Disclaimer: I do not own Jane or Kurt or Blindspot. Writing about them is simply the outlet for my obsession.

A/N: Once upon a time, my average chapter length was about 2,500 words. Then somewhere over the course of this year, thanks to Blindspot, I started writing these monster chapters. Now, at about 5,300 words or so, this one feels short. Which just goes to show that I can't get enough Blindspot.

"Anyone want to go swimming?" he asked them.

Seeing her smile, he already knew her answer, but he let the others answer first. Sawyer was the first to reply, jumping up and down in the sand. "Yes! Let's go!" he shouted. He was always happy to go in the water.

"No, thanks, I'm good," Sarah replied, once again perfectly happy to take the break where she could get it. She figured that Jane and her brother would be disappearing off by themselves again at some point, anyway – which she was absolutely fine with – so she might as well take advantage of the rest while she could.

Kurt walked up to Jane, who was standing nearby, chuckling quietly at him. He really was covered in sand… She watched him hold out a sand-covered hand towards her upper arm, surprised at how rough it felt when he laid it against her skin. Rubbing back and forth on her arm slowly, he said, "There's some exfoliation for you." Looking at Sawyer he said, "Which means removing the outer layer of dead skin cells – which rubbing sand against your skin does, because the sand is so rough. Some people pay a lot of money to have that done." He figured that Jane may or may not remember the concept of exfoliation, but chances were the Sawyer didn't know, so he could tell him, and that way if she didn't know, now she did. Plus, it had been an excuse to make contact with her.

Turning back to Jane and looking at her with his thousand watt smile, he asked, "So, are you coming in the water with us?" His hand was still on her arm, and she felt warmth flowing from that spot, through her whole body.

What? she thought to herself. And give this up? I'm not crazy.

She pretended to think it over, but she didn't have much of a poker face, and it was pretty obvious that she was just barely holding in a smile. After about half a minute, during which she watched Sawyer hop up and down in anticipation, she finally smiled and leaned just a little closer to him. As she did, though she wasn't even sure why it caught her attention, she heard a cough from off to one side of them, maybe ten feet away at the most. She turned to look in the direction of the sound, and found a middle aged brunette, wearing a dark blue bikini that was at least three sizes too small for her, staring blatantly at Jane, elbowing the man standing beside her to get his attention. The woman looked at her dismissively from head to toe, her expression changing to disgust.

Jane tried to smile at her, but this time her smile faltered. The woman had several tattoos herself, visible on her arms and back, and yet she was looking at Jane as if she was a piece of garbage. Kurt had followed Jane's line of sight to see what had suddenly distracted her, catching up with the silent conversation between the two women within a few seconds. He tugged at her hand, but she didn't turn toward him. Instead, she glanced around, her eyes sweeping from the woman to other people standing nearby. Of course, they weren't all watching her, but at that moment, it felt as if they were.

His first response was anger. After all, what right did that woman have to glare at Jane that way? She was just standing there minding her own business. But he quickly pushed that down, remembering their conversation and watching Jane's reaction. Of course he was angry, but his getting angry wouldn't help her. Even if that woman deserved it, which she obviously did, it wouldn't solve anything. The best thing to do was to get her away from the starting contest the two of them seemed to be having.

Calm… right. For Jane, he thought.Still, it was anything but easy.

"Jane," he said, leaning towards her quickly as he attempted to shift her attention to him. "Come with us down to the water." His voice was low but almost urgent then. It took a few seconds, but she finally turned to look at him. The expression on her face surprised him, reminding him of someone who had been slapped. The only thing missing was a telltale red mark.

"Of course," she said quietly, seeming to deflate before his eyes. He squeezed her hand tightly, trying to convey his thoughts through it as they followed Sawyer out into the water. Focus on me, he silently willed her, still wishing that confronting the woman had been an option.

She tried to push their faces out of her mind, she really did… this time, however, it just wasn't working. Even as she walked with Kurt, even as she felt him squeeze her hand, she still saw them there. Even though she knew that they were only two people, and that their opinions meant no more than anyone else's, she couldn't shake the feeling she'd gotten from looking into that woman's eyes.

"If they're looking, it's because you make the rest of us look bad, Jane. And if they're being nasty, it's because they're jealous."

Sarah's words echoed in her head, but somehow they sounded hollow. Not that she thought that Sarah would have lied to her, of course. She knew that the other woman sincerely believed them, and she knew that she should believe them. Still, somehow it just wasn't that easy.

