I don't own Blindspot or any of these amazing characters…
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"I don't understand, nothing works."
Vin looked over at his teammate, his eyes still swollen almost completely shut.
"We still have plenty of events to knock them out of the running," He assured him.
"Well…you were right about her helping the SEAL. Taking his wetsuit should have put them both out, instead they finished first and second place. We also lost Carlos. He was taken in for questioning when he tried to run Jane, Remi or whoever she is over with the boat."
"I knew she wouldn't leave him," Vin admitted, "She's Remi. I'm positive, I don't like that she's pretending to be someone else. It doesn't make any sense."
"Do you think they're on to us?" Franklin demanded.
"I don't know," Vin rubbed his face. "When we worked together she was with a SEAL team. They were providing us support for a hostage exchange. She was lethal and dedicated. The men she was teamed with loved her. You would think a woman SEAL would have caused a little bit of resistance, but there was none of that. She was capable and they knew and respected her for it. By the time we finished the mission our entire team was in love with her, but she didn't seem to notice or care."
"Well it seems to still be the same. That Keaton guy with the CIA risked his life to help her and the SEAL jumped back in the water even on the verge of hyperthermia and debilitating cramping." Franklin said in frustration.
"I'll check into her cover story, see if she's really with the FBI. They say she's married to the Assistant Director of the NY branch of the FBI, Kurt Weller." Franklin told them.
"I think she actually is," Vin admitted, "I've seen them together. When her parachute didn't open, he and the rest of the team were beside themselves. I think they must really care about her."
"That make this so much more difficult," Franklin admitted, "If it's true, then getting rid of her and her team is going to be harder than I thought."
"We'll find a way," Vin assured him.
"Well you better hurry, before we have no more able bodied team members left." Franklin warned as he turned toward the door.
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Reed pulled the safety harness tight and adjusted his helmet. He knew the team was worried. Tasha had literally followed him onto the track giving him driving pointers until they'd had to ask her leave. He couldn't help his smile as he remembered her leaning into window to whisper very questionable strategies to him, before Patterson had pulled her away. She continued shouting back suggestions until he could no longer hear her.
He watched the flag drop and hit the accelerator. It wasn't even two car lengths out that he felt the first hit against the car. If he hadn't already anticipated it, it might have been effective. As it was, the car that tried to take him out was left spinning out behind him. He looked back with a little grin. He was good behind the wheel, better than you'd expect for a man living in NYC, but he hadn't always lived there. He'd grown up on a farm, he'd been driving long before the legal age, he knew that life hadn't been for him and that's why he treasured his three piece suites so much. He'd found the life he was meant to live.
"He hit him," Tasha said in outrage, pushing against Patterson.
"Yeah," Patterson agreed, "We saw it."
"Look!" Tasha said in excitement, hitting Patterson's arm again, when the other car spun out.
Patterson rubbed her arm and looked at Tasha in exasperation.
"We're right here," Patterson reminded her, "We can see it."
Roman abruptly stood up and motioned for Patterson to scoot over.
She looked up at him with a puzzled expression, but did as he requested. When he sat between her and Tasha she looked up at him with a softly amused expression.
"He's taking the lead," Tasha announced in excitement, hitting Roman on the shoulder, seemingly not noticing that he and Patterson had switched.
Patterson looked up at his resigned expression and laughed at him before reclaiming his hand and squeezing it before looking back at the track.
Jane watched them with a bemused expression. She hadn't seen this coming but she would have to lie if she said she wasn't thrilled and concerned equally with this new development. On one hand, she knew just how much Patterson had already been through, Roman was definitely not an easy choice. On the other she knew just how far he would go to protect the people that he cared about. Literally there was nothing he wouldn't do. Nothing…
Looking over at Kurt she found him watching them as well. He definitely looked concerned. She squeezed his hand, but didn't try to reassure him. He cared too much to take this possible threat to Patterson lightly and nothing she said to reassure him would matter. Only time would tell how this was going to work.
The race continued and they watched cars run off the track and one actually flipped, but Reed continued to dominate.
It was on the last lap that Reed was finally hit in just the right place. He spun out, but once the car stopped moving, he simply hit the reverse and went over the line backwards. He came in third, but it was still enough that Weller's Warriors remained in the lead.
"He crossed the finish line backwards," Tasha said grabbing Jane's arm and shaking her back in forth in excitement.
Jane shared an amused look with Roman where he sat, one hand up to defend himself, the other still holding Patterson's hand.
"What's next?" Jane worried.
"Stewart and I get to defuse a fake bomb." Patterson leaned forward to tell her.
"Let's go get Reed and regroup," Kurt stood up, pulling Jane with him.
