Two weeks.
Two painfully long weeks spent in the hospital Jane was eager to get the hell out of there. The two bullet wounds on her chest and shoulder still quite sore. The one bullet on her chest had grazed her heart, which required surgery that was a bit more complicated. If it weren't for that, she would've been able to get out much sooner. The nurses had just changed the curatives for her to be released and her arm was still in a sling. According to them, a few weeks of physical therapy and her arm would be as good as new.
The team was caught by surprise by a group of Russian drug dealers when they followed a tattoo lead to an address outside of the city, through the woods when she and Tasha were separated from Kurt and Reade. The girls got outnumbered and it was hard to keep track of all the shooter so one of them hiding behind a tree got her by surprise.
Everything that happened after that was a blur. She remembers having her fall cushioned by Tasha who carefully laid her down on the cold wet ground after skillfully shooting the last of the men. She informed their position on the radio to Weller and Reade come find them while she covered Jane's wound with the other. She remembers Kurt panic filled voice coming from the radio but she was already losing conscience. The next thing she remembers was waking up to the sound of the beeping of the hospital machines she was hooked up to and opened her eyes to find herself alone lying in a sterile hospital room.
Throughout the rest of the day, the whole team came to see how she was doing. They chatted about all kinds of things, which was a good distraction to the unpleasant pain that wouldn't go away. Everyone was talking except Kurt. He just sat quietly in the corner looking at Jane with a worried expression on his face. During the rest of her stay, Tash and Patterson were the ones that came the most to spent time with her, which wasn't very often since they still had to work and visiting hours were limited. Kurt visited her quite a few times, but never on his own.
She was more than ready to go home.
Yes, months after climbing out of that bag in Times Square she finally felt like the safe house as her home. After a long day of chasing bad guys or going through exams (she was going through the process of actually becoming an FBI agent) or simply staring at her tattoos all day trying to solve them, she was glad to curl up on her couch with a mug of hot chocolate and stare at her purple walls. Which she decided were her favorite color.
The place was even looking more like a home. One night the girls came over to have some wine and watch cheesy movies and they decided the place looked too bare and took Jane shopping for pillows, paintings, carpets and other things to brighten the place.
A knock on the door pulled her out of her thoughts. It was Kurt. He had refused to let her security details take her home. So here he was.
"Ready to go?" he asked, walking over to her and planting a kiss on her cheek. She smiled.
To say her relationship with Kurt Weller was complicated was an understatement. Jane never told him or anyone what happened a couple of months ago with Oscar and Carter. Everyone seemed to buy her story of her mysterious rescuer that didn't reveal his face. After some investigating that led to nowhere, they let it go. They figured that if someone was observing and protecting Jane, they would show up again, eventually. So life went on.
One night they went out for a drink after a successful case and as Jane exited the bathroom, Kurt came and kissed her senseless against the wall. Then one more time when they were alone at the surveillance van observing a suspect, and other times when no one was around, but they never went any further than kissing.
They knew the team was suspicious of them but no one ever said anything. They always found themselves unconsciously touching each other and they talked a lot, but never to define their relationship. Jane really wanted to; she wanted to be able to call him hers but didn't know how to approach the subject. For now, she was just glad he was there.
"Almost." She said putting the last of her belongings inside the duffel bag the girls brought for her with clothes and personal items for her stay in the hospital and struggled to close it up with just one hand.
"I'll do it, Jane." He said gently pushing her hand away and closing the bag and swinging it over his shoulder. "How are you feeling?"
"I feel great, but I just want the full use of my arm back. I don't know what I'm gonna do while I'm still on physical therapy and can't hold a gun or fight." She replied, frustrated.
"I know you don't like it, Jane, but you can use this time to help Patterson crack some tattoos and you can study for your tests to become an agent." He said as he picked up her coat, helped her good arm through one sleeve and put it over her injured shoulder and closed it up as far as it would go. "Now, let's go."
Jane agreed reluctantly as he grabbed her hand and they left the hospital.
The drive home was filled with comfortable silence. Jane was glad to finally be able to breathe some fresh air and observe the flurries falling from the sky outside and the snow that was already accumulated on the ground. She didn't remember what snow looked or felt like but she decided she enjoyed it. Kurt was just happy observing her be mesmerized by the snow outside.