They walked slowly out into the slow moving water, keeping an eye on Sawyer while also looking out for any incoming waves, trying to determine how far into the water they should go. The water lapped gently at their legs, coming up almost as high as their knees so far. As far as Kurt's goal of washing the sand off of him, however… well, there was still a lot of sand left.

They were still walking slowly behind Sawyer when Kurt finally broke the tense silence between them. "Are you—" he started, but she interrupted him before he had a chance to finish.

"I'm fine," she replied, far more harshly than she'd intended, obviously determined to make herself believe it. Looking back up at him, surprised even at herself for her tone, she took a deep breath and tried again. "I'm sorry," she said sincerely, "I didn't mean to snap at you…" Her voice broke, and to her dismay she felt tears stinging behind her eyes. Whatever else she'd been planning to say, nothing else came out.

He shook his head in reply, tugging her hand to pull her to a stop, then turned and leaned down to kiss her forehead. Leaning back again, his eyes locked onto hers for several seconds, searching them. Already, she felt the tension begin to drain from her. She focused on breathing evenly, on the water around her, and most of all, on Kurt. Her heartrate was decelerating, but what was replacing the adrenaline that had coursed through her system for that short time felt, sadly, like defeat.

No, she thought, one woman isn't going to dictate how you feel about yourself. Still, that was easier said than done.

Glancing down at the sand that was only very slowly washing off of his legs in the water, he saw that there was a lot of rinsing left to go. The water wasn't nearly deep enough yet, so they kept walking, wading out further than they had the previous day because the water was so much calmer. Finally, they caught up with Sawyer, who had stopped and was looking around. The water was almost up to his shoulders, so it hit Jane and Kurt somewhere between waist and chest levels.

"Every time people go much farther out than this, the lifeguard blows the whistle at them," he remarked.

"Well then, I guess this is as far as we go," Kurt said, looking out at the water. There really weren't any big waves to speak of. It was strange that this was the same ocean they'd been in the day before, when the waves had been so big and had rolled in constantly. He looked at Jane, who was scanning the area nearby, not looking at the water but at the people in the water. There was a hint of a smile plastered on her face, but he knew her well enough to know that it was forced. Deciding to try to kill two birds with one stone, he lowered himself down into the water, his hand tugging down on hers.

When she felt the tug on her hand as he lowered himself into the water, she knew exactly what he was doing, and she followed gratefully. As far as she had come in the past two years, as much as she'd demonstrated her healthy attitude towards the stares she got, and as much as she'd told Sarah and Kurt that she was fine with it all, that she could smile at the people who were so rude to her… there were still some times when it was all just a little too much. This was one of them.

So she stood with her knees bent, allowing herself to be submerged in the water just past her shoulders, with only the top of the bird tattoo on her neck visible. You're okay, she reminded herself, knowing that that was exactly the message that Kurt had been sending her without words for the past few minutes.

Kurt had momentarily let go of her hand so that he could scrub the sand off of himself. He stood just beside her, though it seemed to him that he was much too far away. After working for a few minutes, he held his arms out of the water to examine them, looking satisfied.

Just like she had the day before, Jane appreciated the sudden anonymity that came with submerging her tattoos under the water. It came as even more of a relief just then as it had the previous day. Even if it was only for a few minutes, it was nice not to feel like everyone was staring at her. It was the closest she came to feeling like everyone else. The only other time she got this feeling being when it was cold enough outside for her to wear clothes that covered her tattoos. Sighing, she looked up in Kurt's direction, finding that he had moved closer to her. At that moment, one of his hands landed on her stomach and pulled her closer to him. She did her best to smile at him, though it felt hollow.

He'd been watching her carefully, doing his very best to remain calm – for her sake. With most of the sand now scrubbed off of him, he returned his full attention to Jane, who appeared to be a little less self-conscious now that they'd ducked down into the water. Still, tension was written all over her face. Without a second thought, he reached for her, tugging her towards him and feeling his heart ache as he watched her try to smile at him. Try being the operative word.

She let herself lean against his shoulder and continued to breathe slowly and deliberately. There are so many ways that things could be worse, she reminded herself, trying to keep things in perspective. Most of all, if she didn't have Kurt beside her.

Just then, they heard Sawyer calling excitedly from only a few feet away, "Hey! You guys! Oh my gosh! Uncle Kurt! Jane! Look!" They looked up to see what the fuss was about, because Sawyer seemed to have said everything except what he was talking about so far, when he finally go to the point. "Look at the dolphins!" he cried.

