Thank you for all of the reviews I'm pretty proud of this chapter and I hope you enjoy it, I love to hear what you have to say. As usual I own nothing.
"What the hell?" I frowned walking into my kitchen.
"To what are you referring?" Jane glanced over his shoulder.
"What are you wearing?" I questioned, I had never seen him in anything but his suits, okay and recently pajama pants, and the clothes he wore running, but this was different this was... not his suits.
"I believe there called jeans." He chuckled, "Here try this." He handed me a pancake after I poured my cup of coffee.
"Why are you… what happened to your suits?" I don't know why this was such a big deal I mean he was still wearing a vest over a button up shirt, but it wasn't a suit, and he was in jeans. "And what's in this?" I took a bite of the pancake in my hand, and it was really good.
"The pancake it peanut butter and chocolate chips." He smiled, "And the suits are waiting to go to the dry cleaner."
"When did you get jeans?" I wasn't going to let this go, why had I never seen him in jeans before.
"I picked up some more clothes from my motel room yesterday before I came back here." He shrugged, "I'm happy you like the pancakes."
"There great, but what's wrong with making normal pancakes?" I asked, knowing all the while Jane wouldn't do anything that was considered normal, maybe that's why the jeans were almost as big a shock as the fact that he went running.
"There's nothing wrong with it, I just wanted to try these." He grinned, "I wanted to try something with some fruit in it, but we didn't get any at the store."
"We can remember that for next time." I rolled my eyes, I was going to be proactive in this breakfast making process, or maybe I just liked being close to Jane these days. "What can I do to help?"
"You can start on the eggs, if you want, I'm almost done with the pancakes, and the bacon is sitting in your oven on low until the kids wake up." He smiled, moving over to share the stove, my kitchen had never gotten this much use before.
"You're trusting me with the eggs?" I teased, looking for another frying pan.
"It's a huge responsibility you better not mess up." He chuckled, grabbing a fry pan from one of the top shelves, why would I put them up there I can barely reach. Oh yeah because I had never really used them before. And how did he know where everything was in my kitchen?
"Or what you'll buy me another house?" I retorted.
"A vacation home in Europe sounds nice, I think the kids would love it." He answered.
"I'm still mad at you." I warned, grabbing the eggs out of the fridge, "I told you I didn't need your money."
"It was your money, we made a deal." He argued, flipping a pancake.
"Yeah how'd it feel to be conning someone into taking your money instead of the other way around?" I hadn't planned on this being an argument, but I really didn't like that he felt he needed to support me.
"You invested your money and it paid off." He returned, "That's all it was a good investment. Which reminds me, this is yours." He pulled some cash out of his vest pocket.
"What is this?" I frowned.
"I told you the house cost almost seventy-five percent." He shrugged going back to the pancakes.
"Jane this is a thousand dollars." I counted.
"Yeah, I'm sorry I wanted it to be more but I took more time with the realtor than expected Saturday morning." He frowned.
"No I can't take it." I tried handing it back to him.
"You made a good investment, that's all it is." He answered, flipping another pancake.
"Cool." Emily came in just in time to save Jane from anymore of my arguing, "Every time daddy tried he would make a mess and mommy would yell at him."
"Come here, I'll show you how it's done." Jane smiled lifting the girl on to the counter next to the stove.
"Jane be careful." I warned.
"Everything is going to be fine." He smiled giving Emily the spatula and then holding her hand in his directing her movements. "So is your sister up yet?" He questioned helping her flip a pancake while I made some scrambled eggs.
"No." Emily smiled cheering as she caught her pancake on the spatula with Jane's help.
"Well go wake up your siblings, breakfast is ready." He lifted her off the counter and watched her run off. "Did you think about what rooms you wanted to paint or what colors you wanted them to be?"
"Not really, light colors I think," I helped him serve up the plates. "I know I want wood floors in the kitchen and dining room."
"Of course." Jane nodded, "I'd be careful with light colors especially white, you have four kids that are going to make messes."
"I know, no white." I agreed, "But other than that I don't know what I'm doing."
"Because the only thing I'm good for is my cooking." He smiled.
"And getting into trouble." I added, as the three older kids came in still in their pajamas.
"Go ahead and get started I'm going to go get Cass up." He announced, placing the last plate on the table. I just nodded and helped the girls cut their pancakes.
