A/N: Hey there! This is my little tribute for the first week of hiatus! I'm really sorry it took me so long, but I had to learn for midterm exams and that was a lot! Thanks for all the sweet messages asking when you get the next chapter, you're too cute, really.
I also want to thank everyone who offered their services as beta, that was really really kind and I was overwhelmed by your response. Still, I'm proud to say Mlee offered her services for the rest of the story and once I start a new one, we will see ;)
Now there is once character in this chapter who is totally OOC but I really couldn't resist. Either you like it and laugh or you hate it – in this case I hope it's the first ;)
Have fun!

(8)

The warm strands of the sun tickling her face, while the smell of fresh coffee right next to her bed made Teresa blink open her eyes sleepily. She snuggled back into the covers, deciding it was way too early to get up.

A light chuckle escaped someone, but she didn't care except when said person sat down on the bed, brushing her hair gently, "Wake up, sleepyhead. It's going to be a busy day for you."

"Five more minutes," Teresa mumbled, hiding her face in the pillows.

Jane set the cup of fresh coffee down on the nightstand and watched her small frame for a little more than three minutes. It wasn't like he hadn't done that the whole morning from the moment he'd woken up. She'd been lying curled up against him, his left arm slung around her side, face leaning against his chest and one hand resting over his heart. Although this position had been very intimate - Jane knew it'd scare her once she'd woke up - he'd held her close watching her sleep peacefully. Yes, he'd enjoyed that moment, wished it would go on forever, but time didn't seem to be in his favour this morning.

"Come on, Little Miss Grumpy, your coffee is getting cold and you have some serious shopping to do. Don't get me wrong, I loved your little cocktail dress from yesterday evening, but you need more to wear." He tried to pull away the covers, but Teresa held them close.

"I don't want to go," she mumbled, pulling away from him, "Just let me sleep."

A laugh escaped his throat. Well, this petite brunette was quite something. He'd never heard a woman decline his offer to go shopping with his credit card before. This was just another sign that Teresa was different from the others… and he liked it.

"Come on, every woman loves shopping," he teased, "don't tell me you didn't have fun yesterday."

Suddenly, her small frame turned around. She sat up and took the cup of coffee from the nightstand, savouring its delicious taste with her eyes closed. Jane watched her like a hawk, taking in every messed up strand of her hair and the way her adorable still sleepy face looked.

"Well, I didn't have fun. I hated it," Teresa answered putting the cup aside. She let herself fall down on the mattress again, putting an arm over her eyes so she didn't have to look at him.

The businessman was confused. He didn't know her well, but this was not the sassy Teresa aka Trixi the hooker he'd met two nights ago. Carefully he pulled her arm away and made her look at him. "Teresa… Please, tell me what's wrong? Did they not accept my card? You could have called me… Or did you not find Rodeo Drive? I knew I should have shown you. Why would a beautiful woman like you hate shopping?"

"I hated it because they weren't nice to me," she whispered, avoiding his gaze.

"What do you mean they weren't nice? Talk to me…"

"Fine!" she said loudly, sitting up again. "It's embarrassing, this never happened to me before! Is there an invisible tattoo on my forehead that screams "hooker" or what? Do I look like I'm not worth a piece of shit? Because when I came into that freaking store, the saleswoman looked at me like I was stinking white trash. I know I'm not pretty and maybe, yes, I look like I am poor, but when I asked them how much the clothes were, they kicked me out, telling me they wouldn't sell me anything. Those superficial unfriendly egocentric bitches! You gave me one easy task. "Go and find a dress for the evening", but I didn't even manage to do that until Mr. Bosco – who almost kicked me out of the hotel too, because I'm a hooker – sent me to Miss Madeleine. So you can keep your stupid plastic card, because I am not going shopping."

Jane felt aghast and amused at the same time. He should have known most people weren't able to get past their preconceptions, especially in Hollywood, but he hadn't thought it would be this bad for Teresa. It made him feel really sorry for her and also explained why she suddenly felt so close to Bosco. She shouldn't be treated like this; no one should be treating her like this.

He sighed and pulled his phone out, dialling the number of Mashburn's secretary. "Sarah? Yeah, good morning, this is Patrick Jane. Would you please call Mr. Haffner and let him know I won't make it to our lunch meeting? Thank you. Oh and don't tell Mashburn." Jane waited for Sarah to confirm the message and hung up, smiling at Teresa.

