milliways_bar | (no subject)

Entry tags:

gren,
julia

(no subject)

There's no saxophone case this time, and no benign grin.

Time is running out.

As he spins around to face the bar proper, he lets out a sigh of relief. Who was that woman, and why did she try to kill him? After all that? Was it just because of the bounty? Or was it because of Vicious? Or both?

Crazy bi... He leaves the thought unfinished. Like he has any right to call somebody a bitch; she was just doing her job.

He thinks.

Well, Faye won't be getting out of those handcuffs any time soon. He should be safe here for a while.

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She fiddles, unscrewing, rearranging and re-screwing.

She talks as she works. "Well, in your time I'll meet her a few months from now. She helped me out of a bad situation."

Gren's not sure about time and timing. There are theories that say that all time happens at once and people just perceive it as being linear. Then there's another theory that says nothing's happened before and nothing happens after, and it's only the present moment that's real.

"Maybe I'd better go back and let her go, then. I wouldn't want to mess up what happens to you in a few months by leaving her tied up."

Then again, maybe I have to leave her tied up.

He wonders if his actions will change anything for either of them. But really, he only brought Faye back to his apartment because he was lonely and wanted someone to talk to. He never dreamed she'd know Vicious.

And at least Julia's never shot at him.

"Or maybe I'll stay here." He runs his hand through his hair, suddenly not knowing what to do.

"Well, I think you already know my answer." She closes the music box back up and turns the crank. It plays her song.

"Fixed."

His smile widens. "Thanks."

There's just one last thing he needs to do with the music box, but he can't do them here. The supplies he needs are back at home.

Gren rests his arm on Julia's shoulder: it's good to have a true friend.

"How's the food here?"

"I really couldn't say. I don't think I've eaten anything that isn't alcoholic since I've been here." She smiles softly, handing the box back to him.

He tucks the music box away carefully.

"I was at this bar on Ganymede one time and they had the most amazing thing. It was an ice cream sundae completely drenched in brandy. You could eat the whole thing and not even know it was so alcoholic until you tried to stand up afterwards."

He rests his hand on hers. "Want to share one with me? I've always wanted another."

She smiles at the story and his question and, of course, his hand. "I'd love to."

It appears, along with two spoons, on the bar.

"Ladies first." Gren slides a spoon over to Julia and he doesn't know how it works or why, but the sundae looks just like the one he remembers. Vanilla ice cream, toffee, and brandy.

They say people see their lives flashing before their eyes right before they die. He's not sure he's going to die, but he's certainly been feeling the weight of fate the past few days.

Someone's going to die on this deal. If it's him, at least he'll have had the chance to relive this really fond memory.

Gren watches as Julia takes the first bite of food she's had since... well, since however long it's been. He pauses, spoon hovering over the ice cream.

"How is it?"

He's not anxious and he's not tied to her answer. He's just relieved to feel normal again. It might be this place or it might be Julia or it might be the calm before the storm, but it doesn't matter. He just feels like Gren.

She lets the ice cream melt in her mouth, tasting every bit of it.

"Delicious." She smiles. "You've got good taste, as always."

"Glad you think so."

Eyes crinkling into a grin, he dips his spoon into the sundae and tries it. It's every bit as good as he remembers and then some, but mostly he's just glad to see her eating something. He can't help it; he's always had a pretty strong... what does he want to call it? Maternal instinct? Desire to take care of people is more like it, and Julia's no exception.

Why change his fundamental nature and belief system just because someone's dead, after all? What does it matter?

There's a long moment of companionable silence where they just sit there eating ice cream like any friends anywhere in the world.

In the solar system.

In the universe.

She takes another bite, enjoying the silence. Well, it's not exactly silence. It's filled with the way they understand each other and the way they can say things without saying things. They know each other and could easily exist together in silence. The talking is just a plus.

Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow: is there a way to turn back time? Stop it? Make it go away?

I have no fear of death.

Either way, I don't have much time.

What does any of it matter? I'm out of place and out of time and out of the range of normal, and I merely survive on Callisto and I can do this thing. I never expected to see Julia, but she makes it easier.

He'll always see her as she was: sitting on the corner bar stool, smoking, drinking, a sparkle in her eye and a sad smile tugging at the corner of her lips.

It will be nice to stop carrying the weight of the world. He wishes he'd brought his saxophone instead of his gun.

The sundae is quickly disappearing between the two of them.

"It's been so long since I've had ice cream. I can't even remember when the last time was."

"Me either." He laughs, and it's a genuine laugh. Surely, the brandy has nothing to do with it.

Let this night be full of laughter. Gren knows full well it's a romantic notion, but he is a romantic. He always has been, and he will be until his dying breath.

"We should do this more often." She knows there may not be any time for them to do it ever again, but she says it anyway. It brings her hope. She still needs that.

"Julia."

His voice is just a little harder, a little more serious. "What do you want?"

What do you want, comrade: from me, from anybody?

"If there were no limits: what would you have?"

If you weren't dead...

"Is 'a normal life' too cliche an answer," she asks with a slight laugh.

"I have no idea what normal is, Julia." Gren sets down his spoon; the ice cream dish is empty. "I've never known normal. I don't think very many people do."

Shaking his head, he stands. "My conscience might be making a fool of me, Julia, but I think I need to get back to Blue Crow and let Faye go. Or at least make sure she doesn't decide to shoot up everything in my apartment."

He fingers the music box in his pocket. "And... I have one more thing I need to do before tomorrow."

She looks up at Gren. "I understand."

She stands and, without asking, she moves into him slowly, embracing him.

"I hope this makes you whole again."

The embrace catches him by surprise; it takes him a moment to recover long enough to return her hug.

I'm whole enough to be two people, Julia. But he only thinks the words and doesn't say them at all. Instead, he pulls back and smiles at her. "Thanks for fixing the music box. It would have taken me all night."

That's a lie; he's dexterous enough to play a saxophone and he's dexterous enough to fix a music box. He just didn't want to.

He kisses her softly on the forehead. "Goodnight, Julia."

When he turns to the door, his eyes fill with tears.

She blinks back tears of her own, and even though he's long gone, she says in a small voice. "Goodnight, Gren."

She wonders if she'll ever see him again.

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