Chapter 11 - Routine

By Monday Julia thought, hell she was even sure, she had all the annoying memories under control.

Whole weekend she'd been cleaning her flat. The place never looked that spotless; the bathroom, the kitchen, especially the oven - spotless. There was something about watching a dirty surface become clean that filled Julia with that peaceful feeling. There was something in the monotonous movements of the hand holding the sponge, moving up and down or left and right that erased the dark thoughts, any thoughts for that matter, from her head.

Then when the evening had come, she'd watch Harry Potter with a glass, or rather few glasses of wine.

So yes, by Monday Julia was convinced she'd managed to push the reemerging memories of Seattle and the latest events of the party to the furthest corners of her mind. Thank god for Clorox and wine!

But then lunch break came and with it Jess.

"You look like you need a bite, darling!" she exclaimed, bursting into Julia's office.

Julia, buried in invoices, menu's, playlists for the Brand Today's party, lifted her head from her desk.

"Jess?" Julia asked, surprised "Did we have an appointment? Sorry, I don't recall..."

"Don't worry, Julia, we didn't. I was just in the neighborhood and thought of taking you to a late lunch."

Julia shot her guest a suspicious look.

"In the neighborhood?"

The hospital Jess worked at was in Brooklyn; hardly in the neighborhood of Brand Today.

"Ok, fine," Jess waved her hand. "Your blood results came and I wanted to talk to you about it."

"Oh?"

Julia wasn't sure what to tell Jess. If you asked her, she did not want to know the results. She kind of expected what they would be, but was not planning to dwell on them.

Seeing that she was not going to get any other reaction from Julia, Jess said:

"It was Rohypnol, Julia, they found Rohypnol in your blood! It's a date rape dr..."

"I know what that is, Jess!" Julia stopped her guest. Realizing how harsh her tone was, she added, "Thank you for doing this, Jess, really, but I don't want to talk about it anymore. Can we please forget it already?"

"Forget it?!" Now it was Jess who sounded really harsh. "The guy nearly raped you, Jules. And now we have proof. You gotta call the police!"

Julia took a deep breath. She thought that since Zoey was fine with dropping the topic, her partner would be too. Now it turned out Jess wasn't going to let go without a fight.

"Like I said, thank you for all you've done, but this is my final decision; no police."

"Julia, I can't believe it. How can you be so indifferent?!" Jess was clearly not ready to drop the topic. "What if he tries that again with another girl and this time there will be no Jack to save her!? What if..."

"Don't you dare, Jess!" Julia lost it. She stood up and walked around her desk. "Don't you fucking dare use such arguments with me, don't you dare emotionally black mail me. Someone had done that once to me and I will not be played like that again!" She grabbed her bag and walked to the door. "I think we will need to reschedule that lunch. I'm not hungry."

She almost ran out the door. Trying to calm down her shaking hands, Julia tightened her hold on the bag. The memories she thought she'd shoved into the darkest corners of her memory were now coming back at lightning speed.

Her brain was pushing more and more images from a year ago in front of her eyes. Julia couldn't see where she was going anymore, until she felt she hit something or rather someone. Papers started flying around Julia and landed at her feet.

"Oh, god..." It was Agnes, Jack's assistant, who just walked out of the copy room with something that looked like hundreds of photo copies of some kind of documents.

"Agnes, I'm so sorry." Julia bent down to pick up the papers, but her hands were shaking so bad that she did not manage to grab any of the sheets covering the floor.

This did not go unnoticed by Jack's assistant. She grabbed Julia's hand.

"Julia, it's ok. I'll handle it," she spoke in a soft voice and sent Julia a warm smile. "You are clearly in a hurry..."

"I..." Julia stood up unsure of what to do.

She looked up only to see Jack standing in his office door, watching her curious.

"I will manage this, Julia, just go." Agnes ordered, probably seeing that was exactly what Julia wanted to do: go, run, escape.

Julia just nodded and walked away.

"Julia, we've been watching the guy for almost two years now and he's never paid so much attention to any woman."

She was sitting in a diner outside of Seattle together with FBI agent Lisa Moss who for the last hour had been trying to convince Julia of how crucial she was to their investigation against Nicholas Starr.

Agent Moss took a sip of her coffee. Julia's had already gotten cold. She looked out of the window trying to ignore the meaning of the words the woman opposite her had spoken.

A black SUV was parked just outside the diner; Moss' partner was sitting inside seeming indifferent to his surroundings, while Julia knew very well he was watching everything and everyone closely.

