Jamie didn't notice Laurel approaching until she was right on top of him.  He tensed as he saw her hand drawing close, fully expecting to feel her fingers grab his shoulder, to find that, somehow, he had become real again, at least to her, but such was not his luck.  Her fingers passed right through him, and she fled upstairs, in a state of utter panic.  It was no better for Jamie than it was for her.  His world had been flipped completely upside down for the second time that day, and there was no one to explain it to him or comfort him or make it all better.  He was utterly alone, and completely confused.  Suddenly, the constant effort required to keep himself bound to Laurel was far, far more than he could possibly maintain.  He came unstuck from her with all the frustrated pain of ripping off a bandage, and the world went dark as he spun away into nothingness.

When he settled again, it was to the same sound that had originally accompanied his awakening; the steady, constant beeping of the heart monitor, and the rasping hiss of the life support machine that forced air into his lungs over and over again, keeping his body from giving up.  His body hadn't moved an inch.  All the bandages were still in the exact same places.  It was like he had dreamed everything.

Jamie whirled away in disgust, unable to stand the sight of himself laying there, so utterly helpless.  He wanted to cry, to scream, to find some way to release the tension that was building inside of him like a hurricane, but without his body there was nothing.

Behind him, the heart machine stuttered.  Jamie flinched back, finding his frustration instantly replaced by ice cold fear.  But, no, his heart rate had already returned to normal, if it had ever deviated at all.

He had to get out of this room.  It was driving him mad.  He raced to the door, pushing his way through it unconsciously, only to skid to a halt when he found himself nose to nose with Jenna.  He was completely frozen, simultaneously hoping and fearing with all his heart that her eyes were going to lock onto his face, just like Laurel, and she would go stumbling back, incapacitated by both joy and fear.  Jenna, for her part, did no such thing, only reaching right through him to grab onto the door handle.  Behind her stood Derek, his face surprisingly gentle.  Other than the nurse walking down the hallway who had escorted Jenna and Derek to his room, the area was completely deserted except for the three of them.  Or perhaps it would be more accurate to say the two of [i]them[/i], for Jamie's silent, ghostly presence hardly seemed to count in that moment.

They moved into the room side by side, with Jamie keeping pace just behind them, careful not to cling so close that he might accidentally pass through them.  For a moment there was silence as they both stared at his comatose body, before Jenna made a small sound, almost inaudible.  Derek looked over at her, just in time to catch her as her legs gave out from under her.  He dragged her over to the chair next to his body, and Jenna was silent and wide eyed, like all the emotion had just frozen up inside of her.  When she finally reached out fumbling her hand into his own limp one, the tears began to run.  Derek turned away slightly, uncomfortable with the sight of her tears and uncertain how to deal with them.

Jamie, however, was staring at his own ephemeral hand with an expression of wonder on his face.  Consciously he understood that he could just be making up the faint, warm tingles he felt building in his hand, but the hope that this strange, spectral form of his was still somehow intimately bound to his physical body was too sweet to resist.  He concentrated with all his might, balling his hand up into a fist, as he desperately tried to eke out even a tiny twitch from his unresponsive fingers, to let Jenna know he felt what she was doing and he appreciated it.  His effort was entirely futile.  Long before Jamie was able to find whatever connection separated his thoughts and his body Jenna got her tears back under control.  She gave his hand one final squeeze before letting go.

Satisfied that Jenna was done crying, Derek moved forwards again.  "Hey, mate.  You'd better get yourself well again soon."  Derek leaned in closer, his face serious.  "We'll make her pay.  I promise you, we will make her pay for what she's done to you."

Jamie felt his heart tighten.  He certainly couldn't say that he had forgiven Agent Shaw for what she had done to him, especially if he was going to die, but at the same time the look on both Derek and Jenna's face as they stared at his broken body sent shivers up his spine.  He was afraid of what they were going to try and do in a misguided attempt to "get even", and what kind of consequences it was going to have for the both of them.

"What are we going to do?" Jenna asked softly, twining her hand back into Jamie's.

"I've got an idea, and it will end up an absolute catastrophe for the agent.  The signs of her utter incompetence will keep building, and you can use that to ruin her career and her life."

Jenna was nodding her head, but Jamie was staring open mouthed at the conversation he was hearing.  It wasn't what they were planning to do to Laurel that had him surprised, Jamie knew full well that Derek was a criminal, and Jenna worked for a firm that was often on the wrong side of the moral line.  While neither of them were killers, they were certainly not afraid of ruining a few reputations.  No, what really surprised Jamie was the fact that the two of them were fully intending to work together.   Derek and Jenna had learned to tolerate each others' presence because of him, but that was as far as it had ever gotten, apart from the occasional drunken evening.  They had always been on opposite sides of the same game.  Jenna was a lawyer, and it was her job to work within the law to get what she wanted, even if that did involve exploiting the occasional loophole.  Derek's methods, however, were anything but legal.  Each saw the other as somehow inferior, one because she didn't have the courage to step outside the law, and the other because he didn't have the strength to stay within it.

Jamie was as flattered as he was unnerved by the unexpected liaison.  All the same, he wished he had a way to stop them.  He would simply have to keep an eye out for an opportunity.

"Here's what I'm thinking..."