Disclaimer: I do not own Jane or Kurt or Blindspot. Writing about them is simply the outlet for my obsession.
A/N: Ohhh, this story… how I love it… and so do many of you, based on your very kind reviews. Thank you all for your feedback so far, and I hope you like this chapter just as much. This story is just SO much fun to write (especially as a breather from The Aftermath, which I'm now alternating with).
Sarah Weller looked up from the small kitchen table, where she was sitting with her coffee, when she heard a door open, then listened as shuffling footsteps came toward her. A few seconds later, a very sleepy Jane and Kurt appeared from around the corner in the direction of the hall that led to the bedrooms. She'd been wondering when those two were going to be up. Sawyer had been up by seven and was begging to go to the beach, so she'd held him off by letting him watch cartoons… but she knew that that would only last so long. Now it was 8:15 and while she didn't want to leave without at least talking to them, since she was sure they'd be heading down to the beach too, she'd known that if she hadn't seen them soon, she would have had to just see them later.
Jane smiled in Sarah's direction, but shuffled into the bathroom at the end of the hall instead of turning toward the kitchen. Sarah smiled at Kurt knowingly, having figured out what must have happened after she and Sawyer had crashed the night before. Or, she thought she knew what had happened. Truthfully, she wasn't sure what was going on between her brother and Jane. Like everyone else who knew the pair, she assumed that there was something between them… and they had just come out of the one other bedroom together, after all…
Kurt walked casually over to the table and sat down across from Sarah, looking at her steadily. "So… should I have asked a few questions about this beach house before we left New York? Like… the number of bedrooms?" he asked her evenly. "Because you could have mentioned that."
Sarah pressed her lips together to suppress a laugh, but her smile was unstoppable. She's enjoying this way too much, he thought.
"Oh?" she asked innocently. "Was that an issue? I guess I should have asked you about that… I just kind of assumed…" she waved one hand vaguely in the air, which apparently was supposed to substitute for the rest of her sentence.
"You assumed… what, exactly?" he asked her, more curious than anything, but kept his tone serious.
There was one thing to be said for her FBI agent brother, Sarah always found, and that was that when he wanted to, he could make her feel guilty of something even when she actually wasn't. She fidgeted in her chair, now wondering if he was actually upset with her, or just giving her a hard time.
"Oh… um… you know…" She was blushing, and she knew it. Had she made a mistake? Surely they… "Was it… a problem?" she asked, trying to recover from her sudden doubt. "I mean, no one was on the couch when we got up…"
Now it was Kurt's turn to be flustered. Because no, neither of them had taken the couch, and no, when it came down to it, there was no problem. In the end, he had actually found that he'd liked being put into that situation. If there had been two rooms, it would have been a question – and knowing the two of them, it would have meant either an incredibly, painfully awkward conversation, or simply a night spent separately… and despite the fact that no, nothing had happened… well… in a way, something had happened, even if he couldn't quite say what it was. No, he was actually glad things had happened the way they had. So why was he giving Sarah a hard time, exactly? Suddenly he wasn't sure.
He fought the discomfort he felt, but didn't show, over being put on the spot by his sister, and mumbled simply, "No, it wasn't a problem." She looked at him as if she was expecting more information, but he gave her none. She just nodded, a smile creeping back across her face. So her guess may not have been exactly right, but it had been pretty close.
"Oh, ok. Well… good," she replied simply. Jane came out of the bathroom then, approaching the table and sitting down beside Kurt, looking from one of them to the other.
"Good morning, Jane," Sarah said cheerfully.
"Good morning," Jane replied, trying to work up to Sarah's level of perkiness but still feeling pretty sleepy, and wondering why she felt like she'd just walked into the middle of something. She couldn't quite put her finger on what, exactly, but there was slight tension in the air between the Weller siblings.
"Do you guys want coffee?" Sarah asked, pointing over her shoulder toward the counter where there was a small coffee pot. "There's more."
