Backstory Who: Jamie, Rachel rhapsodyinblue Where: Maine Women's Correctional facility When: Heavily BACKDATED About ten years ago, give or take. What: Rachel has a visitor Notes: This is a much younger and naive-ish Jamie, before all the really big crises that turned him into the grumpy old thirty-something man he is today. Mature he was not.
Jamie had been in a funk for weeks after solving the Rachel Argosy case. Rachel, Jamie thought with regret. He had really felt something, a deep connection with the woman. Or, had he? She had zapped him with her power and made him feel all of those things, hadn't she? She had killed a man with that same power. Technically, it had been manslaughter, but could he really trust anything the woman said after she'd used him to escape? There was just no way to prove one way or another whether she truly had not known her power could prove lethal to Harry Sharp's weak heart. Well, there was a way, but Xavier had refused to read her mind, on moral principle. No matter. She hadn't stopped to ask if Jamie might also have a weak heart before using her power on him, anyway.
I have a weak heart, alright. Falling for a murderer. Great going, Jamie. But, maybe she was telling the truth? People do stupid things when they panic, and it was her first offense... like... ever. Yeah, my freaking secondary mutation must be second guessing myself. Ugh.
Jamie was torn. He hated Rachel and couldn't forgive her because everything had felt so real to him. She had literally made him love her. Then again, in hindsight, Jamie recalled his very first reaction to her. He'd been smitten before she had even made any sound in his general direction. Jamie had found Rachel stunning, nineties fashions notwithstanding. (Not like he could talk in the fashion department.) In the end, Jamie felt he needed to talk to her, to get some closure somehow. Or at least, that's what he told himself. Maybe he secretly just wanted to see her again.
He wore a simple jacket over a plain shirt, instead of his uniform, as he got out of his parked rental car. Since her escape attempt, Rachel had been moved to a higher security facility. It had not been exactly easy getting this visit on the schedule, what with him not only having no legal relation to Rachel, but also being a known mutant. His visitation clearance request had been initially denied because he had a record, for one. Not to mention that he and Quicksilver had broken Rachel out of prison before putting her back (*). It took more than a few calls to the Two Forks authorities, who had called him to help put Rachel away in the first place, so they'd put in a good word for him and, after many weeks and much red tape, Jamie was grudgingly allowed a visit.
After an hours-long wait, he was led to the non-contact visiting room, where he sat in a cubicle-like space in front of a thick glass pane. And waited some more.