A/N: Wow, I'm so hooked on Mentalist, it's close to obsession. :) Therefore, please find below, another atempt at a one-shot. Again light, and funny, and happy, because at the moment I really need something light, and funny, and happy. Takes place somewhen in the future, post-Red John.

This is to my readers, reviewers, and friends, for their constant support and interest in my stories! Thank you all! *hug*

That's all for now. Let me know what you think. ;)

ENJOY!

Disclaimer: The Mentalist belongs to its creator Bruno Heller, and CBS. I'm neither of them. Therefore: Written just for fun.

MASQUE

Contrary to everybody's believes Lisbon loved to dress up once in a while.

She loved to get herself pampered, to relax with a good massage, or, how ridiculous it even may sound, cleanse her skin with a mudpack. She felt giddy when Sarah, the nail specialist at her frequented Day Spa, applied a new manicure and pedicure. Or when Rodney, the most feminine male she'd ever seen, did that special facial and complimented her on her skin. Or when Brigitte, the French Ex-Model, gave her hair a trim and told her how much she envied her for the silkiness and color of it.

Long story short, CBI's Senior Agent knew exactly how to be a girly girl. And even enjoyed it from time to time. Especially when she got the chance to show it off a little bit, like on CBI fundraisers or such occasions.

So one afternoon when Bradley from the mail room (the cute blonde one) handed over her mail on his third round that day, one letter in the pack caught her attention. It was big and kinda heavy. The paper was a little shiny, cream colored and on the front a Venetian mask was engraved in fine silver lines. The letter was addressed to "Ms. Teresa Lisbon, Senior Agent, Serious Crimes Unit, California Bureau of Investigation". It seemed the organization sending the invites wasn't up to date with her details, but whatever.

After she opened the envelope and pulled out the sheet of paper within, she started to grin when she realized that she was holding an invitation to the annual Charity Ball of the State Department of Justice in her hands. It was a fancy affair, with tons of rich and influential people, but also with colleagues from several agencies, bureaus and law enforcement offices. It was dinner, followed by a charity auction, and afterwards dancing and networking. The DoJ was known for their fantastic choice in catering and entertainment, so Lisbon was really looking forward to the evening.

Even this year's theme sounded interesting: Masque – The journey begins one night in Venice …

oOo

The next few weeks passed in a blur, one case chased the next, until it was the night before the Ball and the Senior Agent discovered, in sheer panic, that she totally forgot to buy herself a new dress and everything else which needed to be acquired with it for a fancy Ball night.

But her name was Teresa Lisbon and it wasn't the first time she had to organize something on a tight schedule. She took the following afternoon off (it was a Friday and work was slow anyway), and headed to her favorite Day Spa, where Sarah, Rodney and Brigitte worked their magic, before she headed over to Saks Fifth Avenue. The night before she had called Vivian, the baby sister of one of her High School friends, who was one of the saleswomen at the high end department store. Right now this came in very handy.

It didn't take long and they found her a shoulder free cocktail dress. Not long later Lisbon stood in front of the full length mirror and looked at the image of a sultry woman clutched in a tight, vibrant blue dress; her feet in nude colored Louboutin pumps, and holding a golden clutch. If she didn't know better she would have never guessed it was her in that mirror.

She smiled a secret smile, thanked Vivian for her help, and headed out of the department store. She was already a little late, but also quite sure her team didn't mind that it took her a little longer than usual.

The venue of this year's DoJ Charity Ball was Sacramento's Grand Ballroom, not far from head quarters, so Lisbon decided to park her car at the CBI and to walk over there afterwards.

She arrived with approximately 50 other people, all wearing elegant clothes, and some even the Venetian mask, stated as noncommittal dress code on the invitation. Even a few journalists and photographers lined the red carpet leading into the old historical building.

After entering through the huge entrance, Lisbon let her eyes skim over the people, before she maneuvered herself through the crowd. Soon she discovered her team standing at one of the bar tables spread out across the foyer; each of them holding a glass full of champagne. Van Pelt was dressed in a cherry red gown and looked stunning. Lisbon had already discovered several male participants turning around to observe the Agent, as well as most of the female guests going green with envy. Rigsby and even Cho – each wearing the mandatory tux – visibly enjoyed the appreciating looks they got, also those they got for standing beside Grace.

Jane was nowhere to be seen.

Lisbon grabbed a glass of champagne for herself from a passing waiter and headed over to her team.

