Author's Note: Well, this was going to be the last chapter, but then Roman showed up! You can thank gypsyscarfwoman for a lot of the plottier details in this one. And no, I'm not going to go into huge detail about what Roman is doing. Two more chapters max! I need to finish this fic soonish, in case I end up starting something based on season 4 canon.

Jane had only taken three steps outside her apartment when she began to get the feeling she was being watched. Instead of breaking into a jog the way she'd planned, she leaned against the wall of her apartment building and scrutinised her surroundings—the entrances to alleyways, the windows of buildings, the pedestrians and vehicles passing by.

Roman. He was standing at the entrance to the alley opposite, and this time, instead of turning and disappearing into the crowd before she could reach him, he cocked his head further down the alleyway. After waiting a second to make sure she'd gotten the message, he faded into the shadows.

Jane crossed the street without stopping to think of the risks of meeting her terrorist brother in a dark alley. If he was willing to talk to her after all these years, instead of just letting her know he was around and then disappearing, she wanted to hear what he had to say.

Roman was leaning against the wall a short distance away, and she approached slowly, her hands held up and away from her sides to indicate that she was unarmed. He made no such gesture in return, which didn't surprise her. Of course he was armed.

"Hey, sis. Long time."

"Five years." Jane stopped just out of arms' reach of her brother, remaining wary, despite how happy she was to get the chance to talk to him. "Are you okay? Do you need money, food, a place to stay?"

He raised an eyebrow. "Gotta admit, that's not what I was expecting to hear. Last time we talked, you'd just beaten the shit out of me, and you had a gun pointed at my head."

"I let you walk away. And I wasn't the only one doing the beating." Jane sighed. "But you're my brother. If it's possible, I want you to be happy and safe."

He laughed at that, a little warmth coming back into his face despite his cynicism, and Jane felt a spark of hope ignite in her chest.

"How come you're letting me talk to you today? Every other time I've seen you, you disappeared before I could get to you."

Roman shrugged. "Might have something to do with your new bed partner." He nodded past her, back towards her apartment building, and she had to turn to make sure Kurt wasn't standing there, watching them. "I noticed you finally got around to getting together. Your first up close and personal interaction with the FBI in over half a decade, isn't it?"

Jane rolled her eyes. "You've been spying on me with Kurt? Really? That's just creepy."

"I left when the moaning started, don't worry." Roman looked vaguely uncomfortable. "Your neighbours probably all hate you right now, you know that?"

Jane covered her face with her hands for a moment, humiliated. "Seriously, Roman, I'm happy to see you, but what do you want?"

"To apologise."

Jane stared at him.

Roman shifted a little, sighing. "Had a lot of time to think. My memories started coming back pretty fast a year or so after the ZIP, and I remembered how you treated me as Remi, and how you treated me as Jane. How Shepherd treated us both, pitting us against each other, making our childhood a competition." He paused before continuing, "If I'd remembered everything at the time, I would have snapped Shepherd's neck when her back was turned. But I was mad at you for lying, and I went with her, and I fucked up my whole life."

"Roman," Jane whispered, stepping forward.

"You were right, you know. You're better now, as Jane. You're still you, but you've lost your darkness. Your bitterness." He grimaced. "I almost wish you'd given me as much ZIP as you got. You remember anything more?"

Jane leaned against the wall next to him. "Bits. Pieces. Something about you falling off a donkey on a beach."

Roman looked startled, then burst out laughing. "Because you pushed me."

"Hey, it's not my fault if you couldn't keep your seat."

"I was three years old!"

Jane laughed, and all of a sudden she was crying, and so was Roman. She took his hand and squeezed hard. "I never stopped thinking about you. Worrying about how you were, if you were in trouble."

Roman shook his head, sniffling as he wiped his eyes. "I've been keeping under the radar, especially when I visit the States. Been spending a lot of time in Nepal, actually. No extradition treaty to worry about if the Feds get wind of me."

"Nepal. That sounds…cold, mountainous and filled with Buddist monks."

"And so many goats." Roman grinned. "Actually, it's not that cold unless you're right up in the Himalayas. The south can be pretty nice."

