A/N: My sister had a baby recently, and apparently hanging out with him has turned me a bit baby crazy because, well... this happened. Nudging the outer reaches of fluffiness on this one, at least for something that's supposed to be compatible with canon. Hope you enjoy, in any case!

xxx

After the case was closed, Jane found Lisbon in her office, frowning at her paperwork.

"Why so grumpy?" he asked, impulsively deciding to perch on the corner of her desk rather than take his usual spot on her couch. "We solved the case. I thought that was the sure-fire recipe for Lisbon happiness."

"I'm not grumpy," she protested, but the corners of her mouth turned down.

He looked into her eyes. "You're sad." The notion caused an uncomfortable pang in his chest. That was his job. He didn't want her to be sad, too.

She sighed. "This case was sad."

Jane couldn't argue with that. The case was sad.

"Blakely killed his own sister, thinking he was protecting his family, all because his father never told him the truth," she went on. "Now he's in jail, and the father has lost both of his children."

"There's always a reckoning," Jane agreed, thinking of all the trouble caused by that one, crucial lie.

"Yeah," she said morosely. Now she looked downright depressed.

"You know what I'm sad about?" he said, hoping to distract her from her melancholy.

She looked at him a little askance. "What's that?"

"That it wasn't Presiado who did it after all," Jane said. "I really wanted it to be him." 'A good-looking man like you,' my foot, he thought. Was that really Lisbon's type? Dark-haired, tough, and freakishly tall?

Also impotent, he reminded himself. The thought was remarkably cheering.

She smiled a little. "Yeah, it would have all worked out more neatly if it had been him, wouldn't it? At least the Blakely family would have been a little less broken at the end of the day."

"And we would have had one less blowhard to deal with at Davis PD," Jane added.

"And there would have been that," she agreed.

"Did you really think he was good looking?" he asked, unable to help himself.

"What?" she said, startled.

"Presiado," Jane clarified. "You told him he was good looking when we were questioning him."

Lisbon rolled her eyes. "It's called an interrogation technique, Jane."

"So you didn't," he persisted.

Lisbon looked at him like he was crazy. "He's all right," she said cautiously. "But the guy's a complete ass, so what does it matter?"

Jane relaxed. "No matter."

"Then why did you ask?" she said, annoyed.

"Just trying to get a sense of what your type is," Jane said.

"What do you care about that?" she demanded, looking half irritated, half alarmed.

He shrugged. "If I have a keener insight into the kind of man you find attractive, I could keep an eye out for you. If I see one that I think would suit your fancy, I could send him your way." And if he saw anyone unsuitable heading in her direction, he could hypnotize him into thinking he was a squirrel.

"Oh, Lord," she exhaled. "Please, Jane, don't do me any favors."

He was starting to enjoy himself now. He waggled his eyebrows and hummed the first few bars of 'Matchmaker' from Fiddler on the Roof.

She threw her pencil at him. "Shut up."

He dodged it, chuckling. "Never mind. It's just as well you and Presiado didn't hit it off, in the end."

"Oh, yeah?" she said, humoring him. "Why is that?"

He cleared his throat. "Apparently he has a little… problem."

Her brow furrowed. "What kind of problem?"

He raised his eyebrows, then made a show of glancing meaningfully downward before raising his eyes to meet hers again.

Her jaw dropped. "Jane!" she said, scandalized. Then she started to laugh. "How the hell did you even find that out?"

He grinned, pleased that he'd gotten a laugh out of her. "I have my ways."

"I don't even want to know, do I?" she said, dimpling at him.

"Probably not," he agreed. Not that it would do any harm to tell her the source of his information, but a man had to keep some mystery about him, after all.

He got up from her desk. "Come on, I need your help with something."

"What is it?" she asked warily.

"Nothing illegal or even morally questionable, I assure you," Jane said. He picked up her jacket and held it out for her.

"Why is that statement not even remotely reassuring, coming from you?" she wondered aloud.

