Chapter Text
“Wait!” Jane calls, rummaging through the cupboards before he finds what he’s looking for.
“I am,” Lisbon replies impatiently, fiddling with the cord of her laptop charger as she waits for him to come and join her.
When he finally joins a few moments later, he deposits a steaming mug of coffee into her awaiting hand- now officially cast free, and settles into the chair beside hers, a mug of tea in his own. “Okay. Now I’m ready.”
The brunette pauses, suddenly nervous. The consultant notices her hesitancy immediately, turning his body to better face hers. “What’s wrong?” he questions gently.
“You know what, we don’t have to do this,”Lisbon answers, closing the laptop screen.
Jane stares at her, arching a perplexed eyebrow at her sudden change in demeanour. Now that she was officially into her second trimester, they’d decided that today was to be the day they told the rest of their family and friends about the pregnancy.
Everyone at work already knew- at least those who needed to, like Cho and his crew, Lisbon’s new team and the big guns who oversee the CDI units. Besides it’s not like she’d be able to keep it under wraps much longer, her loose fitting tops would only conceal the (currently) small baby bump for so long.
Lisbon was still a little disappointed that she hadn’t gotten to tell Cho and the others herself, but she understood the tension and stress Jane had been under when she had been kidnapped. She probably would have let it slip too if the roles were reversed. The entire floor had since started a betting pool on the baby’s sex, to which she pretended not to know about. It was both heartwarming and a little disconcerting that so many people she hardly knew were so invested in the future of her child (or maybe the FBI just employed degenerate gamblers- that thought had also crossed her mind).
Someone had even gone so far as to start anonymously texting her pictures of fruit that were supposed to mirror the size of the growing fetus weekly. She strongly suspects it was Abbott by way of Wylie, though her former unit chief was over 1500 miles away, making it a little hard to ask him directly. Not to mention they were all trained FBI agents, he wouldn’t break under her questioning. Perhaps their sweet tech agent might break- though the majority of Lisbon doesn’t actually want to find out. And Jane thinks it’s hilarious, so she lets it pass.
Now, she’d briefed her new VCLU team when she’d met with the candidates, seeing as she would only be around for about half a year before she went on maternity leave. They were still a few weeks away from the official opening of the unit, but she’d figured she should get it out of the way so they could start right up as soon as possible.
But there were still a few people that needed to know.
“They don’t need to know,” Lisbon continues, ignoring the look Jane gives her. “They can find out after the baby’s born.”
He scoffs at that. “Teresa my love, we need to tell your brothers. They’re going to be happy for you,” he tries to reason.
Now it’s Lisbon’s turn to scoff. “Good, they can be happy for me when LJ’s in college,” she dismisses, waving her hand airily.
The consultant smiles at her use of ‘LJ’. That name had also stemmed from their colleagues, Wylie more specifically. After Lisbon had overheard him and Langley gossiping about ‘baby Jane’ one day a few weeks ago, she’d stuck to her word and set them straight. If they wanted to talk about their unborn child, fine, but they need to put some respect on her damned name. After all, she’d kept her last name when she and Jane had married, and since she was doing all the hard work, they were damn-well going to have Lisbon-Jane on the birth certificate. Baby LJ was adopted sometime after, when someone had complained that saying their two last names was too much work for simple baby gossip.
“Teresa,” he says pointedly through his smirk, opening the laptop lid back up.
She groans in response, an undignified, whiny sound. In all honesty, the brunette’s not really sure where her sudden nerves are stemming from. She’d been looking forward to telling her family, but the memory of their reactions when she’d last told them something big about her life surface to the forefront of her mind. They’d practically guilted her into having an actual wedding, and though it had turned out wonderful despite all the tribulations once all was said and done, she wasn’t sure how she was going to react to their reactions. She wasn’t on the most emotionally stable ground nowadays, and her brothers had a very special knack for riling her up on the best of days.
Jane grabs her hand comfortingly as he cues up the video chat, but waits for her say-so before he goes any further.
Lisbon allows herself one more moment of weakness before she reaches forward with her free hand to hit ‘dial’.
“This is all your fault,” she grumbles, half hoping none of them answer.
“Yes dear,” he soothes mildly as they wait to connect with her siblings.
