Author's Note: Hi, everyone! Sorry it's been almost a week since my last update - the DVDs for season three came out and I was one of the first ones to get them, so I've been screencapping and transcribing deleted scenes for the Jeller fandom over on Tumblr (my username is indelibleevidence over there if you guys want to see). Here's the next chapter - and yes, there is a lot of fluff here, but things are going to get pretty damn dark in Bulgaria so I might be overcompensating while there's still an opportunity for light stuff. ;D
"I don't want you to go."
"I don't want to go. But you know I have to." Jane pressed her forehead against Kurt's and sighed. "Check your mailbox in about thirty minutes, okay? I just had an idea."
He kissed her softly. "Sounds intriguing. Tell me about it."
"You know I have to leave." She kissed him this time, her obvious longing making his chest ache in empathy.
"I do, but what's thirty more minutes? It's not like you have a concrete deadline." He knew as he spoke that he was being unreasonable, but he couldn't shake the feeling that once she walked out of his apartment, she'd start forgetting how incredible they were together. Sure, it was probably paranoia, but…
"If I don't go now, I won't be able to make myself go at all. And you know I'm right." She ducked his kiss and laid her head on his shoulder instead, pressing close. "I'll see you at work tomorrow, and we can talk to Nas about making it believable for Remi to start dating you."
He swallowed the urge to tell her that he loved her for the hundredth time, not wanting to make this harder on either of them. "If you have nightmares and need to talk, call me."
Nodding, she pulled out of his embrace. "See you tomorrow."
Unable to help himself, he tugged her into one final kiss, possessive and loving and heated all at once. Jane melted into his arms again, kissing him back just as fiercely. Too soon, she extricated herself by abruptly shoving him away. "Thirty minutes. Check your mailbox."
With a smile that touched him deep down, she yanked open the door, stepped through and shut it firmly in his face.
Thirty minutes later, he took the stairs down to the lobby of his apartment block, knowing he was setting himself up for disappointment to expect too much, but unable to stop himself from wondering if Jane would be there. There was no sign of her—of course—but when he opened his mailbox, he found a cheap pre-paid cell phone there, one text message already waiting to be read.
"Burner phones," he murmured to himself, shaking his head at the simple genius of her idea. If either of their apartments had been bugged, it was game over for them already—they'd already slept together at both—but he didn't think that was the case. It was far more likely that their phones were tapped, if Sandstorm were monitoring them that closely at all. By using burner phones, he and Jane would be able to stay in more frequent contact without raising suspicions.
Not that he was wild about the idea that Sandstorm could be tapping his phone. He made a mental note to check in with Patterson tomorrow about that.
He took the phone back upstairs before reading the message.
Just to be safe. Call me when you get this. X
Smiling a little, Kurt called the unfamiliar number already programmed into the phone's memory.
"Hi," Jane said, a little shyly.
Kurt relaxed back into the couch cushions, closing his eyes. "This is very special ops. I'm impressed."
She laughed, sounding a little out of breath. "I don't know about special ops, but we can't be too careful."
"You know, if they have our apartments bugged, they already heard a hell of a lot that suggests we've been seeing each other."
"If they have our apartments bugged, my cover is blown and we don't need to worry about keeping anything secret anymore," Jane pointed out.
If not for the national security threat, he would be a hell of a lot happier if that was the case. Only the approaching terrorist attack that Sandstorm represented had stopped him from pulling the plug on Jane's undercover operation last night. Not to mention the threat of the CIA spiriting Jane away again the second his back was turned.
"We'll worry about that if it happens." Kurt changed the subject. "You get home okay?"
"Yeah. Just in the middle of a little strength training."
As he imagined her there in her sports bra and shorts, his mouth watered. "How's it going?"
Sounding a little discouraged, Jane said, "Not as well as I'd like, but it'll come. I tried some pull-ups for the first time just now."
"Yeah? How many'd you manage?"
Jane paused, then grudgingly admitted, "Two."
He couldn't help but smile at her obvious annoyance. "It'll come back, with time and training. Just don't overdo it, and you'll be fine."
"I know." She sighed, and he heard a rustle, as though she'd sat or lain down. "Anyway, I just wanted to know this was all set up okay. You can go get on with your night now."
"I miss you."
She laughed, genuine surprise in the sound. "You just saw me thirty minutes ago."
"What, does that mean you don't miss me yet? I'm hurt," he teased.
"Yeah, I guess I do. But I'm trying to distract myself."
Taking that as a sign that she needed some space, Kurt said, "Go on and finish your workout. I'll see you tomorrow."
"Goodnight, Kurt." Her voice carried her hesitant affection across the distance that separated them.
"Night, Jane."
"We've found no trace of Cade, but hopefully that means Sandstorm hasn't, either. Maybe he'll pop back up later, maybe he won't. Either way, he's alive and Jane's cover is intact, and any loss for them is a win for us, so…" Nas ended with a shrug.
