Late that night, after the family had all eaten their dinner and happily enjoyed each other's company, Terry arrived to see Bernice and to give the news that Colin Rankin was dead, that there would be no inquiry into Jennifer's actions—multiple witnesses saw Jen and Oliver go into the apartment and heard the automatic rifle fire before Jen and Oliver shot back—and that Rankin's driver, Marcus Laraby, confessed to the whole plot against Duncan's wedding. It was finally all over.

Terry stayed with the Buchanans for a little while. Ella sat on his lap while he had his arm around Bernice. Nick still marveled to see those two together. They were so natural and perfect as a couple and yet to think about it, given his history with his two superior officers, still boggled the mind. But they were Uncle Terry and Auntie Bernice to his children and two of Nick's best friends of all time. They were family, and he was very glad to have them there.

The nurse came by to say that visiting hours were over. Bernice and Terry took the kids to his house for the night. Jen, as Nick's wife, was allowed to stay with him if she wanted to. And she wanted to.

And so, at last, they were alone together in bed once again. Well, as much in bed as they could manage. They were squished together side by side and holding hands as her head rested on his shoulder. Not the most comfortable of things, but it would do for now.

"Any news from the doctors about your prognosis?" she asked. "Now that all the mess is over, I can actually let myself think about it now."

"How do you mean?" he asked curiously in return. "Haven't you been thinking about your husband shot to smithereens?"

She grumbled a little at his phrasing. "I couldn't think too much about it, Nick, or I'd have gone mad. You know me, fixating on things I can work on when I can't do anything about what's bothering me."

He sighed, turning his head to kiss her hair. "I know, sweetheart. But we're all alright. Everything's fine now."

Jen nodded, reveling in that beautiful fact for the moment. "You still haven't told me your prognosis," she reminded.

Nick was aware of that, but he'd not wanted to spoil the nice moment. But he'd have to tell her sooner or later. Better to do it now while the children were not underfoot and they had a some time to themselves. "The good news is that I should be able to recover just fine with physical therapy and whatever else."

"Well that is good news," Jen replied, bracing herself. "But then I guess that means there's bad news?"

He hesitated, wondering how to tell her. "I'll recover internally. My organs and things will repair and everything'll work. But the spinal injury might leave me crippled."

"Crippled how?"

"Well I'm not paralyzed, but I might not walk without a cane and I might not be able to lift much of anything."

Somehow Jen had been expecting much worse. "That's okay. We'll make do. You'll be kept out of the field at work, but you weren't in the field much at all anyway. Terry and Bernice'll make sure you can still do the job. And around the house, we can manage just fine. We might have to hire a handyman to fix things sometimes, but it'll be fine," she said confidently.

But that wasn't the part of it that had Nick concerned. "I might not ever be able to pick up Ella or Cody ever again."

"They're nearly too big for it as it is, Nick," she pointed out. "And you can still snuggle with them and hug them and have them on your lap. That part will be okay."

"And with us…"

Jen did not want to reveal that she had also had thoughts about their sex life being altered, but she told him insistently, "You and I will be fine. We've been creative before. We'll be creative again. When the time comes, when you're healed enough that we won't injure you, we'll figure it out. You and I will be just fine."

"You promise?"

She smiled to herself. "I promise. Besides, you once promised me that you'd get me off at least three times a week till we die, and I'm going to hold you to that."

He chuckled. "I'll hold myself to it, too." Nick wrapped his arms around her, amidst the wires and IVs attached to him. "Oh god, I love you, Jen," he murmured.

"I love you, too."

They just held each other for a quiet moment. Nick was the one to break the silence this time. "Is there anything else you want to tell me?" he asked quietly.

"Like what?"

"Is it just the shooting and the case that's been bothering you? Or is there more? It might just be all the drama of the last few days and me being stuck here, but I can't help but feel like you're keeping something from me. Something else, maybe?"

Jen thought back and realized that yes, there was something else she'd kept from him. "Well, now that it's all over, I guess that's another thing I can let myself think about."

Nick did not speak, waiting for her to tell him in her own time.

It took her a moment to find the words. And she did her best to recite them without attaching too much feeling. She wouldn't be able to get through it otherwise. "After Duncan woke up, I went by his room to see him and see all the rest of the family. And on my way, I got a little turned around. All the rooms up on that floor have the number and the patient's last name on a little card by the door. And one of the cards had my name."

"What?!" Nick genuinely did not know what Jen was going to tell him, but this was far beyond the realms of possibility.

"Mapplethorpe. So I…I went into the room."

"And?"

She recited the story, providing salient details and trying not to let it sink inside her too much. "My father was there. Carl Mapplethorpe. He's been in a coma for a month after a heroin overdose. Apparently he's not expected to wake up but they've got him on life support because of a form the hospital had on file for him."

Nick was at a loss. No wonder Jen had seemed a bit odd. All he knew of Jennifer's father was that he'd left when she was six, a few days after her birthday, and she'd never seen nor heard from him again. Heroin overdose certainly explained some of that. But it had been over forty years since Jen had seen her father, and now to find him like that? "How do you know what happened to him?" he asked, suddenly realizing that such information was not likely to have been on that little card by the door.

Jen swallowed hard, mechanically continuing to give the information. "He had a visitor. Man named Jonathan was sitting with him when I went in. His son. Jonathan."

It was revelation after revelation. "Jesus, Jen, you've got a brother."

She let out a shaky breath. "Oh Christ, I do," she realized. She'd not put the pieces together that far yet.

"What did you say to him?" Nick asked.

"Just that I knew Carl Mapplethorpe a long time ago. That was all."

"You didn't tell him who you are? I mean that you both have the same father?"

Jen felt her head spin a bit at the prospect. "I…I couldn't."

Nick hugged her a little bit closer. He could not imagine how hard this all was for her. "Well, that's alright. But you know he exists now. And if you want to know him and tell him who you are, you can. Might be nice to have some family other than your mum."

She scoffed a little at that. Her mother was a horrid woman who was only allowed anywhere near them on Boxing Day and to attend a family birthday dinner for the children. Jen would not allow Susan to ruin Christmas or her children's actual birthday. But even though Susan Hayes was Jen's only family for nearly all her life, that wasn't true anymore. Yes, Jonathan was her half-brother by blood, it seemed, but that was not all. "I've got loads of family," Jen said. "You and Cody and Ella and Danielle and Sam and Hope and Duncan and Kimberly and Eloise and Wolfie and Terry and Bernice. They're all our family. We love them and they love us, and that's all that matters, isn't it? I never had a family before Homicide, and now I've got so many people that we've filled up two hospital rooms full of them."

He chuckled lightly. "Yeah, that's true. We've got a whole herd of family. And if you don't ever want to have anything to do with your brother, that's okay. We've got plenty, I know. But if you ever are curious and want to know him, Jen, I'll do whatever I can to help. I'll support you either way."

Jen smiled as a renewed warmth filled her. "Yeah, I know you will."