He shook her jacket a little to encourage her to get a move on. "Come along."

She sighed and stood. "Where are we going?" she asked, deigning to allow him to help her on with her jacket. She slipped her arms through the sleeves and he smoothed the fabric over her shoulders, sweeping her hair aside so it wouldn't get caught in the collar. He paused. Her hair was even softer than it looked.

Lisbon turned her head. "Jane?"

He looked back into her eyes. She was startlingly close. "Yeah?"

She tucked a strand of her hair behind her ear, which made him realize his fingers were still trailing through the ends of it.

A faint blush stained Lisbon's cheeks, but she covered it admirably. "Where are we going?" she repeated.

He let her hair go and put his hand at the small of her back, guiding her towards the door. "To make the Blakely family a little less broken."

Xxx

Jane fed Kaylie a Cheerio and bounced her a little on his hip, just the way she liked.

"You know," Lisbon remarked, watching the two of them. "We really don't need to do this. Social Services will take care of it."

"Meh," Jane said. "Where would the fun in that be? Besides, they'll take forever to get through all the red tape. Kaylie's had a hard enough time already without being passed through various channels of bureaucracy. She needs her family now." He returned his attention to the baby on his hip. "Don't you, Kaylie?" He made a series of silly faces at her. "Yes, you do," he said in his best nonsense voice. "That's right."

A woman from Social Services came into the room, something they called a 'visitation room,' outfitted with a couch and a small, child's size table with two chairs, littered with toys. "Mr. Jane? Agent Lisbon? My name is Marian Shipley. I'm the social worker assigned to Kaylie's case. I understand you were able to track down Kaylie's next of kin through the course of your investigation, is that correct?"

"That's right," Jane said quickly, before Lisbon could muddy the waters with the pesky technicalities comprising the exact truth. "Her grandparents. A very stable couple. The grandfather is a policeman, you know. They're very eager to take her in."

Lisbon looked at him sideways, but didn't challenge his statement.

"You've already spoken to them?" Ms. Shipley asked.

Jane avoided making eye contact with Lisbon. "That's right."

Ms. Shipley smiled at him. "That's wonderful. I'm so glad she has a good home waiting for her."

"So are we," Jane said, bouncing Kaylie a little more. "Aren't we, Lisbon?"

"That's right," Lisbon said, her expression inscrutable.

"We'll have to interview the prospective foster parents, of course," Ms. Shipley went on. "And do a home visit, to make sure Kaylie is being placed in a safe environment."

"Of course." Jane gave Lisbon a meaningful look. This was what he was talking about. Red tape. She rolled her eyes at him, but said nothing. "The thing is," Jane said, "Agent Lisbon and I were hoping we could take Kaylie over to meet her grandparents this afternoon. They're so anxious to meet her, you see. And we'd very much like to be the ones to arrange this particular family reunion, if that's all right with you." You know, since we had to arrest their son for murder earlier today, he added silently. He decided not to volunteer this information to Ms. Shipley. "Agent Lisbon would be happy to help you sort out all the paperwork later, if you'd like," he offered, rubbing Kaylie on the back.

Lisbon's jaw dropped in indignation. She shot him an annoyed glance, but again, she didn't challenge him in front of the social worker.

Ms. Shipley pursed her lips, considering the matter. "Well… it's a little unusual," she said thoughtfully. She smiled at Jane. "But I'm sure we can work something out."

Jane beamed. "Excellent."

Ms. Shipley patted Kaylie on the back. "Let me go get some of that paperwork started. Once we have the first round done, we should be able to release her into your custody for the purpose of escorting her to her new home."

"Thank you," Jane said sincerely.

Ms. Shipley smiled at him again, and took her leave.

Jane turned to Lisbon, still beaming. "Eh? What'd I tell you, Lisbon?"

She crossed her arms over her chest. "You haven't discussed the possibility of the Blakely's taking in Kaylie with them at all, have you?"

"Meh," he said. "What's to discuss? They're family. Of course they're going to take her in."

