I hope you enjoy this chapter, in the next chapter it's time for the cookout, but I hope this will hold you over until then. As usual I own nothing.
Friday morning Jane and I woke up tangled together and it was almost enough to forget we had an open case to solve. "You never answered me last night, husband or mistress."
"Women you are impossible." He just laughed.
"I don't like open cases."
"Clearly, but is this really the place."
"Why are you always right." I groaned into his chest.
"It's a gift."
"That was your reasoning yesterday."
"I have many gifts." He kissed me.
"Oh I know, but we have to go wake up the kids, and then go to work and close this damn case, I can't sleep with an open case."
"I don't want to go blameless for your lack of sleep."
"You're never blameless." I kissed him before heading to the shower, "No you can't join me."
"Hey I thought I was the mind reader in this relationship." He followed me to the bathroom door.
"You my dear are an open book." I teased repeating his favorite lines back to him, I was rewarded with that gorgeous smile of his.
"Oh I hope that never happens." He wrapped his arms around my waist and turned on the shower.
"No, I told you not happening." I pushed him out of the bathroom. "We have to get ready for work and the kids have to go to school."
"But Teresa." He pouted.
"I said no."
"Fiiiiine." I waited for him to close the bathroom door behind him, before starting my shower. He was such a child sometimes. You know that may explain why he's so good with the kids. I was thinking about Patrick when I realized as much as I worried about Patrick's many masks, it's not like I'm always the same person either. I mean there's me Patrick's lover, there's me parent of four kids, and me senior agent at the CBI. That's three people in one day, had life always been so complicated?
When I was done in the shower I hurried through getting ready, and found that Patrick had already rounded up the older kids, so I went about changing Cass and getting her ready for the day. The minute I walked into the kitchen I wanted to turn around and walk out, the kids were bouncing off the walls, not only was it Friday but it was also a half day, and we had promised they would get to spend the afternoon at work with us. My getaway was blocked my Patrick who after lifting the child from my arms and acted as an escort to my seat, before giving me a kiss on the cheek. "Not scared of excited children are you?" He chuckled.
"Not if you have any ear plugs."
"You don't want to hear about all of the cases their going to solve for us." He handed me my coffee and doughnut. "You keep them around you're not going to need me."
"That would be perfect then you could stay at home and dedicate your days to cooking and cleaning the house, almost like my own private slave."
"I think we've established by now my ability to clean up messes is pretty limited, I'm much better at making them."
"You're a quick study."
"Ever hear you can't teach an old dog new tricks."
"Haven't you been arguing that you really aren't that old?"
"Not that old but to old to be taught new tricks."
"You're full of it." I laughed, and he nodded.
"Probably true."
There was a kiss good bye in the driveway and then I dropped the kids off at school before hightailing it to work where we were going to talk to our suspect. After setting my things in my office I went to find out if we had learned anything over night, but instead I stopped in the doorway something was off. Jane wasn't on his couch, and he wasn't on my couch. He had left before me he should be here.
"Did Jane show up today?" I looked around, he would never not show up in the middle of a case even if he knew who did it, he enjoyed watching us scramble.
"He went up to the attic." Cho glanced up from his file. The attic, he hasn't been up there in four months, not since, what could he be doing. "He said come get him when the mistress showed up, he wants to watch." I nodded and went about my work, if he was hiding up there he was doing it for a reason, and I would give him that for now. And I obliged a half hour later when the mistress came up the elevator, I had Cho lead her to integration while I ran up the stairs to get Jane.
"She here already?" He glanced over his shoulder he was sitting taping something to the floor.
"Is everything alright, you haven't been up here since…"
"Spring cleaning." He jumped up and threw his tape aside, "We have a suspect to go talk to."
"Patrick it's fall."
"Well I still needed this stuff in spring so I guess it's fall cleaning." He kissed me and put his hand on the small of my back to direct me to the door. Whatever he was doing up here he didn't want me to know, well fine I would figure it out on my own.
The women in interrogation started out really cooperative offering us people she knew didn't like the victim along with confessing that for obvious reasons they weren't the best of friends. She went on to talk about how at the time of the murder she was running errands on the other side of town, assuring us she wasn't the suspect. I sent Van Pelt to check into it and turned to Jane for his opinion but his mind appeared to be elsewhere.
"What do you think?" He was just staring through the glass at nothing in particular, "Jane!"
"Right, the first part is true she believes those other people really hated the women, but she wasn't running errands." He shook his head, no grand explanation just a straight forward answer, how many times had I asked for that, but when I got it I was concerned for him.
"You okay?"
