Jamie sat next to Eddie's bed, holding her hand and studying her face. They had cleaned the remaining dirt and dried blood off her once they'd arrived and washed her hair to make certain that there was nothing hidden in there. Now, she looked more peaceful, her face relaxed and clean, the only hint of what she'd been through being a healing cut on her forehead.
As soon as they'd arrived in Manhattan and transferred her over to the hospital's equipment, she had been rushed off to surgery to clean out the infection raging in the injuries to her back. Jamie had been directed to the ICU waiting room and told someone would come get him when she was out. In the meantime, they had given him about ten forms to fill out on her behalf.
She'd been in surgery for two hours before the doctors had been satisfied that they had cleaned out all the infected tissue. Eddie had been transferred to the ICU and Jamie retrieved from the waiting room he was stashed in once they had sutured her up. The doctor had spoken to him shortly after he had arrived at her room while the nurses were getting Eddie situated and informed him that they wanted to keep her sedated for the next day to allow for the sutures on her back to start healing up. Then, they would start to taper her down off the meds.
That had been last night. Jamie had hardly slept a wink, jerking awake at the sound of one of the many machines beeping whenever he started to drift off, afraid something bad was happening. It was mid-morning now and Eddie's new nurse had kindly brought him a coffee at shift change a few hours prior. Now, he was just waiting for his dad to pay a visit.
If he was being honest, Jamie had known that the call was coming, but he still hadn't been all that prepared for it. So, when Baker had been the one to call last night while he was still in the waiting room, he had been somewhat surprised. She had explained the circumstances to him, telling him that Lieutenant Gormley was informing his dad, but that Lenin had told them it would be best to give Jamie a call to coordinate visiting Eddie, if that was okay.
Of course, he wasn't necessarily against it, but he wanted to set some ground rules about everything when his dad came to visit. So, Jamie had told Baker it was probably best if the Commissioner held off on visiting until mid-morning, since Eddie was still in surgery at that point, and he wasn't sure when she'd be out. She had agreed to pass the message along, and Jamie had given her the code word for getting to Eddie's room, daisy, since she was a confidential patient.
So here he was again, anxiously bouncing one leg and waiting for something to happen, although he really wasn't sure what it was. Eddie was safe, the hospital staff was taking good care of her from what he could tell, so that at least put part of his mind at peace.
There was a soft knock on the doorframe and Jamie looked over to find his dad standing there, a sad smile on his face. "Hey, kid."
All of a sudden it felt like his mouth was filled with cotton. "Hi, Dad."
Frank stepped into the room, sliding the door shut behind him. Jamie couldn't see anyone standing out in the hallway, which was a bit surprising, since his dad rarely ditched his detail. "Where's your security?"
His dad paused, a faintly surprised look on his face as if he had just noticed that they weren't tailing him. He glanced out the glass doors before he seemed to remember something and pulled the curtain shut to give them even more privacy. "They're waiting in the parking garage. I didn't want to make too big of a fuss, plus Baker made it sound like the security for the hospital wouldn't let them past the front desk anyways."
Jamie nodded, still holding her hand as he tracked his dad moving across the room to sit on the other side of Eddie's bed from him. "Makes sense."
Frank lowered himself into the chair, studying Jamie's face as he did so. He seemed to be weighing which role he wanted to take on, concerned father or police commissioner. Concerned father eventually won out. "How is she?"
Jamie bit his lip and glanced back down at Eddie's peaceful face, turned toward him from lying on her front to prevent aggravation of her injuries and stitches. "She's a fighter. They had to sedate her twice upstate apparently, because she was freaking out and wouldn't let the staff touch her to try to treat her injuries. Then, when she got here, they took her straight to surgery for two hours. The doc said last night that she's going to be kept sedated for at least a day so that the sutures can start to heal up."
His dad nodded. "How bad were her injuries?"
Jamie paused. He wasn't certain how much Eddie would want him to share, but his dad was going to find out whether it was from him or from Lenin's report, so he decided to bite the bullet. "Not good. Her left wrist is broken, he assaulted her, and apparently was using her back as a carving board. That's why she had to go to surgery right away. Some of the wounds on her back were old, some were new, some had been recently reopened, and several were infected. They said they were worried she might go septic or get a bloodstream infection if they didn't go in and surgically clean it out. Not to mention all the smaller cuts and bruises she has, or the psychological damage he did."
