AN: Hey, y'all! Sorry this chapter is up later than I thought it would be, fanfiction decided to crash twice while I was trying to upload. Anyway, I hope you enjoy it! :)
Lisbon woke up suddenly in the middle of the night and rolled over to look at the time. It was around three in the morning. Jane was missing, the covers pulled up to the pillow on his side of the bed. He had told her that he would try to get some sleep, but she decided that enough was enough.
Lisbon decided to take matters into her own hands.
She crept out of bed and padded down the stairs quietly, peeking over the banister so that she could see the living room. Sure enough, Jane was sitting up on the couch, drinking a cup of tea, and reading a book.
"Jane?" she whispered.
He looked up and noticed her standing on the steps. Her hair was ruffled and it looked as if she had just woken up.
"Lisbon? Is everything okay?"
"Mmhmm." she rubbed one eye and tied up the waistband of her sweatpants. "I thought you said you were going to get some sleep."
"I will. I just got sidetracked."
Lisbon sighed deeply and made her way to the couch where he was sitting. "No more lying. You have to sleep, Jane. Come to bed."
Before she fully realized what she had said, her face was already a bright shade of red. Lisbon could blame the slip-up on any number of things, she was tired, she wasn't fully awake, whatever she could think of, but it didn't change the fact that both of them heard it.
He raised an eyebrow.
"I didn't mean it like that. I just meant that you need to get some sleep, in a real bed instead of a couch. You can finish your book later, right now is time to sleep." She grabbed his hand and pulled him off the couch.
When they had gotten up to the bedroom, he went into the bathroom to change. She was almost asleep when he got back, but he nudged her awake.
"Lisbon, are you okay with this?"
"With what?" she mumbled.
"With me sleeping in the same bed as you."
"It's fine," she said quietly. "We're just sleeping, and you need the rest. Stop worrying about me and go to sleep."
Eventually, he gave in and climbed under the covers next to her, falling asleep to the sound of her even breathing.
In that time, Jane learned something interesting. Lisbon was a subconscious cuddler.
It made sense, he realized, she was always cold. Every time he handed her something, her hands were freezing and she usually wore a jacket when they went out. In his experience, people who run cold usually huddle together with another person to keep warm. He woke up around eight with an unfamiliar weight on him. Looking down, he noticed that Lisbon, who had gone to sleep on the other side of the bed, was now nestled between his arm and his side, curled like a cat into the empty space. She had an arm thrown over his chest and his legs crossed hers at the ankle. He found that he had put his own arm around her waist, pulling her close into him.
Jane watched her for a little while, studying the gentle rise and fall of her chest and the way her lips were slightly parted. He shifted a bit to make sure that she was comfortable, but didn't have the heart to get up like he originally planned. It was his fault that she didn't get a full night's sleep, after all.
Jane knew there was some sort of unspoken rule between people, something no one usually addresses but everyone understands. When someone falls asleep on you, you don't move. Even if you were planning on getting up, or desperately need food, you still don't move because this kind of innocent intimacy doesn't happen every day. Instead, you set aside your plans for as long as it takes for the other person to wake up on their own so that when they do wake up, they feel loved and appreciated.
So he followed that rule and lay there, not moving, just thinking.
Eventually, she stirred a little, brushing the hair out of her face and moving to sit up, but Jane held her in place.
"Good morning, Lisbon. I take it you slept well," he said.
"Mmmmm," she groaned. "After I went back to sleep, yes."
"Do I make a good pillow?"
"What?"
Lisbon sat up faster, suddenly realizing how close she was to Jane. Quickly, she untangled herself from his grasp.
"Oh my god. I fell asleep on you, didn't I?"
He grinned. "Not really on me. You kind of just cuddled up with me."
"Jane, I'm so sorry," Lisbon said. "I didn't mean to invade your space like that."
"Hey, it's okay. As you said, we weren't doing anything wrong, and you were probably just cold."
