„Help!"
She turned away just in time before Ed's fist smashed her teeth, but in the next second he grabbed her chin, forcing his fingers into her mouth.
Eddie's cry died with her breath, bile rose up in her throat. She would throw up right onto Ed's hands, and then… the fear of choking on her own vomit terrified her more than anything else before. Almost automatically she lowered her teeth into the fat fingers, biting as hard as she could.
Ed screamed but didn't move, and Eddie panicked. She would die. She would die right here, right now, killed by a police officer who had only planned to rape her. Flakes of memories passed by. Frozen. Nathaniel, the red horse from her grandfather's neighbor. Sunshine in Orlando, a hand on her arm, an old yellow Ford, the daisies on the street right outside her house, Madison Square Garden and hundreds of white gloves in the air. "If I can make it there, I'll make it anywhere" – Jamie had sung for her on her first morning on the job.
She would die. She would die, die, right now, and there were so many stupid little things she had left undone…

"Get off of her!"
Before Eddie had time to recognize that Jamie's voice was no longer a memory she felt Ricker's weight yanked away from her, but his fingers still stayed in her mouth, choking him. Eddie wanted to scream but found her teeth paralyzed, stuck…
"Eddie, it's okay! You need to open your mouth! It's okay, I'm here!" Jamie knelt down beside her, the tension and anger contradicting the calming message of his words.
Eddie blinked. She had to… oh. That. Eddie spit out the fingers, and what remained between her teeth… Ed still was all over her. In her, even not like he had wished. Jamie moved closer but she turned away and threw up where she lay. He was still there, she felt it, every goose bump on her shivering body cried out the alert… Ed. Robert. No, not him, she had had this… Jamie? Jamie. With every bit of bile coming up, it slowly felt as if a bit of her brain returned.
No, she had not been raped, and she was not dead. Robert had died in a car accident thirteen months ago, seventeen months after he had raped her… five years after he had first hit her so hard she had got a concussion.
And Ed… Jamie!

As fast as she could without losing her orientation, Eddie turned to the two men. Ed was lying on the floor, almost motionless apart from his head swinging around as Jamie was hitting him ferociously.
"I warned you" he hissed, and Eddie realized the anger on the phone before was nothing compared to now, "I warned you not to hurt her. You…" Apparently, words failed, and Ed didn't seem up to answer him anymore. Blood trickled down the back of his head but Jamie didn't care.

"Jamie, stop!" Eddie coughed, cursing her weak voice. Still everything tasted like Ed and vomit, but she had to focus now. She was a police officer.
"Jamie, stop, he's had enough."

"Enough?" Jamie turned to her just for a second, hate blazing in his eyes. As he looked at Eddie she saw sorrow blooming up in his face, and something stronger, warmer, but before she even in her thoughts dared to call it "love", it was gone again and the hatred returned as he stood up and took out his gun.

"Jamie!" The shock brought her up on her feet. Reacting to a weapon drawn Eddie automatically reached for hers, but found it gone. "Jamie, leave him. You…" He wasn't listening to her. Eddie started shivering as she realized what the man cowering on the floor must mean to Jamie right now.
"Jamie! He's a cop."
"Not anymore" he hissed back, but his hands froze in midair. "He wanted to kill you."
"But he didn't! You saved me, okay? You were there perfectly in time, and…"
Ed moved slowly, and Eddie stepped back. Just in case.

Jamie had seen the movement, and for a moment all hatred was gone. "Eddie, I'm so sorry! I should have protected you."
"You did." She was at the edge of panicking again, Rickers would soon be up again, she was weak and scared and Jamie was out of control. The whole situation was too crazy to feel safe now.

"Jamie, please. Let him go. He's not worth it, and…"
Ed jumped up, slapping the gun out of Jamie's hands as he had done with her, and aimed at him. "That was a mistake, Reagan."