Part 25 - One of Us

Summary: Rich weighs in. Kurt listen.

It had been a long day.

Hell.

It had been a long six months.

Granted, he'd spent three of them in a coma. But he woke up to a world more terrifying than the one he'd left.

The last thing he'd remembered when he woke up was Rich, Reade and Patterson were telling him that Jane was suffering from ZIP morning.

He woke expecting his wife to be sick— not gone. It hadn't taken him long to figure out the woman posing as his wife was not Jane but Remi.

It also hadn't taken him long to reach the conclusion that no, she was still his wife. The relapse to Remi was a result of her sickness. And he would do anything and everything to help her, to find a cure and to stop her body from trying to kill her.

She hadn't made it easy. And the fact hat she'd been running around for three months trying to fulfill her initial goals— burn the FBI to the ground— hadn't made things easier either.

While he had tried to work with Remi, the team was busy cleaning up after three months of Remi's sabotaging and rebuilding of Sandstorm. They were simultaneously trying to track down Roman's drives and find a cure to the ZIP poisoning.

But finally, three months later, there was finally hope on the horizon. He didn't want to get his hopes up too much, but he couldn't help himself. For the first time in six months, she'd woken up as Jane— not once, not twice, but for the third day in a row.

And for the first time since she'd been admitted to the hospital, he had left her side.

And he wouldn't have if it hadn't been urgent and if it wasn't only going to take twenty minutes after she'd gone to sleep and Patterson was by her side.

There were sensitive documents he had to sign— documents not even Reade could authorize to leave the building to have him sign them at the hospital.

He made a quick run to the NYO. It was almost midnight and he hadn't expected to find anyone other than Reade there so when the unexpected voice rang through SIOC as he left Reade's office, he jumped back a little.

"Can I buy you a drink?"

Rich was sitting at one of the stations, watching Kurt closely.

"I have to head back to the hospital," Kurt said.

Rich got up and grabbed his jacket off the back of the chair. "I know you do," he said, "there's a bar a block away. Just one drink."

Kurt checked his watch quickly and then, to his own surprise, he nodded.

The walk to the bar was a quick, and for the first few minutes they said very little beyond ordering their drinks.

"Do you know that the day you guys crashed the party at the Hamptons is my favorite day ever?" Rich said.

Kurt chuckled. "If I remember correctly, we arrested you, you lost your fortunes and lost your status among the dark web community," Kurt replied.

Rich nodded and smiled. "All true," he said, "but it was all worth it."

Kurt wanted to roll his eyes. He'd gotten used to Patterson being the emotional one over the past weeks but not Rich.

"And no, I'm not talking about the way things turned out now," he explained, "although technically we can trace my makeover all the way back to that fateful day. But let's be honest, it took many more ups and downs before I was ready— and you guys were ready— for me to leave my dark roots for good."

"What then?" Kurt asked as their drinks arrived.

"Meeting you guys, you and Jane, you have no idea what a thrill that was," Rich said.

"I know," Kurt replied, narrowing his eyes, "you suggested a threesome two minutes after meeting us."

Rich smiled fondly at the memory, his eyebrows jumping up momentarily. "Ah yes, of course I did," he said, "but do you blame me? You have absolutely no idea what a force you two were— are."

"You guys walk into a room and you absolutely own it," he said, "in every way that matters. And that day at the Hamptons—"

He let out a huff and shook his head. "I'd been excited to meet you even before. A married world class assassin couple. I was expected to be blown away— but you two were… you were something else. I have to admit as turned on as I was by the whole thing, I was kind of overwhelmed. You two were the sexiest thing I'd ever seen, sweeping in looking like James and Jane Bond, moving together like an orchestrated ballet that's takes decades to perfect. You two would share one look and I felt the room go into flame—"

"Rich-"

"I'm sorry," Rich said honestly as he took a sip of his drink, "I don't mean to make you uncomfortable. But what I'm trying to say is… that day was one of the most unforgettable days of my life but it took me a long time to understand just how important it was."

He took another sip while Kurt eyed him closely before he spoke again.

"You two changed my life."

"When Reade brought me in the first time to consult, I had second thoughts, for a number of reasons obviously, but mostly because I heard you two were no longer with the FBI," Rich admitted, "I thought where's the fun in that?"

Kurt shook his head and chuckled. "But then I asked Reade why you two were no longer there, and he told me… well, he gave me an abridged version. And after throwing a fit that I didn't know you two had gotten married, he told me why Jane had left."

"I'd known by then a little of Jane's past. I knew what kind of place she'd come from before she joined the FBI," he smirked as he added, "mainly because I snooped around the FBI database a little bit. But then I remembered something Jane had said to me once. She said that she believed everyone could change and that there was good in everyone. Even me."

Kurt nodded.

"At that time, I had thought it was just a line. You know, something Feds use to get you to cooperate," Rich admitted, "but then I realized that she had truly believed it because she had to. She had to believe it because that was the only way she'd accept herself," he added, "and even though you'd been an ass that day, I know now that you too believe it because you fell in love with her– the woman who'd chosen change, and chosen to become a better version of herself."

"And then you guys came back and I got the chance to work with you," Rich smiled for a moment, "you don't get but working with you two… don't tell the others but it's something else. It's still overwhelming every single time. It's like something out of this world."

"Rich-"

"I'm sorry, I'm making it weird again, aren't I?" Rich took another sip of his drink, "I just wanted to say that I owe this to you two… my new life, my new chance at being a good person, my belonging to something bigger than myself."

"She's going to pull through," Rich said as they finished their drinks, "I know she will because what she has here and now is worth fighting for, is worth giving up everything that was before to keep and hold on to."

"Thanks, Rich," Kurt finally said, genuinely touched by the former hacker's honest confession.

And as they got up to leave, Rich picking up the bill as promised, Kurt patted him on the shoulder and said, "I'm glad you're one of us now. This team needs you. We need you."