Disclaimer: I do not own Blindspot. More like it's the other way around… I've come to realize that THEY own ME. :)

While they were sitting on the ground, Kurt carefully slipped the small package of food that the monks had given them out of his pack, careful not to disturb Jane's feet, which sat on top of it.

"Oh, I'm sorry, let me move out of the way," she told him quickly, seeing that he was trying to work around her.

"No, don't move," he protested. "Keep your feet up as long as possible." Still exhausted from the sleep that had been anything but restful, she nodded. She was leaning back, but still sitting up braced against her hands out behind her on the tarp. With what was left of their food in front of him, he scooted back over beside her.

"As long as we're sitting here, we should eat something," he told her sternly. "Neither of us have eaten enough since we left, and we need to keep our strength up. Especially you."

He's opened a bundle containing four small rolls, and she reached for one, now balancing awkwardly against one arm and taking small bites as he watched her carefully. She knew that she needed to eat, and she knew that he was going to make sure that she did, but truthfully, she really wasn't hungry. Her stomach was in knots after the dream she'd just had.

He watched her worriedly, and he could tell that she was only eating because he was watching her. That was okay with him, as long as she ate. While it was less so than he had been before he'd found her, he was still worried about her. Really, he'd worried about her for almost as long as he'd known her, and over the months since she'd disappeared, that worry had only intensified exponentially. Now, even after he'd found her, it was hard, if not impossible, to dial that worry back down to a normal level.

As he took slow bites of the roll he was eating, he put his right hand over her left where it sat on the tarp behind her, holding her up while her feet stayed elevated.

She was looking off somewhere in the distance, and she smiled weakly when she felt his hand on top of hers, slowly coming back to the present. The intensity of the look on his face when she looked back at him said enough that neither of them felt the need to speak, so they simply ate in silence, watching each other shyly.

When she finished the first roll, he held up another one to her, his eyes telling her in no uncertain terms that she was going to eat it. "I'm really not hungry, Kurt," she protested quietly, even though she knew that he wasn't going to take no for an answer.

"Jane, you need to eat," he told her, just as insistently as she'd expected.

"Bossy," she muttered as she took a bite. Never mind that she hadn't exactly meant it nicely, Kurt couldn't help but smile. After all, she was there in front of him, and he didn't mind if she grumbled, so long as she let him keep on taking care of her. Besides, it had been a long time since she'd called him that… and he loved that they now had that their past that stretched back far enough that it felt as though something between them had happened a very long time ago. It might sound strange, but he wanted those beginning times, the part where they'd known so little about her, to keep getting farther and farther away – while still keeping her close to him, of course – because that would mean that they had been together that much longer. Not that it would ever be enough, of course.

There was one more roll, but he put it away. Of course he was hungry, but with food supplies running so low relative to their slow progress – they had some dried meat and some kind of local fruits whose names that he didn't even know, as well as some nuts, but that was all – he wanted to conserve as much as possible. He was doing much better than Jane, and he could afford to eat less just then, after all. As always, he was far more worried about her.

"Let's get going," Jane said. He swore that it had taken all of her energy just to say those three words, and he didn't know how she was going to manage to walk, even with his help. Staring at her carefully, he tried to see inside her head to try to figure out if he could reasonably ask her to walk any further. As if reading his mind, she narrowed her eyes at him and sighed. "I'm fine, Kurt."

"We've been over this," he told her gruffly. "You're not fine."

"I'm fine enough to keep walking," she told him. "The choices are keep walking, or die out here, aren't they?" With a sigh, he acknowledged that she was right, nodding at her unhappily. He hated to see her push herself like this, but damn, she was the strongest and most determined woman he'd ever known, and it just made him love her even more. "I'll rest later," she promised, purposely being vague about the timeframe.

"Sure you will," he replied suspiciously, shaking his head and rolling his eyes.

"All that matters now that that he keep walking," she reminded him. "It's the only we can get back," she reminded him.

"Fine," he mumbled gruffly, squeezing his hand over hers one more time before leaning forward to ease her legs off of his backpack. He set it off to the side, then stood up and turned back to Jane, this time crouching down all the way to put his hands on her waist and lift her, bearing nearly all of her weight himself to keep it off of her feet for as long as possible. Once she was upright, he helped her limp the few steps off of the tarp, picking up his backpack to stand it on its end so that she could use it to balance while he carefully folded the tarp, dirty side in, and then put it away.

Somehow he rigged all three bags on his own back and over his shoulders, despite Jane's protests, then reached an arm around her waist, holding on securely. "Alright, easy," he told her, knowing that even a slow pace would wear her out.

