This is to give Lisbon a chance to live in a house instead of an apartment for a change, and to let her have dogs and keep the pony. I don't know the gender of the pony, so I've made him male. Hopefully in Season 2, we'll get to see where our favourite characters live, but in the meantime...

"The fire is still too hot." Jane was looking critically at the barbeque, with the air of one who Knows These Things.

Lisbon shot him an irritated look. What was it with men and barbeques? Cho and Rigsby were (of course) now coming to weigh in with their opinions. She glanced across at Van Pelt, who gave her a little sympathetic grin.

"Yeah," Rigsby pronounced his verdict, "I'd say give it another 10 minutes."

Cho, holding his hand over the coals, grunted in agreement. Lisbon sighed and gave up.

"You guys are now officially in charge of the cooking," she said, handing Jane the tongs she was holding. "Knock yourselves out. Van Pelt, won't you come and give me a hand bringing out the rest of the food."

She led Van Pelt back inside her house to the kitchen where they finished preparing the salad and bread-rolls.

"You know, there is something about barbeques that always seems to create a gender split." Van Pelt smiled at Lisbon. "It's like gravity – it's useless to try to fight it."

Lisbon rolled her eyes. "It's the primitive nature of fire – brings out their inner caveman." She gestured in the general direction of the men, who were standing around the barbeque, drinking beer and telling each other war stories of barbeques past. "Though, who knew Jane even had one? He's certainly kept it remarkably well-hidden." The expression on his face when he told her he was going to kill Red John rose unbidden in her mind. She pulled her thoughts back on topic. "Anyway, I shouldn't complain. Saves me from having to cook the meat. I just hope they know what they're doing, though. Just because they think they do, doesn't mean they actually do."

Van Pelt grinned, but didn't say anything. She was pretty sure the guys knew what they were doing, but it was interesting watching Lisbon struggling to relinquish control, especially in her own home.

An amusing sight greeted them when they emerged from the house. Lisbon's dogs had clearly smelled the meat and were now crowding the men in a hopeful, boisterous, we-may-look-sleek-and-well-fed-but-really-we're-starving way. Cho and Rigsby were trying to politely brush them off (they were the boss's dogs, after all), without success. The pony, which tended to follow the dogs about when Lisbon wasn't available, had taken a fancy to Jane's shirt and was trying to nibble it. Jane didn't want to put down the platefuls of meat he was holding in case the dogs got hold of them, and so was standing looking rather helplessly at the pony, which had him cornered and at its mercy. His 'I need to be rescued' look was one with which Lisbon was very familiar. At least today's antagonist was relatively harmless.

"Our fierce cavemen," Lisbon said quietly to Van Pelt, who giggled. Lisbon called her dogs and they responded to her summons with instant obedience, much as she had trained (most of) her team to do. The pony ambled over to her too, partly because it hated being left out of any of the action and partly because it had fixed all of its pony affections firmly on Lisbon. Lisbon put down the salad and made a big fuss of her pets, who joyfully soaked up her attention. Jane, completely mesmerised by the sight, barely noticed Rigsby taking the plates from his hands, and was only brought out of his Lisbon-gazing trance by Cho saying he thought the fire was perfect now. Jane immediately snapped his attention back to the matter at hand and tested the coals for himself before agreeing that they could start putting the meat on.

Rigsby and Van Pelt exchanged a brief amused glance at Jane's expense. For a guy who was always on their case about their relationship, he was doing a pretty spectacular job of not acting on his own feelings. They would have teased him about it if the subject of his affections had been anyone other than Lisbon.

Lisbon disappeared back inside to get her pets some treats and wash her hands, and Jane, leaving the barbequing in Cho's capable hands, followed her.

"I've been wanting to thank you for today," he said, joining her in the kitchen.

She looked a little surprised, but shrugged and said, "It's your birthday. It's Saturday. The sun is shining. That's like having all the stars and planets in alignment or something. A barbeque became inevitable and unavoidable. Besides, you won't thank me when you see the cake," she gave him an wicked grin, "and its forest-fire of candles." She handed him the apple she had just cut into quarters. "Do you want to give this to Galahad?"

"What possessed you to name him Galahad?"

"He just looks like a Galahad."

"How so?"

"He's a pony, for a start – a knight's other half."

Jane laughed. "Must be a very tiny knight."