"What did you do?" she asked confused. "Can you cancel meetings just like that?"

"I didn't want to go anyways." he grinned. "Now get up and let's have some breakfast. I took the morning and afternoon off to go shopping with you. Before you protest, I promise you I will stay with you and if you should start feeling uncomfortable, we will call it off immediately, deal?"

Teresa threw him a sceptical glance. "You will be there the whole time? But what if they don't want to sell me anything again…"

"Then they will have a huge problem that might end up in them having to close their store. Trust me, Teresa, it's going to be fun. Now… You had a cup of coffee, how about some tea and eggs?"

"I think I'll stay with coffee, eggs sound fine though. Jane? Thank you… I uh… should go and get dressed. I must have fallen asleep here last night."

Jane smiled while remembering the memory. "You were out in less than a few seconds. It was an exhausting day. Now come on, we have got to get going if we want to reach my credit card limit by noon." It'd been some time since Jane felt excited to go shopping with someone. The last time had been with his wife… Don't think about it, he told himself, trying to forget the anniversary was close.

"I'm on my way," Teresa answered with a big smile. She got out of the bed and left his room.

About one hour later Jane opened the door of a high-class fashion store, leading the brunette inside with a hand on the small of her back.

The manager of the store, who did not only look gay, but by the way he spoke and acted just had to be, left the place behind the pay desk, greeting both of them with a firm handshake.

"Why don't you go and look around a little, my dear, I have to talk to Mr. Wainwright here for a second", he said with a glance on the man's nametag, giving her an encouraging nod. They stepped aside, Jane lowering his voice while he watched Teresa wandering around.

"Do you know what this is?" he asked Wainwright, pulling out the golden credit card. The man's eyes widened in delight.

"Of course I know, Mr. Jane, of course. It's such a pleasure to welcome you here in our store. I remember the dark blue suit you bought here once."

"Well, that's good. You see my friend over there? That's Miss Teresa. She needs clothes, lots and lots of clothes, so her wish is your command. She gets whatever she wants, even if it's the damn tie you are wearing or the chair she's sitting on, all right? I think then – and only then – this little piece of golden plastic may become your new best friend."

Wainwright stared at him for a minute, before he put on a winning smile and nodded. "It's an honor to welcome you and your friend in our store, Mr. Jane. Mathilda! Close the doors, we won't have time to deal with any other customer now! Miranda! Bring Mr. Jane and his company some tea and cookies."

One woman rushed over to turn around the "open" sign and lock the doors, signalling to all the other people on the street this shop was closed now, while another one headed towards a hidden back room to get the tea.

"Now, Miss Teresa, what would you like to try on…?"

Jane sat down on a nearby chair, enjoying the cup of tea in the light blue cup the woman named Miranda brought him in record time and watched the game begin.

"Please, darling," Wainwright said, shooing her towards the changing room, "take your clothes off and let Luther work his magic on you. Not that you need a lot of magic with your sexy body." He winked at her, while Teresa blushed furiously.

"Honestly, you women have to tell me your secret one day because I'm on such a strict diet I wouldn't fit inside my suits otherwise." He took his jacket off and rolled up his sleeves, eyeing her from head to toe.

"You're a size 6, that's just perfect. Some women would die for a waistline like yours. Don't you worry, we will get you a new attire in no time. Mr. Jane will be thrilled."

"Less talking, more working," Jane called from his seat, amused.

Wainwright laughed and pulled the curtain close. "Isn't he a cutie? Too bad men like him never swing the other way. Now shoo, shoo, get undressed, so we can get you dressed. Let's start off with something classic…"

At first, Teresa felt very insecure about the whole situation. She wasn't used to people being nice to her, even if it was probably just because of Jane's credit card. Instead of picking stuff out, Wainwright let the saleswoman bring the clothes to the changing room, where she decided what to put on and to send back on the stand.

First she came out with a black suit, combined with an emerald green blouse. She stepped out of the dressing room, throwing Jane a questioning look, but when he put his thumb up, she grinned wildly and ordered Mathilda to hang it on the stand with things she would take.

A bunch of blouses followed, so did a lovely white dress with little black and red stars and another white one with a diamond pattern.

"Come out, come out, darling, you look fantastic. Twirl around, so we get to see you from all sides,", Wainwright instructed her and she did as he asked. To be honest, this actually started to be fun.

