Author's Note: So, team drinks! This is a little less upbeat than I originally meant it to be, but I guess that's understandable, given all the team has been through lately! There are still a few moments of joy here and there, though. And lots of Team Family love. :)
"You're kidding me." Tasha looked as though she was about to spray beer out of her nose at any moment. "Pellington said that?"
"It gets weirder." Jane grinned. "After he thanked me, he said the FBI would be honoured to have me on a permanent basis, if I choose to stay. And he was smiling."
"That's gotta be the morphine," Patterson said, shaking her head. "There's no way he'd smile of his own accord."
"I've seen him smile a few times," Kurt said. "But it was mostly when he was making nice with important visitors."
"Way to go, Jane. You made the 'important visitor' list." Tasha clinked her bottle against Jane's in mock celebration.
Jane drained the last of her beer before speaking. "I, uh, don't know if that's a good thing."
Kurt brushed a kiss over her temple and took her empty bottle before she could get up. "If it means you get to stay in SIOC with us, I'll take it."
He gathered up more empty bottles and went into the kitchen, placing them by the kitchen sink as Reade pocketed his phone. "All good?"
"Food should be here in about thirty minutes." Reade leaned against the kitchen cabinets, looking a little amused.
"What?" Kurt asked, frowning.
"Nothing. Just thinking how much things have changed in the past year and a half. You know, the first time Tasha and I realised you were having Jane over here for dinner, our minds were blown. I think we just assumed you lived in an empty room with an electrical socket so you could plug yourself in at night. You know, recharge your robot batteries?" Reade grinned.
Kurt rolled his eyes. "I wasn't that bad."
"You were a machine. You never talked about life outside work or asked us about our weekends. You put in insane amounts of overtime. You never wanted to go out for a drink with us after a hard case… Now look at you—hosting gatherings in your apartment and snuggling up on the couch with your girlfriend."
Slightly embarrassed, Kurt shook his head, his attention drifting back towards Jane, who was deep in conversation with Tasha and Patterson. "I guess a lot of things got resolved for me over the past year. Taylor, my dad… Shepherd, even. Hard as it all was, I got to let go of some baggage."
"I'm happy for you, man. I know I haven't been the easiest on Jane at times, but overall, you were right about her. And she's good for you. Glad you two figured it out."
"And for what it's worth, I'm glad I've gotten to know you guys better." Kurt pulled a couple more beers from the fridge and offered one to Reade. "We've always been a hell of a team, but Patterson's right. After everything that's happened this year, we feel almost like a family."
Reade snorted. "How many beers have you had, to be getting this sentimental already?"
"Oh my god," Patterson announced loudly, "we should do shots."
"Not as many as Patterson, by the sounds of it," Kurt told Reade.
"Patterson, we're not doing shots before the food gets here. Promise me," Tasha said.
"Okay, okay," Patterson said, with a long-suffering sigh.
As Reade rejoined the rest of the team, Kurt lingered in the kitchen, musing on Reade's words. So much had changed since Jane had joined them, some for the better and some for the worse. It seemed strange to think that without a terrorist organisation's involvement, he would never have met the love of his life. He might never have dropped his guard enough to forge strong friendships with his team, and might not have learned the truth about Taylor's death from his father.
Even though there had been as many positive changes as negative in his life lately, he couldn't help but hope that the next year and a half was relatively sane and uneventful. God knew they all needed a break.
He returned to the living room, noticing immediately that Jane was standing a little apart from the rest of the team, gazing out of the French doors at the lights of the Brooklyn Bridge. He approached quietly, meaning to ask her if she wanted another drink, and to draw her back into conversation with the group before she could start worrying too much.
The moment his hand grazed her arm, Jane grabbed his wrist, pulled him off balance, and twisted his arm up behind his back, immobilising him swiftly. What the—?
"Whoa," Reade said softly, as the conversation between Patterson and Tasha fell silent.
"Jane—" Kurt started, but she was already releasing him, murmuring an apology as she covered her face with her hands.
"It's okay," he said softly, turning to face her as his surprised adrenaline rush began to fade. "I should have said something before I touched you."
"No, I heard you coming, I just…" Jane wrapped her arms around her waist, shame clear on her face. "God, you must all think I'm crazy."
The rest of the team were quick to reassure her as Kurt guided her to sit back down on the couch.
"We're not judging, we're just worried about you," Zapata said, her dark eyes concerned.
"Good news is, I'm taking tomorrow morning off, so I can see someone about starting PTSD therapy. Properly, now I don't have to lie to protect my cover."
If Patterson was thinking about Borden again, she didn't let it show. "That's great, Jane."
"Hey, if you find a decent therapist, let me know," Reade said. "I've been thinking about seeing someone, too."
