The Bucket List (The Mentalist)

1.

1. Brush A Pony's Mane

The next day, just as promised, Lisbon placed a sheet of paper on Jane's chest who lay on his couch. His eyes opened and he reached for the list, extremely curious as to what she wrote down. He didn't even notice that he held his breath as he read silently.

1. brush a pony's mane
2. bake my own brownies
3. camp on a rooftop
4. play a drinking game
5. learn how to juggle
6. get a tattoo
7. slow dance to my favourite song

Jane smiled and couldn't help but chuckle softly. That was her list, these were her wishes, her dreams since she was a kid and he couldn't really believe that they all fitted on such a small piece of paper. But then again, he only asked her to write down seven. He could only imagine how long that list would've been if he asked her to write down all of her childhood dreams.

"Well?" Teresa's voice startled him and made him snap out of his thoughts. He looked up at her, her face was somehow closed up, defensive of what she just placed in his hands. After all these were her thoughts, intimate ones, too. Jane knew that if he would joke about the list now, his partner would snatch it right out of his hands and walk away and that was the last thing he wanted.

So instead he bit his tounge, choked back the numerous jokes that only waited to come out of his mouth and smiled sweetly. "Thank you, Lisbon. To be honest with you, I wasn't too sure if you would actually do what I asked you to do but I am very happy you did so." The brunette blushed and immediately rolled her eyes.

Inside, Jane chuckled at her half-hearted attempt to keep up her guard. "Well it was your present after all and I didn't want you to be upset." she said and he pretended to believe her. "Ah. Well I thank you for your utter kindness then, dear Lisbon. I'll have a look into your list and I will let you know as soon as I have a plan for it." The senior agent seemed satisfied with his reaction, and somewhat relieved that her consultant didn't give a snarky comment about how ridiculous some of her wishes were.

"Fine." she replied and after some seconds of silence, in which Jane read through the list once more, she spoke again. "We have a case. Two women, murdered. Are you coming?" Without looking up Jane nodded. "Yup. Will be there in just a second." he said, his eyes still glued to the list and a plan forming slowly inside his head. "Good. I'll be waiting in the car." Lisbon cleared her throat and started to leave the room, clearly uncomfortable by his interest in her list.

Just as she was about to stept out of the door a voice called from behind her. "Really, Lisbon? Brownies?" She froze and turned around, facing a smirking Patrick Jane who already got up from his couch. "I knew it. I knew you couldn't keep yourself from joking about it!" she hissed and he let out a small giggle. Then Jane put up his hands in defeat and managed to say in between laughter "Okay okay. I am sorry. I tried at least, didn't I?"

With that Lisbon turned around and made her way through the corridor once again. But this time, a smile formed on her lips.

~°~

It was a long and particularly exhausting day for the whole team. They couldn't find the murderer and it seemed like there was nothing else to be done for this day so they had to give up in defeat and instead look forward to an evening of free time.

Teresa was just about to hop into her car as a well known voice made her halt. Jane was jogging in her direction to stop her from driving away, his right arm reached out in the air to get her attention. "Wait!" he shouted as he made his way up to her.

The agent sighed, the long and dreadful day clearly showing its effect, and waited for Jane to make his way over to her car. "What is it, Jane?" she asked, slightly annoyed by both her consultant and the unclosed case. "Are you having any plans for this afternoon?" Jane's voice was cheerful and she couldn't quite understand why.