"I didn't wake you up, did I?" she asked, concern in her voice.
"Not at all. You're kind of like a weighted blanket. Or my own personal space heater. To be honest, I probably slept better last night than I have in a long time," he admitted.
Lisbon laughed. "Well, in that case, I'm happy to help. Although to be honest, I think Agent Walker would call that kind of thing less than professional."
"Seriously?"
"What do you mean, seriously?" She frowned.
"I mean you're too focused on the job, Lisbon. You've got this week off, just enjoy it. I may not be your favorite person to spend your vacation with, but hey, I can do fun things with you if that's what you want."
"We're still working."
"Technically, yes," he conceded. "But no one's coming to visit today, and the only thing we have to do is call that number to get the location and time for the next fight, and make sure that Walker and Sanchez want us to go."
"I'm sure they will. They won't want to give up the ruse yet."
"Okay. If nothing comes up at work, we can just hang out for today. But promise me you'll remember to call that number! We don't want to miss an opportunity to be at one of the fights," Lisbon said.
He tapped his forehead. "My mind is a fortress, remember?"
"Right." she leaned over and hugged him. "Thank you for letting me fall asleep on you."
Before he could say anything, she was out of the bed and headed for the kitchen, no doubt in search of a caffeine fix. He got up more slowly, noticing the spicy cinnamon scent that lingered on his clothes. Jane headed for the shower first, reluctant to rid himself of the scent of her shampoo.
After a quick shower, he joined Lisbon in the kitchen, where she had made a fresh pot of coffee and a cup of tea for him. He frowned when he saw her sitting at the table, engrossed in something on her laptop.
Brushing past her, he pretended to knock into it, slamming it shut.
"Damn it, Jane!" she yelled, quickly putting her phone down and turning the computer back on. "Hold on Cho, I have to pull the file back up."
Jane gave her a sheepish grin as he realized she was helping the team with something. "Sorry," he mouthed across the table.
She furrowed her brow and gave him one of those trademark Lisbon glares he had come to love so much. Lisbon lowered the phone from her ear and hit a button. "Okay, you're on speakerphone now. Jane's here too if you want his input."
"Did we get a case?" he asked.
She nodded.
"Hey, Jane. Boss, Van Pelt sent the files on the victim over to you, they should be showing up now," Cho said curtly.
Lisbon pulled up the files and zoomed in so Jane could see too. "Looks like our victim was found dead in her bathroom, not uncommon. What do we know about the family?"
"She lives with her sister, moved out from her parents' house a few months ago. The boyfriend claims he was out and was coming over for a visit when he found the body," Cho reported.
"Interesting. Keep digging, send me the recordings of the interviews. Hopefully, this will turn out to be an open and shut case," Lisbon told him.
"Will do. So you've managed not to kill Jane yet?" he asked.
"'Yet' being the keyword," she replied. "I thought he was a pain in the ass to work with, he's even worse to live with."
"Come on, Lisbon, you can't complain, I let you fall asleep on me last night so-"
She scooped up the phone, lightning-fast, and brought it off speaker. "Okay, sorry Cho, we've got to go, bye!"
Jane smirked. "Don't want your colleagues to know you cuddled with me all night?"
"It sounds so bad when you put it like that! Don't you dare bring it up again."
"A threat! I like it when you get all authoritarian on me."
"I'm not joking."
"I know you aren't," he said seriously. "I just like to have a little fun with you, okay? You're cute when you get mad. Like a little firecracker."
"Jane."
"Or a pocket rocket."
"Jane."
"Fiery, irascible, irate, exasperated-"
"Shut up! Just shut up, Jane," she yelled, burying her face in her hands. "First of all, I am not cute. I am not adorable when I am angry or at any other time. I am a respected law enforcement officer, my job is not to be cute!"
He patted her shoulder sympathetically. "We can't help what we are, Lisbon."
"Why do I even bother?" She stood up and stalked across the kitchen. "I'm going to take a shower. If Cho calls, you're not allowed to answer."