Frank's face dropped and Jamie could see sadness poking through. He turned his gaze from the back of Eddie's head to Jamie. "And how are you doing?"
Jamie met his dad's look before glancing back down to Eddie. "I'm holding up as best I can."
His dad didn't seem thrilled with that answer. "You sure about that, Jamie?"
He shrugged. "One foot in front of the other, that's what it's all about. I didn't even think I would get to see her again this time Sunday. Now that I've got her back, that's all that matters."
That didn't seem to quite answer the other man's question, but his dad let it go. He leaned forward on his knees and clasped his hands together as he spoke. "Sid gave me a rundown of everything that happened. Sounds like Lenin and the DA's Office want Eddie's recovery to be kept quiet for the time being?"
Jamie nodded. "Yeah, the DA's Office wants to talk to her as soon as they can to get a statement. They never filed charges on Eddie's behalf last year when everything went down, so now they can refile them. They just want to wait a little bit before igniting the media storm that will come with that."
Frank gave a nod. "Makes sense. Who all knows about what went down besides us, the team that recovered her, Lenin, and my inner circle apparently?"
Jamie thought for a second. "I think the only people you're missing from that list are ADA Davis and kind of Ryan Bello and his lawyer. But Bello and his lawyer don't know she's alive, just that we left for the location he gave us. No one else in the family or her mom. ADA Davis was keeping it extremely close to the vest around her office, from what I understood."
His dad nodded again and waited for Jamie to look back up and meet his eyes before speaking. "And what are your thoughts on that?"
He frowned. "My thoughts on what?"
"On no one else in the family or Lena knowing that she's alive."
Jamie chewed on his lip again. That was a hard one, but he'd be lying if he didn't say he'd been toying with the concept for most of the night. It was part of the reason he'd wanted to talk to his dad. "I was hoping we could keep it between us for a bit, at least until she wakes up. They're already concerned about how she might react to just me or the medical staff. I don't want her to wake up to a room full of people she hasn't seen in a year. I just think that might be too much to ask of her. Who knows how she might react."
Frank gave him a kind smile. "That's okay. If it's what you think is best for Eddie, I'm sure everyone will understand in the long run."
Jamie returned the smile with a small one of his own. "Thanks. I just want her to be able to have some control over something when she can, and it seems like that's one of the few things she'll be able to have a say in."
"Fair enough."
He paused as another thought crossed his mind. "Dad, when she decides she wants visitors, do you think you or someone else would be able to get a hold of Lena?"
Frank got a confused look on his face. "I'm sure I could, but why do you ask?"
Jamie glanced down to where Eddie's hand was secured in his own. "Lena won't answer my calls. Hasn't since everything went down last year, and I know that if I tried to go to her place, she wouldn't open the door. Which isn't going to happen anyways, since I'm not going to leave Eddie's side, but still."
His dad nodded, seeming to understand where he was coming from. "She blames you for what happened."
A thick swallow. "Yeah."
Frank gave Jamie another small smile. "When Eddie's ready for it, I'll see to it myself that Lena knows."
Jamie glanced up. "Thanks, Dad."
They made a little bit of small talk for a while longer before his dad seemed to pick up on the fact that Jamie's head wasn't really in the room with him. Frank stood up to go. "I best be getting back to work, but you call me if anything changes, okay? Good or bad."
Jamie nodded. "Will do."
His dad smiled, stepping around to give Jamie a squeeze on the shoulder and pat Eddie's hand. "You get to feeling better soon, Eddie. We all've been missing you." He turned and left, but not before glancing back at Jamie one more time as he stepped out the door.
The rest of the day flew by in a blur for Jamie. At some point in the afternoon, he called the precinct and put in a request for PTO for the next few weeks, which was approved almost immediately, much to his surprise. Fleming probably figured he'd finally had a breakdown, which was a fair enough assumption given the timing and the fact that Jamie had been maxed out on overtime for the past three months. His boss had made it pretty clear he still considered him unstable. But the why wasn't all that important to him, as long as he didn't have to worry about fielding calls asking where he was while Eddie was recovering.
