Author's Note: Hello, everyone! Sorry for the long break I had between this chapter and the last. I had written Confess Already and not intended it to be as long as it is, so I was trying to finish that, but it's almost done now. I decided I should write a Father's Day chapter, though, and this is just a fluffy little Father's Day chapter for you all to enjoy and hopefully it makes you smile. Sadly, I wasn't able to see my Dad this Father's Day, but we made some other arrangements. So it's all good.

Disclaimer: :(

Jane stared up at the ceiling of Lisbon's office. This is where he retreated now. He didn't stay in the attic nearly as long as he used to. Of course, he went up there still, but he never stayed as long as before. It was too bad that Lisbon had been called to a meeting an hour ago, leaving him to be in her office by himself. But, it was still less lonely than the attic by a long shot. He heard the door swoosh gently as it opened and the little footsteps told him who had entered without looking, but he turned to look at Melody anyway.

"Hi." She said.

"Hello. How's my favourite nine-year-old Lisbon doing?"

"I'm good." Melody walked over to the couch, seeming a bit nervous. "How are you?"

"I'm okay." Jane lifted his head to look at her. "Something wrong?"

"You tell me. You're the one that's hiding in Teresa's office."

Jane frowned. "I'm not hiding."

"Then why didn't you come out? I was waiting for us to read. We always read. Especially when Teresa goes to meetings. You just came in here and didn't do anything."

Shoot. He'd forgotten about reading with Melody. "I'm sorry, Melody. I don't know what I was thinking. We can read now." He started getting up.

"Are you sad about Father's Day? You left after Batman was talking about his plans with Benny."

"No. I was just tired."

"Liar."

"Excuse me?" Jane raised a brow. That was a seamless lie. She couldn't have thought he was lying.

"Liar, liar. Pants on fire…Why do people say that? It rhymes, but it doesn't make any sense."

"I don't know." Jane smiled and shook his head, sitting up. "What are we going to read."

"No. Not until you tell me the truth. Tell me."

"I'm not lying."

"Yes, you are."

"I'm not."

"Are so."

"Am not."

"Are so."

"Am n- I'm not. Lets get to reading now." How had she dragged him into a yes-no battle? He was a grown man. Jeez.

"No. The truth." Melody shook his arm.

"Melody, stop it. Please. I'm not lying."

Melody stared hard at him with a frown on her face and a furrowed brow.

He raised a brow at her.

Melody's response was to fold her arms over her chest.

"Don't try to discipline me." Jane shook his head. "I'm not doing anything wrong."

"Lying is wrong."

"Melody-"

"If you don't tell me, then I'm going to tell Teresa that you were moping and you lied to me and you didn't want to read with me. It makes me sad when you lie to me." Slowly, Melody started to pout. "I just want to know what's wrong. I just want to help." Tears welled up in her eyes.

Jane began to realise that he wasn't going to win this argument. Not when she was pulling puppy-dog eyes, tears and the 'Teresa' card. Had anybody else in the entire world stood in front of him and said 'I'm going to tell Teresa about this', Jane would have dismissed them with a comment akin to yeah, have fun with that and waited for them to leave. But this was Melody. She had just about everyone tied around her little fingers, whether she was aware of it or not. And he already felt bad enough that he'd forgotten about reading with her. "I do want to read with you. I was just thinking about some other things. I'm sorry. I love reading with you." He pulled her up to sit on the couch and hugged her.

"Then why did you leave and not read with me?"

"I was just a little jealous that Rigsby's weekend sounded like fun." Jane replied lightly.

"Because you don't have any plans for Father's Day?" Melody looked up at him.

Jane shrugged.

"Do you…Do you and Teresa want to come with me and Daddy to the picnic?"

Jane looked at her, confused. "Picnic?"

Melody nodded. "With my gymnastics academy. They have a Father's Day picnic."

"I didn't hear about that before."

"This is the first one they're doing."

"Is it an invitation thing?"

"They sent out newsletters a few weeks ago." Melody shifted slightly.

"You didn't say anything about it."

"I…" Melody glanced away and shifted again before mumbling her reply. "I didn't think you'd want to go with us. I didn't want to make you sad."

Jane kissed her head. "You don't have to worry about stuff like that Melody. I'd love to go with you to the picnic. I'm sure Teresa would be happy to go as well."

Melody looked up at him and smiled.

"Go get that book you wanted to read." Jane kissed her head. "We have a lot of story to catch up on."

-Mentalist-

"Wow. They really know how to throw a picnic." Jane said to Lisbon as they got out of the car.

"There's a bouncy castle!" Melody gasped as she hopped out of the car.

