Jen leaned against the wall, waiting for the room to clear, trying to be inconspicuous. Finally, only Nick was left inside, his forehead resting on his arms on the table. He looked miserable, and she went right in.

"Hey. Ethical standards done with you?" she asked as his head lifted slowly.

"For today," he replied with a shrug. "How long's it been?"

"Nearly four hours."

He stood up with a slight groan, pacing anxiously. "I keep telling them I wasn't party to Dalton's conspiracy. But even to me, it sounds weak."

Jen frowned. "So what now?"

"They write up the report. Decide if the charges will stick."

"Well they won't."

"If Lombardi pushes hard enough, it will."

Jen knew he was right, and she hated it. The Attorney General seemed hellbent on ruining their lives. Disbanding Homicide and going after Nick like this? It was almost more than she could bear. The two most important things in her life, which she had finally, finally understood, were slipping away. And there didn't seem to be anything she could do about it. The helplessness she'd never wanted to feel ever again was coming back full force.

"Anyway, that's my problem," Nick said quietly, interrupting her musings. "Waverly told you where you're going?" After all, Jen still had a job, even if he might not.

"No, but word's getting around. Got a call from Fraud squad. I can go back there if I want."

Nick smiled softly. She'd been on Fraud when they first met, when they'd first been together all those years ago. She was still so new at being a detective, and Fraud had taught her a lot. But she'd hated it. She was worth so much more than that work allowed her do. She deserved to be on Homicide, but there was no more Homicide to be on. "You'll be bored out of your brain," he replied knowingly.

"Mmm," she agreed. "But it does offer up other possibilities."

"Does it?"

"Well, the way I see it, the issue was always both of us being Homicide cops," she told him with a small smile. And that wasn't entirely true, but Jen needed something—anything—to cling to now. She needed to believe that some part of her life could be good, that somewhere there was hope to be had. And Nick was all the hope she needed now. "So you better hurry up and decide where you want to be transferred. Just give Fraud a miss, okay?"

And with that, she turned and left the room. They couldn't be seen together too much while Ethical Standards was still sniffing around Nick and any possible corruption he might be involved in. After the Dane Majors incident, she had done far too much in her emotional panic; Wolfie already knew too much, and she needed to try to keep some kind of professional distance. But soon, if they were going to be tossed off Homicide anyway, they wouldn't need to keep their distance anymore. Soon. Very soon.

And then, as was so often the case in their world, everything changed. They had evidence that Lombardi put out a hit on his advisor, the mysterious Deep Throat. It seemed corruption charges would be filed against someone other than Nick.

"Well, this could be it," Jen said quietly, standing beside Nick in the empty briefing room. "You could be off the hook."

Nick nodded. He didn't want to get too excited yet. Bringing down Lombardi changed things. Everything, really. Nick could be off the hook, yes, but Homicide could be, too. And if they did get to stay on Homicide, what would they do? What would Jen do? Would anything really be any different? Could they have gotten so close to being together only to have her push him away again? He wasn't sure if he could handle it.

But even Nick couldn't bear to be unhappy later that day when he got to be the one to put Lombardi in handcuffs and read him his rights for his arrest. And when everyone passed around beers in Homicide and watched the news report and cheered, he cheered right along with them. Waverly announced that Homicide would be staying and the cheers went around again. He and Jen shared a smile and a tip of the beer bottle, a toast to their success.

Jen jerked her head ever so slightly and walked over to the break room. Nick waited till everyone else was distracted and went to follow her.

"Good day today," he said, entering the quiet, empty room.

She nodded. "Yeah. Good day." Jen looked down at her shoes, steeling herself for this moment. "Nick, since it looks like we're both keeping our jobs…"

He cut her off. "Jen, I know before you ended it because we couldn't work together and be together, but we did it before. We did it before, and we can do it again. And I know how important the job is to you. And despite what I might have said when I tried to resign, it's important to me too. But you…you are everything. And I know we can make this work. We deserve a chance to make it work. Please, Jen," he begged. Nick's heart was pounding in his chest. But this was the first quiet moment they'd had to themselves without impending doom surrounding them. If he didn't say this now, he never would.

And to his utter disbelief, Jen smiled. "That's funny, I was about to say the same thing."

"You were?!"

"Yes, before you rudely interrupted me. You know, that's not a nice way to treat your girlfriend."

"My girlfriend?"

She smirked. "Yeah, that's me, unless you've got another stashed somewhere I don't know about."

Nick suddenly felt giddy with relief. He wrapped his arms around her and murmured, "No, just you, Jen. Only you."

"I love you," she whispered, leaning in to kiss him.

The door opened and a peal of laughter sounded, causing them to jump away from each other.

"Hey, you two! Everything alright?" Duncan asked, coming to the fridge to grab another beer.

"Yeah, I was just telling Jen that Ethical Standards let me off. And I heard they're not going to go after her for what she did to save me," Nick told him.

Duncan nodded. "Good. She saved your bloody life, mate."

"Don't I know it," Nick agreed.

"I'm just that good," Jen said with a wink. She moved past the boys to rejoin the group. "Nick, talk later?"

He nodded. "Yeah, talk later."

Everyone cleared off at the shift change, and Nick went straight home. Not ten minutes later, his doorbell rang. Jen was leaning against the doorframe and smiling at him.

"Guess who," he greeted with a smile. "Come in."

"Thought you could slip away, did you?" she asked, following him inside.

"Well, you found me," he teased.

"Well, I'm a good detective," she teased right back. "You're never going to get these renovations finished now," Jen pointed out, gesturing to all the paint cans and sawhorses still set up in the dining room.

"Some things take time," he replied quietly, moving toward her, placing his hands on her hips and pulling her close. "No second thoughts?" he asked.

"No," she assured him, putting her arms around his neck. "No second thoughts."

"We're both in Homicide now," he reminded her.

"That doesn't matter anymore," Jen whispered. And it didn't, really. The only thing that mattered was this, here, the two of them in their home. Together. No more pushing Nick away, no more hiding from him, no more excuses. He'd told her earlier that she was everything. And now she knew, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that he was everything, too.

They leaned in toward each other and finally shared the kiss they'd been saving for just this moment. This moment when they were together and they were committed and it was real and nothing could change that.

The beeping of their phones interrupted them before their kiss could take them any further. They both smiled and laughed to see the messages they both received before they broke apart and headed out. Back to work.