From One-shot,. the story has been promoted to multi-chapter, although I'm not quite sure how many more you'll have; Many of you asked for a sequel, and so, I thought about giving Annie a bit more or space...
I just wnated to say thank you to EternalDarkness007, Laurore, Martiny carzy, Ebony10, MrsxEdwardxCullen, JackSam, phoenixmagic1, lilaclia MIA and FantasyFreak (who pointed out to me a couple of things that I took care of), who took time to review, and to everyone who put me and/ the story on alert and/or in thier fav. You're all great, and you can't imagine how happy you made me!
Anyway... here there is chapter two for you all, and, as always... I'm incredible sorry, but I still don't own the Mentalist; otherwise, we'd be seeing Jisbon there as well.
Teresa Lisbon had always loved her job for many reasons, and, as time went on, she realized that, one of them, was the it didn't gave her time to think – and one of the thing she hated to think about the most was how lonely her life had become. Of course, she had a family; she had Michael, Tommy and Robert, 3 wonderful brothers she practically raised on her own, and Michael had made an aunt twice already, but, as much as she loved them, she was still alone. They were family, but they had their lives; she didn't have children of her own, she even didn't have a possible father for said imaginaries babies, a man who, at the end of the day, greeted her at home, with dinner, or with a hot bath, trying to erase the pain of the job, to make it feel better. Jane wasn't at home every night with her. He didn't cuddle her in her sleep. He didn't surprise her with dinners, picnics, or vacancies organized at the moment…
Sitting outside Claire's hospital room at 7 pm, Lisbon released a breath she didn't know she was holding in the first place. She liked Patrick Jane. And she liked him like a woman like a man she isn't related to. She had feelings for him, a certain kind of feelings.
She smiled a little, thinking that certain warriors, when admitting defeat at the hand of a braver warrior, would smile in the same way; yes, she was, in a certain way, admitting defeat; Patrick Jane, annoying, pain in the ass consultant, had took a special place in hearth, without she could do anything about it, without she could understand it before it was too late. She had deep feelings for him, she could only acknowledge it, and it felt damn good to admit it, like a weight had finally been lifted from her shoulders.
To be honest, if she really had to think about it twice, it wasn't such a big surprise; she had already had thoughts about him, a certain kind of thought that, thanks to God, she had never talked about with Michael(she had told Claire, though, one day they were alone, alone, having dinner after a therapeutic session of prenatal shopping, and her sister in law had sworn to secrecy since Lisbon promised to not tell Michael that, during the pregnancies, his wife used to have sordid dreams about Brad Pitt, an actor called Eddie Cahill and Keanu Reeves playing the role of a British top-secret spy), but she never gave seconds thought to that, since they were mere recreations of the romance novels she always red before to go in bed, with Jane and her as the main characters, and the only reason she was having them in the first place was for the lack of a "romantic life" during the last year, so, it was obvious why she had put him, one of the men she was in contact with, as the lead protagonist( although Claire has asked her why not dreaming of Cho or Rigsby, if that was the only reason she was having the dreams…and it was such a good question, that Teresa hadn't found an answer yet). And those dreams… well, they were really good dreams, and he was good as well in the dreams, she admitted smiling and blushing, but the dreams were one things, while dealing with Jane in reality, it was completely different…. And, frankly, the thought was a bit scary too…
"Aunt Tessie? - Annie was still sitting on her lap, and she had totally forgotten of her nice again, for the second time of the day, too lost in Jane-world; it took the girl's squeeze of her sleeve to bring back to reality – can we see the baby now?"
"Of… Of course we can, sugar! – As she stood and walked hand in hand with Annie, Lisbon smiled her best smile, like she would fake some kind of security she was no longer feeling, feeling, instead, like the idiot she has never been, the teen-aged girl in love who lost track of everything because all she could think of was her prince charming…- Annie, can you do something for me, please?" before to go in, Lisbon kneeled so that she could be at eye-level with Annie, and, uneasy with the whole situation, she bit her lips, not so sure of what exactly she had to tell her niece, or how to explain her reasoning, has Annie asked her why.
As she kept the pony in her arms, holding it like to dear life, Annie just nodded, lifting her eyebrows with a look that Lisbon identified as a mix of understanding and curiosity.
"Don't tell daddy and mummy about what Mr. Patrick said, ok?"
"But Mr. Patrick and mummy and daddy say that lying isn't good – Annie lowered her voice, getting closer to her aunt – and bad people go to Hell, that's what sister Mary and Father Joseph always say!"