"You want to go to the bouncy castle first?" James asked.

"Yeah!" Melody nodded.

"You guys want to come?" James asked Lisbon and Jane.

"I don't know. That barbeque and food table look pretty appetizing." Jane grinned.

James did a double-take. "Whoa. Is that what that line is for?"

"Looks like it." Jane nodded.

"We'll grab some drinks and see you over there." Lisbon said.

"You sure?" Melody asked.

Lisbon nodded.

"Come on, Melody. Before the line for the bouncy castle gets too long." James held out his hand and Melody took it, following him to the plaything.

"I was not expecting it to be this big." Lisbon commented as she and Jane laced their fingers together, walking to the drink station. "Good thing we put some water bottles in the trunk. One could die of thirst in this line."

Jane chuckled. "Whining already?"

"No."

Jane let go of her hand to wrap his arm around her waist as they took their place in line.

"If I were going to whine about something, it would be the fact you held my makeup hostage for a half an hour this morning to make me wear these stupid shorts."

"So, you got a little cut on your leg. It's not big deal."

"I scraped the entire side of my leg on gravel and it looks gross." Lisbon hissed. "Little cut my a-"

"Language, Teresa. There are children here."

Lisbon smacked his shoulder.

"Maybe next time you'll watch your step and accept help from me the next time you're trying to carry things that are too big for a single person to carry into the house."

"Shut up." Lisbon grumbled.

"I still like your legs. Doesn't that count for something. That's why I pushed for you to wear shorts. You always wear long pants."

Lisbon rolled her eyes.

"Besides. It's too warm out for you to be wearing jeans. And look on the bright side, you get a lovely new pair of shorts."

"Where did you find these things, anyway? Shorter-the-better short store? Seriously."

"Just because they don't reach all the way to your fingertips and past them, Miss. Catholic Education, doesn't mean they're not tasteful or too short. That girl's shorts over there are too short." Jane tilted his head slightly.

"Well that girl's probably sixteen and thinks she's being trendy-whoa that's more of that girl than I ever would have wanted to see." Lisbon shook her head, catching sight of the girl Jane had been referring to. "I hope that trend is gone by the time Melody becomes a teenager." Lisbon shivered at the thought of Melody wearing a pair of shorts that short. Annie hadn't seemed partial to that trend, thank god.

Jane kissed her head. "I'd never let you leave home like that."

"Yeah, because I'm the one that buys myself short shorts." Lisbon teased.

"They're not that short." Jane defended.

"Mhm." Lisbon grinned, steeping forward when it was their turn and filled up four cups of juice with Jane to take to Melody and James.

"Here you go." Jane handed James one of the cups they'd filled with juice.

"Thanks." James accepted the plastic cup from him and took a sip.

"She going to be in there much longer?" Lisbon asked, scanning the group of bouncing and screaming kids, easily picking Melody out as she bounced as high as she could holding hands with another young girl.

"I think she's got just over another minute." James said. "They're only allowed five minutes at a time, apparently. I was watching the egg race."

Jane looked over to where the banner for the egg race was. "Haven't seen these games being played for a while."

"That's a shame because they're fun." James waved at Melody.

"Nothing wrong with bringing back a good old-fashioned egg race." Jane agreed.

The bouncy castle volunteer called for all the kids on the bouncy castle to get off so the next group could get on.

Melody slid out from under the gap in the netting and put her sandals back on. "Did you see me?" She asked excitedly as she hurried over to them. "Did you see how high I bounced?"

"Yeah, we did." James smiled. "Good job." He held out his hand and Melody high-fived him.

"You look thirsty." Lisbon held out the other cup of juice to Melody.

"Thank you." Melody took the cup and had a sip.

"So, Daddy wanted to go to the egg race." Jane told Melody. "You think he should go? We can wait at the end and cheer for him."

"Yeah! Daddy, you should go do the egg race!"

"Well, I don't know if I-"

"Come on, Daddy! You're good at balancing things!"

"Okay, I'll go and get in the next race. Come with me?"

"Of course." Melody smiled, taking her father's hand and the group went over to the egg race.

James signed up for the egg race once their drinks were all finished and got a sterilized spoon with an egg.

"We'll see you at the end." Jane told James, adjusting Melody on his back. "We'll be cheering for you."

"Good luck. I'm sure you'll do great." Lisbon smiled.

"Thanks." James smiled. "See you guys when I get down there."

Jane, Lisbon and Melody walked down to the finish line and waited for the race to start. Jane put Melody down.

"Okay, Melody. Cheer as loud as you can when they say go. Can you do that?"

Melody nodded.

"Okay. I thought so. And Teresa and I are going to help you."

