I am beyond sad to see this story end. I actually got pretty emotional - and have also been putting this off - while writing this chapter. First off, I would like to thank everyone for reading, reviewing, subscribing, and favouriting this story. You guys rock! :) Second-off, I will like to reiterate the fact, or just plain state in case I didn't before, that the majority of the chapter titles were part of the song "Illuminated" by Hurts. Personally...I fell in love with this song back in January and it helped me write this.

AmyEC: Overprotective Jane is awesome :) Thank you so much for reading and reviewing!

Disclaimer: I do not own The Mentalist.

Chapter Twelve: Romance Your Ego For A While

Lisbon sets the last of the paper plates into the trash bag and sighs. Jane had really out done himself today by throwing a belated baby shower for David. She is actually surprised that it was even a surprise in the first place, as Jane is known for playing the 'wild card' quite often.

Giving an unladylike snort, she takes the rope and tugs the bag shut. Even with a little baby in the picture, Jane hasn't changed at all in the last two weeks. Well, he hasn't changed personality wise. He is still the same man, just more protective over her and David. She catches herself frequently trying to tell him that she's fine, but she also knows that he is just being careful. He loves her, and because of what happened to Angela and Charlotte, he acts too over protective sometimes. It doesn't make her love him any less, but only more so. Not every woman in the world is blessed to have a dedicated man attached to you and your child.

"Teresa? You okay?" she looks up and catches Jane peering over the wooden railing on the second story of her apartment.

She nods and sets the bag down, "I'm fine," she pauses to look around. The party really did a number on her living room, and thankfully a number on David's energy. The two-week-old baby had gotten fussy and wanted a nap, so Jane had gratefully put him down in the crib, "It's just really messy in here."

He shrugs and begins moving down the stairs towards her, "Meh, you knew Rigsby was going to buy something big and then wrap it all. And also eat a lot," he smiles and wraps his arms around her. She hears him inhale the scent of her neck as he continues to nuzzle her softly, "And you smell like a baby."

Lisbon felt the strong urge to push him away from her, but she knew that he loves the smell of all things baby. He made it clear from the start that he found it to be quite a turn-on. Something about it making his inner-male extremely proud. Instead of pushing him away, she just shakes her head and steps away from him slightly.

"I thought you liked the cinnamon," she furrows her brow as she teases him.

Again, he shrugs his shoulders, "I do. Very much so. But when we're surrounded by all things baby and such, I'd much rather you smell like baby powder," she rolls her eyes, and at this he grasps her chin in his hand and turns her head to look at him. He leans in closer and she lets her eyes slip shut as she accepts his soft kiss.

Pulling away from her only slightly so he can look into her eyes, he runs a hand up her arm to pause at the upper portion, "I've started you a bath. I thought you could use a little time to unwind after the baby shower."

She nods and he pulls away, "I'll finish cleaning all this up," he says and she nods once more.

Taking a couple of steps, she looks over her shoulder and watches as he opens a new trash bag and starts picking up the discarded wrapping paper. Smiling at the slightly domestic look of him, she looks back up the stairs and begins to make her way up. A hot bath is calling her name, and she would be silly if she didn't take it. After all, with David around, it is quite hard to get some alone time. Because he is asleep, now is the perfect opportunity.

When she reaches the top step, she quickly pads into their bedroom and heads towards the connecting bathroom. She pauses in front of the door and takes a step back. Underneath the door she can see a slight pulsating glow, which can only mean one thing. When Jane had started her a bath, he had placed candles and probably an assortment of fragrances around the tub. It made her heart swell at the thought of him doing this for her. Despite having a newborn in the apartment, he always tried to remain affectionate towards her. Always reminding her that he loves her and that she is the mother of his son.

Smiling to herself, she wraps her hand around the brass knob and pushes the door open. She finds that she was originally correct. Jane has decorated her bathroom with candles of various sizes around the room and tub. He had placed rose petals around the floor and up to where they floated in the bathtub. A loan baby monitor is resting on the counter by the sink. Pausing to take in the atmosphere of her bathroom, she notes that there is no music playing, and she quickly smiles at the thought of complete silence. The kind of silence that she has been yearning for.

Smiling once more, she pulls off her clothing and lets it pool at her feet. Rubbing her hands up and down her arms and taking a couple of steps towards the bathtub, she hesitantly looks over her shoulder and turns. She had expected this to happen, especially when she had started to notice them around her sixth month of pregnancy. She has reddish stretch marks moving around her belly, though slightly less prominent than they were two weeks ago. It makes her slightly insecure about her body, and it has surely ended her hopes of every wearing a two-piece bathing suit ever again…that is if she were to ever lose the baby weight.

Sighing, she turns back to the tub and climbs in. She lets out a breathy gasp as the warm water instantly calms her body as she settles in. The water sloshes about as she leans farther back into the tub, her eyes slipping shut as sleep overtakes her.

As he straightens up the living room, Jane's mind cannot help but wander elsewhere. When he was in jail he did a lot of thinking. He really thought about his life and the part that Lisbon played in it. When he discovered that she was pregnant with David, it only made the game plan begin to take place faster, but for the better. In a way, the three of them are already a family, but he wants to make sure it is more permanent than just the two of them living together with a newborn baby. When he was released from jail, he knew that he could make his plan work, which is why a couple of days later – four days and three hours to be exact – he found himself standing in front of a jewelry store picking out a ring.

