I'm sorry it took me a little longer than usual, chalk it up to a holiday weekend. As always I can't wait to hear what you think of the chapter, and as usual I own nothing.
We barely beat the flooring guys to the house, Jane had pulled his car into the garage, and something felt right about that. I gave the carpet men the instructions while Jane played in the front yard with the kids, when I came out he had been tackled to the ground and the pants of his nice suit were covered in grass stains. After unloading the boxes from my car and locking the garage we went out and ran the errands, and drove back to the apartment to pick up the TV and other electronics. By the time we made it back to the house the carpet guys were finishing up.
"We'll send you the bill ma'am." The last man out of the house shook my hand, and I just nodded. I turned around to find Jane was already hooking up the TV, while the girls took to throwing all of their movies onto the floor to decide on tonight's activities.
"Welcome home Teresa." Jane smiled looking up from connecting the DVD player, that's not fair how come he always sent shivers down my spine when he used my first name.
"Thank you Jane." I gave in, "For the house."
"You're money, you're house." He shook his head.
"Well thank you anyway." I sighed, "So what pizza for dinner, isn't that what people do when they move into a new house?"
"Pizza!" All three kids looked up.
"Not tonight." Jane grinned finishing up work on the TV. "I'm cooking dinner."
"Cooking dinner?" I frowned, watching as he lay back on the new carpet and lifted Cass over his head, just to watch her smile. He must have been an excellent father, I could only stand and watch him play with the kids.
"You guys have quite a bit of Disney movies." Jane laid Cass next to him then turned on his side to look at the kid's movies and ignoring my question.
"Jane how are you going to cook dinner, all of the dishes and cookware are still boxed up in the garage, in who knows which box." I tried again.
"You guys like this movie?" He held up Mary Poppins, and both girls nodded, "So do I, you know it's older than I am?" He smiled.
"Barely." I smirked, giving up in questioning him about dinner.
"What was that Lisbon?" He smiled over his shoulder, and I just grinned, "I see we've come back to the 'old' jokes."
"Patrick." Alyssa called his attention back to the movies. "We're going to watch the Lion King, and then Mulan, and then Aladdin, and then Toy Story, and then Finding Nemo, and then Tangled, and then…"
"We may have to save some of those for tomorrow night." He cut her off, "I don't know if we'll have time for all of these."
"We're going to play games to right?" Emily questioned.
"What games do you have?" Jane smiled, looking over at their bags.
"Not to many." Alyssa answered.
"Well let's see them." He prompted, and Emily dragged over her backpack, and pulled out three board games, how had I never noticed them before. Candy Land, Disney trivia, and Memory.
"We can play that one while Patrick's making dinner." I gestured to Memory.
"Why can't I play?" He feigned offense looking over his shoulder.
"Yeah, why can't Patrick play?" Emily looked up.
"Remember how we said he could read minds, he also has a super memory, he doesn't forget anything." I came and sat down next to where Jane was lying.
"That's impossible." Emily frowned, "Everyone forgets things."
"Unless it's another superpower." Alyssa grinned. "Is it a superpower?" Jane looked over at me with a smirk, clearly waiting for me to find someway out of this one.
"Yea it's another one of his superpowers." I smiled back at him, "He also has the power to get into locked rooms and other places he shouldn't be."
"Like when we got the clothes." Emily remembered.
"Yep just like that." Jane grinned, he had a wicked glint in his eyes. "There was also a time when I got out of this one place that people aren't supposed to be able to get out of, do you remember that Teresa?"
"I don't think that needs to be brought up now, I don't think that was an appropriate use of your superpowers." I answered, thinking back to all the frustration he caused everyone at the CBI when he broke out of prison, "I think that falls under personal gain."
"Of course not, I only did it to solve the case, that's hardly personal gain." He smirked.
"What you talking about?" William frowned, he had been trying to follow the conversation while playing with his toy cars.
"We are talking about something we'll tell you about when your older." I sighed, how did he always do this tempt me into situations and then turn them around.
