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The holidays brought many changes to Teresa Lisbon and Patrick Jane’s now joined household. A sense of family and togetherness so often came with the changing of seasons from fall to winter, and the new couple was no exception. They spent almost every minute of their time outside of work together, occasionally breaking traffic laws in their haste to get to each other. On the nights where Lisbon had to work late, Jane would wait for her, sprawled out on the couch in her office until she was ready to leave, respectful of her commitment to the job.
They were careful not to let their relationship interfere with their work, however, and Lisbon was almost certain that no one outside the team knew that they had begun dating, (Jane disliked the term ‘dating’, he felt that it was too sophomoric) because of the way that they kept their hands off of each other at work. It was something Lisbon excelled at, but Jane continued to find small ways to touch her, whether it was a hand on her lower back as he opened doors for her or helping her put on her jacket.
There was a slight chill in the air as Teresa Lisbon padded to the kitchen, her petite frame dwarfed by the oversized college sweatshirt she wore slung over an old pair of leggings. Noticing her, Patrick Jane smiled, kissed her on the forehead, and pushed a warm cup of coffee into her hands.
“Good morning, honey,” Jane said.
Lisbon winced, but accepted the coffee, hopping up on the counter to sit next to where Jane stood. He watched her closely, gauging her reaction.
“What? Did I make it wrong?” he asked, gesturing to the mug.
“No, it’s not that,” Lisbon replied, taking a huge sip. “You always make it right. Thank you.”
Jane frowned. His blonde curls were tousled in a way that made Lisbon want to run her fingers through them. “What is it, then?”
“It’s just,” she trailed off. “Honey? Really?
“What? You want me to think of something else?”
Lisbon turned to wrap her arms around his waist. “I’ve never really been one for pet names, Jane.”
“That doesn’t mean you can’t start now.” He hugged her, content to revel in her warmth and press kisses to her lips. Kissing her was the only way he enjoyed the flavor of coffee. “I’m sure we can find something you like.”
“You can try, but don’t expect me to start saying them back!” she warned, good-naturedly. “I’m perfectly content with just Patrick.”
“Just Patrick is good.”
He broke their embrace to hand her a blueberry muffin, Lisbon’s breakfast of choice most days. Before they had started dating, she skipped a lot of meals, always eating protein bars when she was on the go. Even before they were together, Jane would always find excuses to take her out to get food with him to make sure she actually ate. However, now that he lived with her, he saw fit to make sure her little kitchen was stocked with food, cooking for her on weekends.
“So, sweetie,” he said, watching her reaction. “What big plans do you have for your day?”
Lisbon laughed. “Please not sweetie.”
“Why not? It’s cute!”
“I’m not cute.”
“But you are,” he insisted, kissing the tip of her nose. “You’re adorable.”
“I am not!”
“Regardless, I think you are. We’re entitled to our own opinions, aren’t we, Lisbon?” Jane teased. “Besides, you never answered my question.”
She huffed. “Yes, you are entitled to your own opinion as long as you don’t mention it to anyone but me! And to answer your first question, my plans involve going to the office and working, like we’re supposed to.”
“But you said you might take the day off today. It’s Friday.”
“I know, I just-”
“Why can’t you tell them you can’t go? That you’re taking some personal time?” Jane pleaded. “I was looking forward to spending the day with you.”
“It’s my job, Jane. It’s important.”
“Am I not important?”
“No, it’s not that. I promised Bertram I’d get some old case files to him so he could send them out for trials this weekend. It’s not that I don’t want to spend time with you because trust me, filling out completion paperwork is no fun,” she explained.
He looked disappointed. “How soon can you be done?”
“It should only be a few hours’ worth of work,” Lisbon said, taking Jane’s hand so she could look at his watch. “If I left now, I could be finished by lunchtime.”
“Really?”
“Sure. I could take the rest of the day off, spend some time with you. I’ll tell you what, if you let me go into the office and work for a few hours with no interruptions, I’ll take the rest of the day off today and let you choose what we do. Is that an okay plan?”
“That’s great!” Jane exclaimed, perking up. “I have a few ideas already.”
She laughed, his enthusiasm seemingly contagious. “Okay, what are they?”
“I’m not telling you. Now go get ready for work, woman! I have surprises to plan!”
Stopping for a kiss, she hopped off the counter, sauntering back to the bedroom with her coffee cup in hand. Jane stopped to clean up the kitchen, something that had become his job since moving in. They really did fall into a groove of living, a dance around each other as they managed their relationship, work, and all the things that needed to be done. Jane was great at telling when Teresa was stressed, always offering to help in whatever way necessary.
