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“Popcorn?” Eddie offered, holding the bowl out to Jamie as he sat down next to her.
“Sure,” he nodded, reaching out to grab a handful. His hand froze halfway, though, and he glanced up at her, eyes squinted suspiciously. “Did you already put chocolate in this?”
Eddie exhaled heavily, flashing an amused grin as she pushed the bowl into his hands. “No, you big baby, I didn’t. I decided to leave it out this time around. I didn’t want to upset your delicate sensibilities.”
“Ed, you put gummy bears in once,” he reminded her pointedly. “Gummy bears.”
“And what’s wrong with that?” Eddie shot back, snagging a piece of popcorn from the bowl.
“You did it the second the popcorn was done popping, babe. They melted almost instantly. It was a huge mess.”
“Oh.” She cocked her head to the side, considering. “Yeah, I remember that. Okay, so maybe there are a few types of candy that don’t belong in popcorn, but chocolate is not one of them, buddy. There is such a thing as chocolate-coated popcorn, you know.”
“And that’s all fine and good, for people who like that sort of thing. Me, I’m fine with good old-fashioned popcorn.”
“Fine,” Eddie sighed, reclaiming the bowl when he held it out to her. “Be boring, then.”
“I will, thanks.” He grabbed a handful of popcorn from the bowl, then glanced back toward the TV, brow furrowing as he noticed it was still on the home screen. “It’s your turn to choose, you know.”
“I do,” Eddie nodded, smile slipping as she glanced toward the screen. “I got distracted before I could pick something out, though. It’s fine. You decide.”
“No, you watched that documentary I wanted to watch last time…”
“Which was just fascinating,” she deadpanned, making him grin.
“So now it’s your chance to make me suffer.” He reached out to squeeze her ankle, and she glanced up at him, mustering up a soft smile. “Hey there. Where’d you go?”
She shook her head, as if to clear her mind, and then offered him a smile so obviously fake, it almost hurt him to look at it. “Nothing. Nowhere. I just...” She sighed quietly, glancing at him with sad eyes. “Flores stepped away for, what, sixty seconds? And his partner got shot.”
“Gordon’s going to be fine, though,” he reminded her reassuringly. “The doctors, they say he’s officially out of the woods.”
“It’s not just that,” she admitted quietly, reminding him softly, “That time you nearly got shot, I wasn’t gone much longer than that.”
Jamie felt the air rush from his lungs, and he mentally kicked himself for not seeing the similarities in the situations much earlier. “Yeah, well, I didn’t get shot,” he reminded her, voice still gentle. “And while I’m not ever going to like either of us getting shot at, I’ve got to say, I’m actually pretty alright with how that all worked out. I’m a big fan of the outcome.”
She cracked a smile. “Are you saying that, if you hadn’t had a gun shoved in your face that day, we might not have ended up here?”
“Oh, chances are I’d still be hopelessly pining away,” he said lightly.
“And I’d still be constantly annoyed with you for being unable to take a hint,” she droned, making him grin. “And hopelessly pining away myself, of course.”
“Of course,” he echoed dryly.
Her smile faltered for a moment. “I've also been meaning to say... I'm sorry. You were right.”
“About what?” he questioned confusedly.
“What you said about not taking matters into our own hands. I mean, we have got to be better than the people we’re going after. If we’re not, if we’re killing people in the streets, shooting them in cold blood, then what’s the point anymore? If we’re all the same…” She trailed off, shaking her head. “I know you’re right. I know it. But sometimes, when a cop gets shot, and I have to watch their partner suffer right with them, I… I turn into a person the person I am normally probably wouldn’t like very much.”
“I like you,” he said, seriously.
“Even when I’m mean to you?”
“Even then,” he assured her.
“Even when I’m wrong?” she pressed.
“Eddie,” he murmured, smiling as she moved closer, her head falling to his shoulder as she reached for a handful of popcorn, “I like you all the time.”