Disclaimer: I don't own CBS's "Zoo." Everything belongs to whoever owns them, my wishful thinking aside.

Authors Note #1: Inspired by a combination of two prompts: "Soulmate au where when you write something on your skin with pen/marker/whatever the hell you want, it will show up on your soul mates skin as well." & "what if tattoos just randomly appeared on our skin at key points in our lives and we had to figure out what they meant for ourselves."– Spans all of season one until 2x01 where it is au and Jamie is found safe with the Leopard instead of her tramping off to the frozen north like a beautiful idiot.

Warnings: soulmate au, soulmates, adult language, canon appropriate violence, mild sexual content, follows pre-season one – canon season one until the scene where the group had to leave without Jamie at the wood's house.

Chrysalism

Chapter Eleven

"Mitch? Mitch, can you hear me? It's me. It's Jamie."

"No, it isn't."

"Jamie's dead."

"Who? Who is this? You-you don't even sound like her."

"Okay, are you gonna stop being an ass for a second and listen to me? It is me. I am alive, and- and I'm really glad you are too."

"It really is you."

"It's really good to hear your voice."

"It's really good to hear yours too."


He was so high on it, on finding out Jamie was alive – on actually speaking to her and nearly deafening Chloe when she picked up the phone afterwards - that he nearly missed the tell-tale tingling that rippled across his inner arm.

"Hello?"

He almost fell over. Ripping up his sleeve to bare the words that were spreading, just like they had a hundred times before. Familiar and crushing all at the same time as a swelling wave of- something threatened to come crashing down on him.

What-

How-

"I know you've probably been trying to reach me. Sorry. God, I'm so sorry. I probably don't want to know what you thought happened. I promise it wasn't on purpose. I would never have left it that way. But I was- hurt. Then I got sick, an infection. I was in and out and the guy that saved me- he didn't speak English. I just got well enough to start getting out of bed and he brought me a satellite phone and I called him. The guy I was working with? The one I-"

She broke off and he finally remembered how to breathe. Shuddering as his phone started vibrating across the table. Chloe again. She was sending him the address to meet them downtown. Just like she said she would before they'd hung up. Everything about him felt slack – shock loose and unpleasantly electric as his go-bag quietly slipped off the chair beside him. But he barely registered the sound. Instead, the little hairs on the back of his neck were prickling as a rush of awareness – new and untested – threatened to change everything.

Because that was the thing, wasn't it?

How long until a coincidence wasn't a coincidence anymore?

How long until all those dangerous little thoughts get too loud to ignore?

"You know everything that's been happening on the news? We can fix it. The guy I called, he can fix it. He's coming to get me and we are going to stop all of this."

He wobbled in place, unsteady and breakable. Because this whole thing was starting to intermingle with a whole bunch of other thoughts. Ones that had been digesting privately – cautiously – simmering silent in the wings because they were that kind of crazy and the truth was he didn't do this anymore. He didn't let his theories out until they were fully baked. He'd been burned for it in the past and once was more than enough – thank you very fucking much.

But this was different.

It was her and that meant the stakes were that much higher.

He'd been barely coping before all this.

Not even really coping, honestly.

More like just existing.

He didn't know if he could handle it if he was wrong, if-

"I know you're probably pissed at me, I don't blame you. But I'm okay. And everything is going to be fine now. We've got this. I'll find you someday- somehow. But for now, he's where I need to be. Where I want to be… I called him first. I didn't even think about it. That has to mean something. Doesn't it? It does. I know it now. I'm sorry, but-"

Oh god.

His breathing was ragged, devolving and piece-meal as he clutched at the searing warmth spreading across his skin. It was so similar to the first time that he almost choked on the memory. Blinking back the sting of his own tears. Overwhelmed as the unsteady truth hummed through him.

It couldn't be-

Could it?

Only thing was, part of him knew.

Part of him had known it for a while now.

Because the words on his skin and the one's he'd heard on the phone today were the same.

There was no difference.

He'd found her.

He'd finally found her.

Nothing else made sense.


He collapsed more than sat in the first cab he was able to flag down outside the bar. One hand cradling firm around the span of skin that'd held the words. Anchoring himself to that – to her - while everything else spun out. Finally connecting the dots that stretched all the way back. Back before they'd even-

She'd called him first.

Jamie.

The realization felt a whole lot like he'd gotten tossed around in an out of control plane all over again. Enough that the taxi driver kept glancing at him in the rear-view mirror like he wanted to say something. He didn't know if it was the expression on his face or the set of his silence as he slammed the lid on the box in his mind where he kept her and pocketed the key.

He didn't say it.

He couldn't believe it.

Not yet.

If he did it would make it real.

Possible.

Real enough that it could be taken away from him.

Real enough that he could lose it.

Lose it all over again.

His tongue curled in his mouth, shell-shocked and a hair away from biting down when the cab screeched to a stop in front of a non-descript government building. Ignoring the relieved dart of eyes from the driver when his card paid for the fare and a barely passable tip. Looking happy to be rid of him as he stepped onto the curb and stuffed his hands in his pockets.

As for the rest of that thought and all it's baggage-

Well, he was kind of refusing to think about it to be honest.


It wasn't until they were on the boat that he let himself answer.