Kurt looked at it warily. "Did you make it?" he asked her suspiciously.
Sarah made a face at him. "Yes, I did, and I'm drinking it, and I'm still alive."
"I'd love some," Jane replied, attempting to make peace between the two. After all, she had a feeling she knew the topic of the conversation that she'd missed, and that it involved her just as much as it involved Kurt. She wondered whether he'd given her a hard time about it… even though in the end, things had turned out just fine. Better than fine, even. With that thought on her mind, Jane smiled slightly, glancing at Kurt as she stood up and walked to the counter, where two mugs were sitting beside the coffee machine. Turning around to lean her back against the counter, she asked, "So do you want some, Kurt? Or are you too scared?" Her eyes sparkled mischievously.
Kurt sighed, shrugging. "Sure, why not? If we die, at least we die together." Jane stifled a laugh, turning around to pour the coffee so that she didn't show her amusement in front of Sarah, who had reached across the table to swat at her brother in mock indignation. Not only did she find the statement funny because he was playfully teasing Sarah, but it was also a cute thing to say. She repeated his words in her head. If we die, we die together.
Of course, neither of them had any intention of dying, and both had been in numerous situations, even just in the time they'd known each other, where death had been a distinct possibility – which was why the idea of death by his sister's coffee was such a joke. Still, even the implication of solidarity of dying together because of Sarah's bad coffee… it just made Jane smile. Or maybe it was just being around Kurt that was making her smile. Either way, she knew that she was grinning like an idiot, and she was pretty sure there was no way to stop it.
Kurt stood up and walked to the bathroom while Jane got the coffees ready, then she brought both of their mugs to the table, setting his down by his empty chair and looking across the table at Sarah, who was beaming at her.
"So, did you sleep well?" Sarah asked Jane, who couldn't help but feel like Sarah was fishing for more information than just whether or not she had slept well – which, of course, she was.
"Yes, really well, actually. Yesterday was a really long day – we'd had a long week, really – and we were both pretty beat. Work has been nonstop. In fact, I could probably have slept the rest of the day, if I had nothing to do. But I'm really excited about the beach. Thank you for inviting us," Jane replied, happy to chat with Sarah, even though she knew she was being interrogated.
"You're welcome," Sarah replied. "I'm glad you guys could make it." Something in her eyes told Jane that she'd just told her exactly what she wanted to hear, though she wasn't sure what that could be. She had a suspicion it had something to do with Kurt, and she wondered what Sarah had said to him while she had been in the bathroom.
Kurt wandered back to the table then, walking up beside her. She glanced back up and over her shoulder at him, smiling, as he neared the table, and she couldn't help but notice that just before he pulled out his own chair, he laid his hand on the back of hers for a few seconds. The backs of the chairs were low, and his fingers brushed against her back lightly. Sarah was watching them carefully, and though she said nothing, the smile on her face seemed to intensify immediately, which meant that his gesture hadn't gone unnoticed. Not that either Jane or Kurt really cared what she had seen or not seen.
Jane wondered if he'd even noticed what he'd just done, or if it had been on purpose. It wasn't the kind of thing he usually did, but then again they were usually at work together, where he had to keep a professional distance from her. Either way, she realized that Sarah wasn't the only one smiling about that particular little detail.
They sat at the table beside each other, their chairs six inches or so apart, and drank their coffee, which Kurt would later admit that Sarah had not messed up, somehow. Sarah got up and took her empty cup to the sink, asking, "So, do you guys want some toast? Because that's about all the breakfast food we have here…"
"I grabbed some cereal when I was packing up the food back at home," Kurt volunteered. "But… I guess we don't have any milk. Well, we can pick some up later." He looked at Jane.
"Toast is fine with me," she replied, looking back at him.