His arm once again around her waist even more tightly than it had been earlier, as he became more and more worried about her, they began walking once again. Gradually, the scenery around them was changing, the incline of the land becoming gentler, the land beginning to resemble the valley that lay ahead of them more than the mountain that lay behind them. The two of them walked on in silence, since talking would have required too much effort, at least for Jane. Every once in a while, Kurt looked in her direction, leaning forward slightly and turning to try to see her face better. Each time, after she smiled tentatively, he kissed the side of her head and squeezed the arm that was already around her gently. He didn't need to ask her if she was okay. She wasn't okay, he knew, but she was putting up a damn good fight – just like she always did.

Moving slowly was better than not moving at all, but it was still frustrating to see how little ground they covered by the time the sun was low in the sky. "We need to stop, Jane, so we can make camp," Kurt insisted.

"With what?" Jane asked. "Have you seen anything to make a fire with anywhere around here?" Just speaking that much had left Jane noticeably winded, and Kurt was reminded of just how hard she was pushing herself, and how much walking was taking out of her. Still, she was the one insisting that they should go a little farther. He hadn't wanted to admit it, but he no longer had any choice. They were in some sort of meadow-like area, and it had been quite a while since they'd seen anything that looked like it could be burned to make a campfire.

Sighing in frustration, Kurt nodded. "Alright, we'll go a little farther, try to find a better spot… but we need to stop soon. We're going to lose the light." Jane just nodded, putting all of her focus on putting one foot ahead of the other and not screaming in pain. She desperately wanted to stop and rest, but she also knew that stopping somewhere that they could make a fire would be better than somewhere that they couldn't. Yes, it was better than being trapped in a blizzard, but that didn't make where they were now ideal by any stretch of the imagination.

Fifteen minutes and nearly the rest of the remaining light later, they were forced to admit that they were simply not going to find a better place to stop before night fell, so he pulled her to a stop. "That's as far as we're going for today," he told her insistently, knowing that there was a chance that she would fight him on it, even in her condition. That was just how stubborn she was.

To his relief, however, for once she simply nodded, giving in to the fact that this was where they were going to camp. At least, as they stepped off the well-worn path, Kurt was able to spread out the tarp on a thick carpet of soft grass this time. If they couldn't have a fire, at least they had that consolation. The tarp again spread out, Kurt rolled out the sleeping bag as Jane reclined nearby, her feet once again elevated on his pack. She hadn't even bothered to take off her boots yet, even though he knew that her feet must be in agony.

The fact that she had said nothing, not even so much as groaned, since she had lay down and raised her feet to their current position, then laid back and closed her eyes had him even more worried than he would have been if she had made noise about it. As soon as the sleeping bag was rolled out, he sat down beside her, the back of his hand going to her forehead. Her skin felt warmer than usual, though she wasn't burning up, and it caused him to worry even more than he already had been. While she wasn't feverish, even her temperature being elevated was a cause for concern. It wasn't as though he could take her to the doctor, after all.

You've both been walking for hours, and she's under considerable strain, the voice in his head reminded him, of course she's a little warm. Let her settle down for a while.

Calling a truce with his worries for the time being, at least about her body temperature, he smoothed her hair back over the top of her head, leaning down to kiss her forehead. Her eyes remained closed, but she smiled at the contact, still saying nothing.

"Jane," he whispered, but stopped. It would be ridiculous to ask her if she was okay, so he stopped himself. Really, there wasn't much to say at that moment. "You still with me?" he asked, for lack of anything better, but with a desperate need to say something, especially something that would get a response.

"Yeah," she whispered weakly, turning towards the sound of his voice but still not opening her eyes. "Always." He sounded worried, she noticed, and she knew without having to look at him that there would be just that and more reflected in his eyes… but her eyelids were too heavy just then, and she kept them closed. It had taken every ounce of her strength to walk as far as they had, and now that she had stopped moving and was lying down, it was as if she couldn't convince a single one of her muscles to respond to a command to move.

"Let's get these boots off of you," he told her quietly. In her head, she ordered herself to nod in agreement, but was frustrated when again, her muscles did not comply. Instead she lay still, breathing in and out and feeling him shift beside her, moving closer to her feet so that he could untie one boot, then the other, removing them as carefully as he could from her feet. She heard him suck in a sharp breath as the first boot came off, and she knew that what he saw must look pretty bad.

