Author's Note: So, this chapter is kind of short. Sorry. But I felt it was best to end it where I did. Either way, there are more chapters to come, so I hope you will read those, too. Here goes this one!
Disclaimer: I don't own the Mentalist.
"Did you like the zebra's, Cho?" Melody asked as they walked down the brick path.
"Sure. They were very cute." Cho replied plainly.
Melody looked at her aunt, who was still wearing the huge sunhat with the flower. "He's lying to me, isn't he, Teresa?"
"I'm sure he's not." Lisbon looked down at Melody who was walking beside her.
Benjamin began to fuss a little bit in his stroller. "Hungwy!"
"How about lunch?" Rigsby piped up happily.
"Always with the food." Cho shook his head while Van Pelt just groaned.
"Well, we don't want hungry, cranky kids." Jane said. "Might as well have some lunch. I could do with some food, myself. It's almost noon. By the time we face the lines it will be noon anyway."
"Lunch it is." Sarah commented and the group looked around for the food court.
"What do you want?" Lisbon asked Melody, lifting the girl up again. "There's hotdogs, hamburgers, pizza, oh and there's subs. Tacos? They have tacos at the zoo? Whatever. Take your pick."
Melody looked at all the stands. Rigsby, Sarah and Benjamin were in line for a burger, Cho had chosen to get a sub and Van Pelt had wanted a hot dog. "Tacos. Last time I had tacos was long ago. Annabeth didn't want to make supper so we went to the taco restaurant. They were yummy tacos."
"I bet they were. Tacos it is. Jane, can you find us all a table?" Lisbon looked at her consultant.
"Don't I get food?"
"Tell me what you want and I'll order it for you." Lisbon rolled her eyes.
"But I want to go with you." Jane pouted.
"You're such a child." Lisbon rolled her eyes, but still smiled. They made their way over to the line and ordered.
The others had gotten their food and managed to find a table for them, so they slipped into their seats.
"So, what are we going to do after lunch?" Van Pelt asked.
"How about the show?" Jane asked.
"What show?" Sarah looked at the consultant, confused.
"The show that has fliers posted at the taco place. Look. There's a poster for it right behind you on that wall."
Everyone turned to see the big mural promoting the zoo's show that was painted on a big wall.
"I'm sure that the only thing worse than the zoo is the zoo show." Cho sighed. "I'll go get a coffee instead."
"Cho. You haven't even seen a zoo show." Van Pelt shook her head. "You're being really pessimistic today."
"I'm sure I'll be fine tomorrow." Cho shrugged.
"Well I think the show sounds fun. Doesn't it, Ben?" Sarah smiled at the one-year-old who giggled.
"I want to go to the show!" Melody cheered.
"Then it's off to the show we go." Jane smiled.
-Mentalist-
The seats were filling quite quickly now. It was a good thing they had gotten here early…a whole half an hour early. Melody and Benjamin had taken the time to nap. As a friendly gesture, Jane had bought Cho a book for the wait, which the agent seemed to be tearing through, despite the fact that he looked incredibly bored. Rigsby and Sarah seemed happily engaged in a conversation and Van Pelt was engrossed with some game on her phone. Lisbon was out getting a snack. She had decided that getting a snack and eating it would pass a bit of time, so Jane was holding onto Melody as she napped. He looked down at her and smiled.
Melody shifted and then slowly opened her eyes, blinking a few times. She tilted her head upward and met his gaze.
"Have a nice nap?" Jane asked.
"Yeah." Melody nodded.
"That's good."
"'Scuse me, guys." Lisbon said as she scooted by the rest of the group to get to her seat. She carried some Skittles and M&M's. "Next time, lets get seats closer to the top, the stairs are really crowded now." Lisbon told Jane as she sat down.
"But these are basically front row seats." Jane defended.
Lisbon grumbled and opened the bag of M&M's. "Hello." Lisbon smiled when she noticed Melody was awake. "Sleep well?"
"Mhm." Melody nodded. "Can I have some?" She cupped her hands together and held them out to Lisbon.
"Sure." Lisbon poured a few of the colourful chocolates into her hands and Melody happily ate them.
After a few minutes the bag was empty and the lights dimmed while a drum roll started.
"Hhhheeeeellllloooooo, ladies and gentleman!" a voice was heard over the speakers as spot lights glided across the stage curtains. "Welcome to the Sacramento zoo show! We ask that you turn off your cell phones, as they are distracting to other audience members. Please sit back, relax and enjoy the show!" The curtains rose to reveal a man in a tan coloured uniform, holding a microphone with a blanketed box next to him.
"How is everyone today?" the man asked.
There was a chorus of positive answers throughout the crowd.
"That's good. I am Dave, I'm the host of this show." He grabbed the blanket on the box next to him. "And this"-he yanked the blanket off- "is Sunny." There was a big, bright yellow snake in the see-through box.
Melody's eyes grew in fascination.
Dave continued on about the snake and got it to do some tricks. Then he brought out a magician to perform some more tricks, both with Sunny and some other animals. Jane refrained from outwardly snickering at the magician so that Melody could enjoy the show. "May I have some volunteers from the audience?" Dave asked towards the end of the show.
A tsunami of "ME!"s erupted from the audience, including Melody.
"MMMMEEEEEE!" Melody flailed around, trying to stand up.
Jane picked Melody up and held her above his head, Lion King style as she continued to yell out and flail her arms.
"You!" Dave pointed at some other people. "And you!" He pointed at someone else.