"We also need to eat," Jane suggested. She also wanted to check that Riley made a complete recovery, but after Kurt's reaction to them earlier, she decided to keep that to herself.
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"Great job Reed," Kurt smiled at him once they were reunited.
"If my right tire hadn't blown," Reed said with regret, "I would have won."
"You went through the finish in reverse," Tasha reminded him in excitement.
"It was really exciting," Rich agreed looking at Reed with speculation.
Reed looked over at Kurt in alarm.
Kurt just smiled and shook his head.
"We need to figure out how they are going to attempt to sabotage the next event," Jane worried while the team sat around eating.
"What could they do?" Stewart asked, "There is no contact between contestants in the next round."
"They couldn't be tied to the swimming or the skydiving either," Jane reminded them, "But we all know they were responsible."
"What happened with the swimming?" Rich demanded with a scowl.
It was only then that Jane realized they hadn't seen what happened.
"They took Riley's wetsuit," Jane explained, "In hopes that he would flounder, which he did."
"Who's Riley?" Roman asked with a puzzled frown.
Kurt's jaw went tight as Jane talked about the other man.
"He's the Navy SEAL that was in the lead," Jane explained.
"The one you helped?" Patterson confirmed.
"Yes," Jane confirmed, "When we got to the boat, they pulled Riley up, but before they could get me, the boat took off."
"What?" Kurt remembered the circles the boat had been doing. Only now realizing that if Jane had still been in the water she'd been in terrible danger.
"What happened?" Roman worried.
"I dove down to avoid the propeller," Jane explained, "Riley disabled the driver and jumped in after me."
"But…" Patterson protested, "He was floundering…"
"He shouldn't have done it," Jane agreed, "But he'd thought I'd been hit."
"He could barely make the finish line," Rich reminded them, "What did he think he was going to do?"
"SEALS don't leave each other behind," Jane explained.
"You're FBI," Stewart reminded her.
"I trained with the SEALS," Jane explained.
The longer she spoke about the SEAL, the tenser Kurt became. That she admired him was evident. He didn't want to feel this way, but he did.
"What happened to the guy that tried to hit you with the boat?" Tasha demanded.
"He was detained," Jane explained.
"If we can get him transferred," Tasha looked over at Kurt, "We might be able to get some Intel."
"Tasha you handle the transfer," Kurt agreed, threading his fingers through Janes.
"What are you going to do?" Tasha asked him.
"I'm going with Jane to check to see how the SEAL is doing," Kurt explained. "Once the man that tried to hit Jane with the boat's been transferred, we'll join you for interrogation."
"What about the next challenge?" Jane worried, looking over at Stewart and Patterson.
"I know what they're going to do," Patterson assured her.
"What?" Stewart worried.
"They're going to try to set off the bomb off remotely." Patterson predicted.
"Makes sense," Tasha agreed.
"You just need to make a jammer," Rich suggested.
"Exactly," Patterson agreed, "Come on Stewart, let's get on with it, we don't have that long."
"Reed will go with me and we'll keep you informed," Tasha told Kurt.
Watching them go, Jane looked over at Kurt, "I can just call over to the clinic, make sure he was released. It wasn't life threatening once he was out of the water and getting treatment."
"Then we'll call," Kurt agreed walking with purpose.
"Where are we going?" Jane asked him with a puzzled expression.
He looked over his shoulder at her and she recognized that look immediately.
"Oh," She said with a little smile, picking up the pace.
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Roman followed Patterson and Stewart with a frown.
He knew she had the situation in hand, but he was still tense knowing that she was about to compete in a challenged that would undoubtedly be rigged. Jane could have died…twice. Reed's driving skills was the only thing that saved him from being potentially seriously hurt. Tasha appeared petite and delicate and they'd sent in a monster to fight her. That hadn't taken her abilities into account, but she could have been injured. They weren't playing fair and he was getting more nervous the closer they got to the next event.
"Maybe I should step in," Roman offered.
"What?" Patterson looked at him with an incomprehensive frown.
"We don't know what they're going to do," Roman worried, "I don't think you should do it."
"I can handle myself," Patterson told him.
"I'm not saying to can't," Roman agreed, "But we don't know what they're going to do."
"Roman," Patterson stopped what she was doing and moved over to stand in front of him, "I'm not worried."
"But I am," Roman insisted.
Patterson looked up at him with a little smile, "I'm glad."
"What?" He thought he misunderstood.
"When you go…I'm worried," Patterson admitted. "You've got knife fighting tomorrow."
"I'm good with a knife," Roman immediately reassured her.
"And I'm good with bombs," Patterson assured him, "They aren't real. We'll be fine."
