Bernice turned away to focus on what Terry was telling her. "And you're sure?" she asked quietly. She was well aware that Nick and the children were watching her in rapt attention. But she needed to be sure before she told them anything.

"Where is she, Bernice?" Nick asked gravely.

"Terry's trying to get to Oliver. There's a lot going on down there," she explained.

"I need to talk to him. Please," he begged. His voice cracked with emotion.

She turned her back to him for a moment. "Terry, Nick needs information. You've gotta get something."

Over the line, Jarvis exhaled with frustration. "Yeah, alright. Put him on. I'll talk to him."

Bernice turned back and felt her heart in her throat at Nick's desperate face. "Here," she said, handing the phone to him.

"Buchanan?"

"Yes, sir?" Something in Nick reverted to professionalism in that moment. A self-preservation mechanism, perhaps.

"I've got Detective Taylor here for you. And after he talks to you, Buchanan, you better leave my team be and get yourself bloody healed up and back on the job, you hear me?"

"Yes, sir," Nick repeated.

There was a slight scuffle on the line and then Oliver Taylor's voice. "Sergeant?"

"What's going on, Taylor?" Nick demanded. "Where's Jen?"

"I don't know, sir."

"WHAT!?"

Oliver stammered upon hearing Nick's panicked shouting. "She left," he explained. "But she's fine. Not a scratch, I swear. We were met with gunfire from Rankin and his partner, Lloyd. Karin chased Lloyd down to where backup was waiting. Sergeant Mapplethorpe and I went into the room where Rankin had an automatic rifle. She tried to talk him down, but he started shooting. She dove and shot, and he went down."

Nick felt nauseous. "She…she wasn't hurt? You swear she wasn't hurt?" Tears were filling his eyes and he tried to swallow down the lump in his throat.

"No, sir. She wasn't hurt. I swear. She got up and checked Rankin, told me he was dead, and she walked away," Taylor said.

"She walked away?!" Such a thing did not compute in Nick's mind. Where was she? What had she done? What the bloody hell was going on!?

"Slight delay on dinner, sorry."

Nick whipped his head around to the voice at the door. Bernice's phone fell out of his hand. Ella and Cody both shouted, "Mummy!" and ran toward her.

Jen smiled and hugged the twins with her free hand, holding the bag with Kumar's label on the outside. "Everyone hungry?"

"Bernice, could you take the kids to wash up?" Nick requested.

With a tearful nod, Bernice took her phone back, wiped her eyes and went over to collect the children. She gave Jen a swift hug and whispered, "I could bloody kill you for that."

Jen just gave a curt nod. Her eyes were on Nick. And when the room was cleared, she just stood there, staring at him.

The silence was deafening. "Do…" Nick's voice cracked and he swallowed hard. "Do you have any idea what you put me through?"

Her eyes welled up with tears to see him so emotional. "Yeah," she answered quietly. "I do."

Nick wiped away his tears before they could fall. "You sure you're okay?"

"I'm alright, Nick. It's all over," she promised.

"Get over here," he commanded, reaching out his arms to him.

Jen put the food down and hurried into his embrace. She climbed up onto the bed, careful of his wounds, and buried her face in his neck.

Nick could feel himself losing his composure completely. He breathed in the scene of her hair and felt the comforting weight of her in his arms. "I am never gonna let you go ever again, Jennifer," he vowed.

"Never gonna let you," she replied, her voice muffled against his skin. She lifted her head to kiss him. Their tears intermingled against each other's cheeks.

They pulled apart and fell quiet again. Words were never what they needed between them. Not after all the years between them and all they'd been through. The quiet was a comfort now. They just rested there, cuddled up together. Just as they'd done all those years ago after Dane Majors and after the birth of their children. Somehow, their most important moments had been like this, holding each other in a hospital bed with no words required.

Nick, however, broke the silence. "Wonder what's keeping the kids," he murmured.

"Bernice is giving us a moment, I'm sure. They'll be back before we know it and I can kiss their little faces till they push me away," Jen replied.

He chuckled slightly at that. It was slightly painful to do so, still recovering from his very recent surgery. "Ella nearly had one of her episodes. Panicked over where you were," he told her.

"You got her through it?"

"Yeah."

"Good." She brushed her lips on his jaw, feeling the stubble that had grown there since he'd shaved for the wedding a lifetime ago. "I don't know what any of us would do without you."

"Or without you," he added.

"We're both going to be just fine," Jen replied confidently. "And I've gotta say, you've got a great team of detectives there."

"Yeah, I guess you got to see Smith and Taylor in action," Nick noted.

Jen gave a little laugh. "They're really good. Though Taylor in particular is quite devoted to you."

"Yeah, I can't believe Allie still has a crush on him," he laughed.

"Does she?"

He hummed affirmatively. "But it's not my place to say anything. She'll figure it out eventually."

"How did you find out?"

"I noticed he looked at me a little different than Rhys or Duncan do. And then he had a little outburst over the coffee one day and I asked what was wrong, and he told me that his partner left him. Guy named Derek, apparently."

"Ah. Wonder if Oliver's crush on you doomed the relationship," she teased.

"Dunno. But he's a professional. Really good detective."

Jen nodded, recalling her thoughts from earlier. "He reminds me of you, a bit," she said. "In another world, you and he might make a good couple."

Nick rolled his eyes. "I'm sure we would. But he came too late to the party. About twenty years too late."

Jen smiled. It was true, they were going on twenty years they'd known each other. Hard to believe sometimes. But it was equally hard to believe that she'd ever lived her life without him. Nick was her heart and soul and entire life. And despite recent events, she would never, ever let anything put that in jeopardy. Right here, right now, she was right where she belonged: in the arms of her husband awaiting the return of their children and knowing that she'd done everything she could to protect and defend her family.