<div class="floatleft">(http://i1105.photobucket.com/albums/h357/daniellex28/evolved%20char%207_zpsvbxkwizk.png)</div><strong>Name:</strong>Julie Lancaster (https://elliquiy.com/forums/index.php?topic=250173.msg12381790er#msg12381790)<br/><strong>City | Date | Time:</strong>San Francisco International Airport, CA | August 9, 2017 | 03:32 PM<br/><strong>Tagging | Mentioning:</strong>Elena<br/><strong>Content:</strong>Waiting anxiously<br/><hr/><br/>There was no possible way Julie could linger in that catatonic state once Elena approached her, although her presence carried the devastating force of a tidal wave. What sweet destruction it was though, and with but one smile she washed away months of uncertainty, of feeling torn apart from the inside and never quite knowing how to move forward. Maybe it was because she was never meant to move on from that one night in Africa to begin with; the feelings the girl stirred inside her when she embraced Julie left no doubt that nothing had changed since then, no terrible event could just wipe away those months that had been so inherently<em>perfect</em>, regardless of how cruelly they had ended.<br/><br/>Her voice was  exactly the same as Nicki's, which really shouldn't surprise Julie as much as it did. No matter what Nicole had told her, for most of their time together the truth about her, about Elena, about all the different versions of them that roamed the planet in perpetual connection with one another regardless of distance, had felt like a distant dream, something she tried to understand but never could. But here, when faced with the evidence to the truth of her stories Julianne finally found that perhaps she would be able to grasp it... at least a little. For when she drew back, so reluctantly, and looked into those beautiful eyes she saw Nicole and yet saw a person so very much her own. Each of them was a puzzle with a few pieces missing, but with a few pieces uniquely added as well, and they completed as well as complimented one another in such a beautiful way. It was so complicated... and yet, it really was so very, very simple, too.<br/><br/>"How could I sleep knowing I'd see you," Julie said, and her voice sounded distinctly pinched as she spoke. Nervously she sucked her lips between her teeth, her hands slipping from that self-evident spot around Elena's waist. Julie's hands came to rest upon her wrists, unwilling to abandon the girl entirely. If it had been up to her the embrace would never have ended in the first place; for all eternity she would gladly stand there. She wasn't sure if she should feel guilty; her nature commanded that being so strongly moved by someone who<em>wasn't</em>-technically- Nicole was wrong, and yet she needed but look at Elena and be assured that nothing about this could ever be negative, as if Nicole herself was looking out through those pale irises and assuring her that she was<em>right there</em>, that everything was all right.<br/><br/>"Wait," she called out, perhaps a bit louder than was truly necessary. Elena had only just grasped her hand and set off, so matter-of-factly, so lighthearted, and Julie didn't know what to do with that, how to handle things being so<em>easy</em>. They shouldn't be, couldn't possibly be this carefree about it, not when she knew how heartbroken she had felt. The time in the hospital had been agonizing and not because of the wound that had to mend but wounds far more deep that never quite healed. That very rend that was freshly opened when the letter arrived, the very letter that had brought her to this point in the first place... it couldn't possibly be such a simple transition. Not after all that sadness, all that confusion, all that trying desperately to keep it all together and move on with a life that no longer carried the fulfillment it once had. The questions hid in Julie's eyes as she gazed up at Elena, her hand firmly grasping that of the girl with no intent of ever relinquishing that hold. "Just like that..?" Julie asked, and the way her eyes shone suspiciously gave it all away. She held it together though, and though she couldn't find it in herself to smile like Elena did, there<em>was</em>a feeling of blossoming happiness somewhere deep within her chest, one that had her take lead and guide Elena out of the crowd and the arrivals hall altogether without another word. Not until they found themselves outside, at least.<br/><br/>"I don't own a car," she confessed a little sullen as they stood upon the curb, "Not yet, anyway. I only arrived here last week."  Her thumb was doing that thing where she was rubbing Elena's hand, something that she tended to do so often with Nicole, especially when she was nervous. Not that Julie often had much reason to feel any but the good nerves whenever she'd been around Nicki, but it had been a gesture that comforted and made<em>her</em>feel comforted as well, and God knew she needed some reassurance right now. It wasn't surprising that as soon as she'd waved a cab over, Julie briefly clasped her free hand over Elena's, cradling it in a protective grasp until the driver got out, eager to get the luggage tossed into the trunk. Julie didn't have it in herself to pay attention to the man, even if he was particularly civil and polite for a cabby, even held open the door for the two of them. It wasn't so unlikely either that Julie couldn't find the words to speak, although she managed to croak the address when the man behind the wheel asked the obvious "Where to, ladies?" right after they had taken place upon the backseat. All that she could think of was how she had let been forced to let go as she'd rounded the car to the opposite side, and now that they were sat here Julie didn't have the guts to take her hands again. She knew it was silly, knew that this should not be the big issue it was gradually becoming. She'd loved Nicole and without a doubt she loved a big part of Elena too. But was that normal? Was that something Elena already knew or was it something that would be met with disapproval? She had embraced Julie, but regardless of how it had felt, friends hugged one another without it meaning anything else. And on top of that the polite taxi driver kept casting curious glances at the two girls in his cab, significantly lessening that correct attitude of his.