Kurt turned to back to Sarah. "Yep, toast is good," he said. Sarah, smiled once again, much more broadly than just a regular, happy, smile, popping two slices of bread into the toaster. Something was clearly on her mind, and it wasn't much of a stretch to figure it out. Kurt just hoped that she kept it to herself. If she could do that, she could grin at them all she wanted. He sort of felt like grinning himself, actually, though so far he was pretty sure he wasn't actually doing it… Well, not too much, anyway.
"So, once you guys get dressed, do you want to head to the beach? Sawyer was up at the crack of dawn asking to go already, but I managed to hold him off," Sarah said, looking over at where her son was watching cartoons. "He has his sand toys packed up and everything. He can't stop talking about the time we were at the beach with Uncle Kurt, remember?" she asked Kurt. "Out on Long Island years ago, when you taught him to make a giant sand castle? He said this year you're going to be his assistant, though."
Kurt smiled at the memory of the amazement on Sawyer's face. He'd only been about four at the time, but Kurt had helped him build a huge sandcastle, possibly the best one Kurt had ever built. Sawyer had been devastated a little while later, when the waves had knocked it down as the tide had come in, and Kurt and Sarah had had to work hard to console him. There had been ice cream involved, if he wasn't mistaken.
The toast popped up, and Sarah grabbed it from the toaster, dropping it onto plates and spreading butter on it before bringing it to them at the table. She sat back down across from them and grinned back and forth from one of them to the other. Kurt wasn't sure how much he could take, but at least she was happy, and she was still being quiet about it… though just barely.
"So, you already have your bathing suit on and everything?" he asked her, hoping that the answer was no and she'd a reason to leave them alone for a minute.
"Nope, you're right, I need to go get ready," she said, standing up and pushing in her chair. She smiled at them both one more time, then reluctantly walked around the corner and down the hall toward the bedrooms.
"I think her face is going to crack open if she smiles any harder," Jane observed. "Is that about… us?"
"We had a talk about the bedroom situation," he told her, finally cracking a smile against his will. Jane smiled slightly, blushing. "I'm not sure what she was assuming… but…" He didn't finish his sentence, but the meaning was pretty clear.
Jane chewed on her toast, not saying anything, feeling her cheeks grow warmer and warmer. When she finished chewing, she stopped and looked at him, smiling, but biting her lip. Was he trying to tell her something?
He watched as she looked at him in confusion, smiling back at her reassuringly. He turned towards her slightly in his chair, moving his leg so that it touched hers, leaving it resting there. The movement had clearly not been an accident, and Jane found that she was actually just a little bit dizzy for a second, just from that small contact. Then, while her head was still spinning a little bit, his voice broke through her thoughts.
"Don't worry, I told her that it wasn't a problem," he said quietly. She released her lip from behind her teeth and smiled shyly, glancing down at the table and thinking back to waking up with him snuggled up behind her. She took another bite of her toast as an excuse not to have to say anything, chewing slowly and finally looking back up and nodding at him. He shook his head at her and just smiled. He'd finished his toast, and she was close to finishing hers. "Do you want another piece?" he asked her. She was still a little bit lost in her memory of that morning, and it took a few seconds before her brain caught up and she was able to answer. Actually, her stomach was flip flopping a little bit just then…
She shook her head, willing her voice to work. "No, thanks," she said finally. He gave her a knowing smile, as though he knew something about her – a secret that was amusing him perhaps – and he stood up slowly, picking up his plate. His leg was no longer against hers, and she immediately missed its warmth, but to her surprise, as he slowly passed behind her, he laid his hand on her shoulder for a few seconds on his way back to the counter, removing it only reluctantly when he could no longer reach her. She turned to look at him over her shoulder as he did, smiling in surprise, sure that she was blushing once again. At the counter, he put another piece of bread in the toaster, then glanced at the coffee machine.
"There's more coffee over here, if you want some more," he told her.
"Yeah, sure. It wasn't bad," she said, standing up slowly. "Are you having more?" She glance at his empty cup, wondering if she should bring it over as well.
"Yeah, sure," he said, nodding slightly and smiling at her.