"We'll be older in November." Alyssa tried.
"You mean a lot older though." Emily stated, "Don't you?"
"Yes, stuff that has to do with work will stay between Teresa and I until you are a lot older." Jane answered.
"Why?" William questioned.
"Because a lot of bad things happen at work, that you don't need to worry about." I replied, how had we gotten from Memory to this?
"So what's first board games or movies?" Jane drew the kids attention back to the movies they had laid out. "Since I've been banned from Memory you guys can start playing that while I go cook dinner, just like Teresa suggested."
"It's four thirty isn't that a little early for dinner?" I frowned as the twins immediately turned to start setting up the game.
"Not if we're going to have popcorn or ice cream during the movies later, this is a slumber party after all Lisbon." Jane answered sitting up and handing Cass to me.
"Can he have popcorn?" I worried, watching Liam go back to playing with his cars.
"Sure as long as we watch him, he's good at chewing his food." Jane shrugged walking out. I heard him walk out to the garage and listened as he came back in going straight to he kitchen with a handful of boxes, of course he knew which boxes had the kitchen things in them.
As usual I found myself wondering what he would be making for dinner, knowing it wouldn't be anything to much because we were eating in the living room with the kids. I wonder what he would cook if we ever had a night just to ourselves, if he was willing to make spaghetti and homemade chicken stripes for five year olds. What had he cooked for his wife? I would probably never know. Thinking about Jane and dinner was distracting me from the game at hand, and all three if the older kids were starting to notice.
"Teresa it's your turn again." Emily gave an over exaggerated sigh.
"I know I'm sorry." I apologized choosing to cards at random, no match.
"Are you hungry?" Alyssa frowned, and I must have looked confused. "I get distracted when I'm hungry."
"I guess I am a little hungry then." I answered.
"She's thinking about Patrick." Emily giggled.
"Why is that what you always think of?" I smiled at her.
"Because it's the truth." Emily kept giggling.
"What makes you say that?" I wondered, what was it with these girls that made them notice these things, surely I really wasn't as bad a liar and Jane always insisted.
"Cause you are always happy with him, even when you fight." Alyssa answered.
"We don't fight." I insisted, "We banter."
"What's banter?" William asked after choosing two cards for himself, no match.
"Well it's fighting only we don't really mean what we say, it's like a joke." I attempted.
"But aren't jokes supposed to be funny?" Emily frowned.
"Sometime when we banter it's funny." I shrugged, "But I guess most of the time it's just how we communicate with each other."
"It's weird." Alyssa announced matching two cards for herself.
"You've spent two weeks with Patrick now have you not noticed he's a little bit weird." I laughed.
"Well it looks like someone doesn't get their dinner." Jane walked in with a tray of what looked like hamburgers and different types of chips.
"Because I called you weird." I rolled my eyes.
"She could have called you ec..ec…eccentric." Alyssa offered.
"She could have." He nodded, "And that is a nicer way of saying the same thing." He smiled setting the food down and laying out one of the painting tarps from the garage to eat on.
"I'm sorry." I sighed, "I apologized do I get my dinner now?"
"Did you mean it?" He smirked.
"Yes I meant it." I took Cass's bottle off of Jane's tray.
"Do you three think she meant it?" He passed out milk glasses.
"Nope." William smiled.
"Maybe." Emily shrugged.
"Yep." Alyssa finished.
"Uh oh three different answers we have a hung jury." He held a plate out just in front of me.
"Oh and what do you know about being a lawyer?" I answered without looking up from feeding Cass, ignoring the plate he was taunting me with.
"I think I could be a pretty good lawyer, some would say I was a good enough lawyer to get away with murder." He stated, and I looked up from what I was doing.
"That's not funny." I warned, taking the plate from his outstretched hand.
"I know I'm sorry." He hung his head, but he wasn't fooling anyone. Who knows maybe he really did feel bad about what he had done a couple years back, he said he had felt sorry for lying to the jury. No he said kinda sorry, maybe he really was a psychopath like Wainwright had warned.
