A/N: First of all, a big thank you to everyone for the reviews. They have meant a lot. I apologize for the delay in posting this chapter, but things have gone a little crazy this week.

Secondly, a bit of trivia. The first scene with Freeway in this chapter is also based on an actual reaction of a dog a relative of mine had when her one owner passed away in hospital several years ago. Also, I saw Pandora Has Wings for the first time just as I was starting this story, and as a result got an immediate guilt trip with Jonathan's line, "It's just my way of saying how happy I am that we're together, alive, and in the same place." UGH! Did I ever feel like dirt! (And then if that wasn't bad enough, I made the mistake of watching the ep where they met for the first time while writing this as well. Ouch.)

Normally I'd say "Enjoy the chapter," but that feels a little inappropriate considering the subject matter, so...

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Chapter 10: Home

"I've got officers turning the entire house and grounds apart," Lt. Gray said quietly to Max and Jonathan. "That room where you were held is part of a series of tunnels that Ms. Rosser had extending out of her basement. Odds are good she's got Jennifer's body in one of them, and trust me, if it is, we'll find her." He took a deep breath. "Jonathan, I am so sorry."

Jonathan nodded mutely, his expression distant. In the fifteen or so minutes since his rescue, he had barely said a word to anyone. Folded over one arm was the green dress of Jennifer's.

"Thank you, Lieutenant," Max said softly, before guiding Jonathan towards the waiting vehicle. Ahead of them the sun was starting to rise, its beauty seeming out of place after everything they'd been through.

Jonathan rode the entire way back to the house looking out the passenger side window, showing no sign of tears. In fact, his face held no indication of any sort of emotion, just an unnatural stillness. It wasn't until they pulled up in the Hart's driveway and Max gently touched his shoulder that Jonathan finally turned to look at him and his blue eyes even more pain than when he'd first been told that Jennifer had died. "How?" he whispered brokenly.

"Come on, Mr. H.," Max said softly. "Let's go home."

Freeway was waiting for them when they entered. He started to bound forward, then saw Jonathan set Jennifer's dress down on the stand in the hall. Immediately the little dog laid down and gave a little whimper.

Dr. Borden and Deanne had already left, having received a quiet phonecall from Max with the news while he and Jonathan were still at the Rosser home. As though on autopilot, Jonathan moved towards the stairs.

"Mr. H.?" Max asked hesitantly.

"I think I'm going to lie down, Max," Jonathan said in a distracted voice. Max nodded mutely, waiting until the bedroom door had closed before slamming an angry palm against the banister.

H2H H2H H2H

Upstairs, Jonathan made it only a few steps before his legs buckled and he collapsed to his knees next to the bed, sobbing uncontrollably. All the moments he'd let himself dream, to believe, the attempts to rationalize an explanation, the hope — it had all been for nothing.

H2H H2H H2H

"I just got word from the hospital," Detective Bresling said, reentering the room where they'd found Jonathan. "Samantha Rosser didn't make it."

"What a shame," Lt. Gray remarked dryly.

Detective Bresling glanced around, looking uncomfortable. "What kind of sicko builds a place like this?"

"The kind I wish we could just let mummify behind her own brick walls," Lt. Gray muttered, hitting the rear wall next to him for emphasis. The brick shifted slightly and the two officers glanced at each other. "Help me get these bricks loose."

They'd pulled away about six bricks when they saw it. The body of a redhaired woman lying on her side.

"That..." Detective Bresling looked up at him. "She had her on the other side of the wall this entire time?"

Lt. Gray shone his flashlight in to see if he could see the face, then slowly exhaled. "It's Jennifer Hart."

H2H H2H H2H

Jonathan wasn't sure exactly when it was that he finally pulled himself up and moved over to the windowseat. There was a picture sitting on the sill behind it, and he picked it up. It was a picture of him and Jennifer, taken the previous year on a Naval Base, when he'd been temporarily recalled to active duty. After the test flight was over, Jonathan's co-pilot had lent her his flightsuit and they'd posted together in front of the plane.

The test flight. The one that had also nearly ended in an explosion. Jonathan closed his eyes and leaned his head against the window, remembering that first conversation.

