A big shout-out to everybody who's reviewed this week. I love you all lots.

10. More Surprises and He Wanted to Tell Her That. . .

"So, we should definitely meet for dinner," Shani said to Lisbon. "Call me any time and we can work out the details."

"Okay," Lisbon agreed, pulling Shani into a hug. "It was great meeting you!"

"You too!" Shani replied, returning her hug. She pulled away. "Girls, say goodbye to Aunt Tess and thank her for everything she and Uncle Patrick did for you two in Hawaii."

"Thank you," April said, hugging Lisbon goodbye. "I had the best time with you and Uncle Patrick. It was so great of you to let us tag along with you two, even though it was your honeymoon."

"It wasn't a problem April, we loved having you around," Lisbon replied, returning her hug. "We'll get together soon for a girl's day out, just you and me."

Daisy threw her arms around Lisbon's legs. "I'm going to miss you."

Lisbon picked her up. "We'll see each other soon. Uncle Patrick and I want you to come and spend the night with us in a couple of weeks. . . and you too April."

Jane joined Lisbon and the girls, he gave April a hug and said goodbye to her. Then he pulled Lisbon and Daisy into a group hug. There was another round of goodbyes before they all went their separate ways.

.

"I have another surprise for you," Jane said as he drove away from the airport.

"I want to know how your car got to the airport, forget surprises," Lisbon replied.

"Oh. . . I had Cho drop it off for me," he answered. "This is better than my car at the airport though."

"Really?"

"Really," Jane said earnestly. He searched through his pockets and pulled out the tie he had used to cover her face the day they had left for Hawaii. "But first, you have to cover your eyes."

"Why?" Lisbon whined, tying the tie around them all the same.

Jane smiled. "You'll see."

Twenty minutes later, they pulled to a complete stop. Lisbon looked around, confused. "Why did you stop? Are we at the office yet? Jane?"

"Patience woman!" Jane replied, he got out of the car and came around to help her out.

"I have a feeling that we're not at the office," Lisbon said, as Jane slipped his hand into her's and they started to walk.

"Shh!" Jane ordered. He released her, made her wait for a couple of minutes, took her blindfold off, then covered her eyes with his hands.

"Come on Jane!" Lisbon pleaded.

"Okay!" Jane took his hands off her eyes, and rested them on her shoulders. "Welcome home!"

Lisbon looked confused. "This is. . . your home though. Your's and Olivia's. . ."

He shook his head. "I had it remodeled while we were away. It's your home now. Your home, and my home. . . our home."

"Oh. . . oh my gosh."

There was a knock on the door, and Jane turned around to answer it. Van Pelt and Rigsby were standing on the porch, smiling at him.

"Are we too early?" Rigsby asked.

"No, perfect timing," Jane said, letting them in.

"Wow! It looks great!" Van Pelt said, coming into the hallway and looking around. "I was here when they first started. . . all I can say is, wow. It's like a whole new house."

"Hi Van Pelt."

"Boss!" Van Pelt pulled her into a hug. "You look AWESOME! You look like you've been in Hawaii for two weeks. I'm so jealous."

"Well, don't be jealous. We had an awful time." Lisbon smiled. "I bought a bunch of things for you though. "

"You didn't have to bring me anything," Van Pelt said.

Lisbon waved her off. "It was no big deal. I wanted to."

There was another knock at the door and Jane answered it again. This time Hightower came in, followed by Cho and Cho's girlfriend.

"Welcome back," Hightower said, handing Lisbon a bottle of Champagne. "I hope you two had a marvelous time in Hawaii."

"It was really nice," Lisbon answered. "Thank you for giving me the vacation time"

"You earned it," Hightower said. "Besides, you and Jane are still young, you should enjoy yourselves while you can. . . and before the kids come."

Lisbon laughed. "Kids. . . right."

"Hey!" Minelli came into the house. "I hope you don't mind, I let myself in."

"Who invited you?" Jane asked, giving the man a handshake.

"Cho called and told me that you two had gotten married," Minelli answered. "And then, he told me that there was a housewarming. So, I invited myself. I wanted to congratulate the two of you for finally getting married."

"Finally?" Lisbon asked.

"Well, it's a pleasure to see you Virgil. We've missed you," Jane said. "Thank you for coming."

"Who else did you invite?" Lisbon asked.

"Just a few others," Jane answered. "Tavis, Shani, and the girls should be here soon. And I invited Mashburn—"

"Walter Mashburn?" She looked like she was trying not to laugh. "Are you kidding me?"

