"So explain the dynamic here to me again," Jane says, fingers running through her tangled hair.

It's been about two hours since he'd shown up with soup and Mucinex, both of which she had been in dire need of all afternoon. When he left this morning, he'd said he'd bring them by during lunch, but ended up getting roped into something that required his full attention and spent about thirty minutes apologizing and fussing over her afterwards.

Somehow, he managed to leave work early and get back to her before 4:00. She has reason to believe it was probably by throwing some sort of fit that got Abbott to dismiss him rather than deal with his moodiness, and under normal circumstances, she might feel the need to reprimand him for this, but these are not normal circumstances.

She's sick. Like actually, really sick for the first time in a decade probably. And she'd never admit it to anyone, of course, but she actually doesn't mind him fussing over her. In fact, she quite enjoys it. It's his fault she's sick, after all. And if she's going to have to stay home from work for the next couple of days because of it, the least he can do is take a little time off to keep her company and take care of her.

After he'd made sure she had dinner and taken her medicine, she had pulled him onto the couch and gotten herself settled between his legs with her head resting against his chest and a blanket tucked under her chin. Now, she's paused the fifth episode of Stranger Things for the third time to try and explain to him exactly what's happening.

She can tell by the look on his face when she glances over her shoulder at him that he's trying very hard to comprehend and compartmentalize all the information she's giving him but struggling spectacularly. It's the same way he would look at Grace when she'd try to explain computers to him.

"Are you sure you don't just want to put on Friends or something instead?" Lisbon asks him after a moment, feeling bad.

While Jane is not particularly entertained by mind-numbing sitcoms, he at least understands them. He even admitted to enjoying them when they watch TV together because he gets to see her laugh without "all the trouble" of eliciting it himself.

"I'm fine," he assures her. "I want you to finish your show."

"It's not like I don't have another full day of free time to watch it tomorrow," she adds a little bitterly.

"I really am sorry I got you sick," he mumbles.

"I don't actually blame you, you know," she assures him. "I was just kidding around."

"I know," he replies, though not very convincingly.

"Jane," she sighs, slouching down and leaning a little so she can look at him. "It's not your fault I'm sick, okay? I was the one who suggested you come back here to sleep it off, remember?"

"Yeah. I know. I'm not…" he trails off, shakes his head a little, then gives her a genuine smile. "Thank you for taking care of me."

She smiles back at him, "My pleasure. And might I add, you're doing a pretty decent job of returning the favor."

"Nowhere I'd rather be," he kisses her cheek softly and she snuggles farther into him.

"Once this episode is over, we can change it," she says as she presses play.

"You know, you've gotten very invested in this for someone who claims not to care about TV shows," he points out, his left hand sliding underneath the back of her t-shirt and scratching lightly.

It's true that she's never been a huge television watcher. Most of her life she's been so busy that she just simply didn't have the time. The last twelve years or so, he was a big part of that. Any free time she had was usually interrupted by his scheming and insistent phone calls and desperate need to drag her out for ice cream at 9:00 on a weeknight.

Lately, though, she's started watching TV more. One of the big things Jane had asked from her when they first started this relationship was that she learn to be a little more flexible with the work-life balance. Even if they did spend pretty much every hour of the day together, he didn't want all of that time to be on the clock. He wanted to actually have time for just the two of them. She'd agreed, of course, but thought at the time it would be fairly difficult to manage. It wasn't like she was completely in control of her work schedule, after all.

As it turns out, though, a lot of her workaholic tendencies which had kept her at the office before seemed to gradually fade away. She realized that she actually enjoys spending time at home with him more than anything else, and that probably the biggest factor in her always being busy with work was that she had wanted to be.

She still loves her job, and it is a bit more demanding than most, but she thinks that straightening out her priorities has led her to becoming much more adamant about not letting it take over her entire life. Her number one priority is Jane, and Jane is much happier when he's snuggled on the couch with her watching some show he does not understand than he is doing all of the things he does at work which she thought used to bring him sincere joy. Apparently, she hadn't really known a joyful Jane until that very important night in Miami. Ever since then, she's noticed that he is his happiest when it's just the two of them: no work, no distractions, just this.

