After a short subway ride, Jamie and Reyan sit in silence in the back of their cab. Outside the snow is still falling heavily. Rey watches the flakes drift down in the light of the streetlights, thinking over the events of the past two days. Yesterday - it was really only yesterday - she had been walking to work under a warm, sunny sky. Now she was on the other side of the country, watching the snow like it was magic.

On the other side of the car, Jamie watches the streets pass without seeing them. The sound of the gunshot keeps echoing through his mind. The warmth of Eddie's blood seems to linger on his hands. He can still smell her perfume; light, like the spring. Her eyes, their clear blue clouded with pain, are still loooking up at him in his mind's eye. They beg him to help. 'I can't,' he whispers, 'I'm sorry.' Her bloody hands are still clutching his as they're loaded into the ambulance. The last thing she said to him sticks with him. 'Jamie...' she'd managed to say. She was drifting out of consciousness fast, then, the blood still pouring. '...don't go.'

"Your stop?" the cab driver asks, drawing them both back to the present.

"Oh, yeah... Here," Jamie says, checking the meter. "Thank you. Have a nice night."

"The same to the both of you," the man replies with a courteous smile.

Rey slides out of the car following Jamie. She looks up at the building apprehensively, shivering in the cold. "I can't believe you live all the way in Brooklyn," she finally says.

"It's cheaper," Jamie shrugs. "Listen, you can wait in the lobby if you want. I'll only be a few minutes. I just need to grab a change of clothes and a few other things, then we're good. I'll bring you a better coat when I come back, too. Alright?"

"We're not staying?" Rey asks, tilting her head.

"No, I thought I'd get my stuff and we could stay at Eddie's for the night. Closer to the hospital, y'know."

"You have a key to her place? Aww, Jamie, that's so cute!" Rey teases. She can't help it, they always make it so easy.

"Shut up," Jamie blushes. "You remind me of my brothers, you know that?"

"Good. If I can't embarrass Eddie, I might as well do it to you. Anyway, why are you still standing here? I'd like to get back to Manhattan sometime today, Jamie."

"I'm going, I'm going! It'll take me ten minutes tops, I swear."

"Time starts now, Reagan," Rey taps her watch.

"Here we are," Jamie sighs, pocketing Eddie's key.

"It's actually exactly how I remember it," Rey laughs, "Eddie doesn't change much anymore."

"If you don't mind, I'm gonna shower and change. I figured you'd be hungry, and I'm sure there's no shortage of food in this place."

"Yeah," Rey muses, making her way into the kitchen. She opens cabinets until she find what she wants: a box of saltine crackers. Catching Jamie's confused look, she glares. "It's called comfort food, okay?"

"That's disgusting."

"What's disgusting is that you don't like olives. Or that Eddie doesn't like tomatoes."

"I'm allergic to olives, thanks. Are you one of those people who'll eat anything vaguely edible?"

"No," Rey says around a mouthful of saltines, "I'm just judgemental."

"Hey, I mean, at least you admit it," Jamie shrugs. "Enjoy your crackers."

"Jamie!" Rey calls as he retreats down the hallway, "I'm sleeping on the couch."

"You are not."

"Yes, I am. I called it first, you can't just take it!"

"God, you are so weird!" Jamie shouts back over the sound of the bathroom fan.

line break

Rey stands when Jamie comes out of his shower, hair dripping into his eyes. For the first timesince she's met him, his clothes are clean. "You clean up nice, Reagan," she smirks. "If I squint I think I might be able to see whatever it is that Eddie sees in you."

"Oh wow, thanks."

"You're welcome. You see this?" Rey sweeps one arm over the couch. "This is my bed. Don't touch it. You can sit in a chair, like a civilized person. If you want something to get your mind of all this, Remember the Titans is on. Thanks for listening, I'll be taking my own shower now."

Carefully, Jamie sits in a chair. He manages to watch almost five minutes of the movie before drifting off once again. Here in Eddie's apartment it almost feels like she's with him. The whole place smells just slightly of that flowery perfume. He breathes it in deeply, and, for the first time since all of this he feels almost at peace.

When he wakes up it's to Reyan padding into the living room dressed in Eddie's clothes. "That's my sweatshirt," he murmurs, catching a glimpse of the Harvard logo.

"You two disgust me," Rey sighs exaggeratedly and turns to find something that actually belongs to Eddie. She comes back a minute later in a well-worn NYPD hoodie. "Better?" she asks.

"Sure," Jamie yawns.

"Go to bed, Reagan. It's almost ten. You've had a bad couple of days, you need the sleep. I'd say you could watch the end of the movie, but I don't like it all that much. Besides gymnastics, I've never been much into sports."

"Thanks, mom," Jamie smiles. "It's a good story, though. Whether you like it or not."

"I'll give you that. Now get out of my sight. I don't want to see you again until we need to leave for the hospital, you hear?"

"See you at seven sharp, Jones."

"You got it, Reagan."

Jamie stands in the doorway of Eddie's bedroom for a moment. It's a strangely intimate look into her life. He feels like he's intruding somehow. The sheets on the right side of the bed are still unmade, and the light for the alarm lit up on the clock. The nightstand is a complete mess, and in the middle of of it all there's a picture of the two of them. It's her favorite picture of them, actually, taken on New Year's Eve in Times Square the year before. He sits on the edge of the bed for a moment, just staring at it. He misses that smile.

When Jamie finally gives into his exhaustion and pulls the sheets tightly over himself, he feels strangely at home. He wonders again how her perfume seems to get on everything she touches. He could stay here forever, he thinks as he drifts off. As long as Eddie's okay.

AN: I keep pushing back the chapter I actually should be writing because I think it needs to be its own chapter. Sorry about that. When I started this it was one thing, but then I had so many thoughts with where this was going that the original plan got split up. At this point there's no way the next chapter won't be what y'all (and me) are waiting for, though.

Reviews are greatly appreciated! Have a lovely day - whenthedark