I don't own Blindspot or any of these wonderful characters…
Jane was smuggled out of the building by Keaton and Weller.
They only stopped long enough to retrieve Patterson before they set off to the nearest black site.
"What'd you give Roman?" Jane asked Patterson.
Patterson's eyes were still red from believing Jane was dead. She kept touching her shoulder as though to make sure she was real.
"I'm fine," Jane insisted, laying her hand on her arm.
Kurt didn't say anything, he understood Patterson's need better than anyone. Jane was currently plastered against his side with his arm firmly around her shoulders.
"A communication device hidden in his belt," Patterson explained, "It's undetectable until activated."
"What happened to Parker?" Kurt asked Keaton.
"They didn't come to liberate him," Keaton told Kurt from the front of the van. "They came to eliminate him."
"So Pellington was just collateral damage," Jane realized.
"Wrong place, wrong time," Keaton agreed.
Kurt and Jane shared a look. Pellington really hadn't been dirty.
"Where are we going?" Kurt asked Keaton.
"We have a secure location not far from here. We were getting ready to transport Parker, but it's obviously become available."
"I need some things from the Lab," Patterson insisted.
"We'll go back for them once Jane is secure," Kurt assured her.
"Now what?" Jane worried, "We still don't know who we can and can't trust."
"We don't know everyone we can trust," Kurt agreed, "But there are people we can trust absolutely."
"The team's broken," Patterson said sadly.
"No," Kurt denied, "They are exactly where we need them. Anyone looking into what we're doing will think Patterson and I are the only two left. We need to call in our reinforcements."
They arrived at the Black site and Kurt followed Keaton inside, Jane's hand firmly encased in his own. He saw the look that Keaton gave them, but he couldn't have distanced himself from Jane in any way. The moment he thought she was dead still too fresh in his mind.
"I'll stay here with Jane," Keaton assured Kurt, "While you and Patterson go get what you need."
Kurt felt Jane tense at the offer.
"The first thing we need is our team," Kurt insisted, squeezing Jane's hand in reassurance. He would never leave Jane alone with Keaton at a black site.
"I'll call them," Patterson offered already reaching for her phone.
"I've got some calls to make too," Keaton admitted.
Kurt had about a million things he should be doing, but one stood out far beyond the rest. He guided Jane through the open empty pace to the back of the building where offices had been built in. He closed the door behind them and pulled her around to face him.
"I thought I lost you," He admitted.
"Are you okay?" Jane worried at the vulnerability he couldn't hide from her.
"No," He admitted, "I knew how important you were to me, I've always known. What I didn't know was just how I'd feel if anything happened to you. You are necessary to me in every way. I will never be able to get the picture of you falling to the floor from my mind."
"I'm sorry," Jane reached up and cupped his cheek in remorse. "We had to make her believe it."
"I don't blame you," Kurt assured her, "I just need you to understand."
She leaned into him in remorse and gently kissed his mouth.
He shuddered before pulling her more tightly against him. Her gentle salute became desperation in the time it took him to get his hand from her lower back up to tread through her hair.
He needed her...closer. If he could have he would have absorbed her right through his skin and into his soul where she filled him so completely there was no room for anything else.
She returned his embrace. She felt his need and matched it with his own. She'd almost lost him today too. Sheppard had come there to kill him.
Lifting her up against him he felt her wrap her legs around his waist. He backed her up against the wall and leaned into her softness. His hand found its way under her shirt and her soft skin beckoned him on.
Jane didn't want anything to interrupt this perfect moment. She'd dreamed of him for months, loved him forever…
When she arched against him, she flinched at the pain it caused her shoulder.
He froze immediately.
"Kurt," Jane protested weakly.
"We aren't doing this." He warned her.
"We've waited so long…" Jane argued.
"Too long to have to steal this moment," Kurt pointed out.
A knock on the door had Jane reluctantly lowering her legs.
Kurt didn't release her as she expected, but pulled her more fully against him. She looked up in surprise to find him looking down at her with an expression that made her smile up at him sweetly.
He leaned down and it was his turn to gently salute her mouth.
Turning he pulled the door open to see Patterson standing there remorse clearly written across her face, "Sorry. Reed and Tasha are on their way."
"No problem," Kurt reassured her.
It didn't take long before the others arrived. Tasha gave Jane a hug and moved over to stand next to Patterson. Reed shot them a look of concern before looking over at Keaton.
"What is this place?"
"It's a secure location," Keaton assured him.
"We need more than just a building," Patterson admitted, "We need technology."
"I can only provide where," Keaton warned them, "How and what you need is on you."
"Patterson and I need to get back to the NYO," Kurt warned the team, "She can gather what she needs and I have to handle what happened."
