Please note that I'm back at university! Wahoo! That is, by the way, reason number two as to why this chapter has taken forever to be uploaded. Reason number one is connected to university... :p

Thank you, everyone, for reading, reviewing, subscribing, and favouriting. : )

Disclaimer: I do not own The Mentalist.

Guest - Thank you so much!

Cat1030 - Thank you! Sadly I was unable to update so soon. :|

Dodge 1989 - Thank you! :)

Guest (2) - Thank you so much!

Chapter Twenty

January 5, 2008

Lisbon nursed her freshly brewed coffee as she leaned her hip against the table, her mind nowhere near the confines of her apartment. Instead, her thoughts kept on drifting to Patrick Jane, the man that had abruptly disappeared from her life four and a half years ago and spontaneously returned. Though this had eased some of the worry she had felt for the bastard, it did make everything much more stressful. For one, he had to be good at whatever it is that he does or else she wouldn't be considering taking him on as her…consultant.

Minelli would think that she'd gone crazy.

"Mommy, look! I made a kitten!"

Being jarred from her thoughts at the sound of her daughter's voice, Lisbon placed her coffee cup down on the kitchen table and moved over to Rosie. The little girl had taken to moving around her soggy, yet still warm, bits of pancake around her plate to create various shapes. It appeared that Rosie had, to some extent, successfully managed to create an image of the feline persuasion.

Smoothing her daughter's messy hair down, Lisbon smiled. "I see that, sweetie."

Her little girl beamed at the term of endearment and then glanced back down at her plate. "I'm done!"

Smiling, and knowing that her daughter never ate something animal shaped because it would 'hurt the thing's feelings', Lisbon knew not to pressure her daughter into finishing the pancake. Instead, she scooped up the plate and dismissed her daughter to go play after she had wiped her sticky hands off on the damp towel.

After cleaning up the dishes, Lisbon's mind drifted back to her possible consultant. Taking Jane on as a consultant would not only reopen several old wounds, but it would leave her vulnerable for new ones. He knew too much about her from years ago and he would instantly know that something was different. Well, that much was obvious. A lot changed in a span of nearly five years, but he would sense that something much larger had happened to her since his untimely departure.

Setting the kitchen rag down by the sink, Lisbon leaned against the counter. Biting her lip and chewing the flesh between her teeth, Lisbon knew deep in her heart that she had to tell Jane about Rosie if she were to work with him. The secret would eat away at her like a festering wound and no doubt when he would eventually figure it out, everything would be so much worse for her than if she had merely told him the truth.

It wasn't as if she set out trying to hide Rosie from him, anyway. He'd disappeared without a trace. On the contrary, she would love it if Rosie were able to know her father…and be able to spend adequate time with him.

With a sigh, Lisbon moved out of her kitchen in search of her cell phone. Step one of telling Jane that he'd fathered a child, and offering him position on her team, would be to call him. Taking his phone number from his file (she'd picked it up Friday afternoon before coming home, just in case she would call him), Lisbon flipped her phone open and began to shakily dial.

She waited for a period of time, sitting down on her couch and staring at the number, before she flipped her phone shut and leaned back against the cushions. Lisbon counted to twenty, took a deep breath, and opened her phone. She took one last glance at the number on the screen and pressed the little green button with her thumb.

With one last deep breath, she held the phone up to her ear and waited for Jane to answer. After three rings, he did just that. As soon as he answered, her eyes were fixed to a sticky-note with a children's drawing on the other side of the room.

"Hello?"

"Jane," she said the first thing that had come to her mind (his name, of course), and instantly cursed herself for how she sounded like a dewy-eyed schoolgirl.

"Ah, Teresa, it is good to hear your voice. How are you on this fine morning?"

Lisbon diverted her eyes from their fixed position and sat up straighter. "Jane, I need to talk to you."

Good job, Teresa, she thought, you sounded confident.

"Oh? Whatever for?"

"Just…." Her eyes moved back to the children's drawing. "…Asking about something case-related."

There was a brief moment where neither spoke, that is until she heard the man move around wherever he was on the other line. "No, you want to talk to me about coming to work with you."

"No…."

"How did you get my number?"