Kurt wasn't sure if he was more grateful to Reade for taking the spotlight away from Jane's humiliation, or worried about his friend. "You hinted at something before. You okay?"
"You guys remember the Coach Jones case?"
Kurt, Jane and Patterson listened in shocked sympathy as Reade related that he'd discovered he had been abused by Jones as a child, but had repressed the memory. Tasha clearly already knew the details, including things Reade wasn't sharing—but Kurt wasn't going to push. If Reade wanted them to know more, he'd tell them.
"I'm so sorry, Reade," Jane whispered, as Reade fell silent. "I can't even imagine what it's like to have gone through something like that."
Reade shrugged, his stoicism faltering a little. "I'm hanging in there. I just gotta give myself time to deal with it, I guess. Haven't been sleeping that well lately. Been twitchy in the field, too."
"Can I hug you?" Patterson asked tentatively.
Reade stood up, beckoning to her. "Like I'm gonna turn down a Patterson hug."
As Kurt watched them embrace, he was again struck by how much closer they all were. Something else to thank Shepherd for—not that he intended to do anything of the sort.
"You need some time off, just say the word. As much as you need," Kurt said. "I'm sorry I've been so caught up in the case lately. I should have been there for you."
Reade attempted a smile as Patterson stepped back, but it fell a little flat. "Don't sweat it. In your defence, you've been dealing with some pretty heavy stuff too, and I don't just mean looking out for Jane. This case took a lot from all of us."
They were all quiet for a moment, silently acknowledging the truth of that. Kurt's thoughts turned immediately to Mayfair, and he looked around at his people. They were all weary and in drastic need of vacation time, but they were alive. If only his mentor could say the same thing.
"Speaking of which…" he began slowly, and all eyes turned to him. He wondered if now was really the time to bring it up, but the mood was already heavy, and this rebonding evening was about more than just celebrating their success. "I'm gonna organise a proper memorial. For Mayfair."
As he'd expected, Jane tensed a little at his side. He squeezed her hand gently, reminding her without words that he'd stopped blaming her.
"That's good. Now that we can, we should say a proper goodbye," Tasha said, nodding.
"The way things turned out with the case… She'd be proud of you. All of you," Kurt told them, and wished he had another beer to chase away the lump in his throat.
"And even prouder of you," Patterson said, with a sad smile.
He hoped she was right, even as part of him insisted that he should have done better. He shrugged. "Things could have gone worse, I guess. Anyway, if any of you want to stand up and say anything, at the memorial… I think she'd like that."
Jane remained quiet, even as the others nodded their agreement. Kurt knew she still felt guilty over Mayfair's death, but he didn't want to put that guilt in the spotlight, in front of the rest of the team. They could talk about it later, if she wanted.
"Oh!" Patterson said suddenly, and hurried over to the table, where she'd left her satchel. "Since we're all emotional already, it's probably a good time to do..." she trailed off for a second, then brightened as she pulled a manila folder out of the satchel,"…this!"
"Not one of your Dungeons and Dragons things, right?" Tasha asked warily. "I've already reached my quota of paperwork for the decade—I'm not filling out one of those character sheet things."
"No, but now you're making me wish I had brought it," Patterson said, grinning, and resumed her seat on the couch. "But this is a gift for Jane."
"What, no cake this time?" Reade asked, with disappointment that was only partly feigned.
"In case you hadn't noticed, I've been a little busy for baking lately. But there will be cake at some point, I swear." Patterson hesitated, the folder still closed in her lap. "Okay, so, this would usually take longer, but I got in touch with a friend who's owed favours by WitSec, and…"
She opened the folder with a flourish and pulled out an American passport, along with several other pieces of paper. "Happy new identity, Jane Dover!"
"Patterson, I…" Carefully, Jane took the documents from her friend, and opened up the passport to find the same picture as on her FBI identification. She wrinkled her nose. "This is a terrible picture of me."
"Everyone has to hate their photo ID. It's the law or something." Tasha looked over her shoulder. "And it's not even that bad. You should see mine—I look like I have the flu."
Jane ran her fingers over the pages. "Oh, my god. I have a real social security number, one that doesn't say I was killed in Afghanistan."
"Don't get too excited about that. Means you have to start filing tax returns," Reade told her.
"Yeah, but it also means I get to exist, in the system. I can have a real bank account, not the expense account the FBI was letting me draw an allowance from. You have no idea how much easier this will make so many things." She reached out to Patterson, her eyes shining with tears. "Thank you. This means so much to me."
Patterson hugged her, smiling. "You're welcome. You earned it. I just asked for it to be sped up a little."