As she opened the door to get inside, she found out the house wasn't empty. Tasha, Patterson, Reade and even Sarah were all gathered around the kitchen counter having an intense conversation. Jane also saw Sawyer sitting on the couch quietly playing his video game. As they spotted Jane they all cheered and walked over to greet her as if they hadn't all just seen her a couple of days ago.
"It's so good to see you out and about, Jane!" Said Tasha, while she and Patterson carefully pulled Jane into a group hug. "Grumpy Pants over there was getting really annoying to work with without you there." She whispered so loudly everyone heard it and all nodded in agreement, much to Kurt's embarrassment.
"Hey Jane, I'm glad you are not dead." Said Reade squeezing Jane's good shoulder.
"Umm…thanks?" Said Jane.
"What?" Said Reade when he saw everyone's stunned faces. "Who am I supposed to teach all about football if she was dead?" They all laughed and walked over to the counter to pour drinks.
Conversation and laughter filled the small living room. The girls gathered on the table while the Reade, Weller and little Sawyer watched a basketball game on TV.
When the game was over, Sarah tucked Sawyer into Jane's bed while Kurt, Reade and Tash set up the table to play poker while Jane and Patterson continued chatting on the couch. Jane didn't know or didn't remember how to play poker ("Finally something you can't do!" said Tasha.) and Patterson claimed to be the worst poker player in history.
Money was lost, Reade and Zapata bickering like an old married couple proved to be a great source of entertainment and Jane laughed at Patterson's childhood stories so much that her stomach hurt. From across the room Jane could see that Kurt's eyes were often set on her instead of the game.
It was well past 1AM when the conversation died and the games were over. All the beer was gone, the wine was gone, and so was all the food.
Sarah and Jane occupied the two chairs in the leaving room. Reade was sitting on the floor with his back against the couch, his head hanging back as he moped about how he had lost way too much money on the poker table and lamely accused Tash of cheating while she sat on the other end of the couch muttering about him of being a sore loser. Patterson sat by herself on one of the kitchen stools spinning the bottle opener on her fingers and giggling away about God knows what. She really had a low tolerance for alcohol.
Weller seemed completely sober as he walked back inside, brushing the snow off his sweater. "The cabs are here, guys."
Sarah was the first to move. Having responsibly chosen not to drink, she got up to get Sawyer who was asleep on Jane's bad for hours. She can back to the leaving room followed by a very sleepy child and hugged Jane.
"Thank you, Jane. I had fun tonight. I really needed it. I'm glad you are okay." She said.
Jane hugged her back. "Thank you for coming, Sarah. I hope I'll see you soon." Sarah did visit Jane on the hospital once. Jane decided that she really liked Sarah, even though their first meeting ended badly and they only met a handful of times. She let Sarah go and sat back on the chair.
"Oh I know you probably will." Sarah said, gave her a knowing wink and walked away, leaving Jane stunned and left.
She observed as Kurt walked over to Patterson and helped her up. She clearly had a hard time standing straight so he guided her to the door, helped her put on her coat and button it properly.
Jane always loved watching Kurt interact with both Tash and Patterson. He had such a care for both of them, always so attentive and protective, always doing little things for them, always asking how they were doing and paying attention to whatever they are telling him, whether it was interesting to him or not. Like a big brother. It was endearing and one of the things he loved about him.
"You look very handsome today, agent boss." Said Patterson as he handed her purse to her. She held tightly to his waist and he had his arm over her shoulder. He laughed and Jane watched his ears turn bright red at her comment. "Bye, Janie!" she yelled as Kurt lead her outside and into the car.
"Bye!" Jane laughed.
Reade and Zapata didn't stay long after that. They were sharing a cab since they lived near each other. They said their goodbyes and left while Kurt started doing the dishes and Jane was collecting empty beer and wine bottles.
"Thank you for organizing this, Kurt. I appreciate it." Jane said as she finished her glass of water and he sat next to her after he was done making her kitchen look spotless.
"I didn't do much, really." He said resting his hand on her thigh and squeezing it softly. "They love you, Jane. They wanted to celebrate the fact that you are okay." He smiled. He didn't smile that often, but every time he did, she felt her insides melt and she decided she wanted to do everything she could to see it more often.
"I had fun." She said resting her hand on top of his on her leg.
"I did, too. But I've been waiting to do this all night." And he kissed her unexpectedly. His lips demanding as his tongue collided with hers. Always minding her arm in the sling and the wound on her chest, he carefully lowered her down to lie on the couch and placed himself on top of her. One of his arms he used to hold himself up so he wouldn't crush her and his fingers entangled in her raven hair. The other hand was everywhere; it started on the back of her neck, slid all the way down her back, past her hips and over her bum and settled on the back of her knee as he pulled her leg to hook it around his body.
