Yes, I have finally, finally updated. As of right now, this is the final chapter, unless I come up with an epilogue, but I don't want to drag this story on forever.

Again (and until the end of time): thank you so much to all the people who have given me kind words and occasionally nudged me to continue writing. This one's for you.

By the time Cho arrives to take him home, Lisbon has left.

Their goodbye was awkward, stilted; it makes Jane cringe to think about it too much. There were so many things he wanted to say (namely: Will you stay if I ask you to? Please just stay. Please.), but in the end all he'd given her were some cursory words and a strained smile.

He kept thinking about her lips pressed against Pike's.

That's about where he's at when Cho knocks on the door to his room.

"Jane?"

He startles from his thoughts. "Hmm?"

"Are you ready to go?"

"Yeah," he says on a sigh. "I suppose I am."

He waits for Cho to say something. Anything.

They've been in the car together for ten minutes and he hasn't said one word. Jane is drowning in the silence. At this point he'd settle for anything, even a lecture. About his perpetual, drug-related stupidity or the evil of his conman ways or the fact that he looks like he's been run over by a bus three different times. Anything to get his mind off the way Lisbon looked as she left his hospital room. Anything to forget how her mouth curled downward in disappointment when he handed her a goodbye.

"The weather's nice," Jane says, and it's inane and hollow and lacking any of his usual charm, but maybe it'll work.

Cho doesn't take the bait. "Lisbon's gone."

It's not a question, but Jane answers anyway. "Yeah," he replies and then turns away to stare out the window like he's never seen Texas before.

Cho mutters something under his breath, but Jane doesn't have the heart to ask him to speak up.

He's never liked when people suddenly see him for the coward he really is.

It isn't until fifteen minutes later, in the parking lot of a gas station, that they speak again.

Cho's halfway out of the car when he says, "Do you want anything to eat?"

Jane pulls a face, glancing at the grimy windows of the gas station. Food from here would probably be a step down from hospital food, and it might just put him back in the hospital too. "I'll pass."

Cho nods. "All right."

When he comes back, he has a bottle of Coke in one hand and a pack of gum in the other. As he slides into the driver's seat, Jane realizes that he looks determined, like he's made a decision in the last few minutes. Cho opens his drink but then doesn't touch it, only keeping hold of a stick of gum so he can flick it repeatedly through his fingers. "You know," he starts, gaze focused out the windshield. He's watching the shimmer of afternoon heat radiating up into the dusty air. "I thought you were dead."

Jane flinches.

"I thought you were dead," he repeats. "I sat with you after I called for an ambulance and I kept trying to count your breaths...And then I thought about how I'd have to call Lisbon and tell her that I hadn't managed to keep you safe, even after I'd promised-"

"That's not your job," Jane says, relieved when Cho finally looks at him, eyes dark and challenging.

"Then whose is it?"

The truth pulls at him. His lungs don't feel big enough to hold all of the air he actually needs. "It's Lisbon's," he admits to the suspended stillness of the car.

Cho nods, mouth set in a thin line. He looks like he knew the answer all along and Jane realizes: they are friends, he and Cho. He'd been so caught up in the pain of losing Lisbon that he had forgotten he still had a friend with him. He'd forgotten that Cho had lost Lisbon too.

"I'm sorry," he manages.

Everything goes silent for a moment. They both watch a bird flutter down from the sky and start picking at crumbs on the ground. Then Cho says, "So you're just going to let her go?"

Jane stares, because it almost sounds like-

"She cares for you as much as you care for her, and if you let her get on that plane and leave again then you're an idiot."

His pulse thunders in his ears, loud and stuttering. Now or never. He swallows. "Take me to the airport."

The airport is practically empty, so while he runs up the stairs and through the terminal, Jane tries to develop a plan. He's always prepared, always has plans and counter-plans hidden away up his sleeve, but now he can't think of anything and it's terrifying.

What will he do? What will he say? What if she doesn't even-

"Jane?"

He jerks to a halt so quickly that he almost wipes out on the smooth linoleum floor. She's tucked away in a corner, bags at her feet, a magazine in her hands.

"Lisbon."

Her brow furrows. "What are you doing here?" she asks as he bends over, hands on his knees, trying to catch his breath. He misses the amusement pulling at her mouth when she says, "And why are you...running?"

"I need you to stay," he gasps out, mostly to the floor. He can feel his heartbeat in his fingertips.

Her magazine is shut now and she taps a nervous beat across the cover. She doesn't look amused anymore; she looks tired and sad. She looks like he's broken her heart one too many times. "Jane, seriously, I can't keep doing this."

He understands. He can't continue giving her half-formed promises and vague suggestions. She deserves better.

He needs to find the right words. The words to make her stay. Soft, gentle words? Coaxing words? Anything. "I love you," he says, as startled as she looks when the words tumble out, unbidden. "I'm in love with you. Now and forever and always. And the thought of you going back to DC to live out a life that doesn't include me..." Jane trails off, shaking his head. "I can't breathe when I think of that. And I know my offer doesn't even come close to Pike's, but I love you, and if you want me to, I will spend every day proving it to you."

"This has nothing to do with whose offer is better, Jane. It's about trust. And honesty."

He nods. "I know that now."

She watches him for a beat, scanning his face for something. She must find it, because then she smiles slowly. "Say it again," she whispers.

Jane walks forward, stopping only once his knees are a fraction of an inch away from hers. "I." He pauses, leaning down so that they are eye to eye. "Love." His hand slides along her jaw, holding her. "You."

He kisses her.

When they break apart, Lisbon's eyes are bright, bright green and her smile immediately goes into his memory palace.

"Took you long enough," she mutters against his lips.

Jane laughs, the sound ringing out across the mostly silent airport. "At least I didn't wait until you were on the plane," he says.

She grins. "Then you'd have had to find a way around airport security. I have a feeling TSA would not be your biggest fan after that."

He glances at her, making sure she can see the truth of his words on his face. "I'd do it anyway."

"Oh," she breathes, taken aback.

He kisses her again because he can.

This time when they pull apart, Jane speaks first. "Let's go home," he says softly. "Let's just go home."

They're curled up on the airstream's couch, a pizza between them, when she finally says it.

"You know everyone's been calling me about you for the past few weeks? Every time I picked up my phone it was Cho or Fischer or Abbott wanting to talk about you."

Jane shakes his head in mock annoyance. "What nosy people. Can't they mind their own business?"

"Oh hush," she says, poking him in the ribs. "They were worried about you."

He shakes his head again, meaning it this time. "No," he murmurs, reaching over to wrap a strand of her hair around his finger, "they just didn't want to have to deal with my antics anymore."

"I've missed your antics," she admits, moving the pizza box so that she can press into his side.

His arm automatically wraps around her, his lips find her forehead. "I've missed you."

"Is this what you're going to be like now?" she asks, laughing. "Physically affectionate and sappy?"

He shrugs. "I don't know, maybe."

Lisbon hums in approval. "I like it."

Then suddenly she is moving and pressing him down into the couch, hips bumping into his, and crap sometimes he forgets that she could beat him up. Her fingers flutter against the shell of his ear and then brush along his jaw, coming to a stop at his chin. She holds him like maybe he'll break under her touch.

"I like it too," he confides breathlessly, just before she leans down to kiss him.