Disclaimer: I do not own Blindspot. More like it's the other way around… I've come to realize that THEY own ME. :)
It seemed like only minutes later that the sound of a knock at the bedroom door jerked them both awake. Seconds later, they heard Sarah's voice. "Kurt, I've kept your darling nephew entertained as long as I could, but in another five minutes he's going to be pounding on this door, and there's nothing I can do about it."
"Got it," he said as loudly as he could manage, his voice still hoarse and his head foggy from the night before. Eyes still barely open, he turned his head slowly, blinking as he looked down in the direction where he felt Jane snuggled against his right shoulder. He smiled without even realizing it. She'd shifted slightly during the night, and was laying a little more next to him than on top of him than she'd started out, her right arm draped across his chest and their legs tangled together. Both of them were still completely clothed, of course, but even so, it was quite an intimate way to wake up.
Her eyes fluttered open slowly as she lifted her head just enough to look at him, smiling shyly. What exactly was she supposed to say?
"Merry Christmas," he whispered as the events of last night slowly came back to him little by little. He remembered her insistence that she wasn't going to sleep, his nightmare, and then their mutual breakdowns, which had led to them ending up… like this. He felt the smile on his face grow when she smiled back at him.
Christmas, she thought. For a minute, I'd forgotten…
"Merry Christmas," she replied just as quietly, feeling like she'd just had the best night's sleep of her life. "I guess that means… we have to get up?"
"Afraid so," he said, sighing in disappointment.
His right arm had wound around her back, and his fingers now inched upward until they found the neckline of her t-shirt, stopping where they found bare skin and moving almost imperceptibly back and forth on her upper back. His left hand came to rest on her right forearm, the one that was draped across him, squeezing gently.
I thought it would be awkward… she thought in surprise. But it's not.
"Too bad," she replied. "This is kind of… perfect." She realized only after the words came out exactly what she'd said, and she blushed slightly, wondering if it had been too much.
The combination of the words that had just slipped out of her mouth along with the intense smile on his face made her look away nervously, only looking back at him hesitantly a minute later.
"It is," he agreed, leaning down until his face rested against the top of her head. After a minute, however, she felt him shifting, lifting his head, and remembered that they were supposed to be getting up.
Wanting to say one more thing to him before they got up, she cleared her throat and looked up at him, suddenly nervous. "Um, I feel like I should…" She took a deep breath and tried again. "Last night…" she started, trailing off immediately when the words that had sounded perfectly articulate in her head seemed to evaporate.
He looked into her face in surprise, and saw the nervousness in her eyes that hadn't been there only a minute before. "Yeah… Thank you," he said, nodding seriously and keeping his eyes on her. He purposely ignored the apology she was trying to give.
For a second she was confused, because she'd been about to say "I'm sorry," but he'd spoken before she'd had a chance.
"What? Oh, no… I…" She shook her head, trying to recover. He didn't understand. "I'm sorry…"
"Don't be," he said, shaking his head, the Just For Jane smile on his face in full force. "I don't think we would be able to say who needed who more last night – not that it's a contest, of course… But Jane," he said sincerely, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear, "that was why I was in this room, remember? So that I was here if you needed me. I was just… too far away." He paused, then added, "Well, that and having a nightmare of my own. There's… a lot of memories here that I guess I wasn't quite as over as I thought I was." He continued to look at her intently, and she felt almost as though he was reading her mind, like he'd done so many other times.
Unable to look into his eyes and say what she wanted to say at the same time, she looked away then, before whispering, "This was where I wanted to be from the beginning." Her eyes darted back up to him nervously, unsure what his reaction would be.
His smile widened then, until it seemed to take over his face. She didn't fully understand why until, after a short time when he simply looked at her as if she'd just handed him the moon, he replied, "Me, too." She bit her lip, inhaling sharply in surprise as, for a second, she had trouble breathing.
How is it possible? she wondered, feeling what little remained of the walls she'd built to protect herself from him crumbling.