Jane had assumed that she wouldn’t be much of a physical contact person, but he was very wrong. There was nothing she loved more than laying in his arms after a long day, content to talk or just to cuddle. He loved it too--it was one of the many things he had missed about being in a relationship. So far, one of the only things they hadn’t quite figured out was his use of pet names for her. He was determined to find something that would fit her, while still being something she wouldn’t find too patronizing. Filing all his ideas away on a shelf in his memory palace, he finished the dishes and waited for Teresa to come back.
“What are you doing?” Lisbon asked, finding him in the kitchen, writing on a scrap of paper.
“Nothing, baby.”
“Nope. Not that either,” she said, cringing a little at the use of the word.
“You don’t like it?”
“It feels gross. Like a bad pickup line.”
“Point taken,” Jane said, nodding and tucking the piece of paper into the pocket of his jacket.
“Okay, what is it?” Lisbon demanded. “Should I be concerned?”
"No, I just wrote down what we’re doing, that's all," he replied casually, a gleam in his eye.
"Where is it?"
"Wouldn't you like to know!" Jane said gleefully. "I'll give you this. You take the paper, but don't open it until you get to work, okay?" With that, he slid it into her jacket pocket carefully. "Promise me you won't open it until you get there."
"I won't," Lisbon promised, kissing him quickly. "I'm going to head out, I'll see you later. I'll be back after work, sound good?"
"Sounds perfect. See you later, babydoll."
Stopping in her tracks, Lisbon whipped around to face him. "Hell no. Do not use that."
"It was worth a shot," he said, shrugging.
"Never say that again. Please." Her words were serious, but her eyes sparkled.
Jane laughed. "I won't, I won't. Just teasing. Now go! The sooner you leave, the sooner you'll get back."
_
Lisbon was burning with curiosity about what Jane had written on the note. At first, she thought it was a list, but quickly put that thought out of her mind, seeing as how he never needed to make lists to remember things. On the drive to the CBI, Lisbon had run out of ideas of what Jane was planning. Knowing him, it would be something totally unexpected and sweet.
They hadn’t been going out as much lately, the recent influx of cases prevented them from having their normal date nights. Lisbon felt bad because she was always tired, but Jane was content to stay in with her, watching a movie and cuddling on the couch or getting takeout from her favorite places. She was supposed to have the day off, an agreement between her and Jane, so that they could spend some time together without having to worry about work. But of course, life stepped in and foiled her plans. An email from Bertram requesting case completion files had come in the night before, and it wasn’t something Lisbon could put off any longer.
So, that’s how she found herself alone in the office on a Friday morning, the rest of the team having taken personal time after closing their latest case. Lisbon had encouraged them to take the day off, knowing that they were all exhausted and deserved a long weekend before returning back to the grind on Monday. She fixed herself a cup of coffee and plopped down in her desk chair, ready to focus.
Not five minutes had gone by before she remembered the piece of paper that Jane had tucked in her pocket. Unfolding it carefully, she read what he had written.
Teresa,
I bet you thought I was going to tell you the surprise. Gotcha!
Love you,
u no hoo
“Jackass,” she muttered. Scowling, she threw the note in a desk drawer and got to work.
_
Jane couldn’t help wondering what Lisbon had thought of his note. He had been hoping for a strongly worded text, but none had arrived. He supposed she had either forgotten about it or was mad enough to not respond, which was fine with him. It was cheeky, he knew, but he could never resist playing around with her. Most days, she was in a good enough mood to reciprocate. But now, he was stuck in the house with nothing to do, suddenly faced with the dilemma of whether or not to tell her he was going somewhere.
_
It was around noon when Lisbon finally looked up from her paperwork, the seemingly endless stacks finally finished and ready to send off to Bertram. She finished her second cup of coffee and headed to the elevator, finished files in hand. Dropping them off at the front desk, Lisbon practically skipped out to her car, a fact that did not go unnoticed by the occupants of the building.
She had been so much happier in the past months, and everyone had noticed, regardless of whether or not they worked closely with her. The usually so stoic and fierce Agent Lisbon had fallen in love. Not just a passing fancy, she was deeply and truly in love. It affected every part of her life, from adjusting her usually crowded schedule to spend more time with Jane to snapping at the team less. He had awakened one of the best sides of her, one that was happy and childlike and carefree.
Racing home, she practically flew into the apartment, missing the fact that Jane’s car was not in the lot where it was when she had left.