The nurse from when they had first arrived the night before was back when shift change came again and she told him that the surgeon and wound care had given the go ahead to start weaning Eddie down off the sedation, since her sutures were healing up nicely. They were going to go slowly, due to her prior agitation, but they didn't want her on it any longer than absolutely necessary, which he was thankful for. Unfortunately, the nurse also told him that she didn't think it was a great idea for him to be touching Eddie at all while they tapered her down, since physical touch seemed to be what had been setting her off before.
Jamie acknowledged her concern but told her that he was still going to keep holding her hand. He liked to think that it was comforting the both of them in a way. It was a way of reassuring himself that she was here, this was real and not just a dream, while also letting Eddie know that he was here, and he wasn't going to let her go ever again.
The nurse seemed to figure it wasn't a battle worth fighting and just said to turn on the call light if she started to show signs of waking, although that shouldn't start happening for at least twelve hours. The main nurse and a couple of others carefully flipped Eddie onto her back, since they expected her to regain consciousness soon and her wounds were healed just enough that the pressure wouldn't cause them to start bleeding again or reopen. She hung a few new bags of meds and fluids before reminding him that she would be just outside if he needed anything.
The rest of the night passed without much excitement. Lenin texted Jamie to check in and Erin asked how he was doing, but otherwise there wasn't much change. He even got a couple of hours of sleep. Jamie was thankful that his father had at least agreed to keep Eddie's return between the two of them until she felt comfortable though. She was already going to be in a bad spot when she woke up, he didn't want to make that any worse by having a whole bunch of people swarm her at the same time.
Thursday morning started out fairly similar to the previous one. The nurses switched out again at seven, the doctors, pharmacist, dietitian, and a resident came through on rounds around nine, and they kept tapering down the sedatives Eddie was on. A care technician was even kind enough to wash her hair again, since it was getting greasy and stringy, and then comb it out. She was doing well overall, but still unconscious.
They wanted to do an MRI late in the morning, which the nurse suggested to Jamie might be a good time for him to run home and freshen up. He was reluctant to leave Eddie's side, but the poor woman did have a point. It was probably the best time for him to run home and take a shower and change into fresh clothes, since he couldn't accompany her down to the scan and once Eddie came around, there was no way he was going to leave. He probably smelled terrible.
Jamie was pretty sure he made record time getting from the hospital back to their apartment, showering, changing, grabbing a few pairs of clothes, and getting back to the hospital. Even the nurse sitting at the front desk seemed surprised to see him again so soon, although that turned out to be because Eddie was still down getting an MRI.
Things seemed to shift around mid-afternoon, although he couldn't quite put his finger on why. Eddie was still asleep, peacefully resting, it was quiet out in the hallway, and his phone wasn't buzzing with panicked messages, so Jamie wasn't quite sure what was off, but he could sense that it was.
Eventually, he figured out that the odd feeling in the air seemed to be coming from Eddie's nurse. She was less chatty than she had been before, which could've just been nothing, but she also kept shooting Jamie nervous glances, almost like she was worried about something. He saw her talking with another nurse out in the hallway a little after he'd picked up on it and they both kept glancing in the room at him as well.
Jamie didn't have the patience at the moment for whatever was going on, so the next time the nurse came in to do a round of checks on Eddie, he went for it. "What's going on?"
She looked startled and let out a nervous laugh. "What do you mean?"
Jamie frowned. "Something's off. You seem to be on edge, and I saw you talking with another nurse out in the hallway and glancing in here. Is Eddie okay?"
Her eyes widened. Apparently, she'd thought she was doing a much better job at hiding things than she had been. "Oh yes, she's fine. We're just continuing to watch for signs of her coming around, although it's completely possible she might just keep sleeping without us realizing it."
Jamie gave her a confused look. "Then what's going on?"
The nurse glanced behind her nervously. "I can't really say. Social work is going to come in in a bit to go over it with you, along with another doctor. That's about all I can tell you for certain."
Jamie furrowed his brow. Social work? What did they need to talk to him about? He knew that they were around, the social worker had introduced herself to him when they came through yesterday morning, but what did they need to speak to him about that had the nurses acting skittish and required a doctor?
He got his answer fifteen minutes later when a knock came at the door and the social worker from the day prior stepped inside. Jamie could see a doctor hanging back and talking to the nurse, but she didn't enter. He turned his attention to the social worker.
"What's going on? The nurse said that she couldn't tell me anything, but I can tell that something's up."
