[PTL Game] Julia, Alex

[spfoley]

Julia finished unloading the UV and was ready to turn toward the front door.   "Julia."   She stopped and looked toward the courtyard, barely lit at this hour.  Was it the wind or someone actually calling her? And who would be outside at this time...?   "Nick?"   It had sounded like him, but.....   She put the bags down by the door and gently jogged down the steps and around to the side, alert and hand already going to the back of the waist band and where her gun was tucked and ready.     Upstairs in the Control Room....   "Nick."   The voice was quiet and a figure passed in front of the control room walls, dark hair trailing down the woman's back as she continued walking.  It was Julia's voice, but so quiet it could have been... a sound on the gentle wind that started to hit branches against the window nearby in the hallway......     Back outside......   The front door opened and Julia straightened, seeing Alex and blinking as the other woman flicked on the front porch light on.   "Julia?" she asked, not yet seeing her friend but the bags in front of her.   Julia blinked and dismissed the sound.  It had to have been her imagination.  She had left earlier upset at his... well his lack of anything remotely near his old self or trying to make some kind, even the old friendship way, of link with her.  It was probably that that had her thinking he was off calling her for some reason.   She took the steps two at a time and lifted one bag as Alex picked up the other "Just scoping the place out.  Where're the others?"   "Taking care of Ria.  With all the noise Kat woke up." Alex walked with her as she went upstairs to her room to unpack "She's hoping you can pop by her room to peek in on her."   Julia grinned at the mention of Kat and her blue eyes livened up "Oh?  That'd be cool."   Alex helped her unpack and looked at her friend curiously, before asking point blank "You were changed weren't you?"   Julia hesitated and looked at her, then finished her motion and loaded the weapons back into their hiding place.  There was no hiding it from Alex, they were and probably always would be that kind of close.   She nodded, finally putting words to her curiosity and admitting little things that had happened earlier that night "I.. I knew Kat's nick name... from her Dad.  I think I might have met him.. over there.  I felt something when I held her hand and later found out she was having a vision.  And I felt whatever it is that's on the page.. but Alex, it's not like your Sight thing.. I felt it but... it couldn't touch me.  And it tried to."   "Could be a temporary transitional affect." Alex offered, folding up the first and then second duffle bag before giving it to her.   Julia nodded before putting those away as well "That's what I figure.  So I'll just ride it out.  I don't feel like it's something permanent, if that makes sense."   "This is the Legacy, sister." Alex joked "Everything makes some kind of sense."   Julia chuckled and then closed the panel, her gaze becoming a little somber "Alex... why is Nick... well why is he being so... "   "Remote?" Alex supplied the word and Julia nodded.  She sat on her friend's bed and sighed "I don't know.  Well I do know but I also don't know.   "Your death hit him hard.  Do you know he hasn't let one person get as close to him as you were? You two shared and talked about everything under the sun.  The way I saw you two, until you woke up and smelled the coffee that night I might add, is that you were as close as any man or woman could be without crossing that last little line into being lovers.  That's a close bond to have to anyone.  And when you died...."   Julia sat down on the bed next to her, blue eyes sad and burdened "You don't think it didn't hurt when I knew there was a damn good chance I'd never see, hear or be with him again?  It hurt so much, even there, that I couldn't move.  I wouldn't move."   She looked at her hands and sighed "Even there it felt like a part of me was missing and I wasn't moving until I got it back."   "I'm back... and I still don't have it back."   "That's because he has to have time, Julia." Alex reminded her, barely tapping their foreheads together before gently 'socking' her best friend under the chin and giving her a game grin "He wants to but his heart is wondering if you're going to be here after he opens back up and lets you back in."   Julia understood that, moreso than Alex knew considering there was that little fear in the back of her mind that she'd 'wake up' and realize she was stuck back in limbo and never having come back at all.  But she did point out a basic truth that ran through all of the Legacy Members involved in the fight against Darkness "That's true... but all of us take that risk every day in our business.  Isn't the number one rule in life to live and enjoy what you can with each day because it might just be your last?"   Alex hugged her, knowing her friend was hurting "Yeah it is, kiddo, yeah it is.  But it's Nick and I know you'll wait... no matter how hard headed he can get."   That made Julia laugh, albeit a coughed one as she returned the hug, but it did make her feel better.   They parted a minute later and Alex patted her knee "You have a very attentive girl waiting for you, young lady.  You better get to her before she comes to find you."   Julia smiled again and stood  "Tell the others I'll be there in a few, okay?"   Alex gave her a little salute and wink as she left.   "You better wake up and smell the coffee yourself, Nick Boyle, before I pour it in your lap." She half whispered half muttered as she got up and closed Julia's bedroom door behind her, to go find the others.   * * * * * *   Julia made a beeline to the kitchen and back upstairs, minutes later knocking quietly at Kat's door and opening it enough to peek in.  "Anyone home?"   [tag]