"Hey, you picked the pony. Don't insult his stature now. Besides, he has a noble air about him, despite his lack of inches. He has Galahad's pure heart."

"Hmm, reminds me of someone else I know." Jane gave her one of his heart-stopping smiles, before turning to head back outside. He paused in the doorway, and said, "Uh, Lisbon, your garden seems to have acquired some children."

Lisbon followed him out, to find Cho and Rigsby gazing at two grubby children with undisguised aversion. Other People's Kids were clearly not their thing.

"Teresa," the kids said happily when they saw her. They were finding the giant man wielding the tongs rather alarming.

"Hi, kids. Have you come to visit with Galahad?"

The smaller grubby child nodded. "Can we come and play in your garden?"

"Of course," Lisbon took the apple from Jane and gave it and the dog biscuits to the kids. "Here, you can give these to Galahad and the dogs for me. Why don't you take them down to the bottom of the garden and feed them there?"

The kids raced off down the garden with the animals in hot pursuit. Teresa's garden was a bit of a magnet for the neighbourhood children – aside from the dogs and the pony, it was rather wild and exciting, with trees that cried out to be climbed and bushes that forts could be built under. It wasn't a garden that could be spoiled or damaged by kids and animals – no neat flowerbeds or prize rosebushes – and was therefore an ideal playground.

Jane grinned at Lisbon. "I had no idea you were so popular."

"You should see the dedicated fans I have following me around when I'm working on the house," she replied, "I could start a cult."

Jane thought fleetingly that he'd like to join that cult. Another loosely related thought followed swiftly on the heels of the first. He frowned slightly.

"This fan-club wouldn't happen to consist of teenage boys, would it?"

"Actually, no. They're kids - both girls and boys," she gave him a pointed look, "who like messing about with tools and paint. The ones who started the trend when I first moved here are teenagers now, but they come over less often than they used to."

Lisbon usually spent her weekends working on her house, which she was restoring, one room at a time. Ever since being forced to take care of her family at a young age she hadn't been able to shake the need to be constantly doing something productive, and that was partly why she had fallen in love with and bought this ramshackle little house upon moving to Sacramento several years before. Aside from the fact that it was in a downmarket part of town and therefore cheap enough for her to afford, there had been something about the quiet, leafy neighbourhood and the sweet tumbledown old house that had given her a sense of home, even though she had never lived in a house like it. With one glance she had decided that it needed her; that she and the house somehow belonged to each other.

When she had taken the leap and bought it, her brothers had pessimistically warned her that she would regret buying such a wreck. What they didn't seem to realise was that she was buying it as much because it needed work as any other reason. She needed something that she could pour her time and energy and love into when she wasn't working, and the house became her baby, along with her dogs, and, more recently, Galahad.

"Which room are you working on at the moment?" Jane wanted to know.

"I'll show you, if you like."

Jane and Van Pelt both followed her through the house and up the stairs to an unfurnished room that was clearly a work in progress. She had already fixed the ceiling and windows and had repainted the room. Her final big task, about half finished, was restoring the wooden floor.

Since Van Pelt hadn't been to her house before, Lisbon showed her round the whole thing, with Jane following close behind. He reminded Lisbon of her dogs and Galahad, following her everywhere and terrified of missing anything. She wondered why he found her life so fascinating – not even she found it all that interesting.

Van Pelt was truly impressed with what Lisbon had accomplished with her house, both in terms of workmanship and taste. Although she had delegated the rewiring and the more complex aspects of the plumbing to professionals, she had literally done everything else in her house herself, with the help of her little fan-club of interested youngsters. The kids had initially turned up when she was fixing the exterior of the house (something which had quickly become her first priority when she discovered, soon after moving in, that the house was not entirely waterproof). She hadn't had the heart to send them away; instead she treated them like her younger brothers or her team – she taught them some useful skills and then let them help under her strict, watchful eye. Apparently they liked this, because they kept coming back.

"What will you do once the house is finished?" Van Pelt asked her, as they made their way outside again.

"Start on the garden, I suppose." Lisbon smiled. "As you can no doubt tell, I know nothing about gardening, but there are plenty of old ladies in the neighbourhood just dying to give me advice. It would make their day if I were to ask for their help and do something about my garden. It's a bit of a disgrace."

"The kids seem to like it." Jane pointed out.