Kurt took the documents before they fell off Jane's lap, looking them over. A friend who's owed favours from WitSec… Sure enough, when he saw Allie Knight's name on the requesting documentation, his suspicions were confirmed.
Apparently, Jane had noticed, too. "So, how is Allie these days?" she asked, glancing from Patterson to Kurt.
Patterson floundered for a second, but recovered quickly. "Uh… She's good, actually. She's just found out she's expecting a baby with her partner, and she's talking about maybe moving to Colorado soon. She sent her congratulations on solving the case, but I wasn't sure if it was a good idea to say anything, because of the, uh, circumstances."
Kurt shook his head, a little amused. In a different universe, he and Allie could have been great together. But in his reality, there was no way he'd regret the end of their relationship, not when it meant he and Jane had found each other. He just hoped Allie was as happy with her new partner as he was with Jane. "That's all way in the past. No circumstances to worry about."
Jane nodded. "Last year seems like a million years ago."
She gave Kurt a quick smile, erasing his worry that she might be feeling insecure, before glancing down at the documents in his hands. "I wonder if Roman will want a new name when he's got his immunity."
Kurt handed the papers back to her. "You can ask him while we get him settled here, tomorrow."
"He's staying with you guys?" Patterson asked.
"Yeah. Seemed like the best option, since the doctors don't want him doing everything himself," Kurt said.
"Plus, Weller didn't want to spend even thirty seconds farther from Jane than he had to be," Tasha added, snickering.
Kurt snorted. "You spend a month not knowing if someone you love is safe. Then we'll talk about that."
She nodded, still amused. "I get it. But seeing you guys happy together, and not trying to hide it…I'm still getting used to that, is all."
Jane leaned against him, smiling. "No more hiding. I just hope it's not too weird for Roman."
"Oh, for sure, it'll be weird," Patterson said. "It's always weird when your sibling gets a new love interest. But you get over it."
Kurt nodded agreement, as Reade shrugged. "I wouldn't know. Only child."
"How do you know?" Tasha asked, frowning at Patterson. "I thought you were an only child."
Patterson sighed. "Not exactly. I do have a brother, I just… It's not a good relationship, so I don't really talk about him."
"No way! What else don't I know about you?" Zapata demanded, staring at her.
Patterson shrugged uncomfortably. "Let's just get back to Jane and Roman."
"I guess I'm a little worried," Jane confessed, taking the cue to move the conversation on. "Roman was brought up to be anti-establishment, and it was really hard for him to betray Shepherd. Staying in an FBI agent's apartment isn't gonna be the easiest thing for his conscience. He still doesn't trust law enforcement, and after all the tattoo cases, and what the CIA did to me… I can't blame him. But he didn't trust Sandstorm, either. I'm hoping it'll balance out."
"You've met a couple of times now, right, Weller?" Patterson said.
"Yeah." Kurt tried not to let his own reservations about Roman show. "The first time, a lot was at stake. It wasn't exactly a social call. And tonight I stayed pretty quiet, let him catch up with Jane."
"I know you guys might never be real friends," Jane said, shrugging. "But as long as Roman doesn't sulk because you're taking up too much of my life, and you don't snoop around after him, trying to catch him out doing something illegal…"
If he passes the polygraph, that'll go a long way towards me trusting him. But he was still a terrorist, and there was no ZIP involved in his case. He kept quiet, not wanting to put Jane on the defensive.
"I hope it works out for you guys. I really do," Patterson said.
Me, too. For Jane's sake.
"I'll drink to that—or I would, if I had any beer left." Reade stood up. "Food shouldn't be long now. Anyone want another drink?"
"Are you seriously asking me that?" Patterson asked, laughing.
"I'll have another," Jane said, and Kurt squeezed her hand, then stood up to help Reade.
"Get me one, too," Tasha said. "And then we can tell Jane about that case she missed. You know, the one with the escape room and the crazy hacker lady?"
"Oh, yeah! I took a sneaky picture of Weller in that outfit, too. I knew Jane would wanna see it." Patterson looked around for her phone, fishing it out from down the side of the couch triumphantly.
"Outfit? What did I miss? Which tattoo?" Looking lost, but intrigued, Jane waited for details.
Taking a couple of bottles from Reade, Kurt stifled a smile. The red 'hacker chic' outfit had been mortifying to wear, but he knew the story—and the picture Patterson had taken—would entertain Jane, and she needed all the fun she could get right now. They all did.
Author's Note: Just for clarity's sake - no, Allie's baby isn't Kurt's in this AU. I think Jeller have had enough drama as it is! But I did want to at least mention Allie, because I love her. Anyway, next chapter has a little bit of Kalina...if anyone even remembers who Kalina is at this point in the fic! And maybe a little bit of Jeller smut before Roman gets there from the hospital. ;)