"Do you speak Nepali?" Jane thought about it for a second. "Wait, do I speak Nepali?"

Roman said something in a language she didn't comprehend.

"Well, that answers that question," Jane said, shaking her head.

"I wanted to talk to you because I'm guessing Weller won't be moving to Los Angeles, so you'll be on your way back to New York at some point." Roman watched her carefully.

"He offered to transfer down here, but that's the way I'm leaning, yeah. Do you have an opinion on that?"

"Apart from that I can remember the old you saying you'd rather die than fall in love with a Fed… No." Roman shrugged. "It's your life. Weller always treated me with far more respect than I deserved, though some of that was probably to do with the way he feels about you. He seems to be a decent guy."

Jane nodded. "Why do you care if I'm moving back to New York?"

"It's not the moving that's important. It's the connection to the FBI. I know you're in touch with Reade, but since he transferred to Quantico he's not really of use to me. Weller could be."

Her mind skipping ahead to why a connection to law enforcement might be so important, Jane stared into space for a moment. "The perpetrators of the bombs that went off at the other field offices at the start of Phase Two were never caught. Are they regrouping?"

"New leader, new mission." Roman smiled grimly. "You never met him, but I did. Ruthless son of a bitch. He reached out to me about a year ago. I've been in communication, keeping mostly out of things because I'm the one the Feds know about, but doing enough behind the scenes that they trust me."

"You're offering to turn on them?" Jane asked, her burgeoning sense of hope growing.

"You took your immunity deal and built a life for yourself. I wish I'd done the same. I know Weller could never persuade the DA to give me a deal now, after I turned on you and helped Shepherd in DC. But maybe, with this, I could have a little tattoo studio of my own someday. Yours is nice."

"Do you want it?"

Roman just smiled, as if she were joking.

"No, I'm serious. If I'm moving back to New York, I need to either shut down or sell up. If you don't have money, you can consider it a gift until you're earning enough to pay me back."

"I have money. Been doing some K and R work in Europe. But if I'm a wanted man, I can't exactly take on a business."

Jane nodded. "I'll talk to Kurt, see what he can set up. Where's the new cell headquartered?"

"San Diego."

"They have a field office," Jane said, almost to herself. Then she looked up at Roman. "They might ask you to go undercover in exchange for an immunity deal, the way I did."

"I just want to live without looking over my shoulder. I'll do whatever they need. God, Shepherd would be so proud of us," he added sarcastically. "You probably going back to the FBI, dating the golden boy who fell off her pedestal… Me planning to turn state's evidence…"

Jane sighed, a headache beginning to build at her temples. "Can we talk in a few days? Set up a meet the way I used to call Joey's Pizza, maybe? Kurt leaves tomorrow, but he'll have to make some calls and set things up with the local team, the legal department for any kind of deal they can cut you… I'll know more within a week, I guess."

"Sure." Roman took a scrap of paper out of his wallet and scrawled a number on it. "Burner phone. Just call it when you want to set up a meet."

"Just like the good old days." Jane said wryly.

"I was right about you going back to the FBI, then?" Roman grinned. "I hope someone tells Shepherd. I can hear her cursing now."

"I'm considering it." Jane put her hands on his upper arms, making sure she had his full attention. "Be careful. Stay low. I'll get a burner of my own by next time we meet, so you can get in touch."

Roman nodded.

Impulsively, Jane wrapped her arms around her brother and squeezed hard. "I love you. I never stopped."

When he pulled back, there were tears in his eyes again, though he didn't let them fall. "Go on. You should get back to Weller."

Had Remi ever been able to tell him that she loved him, or had the orphanage trained all of the expression of positive emotions out of her? She hadn't expected Roman to say it back, knowing he would have the same hang-ups that her old self did.

Jane took a few steps towards the entrance to the alley, then hesitated and looked back. Roman had already slipped away into the night.

Kurt was done with the dishes and drying his hands on a towel when Jane came back into the apartment, moving with purpose. The smile of greeting on his face died as he realised she'd been crying, and her obvious worry and determination tipped him off that something was up.

"Jane? What happened?"

