The plane touched down and Meghan could immediately sense the nerves pulsing through her beautiful boyfriend's heart. Trey had been checking and double-checking with her in the weeks leading up to their spring break visit to Austin.

"So, they definitely know, right?"

"That we're a couple now? Of course, silly! As if I didn't tell Brendan after our very first ice cream date!" She smiled, playfully swatting at his arm.

He let go a relieved sigh. "And… your mom and dad know too?"

Meg had to chuckle. "My mom and dad have seen us as a couple - or at least as a potential couple - since the summer we met! But to answer your question: Yes. They were my second phone call that night." She grinned wide. "They said they thought it was a sign, that our first date had been for ice cream. Apparently sharing a sundae has been something of a tradition in their own relationship. They took great pleasure in mentioning it."

"Okay. Good." Trey smiled his warmest smile, and pulled his magical Megs in for a grateful kiss. "So, remind me when Brendan gets in?"

"He and Briar land tomorrow morning. I can't wait to meet her! She sounds really cool!"

"No one will ever be cooler than you, though, Megs." Trey glimmered. "Not to me, anyway."

Meghan couldn't stand the tingles that were set off in her from that comment. How lucky was she, that an amazing human like him would say such things to her. "Love you, Trey."

"Love you, Megs." Grinning ear to ear, all his nerves dissolved into adoration.

With that, Meghan Jane's favorite quirky composer gave her a squeeze, then helped get their bags down to exit the plane.

"MEGHAN ELIZABETH!" A tough-girl voice called from the end of the jetway.

"ANNIE! I've missed you so much!" Meghan ran and nearly tackled her cousin in a hug.

Trey stood, smiling awkwardly, not having met this relative of Meghan's yet.

Meg saw his shyness and jumped into an introduction: "Trey Hernandez, meet my amazing cousin, Annie Lisbon!"

"Annie Lisbon Wylie." She corrected with a wink, reaching out to shake hands with Meghan's handsome beau.

"What?! When?!" Meghan bubbled with excitement. She knew that the two had coupled up after the whole Barlow incident years ago, but hadn't heard that they were married.

Annie laughed nervously. "Well, you're actually the first to know - aside from our parents, of course. Jason and I had been a couple for years, and we were both happy with things as they were. But a couple weeks ago, we had dinner with Roddy Turner and - you remember Caitlyn, right?"

"Yes! We're actually really close friends!" Meg sparkled in recognition. "But wait… you had dinner with Caitlyn and Roddy Turner?! After that whole rigamarole with the bounty and hauling him into the FBI with a hood over his head?!"

Annie laughed hard at that memory. "I know, right?! We still crack up about that! But seriously, Dad and I felt so bad for all poor Roddy had been through, once we realized the truth of his story. We kept in touch and helped him out with a few things afterward. We've all become pretty good friends."

"How nice! I'm so glad things worked out!"

"Me too!" Annie got back to her story: "So, we were chatting over dinner at Jason's apartment, and a song comes on the radio - I can't even remember what song - And Roddy just breaks down in tears. Caitlyn told us that he gets like that sometimes when a memory hits him, anything about her late mom, Eileen."

"Oh. That's so sad." Trey said, putting a comforting arm around Meghan, as her green eyes filled with Lisbon-like empathy.

"I know," Annie agreed, "Roddy got ahold of himself long enough to say how sorry he was that he hadn't married Eileen sooner. And went on for a while about how much time they'd wasted deciding on each other, when it had been clear to both of them from the start that they were soulmates of the highest order."

Meghan grew teary, reflexively pulling Trey a little closer with the arm she'd been resting around his waist.

"Once the Turners had left for the night, Jason told me that he felt that same way about me, and asked did I agree."

"And you did?" Trey smiled, eyebrows up.

"And I did!" Annie laughed. "We actually have been married for less than 24 hours. We just went to the courthouse yesterday and finalized everything!"

"Well CONGRATULATIONS!" Meghan and Trey joined in a group hug with Annie.

"Thanks! But please don't tell anyone else. At least not yet. We're throwing a party tomorrow night and everyone has been invited to come. We plan to make the official announcement then, so want to keep it a surprise for now."

"Understood!" Meghan grinned. "But," she smirked and raised an eyebrow, "you've met my parents, right? There's a chance I won't have to say anything for them to figure it out."

"Ha! No worries, Meghan. If they guess, they guess. But try to keep our secret until tomorrow if you can." Annie winked.

"Absolutely! I'm so glad we got to see you today, Annie. Thanks again for picking us up!"

