Author's Note: Sorry for the delay on this! Work kicked my butt this week. Thanks to all of you who stayed with this story to the end. Hope this epilogue is worthy! And that we all survive tonight's episode with our sanity intact!

Epilogue

What a difference three months made, Lisbon reflected as she walked off the plane and into LAX hand in hand with her husband. The last time she'd been here, she'd been stressed, sleep deprived, and terrified that she'd walked away from her job and her life toward the unknown, with only Jane to rely on. Now she was relaxed, smiling, and eager to see what happened next. Her suitcase included a woolen sweater from Dublin, a scarf from Paris, shoes from Rome, and a bikini Jane had talked her into when they decided to make Bali their final stop. She wouldn't say she was a new woman, but she was a much happier one.

And she had memories to last a lifetime. They'd ended up going around the world, and it had been glorious. She'd seen and done things she'd never dreamed of, and she'd slowly unwound from the stress she'd been under during that final part of the hunt for Red John. She slept eight hours a night now instead of five, and her eyes never hurt from staring at a computer screen. She wasn't happy about the ten pounds she'd gained, mostly in France and Italy, but Jane claimed he liked the way she looked now and had seized on the excuse to shop for new clothes.

As they stood in line to have their passports checked, Jane pulled her against him and rested his chin in her hair. "Glad to be home?"

"We're not home yet," she pointed out, just to tease him.

"I meant in a national sense. It's nice to be able to read all the signage."

She chuckled. "This from the man who learned to say 'condom' in eight languages."

"Well, after your prescription ran out, I really had no choice, did I?" he replied, giving her a squeeze. "Abstinence was absolutely not an option. So it was either that or learn to say 'pregnancy test' in all those languages. And I assure you, that would have been much more difficult to pantomime." He stepped back and began making gestures, patting his stomach, making a puzzled face, and then—

"Stop," she laughed before he could complete pretending to pee on a stick. "There are minors in this line, most of whom are now staring at you."

"Meh. That's not nearly as racy as the condom one."

"That one I've seen," she reminded him with a grin.

"My favorite was the guy in Rome who tried to shame me into buying half a dozen boxes after he got a look at you," Jane grinned, putting his arms around her again. He put on his best Italian accent. "Signore, if you won't use them all, give them to her! She must not leave Rome without trying the local specialties! A beautiful girl like her will have her pick!"

"Is that what inspired you to try to make out with me in every tourist attraction in Rome? To prevent me from sampling any of the local delicacies?" As if she would go looking for more sex. She had no complaints in that department.

"No. That was simply because you are irresistible," he murmured, nibbling on her earlobe and shuffling backward as the line moved.

She was tired after the long flight, and the airport seemed overly bright and noisy, but standing there in his arms, she was content. They stayed that way as they moved with the line, ignoring the eye rolls as well as the knowing smiles of their fellow travelers.

Finally it was their turn to present their much-handled passports. The immigration official looked through them in surprise. "Purpose of your trip?"

"Honeymoon," Jane said, his tone implying that he was stating the obvious.

"Anything to declare?" the official asked, looking over the customs forms they'd had to fill out on the plane.

"I love my wife," Jane said. "I'm sure I can think of other declarations, but that's the first thing that comes to mind."

Lisbon elbowed him. "No, nothing to declare."

"Really? You aren't going to make a reciprocal declaration?" Jane asked with a wounded expression.

"When you least expect it," she replied with a grin. She was relieved when their passports were stamped and they were able to go pick up their luggage. Then it was just the inspection station between them and a cab ride to their hotel. They'd decided to spend a few days in the area so Jane could finalize the sale of his house, and she wanted to get it over with. She hoped it wasn't going to send him into a funk like accepting the offer had. It had taken a trip to Bali to experience his original version of their honeymoon to pull him out of that.

She was mildly annoyed when both of them got selected for the luggage search and directed to separate tables, but that quickly escalated to alarm when two armed officers approached Jane. "Patrick Jane?" one of them asked.

"No, I think he's somewhere behind me," Jane replied. Lisbon wished she was close enough to kick him in the ankle. One of the advantages of being abroad was that Jane had a harder time messing with officials when there was a language barrier.

"We weren't asking. You're to come with us," the other officer said.

"Wait a minute," Lisbon protested, taking a step toward them.

The woman searching her luggage said, "Stay here, ma'am!"

Lisbon turned, irritated that the inspector was holding the beautiful Hermes scarf Jane had bought her. Then she looked back at Jane, who said, "Don't worry, my dear. I'll be back in a minute."

"Why can't I go with him?" she demanded. "I'm his wife!"

They ignored her, escorting Jane out of sight. Lisbon felt a spurt of panic that she firmly told herself was irrational. But she hardly had time to calm down before the luggage inspector said, "You're good to go, ma'am."

Lisbon turned to claim her suitcase, asking, "What about my husband's bag?"