“Jane?” she called, toeing off her boots and setting them aside of the door. “I’m home!”
No answer.
Cursing under her breath, she wandered through her tiny living room to the bedroom. No sign of him anywhere. Throwing the curtains open, she noticed for the first time that the Citroen was not in its usual parking spot.
“Oh my god,” she muttered. “Where the hell could you possibly have gone, Jane? I was only out for a few hours!”
Lisbon tried calling his cell phone, but he didn’t pick up. She may or may not have left a very strongly worded message telling him to call her back, but if asked, she wouldn’t admit to it. After ten more minutes of continued silence, she decided to turn on the radio for some background noise.
That’s how Jane found her when he got home, dancing around the kitchen swaying her hips to some ridiculous pop version of a classic Christmas carol. He walked up behind her, not making any sound, and wrapped his arms around her waist, lifting her into the air and spinning her around while she flailed her arms wildly.
“Patrick! Put me down!” she screeched. “You almost gave me a heart attack!”
Jane swooped in for a kiss, catching her cheek as she turned. “I’m back,” he said.
“I noticed. I swear, one of these days you’re going to surprise me so bad I pass out right here,” Lisbon said, hugging him.
“Some detective you are. Didn’t even hear me come in.”
“Oh, is that how you want to play it then?” she teased. “I seem to recall someone getting all jumpy at a certain movie we watched a week ago.”
“It was a scary movie, Lisbon!” Jane protested.
“Anyway, I’m glad you’re home.” She smiled and noticed for the first time the grocery bags that he left by the door. “What’s all that?”
“Supplies. Did work go okay?” he asked, changing the subject as he moved the bags to the counter.
“It went fine. Routine paperwork. It was lonely, though. The rest of the team took some time off. But now I’m done for the weekend and free to just spend some time with you. What’s that for?”
“You are in for a treat. I’m going to assume you haven’t exactly participated in many Christmas festivities these past few years, have you?”
“Uh...no. Not really.”
Besides midnight mass, Lisbon hadn’t ever really seen a reason to make a fuss over Christmas. She was living alone, too far away to celebrate with family, so she did it in her own casual way. Christmas movies and hot chocolate were a must, but anything beyond that was just a formality.
“Well, my dear, we’re going to change that. Neither of us is spending the holidays alone this year, so I thought it might be fun to make some new traditions. And what could be better than making some Christmas cookies?” Jane asked gleefully. “If we make enough, they’ll last for a while. Besides, it’s fun!”
“You’re sweet,” she said, enjoying the enthusiastic look on his face. “I’m in. I just hope you don’t expect too much, I’m notoriously bad at baking.”
“Oh come on, Lisbon, it’s not that hard! All you have to do is follow the directions, and you’ll be fine! Besides, I am an expert cookie artist.”
“You are, are you?” Lisbon teased, laughing. “Strong words. You’re going to have to prove it.”
“Deal. But only with the help of my beautiful assistant,” he said, tossing her a bag of chocolate chips. Jane tied on an apron, leaving Lisbon to wonder whether or not it had been in her kitchen before that day.
She hung her jacket over the back of a chair. “What are we making, Chef Jane?”
“Oh, just a few things,” he said casually, pulling bags of flour and sugar, eggs, butter, and too many kinds of chocolate out of his grocery bags.
“A few?” Lisbon asked in disbelief. “You got a lot of ingredients.”
“We have to be prepared, don’t we?”
“I suppose.”
Setting aside most of what he had bought and separating certain things into the refrigerator, he laid out the ingredients for a simple kind of cookie. Jane instructed Lisbon which bowls and measuring cups to grab as he rationed out ingredients into a few bowls.
“What exactly am I making?” she asked, dumping flour into a bowl.
“A mess. Teresa, you’re making a mess!” Jane cried, watching as a white cloud rose from the overfilled bowl.
Lisbon laughed, her shirt and pants covered in the fine powder. She attempted to brush it off her clothes but only succeeded in leaving little handprints all over herself. Jane backed away from her slowly, trying to avoid the mess. Eventually, Lisbon gave up, accepting her new flour-covered fashion ensemble.
“The recipe calls for one cup of chocolate chips, but somehow I doubt that’s enough for you,” Jane said to her. “I know how much you love chocolate.”
“Then let me put in the chips.” Acting as if she was going to measure them out, as soon as Jane’s back was turned, Lisbon poured the entire bag of chocolate chips into the bowl.
“Lisbon!”