"So," he continued evenly, "maybe tonight we just skip the part where we stubbornly refuse to communicate, and therefore let ourselves have nightmares." She tried to imagine just going to sleep beside him in the first place, instead of ending up there in the middle of the night when they were had both broken down completely.
"That seems like a good idea," she said softly, smiling tiredly.
"May I make one request, though?" he asked.
She just looked at him in surprise and nodded. "Sure," she replied slowly.
"It would be great if we could not sleep on the floor next time. After all, it seems silly when there's a bed right there." He gestured toward the bed as if she hadn't know where it was, his grin contagious. As she looked at him, she felt a smile creeping across her face at the same rate that the deep crimson color was taking over from the thought that he wanted to go to sleep beside her that night. All she could do was to nod her head. This made him chuckle for a few seconds before his expression suddenly became serious.
"So… about what you said before? Don't you dare be sorry," he whispered, looking at her almost urgently. "Okay? Not for something like that." Nodding once again, she felt a familiar prickling sensation behind her eyes, and she leaned her head down against him, breathing deeply.
He squeezed his arms around her more tightly then, in what simply felt to her like a hug. She was, therefore, quite surprised when both of his arms tightened around her waist, and right away she felt herself being lifted up, shifted until she was laying squarely back on top of him again.
She lifted herself up on her elbows, once again putting her forearms down against the sleeping bag and resting her elbows against his shoulders as she had earlier, and looked down at him in confusion.
"You could say that I did that because it's easier to get to the zipper to open up the sleeping bag this way, since you were sort of blocking it" he said with a grin. She just shook her head and smiled at him. Smiling was something she'd been doing a lot of lately. At that moment, it didn't really matter to her why he'd lifted her back up.
"Or," he added quickly, "You could say… that that's just the best excuse I could think of." With an exaggerated wink, he squeezed his arms around her once more.
She was sure that she was dreaming. Surely, nothing this good would have happened to her in real life. "Just so you know… you don't need any excuse," she told him quietly and then watched as he beamed up at her.
"Oh?" he asked, arching his eyebrows and acting surprised. He'd suspected as much, but it was nice to hear her say it. "Duly noted," he replied, pretending to be serious for a second and then once again breaking out into a grin.
"Come on," he whispered. "Before the rabid elf that's drunk with the power to wake us up shows up to bang on our door." This made them both chuckle.
His left arm was securely wrapped around her and his right hand moved to fiddle with the zipper on the side of the sleeping bag, working it down until it was about half way, far enough to allow them to crawl out.
Sighing heavily then, she stared into his eyes for several seconds. She thought about kissing him, but a few things stopped her. First was the knowledge that neither of them had brushed their teeth yet. Second… that one was harder to explain. It was more just a feeling she had… that this strange acceleration of things between them in one way, and the fact that she'd ended up laying on top of him to start the second day that they were even on comfortable speaking terms, made her want to proceed more slowly in other ways.
They had kissed before, of course, and she knew now that it was almost certain to happen again, probably sooner than later. She just saw no reason to rush. It had, after all, only been less than two days, and things between them… well, they had always been complicated. It was going to take a long time for them to really, truly trust each other, no matter how easily she felt like they had fallen back into old feelings… and that was how it should be, really. After all, they weren't the same people they had been back then. Besides, anything that could appear out of nowhere could disappear just as easily – and neither of them wanted that.
Really, she didn't know what to think about anything anymore, only that at that moment, she felt happy. It was a very nice change.
After a few seconds hesitation, she pushed herself upward, away from him, already feeling too far away before she'd gotten one leg out of the sleeping bag. There were footsteps outside the door as they both stood up and stretched. They felt exactly like you'd expect after sleeping in a sleeping back on a hard floor, after half a night of exhaustion and nightmares, preceded by the trauma of almost freezing to death. In other words, they both felt a little rough. Still, they both smiled, feeling a glow that neither of them could remember feeling before.
