Chapter 3 - Weekend trip

Julia knew her bliss could not last forever. Ever since Zoey had offered her to work for Brand Today, Julia couldn't believe her luck.

When she had arrived in New York after the events in Seattle, all she had wanted had been to find a hole she could hide in. Lost and terrified she'd bumped into Zoey, who wouldn't let her go until Julia had told her the whole story and had allowed Zoey to help her out.

Now, a year later, Julia had definitely not forgotten Seattle, she was still afraid to walk alone in the streets in the evening, she was always weary when returning to the empty apartment after work. Hell, there was a reason she worked late; she definitely loved the job, but she was usually the last one to leave the office, because she felt safe within the glass walls. On top of that Harvey, the security guy in the lobby, would always call her a cab. Julia had never told him her story, but somehow he felt that this was what she needed.

Well, the time of peace and quiet, the time of feeling safe, at least partially, was coming to an end. Jack Deschanel was back in town and she hated every moment of it.

First of all, he'd always annoyed her, so nothing had changed in that matter. Second of all, even though Julia tried not to show it, he was making her feel insecure, as if she did not belong in his company and his city... This in turn made her think back on why she had come to New York in the first place, which in turn brought back the nightmares.

And to make things worse, like adding a rotten cherry on a disgusting cake, it turned out that the prick would also work late! So she couldn't even enjoy the office anymore.

The ringing of her cellphone pulled Julia out of the tiring reverie.

"Hey, Jules!" Zoey yelled enthusiastically in her ear. "I have the best of ideas!"

"Hi Zoey." Julia smiled hearing her friend's warm voice. "Do tell!"

"Let's visit my parents on the weekend!"

Julia leaned back in the office chair and closed her eyes. She loved Mr and Mrs Deschanel; they had always treated her like their second daughter, but she was not in the mood right now to be smiling and talking to people.

"Zoey..."

"Don't zoey me!" her friend interrupted, probably anticipating Julia's response. "Jess is flying to Chicago for some boring medical conference and I refuse to be alone on the weekend. So you are coming with me, Miss Stiles!" Jess was Zoey's partner. She was a surgeon, so would often work night shifts or attend various medical events.

Not knowing how to say no to her friend, Julia stayed silent.

"Where are you, Jules?" Zoey asked suspiciously.

"At home," Julia lied.

"No, you're not! I can hear the humming of the office airco, you liar! What are you doing at the office at 8pm, you lunatic!?"

"Working... and thinking," Julia answered quietly. "Mostly thinking, actually..."

"That's it! I'm taking you with me to my parents! Clearly you are in a desperate need of changing the environment. Bring your bags to the office tomorrow, we will leave straight from there after three. If you behave, my mom might make your favourite lasagna! Love you!" and she hung up without giving Julia a chance to object.

"Love you, too." Julia answered, throwing her phone on the desk and packing up her things. It was indeed time to go home.

Maybe it was not such a bad idea to visit the Deschanels....

***

"So, tell me, Jack, what are Brand Today's plans for the upcoming months?" the sleepy journalist asked.

Jack rescheduled the interview to seven am on Saturday to be able to leave New York early enough to join Zoey and visit his parents. Initially, he'd told her he would not make it; the interview was important to him and he did not want to postpone it. He felt New Yorkers had to be reminded of Jack Deschanel and know that he was back. But when the newspaper called to confirm the meeting he requested a new time. Jack knew they wouldn't say no.

"Now that you are back in the Big Apple, I assume we will see you in action?"

They had been talking for almost an hour and it seemed the journalist was now just stalling in an effort to get some business gossip out of Jack. Apparently facts and figures that Jack had been feeding him were not what he wanted to hear.

"That you definitely will." Jack smiled widely. "Don't get me wrong, I loved LA and was able to achieve a lot there during last year. I mean, our office there is thriving. But what can I say? It's good to be home. My team here is as busy as ever. Their enthusiasm is really inspiring..."

"Have they inspired you to some new ventures?" the journalist butted in, his eyes shining bright in anticipation of news no one had heard before.

"They have indeed..." Jack trailed off on purpose. "But nothing is official yet, so I will have to disappoint you and not share it with you just yet."