"Try them without syrup first, Patrick made them special." I stopped Alyssa from drowning everything on her plate.
"Why does Patrick make everything special?" Alyssa questioned putting down the syrup container.
"Because Patrick is kind of eccentric." I sighed.
"What's eccentric?" William asked taking a bite of his pancakes.
"Eccentric means…" How was I going to describe this?
"It means weird or unusual." Jane smirked standing in the doorway with the baby in his hands. "Odd or peculiar." Jane continued putting a bottle together for Cassandra. "Crazy, abnormal."
"I think they get it." I interrupted.
"We don't think your crazy." Emily reassured, "And the pancakes tasty really good."
"I'm happy to hear it." Jane chuckled, "I thought you might like them."
"Why does Teresa think your crazy?" Alyssa frowned.
"Probably because she doesn't like me very much." He teased, taking a seat across from me.
"That's not what she said the other night." Alyssa grinned, oh God, I could feel my face turning red.
"And what did she say the other night?" Jane smirked.
"She didn't say anything remember." Emily cut in.
"Oh I see." Jane smiled, "the ladies made a promise." He chuckled, "I do love secrets."
"Nothing was said Jane." I attempted, but he just smiled oh God he knew. Of course he didn't know he was just trying to get me to reveal something, I had to keep a strait face.
After barely surviving breakfast we got ready for the day and with in an hour we were back at the house to get a basic idea of what I wanted the house to look like.
"Can my room be pink?" Alyssa asked running up and down the stairs.
"No." William frowned stumbling up the stairs after his sister, only to have Jane carry him back down.
"No pink." Emily nodded, "It's our room to."
"And what color do you want the room to be?" Alyssa turned to her sister.
"Not pink." Emily repeated.
"We can figure something out at the hardware store." I reassured, walking through the entire house. It was so weird and kind of pleasant to be choosing paint colors with Jane, it was easier to think the house was mine if I thought of it like Jane had said, I invested my money and it worked out. "When do we start painting?" I asked leading the way to the car.
"As long as we have the colors, whenever you want." Jane shrugged loading the paint cans into the back.
"Tomorrow?" I wondered buckling in the girls.
"Tomorrow?" He repeated, "In a hurry?"
"I want to get as much work done as possible before we have to go back to work," I explained, "I don't want to have to deal with a house after dealing with cases all day."
"Tomorrow it is." He nodded.
"Do we get to help?" Alyssa questioned.
"I don't see a problem with that." Jane stated.
"We get to help paint!" Emily cheered.
"If that's okay with Teresa of course." Jane smiled, "She gets the final vote."
"You can help for a little while but I don't want you in the room with the paint fumes for to long." I sighed, but I was having second thought about painting the house in general should I just hire someone else to do it is that possible, who would watch the kids while we painted they couldn't be in the room the whole time. "Besides do you guys have any clothes that you can get dirty?"
"I think we can figure something out." Jane laughed.
"It's not a joke, I don't want them to get their nice clothes dirty, and you know what those fumes can do to people." I frowned.
"I know, I didn't mean to laugh, you were just thinking so hard about all this, everything is going to work out in the end." He apologized.
"So you don't think we should hire someone else to do it?" I glanced over at him as we pulled back into the apartment parking lot.
"Who said anything about hiring someone?" he turned to look at me, I think I had actually started to believe he was a mind reader. "But no, why waste the money when we can paint it ourselves it'll be fun."
"Really you're going to worry about wasting money?" I rolled my eyes, helping the kids out of the car. "Mr. I'll buy you whatever you need."
"I will suggest hiring someone to do the flooring though." He chuckled, "If we're painting tomorrow I'm just going to keep the paint and brushes in the car okay."
"Yea that's fine, and did you bring all the moving boxes in from your car?" I wondered holding Cass in one arm and unlocking the door with my free hand.
"Yeah I set them against the empty wall in the living room." He answered, "I think it should be enough." What was going on? I was moving into a house, I had four kids, and Jane was helping. It wasn't quite what I had pictured growing up, definitely not how I wanted it to happen but it had and I was adjusting. "Any suggestions for dinner?" He questioned
"You're the one cooking." I answered, "You're the one who did the grocery shopping."
