Here is chapter 25 I hope you enjoy it as always I love reading your reviews. So I'll update as soon as I can. As usual I own nothing.
Jane went straight to work while I dropped the kids off at school assuring the twins I would be back to talk to their teacher as soon as school was over. I felt like I was never going to get used to this, I had never really had someone to miss when I was at work. Sure there had been the six months Jane had decided to take off to Vegas but that was different I was trying to be angry at him and ended up just as angry at myself for caring so much about him when I knew from the start that he was going to leave.
It was obviously different with the kids because I knew when I would see them again the problem was the clock on my desk that refused to move. At three o clock I jumped from my desk and grabbed my jacket. "Jane you coming with me."
"Someone's anxious to talk to the teacher." Jane chuckled jumping up from his couch.
"Talk to the teacher?" Rigsby frowned.
"The girls talked back to the teacher." I explained.
"That's what you get for letting them spend time with Jane." Cho looked up from his book.
"Who said I had anything to do with it?" Jane feigned offense.
"Because you have a problem with mouthing off to people." Cho looked at him.
"And technically you did have something to do with it, and that's the only reason I'm even taking you." I reminded.
"It's not like I told them to do it." Jane argued leading the way to the elevator.
"We'll be back soon." I called over my shoulder. The school parking lot was it's normal busy when I pulled in and found a empty spot, first it was off to pick up William and Cass from the preschool classrooms.
"Patrick!" William jumped into Jane's arms was I actually a little jealous of that, sure, but I would never tell Jane that.
"Hey little man how was school today?" Jane spun him around and caused Liam to squeal.
"Do you always have to make a scene?" I sighed leading the way to Cass's classroom.
"Yes actually I think I do." He chuckled, "So how was school?"
"Played on the playground." William smiled, "And played with Legos."
"That sounds like a good day to me." Jane grinned accepting Cass's diaper bag from her teacher while I took Cass into my arms. It was actually incredibly nerve wracking waiting to talk to the teacher.
"You're Alyssa and Emily's guardians." The teacher invited Jane and I into the classroom. "I'm Miss. Hunt."
"I'm their guardian." I nodded, "Teresa Lisbon."
"I don't know what the girls told you about what happened yesterday in class." Miss. Hunt started.
"Yes there appears to be some sort of miss understanding." I was going to defend the girl's actions but I didn't want to start something with their teacher.
"Alyssa and Emily refused to do an assignment and interrupted my class." Miss. Hunt corrected me. "I understand they've had a rough couple months but I can't put up with that type of behavior on the second day of school."
"I understand that and we talked to the girls and they have agreed to do the assignment." I tried to reassure the teacher, Jane was being unusually quiet and I could really use his help.
"Mrs. Lisbon they argued with me in front of the entire class." She returned.
"Miss. or Agent Lisbon." I corrected her.
"Miss. Lisbon your girls argued with me in front of the entire class over an assignment they were refusing because they didn't like the color." Miss. Hunt stated.
"We like red." Alyssa frowned, looking up from the floor for the first time since Jane and I walked into the room.
"Yeah Patrick doesn't like red." Emily supported her sister, and I couldn't help but glance at Jane.
"And who is Patrick." Miss. Hunt looked from me to the girls.
"I'm Patrick." Jane had been standing in the back ground up until now. "The girls know that I can't stand the color red and thought they were protecting me."
"Patrick is my co-worker he's been helping me get the kids settled in." I added before she could ask.
"The girls feel they need to protect you from a color?" Miss. Hunt frowned, had this lady been living under a rock for the past three months.
"Have you lived in California long?" I questioned, and Jane just smirked.
"Excuse me Miss. Lisbon." Miss. Hunt raised her eyebrows.
"I asked you how long you've lived in the state of California." I repeated for her.
"I'm sorry I don't see what that has to do with the scene your girls made in the classroom, or the color red for that matter." Miss. Hunt responded looking from me to the girls and ending on Jane who just continued to smirk at what I wasn't entirely sure.
"Have you even been in the country?" I wondered.
"Lisbon." Jane put his hand on my shoulder.
"No Jane it was a stupid question, she should have known." I tried to shake his hand off but he didn't move.
