Disclaimer: I do not own Blindspot. More like it's the other way around… I've come to realize that THEY own ME. :) I also do not own any aspect of the song quoted in this chapter (which I will mention at the end so I don't give it away here), which I learned when I looked it up was written by Bob Dylan. WHO KNEW? :)

Patterson hurried over to where Zapata and Reade sat conspiring together at one of the elegantly decorated tables off to one side of the room. "Hey, guys," Patterson said excitedly, pulling up a chair behind the pair and leaning forward between them, "did you see who just-"

"Patterson!" Zapata practically hissed in surprise, hooking her elbow around the blonde's neck and pulling her towards her so that she could speak to her in what she obviously thought was a lower voice. Patterson glanced at Reade, slightly panicked, but he just rolled his eyes in Zapata's direction, then glanced at empty glasses on the table. Patterson nodded in understanding. Zapata has had at least a few drinks already, was the message that Reade had obviously been sending.

Turning back toward Zapata, Patterson armed herself with a sufficiently serious face to deal with Zapata in her current, slightly more excitable than usual, state.

Zapata hadn't even noticed the exchange between Patterson and Reade, and was once again talking in what she thought was a quiet voice. "Jane and Weller just walked around the corner. Together," Zapata emphasized carefully. "Look at them, I mean, they're not making out or anything, but look how close together they are. And her hand is on his arm." Suddenly her tone changed from excited to sentimental, and very un-Zapata-like as she sighed, "It's just… beautiful." Then the brunette turned to Patterson suddenly, looked her straight in the eye, and demanded, "What can we do?"

Patterson almost choked on the drink she was very carefully sipping, not knowing when Zapata was going to grab onto her next, at the question. "What can we do?" Patterson asked in confusion. "About… what?" Glancing at Reade, she saw him shrug his shoulders as if to say, 'Hey, don't ask me.'

Reade leaned closer to the women, asking, "What'd you have in mind, Zapata?" Tasha smiled a slightly evil looking grin, then a second later, looked serious.

"We need to get them together." Zapata looked from one confused face to the other and rolled her eyes at the looks that both of them were giving her. "You know, to-geth-er," she repeated slowly and deliberately."What? We decided that we trust Jane, right?" Zapata asked them when they both looked skeptical.

Reade wondered if Zapata had had more to drink than he'd initially thought. If she was the one talking about trusting Jane…

Patterson nodded slowly as her brain began to wrap around Zapata's idea. It seemed very strange coming from the woman who'd been so critical of Jane since her return, and yet… Patterson herself could see it. Even though she could see how skittish Jane still was, she'd caught Weller looking at her more than a few times lately. Every once in a while there was the spark of what they'd all seen so plainly in his eyes when he looked at her back at the beginning. Before, Patterson had just found it sad. Now, she wondered if maybe Zapata was actually on to something…

Reade remained uncertain. Through numerous discussions that the three of them had had, and even more conversations between himself and Zapata, his partnerhad always been the biggest hold out when it came to Jane and whether or not she could be trusted. It was true that they were feeling better and better about giving her a second chance, knowing what they now knew, and after she had helped them fight Sandstorm. It was also true that they had rising levels of guilt over what had happened to her while she'd been in CIA custody that were directly proportionate to their increasing acceptance of her – the more they accepted her as one of them again, the guiltier they felt about what had happened to her.

Still, he wondered if this wasn't suddenly springing ten steps ahead. While the raid that had allowed them to disable so much of Sandstorm had been thanks largely to Jane's loyalty to the FBI, still, he was cautious by nature, and he just didn't know about this. Besides, matchmaking definitely wasn't his thing. With that thought, he surrendered the topic to the two women beside him.

With Reade remaining silent and Patterson nodding at her slowly, Zapata seemed to take that as more than enough encouragement to go ahead and outline what she thought they should do. Based on the look on the faces of both their boss and Jane, Zapata reasoned, things were now somehow good between them. A lot better than they had been even earlier that same day.

This statement made Patterson turn to watch Jane and Weller as they went to the bar at the far side of the room. They did look comfortable with each other, something that hadn't happened in a long time. She couldn't help but be reminded of the way the two had interacted back when they'd thought that she was Taylor. Before Sandstorm. Before everything had gone to Hell. Then Patterson's mind jumped ahead to the present, and she wondered what exactly had happened in that time that she hadn't been able to find the two of them. What had changed things so dramatically between them?

"They're still standing so far apart!" Zapata said in an embarrassingly loud voice, as Reade and Patterson looked around to see if anyone had turned to look at her. As far as they could tell, no one had, but their luck wouldn't necessarily hold out.