She didn't want to appear too eager for the excuse to follow him to the counter, so she tried to take her time moving in his direction, all the while wondering if he had offered her coffee so that she'd walk over and stand by him at the counter. Or maybe it was just her who thought of getting more coffee as an excuse to stand closer to him… but if she had to judge by the look in his eye, despite the fact that he was looking at her innocently, she'd say that it wasn't at all a coincidence.
She walked over to him at the counter, stopping almost as close as she could be to him without them actually touching, handing him his mug. For a few seconds after he took it, they simply looked at each other, both looking slightly embarrassed. Reminding herself to keep breathing, she took a small step back, turning to the coffee machine and setting her mug down on the counter. She picked up the carafe of the coffee and refilled her cup, then looked at him, holding the pot ready to pour more coffee into his mug as well. He reached over and put his mug down on the right of hers, which, since he was standing to her left, involved reaching in front of her, which he did slowly and, she was absolutely certain, deliberately.
Again, she had to remind herself to breathe as she poured coffee into his mug, replacing the coffee pot on its burner. He picked up his mug very slowly, withdrawing his arm from only inches in front of her and setting his mug down closer to him on the counter. They were still standing mere inches apart as she concentrated determinedly on adding her usual favorite combination of flavorings to her coffee, trying to calm her racing heartbeat. Picking up her cup, she turned around and leaned against the counter, facing him, as she took a sip, then put her mug down.
He had been leaning his back against the counter, waiting for the toast to pop up, and watching her carefully from the side. When she turned toward him, it didn't go unnoticed, and he turned to face her as well. There were only a few inches between them, and once again he felt that she was incredibly close and yet much too far away at the same time. They were staring at each other now, and when the toaster suddenly popped up, it startled Jane to the point where she jumped slightly. She immediately laughed at herself, turning toward the counter and picking up her coffee, looking away from him as he chuckled to himself.
If he were someone else watching them from across the room, he had no doubt that it would be rather hilarious to observe how awkwardly they were acting with each other. He spread butter on his toast, took a bite and then set it down on his plate. After pushing the plate a little farther back on the counter, he turned toward her and took half a step forward, so that he was now within an inch of her. She stood perfectly still for a second, looking down at her mug self-consciously, then picked it up and took another sip of her coffee. Replacing the mug on the counter, she then turned slowly, now facing him again, and looked up at him, waiting to see what he would do. He wasn't really sure what he was going to do, only that even this close, he still felt like she was too far away from him. She had to remind herself again to breathe, not knowing that he was doing the same thing inside his head.
Just then they heard a door open, and Sarah came bounding around the corner, now wearing a t-shirt and shorts over her bathing suit. "Ok, I'm—Oh, sorry, I…" she stopped, shaking her head and chuckling. Shaking her head, she said, "I'm sorry, you guys are just too cute."
Jane felt herself blushing all over, and she was fairly sure that there wasn't an inch of skin on her body that hadn't just turned pink. Kurt had taken a deep breath, releasing it slowly while staring at Sarah with a look she couldn't quite read. He didn't look unhappy, but he didn't quite look happy, either. Actually, neither of them looked upset, exactly, but they did both looked like they'd just been caught. It almost reminded her of high schoolers who got embarrassed to be caught with their first crush. Seeing her older brother act like this… really, it was too adorable for words.
Seeing that they were both now completely embarrassed, she finished the sentence that she'd originally started before she'd actually come into the room – because at this point, saying something besides how cute they were was better than the awkward silence. "So, I'm ready. Whenever you guys are ready, we can go." Sawyer had just stood up from where he'd been enthralled by the TV at the far end of the room, and he noticed Jane and Kurt standing there for the first time.
"Jane! Uncle Kurt! You're coming to the beach, right? Hurry up and get ready!" he said, walking toward them excitedly. The kid may have been eleven, but he was just as excited about the beach as he'd been when he was four and they'd built the sandcastle together.