"Perfect, beyond perfect." And I think he meant it what ever he was thinking about was nothing that bothered him. "I'll go talk to her, I can disprove her alibi faster than Grace." With that he walked through the door and interrupted Cho's interrogation, but he did get a confession so no one was complaining to much.
"I'm going to go pick up the kids, I'll be back in bit." I left the team now, after the mistress had officially been processed.
"Oh we'll meet you at that Italian diner to celebrate another closed case, on me." Patrick hurried down from the attic.
"Jane don't be ridiculous, we have paper work to do we could never get away with all of us leaving."
"No it's fine Lisbon, they can go inform the husband that we found the killer after lunch and then it was a work related lunch."
"Jane."
"Come on Lisbon, what's the harm in one lunch."
"Fine, whatever, but I can pay for myself and the kids."
"Don't be ridiculous, diner in half an hour." He called after me as the elevator door closed. After lunch Jane was in charge of watching the kids and hopefully I could get this paperwork done, maybe leave early since I had the kids here. When I walked out of my office around three thirty, the bullpen was to quiet.
"Where are Jane and the kids?"
"The attic." Cho answered for a second time that day. The attic? I turned and made my way up the stairs.
"What's going on up here?" I questioned after watching them play with much confusion.
"Excuse me miss, no civilian allowed this is a crime scene." Jane jumped up from where he was kneeling with the kids.
"Crime scene huh?" I smiled looking around the room, the tape Jane had been laying down this morning was in the shape of a body in the corner of the room. "Maybe I could be a consultant."
"I don't know consultants just get in to trouble and never actually help." Patrick smirked.
"Teresa can help." Emily pulled me into the room.
"Here's our case file." Alyssa handed over a manila folder, looking inside there were photos of multiple Disney villains.
"What have we got so far?" I looked over the notes Jane had dictated on the girl's behalf. There was also a strand of dark hair that looked incredibly similar to that of one of the girl's dolls.
"The hair matched either Scar or Shun Yu the hun." Emily explained, "We are trying to find proof."
"We're waiting for the lab to come back with a match on the hair." Jane added.
"Scar!" William called our attention back to the 'crime scene'. We followed his finger to something painted on the floor partially covered by Jane's makeshift bed. "Paw print!"
"That's proof!" Emily cheered.
"Let's go bring him in." Jane announced, moving over to a pile of stuffed animals. I watched as the girls arrested the stuffed lion with paper handcuffs. After the stuffed animal gave a rather convincing confession we packed up the car and went home for the day with two closed cases.
The rest of the evening was spent in the backyard until it got to dark and Patrick had to go in and make dinner. The kids were practically falling asleep at the table and by the time we tucked them into bed they were out like a light. Which lead to Patrick and I alone on the couch, and I had been putting together a case of my own so to speak.
"When did you put all that together?" I wondered, I had been going over the day in my head on repeat, the only thing I had seen him do was tape the floor, granted he had been up there at least an hour before I interrupted, but when had he printed the pictures, and gotten the stuffed animals.
"It was a full mornings worth of work."
"Why can you never answer questions directly?"
"I thought I did, maybe you should ask more direct questions." He teased, and then got slapped on the stomach. "You said when did you do it, I said it was a full mornings work."
"Fine, where did you get the pictures from?"
"I confess I snuck into your office before we met at the diner, I stole a couple folders, some paper and I printed out pictures of Disney villains."
"And the stuffed animals?"
"Okay I confess again, I didn't leave right after you, I ran back into the house and went through the kids stuffed animals."
"And they just let you carry a bag of stuffed animals in to the building, they didn't ask any questions."
"You're forgetting this is the same man who snuck a pony into the building." I couldn't help but smile you know I had never stopped to question how he had gotten that damn pony in the building, it was just Jane he did anything he wanted.
"I suppose compared to a pony they were relieved to see stuffed animals."
"That they were."
"And were they working on that one 'case' all afternoon?"
"No of course not, there's a world wide man hunt for Cruella Da Vil, didn't you see her on the most wanted wall?"
"I must have missed that."
"Yep, the case file is in on the kitchen table if you'd like to read it."
"I'll look into it in the morning." I assured, "but that's work and we don't talk about work at home remember."
"How could I forget? Come on you keep yawning and we have a big day tomorrow." He pulled me up.
"Big day?"
"Barbeque. "
"Damn it!"
"You need to relax." He chuckled going through the motions of getting ready for bed, "What's the worst that could happen?"
"You're right, of course you're right." I climbed into bed. "It might be a little uncomfortable, but it's for the kids."
"Precisely it's for the kids." He switched off the lights and kissed me good night.
"Good night Patrick."
"Good night Teresa."