A minute later, there was an impatient pounding on the door. "Uncle Kurt! Are you up?" It was Sawyer, of course. Kurt was pretty sure that Sarah had managed to stall him for more than five minutes, for which he was grateful.
"I'll go make coffee," he whispered, leaning in close on his way past her to the door, which made a chill run down her spine.
"I'll be right down," she told him quietly with a smile, following him to the door. When Kurt opened the door, the boy was staring at him with delight. Surprise registered on her face when he saw Jane behind his uncle in the doorway, but he recovered quickly.
"Hey, buddy! Merry Christmas!" Kurt said excitedly to his nephew. Jane smiled at Sawyer a little awkwardly, but Sawyer, to his credit, recovered quickly and smiled back at her as if it was no big deal to find her there.
"Hi, Jane. Merry Christmas," Sawyer said over Kurt's shoulder with a smile. Kurt stepped aside slightly, his hand going to her lower back automatically to guide her forward.
"Merry Christmas," Jane replied.
Without missing a beat, Sawyer began talking animatedly to Kurt. He managed to get Sawyer to pause for half a second so that he could stick his head into the bathroom and grab his toothbrush, run water over it and dab it with toothpaste, brushing his teeth as his nephew dragged him downstairs. Jane, meanwhile, headed into the bathroom. It was going to be an interesting day, that much was for sure.
Kurt was overwhelmed by Sawyer's Christmas excitement, which Sarah seemed to be encouraging 100%. After leaving his toothbrush in the downstairs bathroom, where he'd managed to escape for less than a minute while Sawyer talked to Sarah about how much longer it would be until breakfast was ready, Kurt sat in the middle of the couch and paid close attention as his nephew caught him up on Christmas morning so far. His stocking had been full of goodies, and if the kid didn't believe in Santa, it was not obvious from the excitement he displayed over each thing he'd found inside.
Considering the overwhelming stress of his job, there was something about seeing anyone, but especially someone as important to Kurt as his own nephew, so happy that warmed his heart. He would have said that the preceding twelve months had been among the hardest of his life – well, some of the last twelve months, anyway – and that was really saying something, considering what he had been through over the years. Just sitting there on the couch, watching Sawyer, and Sarah, for that matter, so happy… he just couldn't help but smile, feeling like the weight of the world had temporarily been lifted from his shoulders.
Might that feeling of elation also have something to do with a certain woman upstairs? the voice in his head asked innocently.
While still listening carefully to Sawyer, he smiled at the thought of Jane. It was that moment when she happened to appear, pausing in the doorway and watching the Weller men for a second with a faint but genuine smile on her face, before walking the opposite direction, toward the kitchen.
"Jane! Good morning, and Merry Christmas," Sarah bubbled happily as Jane approached. Her smile was contagious.
"Good morning, Sarah. Merry Christmas," Jane replied, then added, "Wow, something smells delicious." To Jane's surprise, it appeared that Sarah had successfully baked something.
The wattage on Sarah's smile turned up even farther at Jane's words, and she glanced at the oven timer. "Thanks… and it's almost ready, I think." Then, turning back to Jane, she looked at her more closely and asked, "So, how did you sleep?" The look on her face told Jane that there were more than a few other questions that she wanted to ask, but she seemed to have settled for just the one.
"I had trouble falling asleep, but in the end, I slept very well, thanks," Jane replied, keeping her answer simple but truthful. Even though she still felt exhausted, what little sleep she had gotten after she curled up with Kurt had been… blissful was the only word that came to mind. They had made up for quantity with quality, it seemed.
The way Sarah smiled at her made her wonder if she knew more than Jane thought, but before Jane had a chance to wonder any further, Sarah looked out to see that the boys were momentarily occupied, and then said to Jane in a low voice, "I'm so glad things are better between you two, Jane. You really do make him happy. The change in him since the last time I saw him… I can't even explain it. It's pretty dramatic."