"Of course, of course!" Clearly the guy was afraid to push Jack any further, but disappointment was evident on his face. "Thank you, Jack, for your time today. I hope that once you finally want to make that news official you will share it with our magazine first?"

"Thank you." Jack stood up and shook the journalist's hand. He did not answer the guy's question on purpose. Every now and then he liked to show people that he was the one in control.

Once the journalist was gone, Jack changed into jeans and a t-shirt, packed a change of clothes and was off.

He'd given Tom, his driver / bodyguard / private detective / best friend, the weekend off. Two hours ride to his parent's house was always a pleasure. He hadn't seen them for months, so was looking forward to finally spending some time with his folks.

Jack was expecting that his sudden appearance at his parents home would be a nice surprise to all, but when Zoey opened the door and greeted him with an outraged:

"What are you doing here!?"

Which was then followed by his mom's awkward:

"Son, we thought you would come next week..."

He knew something was wrong.

"Well, it's nice to see you too..." he said, trying not to feel hurt.

"Well, of course it's so lovely to see you, darling!" his mom finally came to her senses and threw her arms around him. His dad did the same.

"We missed you, Jackie boy," he whispered.

Zoey was still looking slightly panicked.

Jack followed his parents to the kitchen, glancing at his sister over his shoulder.

"What is it, sis? I thought you wanted me to come here this weekend?"

"Well, yeah, I did! But when you said no, I asked someone else to accompany me." Zoey blurted out.

"Jess is here?!" Jack asked. He'd only met Zoey's partner once, but he really liked the smart and funny surgeon. "That's great! I'll finally get to know her better."

"No, Jess is not here..." Zoey cleared her throat. She walked over to the kitchen counter where two drinks were ready. She must have been preparing them when he arrived. "Jess had to attend a medical conference, so I've invited..."

"You gotta be kidding me..." Jack couldn't believe his bad luck. Through the kitchen window, looking out on the garden, he noticed a chick on a sunbed. Something about the way she pushed her hair to the side immediately made it clear to him. "You brought Julia Stiles?!"

"Darling," his mother butted in. "Maybe it's a great opportunity to get to know Julia better?"

Jack grabbed one of the drinks from the counter, gave his mother a kiss and whispered, "It's never going to happen, mom." And he walked out to the garden to face the foul-mouthed witch.

***

This is nice, Julia thought to herself. Lying in the sun, reading a book and waiting for Zoey to bring her a drink. Yep, it's definitely nice.

They had left New York the day before shortly after three, just as Zoey had intended. Her enthusiasm had been contagious and Julia soon realized she was impatient to see her friend's parents and spend the weekend with them. She loved her mother of course and had a strong, positive relationship with her, but she just adored Zoey's childhood house; with the wild garden, old shutters and a leaking roof it had always seemed magical to her. Julia knew that Jack and Zoey had wanted to buy a bigger and more modern house for their parents; Brand Today made the two siblings really wealthy, but their parents had refused. The only thing they had agreed to had been the renovation of the roof.

Mister Deschanel was a French teacher. Mrs Deshanal had been teaching art when Julia had met her, but was now retired and focusing on her own paintings and sculptures. Even though they had never been rich, Julia felt Zoey and Jack had had a great childhood, which as a result had made them, well at least Zoey, good people.

Whole of the Friday evening they had been drinking wine and watching old pictures and video's of Zoey's and Julia's college times. Mrs Deschanel just loved pulling that old stuff out.

Julia heard footsteps on the porch.

"Finally, Zoey! It took you forever to prepare that drink! Were you growing the damn lemons yourself?" Julia exclaimed laughing, but not taking her eyes away from the book. "Thank you," she added, reaching for the drink, but her hand froze mid way when she heard:

"You are welcome," which was not spoken in Zoey's voice.

She took off her sun glasses and looked up in disbelief.

"You gotta be kidding me..."

"I'm afraid you and me have the same feelings towards the situation," Jack said coldly.

"I thought you had some important interview to give that was more important than your family..."

"Exactly," he retorted right away, "My family. So why are you here?"

"Well, it's clear that your mom has always wanted to have two daughters, instead of one daughter and a..." she shot Jack a disgusted look. "She simply loves having me here. What can I say."