"I'll go with you," Tasha insisted.
"No," Kurt denied, "We can't let anyone know you're back. The only advantage we have right now is you're off the radar. The only people that know Jane's alive are standing in this room. That needs to stay that way or Roman is dead."
"What's our next step?" Keaton demanded.
"We need to set up a base and gather some allies." Kurt insisted.
"Who can we trust?" Reed worried.
"I have some ideas about that," Kurt assured them, "Leave it to me."
"What do you want us to do?" Tasha worried.
"Tasha, stay with Jane. Reed, I need you to go get whatever we might need to set up a base here. Something to sleep on, rations, essentials…Patterson will bring her technology. We can't have a lot of activity coming and going from this building, until we hear back from Roman, this is our base."
"On it," Reed agreed, turning away.
"Tasha should go with Reed," Jane insisted.
"No," Kurt denied, looking at her seriously. "Your shoulder is re-injured and I'm not leaving you alone here."
"I'll be fine, Kurt." Jane insisted.
"I know," He assured her, "But Tasha stays."
Jane relented, secretly relieved.
Jane watched them head out and turned to Tasha with a worried expression.
"They'll be fine and back before you know it," Tasha assured her. "What happened to your shoulder?"
Jane explained what happened.
"Well that explains Weller's slightly out of control expression and reluctance to leave you." She smiled.
Jane didn't know what to say to that.
"Roman's going to be okay," Tasha changed the subject.
"I don't know," Jane worried, "If Sheppard ever even suspects he's lying, she will not hesitate to kill him."
Tasha walked over and rested her hand on Jane's shoulder in reassurance.
"I know you're his big sister," Tasha empathized, "But he survived without you before."
Jane smiled up at her in agreement. It's what he did to survive that concerned her. She could lose Roman to more than death…she could lose him to his basic nature, the one she herself struggled with every day.
Kurt looked over at Patterson while they drove.
"They're going to be fine," He assured her.
"Who are you trying to reassure me or yourself?" Patterson asked seriously.
"Both," Kurt openly admitted. The further away from Jane he got, the more anxiety he felt.
"This is really it…isn't it? Either we win or they do." Patterson realized.
Kurt looked over at her. "We can't afford to lose,"
"Then let's kick their asses." Patterson insisted.
Smiling over at her Kurt pushed the accelerator down. The sooner they took care of what they needed to do at the NYO, the sooner they'd get back to the others. It couldn't be soon enough for him.
Roman sat next to Sheppard while they drove further out of the city.
"You're quiet," She looked over at him.
"Well," Roman looked back over at her, "I just killed my sister…"
"That wasn't your sister," Sheppard denied, "I don't know who she was."
"We are the ones that erased her memory," Roman reminded her, "They we sent her to the enemy. She was what we made her."
"We have come too far to stop now," Sheppard insisted, "We did all of this because of what Orion tried to do to her."
"To her…or to you?" Roman didn't know where the question came from, but suddenly he realized it was true.
"What do you mean?" Sheppard looked over at him.
"You were Orion…weren't you?" He accused her.
"We were Orion," Sheppard admitted, "You, Remi and I. I spent years recruiting the right people to do what needed to be done, what nobody else could do and they turned on us, deciding that we were too much of a liability."
"The money," Roman realized.
"Government funding," Sheppard laughed, "The money I no longer needed to pay my dead soldiers became the money I was going to use to bring down this country."
"Why spend so many years fighting for it, only to turn your back on it?" Roman asked her bluntly.
"I gave everything to this country and when it came down to it I was expendable as everyone else. The only reason the two of us weren't on that last mission with Remi, was because she'd become suspicious. When word came back that she'd been killed, I knew immediately what was happening."
"So she died trying to protect us," Roman realized, "And we were the ones that ended up killing her?"
"That wasn't her anymore," Sheppard denied, "Remi would have never turned her back on her family."
Roman said nothing. Sheppard claimed to be doing all of this for the good of the country, but the more he listened, the more he realized that what she really wanted was revenge for being slighted. This was personal in a way that was undeniable.
"Well," Roman rubbed his face, "Weller's going to be coming now that we've killed Jane. Is Phase 2 ready to go?"
"So, do you really think he cared about her?" Sheppard wondered.
Remembering all that he'd witnessed between them and all that Weller had done to help not only Jane, but him. Roman had no question that Weller more than cared for her. She could still see the look on his face when he'd pretended to snap Jane's neck. Weller loved her and he knew his sister well enough to know she felt the same.
"Does it really matter?" He finally asked.
"No," Sheppard agreed, "Phase two will be ready in a couple of days."
"The sooner the better," Roman just wanted all of this over.