So rather than becoming a sacrifice, the work-life balance has been one of the easiest changes she's had to make since they got together. Long days with lots of paperwork have started to feel particularly grueling rather than productive, and 5:00 PM on Fridays has become one of her favorite parts of the week because it means that barring any substantial incident, she gets two days of uninterrupted Jane time.

In the beginning, she had worried a bit that they'd run out of things to do and talk about. They don't exactly have many hobbies in common, and they had spent the better part of a decade learning everything there is to know about a person. She's never actually had a relationship that lasted long enough to get to the boring stage, so she felt incredibly ill-equipped to deal with it if that's what this came to, but she really needn't have worried.

There were many things about Jane that might be considered less than appealing qualities, but boring was never one of them. She should've expected that being in a relationship with him would be the same. Though it's only been a few months now, she's pretty confident saying that she will never grow bored with him. She hasn't in all the years she's known him, and being his girlfriend has only added another layer of exciting possibilities to explore.

It's not as if he takes her on some grand excursions or anything like that. Most of the time they spend their weekends doing typical, everyday things. But just being able to experience those things with him has given them a whole new meaning. He's even somehow managed to turn grocery shopping from a monotonous necessity to a fun little adventure.

They invite Cho to hang out with them sometimes, for dinner or a movie or to a bar they like that has table games and darts. Cho is the rare exception with whom Jane is perfectly content to share their personal time (within reason, of course). She imagines this is at least partially due to the fact that she allows him to kiss her in front of Cho—something she very strictly does not allow with the rest of their colleagues. But it isn't just that. It's also the fact that Jane feels similarly to herself when Cho is around: which is to say, a little more like home.

Cho doesn't seem to mind being a third wheel or anything, and Lisbon thinks he enjoys the company more than he lets on every now and then. At the very least, he is a much more worthy opponent at foosball than Jane.

When Cho comes over, they alternate between true crime and James Bond films. They tried Jurassic Park once, but Jane wouldn't shut up about how stupid the characters were being, so they haven't returned to that one since. They eat Chinese takeout together on the couch and typically spend more time laughing at each other's commentary on the movie than paying attention to the plot.

It's an interesting sort of feeling she has when they spend time together like this. It's not nostalgia, exactly. The dynamic isn't the same as it was at the CBI, and even if was, it's not as though they'd spent a tremendous amount of time together just hanging out back then. They'd gone for drinks together on the weekends or had meals together on federal holidays and spent many sleepless nights in the office or on stakeouts, of course. But even in the times when work was completely out of the equation, there was a sort of fog that encompassed them all.

The shadow of Red John and the intensity of what they were taking on together had grown heavier with each passing year, coincidentally bringing them closer together in some ways and driving them further apart in others. Most days, she felt like they were all she had in the world, but some days she felt as though they were complete strangers, known only because they existed in such proximity to her. If it had been the other way around, if mostly they had been strangers, maybe she wouldn't have fallen apart so quickly when they'd gone their separate ways.

But she had, and things had been horrible, despite how she might've made it seem to Jane when he first returned. She suspects he was quite aware of all that then, but thankfully he'd never brought it up. Perhaps, she thinks, that's another reason why he is typically so eager to invite Cho along with them. Because he knows how lonely she'd been those two years, and how happy she is now to have both of them so close to her again.

She loves having Cho around, truly, but she also loves having Jane to herself too. It isn't just him that's at his happiest when they're alone. She finds that she is most herself when it's only the two of them. There are no expectations to meet or emotions to hide. There is only Jane and his unconditional love and infectious laugh and near-incessant kisses. She has all of that all the time anyways, but she has it in isolation, at its most effective, curled on the couch every Tuesday night watching This Is Us with a bowl of fresh berries.

They'd watched the pilot almost entirely by accident. They had actually been in the middle of watching something else on another channel, something they really couldn't care less about, but which at that stage of their relationship had mainly been being used as a lead-in to a make out session on the couch.