He chose something simple, something he knew she will like. The salesman kept pointing out the big and flashy engagement rings, but Jane knew Lisbon would never truly like that. She wouldn't say it to his face, but it would definitely bother her to an extent. Much to the salesman's displeasure, Jane went with a silver ring with diamonds embedded into the metal. A single diamond stands out on top making itself known to being an engagement ring. This ring currently resides in a little black box in his pocket.

When he finishes, he sets the trash bag down in the kitchen and begins to head upstairs where he hopes that Lisbon is already out of the bath and drying herself up. Walking into their bedroom, he sees that her oversized jersey is haphazardly placed in the middle of the bed, meaning she is still in the bath. Placing his hands on his hips, Jane looks over at the digital alarm clock on the end table and sees that she has been in the bathroom for a long time now. Taking a deep breath, he sets towards the bathroom and pauses before the door.

Jane nervously knocks on the door softly and presses his ear against the wood. Lisbon has been in the bathroom far too long for his tastes, and he is surely beginning to worry about her. Before David was born, she would never spend this much time in the bath, but then again he never conjured up a 'romantic' bath for her in the first place.

He knocks again, this time louder than before, "Teresa? You all right?"

She does not answer him and he begins to make his way into the bathroom quietly in case she is just relaxing. He finds her leaning back in the tub with her eyes closed. Her lips are parted and he can easily tell by the subtle rise and fall of her chest that she is just sleeping. Breathing out a sigh of relief, he walks over to the tub and leans down to tap her on the shoulder.

Lisbon jerks awake and looks up, but calms at the sigh of him. Smiling, he leans down and presses a soft kiss to her cheek. "You do realize that you have been in here for a long time."

She blinks and yawns as she nods in confirmation, "Yeah, I guess I fell asleep…What time is it?"

He shrugs his shoulders, "A little after nine," he dips his hand into the water and recoils at the feeling of the cold water, "I think you should get out."

Lisbon snuggles deeper into the water, "M'fine," she mutters as a small smile appears across her features. He kneels down before the bed so that he is level with her. Hesitantly, she cracks an eye open and looks over at him, "Why are you in here anyway?"

Jane places a hand on his stomach, absentmindedly patting the engagement ring in his vest pocket, "I was worried about you. I think you should get out and into some clothes."

She nods and he gets up. Turning away from her, he grabs a big fuzzy towel and holds it out to her as she steps out of the tub. He opens it and wraps it around her, and he rubs his hands above the material of the towel to remove as much excess water as he can. She leans into him a little, her hands coming up to rest on his chest as her head moves into the crook of his neck. Smiling, he wraps his arms around her and pulls her to him. He knows that she feels really tired right now. Nine months of being pregnant with a baby Jane, a retrial, and two weeks of motherhood have really taken their toll on her.

"I love you," she whispers softly against him.

He moves a hand up to the back of her head and holds her to him even tighter. He wants her to be with him so badly, but he can never find the time or place to ask her for her hand in marriage. Whenever he tries, a phone call or the baby monitor going off whenever David needs a feeding or changing interrupts them. Moments like these are scarce, and he cherishes them so.

"Teresa…" he starts, feeling her shift away from him to look into his eyes at the sound of his name, "Will you marry me?"

Classic. A man proposing to his naked beloved in the bathroom.

Lisbon furrows her brow in confusion and just continues to stare at him. The fingers on his chest curl upwards and her breath catches in her throat. His proposal is sudden and shocks the hell out of her, but she is a fool if she wasn't expecting this.

Her mouth cannot form any intelligible words, so she continues to look into his eyes. "Uh, I'm not wearing any clothes…" she says, a slight blush appearing on her cheeks and barely visible in the candlelight.

He looks down and nods, "Yeah, I'm aware of that. But the proposal still hangs in the air," he says nervously, pulling back from her, "Teresa Marie Lisbon, will you marry me?"

He moves away from her almost completely and begins to rifle through his vest pocket for the box. When he finds it and triumphantly holds it out to her, opening it and displaying the ring to her, she gasps, her hand flying to her mouth as if the ring made it more real. She takes a glance from the ring back up to his eyes

"Yes."

Patrick Jane is many things. He is complicated, charming, egotistical, and a pain in the ass. But he is also a happily engaged man, a father, and in love.

He looks on and sees the most beautiful scene that a man could ever witness. The woman whom he loves more than anything in this world sits in a rocking chair, their newborn son in her arms at her breast as she feeds him in the mere hours of the morning. When they were awakened fifteen minutes or so ago by the baby's wailing, he immediately told her he wanted to come with her. She didn't question him as she already knew that he wanted to watch his new family in awe.

Jane leans against the doorframe. Lisbon is brushing her hands across David's soft dark hair and looking down at him with all the love and devotion in her eyes a mother could have. The very sight before him causes happiness to swell in his heart and he wants nothing more than to capture this picture and remember it forever. No. He will just remember it and replay it in his mind over and over again so that he will never forget how beautiful the scene before him is.

Smiling, he moves into the room fully and walks to her. When he stands above her, she glances up at him and smiles. His eyes shift from hers down to David's little body and he moves his hand to softly caress the newborn's soft hair. He leans down and presses a soft kiss to David's head, feeling the baby lightly squirm in his mother arms. Jane pulls away and looks at Lisbon, who smiles tiredly back at him. He closes his eyes and presses a soft kiss to her lips.

"I love you," he whispers to her.

~The End~

Quite honestly I do not know when I will start that little oneshot series, but I do hope I will get maybe a couple written before I have to go to university in the fall. But I will mention this, to make it easier, the little series will be chronological and in a single "story" if you understand what I mean. Basically...it's not going to be individual new stories published. Each chapter of the story will be a new oneshot...I'm terrible at exchanging things. :)