The Path Not Taken (1/8)
The Path Not Taken
Author: tromana
Artist: browneyesparker
Link to art: Here
Word Count: 18,305
Rating: T
Summary: Jane and Lisbon, trying to adjust to their realizations while the past continues to haunt them. After all, admissions are one thing. Taking the next step is harder. Part 2 of Notes on a Journey/Sequel to The Scenic Route.
Disclaimer: I do not own the Mentalist. Artwork is courtesy of browneyesparker.
Notes: Written for the Mentalist Reverse Big Bang at mentalist_bb.With thanks to my artist, browneyesparker for a huge level of flexibility and allowing me to just get on with this.
The Path Not Taken
Part One
19th November 2012
“Yes, sir, I’ll be there as soon as I can.”
Lisbon ended the call and in response, Jane tightened his grip around her waist. He wasn’t ready to move, not yet. It was warm and comfortable in bed and he liked knowing she was close by. Even though he was still plagued by insomnia, sharing a bed with somebody (with her) seemed to help him relax, if nothing else. And if he grew bored in the middle of the night, he could spend hours upon hours just watching Lisbon sleep. There was something infinitely fascinating about it, Jane had already decided.
“Wainwright?” he asked tiredly.
She merely nodded and slowly went to remove his arm from around her body. In response, Jane hugged her more tightly and started peppering butterfly kisses along her collarbone. When she shuddered ever so slightly in response, his lips curled into a gentle grin.
When Lisbon eventually came to her senses and managed to throw him off, he pouted at her. His eyes ate up the sight of her bare back hungrily, watching as she slowly reawakened each of her muscles before standing. Briefly, he tore his sight away from Lisbon’s naked form to take a glance at the alarm clock. It read two thirty-seven a.m. Jane sighed; they’d been in bed for barely three hours.
“Isn’t it past his bedtime?”
“Oh, hush.”
He scurried across her side of the bed, just so that he could catch hold of her hand and distract her from the effort of changing once more. Lisbon scowled in her semi-tiredness and immediately pulled it away from him.
“We need to go,” she asserted.
“We?” Jane quipped in response. “I think you’ll find that I haven’t been summoned into work at this godforsaken hour.”
“Well, I’m summoning you now, or do you really want me to call you despite being in the same room?”
“It’d be polite.”
“Are you, of all people, really criticizing me when it comes to manners?”
Jane stood, mostly so he could steal a kiss before answering. Despite herself, Lisbon couldn’t help but respond and he was pleased at the fact. In the bedroom, it was painfully easy to encourage her to be more than a little bit tactile. Once they were at work, it was a whole different ballgame. For a start, Lisbon always insisted upon displaying a certain level of professionalism. And secondly, they hadn’t actually gotten around to announcing their relationship to the others yet. Partially because Lisbon was scouring through the company protocol to see if their relationship was technically ‘allowed’ according to CBI rules, but mostly out of fear for how Red John would react.
It was no secret that the serial killer kept a close eye on all the members of the Serious Crimes Unit. A change like this was something that could easily encourage him to act, so Jane had been more than happy to keep things on the down low. However, it didn’t stop it from being painful working in such close proximity to Lisbon and having to wait to have his wicked way with her until the timing was more appropriate.
“Yes, I am.”
She rolled her eyes in response. “Get dressed. I’ll see you downstairs.”
It didn’t take him long to get ready, but Lisbon was still quicker. By the time his feet hit the ground floor, she had already gotten her coat on and scooped up her car keys. Clearly, she was keen to get to whatever crime scene was waiting for them as soon as feasibly possible. Privately, he agreed with her ethos; the sooner they got there, the sooner they could get back and get a little more sleep before starting the investigation properly after sunrise.
“Have you eaten?” he asked as he slipped on his shoes.
“Yes,” Lisbon answered back, a little too quickly.
“Teresa.”
“Patrick,” she echoed, as she often did.
Jane simply shook his head and instead, threw her a Red Delicious apple which he quickly snatched from the fruit bowl. She caught it with ease and willingly bit into it. It was a compromise, of sorts, and it was better than her skipping out on food at all. For a grown woman, she sometimes paid very little heed to her own needs, so he took it upon himself to make sure she looked after herself. After all, it was the least he could do considering just how much she did for him.
Soon enough, she had eaten the whole thing and thrown the apple core in the bin. At the same time, Jane had finished readying himself and eaten too. However, the slight delay hadn’t stopped Lisbon from keeping an eagle eye on the clock. He knew she wanted to get a move on.
