This is set in the same universe as "The Apathy That Has Made Us," but further down. In fact, I'm currently working on a longer piece that comes after that first story, but before this little drabble.

This image wouldn't leave my brain for the last two days, so I decided to embrace it. I highly suspect this will become a series of drabbles. I suspect I will want to play in this 'verse often.

Out of the Woods

Enchanted

It's all enchanted and wild
It's just like my heart said
It was going to be
("Out of the Woods" Nickel Creek)

Tucked against his shoulder, she was warm and wonderful. With his palm curled against her back, he could feel each soft little breath. He was lost in the tranquility as she slept against him and his own breathing begin to match hers. For so long he had been lost in his own pain, lost in his own vengeance, and then he had simply been lost. He had forgotten what it was like to hold someone so close-to be the protector. She was a soothing balm to his healing heart.

She sighed out a tiny yawn, all pink tongue and curled lip. The small yawn shuddered through her body and her fisted hands unfurled before closing back up.

"I feel the same way, my love," he crooned against his daughter's soft downy head. At the sound of his voice, she settled back against him.

Looking up from his perch on the leather sofa in the FBI bullpen, he studied his wife as she pecked out an email. It was Lisbon's first day back on the job since giving birth, and while Jane would have preferred to keep his new family tucked away in their one-floor ranch house, he knew she would never agree to that.

Instead, they had dropped their daughter off at the daycare center on the second floor before traveling up to their office, doing their best to pretend it was any other day. But it wasn't. Lisbon remained on desk duty, and Jane refused to leave the building without her. When Fischer requested his assistance with questioning a witness for a case, Jane ran circles around her until the witness was brought to him. It had been just as well, since the man knew nothing and had simply based his account of the crime from local news reports.

Several times throughout the day, under the guise of going to the kitchenette to make fresh tea or grabbing a piece of fruit for Lisbon, Jane would find himself on the elevator heading to the second floor. He would slowly edge by the daycare center, looking around at the other parents, the teachers and caregivers. His newborn daughter slept mostly, and he would peek at her in the bassinet, relieved and filled with love.

During their lunch break, he and Lisbon had slipped down to hold the baby, and rock her to sleep. As the hour ended he had gently tugged Lisbon away from the bassinet, running his thumb over her knuckles as she clutched his hand. In the elevator, she wiped her eyes and squared her shoulders, readying herself to face the bullpen. For the hundredth time in their partnership, he marveled at her strength. Before she could step from the elevator, he dropped a kiss in her hair. She gave him a warm smile and ran her fingers down his lapel. After one final wink, they broke apart with Lisbon heading to her desk and Jane heading to his sofa.

That afternoon, on the fifth trip to get Lisbon a piece of fruit, Jane spotted Cho as he turned down the hall outside the daycare center. Cho had no reason to be on the second floor, since it was mainly human resources departments. But Jane wasn't about to call him out on it; the more protectors his daughter had, the better he felt.

Sipping his tea, Jane had watched as the minutes ticked by, inching closer and closer to 5 o'clock. At 4:56PM he stood up and stretched. After dropping his tea cup and saucer in the sink, he circled back around to Lisbon's desk.

"I need twenty more minutes." She didn't look up.

"Teresa," he softly admonished. "It's your first day back from maternity leave-I think you can put a pin in whatever cold case you've been hunched over all day. It will be no colder in the morning." He didn't bother hiding his frustration. He had waited all day to take his family home, and it was finally a reasonable hour.

"Twenty more minutes." She looked up this time, her green eyes softly pleading. "You go get Emma and bring her back here, show her what Daddy does all day." Lisbon tossed a glance over her shoulder at his sofa, one eyebrow arched.

And with that, Jane found himself sitting on his sofa, his daughter sleeping against his shoulder while his wife leaned over her keyboard finishing one last email. The twenty minutes had turned into thirty-five, and Jane was giving her five additional minutes before he bundled his family into the SUV. At the moment, he was far too content listening to the soft sounds his daughter made, feeling her pleasantly warm weight under his hand.

Moments later cool fingers brushed a tuft of hair back from his forehead.

"Hey, my sleepyheads." Lisbon's silky voice broke through the pleasant haze and Jane realized he had nodded off for a few minutes. Opening his eyes, he saw his wife smiling down at him, her fingers caressing their daughter's head. "Time to go home."