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

A/N: Hopefully andyrunsandclimbs, my Wilderness Survival Consultant, will forgive anything in this chapter that seems too ridiculous in a situation like the one Jane and Kurt are in. I defend my choices with A) Jane and Kurt are not experts and B) It was all just too cute and I couldn't resist. :)

"Hi there. Did you have a nice nap?" Kurt asked when he felt her stirring against him. His voice rumbled in his chest, and she could feel him chuckle.

Her cheeks heated up quickly in embarrassment as a smile spread across her face. "Yeah, sorry, I guess I was tired."

"I got that idea, yeah. Can't imagine why you'd be tired." He let her apology go unmentioned, glad for another moment of peace. Her eyes focused over his shoulder at the fire that he'd built, and the two metal containers full of water that were propped up in the fire, supported by rocks. Turning to follow her gaze, and then back at her, he noticed that she looked surprised.

"You did all that while I was sleeping?" she asked.

"It didn't take long. I was surprised you didn't wake up when I set you down. Or when I picked you back up, for that matter."

"How far did you walk before you got to the stream?" she wanted to know.

He shrugged, thought for a minute, and then replied, "Maybe half an hour. Not long. Honestly I was making pretty good time, all things considered."

"Without me slowing you down, you mean?" she asked jokingly.

"Absolutely," he replied, receiving a playful punch.

"How many water bottles do we have to fill up?" she asked, looking back at the boiling water.

"At least six, I think. They should all be in your bag," he told her with a grin.

"Why in my bag?"

"Because they're light when they're empty. That way, if decided to be stubborn and insist on carrying your bag, it was as light as possible." He looked quite proud of himself for having done this, and she just shook her head at him, leaning back down against his chest once more.

"So, in order to boil that much water… basically we're going to be here for a little while." It was a statement, but also a question. "Right?" she asked, a familiar edge creeping into her voice.

"Well… yes. We have to boil the water to make sure it's safe to drink, and we can't put it in the bottles when it's scalding hot…" He stopped, understanding the frustration he was seeing on her face. "I know, Jane, we don't have time to lose. Trust me. But we need clean water, not just water, so… we can enjoy a little rest while we restock our water supply. Alright?"

She nodded, grudgingly accepting what he was saying. She hadn't noticed that he'd put out the tarp already, but when she looked at the ground in front of her, she saw that they were sitting on it.

"Let me take your boots off those poor feet," he told her soothingly, and was surprised when she shook her head.

"It'll just feel worse when it's time to put them back on," she protested weakly. "Besides, we're out of anything to re-wrap them in."

"That's where you're wrong," he told her. "Now that we have water, I can wash your socks, and even the gauze, I think…" he mused, suddenly uncertain. "Anyway, I can definitely wash your socks."

"You'd wash my socks?" she asked, unsure why that small idea suddenly made her feel overwhelmed all over again.

Chuckling, he added, "Well, of course. Why? Do you have something else you'd like washed? Because my resources are limited out here…" The look on his face was slightly suggestive, and she couldn't help but chuckle along with him.

"The socks are a good start. I'll take you up on the 'something else,' when we get home," she replied.

"Why don't I put my pack over here so you can lie down and put your feet up?" he suggested.

"Not yet," she said quickly, which made him stop and look at her in surprise. "You're going to get up when the water boils anyway, right? To move the containers so they can cool?"

"Guess I'll have to," he agreed.

"Ok, then let's just sit right here, like this, until then," she suggested. "It won't be long, but I don't want you to get up until you have to."

He chuckled softly and nodded in agreement. "I think I can handle that request," he said, tightening his hold on her where she sat, across his lap.

They watched the stream beside them, enjoying the sounds of the water moving by and some distant birds that they couldn't see, but whose calls they could hear. If not for their lack of food and water, how far they still were from civilization, the state of Jane's feet and the desperate situation that their friends might be in at that moment, this might have been paradise. It was hard to push all of those things out of her head, but when she looked around and focused only on the moment she was in just then, she had to admit that this place she'd stumbled into accidentally was beautiful. She hadn't been able to appreciate the scenery on the way up the mountain, since she'd been so desperately running away, not realizing that it was in vain, but she certainly saw it now.

