Here is chapter eighteen, I hope you enjoy it as always I love to hear what you think and I will update as soon as I can. As usual I own nothing.
Thursday went by really quickly because we didn't have any major events other than painting the house. Jane was right we were able to get the entire up stairs done, along with the halls downstairs and the first coat of paint in the study.
So this morning I wasn't particularly excited, we still had almost the entire downstairs to do plus the basement, and the carpet guys were coming to do the upstairs this afternoon. All of the painting needed to be done by tomorrow otherwise the carpet guys wouldn't be able to put flooring on the main level and it was just a headache in general. Of course it didn't help that Jane and I had stayed up late last night packing up as much of my belongings as we could. At least I slept through his shower this morning.
"You look exhausted Lisbon." He frowned pouring my coffee for me.
"Gee thanks you look great to." I yawned collapsing into the nearest chair, "I've been painting the same damn house for three straight days now, and it has to be finished today, and that doesn't seem possible at all. How would you like me to look?"
"You look lovely." He grinned, "And don't worry it'll get done."
"It must be nice to have your confidence." I sipped my coffee, and he handed me some raisin bread smothered in butter.
"Eat up like you said we have a big day ahead of us." He smiled, leaving the kitchen to wake up the kids. I was doing this for them, I reminded myself, so they didn't have to share a bed in a tiny apartment.
"Good morning." Alyssa smiled leading the small trio into the kitchen already dressed.
"It looks like you guys are painting today." I smiled watching the twins fight with the sleeves of Jane's old shirt.
"Yep, yesterday was our day off." Emily nodded, pulling up a seat waiting for Jane to come in and pour them their cereal. When Jane did come he went straight to making the babies bottle pouring me a second cup of coffee and then getting the kids their breakfast, who was going to wait on me when he left?
With everyone fed we were at the house by nine thirty, the guys from the flooring company weren't expected until noon so why was it that after getting everything set up to start painting the living room their was a knock on the door. "I got it." Jane insisted while I helped the girls get started.
When he came back he wasn't alone and they definitely were not the guys from the flooring company. "What the hell are you doing here?" I frowned, watching Rigsby set down a cooler and a grocery bag while Van Pelt handed each of the guys a roller. "You're supposed to be at work."
"Jane said you needed help." Grace smiled, "He called Bertram on Wednesday and said it was urgent that we had today off."
"Damn it Jane." I sighed.
"There are little ears in here Lisbon." He warned.
"You shouldn't be here, you should be at work." I worried, Jane was pushing his luck, with this. Actually he had barely done anything yet, I knew he would push the envelope just as far as he could.
"Well their here and we have a lot of work to do." Jane announced.
"What do you want us to do Boss, help in this room or start another?" Cho asked with his usual lack of emotion.
"Lets just get this room done and then maybe split up after that." I shrugged.
"And if either of you paint my hair it's on." Grace winked at the twins.
"Teresa made a rule that we weren't allowed to paint hair anymore." Alyssa frowned.
"I wonder why that was." Rigsby smirked in Jane's direction.
"You didn't have to go to the store with him afterwards." I turned to start on the closest wall.
"That must have been fun." Cho answered, glancing over his shoulder.
"Everybody was laughing it was funny." Alyssa giggled.
"Yeah hilarious." I rolled my eyes but everyone's back was to me.
"I think she enjoyed it." Jane laughed.
"Really sounds like it." Grace grinned, we moved through the room so much faster with three extra people, and then we agreed to split up the team did the dining room and Jane, the girls, and I painted the kitchen. Once the entire first floor had one coat of paint we met up in the living room for lunch. Jane had just started making Cass's bottle when there was a knock at the door and the flooring company was here.
"That's all upstairs." I instructed, following them up and explaining which color carpeting was to go in which room before coming back to enjoy lunch with everyone else.
"Look Teresa we get big people drinks." Alyssa held up a plastic wine glass, and I turned to Jane who pointed to Rigsby.