She seemed to have calmed down since she'd yelled at Kurt over the phone yesterday, but Jane still got the feeling that Nas would have been happier if she hadn't taken the risk with her cover. This mission was everything to her.
She glanced over to find Kurt watching Nas with a slight frown, but before anyone could say anything, the door opened and Patterson leaned around the doorframe.
"Sorry to interrupt, but that black hole photo Mayfair left us in her files? Our systems just cracked it."
Everyone but Nas immediately straightened up. This wasn't directly related to Sandstorm, and Nas had never met Mayfair, so it didn't have the same weight for her as it did the rest of the team. Still, she joined them around the large screen mounted on the wall, looking interested.
"Okay, so, when I unscrambled the image, I got this." Patterson took them through the image, which Jane realised with dawning wonder was a collection of email messages. "Long story short, it's leading to Douglas Winter."
"Douglas Winter? Mayfair knew where he disappeared to?" Nas instantly became a lot more invested. Douglas Winter, a former NSA employee, had leaked a lot of sensitive, surveillance-related information to the international press before fleeing the country, but no one knew his whereabouts. Every federal agency was interested in catching up with him and bringing him to justice—despite the fact that Jane privately thought he'd done the public a service by revealing the extent of the NSA's reach. If Nas was able to bring him in, she'd win a lot of respect from her superiors.
One look at Kurt revealed he was having the same thought. His gaze rested sharply on their task force founder, and Nas was clearly aware of that. She said nothing, however.
Something in Bulgarian on-screen caught Jane's eye, and she pointed it out. "Did you already translate this?" she asked Patterson.
"I wondered if you'd notice," Patterson said. "I did, but you go ahead."
"Which one of the hundred languages you speak is it?" Zapata asked distractedly, her eyes scanning the English-language correspondence.
"Bulgarian." Jane read out the short message, first in its original language, then translated to English. "My fair darling, winter's come to the grand hotel. Love, Maria."
"Yeah, it was sent to Winter's girlfriend, Krysta Massey. Apparently, she never received it; it must have been intercepted." Patterson shrugged.
"By Mayfair." Weller's voice held a note Jane couldn't quite read. "She was looking for Winter."
"There's a Grand Hotel Maria in Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria," Patterson said. "Seems worth checking out, don't you think?"
"I'm going with you," Nas said immediately.
Weller frowned. "Can I speak with you privately for a moment?"
Nas sighed and indicated one of the side rooms. "Lead the way."
The rest of the team watched them go. "Think we'd ever get to interrogate Winter if the NSA got their hands on him first?" Zapata asked.
"Not a chance," Reade said.
"So, Jane, I'm guessing you're going, since you speak the language?" Patterson asked.
Jane tore her eyes from the closed door behind which Nas and Kurt were arguing. "Umm, actually, I don't think I'll be able to. I don't have a passport."
Zapata frowned. "But you came to Turkey with us last year."
"That was using Taylor Shaw's identity."
Zapata's mouth formed a soundless 'oh' as the conversation died. Uncomfortable silence fell.
After a moment, Patterson said, "I don't see why you couldn't get a new identity for the duration of this operation. I mean, you might need it for the tattoos, or for pursuing Shepherd, and it wouldn't hurt to have one already made up if you need it on short notice."
"You think Nas would be okay with that?" Reade asked. "She might consider Jane a flight risk."
"Pellington, too," Jane added.
"Doesn't hurt to ask, right?" Patterson said. "And if you were going to skip out on us, better that you do it with a passport that we know, rather than an ID Sandstorm gave you, that we don't know."
"That argument might go somewhere," Zapata said.
"Hypothetically speaking," Patterson said, "If you did get to pick out a new identity, what name would you choose?"
Jane had already spent a while considering that, and needed no time to think. "Jane Dover. Dover, like the English port. It sounds almost exactly like the name I'm used to hearing, but all I need to do is add a syllable if I slip up, or someone else does."
"Ahhh." Reade nodded. "Clever."
"You don't want to go for something flashy, like Celeste St. Clair the Younger or something like that?" Zapata asked. "Or at least something a bit further from Jane Doe? Closer to your birth name?"
Jane shrugged. "No. It can be a little inconvenient, but I honestly like being Jane Doe. Any alternative seems too close to being Remi."
Patterson gave an enigmatic smile. "I will note down your choice of identities for future reference."
"Thanks. If it doesn't come to anything, don't worry about it." Jane tried not to think of the team chasing after leads in Bulgaria, putting their lives in danger without her to cover their backs—Kurt's back—in case of disaster.
Nas and Weller returned, both tense, but presenting a united front.
"So, who's going to Bulgaria?" Zapata asked casually.
"Me, Nas, Jane and Reade," Weller said. "Patterson, I want you here keeping your eye on the rest of that encryption on Mayfair's drive, just in case."
"What about me?" Zapata scowled.
"You have that wedding on Wednesday, right? You already booked the day off for it."