"You were the one editing my shopping list." He reminded.
"You didn't have a list." I tried to argue, bringing Cass to the changing table, while the kids ran to their room for toys.
"It was all up here Lisbon." He pointed to his forehead, of course it was.
"Make whatever you want, and then if you need to go to the store tomorrow we can run by after painting." I sighed.
"Something simple it is." He nodded.
"Nothing is simple with you." I complained, as he wandered into the kitchen.
"Expect dinner in a half hour." He called over his shoulder, and I smiled if only this were permanent, what would happen if he stayed and made dinner every night and then we could curl up on the couch once the kids were a sleep. Then who knows what would happen once we went to bed. I wonder what sex with Jane would be like. No I was not allowed to think about that, it was probably best if I think of Jane as a married man, it had worked in the beginning. The conversation with the girls had made me rethink this though.
I carried Cass into the bedroom where the girls were sitting on the bed playing with some plastic dolls, while Liam sat on the floor with his Legos. "Come on you three Patrick says dinner will be ready soon, lets put the toys away and wash our hands."
"Do we have to pick up our toys?" Emily whined, turning to face me.
"Well how are you going to go to bed if your dolls are already in it?" I questioned.
"We want to play with them after dinner." Alyssa frowned.
"You go to bed after dinner." I reminded.
"Can we play for a little bit after dinner?" Emily tried.
"A movie." William suggested throwing his Legos into their box.
"Yeah a movie." Alyssa jumped off the bed.
"I suppose, but only after your baths, and you have to clean up your toys right now." I gave in, they were all going to gang up on me and it's not like I was totally opposed to letting them stay up this one night to watch a movie.
"We get to watch a movie!" The three of them ran screaming for the kitchen after the toys were put away.
"Uh oh did you talk Teresa into letting you stay up late?" Jane laughed turning the stove off and placing the plates in front of us.
"Yep." Alyssa turned and grinned at me over her shoulder.
"Maybe I should take tips from you then, she never likes my ideas." He smiled.
"Is this grilled cheese?" I asked placing Cass in her high chair.
"I told you something simple." He answered, "but you didn't believe me." He was right I didn't believe him, but this really was simple.
"And I say no to your ideas, because they are dangerous and insane." I declared before taking a bite. "Jane what is in here?"
"Wait until they take a bite." Jane shushed me, and so we waited and there was no complaint about the taste.
"What is it?" I repeated.
"Broccoli." He announced taking a bite of his own sandwich.
"Really?" I frowned, I had never thought to put broccoli in a grilled cheese.
"Yeah, when Charlie was little we had a hard time getting her to eat her vegetables, so we added broccoli to grilled cheese and peas to macaroni." He explained, "and it worked, so much so that when we went out to eat, she thought it was wrong when the restaurant didn't give her the vegetables." It was nice that Jane was starting to get more comfortable sharing stories about his family, it was nice that he knew he could share with me.
"Wait there's broccoli in here?" Emily frowned.
"I don't like broccoli." William added, it was adorable he sounded like the kid in the commercial.
"You liked it a minute ago when you didn't know it was there." Jane chuckled.
"But broccoli is yucky." William insisted.
"I see, well if you can pick it out of the grilled cheese you don't have to eat it." Jane challenged, he had Alyssa and William flipping their sandwich in every direction trying to figure out how to get them out. All the while Emily sat there laughing at them.
"It can't be done." Emily laughed taking a bite of her own sandwich, "And you can't even taste it."
"Can to." Alyssa pouted, refusing to give up, while William resided to eating his grilled cheese with broccoli.
"Alyssa stop and eat the sandwich before you make a mess." I sighed, leave it to Jane to encourage them to make a mess with their food.
"I can do it." She argued.
"You keep this up you're going to bed while we watch a movie." I warned.
"That's not fair he said I could do it." Alyssa whined.
"No, he gave you a challenge so in the end you have to eat your sandwich." I stated, "So eat the sandwich."
"Fine." And Alyssa pouted the whole way through dinner.
"Way to go Jane." I hissed after the kids had run off to get ready for their baths.
"I apologize." He chuckled, "It's been awhile."
"It's not that, it's that somehow you always make me look like the bad guy." I sighed.
"Teresa," He turned from putting the dishes in the dishwasher, "What are you talking about?"
