Author's Note: I'm not sure how I managed to finish writing this as quickly as I did, but I did. I just got quite a lot of writing done for some reason. Productivity, I'm not very used to the concept, though I really wish I were. Haha. This chapter takes place near Christmas. Thank you to: Pen99, Anon, Marcia Santos, MyDreamsForYou, GraceVanPeltFan4ever, and Guest for your reviews on the second chapter! I'm so glad you all liked it. =3
Disclaimer: No one got me the Mentalist for my birthday. Sigh.
"Here." Melody placed a package wrapped in bright pink, shiny wrapping paper on Van Pelt's desk with a big smile on her face. The wrapping job was messy and Van pelt was sure that Melody had used more tape than wrapping paper to wrap it, but that made it even more cute. "But you can't open it until Christmas."
"Aw." Van Pelt pouted. "But that's so far away."
Melody shook her head. "I know. But, I can't open any of the ones people gave me until Christmas either. No one is allowed to."
"Okay." Van Pelt sighed. "If I have to." The she smiled. "Thank you for the gift." She kissed Melody's head.
"You're welcome." Melody smiled brightly and continued on to Cho and Rigsby. Her little arms were full with their presents.
Jane supervised the gift distribution from his couch with a good cup of tea in his hand.
"For Batman." Melody handed another messily wrapped present in green paper to Rigsby. She had taken to calling him Batman all the time. Apparently that had started an argument with another student in her class who insisted that there was no way she could know Batman in real life. Luckily, no fist fights had ensued. She even started calling Benjamin, Bat Ben or Bat Benny.
"Thank you." Rigsby smiled, taking the present. "Can I open it before Christmas?"
"No." Melody deadpanned, in a very Cho-like fashion that Jane almost laughed at from where he sat on his couch. Instead, he just choked on his sip of tea.
"Aw. Okay, okay." Rigsby gave in.
Last up was Cho. Melody handed him a present wrapped in red paper. "Here you go."
Cho took the gift and placed it on his desk. "Thank you. Don't worry. I'll wait until Christmas to open it. I can follow rules."
Melody giggled. "Good. Can I have a hug?"
No one was sure if Melody enjoyed being one of very, very few people that Cho ever hugged or if she always asked to annoy him. Regardless, no one had even seen him say no when she asked and today was no different. Cho leaned down and gave Melody a hug.
When the hug was over Melody skipped over to Jane and got on the couch.
"Excited for Christmas break?" Jane asked as Melody settled into the cushion next to him.
"I'm excited for Christmas. I hope Ellie and everyone else likes their presents."
"I'm sure they will. You're very good at finding presents for people." Jane told her.
"Thank you." Melody smiled.
-Mentalist-
"But how will he know?" Melody asked for the third time that night.
"He just will." Jane told her again.
"But, how?"
Lisbon entered the living room. "Because he's magic." She picked Melody up and placed the small girl on her hip. "Santa will always know where to deliver the right presents because he's magic. So, even though you and Daddy are staying here this Christmas, he will still know the right place to bring the presents."
"Okay. That makes sense." Melody nodded.
"What?" Jane was dismayed.
Lisbon grinned.
"Is Daddy ready yet?" Melody asked.
"I think he's almost ready." Lisbon put Melody down. "Why don't you run up and check?"
"Okay." Melody hurried out of the living room and to the stairs. She looked really cute in her red and green Christmas Eve dress.
Lisbon sat on the couch, leaning into Jane's side as he draped an arm over her shoulders.
"She believes in Santa Clause, but she wouldn't believe in cookie elves. Children are baffling." Jane sighed.
Lisbon chuckled. "You're just grumpy because I gave a better answer than you."
"I am not." Jane kissed her head. "But you do look lovely." The little twinkling, colourful lights that were strung on the Christmas tree reflected in her eyes and played on her skin, making her look almost angelic.
Lisbon blushed. "Thank you. You look quite handsome."
"Well, thank you." Jane smiled. "I'm glad, because there's this girl I'm trying to impress…"
"There's a girl?" Lisbon raised a brow, but played along.
"Yeah-well, she's a woman. She's just a very short woman-"
Lisbon smacked his chest really hard.
"Ouch." Jane chuckled, taking the hand she'd smacked him with and lacing their fingers together. "She's kind of violent."