Jennifer had been waiting for him at the hanger when they'd brought the plane back in, rushing forward the second the roof on the jet started to raise. Jonathan had nearly turned his ankle in his haste to get down the ladder to give her a hug.

She'd clung to him for several seconds, then slowly pulled back a few inches to look into his eyes. Taking a deep breath, she mustered a smile. "We're together," she said, struggling to keep her voice steady. "We're together, we're alive, and we're in the same place."

Jonathan stared at her. It was something he'd said to her when he was getting ready to tell her his orders, only he'd said it lightly, almost joking. "What made you think of that?" he asked her softly. She shrugged and gently touched his face.

"I haven't been able to stop thinking about it since I heard your voice on the radio." He didn't answer, just hugged her tightly again.

That memory had stayed with him throughout the day and well into the evening. Long after they'd turned in for the night, he'd laid there, on his back, replaying the flight and that moment in the hanger. He thought he'd been the only one, but then he'd heard Jennifer's voice cut through the darkness.

"Jonathan? Are you awake?"

"Can't sleep," he admitted quietly.

"Me neither." She wriggled closer until she was resting her head on his chest and he wrapped his arms around her. "I can't stop thinking about what happened today."

She sighed. "You know, I'm always glad to hear your voice, but I don't think it's ever sounded sweeter than when I heard you say 'Mission aborted,' and I knew you were okay."

He hugged her. "I keep thinking about what you said at the hanger."

She shifted to look at him. "You said it first."

"Yeah." He shifted so that his head was resting against hers. "You know what I find amazing?"

"What?"

"We repeatedly put ourselves at risk voluntarily when we look into some of the stuff we do. And yet it's always the ones we haven't had any choice about that have put us in the most danger." His voice was quiet. "Paris. Today. That lunatic on the game preserve."

Jennifer was quiet for several seconds. "I never thought of that before," she said finally. "It's ironic."

H2H H2H H2H

It was ironic, Jonathan thought bitterly. In fact, it had held true to the end. Jennifer had died not trying to solve someone's murder, but simply working on a story, something she'd done most of her life, since before they'd met.

Jonathan closed his eyes. It was how they'd met. Their life together had begun and ended the same way. He gently traced Jennifer's face in the picture with his finger, tears trickling down his cheeks.

H2H H2H H2H

"Mr. H." Max knocked on the door again. "Mr. H., it's me." When there was no response, he pushed the door open.

Jonathan was sitting on the windowseat, one leg curled beneath him, his left shoulder resting against the windowpane. The fingers of his other hand gently rested on a small framed photograph lying on the cushion in front of him. It was a picture of him and Jennifer.

He gave no sign that he'd even heard the door or Max, just remained staring at something out the window. Or to be more accurate, a particle of air somewhere between the window and his face.

Max took a slow step into the room. "Mr. H." The gravelly voice shook slightly, then stopped. "Mr. H., they..."

Jonathan didn't move. "They found her."

The words were dull and held no expression whatsoever. Max swallowed. "Yeah, Mr. H.," he managed. "They...They found..." He broke off and ushered the person next to him forward. "They found her."

Jonathan's eyes flashed briefly down at the photograph, then stared unseeingly in front of him. "Where?"

"Darling?" Jonathan flinched slightly at the tentative voice, but didn't look up. "Darling...It's me."

There was a long minute, and then his eyes hesitantly slid away from the window and towards the speaker. Jennifer, looking more tired than Jonathan had ever seen her. She was dressed in an unfamiliar blue sweatsuit, her hair was coming lose from a ponytail, and her face was smudged with dirt. But it looked like Jennifer and she was smiling. Jonathan's eyes lingered on her for a second, then moved past her and he slowly shook his head. "No."

Jennifer blinked, momentarily caught off guard by his reaction, then caught herself and stepped forward, reaching to touch his arm. "Jonathan..."

He scrambled off the windowseat and took a couple of quick steps back, his expression wary and uncertain. In a firmer voice, he repeated, "No."

Max made a move to come forward. "Mr. H..."

"It's okay, Max." Jonathan held up a hand. His breathing had grown quicker and slightly irregular, and there was a hint of glistening in one eye, but his voice was composed. Almost a brittle composure as he continued, "I know she's not real."

A gasp caught in Jennifer's throat, and she glanced quickly over at Max before turning her gaze back to her husband, who was steadfastly focused on a point just beyond her shoulder.