The other inspector was just closing it. "You can take it if you want, or we'll hold it for him."

Lisbon marched over and took Jane's suitcase, then pulled them both determinedly toward the doors leading out of the secure area. She had a suspicion, and she wanted to confirm it.

Out in the terminal, she found a corner with a bench and sat, pulling out her phone and dialing. A moment later, her call was answered with a "Welcome back."

"Not so much," she complained. "Jane just got escorted away by security guards. What's going on, Cho?"

"Did you read your email while you were gone?" Cho asked.

"Um...not lately," she admitted. She'd kept up with it in Ireland and then Paris, but after that she'd checked it only sporadically. It had been a couple of weeks now. They hadn't been anywhere near a wireless connection in Bali.

"Did you read the one where I told you I got hired by the FBI?"

"No. Congratulations!" She frowned. "Where are you, then?"

"Right now, some godforsaken shithole in eastern Texas," he replied. "Van Pelt is still in cybercrime, but she and Rigsby want to go independent as soon as they get some capital together."

"Good. I can't wait to catch up with everyone," she said.

"Liar," Cho said without inflection. "Right now all you can think about is Jane. Relax."

"Relax?" she echoed incredulously. "He's probably inciting them to water board him or something."

"They might want to, but they won't."

"Comforting," she grumbled. She sighed. "What do they want with him, Cho?"

"The same thing they wanted before. Since you blocked that, they've been waiting for him to come back."

"And now what?"

"Now," Cho said, "they're trying to make him an offer he can't refuse."

Lisbon groaned. "What do they have on him?" With Jane's past, there had to be plenty of dirt.

"I told them he doesn't respond well to threats," Cho said. "So they're trying the carrot instead of the stick."

She took a deep breath and tried to relax again. How could three months of hard-core sloth and frivolity vanish so quickly, leaving her tense and anxious like she'd never left? "What carrot exactly?" Jane claimed to have everything he wanted, so what could the FBI use to tempt him?

"The only thing Jane cares about is you," Cho said. "I told them to get you hooked and he'd follow you like a puppy."

"But they aren't even talking to me," she said, puzzled. Had someone decided to ignore Cho's advice? They must be idiots.

"Idiots," Cho said, making her lips twitch into a smile. "Well, what would it take?"

"To make them talk to me?" she frowned.

"To make you agree to be an FBI agent."

She sighed. "A job offer, for one."

"But what would it have to include?"

"Ideally, I'd like my team back." Why not ask for the moon, she thought.

"You can have me. Not sure the geeks are going to let Van Pelt go. And Rigsby says he's sick of bureaucracy and wants to be self employed."

"I don't blame him. Wait. I can have you?" It dawned on her, somewhat belatedly, that this might not be an entirely hypothetical conversation. What was it with the guys in her life? "Is this still a hypothetical conversation?"

"No. I assume you want Jane too."

"Of course. What fun would it be not having him to piss off every single person we meet? Remind me to tell you about Monte Carlo, by the way."

"Sounds like fun. Can you ever go back?"

"I can," she said, rolling her eyes. "Kimball Cho, did you order customs to hold Jane so you could blackmail me into working for the FBI?"

"How is this blackmail? This is two former colleagues catching up."

"Were you always this devious?"

"You just never noticed because Jane was worse," he replied. "So. Agent Abbott would like to take you to your hotel and talk money."

"Cho, we're here to sell Jane's house. This is the worst possible time—"

"No, it's not. It'll be a great distraction."

She sighed again. "Maybe."

"Lisbon. Seriously. We need you, both of you. You can make a huge difference here. What else are you going to do, keep house for Jane while he runs a casino or something?"

"The plan is for us to move to a little beach town. I'll become the sheriff while he opens a tea shop," she lied.

Cho snorted. "Yeah, right. Call me after you get bored. Should take about ten minutes."

"We've decided we like the low stress lifestyle."

"Bullshit. You want to catch bad guys. Come do it with us. We have cool toys."

He said it in such a deadpan tone that she had to laugh. "Fine. I'll listen to the offer. Now give me back my husband."

"You sure you want him back? I could disappear him if you want."

"Ha, ha. Yes, I want him back. Now, please."

"You got it. See you soon." He hung up.

Lisbon stared at her phone for a moment. When she looked up, a man in a dark suit was standing nearby, waiting for her to notice him. "Mrs. Jane?" he asked.

She still hadn't decided whether to change her name, but she'd been addressed by Jane's last name so much during their travels (due to his habit of introducing her as "my wife, Teresa") that she was beginning to get used to the sound of it. "Yes?"

"Your car is ready. May I help you with your luggage?"

"Knock yourself out," she said as she got up. "Where's my husband?"

"He's being escorted to the car." He took both suitcases, so she only had to manage the carry-ons.