Much too soon, the water boiled, and Kurt had to extricate himself from the form that the two of them had molded into together. He set her down gently on the tarp, moving his pack close to her, as promised, and then lifting her feet up on top of it. He hadn't yet taken her boots off, but that would happen shortly. Her feet now on the large bag, she lay on her back and looked at the sky. There'd been only a cloud or two when they'd started that morning, but now the sky seemed to have suddenly turned ominously dark.

"Hey, Kurt," she called, still staring upwards at the sky and quickly becoming concerned about the chance of more rain.

"Yeah, I was just noticing those clouds, too." His voice came from off to the side, and she turned her head to look in his direction just as she felt the first raindrop on her cheek.

"We have a problem, don't we?" she asked, trying not to panic, frustrated that there was very little she could do but watch as he moved quickly, deliberately.

"I'm on it. Just give me a second," was his reply as he began moving quickly.

Without another word, Kurt got to work. First, he unrolled the second tarp and spread it out as far as he could without spending extra time on it. Next he gathered all of the kindling from beside the fire and threw it onto the tarp. After that, he picked up the two smaller bags and put them beside the kindling, then came back over and quickly but carefully put her feet back down on the ground, off of his bag, so he could pick it up. Laying the large bag on the tarp as well, he gathered the corners and carefully tied them the best he could, as quickly as he could.

Clearly, he had planned this out in his head, because he seemed to know exactly what he was doing. He set the tied up tarp down on the edge of theirs, rolling it over once so it looked like just a very large lump. He'd already taken the metal containers out of the fire, and now he picked up one other identical container and set it out beside the others. The rain was coming down harder now, though not hard enough that they were more than damp. Still, in another few minutes, they would be. This, after all, was how the problem with Jane's feet had started in the first place.

Finally, he came back over to her and laid down beside her, grabbing the edge of the tarp and, to her surprise, lifting himself up and shifting so that he was directly above her. She was even more surprised by what he said next.

"We're going to roll up in the tarp, okay?" he asked, their faces close together.

"Okay," she replied. After all, it certainly wasn't the strangest thing that she'd ever done.

Nodding quickly, he wasted no time. "One, two, three," he counted, and on three, they rolled themselves to her right, towards the empty part of the tarp, finally coming to rest beside the bulge that was the rest of their belongings, wrapped up in the other tarp.

"This is an unusual kind of shelter," she told him with a grin, their faces now even closer together. She was surprised to find that though she could feel the rain falling on the tarp, now above her back, since she had ended up on top of him when they'd stopped rolling, they didn't seem to be getting wet. Still, she pulled her legs in as far as she could, just to be safe.

"We're not getting rained on," he pointed out, pretending that practicality was the only thing on his mind at that moment.

"You know, this reminds me of something," she told him. "Except it's not as cold this time." The grin that had already been on his face spread wider, until it reached from ear to ear.

"I like this time better than that time," he said quietly, his voice coming out as a low rumble once again, one that she could feel as well as hear, since she was lying on top of him.

"Oh, really? Why?" she asked curiously. Having what seemed like a normal conversation with him while holding her face only inches above his was a little… strange. And very distracting.

"Well, as much as that time did have its advantages, like the whole 'take off your clothes to preserve body heat' thing…" Now she was grinning just as wide as he was, moving her face even closer to his but still keeping a sliver of air between them while she waited to hear what he would say. "This time is better because, well, I don't feel awkward about doing this."

She'd been about to close the tiny distance left between them herself, but in the end he beat her to it. After all, as he'd said, the time they'd been stuck in the sleeping bag in the middle of a blizzard, they hadn't been at a point in their relationship where he could have kissed her the way he was kissing her now and felt anything but awkward afterwards. Now, of course, despite the additional baggage between them, they were in a very different place. After the past few days – much less the previous months – of heartache, and now the beginning of healing between them, being wrapped up inside a tarp together in the rain was far more comfortable than that sleeping bag had been years ago.

Besides, until the rain stopped, there really wasn't anything else for them to do but entertain themselves in these very close quarters. Neither of them were complaining, that was for sure.

