So here it is, the conclusion to this fun story. I stayed true to my word, I am posting this before the season premier. I haven't watched it so it counted even though I believe it's airing as I type and has possibly already aired for some of you. Well, by the time you read this it will most likely have aired for all of you. :p But I stand by my reasoning that since it's before I've seen the episode, it still counts. :) Thank you to everyone who read, reviewed and put this on story alerts or favourite stories. Super thanks go out to those of you who've put me on author alert or favourite author, whether before this story or during. :D

Arbitrary

"I can't believe you did that." Lisbon hissed at Jane as soon as the doctor left the room. She'd been unsuccessful in trying to weasel her way out of this one. She thought that she'd be fully justified in taking her anger out on Jane.

"What?" Jane asked, looking genuinely shocked.

"You know exactly what you did. I can't believe you would put me in that position." Lisbon said.

"Come on, honey. You know that you'd just be worried about be if anybody else were to take care of me and that you'd end up doing it yourself just to put your mind at ease. I just cut out the middle man so to speak and diffused all pretences." Jane said.

"That is beside the point." Lisbon started.

"Actually, I think you'll find that this is exactly the point. Don't pretend that you don't care about me just as much as I care about you. Not now. We both know the truth and you're not even convincing yourself with your lies anymore." Jane said; his face completely serious with a hint of desperation.

"Just pack your stuff up and let's get going." Lisbon grumbled. "I'm not spending another minute in this godforsaken hospital." With that she stormed out of the room to fill out the discharge papers that she was sadly familiar with.

"I don't think that the forms pose a threat, so you can stop stabbing them with your pen." Jane whispered in her ear. She nearly jumped ten feet in the air.

"Goddammit Jane!" Lisbon screeched. "Didn't anyone ever tell you not to sneak up on people? Oh yeah, I did, about fifty million times. When will you listen?"

"When will you? You keep brushing off everything I say. You act like you're pissed at me but you're not. You're trying to shut me out but you should know by now that it's only going to make me push harder to force myself in." Jane said. "And yes, I realize now the dirty connotations to that sentence, no I didn't realize before I said it."

Lisbon barked out a laugh at that as Jane turned away to hide his slightly florid complexion. He started walking towards the exit, anxious to escape.

"You said something about not staying another minute in this godforsaken hospital?" Jane shouted over his shoulder.

Xxxx

"Here it is: my humble abode. Or not so humble." Lisbon said, opening the door to her apartment wide so that they could enter her sanctuary. It may be messy and chaotic, but it was organized chaos.

"It's lovely my dear. We're still not married?" Jane asked out of the blue.

"No Jane, we're still not married. Not since the last time you asked or the time before that. I know you're not slow at grasping information so you're just doing this to annoy me. You're going to stop and you're going to stop now." Lisbon said in her no-nonsense voice.

"I apologize. Sincerely." Jane said, looking deep into her eyes. "The whole ordeal is still a little fuzzy in my mind but that we're married is crystal clear, which really isn't all too clear but for the sake of this metaphor, let's call it so."

"I realize that this must be strange and confusing for you." Lisbon said sympathetically.

"Could you tell me what happen just before and right after I was drugged? I was told I passed out and hit my head so my recollection isn't too great. How's the case?" Jane asked all in one breathe.

"Slow down there. I'll fill you in on everything you missed. Just make yourself comfortable and I'll make us some tea." Lisbon said, already putting the kettle on the stove. She dug out some mugs from her cupboard, she seriously needed to do the dishes, and grabbed the tea bags from her pantry. She walked over to the living room and sat down beside Jane when the tea was ready.

"Okay, so we arrived at Lee's place to ask him some more questions and he ran. You remember that much?" Lisbon started.

"Yes. That rings a bell." Jane said, taking a sip of his tea.

"So I tried to get the situation under control when you showed up, even though I told you to wait at the car, and Lee freaked. He put his gun to your head and you just had to play games with him. The vial you took from his vest contained an unstable drug. It wasn't explosive, just spontaneously decomposed into its gaseous form. SO you decided to play with it, there was a bit of a struggle between you and Lee and it crashed to the ground. The now-airborne drug affected you primarily and Lee secondarily. By the time I got to you two or anyone else did, it had dispersed into the air so it didn't affect anyone else. You passed out and hit your head on the ground pretty hard." Lisbon said, her eyes glazing over as she remembered.

"What happened with Lee?" Jane prodded.

"He became surprisingly co-operative. Or rather, not so surprisingly now that we know he was under the influence of the drug. Once Cho and Rigsby got him back to the CBI he confessed to the murder. It was pretty straight forward from then on. Very interesting." Lisbon said with a smirk.

"Well, that's awfully boring. I'm glad I was in the hospital for that, I didn't miss anything good." Jane quipped.

"Hey, don't knock the good police work." Lisbon teased. "It's how cases are solved all across the nation."

"Not our cases." Jane said, bumping her shoulder affectionately.

"No, not our cases." Lisbon said softly, almost wistfully.

Jane brought his hand up to Lisbon's check, caressing it as he turned her head to face him. He stared into her eyes, losing himself in their depths. His hand didn't lie still for long before tracing an intricate and unconscious pattern up to entwine with her dark locks. Her breathing turned shallow and she seemed locked within her shell of a body, unresponsive and unwilling to move.

"Do have any notion of how beautiful you are? Any notion of what you do to me?" Jane whispered.

"I know I cause you to have minor memory lapses when it comes to whether or not we're married." Lisbon quipped, her eyes darting down to his lips as she willing them to approach her own.

"Alas, I lied. I knew as soon as I woke up with you in my arms that we were not married. But I also knew then that I'd be damned if I let you go." Jane said, unable to resist her magnetic pull and drew closer to her inch by inch.

"You mean to say you played me?" Lisbon said, eyes widening in anticipation as well as shock.

"Yes, but what a beautiful game, don't you agree?" Jane said. He didn't give her pause to answer before he united their lips in a kiss that they'd both been longing for far too long.

I'm really happy with the ending. I don't know about you guys but that's how I feel. If you feel differently, well, I blame online dating. Not that I've tried it but I feel like it's worthy of the blame here. How about you let me know your thoughts on this story? Or if you just want to talk about how online dating is or is not to blame? I'd accept that too. :p Please leave a review! :D