"It's sparkling cider boss." His face was bright red, afraid he was going to get yelled at. "I brought enough for everyone since I didn't think you actually wanted us drinking on the job."
"Very clever." I shook my head but nonetheless accepted the drink taking a seat between the girls.
"Consider it your house warming gift." He smiled, "But there's also soda and juice in there if you want something else."
"So you're coming back to work on Monday right Boss?" Grace wondered reaching for the plate of cheese and crackers.
"The boys picking on you?" Jane wondered taking a sip of his cider.
"Yea I'll be back at work on Monday." I nodded giving Jane another dirty look and he just smiled his stupid gorgeous smile. Not gorgeous just stupid.
"And you to?" Rigsby turned to Jane.
"That depends entirely on Lisbon." He shrugged.
"What does that mean?" Cho frowned.
"Jane offered to watch the kids next week while I am at work so I don't have to pay for a babysitter." I clarified, fearing that his thoughts had gone in the same directions as all of the rumors, since it was against the rules for two teammates to work together in that situation. I had always wondered if a consultant counted as a team member, but was afraid to look it up.
"That was really nice of you." Grace grinned.
"There's always a tone of surprise when I do something nice." He smirked.
"Oh I'm sorry." Grace apologized immediately.
"He was kidding Grace." I just shook my head, and Jane shrugged.
"Not necessarily, there is truth in what I said." He stated, gathering up the girls and William's trash and dumping it in any empty grocery bag. "Is it so unbelievable that I would do something for someone else?"
"Yes." Cho nodded, and I couldn't help but laugh.
"That's not true he has been very helpful these past two weeks." I defended.
"Yeah I'm not sure there isn't some personal gain involved." Cho shrugged, throwing his trash in the grocery bag.
"Rigsby where's Ben?" Jane wondered lifting William onto his lap.
"Daycare, if I had thought about it I would have brought him with me, he would love to meet these guys." Rigsby smiled at the very mention of his son, I wonder if I did that for these kids or if that was something only a true parent did.
"We will definitely have to schedule some sort of play date William could use someone other than his sisters to play with." I stated, Ben was almost two there was a little bit of an age difference but I didn't think it would make too much of a difference.
"He would love that." Rigsby nodded. As Jane finished cleaning up the leftovers, I brought William and Cass back to their playroom, which unfortunately was the laundry room because that was the only room downstairs we weren't painting in today, and the guys were upstairs laying carpet.
"Basement and then come start the second coats?" I asked looking at the others who just shrugged, I guess it was my house I should be taking some initiative.
I noticed Jane pull the twins over to the side, and had this horrible feeling about painting the basement. We had agreed that half of it would be storage but the other half could be their playroom, and a dark purple had been chosen as the paint color.
"Yes Lisbon." Jane smirked as he caught me staring at him pouring the paint.
"What did you tell them?" I frowned.
"Avoid the hair." He smirked, making sure no one else was listening.
"You are horrible." I couldn't help but laugh.
"Come on it's the last room in the house." He smiled, "We should celebrate."
"We still have to give the entire first floor a second coat." I reminded, "But you didn't hear me arguing." I added.
Then just like the first day the minute work started on the last wall, Emily over swung her roller and got purple paint all over my team, she did a great job at making it look accidental. Alyssa however just took her roller and started flinging paint in every direction.
"Damn it Jane." Cho cursed while Grace and Rigsby started flinging paint back at the girls and us. I caught Jane trying to duck behind me but pushed him out in the center.
"This was your grand plan remember." I laughed as he ducked out of the way of Cho's brush.
"You had your opportunity to call the girls off before it started." Jane argued, and that caused my co-workers to look at me as if it had all been my plan to begin with and suddenly I was just as much a target as Jane and the girls.
"Okay, Alyssa, Emily brushes down we got to get the work done." I called the battle to a halt after about fifteen minutes of paint flinging.
