I know the last chapter was sad, and I'm not ashamed to say writing it I got a little teary eyed. So I tried to make this chapter a little bit more cheery. I hope you enjoy. As usual I own nothing.
I don't know what time I finally talked Patrick into going to bed but it was long after we had watched the remaining home videos. The next morning when I got up if the circumstances would have been different I would have teased Jane for sleeping in longer than me. I took the opportunity to watch him sleep and I think maybe that was the first time I saw him completely at peace. I hurried and got ready for the day being careful not to wake him he deserved his sleep. I thought I heard him stir before I left to wake the kids but he remained asleep.
Once in the kitchen the kids had similar questions as the day before, but answering was easier since Patrick was still in the house. With breakfast out of the way I gathered the kids and gave simple instructions, "We are going to go upstairs and say good bye to Patrick, if he's asleep don't wake him he stayed up way past his bedtime last night."
I sat at the end of the bed with Cass in my arms as each of the girls went forward and kissed his cheek, it was William's turn when I noticed Jane was peeking out from under his eyelids. The kids were in the doorway when Patrick sat up in bed, "Now that's not a proper good morning come over here and give me a hug before you go."
The three kids ran and climbed onto the bed basically tackling Jane, "Teresa said you were still sleeping." Emily explained.
"Oh well I can't sleep to long if I did I wouldn't get to say good bye to you in the morning."
"Kids go grab your backpacks and meet me at the door." I lifted each kid off the door and sent them on their way, "Patrick go back to sleep I'll think of something to tell the team."
"Don't be ridiculous, I'm awake I'll be at work in an hour."
"No, sleep, go for your run, eat a good breakfast, and don't worry about work, you look exhausted."
"I can work on exhausted."
"Patrick, go back to sleep and I'll see you when I come home."
"I'll come in late."
"I don't want to see your face before noon." I warned looking at the clock I had to leave if I didn't want the kids to be late.
"Teresa you're forgetting something." He pouted sitting up a little straighter, I turned quick and gave him his kiss good bye.
"Not before noon."
"We'll see." He called after me as I carried Cass down the stairs and rushed the kids to school. The whole way to work was spent trying to figure out what to say to make the team believe Jane was okay without saying that I knew this because he told me so in bed this morning.
"Have you heard from Jane?" Van Pelt looked up the second I got off the elevator.
"I thought he'd be here by now." Was lying really the best option.
"Boss you don't think he did something he may regret do you?" She you she worried.
"Yeah Boss should we try calling him or checking his motel room." Rigsby set his paperwork aside.
"Give him until noon if he doesn't show up by then I'll call him myself. If he doesn't show up by the end of the day we can all check out his hotel room before I pick the kids up from school." I got nods of approval from all three members of my team before retreating to my office. Nine o clock came and went no Jane, ten o clock no Jane, not that I was expecting him to I said noon and I believed he would listen, but every ten minutes my team turned in the direction of the elevator for Jane's arrival. It was eleven o clock when my door opened and Jane stuck his head in.
"I know it's not noon, but I got bored, so I'm here." With that he was gone back to lie on his couch. I watched him go and noticed his hobo like appearance once again. I suppose if he was going to show up late he was going to make a show of it, and for some reason I found the idea that he went out of his way to look disheveled rather amusing.
I watched from my office as the team studied Jane's appearance as he feigned sleep on the couch. After many minutes of concern they seemed to relax and except the fact that at least he was here, at least he was safe. Once they relaxed I could relax and get back to all of this paperwork. It seemed that despite our slow case load the paperwork kept piling up, the nights of me staying late to finish it were long gone. Now I had kids to take care of a family to go home to, and I had Jane. Last night I had seen him cry, I don't think I could recall a single time in the years we've known each other that he's let himself cry in front of me or anyone for that matter.
At noon I decided in Jane's "condition" I would switch things up, I made him a glass a tea instead of waiting for a coffee from him. After waving the glass under his nose for a minute he sat up.
"Agent Lisbon you are a godsend." He chuckled sitting up and accepting the tea.
"Only paying you back for all those cups of coffee." I shrugged.
"It appears I drank a little to much yesterday." He ran his hands over his face, spending a little extra time on the blond stubble on his cheeks.
"A little more than a little by the looks of it." Cho looked up from his book.
"Apparently so." Jane leaned back on the couch.
"Here." Grace pulled some ibuprofen out of her desk and tossed it to Jane, who just nodded and took two with his tea.
"You going to be okay?" I frowned watching him sip his tea, and again he just nodded, but behind his mask of sadness was a playful spark in his eyes.
"I'll be fine." He sighed after a moment, "I promise this will be the last time I show up like this."
"Don't make promises you can't keep Jane." I shook my head and headed back to my office and stayed there until it was time to pick up the kids from school, and due to an early soccer game I didn't even get the opportunity to run back to work afterwards. However due to Jane's "condition" he was able to leave work early as well and was able to get home and get cleaned up before going to the game.
"Girls hurry, we're going to be late!" Jane called up the stairs lifting William into his arms.
"You're really mean to our co-workers." I loaded the stroller into the trunk of the car.
