Author's Note: Hey eyveryone! Here's chapter 8! Sorry for making you guys wait so long, but I was staying with a friend for the last few weeks and that left no time for writting. But, I'm back now. Yay! Thank you to Pen99, Marcia Santos, qmione, marshmallowdeviant and everyone else who has commented so far, as well as everyone else who favourited and followed my story. Sorry again for the long wait, and thanks for sticking with me!
Discalimer: The Mentalist + Not mine = :(
Melody had woken up that morning, incredibly excited. She was turning nine! She got dressed in her special birthday outfit that she'd picked out with Lisbon and James tied her hair up nicely, placing a little birthday girl hat on her head.
"You excited for your party?" James asked as he helped Melody into her sweater. The mid-October air was a little chilled.
"Yes." Melody replied happily. "I can't wait!"
"Well, we better hurry, then." James smiled as he zipped up his own sweater and they both headed out.
-Mentalist-
They arrived at the picnic area at the carnival field where Lisbon, Jane and the rest of the team had started to set up.
"It looks so pretty!" Melody called as she approached the roofed off area that had streamers tied to the posts.
"Thank you." Van Pelt smiled and crouched down to give Melody a hug after taping up another balloon. "Happy birthday, sweetie!"
"Thank you." Melody returned the hug.
"Hi, Melody." Ben waved from where he was helping Rigsby with the piñata.
"Hi, Bat Ben! Hi, Batman!" Melody waved back.
Jane leaned over and jokingly whispered in Lisbon's ear. "Next year for her party, we should get Rigsby and Ben dress up like Batman and Robin. Set up some speakers and have them run around to the Batman theme song?"
Lisbon snorted and tried not to laugh too loudly at the mental image.
"Hi." Melody skipped over to them after greeting Cho.
"Hey! There's the birthday girl!" Jane held his arms out and gave Melody a big hug.
"Yep!" Melody smiled then moved to give Lisbon a hug as well.
"Aw, you look so pretty." Lisbon kissed Melody's head.
"Thank you." Melody smiled and blushed. "Can I help with stuff?"
"Sure. There's a few things that I might need your help with. Come on." Jane held out his hand."
"Okay." Melody took his hand and followed him off.
"Did you get the cake?" James asked Lisbon.
"Yep." Lisbon nodded. "In the back seat of my car. I'll bring it out after dinner. Good thing it's not an ice cream cake."
It wasn't much later that the first guest arrived.
"Ellie!" Melody called and ran over to give her bestest friend a hug after she got out of the car.
"Happy birthday!" Ellie hugged Melody tightly as her parents got Melody's present from the trunk.
"Thank you." Melody smiled.
"Where do we put your present?" Mrs. Fallon asked.
"Um…I don't know…" Melody looked back at the picnic tables. "Ask Teresa. She'll know."
"All right." Mr. and Mrs. Fallon headed off to join everyone else.
"It looks really nice." Ellie commented on the décor.
"Thank you." Melody smiled. "I can't wait until everyone else gets here!"
-Mentalist-
It didn't take long for the party to get started after all the guests arrived.
"Okay." Lisbon called, grabbing everyone's attention. "It's time for the piñata. Birthday girl gets the first swing."
Everyone gathered around where the piñata was hung from a nearby tree branch and Van Pelt put the blindfold on Melody. Rigsby handed her the bat.
"Might wanna take a step, there." Jane whispered to Lisbon, placing his hands on her hips and pulling her back a step so that she was right next to him. "Strong nine year old, plus wooden bat, equals possibly lethal nine year old."
"And at work, pissed off wife, plus gun, equals possibly lethal wife."
"That a threat?"
"Nope." Lisbon grinned. "It's a promise."
They turned back and watched as Van Pelt let Melody go after spinning her three times. Melody took a few cautious steps forward, poking gently at the air with the bat until she felt it hit the piñata. When she had a feeling of about where the piñata was, she wound up and gave one really good swing, hitting the piñata with a whack. Everyone cheered as she gave another two good swings before taking off her blindfold and passing the bat off to the next child. She'd made a good dent in the piñata.
When the piñata finally broke, all the kids squealed and dove to grab as much candy as they possibly could.
"They look like rabid quarrels." Jane commented.
"They're kids. It's candy. What did you expect?" Cho said in his usual stoic manner, but Jane had been having trouble taking him seriously all day with the pointy party hat on his head. All the adults had worn them. Apparently it was not just something for the kids anymore. At least, not in Melody's opinion. Cho's hat had a sparkly blue pom-pom on the top, paired with his stony expression and he reminded Jane of those grumpy cat pictures that were so popular on the internet.
"I'm just saying." Jane shrugged.
Melody had stuffed her pockets full of piñata candy by the time it had all been collected and Lisbon gave her a plastic bag to store it all in.
"Hey, James."
"Yeah, Patrick?" James turned to face his brother-in-law.
"Do me a favour? Can you take my phone, go stand over there," Jane pointed toward the end of the picnic area that face the open field, "and tell the person on the other end that it's time?"