Jane blushed, her face erupting with a self-conscious grin, and she looked at the ground for a second, unsure what to say. She looked back up at Sarah, to find the other woman still beaming at her, and she just nodded. "Yeah… it was rough for a while," Jane replied carefully, her smile dimming slightly. She had no idea how much Sarah knew or didn't know, of course... but Sarah now knew, like the rest of them, that she wasn't Taylor Shaw, so she knew at least some of what had happened between herself and Kurt.
Speaking of Kurt… she thought.
As Jane glanced over her shoulder at Kurt, who happened to look up at her just then, their eyes met for a second before he returned his attention to Sawyer. "I guess we're lucky," Jane continued. "I mean, if you had told me even two days ago that I would be here, I wouldn't have believed it. But…" Jane shrugged, smiling at the thought of how everything had changed so fast. "Here I am."
Shaking her head, Sarah turned to check the timer once again. "Well, you guys are adorable together. I'm so happy for you," she added.
Jane squirmed slightly at Sarah's words, not adorable, but together.
Are you going to deny that something is going on? the voice in her head asked in disbelief. Really?
Well, no, I mean, I don't know, it's not as though… we haven't actually talked about it… That voice in her head was really relentless sometimes.
It doesn't matter if you haven't had a formal discussion, the voice replied. There's something between you and you know it. There always has been, even when it was messy. Just think about where you woke up this morning.
Jane knew that she was going to turn bright red if she let the voice in her head continue down this road, and was pretty sure that she was already turning pink just from Sarah's words alone.
"Thanks," Jane replied simply, supposing that she could accept that something was indeed going on with them, even if she had no idea what. Then, hoping to change the subject, she asked, "Can I help with anything?"
Turning back towards her with a grin, Sarah said, "Just go check on the boys? And tell them breakfast will be ready in five minutes." She peaked into the over, then closed it again. "These are about to come out, then they'll just need to cool."
"That I can do," Jane told her, happy for an excuse to walk back over towards Kurt. Sawyer was still going full force, talking a mile a minute while sitting on Kurt's right. Jane settled herself near Kurt on his left, perched on the edge of the couch and leaving a little bit of space between them – though not because she wanted to, more because she wasn't sure how close to him she should be sitting. His family was there, after all. And besides that, just as she'd just been arguing with herself about, she didn't know where anything stood with them. Of course, she wanted to be closer to him, but who knew how far away he wanted her to be…
Come on, the voice in her head said. If the voice had eyes, it would have been rolling them. You know very well he wants you closer than that.
That question was answered rapidly as, once Jane was seated and without taking his eyes off of Sawyer, Kurt stretched his left arm around behind her without a word, securing his hand near her waist and tugging her closer to him, until the space she'd left between them was gone.
Turning towards her for just a second, he leaned down to murmur, "Much better," into her ear, then immediately turned back to his nephew.
Jane was so overwhelmed with warmth inside her by his small gesture that she almost forgot the message that she was supposed to deliver. Luckily, there was a break in the conversation just then, and Kurt, noticing the smell of breakfast for the first time as Sarah took it out of the oven, said, "Wow, something smells good." He seemed genuinely shocked, just as Jane had been a few minutes before.
"Oh, right, I was supposed to tell you guys that breakfast will be ready in five minutes," Jane told them. Sawyer bounced up off the couch excitedly to go and see whatever it was that Sarah had just taken out of the oven, leaving the two of them alone again for a few quiet seconds. She leaned her head into the crook of his neck and felt him pull her a little closer.
Leaning his head down so that his face was nestled in her hair, he mumbled, "All good?"
She nodded her head, conscious that the motion moved his head along with it, which made her smile even more. "I literally can't remember ever being happier," she said quietly with a grin on her face.
Vibrations from his quiet laughter rumbled through him, and she could feel more than hear them. "Good," he replied. "That's going to be my goal from now on."