"But you'd not lie to them, Annie. Lying is when you say something and that thing didn't happen, or happened in a different way. What I'm asking you to do is just… forgetting what Mr. Patrick told you today, ok?" She smiled to the child, a bit guilty since she was actually teaching her to lie, but knowing too well, after having raised the 3 younger siblings, how to get what she wanted from a child, and, in response, Annie giggled like she had at the office, when Patrick had introduced himself, and didn't wait for her aunt to get in, running at the crib of her baby sibling, and putting inside her beloved pony as a gift to the kid.
"Claire, how can you be still so beautiful when you just gave birth? – She asked with a smile and joy in her voice to her sister-in-law as she approached the bed, giving to the blonde woman a quick kiss on the cheek, just to turn to her brother, giving him a death-glare, still a bit uneasy with how the whole Annie situation ended – Mick, next time you need someone to baby-sit Annie because you're freaking out about something, I'd rather have you calling me first, and not dropping her in my office without any warning. You know, there that little detail, about me being a cop, and spending my time chasing bad guys…"
"Can I hold the baby?" Annie asked out of the blue, turning to look at her father who had come to take the baby; the man just smiled, and, whispered something in the ears of the too excited girl, took the baby and put the child in care of the aunt.
"Here – Mick looked with tears in his eyes as Teresa, who looked happier than he had seen her in a long time, was adjusting the baby, a blonde angel like his mother with his father's green eyes, in her arms so that they were both comfortable – Tessie, let me introduce to you Antony Edward Lisbon…"
"Oh, looks like daddy finally got his boy, doesn't it?" Even if Tony was too young to smile, she was sure that, while she was gently tickling his stomach, smiling and giggling was exactly what he was doing, and Teresa couldn't help but giggle in response, smiling, laughing and crying of happiness at the same time, overcome by the emotions felt during the day, the memory of that quick kiss still impressed in her mind, and the promises he had made her at words, and the unspoken ones he had made with his eyes…
"Wow, I've never noticed it whit Annie, but Tessie is quite natural with children…." Mick told his wife, while lost in the sight of his sister carrying the baby in her arms, gently singing him a song while still tickling him with one single finger under his tiny feet.
"Your sister will be a great mother, one day"
"Is Aunt Tessie going to have a child with Mr. Patrick?" Annie asked calmly like it was the most natural thing to say in the whole universe, awakening her aunt from the day-dream she had fallen again into.
Lord. What was wrong with Annie if that day she always had to say something inopportune at the wrong time? And why had the girl talked of Patrick, since her aunt had been clear about not to… and then it struck her: Annie was quite literal, as a person, and when you said something to her, you had to specify it, otherwise… Teresa had told her to not say what Patrick said and did, not to not mention him at all….
"She had met Pa… Jane – she corrected herself as she put Tony back in her father's arms – yes, she had met Jane at the office today, and you know, five years old bonding and all, and now she is kind of obsessed with him…" he so didn't need to know that his sister was obsessed with him as well, had spent the whole day thumbing about the fact that she was going to have a date with him, that he had kissed her, and, mostly, it was better if Mick didn't know that the reason she had been so lost in Tony was that, with blond hair and green eyes, he seemed a combination of herself and Jane as well…
"And since she is the one obsessed with him, she asked you if you're going to have a baby with the man?" Mick grinned, enjoying making Teresa uncomfortable, but lifting his eyebrows quizzically as well, asking if his sister was, maybe, hiding something…
"He is not my boyfriend!" she said with the same tone she had that day at the rehab, when he had said the 3 words that, even if for showing, made her knees jelly; even back then, even if they weren't a couple at the time, she didn't know why, but she felt uneasy in saying those words, she felt they were… wrong, a lie; as she mentally added an unspoken "yet" at her statement about Jane's status, another epiphany hit her: even when she wasn't dreaming of him in a novelistic landscape, she was still dreaming of Jane; all those times she had day-dreamed about an husband, about having a family with a good man, he had always been him, and the children, even when it was just them, they were blonde with green eyes, or brunette with blue ones; it had always been him, maybe not from the beginning, but, still, the dreams had started a long time ago. Maybe, all it took was Annie to see it. After all, she had never seen him with a kid before, and she had always thought that he'd be… scared, broken, destroyed. But he hadn't: Jane had been perfect with Annie. He had been the way a father should be with his own daughter.
Smiling, Teresa quickly said goodbye to the Lisbon family, promising to come back soon, and went home, thinking about just two things: her imminent date with Jane, and how put in motion the events so that the dreams could become true…