"Sssshhh, Z, turn down the volume," Reade said quickly, leaning down beside her ear. She turned to scowl at him in annoyance, their faces suddenly very close together – much closer than he wanted to be to an angry Zapata. He immediately moved back a few inches for his own safety. He knew Tasha well enough to know that even when she was clear headed, she was not someone he wanted to argue with if he didn't have to. After a few drinks, standing right in her face might be exactly where he didn't want to be.

"Did you have something in mind, Tasha?" Patterson asked in an attempt to diffuse the conflict between the other two. Zapata may have been tipsy, but Patterson suddenly realized that this might be exactly what Weller and Jane needed – a little nudge in the right direction. That was probably what they had needed before, too… Though of course, that was now a moot point. But right now, to her knowledge, the two didn't have any secrets hanging over them, nothing that would hold them apart other than their baggage from the past. Getting past that wouldn't be easy, of course, but from the look on their faces, she was willing to guess that they were already moving in that direction. And besides, if no one gave them a nudge, the two just might never figure it out for themselves.

Zapata turned and looked from Reade to Patterson, her expression deadly serious. "Yes," she said solemnly, "It's simple. We need to get them to dance."

"Oh, well, yeah, that's easy," Patterson said brightly. "I'm controlling the music from my computer." Raising her eyebrows devilishly, she grinned, knowing that this was perhaps the easiest "problem" she'd ever solved. She'd really thought that Zapata had something more complicated in mind, but this was as good as done.

Zapata gave her a delighted grin. "Perfect! We need something slow," she replied slowly and emphatically.

Patterson just chuckled. "I got this," she declared, standing up and walking across the room to the corner where her computer was hooked up to a pair of large speakers.

"Hey, Zapata, you sure you about this?" Reade asked her as Patterson clicked away at her keyboard across the room. "You haven't exactly been Jane's biggest fan lately."

Zapata rolled her eyes at him, now turning to look at him squarely in the eye and speaking slowly and evenly, in a tone – though not the language – that she might have used if she was trying to explain the same thing to a child. "I know, I've kind of been a bitch to her," Zapata began, and Reade's eyes widened slightly. It was true, of course, but he was more than a little surprised to hear Zapata admitting it so freely. She was his best friend, so he knew that admitting to her mistakes wasn't necessarily one of her strengths.

Seeing his expression, she muttered, "Shut up! It's not like any of us had much of a reason to trust her when she came back…" Reade held up his hands in surrender in front of him, saying nothing, and Zapata continued. "I mean, I still think the shit she did was messed up… But, she doesn't need to be punished for the rest of her life. And, I mean, I guess she thought she was doing the right thing… protecting Kurt, protecting us… and then when the CIA tortured her and she never told them anything? Even after everything that had happened?" She shook her head resolutely. "No, she's been through enough, even I can admit that. Besides, just… look at them…"

She motioned to where Jane and Weller were standing, still near the bar but now facing their general direction, holding drinks. Reade had to admit that Zapata, tipsy or not, had a point. The two weren't even standing that close together, and they both looked ridiculously happy, as if they were unaware of anything or anyone around them. He couldn't remember seeing Weller that happy in… well, not since all the problems with Jane had started. No, maybe not in as long as he'd known the guy.

As for Jane… he'd been slowly coming around to sympathizing with her. No matter how many bad decisions she'd made, he agreed with Zapata – she didn't deserve to be punished for them indefinitely. He'd been the one trying to ease Zapata off of the anti-Jane train for a while now. Besides, with the missing memories of his own childhood that he was only slowly learning about… things that he didn't want to remember, it was all disturbingly like what had happened to her. Basically, he'd decided that he owed Jane a little extra understanding, even if it was too little, too late.

When he looked at Jane now, he saw something that surprised him. He remembered it from the early days, back when he'd been dead set against her being a part of their team… He'd never realized it then, but he saw it clearly now – the way she seemed to light up around Weller, how she just seemed… brighter, for lack of a better word… when she was with him. Except that it hadn't been that way since he'd arrested her – understandably. And now, suddenly it was there again. The light.

And Weller, the serious guy that he had always been – just as he'd told Jane back then, Weller was different around her, too. He'd been wrong though, when he'd thought that Jane was weakening him. No, the change in their boss wasn't for the worse around Jane – though he did have a serious inability to think objectively when it came to her, and that was probably never going to change. The difference was hard to explain. The best thing he could come up with was that Jane gave Weller something to fight for besides just a memory. She anchored him in the present.

