It was just her and Dean in that hospital room for about a day. He would occasionally leave to go find her more satisfying things to consume other than IV nutrients: cranberry juice, Jell-O, and, when things got really exciting, pudding.

The Feds still hadn't paid her a visit. Every time the door opened, Sophia half expected it to be Travers, barging in brandishing a pen and paper or a recording device so he could get her full statement. But it was always either Dean, coming back armed with food, or her doctors and nurses, coming in to check on her and adjust her medication.

While Sophia was rather glad that she didn't have to talk to Travers and go through her whole ordeal with him, it stung a bit that Jamie hadn't dropped by. She knew they weren't really friends, but they had lived next door to each other for several months. Jamie had seen her at her lowest points. Sophia felt like that created a connection that would at least warrant a brief hospital visit.

"I think it's the doctors and nurses here," Dean commented when she mentioned it to him. "I don't think any of them are particularly pleased by the fact that you were under F.B.I. protection and yet, this still happened with you. So I think they're being a bit stricter on the 'no visitors' policy, at least when it comes to them."

By the frown on his face, Sophia guessed it wasn't just the employees at Mt. Sinai who were displeased by how the Feds handled the situation. "Dean, I don't blame Jamie," she said gently, "and neither should you."

Dean just nodded.

He hadn't left. Except to go get food, he had remained in the chair by her hospital bed, making sure she was comfortable, grilling the doctors with questions whenever they came in with updates, attending to her every need. He never asked her to talk about what she went through; when she started crying, he just held her hand in silence, letting her get out what she needed to get out.

And she loved him for it.

She loved him so desperately; at times it almost overwhelmed the darkness that clouded inside her. But they never talked about it. They never talked about L.A., about their life before all of this. They never talked about what would happen after Sophia got out of the hospital. Their conversations were limited to pudding, medical jargon, and whatever stupid daytime soap opera happened to be playing at the moment.

Sophia was grateful for that, in some ways. She wasn't in any state to tell Dean everything she wanted to tell him. But she was also dying inside, not knowing why exactly he was here. He obviously still cared about her, but was care all it was? Did he still love her? Or had she broken his heart too far beyond that? Was he seeing someone back in L.A.?

That thought made her stomach churn more than any medication they gave her.

When Jamie finally did come, Sophia knew it was someone new just by the knock on the door. The agent stepped in as Sophia prompted her to, and the relief on the agent's face when she saw Sophia was obvious. But just as clear as the relief was the guilt. And Sophia would have none of that.

"Agent McKenzie," Sophia greeted, "it's about damn time."

Jamie closed the door behind her but remained standing stiffly in the corner. She was exhausted, Sophia could tell. She wondered if Jamie had slept since Sophia disappeared.

An awkward silence fell, and out of the corner of her eye, Sophia could see Dean shooting the agent daggered looks.

Unfortunately for both of them, Sophia's zero tolerance for bullshit was one of the first aspects of her personality to come back, and in greater force than before. "Okay, both of you, knock it off," she chastised them. "Jamie, sit. Please."

Dean's expression softened and Jamie did as she asked, taking the chair on the other side of Sophia's bed.

"You're here for my official statement?" Sophia guessed, her insides twisting.

But Jamie shook her head. "No, not yet. Unless you want to."

The look in Sophia's eye told Jamie all that she needed to know.

"I wanted to check in on you," the agent admitted. "And answer any questions that you might have."

"What happened?" Sophia didn't waste any time. She wanted to know. "After I was abducted, what happened?"

Jamie took a deep breath and then sighed. "Travers and I were in a meeting with our SAC," she began. "Special Agent in Charge," she clarified. "That's why neither of us answered your calls. He was, for lack of a better word, chewing us out for the failure in Chicago and then for not moving you when it happened. We got your messages maybe five minutes after you called, and well, let's just say that no one at the Bureau has really gotten rest since then.

"I went to the apartment to see if you had made it back, and Travers went to the hospital to confirm you left. When you weren't at work and you weren't at your apartment, we knew something had gone wrong.

"Let me tell you, nothing is more infuriating than how few cameras in the subways actually work. We got a camera of you going into your usual subway station, but couldn't get an accurate picture of what actually happened down there. We had all of our tech people working on it, scanning cameras at every exit of every station to see if you showed up on any of them.

"Obviously you didn't, although it was hard to say for certain, but it made sense that you would be down in the tunnels somewhere. He had used underground hideouts in the past."

"I still can't believe you found me," Sophia admitted, tears pricking again at the corner of her eyes.

