Just as Laurel tried to forget about Jamie, Jamie did his best to forget about Laurel. Her apartment, although small, felt comfortable. He was sure it was a warm location, with soft, well worn furniture that was comfortable from use. Under any other circumstances, it would not have been a bad place to wait indefinitely.
But this was not any other circumstances, and Jamie was uncomfortable. Not physically uncomfortable, as that was impossible, but uncomfortable through anxiety. Not only did he hate the emotions he could feel coming off of Laurel, and the anxiety it was causing both of them, he hated the wait. He had no idea what was coming, or even when.
Part of what made Jenna and Derek such a fearsome duo when they finally decided to work together was the fact that they were polar opposites. Despite being only a paralegal at the moment, Jenna was a lawyer at heart, and that made her wonderful at planning. She was a strategist, able to take in massive quantities of information and synthesize them into almost anything she wanted. Derek, on the other hand, was a doer. He took very little time to plan, but acted on gut instinct and the luck that seemed to have followed him his whole life. He made half a plan that felt right, and then he followed it through to the end, somehow managing to pull everything off despite the improbability of the whole situation. For this reason, despite the fact that he had carefully observed both Jenna and Derek, trying to figure out what they were planning, Jamie knew very little. His observation had been intense, in his attempts to distract himself from the decisions he had to make about Laurel, and though both of them had done a lot of things, none of them seemed to relate to the FBI agent.
Derek was going to be the one who actually executed the plan, whenever it actually happened, and Laurel hadn’t pressured him for the exact details, or any details, of the plan. It was obviously partially because she knew trying to pin down Derek was like trying to catch a wasp, and partially because she trusted herself enough to take whatever he did and spin it to her benefit. Derek was, of course, as impossible as ever. People respected and feared him, and no one questioned the things he had told them to do. The only way that Jamie knew he had actually given the orders for the plan that he would attempt was when he came to a rest, because Derek would not have stopped until all the balls were in motion.
Now Jamie could only wait, going over all the little details in his head again and again, and hope that he would catch what was happening before it was too late to stop it. Of course, even if he did catch it, how could he possibly stop Laurel from walking into the trap? He couldn’t make a sound, couldn’t touch anything, and Laurel was doing everything in her power to ignore him. Of course she was. She had no way of knowing that this strange specter was actually the consciousness of James Weller, and not just some figment of her imagination. He would never have believed it, were their situations reversed. Her silent frustration shouldn’t have surprised him.
Of course, that was the moment that Laurel spoke. Had he been in his body, Jamie would have flinched. Her communication was that unexpected. Instead, all he did was turn his head, staring
at her blankly.
What did he do? Did she actually want to interact with him? The strange, strained tone of her voice led Jamie to believe that, no, she didn’t. She wanted him to go away, and she was willing to do anything to achieve that. Even try acknowledging him. But Jamie wasn’t in a position to be particular. Anything to make this situation more comfortable. Anything to make it so that, when the moment came, she might be willing to listen to his advice.
He stood up, carefully, walking over towards her. He tried to look comfortable, but moving his body had been so automatic that he had never thought about it. Now he had to move each part of his spectral “body” through the power of his mind, and even if he got the general idea correct there were tiny things that he missed. Consciously, Laurel would never be able to pick them out. Subconsciously, though, she would see them, and it would only serve to make him more unnerving. Somehow, though, he figured it was better than the leaping “movement” that felt so natural to him now.