This story is kind of an experiment. When I started to write I knew the end of it but had no idea how I would get there. So I just tried to let it run and… this is it. I thought it would be a oneshot but it somehow became more… I hope there will be some JamieWhump! in the end. As always, I'm very thankful for every kind of review.
PS: For those of you who are reading "Haunted", first: I'm working on the next chapter, and on getting the story back to more family scenes, and second: This could be seen – a bit – like an alternative ending. A very alternative one.
It started with a phone call. Jamie wasn't at his desk in time to pick up, and when he checked the ID he found none. A year ago it wouldn't have bothered him, but by now his number was deleted from every phone book. Whoever had called him had either stolen his number from someone he knew, or was someone he knew – but why then should he hide who he was?
Jamie decided not to call back in the end. He had an appointment with Maura Baker, detective Baker's younger sister, and he didn't want to be even more late on his first date in what seemed like ten years. Not that he'd have had time for dating recently. The youngest Reagan sighed as he closed his locker. It was good to finally be himself again – he had loved his work undercover but being a cop was all he had ever wanted. Being a cop, and being recognized as one. He was thankful not to be forced to hide it any longer.
His cell rang again, shorter now. Text message. "Sorry, ll be late for 10 mins. reeeaally looking forwar =)"
Jamie smiled. "Never mind, me too =)" he texted back, leaving it open if he meant the looking forward- part or the being late-part. Truth be told he meant both of it, and he was more than relieved that Maura wasn't mincing. Her father and her sister being a police officer she knew how shifts couldn't always be ended properly – and with herself being a midwife, she was in that position even more often.
As he left the station, Jamie had already forgotten about the caller.
The caller, however, had not forgotten. Following the young police officer was so much easier now than it had been when he had tried to hide his steps – and even then she had managed to keep pace with him. It was not really hard work to stay behind him now, driving around happy and mindless. She bit her lips not to cry. There was only one reason for a man to behave that way: when he was seeing a woman. Jamie Reagan was on his way to another girl, and she was left alone in the shadows to watch. Her fingers dug deep into the steering wheel but it was more out of a reflex than of disappointment. She had long stopped to be disappointed by him – it wasn't her job to judge him but to love him, and at the end of the day he would remember it. He would remember how she was the only one to ever really cherish and adore and understand him, and how every path would lead him to her. She could wait for that day.
If only it came soon…