"I rather like it too," Lisbon said, "but I could look after it better and still keep some of the wildness. I'll see. No hurry."

Rigsby and Cho were looking very pleased with themselves, like they had successfully completed a very tricky and important mission.

"Meat's ready." Cho told them.

It turned out that the guys were pretty good at barbeques. The children, with a homing instinct for food that would have done Rigsby proud, materialised at the table just as the meal was ready to be served. Lisbon made them wash their hands, then gave them each a paper plate and let them help themselves. When they ignored the salad in favour of meat and bread, she added some to their plates with that glint in her eye that few people dared challenge. Rigsby sympathised with them. He took some salad only because of Van Pelt's watchful eye. Women!

Despite the rather copious quantities of food that certain members of the group managed to polish off, all eyes still lit up when Lisbon brought out Jane's cake. The smaller of the grubby children had wormed her way onto Jane's lap, and so was in a prime position to help blow out the candles. The larger child, equally keen to help, stood next to him and said in awe,

"Wow, there must be hundreds of candles on there!"

This brought a chuckle from all the adults except Jane, who pouted slightly at Lisbon. She grinned at him.

"Come on, old-timer, blow out your candles."

Jane and both kids used up all their puff blowing out the candles, but one of them refused to go out.

"That means you got a girlfriend," the boy told Jane. Lisbon leaned over and blew the offending candle out.

"He wishes," muttered Rigsby half under his breath. He started to take the candles off the cake. Lisbon handed Jane a knife.

"Oh, yes!" the little girl told him in a excited whisper, as he started to cut the cake. "You mustn't forget to make a wish."

Jane paused for a moment, thinking about his wish, and then he carried on cutting.

"Don't tell anyone, or it won't come true," she added, anxious to avert such a disaster.

"I won't tell a soul," Jane promised solemnly.

Shortly after the cake had been distributed, the children's mother was heard calling for them. Grabbing an extra piece of cake for the road, they hurriedly said thank you and ran off, leaving Jane looking considerably dirtier than he had been a short while before. He pulled a face at the state of his clothing and attempted to at least brush off the cake crumbs, but soon gave it up as a bad job.

"I would offer you a change of clothes," Lisbon said, "but I don't think anything of mine would fit you." She gave him one of her quirky smiles. She actually thought he looked quite cute all messy and discomposed, but wasn't about to tell him that.

..

After a pleasant afternoon spent chatting, tidying up (mostly the women) and wishing they hadn't eaten quite so much (mostly the men), Lisbon's visitors started to leave. Jane, of course, was the last to go. He and Lisbon were standing by her front door as she waved to the departing Van Pelt. Jane started running his hand over the wooden surface of the door with a pensive look on his face.

"You've sanded and re-varnished the door since I was last here," he said. "It looks – and feels – really good now."

She smiled at him.

"Yeah, it came up really well. Much better than I'd hoped. It was a particularly satisfying restoration."

"You like to fix things, don't you? Taking broken wrecks and making them as good as new."

She looked at him for a moment. The question sounded loaded.

"The house wasn't exactly a broken wreck. The structure was sound; it just needed a bit of work. But yes, I like to fix things. Restore them to their former glory. Things often look much worse than they actually are, and a bit of TLC makes all the difference. Either that, or a sharp kick." She grinned. "The latter works best on boys and electronic equipment."

They held each other's gaze for a moment, before Jane leaned across and gave her a brief kiss on the cheek.

"Thanks for the birthday party," he said, turning quickly and going to his car. "I'll see you on Monday."

..

Lisbon sat outside with the dogs and Galahad as the sun set and the world became muted and shadowy. She thought about her sweet old house and all the time and love she had lavished on it. She couldn't imagine loving any other house the way she did this one, with all the blood, sweat and tears she had invested in it and all the satisfaction she had gained from seeing how well it had turned out. She liked to be needed; to put herself into something and see the reward. Yes, she definitely preferred a fixer-upper to a perfect, finished product. Her thoughts drifted to Jane...

A/N In case you're wondering who takes care of the animals when Lisbon is out of town, she has plenty of neighbours willing to lend a hand. She's pretty popular in the neighbourhood, what with her keeping the kids out of mischief, helping elderly neighbours with their sagging gutters, and so on. Plus the pony has his own fan-club.

For anyone needing an acronym decoder, TLC stands for Tender Loving Care.