I was so surprised and delighted when Grace mentioned the memo that freed them to date that I was inspired to write this little oddball. Their wedding was so nice; simple, intimate, sincere…I'm so pleased she kept that dress, to wear it now, for him.

This isn't exactly a sequel to PHFD, but it is kind of related. So, Guest, this is for you!

Disclaimer: The Mentalist is not mine, but damn, I wish he was, er, it was.

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The Mentalist

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Policy Change

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A safehouse.

Somewhere in an undisclosed location.

Madeleine Hightower sat at her computer, catching up on her Facebook page.

After a few minutes of that she clicked over to Twitter.

A few messages from her sister, her mom, and one from her ex, inquiring about the kids. Replying to all of them, she returned to her homepage to check her e-mail. She really didn't use it much anymore, just enough to keep the account active.

She wasn't at all surprised to see several new ones, mostly junk that didn't get automatically shunted to spam.

But one in particular caught her eye:

"from: GvpRigsby at CBI dot gov subject: Our Wedding"

The domain name sent a flood of memories, mostly unpleasant, across her mind's eye; political ass-kissing, Bertram, Todd Johnson, feeling like a bug under the beady-eyed scrutiny of J. J. LaRoche, or, as Jane had put it, being LaRoche'd.

Patrick Jane. Ugh, she winced at the thought of him.

She'd hated to admit it, but he'd sized her up but good; stylish dress, loving those pumps, but tightly wound, unwilling to admit defeat, even when faced with divorce and a tantrum-prone ex-husband. Boy, had her affair with that cop cost her dearly.

And Lisbon. Lisbon's was the only name that didn't leave a bad taste in her mouth, pretty much the only pleasant memory Madeleine had of being SAC, even if she had turned a blind eye to certain agents' ill-advised office hookups. She'd liked Lisbon, realizing too late just how valuable, and loyal the brunette agent was, and how wrong she'd been to threaten her job like that.

Lisbon had been there for her when it counted, even taking a bullet for her.

How such a smart woman could've claimed ignorance of such an obvious relationship was baffling; from the day Madeleine had started at CBI, it'd been plain as day that those two, what were their names?…right, van Pelt and Rigsby, were joined at the hip, blatantly flouting the Bureau's very clear rules against that sort of thing.

She'd caught them canoodling in corners more than once, but had been too busy at the time to deal with it, and frankly, had expected Lisbon, as their boss, to handle it.

Hence bringing the hammer down on all three.

She took another look at the username: GvpRigsby. VP. Van Pelt. Rigsby. That's odd. Why did it have both? Joint account?

Not likely. There was no reason for two agents to have a joint account.

"Our Wedding"

Madeleine shook her head in disbelief. Son-of-a-…unbelievable! Those two were at it again! And apparently they weren't just holding hands and sneaking kisses either; they were announcing it to the world. After she'd made it clear that their relationship was not allowed.

She opened the e-mail. It was clearly a wedding announcement; their names and the date written in beautiful calligraphy, and a photo of the beaming couple.

But it was obviously not an invite; no "You're cordially invited" at the top.

So it had been improvised, but very tastefully done, she had to admit.

But it was still against CBI rules, dammit! No matter how lovely or sweet the sentiment, they knew that! What did those two think they were doing?

She'd have to have a word with Lisbon about this. Even if Madeleine was no longer with the CBI, she suspected she still had some pull, some influence with her friend and former subordinate.

Lisbon knew better than to condone this.

She scrolled further down, and gaped in disbelief at the next photo.

It was the ceremony itself; small, obviously last-minute, in a Justice-of-the-Peace's office. There were no guests, and only two witnesses: Cho and… Lisbon!?

So that's what was going on at the CBI, huh? And Teresa was still enabling it.

Not only enabling it- supporting it, legally witnessing it!

Madeleine sighed grimly; some things never changed.

A soft 'cling' interrupted her thoughts. Another email.

"from: CBarrett at CBI dot gov subject: Policy change"

"cc: to all department heads and field agents"

Still fuming from Van Pelt and Rigsby's wedding, she clicked on it without thinking.

"This is to inform all SAC's and unit field agents that, after careful review and consideration of Bureau policy, the CBI has reversed its rules on interoffice fraternization. Henceforth, agents within the same unit who wish to pursue relationships not strictly business related may do so, provided they are of the same rank. This change does not apply to SAC's and subordinates. Change in policy effective immediately: 10-1-13.

C. Barrett, Director, CBI"

Madeleine stared at the email, the words not fully penetrating, for a full minute. Then she blinked, and reread it, shaking her head in disbelief and growling mentally.

"...reversed its rules…agents…wish to pursue relationsh….may…do so…."

'Nooo….nononononono, no, no, NO! NO!'

The denial ricocheted back and forth uselessly in her brain, as the irony of the situation did a jig and slapped her upside the head.

'You've got to be kidding me! Not after giving them the business about their office trysts, not after lecturing them about the rules, and giving them the evil eye whenever I saw them too close together, then pushing them to work a case together after Van Pelt dumped him!'

'Dumped him and got engaged to O'Laughlin,' her conscience reminded her. 'Which is why you're now living in hiding.'

After all that, and now the CBI had gone and changed the rules.

With a sigh of resignation, Madeleine logged off and closed the computer.