Reversed: The Epilogue

I've had a blast writing this fic – my first with role reversal, one of my longest ever and my first to reach and pass 100 reviews! Thanks so much for reading and reviewing and supporting all my fics!

I also apologize for the use of the name Sacramento Trinity, the hospital they're in. Who knows if it exists? I made it up from the top of my head, but it sounds pretty realistic, no?

Disclaimer: Nope, still not

She woke to a steely smell, an artificial coolness and a chorus of beeping.

Her eyes opened with effort and she was greeted by a terribly bright light that made her close her eyes immediately again.

That and a headache to end all headaches.

As her eyes got used to the very bright red beneath her eyelids, she immediately started observing with her other senses. And immediately she gathered that she was in a hospital, hooked to a beeping machine, lying on a terribly uncomfortable hospital bed under nothing but a flimsy government-issue blanket that wasn't nearly warm enough to shield from the fierce air conditioning.

When her eyelids opened slowly, her observations were confirmed. And her headache three-folded.

What happened? She thought to herself.

Gingerly she turned her head to the side to find a nurse or a doctor or anyone that could refresh her memory as to how she ended up in this bed.

What she saw didn't just send the memories of the past night streaming back to her like someone opened the floodgates, but it also knocked the wind right out of her.

It was him.

Patrick Jane.

Lying in the bed beside her, still as she's ever seen him. Was she just panicking, or was his machine horrifyingly still? Why wasn't the steady beeping of a heart monitor coming from him? Why was he so pale and so still?

He wasn't… No, he couldn't be…

Her panic must've somehow alerted the nurses, because before she could utter a word there was a crowd of them around her.

"Miss Lisbon? Miss Lisbon, how are you feeling?"

She tried to answer, but the only thing that came out of her mouth was a wheeze-like sob of some kind.

One of the nurses called a doctor, and a red-haired doctor with a cropped hairstyle and a calm expression walked to her bedside.

"Miss Lisbon, please calm down. You are in the overnight hall at Sacramento Trinity Hospital. Do you remember what happened?"

"J-Jane… Is he okay?" She managed.

A smile tugged at the corners of the doctor's mouth. "Agent Jane is fine, Ma'am. And if you calm down, you'll see so yourself."

And sure enough, she could see the gentle, ever-so-slight rise and fall of his chest. He was fine.

She sighed, relieved.

The doctor was now smiling without attempting to hide it. "Now let's try this again. How are you feeling?"

"I'm fine. I've got a hell of a headache, though."

"Well, that's to be expected. You took a hell of a fall going down apparently. Plus you just came off anesthesia. It takes a toll. I'll get a nurse to bring you something for the pain." The doctor starts scribbling something down on the file.

"When will Jane be waking up?"

"He has been up. Reacted pretty much exactly the same way about you." She said without looking up. "Don't worry about it; he'll be up again soon enough. He's a fighter that one. Took an ugly bullet to the chest, just barely missed his lung – we thought he was done for sure at one point, but he's doing great. You were lucky, Agent Lisbon. It was the fall to the ground that gave you a concussion. It seems that Agent Jane jumped in front of you… Kept any bullets from hitting you."

As the doctor left, Lisbon was left speechless. She couldn't take her eyes off of him.

This was a hell of a trip they've been on.

But now, finally, her past can be put behind her. Red John is dead and her mission of vengeance with him.

She doesn't know how long she lies there staring at him. Could be mere minutes, could be several hours.

But then he wakes up – his eyes slowly creeping open before shutting quickly, wincing at the bright light.

She chuckles and it catches his attention.

"Lisbon?" His voice is raspy.

"Uh-huh?"

"We're in the hospital…"

"I know."

They lie there for a few more moments.

"So it's over?" He asks gently.

"Yeah…" She says, unable to keep the joy from her voice, the tears from springing to her eyes. "It's all over. Finally."

He smiles that smile of his that she's always loved and extends his hand carefully across the gap between their two beds. She does the same and their hands find each other, fingers interlacing.

"Now don't take this the wrong way, but you look like crap." He says in his teasing tone.

"You should see you. Apparently you acted as a human-bulletproof vest for me… Thanks, by the way."

"Don't worry about it… Lisbon?"

"Uh-huh?"

"I love you."

Lisbon smiles brightly and looks into the eyes of the man who saved her from everything – her past, herself, even flying bullets.

"I love you too…"

A nurse approaches their beds, awkwardly getting their attention.

"Uh, I'm sorry to interrupt, but I've got three agents in the waiting room who've been waiting to see you. Should I tell them to wait?"

"Oh no, please send them in." She says.

Then she turns to her boyfriend, Patrick Jane, the man she's been on the journey of a hell of a messed-up lifetime with and smiles.

"We've got all the time in the world."

END

One last review? For old time's sake? Love you all for reading!

Zanny X