"This is why we shouldn't listen when Jane asks for help." Grace laughed looking down at her paint-splattered clothes. Looking everyone over we did somehow manage to avoid hair as much as possible.
We were in the middle of recoating the kitchen and dinning room when the carpet guys came down. "Ma'am we're done upstairs, you have us coming back tomorrow right?"
"Uh huh, tomorrow afternoon the rest of the house gets new floors." I nodded.
"Just double checking." He sighed, looking us all over in our paint splattered clothes.
"He probably thinks we're idiots." I groaned after the man walked away, it was just Jane and I in the kitchen while the team was in the dinning room and the girls had gone off to play with their siblings.
"Oh I doubt that." Jane chuckled "it's very easy to get paint on your clothes."
"Jane we're covered in it." I reminded, "Or isn't your shirt heavy today with our co-workers in the other room."
"There is only one fresh layer of paint on this shirt, there were four layers of paint on my shirt Tuesday." He returned.
"I think you just like hiding the fact that you're secretly more capable than we've always thought." I argued.
"Like I said running doesn't make me James Bond, I much prefer hiding behind the person with the gun." He answered.
"Jane, I know you keep a gun in your vest pocket." I whispered.
"I know you do." He turned to face me, he wanted to know how I was going to react. "I saw when you first noticed."
"How long before that had you been carrying it?" I questioned, hoping it hadn't been to long. He had given me a hug after a particularly rough case a couple months before his confrontation with Red John and I felt it.
"A year or two." He admitted, "I was waiting for you to bring it up, you looked terrified when you pulled away from that hug, I knew that you had felt it."
"One or two years?" I asked.
"A year and half." He just watched me, "Yes it was initially for him."
"Initially?" I frowned.
"I realized it might be useful to be able to protect myself or someone else if I had to." He explained. "I have a permit."
"I know I checked immediately afterwards." I confessed, and he just chuckled, going back to painting the wall. "Who did you think you were going to protect?" I questioned out of pure curiosity.
"You of course." He didn't even look at me, when I turned back to face him again.
"You wanted to protect me?" I laughed.
"I didn't want to lose my best friend." He shrugged.
"Jane, you don't need to protect me, I am the cop and you are the consultant, it is my job to protect you." I reminded.
"Well now you are a mother and if you think I'm going to let you jump in the line of fire you are poorly mistaken." He argued.
"Jane, that's very thoughtful of you, but it's not necessary." I tried to reason with him.
"Are you mad that I didn't tell you I had it?" He questioned as we started for the basement.
"Not anymore." I shrugged, "I was scared at first because I honestly didn't know what you had planned, then I was mad for a little bit, but now I'm just mad that I hadn't realized sooner."
"Realized what sooner?" Grace asked they had beaten us down which wasn't too surprising since we had detoured into a conversation.
"That Cass is about ready to try baby food instead of just her formula, I was telling her we should have got it at the store on Wednesday." Jane answered, "Because now we have to make a stop on the way home covered in paint."
It was horrible he lied with such ease to people he considered friends, their was no hesitation at all and if I hadn't been the one having the conversation with him I might have believed what he said. The only thing that gave the team any pause was the fact that it was Jane and it was expected that he would lie.
"What kind of food does she get at first?" I wasn't going to tell them if he wasn't going to I believed they should know, but it wasn't my place to say especially not on their day off.
"The baby food from the store, mashed banana's, sweet potatoes, squash, apples. Stuff like that needs to be introduced one at a time." Jane explained starting right away on what was truly the last room in the house.
"That sounds delicious." Cho frowned.
"It actually is." Rigsby admitted, causing all of us to turn, "Ben wouldn't eat I was trying to show him how good it was." He defended.
"So you ate baby food?" Grace smirked.
"There are easier ways." Jane laughed.
"Maybe for you there were but Ben wouldn't eat." Rigsby was getting incredibly defensive.