And when he did, it was only two words.

"I'm coming."


He was less surprised than he figured he should be when the words he wrote down stayed there without even so much as a hitch. Flowing across his arm just like they used to as he felt something significant settle low and warm in the center of his chest. Something that forced its way in. Budging in beside the resting the pessimism and anxiety and made itself a home there.

Hold on, Jamie.

Hold on.


"We can't leave her here, okay?"

"We can come back - and find Jamie!"

"No, no, no. I'm not- I'm not leaving! You don't understand! She's mine- she's- I'm not leaving!"

He must have looked fucking crazy. Sitting there on the ground, ripping off his jacket and sleeves. Anything and everything that might have gotten in the way as he fumbled with his pen. Dropping it once, twice, then again as the animals started to close in. Ripping his gloves off with his teeth as Abraham and some faceless marine tried to hook him under the armpits and drag him away.

He lashed out- just as dangerous as the bear roaring in the trees. Buying himself some time as he pressed down so hard he drew blood. He barely felt the sting as it started to well up, getting muddled with the words as he scribbled feverishly. Pushing everything else back as Jackson yelled and the fleshy pwack-pwack of a tranq-gun added another layer to the rapidly devolving situation.

"Come back now. Helicopter. NOW."

She was here.

Close.

He could feel it.

His arm was burning with phantom words.

Like knowing she was his had opened the dam somehow.

"Mitch- we have to! We aren't going to last much longer! We'll come back! Just-"

His eyes flew to the clearing ridge.

She was afraid.

They were hunting her.

They couldn't leave.

Not now.

Not when they were so close.

He bit off a mangled sound when Abraham wrenched him up right. Pen flying out of his hand and disappearing into the snowy grass as the rest of the world suddenly filtered back. Deafening him with the violent churn of whipping helicopter blades and the half-dozen marines trying to clear a path back to it.

"What the hell are you doing?!"

"I'm not leaving without you! We'll come back for her, Mitch- Chloe will-"

A rattling snarl issued close at their backs. Making Abraham shy away, loosening his hold just enough that he could flail free. Wrenching himself away only to land right in the path of two very determined looking marines that didn't look like they took the word "no" for an answer to anything.

"I'm not leaving! Get your hands off me! Jamie!"


It didn't end this way.

It couldn't.

Not when he'd finally figured it all out.

Not when-


He'd been stuffed into the helicopter by force. Cursing and yelling and half drowned in a sea of military uniforms and Abraham's solid bulk. But somehow he still managed to see her when she tripped over the ridge on the opposite side of the clearing and started running. Making a bee-line for the helicopter as a blast of wind reverberated through the spinning blades. Kicking up dust and dead grass as the difference in temperature threatened to fog his glasses.

His arm burned.

"Jamie!"

This time when he yelled, the world parted. Fracturing enough to spit her back up against as she scrambled through the long grass - limping. Long hair flying behind her like a banner as she looked over her shoulder, expression too far away to see as a large bison cleared the ridge seconds after her. Bearing down on her with a terrible sound. Billowing steam out of it's nostrils as the closest marine lit up his radio like the fourth of July.

"Target two sighted! GO! GO! GO!"

"Bring it down!"

His throat was thick. A suffocating mess of cresting fear and longing as he watched the only thing in his life that made sense run for it. Not able to do anything about it as he clutched his arm and hissed as the burning sensation flared into a heart-wrenching sear.

A pack of wolves poured over the side of the ridge. Spilling out across the grass as the group flanked her. Working together as the Buffalo continued its charge. Spear-heading the group as the bear – or maybe there was two of them – roared just behind the tree-line.

"Mitch! Don't-"

He squirmed out of the seat-belt and half-fell out of the cockpit. Ignoring the grabbing hands and angry faces as he pushed through the crowd marines. Standing there in the open as the tranq-guns spat darts all around her. Missing her by inches as the impact of the buffalo stumbling, then falling – thick hide peppered with darts - jarred through sinew and bone.

"Mitch!"

"Jamie!"

He was right there to catch her when she cleared the last rise and fell into him. Collapsing into his chest as he scooped her up and let the swarm of guns and people swallow them. Half-falling to his knees as the tug in his chest solidified into something wholesome and strong. Something that'd proved itself the world over and was now his – theirs – to keep for their very own.

"Mitch!"

The impact was catharsis. Feeling her small hands clench and pull. Fisting themselves tightly in the open flare of his jacket and across his chest. Grabbing at everything she could reach until her fingers curled around the inner of his arm. Looking up at him through the tangle of her hair as her eyes glinted - welling up with happy, overwhelmed tears. Telling him everything he needed to know and more.

"You're here. You're really here… You. It's was you all along! How did you- I-"

"I'm always here," he muttered, holding her fiercely as they were dragged into the helicopter. Barely registering the hands that pulled them in – Abraham and Jackson ebbing and flowing around them like a tide – as he mouthed the rest into her hair. Feeling her shudder through the same as their arms – the same ones they'd used to talk to each other all this time – tingled pleasantly every time they nudged together. "I'll always be here."

Both exalted and crippled with it when he realized that for the first time in his entire life it was actually true.


A/N: Thank you for reading, please let me know what you think. – There will be one more chapter, stay tuned.