Lisbon rolled her eyes, all concerns about asking him to be her consultant flying through the window as she grew annoyed with the man. "Minelli gave it to me."

"Liar."

"I'm not lying to you."

"Bad liar."

Rolling her eyes once more, Lisbon deducted that she felt that they were bantering like in the old days. Well…days when he was still married.

Jane chuckled and sighed. "You tell me the time and place, my dear."

Scanning her thoughts for possible meeting places, preferably away from the usual spots that Missus Norris takes Rosie, Lisbon's mind came to one place around downtown Sacramento. "Meet me at the Park Plaza at three?"

There was a beat before Jane said anything else. "As you wish," he said.

Tugging the warm jacket closer to his body, Jane shifted in his seat. He had yet to decipher why Lisbon would like to meet him outdoors in January rather than inside a nice, cozy teashop. A coffee shop would have worked as well, he could get a water. They never could brew tea correctly.

It was also overcast. The clouds overhead had a nasty grey look about them, indicating that rain was very possible.

Despite the notion that he was eagerly awaiting Lisbon's company, he would hope that their meeting at Park Plaza would be chaste and that they would move into the shop a couple of blocks away. The one with a really good central heating system.

When he hears the crunching of death leaves below her feet, he turns to her. Before him she stood, hands in her pockets and her chin tucked into her jacket just a little bit. She appears to be regretting her decision to meet outside on a day like this, he mused.

"Hello, Teresa," he smiled. "What do I owe this visit to?"

She diverted her eyes. "You already know," she growled.

Jane caught her eyes with his and rubbed his hands together in a futile effort to warm them. "I know Virgil would not like it if you were to take me on as your consultant." She raised her chin. "He doesn't support the idea of you and I working alongside one another. Why? I have yet to work that out."

Under his gaze, Lisbon shifted in her footing. She played with her fingers and looked away once more. She was hiding something…interesting.

"I'm looking to improve the closed-case numbers," she began, her eyes apparently finding a bit of dirt on her shoes more interesting than the conversation.

Despite that he was sure that she did indeed want to improve the number of cases closed, Jane couldn't help but notice that there must be another reason why she wanted to have this conversation. It was made even more obvious by her desire to have the aforementioned conversation in a public place. Public, but open enough for people not to listen in on the conversation. There was something else, something personal.

"I-I had a baby, Jane," she said, her voice uneven.

The mention of her progeny caused Jane to pause, but his gaze avoided hers. "A daughter," she added.

Overhead, a bolt of lightning cracked and lit the sky.

He felt hurt, upset, and conflicted. Lisbon shivered and slowly wrapped her jacket tighter around her body. "I would have told you, b-but I didn't know where you were." Jane looked down at the ground when she said this. "You were gone before I even knew that I was pregnant."

Most of all, he felt like a failure. Because he knew that the child was his.

Looking back at her, Jane's gaze drifted from her face, down to her belly. Lisbon felt self-conscious, knowing that he was examining her midsection for any sign that she had been with child.

God, she didn't like this. She didn't like this at all. And rain just started to fall from the sky to boot.

"What's her name?" he asked, obviously swallowing out of nervousness.

"Elizabeth Rose Lisbon, but everyone calls her Rosie." Lisbon fiddled with an imaginary piece of dirt under her fingernail. "Uh, she was born January the ninth."

She watched Jane nod and reach up to tap his lower lip. "Was she born early?"

Out of all of the questions to ask, Jane had to ask whether or not she was born on the correct date. She had assumed that he would ask 'what's her favourite colour' or 'what does she like to eat,' but nevertheless the man managed to surprise her.

"Yeah, she was due in February, but she obviously had other plans," she chuckled nervously and rolled back and forth on her heels. Her hands had taken residence in her pockets.

Lisbon looked back at him and noticed the pain evident on his face. For one, he was looking downward. Second, his eyebrows were drawn together. Third, his lips were parted. This was classic Jane when he was upset.

She stepped closer and moved one of her hands out of the pockets. Carefully, she rested it on his forearm and gave him a slight squeeze. She didn't like getting this close to him, or much of anyone for that matter, but she felt that it was necessary.

This was only a one-time thing, of course.

"How about a cup of tea?" He looked up at her, a slight smile slowly spreading across his features.

