Playing With Fire

37

Jamie woke up few hours later with a headache. Her eyes barely opened and her face was covered with dried tears. She rubbed her eyes and swiped her palms over her face, sighing. She was alone.

"Hey. Did you have a pleasant nap?" Nadia came in.

"It was okay." she lied. The nightmares had been, once again, horrible but her body was too tired to fight back.

"You know, you can always talk to me." Nadia said, carefully taking Jamie's hand in hers "I'm here for you."

"So you could report back to Eric?"  Jamie asked despised, pulling away her hand. He had everybody reporting things back to him. Control freak, she thought.

"No. To help you." Nadia said sweet, brushing Jamie's greasy hair back.

"Thank you." she sighed "At the moment I want to just be left alone."

"It'll get easier." she said taking a tray from the table "Food. Eric brought you."

"Then I definitely don't want it." Jamie said annoyed.

"Stop hating him." Nadia said "He has his faults but he loves you so much and he's not gonna give up."

Jamie ignored her and turned to the side, in thoughts until she dozed off. But her dreams were restless, like a prison, torturing her soul and body, her stuck in there.

Eric came back to the infirmary to check on Jamie after he was done with his responsibilities. He came in, seeing her sleeping, her eyes still buffy and red.

"Hi." Emma came in and checked her. Eric monitored her every move trying to read something out of it.

"How is she?" Eric asked tired.

"She was awake 2 hours ago. Felt alone and depressed, didn't ate, still hates you." she said to him, feeling sorry for them.

"She needs to eat." Eric looked at her eyes "She's been crying again."

"She's going through things." Emma said sighing sad.

"I feel so helpless." Eric said holding his head against his hands, grabbing his hair in frustration.

"Just be there." Emma said "And remember, this takes time."

"Easy for you to say. She doesn't want me here." Eric said bitter.

She twist and turned, twitching and shifting from time to time, mumbling something. Eric sat down to guard her sleep, wishing he could enter her dreamworld to fight the demons. Kill them cold-blooded.

After some time she was more restless so Eric stood up and laid down next to her, feeling her body relax momentarily. She was still uneasy but it didn't progress into yelling and crying. Some time later Emma peeked in for a moment and Eric raised his head to see her. She showed thumbs up and he looked Jamie. She had calmed down and was in deep sleep. Eric took her hand and tried to sleep but there was a knock on the door and Michael's head peeked in.

"What is it?" Eric asked, bit annoyed. Michael yanked his head towards the corridor.

Eric sighed and got up carefully, walking to Michael, warning him "It better be important."

"Martin wanted me to inform you that he managed to arrange the meeting for tomorrow afternoon." Michael said and added, tapping his tab "Sending you the details now." Eric rubbed his eyes, nodding.

"Is that all?" Eric asked tired.

"And to make sure you eat." Michael said with a smile. Eric looked at his watch. It was dinner time. He looked at Jamie for a moment and then said "Alright."

Jamie woke up from another nightmare, panting and crying. She was alone again. Emma came in, trying to calm her down.

"It's okay, it was a bad dream again." she said, patting Jamie's hand "Eric's been guarding you in your sleep."

Hearing what she said, Jamie felt a slight stab going through her heart but decided not to react to that. Emma checked her vitals for a quiet moment when Eric walked in carrying the tray with a dinner, determined to stay by her side.

"You're up." he said placing the tray on the side table "Just in time for dinner."

"I'm not hungry." Jamie said turning her head on the other way.

He stood there for a moment, staring at her, she could feel his irritated stare burning on her. Then he stepped next to her, leaning his arms on the bed, saying irritated "Well, in that case, I'm gonna give Nadia an order to keep you here and feed you through tube until you get that I won't let you starve to death." He grabbed her chin and turned her to face him. "How's it gonna be?" He looked at Jamie's, looking for an agreement. She nodded, clenching her teeth.

"Yeah? You're gonna eat?" he asked again and she nodded saying through her teeth "Yes."

"Good!" he said and came closer and took his knife from the belt, making her alarmed. He showed the knife in his hand, his other hand motioning her to calm down "Easy. I'm just gonna cut these off." She glanced at her bandages and calmed a bit. Eric went closer to her, closer he's been in days when she was awake. He cut the bandages off, carefully removing them. She had looked at the distance, in thoughts, ignoring his breath on her neck.

"Are you gonna behave?" he asked looking an agreement from her eyes. She nodded. Way too quickly, he realized and grabbed the handcuffs from his belt and cuffed her one hand to the bed. She trashed her feet around the bed and slapped him, trying to get free, but he was too strong.

"Asshole!" she spat out slapping him on his cheek. He yanked his head away, looking at her, his nostrils flared. Things would have ended way differently, if they weren't in a hospital room. He brushed his fingers over her jaw line and chin, making her yank her head away. To his annoyance he remembered their situation and pulled away. He went to the table, trying to calm down. He knew he had to be the better person here. So he took the tray and went to place it on her lap "Now taste it! It's delicious." and added pleased "And I got you a slice of Dauntless cake for desert. I know you love it." saying the last part sweet. Jaime had looked at the distance and glanced now at the food. Eric encouraged her optimistically "Go on."