Taken by surprise, his grip on her relaxed slightly as they both quickly looked in the direction that Sawyer was pointing, standing back up to their full heights to get a better view. Suddenly, the air around them was abuzz with excitement, as people called out to each other, pointing and trying to get a good look as well. While they weren't quite near the dolphins from where they stood, they had a much better view than the people on the beach did, and there was no mistaking it – there was definitely a pod of dolphins swimming by, their backs visible above the surface of the water a few at a time. From where they stood, Jane, Kurt and Sawyer were closer to the animals than they were to the shore behind them, which was both strange and exciting.

There were murmurs of excitement, even various shouts similar to Sawyer's, all around them. Though she knew that it was silly, Jane couldn't help but feel a little bit sorry for the dolphins. She knew what it was like to be the center of everyone's frenzied attention. At the same time, it was a momentary relief to feel like everyone's eyes were on something else besides her.

And then, just like that, the dolphins were no longer visible, having submerged themselves again as they swam away. "Wow," Jane said in disbelief. "That was…"

"That was so awesome!" Sawyer called loudly. "I'm going to go tell my mom!" With that, he started back toward the beach, unintentionally splashing a large area around him in his hurry to get out of the water and tell Sarah what they'd just seen.

Jane's eyes lingered on the water in the direction where the dolphins had last been visible, momentarily envious that the dolphins could just disappear back out into the ocean after causing such a stir. She, on the other hand, had to return to land, where she was constantly judged. Shaking herself from her reverie, she glanced back at Kurt.

Pulling her closer once again, he smiled at her, then looked over his shoulder at the pier sticking out into the water in the distance. Instead of asking her if she was okay, he asked, "Do you want to walk down to the pier?" What he'd seen in the past few minutes had already given him the answer to whether or not she was okay, and he thought maybe a walk might help. There was no escape from people in general, but maybe the walk would be enough of a change of scenery to make her feel better.

"Is there something to see down there?" she asked curiously, glad for a distraction.

"I don't know, he replied. "We can find out."

She smiled at him, more genuinely then than the forced smile he'd seen on her face for the past few minutes, nodding her head. "Okay, why not?" she asked. "It's nice not to be the only one who doesn't know something for a change."

He looked back at her, pausing for a few seconds, and she registered a certain amount of surprise and sympathy mixed into his smile. She hadn't been kidding when she'd said that, nor had she been trying to elicit his sympathy. As far as she was concerned, it was simply reality. The reality was that a lot of the time, even now, people around her were introducing her to things that they knew and she didn't. It happened far less than it used to, but it still happened.

Sometimes he forgot, because it had been so long since Jane had shown up in Times Square, and because most of the time these days she seemed so well adjusted to the life she'd made for herself, that things could still be hard for her. She would probably always deal with the feeling of being different from everyone else, if for no other reason than her tattoos. He couldn't begin to imagine how frustrating it must feel to need to constantly be taught things that everyone else around her already knew.

He held onto her tighter, hoping to convey something that he couldn't even quite articulate in his own head. He wanted nothing more than to make it all okay for her, just as he always had, hating that she felt different because she still needed to be given context in certain situations.

Shaking her head, she tried to minimize the impact of what she'd said, only then realizing how seriously he'd taken it. "It's not a big deal," she murmured, looking away, but she felt Kurt watching her. His arms fell from around her waist, his right hand finding her left as they both turned in unspoken agreement and began walking toward shore. Jane swore that he was holding her hand just a little more firmly than usual.

That wasn't a bad thing, of course. On the contrary, she took the gesture exactly as it was intended. Comfort. Support. It was one of the things she loved about him. He seemed to know when something was bothering her and how to make her feel better without being given very much, if any, information. He just knew. Somehow it had always been that way between them.

Jane tensed as they walked back up onto the beach, her eyes darting from one person to the next. There was no sign of the woman who'd been so rude to her a little while before, and she breathed a sigh of relief. Still, there was no guarantee that that meant that there wasn't someone else who would behave just as badly. Despite the fact that she knew her bathing suit fit her well, part of her couldn't help but long to just have her clothes back on.

Sarah looked up at them as they approached, Sawyer having just finished telling her about the dolphins they'd seen, in as much detail as he could remember. She held up her hand to shield her eyes against the sun, which was almost straight overhead. "I hear you guys saw some dolphins," she said to them, glancing at their joined hands and then back up, from one of them to the other.

"We did," Jane said, her smile slightly more forced than it had been a moment before. "We were in the right place at the right time." As much as she liked Sarah, she had no desire to make small talk just then, and she was glad that Kurt had suggested the walk to the pier.

"We're going to wander down to the pier and see what's down there," Kurt told his sister, "We'll be back."