"I think the band aids under here are done for," he said softly, beginning to peel off her sock as gently as he could. She understood what he meant – the blisters must have been bleeding again. No wonder it hurt so much. Shifting the backpack slightly so that her other foot was still propped on top of it, now free of the boot, he put the foot that he was working on in his lap, keeping his touch extremely light and gentle. Despite how tough his wife was, never wanting to admit weakness and always claiming to be fine, even in times like this, he knew that this must be agonizingly painful for her.

One by one, he removed the blood-soaked band aids, feeling her wince now and then, after each of which he attempted to be even gentler with her foot than he had been before. Because of this, it was slow going, and he was conscious of the fact that the light was fading fast. Indeed, by the time he had both of her feet free of the tiny strips of spent plastic, there was only a hint of light on the horizon.

Working as quickly as he could, he sprayed her feet with the antiseptic from the first aid kit, debating covering them versus letting them air dry. Thankfully they were no longer bleeding, and their supplies were desperately low. At the same time, he was afraid to risk infection. In the end, he decided to leave them uncovered for the time being, since they were about to be inside the sleeping bag anyway, vowing to cover them properly – at least to the extent that he was able – first thing in the morning.

"Jane, can you sit up and have some water, at least?" he asked her worriedly. "We're about to lose the light completely." He also had two small pain relief pills at the ready.

He watched as she forced her eyelids open, and when she struggled to sit up, he had a better idea. Gently lying her feet down on the tarp, he moved himself around to help her, positioning himself behind her so that she was leaning back against his chest, his knees on either side of her. "Take these," he told her gently, "and drink this." Holding out two tiny pills, he waited until she put them in the back of her mouth before handing her a water bottle that was only a quarter of the way full. When she didn't close her fingers around it, he closed his fingers over hers so that she was holding it, then released her hand so that she could drink.

"No, you need some too," she protested weakly.

"I already had some of it," he promised her. He'd had a sip, but it was all he needed just then, in the interest of conserving resources. "Now drink this, and we'll get into that sleeping bag before it gets any cooler."

He was right about the air cooling off. It was considerably cooler now, and the difference was noticeable even since they'd stopped. Not only was the light going out of the air, but the heat was, too.

"Can you reach my toothbrush?" she asked, to his surprise.

"Of course," he replied with a chuckle, pulling out both of theirs. When that simple task was taken care of and the toothbrushes were put away, the water bottle empty and stowed back in the backpack, Kurt helped scoot Jane the short distance to the sleeping bag. When she began attempting to wiggle out of her pants, her eyes already closing, he laid a hand on her stomach. "Easy," he said, "let me help you with that."

Her eyes opened just wide enough to look at him with a hint of the playfulness that he'd missed. "Oh you'd do that for me, would you?" she asked.

"I'd do anything for you, Jane. You know that, don't you?" he asked, suddenly serious even as he kept moving, not wanting her to get cold and therefore needing to get her into the sleeping bag as quickly as possible. "And I'm not just saying that because I'm helping you take your clothes off," he assured her with a grin.

"Haha," she replied tiredly. "I know that," she added. "I don't deserve you."

If he wasn't mistaken, the corners of her eyes looked just a little moister than they had a second before, but it could just as easily have been the fading light. But there had been the tiniest quiver in her voice as well, and his instincts told him that he was reading her correctly.

"Maybe not," he said, to her surprise, as he tried to keep the mood light, "but you're going to have to deal with me. Because if this whole adventure we're on has taught you one thing, it should be that I'm not giving up on you. Not ever." He closed the flap of the sleeping bag over her, to keep her warm while he pulled off his own clothes. As he did, he watched her face as she took in his words.

She smiled at his silly and yet honestly sweet words, then took a deep breath as her eyes closed again just as she felt a rush of cool air on her skin as the sleeping bag opened again. And then he was joining her inside it, reaching behind him to zip the zipper. What he'd said was the truth, and she knew it. Whether or not she deserved his devotion, she had it. Even as much as she'd hurt him by leaving, she still had it. For the thousandth time, she shuddered to think of how he'd felt to find her gone, even though she'd left with the absolute best of intentions – to protect him.

He pulled the zipper as high as it would go, awkwardly zipping it behind his back and then settling against her, his hands moving over her skin as his arms wrapped around her. Even now, on the third night since he'd found her, he got a little bit frantic at the thought that he'd ever been in danger of not finding her. It would never have been an acceptable outcome, and he would gladly have let the search for her consume his life, if that had been necessary… but he was just so glad that it hadn't come to that.