"I hope so." I sighed, setting the plate down on the tarp so I could go back to giving Cass her bottle.
"I really am sorry, but Wainwright was probably right to." He looked at me seriously, "I do enjoy lying to other people and causing them discomfort and all of those other things Wainwright said."
"I think if you can admit it, it's not true." I tried to reassure him.
"Is this more banter, cause it doesn't sound very funny." Alyssa frowned.
"No, this isn't more banter." I watched as Jane handed eat of the kids their plates.
"This is more work talk." Jane told them, and I set Cass's bottle down to take a bite of the hamburger.
"Soooo you're not going to tell us." Emily complained.
"Not today." Jane nodded.
"Or ever possibly." I said more to myself, "Jane what did you put in these burgers?"
"Bacon, cheese, and green peppers." He listed taking a bite of his own sandwich.
"Another trick to make them eat their vegetables." I wondered, helping Liam with his burger.
"Actually no, this is just how I like my hamburgers." He smiled, "Most the time when you order it they put it on the hamburger which is fine, but it's better in the burger." How had I never noticed that, I guess when we ate together it was usually closed case pizza.
"What are the green things?" Alyssa frowned, halfway through her hamburger.
"Vegetables." Emily stopped and stared at her own dinner.
"Do you not like them?" Jane questioned.
"It tastes funny. "Alyssa shrugged, taking another bite.
"And that has nothing to do with the fact that it's a vegetables." Jane interrogated.
"No." she looked down at the floor and Jane just smiled, it was true children were horrible liars.
"Oh okay as long as you continue to eat it." Jane smirked.
"I guess." Alyssa tried to sound upset about it.
"I'm happy to hear it." He nodded, "So what's are first movie?"
"Lion King." William reminded.
"Sounds good to me." I agreed handing Jane my empty plate.
"So who won the game?" Jane asked gathering up the tray full of dirty plates.
"We didn't finish." Emily stated.
"Well you do that and I'll do the dishes." He instructed. "When the games over I want everyone to come into the kitchen and help me with something."
"Leave the dishes in the sink we can do that in the morning. And why do we need to go to the kitchen?" I frowned, but he brushed it off and we finished our game, Alyssa won. Not knowing what we were walking into I led the kids into the kitchen where Jane was in the process of opening paint buckets. "What are you doing?"
"You're going to claim your house." Jane smiled, looking down at the five buckets in front of him. "Emily's oldest she's first, which color?"
"What are you doing?" I repeated as Emily stepped forward, and pointed to the green bucket. I watched him dip the little girls hand in the green paint and then helped her press it against the wall next to the door.
"Alyssa next, what color?" He smiled as he already started pulling the pink bucket forward. He repeated the process with William and the blue paint, before turning to me. "You get purple or orange he turned to me, and Cass gets the last one."
"What about you Patrick?" Alyssa frowned as he helped the three of them wash their hands.
"This isn't my house." Patrick shrugged grabbing a permanent marker, "Come here the wall needs you guy's autograph." He helped the three of them sign their names under their handprints before adding their age and the date. "Cass's turn." He turned to me.
"She can have the purple paint, I'll take the orange, and you better go grab that teal from the garage." I smiled handing him the small child and watching him add her handprint to the wall it really was an adorable idea to put their handprints on the wall.
"You don't really want my handprint on your wall." He shook his head.
"You picked out the house, you helped paint the house, you're helping me move in, you're helping me take care of the kids, you deserve to autograph the wall as well." I smiled dipping my own hand in the orange paint, "Besides if I have to I can always paint over it."
"As you wish." He smiled running out to the garage to get a sixth color for himself. I signed my own name and then signed Cass's for her. "Wait Lisbon you wrote Cass's age but you didn't write yours." Jane laughed taking the marker to write his name on the wall.
"Yeah and I'm not going to either." I watched him smirk.
"Why not you shouldn't be embarrassed how old are you again twenty-nine /thirty?" He smiled and I couldn't help but smile to.
