Reid could tell that Jamie was exhausted by the time they arrived home at almost three that morning. He helped Jamie to her room so she could put on something more comfortable than jeans, a tank top, and his jacket. Then he went to his own room so that he could think. Shouldn't having powers have made life simpler somehow? Then why was everything so damn confusing all the time?
Jamie appeared in Reid's doorway a few minutes later looking much cozier in her flannel pajama pants, her white pajama tank top, and her hot pink bunny slippers. "Reid, we need to talk."
Jamie had spent weeks attempting to coerce Reid to speak to her. He had always had a good excuse to blow her off. But when Jamie finally had Reid's attention and could finally say everything she had spent the last few weeks thinking up, the words wouldn't come out anymore. Suddenly everything she had wanted to tell him seemed so wrong.
Jamie was no longer with Aaron. He wasn't the problem anymore. Besides, after catching Aaron in the act, she understood exactly what Reid had been telling her all along.
Reid scooted to the side of his bed and pulled back the covers for Jamie to climb under them. Jamie did just that and lay with her head on Reid's shoulder.
"I want us to be okay again," Jamie said. "I can't stand this rift between us anymore. I need for us to go back to the way we used to be."
"I don't think I can do that Jamie. Things will never be the same between us again," Reid admitted softly. He had known this conversation had been coming for weeks. He hadn't realized until earlier that night, before he had found Jamie lying in the woods behind the school, what exactly he had wanted to tell Jamie. But Reid, being the not-so-smooth talker he was, had fumbled the words and everything had come out all wrong.
Jamie sat up and looked Reid in the eyes through her own tear-filled ones. She needed answers, something. She needed Reid. But his face, his eyes, his expression, they gave away nothing.
Reid sat up to meet Jamie's gaze, to ease her fears, to explain what he had actually meant to say before he fucked it all up. "It made me crazy these last few weeks. I couldn't stand to see you with Aaron because I couldn't stand to see you with anyone who wasn't me.
"I missed you so much these last few years. When you moved to Miami, I felt like a part of me had left too. I missed you so much it hurt. But I managed to burry the pain under my friends and sex and alcohol and parties and everything else in my life. At least, I did until I saw you kiss Aaron at school that day. That was a hurt that I had never felt before.
"Jamie, I think I'm in love with you."
"No."
That hadn't been quite the response Reid had been hoping for.
The tears began to roll down Jamie's cheeks. "Don't say that you love me Reid Garwin. I don't want you to break my heart. I couldn't survive if you broke my heart. And if you say that—that you love me—if you say it now because we both know something horrible is about to happen that we may or may not be around to see end, if we win this thing—if we survive—and it isn't true, my heart will break into so many pieces that I won't be able to fix it again."
"Jamie, that isn't it at all. You don't have to worry about anything, not as far as Chase is concerned. Nothing else bad is going to happen to you. I promise. No matter what, I'll be there. I'll protect you. I really do love you. I'm not saying this because I think we're about to die. This is me. I'm not good at sensitive shit like that," Reid teased.
"You mean it? Because I can't let my heart break again." Jamie needed to ask, to hear Reid say it himself. But she could tell in his voice and in his eyes, that this was the real deal. Reid Garwin was finally admitting that he was in love with her.
"I mean every damn word," Reid promised. He wiped at Jamie's tears and pushed a strand of hair behind her ear.
Then, like two attracted magnets—or a scene out of a corny teen flick—their lips locked in the first of many long, passionate kisses that they would share that morning. At last, just as the sun was peeking silently above the horizon, Jamie and Reid fell asleep in each others' arms.