Julia eyed the drink he'd brought her, wondering if he would have managed to slip some kind of poison into it, but then decided against it. She grabbed the glass and downed it in one go. She was going to need much more if she was supposed to stand the whole weekend with the annoying CEO. And she was going to need something much stronger; it seemed Zoey hadn't added much alcohol to this one.

"Yes, because you are so charming..." Jack concluded bitterly, but was interrupted by his mom, rushing to the garden. Julia suspected the poor woman was afraid they might start strangling each other.

"Of course she is charming!" Mrs Deschanel exclaimed, putting snacks on the table and sitting next to Julia with a glass of wine in her hand. Her husband and daughter followed soon after. Zoey sent Julia an apologetic look.

"So did you cancel the interview?" Zoey cut to the chase.

"No," Jack sighed. "I just moved it to a very early hour and rushed over here as soon as it was over."

"That's so sweet of you, darling," his mother said with a warm smile, but Julia noticed she sent a weary glance in her direction. As the good host she'd always been, she was probably worried about Julia feeling awkward.

"Look," Julia said, looking in everyone's eyes, except Jack's. "We are all grownups and I think we can manage to spend the weekend in a nice atmosphere." She saw relief on Zoey's and her parent's faces. In the corner of her eye Julia also noticed Jack nodding slightly. Well, he better!

"Of course we can, my dear." Mrs Deschanel squeezed her hand affectionately. "Actually," she added after a moment's consideration, "I always thought you two would be together..."

"Mother!" Jack exclaimed outraged. "How much of the wine have you already had?!"

Zoey started laughing hysterically.

"Sorry to disappoint you, Mrs Deschanel, but this is never going to happen." Julia smiled at her host, amused. The idea was so abstract, Julia wasn't even angry.

Surprisingly, that moment cleared the air. Julia rested her head on the sun bed and was listening to the family having their conversation.

"Son, what about that girl you were seeing in Los Angeles?" Mister Deschanel asked. "Are we going to meet her?"

Julia really wanted to hear the answer to that question, but her phone rang at that exact moment. She looked at the screen distracted and froze when she saw it was her mother calling. Zoey seemed to have noticed her reaction, as she quickly walked over to Julia and looked at the screen of her phone.

"It's ok," Julia sent her a stiff smile.

In the last year Julia was forced to limit her visits and even phone conversations with her mother. Due to the events in Seattle, she was simply worried about her mother's safety if she were to visit her often.

"Hi mom," she picked up the phone walking away from the Deschanels.

"I opened the letter, Julia," she heard her mother's shaky voice. "I opened one of that man's letters!"

Oh, God!

"Mom, calm down..." Julia quickly walked into the house and closed the patio doors.

"How do you expect me to calm down!? Do you know what he writes in these letters? He describes how he would... Oh, God..."

"Mom, please..."

"...how he would hurt you!"

"Why did you open it, mom?!" Julia felt hopeless and exposed. Until that moment her mother only knew that Julia was hiding from a 'bad man'. Now she learnt how bad that man actually was.

"I... I... I thought it's a letter from aunt May, you know." Her mother was crying by now. "And when I started reading I couldn't stop... Julia, oh my God it was so horrible..."

"Mom, I'm coming." She decided. She couldn't let her mother be alone when she was in such a state. "Did you already call Roger?" Roger was her school friend who was now the sheriff in her mom's town. Julia, worried about her mom's safety, had let him in on her situation.

"Yes, he's on his way."

"Good. Have him stay with you till I'm there. I should get there in a couple of hours."

"Alright, darling." Her mother seemed to be calming down a bit.

"And, mom?"

"Yes, darling?"

"Burn that Goddamn letter."

At first Nicholas Starr was just the brother of the bride. Julia was hired to organize the wedding for Ginny Starr and Michael Delany; Nicholas was paying for everything. She assumed his excessive attention to her and everything she'd been doing, the frequent invitations to lunches or dinners resulted from the fact that Nicholas wanted to know his money was well spent. Soon however Julia realized that he was seriously interested in her personally. That flattered her at first; not only was the guy intelligent, charming and rich, he was also really handsome. Julia quickly noticed however something off about him. Nicholas was possessive and controlling; two things she hated in a man. What worried her the most though was the suspicion that his success and all the money did not come from legal sources. Not only did he surround himself with armed bodyguards that gave her the creeps, she was sure the black SUVs he was travelling in were bulletproof. Now why would a normal businessman take all that precaution?