She sighed. "Jane, you know that's not always true—"

"It's true in this case," he insisted.

"How the hell do you know that?" she asked, exasperated. "You think just dropping this baby on their doorstep is going to suddenly make everything all better?"

"Don't be ridiculous. I'm not going to drop Kaylie on their doorstep. That would be a completely barbaric thing to do," Jane said. "I am going to gently and carefully hand her over the threshold into the arms of her grandparents."

"They may not thank you for it," Lisbon warned. "Completely disrupting their lives like this."

"It doesn't matter if they thank me for it," Jane said. "As long as they take care of Kaylie."

"Why did you even need me to come along in the first place?" Lisbon huffed. "You're just going to do what you want to do anyway, no matter what I have to say about it."

"I need your aura of authority," he said. "You think Social Services is going to hand over a baby to a strange man with a laminated ID badge? You, my dear, provide a reassuring air of officialdom with that extra shiny badge of yours."

"Great," Lisbon muttered. "You make me sound like a glorified accomplice to kidnapping."

He chuckled. "Glad to see you're finally getting into the spirit of the thing." His nose detected a less than pleasant smell coming from his immediate vicinity. And since Lisbon always smelled good, there was only one possible culprit. "Uh-oh," he said. "Can you take her for a moment?"

He handed Kaylie to her without waiting for an answer and made a beeline for the door.

"Where are you going?" Lisbon said, a faint note of panic in her voice.

"To find diapers," he called back. "They've got to have some around here somewhere."

Xxx

Lisbon signed the critical paperwork while Jane changed Kaylie's diaper.

"There you go," Ms. Shipley said, handing Lisbon one copy of the last form. "She's all yours."

"Great," Jane said. He turned to Lisbon. "Shall we?"

"Not so fast," Lisbon said firmly as Ms. Shipley departed yet again. "We need a car seat for her."

"Good point," Jane mused. "I could run to the store and find one, I suppose."

Lisbon sighed and took out her phone. She dialed and held it up to her ear. "Rigsby? Yeah, it's me. Listen, I need a favor. Can you run to the impound lot and see if you can get Kaylie's car seat back from the guys in Evidence and then bring it to me and Jane at the Social Services office?" She listened. "Yeah, it's a long story. Yeah… Yeah. No, that's okay. We'll wait."

She hung up the phone and tucked the form into the pocket of her blazer. This accomplished, she cast about the room as though in search of some other task she might be able to complete while she waited for Rigsby to appear.

Jane sensed danger in the offing. Lisbon detested waiting in all forms. If he didn't find some means to distract her, she was liable to grow downright surly. He looked down at the soft, sweet-smelling bundle in his arms. He didn't want to give her up, but it was for a good cause. "Would you mind taking her again?" he asked. Again, he handed her over without waiting for an answer. "She looks hungry. I'm going to see if I can find some more Cheerios."

Lisbon took Kaylie wordlessly and settled her on her hip. Kaylie grabbed at her hair and Lisbon smiled at her, catching her fist and shaking it a little instead. Jane paused, arrested. They made quite the picture.

Lisbon looked back at him and raised her eyebrows as though to say, 'Well? What are you waiting for?'

Cheerios. Right.

Xxx

When he came back armed with a Tupperware container full of Cheerios, Lisbon was on the couch with Kaylie in her lap, playing some kind of modified version of patty cake together where Lisbon did most of the work. Lisbon smiled down at her, her expression soft and light. Jane stopped on the threshold, quite taken with this image of tough as nails Agent Lisbon in the role of nurturing caretaker.

He really shouldn't be surprised, he told himself. He'd always known Lisbon was a softie on the inside. And he had plenty of evidence of her nurturing nature from his experience of her trying to take care of him and the rest of the team. But it was somehow different to see her with a child in her arms. She was so… relaxed. Her smile so easy.

He stepped the rest of the way into the room. "You like babies," he observed.

She kept her eyes on Kaylie. "Who doesn't like babies?" she said, her voice studiously neutral.

