A little bit late - but Stripped Pride fits about here in the timeline.
(Though they do talk about Reade’s leave of absence as though they know he hasn’t quit, so there’s a tiny bit of timeline-tweaking there.)
This fic is pure crack, was written to @chibinoyume’s specifications, and is kind of OOC in Kurt’s case (because I think if they’d had this case in canon, he’d have let the women handle it if the alternative was wearing THAT outfit, and would have stayed with Rich in the van).
this fic will forever be the best thing since sliced bread and nobody will ever change my mind about it
Author’s Note: I couldn’t help it. I saw that ‘mutual pining’ trope artwork and had to turn it into Jeller mutually pining for each other while shopping for and decorating Christmas (pine) trees. I feel like I should apologise for the terrible pun… Anyway, this is @holidayblindspot day 28, set after 1x06 but before 1x09.
***
“Umm…Kurt?”
He turned down the radio, glancing over at her. “Something on your mind?”
Jane looked out at the stalled traffic around them, seeming a little hesitant, before focusing back on him. “Do you have a Christmas tree?”
Of all the things that Kurt had expected her to ask, this wasn’t one of them. “Usually I don’t bother, but since Sawyer’s living with me at the moment, I’ll be picking one up at some point soon. Why?”
“I was just wondering where you’d get one. It’s not like they have them at the minimart.”
Kurt attempted to hide his amusement. The things Jane knew, or didn’t know, sometimes surprised him. She could put together a sniper rifle without thinking about it, but buying a Christmas tree was foreign to her. “You want to come with me when I get mine? There’s a Christmas tree farm just outside the city. I was planning to take Sawyer this weekend.”
Kurt: All right, why does some gangster owe you a favour?
Jane: I’ve been all over the world in the past two years. I’ve come across all kinds of unsavoury characters.
Kurt: Come across how?
Jane: Look, we’ll talk about all of this, once Reade, Zapata and Patterson are safe. All right?
Kurt: Damn right, we’ll talk about it.
Jane: Sometimes you need to just let go of control.
Kurt: Really? What, did the monks up on that mountain tell you that?
Jane: No. They told me to go home.
Kurt: Smart monks.
Jane: Okay, look, this is where Rich thinks they’re being held, and it’s a pretty big compound, so we should be able to infiltrate it without being detected.
Kurt: And that also makes it very hard to find them in a short amount of time. Look, I know the team would have come up with an escape plan already. So whatever our plan is, let’s try not to jam each other up.