"Oh Miss Teresa, I have to say your two little treasures here look absolutely gorgeous in this dress, don't they, Mr. Jane?" Teresa blushed furiously, when Wainwright, who stood behind her, pushed her breasts a little up with his hands. "No push-up needed. Consider yourself blessed, darling."

The blond almost choked on his tea, trying to suppress laughter and coughing at the same time.

"Men", Wainwright sighed, "You just have to mention boobies and they start acting like primates – no offense, Mr. Jane. Come on, Teresa, we have more to show you."

The brunette grinned at Jane, who still tried to get his breathing back on track. She'd given up on asking Wainwright – or Luther, as he'd asked her to call him – to get out of the changing room, but he insisted helping her with the zippers and stuff she simply couldn't do herself.

She got more shirts, two skirts, a black coat, jeans and even a pretty white summer hat.

Jane loved seeing her so happy and carefree, changing from one outfit into another one, twirling around in her dresses like a little princess, the only thing missing was her tiara. He was so caught up in the moment, enjoying himself, that he almost didn't hear his phone vibrating in his pocket. It was Mashburn, damn it. For a second, he considered ignoring the call, but the man was his boss. So he excused himself and got up, answering the still ringing cell phone.

"What the hell Jane?" Mashburn screamed as soon as he answered with a casual, "Hello Walter."

"How dare you to just blow off that lunch meeting with Haffner! Do you know how long I've been working on this damn thing?"

"I'm sorry, Walter, but I have more important things to take care of right now."

"You got to be kidding me. What is it? That Teresa woman? I called Haffner to let him know it was a misunderstanding and you would be there in ten minutes."

"This is not funny Walter, I can't just…" Jane protested.

"Nine minutes Patrick. This is your deal. For once it would be nice if you actually worked for it. I want to know what Haffner is up to regarding the Minelli thing. You can go back to your new girlfriend and let her finish your blowjob later." With this, Mashburn hung up and left Jane annoyed and angry.

"Son of a bitch," he mumbled, tucking the phone away in his pocket and walking over to Teresa, who just came out in an adorable black dress with white polka dots. She sensed his shift of mood immediately.

"What is wrong?"

He sighed. "I know I promised to not leave you alone, but Mashburn called because of the meeting and…"

"You should go," she said with a confident smile.

"Are you sure?"

"I am." Teresa stepped forward, to press a soft kiss on his cheek. "Thank you. This is more than I ever imagined."

Jane nodded in relief, the skin of his cheek slightly heated from her kiss. "Try to have some fun and if they are not nice, just kick their asses."

"Will do." She let him squeeze her hand, before he headed out, not without giving her one last glance, proud she'd do the rest of the shopping on her own.

Just when she turned around, she saw Wainwright putting a hand on his heart and shaking his head. "Oh Miss Teresa you two are absolutely gorgeous. This man's a keeper. I wish I would be this lucky with my boyfriend, but one has to take what one gets these days, right?" He pretended to wipe a tear away before he clapped his hands. "Now where did we stop?"

It was late in the afternoon when Teresa entered the hotel with her new favourite black dress with white polka dots, followed by two page boys, who were carrying her shopping bags and dresses. Shopping was exhausting, but at least it'd been fun, especially when she found out that now that she wore fancy clothes the women in the other stores she visited for shoes, purses, jewellery and make-up could be kind of nice, instead of bitchy.

"Please bring the bags up to Mr. Jane's suite," she ordered, putting a twenty in each of the page boy's breast pockets. It didn't feel quite right, but she'd seen Jane tip everyone, so she better play along.

"Of course, Miss Teresa." The men smiled and nodded in a friendly manner.

Teresa grinned. She walked towards the reception desk, where the manager, Sam Bosco, was talking to a woman she didn't know yet. The moment he saw her, he raised an eyebrow, the employee in front of him completely forgotten. "Why Miss Teresa, is that you?"

She twirled around, so her dress flew up a little and shrugged with her shoulders: "It seems so. Patrick… Mr. Jane went shopping with me today, I think I got the proper attire to stay in this hotel now."

Bosco cleared his throat to suppress a laugh. "That is good to hear. I'm glad you've been enjoying your day so far. Is there anything else I can help you with?"

