Along came Reid

2. Where Nothing is Certain

Reid Manning was at her window.

Reid Manning was at her window at night.

Reind Manning was at her window at night with a grin that would have given the cheshire cat a run for his money.

Jamie was screwed.

Her mouth instantly dropped open, nearly crashing to the ground;  her molasses eyes instantly darted to the street where the wild deaders screeched and sprinted like cockroaches running from a light. Thankfully none of them seemed to notice the enthusiastic and oblivious Reid. Regrettably deciding to listen to her humane side, Jamie quickly opened the window and fisted her hand in his grimy shirt to yank him in before shutting it and replacing the board.

"What are you doing here?" she snapped, spinning on her heel to face him furiously.

"I wanted to see you." he huffed, doubled over with a shameless grin on his stubbled cheeks.  He rubbed his nose with his sleeve boyishly. "The museum got boring."

"Reid it's the middle of the night! You could have been killed!" she argued, her brows lifted so high it was amazing they didn't escape the atmosphere.

"Aww you do care." he snickered as he composed himself, tucking a hand beneath the strap of the ratty backpack slung over one of his shoulders.

"Wha-UGH! Why? Why are you here Reid?" Jamie asked, putting a hand to her head. Even now she knew a headache was imminent.

"You're alive?" he asked, shaking his head as if it were obvious. "Like I said, talking to paintings gets old after a while."

"You followed me?" Jamie seethed, her eye twitching in her irate disbelief.

"I guess?" Reid shrugged innocently, his eyes moving to look everywhere but at her.  "Sort of?"

"What do you mean sort of?"

"I have my ways." he explained before losing focus to curiously look over the office space, shining his flashlight into the darkness. "So this is your shelter huh? Nice digs."

"Why aren't you at yours?" Jamie grumbled pointedly, her brow twitching in her fury.

"Paintings aren't people–" He answered offhandedly as he strolled amiably through her space as if it were a museum. In Jamie's mind, if he wanted to stare contemplatively at things he should have done it at his home and not hers.  "Wow you even have a little library here." he noted  as he leaned into her designated study space. "Where did you get these books? Did you steal them Miss Fischer?" He asked with a wry smile of accusation.

"You shouldn't be here." she grouched darkly. "How did you get past the deaders?"

"Magic." he winked, seemingly unfazed by her scowl of disapproval. "I come with a peace offering." he announced as he lowered his backpack from his shoulder to rummage through it to produce a chocolate bar. "Here." he offered proudly as he held it in her direction. "Chocolate is the universal sign of peace for women isn't it?"

"That's a sexist view." she grumbled, upset that at least for her, his gesture held some truth.

"So you don't want it?" he asked temptingly wagging it in front of her.

Jamie eyed him, and then the chocolate. Considering the stuff was hard to come by after the Collapse, chocolate was in every way a delicacy. "Well I can't exactly kick you out now can I?" she sighed defeatedly snatching the bar from him.

"Awesome!" he grinned, with a slight bounce in his step. "Do you have an icebox or a fridge? I've got some perishables in my bag that need to stay fresh."

Just how long was he planning to stay here? No visitor would decide to bring food to anyone's house unless they planned to stay awhile. Jamie shuddered at the thought.  "Yeah, this way." Jamie grumbled,  jabbing her thumb towards the kitchen and led him there.

"You've got a nice little set up here." he noted, eyeing her generator and pantry.

Jamie's eyes narrowed bitterly, hoping that he wasn't thinking of mooching off of all her hard work. Reid caught her glare and raised his hands placatingly. "Don't worry, I'm not trying to crash or anything. I came with my own food so you don't have to worry about me eating yours."

Jamie shook her head and turned to one of the mini fridges where the dining area was to grab a bottle of water. By the time she'd drunk half of it, Reid had popped out of the kitchenette and joined her at one of the small eating tables.

"Thanks for not leaving me stranded out there." Reid said with appreciation. "I've been alone for months. It really starts to eat away at ya'. Gets lonely, ya' know?"

Reid must have caught the suspicious look in her eye because he instantly tried to amend his words. "I mean, people. I haven't seen or talked to anyone. I miss social interaction. I'm guessing you probably do too, though you have ol' Fido-"

"Barron." Jamie corrected with a frown.

"Yeah, that's what I said." he answered dismissively before continuing. "Anyway, you've got the dog to keep you company. Me? Paintings."

"Why didn't you get a dog?"

Reid shrugged. "I don't do well with pets."

"Barron seems to like you well enough."

"Yeah, he's a good dog. Not to sound all gross, but in the early days I did keep a dog or two, but I got hungry so–"

Jamie immediately raised her hand to stop him from speaking. "You don't need to explain." Jamie said quickly with her features half contorted in disgust.

"Yeah. Not proud of it. When you're hungry, you're hungry. I hadn't developed a system back then so really it was my fault they died."

"Now you have a system?" Jamie asked absently, her tired mind very much on autopilot.

"Yeah, sort of."

"That's good." yawned Jamie, ignoring Reid's sudden guilty expression.

"Aw I woke you up didn't I?" Reid asked apologetically.

Jamie shrugged ambiguously. Even if she was tired it wasn't like she was going to get any more sleep with him here. Reid sighed and stood. "Sorry bout' that. Why don't you go back to bed?"

"And leave some strange man to his devices in my home?" Jamie asked looking at him as if her were stupid; well, more stupid than she already thought he was.

She peeked an eye to Reid, whose face was pulled into a disturbed frown. Reid leaned forward and put a hand to her shoulder. "Come on Jamie, go to bed." Jamie let out a monstrous yawn, unable to fight the sleep that was on her heels.

"I can't leave you alone here." she reasoned as she stood. Reid followed her with his hand supporting her shoulder. Logic told her that she should have been more adverse towards his invasion of her personal space, however at the moment Jamie didn't care. She just wanted to crash.

"I'll be fine. I think I saw a few interesting books in your library so I'm going to crash there and read. You don't need to worry about me. I won't cause you any trouble. Promise, okay?"

"Sure." Jaime yawned as she crossed the threshold into her bedroom.

"Night Jamie."

"Night Reid."