She followed him out to the waiting limo, and he opened the door for her. She slid inside to find Jane waiting for her. Before she could say a word, he put his arms around her and kissed her thoroughly. "I missed you," he said when they parted, leaving one arm around her shoulders.

"I can see that," she chuckled. Then she tried for her game face, turning to Abbott and Fischer on the backward facing bench seat. "Hello again, agents. I take it you have a job offer for us?"

Jane chuckled in delight; he loved to watch her cut through other people's bullshit. Abbott, to his credit, took it in stride. "Yes. We'd like the two of you to come work for us."

"As consultants?" she asked.

"At first, yes. If you'd like to carry a badge again, we can arrange for you to go through our hiring process," Abbott said.

Lisbon looked at Jane. "What are you thinking?"

"I'm thinking you'd be the sexiest agent in the FBI," he replied. Which meant he wasn't prepared to say what he was thinking in front of an audience.

"We're prepared to consider a firm offer," Lisbon told Abbott.

"I'm pleased to hear it," Abbott said, eyeing Jane with exasperation. Lisbon guessed that Jane had given them a runaround back at the airport. "Here is our offer. I'd like to discuss it when you've had a chance to look it over. Breakfast?"

"Eight o'clock, our hotel," Lisbon agreed, taking the envelope. There was no way she was getting up any earlier than usual for this.

"Fine." Abbott leaned back, having accomplished his task.

Jane turned to Fischer. "So, Agent Fischer, how have you been?"

"Just fine, thanks. Did you have a nice honeymoon?" she responded.

"No. It was much, much better than 'nice,'" he said. "Wasn't it, my dear?"

"It was spectacular," Lisbon said, which was perfectly true. "Right up until the point where I got scared to death when my husband was escorted away by armed guards."

"Sorry," Fischer said. "We weren't sure you'd talk to us otherwise."

"Bullshit," Lisbon said. "We would have talked to Cho, and you knew that. That was payback."

Fischer grinned. "You have to admit it was earned."

Jane said, "See what we have to look forward to with them, Lisbon? Let's just go to Hawaii instead."

She rolled her eyes at him. "Maybe it'll be worth it to work with Cho again."

"Cho's FBI?" Jane raised his eyebrows.

"Yeah. Apparently not reading my email made us miss out on a lot." She couldn't resist the dig, since he'd complained about her quest for wireless access every time she'd managed to check her email.

"Ah. Well, that changes things, of course," Jane said airily. "If it's Cho asking, that puts an entirely different spin on the situation." He looked at Lisbon. "Is Cho asking?"

She sighed. "Yes."

"Then where is he?"

"Texas, apparently. On a case."

"Ah. So I gather there's travel involved," Jane said to Fischer.

"Some, yeah. The FBI investigates cases all over the country," she said.

"Hm." Jane looked thoughtful, but Lisbon thought he was just messing with the agents.

The rest of the drive passed mostly in awkward silence, but neither Jane nor Lisbon felt like making small talk. It wasn't until they were safely alone in their hotel room that Lisbon opened the envelope and they sat down to read. Jane was the faster reader, so he went first, passing pages to Lisbon as he finished.

"Well?" she asked when she finished.

"I think Cho definitely had a hand in this," he replied, leaning back in his chair. "And I think I'll call room service, since it's teatime."

Lisbon nodded. They both needed time to digest this before discussing it. "Do you want to call your real estate agent and set up the closing?"

"After tea," he said firmly. "But before sunset."

"Okay." She picked up the papers and began re-reading as Jane picked up the hotel phone.

mmm

Several hours later, they observed their new ritual of watching the sunset together in each other's arms, curled up on a lounge chair on their balcony. Lisbon was always reminded of how he'd used the sunset as the backdrop to leave her on the side of the road so he could confront the five Red John suspects without her; she wondered if he was trying to make it up to her, or if it held some other significance for him.

Jane murmured, "We won't get to do this much working for the FBI."

"Probably not," she agreed. "You think we should?"

"I think you're not going to be happy without a badge. And I need a source of intellectual stimulation. Why not the FBI? It offers more variety than the CBI ever did. Plus, there's Cho."

"Plus there's Cho," she agreed. "Are you going to go back to being a total pain in the ass at work?"

"Probably. A bit less secretive, maybe," he mused. "After all, you have a new set of interrogation options now."

She smirked. "And don't you forget it."

"Oh, I assure you I won't." He nuzzled her hair. "It is in my interest to keep you happy, after all. And I intend to."

"Good." She snuggled closer against him. "I intend to make you happy too."

"You do," he said softly. "Every day. Every time I open my eyes and you're still with me, I'm happy. And it just gets better and better the more time we spend together."

"Yeah," she sighed contentedly. "As long as we're together, everything is better. So you better never leave again, or I'll hunt you down."

"No more leaving," he promised. "Never again."

She twisted around in his arms so she could kiss him. "Never again," she agreed.

THE END