Timeline: After 11/21/2011 episode when Natalie and John get Liam back from Brody. On the flight home.


John looked over to see Natalie staring at their sleeping son in his arms. Their. He smiled again at the fact that this little boy was his again. He couldn't be happier at the thought that Liam was conceived in a moment of love and passion instead of one of drunken desperation.

"Try and sleep, Natalie. I promise he's not going anywhere-I'll wake you when we get closer to landing."

She smiled as she ran a finger down Liam's cheek and watched as he immediately began sucking on the pacifier harder, "I can't-I just keep thinking of everyone that knew and kept it from us. Marty. Victor. Brody."

"And the only one we can really yell at is Brody. I know how he feels-losing a kid that he thought was his. This is what-the third time that's happened to him."

Natalie nodded in agreement at the number, "I think someone else knew."

"Who?" he asked, unsure of who else may have been privy to the knowledge of Liam's paternity.

"Gigi," she said as she sat up some and began vocalizing what she'd been thinking. "I read over the report on the tape recorder John-her fingerprints were on the buttons. I always wondered if she knew it was the end-if she knew that she was going to die and it was truly a blank tape she would leave Rex and Shane a message. Tell them she loved them or who locked her in there. Something.

"But she didn't-because she knew what we didn't and wanted us to hear it for ourselves. If she had gotten out of that room that night," she said and wiped the tears that suddenly nipped at her eyes. "We would have known so much earlier-and you would have so many more memories with your son."

John nodded-he'd questioned the tape back then. The fact that it was blank made him think it wasn't the original, but he'd never pushed it with Brody or Natalie. Maybe if he had the outcome would have been different than today.

"I never did apologize to her. I went over to the Buenos Dias the day after the shooting and got distracted-I guess Tea was right."

"About what?"

"You think you have forever to make it right-and then suddenly you don't," he sighed and ran his hand over Liam's hair. "I'm sorry for firing her the way I did. She was being a good friend to you. I get that now."

"She really was. I couldn't talk to my sister or my best friend about what I did. Or my fears that Liam was Brody's. I needed someone to confide in and she was there."

John took her hand in his, "I'm here now, Natalie-and I'll always listen."

"Thanks," she smiled and then laid her head on his shoulder to try and rest some as they made their way back home as a family.