By five o'clock in the afternoon, rain was falling from the sky in near-torrential amounts. It was too warm outside for snow, but cold enough for a person to feel chilled to the bone.

Lisbon had called Minelli right after her conversation with Jane and asked for him to meet her at the CBI. She didn't tell him exactly why she wanted to meet with him, but nevertheless her superior arrived on time and stood in the center of his office when she walked in.

"I want to take Jane on as my consultant," she said firmly, her eyes staring straight into Minelli's as she came further into the room.

The older man stood rigid, not liking the scenario that she just set up. Sighing, the older man looked up and stared. "What did you just say?" he asked, not sure what to think of her previous statement.

Shifting her footing and briefly looking down at her shoes, Lisbon looked up and at Minelli once more. "I want Jane on my team, sir. I believe that he will be a valuable member on my team."

Nodding, Minelli turned his back to her. "I thought that's what you said."

His voice sounded almost sad, but also as if he knew that she was going to tell him this. Cocking her head to the side, Lisbon spoke, "Sir?"

Minelli turned back to face her. "When Jane first came to me, I knew that he wanted the Red John case. I could see it in his eyes."

She nodded, knowing that he did indeed want it. To the extent of what he would do with the information, she didn't know. But she had her suspicions that revenge was on his mind.

"I also thought that it wouldn't be in your best interests to interact with Jane," he continued.

"Sir?" she asked again. "My best interests?"

"Teresa." She stiffened at the sound of her given name. "I know that when he was a consultant, the last time, and you were on Martin's team that there was something going on between the two of you."

Lisbon suddenly felt like the teenager that had made her father disappointed. "His leaving hurt you, everyone could see that. Then several weeks later you came to my office to inform me of your pregnancy."

"And you think Rosie is Jane's?" she asked carefully.

With a knowing look, it confirmed her suspicions. It occurred to her that Minelli knew that Jane had fathered Rosie. Obviously, she'd never explicitly stated that they had been romantically involved. Well, not sense their 'little' argument in the middle of the CBI years ago.

"Does anyone else know about this?" Her question was phrased and asked in the exact same manner as the one she had stated earlier.

Minelli nodded. "Cho knows."

"Cho?" Her eyebrows rose up.

The older man nodded again. "Yes, Agent, Cho knows."

Feeling the heat rise in her cheeks knowing that her second-in-command recognised that she and Jane had been sexually active, she deflected her eyes. She remembered Cho watching them, but she found it overall very vague. Though, he did work at the CBI at the time that she and Jane had that 'little' spat around the kitchenette.

Minelli sighed. "If you really want him on your team, I won't stop you."

She looked up. "Oh, I don't want him on my team." Minelli gave her an odd look. "I just…want to improve the closed case numbers."

"So you say," Minelli mumbled.

Lisbon glanced down again. "Teresa, whenever there's a Red John case, please take him off of it. I don't need a loose cannon running around the state of California on a personal quest for revenge."

"Understood, sir."

Minelli gave Lisbon one last sigh before he moved to sit down behind his desk. No doubt the paperwork would have to be drawn up and then promptly delivered to Jane. The idea of working with the man again had her heart beating a rapid thumping inside her chest.

"Does he know?" Minelli asked, his hand hovering over a drawer where he held the paperwork for consultations.

Lisbon shoved her hands back in her pants pockets. "Yeah, he knows."

Pulling into the instructed parking lot, Jane quickly moved his vintage Citroën into a free space. He glanced out the window, past the droplets that had formed due to the seemingly endless rain, and up to the apartment across the lot. The lights were alight on the lower floor, indicating that the inhabitants were there or possibly asleep on the second.

It'd been a long day, he mused. After spending a few weeks on speculating how Lisbon's life had changed in the last four and a half years he was gone, he finally got his answer. She had hah a child. And not just any child, but his.

An influx of both guilt and love came to the forefront of his mind. Unconditionally, without meeting Rosie, he found himself loving her. But the sense of guilt, that he is betraying his family further than he already had in the sense that he loved his 'new' daughter. Well, that was only some of the guilt. Another large portion was due to the fact that he'd been of both Rosie and Lisbon's lives for nearly five years.

