Natalie got out of the car and wondered why she was here. Earlier, after the station, she'd been worried about Liam. But then she heard he'd been spotted with Charlotte picking up a pizza. That had made her feel a hundred times better-she would calm him, get his head in the right place. Their relationship reminded her so much of her and John in the beginning.

That had made her wonder if John needed her to calm him-he hadn't said much at the station, just talked with Bo for a few minutes and left without a goodbye. So she'd made sure Carter could have the kids over to his house after school and headed here.

Waiting for someone to come out of the building she nodded at them politely and made her way to the address that she'd been able to find for John. She could be wrong and he'd gone into work to try and forget about this. He'd done his part-presented his case-maybe he was wanting her to continue to do the rest of it alone.

Knocking on the door she had to wait a few minutes before the door opened. "Hey," she said softly as they made eye contact.

"Hey," he said, as he thought about how Liam had shown here a week ago to let him have it, but this-Natalie-was coming out of worry for him, something she always had done in the past, and something he'd missed. "Come in," he said as he motioned her in.

"I just wanted to see how you were doing-and to let you know I think Liam's going to be ok."

John laughed, "How do you figure that? He was pretty angry earlier."

"He was-but he's with Charlotte-Cris' daughter. They are dating and she has this ability to calm him down-help him refocus."

"Like you with me."

"Yeah," she said, with a wistful look at remembering how much they could help each other before. "You know-I didn't ask you what you wanted to do next. After we talked with Liam and told him the story-do you want to try and be a part of his life?"

"I do-if he'll let me," he shrugged and moved towards the hallway, "Come here-I want to show you something."

She followed him and watched him put his thumb on a keypad before hearing the door unlock. She was surprised at the security John was using for whatever was through the door. Walking in she glanced to see his desk at the left but it was the slot machine in front of her that she was most surprised about. Going over she ran her hand along the edge of it, "This looks just like-"

"Ours? Yeah, it does," he said as he walked over and grabbed a quarter off the bookcase next to it and dropped it in the slot so she could pull the lever. "I was on an out of town trip and saw it in a thrift store window. Bought it and had it shipped back."

Natalie smiled at the nostalgia it brought, and then looked at the two pictures beside it.

Pointing to the top one John spoke up, "The baptism picture was mom's copy. We were cleaning out the house after she passed. I took it and hung it in here."

"I'm sorry, John. She was a really great woman."

"Thanks," he said with a sad smile. "She loved you-till the end she would always bring you and Liam up." Coughing he pointed to the other picture, "I guess you texted this to Mike-he forwarded it to me with the caption third generation. I printed it out and had it framed. Hope that's ok."

"Of course it's ok," she smiled. "Explain to me why though the pictures and slot machine are in a locked room that can only be accessed with your thumb print."

"I still work for the FBI. I train agents that are going undercover-some are recruits, some are ones that have been singled out by their Supervisors as a good pick for the program. I try not to bring home any of my work-but if I do it has to be guarded. You wouldn't have noticed, but there are no pictures of Mike or the kids in the rest of the space, just here," he said as he nodded to the picture of him and his brother that used to sit on his desk at the LPD.

"What Liam read earlier-would that have been something you would have given your agents during training?"

"Yes-an exercise of sorts. They read over it and then we have a discussion on what to do-or not to do-while undercover. One of the actual exercises I give them is a recap of Las Vegas," he said as he watched a look of surprise come over her face. "It's a pretty good detail of what not to do in a case."

John paused for a moment and put space between them, "I need to apologize to you, Natalie. Bo told me today how hard it was for you after that message-how I asked you to keep it to yourself. I shouldn't have done that-I put a lot of extra pressure on you by doing that. It wasn't fair to ask that of you without giving you a say."

"Thank you for that," she said with a smile. "Bo's right-it was hard, and I'd wished I had someone to talk about it other than him. More though-I wish you'd told me when you were done with that case. When it was safe to talk to Michael it should have been safe to talk to me. Then we wouldn't be in this situation with Liam that we are now."

"I know-I was going to, but then Mike had said you were in a relationship-that he'd heard through the grapevine it was pretty serious. I've screwed up enough of your relationships before-I didn't want to do it again."

"You again took the decision out of my hands though. Like with Vegas, and Cristian being himself and not an imposter. Hell-even with letting me marry Brody. You decided what was best for me instead of giving me the whole story and letting me make my own decision."

John didn't say anything, just looked at her-knowing she was right. Knowing too many times in their friendship he had taken the decision away from her. "I'm sorry-we can't look back at that though, only forward-right?"

"Right."

"Do you have time to stay? We've seen each other, but really haven't had a chance to catch up-you know?" he said, hoping she'd stay, if just for a bit.

She smiled at him, "I'd like that, but I need to get back home. Soon though?"

"Of course, and yes-soon," he nodded back as he walked her out.

Liam turned on his speaker and let Miles Davis fill the apartment. Sitting on the couch he began what had become his nightly routine of the past few weeks. Pulling up The Banner archives he typed in the name John McBain and figured out the time frame he wanted to search tonight.

He hadn't been sure where to start so he'd had Charlotte find out when their parents had been married and decided that the beginning was the best place. He'd already read about serial killers and a prison riot-not being surprised when both Mr Vega and his mom's names had appeared in the articles.

Last night he'd read about his grandfather's killer being brought to justice after twenty five years and was actually looking forward to reading about the trial. He was trying to not delve too deep into any of the stories, but thought about requesting the records from the archives just to read John's notes on the case.

The first article that pulled up was two days after the arrest and felt his breath catch at reading about an accident the day before on the interstate to AC. A tractor trailer crossed the center line and hit a car head on before causing a massive pile up with multiple fatalities. One of the deceased was listed as Lieutenant John McBain with the LPD.

Forcing himself to breathe he was glad for the knock on the door. Opening it he saw Charlotte and let her in. When she turned to give him a kiss he pulled her to him and kissed her with more passion than normal.

"Hey," she smiled as she pulled back. She'd been about to tease him about listening to his jazz while reading articles-something she'd found him doing almost nightly. He'd tell her what he found-talking with excitement and pride at finally getting a glimpse of who John McBain was. But the words were lost when she saw a look in his eyes, "What's wrong?"

"I found an article talking about his death," he said and let out a breath as he released her and then walked around the room.

"Hey-it's ok, it was obviously mistaken identity-isn't that what you told me the other day?" she said, referring to him finding an article about her dad being declared dead.

"Yeah-I know-I just wasn't expecting it. That's all."

"Join the club," she laughed. "You know he's alive-you wouldn't be here if it was true. Just like me with my dad. So what does it change?"

Liam shook his head, knowing she was right, "I started looking for these articles to find something to make me not want to know their story. Not to know what brought them together and eventually brought me in the world. But instead-it's made me want to know them more. I think I'm ready to listen."

"That's great," she smiled as she walked over to him and wrapped her arms around him.

Holding her he kissed the top of her head, "If it's not too much can you come with me?"

Looking up at him her smile got wider, "I'll be wherever you want me to be."