Who. Jamie Dinozzo & Gavin James What. Pain. Lots of pain. Where. New York State Prison in Ray Brook When. Tuesday afternoon, May 28th 2013 Warnings. I CAN'T EVEN HANDLE THIS RIGHT NOW
For over a month now, Jamie had been coming to visit Gavin at least twice a week. If she could she would just camp out there, but unfortunately the week's work piled up a lot faster when you were short a partner, and she was committed to working alone. Since Gavin had been arrested, the NYPD had repeatedly tried to force new partners on her and Jamie had vehemently denied all of them for one singular, crucial reason. None of them were Gavin James.
Gavin James, the goddamn fucking shining beacon of the force, who was currently in prison for murder. Jamie knew he hadn't done it, and she knew it'd been some kind of really fucked up set up, she just didn't have any proof yet. Lucky for them, they had the Avengers on their side thanks to Jessica and Luke, so hopefully something would turn up soon. Every day that Gavin spent behind bars was another day that Jamie went without much sleep, keeping herself up at night worrying. Worrying about him, worrying about what would happen if they never found proof. They had to. She couldn't live with herself if they never got him out of there. Just the thought of Gavin in prison for this long sent her into a near blind rage, of all the people in this stupid world he was maybe the one who least deserved it. He was a good cop, a good person, and... And, she loved him. That was something she'd had to come to terms with after his arrest, something she'd been struggling with for a long time, but finally faced with the reality of being apart from him, it wasn't something she could deny anymore.
She still denied it to him of course, never saying as much whenever she visited him, but he knew. She was sure he knew, as well as Luke had known that Jessica loved him. That should have made it easier, but it only made it harder to bear, because Jessica was without Luke too now, and neither women were handling it very well. Every day she wanted to tell him, every day that they were separated by that thick glass, forbidden to touch. It was agony.
The only thing that really kept Jamie going these days was Jessica. Jessica still gave her hope when Jamie felt beyond hopeless, and it helped her refocus, concentrate on Gavin's case as they continued the endless pursuit of finding a way to free Gavin. She'd had drinks with Iris, Gavin's half-sister a couple times too, and the women had commiserated together as only two headstrong, foul mouthed heroines who loved the booze could. It was a comfort to Jamie, but she still went to bed every night missing her partner in a very real, achingly familiar way. It would have been a relief, had it not been for the circumstances involved, to be given a temporary break from that particular pain in favor of another. When Samantha Ellis, reincarnate of Natasha Romanova, had shown up at Jamie's door on Friday night, Jamie had been hoping it was with news of Gavin's case. It wasn't. Her sister was dead.
News of Star's death had sent Jamie tail spinning back into her grief (and a few bottles of vodka), so guilt ridden that in all the chaos of Gavin's arrest she'd forgotten to check in with her sister in the last couple months. Jamie had been angry with Star when she had deserted the Avengers and left with barely a goodbye to anyone, and now Jamie just felt like an idiot. She should have known. She should have known something was wrong. That hadn't been like Star. But there wasn't a Star anymore to talk about. Only a dead sister. Jamie had spent the weekend soaking in her own misery, missing work on Monday and only dragging herself out of bed on Tuesday to finally go see Gavin. It'd been five days, and she needed to see him. Dressed in civilian clothes with her hair pulled back (she'd splashed cold water on her face at home to get rid of the puffiness), Jamie barely flinched as the loud buzzer overhead announced that someone was entering from the other side, and she moved robotically to pick up the phone. "Hey."