James gave Jane a suspicious look. "Okay…?"
Jane opened his phone and dialled a number, passing the phone off to James, he shooed the younger man off in the desired direction. Once he saw that James was on the right path, Jane headed over to Melody. "Are you having fun?"
"Yeah!" Melody nodded at him; eating the last piece of candy that Lisbon was going to allow her before the pizza got there.
"That's good." Jane smiled, sitting down next to her and whispering in her ear. "Daddy has one last surprise for you before pizza."
"What?" Melody's eyes lit up. "What's the surprise?"
"Well, it wouldn't be a surprise if I told you, now, would it? Why don't you go see for yourself. He's just over there."
Melody jumped off of her seat and ran over to her father. "What is it? What is it? What is it!?"
"Calm down, Melody." James told her. "What are you-?" But he was cut off by the sound of an elephant.
Melody's jaw dropped as she gawked at the big animal for a moment before looking back at James. "You got me an elephant, Daddy!? You got an elephant for my birthday party!? Thank you, Daddy!" Melody threw her arms around her father and hugged him tightly.
James just looked between her and the approaching elephant with a shocked expression on his face. All the other children were gasping and whispering excitedly amongst one another. "You're welcome?" He patted Melody's back.
"Wow. You really outdid yourself, James." Jane smiled as he approached, hands in his pockets.
"What the hell…?" Lisbon joined them.
"Daddy got me an elephant for the party!" Melody told Lisbon excitedly.
"I see that." Lisbon nodded.
"Can we all have elephant rides?" Melody asked.
"That's what people pay for, isn't it?" Jane said. "And another perk of being the birthday girl is that you get the first elephant ride."
"Yay!" Melody cheered as all the kids started to line up for the elephant.
"Thank you." Jane plucked his cell phone from James' hand and placed it back in his pocket.
"You set this up." Lisbon looked at Jane.
"Uh, no. Melody wanted an elephant and James got her an elephant. What does any of it have to do with me?"
"Right." Lisbon rolled her eyes.
"Come on." Jane said. "Once all the kids have had an elephant ride, maybe they'll let the adults have one as well." He placed his hand on Lisbon's lower back, guiding her in the direction of the elephant and James followed.
"Come on, Teresa." Jane coaxed.
"No." Lisbon shook her head. "I don't want to."
"Come on."
"No."
"Go, Teresa!" Melody encouraged. "It's fun. You know. You liked Daisy before. Go."
"I don't really want to." Lisbon shook her head again.
"Come on. You'll be fine." Jane smiled. "All the other kids went. You can't even try and use the excuse that you're holding them up."
"Go, Teresa! Go! Go!" Melody clapped and her friends joined her, followed closely by the adults.
"Okay, okay. I'm going." But Lisbon was smiling anyway as she climbed up the ladder.
Everyone cheered for her as she got on the elephant's back.
When the elephant rides were over with, everyone headed back to the picnic area where Rigsby and Cho ad set out the pizza that had arrived. Melody sat at the head of the long picnic table for the kids and munched happily on her pizza while chatting with her friends.
"The elephant was sweet." Lisbon told Jane quietly as they ate their pizza. "Obviously it was you."
"Hey, just let Melody think it was her dad. He may not have the connections to get an elephant, but he's doing a good job."
"Aw." Lisbon smiled and leaned her head against his shoulder for a moment before lifting it again to continue eating her pizza. "You're such a softy. But, how are you holding up?"
"Not as bad as I thought I was going to be."
"Yeah?" Lisbon asked gently. "No flashbacks, guilt?"
"Nothing I can't handle." Jane smiled at her.
"Good to hear." Lisbon nodded and returned his smile.
After everyone was done their pizza, Van Pelt lit the nine candles on Melody's cake and Lisbon carried it to her as they all sang Happy Birthday.
"Okay, Melody." James told her. "Make a wish and then blow out all your candles."
Melody looked back at her cake, squeezed here eyes shut, took a deep breath and blew out all the candles on her cake. Everyone cheered for her as Lisbon took out the candles and James cut the cake, giving the first piece to Melody. It was chocolate, Melody's favourite.
When everyone was done their cake, they moved on to opening presents before the party ended and everyone had to go home, leaving the hosts to clean up what was left.
-Mentalist-
"Oh, I'm so tired." Lisbon yawned as she crawled under the blankets of the bed. "That was an eventful day."
"It was." Jane agreed as he stretched a bit before turning on his side and pulling Lisbon close to him. "And now it's time for my favourite part of any day."
"Bedtime is your favourite part of the day?" Lisbon raised a brow. "I thought your favourite part of the day is whenever you got to be a pain in my butt. Which is a lot of the time, by the way."
"Don't be mean." Jane chastised jokingly.
"You're asking me to change who I am?" Lisbon smirked.
"That's not who you are." Jane snuggled closer to her. "You're not really mean. You're a wonderful woman. Now shush and go to sleep."
Author's Note: Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed this chapter and I hope it was worth the wait. Please leave a comment and let me know what you thought! :) See you at the next chapter!