Things settled down at the R.U. over time. There was a rumor that Agent W had locked herself in her dorm room amongst the trainees, but most still believed she was forever on other missions far away. It had been a week since the incident of losing Axel.

A private funeral was made for Agent O where only close family and friends attended. Helene, Sammy, Kora, Jay, and a few other R.U. agents attended to pay their respects. Liam and his team also attended, and he took a day aside with Jamie's team to update them on what had been going on, and to make them inform him on what was going on with the one woman most affected by this of all.

Jamie did not attend the funeral, nor did she express any reaction to wanting or not wanting to go. The woman resided in her dorm room and kept her door locked, not uttering a single word for days on end. Security cameras installed in her room were the only way they could make sure she was still alive in there.

On the second day that she had returned to the R.U. after Chestin had been taken up, Jay forced his way into her room when he and the others realized she had taken out her gun in her bag and was tossing it from hand to hand silently. While trusting her to take care of her life, it was too close of an encounter, and Helene, Kora, and Sammy were ordered to search and obtain anything that could be used as a weapon to harm herself.

They all paid her a visit every day, almost every hour. Agent W refused to eat and drink for five days straight. Once again they had to break into her room and find ways to convince the woman to feed and shower herself. She'd sigh ever so quietly that hardly anyone noticed before muttering some words in another language, picking up an apple from the tray they brought in. Only then would they leave her alone.

They spoke to her outside the door, taking turns to tell her to keep healthy and remind her of the outside world that was worth living in. Isla hesitantly took a turn and talked outside the door about finding true love and fighting for that one person. It was the first time everyone heard Jamie shift on the other side, and eventually she began producing muffled-cries.

It lasted only for a short while, but that short while was enough for everyone to realize that they didn't have the heart to try and reach out to her again until they could figure out how to stop feeling useless.

After a week, Jamie began having serious stomach cramps. She had started eating again but it wasn't enough. She didn't drink enough water or walked around, or went outside for fresh air and sunlight. Her body was limp and still, and her face showed how mentally exhausted she was.

"You have to eat, Jamie!" Helene pounded on the door, "Jami— she collapsed again?" The woman stepped back from the door and glanced at Jay, giving him a look of disbelief.

"Hasn't this gone on for too long?" Sammy jumped in, shooting glances at the door as if Jamie would hear their pleas and open the door herself, "We can't leave her like this. Anne's not going to recover if we keep letting her deal with this herself."

Jay buried his face in his hands and let out a deep, long sigh, "Who's turn is it to keep an eye on her tonight?"

"Liam," Kai answered, crossing his arms across his chest as he looked over to the addressed-man eyeing the door with a frown.

"You're sending Agent K in there alone with her at night when she's still like that?" Gale raised his eyebrows, "Aren't you even the slightest bit worried for his life?"

"She won't hurt him," Kora glared up at Agent M.

"Right," Gale stated back, his lips turning into a thin frown.

Isla looked back and forth at all of them. "Look here Liam," she pulled his suit jacket so that Liam was close to her, "You go in there and you get your girl back on her feet. Don't come out until you do, do you hear me?"

"Bring these in with you," Kai cut in, tossing Liam a carton of something and a smaller object, "I went back there to get it myself. She'll need it. Also, a child passed this on to me."

Looking down at the two things in his hands, Liam smiled as he peered back up at Kai and glanced at everyone standing outside Jamie's room. "Y'all leave after I enter. I need it agents-free in this dorm."

"," (yes) Isla nodded at him, "Now go."

With a last glance at everyone, the crew nodded at him and he picked the lock to enter Jamie's room. Cold air slapped him in the face the moment he stepped into the area and shut the door behind him, locking it. All the windows were closed off, all the lights were off, and every sound was cut off from the sound-proof walls.

She was in total isolation save the once or twice encounters of agents that try to keep her alive by eating, drinking, and bathing. Liam's eyes gradually began adjusting to the dark before it rested on the figure of a woman leaning against the bedside on the ground opposite of him, eyes shut with her arms propped up on one leg as the other laid flat. Her head tilted back to the bed and she stayed in that position in silence.

"Lennon, it's Liam," he found the courage to speak in such a dreary and dead atmosphere, "How are you?"

He saw her shift a little and tilt her head to his side, her hands slowly tensing up out of his sight. Other then those few things he noticed, the woman stayed quiet.