Killing the engine with a swift movement of his wrist, Jane pocketed his keys and pushed the car door open. As soon as he stepped out of the car, he was quickly moving to the front door where he quickly rapped his knuckles against the fine wood.

There was a brief pause followed by the sound of someone moving closer to the door and then bracing themself against it to check through the peephole. The weight was lifted from the door and Jane heard the wondrous sound of the lock unclicking and the door opening.

Lisbon stood before him; she wore a navy sweatshirt and black sweatpants. Her hair was down, framing her face in a way that he decided that he rather liked. Slightly messy and bringing a shadow to enhance the contours of her cheek, a beautiful sight.

"Jane."

He nodded and huddled closer towards the interior of the room, which he gathered to be the kitchen area. "May I come in?"

She seemed to mull this over for a few seconds before she crossed her arms over her chest and stepped to the side. Giving her a smile, Jane stepped out of the rain and into the warmth of Teresa Lisbon's home.

It looked freshly moved in, with boxes still in the kitchen and living room. Numerous drawings were held onto the refrigerator by a magnet, mostly of ones illustrating beach days and 'my family' portraits.

He peeked around to look into the living room, where he saw the television on mute and a little girl kneeling on the carpet. Her hair was a shade of dark blonde and had curls with a natural bounce to him. Similar to Charlotte. Her face was shaped like his and her nose like Lisbon's. Her eyes, though, were blue in colour, but he was sure that they would turn into a shade of green. He hoped they would look more like Lisbon's.

She was in the middle of playing with a large doll made of fabric. The little girl was pretending that the doll was walking across the floor and saying some type of gibberish he couldn't understand from the kitchen.

Hearing the sound of a cupboard opening and closing, Jane lost his focus on the little girl and turned back to Lisbon. Without even having to ask, Lisbon already started to pick up a teapot and put water in it from the sink. She then followed to put it on the stove and turn on the heat. It was touching that she thought about doing such without asking him.

"Minelli called me. He has some paperwork for me to sign."

Lisbon nodded and turned around to lean against the counter. "Yeah, I talked to him."

Cocking his head to the side, as if to study her, Jane learned that Lisbon had a bit of a surprise today. Well, other than his sudden appearance on her doorstep.

"What did the two of you talk about?"

She narrowed her eyes. "You."

Well, that seemed the most that he was going to get out of her that way.

The kettle began to boil and Lisbon turned to tend to it. "Remember to put the milk in first, please," he told her.

Lisbon shot a glare over her shoulder before walking over to the refrigerator and pulling out the milk. Jane watched as she put a little too much in; a smile grew on his face.

Pausing, Lisbon turned to look at him. "What?" she demanded.

Moving his shoulders up and down, Jane gestured to the little cup. "There's a bit too much milk in that."

The look on Lisbon's face was almost murderous. It was as if to say that she was only making him a cup of tea, and obliging to his preference of milk in first, out of the goodness of her heart. Apparently, he was taking advantage of that goodness.

Without another word, Lisbon reached for the kettle, flipped the top open, and poured the hot water over the milk. Steam rose up and coiled neatly. She then put the teabag in and placed the tea in front of him.

He was about to ask about the sugar when she tossed a few little packets onto the table before him. Not making any comments, Jane tore open two of the sugar packets and dumped them into his tea before completing the preparation.

Lifting up the cup to blow on it, he diverted his eyes over to where Rosie had been playing. She was gone, most likely shy because of this strange man in her home. Especially one that was extremely…wet. Something tells him that she got that little tidbit of behaviour from her mother.

Lisbon sat across from him, her arms crossed over her chest. "Why are you here, Jane?"

He took a sip. It tasted…passable.

"I wanted to thank you." She narrowed her eyes. "For taking me on as your consultant."

Placing the cup back down on the table, he fiddled with the handle. Lisbon took a deep breath and was about to say something, but a question he wanted answered sprung to mind. "What's Rosie's favourite colour?"

Immediately closing her mouth, Lisbon shifted in her seat. "She doesn't have one."

"Favourite breakfast food?"

"She really likes blueberry pancakes."

"Lunch?"

"Jane."

Pushing the tea aside, Jane leaned against the table on his forearms. "You're conflicted," he told her. "You're not sure if you want me in her life or not."