And now it was all happening again, before his eyes. Just from looking at their faces he knew, because he'd had that feeling with Sarah… He wasn't sure that pushing them together was the right thing to do, but then again… those two had always proven to be a little hopeless in that department. Maybe that was the only way it would actually happen.

"I've got it all set up," Patterson declared only a minute later, rejoining the pair and flopping down in a chair on the other side of Reade.

"What song did you pick?" Zapata demanded, hungry for the details.

But Patterson just smiled and shook her head. "You'll see in another minute," she told her friend.

Jane and Kurt were by the bar, standing beside each other and making small talk as they sipped their drinks. Really, Jane had enjoyed sitting in the stairwell with Kurt more than she was enjoying the party, but it had been important to Kurt that she stick around, and she was glad that she had. She was even gladder that he'd caught her at just the right moment earlier, or she would have missed this chance to spend the evening with him.

Kurt wondered if Jane could feel the eyes on them. He'd noticed them almost immediately, and it didn't take him long to locate the source. After scanning the room for a few minutes, he saw Patterson, Reade and Zapata sitting together at one of the tables, looking in their direction. It was pretty much just as he'd expected would happen at some point, but he didn't care. If any of them were going to question the wisdom of whatever it was between himself and Jane, which he had trouble imagining that any of them would actually want to do, knowing his reaction to comments on this topic, he doubted that they would choose to do it here, at least. In a little while, they'd weave their way through the sea of other agents and talk with the rest of their team. Just… not yet.

The song that had been playing in the background – some kind of poppy rendition of a Christmas song – ended, and Patterson felt herself hold her breathe as an extended piano introduction of the song she'd just chosen began. She watched for their reactions, assuming that as usual, Jane wouldn't recognize the song, but wondering if Weller might. Whether he did or not, she willed him to do as she was silently instructing him and ask her to dance. She'd turned up the volume setting for good measure, to be sure that they'd notice, and it was only a few seconds after the song started before she saw Weller's eyes flick knowingly in their direction for a split second, before he leaned over to Jane and said something to her that seemed to make her blush.

Here we go, Patterson thought.

Across the room, Kurt was pretty sure the other three were up to something, he just wasn't sure what. They were watching them with grins on their faces, and he didn't know what to make of it. When the song that had been on in the background finished, he heard the soft piano melody – what seemed to be a longer than usual introduction of a song he knew – several different versions of it had come and gone over the years, as a matter of fact. He'd heard it most recently at a friend's wedding the year before, and only remembered because he'd had to excuse himself from the room to get away from the overly aggressive bridesmaid that had seemed set on his asking her to dance to that very song.

Yes, he had a feeling that this was his team's doing… not that he was against it. He smiled in spite of himself. Shooting them the quickest of glances, he set down his drink on the small table nearby. Then leaning closer to Jane, he said, "Come on, let's dance." She looked at him in surprise as the piano melody filled the air. She didn't know the song, and she felt awkward about the thought of dancing with him… and yet, at the same time she couldn't remember wanting anything more in a long, long time.

"I don't think I can…" When she heard herself, the words seemed to stick in her throat. They were the same ones she'd said at the Rich Dotcom party they'd attended to recover the WitSec list, just before she'd proven that she could.

Why in the world did I say that? she asked herself.

He looked at her with a smirk, turning his head slightly sideways as he did when something amused him. "No, you can only use that excuse once," he told her, unphased by her hesitation, before leaning closer to her and adding in a whisper, "And besides, we know it isn't true." She watched as he beamed at her, and she couldn't help but smile, feeling something very familiar… and yet startling at the same time – the same sensation she had back on that day so long ago when they had danced for the first time. Butterflies in her stomach. The same strange flip that her heart had done when he'd muttered, "I'm too choosy," while looking into her eyes. For a second, she felt the same happy sensation of falling…

And then panic set in.

It was obvious as he looked into her eyes… the exact moment when her emotions shifted from blissfully happy to terrified. Without giving himself time to overanalyze, he reached down and took one of her hands, grasping it in both of his and, pushing his jacket aside, bringing it smoothly up to rest against his shirt, just over his heart. Just like that time long ago. "Jane," he said softly, the same way he always did when he was trying to bring her back to reality. "Keep breathing." He hoped that it would work the same way it had the first time.

She was so completely overwhelmed, she didn't stop to consider that they were now in the midst of the party, not thinking about the fact that there were most definitely eyes, as well as security cameras, on their every moves. No, the rest of the world had simply fallen away around them. The people, the lights, the noise… Had she been able to focus on such details, it may or may not have changed anything, but the fact was, she had just felt herself begin to tumble back into the dark abyss that so often threatened to swallow her… That is, until he'd managed to pull her back from the brink.