"Aw, Lisbon. I'm degraded to phone duty?" he called after her.
"For that comment, phone duty, and dishes duty!"
Lisbon got under the scalding hot water still mad at Jane. It wasn't as if she hadn't heard it before, and she wasn't really that mad, but he didn't need to know that. To be honest, she was more embarrassed at the fact that Jane had mentioned the cuddling to Cho. Loss of respect from her team was the last thing she needed.
Jane stayed in the kitchen, scrubbing dishes and cleaning the coffeepot and teapot for use later. For once, he decided to heed Lisbon's order to stay downstairs, that is until he ran out of things to do. He had already washed the dishes and put everything away, wiped the table, and emptied the dishwasher. Jane idly wondered where he left his book, before realizing that he had it with him when he went up to bed last night. He checked the landing outside the bedroom as well as the nightstand, dresser, and closet in their room, but his novel was nowhere to be found. It occurred to him that the book was probably still in the bathroom, and he accidentally brought it with him when he went in to brush his teeth, so he resolved to get it and wait for Lisbon downstairs.
Suddenly, the door to the bathroom opened.
"What the hell, Jane?!" Lisbon screeched, clad in just a towel. "Get out!"
"I'm sorry, I just-"
"Out!" she growled, picking up a tube of toothpaste from her side of the bathroom counter and throwing it at him. "Get out now!"
The toothpaste was quickly followed by a small tube of lotion, a soap bar, and a hairbrush, all whizzing by his head dangerously. Jane supposed that if she wanted to hit him, she would have, but all of the projectiles were slightly off-kilter.
When two people who are used to living alone are suddenly forced to share a space, there are a lot of fumbles. One such faux pas is one roommate walking in on the other one. Because they were so used to each having their own space, Lisbon had forgotten to lock the door and Jane had forgotten to knock.
Before she had time to send anything else flying his way, he turned tail and ran out of the room. To be honest, Jane wasn't sure if he had ever run that fast before. He made it down the stairs, collapsing on the couch, trying to keep the embarrassment at bay. However, his brain had a different idea of how to spend that time. If asked, Jane would always say that his impeccable memory was a blessing and a curse. On one hand, it made it easier for him to play games with people and to solve cases, but on the other hand, when he actually wanted to forget something, whether for his sake or someone else's, it wasn't easy.
This was one of those difficult times. He so badly wanted to forget the image of Lisbon's body wrapped in that towel, to stop envisioning her toned legs and arms, but he couldn't. It wasn't as if the memory was unpleasant, quite the opposite, but he knew his best friend well enough to understand that she didn't appreciate being on display in such a vulnerable way.
Which is why, when she finally did come downstairs, she sat curled up on the opposite side of the couch from him.
"So are we going to talk about what just happened?" Lisbon asked.
He avoided her gaze. "I was only going to say I'm sorry. I forgot for a moment that I'm not living alone, and if my mistake made you uncomfortable, it's the last thing I meant to do, I promise."
"It's okay. I'm sorry I threw things at you, I just got embarrassed. I'm not used to people seeing that much of me, and I wasn't expecting you to be right outside the bathroom."
Jane concurred with her statement. He didn't think he had actually ever seen Lisbon in anything that didn't cover most of her legs. So badly he wanted to take her into his arms, kiss her lips and cheeks and forehead and the tip of her nose, and tell her that she had no reason to be self-conscious. He wanted to be the one to hold her and tell her how beautiful she was, and how sorry he was that he had embarrassed her.
But he couldn't do that. It would mean tearing down all of the walls that he had worked so hard to build, the impenetrable fortress that he had placed himself inside, only accessible to those who knew the inner workings of his mind.
Instead, he said, "Lisbon, I've lived alone for a long time now, and I'm just not used to having to share a house with someone else. We didn't discuss this before, but maybe we should set some boundaries?"
"Boundaries are always good. What were you thinking?"