"You think you can keep topping this?" she asked, pretending to be skeptical, trying but failing to contain her smile.
"Is that a challenge?" he asked, sitting back and looking at her in mock disbelief.
"It's just a question," she replied innocently, her face betraying her.
"Hmmm…" he said, as if mulling it over. "I guess I'll just have to do my best."
Looking up at him for a few seconds, she paused and then whispered, "Your best is pretty damn good."
He was about to reply when Sarah's voice rang out from the kitchen, where the food was on the table. "Alright you two, I'd say to get a room… but, well, you have one, and also, it's time for breakfast. So come over here and eat before the little monster here eats it all for you."
They both looked up in surprise, having almost forgotten that they weren't there alone, and smiled sheepishly. Jane already felt herself blushing once again when Kurt tugged her closer to him for just a second, leaning down to her ear to whisper, "She's just jealous because we're so cute."
Jane almost laughed out loud as Kurt slowly released her so that they could stand up, her surprise leaving her on the couch for a few seconds longer than him. With that head start, he stood up and then turned to offer her his hand, which she took, and he helped pull her up to her feet.
For just a second, he squeezed her hand gently before releasing it, and they walked to the kitchen table to sit down across from Sarah and, most entertainingly, Sawyer, whose eyes were like saucers as he stared at the giant cinnamon roll on the plate in front of him.
Just before Jane and Kurt had a chance to sit down, Sarah jumped up from her chair. "Oh, Kurt, I almost forgot… can I see you in the other room for just a second?" Jane sat down, looking up at the siblings curiously, while Sawyer just looked pitifully at him mother, clearly desperate to eat.
Sarah saw the look on her son's face and laughed. "You guys eat, we'll be right back," she told them, and before Sarah and Kurt had left the room, Sawyer's mouth was full of cinnamon bun.
"Does your mom make these a lot?" Jane asked him, picking hers up at a more human speed to take a bite.
Sawyer looked thoughtful for a second and then, when he finished chewing, replied, "Well, she didn't until a couple months ago, but ever since then she's been practicing. At first, she used to always burn them, or they'd come out tasting bad… so those weren't any good. But lately she's gotten a lot better at it, and those practice ones have been good to eat. This is her best one so far, though." He looked back at the sticky bun in front of him excitedly, picked it up and took another large bite.
Jane just chuckled, thinking about how Sarah's "practice" had made Sawyer so happy. When you had the right people around you, happiness really didn't take much, it seemed. She wasn't quite used to having any people around her yet – well, not people who she could be sure didn't mean her harm, anyway – but it certainly seemed like something that she wanted to get used to. To be that secure and happy, knowing that you were loved… she was fairly sure, based on what she knew about Remi's past, that she had never experienced that, even in the life that she couldn't really remember.
Maybe it's not too late, she thought tentatively. Her involuntary reaction was to block such a thought from entering her mind, but she tried to slowly ease her way over that wall that sprung up so automatically. Maybe, she repeated slowly in her mind. Just give the idea a chance. Just give him a chance.
Fine, her cynical, guarded side replied grudgingly. Maybe. I guess we can at least reserve judgement… for now.
That's all I ask, she told the voice.
She and Sawyer ate happily in silence for another minute, before Sarah returned from the other room and sat down, glancing at her son's empty plate and shaking her head.
"May I please have another one, mom?" he asked hopefully.
"Yes, go pick one out," Sarah told him, rolling her eyes but smiling at him affectionately as Sawyer took his plate to the pan sitting on the counter. She turned to Jane then, and said, "Kurt will be right back. He just had to take care of something." The look on Sarah's face gave away more than she probably meant it to, and Jane guessed that the 'something' had to do with her, which made her extremely curious.
Jane hadn't heard him go upstairs, but she heard the noise of his feet on the stairs as he came back down just then, and then a few seconds later, Kurt re-entered the kitchen. His eyes went directly to Jane as he walked through the door, and as he paused behind her to pull out his chair with his right hand, his left hand rested lightly on her shoulder just for a second. The smile on her face was an involuntary reaction.