Liam shut his eyes and sighed. When he opened them again and attempted to speak, he found it difficult to. "Did you eat? Why didn't you make a noise or something when Helene checked up on you?"

Silence.

"Are you hurt?" he walked closer to her and eventually stood in front of the woman, "Lennon. Please say something." His eyes widened when he saw her lips move. It took a moment before Jamie actually produced sound.

""

'Who are you asking?' Liam translated silently to himself as he stared at Jamie in bewilderment. She had spoken to him in a language he hadn't used since childhood. After a moment to process, Liam realized that Jamie didn't remember him as a child, and that she wouldn't know he understood German. He would keep pretending he didn't so that she could get her thoughts out. Otherwise, they would never know what she wanted to say.

Was she trying to ask him, 'Are you trying to talk to Agent W, or Jamie Lennon?'

Liam went along with the latter guess. "I want to know if Jamie Lennon is okay. You haven't been responsive all week... let's come back to reality and talk with me," he responded, frowning at her as she looked slightly back at him, yet still dazed.

"Everyone is worried about you. We all care, Lennon, don't be like this," he tried again, "Look at me, please." While he didn't succeed in getting her to respond with her body, he got a second round of her talking.

"" (Now everyone decides to care?).

Well, it was time to try anything. Time to pull out secret weapon number one: German.

"" (Just because you decide to answer in German, doesn't mean you should ignore everything I've said and hear what you want to hear).

After a few seconds had passed and Jamie had not answered, Liam was afraid she didn't understand him. However, his doubts were washed away when she quietly picked her head up and eventually looked him in the eye.

It was the second time that he saw that expression on her face. That realization clicking in once again.

And that began their talk like old time. Jamie began responding back in German, her voice growing stronger, louder, and clearer the more he got her to speak. He prompted her to speak by arguing back, defending himself and everything that had happened. She needed an explanation from him— not a file, not a computer, not a traitor.

Jamie poured her heart out 25 minutes into their serious conversation. She yelled at him for deceiving her and switching off with Axel, for leaving her behind when she needed him, for keeping quiet at I.O., for getting hurt by Raelyn, for turning around for the ribbon, forgetting his memories, Axel and his partnership, her family, her team, Ash and the mental couple, and finally they touched on Axel, and she just couldn't hold it in anymore.

The woman heaved big breaths and she backed away from Liam, her eyes watering. She hadn't cried the whole time she talked in German, but talking about the death made her voice crack and she resorted to silence again while shutting her eyes.

"," Liam watched her find the strength to talk again, "" (He died in front of me... how am I supposed to forgive myself? I could have run down there and made it in time. But I didn't!). Jamie screeched the last part and something in his chest tightened and he felt it hard to breathe. He grabbed her shoulders and gently tilted her head so that their eyes met. Even in the dark, her brown eyes reflected back so much pain that he had to find his words quick before his throat clotted up.

"Don't blame yourself." He made sure he said that loud and clear in her face in English so that she understood it was time to face the present, "There was nothing you could have done. You kept Ash safe. You kept Chestin in one place. You hid an audio-recording of Chestin admitting his crimes. You held out long enough for Axel and I to send help to the R.U. Look at me, Lennon—" Liam frowned as the woman's gaze drifted away while he forced her to replay the dreadful scenes in her head.

"I'm sorry," he finally told her, eyes softening, "I'm sorry we didn't make it in time to save him. You weren't supposed to find out this way at all. It was too messy to be explained in the situation we were in. Believe me... and come back. Come back to the present, Lennon. We miss you. I miss you."

It took a while for her to process his words. Not long after, Jamie jerked her head away and walked away from him, slowing down as she reached another area in her room that was spacious. Liam understood what was going on. No other amount of words would get to her from this point on. She had said what she needed to say, and he had said everything he needed to say.

It was all up to her. He watched her silently as she had an internal struggle within herself, whimpering and running her hand through her hair, to pacing around and gripping her hands into fists.

Then something clicked.

The things that Kai had given Liam before he went in to see Jamie alone was sitting on the lamp table next to her bed. On a closer inspection, Jamie made out it was a small strawberry milk carton and a single peppermint.

Liam saw her eyes narrow in thought as she realized it was, a strawberry milk carton and a peppermint. One item from her time at the I.O., one item from her time at Rosella's house. Both were major times periods in her life and neither was easy, but she overcame them both and made irreversible impact and memories. Jamie tested the carton slowly to see if it was still cold. She opened it and after eyeing the milk with a slight frown, took a sip before drinking a decent amount of it.

