Five years he'd been on this island. She'd arrived here nearly four years ago. In that time, she couldn't believe the ways her life had changed. Giving up being a cop was hard for her, as evidenced by her foray into private investigation and security work on the island, but it was nothing compared to the terror that came crashing down on her at the thought of losing him and their family.

Today, PJ woke up with a fever. Patrick agreed to stay with him while she took Violet and the twins to the beach for some playtime. Violet was just a little over 3 years old now. PJ, their second born and the one who looked the most like his father with those golden curls, was 18 months old. Maddie and Finn were 6 months old. Before becoming a mother herself, she would've looked at a woman with four children under the age of five years old as the very definition of insanity. But having a husband who was an attentive, doting father and a lot of flexible time definitely made a difference. They raised their kids as a team.

As Violet tried, and eventually failed to make a sandcastle as elegant as the one daddy would have helped her make, she played with the twins. She could hardly believe that she was raising a gaggle of beach bums! For not the first time, she wondered how her brothers were doing. Annie would be in college now. Surely, Stan and Jimmy had more babies as well. She prayed that they were all well. She also wondered how her kids would react to their cousins.

As she gave the kids their snacks, she saw him. She should've sensed him approaching, but she was too busy making sure Finn didn't put his fist full of sand into his sister's face. She'd already determined that twins-especially those with a Jane and Lisbon genetic makeup-would be a special challenge.

"Lisbon." She would've known the voice anywhere. Though, she looked up to confirm her suspicions.

"Cho."

He stood there awkwardly for a moment as she stood up, tying her swimsuit cover around her. Losing contact with her made Maddie start to fuss, so she picked her up and held her. "How's it going?"

She shook her head. "Fine. What are you doing here?"

"I'm sorry to do this, but I'm here to bring Jane back."

"Bring Jane back?"

"Yeah."

"We both know there's no extradition treaty here."

"I know. That's why we thought it would be best that I approach you and calmly talk to you first." She noticed Dennis Abbott approaching. Obviously, he was eager to join the conversation.

"Mama! Look!" She looked down to where Violet was still working hard at her sandcastle.

"That's gorgeous, baby. Mama is talking to her friend right now, ok?"

"All of these are yours?"

"And Jane's. He's at home with our oldest son, PJ. He's sick." Cho just nodded. Though he didn't notice, she scrunched her face in distaste after saying that. Calling Patrick by his last name felt funny. She hadn't done that in years, and technically, she and the three kids were also Janes.

"Teresa, you have a beautiful family. Nice ring. I'm sure your husband is a lucky man." She just glared at him. He should've just let Cho do the talking.

"What do you want?" She rolled her eyes at him.

Cho looked to Abbott to continue speaking. "We have a deal in place for Jane. We'd like to bring him in to work as a consultant for the FBI. He's got a special skill set we could use."

"So after five years you just come looking for a consultant?"

She didn't miss the way Abbott glared at Cho before speaking. "The deal would've been here sooner if we'd known how to find you."

Cho didn't say a word, but she knew what he'd done. He'd known how to find them, but he refused to tell the FBI. Abbott had to figure it out on his own. Dragging Cho down here was part of his penance. Of course Cho maintained his loyalty even when he didn't have to-some things never changed.

"So what about me? What am I being charged with?"

Abbott raised his eyebrows. "You? You're not being charged with anything, unless there's something you need to confess. Since you left the US on your proper passport, and citizens are free to travel wherever, we can forget about the fake passport business. I'm offering you a job with the FBI."

She blinked rapidly. "I'm sorry. What?"

"I'd like to bring you on as an agent on my team. I know you're a little out of practice, but I have approval for the hire. You'll need to complete a physical and your firearms recertification."

She laughed. "And what's the catch?"

"For the next five years, Jane works as my consultant. You'll help keep him reigned in. We will make the charges go away and we'll get everything fixed for the kids. I don't imagine you've registered their birth with USCIS? We can take care of all of it."

"What about pay?"

"You'll both be paid according to the appropriate pay grade." She narrowed her eyes at him. Surely, there was a catch here.

She heard a whimper, and she looked down to see Violet getting upset over her sandcastle starting to slide over. "Mama, it doesn't work like when daddy does it."

"Oh sweetie, I know. Daddy makes magic sandcastles. Why don't you help mama get packed up? We're going to go see daddy and PJ now."

She folded the blanket while her three year old daughter made a game out of dumping all of her toys into her bag. She had a lot of her father in her, that was for sure.

Returning her attention to the adults after she had the twins in their carrier, she spoke to them again. "Follow me."

They made the trek back to their cottage. Violet was very interested in mommy's new friends. She grabbed Cho's hand at one point. He looked down at the little girl and just let her hold his hand as they walked along the beach to their house. It made her smile because it was cute how she immediately identified Cho as a good, safe person. She had a good instinct about her, even though she reminded herself they needed to do a lot more stranger danger education with her.

"Hey honey, we're back! We have visitors." She called out as soon as she got into the cottage and ushered the others inside. She was careful not to make too much noise in case PJ was sleeping.

"Visit-" Her husband stopped dead in his tracks when he saw who the visitors were. "What are you guys doing here?"