"Okay, okay, we'll go get ready right now," he assured his nephew. He turned towards Jane, who was still standing very close to him – despite their embarrassment under Sarah's scrutiny, they hadn't moved away from each other – and said quietly, "I'll grab my stuff and change in the bathroom, if you want to change in the bedroom." She might have blushed at discussing their changing arrangements with him, except that she was still pink all over from when Sarah had walked into the room, so she simply nodded, a smile on her lips.
Without a word, she started down the hallway, and she could sense him walking close behind her. She walked through the door of the bedroom and stopped a few feet inside, breathing out with relief and turning around to look at him. He closed the door quietly, and walked over to her, stopping just as close as he'd been to her in the kitchen, still not touching her. "That was…" she began, slightly breathlessly, but then stopped, shook her head and laughed.
He smiled, and it was that smile that took over his face, the one reserved only for her. "Yeah," he smiled. "I can't believe she held it in as long as she did, though. It's not like her at all." Jane smiled in embarrassment, looking down.
"You are pretty cute, though," she said quietly, not meeting his eyes.
"I'm also her brother, and she was not just talking about me," he whispered, staring at her so intently that she had no choice but to look up at him, and then once she did, couldn't have looked away if she'd wanted to – which she didn't, of course. "And she said, 'You guys,'" he continued softly, "and that's both of us… Together." If it was possible for her to blush even more, she did – or maybe it just felt that way to her. Then finally, after standing so very close to her both in the kitchen and now in the bedroom, he slowly set his hands on her waist, looking at her without a word for a minute to gauge her reaction, and to be sure he hadn't read her wrong – though that seemed unlikely, at this point. He enjoyed watching the surprise in her eyes, which changed almost immediately to a look that was a lot like… elation, maybe? Suffice it to say, she didn't seem to mind.
Jane leaned forward then, unable to maintain the inch or so between them any longer, and really, feeling pretty weak in the knees just then, to the point that it was difficult to even stand up at that moment. Instead, she felt herself melting against him as his arms tightened around her waist, snaking the rest of the way around her, her arms wrapping around the middle of him as well. Inhaling slowly, and then exhaling just as slowly, she tried her very best to freeze time, because as far as she was concerned, that moment was perfect. Alas, she was not a superhero who possessed those sorts of powers. He released her slightly, feeling her resist the movement, which made him smile. When he stopped moving back a second later and she realized that he had moved just enough to be able to speak almost into her ear, she relaxed slightly.
"The longer we're in here, the more she's going to grin at us. And poor Sawyer is going to beat down the door if we don't get ready to go," he told her. Her arms relaxed slowly and reluctantly, as she looked up at him and pretended to pout once again. He couldn't help but laugh at her. "We're going to the beach together, silly. As soon as we get changed. Okay?" She just nodded, smiling broadly at herself, and was surprised when he leaned forward and kissed the top of her head. Any blush that may have subsided was immediately back in full force as she stepped back slowly, watching him.
She had the strangest sensation just then, and it threatened to take her breath away. The only way to describe it was that she felt like anything inside her that had still been broken by the past two years and all of her many, many struggles was somehow at that moment being put back together by the sheer intensity of his feelings for her. Without them having said a word about it, she just knew. Thinking about it honestly, she realized that she had always known.
Again, he gave her his most sincere smile as he stepped away from her, towards his bag, pulling out his bathing suit and a t-shirt, then standing up and retracing his steps to where she was still standing, watching him. She'd simply been unable to move yet. His left hand, the one that wasn't holding his clothes, went to her right cheek, this thumb moving back and forth slowly a few times, and once again she felt slightly dizzy from the sensation that accompanied it.
Smiling at her obvious overload of feelings, he whispered, "Get changed, and I'll meet you in the other room." She just nodded, unable to move or think – or to even breathe, really – until he slowly dropped his hand from her cheek and walked toward the door. He went back out into the hall and turned to look at her before he closed the door. He grinned, shaking his head, because she still hadn't moved. Her eyes had simply followed him.