Professionally, Julia knew she could handle him and just treat as a demanding customer, but she felt he wanted more. She planned to break any connection with him after his sister's wedding.

Everything was going well, till that day, till that moment when a woman dressed in a dark suit, stepped out of a black sedan and approached Julia.

"Miss Stiles, my name is agent Moss. We need your help."

Zoey found Julia in the bedroom. She was struggling to close the zipper of her suitcase; her hands were shaking so bad, she was failing at each attempt.

"Hey, hey!" Zoey grabbed her hands, worried. "What is it, Jules? What happened?"

"I thought... I thought I was finally getting some peace of mind. I started feeling that I could breathe, you know... I let my guard down..."

"What are you...?" Zoey trailed off. "Is it Nicholas again?"

Julia did not say anything, but her panicked eyes told Zoey everything.

"What did he do?"

"My mom got one of those horrible letters again. This time however she opened it... I guess by accident..."

"But, Jules, he is in jail with all his mail being controlled!" Zoey exclaimed in disbelief. "How could he have sent a letter to your mom?"

"He might be in jail, but his men are not..." she whispered. "It doesn't matter how he did it. What matters is that my mom is now terrified. I'm going down there. She cannot be alone right now." Julia pulled out of her friend's embrace and grabbed her open beg. Screw the zipper.

"Take my car," Zoey offered, as Julia moved towards the door. "Jack will take me to New York tomorrow."

"No!" Julia turned back to her friend so abruptly that they almost bumped into each other. "I can't risk you being connected to any of this!" she almost screamed at Zoey. Realizing that it came out too harsh, she touched her friend's shoulder apologetically. "Anyway, I already made some calls and rented a car. It should be here in about fifteen minutes."

"Alright." Zoey squeezed her hand.

Julia was extremely grateful for all the support her friend was giving her, she just could not find the words right now to express that gratitude.

"Take Monday off," Zoey offered. "Stay with your mom as long as it takes."

"No, I can't be there for too long." Julia sighed. "I can't risk Nicholas' men realizing I'm there."

"Julia, what about your disguise?!" Zoey whispered worriedly and ran out of the room.

Those few times that Julia had visited her mother in the last year, she would always dress up as a man. She had a feeling Nicholas' men were watching her mom's house in the hope of finding Julia and then tracking her to where she lived right now, so she hoped a disguise might fool them.

Zoey came back a moment later with a man's t-shirt and a soccer cap.

"These might come in handy..."

Julia took the clothes and hid them in her bag. She had a suspicion who these things might have belonged to, but she did not care right now.

"I will wait outside..." she said walking to the bedroom door. "Could you please apologize to your parents? I don't think I feel up to it right now."

"Of course, Jules. Just go. They will understand."

They both walked out of Zoey's bedroom and moved towards the stairs. As they turned the corner, Julia stopped terrified. Jack was leaning against the corridor wall. He must have heard their conversation...

Seeing angry sparks in his eyes, Julia just looked down at the floor and passed him in a hurry.

As she reached the bottom of the stairs, she could hear his voice:

"I swear, Zoey, if she is involved in something illegal, I will..."

"Oh, shut up, you moron! You have no idea!" his sister cut him off.

***

The moment Zoey and Julia went out of the house, Jack grabbed his phone and called Tom.

"Finally, Deschanel!" his friend picked up after the first ring. "Please tell me you have some work for me. A weekend off is simply not for me!"

Tom was a retired Special Forces officer; being idle was simply not his style. Before Jack recruited him, Tom had been planning to open a private Security Firm. Jack knew he was still planning that, but he was paying Tom too well for his friend to put his plans in motion.

"I want you to do a thorough background check on Julia Stiles." Jack skipped the helo. "I do not care about her childhood and education. I'm interested in her life in Seattle and a guy called Nicholas she might have been dating."

"I'm on it, man." Jack could hear Tom already on the move. "By when do you need the information?"

"By yesterday." Jack said and hung up the phone.

By now he was standing in his old bedroom and looking out the window. He had a perfect view of the driveway from where he was.

He could see Zoey throwing her arm around Julia who looked... lost, beaten and scared. Jack had never seen her in that state before.

"What have you done, Miss Stiles, what have you done...?"