"Actually yes, I do feel a little hungry. Do you think I can order an extra cheesy pepperoni pizza or is that too difficult for your chef to make?" She couldn't leave the teasing note out of her voice and Bosco knew why.

"I'll see what I can do. If you don't have a problem with our chef using exclusive Dutch gouda for the requested "extra cheesy", I think there won't be a problem."

Teresa was close to sticking her tongue out, but she held herself back. "Why thank you, Mr. Bosco. I should go upstairs and wait for the promised pizza now. Oh and once Mr. Jane enters the hotel, would you mind sending up some fresh Earl Grey?"

"Of course."

Quickly, she pushed herself up to lean over the reception desk and press a kiss on Bosco's cheek, before she turned around and headed towards the elevators that'd bring her up to the suite.

"Uhm, Mr. Bosco?", the employee next to him asked insecurely, "Mr. Mashburn asked me to let him wait for Mr. Jane in Mr. Jane's suite about fifteen minutes ago…"

"And you say that now?" Bosco asked annoyed. He turned around to warn Teresa, so she wouldn't have a surprise waiting for her upstairs, but she'd already vanished in one of the elevators. "Next time you tell him to wait in the lobby or at the bar. I don't want our guests to have unpleasant surprises when they enter their rooms."

"But Mr. Mashburn is…" the woman answered desperately, shutting up, the moment Bosco gave her the look. "Of course, Sir. I'm sorry, this won't happen again."

After opening the door with her key card, the petite brunette dropped her new purse on the floor, sighing in exhaustion. Perhaps she could take a shower, before room service brought the pizza and sit down on the couch, wrapped in one of the soft bathrobes.

It was just then, when she recognized the man, who was leaning against said couch, arms crossed in front of his chest and eyebrows raised. Her heart stood still for a second. They found her. Red John had found her and now he sent someone to finish it. Maybe she should run downstairs, but her feet didn't move like they were glued to the ground.

The man smiled, giving her a more than interested look. "I must say I can't blame Patrick," he finally said, taking a few steps closer to her, "You're quite a reason to skip a meeting. I'm Walter Mashburn, Patrick's boss, he must have told you about me."

Teresa kept on staring at him with her eyes wide open, trying to process the information she just got. This man was Jane's boss, at least he said so, but she couldn't be sure. She'd never seen him, nor had Jane described him to her.

Mashburn took her silence as a "no" to his question. "Oh what a shame, but like I said I can't blame him either. We have some kind of history regarding women. Still, I can't believe he wanted to keep you to himself. You are quite a thing – not his usual type, but I guess very satisfying. Still waters run deep, don't they, Teresa?"

Okay this man had to be Jane's boss, Teresa decided. He was an arrogant, superficial bastard, just the kind of guy who would want to rip poor old Minelli's company apart. Finally her muscles relaxed and her body allowed her to move. "The still waters are about to kick your ass and give you some deep pain," she said annoyed.

"Oh, you're sassy too. He made quite a catch there." Jane had been right. He had to be careful, otherwise this meeting would end up with him getting a punch in the nose.

"Just to set things straight, Mr. Mashburn, I'm neither Mr. Jane's catch nor his satisfying thing and if you would change your attitude, you might be able to be with a woman long enough to actually satisfy her."

She stepped closer to the table, where the page boys dropped off her shopping bags, happy she'd been able to stand up to him. Mashburn didn't feel hurt by her comment, although he didn't like a woman insulting his abilities in bed. Still, he rather felt excited she tried to mess with him. Usually women were trying to get into his good graces, but this one wasn't even trying to make him like her, something that made her unbelievably… attractive and desirable.

"I don't know what you want here, Mr. Mashburn, Jane is not back from the meeting yet."

Oh, he knew that. He wanted to take the opportunity to meet her without Jane being present, but he wouldn't tell her that. "Well that's a shame, really. But I'm sure you won't mind keeping me company, would you?"

"Of course not, Mr. Mashburn. Have a seat. Would you like some coffee, tea, a blowjob?" She didn't even bother to hide the sarcasm in her voice.

"Now that you're putting it this way…", Mashburn grinned.

The brunette gave him a look, taking a few of the shopping bags and bringing them over to her room, locking the door behind her. What an arrogant ass, she thought annoyed. She didn't want to talk to him, so where the hell was Jane? He'd left for a lunch meeting five hours ago. How long could people eat?