They'd rolled themselves up tightly, so shifting of positions wasn't really an option other than the very slightest movements, so doing more than kissing wasn't going to be an option. Still, all things considered, it wasn't exactly a bad way to ride out a rainstorm.

At some point they stopped for air, breathing hard and just grinning at each other. "I'm liking rain more and more every time," Jane remarked, catching her breath.

It was another one of those times when Kurt's relief at having found his wife overwhelmed him, and try as he might, it wasn't something that he could keep from showing on his face. He was smiling at her, but he knew that she saw the rest of the emotions there, too. He knew it because every time he got that feeling that she could so clearly read, it was only a matter of seconds before her face began to fall. Though he wished he could explain to her that this wasn't something that should make her sad, he hadn't yet succeeded. After all, she'd always carried around an excessive amount of guilt that didn't belong to her, and now that she perceived herself as having done something to him… Well, getting them back to New York was only going to be the first part of the journey for them.

They were still so close together, and he could see the anguish and regret, as well as all of the things that she showered herself with that he wished she wouldn't. It was overtaking her as he watched.

"Jane," he whispered, hoping to catch her before her mind took her down a path that would lead back inside her head. "I'm so glad… that we're both as stubborn as we are. You have no idea what it means to me, that you did what you did." He let the words sink in for a few seconds, and now her expression mostly reflected confusion. Now smiling more genuinely, with a little less pain attached, he found that he might finally have found the words to explain it to her. "What I mean is, it means a lot to me that you did what you did – not because I would ever want you to leave – but because you thought it was the only way to keep me safe. But let me ask you something, okay?"

She nodded, breathing unevenly but keeping her eyes focused on him. "We've both done things that we wish we hadn't, right?"

Though she was pretty sure she knew where he was going with this question, she didn't try to cut him off, simply nodding her head and looking at him, feeling the sensation of falling in her stomach.

"Do you still hold it against me for…" The words were painful, but he forced them out. "…For arresting you, back when we found out…?" His voice cracked at the end of his sentence, and he chose to leave the last few words unsaid. He'd said enough that she understood, after all.

"Of course not," she whispered.

"I'm not proud of that, and it's something that I can undo, no matter how much I wish I could. I did something that hurt you badly, and not because I was doing it for your own good. No, I was angry. I have no defense for myself. I was just so angry..." He looked at her, wondering if his words were sinking in. More than likely, she wasn't going to make the connection herself – just another example of her stubbornness.

"Kurt, that doesn't matter. It was so long ago. We're past it," she protested.

"But you don't hold it against me, right?" he asked.

"No, I told you. Of course not." She shook her head vigorously for emphasis.

"Well then, how in the world could you think that I would hold it against you for doing something out of love for me…? And not just love. A love so big that you ignored how much you hurt yourself, because, as usual, you put someone else's well-being above your own."

She stared at him, blinking in confusion, unable to process what he was saying to her.

"Jane… If you can forgive me for doing something that I did solely out of anger and hurt, neither of which you deserved to have directed at you, then you should be able to forgive yourself for something you did to protect me. Okay?"

But she was shaking her head, slowly at first, and then faster, as if the more she thought about it, the more her thoughts were picking up speed, moving her head with them. "It's not the same," she whispered, her eyes closing in frustration.

"No, it's not the same," he told her bluntly. "What I did was much worse. And yet, for some reason you love me, and want to protect me at the expense of your life, which I'm not going to let you do. I need you with me too badly for that. So if you want to, think of this as me being selfish. Whatever works. But not only are you not Remi, you're not a danger to me, and this whole trek across the Earth and back, no matter what you think, is not something that you get to blame yourself for. Alright? We're here now, and we're going home. Those are the facts, but you don't get to bully yourself with them."

Stunned, she stared at him for almost a minute. His words had been… not quite harsh, but more insistent than usual. But looking into his eyes, there was only tenderness. Even though she still didn't quite believe him, there was something about the way he insisted that he wasn't going to take no for an answer… after all, their equal stubbornness was both a blessing and a curse, both to themselves and to each other. Even though it made him maddeningly frustrating, at the same time it was soothing to know that he was going to hold onto her just as fiercely as she was going to hold onto him, even if it still didn't make any sense to her.