“What?” she asked innocently. “You can’t let me put in the chocolate chips and not expect me to put all of them in there!”
“There’s going to be more chocolate chips than there will be actual cookie.”
“And that’s okay with me.”
He finished mixing up the dough and worked together to drop it evenly on the cookie sheet. Naturally, all of Jane’s cookies were evenly spaced out and relatively the same size. Lisbon’s, on the other hand, were a wide variety of shapes and sizes, spaced in intervals as best she could. Jane proclaimed them perfect, and stuck the trays in the oven, pulling out more ingredients to make dough for the next type of cookie while those ones baked.
“I saw these at the store,” he said, handing her a package. “It reminded me of you.”
Lisbon took one look at the festive foil-wrapped candies and burst out laughing. “Reese’s cups?”
Jane blushed almost imperceptibly. “Yeah. And there’s another nickname to try! You’ve been called Reese before, right?”
“Unfortunately. It was what my brothers called me when they were too little to say ‘Teresa’, but if it’s all the same to you, I’d rather not associate you with them,” she explained. “Best to let sleeping dogs lie.”
“That’s understandable. What other nicknames do you think you might enjoy?”
“Not sure. I think the one I’m the most comfortable with is ‘my love’, but it feels a little formal. I really just like it when you call me Lisbon or Teresa. It’s kind of our thing, you know?”
“Of course I do,” Jane said. “And I think your name is beautiful. If you don’t want a nickname, I won’t force you to, just want you to know the option is always open.
“Thank you,” Lisbon replied, hugging him with a more mischievous intent than what it seemed. When she pulled away from him, his previously immaculate apron was covered in the flour powder from her clothing, little powdery flakes falling from the front to settle on his trousers.
“Lisbon! You did that on purpose!” he accused, trying to brush the dust from his pants.
“Maybe I did, maybe I didn’t,” Lisbon replied childishly. “You’re lucky I didn’t flour bomb you.”
“What does that even mean?” He was still trying in vain to get the powder off of him, but it wasn’t budging.
“This!”
She grabbed a small handful of the powder from the bowl in front of her, not taking time to aim. They were standing so close together that the fistful of flour didn’t have enough time to dissipate in the air, instead smacking into the center of his chest and sending up a puffy white cloud. Thankfully, none of it got into his eyes or face, but he stood in the middle of the kitchen, staring dumbfounded at Lisbon.
“Couldn’t you have just explained what it was? Do you have to be so mischievous?” Jane asked, staring at the flour stain that radiated from his sternum.
“There’s not a good explanation without a good visual,” Lisbon quipped. “And besides, I think a bit of hands-on learning can be good for a person. Although I am sorry I flour bombed your apron. You look very handsome in it.”
With Jane still in distress about the state of his outfit, Lisbon started the dough for the next batch of cookies. He instructed her how much of what ingredients to add, and she did the rest. After mixing it all well, she looked in her tiny fridge for a place to chill the tiny rolls of dough until they were ready to bake.
“Um, Jane?”
“Yeah?”
“Clearly we didn’t think this through.”
Jane peeked into the fridge, immediately realizing what she meant. Her kitchen wasn’t big by any extension of the word, leaving her with not much fridge space. Whatever space she had usually was already taken up with the groceries he had bought earlier that week. Mentally, he cursed his need to stock up on food at the beginning of the week.
“We’re going to have to do a little bit of rearranging here, I think,” he mused, looking at the trays Lisbon was holding.
“No kidding!”
Carefully, Jane began to move items, stacking them to the back and to the sides of the fridge, playing a game of Tetris with the refrigerator. Drawers were stuffed full of food items that didn’t really belong there, but before long, enough space was cleared out for the two trays of cookies. He stacked them in slowly, taking care not to jostle the trays.
“Perfect! I knew there would be room,” Jane boasted.
The oven beeped, signaling that the first batch of cookies was done. Jane turned quickly to shut the refrigerator door and ended up using more force than he meant to. A sickening crash sounded from inside as the door swung shut, his careful rearranging of foodstuffs now destroyed from the inside. He looked at Lisbon in horror, who was laughing hysterically.
“You spent...all that time…” she choked out between fits of laughter.
“It’s not funny!” He pulled the cookies out of the oven and set them on the counter to cool.
“It’s kind of funny,” Lisbon hiccuped, still laughing at the look on Jane’s face. “It was almost like you didn’t see that coming.”
“I didn’t! It surprised me, and now all of the cookie dough is probably squished from everything falling on it.”
