Surprise on Christmas Day

Holding a cup full of warm coffee in her hands Lisbon stood in front of the window of her apartment, her eyes following a little sparrow hopping around the parking lot outside. With its small feathers puffed against the chill of the morning it seemed to be looking for leftover breadcrumbs or seeds. 

The sight of the little bird braving the gray Sacramento winter morning brought a soft smile to Lisbon’s lips as she took another sip of her coffee. She watched the bird a little longer before she turned away from the window, her hand instinctively reaching for her phone. 

Nothing. No call to a crime scene, no Jane nonsense. But as she watched on, a text message from her brother Stan appeared, wishing her a merry Christmas. He was the oldest and most tame of her three brothers. A small smile appeared on Lisbon's lips as she replied wishing him a merry Christmas in return and added greetings for his family. Briefly she wondered if Jimmy and Tommy were spending Christmas together with their brother. She hoped all of them were having a good day. They would, certainly.

Thinking about her family made her feel sorry she hadn’t booked a flight to see them. Stan had asked if she wanted to come over, but she'd been so busy with work and then the flights had already been so expensive. Lisbon could find more excuses if she were looking for them, but the fact was she was avoiding her family. Why, she didn't truly know. Maybe Jane would know, he seemed to know everything about everyone around him.

With a sigh she put the phone back on the coffee table next to her couch and turned back to the window. But the brave little bird was gone and the sight of the parking lot didn't manage to bind her attention. Instead, she started walking up and down her little apartment while finishing her coffee.

Was there anyone else who hated holidays? For her, it was the worst kind of day. She wasn't required to be at the office, instead she had to stay at home, damned to sit in solitude and boredom waiting till the next day came and she could go back to work. And if anything got her out of her boredom early, it meant a poor soul had been killed.

She could read, sure. She liked reading, but this morning when she’d opened her book she'd felt too tired to read. Not the kind of tiredness that asked for sleep, but the one induced by boredom. 

Gazing out the window again while taking the last sip of her coffee, Lisbon wondered if she should go for a walk. One moment later she was putting on her winter coat and gloves and stepped outside. It had been the right thing to do. The brisk air was refreshing as she started walking along the residential neighborhood and towards the little chapel she liked to go to. It was a good place to go on Christmas morning.

There was no snow, Sacramento barely ever got snow, but it was still cold. The sky was cloudy and the streets gray, nevertheless Lisbon enjoyed her walk, the activity returning some energy to her mind and body. Unsurprisingly the weather was keeping other people in their homes, behind their windows lightened by Christmas decorations as they cuddled into their warming blankets. Only once Lisbon met an older couple out on a stroll themselves. The man with his arm around the woman's shoulders they'd walked past her, greeting her with a friendly nod and a smile.

Lisbon had almost reached the chapel when a sound in the alley to her left made her stop in her tracks. It almost sounded like the cry of an infant. 

A sudden gust of wind carried the sound away with it. Lisbon pulled her winter coat closer around her as the wind was howling through the alleys, the perceived temperature suddenly dropping by several degrees. Remembering the sound that had made her come to a halt she cautiously walked into the small gray alleyway between two apartment blocks, her ears pricked.

The howling wasn’t as loud in the alley and Lisbon was glad to be somewhat shielded from the cold wind by the high facades of the buildings. If the wind remained as harsh, she might as well return home instead of heading for the chapel, who knew, maybe it was the precursor of a worse storm.

She was almost ready to turn around again and leave the alley as the cry sounded through the alley again. High and helpless. But maybe it wasn’t a child after all, this seemed different. There it was again! Frowning Lisbon went in the direction where she assumed the cries were coming from. High-pitched and helpless, the sound of it was tearing at her heart.

-x-

Green. That was most of what Jane could see as he was walking up the few steps from the parking lot to her apartment, trying not to stumble and fall. Dark green pricking his hands and face. It had been a stupid idea to bring a Christmas tree. She would hate it anyway. But it was what other people set up for Christmas, bringing joy into their homes. There, finally, he’d reached the right door. He sat the tree down and rang the bell before he turned back to his car to grab the box with decorations, then the one with the groceries.

He was breathing heavily when he rang the apartment bell anew, then he started to freeze as he waited in vain for Lisbon to answer the door. Twelve o'clock wasn’t too early to visit, was it? She couldn’t be sleeping anymore. Jane rang the bell for the third time, but already fetched his phone out of his pocket before the buzzing sound stopped. Maybe she just couldn’t get to the door.