Secret weapon number two had just been exposed: milk and peppermint.

Jamie stayed quiet for a while longer. She looked at the carton, then to the peppermint which she later popped in her mouth, and back to the carton. Liam's eyes narrowed slightly when her body shifted and she turned to face him.

With head slightly tilted to the side, and arms crossed across her chest, Liam watched as a soft smile emerge on Jamie's face, which later turned into several frowns in pain before her smile was stable. Jamie sighed slowly out loud and startled him before she met his eyes this time and his whole body rushed with warmth the moment he saw a glint of life back in her eyes.

"" (My goodness...).

Liam's heart fell and his fists balled up in frustration at hearing her continue in German. But he had reacted too early, because the woman before him soon ended her statement with...

"... I'm back, Carter."

"Are you kidding me," he uttered at her in disbelief after her statement followed with silence, "You snap back when you see Kai's idea of bringing you food, but here I am being a decent man and having a conversation with you and you don't even talk to me?"

"I can hear you," Jamie stated simply, staring blankly at him from across the room.

"Oh, could you?" He remarked as he raised his eyebrows carefully at the woman, "I'm sorry, I must have missed when you began listening. Couldn't really tell since this young lady wouldn't respond, you know?"

And that's when he heard her faint laugh. She then let out a small grin and stared back at him, now a side-smirk forming on her face.

"You missed me that much?" He heard her joke, ".. I'm sorry."

Liam's eyes softened at her and he walked up to where she was standing. She placed the carton down and watched him as he shortened the distance between the two of them.

"Are you really okay now?" He asked her, his voice barely above a whisper as he looked down and cupped one side of her face with his hand.

Jamie smiled before she let out a faint sigh. "Didn't you see me struggling just now to come back to my usual self?" her voice cracked while she joked and the two of them maintained eye contact before she tore her eyes away. "I made you worry," Jamie responded on her own at last, "I made everyone worry a lot this week. You're right, I need to get myself together."

"And," she continued as she caught his attention again, "I forgive you."

Liam smirked, "Glad to have you back, Lennon."

That's when her eyes watered again. "I..." Liam opened up his arms and gave her a simple side-smile, saying, "Come." She reluctantly came into his embrace and the moment she was in his arms, Liam wrapped his arms around her tightly and placed one hand around her waist and the other on her hair, stroking it gently. Jamie buried her face into his chest and tried her best to muffle out any noise from herself.

"Thank you," she whispered in his arms after a while, "Thank you for coming back."

He pulled her away so that they could make eye contact once more. "Lennon," he said, searching her eyes for some glint of realization, "Wherever you are, I will always watch over you. I'll always be there, and I'll always come back. Can you bear with that?"

She cocked her head to the side slowly and frowned before replacing it with a confused smile, "What?"

"I'm saying I love you, Jamie Antoinette Lennon."

"Shit, you do?"

He stared at her with wide eyes as the response hit him unexpectedly. That was not the reaction he had in mind.

"Yes?" His statement came out more like a question and his brows arched up in caution, waiting.

Jamie frowned and bit her lip, contemplating something. "Was I.. supposed to do something emotional just then? Did I mess it up?"

"Uh.."

"We just hugged," she was analyzing the situation way too hard, "so was I supposed to.. kiss you? Or were you going to kiss.. me? Did I spoil something.. oh no." She buried her face in her hands and he stood there looking at her, a hand covering his mouth to hide the expression he had on at the moment.

She was making it unbelievably awkward, but the atmosphere was shifting to a more positive one, and frankly, Liam was enjoying watching the girl surprise him with her innocence. He dropped his hand down and his amused smirk became exposed.

"I'm sorry," Jamie looked back up at him and there was a slight whiny, panic feeling etched in her words, "I messed it up. I'm not used to this. This isn't myself. I-Is there a way for us to redo—"

He shut her off as he closed the distance between their bodies and gently let his lips touch hers, tilting his head slowly as he deepened the kiss. Jamie hesitantly followed lead and before long, they shared their third kiss. He was careful with her. The kiss wasn't lusty nor powerful, but its simplicity still sent sparks throughout their bodies and it consoled each other on things that words couldn't convey. The two pulled away when they had to get air back into their lungs. Soon, they stood there holding each other in their arms, heaving in low, soft breaths only for the other to hear, both hearts beating in sync with one another.

You know what they say. Third time's a charm.

-

M I N N A