I'm happy to be posting the next chapter, because I love hearing what everyone has to say. I'm so grateful for the reviews and will try to update the story as soon as I possibly can. As usual I own nothing.
I didn't try to get up early, but then I heard the shower and couldn't help myself. His suit was lying on the end of my bed, which meant he had to come out to at least grab it, even though he had promised no more shiftlessness.
"Good morning." He grinned opening the bathroom door, he was in his boxers and running the towel through his hair. "I grabbed a towel from the closet in the hall if that's okay I didn't want to wake you."
"Yea of course." I nodded propping myself up on my elbow. "You lied."
"I guess I did didn't I." He chuckled grabbing his shirt and throwing it on real quick. "That better?"
"I guess I shouldn't be surprised." I smirked, not answering his question, because I wasn't sure that it was better.
"Ouch Lisbon that hurts." He smiled, feigning offense. After throwing on his pants and vest and grabbing his jacket he headed for the door presumably to let me get dressed, but stopped halfway out the door and turned to me, "You look lovely in the morning."
I couldn't help but smile, I did have enough common sense to wait for him to close the door behind him first. What was that about? Then I frowned seriously what was that about? I rushed through my shower and threw on the first clean clothes I found, great add that to the list of things to do today laundry.
When I got downstairs I found Jane sitting at my kitchen table with his glass of tea and half of a doughnut. He also had my pot of coffee waiting for me to pour.
"Do you think it's to early for me to call the school?" I yawned, grabbing a mug from my kitchen cabinet.
"It's barely six." He chuckled, "Give it a little bit, and you should probably look up the number before you try calling."
" I knew there was a reason I kept you around." I teased taking a sip of coffee.
"While I appreciate the improvement from case closer, eventually you'll admit it's my charming personality and good looks." He smiled taking the last couple bites of doughnut.
"In your dreams," I laughed grabbing a doughnut of my own before taking a seat.
"If I slept at all I'd count on it." He grinned, and then the baby cried. "I got her, you go ahead and find that phone number."
"Did all four of them sleep through the night?" I asked following him to the living room with my coffee and doughnut, God that sounds like such a cliché.
"I think so, I told the girls if they had a bad dream they could go join you in bed when I tucked them in, and I didn't hear Cass so much as whimper." He answered lifting the girl out of her crib.
"That's great, especially since they're in a new place, I thought for sure they'd all wake up." I opened up my laptop.
"I'd expect company tonight, they were exhausted yesterday they gained two hours remember." He explained laying Cass down on her changing mat. "It'll hit them sometime today or tomorrow that this is their new home."
"Speaking of which, where do you recommend looking for a new house?" I asked looking over my shoulder while the church website loaded.
"You're asking me about house hunting?" He questioned, "I live in an attic at a police station."
"I guess I've gotten used to you knowing everything." I shrugged, "but I could use your help, I need to find a house that's big enough for me and the kids but still with in my price range."
"I guess I'd start by looking into houses that have been foreclosed recently they'll be sold at a cheaper price." He replied, tossing the dirty diaper in the trash washing his hands and heading back into the kitchen to make a bottle.
"See you are useful after all." I called through the door, I heard him chuckle on the other side but he didn't say anything. Well at least not to me I could hear him talking to Cass about how much she was going to love living here. When he walked back in I was already on the phone with the church, he handed me Cass and walked down the hall to check on the other three.
"The girls are picking out Williams outfit." He smiled after I hung up the phone.
"The principal will see us around two." I announced, "He thinks they can make room."
"Us?" He questioned.
"You're right we don't want to risk you insulting their principal." I returned, "You can wait in the car."
"No no I'll come in, we wouldn't want you to send the kids to the wrong school." He grinned, and I just rolled my eyes. "So what do we do until two?"
"I want to get at least a load of laundry done and then we can run by work, get lunch, and hopefully by then it'll be two." I ran through the things I needed to get done. "And groceries will be after the meeting."
"Sounds like a plan." He nodded taking a seat on the couch.
"Do you want me to do your laundry to?" I offered, I wasn't really sure how he washed his suits I had never really thought about it.
"I'll take my suits in to get cleaned tomorrow, but if you don't mind washing my pajamas pants and running clothes." He shrugged.
"Okay, I'm going to sort my clothes with the kids if you want to go throw your stuff in." I instructed rocking Cass and almost getting trampled by three hungry kids.