The social worker, Cindy, gave him a kind smile, although he could see that she was a bit nervous. "Just a few follow-up questions that were brought to my attention when I was updating Eddie's chart. I know that she's on confidential status, but is there any other family besides yourself that could potentially be visiting?"
Jamie frowned. That didn't seem to warrant all the hush-hush going on outside, but he figured it must be leading up to something. "I mean, yeah, but none of them besides my dad know she's here or even still alive yet. I don't want her to be super overwhelmed when she first wakes up by having everyone just waiting here, so I'm waiting to notify them until she's ready."
Cindy nodded. "That's okay, I just still need to document names."
Jamie gave her an odd look but went along with it for now. "Okay, well her mother's name is Lena Janko, and her dad is Armin, but I'm not sure if he's going to be popping up for anything. They haven't spoken since he was released from prison almost three years ago. Her mom won't speak to me right now, but when Eddie's ready I'm going to see if my father can at least get her to listen to him long enough to know she's here."
Another nod as Cindy jotted the information down. "Anyone else?"
"For my family there's my dad Frank Reagan, my sister Erin, my brother Danny, and my grandfather Henry. All of their last names are Reagan. Our niece and nephews aren't in the area right now, but I can give you their names if you want."
She shook her head. "That's okay for now. Jamie, how long did you say you and Eddie have been married?"
Jamie frowned again. These questions were somewhat random, but he continued to play along for the time being. "Over five years now this past May."
She jotted that down. "Do the two of you have any children?"
That question struck a nerve in Jamie and brought back painful memories that he wished he could forget. When he spoke, he was a bit snappier than he normally would've been. "What does that have to do with anything?"
Cindy gave him a tight smile, but Jamie could tell that they were getting closer to whatever it was that was going on that required all the secrecy. "Just trying to collect a social history, that's all. I take it you don't then?"
Jamie sighed. He really wasn't feeling like playing whatever it was that was going on, especially with the emotional minefield they had just wandered into. "No. Eddie had two miscarriages and she was pregnant when she disappeared last year, but she almost certainly lost that baby too with what they put her through."
He couldn't read the look Cindy's face as she typed what he had said into Eddie's chart. Jamie was pretty sure the information should've already been in there, but maybe it didn't transfer over. He didn't know how hospital systems worked. That was nowhere in his realm of things to worry about usually.
Cindy stopped typing and clasped her hands in front of her, looking like she was searching for the right words. Jamie cut in before she could find them, starting to get irritated by this whole dance. He was running on almost no sleep, caffeine, and adrenaline at this point. "Look, whatever all this is about, we both know it's not as simple as making sure you have all the relevant information for her chart. What's going on?"
She flexed her jaw a few times and glanced outside, but Jamie kept his gaze on her while Eddie remained blissfully unaware of what was going on. "I'm not quite sure how to put this, Jamie. Did they tell you that when she was rescued, your wife was protecting a child"
He nodded. "Yeah, one of the officers that talked her out of where she was being kept said she was protecting a really sick baby and that was part of how they got her out of there, by offering medical aid for the kid. They were running a DNA test through the system to see if it was on a list of missing kids. Why?"
Cindy still looked tense, like she wasn't certain how this conversation was going to go. If it went any slower, Jamie could guarantee it wasn't going to be pleasant. She just needed to spit out whatever it was that was going on and get it over with. "We got the DNA test back on the child earlier this morning."
Jamie nodded. "Okay?" He couldn't really see why they were telling him, but maybe it was so he could tell Eddie when she woke up. Give her a little peace of mind.
The social worker scrunched up her face, still looking uncertain as she pulled something up on her laptop. "The test didn't come back as a match to any missing persons cases or to any cases of potentially missing kids. But they were prepared for that possibility when they first sent the sample, so we also ran a paternity and maternity test."
Jamie raised an eyebrow and gave her a look, subconsciously starting to rub his thumb in circles on the back of Eddie's hand. He was getting a little bit confused. He could understand running a backup test to determine who the kid's parents were, but he wasn't entirely sure why they were telling him everything.
Cindy seemed to realize that he wasn't following her and turned around her computer, the lab results pulled up on the screen, although Jamie couldn't really tell what they said. "Jamie, the baby that Eddie was protecting was your daughter."