Now she was standing there, struggling to control her breathing, struggling not to think about the fact that she felt very much what she'd felt that first time they'd danced… Whether the first time had been real or just a part of the act she did not know. She only knew that this time it was no act. Despite all of her best efforts to calm her racing heartbeat, she was terrified, because she suddenly realized what was happening. She now understood that once again, she was falling in love with him. The first time it had happened she hadn't even known it. This time, she didn't have the luxury of ignorance.

Of course, it wasn't love that terrified her. Love itself seemed blissful, because she had already experienced the opposite extreme of human behavior. Nor was it Kurt that she was afraid of… not exactly. Despite their history, she only had to look in his eyes to understand how he felt at that moment. The problem, of course, with being that happy, with believing in the goodness of another human being that much, was the searing pain that was inevitable when it was ripped away. The fear that she felt at the thought of that happening again took her breath away. Logically, she knew that it didn't always happen like that, but logic was not in charge in her brain at that moment.

After all, she only had one past experience to draw from, so for her, love ended in agony 100% of the time.

It will always be 100% of the time if you never give anyone a chance again, that logical voice pointed out.

They stood there frozen, looking at each other, as he held her hand against his chest, willing her to breathe, to calm down, to… He felt himself falter, wondering what he could do. After all, how could he blame her for being afraid? After everything that had happened, everything that he had done to her… His eyes dropped from hers and he looked down sadly, guilt once again washing over him. Maybe the baggage between them was simply too much. Maybe they couldn't fix it.

This change in him somehow stirred something inside her to attention. It feels like that time, the voice in her head said, and in some ways it is the same… but mostly, it isn't. You know that it's different. What happened before… it's not going to happen again. Look at him. Really look. If this isn't a man who regrets his choices, who would do anything to go back and do things differently, then I don't know what is. Besides, don't you feel the exact same way? Shouldn't you be able to understand better than anyone in the world at least that much of what he's feeling?

She realized that for once, she agreed with her inner voice. Where they were just then, in that moment… it was terrifying how similar it was to where they had been before. But this was not before, and they had both learned many lessons since then. There was no guarantee, of course, but there never would be in life. This would require taking a risk. A frightening one. But the choices were for her to take the risk and maybe get what she knew deep down that she wanted, or not to take the risk and continue to live the way she had been. Even she knew that that was no kind of life, keeping herself separate from everyone. It was safer, perhaps, but it was also… empty.

It didn't have to be that way.

Leaning over to set down the drink that she was still holding, then taking her now free hand and placing it over his hand, which held hers against his chest, she squeezed slightly. "Okay," she whispered, to his surprise. He looked up at her, having momentarily accepted the idea that there was no way that she would dance with him after all, and that he couldn't blame her for it. He smiled at her, surprised, and the corners of her mouth bent upwards slightly, too. Really, she still looked frightened… but she'd said, "Okay," and there was a determined look in her eyes that hadn't been there a moment ago.

He slowly removed their hands from his chest and took one of her hands in his. They walked slowly to the center of the open area and paused, looking at each other, suddenly unsure how to proceed. The dancing at Rich Dotcom's black tie party had been very formal. This was very much the opposite. A few other couples had also come out into the makeshift dancefloor already, and were swaying to the music. He reached forward to put his hands on her waist, and she slowly lifted her hands to his shoulders, her forearms leaning against his chest, holding him at a slightly distance. Still, it was the closest they'd stood to each other in a long time.

Almost as if the song had been timed perfectly, that was when the lyrics began.

"When the rain is blowing in your face
And the whole world is on your case

I could offer a warm embrace
To make you feel my love…"

Her eyes darted to his as she took in the first few lines to the song, somewhere between panic and surprise. He watched her, calmly, since he knew the song, and therefore knew what was coming. It was quite possibly the perfect song for them to dance to just then, and he had a strong suspicion that at least one of this team members had something to do with it.

"When evening shadows and the stars appear
And there is no one there to dry your tears
I could hold you for a million years
To make you feel my love…"

As he watched her reaction to the lyrics, he couldn't help but pull her just a little closer, suddenly feeling like each and every line of the song was putting into words what he would have said to her if he had been able to articulate his feelings. He continued to look into her eyes, slowly moving along with the music. His arms now wound all the way around her back and he had slowly pulled her close enough that her arms had moved up over his shoulders, around the back of his neck.