"MMMEEEEEE!" Melody yelled. "ME! ME! ME! ME!"
"And you!" He finally pointed at Melody.
Melody squealed as Jane put her down. Lisbon was nervous as she got up to go onstage with Melody. She saw Jane whisper something in Melody's ear and could swear she heard the word 'game' which did nothing to calm her nerves. Jane grabbed her hand and pulled her up to the stage, following Melody.
Dave went down the line and got everyone to introduce themselves. "And what's your name?" He asked Melody, then held out the microphone for her to speak into.
"Melody."
"And who do you have with you?"
Melody looked up at Jane and Lisbon, then back at Dave and answered.
"Don't say it. Don't say it." Lisbon mentally begged. "Please don't-"
"My mommy and my daddy."
"Crap! She said it!" Lisbon inwardly groaned. "Why?"
Dave stood over to the side. "Okay. This is how you play. I will say an animal and you all have to pretend to be that animal. After, I will ask the audience who they thought was best. Winners get free tickets to pet the stingrays!"
Melody looked up at her 'parents' excitedly. Lisbon really, really didn't want to do this. However, she couldn't refuse and give up the tickets that Melody clearly wanted to win and was probably going to try and get.
"I'm going to hurt you severely." Lisbon said through a smile of gritted teeth as she leaned into Jane.
"Come now, honey." Jane smiled teasingly and placed an arm on her shoulders. "There's no need to be angry. We're here to have fun, remember?"
Lisbon opened her mouth to retort but was interrupted.
"Lion!" Dave called through the microphone.
Immediately, the competitors on stage burst into their best lion impressions. Melody made her hands look like claws and scratched the air, roaring and running around in little circles. Jane's impression was kind of similar. Lisbon had a decision to make. She could look stupid and win, or look like a spoilsport and/or stupid and lose. The choice was clear. She also did her very best (and obviously ridiculous looking) lion impression.
After a few minutes Dave stopped them and the audience voted in cheers. A few people were eliminated and then the remaining people were given another animal.
"Chicken!"
"Really!?" Lisbon's mind screamed. "Chicken!?" This was in front of her entire team! And…how many other people were in the audience? Oh, god! Nevertheless, she did her best imitation. At least Melody and Jane seemed to be having fun up here. She knew that she wasn't.
This continued until there were only two remaining families. Lisbon, Melody and Jane versus a boy about two or three years older than Melody and his parents.
"Ready for the last animal?" Dave asked.
"Yeah!" Melody and the boy answered at the same time.
"Alright." Dave said, pausing for effect. "The final animal is…an octopus!"
They all began their octopus impressions. Melody waved her arms around and wiggled as she walked. From the looks of it, the boy on the other team was very competitive and tried to outdo Melody's impression. Melody in turn tried to up his upping of her own impression. After a few minutes, Jane realised that the crowd was very undecided about who should win. They weren't as vocal as before. That could potentially be really bad.
"Lisbon." he whispered to her while still impersonating an octopus.
"What?"
"Do you trust me?"
Lisbon sent him a skeptical look. "I'm not sure."
"Do you want to win?"
"Yes. Obviously. You think I would have done any of this if I didn't?" Lisbon hissed.
"Fair enough. I know we can win, but you have to trust me."
"Fine." Lisbon grumbled, not sure she was going to like his idea. "But no dirty play."
"Of course not." Jane scoffed. "Okay. Here we go."
"Go?" Lisbon asked, but her question of what Jane was planning was soon answered.
Jane grabbed her hand and spun her, then pulled her against him and pressed his lips to hers.
Lisbon was frozen in shock. She tried to force her mind into doing something, but couldn't manage to make it work. It was like a computer stuck at buffering.
The crowd burst into loud cheers, applause and woof-woof whistles.
"Well, I think we have our winners." Dave said, laughing.
With that, Jane let Lisbon go and she hoped that she could blame her dark blush on the heat of the lights, or that the lights drowned it out. She caught sight of Melody who was just starting at them confused, shocked and maybe a little horrified. Her eyes were wide and her jaw had dropped.
The entire crowd continued to cheer for Lisbon and Jane. Lisbon pulled Melody over and picked her up, the look of surprise and confusion never left the girl's face. Jane grabbed the free tickets from Dave and then headed back to their seats.
"Well, that's all for the show today!" Dave announced. "Come back again soon! We look forward to your next visit. And have a great day at the Sacramento zoo!"
Lisbon was too horrified to want to come back again soon. Her face was still beat red, she could feel it and she tried to force it away to little avail. This was a bad idea. A very bad idea. Not the zoo in general, but the show. No. Not even seeing the show. Going up on stage with Jane. Maybe if it hadn't been up on stage, in front of her team-plus Sarah!- and god only knows how many other people, she wouldn't have been so embarrassed. Maybe it wouldn't have seemed like such a big. But it was on stage. And it was in front of her team and a bunch of other people. And it was also in front of Melody! If the Earth could just open up and swallow her whole now, she would greatly appreciate it. However, the earth didn't seem to have an appetite for Teresa Lisbon and as a result she was going to have to answer all of Melody's questions and face her friend's teasing.
Author's Note: Bam! Sorry, it's a little cliffy, I know. I didn't want some kind of boring ending. I figured that I would make a twitter (ColourfulGliter) since it might make it easier for some people to know when stories have been updated. I hope to have the next chapter up soon, and that you all enjoyed this chapter. Let me know what you think! :)
Also, thank you to those who read my other Mentalist fanfic "Here I Am". I might add to it, but I'm not sure yet.