As his mouth slipped from hers and he started to leave wet, open-mouthed kisses on her neck, she realized that as good as this felt, they needed to talk and she would take this opportunity now since their moments alone together were limited.
"What are we Kurt?" Jane blurted out.
His lips froze on her skin and she could feel his whole body stiffen against hers. He pulled his lips away from her and met her eyes looking confused.
"What?" He asked. She would have thought his confused expression was adorable if she wasn't trying to be serious.
"I mean…" She pushed his chest for him to sit up and he helped her into a sitting position too. "Are we going to keep kissing every chance we get and then not talking about it? Sneaking around? I… What are we doing, Kurt? I'm sorry…I'm not good at this. But I have feelings for you and I don't want to keep feeling like this if it's just one sided. I don't want to get hurt."
"Ah…I'm not good at this either, Jane. I have feelings for you, too. I don't want to hide what we have." He said and she couldn't help but blush and bite her lip bit trying to hold back a smile. "But what happens if Mayfair gets me off the case because we are in a relationship? I don't know I would feel to have you going out on the field with me. Without knowing if you are okay. What if you get shot again? There was so much blood, Jane! And I wasn't there to protect you! And…"
"Kurt, okay, okay." She interrupted. She was so touched about how worried he was about her. "I understand. Agent or not, I still want to be with you on the field." She said, bringing her hand to rest on his stubbly cheek. "But I want to know I am more than a girl you make out with when no one is looking."
"You are so much more than that, Jane." He placed a quick kiss on her lips. "We don't see Mayfair that often. We only have to worry about her in the office. We can tell the rest of the team. Although I'm pretty sure they already know and have a bet going on when we'll come clean. And when your case is over we won't have to worry about anything anymore."
She just nodded and smiled at him. She didn't know what to say, but she was so grateful to him and so happy he felt the same way about him as she did about him.
"So how about I come here next Friday? I'll cook us dinner, bring some wine and good movies? Not the sappy ones the girls have been making you watch." He said.
Her smile was radiant. "It's a date."
"It's a date." He agreed.
"Stay?" She asked timidly as she ran her fingers through his soft short hair.
As if he could ever say "no" to those eyes. He would definitely be in trouble in the future because of those.
"To sleep only." He said and helped her get up from the couch and they walked hand in hand to the bedroom.
She went into the bathroom and struggled with changing her clothes to a loose oversized t-shirt and a pair of shorts. She briefly wondered if she should ask him for help to get dressed…or just undressed would be more than fine with her. Not now, Jane she thought.
She came back into the bedroom and found Kurt lying on her bed over the covers with his hands behind his head and his ankles crossed. His shoes on the floor by foot of the bed.
She laid next to him and rested her head against his chest. After a few moments of silence, Kurt was surprised when he felt her teeth nibbling at the skin on his neck. He thought she was already asleep.
"Jane" said Kurt, a little out of breath while she kissed him down his chest. Her hand slipping under his shirt. And his involuntarily coming up to stroke her back. "Jane. This is not going to happen while you have one arm and a bullet hole on your chest. You are supposed to let your body rest so it can heal." He said. He rolled them over and held her face, kissing her lips, her cheeks, her nose and her closed eyelids. He was so caring and sweet it made her feel like butterflies were flying. "You need to sleep. It's been a long day."
"Fine." She said, sounding like a stubborn child who was just denied ice cream. He couldn't help but smile at her expression. She settled back against his chest.
"You don't have to stay in your jeans, you know? I'm not gonna jump you again and it can't be comfortable to sleep. She said hooking her fingers in his belt loops."
He grunted in agreement and got up to remove them. He was wearing black boxer shorts that looked ridiculously good on his muscled thighs and left little to imagination. It took all of Jane's will power to keep her promise and not jump him again.
He also unbuttoned his shirt and removed but much to her disappointment, he was wearing a white t-shirt under it.
He rejoined her on the bed but instead of resting her head against his chest, she faced the other direction and pulled his arm around her so he would spoon her and her injured arm would be in a more comfortable position.
He settled his face into her neck and inhaled the sweet scent of vanilla from her shampoo.
"Good night, Jane." He whispered.
"G'night." She replied already half-asleep.
AN: Constructive criticism is really appreciated.