"I'll get my clothes for you after I get them some breakfast." He nodded, and I just shrugged watching him follow the kids into the kitchen. I started with the kid's laundry sorting it into my four hampers reds, whites, darks, and blues/greens/gray. Once theirs was sorted I went through my suitcase, then left the hampers on the bed for Jane when he came in. When I walked into the kitchen Jane hopped up from the table to sort his laundry while I watched the kids.
"The kids were almost out of clean clothes." I sighed forty-five minutes later looking over to Jane who had William on his lap while we sat on my bedroom floor and folded clothes from the first load of laundry while the second was down in the dryer. "What type of grandparents sells their grandkids clothes?"
"I don't know." He shook his head, "We can stop by a department store today before groceries."
"Jane I don't have money right now, and right now all the their clothes are clean maybe we can survive like this until my next paycheck." I groaned, I hate that Jane felt like he needed to pay for everything, I didn't want to rely on anyone for money, but I didn't want to live paycheck to paycheck either.
"What size clothes do the girls wear?" He asked after a minute, holding up one of Alyssa's shirts.
"5T I think, I never really checked I just let them pick out their clothes for the day for the most part." I checked the tag on the shirt I was holding. "Why?"
"You want to make a stop after the meeting?" He turned to me.
"Jane you're not buying clothes for them." I warned.
"No of course not." He smiled, "It's just a stop I need to make."
"Jane?" I worried.
"Relax Lisbon." He chuckled, "Well this is very nice," He laughed holding up my bra, why had I asked for his help.
"Give me that." I reached for it but he leaned back holding my bra over his head in one hand and steading William in his lap with the other.
"I never figured you for lace." He kept laughing while I tried grabbing for it.
"There isn't much lace, and it's the only one I own like it." I growled, of course he was using William as a shield this man was insufferable.
"That's a pity." He frowned, and I lost my balance and fell forward on top of him, with a giggling William in the middle.
"Oh I'm so sorry Liam, Patrick was being mean." I tried rolling off of them, but not with out my bra.
"You know little guy you're lucky she's so light." Patrick tickled the already giggling William.
"What's going on?" Alyssa was standing in the doorway with her sister.
"We heard screaming, then laughing." Emily added.
"Patrick was misbehaving." I smiled, sticking the bra at the bottom of my pile of folded clothes.
"Teresa tackled your brother and I." Jane argued.
"I fell." I tried, but I had a feeling the idea of me tackling them was much more entertaining for the girls to think about.
"Can we help?" Emily pointed at the clothes on the floor, "Mommy let us help at home."
"Of course." I nodded, motioning for them to come sit next to me. After the second load of laundry was folded Jane helped me round up the kids and strap them into their designated car seats or booster seats.
"Where are we going?" Alyssa questioned from the very back of my SUV.
"Patrick and I are going to run by work to grab a couple things." I answered looking at the clock it was barely nine how come the morning was going so slow. "The place you wanted to stop is that somewhere we could go before the meeting, because it looks like we'll have a little bit of time to kill."
"Yeah that's fine." He shrugged, pulling some cheerios out of the diaper bag for a squirming William.
"I hope they haven't been to busy this week, I would hate to miss something important." I sighed, in actuality I was wondering how they would handle a difficult case, I had no doubt they could do it, but we had learned during Jane's six month leave of absence that we depended on him more than any of us would ever say out loud.
"Their big kids, they can survive on their own for a week." Jane chuckled, as we pulled into the parking lot, I wondered if I could find a house this close to work. Once all of the kids had been unloaded a fight ensued as to who got to be carried into the building.
"Girls you don't need to be carried." I tried to calm down the twins.
"I have an idea, but it'll only work if you hug and make up." Jane smiled.
"No." Alyssa pouted.
"You'll both get carried if you make up." Jane explained, I don't know what he was planning, I suppose I could carry Liam in one hand and Cass's carrier in my free hand if he wanted to carry those two.
"Fine." Emily frowned, I watched as the girls hugged and made up never smiling for a second.
"Alright help William onto my shoulders." Jane instructed kneeling down so he was closer to their height. "Hold on tight buddy." He instructed before motion to the twins to come over, he wrapped one arm around each of them before standing up. "You two hold on too." He ordered.
"Jane, be careful." I warned but couldn't help but smile at the sight.
"I don't know what I'm going to do when that one gets older." He chuckled nodding to the baby carrier, holding tight to the twins, while keeping at least one hand on Williams ankles.
"Come on, I want to hurry and grab the paperwork." I shook my head.