"Hey, guys."

The three of them turned around at her greeting and a pleased grin appeared on her face when she saw their reaction.

"Wow, boss! You look stunning! I love your shoes," Van Pelt smiled, while Rigsby sent an appreciating whistle in her direction. Cho only raised one of his eyebrows and gave her half a smirk.

"Thank you!" she replied, before taking a sip of her drink while scanning the crowd, "Jane's not here yet?"

"We thought you'd come together?" This time Rigsby answered her.

"Nope. We said we'd meet here." She shrugged and took another sip.

Moments later the sound of the gong vibrated through the building and a voice asked the guests to proceed to the dining area as dinner would be starting shortly. Like on cue everybody gathered in the entrance hall moved in one direction and soon Lisbon and the others were swallowed up in the mob. They lost sight of each other within seconds and realized they wouldn't see each other til after dinner for it was customary at the DoJ ball to get seated with people from all kind of different domains. Like two years ago, when she actually sat at the mayor's table (which – she was sure of – was only because they solved the Red-John-case a few weeks prior). Normally everybody got separated, except for married couples. Therefore she noticed Cho, Rigsby, and Van Pelt taking their seats all over the room.

And still no sign of Jane.

When Lisbon stepped up to her table, she discovered that only four of the ten people assigned to sit with her were already there. Three of them were women and she was slightly surprised. In the last couple of years the ball committee made it quite obvious for her, that they thought she got along better with men, which – truthfully – wasn't very hard to observe, after all she was one of the very few females working in a mostly male domain.

"You look gorgeous, my dear."

She turned around surprised when she realized that the compliment was for her, only to discover Jane standing in front of her, sipping on a glass of champagne and eyeing her approvingly from head to toe.

Lisbon decided to simply ignore Jane's very obvious show of checking her out. She also tried to ignore the approving gasps of the ladies surrounding them, as well as the goggling eyes skimming over him (especially his ass). Of course he would evoke such a reaction from Sacramento's High Society Hyenas. In this damn tux he was freaking gorgeous. Instead she focused on his late arrival.

"Oh! Hey! Where have you been?"

Jane smirked at her and she knew it was because he could see through her attempt of simply ignoring his compliment, but he let it pass nonetheless.

"Let's just say my car decided to turn in for the day after all the driving it had to do today and the cab took a while to get here. Unbelievable, but the streets are crowded."

Lisbon playfully rolled her eyes at him, one corner of her lips twitching into an answering smirk, "What driving today? We didn't even have a case which would justify you driving around. Why don't you just admit that you have an old, crappy car? I really wonder when you'll finally realize what a deathtrap that vehicle of yours is."

"Meh," he protested good-humoredly. "It's a classic. It has character."

"Character?! Yeah, sure! It's a pain in the ass, that's what it is." She scoffed back amused, before taking a sip from her champagne, one eyebrow raised in a challenging way.

"Would you stop insulting my car?"

"Would you start listening to me?"

He simply ignored her and winked once, which she answered with another playful eye roll.

The dining hall was filling fast and people who were only chatting a minute ago now started to take their seats. The ceremonial act was about to start pretty soon, so Lisbon turned to her consultant to inquire were he would be sitting this evening, only to see him pulling out the chair beside her and sitting down. She kept standing and gave him a confused look. Only when her eyes landed on the place card she discovered that the seat to her left really belonged to him. Now she also knew why so many female guests got seated at her table, and she was not the reason.

"How did you do that?"

The surprise in her voice was distinctive, but still she started to move again, now sitting down beside him.

"How did I do what?"

He took the linen napkin in front of him and placed it casually over his lap. She could tell by the tone of his voice that he knew exactly what she was talking about. Deciding to not let him play this game with her she just shrugged and placed her own napkin in her lap.

"I just assumed we wouldn't sit together," Lisbon therefore simply stated.

"Of course we sit together." Jane even sounded a tad offended, which made the smile on her face grow a little bit.

"Not when it comes to the organizers of the event, no."

A waiter stepped over and took the champagne flutes from them, as well as from all the others at their table, while a second waiter started to pour wine into their glasses.

"You're kidding, right?"

When she turned her head this time she saw honest surprise on his face. This certainly was interesting.

"Why should I?" she asked him, again a little confused. "It's not that big of a deal."

If possible he looked even more surprised than before. "And again: You're kidding, right?"

"Jane."

"You don't think that's a big deal?"