She gave him a tired smile. "It's okay, this isn't…about us."

Some of the tension left his shoulders, and he let out a relieved breath. "Talk to me."

Jane dropped down onto the couch and kicked off her sneakers. "You're gonna want to sit down for this."

Pulled between curiosity and concern, Kurt sat down beside her, and she took his hand. "Remember how we thought Sandstorm was neutralised? I just talked to Roman."

Kurt's muscles immediately tensed again. "What happened?"

By the time she'd finished filling him in, he was in full work mode, already beginning to strategise and recall what he knew about the teams based at the San Diego office. "I'll head into work tomorrow, straight from my flight. See what I can set up."

"Kurt, no." Jane surprised him by smiling. "Roman's known about this cell for a year. He'd have told me if an attack was imminent. You can take the rest of the day to get some rest after your flight. The world won't end."

He nodded slowly, and sighed. "I know. I'm just so used to moving fast where Sandstorm is concerned, I jumped straight back into that frame of mind."

"I love that you care so much about saving lives. But slow down." She laid her head on his shoulder. "Take some time to think some more. As long as I have a few answers for Roman in a week, that's all that matters at this point."

Kurt wrapped his arms around her and closed his eyes. "What are the odds? Less than forty-eight hours after I get a tattoo to commemorate the Sandstorm case, we get a new lead."

"You're gonna pass this one off to the San Diego office, right? Not try to handle it yourself?" Jane asked.

"I'll keep reviewing everything they've got, get you clearance in case anything about the way they work trips a memory for you. But they can handle the fieldwork." He kissed the top of her head. "You okay? Talking to Roman again is a big deal for you, even without this new Sandstorm plot."

She lifted her head to look at him, genuine joy in her expression. "Yeah. He wants to move on with his life, not throw in his lot with this new group. That's more than I ever hoped for. Do you think the DA will approve full immunity for him?"

Kurt hesitated, not wanting to give her false hope. "Truthfully? It depends what he's got, what he manages to do undercover, and the scale of the attack he helps us to prevent. If this is something on the scale of Phase Two, then I can't see a problem. Sandstorm holding up a liquor store? No deal. Anything in between could get him a reduced sentence, but something tells me he'd rather live on the run than spend time in a cell."

Jane nodded. "Yeah. Claustrophobes don't do well in eight-by-six cells," she said softly. "As awful as it is to say this, I hope what Sandstorm's planning is bad enough for Roman to get immunity."

"Me too." Kurt was surprised to realise it was true. Even knowing that Roman had killed Emma Shaw, and had helped Shepherd in DC, he'd genuinely liked the man he'd gotten to know in the short time Roman had been locked up in Zero Division. And considering that he'd fallen in love with Roman's sister, who'd had a larger part in Sandstorm's planning stages than Roman had… He couldn't exactly hold Roman's past misdeeds against him while ignoring Jane's.

"Thank you for not hating him. It means the world to me that you're willing to try to help him. You're a good man, Kurt."

"Or maybe Roman's right, and I just love you." He smiled a little as she shook her head.

"You'd do this whether or not we were still in touch. I know you." She sat up, turning to face him properly. "But since we are together, I figure I should tell you what I decided tonight."

Distracted by Sandstorm, he'd almost forgotten about Jane's dilemma. He took her hands in his, trying to figure out what was going on in her head. Would she want to stay here now, if her brother was going to be doing undercover work in California?

"I want to move back to New York. Go through Quantico. Sell my business to Roman, if he can get an immunity deal."

Relief flooded through him at her words. He'd been prepared to move here for her, but the version of the future she'd just described was the one he'd been hoping for. "Really? You want to work under me again?"

Jane gave him the same mischievous look she had earlier, when he'd had to stop her so she'd focus on making a decision. "In more ways than one."

Now there was no decision left to be made, he had no intention of distracting her from whatever she was planning. As she kissed him, she got to her feet and pulled him with her. Two steps towards the bedroom, he scooped her up in his arms and carried her the rest of the way, grinning at the sound of her startled laughter.

They only had tonight and tomorrow morning before he'd have to fly home without her. He planned to make the most of the time they had left.