"No! Of course he's not kidding you!" Mashburn said. "Jane, you know how much I hate to lose. But if I had to lose, I'm glad that I lost to such a worthy opponent."

"Worthy opponent?" Lisbon asked. "Jane. . . is there something you're not telling me?"

"Of course there's something he isn't telling you. There's always something he isn't telling you."

Lisbon glared at Jane. "You invited Kristina Frye?"

"It seemed like a good idea at the time." Jane shrugged.

"Listen, Agent Lisbon. . . no hard feelings. I knew this was coming the whole time. I had a vision of it happening."

"Oh, well. . . thank you," Lisbon said.

Kristina smiled and turned to Mashburn. "I'm Kristina Frye, and you are?"

"Walter Mashburn," he replied. "You know, you're not bad looking. A little uptight maybe. But I could fix that."

She took his arm. "Sounds divine, tell me how you'd do it."

Lisbon turned to Jane. "You planned that one, didn't you?"

"A little match-making never hurt anybody," Jane answered. "Now if you'd excuse me, I think that Tavis and Shani just got here."

"Wait a minute!" Lisbon stopped him. "I never said that you did anything wrong. In fact, I'm happy you did it. Now I won't have to worry about that woman plastering herself all over my husband."

"And I won't have to worry about Mashburn chasing after my wife." Jane stopped. "Although, I never really had to worry about that. He knew when he first met us that he had already lost."

"Lost?" Lisbon asked.

"Never you mind," Jane said. "Look who's here! It's our favorite Cooper family!"

"Sorry that we lied to you," April addressed Lisbon.

"You didn't lie to me," Lisbon assured her. "I never suspected a thing, so I never asked about it."

Van Pelt came back into the hall. "Come on! We all want to see your house. Don't you want to see your house?"

Lisbon's eyes widened. "Oh my gosh! My apartment!"

"Hightower found somebody to sublease it," Jane said. "I covered all the bases."

"Except you didn't ask me to move in with you."

"Okay, fine. . . Teresa, don't you think it's time we moved in together? I mean, we've been seeing each other a lot—"

She slapped him playfully. "Oh, shut up!"

Jane looked at Tavis. "I'll take that as a yes."

.

"The house is incredible Jane," Lisbon said, later that night after everybody had left and they were cleaning up. "I can't believe you did all of this for me. It must have been a huge step."

"But for you, it was worth it," Jane answered. "I think—"

"I remember the first time I came over here," Lisbon said suddenly. "You hadn't come into work, and I was scared you had done something stupid. So, I came to check up on you. You got so angry with me because I came into your bedroom and saw the little blow up mattress under Red John's signature. Then I started to cry, because I thought you were so strong. But I saw a real vulnerable side to you. And then you started to cry too. And you held me. . ." there were tears welling up in her eyes.

Jane dropped his towel and came over to her. "Oh Lisbon. . ."

"Now. . . now there's a double bed, and that smiley-face is covered up. Like, you're really ready to move on."

"It's because I am ready to move on," he said.

"Well, in a year, you can." She smiled at him, trying hard not to think of the coming year. Trying hard not to think about how she was falling in love with her husband. "Come on, I'm exhausted. We can finish this in the morning. Hightower gave us the next two days off."

"You go on," Jane said. "I want to finish this."

Lisbon nodded and leaned up, pressing her lips to his cheek. "Thank you. . . for being so. . . so you. I don't know what I'd do without you."

"You're welcome," Jane said, wishing that he could just tell her that he didn't want to get an annulment, that he wanted to stay with her forever. That she was the woman, he wanted to move on with, and that's why he was doing all of the things he was doing. They were all truly for her.

He wanted to tell her that he would miss her arms around him while they slept, and that his hand would feel so empty, because her fingers were the only fingers that fit between his so perfectly. He would feel so sad when he looked at his hand. He wanted to tell her that he would miss their whispered laughter and conversation in bed. He wanted to tell her that when they were together, he didn't feel alone anymore. . . and if she left, he would feel alone all over again. He wanted to tell her, even if they did get the marriage annulled, he would be thinking of her every time he blinked. . . he would wish she was there with him.

He wanted to tell her these things, but he just couldn't. All of his courage had mysteriously disappeared the day she had looked up at him with her green eyes and proposed marriage.

(A/N: the last part of this chapter was inspired by "Vanilla Twilight" by Owl City.)