A/N: Thank you for reading this, my second Mentalist story. I take my writing seriously, and welcome constructive comments. Please feel free to drop by and leave a review, as it really does make my day to know what others think of my work. As always, I don't own the Mentalist, nor do I profit from these stories. I write for fun. Hope you enjoy!

The Mentalist: Gray Areas

Chapter 1

Dennis Abbott stood quietly, holding a cup of coffee and observing the goings on in the bull pen. This had become a practice of his when he inherited the corner office from the last person who resided there. He loved being in charge of his whole team, and later on, in charge of the Austin Field office of the FBI, and he understood the need for an office at times, but there were times when the walls, though they were glass, began to feel a bit small, and when he admitted it to himself, times he missed being in the center of the action. Mostly, he missed the people. He had built the finest team in the FBI, which was just his opinion, of course, but the truth of it had been borne out over time. It seemed wrong somehow that the reward for building a great team was that he no longer got to be with them all the time. Still, never one to sit on the sidelines, he tried to be sure he interacted with each of his people at least once a day, and that he stayed involved in the critical missions his team worked on. He had never been a very good paper-pusher.

His thoughts were interrupted when he saw Patrick Jane studying him. He, Dennis, had been sure that the higher ups were crazy when they gave him the mission of bringing Patrick Jane back from Mexico, and it was true that Jane did nothing except on his own terms, but once those terms were met, he had made a sincere effort to fit in, and had turned out to be a surprisingly intuitive asset to the team. He was also quickly becoming a trusted friend, which is why Dennis wondered to himself why he was stalling when it came to asking the man for a favor. He had never known Jane to say no to him, especially if it was something important, but in this case, he wasn't sure there was anything going on, and he would feel silly if he wasted the man's time.

"Well, you seem unusually pensive this morning. Is something bothering you?," asked a voice in his ear, and Abbott started as he came back to himself to find the very man he had just been thinking about standing next to him.

"Walk with me?"

Jane nodded and fell into step beside Abbott. Neither one spoke another word until they had cleared the confines of the FBI building. Abbott made small talk as they crossed the street and walked on into a large park nearby. Finally, he stopped walking at the duck pond, and stood looking out over the water. After a moment, Abbott felt a supportive hand on his arm.

"What's this about, Abbott?" Jane asked.

"I need to ask you for your help, but this isn't official or on the record. I don't even know if I'm reading the situation correctly. I want you to feel free to say no if—." He trailed off and there was silence for a while, then Abbott looked over to find Jane watching him, in that way he had, the one that made him feel that Jane could see into the depths of his soul and uncover all of his secrets.

"I don't know if you've met the team's admin officer. She's been assigned to another team for a few weeks, while their admin was on maternity leave and she just returned to us this week. In fact, this is only her second day back."

Jane nodded. "I'll make it a point to stop by and meet her." He wondered where this was going.

"When you do that, would you tell me what you see?" Jane shot him a sideways look, his curiosity piqued.

"I don't really know her. Are you seeing something concerning or different than before?"

"Maybe? I don't know. It's nothing I can put a finger on. Might be nothing, and might be more a gut feeling than anything else."

Jane was silent, waiting for Abbott to continue when he was ready. When he didn't, Jane asked, "What is it you want me to do?"

"Look at her interview video, when she first came to work for us almost a year ago, and some other video taken during her time here, so you get a feel for her personality before she left for the other team. Then, I would like for you to talk to her—introduce yourself as a new person on the team, and tell me if you feel that her personality has changed from before. Maybe take Lisbon with you. I don't want her to feel as though she is being interrogated, since this may be nothing, or something going on in her personal life that is none of our business."

"If you truly believe this may be nothing, why are you asking this of me?"

Dennis hesitated for a moment, but then he remembered, this was Jane he was talking to. There was no point lying and he couldn't hide anything from the man if he wanted to do so, and in this case, he really didn't. "Because every time I've spoken to her for the past two days since she has been back, I feel like I'm waiting for the other shoe to drop. I'm sensing something, and I don't know what it is, or why."

"Ah. Interesting."

"If it's unfounded, I'd like to lay it to rest, preferably without her knowledge. I don't want this to affect our relationship, if there's no reason for me to feel that way. If there is a reason, I'd like to do something about it before she has a chance to become a danger to the team."

Jane nodded slowly, thinking hard. Then he said, "That gut feeling is the subconscious mind giving us the information it has about a certain situation, and it is usually right. The subconscious mind isn't capable of lying. Why are you thinking it might be wrong in this case?"

"I'm not, exactly. But she hasn't given me any reason at all to feel the way I feel. There's a possibility that what I'm reading as danger could be something else—like fear or anger. You're the expert in reading people."

"All right."

The two stood looking out over the pond, watching all types of waterfowl and their exploits in the water. Then, after a moment, Jane turned and started walking back toward the FBI's Austin Field office. Two beats later, Dennis Abbott followed him.