"Maybe you shouldn't mess with her, then."
"But it's so much fun to. She's really cute when she's angry."
"Shut up." Lisbon looked away.
Jane just laughed softly and kissed her head.
"Ready!" Melody announced as she and her father descended the stairs.
Jane and Lisbon stood up and went to the entryway to get their shoes on. Lisbon was wearing a flowing dark green velvet dress that almost looked black and reached her knees. Her hair was down and wavy, gold cross around her neck with dangling silver earrings. They all got their shoes on and headed out for the Christmas Mass.
-Mentalist-
"Daddy! Daddy!" Melody tried to shake her father's shoulder to wake him up. "Get up! Hurry! It's Christmas!"
"That's great." James mumbled tiredly. "Go see what Santa got you."
"Don't you want to see what Santa got you?"
"I'll see what he got me later. You go see your presents." James snuggled against the pillow more.
Melody huffed and jumped off the queen bed to hurry across the hall and see if she would have better luck getting Lisbon and Jane up. "Get up!" Melody jumped on their bed. "Get up! It's Christmas! Come on! Come on!"
"Melody." Lisbon moaned, snuggling more against Jane.
"Wake uuuuuuuuuuuup!" Melody whined.
Jane propped himself up on one elbow, rubbing his eyes with his other hand. "You go ahead. We'll be down in a minute, okay?"
Melody pouted a bit, disappointed that no one seemed as excited as she was. "Okay." She jumped off the bed and hurried downstairs to the living room to unwrap all her gifts.
"I wish it were one of those days where we woke her up." Lisbon mumbled.
Jane just chuckled and got out of bed, Lisbon following close behind. They saw that James was still sleeping in the guest room.
"Hey." Lisbon said, grabbing the pillow Melody had used to sleep on and hitting her second youngest brother with it. "Get up. She's your baby. Go watch her open her presents."
"Fine." James sighed dramatically as he got out of bed and they all went to the living room where Melody had started to open her presents.
"Whoa!" Melody gasped as she tore off the wrapping paper of the newest present she'd picked up. "Santa brought me chocolate!"
"Yeah?" Lisbon smiled, sitting down next to Melody on the floor in front of the tree.
"Yeah! And they're shaped like reindeer!" Melody held them so Lisbon could see better.
"They're very pretty." Lisbon smiled, taking the present and placing it off to the side. She and Jane had been the ones to buy her the chocolate reindeer.
James sat down as well, letting Melody sit on his crossed legs.
Jane sat down next to Lisbon and reached under the tree, grabbing another present and handing it to Melody for her to open.
Melody gladly ripped through the wrapping paper and moved the box to be able to see what the item was. "Drinking…hat." Melody smiled. It was one of those hard hats that had cup holders on the side with tubes so that she could drink without actually holding the cups. "Daddy! Look!" Melody held the box up.
"I see it." James laughed and helped Melody open the box so she could try the hat on. It was a bit too big for her head.
"I think she'll grow into it." Jane knocked on the hat.
"Maybe I can use it in the meantime." James teased, taking the hat and placing it on his head.
"Daddy!" Melody laughed.
-Mentalist-
Rigsby and Sarah had offered to host the Christmas dinner at their place, so that's where everyone was gathering.
"Did you like your present?" Melody asked Rigsby as they were let in and were taking off their shoes.
"Yes." Rigsby smiled. "It's the best hot chocolate mix that I've ever had."
"That's good. I thought you'd like it." Melody grinned.
"Of course I did. Ben is in the living room watching TV if you want to join him." Rigsby said.
"Okay!" Melody gave him a hug and skipped off toward the living room. "What are you watching Bat Benny?"
Rigsby laughed softly. "Everyone else is setting up for dinner if you guys want to help."
"Sure." Jane nodded.
Jane, Lisbon and James were all greeted cheerily by Van Pelt and Sarah as they entered the kitchen and dining room, Cho gave them all a polite nod and hello.
"The chicken should be done really soon." Sarah told them as they all tended to different jobs.
It wasn't long before the oven pinged, signalling that dinner was done cooking.
"I'll go round up Melody and Ben." Lisbon offered, being closest to the living room. "Melody. Benjamin. Time for dinner." Lisbon said when she got into the living room.