"You really can be sweet sometimes." I sighed, "but I noticed you didn't write yours either."
"Meh." Was his only response.
"I mean if I'm twenty nine that makes you what thirty one." I replied and he just chuckled.
When I woke up the next morning it took me a minute to remember why I was laying on the floor. I looked around and checked my watch eight o clock an hour and a half before mass we could do that. I tried to get up but my back was so stiff when I finally sat up Jane was standing next to me handing me a cup of coffee. Ass.
"Church this morning?" He smiled.
"Yes." I answered after a sip of coffee. "You changing your mind about going." I prayed.
"Of course not, I was just wondering." He answered sitting down next to me.
"Did you move those boxes in here?" I frowned knowing the answer, all of the boxes from the living room in my apartment were sitting in the corner.
"Uh huh, and you're clothes are sitting in boxes in your new closet." He nodded.
"Did you sleep?" I worried.
"It's been a long time since I've slept on the floor." I earned a sad smile, I couldn't tell if he was disappointed or if he was remembering something about his family.
"You're getting old Jane." I tried to tease and he chuckled, but it didn't hide whatever he was thinking about.
"I suppose you're right." He shook his head.
"You're not supposed to agree, because that means I'm getting old." I reminded, and he smiled, I suppose I could keep his thought focused on something else until he decided to tell me.
"I'm sorry, I was lying." He answered, "I do that sometimes."
"Now you're lying about lying." I laughed.
"Are you saying I don't lie?" He grinned.
"No I'm saying you really think you're old." I rolled my eyes, "I know you lie."
"Well I don't think I'm old, and you better get up the kids have probably finished their cereal by now, and we wouldn't want to be late for church." He looked like whatever had been haunting him was gone for now, he would tell me about it when he was ready.
The kids were all dressed and ready when I made it to the kitchen, I wish he would wake me up to help. I always get this guilty feeling watching them sit there, dressed and ready to go and not having helped at all.
"Patrick said we could watch more movies tonight and have ice cream." Alyssa beamed when I walked into the kitchen.
"Well we can't stay up to late I have to go to work in the morning." I sighed, I had never dreaded going to work before. I had gotten used to the kids company, and I didn't like to remember the last time I had to work with out Jane.
"Do you have to?" Emily pouted.
"Yeah, I have to." I answered accepting the cereal Jane set in front of me.
"Why?" William frowned.
"Because I don't want to get fired." I replied, watching Jane feed Cass baby food for the first time, I expected feeding her to be a lot messier. "Is that all you feed her?" I frowned watching him clean up.
"At first." Jane nodded.
"If you get fired you would get to spend all your time with us." Alyssa announced.
"As tempting as that is, who would pay for your school, or your soccer, or our food?" I smiled.
"We don't need to go to school, people can be happy without going to school. And Patrick can pay for the other stuff." Emily explained.
"Its true people can be happy without going to school, but very few of them are successful." Jane answered, which was irony at work since he had been incredibly successful in his act and then at the CBI with me. "And who said I could pay for the other stuff."
"You always offer to pay for things." Alyssa reminded, and Jane shrugged at the truth in that.
"But Patrick's right you need to go to school because we want you to be successful when you get bigger, and I've only ever met one person who hasn't gone to school and been successful." I sighed.
"Who?" William wondered, I probably didn't need to add that I groaned and turned to Jane.
"I sincerely hope you weren't talking about me." He frowned, "I don't think some of the things I've done would be considered successful."
"Guys go get your shoes on, we can talk about this on the way to church." I instructed, I waited patiently for the kids to slide off of their chairs and run into the living room. "Of course I was talking about you, who else would I be talking about?"
"Like I said I'm not some grand success story." He got up and washed the dishes in the sink.
"Jane…Patrick you escaped a carnival became a millionaire and then you spent the past eight years of your life tracking and killing a serial killer along with putting hundreds more behind bars. And while I don't always agree with your methods I'd say you were successful." I lectured him.