What was happening here? Why did he make such a big deal out of this? It was a simple, quite understandable mistake of the organization. No harm done.

"No," Lisbon therefore explained, still not sure why he acted so stunned, "They just didn't know, that's all."

"And you really didn't mind?"

"Again: Why should I? It's just a seating arrangement at a ball." She really started to worry now. Why was Jane so determined that this was so important? Normally it was him not caring for the correct social behavior.

"Seriously, woman," now he even sounded slightly annoyed. "All it took me was a phone call to correct their mistake."

And with that she decided she had enough. Why was he grilling her? She was looking forward to a nice evening, with great food, some fancy dressing, and fun with their friends and colleagues, and now he made such a big deal out of something so insignificant.

"Great. Problem solved. Everybody's happy." She snapped at him, although keeping her voice down not to provoke the attention of the others at the table.

Lisbon thought with that it would be done. Normally Jane was good at sensing when she had enough and stopped then, but today he seemed to be a little off the game.

"Why didn't you just call them?"

"Geez, Jane!" the frown on her face showed him that she slowly, but still, lost her nerve with him. "Truth to be told, I forgot about it, with all the cases and the tons of paperwork. Most of it thanks to you by the way. And again: I just didn't think it was that big of a deal in the first place. Would you please stop now so we can finally start to enjoy the evening?"

But Jane was far from done. "You forgot?"

"Jane, it's one dinner."

He huffed, and if she wouldn't have been slightly annoyed with him, she even would've thought that he looked quite handsome with that scowl on his face. But – once again – Mr. Patrick Jane didn't care for, nor feared, the wrath of the woman beside him and continued a little miffed, "Don't you want people to know? Because – seriously, dear – at the moment it feels like you couldn't care less."

Lisbon turned to him sharply, all her confusion and annoyance gone, finally realizing where this was coming from. Still, she didn't like what he was implying and therefore wasn't ready to give in. Instead disbelief appeared on her features. "Did you really just ask me that?"

"I'm sorry, love, but it really bothers me that you care so little about this." He turned to the waitress putting the plate with soup in front of him and gave her a brilliant smile in thanks. The young woman blushed to the roots of her hair before she smiled back shyly and then hurried away.

Lisbon observed the short incident and suddenly felt bad about the situation.

Okay, she hadn't thought this was a big deal, but obviously for Jane it had been just that. And – unlike her – he felt the need to correct the mistake. Even if it was a small one, and even if she decided to let it pass this time. It wasn't that she didn't care; she just didn't feel so strong about it. Jane had cared and she shouldn't have made him feel like this couldn't bother her less. Now that she thought about it, it was even sweet of him to think it important enough to correct something of such little significance, compared to so many situations in their lives.

"I am not ashamed of you, Jane," Lisbon therefore stated calmly and with an apologizing smile.

"Well, that's good to know," he answered immediately, the unbelieving tone in his voice also gone. Which didn't mean that the matter suddenly didn't bother him anymore.

"Still: why didn't it irritate you that they separated us? Even if it's only for one dinner? Mistake or no mistake, why didn't you feel like correcting them?" His eyes fell on her place card and suddenly he picked it up, frowned at the Miss Teresa Lisbon on it, and turned it to her so she could take a look as well. "Perfect! They didn't even state your name right!"

"Because I simply forgot. And I didn't think it that important. Especially because it was still so new when we received our invitations. Truth to be told, it would have surprised me if they got it correct."

"Teresa!"

"Look, Jane," she tried to pour oil on troubled water before he had the chance to get into another rant. "I think we got our wires crossed here. It's not about being ashamed of you or that I don't want people to know. It's just that this is still news and of course not everybody is informed yet, but they will be in the course of time. Until then mistakes like this will happen," she placed her hand over his on the tablecloth and gave him a warm smile. "All people important to us know and that's all I care about. The rest will come with time."

Jane looked at her and just like that his frown disappeared and his lips curled into his charming smile.

"You're right. I'm sorry. I maybe slightly overreacted. But just to make sure: In the future, when someone addresses you with the wrong name, whether in writing or talking, it would really mean a lot to me if you could correct them. Deal?"

He turned his hand on the tablecloth, so he could wrap his fingers around hers.

"Of course. And I'm sorry too, for not taking this more serious."

She returned his smile and he raised her hand to press his lips on the back of it. And with that simple gesture they knew the quarrel was over and not to be mentioned again.

oOo

An hour later – the waiting staff had just polished off the last remains of dessert – dinner was announced finished and people started to head for the ball room.

