Author's Note: Okay, for those who missed it, I decided to get rid of Jane's declaration of love at the end of chapter 45, and therefore the whole original chapter 46. If you click back a chapter, you'll see the difference is just a couple of paragraphs gone from the end and one extra one added. I will be uploading the alternate content as a separate fic for those who still want it around, but I decided that I hate it, so I ditched it from the main fic. Thanks for bearing with me as I fuss around with things! Here's the morning after, and it's full of fluff. :)
Jane woke up to the scent of frying bacon. She stretched and turned over, wondering for a moment why the morning sunlight in her room was coming from a different direction than usual. Then she remembered.
She smiled up at Kurt's ceiling, feeling as if she'd somehow stepped into someone else's life, but not particularly caring. If their life was this good, she was never going back to her own.
After a quick visit to the bathroom, she wrapped Kurt's discarded shirt around her and headed out to find him. As she'd expected, he was in the kitchen, frying up bacon, eggs, tomatoes, mushrooms and French toast.
"Are we expecting company for breakfast, or are we supposed to eat all that ourselves?" Not wanting to startle him when he was handling a skillet of hot oil, she stopped at the edge of the kitchen to watch him.
Kurt smiled over at her. "You know, it's not breakfast in bed if you're not in bed."
Unable to resist, she came over and kissed him on the cheek. He turned his head to capture her lips, snaking an arm around her waist.
"You're gonna burn it."
"I can multitask."
Jane allowed herself to remain in his embrace for a few seconds longer before twisting out of his reach, not wanting to risk a culinary disaster. She was too hungry for that. "I'll be in bed."
He brought in a tray of food a couple of minutes later, and Jane's stomach rumbled in anticipation. "I don't remember a lot of my mornings, but I think this may be the greatest morning of my life."
Kurt grinned and transferred the tray onto her lap. "It's a start."
They ate with their legs touching, in constant contact despite their focus on their food. Kurt kept glancing over at her, and finally she asked, "What?"
"You look confused by something."
Jane speared her last piece of bacon thoughtfully. "I guess I'm just not used to all this. Waking up with someone. Having them take care of me."
Kurt leaned over and kissed her cheek. "You don't remember ever having breakfast in bed before?"
Jane shook her head slowly. "Does eating cold, leftover Chinese food while sitting on a pool table in a warehouse count?"
"Definitely not." He ate a couple of mouthfuls before asking, "That was with Oscar, then?"
Jane nodded, regretting having mentioned anything that linked back to him.
Kurt didn't look too bothered, though. "And here I was worried about not being able to measure up."
For a moment, she was surprised that he'd have that kind of insecurity. Then she realised it was no different from the way she'd compared herself to Allie last year. When she'd realised they were dating, she'd spent a while berating herself for imagining Kurt would ever want to be with her when he could have someone as cute and capable as Allie.
If she was being honest with herself, she kind of still thought that.
"Jane? Where did you just go?" Kurt slid his hand over her arm.
She looked down at her plate, a little embarrassed. "Just comparing myself to your ex-girlfriend." Then, realising she sounded like she thought she was the current girlfriend, she added hastily, "Not that we're as committed as you and Allie were, or anything…"
"Not yet. But only because I was working my way around to bringing it up."
Jane laid her knife and fork down carefully. "Meaning…?"
"Meaning that I don't want to share you with anyone else."
When she looked into his face, she thought she saw a trace of nervousness in his expression. The idea that there could ever be anyone else while he was around was so ridiculous that she wanted to laugh, but he was serious enough that she suppressed it.
"That works both ways, right?" she asked, taking his hand and laying a gentle kiss over his knuckles. "No sharing you either?"
"Just us."
Jane looked up, wondering if he remembered that was what she'd said to him the night she'd kissed him for the first time.
Kurt smiled, a hint of sadness to it. "A lot's happened since then, huh?"
"I wish I could go back," Jane confessed. "While I was at the black site, I thought about that night so much. I was so happy walking back from your place, before Carter snatched me off the street. And then everything started to go to hell, and that night, outside your place, kissing you… If I could rewind time, but keep all the knowledge I have now… That was the last place everything was simple."
"No idea who'd put all those tattoos on you, who'd attacked you in your safehouse, who left you with no memories in Times Square...but things were simple?" Kurt took her breakfast tray from off her lap, putting it on the floor next to his.
"Relatively speaking." Jane snuggled into the crook of his arm, closing her eyes.
"Well, Sandstorm didn't call you in overnight, so let's assume they might not contact you until later. What do you want to do today?"
"Go jogging, then maybe a little weight training," Jane said promptly. "I wasn't kidding yesterday when I said my arms need some serious work. But…we could stay in bed for a little while first."
"Yeah, I think we could manage that." Kurt tilted her head up for a kiss, and Jane quickly lost track of her plans for later.
Kurt spent the first part of his Saturday afternoon straightening up the apartment, his military training demanding that he complete the housework before he could relax. He and Jane had hit the gym a couple of blocks over from his place, and he'd seen the disappointment in her eyes when he'd finished up his workout and told her that he was ready to leave. Clearly, she'd wanted to train a little harder. He'd told her to come by his place when she was done, kissing her before he left—just in case the four guys ogling her from various parts of the gym got any ideas about hitting on her.