"I know that it's going to take time… after all of this. For both of us. But what I want you to understand is that you did not do anything that we can't get past, okay? And I'm going to tell you that as many times as you need to hear it."

"Okay," she said simply, suddenly feeling exhausted just from processing what he'd said to her.

"I love you," he told her sincerely. "And that's not going to change."

Nodding, she smiled a suspiciously watery smile, watching every movement he made as he leaned forward to kiss her again, his time slowly, sweetly, a kiss that ended almost as quickly as it had started so that he could lean back and look into her eyes, his concern obvious.

"I love you, too," she whispered, turning her head so that she could lean down to her right, against his left shoulder, so that she was facing his neck. At that moment, lying there pressed against him, she felt more at peace than she could remember being since before she'd left New York.

He turned his head just enough to kiss her forehead, then let his face rest again hers instead of moving away. His arms had been wrapped around her tightly this whole time, and he slowly moved his left hand from her back, maneuvering it in the tight space until he could use it to push her hair off of her forehead, her ponytail having become loose and disheveled long ago.

"I wish it hadn't taken us so long to… figure it all out. That we were right for each other," he whispered.

Shrugging slightly, she chuckled. "You're stubborn," she replied, as if that explained it all, immediately feeling the rumble of laughter beneath her.

"We're stubborn, I think you mean," he corrected her. "Which is part of why it works so well."

"Stubborn? Me? You must be mistaken," she told him, grinning even though he couldn't see her face from their angle.

He just laughed as he pulled her tighter, kissing her forehead again.

That warmth in her chest was back, and she swore her heart was about to burst. While most of the strong emotions that she was used to revolved around pain of one kind or another, this was unlike those times. What she felt now was happiness as intense as the pain she'd felt in the past.

The rain continued to fall in a steady patter against the tarp, not a torrential downpour, but certainly hard enough that they would have been soaked, were they not covered. They laid and listened to it, relishing the feeling of being there together, the edge of their feelings still jagged and tender, but beginning to heal nonetheless. It was a little sweaty there, pressed together and wrapped in plastic, but the temperature had dropped slightly with the rain, so at least it wasn't as warm as it might have been.

After what had begun to feel like an endless string of days making their way down the mountain, reaching the stream was their first real milestone. The next one would be the village, and after that, the rest of the way home would hopefully be faster and easier than the trip had been so far. But as long as they had each other, he couldn't help but feel that none of the rest of it really mattered.

Kurt realized that she had fallen asleep, and he began to feel sleepy himself as well. He'd been carrying all of their packs, and earlier he'd carried Jane herself, and as strong as he was, it was a little extra tiring. At this point, waiting out the rain seemed like an excellent reason to go to sleep.

For some reason, at that moment he flashed back to the first day he'd attempted to sleep after Jane had left. That night, and every night after that, had been filled with a rush of doubt, loneliness, disbelief and an aching feeling that a part of him was missing. That part of him wasn't missing anymore, however, he wasn't sure he would ever be able to forget that feeling. Even now, holding onto her tightly, it felt as though he would never be able to completely let go of how scared he'd been that he would never find her. The feeling would fade, he hoped, but right now it was hard to imagine it ever leaving him completely.

That was when he remembered something that he'd once said to Jane. It was after Patterson had lost David. Jane had said that she'd never lost anyone that she cared about, at least that she could remember, so she hadn't been able to conceive of how her friend would be able to get past the pain she was feeling. In response, Kurt had told her, "You're lucky. It takes time." Of course, he'd been referring to Taylor, and by 'takes time,' he'd meant that it had taken his whole life. He still wasn't over Taylor, and he was pretty sure that he never would be – not completely.

Will this feeling haunt me the same way Taylor does? he wondered.

Of course, this was different. He had her back. But that feeling... It was different than it had been with Taylor, of course. The situation was different. Obviously the disappearance of a five year old is horrifying in a different way than that of an adult, but in most other ways, Jane's leaving had been even worse for him. After all, she'd decided to go, not been taken, as Taylor had. While he now understood that her motives had been so purely selfless that it made his heart hurt for her just to think about it, that didn't erase the memory of how very badly it had hurt him at the time. Most of the time, looking at her and knowing the truth was enough to sooth the wound that remained, but in the quiet moments like these, where he was alone with his thoughts, he was discovering that it wasn't quite as healed over as he'd hoped.