"Hold on." Melody responded. "It's at the good part." She was watching some cartoon Lisbon hadn't really seen before, but looked oddly familiar.
"Now." Lisbon insisted. "You can watch TV later."
"But-"
"No buts." Lisbon shook her head.
Melody grumbled and reached for the remote, but discovered it wasn't where she thought it was. She looked around for a moment.
"This." Benjamin pulled the remote out from between the couch cushions, giggling.
"I gotta turn off the TV." Melody held out her hands.
Benjamin proceeded to push multiple buttons on the remote, sending the TV into a fit of channel changing.
"Stooooop." Melody complained, yanking the remote from Ben's hands, pushing even more buttons. Melody turned to shut the TV off, but paused at what she saw on the screen. A big arena with gymnastics equipment. A faceless voice announced the name of the next athlete and the camera zoomed in on a young girl, about sixteen. She stood at the edge of the tumbling floor, taking a deep breath before stepping on.
"Come on, Melody." Lisbon walked over and took the remote off the cushion to turn the TV off herself.
"Wait!" Melody yelled, grabbing for the remote. "Wait! Wait! Wait!"
Lisbon gave Melody an odd look, but waited anyway, watching the program as well. The music started and the athlete had begun her routine, with her back flips, handsprings and whatever other moves had been choreographed. Lisbon glanced over at Melody, who looked completely fascinated by the whole thing. Lisbon turned the TV off when the routine was done and the audience was clapping. "Time for dinner."
"What was that?" Melody asked as she slid off the couch.
"Gymnastics." Lisbon replied, picking Benjamin up and walking with Melody to the dinning room.
"It looked really cool."
"It did." Lisbon nodded.
"Can I do gymnastics?"
"I thought you wanted to do soccer."
"And gymnastics." Melody said. "Soccer and gymnastics."
"Well, you'll have to ask Daddy." Lisbon told her as they made it into the dinning room.
"Ask daddy what?" James turned toward them.
"Daddy, I want to do gymnastics!"
"But we're already going to sign you up for soccer." James told her.
"I want to do gymnastics, too."
"I don't know…"
"Please, Daddy? Please, please, pleeeaaasssseeeee?"
"I'll think about it." James said.
Jane had to stop himself from smiling. When it came to Melody an 'I'll think about it' from James Lisbon was almost as good as a yes. He also had to admit that it wasn't too different with himself or Teresa Lisbon.
Melody seemed satisfied with that answer and got into her seat. "Did you like your present, Grace?"
"Yes, I did. I'm even wearing them today." Van Pelt moved some hair out of the way so Melody could see the sparkling snowflake-shaped earrings and held up her wrist to show the matching bracelet.
Melody smiled widely, pleased that Van Pelt liked her gift. "And Cho? Did you like your ninja teddy?"
"Yes." Cho answered in his same stoic manner, causing everyone to wonder if he was lying or not. "It's very nice."
Jane was sure Cho secretly loved the teddy and had it somewhere very visible in his apartment.
-Mentalist-
"Daddy?" Melody said tiredly as they all headed out to their car after their visit.
"Yes, Melody?"
"Santa forgot."
"Forgot what?" James asked, adjusting Melody's hat a bit.
"I asked him for snow. He forgot to bring some. I wanted to show Ellie how to make a snowman and snow angels. And we can't make our snow people family we always make every winter."
"Sacramento doesn't really get snow like Chicago does." James told her.
"Why?"
"It's not cold enough."
"You don't make snow people?" Melody looked at Lisbon.
"No, I can't." Lisbon shook her head.
"Oh." Melody looked down, disappointedly. "I thought Santa would bring some. I asked really nice."
"I'm sorry." James kissed her head. "Maybe we'll go back up to Chicago one year. And you can play in the snow. But no roughhousing with Annie again."
Melody smiled a bit and giggled. "All the roof snow fell on her. She looked like the abom-nable snowman."
"She wasn't very happy about it." But, James couldn't help the hint of a smile that played on his lips.
Melody leaned her head on his shoulder, closing her eyes.
"Okay, we'll go home and you can go to bed."
"I'll just drop you off at home. We'll bring the presents over later." Lisbon told James.
"Thanks." James smiled as he got in the car.
Author's Note: Yay for cute Christmas moments! Hope you all enjoyed, thanks for reading! Please leave a review.