Hi. This is my first attempt at Mentalist Fan Fic. Hope you like it.

Disclaimer- I own nothing. I'm just borrowing the characters for a test drive around the block. I promise to put them back where I found them. No money is, was or will ever be made from this. Simon Baker is awesome!

[Chapter 1]

Surrender. Defeat. Numbness.

But wait, he'd won, hadn't he? The white knight had checkmated the black king. He had his revenge. Red John was dead and his family avenged. But his tea had tasted bitter. His world still felt empty, but he had won right?

Security swarmed him. Mall cops with guns. He felt no fear or nervousness. He had before, every time a suspect pulled a gun on or near him, but not now. He didn't even realize he had put his hands on his head or had dropped money on the table to pay for his tea and Bertram's coffee. He felt nothing.

The world felt muted. His brain told him that he was being addressed, but he could not find the will to care.

Is this what victory felt like?

The gunman did not resist.

The mall cops trained their guns on him and called for SAC PD. The suspect patiently waited with his hands on his head.

"That's Jane. He's a CBI consultant," one of the arriving uniformed officers stated. He waved the mall cops off and approached the table and picked up the gun.

Officer Langley had met the consultant before and had spoken to him on several occasions. He had heard the stories about Jane's family and about his quirky, outlandish, mischievous antics and knew what to expect.

"Mr. Jane?"

Langley lead him from his seat, patted him down, emptied the contents of his pockets, cuffed him and sat him back down in his chair. Jane made no attempt to resist, move or speak.

"Mr. Jane? Hello?"

He sounded off. She pressed redial, but he didn't answer his phone. She called him again with the same result.

"Cho, you coordinate with Sherriff." Lisbon forced herself to a sitting position and leaned on the coffee table. Her senior agent nodded and headed outside to speak with the officers as they arrived. "Rigsby!"

Lisbon looked in his direction. He was standing there staring at Van Pelt, unsure if he should pull her away from the body.

"Rigsby!" Lisbon yelled louder snapping him out of his daze.

"Yes boss?"

"Go find Jane."

"But boss..."

"That's an order. I need Cho to coordinate here. And Van Pelt..." Her mind flashed back to the pink bride's maid dress. She forced herself to stand and regretted it. Pain radiated down her arm and she swayed slightly as black spots filled her vision. Then the lightheadedness set in as she held the kitchen towel to staunch the bleeding.

She pushed all her emotions down and needed to take charge of the situation. They needed her to take charge of the situation.

They completed what the set out to do. Jane's plan had worked. They found the mole, but it still felt so wrong.

"Agent Rigsby…" Hightower grabbed his arm and led him to the door. "I know you want to stay with Van Pelt, but we need to make sure the rest of the team is uninjured. Jane is part of your team. Find him and bring him to the hospital. He'll want to make sure Lisbon's okay. We'll take care of Grace."

Rigsby nodded and headed to the Suburban.

It was easy enough to find Jane. All Rigsby had to do was activate the GPS tracker in Jane's phone. It showed him the general vicinity of where he was located. And to make things simple, Jane was actually where he and Cho had left him.

Things of course would not be that simple. When he arrived at the mall all the exits were blocked off by ESU and SWAT. There were news vans everywhere. There were choppers in the air.

He was getting that sinking feeling, because everything was going so well today. It was easy enough to gain access. He flashing his badge towards every officer he had seen.

He stopped short when he realized the incident in question took place exactly where he had left Jane earlier.

There was a large pool of blood in the middle of the food court.

He held his breath. This was bad.

Rigsby felt his heart sink as the corner was placing a body bag onto the gurney.

TBC