Hey guys, I'm back! As promised, here is the first chapter of the sequel to my Mentalist story 'Such is Life'. Hope you enjoy! For those of you that haven't read 'Such is Life', you can find it through my profile :)

I may be an adult now, but still do not own the mentalist - sadly that's one of the few things I still can't do.

AN: This is slightly less realistic as it's set about 3 years after Such is Life, and therefore in the future of the programme. Also, some of the details from season 4 I may not include for reasons of the story. However, I hope you enjoy this sequel! By the way, Joe is now 8 and Hannah 5, nearly 6.

Grace handed Hannah a pancake, the breakfast choice of the day. "I'm just going to hurry your brother along sweetheart, you get eating up." Running upstairs she opened Joe's door to check on him, and found him filling his school bag with the many things he needed that day. "Come on you, not got much time before we have to leave. Don't want you to be late for school do we? And Lisbon will stick me in the naughty corner if I'm not on time." She grinned and helped him do up his rucksack before going back down and getting his breakfast.
"You have a naughty corner?" Joe questioned. Grace rolled her eyes at his question and chuckled slightly.
"Yeh we do, guess who's in it lots?" Hannah perked up at that point and replied with 'Wayneeee' with a giggle following. "Too right, he's always being naughty." Grace let herself eat as she tidied up the kitchen from cooking and the plates as both children finished. "Right, go get your shoes and coats on and I'll be out any minute." She finished up quickly. Somehow the morning rush was quite fun most of the time, and it helped when both Hannah and Joe cooperated with her.

Once she'd sorted the kitchen she headed out to the hall and slipped her boots on. Grace chuckled as she saw Hannah trying to get her right arm in to her jacket and so helped her. She grabbed both their bags and nudged them out of the door.
"Come on you two, in to the car." She smiled as they went outside. She saw the ground covered in leaves as it was autumn time and couldn't resist kicking a few as they reached the jeep and got in. The fresh air was such a joy and life in general was going rather well. "Right, off we go!" She smiled and started the car.

"We hereeee!" Hannah announced as they arrived outside the school. Grace smiled, Hannah was loving Kindergarten already which was a complete relief, she'd imagined having to go and collect her a lot given how clingy she had been since Megan died.
"Yes sweetheart, we're here." Both children jumped out of the car excitedly and Joe ran off in to school, shouting goodbye as he went. She took Hannah in to Kindergarten and let her run off with her friends too. Grace headed back to the car with a smile on her face, despite everything having Hannah and Joe had changed her life for the better, she loved having them around and every day was different – not just at work as it had been.

Grace dumped her stuff by the desk and went off to make a coffee, giving Lisbon a quick hello smile as she was on the phone, and everyone else seemed to have disappeared, or was late, either was plausible. Flicking the kettle on, she leant against the side, finally relaxing for the first time since waking up that morning. She let her eyes close for a moment or two, but when she opened them found Rigsby standing in front of her.
"Oh geez! You have got to stop doing that to me!" Grace groaned and whacked him gently on the arm before checking the kettle.
"Well you should stop having the same routine all morning, and then you'd be less predictable." Wayne grinned and grabbed the kettle before she managed to, making the coffee himself just the way she liked it. Grace just let him this time; fighting over the kettle had proved a problem when she chucked hot water over him by accident and therefore that was one argument she often let him win. However most others she didn't let go.
"I'm so not predictable, we all start work at the same time Wayne, that rarely changes… well unless someone dies at an awkward time, then you get called out whilst I get to sleep in" she grinned, another advantage of having the kids. She knew from the look on his face that he had no decent response to that.
"Well… you… you get called out some times!" He said weakly, and handed her the coffee, looking disgruntled. "You're too clever." He finished up and went back through to the bull pen, followed by Grace. All of a sudden everyone was there, including Lisbon who had finished on the phone and was huddling them all round.
"Nice of you two to join us?" She announced, rather unimpressed. Both Grace and Wayne gestured to the coffee cups and sat down sheepishly, ignoring Jane's glances.
"Finally… right. I was just on the phone with Oakland PD. Apparently they want us on standby. A 7 year old boy went missing during the night, his mum and step-dad reporting him missing this morning and are both understandably quite shocked. They're searching for him as we speak but, well, it's unlikely he just walked out by himself. And before you ask, they want us because it's the sheriff's son and the sheriff is nowhere to be seen." Grace glanced up to Jane and could see his cogs whirring away already, she grinned slightly, but not for long after a glare from Lisbon.
"So that makes the sheriff a suspect? Or just taken with the boy…" She said helpfully, figuring someone had to say something. Lisbon nodded, giving a verbal agreement also. "The poor mum…" Grace sighed, looking down at her coffee. She felt Rigsby place a hand on her shoulder but she shrugged it off. "I'm fine." She told him and stood up, leaving the table and heading outside. Wayne stood up to go after her, but was stopped by Cho.
"Leave her man…" he said, nodding towards the coffee on the table. Rigsby knew he was right, but they'd been close recently, she rarely walked away anymore. Everyone else seemed so relaxed about the situation, but he couldn't help but think how this might affect her, he'd seen her low before, it had taken a long time to get her back to the Grace he knew, this wasn't what she needed.

Let me know what you think please :) Thanks all for reading.