There was a torrent of emotions coursing through both of them, and with exhaustion a major factor, especially for her, they were both soon overwhelmed. Unable to process the many things she was feeling all at once, she simply surrendered to the strongest of her feelings – the same instinctive reaction that she'd always had to his touch… to lean into it. Never had anything seemed as simple to her as the need for contact with him did just then. Not even five minutes ago, when logically it would have been just as strong as it was now. No, at that moment she had never needed him more. Now, with his arms around her, every part of her hurting or exhausted, her heart most of all, she quickly fell asleep. He was the respite she had desperately needed… just like he always had been.

For his part, Kurt stayed awake a little longer than Jane, long enough to be sure that she was asleep. That hadn't taken long, of course, as exhausted as she'd been, and he'd been pleased to feel her lean into him without hesitation. Things would probably be anything but normal between them for a long time, but if there was one thing that he already knew, it was that she needed him as much as he needed her. With that thought to steady him, he felt himself drift off to sleep soon after her.

Hours later, but still long before dawn, Kurt awaked to an uncomfortable feeling. Jane was still beside him, held securely in his arms, but something wasn't right. He tried to evaluate their surroundings the best he could, shifting slowly as he tried to look around them, out into the blackness, for the source of the unease he was feeling.

He didn't have to look far to find it. As he stared out into the dark around them, he saw two glowing eyes. His heartrate immediately skyrocketed as he evaluated the situation. Of course, there was very little he could actually do, besides simply hope that whatever animal it was out there, uncomfortably close to them, simply lost interest and wandered off. Even if they'd both been fully dressed and it had been light outside, they had no weapons to speak of bigger than a pocket knife, and Jane could barely walk. Therefore, he stared into the two eyes, willing the animal to sense that he was awake and watching it, and to decide that this particular pair of humans were not interesting to it so that it would simply wander away.

It took what felt like a long time, lying frozen there, every muscle in his body tense as he kept a protective hold around Jane. He was ready to curve around her if whatever it was lunged at them – beyond that, he had no plan. Eventually, however, the eyes moved, looking out into the distance as the head they were attached to turned away. And then just like that, the animal began walking away, the glowing eyes looking back only once before the sounds of it moving away grew fainter and fainter. Finally, Kurt could relax again, letting go of the breath that he felt like he'd been holding for hours. There was only the slightest hint of light in the sky, and he let his eyes close again, exhausted from the stress of keeping watch, and of fearing that whatever the animal was that had been watching them during the night would strike. He would examine the tracks it had left later, if he could do so without alarming Jane, but now he would take advantage of what little remained of the night.

When Jane began to slowly wake up, she felt Kurt's arms around her. While it was only the third night they'd spent together since she'd left him, she remembered vividly what it was normally like to wake up with him. Somehow, she noticed immediately, this was different. It wasn't different in the same way that those first two mornings had been, because those had been different as well. It wasn't something she could explain, somehow she just knew that something was amiss.

She'd turned over in her sleep, and he was now holding onto her tightly, lying against her back. Shifting slightly to look at him over her shoulder, she saw that he was still asleep. After all the times that she'd woken up to find him watching her, she was a little surprised to find his eyes closed. Still, that by itself wasn't something that concerned her. However, she was still convinced that something was wrong, and she wished that he would wake up so she could ask him what it was.

Shifting slowly and carefully so that she could watch him without having to look over her shoulder, she turned her body toward his. Even in his sleep, and despite her movement, he kept his arms fastened around her, though slightly more loosely. Now lying on her left side and watching him carefully, their faces only a few inches apart, she momentarily had to remind herself to breathe. Whatever it was, they were still safe, and they were still together. Surely, whatever was giving her that nagging feeling that something was wrong was either a false alarm or wasn't important enough that she should be worried.

It had to be one of those… didn't it?

Unable to help herself, she held her right hand up against the scruff on his cheek. She'd always liked his scruffiness, and now even more so. Indeed, after so long apart, she loved everything about him a thousand times more than she had before. The scruff on his cheek was longer and thicker than usual after his travels, and she took in this fact simultaneously as proof of his devotion to her as well as proof of just how deeply she had hurt him. It was a confusing place, her head. Fueled by the overwhelming gratitude she felt just from looking at him, she just continued to stare at him as he slept, watching him reverently, vowing to do everything in her power to make up to him for her actions in the past. After all, it was all she could do.

She hadn't even realized her thumb was moving across his cheek, swiping slowly back and forth as she watched him sleeping in the dim light of the rising sun. That is, until she felt him shift his face toward her hand, his eyes still closed but a smile creeping across his lips. "Jane," he mumbled, as his left hand moved from her back to cover hers on his cheek. Butterflies danced in her stomach at the gesture. There was simply no way she could love him more, and the memory of the past few months made her chest ache. In no universe did she deserve yet another chance. And yet… here they were.