When she didn’t answer her phone either, Jane felt himself starting to panic. She always had her phone on her, in case she was required at yet another crime scene. Agent Teresa Lisbon - never truly off duty. 

Peaking through the half drawn blinds, Jane didn't see anything moving inside, and at this point he stopped telling himself everything was ok. Because quite obviously it wasn’t. He knew Lisbon didn’t go away, and her not picking up her phone … Something was up.

He was feeling the precursors of panic rising in his chest threatening to strangle him. With a trembling hand, he reached into the inside pocket of his jacket to pull out his lock picking kit, but he paused before he actually started to work on her lock. She would hate this. But he couldn't get the image of a motionless and helpless Lisbon out of his head. If she really needed help, and he just turned away… 

The lock was easy to pick and briefly Jane mused that he might advise Lisbon to get a different one, just for safety reasons. She was nowhere to be seen inside. With a heart hammering against his chest and a cold shiver running down his spine, he was already about to head up the stairs to where he suspected more rooms when his phone started ringing loudly in his pocket. 

Annoyed he stopped in his tracks, one foot already on the first step as he fished his phone out of the pocket. His heart did a leap at the display of the caller. Teresa Lisbon. 

Breathing out in instant relief he picked up. “Lisbon!”

“Jane,” her voice sounded muffled as if she was trying not to draw too much attention to herself. “You called?”

“Yeah, you alright?”

“Fine. Just busy right now. Did you need something?” That didn’t sound stressed. Then her voice was barely audible as she seemed to answer somebody who was with her. “ Right, in an alleyway. No, there were no others. Excuse me. Jane?”

“Just called to tell you I delivered your Secret Santa gift.” Or almost , he thought looking out her window his sight limited by the huge Christmas tree standing right outside.

“Secret Santa?” She seemed to be thinking for a moment, then she asked suspiciously: “You didn’t buy me another pony, did you?”

Jane chuckled. “No, daddy didn’t buy you a pony this time. But I’ll think you’ll like it nevertheless.” 

“Okay. Listen, I think I’ll be home soon, can I call you back?”

“Sure. Don’t worry, I’ll wait.” 

Relieved she seemed to be doing alright, and was just busy, Jane tucked his phone away and went back outside to take the tree and the cardboard boxes he’d brought inside. If Lisbon still needed some time, he might as well start setting everything up. And he could see if he was able to find some tea he could drink while waiting for her to return.

-x-

The little kitten she’d found freezing and shaking in the alleyway was safely tucked into the towel the vet had given Lisbon as she took him into her arms to head from her car to her apartment. She just hadn’t been able to leave the poor thing back at the vet’s to spend the holidays alone in a box smaller than a cubic meter that looked much like a prison cell made for cats. 

Holding her key to her apartment ready in her right hand, her left one stabilizing the kitten which was sleeping in her arms, Lisbon stopped as she saw a light burning inside her apartment. She was certain she had turned the lights off as she left the apartment this morning. And she had had her car key with her on her key ring, so she hadn’t needed to go back inside when the emergency vet had told her to bring the cat to her. 

For a moment Lisbon pondered at the lightened living room visible through the blinds, painfully aware that she didn’t have her Glock with her. She suppressed a curse, then she remembered Jane had called her to ‘ tell her he’d delivered her Secret Santa gift’.

With a sigh she tried the handle to her apartment and found the door unlocked. When she entered her apartment carefully she almost thought she’d mistaken the house. But even though there was what could only be described as an enormous tree standing in the middle of the apartment and a wonderful smell of food cooking on a stove, the furniture she could make out behind the tree as well as the little decorations the flat offered were most definitely hers. Or better: those of the tenants before her.

An enthusiastic call of “Lisbon!” got her to finally turn away from the green monster in her living room and towards what was her tiny kitchen to see Jane who was sporting an apron grinning brightly at her. “You’ve got some great timing - dinner is almost ready.”

“D-dinner?”, Lisbon asked, then a more pressing question entered her mind. “How did you even get in here?”

Jane shrugged, a sheepish smile on his face as he patted something hidden by the apron. “You weren’t here to let me in.”

“So you just broke in?” Lisbon uttered in disbelieve. One day she would go crazy because of this man!

“It was an emergency. For all I knew you could’ve slipped in the shower and hit your head.” When Lisbon just kept on glaring at him, he added apologetically: “I tried calling you on the phone first!”

“Right, you’re just a conscientious worried citizen, Jane.” Lisbon mocked, a smile finally breaking through on her face as the initial shock left her body.

“Exactly! It was my duty to go and see if you needed help! By the way you should really invest in a safer lock.”