Not that Jane would have any trouble sending any of them on their way. Even deconditioned, she could wipe the floor with all four of them at once.
He settled onto the couch with the book he was in the middle of reading, losing himself for an hour in a fictional military campaign and the covert team struggling to survive in enemy territory. When most of the team was killed by a drone strike, he set the book aside, frowning as he thought of Jane's Orion team.
The satellite photograph in Mayfair's Orion files had shown Jane splayed out on the ground, unconscious. Why hadn't the drone made certain of her death with a second bomb? There were no serious injuries visible in that photograph, and the drone's video feed likely hadn't picked up any, either.
Was it possible that the drone operator had spared her on purpose? That someone had wanted Orion disbanded, but Jane—Remi—alive?
Kurt filed away the thought for later as Jane buzzed up to the apartment. When she got to his door, she looked weary, but satisfied, her hair damp from her post-workout shower.
"All good?" he asked, meeting her with a kiss of greeting.
"Getting there," she said, closing the door behind her. "By the way, your gym is full of creeps."
"Did they bother you?" Even knowing she was fully capable of brushing off unwanted attention, he still had to suppress a surge of territorial protectiveness.
"Only one of them. He saw you kiss me goodbye, and he still tried it. The tattoos always give them a good opening line." She rolled her eyes. "I offered to give him a temporary tattoo on his face, with my fist. He backed off."
They took cups of coffee out onto the balcony to watch the city go by. Jane kept checking her Sandstorm pager, and it began to dawn on Kurt just how much she felt like a puppet on their strings. "You okay?"
"Yeah." She shook her head as she spoke, contradicting herself. "I just…never really feel at ease on a weekend. Not just because of this,"—she indicated the pager—"but because I think I've always been ready to get up and go. I can't imagine life was ever that relaxing at the orphanage, and Shepherd's ex-military, so I'm guessing she was as strict when I was growing up as she is now."
"Sounds rough."
Jane shrugged. "At least I don't remember much of it. It's instinctive, though. That first weekend after I came out of the bag, I didn't know what to do with myself. Two whole days of just…nothing. I don't know what I would have done if you guys hadn't let me out in the field with you. I just had no purpose beyond figuring out what had happened to me."
Kurt took her hand, wishing he'd made more of an effort that first week to check on her. "And now?"
"Now I have a purpose." Her eyes darkened, her jaw setting with determination. "Take down Shepherd and earn my immunity. I just want to be in control of my own life."
"Do you feel like I'm controlling you?" Maybe it was paranoid, but he needed to check.
"A little. But you're my boss and one of my handlers, so that comes with the territory." She smiled into her coffee cup. "And it's not like I'm shy about questioning my orders, if I don't agree with them."
Her cell phone rang, startling them both. It wasn't likely to be Sandstorm, since Roman communicated with her via pager, but Jane remained tense until she checked the caller ID. "It's Kalina."
"Say hi for me." After kissing the top of her head, Kurt took their empty coffee cups back inside. As he rinsed them out, he could faintly hear Jane conversing in Russian, her voice light. Kurt smiled to himself when he heard her laughing; it was a sound he too rarely heard these days.
Kalina's husband had been arrested earlier in the week for tax fraud and involvement in dog fights. The local LEOs in Springfield had kept Kurt in the loop, grateful for the tip. Kalina had been reluctant to press charges on her husband for domestic abuse, fearing his retribution, but even without that, he was likely to face a couple of years in prison.
After a few minutes, she came inside and offered him the phone. "She wants to talk to you."
Surprised, Kurt took the phone. "Kalina, hey."
"Hi, Kurt. I just wanted to thank you for everything you've done for me. Sam's hearing was yesterday and he was denied bail, so… I think I'm safe. For now."
"That's great news. Are you running the motel alone now?"
"I have a friend helping out. Sam didn't like her coming over, but now that's not a problem."
She sounded so cheerful that Kurt couldn't help but smile as well. "Well, if you can afford to close up for a week sometime, come over and visit us. I get the feeling you could use a vacation."
"I will definitely consider it." She paused, then asked, "Is Jane doing all right? She says she's healed up now, but I think she doesn't want me to worry too much."
Kurt looked out onto the balcony, where Jane was leaning against the railing, taking in the view. "She's getting there. Her wounds have healed, but she has nightmares."
"Oh, poor Jane," Kalina said sadly. "And you? Are you all right?"
"Don't worry about me. I'm fine."
"Well, you and Jane are spending more time together…" she teased.
Kurt smiled. "Yeah. I think we're gonna be okay."
They chatted for a couple of minutes more before hanging up. Kurt returned Jane's phone to her, then slid his arms around her waist from behind.
"She seems happy."
Jane leaned back against him. "You really made a difference to her life. Thank you, Kurt."
"She really made a difference to mine. It was the least I could do."
Jane turned in his arms to gaze up at him. "I'm glad she called you that night."
In reply, he gave her a gentle kiss and changed the subject. "So, what do you want to do now? Run a marathon? Swim across the Hudson?"
"Watch a movie? I still have a lifetime of pop culture to catch up on. Just nothing with terrorists. Or torture. Or amnesia."
Kurt thought for a moment. "Hmmm… You remember seeing The Lion King?"