Tasha sighed. "Damn, I forgot about that. I'd skip it for a free trip to Europe, but it's my cousin's wedding, and I'm a bridesmaid. I have to wear this hideous fuchsia thing… The things we do for family, huh?"
Jane examined her nails, not wanting to respond to that comment. It hadn't been a calculated dig, but even so…
"Jane, you're going to need papers, yes?" Nas said.
She looked up, genuinely surprised. "You'd be willing to let me have them?"
"If Director Pellington gives his approval, then yes." Nas sorted through some paper files as she spoke. Something about her demeanour told Jane she wasn't a hundred percent sure about this course of action, and one glance over at Kurt confirmed that he'd made some kind of deal for her.
Jane made a mental note to thank him in several ways next time they had a moment alone together.
"So, assuming I get to go… When do we leave?"
Kurt was taking a break from paperwork to grab a coffee when his burner phone buzzed. He pulled it out to find a text message from Jane.
No one else is in Zero Division right now, if you're free for a second…
He abandoned the coffee machine immediately and headed down the back hallways that led to their secure area. Even if they were interrupted, they could swear any of the team who had access to secrecy.
It looked like Jane had been composing an official written statement on the Cade incident. When he walked in, she laid down her pen with a smile. "Hey—"
Kurt pulled her up out of the chair and into his arms, not bothering with pleasantries. Her smile was slow to fade against his lips, her next words stalled by his kiss, as she pressed closer. Lost in her scent and the electricity building between them, he prolonged their embrace until they were both breathless.
Jane pushed reluctantly against his chest, breaking away. "Wow."
"Sorry," he said, not meaning it at all. "I've been needing to do that all morning."
She gazed affectionately up at him. "Me too. Especially after you got me clearance to go to Bulgaria tomorrow. Thank you, Kurt. I mean it."
He kissed her nose lightly. "It's not exactly a romantic getaway vacation, especially with Nas and Reade along, but Nas was pretty insistent that she be in on the arrest."
Jane shrugged. "I can't blame her, really. I mean, Winter is a pretty big deal for the NSA. What was the deal you made with her?"
Had it been so obvious that he'd bargained for her, or was she just perceptive? "I told her she could come along if you could, but since Winter isn't directly related to Sandstorm, she has to follow my lead, and at no point is she to be alone with Winter."
"Think she'll stick to it?" Jane asked, leaning against him.
"With three of us along to keep an eye on her, she'll have to. He might end up in NSA custody, but I want to know everything he knows about Mayfair and Daylight first."
Jane frowned a little. "What makes you think he knows anything about…?" Realisation dawned, and she answered her own question. "'My fair darling'—Mayfair, darling." The hope in her expression mirrored what he was feeling. "You think he can fill in some of the blanks about her investigation before Weitz came after her?"
"Let's hope so." If he let himself think about it too much, he might build his expectations too high. He distracted himself by cupping Jane's face in his hands, watching her eyes soften at his loving attention. "What are you doing tonight?"
"Assuming I can come up with something convincing, telling Roman I'll be in Bulgaria for a couple of days. Maybe he'll have news about Cade, too." She sighed. "Then I guess I'll turn in early. I didn't sleep too well last night. Not that I think tonight will be much better."
"Wish I could be there to help. After the nightmares." It hurt to know she spent most nights in distress, and he couldn't be there to soothe her.
"Me too." Unexpectedly, her eyes filled with playfulness. "Especially since last night, I realised there's one thing about the night you found out I wasn't Taylor that we haven't… overwritten yet."
He blinked, trying to follow her train of thought. She didn't leave him hanging, leaning close to whisper against his ear, "You haven't put your cuffs on me."
Oh, fuck. He hoped no one chose that moment to get back from whatever they were doing, because he was helpless to stop his body's reaction to that scenario. He'd never imagined Jane would want him to restrain her, especially not after her months of torture at the CIA's hands. The trust she was showing him by even suggesting it astounded him.
She ground appreciatively against his growing hardness, her lips still against his ear. "You like that idea, huh?"
"You have to let me come over tonight. After you've dealt with Roman." He tried to pull back enough that he could kiss her, but she wouldn't let him.
"Well… I guess they won't be surveilling my place when they know I'm not there. So if you take the subway and get there while I'm out… And then I leave before you do tomorrow morning…" She rocked her hips subtly against his, her breathing becoming a little shaky as he slid his hands down to her ass, unsure whether he was trying to encourage her movements or stop them.
"I'm really, really liking this plan."
Jane finally leaned back enough to let him kiss her, his hunger mirrored in her response. After a minute, she pulled away and stepped back, the loss of her heat against him a sudden shock. "We have to get back to work."
She was right, but he didn't have to like it. "I have a meeting with counter-terrorism this afternoon, but I'll see you tonight. Text me when you know what's happening with Roman."
Jane sat back down at her desk, a little flushed but otherwise appearing calm. "See you later."
Unable to help himself, he leaned down for one more kiss, then turned towards the door, hoping he could make it to the bathroom down the hall without running into anyone who might notice his complete lack of composure right now.