Some days Teresa felt like God actually heard her prayers, because just when she finished putting away her shopping bags and didn't have an excuse to let Mashburn wait any longer, she heard voices in the room next door. Carefully, she opened her door, peeking outside, happy to see Jane had finally arrived.

"I didn't do anything, Patrick, I just wanted to see why you were making such a big deal out of her!"

"I told her she is none of your business. Oh I hope she kicked your ass the minute she saw you."

That was the moment she decided to reveal herself. "I almost did."

Jane looked up, sending her a big grin and a wink. "I'm sorry for Walter here, Teresa. Sometimes he doesn't know what's not good for him. Was there anything else you want?"

"Actually, I got everything I came here for," he grinned and pointed towards Teresa, "You can call me later and tell me how things went with Haffner. I'll see you soon, Miss Teresa, it was a pleasure to meet you. I hope this won't be the last time."

Without another word, he grabbed his jacket and left the suite with a huge grin on his face, just in time when a man rolled a little cart inside with a pot of tea and the requested pizza on top. Jane tipped the man off, before he closed the door, sighing heavily. Teresa was still leaning in the doorway, not sure what to say.

"I'm sorry for Mashburn, I really am. He can be a son of a bitch sometimes. Did he hit on you?"

"He tried," she mumbled, "I'm glad you came, because I didn't know how much longer I could avoid him. I'm still wondering why the majority of you think of women as sexual objects. Don't you know we have a soul too?" She knew it was rich coming from her, since she was a hooker and it was her job to satisfy men's desires. But she hadn't chosen to be one, it was something that had been necessary at that time.

"I'm sorry you made bad experiences with us," he answered honestly, speaking for his gender and despising the men who would take advantage of a young woman like her even if she was a hooker, "but there will always be men like Mashburn and believe me, he's not the worst. You must have met worse people in your life." She had to have.

"Actually he can be quite charming if he wants to."

"Oh well I'm curious about how he's going to make up for that."

Growing more confident, she walked across the room, to take a slice of the delicious looking pepperoni pizza.

"I was hungry, so I ordered some pizza, would you like some?"

"Thank you, I just had lunch, I'll have a cup of tea though. How did your shopping trip go? Did you have fun?"

"To be honest, I did. Thank you. Oh wait right here, I got you something!" She put the rest of the slice back on the plate and rushed into her room, taking less than a minute to come back, holding a box wrapped in shiny silver paper in her hands.

"Oh, this is for me?" he asked surprised. Teresa nodded, handing the present to him. Jane held it close to his ear and shook it a little, but whatever was inside didn't make a sound. While she started to eat her pizza again, he carefully unwrapped the package, surprised to find a white box with no imprint. He sat it down on the table and opened it, a lump forming in his throat, when he saw the little turquoise teacup and the fitting saucer similar to the one they had in the store where they were this morning. On the side of the cup and on the saucer were the initials P.J. in golden italic letters.

"I thought because you like tea so much…" she started, but Jane shook his head.

"It's beautiful, I love it. Thank you!" The bright smile he gave her made her blush a little. He hugged her quickly, then vanished into the bathroom, to clean the new cup and to fill it with the steaming tea right afterwards.

It was so thoughtful of her to bring him such a personal present like this. Usually his girlfriends used to reward him with sex or something, when he gave them his credit card to go shopping, but this…

It was a sign Teresa really paid attention to him, to his habits and preferences, something that touched him deeply.

They sat down on the couch, the plate with pizza on Teresa's lap. "How was your meeting?" she asked.

Jane just shrugged, turning on the TV. "Just boring stuff, nothing that would interest you anyways."

"Well maybe you want to let me be the judge of that, the brunette countered, sneaking the remote out of his hands.

Once again, he was taken aback, because this woman seemed so different from all the other ones. Usually they asked him about his workday, just because they wanted to be polite, not because they were interested in him and once he told them it was "just boring stuff," they gladly changed the subject.

Oh he had to be careful with Teresa, because he was close. Close to falling for her.

A/N: Here we go… I hope you all liked it and you got your laugh. What did you think of the first meeting between Mashburn and Teresa?

Some of you have been telling me you think this story is too familiar to the actual Pretty Woman movie, but I can promise you it'll start to change in the next chapter, so stay tuned. This close to Christmas, I don't want to get too dark in this fic either so I hope that's okay with you.

I wish everyone a nice and relaxing 3rd Advent weekend :)