"Like I said, Mrs. H.," Max said softly. "She did a real number on him."

Jonathan shot a quick look in his direction, then looked back at Jennifer and squeezed his eyes tightly shut. After a few seconds he opened them and looked back at her, then quickly shut his eyes again. He waited a few seconds longer this time before opening them a third time. Almost immediately he shook his head, his expression growing agitated.

"It's almost like when we were at the Riverbend Preserve in South America, isn't it?" Jennifer said softly. "When I saw you through the window of the Attertons' hut. I mean, it looked like you, but I knew I'd just seen you go over that cliff. And I was coming off a night of no sleep, not really anything to eat, and all that adrenaline — I figured I had to be seeing things."

He still didn't look at her, but Jennifer thought she saw a hint of a waver in his face. "Or when I had the concussion after we went kite flying and I thought I saw a murder in the hospital — only, they changed the hospital room into a lounge. You know, when I realized that you'd believed me the whole time, there was a part of me that couldn't believe it, because by that point I almost wasn't sure if I believed me anymore.

She smiled slightly. "Even that time you were shot and kidnapped in Paris. You talked to me on the phone, and I know your voice, but there was still a part of me that couldn't completely believe until I saw you for myself and hugged you outside that barn — that you really were alive."

Jonathan's breathing had slowed and he was looking at her now, really looking at her. Jennifer took an involuntary step forward. Almost immediately Jonathan took another step back and the wary look came back into his eyes. His wife took a deep breath.

"Of course, none of what I've told you really proves anything, does it?" she whispered, her voice quavering. "I mean, you know all these memories; your subconscious could just be manufacturing them for you now." She gestured towards Max, her voice breaking. "And with the emotion you both have been through, who's to say this isn't just both of you thinking you're seeing me right now?"

The couple simply stood looking at each other for several long moments, neither saying a word. Jennifer felt a sob threatening to catch in her throat and she resolutely ignored it, not even daring to breathe as she watched a kaleidoscope of emotions run over her husband's face. One of his eyes began to glisten.

Suddenly Jennifer's attention was diverted by a small form throwing itself against her legs. It was Freeway, who'd wriggled his way past Max at the door. Jennifer absently gave him a quick pat behind his ears. "Not now, boy," she said softly, attempting to nudge him away.

But Freeway wasn't having any of it. He may not have known the exact meaning of the word "dead," but he did know that Jennifer had been gone for a long time and that there was something very wrong with whatever had caused her to be away, and that this wrong was now on its way to becoming right now that she was back. And he was not going to miss whatever that was. Freeway jumped against Jennifer's legs again, his brown eyes pleading for her to understand. Reluctantly, Jennifer knelt down.

"It's okay, baby," Jennifer said softly ot the frantic ball of fur that had now hurled itself into her arms. "It's okay. Mommy's home."

She didn't see the flash of emotion cross Jonathan's eyes at the familiar endearment, or the way he took a couple of unconscious steps towards her, then halted, still uncertain.

"Mr. H." Max's voice was softer than she'd ever heard it. "Dogs don't hallucinate."

Jennifer forced herself to keep her attention on Freeway, to not look up as Jonathan took a couple of steps closer, to not react as she heard his quiet, "No."

Jonathan knelt down in front of her and placed a gentle hand on Freeway's back as a tear trickled down his cheek. "No, they don't." He slowly moved his hand to Jennifer's shoulder, a tentative touch at first, then a cautious squeeze. "Darling?"

The word was barely audible. Jennifer looked up at him, her eyes glistening, and an encouraging smile crept over her face. She nodded slowly. "Jennifer?"

Jonathan's voice was a little louder this time, and close to tears. His wife nodded again. "It's me."

"Jennifer." His other arm came up to her other shoulder, giving her just enough time to nudge Freeway out of the way before Jonathan pulled her into a tight hug. Jonathan's whole body was shaking and Jennifer felt tears trickle into her hair. "You're not...I mean I thought you..." His hug tightened. Oh, Darling."

"I know. It's all right." Jennifer closed her eyes briefly and she rubbed his back. "I'm all right."

Jonathan's arms tightened around her again. "Then I'm all right," he whispered. "You're home."