"Let's just say, we may have upset many, many New Yorkers," Jamie said. "We got them to shut down the entire subway system in Manhattan, got the NYPD involved, called in agents from other states. There was a massive manhunt, combing through those tunnels."

And even through all of that, Graham had somehow managed to sneak in and out, going so far as to go and get pizza. If he hadn't been such a horrible person, the Feds probably would have tried to recruit him. Or maybe the C.I.A. He certainly had the skills to hide in plain sight.

But that manhunt is probably what made Graham feel like the Feds were closing in on him. They were, quite literally, all trapped down there together.

"But we got lucky," Jamie said flatly. "That's the long and short of it. He didn't actually move you that far, and we got some good information from the MTA about where good spots to be out of the way might be."

"And once you found the right door?" Sophia asked cautiously. Beside her, Dean twitched. "Were you, were you there?"

Jamie gave a short nod. "It was, uh, it was quite a sight, I'll admit. Everyone was expecting to have to go in guns blazing, but—"

"But I did the job for you." It was the first time Sophia had spoken in any way of what she had had to do down there, and an uncomfortable silence fell across the three of them.

"We had EMTs on standby, so they were down in a flash," Jamie finally continued. "It was touch and go for a while, but—"

"But here I am." Sophia cut her off again. She studied the agent. Jamie was usually so composed, a certified badass, but now she looked uncertain. Scared, almost. "Dean?" Sophia asked softly. "Would you give us a minute?"

He seemed to have been expecting that. Giving her hand a light squeeze, he left the two of them alone.

"Sophia, I am so, so—"

"I don't want to fucking hear it," Sophia said stoutly. "I don't blame you. This isn't your fault, okay?"

"If I had just picked up your call..."

"If you had picked up the call, if Travers had picked up the call, if I hadn't left the hospital on my own, if I had stayed in the center of the Subway platform, if, if, if." Sophia scoffed and shook her head. "I'm tired of throwing blame around. I'm tired of being angry. I just want to appreciate the fact that I'm alive."

Jamie regarded her with thoughtful eyes. "I appreciate you saying that," she finally said. "But it was my job to protect you."

"And you did," Sophia said. "In more ways than one. But no one's perfect, and honestly? Graham would have caught up to me eventually."

Jamie's eyes widened at her use of the name.

"I can say it," Sophia said. "I don't want to be afraid of him, not anymore. He doesn't hold any power over me. He doesn't deserve that."

That wasn't exactly true. Thinking about him still sent shivers up Sophia's spine, and still made her feel slightly ill. But she refused to give in to that fear. Maybe one day a therapist would insist that exposure therapy wasn't the best course of treatment, but right now, that's what Sophia was going with.

"He's taken so much of my life," Sophia continued on, her eyes flickering to the door that Dean had just disappeared behind. "I'm not letting him take any more of it."

Jamie nodded. "How is that going, with him?" she asked, her eyes following Sophia's to the door.

"I don't know." She leaned her head back on her pillows. "Thank you, for calling him and bringing him here," she said sincerely. "But we haven't talked about any of the hard shit, yet. Or, at least I hope yet. Maybe he doesn't want to."

Jamie looked at her thoughtfully. "For what it's worth, I highly doubt that he flew all the way across the country just because he's a good person," she said. "I was there when he got here, and honestly, distraught doesn't even cover it. I've never seen someone so agitated, which was shocking given what you told me about him. I figured he'd be good in a crisis.

"I don't know how he feels about you, or where he wants to go in your relationship," Jamie finished, "but I can almost guarantee he still loves you. Probably as much as you love him. Hell, I'll make out with Travers if I'm wrong."

Sophia couldn't suppress her smile. "Make sure to take pictures if that ever happens," she said. But then her face dropped into a frown. "You and he aren't in trouble, are you?" she asked. "Because of what happened?

"No." Sophia wondered if the agent was lying to her. "Long story short is Dempsey's dead and you're alive. In the Bureau's eyes, that's a win."

Sophia nodded. "Good."

Jamie got up. "I'll check in on you later," she said. "But I should get back to work, now."

"Hey," Sophia said, suddenly remembering, "I know you said I don't have to make my statement until later, but there's something you should know. Apparently, Graham bribed someone to get Travers's flight plan from Chicago. That's how he knew to come to New York."

Jamie nodded, but gave nothing away as to what she was thinking. Sophia didn't even know if the information was valuable. "Thank you," Jamie said. "We'll look into it."

And with that familiar pragmatism, Jamie left her alone, only for Dean to come back in armed with pudding.