The room was incredibly tense. It was one thing for them to approach a former colleague on the beach. It was another thing to enter a wanted man's home. With all of the innocence of a toddler, Violet broke the tension as she pulled on Cho's hand. "Hey Mr. Cho, my daddy made me a unicorn. Do you want to see it?"

"No, sweetie, our guests won't be staying long. Why don't you go watch the princess movie?" Her face lit up. She loved watching the dubbed copy of Cinderella that he'd found for her. She cried when she started noticing things like her hair didn't match the princess. They'd assured her that night that she had mommy's hair and she could be a princess, too.

"Patrick, hear him out first."

With that, Abbott got to talking. He repeated everything he told her on the beach. Patrick would have a plea deal, she'd have a job, and the kids would get their citizenship status fixed. She waited for Patrick to figure out what holes there were in the plan. He quizzed them like she had, but also came up with the same answers.

"So we agree to work-no, basically be servants at your beck and call-for five years, and you will call everything good?"

Abbott waved his hand. "No, you will be at my beck and call. Teresa can take the job offer or leave it. I just know that if I had a beautiful family like yours, I'd do everything possible to keep them together and provide a good life for them."

She saw her husband narrow his eyes. "And we would still work together if Teresa accepted the job?"

"Please. I would put no one else in charge of handling you."

She met his eyes. He was considering it, but she could tell he was also still trying to work through the downsides of the deal. "How long is this offer good for?"

Abbott smiled. "Until we leave this island tomorrow at noon. I know we can't extradite you from here, but we will be watching you. As soon as you set foot on some land that has an extradition treaty in place, even if it's for ten seconds, you will be arrested. I'm offering you a chance at real freedom here-and a chance to keep your family with you."

"You understand I can't just accept or decline. We have to discuss this. We make decisions as a unit."

Abbott and Cho both nodded. Abbott turned to look at her. "Teresa, evaluate my offer. You know it doesn't get any better than this. You don't want your husband looking over his back for the rest of his life. We can help get you set up in housing and find childcare in Austin. We'd love to have both of you on our team. I'm going to head back to my hotel. Let me know what you decide."

They both nodded at him. Cho stayed behind. "Would you like something to drink?"

"No, thanks. I just wanted to say I'm sorry. I didn't say anything. He figured out your mailing system on his own."

"Don't worry about it, Cho." Patrick shrugged. "Is this offer for real?"

"Yeah. Listen, he's not going to say it because I think it's against his principles, but most everyone thinks what you did is a public service. It was a little too public so you have to account for that. He's been looking since you left. When Lisbon left, he tried hard to find her. I didn't tell him about the letters or the other contacts."

Patrick shook his head, as she looked at the twins who were out cold. "How did you know about the letters?"

"He was one of the people I told I was leaving. I told him, and Rigsby and Van Pelt. I couldn't just leave them never to hear from me again. We met for dinner one night in San Francisco, and I hinted that I'd be leaving. They all told me to come find you. It's where my happiness was."

Patrick nodded. She'd never told him that part of her exit story, nor did he ask. He looked at Cho. "Sit down. Let's catch up. You sure you don't want a beer. You're not US soil…"

With that last temptation, Cho gave in. They talked for a long while, taking turns tending to the kids, and catching up with an old friend. After he left, they discussed the offer for just a little while longer. The kids were growing up fast, and she missed her family. None of them had ever met the kids. Besides, they still had ties back home. It was a no-brainer really. The next day, they gathered up the kids and what they could-including their baby books-and joined Cho and Abbott on that flight back to the US.

Once they arrived, they called a lawyer and took a look at the FBI's deal for Patrick. It was exactly what Abbott had said. He signed the deal and became a consultant the very next day. Abbott told her she could take time and decide whether she wanted back in, but that was also a no brainer. She missed police work. Once they got the kids situated in child care, she joined her husband at the FBI.

Almost as soon as they arrived and got new phones, they got a ton of messages from Rigsby and Van Pelt. Apparently, Cho had told them they were back. They planned to come out soon to visit and introduce their little ones to hers. She got a hold of her brothers and Annie. They were all glad she was back. Her brothers agreed to Thanksgiving in Austin this year.

Strangely enough, Annie had enrolled at the University of Texas, so she was local. Annie was at their house within the hour to meet her little cousins. Violet absolutely loved her. More specifically, she loved it when Annie introduced her to the other princess movie, the one where she wore the yellow dress and had hair like theirs. She kept talking about the yellow dress, and the same night Patrick started looking for Beauty and the Beast things for Violet. Getting him to stop spoiling the kids was a hopeless case and getting even more hopeless now that they had regular incomes again!

Later, Patrick told her that he'd called Madeleine Hightower. One regret he had in hiding was that he had not called her to tell her it was done, and he didn't know where to send her letter. Now that he was able to call her, he let her know that it was done. He also told her he'd like to introduce her to Madeleine Jane when she was available. She wished she'd been on that call.

It took time to get settled in, but once they hit their stride again, it was like they'd never left. They just gained a lot of happiness along the way. Their story might've started in the darkness, but that definitely wasn't where it ended.