That wasn't their first meeting. The first time agent Moss had gotten into Julia's car and kept on showing her pictures of Nicholas victims; his business partners, enemies, people who just got in the way. Unsure of what they could possibly have been needing her for, Julia agreed to another meeting.

"We are never able to keep him or his men away from his office longer than for a couple of hours..."

"His sister's wedding will surely give you some time," Julia suggested, but regretted it instantly. She was already getting involved.

The smile on the agent's face confirmed that.

"Indeed it could, but it will not be enough. We need someone to distract him, to make sure that when his men try to alert him of the danger he will not be there to hear it, he won't pick up the phone, won't run to the office..."

"I'm no one to him." Julia tried pushing back. "He only pays attention to me to make sure that his money is well spent."

Agent Moss did not respond, but kept looking at Julia as if considering something. She took a deep breath and seemed to have made some kind of decision.

"Julia, we have proof that Nicolas Starr is involved in human trafficking... He is luring women from South Africa and Eastern Europe, promising them a better life in America, and then turning them into prostitutes... Right now you are our only chance to stop him, our only chance to help these women...'"

Water flushing in the cubicle next to hers brought Julia back to the current time. Unsure of where to go after her outburst, she'd hidden in the restroom. She'd let go of all her defences and allowed the memories to flood her. There was no getting away from them anyway.

She wasn't sure how long she'd been sitting there. Feeling quite numb she decided to go back to her office, hoping Jess would not be there anymore.

To her surprise the floor was almost deserted. A quick glance at the clock told her it was already after six. At that hour only workaholics remained in the office; which usually meant herself and Jack.

Indeed, Julia noticed light shining from under his door, so she walked into her office as quietly as possible and closed the door. He was afterall witness to her panicked behaviour a few hours earlier. How embarrassing.

Back at her desk Julia noticed her cell phone; she must have left it while leaving in such a hurry.

There were seven missed calls; two from Jess and five from Zoey. Jess must have told her partner about their... chat. Well, screw that. I don't need to explain myself to any of them! Well, for sure not today anyway.

With that thought she went back to the stack of papers lying on her desk, hoping that they would give her some peace of mind and allow to forget just how horrible the day turned out to be.

***

Getting into the elevator one morning Jack could not help but think of the routine he and Julia started to go by. Every three days Julia would send him a report on the progress of the company party and two other events she and her small team were organizing at the same time. She would always send the report at four pm on Tuesdays and Fridays and Jack realized he started looking forward to her emails.

Since they both worked late, they would usually bump into each other in the office kitchen around six pm. Jack had to admit that at some point he started looking forward to these meetings too, and, at least for him, they stopped being accidental.

Yes, for the last couple of weeks that definitely had been their routine. And, despite that one strange occurrence, when Julia ran into Agnes in panic, their coexistence had been progressing smoothly. But, every now and then, when passing by Julia's office, Jack could not help but think of that terrified look on Julia's face when she had been trying to help Agnes pick up all the papers from the floor. With her mind she had clearly gone off to some other, clearly not a nice place.

Jack was finally able to paint a clearer picture of Julia's Seattle life; thanks to Tom's constant investigation. Not all was clear to him yet, but he at least had a general understanding of what Julia was running away from.

"Nicholas Starr is serving a ten years sentence in Seattle Country prison!" Tom had announced a week earlier. "He also has three trials in progress which will probably land him for life."

"Finally, man, you got something for me!" Jack had been so glad to hear the news. "What is he in for?"

"Leading an organized crime group for now. The three other offenses they are trying to charge him with are manslaughter, drug smuggling and illicit arms trade."

"Jeez, how did Stiles get involved with a man like that?"

"He was the brother of the bride, Jack. He was paying for the wedding Julia was organizing. I bet she didn't have any idea who he was... Well, at least in the beginning."

"Ok, but if the guy is in prison now, why is Julia so terrified? Why does she get tense at the sound of the word 'Seattle'?"

"I don't know, man. Whatever I'm telling you is what I was able to find online, but when I try to dig some more, even use my Special Forces contacts, I hit a wall..."

"What does that mean, Tom?"

Tom had been quiet... as if afraid to speak. His eyes had looked anywhere but into Jack's eyes.

"Tom...?"

"This probably means someone is purposefully blocking access to information on Nicholas Starr..."

"Who?"

"I don't know, man." Tom ran his fingers through his hair. "FBI, DEA... you name it."

"I want to know more, Tom," Jack would not let go.

"I was afraid you would say that..."