Roman nodded his head in reluctant agreement.
She reached up and hugged him tightly. He waited a tense moment before his arms closed around her just as fiercely.
Stewart turned away to hide his smile. He hoped Patterson was right. Not only because he didn't want any part of this, but because he was sure that if anything happened, Roman was going to be a vengeful driving force. That was something he didn't ever want to see…
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Jane cuddled against Kurt's side contently. She had expected after their interlude in the boathouse, their stolen moments would have been hasty and volatile, but that wasn't what happened at all.
He'd obviously wanted time to be close, but he'd treated it more reverently than she expected. There hadn't been haste, only slow hands and long kisses culminating in the satisfaction he always brought her.
"You okay?" he worried at her continued silence.
"I'm great," Jane said with a little smile, "You?"
Running his hand down her back he assured her, "I've never been better."
"You know we need to get up?" She said with a kiss to his chest.
"Again?" He asked her teasingly.
She hit him softly.
"Very funny."
"I know we do," He assured her.
When he still didn't move she leaned back and looked up into his face.
He was watching her with a look that took her breath.
"I love you," He said seriously.
"I love you too," She said just as seriously.
He leaned down to kiss her and she met him half way, before they reluctantly pulled apart to go meet the team.
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Patterson and Stewart looked down at the bomb and knew immediately this wasn't going to be easy.
Moving over to it, Patterson studied it for a moment. When she smelt Sulfur she frowned in concern. This was supposed to be a fake bomb, but the chemical reaction that was created to make that scent couldn't be faked.
Looking over she saw the entire team was standing too close.
She shared a look with Stewart. He understood well enough.
"You have the scrambler?" She worried and he held it up.
Roman saw her concerned look and knew something more was going on.
"She looks distressed," Jane worried.
"Look at her hand," Tasha said.
She was obviously taping it against her leg.
"Not the best time to keep the beat," Rich said with a little nervous laugh.
"It's Morris Code," Tasha realized.
"What's she saying?" Roman looked over at Tasha.
"She wants us to move," Tasha realized.
"Why?" Jane asked in concern.
"There must be something about the devise she thinks is unsafe." Reed insisted.
"What do we do?" Jane looked over at Kurt in concern.
"First," Kurt insisted, "We move so that she can concentrate."
"I'm not going anywhere," Roman denied.
"She's distracted," Reed insisted, "We need to let her concentrate."
"This is stupid," Roman argued, "We don't need to win this contest. If there's something wrong, we need to pull them out."
"He's right," Jane looked over to Kurt in concern.
"I'll pull them," Kurt agreed, "Let's head over to the judges stand."
The team moved away, determined to stop this. Before they could intervene, Patterson and Stewart worked frantically to stop the toxic release they feared was coming.
Patterson removed the cover that exposed the wires. As she suspected, there was a dispersal canister inside. She knew she couldn't cut the wires to prevent the release, so instead she attempted to reverse the flow of the electrical current so that if it triggered it would burn out the component that triggered it instead of releasing the gasses. She then looked to Stewart and they shared a brief desperate conversation. Once the both agreed, she took the cutters and shared a look with Stewart before she cut the wire. When nothing happened they shared a relieved smile before they stood up to indicate they were done.
Kurt looked over at them in relief.
"I think they've got it," He told the team pointing toward where they were walking toward them.
Roman moved to intercept them.
"What happened?" He worried, putting his hand on Patterson's shoulder.
"Someone tampered with our devise," Patterson explained, "They added a chemical dispersion canister. It smelled of Sulfur."
Roman got a look on his face that Jane recognized immediately. She moved over to them and inserted herself between Roman and the rest of the team.
"Roman," Jane drew his attention, as she placed a hand on his arm to steady him.
He looked down at her with no expression.
She could feel the tension in the arm beneath her hand and she looked over at Patterson in concern, attempting to warn her to keep her distance.
Patterson understood, she could see it in her face, but instead of moving away, she came closer and looked up at Roman without fear.
"Want to get a drink?" She asked with a little smile.
He blinked at her a couple of times before he gave her a single nod. Jane watched Patterson grab Roman's hand and lead him away with raised eyebrows.
"I'm going to warn the officials," Stewart told Jane.
Kurt went with him and Jane found herself standing with Reed and Tasha.
"No offense Jane," Tasha said watching after Roman and Patterson, "But I think maybe Patterson might have put a spell on your brother."
Jane looked at her with a rueful smile, "Once he cares about her…he won't ever let anything happen to her."
"He went against his own Mother for you," Reed reminded them, "I wonder who he chose if it came down to you or Patterson."
"Let's hope we never have to find out." Jane told them with a grimace.