Everything screeched to a halt.
Jamie frowned, unable to process what the woman had just said. He didn't have a daughter, didn't have any kids. That was a fact. He knew it was. He'd been there for both miscarriages, had seen the devastation on Eddie's face, held her in his arms while she sobbed. It was practically a given that she'd lost that last pregnancy too with what she had allegedly been subjected to prior to being removed from the city. It just wasn't possible.
He shook his head, finally speaking after a few moments. "That's impossible. I, we don't have any kids. Certainly not a daughter. You must be mistaken."
Cindy shook her head and waved at her screen. "I'm afraid not, Jamie. This right here is the DNA test that they ran on that little girl your wife was protecting. It shows with 99.9% certainty that you are her father."
Jamie stared at the results on the screen. Impossible. That's all he could think of. There was no way that what she was telling him could be correct.
Yet he was staring at the test results that said she was. The ones that said he had a child, a daughter. Someone that Eddie had been so fiercely protective of that she had nearly lost it when they tried to separate her from her.
The social worker seemed to realize that Jamie wasn't going to be contributing much to the conversation at the moment. "They transferred her down here via helicopter yesterday. They wanted her to be at the same location as your wife just in case, but due to the uncertain parentage and identity, we had to refrain from informing you by law. I had the pediatrician who's been treating her while she's here come down with me. Would you like to know how she's doing?"
Jamie nodded mutely, still trying to process everything. It all seemed unreal to him at the moment, but the evidence was partially laid out in front of him, so there was little he could say otherwise. Eddie would likely confirm when she woke up, but he'd convinced himself last year that they were both gone, that their baby certainly was, that he'd never even considered the possibility of them both being alive. Eddie being alive had been a small ember of hope in his mind, but not their baby.
Cindy gave him another kind smile and looked out into the hallway, waving for the doctor to come in. Jamie could hardly focus, only able to stare blankly ahead as the door slid open and the doctor entered.
He was roused from his stupor by the woman taking a seat on the other side of the bed from him and introducing herself. "Hi, I'm Dr. Fish. I take it you're Jamie?"
He nodded again, still unable to find the words to speak.
Dr. Fish smiled. "It's good to meet you. I'm the one that's been treating your daughter since she arrived here yesterday afternoon. She's quite the fighter, that one. She was quite ill with what appears to be community acquired pneumonia based on the chest x-ray and cultures we ran when she first arrived, which we've been treating with an IV antibiotic called ceftriaxone. She seems to be responding well to that. They did have to intubate her at the first hospital she was at just because she was having a lot of difficulty with breathing, but I'm hopeful we'll be able to get her off of that later tonight or tomorrow. Overall, besides that though, she seems to be a fairly healthy little girl, despite the circumstances I was hearing about."
Jamie blinked hard. He'd been listening to what the doctor had been telling him, yet not really processing it. He was still struggling to wrap his head around the fact that they had a daughter. "Yeah, that would sound right. Eddie would've been doing everything she could for her."
The doctor gave him another kind smile. "Is there any sort of family history that you know of that I might need to note for her? I know you just found out about her, so your wife is probably a better source of information, but any sort of conditions that may be genetic to watch out for?"
He shook his head mutely, his eyes drawn back to where Eddie's peaceful face was turned towards him on her pillow. "Not that I know of. But when Eddie wakes up, she'd probably be able to give you a clearer answer."
Dr. Fish nodded. "Of course. I'll check in tomorrow after rounds to see if she's awake and we can go from there. In the meantime, would you like me to leave the room number with you so you can go see her?"
Jamie nodded again. "Yeah, I'd appreciate that. Thank you." It was so hard to grasp all of the new information that was swirling through his mind right now.
Dr. Fish smiled and pulled a card out of her pocket, placing it on Eddie's bedside table before getting up to leave with the social worker. "The PICU is open to visitors until nine tonight if you were looking to stop by today. If you want to wait for Eddie here, that's completely okay as well. I'll let the nurse know that you're aware now though. Thank you for your time."
They both exited the room and Jamie was once again left alone with a sleeping Eddie and his thoughts. He studied her face, wondering what she would say when she woke up. Now that he knew more of the story, he understood why she had become so distressed when they had taken the little girl from her upstate. They had taken their daughter away from Eddie, the most overprotective person he knew, when she didn't know who to trust or what to do. It made sense that she would've been frantic, even if the reason was to help the both of them.