The people at their table were quite the motley crew and Lisbon had enjoyed her time listening to Jane enrapturing their dinner companions with funny stories of his days at the carney.

Now they headed over to the entrance of the ball room, Jane's hand softly resting on her lower back, when a call from their right made them stop.

"Patrick Jane!"

The both of them turned to discover Judge Hildred with some of his colleagues standing and bantering about one of the older cases in court. Lisbon inwardly sighed. She was really not in the mood to show interest in the same old jokes and the same old stories she got to hear at every event she happened to cross paths with the Judge. But now it was too late, the man had spotted her companion.

Jane smirked, knowing exactly what was going on in her head, and not a minute later he somehow had it arranged for her to excuse herself politely. The secretive wink he gave her when she stepped away told her he would catch up with her in a short while.

At this point Lisbon decided she was in need of a drink and headed in the direction of the bar.

"Miss Lisbon? Miss Lisbon!"

She turned around to see Jocelyn Gerber – one of the High Society Hyenas, who had been sitting at their dinner table and had made eyes at and flirted with Jane the whole evening – heading over to her.

"Oh, thank god I was still able to catch you. I'm not sure I would have found you later. It's so crowded here. But look at me, rambling on and on," a high-pitched laugh escaped her and Lisbon raised her eyebrows in surprise. "Your friend Patrick forgot his keys at the table. They must have slipped out of his pocket."

Lisbon looked down at the object and in fact discovered Jane's keychain in the other woman's hand. The broad smile and the fake-sweet sound of Miss Gerber's voice had the CBI Agent on alert from the beginning. And now that she saw the keychain in her hands, she knew that this was not a coincidence. Jane never forgot his keys.

But as it seemed Jocelyn wasn't finished yet. "He is such an adorable man. So funny and charming. And he surely knows how to entertain the people around him. I wouldn't mind getting to know him better if you could just point me in the direction he went so I could bring him back his …"

"Actually," Lisbon interrupted at this point, not liking where Blondie's intentions were lying, a fake-sweet smile plastered on her face now too. "It's Jane."

Jocelyn looked at her confused, "Pardon?"

"My name. It's Jane. Teresa Jane."

"Pardon?" Miss Gerber repeated once more, now totally confused.

"Yeah, I know. Confusing, isn't it?"

"But your place card said …"

"Ah, yes," Lisbon chuckled lightly. "That was just a little misunderstanding on the part of the ball committee. You see, my friend Patrick is really my husband Patrick. So, thank you so much for being so observant and spotting his keys. You can leave them with me."

And with these words she grabbed the keys from her and sent another smile in her direction. The nerve of that woman! First flirting with Jane during the whole dinner and afterwards trying to hit on him directly in front of her (even if he wasn't around at that point). Lisbon was a patient woman, but even she had her limits.

"Oh, wow! I'm sorry for the misunderstanding, Mrs. Jane …"

"Oh, that's quite alright. You couldn't have known. I wish you a pleasant night, Miss Gerber. Thank you once again for your effort. I will let Patrick know about it."

And with that Lisbon just nodded once, before she turned around and continued her walk to the bar. She really needed a drink now.

As she waited for her turn to order she suddenly felt his hand at the small of her back again.

"Well, that wasn't very nice of you, my love." She turned her head halfway to him and discovered the smirk on his face. She rolled her eyes. Of course he had overheard her chat with the Hyena.

"What? I just did what you asked me to do and corrected her when she called me by the wrong name."

"Sure you did." If possible his smirk even grew wider.

Lisbon huffed. "Seriously! The nerve of that woman! She's lucky I didn't call her on her pick-pocketing your keys. I can't believe you didn't notice that."

"Let's just say I was distracted."

"By what?"

"More by whom."

"Jane."

"What is it with you and compliments tonight? Am I not allowed to compliment my wife?"

"Oh, come on."

He laughed before pulling her into his arms and pressing his lips on hers. The fact that she didn't protest made him smile into the kiss, only pulling away once to whisper at her lips, "Love you, darling."

When they stopped he brushed a few stray curls away from her face, while she wiped her thumb across his lips to remove a little bit of her lipstick on them.

"Now come, Mrs. Jane," he finally said, "I want to dance with you."

He grabbed her hand and pulled her in the direction of the dance floor. She followed him with another eye roll and a smirk plastered on her face.

FIN