"Teresa she couldn't have known and that's alright." Why was his voice so soothing right now how did he do that? "Girls come here and apologize to Miss. Hunt, we promise that they will have their collage done on time."
"Sorry Miss. Hunt, we didn't mean to make you mad at us." Alyssa sighed holding her hand out for her teacher to shake.
"Yeah we're sorry." Emily held her hand out as well. What just happened? Jane just took control of the situation and I think Miss. Hunt was just as confused as I was.
"I think with everything that the kids have gone through we can let them off with a warning this time, they're at a new school, in a new city, and they thought they were protecting a friend." Jane stepped forward and shook Miss. Hunts hands before directing the girls to the door.
"What exactly is it that I've missed?" Miss. Hunt stopped us as Jane turned I realized his hand was around my waist, but now didn't seem like the right time to pull away.
"That is an excellent question." Jane smiled at her, "And unfortunately we don't have nearly enough time for me to answer that."
"Are you okay Jane?" I questioned helping the twins into the car of the near empty parking lot it was amazing how quickly it cleared out we weren't in there for more than twenty minutes.
"I was going to ask you the same thing." He answered.
"Why wouldn't I be okay?" I turned from buckling the girls in to watch him.
"Oh no reason you just started at a kindergarten teacher like she was a suspect." He answered, "Because she didn't connect me to the color red."
"I wasn't treating her like a suspect." I argued.
"You have a tendency to get a little bit protective." He smirked, "Not that I mind."
"How could someone not know though?" I leaned against the side of the car and let Jane finish buckling in the kids. "It's still in the paper every other day as it is."
"My guess based purely on the twenty minutes we spent with her, is she was somewhere in southern Europe for a little over a year, bare in mind that's based on her tan and incredibly slight accent." He answered, closing the car door and moving around to the passenger side of the car.
"Okay so maybe that's a good reason to not know." I admitted. "But what about you are you okay?"
"Why wouldn't I be okay?" He repeated my words.
"I don't know you have a tendency to not cope well." I reminded.
"It was nice to know that the whole world doesn't see me as some huge sob story." He smiled his stupid gorgeous smile but there was a definite sadness there. "Only the people in California."
"You can also eliminate all the ones you've pissed off, that has to be at least half the state." I smiled.
"Sounds about right." He smirked, he spent the rest of the car ride back to work staring out the window. And was silent as the kids led us back up to the bullpen.
"You two look happy I guess that means you're not in to much trouble." Grace looked at the twins who went immediately to Jane's couch.
"Patrick and Teresa talked to our teacher and made it better." Alyssa giggled, "It was funny Teresa got really mad and so did Miss. Hunt."
"What happened Boss?" Rigsby frowned.
"Lisbon started interrogating the kindergarten teacher." Jane smiled.
"I was not interrogating her it just seemed unusual that she didn't know that's all." I restated my argument from the car before handing Cass to Jane and heading for the office.
"So wait if both you and the teacher got mad how did the girls not get in trouble?" Grace questioned.
"Patrick talked to the teacher and made everything better." Emily giggled.
"Jane fixed something?" Cho looked up from his book.
"It's not as fun cleaning up a mess as it is making one." Jane took a seat with the girls on his couch. "But I'm open to new experiences."
"Jane go to…" I stopped myself and looked at the kids, "and don't forget your tooth brush." He just sat there with that amused grin on his face as I went back to the office. He wasn't spending the night tonight things would be back to normal soon at work at least I still wasn't quite sure what normal would be at home yet.
When it was time to go I packed up the kids and Jane just stayed lying on the couch. I couldn't really ask him about it with out the rest of my team realizing he had been at my house to begin with. I watched him hug each of the kids good bye and I wasn't sure what else to do so I picked up Cass and led them towards the door.
"Teresa." Emily looked up at me. She was going to ask why Jane wasn't coming with us that much I was absolutely sure of.
"Yes Emily." I figured I might as well wait for her to ask the question.
"Patrick says he'll be home in time to make dinner that he just wanted to finish something up here." She answered, okay so maybe I didn't know what she was going to say. What did Jane have to finish up here, we didn't have any open cases, and he had spent all day on his couch.