Jamie raised her limp hand to his lips, pressing a soft kiss against her skin. "Seems like we've got a lot to talk about when you're all caught up on your beauty sleep, Ed."
The first thing that Eddie noticed as she woke up was the sensation of something heavy in her right hand. Of course, the absence of the sharp, throbbing pain in her back was also something new, as was the sensation of clean (?) fabric, but the weight in her hand was the first thing to really register.
She slowly opened her eyes, after assessing her immediate area with all other senses and identifying nothing as being urgently dangerous. There was still a decent fog hanging over her, but she needed to get a grasp on her surroundings, to understand what she was dealing with. Eddie was fairly certain that the escape had been a figment of her imagination, but if it wasn't, then there were going to be bigger fish for her to fry.
The first thing that came into view was what looked like the night sky, although it had been so long since Eddie had seen it that she questioned it at first. It was framed through a window, and she could swear it looked like the skyline of New York City was looming against a clear night sky, but that would be impossible. Maybe she was dead, and this was the best they could come up with for her afterlife. A faint reminder of home to make up for everything else.
Eddie turned her attention away from the window and carefully surveyed her surroundings from left to right. She was lying in what seemed to be a hospital bed, attached to at least three monitors on her left side, and wearing what felt like the cleanest piece of clothing she'd ever worn. There was a couch built into the wall underneath the window, while an empty chair was pulled up to the left side of her bed next to a moveable table that had a few pieces of paper on it. She could see what looked like an ensuite bathroom kitty corner from her bed, while there was a whiteboard with her name, among other things, on it on the wall with a TV right above it. There was a dull throb at the base of her neck as she turned her head where one of Tyler's cuts had gone a bit higher, but it was nowhere near as sharp as it usually was.
She turned her attention to where the weight was lying on her right hand, faintly registering the shut glass door and partially drawn curtain. Eddie felt her heart stutter as she recognized the head of light brown hair resting against the edge of her bed, its owner fast asleep, his hand tightly grasping hers.
Jamie.
Oh, she had to be dead, and they were just trying to compensate for everything that she'd had to go through at the end of her life with this. That was the only plausible explanation Eddie could come up with. There was no way that she was still alive, and Jamie was here. Not a chance.
She slowly reached out with her free hand, almost afraid to touch him out of fear that it would shatter the illusion. As soon as she made contact with his hair, his eyes snapped open and he sat up somewhat haphazardly, still clutching her right hand. Those beautiful hazel eyes that she had missed so much were only half-awake, searching the room for what had woken him up.
Jamie seemed to realize she was awake after a second, as his eyes widened and he tightened the grip on her hand. She didn't mind one bit. "Eddie. You're awake."
She gave him a half-smile. "So it would seem."
He seemed to realize that he was still holding her hand and started to withdraw it. Eddie tightened her own grip this time as he did so. "Don't. Please." Her voice cracked a little bit on the last word and Jamie's eyes softened even more than they already had.
He stopped trying to pull away and instead encased their hands with his other one. "You have no idea how glad I am to hear your voice."
Eddie stared at their hands. "Probably as glad as I am to hear yours." She paused, almost afraid to ask her next question. "Is this real? Am I really back in New York, with you?" It came out softly.
Jamie rubbed her hand with his thumb and gave her that thousand-watt smile that always stirred up butterflies in her stomach. "It's real. I've been asking myself the same thing since I saw you. Haven't left your side unless they made me."
A feeling of peace settled over her briefly before something registered in her mind and a sense of panic took over as she realized something was missing. Or rather, someone. "Wait, where's Clare?"
Jamie frowned in confusion, and she realized he would have no idea who Clare was. Another cruel injustice of this whole ordeal. He attempted to placate her. "Who's Clare? Maybe I can ask around, see if someone knows who that is or where she is."
Eddie shook her head, the panic quickly starting to build into a full on attack as it became harder to breathe. "No. No, where is she? Where is she? I had her and then they took her away. Where is she?" She started hyperventilating and tried to pull the lines off her arms. She had to get to her baby, she couldn't lose her.