She opened the fridge slowly, a few containers of yogurt falling out. Luckily enough, only a few of the cookies were squashed, and they just had to roll them back up again before baking both trays of cookies. The chocolate chip ones had cooled down enough to eat, and they were just the way Lisbon liked them, crispy on the outside and gooey on the inside.
“Mmm,” she chorused, dunking hers in milk. “This has to be the best chocolate chip cookie I’ve ever eaten.”
“That’s because you put the entire bag of chocolate chips in it.”
“That’s what makes it so good,” she argued.
He made a very plain cookie dough, mostly to be used as a base. Mixing powdered sugar and milk into a thin icing, Jane told Lisbon to rifle through the rest of the grocery bags for sprinkles. They had made snickerdoodles and some cookies with Reese’s Cups pressed into the top in lieu of Hershey’s Kisses, as well as the chocolate chip batch.
Hands on hips, Lisbon surveyed her kitchen. “It looks like we’re baking for a small army!”
“Or a small country.”
“Jane, what exactly are you planning to do with the rest of these? We can’t eat them all.”
He pursed his lips, thinking. “I guess we eat what we want and you can bring the rest to work. Rigsby alone could probably eat all of these, and you know the rest of the team will help.”
“That’s true. At least we know they won’t go to waste.”
Once the plain cookies had come out of the oven and the icing was all mixed and dyed, Lisbon laid wax paper down on the counter to try and counteract whatever mess was bound to happen. All too late, she realized that anything she did to try and keep the kitchen clean was in vain, the floor already covered in flour and miscellaneous dough bits. Chocolate dribbles found their spots on her sleeves, and her pants and shirt were still dusted in a fine coating of flour. Reaching a hand up to her hair, it came away with streaks of white. Jane swooped in, planting a kiss in her messy hair and ruffling it, a little cloud blowing out from where his hand was. By comparison, he was looking a lot better, the flour stains still on his apron, but for the most part, he had managed to keep the mess just to the counter and floor. There were little white footprints tracked on the linoleum of the kitchen floor, left by Teresa dancing her way through it unintentionally.
“Oh no,” she groaned as she accidentally dumped sprinkles all over on one of the cookies. “These tiny sprinkles come out faster than I thought they would. Now it’s going to taste like gravel.”
Jane looked at the cookie, drowning in red sugar sprinkles. It really did look like red sand. “Nonsense, Lisbon. It’s going to taste great.”
“I’m holding you to that.”
He grinned and popped it into his mouth, crunching loudly through the thick layer of sprinkles. “Delicious.”
“You dork.”
Jane leaned in for a kiss, transferring the red sugar from his lips to hers.
“Stop!” she squealed, pushing him away. “You’re going to get sugar all over me!”
“Have you looked at yourself in the past hour, Lisbon? You’re already covered in sugar, flour, chocolate, and basically everything else we’ve been baking with,” he pointed out, raising an eyebrow.
“Shut up.”
“Face the facts, Teresa, you are a very messy baker. But I love it.”
“Yeah?”
“And I love you.”
After a few chaste kisses, they finished up decorating the cookies, careful not to make another mess of sprinkles. It was easy to tell who made what. Jane’s were neat and color coordinated where Lisbon’s were messy and wild. Eventually, she gave up on trying to get sprinkles to sit nicely, and just started throwing them at Jane. However, when all was said and done, he didn’t think he had had so much fun in a long time.
It had been years since he had a normal Christmas, and looking around at the state of Lisbon’s kitchen, he never wanted to spend the holidays by himself again. By the time they got everything cleaned, it was late in the evening and Lisbon had already washed the flour out of her hair. Both of them changed into more comfortable clothes and settled on the couch together, Lisbon’s back against Jane’s chest.
“This was fun,” she admitted, taking a giant bite of a chocolate chip cookie. “I’m glad I’m not spending the holidays alone again.”
“I was just thinking the same thing. You know, we have the rest of the weekend off. This place could do with a little Christmas cheer,” he mused, gesturing to the apartment.
“Okay. What do you suggest?”
“A tree. Some lights, maybe a couple of mistletoe sprigs.” Jane raised an eyebrow suggestively.
“Sure. Let’s go out this weekend, get this place in shape to stay in for the holidays. And you know, you don’t need mistletoe to get a kiss from me.”
With that, she turned to face him and pressed her lips slowly to his. He could still taste the chocolate on her lips. As soon as she pulled away, he hugged her tight to his body, happiness spilling over him. Neither of them would be alone again. And now, Jane knew, his home was with her.