A/N: A MAJOR thanks to everybody that has reviewed this story. I just... I can't... I can't begin to describe how much you all mean to me!
I so very much LOVED writing this chapter :D. It's both a bit about Lisbon's past, but also about Jane's past, and- Just read it, for God's sake :D. And ENJOY!
Disclaimer: I don't own The Mentalist! Too bad, right? It would be pretty cool if I did, though :D. I get to be around Robin and Simon the entire day. HEAVEN!
A big smile appeared on Teresa's face.
"For you," he said, and gave it to her.
Teresa examined the present. It was a stuffed animal of a lemur, not too big, just big enough. A cute pink ribbon was tied around its neck.
She looked at him.
He smiled back.
"Do you like it?" he asked. She sighed.
"I don't know...," she said, seriously. He pouted.
But Teresa hugged him, swinging her arms around his neck, suffocating the animal in Jane's back.
Jane happily complied, placing his hands on the small of her back.
"I love it, thank you," she whispered in his ear. She pulled away, and placed a small kiss on Jane's cheek. He smiled.
"Care for another round?" he asked, taking her hand in his.
She nodded, and ran away, pulling him out of the shop.
While still laughing they arrived at the lemurs.
They stared at them, their hands still intertwined.
"What is it that you like about them?" he asked, and she shrugged.
"I don't know. I just love to see them running around. And they are always together, in a group. That's just sweet," she explained.
He nodded in understanding. He stared at the lemurs again, and suddenly began talking.
"I've had this as well. What you're having now. I almost drowned in a lake, and I got back to the man I was before my family died. For me, it was weird, but for you it was a total nightmare. I misbehaved, and you eventually thought of something to get my mind back to your consultant, and not the con man I used to be. You helped me," he said, and at the end of his monologue, he looked at Teresa.
An eyebrow was raised.
"What was that?" she asked. He turned around to face her.
"My family was killed by a serial killer named Red John. His trademark is a bloody smiley from the blood of his victims on the wall. The smiley he made from my family is still in that house. You brought me there, and it suddenly struck to me who I was," he explained.
"Okay... Why are you telling me this?" she asked, not sure of the importance of this information.
"Yesterday you asked me what you were like," he said.
She sighed.
"Do you know my dad?" she asked, and he frowned.
Should he tell her?
"No, I don't."
"You should meet him, you can show him how people are supposed to be behaving," she said, proudly.
He closed his eyes.
"I don't know your dad, Teresa, because he died when you were fourteen," he said, and Teresa's eyes widened.
"Come again?"
"You've seen that picture in your drawer? Your little brother Tommy drew that right after you two saw that he killed himself," Jane said. Teresa looked as if she was on the edge of collapsing, and he took her to the nearest bench.
Teresa swung her arms around him, burying her face in the crook of his neck.
Jane placed his hands on her back, rubbing soothing circles to calm her down. He saw people looking at them. He couldn't care less. It wasn't that busy in this section of the zoo, so that was a relief, but he still hated to have this conversation with Teresa in here. But he knew it was his own fault: he'd started it.
She started to cry, moistening his shirt.
After a few minutes she suddenly pulled away when something struck to her.
"Wait a minute! My mum's dead, and my dad is as well, apparently. What about me and my brothers?" she asked, brushing the tears away from her eyes.
"You took care of your little brothers," he simply said, and she frowned.
"Is that even possible?"
"Officially? No. But you did it. I don't how, because you didn't tell me yet, but I'm sure it was hard," he said.
Teresa looked at the animal.
"I want to go home," she whispered, and Jane nodded. He grabbed her hand, and pulled her up on her feet again.
At the exit, people frowned when they saw the two. When they entered the zoo, they were all happy and stuff, joking around and touching each other, and now, the woman looked like she could suffer from a mental breakdown any moment, and the guy just followed her, his left hand on the small of her back.
When they got into the car, Teresa just sat there, looking outside, dried tears still on her cheeks.
Jane swallowed. It was a heartbreaking sight. He wished that there was anything he could do, but he knew there wasn't. She had to process this all, and think about it, before he started to do anything with it.