It wasn't anything major, just a very slight touch, but her entire back seemed to tingle for a second as his fingers rested against the cloth of her t-shirt. Then, just as quickly as it had landed there, it was gone, though the sensation of it lasted even after he'd sat down beside her. She was still working her way through her first cinnamon bun as Kurt settled himself in his chair and looked down at the food in front of him suspiciously.
"Did you make these?" he asked his sister teasingly.
Sarah just rolled her eyes. "Yes, smarty pants," she replied, using the child-friendly version of what she really wanted to call her brother, "I made these. And these two are eating them and are still alive."
Kurt looked skeptically from Sawyer across the table from him to Jane beside him, then back to the food on his plate. "How are they, buddy?" he asked Sawyer, looking up.
Finishing the bite he'd been chewing first, Sawyer replied, "They're really good, Uncle Kurt. Mom's been practicing making these. Like, practicing a lot. This is my second one."
Next, Kurt turned to Jane, who'd been watching the exchange between the boys with a grin. When he turned to her, however, her smile changed from amusement to… She realized that she couldn't quite identify what the feeling was that her smile reflected, but as she looked into his eyes, she momentarily forgot once again that there was anyone there but the two of them.
"How are they, Jane? Should I eat it?" he asked her, their eyes locked together far more seriously than if they'd been just discussing a breakfast food.
"No," she said, absolutely seriously. "You shouldn't. But I'll be happy to eat it for you… You know, so you don't have to…" She managed to hold in her laughter for a few more seconds before her smile erupted and he looked at her, pretending to be shocked.
"I think you're trying to trick me," he said in mock horror. "Stay away from my cinnamon roll!" With that, he picked it up and took a tentative bite, nodding in approval when he realized that it did, indeed, taste good. Sawyer giggled uncontrollably at his uncle's silliness, and Jane laughed quietly as well, as Sarah rolled her eyes good-naturedly at her brother and Jane's little act, shaking her head.
"Hey," Jane said suddenly, poking Kurt in the side with her elbow. "I thought you said you were making coffee."
Kurt nodded slowly, finished chewing and replied, "Yes, I guess I did say that. Someone…" He paused and looked directly at Sawyer across the table from him. "… was talking my ear off so much I'm lucky I remembered my own name. I guess… I forgot about the coffee." He hung his head, pretending to be ashamed.
Jane shook her head in mock surprise. "Forget coffee?" she asked dramatically. Kurt nodded again, sighing pathetically for dramatic effect.
"Alright you two, geez," Sarah said, grinning and shaking her head as she got up from the table. "Coffee is already made. I'll get you some."
"Oh, Sarah, I can get it. I didn't mean—" Jane started, but Sarah waved her hand at her.
"Not at all, silly. I'm loving the banter thing you two have going on. It's hilarious. Like having an in-house comedy team. Sawyer is hilarious, of course, but I know all of his material already." Sawyer grinned obligingly when he heard his mother call him hilarious, but kept eating.
A minute later, Sarah put mugs of coffee, along with creamer, a sugar bowl and spoons, down in front of Jane and Kurt.
"Thanks, Sarah," Jane said with a smile.
"Yeah, thanks," Kurt echoed. "She's impossible til she's had her coffee."
Jane slowly turned to look at him, her mouth wide open in shock that may or may not have been real, but smiling at the same time. She wacked him playfully on the shoulder, exclaiming, "Well you're impossible all the time!" before turning back to face her coffee, adding just the right ratio of sugar and creamer.
"Do you see this? She's so mean to me," Kurt said to his audience, who were both watching them from across the table, highly amused.
"You are not gonna win, Uncle Kurt," Sawyer said dead seriously, shaking his head. "You'd better apologize." Sarah burst out laughing at her son's comment, bringing her hand to her mouth in an attempt to stifle the sound, but too late.