"Lots of people," he said. "But look at you. You're a natural."

She looked up at him. "Just because I have ovaries—"

"It has nothing to do with that," he interrupted. "You're good with her, that's all."

She looked back at Kaylie. "Well—she's a sweetheart."

"Yeah," Jane said, sitting down next to them and smiling fondly at Kaylie. "She is."

Lisbon glanced at the Tupperware container in his hand. "Your mission was successful, I see."

"Yes," he agreed, opening the lid. "It was."

"Please tell me you did not con some poor mother into giving you her child's snack," Lisbon said, exasperated.

"Relax. They have a kind of supply room here that has all kinds of stuff kids might need. I expect they have it for emergencies, you know if a kid is pulled out of his home suddenly, that sort of thing."

"Right. And I'm sure you checked with someone to make sure it was okay you took stuff out of the emergency stash," she said, amused.

"Meh. Who would begrudge Kaylie an afternoon snack?" he said. He offered Kaylie a Cheerio. She graciously accepted it, then threw it enthusiastically on the floor. He retrieved the rejected Cheerio and tucked it into his vest pocket. He offered her a second one. This one, she ate.

The third Cheerio, she offered to Lisbon. Lisbon took it, then gave it back to her. Kaylie beamed at her and ate it greedily. Lisbon smiled.

Jane watched her. "You're going to be a great mom," he said suddenly. He hadn't meant to voice the thought aloud. The words bubbled up unexpectedly.

Lisbon snorted. "Yeah, right."

He frowned. "What does that mean? Of course you'll be a great mom."

"Jane, I barely have time to date these days, let alone get married and have kids."

"It's not something you schedule between budget meetings, Lisbon. It will just happen." Sooner or later, someone was bound to come along who would take one look at her and realize how extraordinary she was. Once that happened, that man would throw everything he had into dazzling her with charm and earning her affection, he was sure of it. How could he not?

"I'm just—I'm not sure marriage and babies are in the cards for me, that's all," she sighed. "Being a cop—it's not exactly the most family friendly lifestyle."

"But you do want kids, don't you?" he persisted. He couldn't stand the idea of her resigning this hope, if it was something she wanted. Her kids would be the luckiest children on the planet.

"Maybe someday," she said wistfully.

"So you work it out," he insisted. "Maybe your husband will be a stay at home dad."

"Right," she said, humoring him. "Because guys like that are so easy to find."

"I didn't say it would be easy," he demurred. "All I'm saying is, if the chance of raising a family with you was at stake, I'm sure your husband would be willing to do a great deal to make sure you had what you needed to make it work. Any man who aspired to be worthy of you would go to great lengths to support your career, if that was what you wanted."

She looked over at him, her lips parting softly in surprise. "Thanks, Jane," she said, touched.

Kaylie interjected her opinion on the matter by throwing a Cheerio at his head.

Jane came back to his senses a little. "Anyway, you never know," he said, clearing his throat. He returned the Cheerio to Kaylie. "The right guy might be just around the corner."

Lisbon rubbed a soothing circle on Kaylie's back. "Ya think?" she said lightly.

"Sure," he said, straight-faced. "Maybe Presiado has a brother."

She reached over with the arm not holding Kaylie and punched him on the arm.

"Teresa, please," he said, making a show of rubbing the injured appendage. "Not in front of the child."

"Oh, suck it up, you big baby," she told him.

He grinned at her. Her own mouth curved upwards as she looked back at him.

A light tap on the door frame interrupted the moment. They looked up. "Uh," said Rigsby, staring at them. He hefted the burden in his right hand. "I brought the car seat."

"Thanks, Rigs," Lisbon said. "Set it down by the door, will you? We'll grab it on our way out."

Rigsby continued to stare at them as he set down the car seat. "Sure. No problem."

Lisbon frowned. "What it is it?"

Rigsby looked at the two of them sitting together on the couch, a child between them. "Nothing. Nothing at all."