"Get changed, Jane," he laughed quietly. She grinned, shaking her head quickly to try to break the spell she knew that she was under, and finally moving towards her backpack as he closed the door. From her bag she took out the red bathing suit that she'd bought on her trip to the store with Patterson, a pair of light khaki shorts and a simple white tank top.
She took off her pajamas, folding them and laying them on the edge of the bed, then carefully put on her new red bathing suit – a bikini. She hadn't planned to get anything so revealing, but Patterson had made a good argument. As she'd put it, "If you're going to wear a bathing suit when you're covered in tattoos, they're going to be staring at you anyway… and you're gorgeous, so why shouldn't they?" She had blushed at her friend's compliment, but besides her kindness, Patterson really did have a point. Jane was in good shape and could get away with a bikini, and people would stare at her no matter what bathing suit she wore. There was no point in attempting to be modest – though the bikini that she'd chosen wasn't one that would be considered skimpy, either.
The top was fastened in the back by a band an inch thick around the bottom, with a plastic clasp, and the top tied behind her neck. The front, like the back, wasn't something would be considered tiny. It was a bikini, but it did leave a little to the imagination, and she liked it that way. The bottom was similarly mid-way between showing too much and not showing anything. She'd found a mirror on the back of the bedroom door, and as she examined herself she felt a combination of satisfaction and nervous anticipation. She was really going to wear that on the beach? In front of… all those people? In front of… Sarah, and Sawyer, and most importantly, Kurt?
Yes, yes you are, she told herself, slipping her shirt and shorts on over her suit. That was the point, remember?
She emerged from the bedroom and walked down the hall, following the noise of the other three occupants of the beach house, who were waiting for her in the living room. "Great!" Sarah exclaimed when she saw Jane, "we're all ready." Then, because she couldn't help but be a mother to all of them, not just her son, she asked, "Does anyone need to go to the bathroom one more time before we go?" Kurt shook his head, chuckling, as he slipped back to the bedroom to put away the pajamas that he had taken off.
"Sawyer?" Sarah asked, since he was the one that her comment had been mainly intended for. "Please use the bathroom now." Knowing that his mom wouldn't leave him alone about it if he didn't, Sawyer walked obediently to the bathroom, disappearing inside.
Sarah had a large beach bag full of towels, and a small cooler with snacks and drinks, both on the counter. "Do you need help with anything?" Jane asked.
"Nope, it's all under control," Sarah smiled at her. "We have towels, we have snacks and drinks… Oh! I almost forgot the sunblock! That wouldn't have been pretty."
Kurt nodded in agreement, walking up beside her as he returned from the bedroom. "Yep, even less so for Jane, I think," he told Sarah, glancing at Jane's light skin. "Do you have enough for everyone?" he asked his sister. "We can always pick up some more on our way." Sarah rummaged through the bag of towels, checking the contents at the bottom of the bag.
"We have… four bottles in here, all the kind you can use when swimming. I think we're good, even for the fair skinned among us. At least for today." She grinned at her brother, knowing from experience how fast sunblock went for fair skinned people. Of the four of them, it was a three way tie among Jane, Sarah and Sawyer for the lightest skin. Kurt's complexion wasn't exactly dark, of course, but he wasn't as fair as the other three.
Sawyer emerged from the bathroom then, and before Sarah could ask, he volunteered, "And yes mom, I washed my hands." Clearly, this was a common question.
"I'd better go, too," Jane said, ducking into the bathroom herself. When she emerged a few minutes later, everyone was ready, holding the things they were taking with them. Sawyer had the overflowing bag of sand toys, Kurt was carrying the cooler and Sarah had the bag with the towels. "Is there anything I can carry?" Jane asked, wanting to be helpful.
"Nope," Sarah said, "We've got it all under control. Let's go!"