It takes time, he repeated to himself. It's only been a few days. Just keep breathing.

He'd told Jane to keep breathing many times, and it had seemed to work. So he focused on filling and emptying his lungs, and on the feeling of Jane's weight against him, his face pressed against her skin and both his arms now once again wrapped around her tightly. There were moments where just breathing was enough of a challenge, and this was one of them. He knew that it would pass, however, and he also knew from experience that it would get better. After all, while the time without her had felt like an eternity, it had had a happy ending. With so many things in their lives that were wrong, the fact that nothing had broken them apart was truly a miracle. And he planned to keep it that way.

She didn't realize that she had fallen asleep until she woke up, lifting her head groggily off of him to try to look around. As the skin of her forehead brushed against his and she saw him open his eyes to look at her, she couldn't help but smile.

There was something in his eyes that wasn't usually there, and she tried to push past the grogginess of just having woken up to figure out what it was. His face cleared as he looked at her, however, his expression melting into a smile before her eyes. Satisfied that nothing was seriously wrong, she laid her head back where it had been when she'd opened her eyes – against his skin.

"I missed you," he whispered. "While you were asleep."

Chuckling softly, she shook her head at him. She didn't doubt his sincerity about the sentiment, it just sounded so ridiculously… sweet. And while he had always been good to her – well, with a few exceptions that she would ignore – she wasn't used to quite this level of affection from him, both in his words and his actions.

That's not a bad thing, she reminded herself. This whole thing has reminded him how important you are to him. No, she certainly had no complaints about that, even if it would require some getting used to.

As they lay quietly together, they realized almost at the same time that they weren't hearing any more rain. It was almost disappointing to think about extricating themselves from their cocoon, however, that was the only way to replenish their water supply, which was an essential step on the trip back home. After allowing themselves another decadent minute or two of lying there still, Kurt was the one to voice what they both knew.

"Time to unroll ourselves and see just how dry things did or did not stay," he told her, to which she just nodded against him. "Ready? On three we roll back out."

"Okay," she agreed, smiling when he kissed her forehead again.

"One… two… three…"

Slowly, holding on tightly to each other, they began unrolling themselves, the tarp spreading back out across the ground as they went until they were back where they'd started. Once again, Kurt was bracing himself above her, and neither of them could resist one more kiss before they sat up to assess the results of Kurt's quick "waterproofing."

Finally, Kurt rolled over on his side so that he was no longer above her, reluctantly pulling himself to sit up and then looking around at the damp scene around them. The fire, of course, was out, their containers of water now full to the brim. That was good news, since it meant less time boiling water.

Jane pushed herself to sit up as well. "So far it looks like your quick thinking paid off," she told him. "The real question is, what about all the stuff in that tarp?" She nodded towards the lump at the other end of the tarp on which they were sitting, where Kurt had wrapped all of the belongings they had with them, as well as the kindling. After all, dry firewood was essential if they were going to have to boil any more water.

"Only one way to find out," he said with a shrug, sounding much less worried than he actually felt. Standing up, he walked over and slowly turned the large bundle over, releasing it from the edge of the tarp he was standing it on, which had been wrapped around it loosely, and then moving it back onto the dirt before untying the ends.

"What's the damage?" Jane called from where she sat.

"Looks like it worked, believe it or not," he replied, smiling in surprise.

"That's amazing," she grinned.

"So first order of business is filling up as many of the water bottles as possible," he told her, already starting to open her backpack to take them out. "So we can see how much more water needs to be boiled." When he'd finished, he'd filled up three of the six water bottles, which was more than he'd expected. After that, he set about using the kindling that had been packaged in the tarp to start another fire. It took a little while on the wet ground, but he got it going, balancing two metal containers in the fire on the same rocks that he'd used before.