"You're the one who doesn't want them to know."
"They thought you had done something drastic. What did you say when you feigned drunk?"
"I told you what I said."
"Alyssa pulled my ponytail out!" Emily sprinted to the car.
"She's lying." Alyssa followed throwing her soccer ball into the car.
"Why would I lie?" Emily cried, "She pulled out my ponytail!"
"And why did we pull out her ponytail?" I sighed, this was not the time for them to be arguing we were already on the verge of running late. How come that was starting to sound familiar, I had never been late before and now we were always on the verge of tardiness.
"I didn't do it." Alyssa insisted climbing into the car and waiting to be buckled in.
"She said it was her hair thing, but it's not it's mine, she's jealous cause mine is prettier." Emily continued to shout.
"Alright, Alyssa first things first apologize to your sister." How was I supposed to punish her when we were already running late? No dessert but dinner was still at least an hour and a half away and who even knew if we were having dessert. I couldn't put her in timeout we didn't have the time. Spanking her was out of the question, it may work, but I had made a promise to never hit my kids I had been beaten enough for all of the kids.
"I'm not apologizing I didn't do anything." Alyssa crossed her arms.
"Okay it's settled no dessert after dinner." I buckled her in before lifting her sister into the seat next to her. It seemed a little cruel to only be getting dessert to punish a child but that was the best punishment I could come up with.
"That's a shame I was thinking of getting ice cream." Patrick offered his opinion.
"Fine I took her ponytail." Alyssa glared, "But it was mine and she stole it anyway."
"Did not, she's lying." Emily returned her sisters glare.
"I apologized do I get ice cream now?" Alyssa turned to the front seat expectantly.
"Afraid not." I could only shake my head. "In fact I didn't even hear an apology. All I heard was a confession."
"I'm sorry I took my hair band back from you." Alyssa all but spat at her sister who only glared in return. "Do I get ice cream now?"
"You still did something wrong, and since we can't seem to determine whose ponytail holder it is it looks like nobody will be getting any dessert." I explained and the argument continued all the way to the soccer game, and all through me redoing Emily's ponytail. "Whose ponytail holder is it really?" I looked to Patrick as he pulled out his video camera for the game.
"The curious case of the ponytail holder." He chuckled lifting William into one arm and adjusting the camera in the other. "How am I supposed to know?"
"Cause you know when people are lying."
"They both think they're telling the truth." He shrugged, "Impossible to tell whose it actually is, it's probably one they shared and Alyssa just didn't want to go down alone. That's what William and I think anyway."
"Is that what you think William?" The boy just giggled. The first half of the game was pretty adorable, but then again that may have been the moments when Patrick was encouraging William to cheer for his sisters. Eventually Jane gave in and set William on the blanket to play. It was half time when something happened that neither Patrick or I saw coming. I looked over and Jane was staring down at the little boy pulling on his pant leg.
"Daddy Patrick!" I little boy insisted, "Daddy Patrick, I have to pee!" I don't know how Jane could keep that smile on his face with that fear in his eyes.
"Alright, well I'll leave this with Teresa and we'll be right back." He passed me the camera, and lifted the boy into his arms.
"Hurry, you don't want to miss your sisters game." I smiled, where had that come from?
"Be right back Mommy Teresa!" The boy smiled, and so did Jane.
"Yep be right back Mommy Teresa." Jane repeated heading off to the park bathrooms. Where had that come from? I mean there had been nothing and then Cass and now William. I did kind of like the ring to that though, but how would Patrick handle it? It had scared him when Cass didn't even know what she was saying.
"You're turn Cass, mama." I tried, she just squirmed in her stroller one more try and then I'm done I shouldn't be encouraging that anyway, "Mama."
"Bababababa." She started chanting at least it wasn't dadada again.
"I wouldn't do that." A voice came from behind.
"Excuse me." I turned real quick, "Oh Mr. Heinz."
"Edward please." He extended his hand, "And once you get her started talking she not going to stop." He just smiled at me.
"Then she can tell me if those mashed peas taste any good or not, because they look disgusting." I replied.
"The pea's are bad but I think the squash looks worse." He chuckled.
"The teams playing really well." I tried to make conversation.
"You know much about soccer?" he wondered.
"Only what Patrick's told me."
"Does everyone get this close with their consultants?" He frowned.
"It's a high risk job I have to trust all my employee's with my life. Even the obnoxious arrogant ones."
"Obnoxious and arrogant that can only mean one thing." Patrick walked up behind us holding Williams hand, "We aren't talking about me by any chance." He smiled and kissed my cheek. He really was jealous of this guy.
"Are you sure you're not psychic Mr. Jane." Edward stared at the man next to me.
"No such thing." Patrick smirked, "Such words of flattery from her could only mean she was talking about me."
"Self absorbed I forgot self absorbed." I handed his camera back to him.
"What did I do to deserve all these compliments?"
"Look the third quarters about to begin, I just came over to invite you to my house on Saturday I'm inviting the whole team over for a barbeque and pool party, let the team bond and the parents get to know each other a little better." Edward invited.
