Jimmy exits from his kitchen with a bowl of popcorn in hand as he notices the new text on his phone. He chews a mouthful of popcorn, slowing down as he reads each...and...every...

...word.

He looks around for a few moments, his roommate sitting beside him on the couch, confused as he is. "Hey, Paul."

"Yeah?"

"Let me borrow your car."

---

Traffic couldn't stop him, he knew her address, and he didn't know she was back in town and he remembered every line that Mulder had said in the second season and fuck he needed tonight. His jacket was half on, he was honking his horn but he was in the wrong in all honesty, but that didn't matter. He was on a warpath tonight.

He pops a mint, he's out of the car. He hates Altoids and he spits him out, and fuck Paul for buying Altoids.

He took the stairs, as he was inclined to usually, and then he was at the door and he realized at that moment that he hadn't seen her in months. Yeah, sex was on his mind, but it had truly been a few months since he had seen Eva and he actually loved her. His hand was on the doorknob when he realized that, she had called him back and wow he actually loved her. And it wasn't about sex, it was about something else and he was opening the door and there she was. Sipping wine because of course she was, that's her in a nutshell to be hones-

"How's it going?"

She hugged him and he realized why he was steady with her. She talked, and he listened, that's how their conversations actually went. "You missed me? Hell, I missed you." For a moment he was surprised that she seemed surprised that he came, of course he would, but then his mind drifted for a few moments and he was back, but it took a little bit.

The hug ended, he seemed to linger in his stance, hands in pocket and a gait that rested on his backfoot. "So I'll take it the tour went well though."

"I think I could go without the wine." He smirks. Usually he'd go for the beer, but he wasn't quite feeling it that night. "No crazy tour stories or anything like that?"

"White-girl-wasted is fine by me." replied Jimmy with a grin, as he pulled his jacket off. He hadn't been in her apartment for a while, seemed like it was empty today at least. His thoughts were broken apart when he heard about the bee as he broke down into laughter, "Did it sting you? Maybe you and the hooker could both do coke in one of those bee-hives with those big suits on."

"What you call wild-flailing, I call Eva-Fu." Jimmy jokes, "Nah, I've been watching my figure. Don't think a few bottles of brew'll help that out." His eyes linger on the bottle of vodka a little long, "Nah, I think I'm fine. I din't do much while you were gone, went to a few shows, ate a few burgers. Same ol', same ol'."

She smiles at him and he already knew he would come back, and her smile was just a re-iteration of what he already knew. He sounded so fucking corny when he talked himself through situations in his head and she seemed to be a bit more grounded. In a way at least. Her head was on his chest and he wrapped his arms around her and, "I don't think I could have been a dick...I don't think you would've done anything while on tour and..." He sighs for a moment, "...I think this is the realest thing that has happened to me in a while."

Eva circled her fingers around her mug and stared absentmindedly at the steam rising off of the cup of coffee. She wasn't much of a morning person - never had been, even when she was a kid. The idea of getting out of her apartment and going places had always been exciting for her, but the actual action of getting out of bed and getting ready to greet the day consistently left her feeling more exhausted than she ever felt the night before. That's why she tended to take her time with waking up - two or three cups of coffee while sitting on her couch in her PJs, maybe rewatching an episode of The Sopranos (an odd choice for the morning, she was aware, but one that she made all the same), and then maybe she could talk herself into getting dressed. Maybe.

The past month had been an odd time for her. Her career was slightly on hold while the rest of the group figured out what they wanted to do in moving forward - and while Eva was certainly a fan of continuing this strive into the music business, this break had reintroduced her to what life had been like before they started making the hit singles and the money, and she definitely wasn't hating it. "It's nice to feel normal again," she had found herself thinking only a few days ago, and this notion made her realize that she wouldn't be too terribly upset if the other girls decided that it was time they went their separate ways. There was a quiet nostalgia to feeling like she didn't need to meet a deadline or impress anybody anymore, but, of course, she recognized that a lot of this sentimental longing came from the fact that how she felt now reminded her of how she had been when she and Jimmy first met. She had been unknown, normal, and seemingly so young then. Not that she felt like much of her personality had changed since a year or so ago - it was just interesting to Eva to see how quickly the past tended to repeat itself. She took a sip of her coffee and made a small face as she realized that she had misjudged the warmth of the drink, and had definitely burned her tongue for at least the rest of the day. Oh well. Just another morning.

Jimmy's knocking had been lost in the sound of Tony Soprano's Beretta being fired, a noise that was being played much louder than usual as Eva tried to wake herself up by turning up the volume on the television - it was more that haunting suspicion that somebody was behind the door that made Eva mute her TV and stare for a moment before standing up from her couch and approaching the front of her apartment. Maybe it was the mafia television - or maybe it was just that wary misgiving that every woman who lives alone has when they hear a knock on their door - but she kept very quiet as she put her eye to the peep hole, peering out to see who it was. "Oh!" She smiled brightly and immediately opened the door, seeing Jimmy on the other side. "You're not a murderer at all!" That fact made her smile grow even wider as she stood aside to let him in.

There was gunfire on the television again, and Eva motioned to it, as if that were an explanation as to why she immediately jumped to the worst-case-scenario when he knocked. "When you're a mafia don like me, Jimmy, you always have to be thinking ahead. Contingency plans and all that - like Batman." She didn't hesitate to wrap her arms around him when he offered, though, pressing herself tightly against him. "But, hello. It's good to see you."