“Why, is there one you can’t pick?” She chuckled as he scrunched up his face, seemingly trying to think of a lock that was Patrick Jane safe. “So I guess I should be just fine keeping this one.” she mumbled as she turned to examine her living room a little closer. Or better try to make out her living room behind the gigantic Christmas tree standing right in the middle of it. It wasn’t decorated yet, just a big green monster full of needles. Behind it, right next to her living room table she spotted a cardboard box that certainly hadn’t been there this morning, but everything else seemed to be as she had left it.

“What’s up with that kitten?” Jane asked, drawing her attention back to the tiny being she was still holding in her arms and had briefly forgotten about. 

“I found him while I was outside for a walk this morning. He was shaking in the cold and crying his lungs out, so I contacted the vet. They told me to bring him in. Apparently he’s perfectly healthy, just hungry and in need of a warm place to stay. I thought I could as well keep him here over the holidays. Poor little thing shouldn’t be alone on Christmas.”

She had been petting the head of the little creature with her free hand as she spoke, smiling softly as the kitten yawned. He had to be exhausted, after such a stressful day. “Why did you bring a tree into my apartment Jane?” she asked, frowning as she glanced up at Jane who was looking at her and the kitten with a soft smile

“I still owed you a Secret Santa gift.” He gestured to the tree, then to whatever it was he was cooking on her stove. “Voila!”

Lisbon had almost forgotten about the Secret Santa thing already when Jane had called her while she’d been at the vet’s. It had been Grace’s idea and of course, Jane and Rigsby had been only too enthusiastic to join in on it. That had been three against two. Lisbon had been glad she’d drawn Cho’s name. Something small and useful - a notebook and a good pen. That had been easy. Cho had gotten Rigsby a book with dating advice. Rigsby had bought a necklace for Grace, Lisbon was certain didn’t meet the ‘not too expensive’ criteria, and Grace had gotten a green and red elf hat for Jane which he’d worn the entire day, the bell at its tip chiming happily wherever he went. It had driven her crazy. But it was true, she’d never received her gift from Jane. Lisbon sighed.

“Jane, the idea was to gift something small and not too expensive. This …,” she mustered the tree taking up almost half of her living room, “this isn’t small.”

“It was quite difficult to get it inside.”

And it would be difficult to get it out again. Releasing a desperate huff, Lisbon muttered: “Why, Jane?”

He looked at the little kitten on her arms. “Because nobody should spend Christmas alone.”

“For all you know I could’ve gone to visit my family.”

Tilting his head, Jane raised his brows at her. “We’ve talked about this before, Lisbon. You say you plan on visiting your brothers, but in fact you spend the holidays here. Alone, eating ice cream and watching old movies.”

“And I’m happy that way.”

“When was the last time you decorated a Christmas tree?”

Lisbon fell silent, holding the kitten in her arms and absentmindedly running her fingers along its back. 

"Me too," Jane finally said gently into the silence that had emerged between them after his last words. "But this little guy was standing all alone at the mall, so I thought we could give it a try." 

Lisbon mustered the tree. It was already standing in her living room anyway. "I suppose we could. But Jane - little guy? Really?" The tree as towering over her and if she’d been asked she more than likely would’ve called it a towering giant. 

Jane only shrugged, but a smile appeared on his lips and his eyes started to gleam childishly as he went to pick up the cardboard box that had been standing next to her coffee table. "I brought decorations!"

And he had! The box was full to the rim with baubles in different shades of silver and red, some with white or silver snowflakes on them. Lisbon looked back up at the tree, when the kitten on her arms woke up and stretched its legs, claws catching her arm and getting caught in the fabric of her jacket. She’d been too surprised by Jane to even take off her jacket! 

“Um…,” Lisbon mumbled silently, carefully trying to disentangle the kitten’s claws from her jacket. Jane who looked up from the cardboard box with decorations to see the dilemma she and the kitten were in, hurried to help them. 

With its claws freed he carefully took the kitten in his arms. It meowed tenderly and then opened its jaw wide, yawning. It was a cute little thing, beautiful with a light gray coat with darker stripes and one white paw.

Looking down at it, Jane muttered: “Might be hungry, the poor thing.”

Lisbon nodded. “I got some kitten food from the vet. It’s still in the car, I’m gonna get it.”

-x- 

When she returned into the house, Lisbon found Jane hanging the baubles on the tree while the kitten was watching him with huge eyes from where he was sitting on the couch. The lights from a string of lights Jane had already put into the tree were reflecting in the cat's eyes. By the time Lisbon had taken off her jacket and put some of the wet cat food into a bowl with a low rim the tree started to look like a real Christmas tree.