Jane was in the process of transitioning them into a horizontal position, his hands too busy groping her under her shirt to notice where he was going, and suddenly she'd found herself being jabbed in the ribs by the remote. She'd jumped, causing Jane to push away from her, muttering an apology while she snorted a little at the incident and glanced over at television, which inadvertently had been changed to another channel. She didn't think much about pausing to change it back, seeing as it really didn't matter, and was content to let Jane get right back to what he was doing, except just as he leaned down to kiss her again, something on the TV caught her attention.

"Hey!" she said, his lips meeting the corner of her mouth as she turned her face a bit. "That's the Gilmore Girls guy."

"The what?" Jane asked, looking slightly put out.

"The guy on TV," she explained, pointing towards it. "He used to be on Gilmore Girls."

"Oh," Jane nodded. "Okay."

And then he went back to kissing her without another word, this time pressing a series of open-mouthed kisses against her jaw and neck. His hands started sliding back under her shirt, and she gave in for a moment, still too new to the sensation of making out with Jane to be flippant about it, but her curiosity was getting the better of her.

It took Jane a minute or so to realize she wasn't exactly reacting the way she usually reacted when his lips reached that spot on her neck that she particularly enjoyed, but then he pushed himself off her again.

"Seriously?"

"What?" she asked innocently.

"Have you grown that bored with me already?"

She turned her attention away from the television and onto him, noticing his exasperation was genuine.

"I'm not bored with you," she assured him.

"Really? Because it sure seems like Gilmore Girls over there is doing a better job keeping your attention than I am."

She chuckled a little, "I'm sorry. I didn't mean for him to. It just caught me off guard, that's all."

She reached to pull his mouth back down to hers, but he wouldn't budge.

"Uh uh," Jane shook his head. "I'm not vying for your attention anymore. I know you, and you're not going to be satisfied until you figure out what this show is about."

"C'mon, Jane," she whined, doing her best attempt at a pout. "Give me a kiss."

"After you've watched enough."

She huffed, "Please?"

She arched her back a little and wiggled against him, hoping the movement would encourage him to believe she didn't care about the show, but he was not impressed.

"Come on," he said, pulling her up and into his lap. "Let's see what this guy and Mandy Moore have to offer, huh?"

She chose not to comment on the fact that he'd noticed it was Mandy Moore as he rewinded back to the beginning, choosing instead to focus on how best she could tempt him back into kissing her.

She had to give him credit because he made it until the first commercial break without caving. But then he'd lost anything else to focus on, and she'd gotten his shirt completely unbuttoned, so he really didn't have much of a choice but to give in.

Though the second the commercials ended, he was pulling away again, leaving her even more annoyed than before. Somehow, she didn't think this was still about her curiosity. She could tell he was getting invested in the plot, and while she would much rather he be invested in her, she knew there was no point in going to all that work again for another commercial break only to be left frustrated when it ended. So she gave in and tugged his arm around her, so that she could lace their fingers together across her stomach and force herself to be satisfied with it until the show was over.

She never imagined she'd actually end up enjoying it. Furthermore, she never imagined Jane would end up enjoying it.

"Huh," he said as they watched the credits flash at the bottom of the screen. "I have to say, I'm impressed."

"I was definitely not expecting that plot twist," she agreed.

"Honestly, me neither," he replied, his fingers running through her hair mindlessly.

"Now that is impressive," she observed, smiling.

She'd managed to get him back to kissing her shortly after that, but his fascination with the show didn't go away. He brought it up again later that night while they were lying in bed, and she laughed at him.

"You wanna see the next episode, don't you?"

"I really do," he said softly.

"Maybe we can watch it together," she suggested. "You know, once a week."

He smiled, "I'd like that very much."

"Good," she nodded. "It'll be our show then."

And then it was.

They haven't necessarily been able to stay on schedule with watching it when it comes on, but they always make sure to make time for it at some point. It becomes part of their routine. Just like lazy Sunday mornings and Saturday night dinner and the way they always brush their teeth at the same time—all the many things they have that are theirs together and the few that are theirs alone.

"I care about some TV shows," she tells him definitively.

"You sure you're not just too proud to admit you like cuddling on the couch?" he teases.

"I think that would be you, actually," she counters.

