A/N: Everyone enjoy--one more chapter to go, I think. ;) Until next time--PCGirl.

"McBain—wake up," said the soft voice as John's eyes fluttered open and saw Natalie standing in front of his bed wearing a dark blue negligee that brought out her eyes.

"Hey—how did you get in here?" he asked as he scooted over and she kneeled down and straddled him.

"Does that matter? I mean aren't you happy to see me?" she grinned as she leaned over him and her hair fell over her shoulders and around his face.

"Of course I'm happy to see you—I just—how did you get away from Kathryn?" asked John as she began kissing his neck and getting her hands underneath his shirt, "Nat—stop, please—just answer the question for me first."

"No, John."

"Hold on!" he said pushing her up and seeing it was Kathryn straddling him instead.

"She's gone John—you are never going to get to hold her in your arms every again."

"NO!" he yelled as he woke up in his room and looked around. "It was a dream—just a dream," he sighed as he sat up and put his head against the headboard and stared off into the distance—this was his fault, whether anyone wanted to admit what they were thinking, he knew he'd let Natalie get too close and now she was in danger. Just like Caitlyn.

He pulled out the piece of paper from Caitlyn's diary he'd torn out and read over it before placing it back in his front pocket and closing his eyes for a moment. He opened his eyes and looked at the painted wall and a grin escaped as he remembered his little problem with the paintbrush and his favorite shirt.

A knocking at the door made John's remembrance of that day end, but he stayed quiet—not ready to hear whatever news they may have for him. "John—hey, it's Antonio—open up man. Come on John—I've got something to tell you."

John slipped off the bed and opened the door, staring at Antonio for a second before gulping down another swallow of beer, "What?"

"I think we've found the SUV. It's not too far from here near a warehouse. Bo said if you want you can join us—since you might be the only one to talk Kathryn into surrendering." Before Antonio could finish the sentence though John had grabbed his gun out of his nightstand drawer and was down the hall.

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"Let me go in first," whispered John as he slipped through the half open warehouse door with his gun drawn. There was a light at the far end, but his area was dark and he couldn't see what was in front of him until he made it to the edge of the light. He looked at Natalie sitting there tied into the chair, her head slumped forward and for a second he thought she was dead and his heart stopped, "Sweetheart?" he said quietly as he came into the light and she looked up at him and smiled, "Hey," he said as his hands ran across her face and through her hair.

"John--."

"Shhh. Is she still in here?"

"What do you think?" said a voice behind him and John turned on his feet and held his gun up and saw Kathryn was holding her gun on him also, "What did I do?"

"Like you don't know," she said as she squatted on her knees and looked him the eyes.

John didn't take his eyes off her, but he could tell that Natalie was sitting next to him with her heart racing, "Ok, why don't you let Natalie go and we can talk—like old times when we were on a stakeout. Remember having to sit in that van joking about stupid stuff? We spilled a lot of secrets like that on those nights. So what do you say Kathryn?"

"I say we're not buddy-buddy anymore John, and there is no way I'm letting her leave here."

"Kathryn—your beef is with me, not her."

"Oh believe me—she's not innocent," she said waving the gun towards Natalie and she jumped. "What's wrong? Don't like guns?"

"Don't do this Kathryn," sighed John.

"No, stop telling me what to do and not to do. I should have never listened to you—never invited her to that Jazz club that night. She'd still be alive if that night hadn't happened."

"This is why you are doing all of this? To get back to me for the death of Caitlyn? I mean that's understandable, but this is our fight—Nat has nothing do with this—so for the last time will you please let me escort her out and then we'll come back in and me and you can talk."

"No John—I'm not scared to stay here," said Natalie as she thought she was more scared to leave him alone with her and the possibility of losing him.

John turned his head to look at Natalie—she was so brave and strong—trying to keep her feelings under control all the while he knew she was ready to break down in tears on the inside, "You sure?"

"Yeah."

He gave a sigh, "Ok—Kathryn what is it that made you do this?"

"What made me do this? You John—this is all your fault. You had to have that stupid police briefing aired and taunted Haver into killing her—you might have well pulled the trigger and ended all of our lives that night. I'm alone now—do you realize that? Caitlyn—she mattered so much to me and you didn't care—YOU DIDN'T CARE!"

"I didn't care? My God Kathryn, I cared so much about her that I didn't allow a day to go by in five years where I didn't wake up missing her and wondering what I could have done differently. And then to find out it was Haver and that he did it because I was cocky on television? That hurt worse than anything because there was something I could have done to stop her death—and that was catch the maniac before he killed another dozen women before being killed. You want me to be alone and miserable the rest of my life?"

"Yes, because that's what I'm going to be."

"No—no you shouldn't because that's not wait Caitlyn wanted. She wanted us to be happy—she didn't want us to mourn her for the rest of our lives. Here, read this," he said pulling out the folded paper from his pocket and trying to hand it to her.

"No—you are just trying to distract me and it won't work," she said as she pushed the paper out of his hands and it fell on the dirt floor.

"Fine—this is obviously getting nowhere so just shoot me Kathryn. Shoot me now!"

"John!" yelled Natalie but he ignored her pleas.

"You say that you want me to be miserable—not to love again, then just go ahead and do it. But one condition—if you kill me then let Natalie go," he said as he watched her façade begin to break slowly, "You know you want to—you know if you didn't think you'd get caught you would have been the trigger man the other day in the hospital parking lot. This is your chance Kathryn—complete and full redemption for Caitlyn's death," he said as he watched her grasp the gun firmer in her hands and then drop it, "Come on," he said as he put his gun back in the holster and pulled her into a hug and lead her back out of the warehouse.

"Natalie?" called Bo as he came through the dark into the circle before someone found the power box and turned on the rest of the lights. "Hey, let me get you out of this. Are you ok?"

"I'm fine," she said as she put her arms around his neck and wouldn't let go. "Where is John?"

"He left—said for me to get you home safe."

"Oh, here," she said as she took the edge of her sleeve and went into her pocket before pulling out some dog tags by the metal chain, "Before I passed out in the SUV I saw these on the floor—I didn't get to see whose they were, though I could take a guess."

Bo put a rubber glove on and took the tags and read them, "Paul L. Cramer. I guess we found Paul's killer."

"Yeah, she told me she was going to make it look like John killed him, but not before he found my body at the bottom of the Llantano River—and they'd somehow think he killed me also," she said as tears began to fill her eyes and she clung to Bo's shoulders for comfort.

"Hey—it's ok, nobody on the force thought John had anything to do with your disappearance. He loves you Natalie—that was obvious to anyone who watched him the past day and a half. You don't worry for someone like he did, and have a part in their demise. We're all safe ok? Let's get you home and resting—you've had a tough past few days," he said as he put an arm around her shoulders and led her out.