"You realize hurry and walking into your office with four children kind of contradict themselves right." Jane smirked, walking next to me. "You did tell them about the kids before you left didn't you?"
"Of course I told them, I told the team and I told Bertram." I answered showing the man at the door my id.
"Alyssa can you reach in my vest pocket and get my id?" Jane asked.
"Don't worry about it Mr. Jane." The guy smiled, at the four of them, it really was an adorable sight.
"Bertram wasn't happy about giving me the time off, but he didn't really have many options. He was even more upset when I told him you would be coming with me." I explained climbing into the elevator.
"Of course he didn't have any options, do you realize the bad press he would get if he lost any member of your team for any reason now." Jane stated, and I just turned to look at him. "After all the good press we got for the CBI when we…" He looked at the kids before continuing, "took care of the most wanted serial killer in California."
"Yeah why did you give us all the good press we didn't even know what you were doing until I got your call." I frowned.
"A couple reasons." He shrugged.
"Are you going to tell me?" I questioned.
"Well I needed witnesses to see that it really was self defense," He answered.
"I think the girl tied up in the corner whose life you saved could have done that." I returned.
"How about I didn't really want to be the only one in the spotlight or the fact that you had in fact helped on the case for almost eight years and you deserved some of the credit." He tried.
"I guess those are okay reasons." I sighed, "But you probably have more don't you."
"I do." He nodded, and the elevator doors opened and I didn't get a chance to ask anything else.
"Boss!" Van Pelt hurried out of the kitchenette, "Oh I missed you, how are you doing?"
"I'm okay Grace, it's good to see you to." I smiled as she embraced me.
"Glad to see I was missed to." Jane grinned.
"Oh Jane we did miss you." Grace backed away and smiled at the kids in his hand.
"Grace this is Alyssa, Emily, William, and Cassandra." I introduced, "Guys this is Grace Van Pelt she works with Patrick and I."
"She called you Jane to." I over heard Alyssa whisper to Jane with a giggle.
"Yes she did, why don't you say hi." He smiled.
"Come on the guys will be so glad that your back." Grace insisted leading us back to the bullpen.
"Boss." Rigsby jumped up from his desk.
"I thought you weren't supposed to be back for another couple weeks." Cho turned around.
"Good to see you to." I sighed, "I just wanted to pick up some papers so I'm not completely swamped when I do come back."
"Patrick, why are you staring at the board?" Emily asked, causing me to turn to see the case board next to his couch.
"No reason at all, but I think it's about time for this train to come to the station." He turned to her, walking over to his couch and setting the girls down before kneeling to let William jump off.
"Ahh." Alyssa pouted jumping up from the couch, "but that was fun."
"Yes well you three are a lot heavier than you look." He teased, before turning to take the baby carrier from me, "You go get your paperwork I can babysit them for you."
"What you find out they really don't miss you that much so you want to leave now." I teased.
"No you were the one who said you wanted to make it quick." He returned, I just turned and started for my office. "And boys, the guy in the top corner it who you're looking for." I rolled my eyes but didn't turn around. I figured since I was in my office I'd go through my emails, I guess it's no surprise that if you miss work for a week you'll have a lot of unread email.
What's that one? I didn't recognize the sender and the subject was very vague. I read through it real quick, but had to go back and read it again. Some one wanted to write a book on the killing of Red John, and wanted to interview my team. We all knew this would happen, but why hadn't I gotten an email earlier it had been three months after all. I had kind of figured that all the emails would go straight to Bertram, or they would send letters to Jane. Bertram would want the publicity, but Jane wouldn't he wanted the whole thing over with. Why was I getting an email? As far as I knew neither of them had agreed to anything, was it even worth my concern, this guy probably hadn't gotten an answer from Bertram and Jane so was trying a new person.
It was almost an hour later that I was able to separate the kids from the team and get them out the door. "Are you okay?" Jane asked after we were all buckled into the car.
"Have you gotten any letters about a book?" I frowned.
"Yea quite a few actually." He nodded, "Why?"
"I got an email asking about it." I shrugged.
"That's what your worrying about?" He chuckled.
"I hadn't gotten any before." I explained, "I was just wondering why."
"Bertram and I agreed to wait at least six months, to make sure to make a contract with the best possible person." He informed. "If it were up to me we'd just toss all the letters in the trash but supposedly that's unreasonable."
"I see, so where are we going?" I wondered.
"Turn left at the light." He instructed.
"You're not going to tell me." I questioned, and he just shook his head.