"Hey, I'm not too proud to admit that! I love cuddling on the couch. It's one of my favorite activities, in fact. There are few things I enjoy more than holding you on the couch."

"Fondling me, you mean."

"That too."

She rolls her eyes affectionately.

"We can watch another one after this if you want," he offers, his hand sliding around to rest on her stomach.

"You don't want to go to sleep? You have to get up early tomorrow."

"Eh," he shrugs. "I was thinking about taking the day off to stay here with you."

By which he means that he has already decided that he will not be attending work tomorrow.

"That's really not necessary," she argues, less because she think she will make a difference than because she wouldn't be herself if she didn't.

"I know it isn't, but I am allowed to take a personal day," he replies evenly, his hand now stroking lightly at the skin right under the waistband of her pants.

"You think Abbott is gonna let you miss work to cater to your sick girlfriend?" she laughs a little, squirming a bit when his fingers reach a ticklish spot.

"Sure," says Jane. "In fact, I'd even go so far as to say he'd rather that I did."

"I knew you did something stupid to get sent home early today."

"I did nothing of the sort."

"So you just spent the whole time worrying so much that you didn't get anything done?" she guesses.

"I might've done that."

She uses her own hand to still his by grabbing his wrist, then tips her head to look up at him sideways, "I really am okay, you know."

"I do," he allows. "But I like fussing over you."

She grins a little, despite herself, "I like you fussing over me."

"I know," he wiggles his eyebrows at her. "So fuss over you I shall."

"You really don't mind watching another episode?" she asks, tone equally hopeful and uncertain.

"You're calling the shots," he assures her, his hand returning to stroking her skin softly. "I'm just here to be your body pillow."

"You're a very nice body pillow,"she tells him with a smile.

"I'm glad," he smiles back.

She wants very badly in that moment to kiss him. It's been days since she's been able to do so. In fact, it's the longest she's gone without kissing him since they'd gotten together.

She'd banned him from kissing her once she realized he had a fever and then kept the ban in place when he transferred his cold to her. It had seemed like a good idea at the time, but she's beginning to regret it. While she had spent many, many years being able to suppress the urge to kiss him at any available opportunity, she is finding it to now be a nearly impossible task. Only a few months of being able to kiss him freely, and it was already second nature to her. She was, admittedly, a lost cause by this point.

"You can, you know," he says aloud, pulling her from her thoughts. She doesn't need to ask what he's talking about. It's clear he's read her perfectly.

"But what if I get you sick?" she frowns.

"Already had it."

"It's not chicken pox, Jane," she rolls her eyes. "It's a cold, and pretty bad one at that."

"Worth it."

"You think you're pretty smooth, huh?" she shakes her head at him, but she can feel herself smiling. "If you get sick again, I'm not gonna take care of you this time."

"Yes, you will," he retorts. "I'm irresistible to you when I'm helpless."

She rolls her eyes at that, "You've been pretty helpless ever since I first met you."

"Exactly," he winks.

And because she's exhausted, she doesn't have the brain power to come up with a smart remark back to that, so she gives into temptation kisses him instead.

Jane is quick to take the opportunity to deepen the kiss, and she, despite her better judgment, does not stop him from doing so. She has to keep herself from audibly sighing at the relief she feels now that her mouth is back on his. It's deeply disturbing how much she's needed this.

Before she starts to ponder the implications of that, she allows herself a handful of quick, close-lipped kisses and turns back around to face the TV. Jane's arms wrap around her ribcage and shift them both into a more upright position as she presses play on the remote.

When she wakes up in the middle of the night, she's still on the couch, halfway draped across Jane's body as he sleeps soundly with an arm slung securely around her waist.

She has no recollection of him having shifted them into a horizontal position. She must've been pretty out of it, she guesses. Briefly, she considers whether she ought to wake him and drag him to bed. But her entire body aches. And he looks so peaceful. And she's not feeling her chills as intensely as she was earlier due to the heat radiating off of his body.

So instead, she snuggles in close and presses a feather light kiss to the part of his jaw that's nearest to her lips. His grip on her tightens ever so slightly, though he doesn't stir, and before she knows it, she's drifting off again.