It is recommended that you the last two installments of "Time Frame" before beginning this fic. Note that "Time Frame" is a sequel collection of one-shots to "Timeline" and that this fic directly stems off a one-shot in "Time Frame."

Welcome Home
Present Day - - Washington D.C.

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A loud clatter sounded from the other side of the door, the sharp sound vibrating through the cramped space of the tiny apartment. Deep in his slumber and still half dressed from waiting for his beautiful...something to come home, the 30-year-old Australian native bolted out of his sleep with wide eyes and a partially violent gasp like he'd just been falling in his sleep. Not a moment later a hushed curse just barely sounded from the door, and the man let out the breath he hadn't known he was holding. She was home.

"Shit," the young woman cursed much louder than she had intended as she glanced down at her mess. Her tanned legs and feet looked like they'd been bathed in lucky charms and 2% milk.

"Fan-fucking-tastic." The brunette woman swore under her breath as she carefully tiptoed over the shattered chunks of cheap white glass in the middle of the linoleum floor. She turned back to the mess when she'd successfully dodged the minefield of toe-killing obstacles and let out an over exaggerated, loud, and particularly disgruntling grumble.

She was tired, her bones were aching, her head was throbbing, their was a shrill ringing in her right ear and even the most minimal movement or twitch sent a searing hot, almost acidic pain to her left side. The young woman clutched her side again, her brown eyes shutting tightly, breath caught in her throat and bottom lip dropping for a moment as she gasped. Distracted by the catastrophic end to her attempted late night dinner mixed with that intense jab at her side, the young woman didn't hear the bedroom door silently turn open or the series of near-silent footsteps behind her.

"Forget it," she grumbled much lower this time, talking to herself in annoyance over the entire turn of events. She had been hungry, but after the day she had endured, flying in a day early with a three-day-old fractured rib, a horrific set of bruises, and this agonizing ache that wouldn't go away, she decided it just wasn't worth it.

From the other side of the room, Benjamin Ryan watched the young woman before him grumble lightly to herself and assess the situation. He knew he probably should announce his presence to her, feeling silently mischievous spying on her like this, but having never known Jamie Anderson to be a person easily surprised, he took his one chance to catch her off guard.

She was stunning. It wasn't even that Jamie Elizabeth Anderson was this overtly beautiful and put together woman that society made out to be as the "it" girl. Her hair was a mess, the tumbling, loose half curls falling sloppily out of her old and twisted band in her barely shoulder-length brown hair. She didn't wear any makeup, much like she rarely had on more that some liner and mascara. Her feet were bare, a dark and ugly bruise slithering up her left ankle. Ben's eyes traced the blotches of purple and grey, starting at her ankle, up her leg in two places, the side of her knee, and darkening as it progressed up her thigh. Her swallowed a little more thickly when the bruise disappeared under the dark blue of her panties and the man finally registered what she was wearing.

With neither shoes nor socks, her small feet were bare, one foot balancing its weight at the ball, the other flat on a clear tile of flooring. She wasn't wearing any pants, and only when she reached over or up did her top raise enough for him to catch a glimpse of the navy blue of her panties. His eyes traveled up further and a smile sprouted. The thin, loose cotton of his over sized t-shirt hung loose on her body, the large neck swinging off one bare shoulder and draping softly over her small breasts. Somehow, there was something so unmistakably breathtaking about her current presence and attire.

"So you sneak in and steal my shirt?" The instant his groggy voice arose Jamie nearly jumped out of her skin in startle. There was an immediate gasp that erupted from her lips and her hand instantly flew to her side, successfully catching Ben's attention as she cringed.

"You're hurt," it wasn't a question, the tone of concern making the man's accent ever more prominent. Jamie would have regularly torn down such a comment that insinuated any weakness of hers, but in this moment she was so sore, aching, and just downright exhausted, she didn't even comment. She wanted to be home.