To her chagrin, all three of her brothers’ smiling faces meet her, picking up after the first couple of rings. Their voices tumble over each other as they all demand to know what’s so important that their dearest eldest sister had to threaten them with death if they didn’t pick up today. (Of course the winter holidays were fast approaching, the pair could easily have dropped their news into the conversation in not five days time, but Lisbon already had her aversion to the Christmas holiday, and didn’t want to make the day about herself either way.
“Hush up,” Lisbon commands, silencing the commotion with a scowl. It takes a minute for their bickering to subside enough for her to get a proper word in. She glances at Jane, hoping to draw upon some of his strength and confidence, before she blurts; “I’m pregnant.”
Silence follows her statement as the words hang between them. But as soon as the words have sunk in, a cacophony of whooping and cheering rise through the speakers.
A blush dusts her cheeks at their reactions, and she wonders why she was so nervous to tell them after all. Karen cuts in from somewhere in the background of Stan’s feed, congratulating the couple before asking when she’s due.
“Late June,” she replies, a soft smile pulling at her lips as Jane’s hand settles comfortingly on her thigh beneath the table.
Stan pauses, a strained look on his face as he struggles with whatever he’s thinking about. “Wait. How long have you guys been married?”
“Since mid October,” Jane supplies slowly, the pair unsure where he’s headed with the inquiry.
Stan doesn’t seem to be sure for a few moments either, until he unleashes a dramatic gasp and points through the screen. “Some good Catholic you are.”
Her smile slips, morphing back into a frown as she asks; “What are you talking about?”
Jimmy butts in, picking up on Stan’s math much faster than Stan had himself. “It’s not even Christmas, T!”
“So?”
“So, either that baby’s been cooking longer than you’ve been married, or you’re being lied to,” he continues, face serious, though his tone is teasing.
Stan agrees with a sassy ‘uh-huh’ and of course Tommy catches on immediately, tsk-tsking her through her screen.
“You’re supposed to be our role model,” the youngest Lisbon brother says with mock disappointment.
This is why, she thinks as she stares at them, affronted. She idly wonders where she went wrong when they were kids to be treated this way, though she knows it’s all (mostly) in jest.
Jane laughs at the sour look on her face as she grumbles; “Oh please. Tommy had a kid out of wedlock. At least I married my baby’s father.”
Jane frowns. “Thanks,” he replies with faux-indignation, as if the only reason they were together was for that one tiny (but not for long) detail. Not the whole love part or anything.
“Hey!” the man in question exclaims. “You’re all just jealous because I had a kid first. You all copied me !”
“I didn’t,” Jimmy croons as Stan taunts; “Yeah, sure.”
Lisbon looks to Jane as if to say ‘I told you so’, but he can’t help but to revel in the chaos of the Lisbon clan. He’d never had a sibling, let alone three to mess around with, never got to experience the kind of bond only siblings had- being an only child. It was kind of exhilarating to observe.
“There’s no monopoly on having children,” Teresa interjects, rolling her eyes.
“Well you’re all just jealous because my kid’s already in college,” Tommy continues proudly.
“Yeah, because you had her when you were still practically a teenager,” Stan shoots back.
“Well at least I was still young!”
“What? I was barely thirty when our first was born!” Stan defends.
“Well Rees is already pushing forty,” Tommy replies. “Ha! Rees, you know they call that a geriatric pregnancy? Annie taught me about that.”
Echoes of “You can’t say that!” and “Tommy!” filter through the speakers, as the loud-mouthed brother tries to defend himself.
Heat creeps up the back of Lisbon’s neck, spreading across her face in a bright red flush. Embarrassment and indignation flood through her at her brothers’ words. Jane moves his hand from her thigh to grasp her own, loosening the fist she hadn’t realized she’d made and links their fingers together.
“I did know that, thank you,” she says meekly. “I’m so glad you brought that up,” she adds, thinking about how whoever came up with that term deserved a fist to their face.
Seeing the look on her face, Stan takes pity and drops the rambunctious brother act temporarily. “We are happy for you, T.”
The other two quit their squabbling in favour of agreeing with their brother.
“You guys thinking of any names yet?” Karen asks, choosing a safer topic for the boys.
“Yes,” Jane replied, as Lisbon says: “No.”