"We had the kids for a little over a week now, and we've been home for what four of those days, and you've offered to buy them toys and clothes and I have to be the one to say no, and at dinner tonight." I really didn't know what I was saying, or why I was suddenly mad at him, he really hadn't done anything well anything today.
"Come here." He gave me a small smile, "I've been waiting for this."
"What are you talking about?" I snapped, as he moved me closer to him.
"Keep yelling at me, I'm not going to fight." Was his only answer, I really didn't want to yell at him, but I was suddenly mad.
"You get to be the fun uncle or whatever, and I have to be the mean mommy." I spat out, "I don't want that."
"Actually I don't either, uncle would imply I was your brother and that would make things very awkward." He chuckled, but I didn't really pay attention.
"Why did they leave me these kids, I don't know what I'm doing, and it's not like my job is ideal for raising kids either, we get shot at, at least once a week, then what would happen to the kids. They knew that I lived alone to how am I supposed to raise four kids on my own. They are going to end up hating me." Suddenly it didn't have anything to do with Jane, and I knew what he meant when he said he had been waiting for this. He knew because he always knows, he knew I would need a time to vent.
"Are you okay?" He asked after a minute of silence, and I took the opportunity to just fall into his arms.
"No." I cried into his vest, his vests were really taking a beating this week.
"Yes you are." He started rubbing small soothing circles on my back, "You need to stop bottling things up, and you are not alone by any means."
"Look who's telling me not to bottle things up." I gave a sad laugh, and he smiled.
"Well I'll try to be more open if you try as well." He offered, and I just nodded. "Good let's start with that conversation about me that Alyssa brought up this morning." He teased.
"I said you're a pain in the ass." I stepped backwards away from his embrace.
"Really, I had hoped you'd refrain from cursing in front of the kids." He smirked.
"Thank you Jane." I smiled, and he pulled me back against him.
"You are not alone, and there is no way on earth that those kids could ever hate you." He looked down at me, his eyes were so blue I didn't think I could look away. His hand brushed some hair away from my face, as he leaned down and kissed my forehead, maybe it hadn't been a dream the other day I grinned. He leaned down further and I rose on tiptoes to meet him his kisses were gentle at first he was waiting for me to pull away, and part of me was saying this was inappropriate we were co-workers, but the longer I stood their the harder it was to say no. Soon I felt his tongue against my lower lip and opened to let him.
Then Cass in her high chair started crying, that had to be a sign of how stupid I was being. I pulled away, and he did the same. "The kids are waiting for their baths." I whispered, my voice was so shaky I shouldn't have let this happen.
"I'll take care of Cass." Jane nodded, "She hasn't had her bottle yet." How was he so calm right now, damn biofeedback crap.
"Right, so movie in the living room." I reminded, not waiting for a response, like he would have forgot, but I would have felt kind of weird just walking out.
"What took you so long?" Alyssa frowned, sitting on her bed wrapped in a towel.
"Are you okay? You look nervous." Emily added.
"I'm fine, Patrick was helping me with something I was worried about." I shrugged it off, "Who's first?"
"Can we take our bath together?" Alyssa questioned.
"That way we can watch the movie sooner." Emily agreed.
"I can't fit all three of you in my bath tub." I worried, when were kids to old to take a bath together, would it be bad for William to take a bath with his sisters, I mean they helped me dress him the other day.
"Alyssa and I can take a bath in here, and you can give Liam a bath in your bathroom." Emily offered, leaving the two of them alone in the bathtub did not sound like a solution to my problem at all.
"We'll be safe we promise." Alyssa nodded, what was I going to do?
"Here's the deal, I'm going to get your bath ready sit here with you and supervise the soap and shampoo once that's done, I'll go get Liam started and send Patrick in after a little bit to help you drain the tub." I offered, what that would be five –six minutes by themselves with the two of them in the tub, I could hear them the whole time if they kept the door open.
"Fine but, we can do it ourselves." Emily pouted.
"I'm not taking any chances." I answered leading them to the bathroom. "And this only happens on special occasions." It worked, I breathed as the three older kids curled up in between Jane and I forty-five minutes later. The kids chose from their limited collection of Disney movies and decided on Lady and the Tramp, this was a movie I watched growing up, I guess it was true Disney movies never go out of style.