"Did he tell you what he had to finish?" I frowned what could he possibly have to work on.
"Nope he whispered it when he hugged us goodbye." Alyssa giggled, "It was like a secret."
"Why would it be a secret?" Emily questioned.
"Because the rules say co-workers aren't supposed to live in the same house so he didn't want our friends to know." I sighed, I suppose I should be grateful that he didn't just shout it across the bullpen I wouldn't have put it past him.
"Why can't you live together?" Alyssa frowned as I helped them into the car.
"Because our boss says it's against the rules and we have to listen to him." I decided on the easiest answers.
"So if it's against the rules why do you and Patrick live together anyway?" Emily asked.
"Patrick has never been good a obeying rules." I smiled, "And I needed his help." The car was silent the rest of the short ride home, until I pulled the car into the garage.
"What did you need Patrick's help with?" Alyssa wondered as I lifted her out of the car.
"I need Patrick's help with you four trouble makers." I turned and lifted her sister out of the car, "You two promise not to fight with your teacher again right." I definitely didn't need to be in charge of more than one person with an issue with authority figures Jane was enough for me.
"You needed Patrick's help cause you were scared of Cass remember." Emily giggled.
"I suppose I was wasn't I." I smiled lifting William and lastly Cass out of the car.
"You were scared of a baby." Alyssa teased leading the way into the house.
"Why don't you run your backpacks up to your room." I instructed, "Help your brother up and down the stairs please." Taking Cass into the kitchen to see if I could find a snack for the kids when they came back down the stairs. Jane walked in right as I was rounding the kids up for soccer practice. "What were you doing?" I frowned handing him Cass.
"You can leave William and Cass here with me I'm sure they'd love to help me cook." He didn't answer my question that was so like him.
"You'll answer my question when I get back." I warned walking out the door.
"Of course." He chuckled closing it behind me. I would never say it out loud but I was starting to kind of like talking to some of the moms during the soccer practice. I had never been extremely social and could easily count all my close friends on one hand but I kind of liked having company that wasn't from my job or under the age of seven. Of course this meant I had to put up with Haley who despite what Jane had told her hadn't quite given up, but even she was manageable today with out Jane here.
After soccer practice the house smelt amazing when I walked in, he was doing this on purpose he knew that he wasn't going to spend the night tonight so he was making something extra special just to make me feel guilty. "How was soccer practice?" He smiled.
"We have our first game in a week!" Alyssa announced running into the kitchen.
"You're going to be there right?" Emily questioned following her sister in the kitchen with me bringing up the rear.
"I wouldn't miss it for the world." Jane assured serving up the plates.
"What's for dinner?" I tried to look over his shoulder.
"Fettuccini with chicken and broccoli." He handed me my plate.
"Because the last time you served broccoli that went over well." I reminded.
"I remember the night ending quite nicely actually." He smirked pouring the kids milk. Oh God that was the night he kissed me, he was doing this on purpose. No I wasn't going to give in now, we aren't even in a relationship why was this so difficult? Because he was gorgeous and charming and kissed like a god to start with I reminded myself. There was his cooking, the way he was with the kids, no this was a dangerous train of thought. "You alright Lisbon." He interrupted my thoughts.
"I'm fine." I answered, "Never better."
"Okay." He just kept smirking there was no way he knew I was thinking about him, he just wanted to play with me. Jane did dishes while I helped the kids with their bathes. Jane came up and read them their story and kissed them good night before leading the way back down stairs.
"Jane." I stopped him in my doorway he wasn't even going to protest leaving.
"Yes Lisbon." He turned around to face me.
"What were you doing at work?" I questioned.
"Helping to dispel those rumors you hate so much." He shrugged.
"What?" I frowned.
"You wanted to stop the rumors at work so I figured at the very least we could leave at different times," He explained, "I waited until after the rest of the team went home."
"Thank you Jane." I nodded.
"Good night Lisbon." He smiled, standing in my doorway. Was I really going to just let him walk out to his car? Yes, yes I had to.
"Good night Jane, I'll see you in the morning." I nodded again. In the end I just stood there and watched him drive off into the distance like I was in some cheesy romantic movie.