When he was done, he sat back down beside Jane, pulling out what remained of their food. It was past lunch time, probably closer to mid-afternoon by now, and they hadn't eaten since that morning. Kurt put an assortment of the fruit and nuts in his palm and held them out to her, waiting until she held her hands open in a bowl-like shape so that he could let them fall into it before taking any for himself. She looked from the food to him and back again, not needing to say anything for him to know that she was worried about their food supply.

"I know," he mumbled. "But we're almost there, okay? We need to eat something. You especially." The look she gave him then told him that she didn't like to be singled out in this regard, because of course, as she usually was, she was more worried about him than she was herself. She said nothing, however, simply ate the food that he had given her and took a sip from what had been the last of their original water supply, finishing the bottle between the two of them just in time to fill it up again.

In only a few minutes, they were finished with what little food they allowed themselves, and the fire was still warming the water up. Once again, there was nothing to do but wait.

"Oh, while we're sitting here… I'd almost forgotten about washing out your socks," he realized, turning to move himself close enough to this pack that he could reach in and fish out her blood-stained socks and the small packet of soap that would hopefully clean them out. Once he'd found what he was looking for, he sat back up, once again beside Jane, also setting one of the newly refilled water bottles in front of them.

"I'll hold them, and could you pour just enough water on them to get them damp enough that I can use the soap?" he asked.

"Of course," Jane replied, opening the water bottle and pouring the water that had been so hard to get slowly over her socks, which he held out, over the ground. The last thing they needed was water on their tarp.

"That's enough," he told her in a few seconds. Working quickly, he lathered the stained socks with soap in his hands until there was a mass of white bubbles and not much else was visible. He moved the bubbles aside from time to time to assess his progress, finally satisfied a few minutes later. "Alright, now let's slowly rinse out," he told her, glancing up quickly and smiling.

When her socks were sufficiently rinsed and squeezed out, they laid them out on the tarp, closest to the fire. "We should take those boots off of you, let your feet air out for however long we're here," he told her, knowing the reaction he was going to get.

"Shouldn't we wait until I know I'll have dry socks?" she asked in an attempt to stall.

"I think by the time we're ready to go, they'll be dry," he assured her, seeing through her ploy. He was already reaching for one of her feet to pull her boot into his lap.

Jane closed her eyes and sighed, nodding, knowing that there was no way she was going to talk him out of it, but dreading both the sight of her feet and the reality of having to put her boots back on, again, when it was time for them to go. She felt him loosening the laces and then very slowly pulling off the boot, and she waited for him to gasp at what he saw. However, no such noise came, and a few seconds later she peeked her eyes open reluctantly to see for herself how her foot looked.

It didn't look good… but it also wasn't quite as bad as the last time she'd seen it. The sock over the gauze wasn't as white as it had been when she put it on, but it also wasn't as bloody as the last one she'd taken off. She supposed that that counted for progress at the moment.

"See? Not so bad," he said encouragingly.

"I think that might be a slightly optimistic assessment…" Jane replied, shaking her head.

"Well, I feel like being optimistic. After all, we've made it this far, haven't we?"

He set her foot down gently on his lap and reached for the other one, to repeat the process as she just stared at him in surprise. Really, she couldn't argue with him. They had, indeed, made it this far, after all.

Once her boots were off and her feet were once again elevated on top of his backpack, he took the containers of water, which had boiled, away from the fire to cool. She kept her eyes on him the whole time, feeling like if she looked away, he might somehow vanish into thin air. It was all just surreal. When he finished what he was doing, he walked back over and lay down beside her, on her left, propping himself up on his right elbow so that he could lie on his side, leaning closer to her. Her hands were clasped together, resting on her stomach, and he brought his left hand up and laid it on top of both of hers, his fingers curling around them.

This is all I need, he thought happily.

Yes, they were temporarily stuck out here, in the middle of nowhere, still probably a day's walk, if not more, away from a village that couldn't really even be considered civilization, with almost no food left and a minimal amount of water. No shelter. No medical supplies beyond the few odds and ends that were left in the first aid kit. No way to defend themselves, though that thankfully hadn't been necessary so far, Jane barely able to walk, and the knowledge that they had to get home, because their team was depending on them.

And yet, at that moment he was at peace, looking into her eyes with a smile that said exactly that, and best of all, seeing the same smile reflected right back at him.