Jamie seemed to realize that she was trying to get out of bed and gently tried to stop her. "Hey, hey, don't be doing that. You're going to be setting off all kinds of alarms here, Ed." He paused as she tried to bat his hands away, the only thing in her mind being the fact that her baby was missing. Her sweet, innocent baby girl was gone. Even Jamie's presence couldn't distract her from that fact.
He seemed to realize that he wasn't going to be successful in getting her to stay, but Eddie saw him come to some sort of conclusion in his head as her panicked breathing increased even more, to the point that she couldn't get words out anymore. Jamie gently eased himself onto the edge of the bed so that they were sitting side by side and encircled her in his arms. She tensed up at the touch for half a second, which she could tell he picked up on, before relaxing slightly into his arms.
Jamie hugged her closely, placing a few gentle kisses on the top of her head just like he always used to before, and whispering that it was okay and for her to just breathe through it. Eventually, Eddie was able to get her breathing under control long enough to get in a few shuddering breaths and feel like she wasn't about to pass out. But that still didn't solve her problem and tell her if her baby was all right.
Jamie noticed her breathing had started to even out some and relaxed his hold on her just enough so that she could turn to look up at him, tears on the edges of her eyes. "Jamie, where is she? I can't lose her too, I can't."
He looked confused for a half second before something seemed to click. "Clare. Is that the name you gave her? Our daughter, is that who you're talking about?"
Eddie nodded, freeing some of the tears that had been hanging on to the edge of her lashes. It didn't even register in her mind that Jamie had referred to her as their daughter. "She was so sick and then they took her away from me and the next thing I knew I was here. Jamie, where is she?"
Jamie wiped away the tears that had broken free and ran down her face, giving her a bit of a broken smile. "Eddie, it's okay. She's upstairs, they said she has pneumonia and they had to intubate her, but she's been doing well, so they were going to look at taking that off earlier. The doctor said she was responding to the meds they were giving her pretty well too."
Eddie let her shoulders slump a little bit in relief, although the knot of worry in her chest only eased a little. She knew that Jamie wouldn't lie to her, but she also wouldn't be able to relax until Clare was safely back in her arms, or at least in her sight. "She's alive?"
He nodded, rubbing her shoulder that wasn't currently pressed into his chest. "Yeah, she's alive."
Eddie leaned her head against Jamie's chest and curled into his side, half-hugging him. They stayed like that for a few minutes, just holding each other, before his earlier comment came back to the front of her mind. "Wait a minute. You said, 'our daughter.' How did you know?" She pulled back a little bit to look up at his face.
Jamie gave her a small smile as he glanced down. "I didn't, not at first. They just told me earlier this afternoon when the DNA test they ran came back. Talk about a surprise."
She studied his face, looking for any sign that he was upset and finding none. "You're not upset about it?"
He got a confused expression on his face. "Why would I be upset? If anything, it's better than I ever could've hoped for, Eddie." The smile returned. "I thought you'd lost her last year after they took you. I kept hoping that since we never found a body you were still out there, but never in my wildest dreams did I imagine that our baby would've survived."
Eddie gave him a watery smile. "Well, if I'm being honest, I thought the same thing until I was up there for a while." She let herself drift into the memory a bit, as it had been one of her only happy ones. "I had no idea how long I'd been up there when I felt her kick. Actually kick, like she wanted to make sure that I knew she was still in there. I didn't believe it at first, but when it actually registered, that was probably one of the best moments I had in the last year."
Jamie pulled her close and pressed a soft kiss to the top of her head. "I'm sure you were a rockstar for the whole thing."
Eddie sighed and relaxed into his chest more, a tinge of sadness creeping into her voice. "I just wish you'd been there for it all. The second she was born, I knew she would've had you wrapped around her little finger."
He rubbed her shoulder a bit. "I'm here now, Ed." Jamie's voice turned slightly wistful. "I can't wait to meet her."
She frowned. "What do you mean? Wouldn't they let you go see her?"
She felt him shake his head above her. "No, they said I could, but I wanted to wait with you so we could go together. Figured it was only right that we go see her together, like it should've been the first time."
Eddie felt a few more tears well up in her eyes, although she fought hard to blink them back. Of course Jamie would say something like that. It was one of the many things she loved about him. She burrowed into his side a little bit deeper. "I've missed you."
Another soft kiss landed on her head. "Not as much as I have."