Now, walking to the office kitchen for his afternoon coffee, knowing he would meet Julia there, Jack could not help but recall that conversation with Tom. The easiest way to get to know the whole story, would be to ask Julia directly. He knew however she wouldn't spill the beans. She'd made it clear to him once already.

The afternoon coffee had become their routine too. At first Julia would just say her quiet 'hello' and then leave the kitchen immediately after he'd show up. So Jack would then purposefully ask her a question, usually about the events she'd been organizing, just to make her stay in the kitchen a bit longer.

Then one evening he'd noticed she had made more coffee; presumably knowing that he would show up in the kitchen soon. Jack had pretended not to notice that; he'd sensed that if he'd comment on it, she would never do it again. He'd felt like that moment was a turning point in his and Julia's relationship. That had been the first time when she'd willingly done something nice for him.

Baby steps, Jack had thought to himself, but then had wondered at which moment he'd actually started to care. There were less and less moments when he felt like annoying and pissing off Julia and more moments when he felt like he needed to protect her.

He smelled the coffee from the corridor already. This meant Julia was already preparing it.

"Thank god, Stiles!" he exclaimed, grateful. "I need my caffeine like right now."

Julia sent him a careful smile and took out two mugs from the cupboard.

"I read your today's report..." as usually Jack found a topic to keep her in the kitchen for a few more moments. "I think you guys might need a couple more folks to help you out."

Julia handed him his coffee and shot him a curious look, or maybe it was a look full of suspicion? Jack knew she still didn't trust him. She considered his words for a moment, clearly still trying to look for a double meaning in them.

"Yeah," she finally admitted. "We will need at least two additional people."

"When would you need them?" Jack asked, glad that she accepted his offer.

"Well, the company party is next week and this is also when the preparations for Beauty Line and Eco Project parties will be in full swing, so..."

"So basically you need someone as of yesterday." Jack concluded.

"Next week would be fine, Jack." He could swear Julia's eyes lit up, but she quickly looked into her coffee mug, so he wasn't sure.

"Done. Tomorrow morning I'll ask Agnes to send a memo to the managers to appoint someone from their teams."

"Thank you..." she said, but there was hesitation in her words.

"What is it, Julia?" he could clearly see there was something on her mind.

"I don't want to sound ungrateful, but I'd rather have one person passionate about what they're doing, than five who are forced to help out. If you know what I mean?"

Jack smiled at her. Am I seeing the less confident side of Julia right now?

"Ok, let me rephrase then. Tomorrow morning I'll tell Agnes to ask the managers if they have someone in their team who'd like to help out with the events preparations."

"Thank you, Jack." Julia said and gently touched his arm.

They both froze at that gesture. Their eyes met and for a moment Jack thought he saw something more in Julia's gaze than anger, fear and resentment. Did he see trust in her eyes?

"You are welcome, Julia," he answered in a raspy voice.

Clearly shocked by her own action, Julia blushed and then left the kitchen.

Another evening, as Jack walked into the kitchen, she already had two mugs ready on the counter and was watching the coffee machine intently.

"I've got news for you, Stiles!" Jack said, but Julia was so deep in thought that she did not hear him. When he gently touched her shoulder she winced.

"Julia?"

"Oh, hi, Jack!" she seemed as if awakened from a trance.

"You ok, Stiles?"

"Sure." She started pouring the coffee to their mugs, clearly not wanting to discuss her own behaviour.

Jack could see something was the matter, but he was in no position to push her for answers.

"I've got news for you," he repeated.

Julia raised her brow.

"Zoey and I made a decision on the Chicago director."

"Oh?" Julia's expression instantly changed. She took a step back ready to attack, or maybe to be attacked.

"We chose Alice Williams for the job," he said with a wide grin.

The shock on Julia's face was priceless, not to mention that the news made her speechless which did not happen often.

She came to her senses a moment later and the widest smile lit her face. That was a sight to behold. For a moment Jack thought she would hug him, but he must have imagined it, because she only said:

"That's wonderful, Jack!"

"Yep, I thought you might be glad to hear the news."

"Does Alice already know?"

"Yes, we had a meeting with her an hour ago. I'm going to inform Peter Wyatt tomorrow and after that we'll make it official."

"Thank you, Jack!"

"For what?"

"For not being the stubborn chauvinist prick I thought you to be."

"Julia Stiles, do you have a fever? That's the first time you actually said something nice to me." Jack laughed.

"There's nothing you can say right now that could make me feel bad, Jack! I'm in such a great mood right now!" Julia exclaimed, grabbed her coffee and left the kitchen with light steps. She looked like she was going to do a small dance any moment.

Jack felt like dancing himself; Julia finally started to trust him.