Sawyer bounded out the door, Sarah right behind him. Kurt had the key to the door, since he'd been the one to open it the night before, and he waved Jane out in front of him so he could lock the door. She stood and waited for him a few steps away, while Sarah and Sawyer stood on the sidewalk, just past where they'd parked the car. After locking the door, Kurt held out the keys – two keys on a plain silver ring – to Jane. "Would you mind putting these in your pocket?" he asked. He'd forgotten that he wouldn't have any pockets in his bathing suit.
"Sure," she replied with a smile, reaching for them. As their hands met to pass the keys from one of them to the other, their fingers brushed briefly against each other. Jane slowly lowered her hand, pushing the keys into her pocket as they started walking, following behind Sarah and Sawyer, who were a little ways ahead, and she lamented the fact that their contact had lasted such a short time. She was surprised, then, when almost immediately, she felt him grab her hand, intertwining their fingers together. She looked over at their hands in surprise, then up at him, and saw that he was grinning down at her. Apparently she'd reacted just about the way he'd expected, because he looked fairly amused. He squeezed her hand briefly, which only made her smile more broadly. At that moment, life was good.
Sarah turned back every few minutes to check that they were still behind her, and when she saw them holding hands, they watched as her eyes widened, as did her smile. Jane looked up at Kurt quickly to gauge his reaction, and saw him roll his eyes and shake his head. He'd expected Sarah's reactionas well, and knew better than to think that that was the end of it. On the contrary, it was only the beginning. Of course, she meant well, and really, it was simply the fact that she was so happy for them that made her just a little too enthusiastic. Nothing they couldn't handle… at least, he hoped so.
Within a block they'd made it back to the main road, Pacific Avenue, which they'd driven down in the dark the previous night. They waited with a small collection of other beach goers for the traffic to stop so they could cross at the crosswalk. Honestly, Jane hadn't been paying attention to much around her besides Kurt, secure as she felt in the little bubble of happiness that was currently surrounding them. However, as they stood in that group by the road, she slowly became aware of an unpleasantly familiar sensation, one that she hadn't felt for some time, but which she had certainly not forgotten about. There were suddenly faint murmurs around them, and other conversations that stopped in mid-sentence, and as usual, at least a few people who obviously thought that they were whispering much more quietly than they actually were.
Jane knew that the closer they came to the beach, and the bigger the crowds around them would be, and the more the sensation would increase. It had been a while since she had had to deal with this – it was a much bigger issue in warmer months, obviously, since that was when more of her tattoos were showing, but, well, she hadn't actually been outside the previous summer... She'd also noticed a great deal more ambivalence in New York, where extreme styles of all kinds were more common than other places, such as here in Virginia Beach, Virginia, for example. There were lots of people with one or two tattoos showing, she'd noticed already, but of course, Jane made one or two tattoos look like absolutely nothing. They'd barely reached the other side of the street when they heard the first intelligible comment about her – from someone who hadn't even bothered to try to lower their voice, either.
"What a shame about what that young lady did to her body. She must have been so pretty." Must have been, but isn't anymore. Jane took a deep breath, exhaling slowly. It certainly wasn't the first time she'd heard something like that, and it wouldn't be the last time she'd hear it, probably even that same day – not by a long shot. She felt Kurt squeeze her hand, and she knew how much he wanted to speak up. But they'd had this conversation long ago, and many times since – what was he going to do, she'd asked him, try to defend her honor against every rude or ignorant person, every person who simply jumped to conclusions about her based on her tattoos because they felt that he appearance gave them permission to do so? Because there were a lot of them. The battle would be never ending, and they would never, ever win. It just didn't make sense.
