A/N: Just wanted to give a huge freaking shout out to all of the awesome people who are leaving me the great reviews. You're a total confidence boost with my writing! Y'all rock my socks! Keep 'em coming please!!!
It was almost one in the morning. Everyone was at the hospital: Tyler, Pogue, Reid, Pogue's parents and four-month-old baby brother, Reid's parents, Tyler's mom, Evelyn Danvers, Jamie, Kate, and Sarah. It didn't take long for Jamie to realize that the only people missing were her parents. Why did they have to be so…absent? But she was not going to think about them. They did not matter right then. There was too much else going on to sit and ponder why her parents could not handle parenthood. There was Caleb lying in a hospital bed not but a few feet away. There was the on-going concern of what the Covenant of Silence would be doing about Chase Collins. There was the fear that someone had seen Jamie or Caleb or even Chase using their powers in such public places. And there was the increasing pain in Jamie's head as she sat on an uncomfortable bench in the waiting room of the hospital.
"You look tired," Reid noted as he sat by her. Tyler had gone with his mom to get coffee and no one else seemed to be paying attention to them.
"So do you," Jamie retorted.
"You should try to get some sleep," Reid suggested. "Caleb won't be going anywhere tonight." Jamie let Reid place her head in his lap and begin to stroke her hair. She closed her eyes, but knew that she wouldn't be able to sleep, not that night. None of them would. There was too much to consider for any of them to get any sleep.
Jamie knew that she should be trying to decide whether or not anyone saw her and Chase fighting. She should be thinking about how they could get rid of Chase once and for all. She should be thinking about poor Caleb lying in the hospital room a few feet away. But Jamie couldn't think about any of those things. All Jamie could think about was how happy she was that Tyler was okay, and that Reid was once again speaking to her.
It had been weeks since she and Reid had fought in the courtyard at Spenser Academy. Her relationship with Reid hadn't been the same since then. But with everything that was happening, Jamie did not think that she could get through all of it without Reid at her side, right where he had always been. Whether either of them ever admitted it to the other, Jamie and Reid needed each other. They always had and they always would. They had an understanding about each other. They got each other. And not many people got either of them.
Jamie understood Reid's odd sense of humor and his vulnerability towards needing anyone other than himself. Reid understood Jamie's need for adventure and her need for security. They fit like pieces of a puzzle. They had become a part of one another of the years. Even if neither of them actually realized it.
Jamie heard Tyler and his mom, Olivia, walk back up to the group. "You should take Jamie home," Tyler told Reid.
Jamie opened her eyes slightly. "No. I'm okay," she assured her big brother.
"Jamie, it's been a long night. And you're hurt. You need to go home and get some sleep. Nothing else is going to happen tonight. And if we hear anything, I promise I'll call you," Tyler reasoned.
Jamie opened her mouth to protest, but Tyler stopped her. "For once, Jamie, please just listen to me. Okay? If nothing else, do it because I'm your big brother and I am begging you."
"Okay," Jamie agreed.
"I'll go pull the car around," Reid said as he got up and took Jamie's keys outside.
Tyler walked with Jamie to the door to wait on Reid. "You won't come home with us?" she asked him.
"No. I should be here to keep an eye on things. Besides, I think the two of you need some time alone." Tyler smiled, which surprised Jamie greatly. "It's obvious what's been going on between you two. But from the looks of it the two seem to have made up. I just, I think that you need time to talk everything out."
"Thank you," was all Jamie could think of to say to Tyler right then. Sure, she was a little embarrassed that her brother knew that she was totally crushing on his best friend, but she completely agreed: she and Reid needed to talk alone.