<br/><br/>"It's not far," Julie murmured, looking increasingly forlorn. She gratefully pretended that it was the driver who had her keep her silence, for so many things that needed to be said were not meant for the ears of random strangers, but it was only a half truth. As feelings very slowly began to settle - at least a little - so did worries and fears resurface that had briefly been subdued. She needed but look at Elena to feel them dwindle again but Julie was having trouble allowing herself to do just that for fear of giving herself away too much. Inadvertently her gaze would be drawn to the ring finger on Elena's hand, time and time again. The pale band where sunlight had failed to give her skin that warm, subtle tan was a fierce reminder that things weren't as simple as she desperately wanted them to be, which was torture when every time she caught sight of Elena she had to suppress the urge to turn to the side and kiss her with all the need of someone who had to wait months for that moment to happen, never even sure if it ever would again.<br/><br/>From Julie's end the twenty minute journey was one vastly reigned by silence, and when the hotel came into view she breathed an almost audible sigh of relief that really didn't befit the feelings that raged within. Which didn't keep her from getting out of the car rather quickly, accepting the luggage before Elena could and using it as the distraction she direly needed. How she'd gone from someone so filled with fragile hope to a bundle of jittery nerves so quickly, but her hand was actually trembling as she removed her wallet to pay the taxi driver, and only after he had repeatedly scraped his throat. She didn't even know how generous the tip she gave him was but it must have been considerable, considering how happily he bid them goodbye thereafter. All she knew was that she needed to get to her room, where things were quiet and safe and where she would be able to ask and say the things she couldn't right now.  Again she ignored her intuition and paced ahead, into the lobby and towards the elevator where a middle-aged couple already stood waiting. Julie couldn't be sure if she was relieved or unhappy about sharing the elevator; she wasn't sure about anything anymore now.<br/><br/>The journey to the fifth floor was filled with terse silence again, although Elena, being true to her own nature, had a way of taking away tension no matter how overwhelming it seemed. Still, Julie had a frantic sort of need to get to a place more private, and although she fumbled with the key card when they reached room 514, even dropped it twice on the floor before finally managing to slide it into the slot, she persevered bravely and thrust open the door, rushing in as if the devil was hot on her heels.<br/><br/>The room was accommodating, with a double bed and a sitting area, even a big flat screen TV and a mini bar. There was enough room to walk around properly, a balcony that offered a view of the cityscape and a bathroom with a generously sized bath as well as a shower cabin. All things that Julie couldn't give a rat's ass about right now, and half an hour of pent up frustration revealed itself as she paced into the room, sat down on the edge of the bed, got up again and took a single step towards the girl who had followed her into the room. Only now did she uninhibitedly take in the sight of Elena, but where she'd been nothing but intensely happy before, now the fragile expression in her eyes, on the verge of shattering altogether, seemed almost accusing. Julie didn't want to be angry and she didn't think she was, either. But she was something - sad, upset, confused. So many things that she didn't mean to feel, that she much rather forget in favour over delight that she had found, in a way, the woman who had been in her thoughts every day of the past two years, like a dream and then much like a nightmare. Her voice had gone up a notch or two, a little shrill when finally she talked again, and Julie was wringing her hands, if only because she didn't know what else to do with them if she didn't.<br/><br/>"I-- I can get you a different room," she began, which was the last thing she wanted to say. Why her mind would venture to such a practical sort of apology when there were a myriad questions to ask was beyond Julie, and yet there she was, eyes nervously flitting towards the bed, towards the window and the chairs and to everything before looking right back at Elena again with big, wondering eyes. Eyes that looked like they would fill with tears at any given point, although the girl was doing a valiant job of keeping herself from breaking down in a way she really didn't want to. "I mean, I didn't think about, I just haven't considered if you'd even stay and if..."<br/><br/>Her voice trailed off; Julie could not look more lost than in that moment, a moment in which she precariously balanced between fear and courage, hope and desolace. She looked to Elena for answers whilst knowing all too well that there was no way for the girl to satisfy her need for an explanation that would make everything all right, that would make all the bad things go away and leave only room for something<em>good</em>. She would have to find those answers within herself... and Julie really didn't know if she had the ability to search hard enough.<br/><br/>Her lips pressed together, the only thing she could do to keep them from trembling. "I didn't know," she confessed, which sounded rather out of the blue in that moment. "I didn't know what to do without you. I thought I was strong, and --- and independent and that I didn't need anyone but that really wasn't true."<br/><br/>She shrugged haphazardly; somewhere during her brief monologue the carpet had become the focal point for her eyes to fixate on, and it was only when the toes of two bright blue shoes slipped into her view that Julie realized Elena had closed the distance between the two women. It startled her a little, although it was a shortlived moment that ended as she glanced up again, finding that reassurance she so direly needed. "I don't know what to do," she whispered rather pathetically. "You mean the world to me, but I can't..." another shrug, "I can't possibly...." Eyes met once more, and although a part of Julianne was reminding her forcefully that this was not Nicole, that this was not the rose-tinted dream she had lived in all those months and likely never would be again, an increasingly bigger part to her gladly told her sensible side to shut up. And once it succeeded it didn't take much - not much at all - for Julie to reach her hands up, ever so gently cradling that sweet face she loved so dearly in her careful fingertips before pressing her lips to Elena's, meeting in a kiss so tender and yet so full of want, so full of a need that she wasn't sure could ever be fulfilled, but that was so very satisfied the moment her warm mouth collided with her own. Electricity could not even begin to rival the sensation that shook her body in that moment, and Julie outright refused to think about consequence, about the right or wrong of it.<em>"I missed you,"</em>she murmured, her words all but lost in her unwillingness to withdraw. "I missed you so much."<br/>