"That sounds like a great idea." Jane grinned, "I'm sure we can make it."
"We can?" I looked at him.
"Do we have better plans?"
"I suppose we don't."
"Well then Edward, we'd love to." Jane kept grinning at the other man. I was never really a big fan of group gatherings with a lot of families. When I was real young the fire station would have a barbeque that my brothers and I enjoyed, but after the death of my mom it just wasn't the same. Patrick waited for Edward to walk away before coming right in front of me and wrapping his arms around my waist. "It has to be done." He all but whispered, "It will be uncomfortable, but it has to be done."
"And why does it have to be done?" I didn't see any rules in the new parent handbook that said you had to go to uncomfortable parties. That you had to have other parents ask questions you don't necessarily want to answer.
"Because eventually the girls will want to have friends over, or will want to go over to a friends house, and parents like to know who their kid is spending the day with. And I know for a fact you will not let those girls out of your sight short of running a background check on every living member of their family."
"That would be illegal Patrick, you may be comfortable doing that stuff but I'm a cop." So he had a decent reason I would like to know the parents of the girls friends, but that didn't mean I was willing to spend the afternoon at a stupid barbeque where the moms talked about the books they read and what they saw on TV.
"Does that mean we're going?" He smiled his obnoxiously good looking smile, but his eyes told me he was probably still thinking about what William had said.
"But I'm not happy about it." I turned away from his kiss.
"It'll be fun we'll be uncomfortable together." He cupped his hand under my face a directed it back to him for that kiss. "If it gets to uncomfortable we'll leave early." I suppose I should have seen it, it wasn't the fear of what William said in his eyes it was the fear of being around happy families again.
"Fine we'll be uncomfortable together." I returned his kiss before turning my attention to the game on the field.
"Daddy Patrick!" William was pulling on Jane's pant leg again, "I'm hungry!"
"Well I suppose it's a good thing we got a bag of goldfish in the diaper bag don't we." Patrick handed the camera off to me before digging through the diaper bag.
"Hey Liam you know we're not your real mommy and daddy right?" I wondered after watching him munch on his goldfish for a little while. He just nodded. "Then why all of a sudden is he Daddy Patrick and I'm Mommy Teresa?"
"Cass said it first." The boy pointed to the stroller. "And you live like mommy and daddy. So you kinda like mommy and daddy." That may have been the most I had heard him speak in the little over a month he had been living with us. Kind of like mommy and daddy, I repeated the statement over and over in my head through out the rest of the half. Yes Patrick and I were kind of like mommy and daddy.
When the game ended we stopped for the celebratory dinner another victory for the St. Mary's team B. But as announced before the game no ice cream for dessert. Instead it was hotdogs, fries, and lemonade before going home to bath time, story time, and then bedtime.
It was later that night when Patrick and I were laying in bed my head against his chest that he started chuckling. "You know I always did call you Saint Teresa."
"Excuse me?"
"Well William called you Mother Teresa, the women is on her way to sainthood."
"What would that make you Father Patrick, you aren't any priest I've ever met."
"That's true, don't priests have to be celibate or something I could never do that if I knew you were out there somewhere."
"Yeah you know they have to follow other rules, you know like not lie, not cheat, not steal, and it usually helps when the priest actually believes in God."
"Meh minor details."
"He said Mommy Teresa and Daddy Patrick, I'm no saint and you definitely are not a priest."
"While I have to argue the former there is still some truth to the latter."
The room was left in silence for a couple minutes before I got up the courage to ask him, "Are you okay?" It seemed those were the words that always defined our relationship one of us was always in some sort of pain. "I mean about William calling you that."
"I don't think I should be the one you're worrying about, if Alyssa hears him call us that she could hurt the poor boy."
"Patrick that's not what I meant."
"I know what you meant."
"Well are you?"
There was silence before his answer, "Yes I think so."
"You mean it?"
"Would I lie to you?"
"You've been known to in the past." I felt his body shake as he chuckled in response.
"I shall try and redeem myself then." There was that silence again, "He's saying it for himself I think. I mean I'm guessing but it gives him his own kind of reassurance that there are still grown ups who are going to take care of him. You asked him, he knows we aren't his real parents, but mommy and daddy are probably the easiest ways for him to describe his relationship with us."
"Patrick I didn't ask how William felt or why he said it. I asked how you felt."
"I feel okay, scared a little since I ruined it the first time around, and I will probably always be a little afraid of the idea of parenting again. But that's why you're the parent, and I'm the live in cook."
"Now Patrick I would never sleep with the help that's unprofessional." I couldn't help but tease him I knew I could make him smile again and I hated to see him beating himself up yet again.
"Aren't I in a way your 'help' at work?"
"That would imply you were admitting I'm you're superior and we both know 'you have no superiors.'"
"Of course I have no superiors, but help can come from many places."
"You're never wrong are you?"
"Not that I'll admit to." He was laughing again, it felt good to be teasing each other, it meant nothing had changed with the advancement of our relationship. "Good night Teresa." I felt him kiss the top of my head.
"Good night Patrick." I whispered into his chest.