“Happy now?” she queried.
“Yes, yes I am.”
He carefully placed a hand on one cheek and stole one last kiss before parting. Jane knew that from the moment they left her house, that Lisbon would have slipped into work mode and would refuse point blank to look at him as anything other than her somewhat irritating (if dashingly handsome) coworker.
“Ready?”
“Yes, my dear.”
“Separate cars?”
“Can’t you just say you picked me up from my place because my car broke down?” he asked, with a slight whine in his tone.
Lisbon sighed once again and acquiesced all too easily. None of the others knew precisely where Jane lived, so the little white lie was easy to slide by. Silently, they slipped outdoors and soon enough, they were in her state-issue SUV. Jane didn’t bother to push her and ask to drive as well; he suspected that he’d already gotten his fill of compromises from her at this time of the day.
“No funny business, though,” she said quietly.
“Do I ever?”
The look on her face said it all: do I really need to justify that with a response? Jane merely grinned. As they traveled, he placed a sly hand on her upper thigh and was marginally surprised that she didn’t throw it off in irritation. Soon enough, Lisbon filled the silence with a quick update on what little she knew about the case. A rich man, suspected poisoning, wife was within the mayor’s circle of friends. It was all very atypical reasoning for them to get called onto the case. All too often it was fat cats calling favors upon one another, asking for the ‘best of the best’ to find the killer of their loved ones.
Still, it kept him at least somewhat entertained, Jane decided. And despite his occasional protestations, working for the CBI did give him some sort of fulfillment, as well as giving him the opportunity to work closely with Lisbon.
If he hadn’t decided to apply for the job, he would never have found her again. And Jane knew that this was better late than never, even if they did have to keep their relationship shrouded in secrecy.
But for now, that was all beside the point.
They had a job to do.
xxx
10th July 1986
“Reese!”
It was James who came bounding into her room at some ridiculous time in the morning. Teresa hated it when her brothers completely forgot to show any respect for her need of privacy. They were all too young to understand that she was a girl, a teenage girl now, and she liked her own private space. She glared at him through squinted eyes. He was hopping excitedly from foot to foot, clearly unable to contain his excitement.
With a sigh, Teresa pulled herself up to a seated position and stretched her back reassuringly. It felt good, feeling everything click into place as she slowly became aware of the fact it was a start of a new day. She smiled; she also knew precisely what that meant. Teresa Lisbon loved the summer and especially July, because it meant one thing and one thing only: the…
“Guess what arrives in town today?” James blurted out excitedly.
She was about to open her mouth to retort, but James was still practically bouncing off the ceilings. Silently, she wondered where this surge of hyperactive energy had come from. But she disregarded it; he had probably been helping himself to his secret stash of candy in the early hours of the morning. Her mom and dad didn’t know he had it, but she did. After all, candy was all he ever spent his allowance on, even if their parents were convinced that he acted responsibly and actually saved it.
“The carnival!” he continued and she shook her head in response. “Reese, the carnival is in town!”
“I know,” she answered tiredly. “Jay-jay, I’m trying to sleep.”
“But-“
“I know, the carnival is here, but mom and dad never take us until the weekend, do they?” she explained with far more diplomacy than she usually had.
James pouted and flopped himself at the end of her bed. Teresa immediately took that as a sign that she wouldn’t be getting any more sleep this morning. He’d want his breakfast, and then to go out and walk the dogs with her. After that, she’d probably need to make sure he bathed properly because he’d get himself in a mess. And by that time, Teresa knew she’d have to repeat the process with her other two problems. As the eldest of the Lisbon siblings, she was automatically seen as being the most responsible. Her mother had immediately decided it was her duty to ensure that all three brothers were dressed and ready for school.
Though, of course, it was the summer holidays, and that meant she had to keep them entertained during the day as well. It wasn’t until the evening that her parents were ready to take over child-minding duties; Teresa didn’t object too much; she knew that they both worked hard in honest, reliable jobs and in all honesty, she enjoyed the modicum of responsibility they had entrusted her with.
And they always made sure that they came to church with them on Sundays. That was non-negotiable, however much James or Tommy protested about it being ‘a waste of time.’
“I s’pose.”
“You want your breakfast now, Jay?” she asked before throwing off the bed sheets.