She stayed silent for several moments, her eyes locked on her hands and then at his. He still wore his wedding ring, something that probably upset her. It made him feel uncomfortable now, too. The ring almost felt as if it were burning him.

"I'm not sure if I want you in my life, either," she said, "but the CBI needs you."

Her words hurt him, but he already knew that she would have a reaction akin to wanting him away from her. He did leave her without any warning while she was pregnant with his daughter. That still did not mean that they didn't hurt.

"There's something else," he said.

Jane watched as Lisbon's eyes danced around the room. She was trying to avoid the topic as easily as she could, but he refused to let that happen.

"No—."

"Mommy?"

Seizing up just a little at the sound of Rosie's voice, Jane slowly looked around Lisbon at the little girl who snuck upon them. Rosie also appeared to be hiding behind her mother's chair.

"Why is, why is he wet?"

Lisbon turned around in her chair to face Rosie, a smile appearing on her face. "He was running around in the rain, sweetie."

Rosie looked confused. "Why?" she asked.

"Uh—."

Smiling, Jane sat up straight, despite the discomfort, in his chair. "Because I couldn't wait to see your mother," he told the little girl.

"Why?"

"Uh, Mister Jane is a really old friend of Mommy's," Lisbon said. "We haven't seen each other in awhile. Because he moved away." She added the last bit quickly, most likely knowing that Rosie was going to ask 'why' again.

Rosie's eyes grew huge. "Did you move to, um, Chic-a-go?"

Jane couldn't help the smile that appeared on his face. The way Rosie phrased her question was just…priceless. And the small chuckle that Lisbon made was a nice touch, as well.

"Oh, I lived in Chicago for a little bit."

"You did?"

"Really?"

Rosie grew very excited. Lisbon was just confused.

Nodding, Jane leaned over and watched as Rosie moved away from behind her mother's chair and moved closer to him. She reminded him a lot of Charlotte, even more so up close. "Yes, I did. For about a month."

"A month?"

"A month," he restated.

The little girl seemed to be thinking over what he had just conveyed to her. Nevertheless, she seemed quite excited that he had told her how long he had lived in Chicago. "That's a, a really long time!"

He felt his grin grow bigger. "Yes it is."

Rosie was about to say something, but Lisbon stood from her chair and knelt down beside her daughter. "Rosie, sweetie, I think it's time for you to go upstairs and get ready for bed."

She shook her head defiantly, the little curls bouncing. "No."

"Elizabeth."

"No!"

Cheerfulness was gone from Lisbon's face in a heartbeat, replaced by a mother truly wanting her child to leave the room. "Elizabeth Rose Lisbon, you will listen to me when I tell you to do something. Go upstairs and put on your pyjamas."

Pouting, Rosie crossed her little arms over her chest in the most resilient way that she could. Lisbon continued to give her the 'displeased parent' look until Rosie moved away and started walking (with very heavy stomps) towards the staircase. Jane found himself chuckling.

"She gets that from you, you know," he mused. "The attitude when something doesn't go her way."

Lisbon's eyes snapped to his, narrowing at the sound of his voice. "You don't even know her," she said bitterly.

The previous grin disappeared from Jane's face as soon as the words left her mouth. It hurt, what she said to him. He felt his heart stop for a brief moment and then slowly return to normal. In the pit of his stomach, Jane felt sick. Lisbon's icy stare didn't lower the amount of emotional guilt and pain flittering about in his head.

"Then let me."

As soon as he had learned about Rosie's existence, he found it imperative that he met with the child. After Charlotte's death, Jane couldn't see him being a father again. Being around children, yes, but actually fathering a child seemed impossible. As did finding a wife, now. But as soon as the reality that he had another child, Jane knows that he has to be in her life.

Lisbon's gaze softened and she looked down at her hands. "I'm not sure if I can," she said.

Leaning back into his chair, Jane tapped a steady rhythm on the table. He knew why Lisbon didn't want him, for the most part, to be in Rosie's life. She didn't quite view him as a stable figure to be around their child.

Note: This chapter had to be done this way. And I'm trying to remain faithful to Lisbon's more "jaded" personality of the early first season. She'll loosen up in due time.