"Okay, but you should take your stuff just in case," Sarah replied. "That way, if we decide to do something else in the meantime, I'm not abandoning it on the beach." They nodded, thinking that that made sense. Jane felt him squeeze her hand, then let go of it so that they could gather their things.

Jane, still feeling the desire to cover her tattoos just then, but too wet to put her clothes back on yet, wrapped her towel around herself, securing the end as best she could but knowing that it would be falling down again any minute. Kurt can always help you with that again, she thought to herself, but even that though couldn't quite make her smile. She put her clothes into their green beach bag, and Kurt threw his t-shirt in the bag as well. He draped his now-damp towel over his shoulders, as he'd done the night before, not wanting to put it in the bag with their dry clothes. Leaving Sarah the towel bag to use for their things, they picked up their sandals and, satisfied that they had everything else they'd brought with them, they waved to Sarah and Sawyer.

"See you guys in a while," Sarah called, again looking at them with a knowing smile as they walked away.

"She keeps grinning at us," Jane observed as they walked toward the boardwalk, Kurt's hand sliding around the back of her to its now familiar position on her opposite shoulder.

"And with good reason," Kurt replied, without missing a beat, "We are pretty good looking." She chuckled, only then realizing that her own arm had already slid around his back without her even being conscious of it. Her towel had already begin to fall from where she'd secured it, and she gripped it tightly with her other hand, her sandals dangling in front of her. After a momentary break, her frustration level had begun to rise once more. She had the sudden urge to be somewhere besides the beach, where she could reasonably be dressed in pants and long sleeves, and not deal with the looks she got from wearing a bathing suit, especially such a revealing one. Enough was enough.

He looked down at her as she attempted to hold up her towel and hold her sandals in the same hand, noting the tension in her face. "Let's get up to the boardwalk, and I'll help you with your towel, if you want," he offered, to which she nodded gratefully, walking on as the resistance against her feet grew with the increasingly dry sand.

A few minutes later, they found themselves standing along the familiar railing at the edge of the boardwalk. Though not in exactly the same spot they'd been in the night before, and though Jane was the one with her back to the railing this time, the feeling was remarkably similar – which meant that suddenly, the air between them once again felt as charged with electricity as it had the previous night when they'd stood there in the rain. Looking up into his eyes, she almost forgot the things that were frustrating her. Almost.

She'd set the bag and her sandals down beside her as soon as they'd stopped, and she was now just gripping her towel tightly with both hands. She had it wrapped around the top of her, and it reached just far enough to hide her bikini from top to bottom, which amounted to not quite half of what she wished she could hide – which was all of her.

"Is that where you want it fastened?" he asked her, indicating the space just below her collarbone, where she clutched the towel. The day before, he'd helped her secure it at her waist. Today, however, thanks in part to the exceptional rudeness of the woman on the beach, she seemed to feel significantly more uncomfortable in the bikini that looked so gorgeous on her. He was still angry about it, to be sure, but he focused on being calm, and helping her be calm as well. Looking at her intently, he waited for her to meet his eyes and hoped that he could transfer some of what he was thinking to her.

Jane just nodded without looking up, a small, tired sigh escaping her against her will. It was exhausting, having people stare at her all the time and having to work so hard to convince herself not to care. The more of her tattoos she showed, the more they stared. This was a side effect of coming to the beach that she hadn't thought to anticipate.

Her sigh hadn't escaped his attention, and neither did the fact that she wasn't meeting his eyes. He looked down at her, his smile softening. Frustration was visible in her face, though she was clearly fighting it. He reached up and gently took the edges of the towel from her in one hand, covering as much of her hands with his as he could, and wrapping his other arm around her so that he could pull her into a hug. She exhaled slowly, with a little bit of a shudder, still not looking at him, and instead leaned forward until her forehead was against his shoulder.

The hand on her back was tracing small circles over his own name, though he couldn't actually see the skin below his fingers to know that. She focused on that sensation and nothing else, and gradually felt her frustration leave her. After a time, she leaned back slowly, finally looking up at him. Her smile was slight and tinged with sadness, but it was there, he noted with satisfaction. He smiled back at her, then leaned down to kiss her forehead. After pausing there for a few seconds, he slowly unwound his arm from her back and began to fix her towel as he'd promised.

He took the top edge of the fabric in both hands, and she removed her hands from the area so he could work, instead, like she had the day before, reaching up and resting her arms on his shoulders, then slowly adjusting their position until her hands rested on the back of his head. He held onto the ends of her towel, momentarily unable to move, as her fingers combed through his hair and against his scalp.

