Hi Thanks for taking the time to read this, it's my first mentalist fanfic but I came up with the idea the other day and thought I'd get writing. I don't own the mentalist or any of the characters in it, I also apologise if I've got any minor details wrong, but hopefully it's okay.

"Van Pelt!" Lisbon screeched as the car slid round the corner in hot pursuit of the truck in front, "Sometimes your driving scares me more than Jane's!" Grace said nothing as they sped round yet another corner on to a country track. She knew these roads well enough to realise they were about to corner this truck, in the rear view mirror she could see they'd lost Rigsby and Cho a while back – just her and the boss then. As they reached the end of the track, she braced herself ready to jump out when they stopped. Pressing her foot down hard on the brake, she ignored Lisbon screaming at her about what she was doing as she tugged at the handbrake and jumped out of the car, choosing after the guy who was driving the truck. Van Pelt caught up with him quicker than she expected and then pounced on the guy from behind, shouting the usual garble before cuffing him. Finally Lisbon appeared from where she'd run after them.
"What the hell has got in to you Van Pelt?" Lisbon stared at her with that evil glare, telling Grace she was in some serious trouble.
"Well…" she began "sometimes they just deserve it."
"Yes, but you're still holding this guy down by the head!" Lisbon watched her reaction, Grace said nothing, she'd run out of excuses by this point so she just stood up, holding him by the hand cuffs and following the boss' gesture to take him to the car. As she slammed the door, Grace saw Rigsby and Cho pull up with Jane in the back – oh joy, here comes the psychoanalysis…

"Woah, Lisbon's pissed…" Jane said immediately after he jumped out of the car. Lisbon shot him a sharp 'shut your mouth' glare which he followed, and then turned his attention to Van Pelt who looked equally annoyed, "Good girl gone bad? I like it – good driving by the way. Hey Rigsby, we've got a rebel in the group!" When all he received was yet another glare, Jane knew something was going on. Just another problem to figure out, that's what he enjoyed most.

Grace walked away from them all, kicking the sand in anger as she headed for somewhere to sit on her own and hoping they'd leave her to it for a bit. Eventually she saw a decent spot and sat down, not having banked on being followed. Rigsby didn't say anything, just sat there and Grace couldn't really decide whether she'd rather he kept quiet or just babbled annoyingly like he usually did to her. The silence was nice she decided, and just stared ahead at the horizon. Rigsby looked over. The usual pale, calm and beautiful face of Grace Van Pelt was red, angry and almost scary… but still beautiful. Wayne could tell she just needed comforting, someone to help her calm; damn he wanted to be that guy. Grace hadn't moved since he sat down, hadn't spoken, and hadn't asked him to leave… he moved his hand to hers.
"Are you okay Grace…?" She tore her hand away immediately.
"Your timing is crap Rigsby. Really bloody crap." Wayne stood up, looked apologetic before turning to walk away, walking straight in to Lisbon.
"Watch where you're going Rigsby, go with Cho back to HQ with Pierson, and hold him there till I get back okay?" She waited for him to leave before moving towards Grace. "I want to take you to lead on this interview… I don't know why, but I do. You clearly have an idea why we're bringing this guy in so…" she almost wasn't believing herself as she said it, but something needed to distract Van Pelt. However a complete lack of excitement from her was unusual… "You don't want to do it?" That got her.
"Oh no, I want to do it. I'll get a confession out of him." She stood up, running off to the car.

CBI HQ

Lisbon had a feeling she was going to regret asking Van Pelt to conduct the interview, but quite frankly she just wanted to know why her best behaved officer had gone practically psycho on her. Jane stood behind, watching through the glass. "I'm warning you, this is going to get out of control Lisbon."
"Van Pelt is hardly going to go crazy in an interview, the worst we'll get is shouting and we all do that."
"Don't be so sure…"
Lisbon ignored that comment and watched Grace. "Come on Pierson, I'm getting this confession out of you one way or another!" Pierson didn't respond, just looked at her as if he didn't have a clue what she was on about which was pretty much what Lisbon expected. But what happened next was really not…. Craig Pierson leaned in to Van Pelt, and she took it as if expecting a confession to come out of it. Whatever was said was inaudible to Lisbon until "You bastard!" Grace shouted, standing up and thumping him hard and kicking the chair. Lisbon ran in, grabbing Van Pelt and pulling her out.

Grace caught Wayne's eye as she was pushed towards Lisbon's office, he was worried… with fair reason she realised. She sat down on the other side of Lisbon's desk, staring out of the window and completely ignorant to everything being said to her. All she could think about was Rigsby finding any part of the truth out. There were too many secrets at stake now.
"Van Pelt! Go home, now. Give me your gun; I'm not risking anything with you right now." Lisbon said, clearly having lost the will to live at this moment.
"But boss! I need to be on this case, you don't understand…" Grace protested immediately.
"No, no I don't Van Pelt. Why on earth could this case be so important? You just hit the guy! What did he say to you Grace?" She said nothing. "Home!

Thank you for reading to the end! Feel free to review