodness, I remember how some people thought you could bilocate!"
Lisbon attempted another smile, but it was completely fake. "I work as much as I have to."
"Well what else have you done? I'm sure Teresa Lisbon has been a very busy bee!" The woman smiled and looked extremely interested. It was then that Lisbon remembered Charlotte had loved to gossip. Lisbon hadn't a doubt in her mind that several other high school 'friends' would soon be aware of everything she had done since graduation tonight. Charlotte would make sure of that.
"Uh, I haven't been doing too much of anything. Just working and relaxing when I can." Lisbon hoped that Charlotte wouldn't ask what she was working as now. It would only make it more awkward. The woman would start fussing about how dangerous it was and all those kinds of things.
Just as Charlotte opened her mouth to ask the dreaded question, Jane walked down the aisle. "Jack and Beth aren't back yet?" he asked, putting a few things into Lisbon's basket.
"Juice boxes, Jane? Really?" Lisbon asked.
"Yes, juice boxes. When was the last time you had one?" Jane smiled and turned towards Charlotte. He stuck out his hand. "Patrick Jane."
Charlotte took his hand and caught a glimpse of the golden band on Jane's left hand. "Charlotte Baker," she said slowly.
Jane noticed her looking at his left hand. He put it in his pocket. "I work with Theresa."
"Ohhh," Charlotte said, but still didn't look convinced. She started trying to get a look at Lisbon's left hand, but she kept it in her own jacket pocket, keeping the fabric pulled over the fact that there were signs of her being in law enforcement underneath it.
"Old friends?" Jane asked.
Lisbon looked at him. He knew. Of course he knew. He was Jane, and he was playing stupid. He could probably tell that Charlotte would start screeching that he was psychic if he didn't. "Yes," Lisbon played along, "Charlotte and I went to the same grade school and high school."
Charlotte suddenly blurted a question that had she'd obviously wanted to ask for a while. "How are your brothers? Thomas, James, and Jonathon, right?"
Lisbon's false smile faltered. "They're all fine," she lied.
"Oh, good!"
Lisbon and Jane suddenly turned their heads in the direction of quick, loud foot falls coming towards them. Beth ran down the aisle at Lisbon full force and grabbed her and wouldn't let go for anything. The force of the little girl was such that Lisbon leaned forward quite a bit with an unintentional oof. Jane grabbed the basket full of groceries from Lisbon's hands before it hit Beth in the head.
Lisbon noticed that her clothes started to feel wet where Beth's head was. She somehow managed to get down at eye level with the girl. "Beth, what's wrong?"
Beth's teary eyes were darting around every direction. Her breathing was extremely quick.
"There you are!" said a man's voice down the aisle. Beth squeaked and retreated behind Lisbon.
Jane stepped next to Lisbon. They both looked at the man coming towards them. He wore jeans that were torn at the knees, a shirt that looked like it hadn't been washed in weeks, a ball cap, and beaten down shoes.
"Can I help you, sir?" Lisbon asked, falling into her work persona.
"Yeah, you can. I was just trying to say hello to little Boris, there," the man said, pointing behind Lisbon.
Jane could smell the cigarette smoke and alcohol on the man. And little Boris? This man couldn't care less about Beth. He was after information. This man was a drinking buddy of Jim Boris.
"I don't think she wants to say hello to you," Lisbon replied.
"Sure she does! Don't you remember me?" the man slurred a couple of times. He was drunk right now, that was for sure.
It was obvious that Beth did remember him clearly. She was trying to make herself as small as possible and was holding onto the back of Lisbon's trousers for dear life.
"Sir," Lisbon said, "she doesn't want to talk to you. Please move along."
"I'd like to hear that from her, if you don't mind," the man quipped.
Jane continued playing dumb. "How do you know her?"
"Her dad and I are pretty good friends," the man admitted.
"Mr. Boris is in prison," Jane stated. He watched as the man sighed, releasing more of the alcohol on his breath into the air.
Lisbon was fighting to keep her face emotionless. She knew just as well as Jane what this man was to the Boris family. "Sir, I'm going to ask you again to please move along," Lisbon demanded.
"What are you going to do if I don't, eh?" the man challenged.
Screw the fact that Charlotte was still watching. Lisbon pulled her badge off her belt and held it out for the man to see. "I could arrest you, if you'd like." She heard Charlotte gasp from the side, but didn't care.
The man looked at the badge closely as if he thought it wasn't real.
"Now would you like to move along on your own will or be forced to?" Lisbon maintained a calm voice. It wouldn't be easy to make him move without more of a scene than there currently was. He was twice her size and powered by alcohol.
Thankfully, the man walked off, muttering the entire time. Lisbon turned around and went back down to eye level with Beth. "He's gone."
Beth flung her arms around Lisbon's neck and refused to let go.
Jack came around the corner. He saw Lisbon standing and holding the 8 year old and sighed with relief.
"Teresa! I'm so sorry!" he gasped. He'd obviously been running around trying to find the girl. "We were looking at all the candies. I went to grab one she couldn't reach and when I turned back she was gone!"
"It's alright," Lisbon said, "I'll explain in the car. Do we have everything we need?"
"Yeah," Jack replied, holding up the basket he and Beth had been going around with.
"Fantastic. Let's get moving, then," Lisbon ordered. She turned back to Charlotte. The woman had let her jaw fall and hadn't picked it back up. "I'd shake your hand to say good-bye, but that'd be difficult, currently," Lisbon admitted, looking sideways at Beth, who was still refusing to be put down.
Charlotte shook her head and came back to reality. "You're a cop? Oh, Teresa, why?"
"You know why," Lisbon said indifferently. "Well, it was nice to see you," another lie, "but I've got to go now. Maybe I'll see you around some other time!" Lisbon gave one last fake smile and headed off with Jack and Jane to check out.
"Grade school and high school?" Jane asked while placing things onto the small conveyer belt.
"Unfortunately," Lisbon said heavily, trying to rearrange Beth somehow so that she could breathe better.
"I'll trade you," Jane offered, holding out a gallon of milk.
Lisbon gave a real smile. Beth was willingly given to Jane and the group continued out to the car.
"Good God!" Jack said as he got into the car, "I thought we'd seen the last of that nosy woman when you graduated!"
"I thought so too," Lisbon sighed, holding her head up with one hand and driving with the other. "Charlotte liked to bring us dinners, and then stay with us to eat them," Lisbon explained to Jane, "and that's only part of it. Too nosy for her own good. I'm surprised she even got married."
"She and her husband aren't happy," Jane declared, "She was far too interested in me. If she still cared for her husband as she should, she would have tried to ignore me."
"Now that doesn't surprise me," Lisbon said sourly. She looked in her rearview mirror to check on Beth. She'd fallen asleep. "Oh, good! We aren't going on that picnic until she wakes up on her own."
"Why?" Jack inquired.
"Because she's not going to want to leave the park for anything! I don't want her to be completely exhausted when Miss Amor picks her up!"
"Fine," Jack admitted defeat. "Alright, now who was that guy?"
"Beth's father's drinking buddy," Lisbon said with venom. The car sped up slightly.
Jack gagged. "No wonder she ran."
Jane decided it was best not to ask further.
Jack suddenly gasped. "We don't have a basket!"
Lisbon groaned. Now they had to turn around and go back to get one.
"If you wouldn't mind making a detour, I've got one at my house," Jane offered. Lisbon grudgingly agreed and followed Jane's directions until they pulled up in his driveway.
Yes, part of next chapter takes place in Jane's house. Yay!
Can you all do me a humongous favor? ...Humongous? Humongus? ... whatever.
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