And one day, they came back, and told her about it. Al stayed longer, and exclaimed that she'd gotten prettier still, and she giggled back at him over the head of her beautiful baby's head and remarked that she remembered him being taller, somehow. Ed told her how glad he was that she'd been able to heal, and start her life again, and build the nation she wanted [needed] to see. They talked, continuously. Ed and Al cut each other off telling her how they'd discovered bits of research, or fought thus and such battle. The time they spent apart, searching for each other [a way home] [a way to bring him home], was told separately, in halting words, as if they didn't know how to talk properly without completing one another's thoughts. Julia tells them about how she rebuilt her country, and found someone to love. She spoke briefly of a time she'd seen her brother [insinuated he had been well, yet sad, and bitter, and cried, and he wouldn't come home] and then moved on, as if she wanted to make up for the times in her life when she hadn't been able to do just that. They wandered through small neighborhoods, and large ones, and revisited the valley, and marveled at how well the city had been rebuilt, and that everyone new Julia. But, then again, how could they not? She likely knew everyone because she'd done so much for the city. For the people living in it. [for her own smile] They came back. And they told her about it. And when Ed left [a week before Al, stupid work] he promised he'd come back again. And tell her more.