Ben took two long strides forward, one eye carefully accessing the mess of cereal, milk, and glass in the middle of the small kitchen but not bothering to comment. He reached out one long arm, and Jamie was slow but steady as she reached out herself and let him pull her much smaller body into his. She didn't know she had been holding her breath until her body met with his and his strong arms came around her aching body, but the moment it did, and she let out the much pent up breath of air in her lungs, letting her body's weight sink into her hold and release all that stress, discomfort, and aching feelings of homesickness she'd been battling with since she'd left.

"I've missed you," she finally trusted herself to whisper out after a moment of silence. Her eyes were closed, face pressing farther into his warm chest as he tightened his hold but she somehow knew he was smiling. She breathed in his smell with restful closed eyes and finally after days of discomfort, smiled as well.

"I tried to wait for you," his whisper was the first sound to disturb the young woman already in the beginning stages of drifting off in his arms.

"Since I wasn't supposed to get in until tomorrow I had to stay under the radar." Ben glanced down at the source of the low and sleepy voice, and upon seeing Jamie's closed eyes and her breathing start to slow and even out he made the executive decision that it was time to bring her to bed. Without another word, the man began to lightly pull her along towards her bedroom. Jamie never protested, her small feet slowly stumbling alongside his, eyes barely opening past a crack, muscles and joints feeling like they could collapse and fall asleep right there in the middle of the floor.

Once in the room, Ben slowly helped her sit in bed, her shorter, sun kissed legs dangling off the side. Jamie watched him slightly in confusion but never once made a sound of question or protest as he disappeared into the bathroom for a moment and re-emerged a moment later with a wet towel. She smiled sleepily as she let her eyes close when her touched her sore feet with the cool, wet towel, wiping off the residue of her failed dinner attempt.

Somewhere in the soothing circles her made on her skin she must have drifted further into sleep that she expected because the next moment she fluttered her lids to peer out in the room all the lights were already off, her legs had been tucked in warmly under the blankets with only her feet hanging out the end the way she liked it. The mattress shifted and she smiled through closed lids as Ben brought himself up next to her under the blanket. She didn't even ask for permission; as he laid back himself to find some rest again she didn't hesitate to bring her sore body closer to his and silently as always rest her head against his chest. There was a moment of silence in which the only sounds that filled the room were two Breathing patterns beginning to even out into a slow rhythm and a soft medley of city noises as the early birds of the work force began to begin their early morning rituals outside the small apartments walls.

"Ben?" Her voice came out as a whisper, low and laced with a dream-like quality as she struggled not to let slumber completely envelope her.

"Hmm," he only made a small sound in response but the smooth circles he was starting to draw on her back with his outstretched arm gave away that he wasn't quite dreaming yet.

"I've missed you." It was three words she had already told him since her return, but something about the way she slipped the small sentence off her sleepy lips told the man beside her that she wasn't just referring to her latest trip.

"I spent a lot of time missing you Jamie."

Her breath came out more focused and emphasized under the weight of his words, but she didn't respond. There was a promise in his words, and even though he didn't speak them, her mind and heart together knew he was both reminding her of the offer he made just before her trip and a promise he'd made years ago before all the chaos in her life had begun spiraling into a dark and twisted path. Moments started slowly passing like the light ticking of a clock. Neither of the entangled pair responded for some time and once again their breathing began to slow and even out. Jamie was just beginning to sink into a deep slumber when Ben finally spoke again.

"Do you remember when we met?"

Her lips turned into a smile for once in too long a time and she breathed in deeply through her nose, trying to inhale as much of his warm scent as possible as she thought about that one mission that changed her more than any other.

Author's Note:

Hello my ducklings! Its been a while since I've posted, but Covert Affairs being out of season for months now (why is July so far away?) I really needed to get back to writing. Unfortunately I seem to have hit a dry spell with my Walkerson fiction, so I decided to revisit something I had started and never posted in hopes it'll get me writing.

Basically, this fic will give you the backstory of Jamie's story of how she met her Ben and everything that led up to the one-shot in my Time Frame series also titled "Jamie's Rules." There will not be a lot of Auggie and Annie in here initially, but I will be referencing them often and hopefully you'll catch bits and pieces of both their character in Jamie. She has both good parts, and bad parts of both her parents.

Okay, that's enough for now. Leave me love!

- Liz