"You skipped that little part where I got my wife and daughter killed and then spent a year locked up in a psych ward." He didn't turn around.
"Patrick you made mistakes, we all have, so what, that doesn't mean you haven't been successful in other things." I tried, it wasn't the best argument but I didn't really know what to say.
"Not in the things that matter." He straightened his vest, turned and lifted Cass out of her high chair and followed the kids into the living room. I was left to sit in silence and think about what he said.
Jane was incredibly well behaved during church, he sat with Cass in his arms meanwhile keeping William occupied with his toys. Lunch was simple, we went to one of Jane's favorite diners and then straight home afterwards to unpack as many of the boxes as we could. These tasks we limited by the lack of shelves, but we managed to get the clothes put away and set up a bookshelf in the living room, along with all of the cookware, which Jane had gotten a head start on the night before.
"I need you guys help with dinner tonight." Jane announced opening the fridge. "We're going to make Teresa a surprise dinner since she has to go back to work tomorrow."
"Jane you don't have to." I tried really hard to keep the excitement out of my voice.
"You three start picking out things from that group, and then after that I want you to go through that group of things." Jane instructed the kids without giving away what was in either pile. "And you will take this beautiful girl out to the living room and use every ounce of your very thin patience."
"Jane."
"Dinner will be ready shortly." He smiled, handing me Cass and pushing me out of the kitchen. He was right of course it took every ounce of patience not to go in and check on them. After fifteen minutes the twins ran out with the tarp in their hands.
"What are you making?" I questioned, but instead of answering they looked at each other giggled and ran back into the kitchen. A minute later they came back with plates and cups, next it was the carton of milk the whole time they did nothing more than giggle which was not helping my since of ease with the situation.
"Patrick says pick out a movie." Emily stuck her head through the door, then five minutes later the girls held the door open while Jane carried William out in one arm and a giant pizza out in the other.
"What is on that?" I smirked watching him lay the pizza on the tarp.
"Pepperoni, and sausage…" Alyssa started.
"Pineapple, mushrooms, peppers…" Emily added.
"Cheese, bacon." William finished.
"I had plenty of other toppings, but these are what they chose." Jane smirked. "So what movie did we choose?"
"This was one of the ones we didn't get to last night right." I held up the movie that had been sitting nearest to me.
"Tangled it is." Jane nodded, cutting the pizza and handing out the plates. "But don't fill up on the pizza, the kids made an amazing dessert."
"She has pretty blond hair like you Patrick." Alyssa smiled as the movie started.
"Should I grow mine out like that?" He teased.
"No, that would be silly." She giggled.
"And your's is much to curly to look like that." I added, and Jane just smiled that stupid grin of his. Halfway through the movie Jane got up and substituted the leftover pizza, with a homemade dessert pizza. The crust was a giant chocolate chip cookie, the sauce was frosting and it was topped in chocolate chips, M&M's, marshmallow, chocolate sauce and a just about every other candy imaginable. "I can only assume you three picked out these toppings as well." I smiled taking a bite, they would not be sleeping anytime soon.
I was laying in the sleeping bag later that night with the kids a sleep in between Jane and I. The only thing running through my head was that movie, was I going to be cursed into thinking that every Disney movie was about Jane and I because that was ridiculous there was no Jane and I. But seriously a charming thief, how was I not supposed to think about Jane. It's Lady and the Tramp all over again.
"Think quieter Lisbon." Jane smirked, I looked over, had he been watching me this whole time. "What could one be thinking about to run that range of emotions?"
"Go to sleep Jane." I hissed.
"Oh." He chuckled.
"Oh what?" I snapped trying to keep my voice down.
"Nothing." He continued to chuckle.
"Your just trying to get me to tell you what I was thinking about." I argued, "You have no idea."
"For the record I stand by what I said when I saw you in the brides maid dress, you would make a very good princess." He smiled, okay so maybe he did know what I was thinking about, bastard.
"I don't know what you're talking about." I turned my back on him, but that didn't stop me from knowing he had that stupid smug grin on his face.