"I couldn't agree more," Sheppard looked over at him with approval.
Kurt spent a hellish day dealing with the aftermath of Pellington's death and the invasion of the NYO of the FBI. All the while making phone calls and setting up reinforcements.
Patterson gathered not only what they needed from her lab, but also the team's gear from the weapons room. The sun had long gone when they climbed in the SUV to return to the others.
"Remove the tracking chip," Kurt warned her.
"Already did," She assured him.
"Did you get everything you need?" He asked her.
"Everything that was portable." Patterson agreed.
"What happened with the big wigs?" She worried.
Kurt had spent hours in meetings.
"They're going to replace Pellington and investigate how Sheppard was able to infiltrate our office." Kurt told her.
"All those hours and you can condense it down to one sentence?" She looked over at him with a smile.
"Bureaucracy is long winded, but that's the crux of it." He smiled back.
"I would kill myself if I had to sit through those meetings," Patterson admitted.
"Well, they aren't any fun," Kurt agreed.
"Have you spoken to any of the others?" Patterson worried.
"No," Kurt denied, "I didn't want to risk drawing unnecessary attention to them. You?"
"No," Patterson denied.
"I'm sure they're fine." Kurt insisted.
"Sitting there in that empty warehouse must be driving them insane." Patterson argued.
"I think they might have found something to do," Kurt smiled over at her suspiciously.
"What'd you do?" She immediately demanded.
"Called in reinforcements." Kurt reminded her.
They arrived back at the warehouse to find it transformed. The empty space was now filled with equipment. They had makeshift work stations and tactical gear in the center of the room. A portable kitchen had been erected with a coffee pot steaming. Patterson, however, was drawn to the side of the room that had been equipped with the latest advanced technology. A computer system to rival hers had been set up in the corner.
"How did you do this?" She looked over at Kurt in shock.
"I didn't," Kurt denied looking around.
"We didn't think you were ever coming back," Tasha teased them as she walked out of one of the back offices.
"Where did you get all of this?" Patterson demanded.
"We used the confiscated Sandstorm funds," Tasha admitted.
"Clever," Kurt looked around.
"Jane's in the back," Tasha assured him, "She's been...detained by one of your recruits."
Patterson looked at the computers and asked in incomprehension, "How did you know which ones I wanted?"
"I helped with that," Rich told her coming out of the back room, Jane following closely on his heels, looking exasperated.
Kurt smiled at the sight. She immediately headed toward Kurt and he met her half way.
"Feeling okay?" He worried.
"I'm fine," She assured him, "How'd it go back at the office?"
"Red tape and bureaucratic posturing," Kurt admitted.
Rich watched Kurt's arm go around Jane with a satisfied smile.
"It's about time," He told the couple.
"What's about time?" Boston joined them.
"These two," Rich pointed to Jane and Kurt.
"Hey," Patterson greeted Boston warmly, moving over to hug him.
"What about me?" Rich demanded.
"Thanks Rich," She told him grudgingly.
"Some people," He told her, "Don't appreciate when other people do nice things for them."
"Did everyone else get here?" Kurt worried.
"Ava arrived a little after Rich," Jane agreed, "Who else is coming?"
"We're here," Nas said from the doorway.
Turning Jane watched as Nas entered followed closely by Cade.
She couldn't help the worried expression she shot Kurt. With Nas back in the picture, would things go back to the status quo?
Kurt didn't remove his arm, but greeted the other two from his place beside her. She forced herself to relax.
He squeezed her shoulder, looking down at her in reassurance.
"Is this it?" Reed asked looking around.
"This is it," Kurt agreed, bringing everyone up to speed on Sheppard and Roman.
"We need to see if Roman's established the connection yet," Patterson worried.
"I've been checking all afternoon," Tasha told her, "We haven't received anything yet."
"Sandstorm has an army," Cade reminded them, "We have 11 people."
"Twelve with Roman," Jane reminded him.
"I still think we might be slightly out gunned." Cade said in a dry tone.
"Look," Kurt told the team, "We will call for backup when we get the intel we need, but for now, we need to keep everything under wraps until we have what we need to move in."
Looking around at the faces surrounding her, Jane realized that she had a new family. The sea of faces were diverse, not all criminals and not all law enforcement, but a combination of the best of both. Rich, Boston and Ana would comprise Patterson's new lab team. Nas represented NSA, Keaton the CIA, Kurt the FBI. The team of Reed, Zapata, and Jane would have each other's back. Cade and Roman would give them the inside track to Sheppard.
Looking up at Kurt she realized, for the first time, that they could win this war. By working together and not labeling each other, they each brought something of value to the table. It made them stronger, but would it be strong enough?