"Well, we want to minimize incidents like this morning, right? So maybe when one of us is in the upstairs bathroom, the other has to stay downstairs?"
"Okay," Lisbon nodded. "And if one of us can't sleep, it's okay to wake the other up, right? Just so that the other person can try to help if they need to talk about something?"
Jane knew that she was not so subtly referring to him.
"Sure," he agreed. "If you have a hard time sleeping, don't hesitate to wake me up."
"What about when we go out? We have to act more like a couple, and the 'no touching' boundary isn't going to work there," Lisbon pointed out.
"Are you uncomfortable with me touching you?"
"No! No, not like that, I just mean, well, I guess it's just that it feels more out of place whenever we go out so my reactions are sharper than they would normally be. But everything you were doing yesterday is okay."
He pondered this. "What do you mean by 'it feels out of place'?"
"The only time you do things like that is when we're acting. So when you do, I know it's all fake and my reactions aren't as genuine. That's all."
He stood up and walked over to her. "So you mean it would take you by surprise if I were to do something like this?"
Without any more warning, he leaned in and kissed her softly. Lisbon only had a moment to be surprised before her instincts took over and she wrapped her arms around him. She returned his kiss enthusiastically, before pulling back to breathe, dropping her arms from his shoulders.
Immediately, her face went red. "Um, well, actually yeah, that was surprising," she said stupidly.
God, Teresa, she chided herself, say something intelligent for once!
Jane flashed her a million-dollar smile. "I hope it was good surprising."
"Uhm, yes?" It came out more like a question than an answer.
Lisbon tried in vain to steel her thoughts, to not think about the ridges of muscle that she felt underneath his shirt. She tried so hard not to think about the delicious way he put his arms around her body when he kissed her, but most of all she tried not to dwell on the fact that he kissed her again, of his own volition, and she liked it. God, did she like it.
He stood again. "Good. Maybe if we try to keep up the act at the house, it'll look more authentic when we're out and about."
All she could do was nod numbly.
"Oh, and Teresa?" he continued as he walked out, "Don't worry about making me uncomfortable. As long as you're okay, I'm okay."
Lisbon knew that logically she had things she needed to do, she had paperwork to fill out and forms to submit, but for a minute she just sat there in the recliner, not moving, just thinking. She couldn't stop replaying the memory of Jane's lips on hers, as odd as it had been. It had been a while since she had been with anyone romantically. Sure, she had the occasional night with a man, but nothing had ever amounted to anything more than that. But for some reason she couldn't quite shake, this felt different. It felt as if all of her repressed feelings toward Jane had finally exploded. And although she wouldn't admit it, she desperately wanted to know where all this would lead.
By the time Lisbon composed herself again, briefly considering splashing some cold water on her face, she realized that through the events of the morning she had missed a lot of valuable work time. So she tried not to think about the fact that Jane had practically advised her to be more physically affectionate with him, and logged on to her laptop.
Opening her inbox, she had about twenty missed emails from the team, detailing a development in an old case that had been escalated up to them from Sacramento PD. Looking over the details, it seemed like a fairly straightforward case, but the whole reason it had landed with them was that there was no DNA evidence found at the scene.
"Hey, Jane?" she called to him from the kitchen table. "Can you come take a look at this please?"
He pulled out a chair next to her as she brought up the preliminary reports from the scene.
"That's odd," he remarked. "No DNA was found?"
Lisbon shook her head. "The gun was wiped of prints. All evidence points to the husband, but he has a solid alibi."
"It's him," Jane confirmed after watching the interrogation video. "I'm sure of it."
"Yeah, well, his alibi is unbreakable."
"Not when you apply the right force. Send our opinions back to the team, tell them to keep questioning suspects. Something will come up."
Lisbon sighed. "And if you're wrong?"
"I'm not wrong. We just have to figure out the tiny detail he didn't cover up."