"My pleasure, Meghan. And so nice to finally meet you, Trey. We've been hearing great things about you for such a long time!"

Both of the visiting lovebirds picked up their bags and followed Annie to her car. Meghan beamed the most magnificent smile as she caught Trey blushing in response to Annie's last sentence.

"Knock knock! Did anyone order a pizza?" Annie laughed as she stood on the front stoop of the Jane house with Meghan and Trey. The two students glanced at each other, rolling their eyes and laughing at Annie's joke.

The door swung open wide, and the bunch were greeted with huge hugs from Lisbon and Jane.

"Meghan Elizabeth!" Jane grinned full-wide in adoration of his and Lisbon's first born, enveloping the girl in an enormous embrace. "I have missed you so much, my dear."

"Love you, Daddy. I'm so glad this trip worked out!"

"Thank you for doing the pickup, Annie!" Teresa hugged her niece, in gratitude, before turning to grab the hand of the ponytailed pen pal her daughter had brought home. "So wonderful to see you again, Trey. Welcome!"

"Thanks Mrs. Jane. I appreciate you inviting me." He smiled nervously.

"Ah, yes!" Jane let go of Meg and walked over to Trey. "Mr. Hernandez, of pen pal fame!"

"Yes sir." Trey looked down, shyly and smiled.

Meghan threaded her fingers through Trey's and squeezed his hand. "Dad. Stop."

"I'm sorry, Trey. It's just that I don't get nearly as many chances to tease Meghan's dates as I'd like, these days." He glimmered with his usual mischief.

"Beware, Trey." Meghan warned, with a sly smirk and a side-eye to her father. "If you're not careful, he might try to hypnotize you."

"Touché, my dear!" Jane countered, grinning and putting his hands up in surrender to his past guilt on the subject of post hypnotic suggestion and boyfriends.

As he and Lisbon ushered everyone inside, and helped with the luggage, Patrick proceeded to share the whole sordid tale about how poor Blake had never made it to the second date after he had stuck his dad-nose in where it didn't belong.

"You know what, Mr. Jane?" Trey crowed, with a sudden burst of courage, "I don't mind one bit that you did that! Who knows - if Blake had stuck around maybe Megs would be at Texas right now? Or even…" he gasped in mock horror, "UCLA!"

Meghan bubbled over with laughter, playfully punching her jokester boyfriend. "THAT would NEVER happen, Trey Hernandez! How dare you!"

Lisbon and Jane smiled knowingly at each other, as the two coeds recovered from their bout of overt flirting. It was clear that Trey and Meg were wonderful together. They were so pleased to see their precious girl so happy.

"Well Trey, at any rate, we're glad that Meghan has found a home at USC and in Southern California. It's a region that still holds wonderful memories for her mother and me."

"True story." Lisbon smiled, resting a hand on Jane's shoulder.

"AND, I should add, we are especially grateful to see that she's found such a trustworthy friend, and such a loving companion in you, Trey." Jane extended his hand. "Not to gloat, but Teresa and I saw this coming ever since The Hotel Cafe." He winked as Trey grinned and returned the handshake, with confidence.

After catching up with her parents over a typically delicious Jane-cooked meal, Meghan took Trey on a tour of the house she had grown up in.

"Here's the office where Caitlyn was hiding from Sean Barlow."

"Wow… I still can't believe the way you stood up to that creep!" After a minute to think, Trey backpedaled. "Okay, actually I can absolutely believe that!" He grinned as Meg tickled him in retribution for his tease.

"Here is the staircase that Brendan dropped his tape recorder on - the one that helped Dad and the FBI find us when we'd been kidnapped by Mom's psycho ex-boyfriend." She beamed with pride at that memory, and how her mom had the skills to hold everything together long enough for them to be found.

Trey had heard all these stories before, but something about seeing where they had happened made them all seem that much more real. "Thank God for that tape recorder, Megs. I don't wanna think about how dull and monochrome my life would be if something had happened to you before we met."

Stopped in her tracks, by his sudden sincerity, Meghan balanced carefully on the top step and gave him a quick kiss. "You are so sweet, Trey Bear. I love your heart."

"Megs, you are my heart." He smiled, shyly, holding her hand. The two walked slowly down the hallway, gazing deeply into each other.

This is what I've always wanted, Meghan thought, someone to look into me as deeply as Mom and Dad have always looked into each other.

Her thoughts were interrupted by her father's voice, shouting from downstairs. "Anyone for ice cream?"