Maybe he could tell something that wasn't really emotional, something funny.
"You know, me driving the car is actually quite rare, you know that?"
Teresa turned around to look at him.
"What do you mean?" she asked, her voice breaking.
"You never let me drive, you're way too scared that you might die," he said, looking at the traffic and making sure not to drive that fast.
He heard a small chuckle escaping Teresa's mouth, and he smiled.
At least he could make her laugh again.
-YulianaHenderson-
"Do you want to eat something?" Jane asked, while sitting Teresa down at the dining table.
They hadn't eaten anything yet in the zoo. They were about to eat something, when he'd started their little chat. He wasn't that hungry, but he didn't want to wake up in the middle of the night, feeling his stomach turning and rummaging because of the hunger he was feeling. So macaroni and cheese it was.
She shook her head.
He sighed.
She was back to the Teresa she was when all this happened: shy, not wanting to look him in the eye, not even wanting to look around. And silent. Completely silent. Which killed him, really.
"Teresa, you have to eat something," he said. She again just shook her head violently, and grabbed a tighter hold on the stuffed animal once again.
Jane looked at it, regretting he'd bought it for her.
No, that was a lie. He didn't regret it one bit. All that money that kept piling up on his back account annoyed him sometimes, keeping in mind that he had a boring life in which he didn't need to pay that much money. All he did was laying on his couch all day, irritating his co-workers and breaking every rule there was in Lisbon's unofficial, but sometimes official, book of rules. Also, he insulted the grieving families of their victims, took the pleasure out of embarrassing their suspects, not to mention hypnotizing them and always succeeded in getting in trouble by their supervisors, who always seemed to accept what he did, because he never really got a punishment for what he did. Except with Lisbon, of course.
He smiled a bit. Come to think of it, his life wasn't really that boring.
He suddenly felt a hand on his hand, and looked up, quite startled.
A sad Teresa was looking at him.
"Tell me more about your daughter," she whispered. Jane frowned, but accepted this little question she was asking him.
He turned to look at her fully, and cleared his throat.
"Charlotte was six when she was killed. She was a very happy girl, always proud of her own capabilities, and was always eager to show me what she'd learned at day-care, or at school. She played the piano – my wife, Angela, taught her that – and one time she played Fur Elise. It was really beautiful. She kept smiling while touching the keys with her small hands, sounds escaping that formed her favorite song.
And I can still remember this moment where I asked her what hobby she wanted – except for playing the piano, of course – and she didn't know what to choose. That night she entered our bedroom, and whispered in my ear that she wanted to be an actress. That way she could be with Daniel Radcliffe, she thought. She was really in love with him, everything was basically Daniel, Daniel, Daniel...," Jane said, all the while trying his hardest to bite back the tears. When he started to think about Charlotte, he always had a hard time to keep smiling. Of course, she'd been a great and lovely girl, he couldn't say anything different than that. But the fact that such a sweet and happy girl had never had the chance to really taste life, to get to know what living was, that was what killed him. At the end of the day, she was still his daughter, and as a father you wanted the best for your little girl, right?
Teresa saw though, that he was getting emotional. She gently rubbed his hand, her tiny hands on his larger one. She passed him her stuffed animal, and Jane smiled through burning tears in his eyes. He took it, looking at the animal.
He looked at Teresa after that, and saw that she, too, was almost crying. It had been the other way around: she'd lost her dad, instead of her dad losing her. He wasn't sure what was tougher, a parent losing his child or a child losing its parents. He assumed the latter one: he could take care of his own.
She then stood up, and walked over to him. She sat down on his lap, her legs hanging down at his right side, and swung her arms around him.
Jane buried his face in the crook of her neck, and they both rubbed soothing circles on each other's back, and they let the tears knocking on the gateway called their eyes flow.
A/N: Wow, that's kinda dramatic :D. But sweet dramatic, right? I just HOPE it's sweet dramatic :D. It was almost a bit angst, don't you think? But I'm terrible at writing angst, so I don't think this is angst, though.
Let me know what you think in a REVIEW, thank you!