So Lisbon replied to the emails with her and Jane's take on the case, and an order to keep talking to suspects until something came up. Her message included a request for the interrogation videos, and to keep them in the loop unless something came up. Not long after she sent the email, her phone lit up with a text from Grace.
It read, "Hey boss, we're going to keep working the case. Rigsby and Cho are taking a look at the scene again, seeing if Sac PD missed anything the first time. How's everything going over there?"
"Everything's fine," Lisbon lied. She typed back another quick message. "I've gotta go though, Jane's about to call the number we were given and I want to record it to send over to Sanchez and Walker. Talk later."
Jane came back with the business card, phone in hand. "You ready?"
Lisbon pulled up the audio recorder on her phone. "Go for it."
Jane dialed the number, and it rang a few times before answering with a robotic voice on the other end. It asked for his name and card number, which Jane supplied quickly, and the line shifted quickly to another automated voice, this one slightly less artificial sounding.
"Mr. Jane," it said, putting an emphasis on his name. "Sunday, November 14. 4003 Rampart Street, Warehouse District." The line clicked and went dead.
"Well, that was anticlimactic," Lisbon said sullenly as she stopped the recorder. "I was expecting something a little less anonymous. At least it's tomorrow, and we don't have to wait."
"But it makes sense," he argued. "Even if we had Van Pelt trace the line, it wouldn't go anywhere. That's why it's all automated."
Lisbon texted the address to Sanchez and Walker before turning her phone off. "I guess."
"And now, on to the more important things. What do you want for dinner?"
"Um, I don't know. What were you thinking?"
"Is pasta okay with you? If you'd rather something else, then I can-"
"Pasta's fine," she said. "I'm looking forward to trying it. You seem to know your way around the kitchen."
As he cooked, Lisbon sat on one of the barstools and watched him prepare chicken and noodles. He even made his own sort of sauce, with crushed tomatoes, olive oil, red pepper, basil, and a ton of other herbs that she probably couldn't even identify if she tried.
He really was going all out for this, she thought to herself.
At some point, she moved to turn on the radio and hummed along to one of the songs that came on. A look of disgust ran across Jane's face.
"You like this stuff?" he asked incredulously.
"It's not bad music," she argued.
"But you're a Spice Girls fan."
"How the hell do you know that?"
"You told me. When I hypnotized you."
She turned red. "I told you that?"
"Well, I asked, you just confirmed it. Simple, ask and you shall receive," Jane said, waving a spoon in her face.
Lisbon was about to continue the music argument, but the radio switched over to Livin' on a Prayer, a song they both loved, and she watched as he danced goofily around the kitchen, adding something of this or that to one of the pans he had on the stove. Before long, the food was ready, and because it was getting late, they ate quickly.
"Jane, this is delicious," she said after trying the pasta. "Where did you learn to cook like this?"
"When you have a talent for memorization, remembering the recipes to various dishes is easy. The hardest part is actually preparing them, a technique I have mastered over the years," he joked.
"I'm going to hire you as my personal chef," Lisbon said. "Even if it means I have to spend more time with you outside of work, at least I'll be rewarded with good food."
"Careful," he said. "I come with a hefty price tag."
"Oh yeah? And what's that?"
He pretended to think it over. "For tonight? A kiss will be payment enough for this meal."
Lisbon smiled. "Fine."
They cleaned up the dishes, and Lisbon made sure to give Jane a kiss in return for the lovely food. Because it was late evening by the time they had finished chatting, Lisbon decided to retire to bed early. Jane followed not too far behind, waiting until she had left the bathroom and climbed into bed before changing into his pajamas and joining her. All the necessary precautions to make sure he didn't walk in on her again.
Lisbon rolled over sleepily as she felt the other side of the bed dip. "Goodnight, Jane. Thanks for dinner."
"Goodnight, Teresa. You're welcome."
His last thought before he drifted off to sleep was that if he got this reaction all the time from cooking for her, maybe it wouldn't be too bad to be her personal chef.