"In a minute, Dad! I'm giving Trey the grand tour!"

With her dad appeased, she took her boyfriend by the hand, and led him to the last door on the right.

"This is my room!"

"Did you paint these murals?!" Trey was amazed, eyes looking all around at the Chicago cityscape, the carnival scene - that Meghan had insisted on keeping, even when her parents offered to update her room when she turned thirteen - and his eyes fell, finally, on the Pacific Coast seascape. "What you mean to me?" He wondered aloud what that meant.

"Yes. It's a long story, but…"

Meghan filled him in on the significance of that phrase, and how it brought her parents together after the many hardships they'd endured, individually and together. Then she connected that story to the homecoming game, when he had confessed to keeping all of her pen pal notes.

"That's when I knew."

"Huh?"

"You told me you wanted me to know 'what you mean to me.' That's when I knew that I loved you. I mean - I think I've always known, deep down, that I did. But hearing you say those words, after growing up thinking about how magical that phrase was, it snapped my focus to what you have always meant to me. That's when I knew."

"Oh Megs." Trey was too choked up for words, so just held her tight for a good long while.

He had been planning something for this week in Austin that had seemed a little risky. But Meghan's words just then made the risk seem much less. They made his plan seem more like a sure thing.

After the house tour was over, Meghan dished out ice cream for them both. As she did, Trey ducked outside and quickly called Brendan, who was slated to perform at Annie and Jason's party the next night.

"Hey Brendan! I know - me too! Can't wait to hear you play tomorrow, and can't wait to meet Briar! Yeah, flight was great. No, I'm calling because I was hoping… Well… Can you and Briar do me a favor?"

Meghan and Brendan agreed. It seemed that every single person they had known, growing up, was at Annie and Jason's 'wedding announcement' party/reception. Both of their 'plus one's' looked absolutely shell-shocked at the number of introductions they'd had to endure. The siblings each assured their dates that there would not be a quiz on all those names. The laughter that followed that comment was cut short by a voice from the makeshift stage in Jason's media room.

"Hey everyone!" Annie spoke enthusiastically into the microphone, with Wylie by her side. "As you know, Jason and I have been inseparable ever since my dad and I stormed the Austin field office a few years ago."

The audience burst into snorts and chuckles at that memory.

"Thanks for that, by the way!" Cho called from the kitchen, causing another round of laughter.

Jason took the mic. "But what you don't know, is that Annie and my relationship status has changed significantly."

The crowd fell silent, eyes wide, jaws loose.

Annie leaned into her favorite tech-geek/gamer and spoke into the mic as he held it. "A week ago, Jason asked me to marry him—"

She was cut off by sudden applause and happy cheers.

Jason continued. "And as of two days ago, we are now officially married!"

"WHAT?!" Teresa's jaw hit the floor, and her eyes began to leak joyful tears. She stormed the stage and pulled the newlyweds into a fierce hug. "Oh my god Annie, I'm so happy for you both! Jason, welcome to the family! Congratulations!"

She was soon joined onstage by Jane, and Cho. Before long, practically everyone was squeezed into the performance area to offer their wishes to the happy couple. Once the cheers died down, Annie shouted without amplification, inviting everyone back to the kitchen for dessert. Briar and Brendan began setting up with their local musician friends shortly after.

An hour or so after Annie and Jason's big announcement had occurred, Brendan and Briar started their second set with an unexpected tune.

All heads turned to the stage as the opening bars of Mr. Postman rang out - complete with Annie and Caitlyn joining in to create the authentic girl-band sound the song required.

No one was more surprised, though, than Meghan Elizabeth Jane.

As the crowd got into the groove, singing and dancing along to the Motown classic - which Briar pulled off with the vocal prowess of a seasoned pro, Trey grabbed Meg by the hand and began dancing her all around the room.

Meghan began giggling uncontrollably as she delighted in this typically silly tango her love was leading her into. She started to put things together in her mind, though, when he danced them further and further from the party crowd, ending the disco in the Wylie's back yard. As the final muted chords of Mr. Postman sounded, Trey pulled Meghan close to his chest, kissing the top of her curly blonde head.

"Thank God for ground-level apartments." He chuckled.

"I agree! I haven't had that much fun dancing since the homecoming game! Thanks for re-creating the moment" Meghan bubbled. "I've never heard my brother play that song - or any Motown song for that matter. Fun, but weird, ya know?"

"Yeah, I know." Trey looked side to side, nervously, unable to keep the truth from Megs for very long. He could never get anything past that girl.