They cheered with the rest of the families standing at the finish line when the race started.

"Come on, Daddy!" Melody cheered as the participants stumbled toward the finish, eggs wobbling on the spoons.

James was in the middle of the pack, but slowly advanced to third and then second, when the father in front of him had to stop and place the egg back on the spoon. He was tied for first, but managed to pull ahead just in time to finish first.

"Yay!" Melody hollered as she ran over and gave her father a hug. "You won, Daddy! You won!"

"I did." James smiled and hugged her. "You did such a good job cheering for me. Thank you."

"You're welcome." Melody kissed his cheek.

"Lets go see what else there is." Lisbon suggested and they headed off.

-Mentalist-

"Did you like your hotdog?" Lisbon asked Melody as they threw away their food wrappers after their meal. They were getting into the late afternoon and some parents were starting to head home.

"Yes." Melody nodded.

"That was an awful lot of ketchup you put on it." Jane teased. "You sure you even tasted the meat?"

"I did." Melody assured him. "Can we do the three-legged race now, Daddy?"

James glanced around and found the three-legged race. "I don't know. It looks a little rough."

"But, I want to do the three-legged race before they leave. They already took the bouncy castle. It won't be a rough race. I promise."

James looked back at the people already in the race, two people fell. He wanted to be around as long as he could and injuring his already fragile bones in a three-legged race was not the way to do that. "I'm sorry. I can't do the race."

"Okay." Melody pouted.

"I'll go with you."

Melody looked up at Jane, appearing hopeful. "You will?"

"Sure. I pushed you on the tire swing. I can go to the three-legged race."

"Okay." Melody beamed. "Yeah!"

"But after that, we go home, okay? Everything's winding down."

"Okay." Melody agreed as they headed for the three-legged race.

"See you guys at the finish." Jane said, giving Lisbon a kiss, then going with Melody to enter the race.

"Not too tight?" The volunteer that had tied their legs together asked.

"I'm good." Jane looked at Melody.

"It's good." Melody nodded.

Jane leaned down and whispered in Melody's ear. "Okay. Here's the plan."

Melody smiled and listened attentively.

"When I say one, we'll step with our untied foot. On two, we'll step with our tied foot. Can you remember that?"

"Yes."

"Okay. Lets get to the starting line, then. Shall we?"

They practiced their strategy to the starting line. One, two. One two. They waited in their spot at the starting line with the other groups for the volunteer to yell go.

"On your mark! Get set! Go!"

"One." Jane said and they both stepped with their outer legs. "Two." They stepped with their inner legs, Jane taking smaller steps to accommodate Melody. "One. Two." After a few steps they started a rhythm and picked up their pace as one pair near them fell and then another.

Melody was smiling brightly, staring at her feet to make sure she was moving them properly, occasionally glancing up to make sure they were heading straight.

"We're almost there." Jane told her.

Melody looked up and saw the finish line, then glanced sideways. "We have to go faster. They're catching up!" They could both hear Lisbon and James cheering them on.

"Then we'll go faster." Jane told her and they sped up their pace, trying not to fall. They made it over the line just in time, beating the other pair by only a few centimetres.

"Good job you two!" Lisbon clapped as she and James made their way over to them.

"You're a little champion." James kissed Melody's cheek and Melody giggled.

"Thank you." She smiled.

Jane and Melody's legs were untied and they were both given a blue ribbon for first place.

"That was so much fun!" Melody talked enthusiastically as they all made their way back to the car. "Did you have fun, Patrick?"

"Yes, I did." Jane smiled at her. "Thank you for inviting us."

"You're welcome." Melody gave him a tight hug before getting in the car and putting on her seatbelt.

The drive home was filled with conversation about their day and the food. It seemed all too soon that Lisbon pulled the car up in front of Melody and James' building and they had to say goodnight.

"I'm glad you guys came." James gave Lisbon and Jane each a hug.

"So am I." Lisbon smiled, giving Melody a hug.

"Sign me up for next year." Jane grinned.

"I'll be sure to do that." James nodded. "Thanks again for going with her at the three-legged race."

"Not a problem." Jane shook his head.

"Goodnight you two." Lisbon said.

"Goodnight." Melody and James replied together and they waved as they headed into their building.

Lisbon and Jane got back in the car, doing up their seatbelts.

"You okay over there?" Lisbon looked Jane's way.

He smiled at her. "I'm better than okay. I'm great, actually. That's one of the best Father's Days I've had in a very long time."

"Lisbon reached over and gave Jane's hand a gentle squeeze. "I'm glad to hear that."

Author's Note: Let me know what you thought in a review! Sorry again for the delay. Love you guys!