What did make sense to her, she had decided, was to make eye contact with as many of those people as possible, and to simply smile at them. Because what else could she do? Getting upset or acting offended, while it certainly seemed that she was justified in doing so, based on their rude behavior, wouldn't help. It would only make her "the angry tattooed girl," and that was not who she wanted to be. Yes, it was extremely frustrating that people made so many assumptions about her, but she also knew that she was far from being the only one who this happened to, just for different reasons. She'd talked to Dr. Borden about this issue extensively over time, after all. It had been a long, hard adjustment, but most of the time, she was okay. Still… it wasn't fun… she simply had no choice.
Sarah, on the other hand, was walking right in front of them, and had no experience with this whatsoever. She whipped around, instantly angry on Jane's behalf, searching the crowd for the person who'd made the offending comment. Jane had already found the older man, made eye contact with him and simply smiled her biggest smile. Sarah, on the other hand, looked like she was ready to tear someone limb from limb – which, considering her normally sweet disposition, was a rather startling sight. Jane glanced up at Kurt and smiled, then let go of his hand for the moment, stepping quickly up to catch up with Sarah. She put her arm around the other woman's shoulder so that she could talk to her quietly.
"Sarah, it's okay," Jane told her, "It happens all the time. Getting mad doesn't help. I just smile at them, or if I can't do that, I just ignore them. There's nothing else I can do. There are a lot of people with strong opinions out there about my tattoos, trust me." Sarah turned and looked at her, her eyes wide, in disbelief.
"But… Jane. What gives anyone the right to be so cruel? Someone should say something," she insisted.
Jane shook her head, smiling sadly at Sarah's indignation. She'd certainly been there, and even worse. "You can't fight everyone, you just end up angry at the world, and that's not who I want to be," Jane explained. "I appreciate the thought, though." She gave Sarah's shoulders a squeeze as they continued to walk, and then let her arm drop, falling back to walk behind her again. Kurt was right there, still walking behind Sarah, where the two of them had been the whole time, and when she dropped back beside him, he immediately took her hand again, squeezing it for good measure.
Every time he thought his admiration of this woman couldn't be stronger, she did something like that. He simply couldn't imagine what it was like to be her, despite how long and how well he'd now known her. She was truly amazing.
The crowd followed the sidewalk up the block between Pacific and Atlantic Avenues, and then continued straight up the sidewalk through the space left between the large hotels on each side of them that gave pedestrians access to the boardwalk – which was actually made of cement, unlike the boardwalks of many other beach towns – and then the beach beyond it.
Once they made it past the bike lane – two narrow lanes, one in each direction, running parallel to the boardwalk, that kept bikes separate from pedestrians – they were on the main boardwalk, and the crowd that had been funneled up the sidewalk with them had room to spread out, dissipating quickly.
They walked to the edge, leaning against the railing and looking out at the absolutely perfect day. Blue sky with puffy, white clouds, blue water and a beach full of people who were there to do exactly what they were there to do – relax and have fun.
As they stood for a moment and looked out at the beach, Kurt dropped her hand but moved to stand behind her, resting his chin on her shoulder, one arm on each side of her, though he rested them on the railing, not actually on her. She grinned, because there he was being cute again…
"This is so much better than being at work," she said, turning her head slightly. Their faces were so close together already, she had barely turned and she was almost speaking into his cheek. Unlike she had earlier, she suddenly didn't feel at all awkward about how close they were standing. "I'm so glad my boss gave me the day off," she added. He chuckled, turning ever so slightly towards her, bringing their faces even closer together…
"Sounds like quite a guy," he said to her cheek.
"Oh, he is," Jane replied. "Most of the time, anyway." Her face erupted in a smile, watching him react with pretend shock. She leaned her head only slightly to her right, and was suddenly leaning her cheek against the scruff of his face.
"Alright, you two, let's at least go get a spot to sit down before you start that," Sarah called good-naturedly. They laughed, and she felt him lean against her as well before pushing back to stand up. While she immediately missed the closeness, he grabbed her hand again immediately, and they followed Sarah the short distance to the wide stairs that led down to the beach. It was only Friday morning, barely nine o'clock, and it had already been a great weekend. And yet, this was only the beginning.