Kurt looked at his nephew with his very best face of mock disappointment. "No? Really? Are you sure?" he asked. Sawyer just continued to shake his head, as if his uncle really should have known better.
With a heavy sigh, Kurt turned to look at Jane, who was holding her mug of coffee in both hands in front of her, sipping it and smiling in complete amusement. She'd never seen Kurt act so silly, but it seemed that Sawyer had a very interesting effect on the otherwise very serious FBI agent.
Jane turned to face him, not moving, just watching to see what he would do next. "I'm sorry," Kurt said sincerely, but with a grin. "You're not impossible. Well, you are, but in a good way. Wait, I'm not making this better, am I?" She did her best to stifle a laugh, but felt it escaping her anyway. This side of Kurt was just… adorable.
He leaned his face closer to hers. "Let me try again. I'm sorry I said you were impossible until you'd had your coffee. Coffee is not related to your impossibility, and should not be brought into this. You are impossible, but it's one of the things that I love about you." Stopping then, watching her reaction, he held his eyes locked on hers. The twinkle in his eyes almost made her laugh again, except that she could see that at the same time, he was completely serious.
"Mom," Sawyer whispered loudly, "are they going to kiss?"
"I don't know," Sarah said at normal volume, and then, slightly louder, she asked, "are you guys going to kiss? This is a family show!"
Jane turned toward Sarah at that, barely holding back her laughter, and Kurt took the opportunity to lean forward just a little more and kiss her cheek, before settling back in his own space. Turning back to look at him in surprise, Jane could still feel a tingling sensation from where he'd kissed her as it radiated from that point on her cheek outward. She grinned at him, feeling slightly ridiculous, but at the same time as though she could burst with happiness. He just smiled back at her, then, his expression changing, he said matter-of-factly, "You're still not getting my cinnamon roll."
Jane, Sarah and Sawyer all laughed at this, not settling down for several more minutes. When Kurt finished eating and announced that he'd just remembered that he needed to go back to his car and bring in the loads and loads of presents from his trunk, Sawyer jumped up to clear everyone's plates. His uncle's antics had made him momentarily forget what awaited them after breakfast, but now that he remembered, he was anxious to get on with it. Sarah loaded the dishwasher while Sawyer bounded back to the Christmas tree in the next room, sitting on the floor beside it and carefully examining each gift. Jane followed Kurt to the front door, and both of them put on their boots over the pajamas, along with their jackets, hats and gloves.
"It's going to be cold. Ready?" Kurt asked, his hand poised on the doorknob.
"Ready," Jane replied with a grin. After all, they just had to walk to the car and back, maybe a few times, and then they could come right back inside. It couldn't be that bad…
Even dressed as warmly as they were, it was still a shock when the frigid air hit them, and Jane immediately wished that they were snuggled up back by the fireplace, as they'd been the night before.
It took the two of them several trips, but they managed to get all of the presents out of the car, and locked it back up again. Just before Kurt opened the door so that they could bring in the last load, Jane turned around with her back against the door to face him.
"Thank you," she said, looking up at him as their frozen breath floated through the air. He saw emotion swirling in her eyes, and wondered what had brought the sudden burst of it about.
"For what?" he asked curiously. There was something about the snow all around them that, while they were shivering slightly, made things seem a little bit magical.
"Being here is the best present you could have given me," she said with a smile.
"I like that you're easy to impress," he replied jokingly, and she turned sideways and shoved him with her shoulder in response, since her hands were full.
"I'm serious," she protested.
"I know," he said, suddenly serious as well, and leaned forward to kiss her forehead. Leaning his very cold nose against her forehead, he added, "You being here is the best present I could have gotten, too. So no more talk of not giving me anything, okay?" He paused and looked down at her then, something very obviously on his mind. "Because you've given me everything."
