Disclaimer: Not mine. If it were, there would be way less plot and way more kissy-face.

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She poured out Swann's tea, inquired "Lemon or cream?" and, on his answering "Cream, please," said to him with a laugh: "A cloud!" And, as he pronounced it excellent, "You see, I know just how you like it." This tea had indeed seemed to Swann, just as it seemed to her, something precious, and love has such a need to find some justification for itself, some guarantee of duration, in pleasures which without it would have no existence and must cease with its passing –

" Jordan!"

She tore herself reluctantly away from the book, realizing only after she looked up that no one should be yelling her name. No one here even knew her name…but there was Woody, running toward her in complete disregard for the cultured atmosphere of the stately second-floor reading room.

She couldn't get away from him now; he was too close. Instead, she found her bookmark with numb fingers, marking her place before setting the book aside and rising to greet him.

"Woody…" She bowed her head, closing her eyes against overwhelming emotions. "You shouldn't have come here."

" Jordan, shut up and listen to me," he demanded. Her eyes flew open in surprise; Woody had never spoken to her that way before.

"What –"

" Jordan," he repeated, taking her hands in his and looking deeply into her eyes. " Jordan, you're not dying."

"Oh, Woody," she sighed, squeezing his fingers as her lips quirked into a sympathetic half-smile. "I'm so sorry…if there were anything I could do, believe me, I'd do it. You know I'm a fighter. There just isn't any treatment for this. I've accepted it, and you're going to have to –"

"No, you don't understand," he interrupted, shaking his head. "The MRI – the one you saw? It wasn't yours."

"What?" she said again, unable to believe the words. It wasn't hers? But that would mean…

"There were two Jordan Cavanaughs in the radiology department that day, and there was a mix-up with the records. The other Jordan already knew he had cancer; he's been seeing an oncologist for the last two years. You saw his MRI. Yours was normal."

"God," she breathed, her knees going suddenly weak when his words sank in. Woody caught her before she could fall, helping her sit down. "Woody, are you serious?"

"I saw your scan myself. There's nothing wrong with you, Jordan."

"Nothing?" she repeated dumbly, and he shook his head, kneeling down in front of her.

"Dr. Macy said you have a textbook brain," he elaborated. "You don't have cancer. And I need you to tell me that you haven't taken those pills you prescribed yourself."

"No," she whispered, half-surprised that he knew about them. Sure, she'd told Macy in the letter she'd left for him, and she'd figured he'd tell Nigel and Bug, but she hadn't really expected them to tell Woody. Something about the young detective's naiveté made them all want to shelter him from the harder truths of life. "No, I – I wanted to finish my book first. Swann's Way…I never got through it in college." She smiled weakly at him. "One of the great regrets of my life. The last one I've got left."

" Jesus, Jordan," he breathed, and then his arms were around her, pulling her to him in a crushing hug. "I thought I was going to lose you. If you weren't here, I wouldn't have known where else to look."

"How did you know I'd be here?"

"Lily saw you leaving the Wyndham this morning," he explained, resting his chin wearily on the top of her head. "I found your list in your hotel room. This was the last thing on it; the only thing that wasn't checked off. I took a chance and got lucky. Thank God I found you in time."

"I'm not dying," she said softly, the words strange on her lips. "I'm not dying…"

Without warning the floodgates holding back her emotions broke, and tears coursed swiftly down her cheeks. Woody held her as she started to sob, rocking her gently in his embrace.

"It's okay, Jordan," he whispered, his hands rubbing soothing circles on her back. "Everything's okay now."

He let her cry herself out on his shoulder, trying to ignore how good it felt to have her in his arms again. For all he knew, she'd change her mind about their relationship now that they were actually going to have the opportunity to have a relationship.

When she'd collected herself, she straightened up in her chair, pulling away from his embrace, and his heart sank.

"Woody," she began, but he shook his head.

"Look, Jordan. You told me that you loved me…you promised that you wanted to be with me, that you didn't want to leave me. I'd hold you to your promises, but the situation was pretty unusual. I mean, you thought you were dying. So if you – if you want to take them back –"

She pressed a trembling finger to his lips, quieting him.

"I thought a lot about my life this week," she whispered, silent tears slipping down her cheeks. "And I realized all of the things I've missed out on because I was scared to get too close to people. I don't want that with you, Woody. I don't want you to be the one I remember…the one I let get away. I love you, Woody, so much that it hurts just thinking about not having you in my life. Please don't leave me. I can't lose you again."

He pulled her into his arms, kissing the top of her head as she started to cry in earnest.

"You will never lose me, Jordan," he promised her, softly but firmly. "I love you more than anything else in this world, and I am never going to leave you. I just had to make sure you still wanted this now that it's not just for one night. I want you forever, Jo. I've always been playing for keeps."

"Then you win," she told him, snuggling against him. "I'm done running, Woody. I want to be with you."

It was shaping up to be an extremely poignant moment…and then Nigel came sprinting in, a wide grin spreading across his face at the sight of Jordan alive and unharmed.

" Jordan!" he exclaimed, flinging himself at the pair and engulfing them both in a hug. They all laughed, joy mixed with relief, and Jordan felt a stinging at her eyes that had nothing to do with sorrow. It had taken a death sentence for her to figure out how much she loved the people in her life, and now the sentence had been lifted. She had a lifetime to keep on telling them just how much they meant to her, and she was going to put it to good use.

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A/N: My God, it's finished! I thought it would never happen:) And they lived happily ever after...