He had felt her shift, felt her hand on his face, but he hadn't quite been conscious yet. Really, he'd thought that he was dreaming. In this dream, he was still looking for her, still feeling a hole in himself and in his life that gaped so far and wide that nothing could come close to filling it. Only Jane. And then somehow, she was there, close beside him. In his half-awake state, he still hadn't decided which was real, the dream or the reality, nor could he tell if he was imagining her there beside him, or if it was real.

But then, piece by piece, the events of the past few days came back to him, fitting together in his head like a slow motion puzzle that eventually solved itself. When it did, the final piece sliding into place, suddenly a light bulb went on in his head. He opened his eyes and found her lying beside him, staring into his eyes.

"Hey, good morning," he whispered, not wanting to disturb the silence of the mountain in the morning. Her hand was still on his cheek, his hand on top of her hand, and he squeezed slightly around her fingers. "How are you feeling?"

"A little better," she replied. "Of course it helps that I haven't been walking for a few hours."

"That's true," he agreed. Thinking back to the night before and the strange glowing eyes, he pulled her a little tighter with his free arm.

"Is everything okay?" she asked.

"You mean besides the fact that we're on a deserted mountain with a dwindling supply of food and water, and you're injured and three of our friends have been kidnapped?" he asked, somewhere between joking and serious. None of it was funny, of course… but it was one of those situations where it was so serious, you had to find humor in it or you couldn't go on.

"And besides the fact that your wife ran away to the end of the Earth and she's the reason why you trekked halfway around the world to find her? Yes, besides all that," Jane added. "What else is wrong?"

He debated for a few seconds whether to tell her, but realized that for better or worse, he had to. Things were hard enough between them just then without him trying to keep things from her – and especially something like this – it could be important to their survival as they went down the mountain, but really, after that, it wasn't important – it was just something that had happened. It was a silly thing to keep from her. Besides, he didn't want to keep things from her. Quite the opposite, actually.

"Last night I woke up in the middle of the night, and something felt… off," he began. "And I looked around, and there were these… these two eyes glowing in the dark, watching us." He watched as she took in this information, her eyes growing wide in surprise. "I couldn't tell what it was, but it was just over there a little ways," he continued, pointing in the direction he'd seen the eyes. "I didn't wake you up because there wasn't going to be anything we could do anyway," he said, now suddenly anticipating what she would say next. "And honestly I was afraid that if I moved or said or did anything, I would provoke it. If I'd thought that it would help at all, I would've woken you up…" He watched her process it all, just nodding.

"Wow," she said quietly. She glanced around them, as if whatever it had been might still be hanging around. Of course, there was nothing anywhere around them with eyes, at least not that they could see. Now she understood the reason why he'd pulled her tighter – not that he really needed another reason besides what they'd already been through, of course. "Sounds like it was a close one."

"I don't know if it was a snow leopard, or what it was," he conceded. "It might not have been anything dangerous."

"But it might have been," she finished for him.

"Yeah," he admitted with a sigh. "We were lucky."

"We need to get off this mountain," she said, restating the obvious. "Before our luck runs out."

"That we do," he agreed simply with a nod of his head. "For a lot of reasons."

"Then let's start getting ourselves ready," she suggested. It was really less of a suggestion and more of a direction.

He was still holding his hand over hers, securely against his cheek. "Good idea," he said, looking into her eyes and then leaning forward for the tiniest of kisses. "More of that later," he whispered, and her face melted into a smile. Time was a major factor, of course, as was morning breath.

"I love you," she replied, just as softly as he had. At that moment she felt as though she'd never be able to say it enough. Then suddenly she had that feeling again, that wave of guilt that began washing over her, ready to drown out everything else. To drown her.

He could see it in her eyes, he realized – that she was about to apologize again. Before she had a chance, however, he shook his head slightly. "Ssshhh…" he said, even though she wasn't speaking. "I love you, too." After a pause of only a few seconds, during which the look he'd seen in her eyes seemed to abate, she let out a heavy sigh and leaned against him. Their hands fell from his cheek as he wrapped his arms around her, holding on tightly. It was just another one of those moments when that felt like the absolute right thing to do, so he did it.

I'll give myself five seconds, and then I'll move, he thought, breathing it all in.

One one thousand.

Two one thousand.

Three one thousand.

Four one thousand.

Five one thousand.

As much as he was enjoying this, it was time to get up. Right now, despite the fact that they didn't want to, they needed to move, for their own safety and well-being.

"Alright, beautiful," he said, reaching behind him at the same awkward angle as the previous night for the zipper. "Time to get up."