"Trey?" Meghan's arms were crossed, and her right toe was tapping on the lawn. "Spill! What are you hiding- or… what are you trying to hide from me?"

She giggled, both eyebrows raised expectantly, smiling with the all the proud bravado of a Jane. Her cute love had to know nothing he tried to conceal would ever get by her.

Trey sighed, with a short nervous burst of laughter. "Okay, Megs - Ya got me! I asked Brendan and Briar to play that song tonight. As a personal favor to me."

"You what?" She was thoroughly amused. "Why? For nostalgia or something? That's so sweet, Trey Bear!"

She snuggled into him, loving that she'd found a man with such a big heart. Her appreciation for that trait, the very trait her mother always openly adored in her father, had come into focus that same summer she and Trey had met. She didn't recognize their connection as a romantic one back then, but she had, since, reasoned that it was her ability to see into his heart, and to recognize it for what it was, that had drawn her to him so strongly in those early days.

"Megs…" He began, tentatively. "I don't want to be like Roddy Turner. I feel like… I mean… Do you feel that way about us?"

"You mean, that we're soulmates of the highest order?" He was so cute when he got all shy like this. She could barely stand it.

"Yeah." He found the courage to hold her gaze, communicating his deep sincerity without need for words.

Her answer came in the form of a tender kiss, and a gentle massage of his stubbly cheek, the back of her fingers tracing his jawline adoringly.

"Megs, I can't even breathe when I think that after graduation, we might be far away from each other again." Trey whispered, his voice shaking.

"Me too, sweet Trey." Meghan suppressed a sob, at the thought, pulling him into a fierce embrace.

"I love you so much, Meghan Elizabeth Jane. You are everything magical in my life." He leaned back, and gazed into her eyes. "Ever since the music camp showcase, that's been true."

"I love you too, Trey Manuel Hernandez," she sniffled. "It scares me just a little, how much I adore you."

"Don't be scared, Megs," he smiled his warmest smile, and knelt quickly. "Marry me."

"What?" Her misty eyes grew suddenly wide. She wanted to be sure she hadn't imagined that last part.

Still smiling, and sensing her lack of trust in her own ears, the young composer pulled a small velvet box from his pocket, and revealed the most breathtaking diamond his favorite Jane had ever seen.

"I'm serious. I want to marry you. Please?" He balanced the ring in one hand, and gently grasped Meghan's fingers with the other. "We'd never have to be apart again? Please say yes, Megs."

"I would love that more than anything, sweet and wonderful Trey! Yes! Let's get married!"

After the party, and after celebrating Meghan and Trey's wonderful news, Jane and Lisbon found themselves alone on their back deck, relaxing into the sultry Austin evening. Nearing retirement, they were pondering the ways their lives were about to change, with both children graduating in the next couple years, and at least one wedding in their future. Patrick had just pointed out that both of them had healthy amounts of personal leave saved up, from their many years of service following Teresa's tireless work ethic.

"I don't suppose I could talk you into an early retirement, my dear Lisbon?"

"And do what? Travel the world with a charlatan conman?" She reveled in the playful jab, nudging him with a smile.

"Yes! What if we just left? Just went away? It would be like our earliest days, my dear. Starting right after you rescued me from myself on the beach." He grinned with extra sparkle, at the thought of it, wrapping her in his arms, swaying them both side to side in a silent slow-dance.

"Mmm… that'd be nice." Teresa smiled and closed her eyes, leaning fully into this man whom she'd loved to her core, for longer than memory. "I would adore reliving those times, sweet Patrick." She looked up with soft, sincere eyes. "The butterflies are still there, you know… whenever I look into those blue eyes of yours… whenever we touch… whenever I let myself think about you… and me… and how we got here."

Jane shivered with emotion, stopping the dance to allow for a stronger embrace. "How delightfully sentimental, lovely Lisbon." After a long moment, he loosened his grip enough to make eye contact with his dearest love. "I love how, even after all these years, you're still a mystery to me."

"I am?" She smiled in victory "Not so transparent after all, eh, Jane?".

"Oh, hush." He grinned, proud of himself at stealing one of her favorite lines.

"You hush, yourself." She gave him a playful shove, flirting furiously.

Patrick shimmered with adoration for his beautiful Teresa, positively glowing with anticipation for their future travels. "We should start making a list now! Should we retrace any of that first trip?"

Lisbon leaned into him fully, looking into the sparkling blue pools she so adored. "I like the sound of that, handsome!"