“You haven’t?” he questions, looking at his wife.
“You have?” she tosses back. She hadn’t been privy to any of these thoughts- not in any serious capacity anyway.
“I’ve thought of a few,” Jane says.
Tommy interrupts the couple. “Well, if it’s a girl, maybe you can name her Annie too. You know, like how Stan copied me.”
“Oh, shut up Tommy.”
***
The last group of people that they’d planned on telling were the Rigsby’s.
Jane had already told Samantha and Pete, and had received a slap in return for not inviting them to the wedding. Jane had felt a little bad, in hindsight they were practically the only family he had left from his carny days- but they were happy for him and Lisbon.
The soon-to-be parents had even received a ridiculously large stuffed elephant- at least half Lisbon’s height- and a card ‘signed’ by a ‘Daisy’. She had scowled at the reminder of that case, how Jane had tricked her and left her behind. But at least the consultant had the good sense to look sheepish for his wife’s sake, though he was still amused by his friends' antics.
(The elephant plushie currently resides in the passenger seat of his Airstream, awaiting the day that it could be moved into the nursery.)
Now, Jane and Lisbon were soon met by three smiling faces and a squirmy toddler through the laptop screen. Since everything had settled down, the two couples had tried to make an effort to stay in touch and chat as often as their hectic schedules would allow. At the very least, they’d settled on one video chat a month, so this provided the perfect non-suspicious opportunity for the Lisbon-Jane’s to announce their news.
The conversation flows easily, skipping pleasantries and diving straight into how the Rigsby’s company is doing and how the kids are holding up. After some minor child wrangling when the children start looking restless, Lisbon decides that they better get on with the announcement before their conversation is inevitably cut too short. Drawing their attention, she finds that she’s much less anxious than before. Perhaps it really was just her family that had her stressed out.
(But isn’t that just how it’s supposed to be?)
“So,” she starts casually. “We have some news.”
Looking at Jane she nods, and the blonde suppresses a smile as he brings the black-and-white image into focus on the laptop camera.
“Oh my God!” Grace exclaims, throwing her hands up in excitement.
“Congratulations!” Rigsby cheers, making a big show of clapping and hollering, startling little Maddy in the redhead’s lap. Ben claps along confusedly- not entirely sure what’s going on, but happy to be included nonetheless.
The couple can’t help but to feed off of their friends’ excitement, tentative smiles turning into full-blown grins.
“Your auntie T’s having a baby!” Grace explains to Ben, finally giving in to the confused boy’s insistent tugging on her shirt.
Jane watches the exchange with fondness, glad that his partner was able to maintain a relationship with the two through the screen during his unfortunate absence.
But despite his current joy, something about the exchange had piqued his curiosity. His eyes narrow playfully at the other couple, a knowing sparkle in his eyes. “You knew,” he intones.
Protests of ‘What??’ and ‘Of course not!’ filter back through the tinny speakers, but they’re half hearted at best.
“What?” Lisbon’s smile slips, replaced with an exasperated scowl.
“Guilty,” Wayne replies with a bashful grin of his own.
“Cho?” the brunette asks.
“Cho.” Grace confirms.
“Is nothing sacred?” Lisbon bemoans.
The other adults laugh and Maddy babbles something in toddler-talk, a serious expression on her face.
“We're really happy for you two,” Grace says, sobering.
Lisbon’s scowl retreats back into a soft smile. “Thanks, you guys,” she says seriously, gracious for her friends despite her annoyance at their stone-faced friend. “I mean it.”
Jane nods in agreement, arm settling around the agent’s shoulders over her chair.
“Ooh, we’ll have to do play dates for the kids!” Rigsby says excitedly.
“And I’ll take you shopping!” Grace laughs, giddy at the prospect of taking her ex-boss out maternity clothes shopping. The redhead knows that the brunette will absolutely hate it, and oh how fun it will be!
One look at Lisbon’s face has the other three adults cracking up again. But despite that terrifying prospect, she’s more relaxed than she’s felt the whole day, and that counts for something.
Because after everything they’ve all been through, they’ve each still managed to carve out a piece of, well- peace in their chaotic, crazy, challenging lives to rest in. And no matter what happens next, they will always have someone looking out for them, and Lisbon thinks that their child is going to be the luckiest kid ever.