Disclaimer: I own nothing.
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It's a slow day at the office as Patrick Jane lays back on his couch, presumably asleep. In fact, the whole week had been slow, and so even Kimball Cho – now Agent in Charge – was finding it hard to keep busy, and had resorted to reading a novel with his feet propped up on his desk, an activity he had not had opportunity to partake in recently.
Where before he lay on the couch pretending to be asleep, and if he was completely honest as a means to avoid doing any work and keeping well out of range of Agent Lisbon, he now relished his 'quiet time' on the couch as it was pretty much the only time in any given day that he was got peace and quiet.
Hold that thought...
His apparent sleep is interrupted when his ears perk up at a new noise - a noise that is swiftly followed by two little bodies hitting the edge of his couch. 'Wake up Daddy!' crowed two and a half year old Marta.
Cracking an eye open he grins at his two daughters now standing in front of him. Rising up slightly, he turns to prop himself up on his elbow. 'Now what are we doing here?' he asks as he runs his other hand over their hair, Addy scowling at the movement and Marta bouncing on the balls of her feet with excitement.
'Daddy work!' piped up Marta as Addy fixed her eyes on him with a searching look. 'You don't seem to be working very hard though,' said the four year old with her head on an angle.
'No sweetheart,' said a new voice. 'That's how Daddy works.' Patrick laughs sarcastically as he sits up and looks at his wife standing next to van Pelt's desk as owner of that said piece of furniture didn't bother to hide her snort either.
'I'm going to work like Daddy,' declares his oldest as she jumped up onto the lounge and Marta tries to scramble up after. 'Me too! Me too!' Giving Marta a boost up to assist her climb, Patrick looks as his two daughters both lie down next to each other and close their eyes.
'I'm working!' declares his middle child gleefully.
'No Mar, you've got to do it like this,' said Addy in a patronising tone to her younger sister. 'Arms cross over and head back...'
Leaving them to argue about the correct manner to 'work', and ignoring the laughs around him at his expense, Patrick slides off the couch onto his knees in order to coax his recently grounded youngest daughter to him. 'Come to Daddy sweetheart,' he calls with his arms open. 'You're not laughing at Daddy like these mean people are you?' he continues.
A look of triumph swiftly changes to a look of despair as his nine month old crawls toward him at a breakneck speed before she diverts and grabs a desk leg as she tries to stand up on her own two feet. Rigsby slaps him on the back as Patrick stands up faking dejection. 'Tough luck mate.'
He has to resist the urge to poke his tongue out as Teresa Lisbon makes his way over toward him. 'You right to handle them for half an hour or so?' asks his wife.
'Can do,' he responds, giving her a quick kiss as she passes him with a pat on his chest and leaves the bullpen, his eyes already focused on the unbalanced baby wobbling on her unsteady feet as she reaches out a hand to her father's pant leg. Swooping down to pick up Sorcha, Patrick takes a seat on the couch once again as the team huddles around. Rigsby seats himself on the edge of Lance Nottingham's desk as van Pelt makes her way over and Cho ever so quietly slips into the bullpen and takes a seat at a spare desk, opening his novel up once again.
Patrick places Sorcha on his lap, balanced against the couch arm rest, as he pulls his two other giggling 'workers' toward him. He seats his children next to him on the couch in turn: 'J1!' he declares as he pulls Addy up into a seated position, 'J2!' is Marta and then pulling a funny face, he shifts Sorcha into the gap next to him with a grand announcement of 'J3!' Throwing an arm out to stop Sorcha's possible forward movement off the edge of the couch, Patrick looks as pleased as punch as Rigsby takes a sip of his drink and poses a question. 'What about J4?' he jokes.
'Oh, they'll be here in six months or so – give or take,' responded Patrick flippantly. It is quite amusing to watch Rigsby's reaction: coffee came flying out of his mouth as he coughs. 'Another one?' he gasps out as Sorcha claps her hands with glee at the spectacle.
'Yep,' responded Patrick nonchalantly as if he hadn't just dropped a bombshell. 'Wasn't planned, but eh,' he shrugged with a grin.
'Wow,' said van Pelt as Lance Nottingham just looked at the sight before him. Even after four years with the team, Patrick Jane was still an enigma to him. 'Congrats,' said a voice on the other side of the room as Cho put his two cents worth in.
'Cho!' called Addy happily as she jumped off the couch and looked for her most favourite person in the world – apart from her Mummy and Daddy, and maybe her sisters, that is. Finding him at a desk, head now buried in his novel once again, Adelaide races across the room.
Where Cho's blank face and gruff demeanour might scare children - and a number of adults - this four year old was more than willing to slip under his arms and scramble into his lap. 'Cho!' said Addy joyfully as she hugged him then sat back on his lap and got straight to the point. 'Have you got any lollipops?'
'Hmm,' responds Cho, with a teasing look that suggests he might not have any. 'There might just be a container of them in my office.'
''Course there is silly,' chides Addy rolling her eyes before she places her hands on Cho's shoulders. 'Could I please have one?'
'You been a good girl lately?' Cho probed with a raised eyebrow as Addy nods her head so vehemently that there is a real risk of her hair falling from her ponytail. 'Well in that case, what flavour would you like?'
'Well, I think I'll have a strawberry one,' Addy said, finger to her chin as if in deep thought. 'And Mar will have a plain one, but I don't know what flavour Sorch will want, so I think I better have one of each.'
'I don't think Sorcha will be having a lollipop,' said Cho humorously as Addy pins him with a serious expression. 'She might want one,' she said sombrely. 'And it would be very rude not to ask.'
'Right,' responded Cho slowly. Knowing exactly what she was doing, and marvelling that this little girl was far too much like her father, Cho stands up and slides Addy to the floor. Throwing Patrick a look and indicating that he was heading to his office with Addy, he can see that exact same girl behind him punching the air silently with a 'yes!'
Patrick waved his hand in Cho's direction and smirked as he saw his eldest reach up and grasp Cho's hand, no doubt to 'help' him to the office, but his attention was swiftly brought back to the couch when Sorcha – who had previously been standing on his knees and bouncing up and down – suddenly slips and bounces on something not quite so comfortable. Winded, Patrick stands the baby next to him to grip the couch back as he leans forward releasing a rush of air. 'Family jewels,' he mutters under his breath.
Meanwhile Marta has taken up a new game that involves jumping from the arm rest onto the couch: she could jump a long way, but sometimes she ended up in the gap between the cushions and once she didn't go very far because she kind of slipped off. Ever resourceful, her enjoyment is furthered by Rigsby and Lance, as while she couldn't quite understand what they were talking about, she knew that the more she jumped, the more cheers she got.
When Teresa Lisbon returned from her meeting with Minelli twenty five minutes later, it was to the sight of one daughter with a lollipop in her mouth and four others in her hand sitting on a desk near Cho, one daughter running toward the couch to flop headfirst onto it with a laugh as Rigsby cheered her on, and another daughter on the floor near van Pelt's feet with a pen in her hand (and very close to her mouth) as her husband tries to reason with her.
Resting her hand on her slight swell, she wondered if her next – and final! – child would be a little curious rambunctious prankster just like her sisters, and dare she say it, just like her father.