Still in the kitchen, Lisbon dared a look at the things cooking on the stove. Some potatoes covered by boiling water and vegetables delicately sizzling in a pan. There was a delicious smell coming from the oven as well and when Lisbon turned on the light she found what looked like a great roast inside. “Wow, Jane, that’s a lot! Thank you," she added slightly subdued, baffled by the lengths he'd gone to.

"Meh, that bit of cooking? Nothing worth talking about, and they didn't have turkey anymore" he waved off as he pulled over a chair to put more baubles on the higher branches of the tree. 

"It looks like it's finished."

"Ah, could be. Will you put the last of these up, I'm gonna take care of the food."

Lisbon, used to microwaved dinner, agreed gladly. She put the bowl of cat food down beside the stairs, the kitten following her there after she’d shown it to him. Looking at the tiny animal hungrily devouring his food, Lisbon returned to the kitchen and, while avoiding getting into Jane's way, filled a bowl with water for the kitten as well.

Dinner was perfectly arranged on her small kitchen table even with two candles burning, bathing the scene in a wonderful atmosphere. Sitting down opposite Jane Lisbon could feel her heart flutter as she locked eyes with him. "Thank you," she repeated silently.

"Only the best for the best agent in all of California. Merry Christmas."

"Merry Christmas."

The dinner was delicious, the meat so tender it melted on her tongue, the vegetables perfectly seasoned and rich in taste. Multiple times Lisbon used the meal as an excuse to avert her eyes from Jane's. The romantic atmosphere induced by the candles was only increasing her heartbeat. When her eyes got caught by the tip of Jane’s tongue darting out to lick some of the sauce from the corner of his mouth Lisbon could feel her inside melting. She needed to get a grip on herself or that man would after all seduce her over a meal. 

Equally sad and relieved as they had both satisfied their hunger, Lisbon almost jumped from her chair to start cleaning the dishes. She caught Jane raising his brows in surprise, but he instantly went to help her.

Finished with their task, they turned around to look at the living room, both of them gazing at the gigantic tree. The kitten was playing with one of the baubles hanging on a low branch of the tree quite obviously enjoying how it swung from one side to the other. Just as they were watching on the kitten jumped at the bauble, its weight tearing it from the tree and both kitten and bauble were rolling across the floor. Finally back on its feet, the kitten shook itself and went right at the bauble again, chasing it across the floor.

“Got a name for it yet?”

Lisbon blinked at the unexpected question, her eyes still following the kitten. “Not yet. But the vet called it lucky I found him. He would’ve likely died out there in the cold as young and small as he is, so I thought that maybe Felix would fit.”

“Sounds like a good choice,” Jane mused, “The lucky one.” A moment later he added: "You know what it's missing?"

Glancing at the big grin on his face Lisbon only dared to mutter a questioning "Huh?"

"Tinsel. The tree, it’s missing tinsel."

"I'm not putting tinsel on that thing, that's gonna take ages!"

"Not the way we used to do it at the circus."

Lisbon followed him back to the cardboard box still standing next to the tree and with worry saw him taking a whole load of silver and red tinsel out of it. She peeked into the box and was glad to find it was finally empty. No more surprised. 

But the moment she looked back at Jane, Lisbon realized she'd made a mistake by leaving him and the tinsel unsupervised. While she was still looking on he threw the tinsel into the air, the motion somewhat directed towards the tree.

For a split second they both stared up at the tinsel as it seemed to be hanging in the air momentarily weightless before it started slowly raining down on them. Some of it did in fact land on the tree, but most ended up on Jane and Lisbon, the kitten had fled underneath the couch. Lisbon mustered Jane with big eyes before she broke out giggling at the tinsel caught in his blond curls.

“Hey, you don’t look much better yourself!” he protested, but he was grinning from one ear to the other as he stepped closer to her. 

“That didn’t work out as planned, huh?” Lisbon muttered watching him suspiciously as he reached out to take some of the tinsel out of her hair. 

“Not exactly, no.” Jane mumbled softly, his eyes straying from his task of freeing her hair from the tinsel to look at her. There it was again, her heart beating out of control as she looked into those mesmerizing blue eyes feeling his right hand tracing the line of her cheek as he took the tinsel out of her hair. 

Afraid to lose the ground under her feet at any moment Lisbon silently muttered: "W-what now?"

The smile that appeared on Jane's lips was soft and caring. "Ice cream and an old movie?"

Lisbon bit her lip. "Sounds perfect."