She thought her heart might burst then, and all she could do was nod. She felt tears in her eyes, and just hoped that they wouldn't freeze there before they could get inside. Again, she got the same tingling sensation that she had when he'd kissed her cheek, except that it now radiated out through her whole body.
"Now we should get inside. Hypothermia has some nice side benefits and all, but it's really not as fun as it looks," he told her with a grin.
"Very funny," she said, shaking her head and stepping out of his way so that he could open the door.
He motioned with his head for her to go in first, and they stomped the snow off of their boots as Sawyer ran forward to take as much of the load of presents as he could from them as Kurt closed the door and they began shedding their layers.
"It's totally okay with me if we don't go outside again until spring," Jane told him, rubbing her hands together and waiting for the friction to warm them up even a little bit. Having removed all of her winter gear she was now simply back in her pajamas.
"I'm not sure your boss will grant you quite that much time off," he told her seriously, rubbing his hands together in a similar motion. "But I'll put in a good word for you."
"Please do," she said, winking at him with a grin on her face.
"Go get some more coffee," he told her, "I'll be right back." With that, he headed upstairs, and she just smiled as she hauled the last of the presents that they'd brought in front the car back through the house towards the Christmas tree.
"I'd just like to point out," she said when Sarah looked at her wide-eyed as she approached with yet more presents, "that it was totally Kurt who went this Christmas crazy. I'm just his pack mule." She set the presents down in the living room and let Sawyer begin to organize them as she headed back to the kitchen. Sarah had finished cleaning up and was sitting at the table. Jane poured herself more coffee and then sat down at the table across from Sarah to add the right amounts of sugar and creamer.
"He always does, every year," Sarah said, shaking her head. Her voice turned a little more serious then, and she said, "It's like, he tries to make up for the things that are broken in our family by going all out for Christmas…" Sarah had a far-away look in her eyes for a minute, then looked back at Jane and smiled. "It doesn't hurt anyone, so who am I to object? It makes him happy."
Jane just nodded, thinking that the more she got to know Kurt, the more that made sense. At that moment, he reappeared in the kitchen, wearing a sweatshirt over his pajamas and holding the one of his that she liked so much, that she'd had on the day before. He handed it to her without a word, and she smiled back at him for this thoughtfulness, slipping it over her head and feeling much warmer already – both from the sweatshirt and the thought that had made him bring it to her.
"Thanks," she said, taking another sip of her coffee.
"Let's go, you guys!" Sawyer called from the living room, and the three adults all smiled.
"We're lucky he's lasted this long, really," Sarah said as she stood up and moved in that direction. Kurt had poured himself more coffee, and walked over to the table just as Jane stood up.
"Ready for the extravaganza?" he asked quietly as he stepped behind her and leaned his face close to hers.
"I don't know," she replied, leaning her cheek gently against his. "Is that possible?"
"Probably not," he said, after pretending to give it some thought. "But let's get in there anyway."
They walked close together into the living room, heading toward the spot in front of the fireplace where they'd sat the night before by silent agreement, settling themselves on the floor with their backs to the fire that Sarah had already started there. Sitting with the warmth of the fire behind her and the warmth she felt inside from Kurt's proximity, she sipped her coffee and looked at all of the lights on the Christmas tree. Watching as Sawyer played the role of "elf," reading the labels on presents and distributing one to each of the other three, she got lost in her thoughts as they opened in order from youngest to oldest, as their family tradition dictated.
Jane just smiled, soaking in the scene. There was something magical about that exact place at that exact moment. Even two days ago, anything faintly like this would have seemed impossible. And yet, it was all real.
She was pulled from her thoughts as Kurt nudged her with his shoulder. "Our turn," he said. Of course, the present was for him – something from Sarah – but the fact that he was trying to include her was more than enough for her. Our turn. Her smile was genuine as she leaned a little closer to him and watched to see what he was about to unwrap.
I think I like Christmas, she thought, allowing the glow of happiness to reach through her entire body without stopping to overthink it. I could get used to this.