"He wouldn't eat." Cho stared at him, and Rigsby just nodded, "Are we sure he's your son?" Everyone got a good laugh out of that and then we went back to finishing the room in silence. I would talk to Jane later convince him that with Red John dead he didn't need to carry a gun, convince him that I would be safe with out his urge to protect me.
When the room was done the team helped clean up all of the tarps and bring the leftover paint to the garage. I hated to disappoint the girls but it didn't look there would be enough to cover a fort in the backyard, I suppose when it came down to it I would have to buy more paint for them.
"Night Boss." Cho nodded leading the other two out the door.
"See you on Monday." Grace added, giving me a hug.
"Yea good night Boss," Rigsby waved, "Jane." I just stood in the doorway and nodded as each person left. It wasn't until the cars were out of sight that I felt Jane start massaging my shoulders, and I hate to admit it but it felt really good.
"You're really tense Lisbon." Jane frowned leading me back into the house, it was after four and we should be getting back to the apartment, we needed dinner, the kids needed their bathes, there were still things to pack, yeah and he's surprised I'm tense. "Come with me." I felt my body protest as he stopped massaging but followed him up the stairs. "You're new bedroom." He smiled, all four kids were just laying in the center of the room and for some reason it just made since to join them. And so for a good twenty minutes the six of us just laid on the new carpet in the master bedroom. Until Cass started to cry and William informed us he was hungry and we were rushed home so Jane could make another amazing meal.
I had just laid Cass down in her crib for the night when I heard the girls down the hall, Jane was supposed to be reading to them right now. When I walked into the room Jane was sitting in the center of the bed with William on his lap and the girls on either side.
"I do not.. like them in a box. I do not like them wwith a fox." Emily read very slowly and Jane nodded helping her when she stumbled with a word.
"I do not li..ke them in a hoo…use. I do not like them wiith a mo..use." Alyssa continued, with Jane's help.
I stood in the doorframe and just listened, this was my family. I've said it before and I'll say it again I have no idea what I'm going to do when Jane left. What were the kids going to do?
"What's on your mind?" Jane asked after tucking the kids in and placing the book on the dresser.
"Nothing." I sighed pulling back the blankets.
"Lisbon are you going to try lying to me right now?" He chuckled getting into bed himself.
"What are the kids going to think when you leave?" I frowned, turning off the bedside lamp.
"I told you I'm not going anywhere until you tell me to." He turned on his side to face me.
"But you can't live with us forever, I mean eventually you'll want to move out." I worried, and he pulled me close and wrapped his arms around me.
"Do you really think that I'd want to leave this house, a bed, those gorgeous kids of yours, and you?" He asked, "Where would I go? Back to my Attic?" I guess I had never looked at it that way, I had always thought about what would happen to us when he left, but what would he do? "I'm waiting for you to kick me out."
"Jane I'm not going to kick you out." I sighed.
"Well then it's agreed I'm here for at least a little bit longer until you realize working with me and living with me is to much." He smiled, and I couldn't help but smile to, maybe he was right maybe I would get fed up of him once we went back to work, but I highly doubted that.
"I guess so." I smiled laying my head on his chest. "But we may have to do something about this sleeping situation when we move into the house." Things became way to tempting curled up in his arms every night, and that couldn't happen we had agreed to be just co-workers. Well I had agreed to it I don't know what's going on in his head.
"Is Teresa Lisbon having naughty thoughts about me?" He laughed, and as much as it was true I really had no choice but to slap him.
"Bastard." I hissed into his t-shirt.
"Again I'm not sure what my parents have to do with anything." He responded flinching away as I raised my hand to slap him again, "Then again maybe I should leave if all you're going to do is beat me up."
"You're not going anywhere." I whispered cuddling as close to him as I could, feeling immediately embarrassed and trying to pull away but his arms were wrapped tight around me. I knew he had been kidding I don't know why him saying it made me so nervous. Why was my first instinct to move closer to him, I didn't need him, if he wanted to leave he could leave. Then why did it scare me so much?
"No I'm not." He chuckled holding me tight.