Her younger brother screwed his eyes tightly shut, proclaimed that girls were ‘icky’ and he didn’t want to see her in her pajamas. Despite his protestations about seeing her semi-clothed, he also managed to get his regular order of chocolate and banana pancakes out. Teresa smiled and grabbed her bathrobe. After wrapping it around herself, she gently assured James that it was safe to look now. When he saw her looking far more presentable, he returned her a toothy grin and grabbed her hand.
It never took her long to prepare James’ breakfast these days. As he liked to eat exactly the same thing every single morning, it was pretty easy provided all of the ingredients were in the kitchen cupboards. James watched her from the kitchen table, holding excitedly onto his cutlery and watching her every move. The dogs, awakened by the noise in the kitchen and realizing that this meant the family was waking up, soon joined them. It was a little bit earlier than they would usually have gotten up, given James’ early morning awakening, but the family pets never missed an opportunity to beg for treats.
“Will your boyfriend be at the carnival?” James asked in between mouthfuls.
Teresa choked on her cereal at the sound of his innocent questioning. She hadn’t even realized that he had grown so accustomed to Daniel Jane that he actually thought she had some kind of association with him. Quickly, she grabbed her glass of juice and swallowed a large mouthful to ease her sore throat. The carnival was only in town once a year; she barely knew Daniel, even if she was inordinately fond of him. At least, fond enough to look forward to seeing him for that brief window of time.
“He’s not my boyfriend,” she said defensively and placed her spoon back down. “I’m not old enough for a boyfriend yet.”
“Yes you are, Reese,” James insisted with a decisive nod. “You’re thirteen. You’re old.”
She slapped him gently for his jibe, but he didn’t make too much of a fuss. Instead, he used Teresa’s distraction to slip a piece of pancake down to the ancient Labrador at his feet. The old dog wolfed down the treat hungrily, clearly pleased that his patience had been rewarded by James.
“You shouldn’t feed the dog human food,” she chastised lamely.
James shrugged. “So, will he be there?”
“I don’t know, Jay,” she answered back slowly. “I’d assume so.”
He nodded, clearly still considering the repercussions. Teresa assumed that this meant he had finished grilling her about the carnival and the people who ran it.
“Okay,” James eventually said. “But doesn’t he know that girls have cooties?”
“James!”
To Part Two
Author: tromana
Artist: browneyesparker
Link to art: Here
Word Count: 18,305
Rating: T
Summary: Jane and Lisbon, trying to adjust to their realizations while the past continues to haunt them. After all, admissions are one thing. Taking the next step is harder. Part 2 of Notes on a Journey/Sequel to The Scenic Route.
Disclaimer: I do not own the Mentalist. Artwork is courtesy of browneyesparker.
Notes: Written for the Mentalist Reverse Big Bang at mentalist_bb.With thanks to my artist, browneyesparker for a huge level of flexibility and allowing me to just get on with this.
The Path Not Taken
Part One
19th November 2012
“Yes, sir, I’ll be there as soon as I can.”
Lisbon ended the call and in response, Jane tightened his grip around her waist. He wasn’t ready to move, not yet. It was warm and comfortable in bed and he liked knowing she was close by. Even though he was still plagued by insomnia, sharing a bed with somebody (with her) seemed to help him relax, if nothing else. And if he grew bored in the middle of the night, he could spend hours upon hours just watching Lisbon sleep. There was something infinitely fascinating about it, Jane had already decided.
“Wainwright?” he asked tiredly.
She merely nodded and slowly went to remove his arm from around her body. In response, Jane hugged her more tightly and started peppering butterfly kisses along her collarbone. When she shuddered ever so slightly in response, his lips curled into a gentle grin.
When Lisbon eventually came to her senses and managed to throw him off, he pouted at her. His eyes ate up the sight of her bare back hungrily, watching as she slowly reawakened each of her muscles before standing. Briefly, he tore his sight away from Lisbon’s naked form to take a glance at the alarm clock. It read two thirty-seven a.m. Jane sighed; they’d been in bed for barely three hours.
“Isn’t it past his bedtime?”
“Oh, hush.”
He scurried across her side of the bed, just so that he could catch hold of her hand and distract her from the effort of changing once more. Lisbon scowled in her semi-tiredness and immediately pulled it away from him.
“We need to go,” she asserted.
“We?” Jane quipped in response. “I think you’ll find that I haven’t been summoned into work at this godforsaken hour.”
“Well, I’m summoning you now, or do you really want me to call you despite being in the same room?”