The look on her face was uncertain, but it was not the terrified look that he'd seen a few minutes before. It was more as if she was searching for something in his face.

"I know you haven't made your mind up yet
But I would never do you wrong
I've known it from the moment that we met
No doubt in my mind where you belong…"

The words to this song held her attention completely. For some reason, she got the feeling that, even though the song had obviously not been written just for her, somehow the message was intended just for her. She couldn't read Kurt's thoughts, obviously, but she would have sworn, based on the look in his eyes alone, that if he could actually say what was in his head, it would sound something a lot like the this song.

Don't be ridiculous, she told herself. And yet, looking in his eyes at that moment, it was as if he was willing her to believe exactly that. She felt him slowly drawing her closer and closer, but instead of feeling panic or awkwardness, the closer she got to him, the calmer she felt. It just felt… right.

"I'd go hungry, I'd go black and blue
I'd go crawling down the avenue…"

He felt her flinch just a little at the allusion to being black and blue, as it hit a little too close to home. She was the one who was black and blue, literally and figuratively. Not that he didn't also feel battered by the storm they'd been through, which he had, but he knew that what he'd been through was nothing compared to her.

Just thinking about everything she had endured was enough to make him gently pull her a little tighter to him, and he was relieved to notice that she didn't seem to mind. On the contrary, after she'd flinched a second ago, she'd leaned into him.

"Oh, there's nothing that I wouldn't do
To make you feel my love…"

Giving up eye contact with her in favor of closeness, he pulled her to him past the point where he could look into her eyes, letting his stubbly cheek fall against the side of her face and remain there. His eyes closed, and he focused on breathing evenly. This moment didn't feel real.

"The storms are raging on the rolling sea
And on the highway of regret…"

Regret. There was a word that they both understood acutely, that could slice through everything they had managed to rebuild and stab them directly in the heart. To say that they both had regrets was an understatement of the highest magnitude. To be reminded of this in the midst of this moment that was already making her so emotional… She had to remind herself quickly that she did not have to go back, not to any of it. None of those things that she'd done or not done, been or not been, had the ability to bring her back there if she didn't let them. If only it was that simple.

If she hadn't been reminding herself to breathe, she might have forgotten, and at that moment, she choked on the breath she was exhaling, feeling momentarily unable to breathe. Her arms were now around his neck tightly, and her face fell forward as her cheek leaned hard against him just below his shoulder. She was overwhelmed, and for a second she struggled to catch her breath. Within a split second, one of his hands had left her lower back and was on the back of her head, his fingers moving slowly through her hair. His face pressed against her forehead, and she both felt and heard a soothing "Sssshhh," escape him.

"The winds of change are blowing wild and free
You ain't seen nothing like me yet…"

It was only a few seconds before she could breathe again, but even when she could, she stayed exactly where she was, her head leaned against him. Like her, he held the position that he had moved into so quickly, moving his hand that was in her hair down slightly, closer to her neck, but kept his fingers in her hair. He wasn't giving up this chance to hold onto her this way, not knowing when – or if – there would be another one.

As her breathing had normalized again, she relaxed and enjoyed where she was, now so much closer to him. She couldn't see his face, of course, but she somehow knew that he was smiling, and it made her smile as well, even as everything inside her felt as though it would burst with opposing forces of fear and elation simultaneously.

She had that feeling again. The one where she was soaring, not falling. Really, her emotions were bombarding her too quickly for her to sort out half of them.

"I could make you happy, make your dreams come true
Nothing that I wouldn't do
Go to the ends of the earth for you
To make you feel my love."

As the song came to an end, she held her breath, willing it to continue if she only wished hard enough. More than anything, she longed for some excuse to stay in that spot and never move. It wasn't an option, of course, but damn, it was a nice thought.

Lifting her head hesitantly off of him and inhaling slowly, she drank in the moment. They both leaned back just far enough that their eyes met for a second, and an unspoken understanding passed between them, after which he leaned his cheek back against the side of her face. However it had all happened, it was perfect.

A/N: Once again, I do not claim any credit for the beautiful song in this chapter, "To Make You Feel My Love." Like I said above, I had no idea that that song was written by Bob Dylan! I was listening to the Adele version when the idea for the dance scene in this chapter popped into my head, and the rest of the story has since grown from there. You may also be interested to know that a few hours after I posted chapter 4, I had a whole new idea that I first thought would be a separate story, then realized that it would fit nicely after what I had planned to be the end of this one. So good news, this story is not ending anytime soon. :) After all, for the team it's only December 23rd, and the story is called "December." :) Thanks for reading!