He was surprised, for a second, at how hard it was to retain his focus as soon as her fingers found his skin. "You're very distracting," he mumbled, which made her smile. This did not go unnoticed by him, and he was glad that she'd found something to focus on besides the things that were upsetting her – doubly glad, because what she was focusing on was him.

Meanwhile, he'd pulled the towel more tightly around the top of her, securing one end as well as the section that wrapped around her left side with the index finger and thumb on his right hand, the back of his thumb against the skin directly under her arm. She swore she felt him move his thumb just a tiny bit against her skin, and again, it was as though electricity shot through her.

"You're pretty distracting herself," she replied, fairly sure that he knew exactly what he was doing. He just grinned, winking at her mischievously.

With his left hand, he pulled the other end of the towel tight, and once he'd done that, he was able to let go of the part that he'd secured first, though she swore he did so extra slowly. He tucked the end of the towel that ended up on the outside tightly under the tautly pulled fabric a few inches from her left shoulder, letting his fingertips rest against her skin beneath the top edge of the towel for several more seconds than necessary before slowly withdrawing them, his hands settling on the bare skin of her shoulders.

He looked back up at her, and though she looked more relaxed than she had a few minutes before, he was still concerned. "Do you want to talk about it?" he asked.

She breathed deeply, looking down at his towel draped over his shoulders rather than at his face. Her smile morphed into more of a grimace as he felt her hands stiffen slightly on his neck, then drift down to his shoulders. "It gets old," she said without looking up, "the stares. The whispers."

Again making a conscious effort to stay calm at just the thought of the people who had been so rude to Jane not only the day before, but also just a short time ago, he said what he had a feeling she was thinking. "Or," he added, "people's blatant rudeness." She nodded.

He sighed, knowing there was no easy answer. "I know that I may not be completely objective here," he started, pausing as she chuckled. He had never been objective when it came to Jane, even for those few days a long time ago when that had been his stated goal, and they both knew it. "But those people are idiots. It's sad that they don't realize how rudely they're acting… and I know that it's easy to say, but it's the truth – that's a reflection on them, not you, Jane." His voice was soft and sincere, and she nodded, but still didn't look back up.

Logically, she knew that he was right, though that didn't necessarily make it all easier to deal with them. "Hey," he said, waiting for her to look up at him. It took a minute, but finally she did. "I told you before. You're beautiful…" Though there was uncertainly in her eyes, she smiled, despite the conflicting urge to cry that she also felt at the same time. "And I feel sorry for anyone who can't see that," he added.

She paused, smiling but wincing at the same time and trying to let his words sink in, though it felt as though her mind was fighting against letting herself believe them. Taking a deep breath, she said, "I've been over and over it with Borden. I'm as good with things as I'm going to get, I think, at least for now. Some days it just gets to me more than others, I guess." She paused, her eyes darting around again quickly before returning to focus on him once more. "Those people staring… making comments… There's always going to be people like that," she said as she shrugged her shoulders, looking at him steadily. "I just have to make peace with it."

"You say that like it's easy," he replied sympathetically, his thumbs moving soothingly against her collarbone. "You have to give yourself a break, and remember to give yourself credit for how hard you're trying. Besides, whatever you think, you are stronger on your weakest day than almost anyone I've ever met."

Looking down again, her voice dropped to almost a whisper. "Then how come half the time I feel like I'm about to break into a million pieces?"

"But that's one of the things I love about you," he told her, "that you can be both at the same time. It's part of what makes you Jane." She shook her head, and he could see that she didn't see that as the strength that he did. Looking as if a thought was forming inside her head that she was trying to articulate, she opened her mouth to speak, but didn't know quite what she wanted to say.

Not wanting her to get the chance to argue with him on this one, he instead tried to distract her by lightening the tone of the conversation. "Those people… do you want me to punch any of them for you?" he asked her jokingly. "Not," he added quickly, "that you couldn't take care of them yourself." That made her smile, genuinely that time.

"No, thanks, that's… sweet… of you," she replied quietly with a smile.

He leaned down to kiss her, and when he moved back to look at her a few seconds later, the tension was gone from her face.

"Okay?" he asked simply.

"Yes," she replied as he pulled her into a tight hug.

"Then let's go for a walk to the pier, and see what's there," he replied, reluctantly stepping back from her. They slipped their sandals back on and she reached down to pick up the beach bag, pushing it up onto her left shoulder. When she had the bag settled, he draped his arm across her shoulders, pulling her right side into his left as they began walking amidst the crowds on the boardwalk.

"Better?" he asked, turning to look at her and leaning the side of his face against her temple.

She nodded, leaning against him, because it was. Everything was better when he was there.