“It’d be polite.”
“Are you, of all people, really criticizing me when it comes to manners?”
Jane stood, mostly so he could steal a kiss before answering. Despite herself, Lisbon couldn’t help but respond and he was pleased at the fact. In the bedroom, it was painfully easy to encourage her to be more than a little bit tactile. Once they were at work, it was a whole different ballgame. For a start, Lisbon always insisted upon displaying a certain level of professionalism. And secondly, they hadn’t actually gotten around to announcing their relationship to the others yet. Partially because Lisbon was scouring through the company protocol to see if their relationship was technically ‘allowed’ according to CBI rules, but mostly out of fear for how Red John would react.
It was no secret that the serial killer kept a close eye on all the members of the Serious Crimes Unit. A change like this was something that could easily encourage him to act, so Jane had been more than happy to keep things on the down low. However, it didn’t stop it from being painful working in such close proximity to Lisbon and having to wait to have his wicked way with her until the timing was more appropriate.
“Yes, I am.”
She rolled her eyes in response. “Get dressed. I’ll see you downstairs.”
It didn’t take him long to get ready, but Lisbon was still quicker. By the time his feet hit the ground floor, she had already gotten her coat on and scooped up her car keys. Clearly, she was keen to get to whatever crime scene was waiting for them as soon as feasibly possible. Privately, he agreed with her ethos; the sooner they got there, the sooner they could get back and get a little more sleep before starting the investigation properly after sunrise.
“Have you eaten?” he asked as he slipped on his shoes.
“Yes,” Lisbon answered back, a little too quickly.
“Teresa.”
“Patrick,” she echoed, as she often did.
Jane simply shook his head and instead, threw her a Red Delicious apple which he quickly snatched from the fruit bowl. She caught it with ease and willingly bit into it. It was a compromise, of sorts, and it was better than her skipping out on food at all. For a grown woman, she sometimes paid very little heed to her own needs, so he took it upon himself to make sure she looked after herself. After all, it was the least he could do considering just how much she did for him.
Soon enough, she had eaten the whole thing and thrown the apple core in the bin. At the same time, Jane had finished readying himself and eaten too. However, the slight delay hadn’t stopped Lisbon from keeping an eagle eye on the clock. He knew she wanted to get a move on.
“Happy now?” she queried.
“Yes, yes I am.”
He carefully placed a hand on one cheek and stole one last kiss before parting. Jane knew that from the moment they left her house, that Lisbon would have slipped into work mode and would refuse point blank to look at him as anything other than her somewhat irritating (if dashingly handsome) coworker.
“Ready?”
“Yes, my dear.”
“Separate cars?”
“Can’t you just say you picked me up from my place because my car broke down?” he asked, with a slight whine in his tone.
Lisbon sighed once again and acquiesced all too easily. None of the others knew precisely where Jane lived, so the little white lie was easy to slide by. Silently, they slipped outdoors and soon enough, they were in her state-issue SUV. Jane didn’t bother to push her and ask to drive as well; he suspected that he’d already gotten his fill of compromises from her at this time of the day.
“No funny business, though,” she said quietly.
“Do I ever?”
The look on her face said it all: do I really need to justify that with a response? Jane merely grinned. As they traveled, he placed a sly hand on her upper thigh and was marginally surprised that she didn’t throw it off in irritation. Soon enough, Lisbon filled the silence with a quick update on what little she knew about the case. A rich man, suspected poisoning, wife was within the mayor’s circle of friends. It was all very atypical reasoning for them to get called onto the case. All too often it was fat cats calling favors upon one another, asking for the ‘best of the best’ to find the killer of their loved ones.
Still, it kept him at least somewhat entertained, Jane decided. And despite his occasional protestations, working for the CBI did give him some sort of fulfillment, as well as giving him the opportunity to work closely with Lisbon.
If he hadn’t decided to apply for the job, he would never have found her again. And Jane knew that this was better late than never, even if they did have to keep their relationship shrouded in secrecy.
But for now, that was all beside the point.
They had a job to do.
xxx
10th July 1986
“Reese!”
It was James who came bounding into her room at some ridiculous time in the morning. Teresa hated it when her brothers completely forgot to show any respect for her need of privacy. They were all too young to understand that she was a girl, a teenage girl now, and she liked her own private space. She glared at him through squinted eyes. He was hopping excitedly from foot to foot, clearly unable to contain his excitement.
