Chapter 1
There were many things you missed out on when you spent time in a coma. Shopping and hanging out with friends were two of the things Julie missed the most as of late. So on a rare Saturday when she, Sara and Morgan all had the day off from work, the three of them piled into her car and headed off for some quality "girl time" at the nearby mall. The sun was shining, the air was warm and Julie never felt so alive. She enjoyed the breeze whipping her hair around as she, Morgan and Sara walked through the parking lot and up to the mall entrance.
"I'm so glad we had time to do this," Julie said happily, bouncing a little in excitement as she walked.
"Me too," Morgan said bouncing along with her.
"It's been so long since we've had a girl's weekend," Sara reminded them "Finn, any suggestions?"
"Tons" Julie said excitedly "I read about this place online, it's near Reno so it's a bit of a drive but I heard-
They continued to chat about the Reno spa getaway and other random things, laughing at the latest story of Hodges and his antics at the lab, discussing tactics for the next baseball game against VICE and deciding whether or not to go out dancing later. Julie and Morgan each had several stores they really wanted to browse through while Sara only requested one; the book store. So after hours of roaming the mall, buying lunch, trying on prom dresses just to be silly, stopping at a sporting goods store so Julie could ogle new tennis gear in the window and making a few purchases, they finally made it to the book store.
Sara immediately found a dozen books and sank into one of the cushiony arm chairs to skim each one with care, deciding which ones to buy. Morgan and Julie browsed the rest of the store while Sara read. They were passing by a shelf labeled "New Releases" when Morgan spotted something across the food court.
"We have to get one of those cinnamon pretzel things," she insisted to Julie only to look around and find she was no longer standing beside her "Jules?" Morgan called for her.
Morgan walked around the new releases display and found Julie standing on the other side, staring at the shelf.
"Jeez don't do that," Morgan said feeling slightly on edge for fear of something happening to her, a new fear to plague her since her best friend survived the coma.
But Julie didn't apologize nor give any indication that she had heard Morgan speak, she just continued to stare at the shelf.
"Jules, what's up?" Morgan asked glancing at the shelf trying to indentify what was grabbing her attention.
"Look," Julie finally managed to say, raising her arm, trembling as she pointed to a book on the shelf. Morgan found it at last and gasped in shock. Paul Winthrop's face was plastered on the cover.