Natalie felt the room spinning as she tried to open her eyes. Grabbing on to the sheets beneath her, she attempted to brace herself.
John saw her movement and jumped from his chair. "Natalie, are you ok? Do I need to get a doctor?"
She started to shake her head in response but thought better of it considering the room was already moving faster than she could keep up with. "I'm fine." The croak that came from her sounded anything but fine but it was nothing a glass of water wouldn't cure.
John smiled and took her hand in his. "Good morning sunshine."
She snorted in response, his chipper mood more than she could handle in her weakened state. It was neither normal nor welcome at this point. Her head hurt, her leg was throbbing and she felt like she was going to throw up.
He helped her sit up slowly then handed her a cup of water which she accepted gratefully. Sipping slowly she felt the dryness in her throat clearing. "Thank you."
He smiled. "You're welcome. You sound much better now."
"The room is still spinning. This is worse than any drinking binge I've ever been on."
"Sucks 'cause you didn't even get to have the fun of drinking to get to this point."
"Tell me about it. Being in the middle of a tornado is not high on my list of fun. How's Evangeline?"
John looked at the floor. "The glass cut her eyes pretty bad. They don't know when she will be able to see again."
"Oh. At least she has Cristian to take care of her."
"You're ok with that?"
Natalie smiled. "Yeah. Don't really understand what any of you men see in her but it's not my problem. Unless of course you feel the need to ride to her rescue."
John shook his head adamantly. "Absolutely not. Never have felt that need now have I?"
Natalie shrugged. "I honestly don't think I can answer that. You certainly felt some sort of need towards her for quite a while."
John sat gently on the edge of the bed and leaned in close. "You aren't going to let me live that down any time soon are you?"
She shook her head. "Nope."
He smiled. "Fine, I guess I will have to find a way to convince you who it is I want."
She fought the smile that was tugging at the corners of her mouth. "Start with words."
Laughing, he nodded. "You deserve some of those. Ok, if you want words, here you go. It's always been you. From the second I walked into Crossroads and saw you, I knew I wanted you. I didn't give a damn about Cristian; I was going to have you for myself."
"Yeah right."
"I'm serious. Then we thought Cristian died. And it was my fault. How could I expect you to have anything to do with me then? I caused you to lose the love of your life. But I couldn't let you go. I wanted to help you heal. And it was working, you were letting me in."
"And you pushed me away."
He nodded his face sad as he remembered back to the Music Box Killer case. "Haver came after you because of me. I thought it was going to happen again."
"What was going to happen again?"
"I was going to lose the woman I loved to a killer who was targeting me."
Natalie's face paled as she realized what he had said. "Loved?"
Tears shone in John's eyes. "I've loved you for as long as I can remember."
"Then why her? Why were you with her for so long if you loved me?"
"Fear. You scared the hell out of me!"
Through her emotion, Natalie couldn't help but laugh. "I scared you? How did I scare the big bad FBI agent?"
"Because what I feel for you was stronger than anything I have ever felt in my life. For anyone. When I lost Caitlyn I thought I would die. In a lot of ways, I did die that day. The thought of losing you terrified me because if I felt that way over losing Caitlyn, I knew without a doubt that I would never survive losing you. You're the one for me, Natalie. I don't expect you to say the same; I know Cristian was your soul mate."
Natalie grabbed his face in both hands. "You think you know so much. But you have no clue how I feel about you. Cristian was my first love. He made me feel good about myself when no one else did. But you, how do I even say it? You get me. And you don't try to change me. You let me be me, I don't have to try to be better."
John stopped her. "Why would you need to be better?"
"Because until you came along, I never felt good enough as I was. I always felt like I needed to act better, say nicer things, behave and be the princess that Jessica was."
"Don't tell anyone this, but Jessica is boring."
Natalie laughed and punched his shoulder. "That's my sister you're talking about!"
"I know. But I can freely admit that my brother is boring."
She laughed again and lay back on the bed. "You're killing me! That's so bad."
"God, I love to hear you laugh like that."
When Natalie opened her eyes, John was inches from her face. His eyes had clouded over, not from his seemingly ever-present demons, but from pure love and desire for her.
"I love you Natalie."
Her breath caught in her throat. He had actually said the words. He had right? She hadn't imagined it.
He could see the doubt and questions in her eyes. He smiled. "Yes, I said it. I love you. I always have and I always will."
Tears filled her eyes again, not tears of sadness, but of joy. After years of misunderstandings and missteps, here he was, admitting his true feelings. It had been a long time coming and Natalie knew enough time had been wasted.
"I love you too."
She could see the tension leave his body as he realized that she had forgiven him. "Thank you." His words were a whisper, his voice thick with emotion.
"Kiss me."
"My pleasure." He gently pressed his lips to hers, pulling her close to him as he had done months earlier after her rescue from the pit where Hayes had kept her captive. As he pulled away, he pressed his forehead to hers. "I've missed you."
"Me too." She shifted in her bed carefully to make room for him. He slid in beside her, pulling her close and kissing the top of her head. "Get some sleep baby."
"You're not going to leave in the middle of the night are you?"
"No way. You're not getting rid of me that easily."
"Good."
She looked up at him and smiled, waiting patiently for a kiss. He didn't make her wait long. Sighing deeply as she settled against his chest, she closed her eyes and drifted off to sleep.
FIN