Eddie smiled a little. They stayed like that for a while longer before she realized it was still dark out and he had been fast asleep when she woke up, although it didn't seem like he would be returning to that phase soon. "Jamie, what time is it?"
He shifted slightly against her to check his watch. "Almost three in the morning. Why?"
She gave a slight shrug. "Just curious. It seems almost deserted, but if it's the dead of night, that would make sense." As she lay there, curled into his side, his wedding ring caught her eye. She was a little surprised he was still wearing it. Eddie reached for his hand, Jamie allowing her to pull it closer to herself, and slowly ran her finger over the ring. "You're still wearing your wedding ring."
She had felt him shift a little to look down at her and could hear the frown in his voice as he spoke. "Of course I am. I almost never take it off. Did you think I wouldn't be?"
Another shrug. "I don't know, I guess so. I mean, as far as you knew, I was dead. And Danny doesn't still wear his ring since Linda's been gone, so I figured you would do the same."
When he spoke, Jamie sounded a little sad. "It took Danny a long time to get to that point, Ed. And I wasn't planning on ever taking it off anyways, at least not permanently. It's only ever been you, there was no point in trying to pretend otherwise."
Eddie let out a sad smile at that information. She remembered what had happened to her own rings, back at the warehouse over a year ago now. "I'm sorry I lost mine. I know that your mother's ring was important to you, and you trusted me to keep it safe. I failed on that front, much as I wish I didn't."
She felt Jamie pull away a little bit. "Eddie, look at me." She glanced up at him.
Jamie looked her dead in the eyes. "You did not fail at anything, you hear me? Everything that happened in the past year or so was not your fault. It wasn't some obstacle that you either passed or failed at. You did what you needed to do to survive and that's all that matters to me."
"Besides," he reached under his shirt and pulled out a silver chain with two rings on it. "I've been keeping them safe for you ever since evidence released them back to me. They've been hanging right here around my neck since then. I would've already given them back to you, but the hospital doesn't allow for any jewelry while you're a patient."
Eddie's eyes widened at the sight. She reached out and carefully grasped the rings swinging on the chain in her fingers, Jamie letting go of it once she did so. She couldn't believe it. He had them and had been keeping them close for months, almost like some sort of reminder.
She dropped the chain and gave him another side hug, curling back into him as she did so. "Thank you. I'm glad they gave them back to you."
He ran his thumb in a soothing circle on her shoulder, leaning into her as well. "I'm only their temporary guardian. As soon as you bust out of here, they're being returned to their rightful owner."
She smiled at the comment. Eddie could feel exhaustion starting to creep over her body, even though she hadn't been awake for very long. No doubt Jamie was feeling it as well, although adrenaline might still be keeping him going. "How long were you asleep for?"
A pause. "Maybe a couple of hours."
She frowned. That was it? How was he not dying of exhaustion? "Jamie, how much sleep have you been getting?"
He paused again and when he spoke, he sounded sheepish. "Enough to get by."
Of course. Eddie snuggled into him, leeching his warmth and knowing that 'getting by' meant that he was barely getting any sleep. "Well, since it's three in the morning, I'm getting sleepy, and you've been running on what I assume is less than five hours a sleep for who knows how long, why don't we both take a nap? Then we can go see Clare when we're both better rested?" Her voice was hopeful at the last comment.
She felt Jamie take a breath, probably wanting to protest her statement, but sensed him guess better of himself. "I suppose that could work. I'll take the chair, then we can head up there in a few hours. I think they said we can go up at six."
Jamie started to pull away from her and Eddie tightened her grip on his shirt. He could've very easily pried himself free, but he didn't. "Don't. Stay right here. I like having you close again."
He didn't seem to need more convincing and settled back into the spot he had only barely moved from. Eddie re-established herself and rested her head on the side of his chest, feeling her eyes beginning to drift shut. The scent that was uniquely Jamie filled her nose and she allowed the wave of darkness to overtake her, for once not afraid of what she might wake back up to.
Here's the second half of the update! I wanted to do their reunion justice and also tie some things back in, so I hope you guys liked how it went! Next chapter Jamie gets to meet Clare, so there's something for you all to look forward to. On a side note, I've really been enjoying the new episodes this season, so I might throw in some one-shots based on episodes in between chapters here, but otherwise, I hope you all enjoyed!