With a sigh, Teresa pulled herself up to a seated position and stretched her back reassuringly. It felt good, feeling everything click into place as she slowly became aware of the fact it was a start of a new day. She smiled; she also knew precisely what that meant. Teresa Lisbon loved the summer and especially July, because it meant one thing and one thing only: the…
“Guess what arrives in town today?” James blurted out excitedly.
She was about to open her mouth to retort, but James was still practically bouncing off the ceilings. Silently, she wondered where this surge of hyperactive energy had come from. But she disregarded it; he had probably been helping himself to his secret stash of candy in the early hours of the morning. Her mom and dad didn’t know he had it, but she did. After all, candy was all he ever spent his allowance on, even if their parents were convinced that he acted responsibly and actually saved it.
“The carnival!” he continued and she shook her head in response. “Reese, the carnival is in town!”
“I know,” she answered tiredly. “Jay-jay, I’m trying to sleep.”
“But-“
“I know, the carnival is here, but mom and dad never take us until the weekend, do they?” she explained with far more diplomacy than she usually had.
James pouted and flopped himself at the end of her bed. Teresa immediately took that as a sign that she wouldn’t be getting any more sleep this morning. He’d want his breakfast, and then to go out and walk the dogs with her. After that, she’d probably need to make sure he bathed properly because he’d get himself in a mess. And by that time, Teresa knew she’d have to repeat the process with her other two problems. As the eldest of the Lisbon siblings, she was automatically seen as being the most responsible. Her mother had immediately decided it was her duty to ensure that all three brothers were dressed and ready for school.
Though, of course, it was the summer holidays, and that meant she had to keep them entertained during the day as well. It wasn’t until the evening that her parents were ready to take over child-minding duties; Teresa didn’t object too much; she knew that they both worked hard in honest, reliable jobs and in all honesty, she enjoyed the modicum of responsibility they had entrusted her with.
And they always made sure that they came to church with them on Sundays. That was non-negotiable, however much James or Tommy protested about it being ‘a waste of time.’
“I s’pose.”
“You want your breakfast now, Jay?” she asked before throwing off the bed sheets.
Her younger brother screwed his eyes tightly shut, proclaimed that girls were ‘icky’ and he didn’t want to see her in her pajamas. Despite his protestations about seeing her semi-clothed, he also managed to get his regular order of chocolate and banana pancakes out. Teresa smiled and grabbed her bathrobe. After wrapping it around herself, she gently assured James that it was safe to look now. When he saw her looking far more presentable, he returned her a toothy grin and grabbed her hand.
It never took her long to prepare James’ breakfast these days. As he liked to eat exactly the same thing every single morning, it was pretty easy provided all of the ingredients were in the kitchen cupboards. James watched her from the kitchen table, holding excitedly onto his cutlery and watching her every move. The dogs, awakened by the noise in the kitchen and realizing that this meant the family was waking up, soon joined them. It was a little bit earlier than they would usually have gotten up, given James’ early morning awakening, but the family pets never missed an opportunity to beg for treats.
“Will your boyfriend be at the carnival?” James asked in between mouthfuls.
Teresa choked on her cereal at the sound of his innocent questioning. She hadn’t even realized that he had grown so accustomed to Daniel Jane that he actually thought she had some kind of association with him. Quickly, she grabbed her glass of juice and swallowed a large mouthful to ease her sore throat. The carnival was only in town once a year; she barely knew Daniel, even if she was inordinately fond of him. At least, fond enough to look forward to seeing him for that brief window of time.
“He’s not my boyfriend,” she said defensively and placed her spoon back down. “I’m not old enough for a boyfriend yet.”
“Yes you are, Reese,” James insisted with a decisive nod. “You’re thirteen. You’re old.”
She slapped him gently for his jibe, but he didn’t make too much of a fuss. Instead, he used Teresa’s distraction to slip a piece of pancake down to the ancient Labrador at his feet. The old dog wolfed down the treat hungrily, clearly pleased that his patience had been rewarded by James.
“You shouldn’t feed the dog human food,” she chastised lamely.
James shrugged. “So, will he be there?”
“I don’t know, Jay,” she answered back slowly. “I’d assume so.”
He nodded, clearly still considering the repercussions. Teresa assumed that this meant he had finished grilling her about the carnival and the people who ran it.
“Okay,” James eventually said. “But doesn’t he know that girls have cooties?”
“James!”
To Part Two