So I've just been wondering more and more about what Julia's deal is because let's face it, Julia's the minor goddess of cuteness and she just seems to know all the legionnaires. And then a sense of dread filled me because my second semester at school is starting which means 'work' and 'studying' again, so I panicked and wrote. Hope you enjoy!

Disclaimer: I don't own the characters shown below.

Big Kid Business

Julia got to do something that none of her friends got to do because her parents were of 'pro-consular statuses'. That meant that they'd been praetors of New Rome, and that Julia got to go to the fort and hang out with the big kids sometimes. Except some of them didn't want to hang out with Julia because they were 'of status' too. But one of the big kids that always hung out with Julia was Jason- even though he was older than she was.

Today she went to find him at the prin-ci-pia. That meant 'principal' in Latin. It was where the people of status hung out. That's what Jason told her. But Reyna said it was where the people of status worked, and usually after she said that she'd tell him to get cracking whatever that meant.

So she skipped into the prin-ci-pia and said hello.

"Hey Julia," Jason smiled at her. He and Reyna and some people in armour were standing around a table.

"Sal-ve Jason and Reyna," she said with a smile. That meant 'hello' in Latin. Jason had told her that too.

That's when the blond boy clucked his tongue.

"Praetors with all due respect, I don't think it's appropriate for a… a child to be here." He said.

His name was Oc-ta-vian. Julia used to have trouble saying it, which was why he didn't like her. Maybe he didn't like her because she was a child, too. Maybe he just didn't like anyone. He always had a knife with him even in New Rome and Terminus didn't like him because of that, and he frustrated Reyna and hated Jason so Julia didn't like him either. Plus he thought she was a child.

"I brought a picture." Julia said. "Because it's Friday."

"Julia won't be a nuisance and we're nearly done," Jason said to the legionnaires. He turned to look at her. He winked. "Jules, I think you should show us those pictures when we have a little more time, so Reyna and I can really enjoy them. Can you go sit in one of the chairs? Thank you."

She managed to climb in the big chair all by herself, and didn't make any noise while they talked. She just pointed her feet like a ballerina to try to touch the ground with her toes.

Finally the people in armour walked away, and Jason and Reyna talked in quiet voices for a little while, their eyebrows dipped like a swing with a cut rope.

Julia hopped off her chair, marched over, and gave them the picture.

"Oh, Julia, this is fantastic." He said.

"It's you and Jason on the mountain," Julia said. "I asked my mommy and she told me that that's what happened. See, you're standing on shields."

"Yeah, I see," Jason said smiling. "Thank you so much, Julia."

"And this is yours, Reyna." Julia said handing her the second picture. "It's Aurum and Argent-Argenti-Argent…"

"Argentum," Reyna said.

"Yeah. It's your two dogs and Blues Clues and Scooby Doo." Julia nodded. "Just in case they get into a fight and need other friends to play with."

"Thank you, Julia, that's very considerate." Reyna said.

"We'll hang them both up on the wall when we get more of that blue sticky stuff- right with the other ones." Jason said.

"What are you doing?" Julia asked looking at the table they'd all been gathered around.

"It's grown-up business." Jason explained with a wink. Jason winked to say 'it's okay' or 'you didn't do anything wrong'. Like usually when she asked questions that people didn't want to answer they called her names like 'graecus' at the park or told her to stop asking questions because they were grown-ups and they were allowed to tell her what to do. Jason always thought it was okay for her to want to know stuff even if he couldn't tell her and that was the really cool thing about Jason.

"But you're not grown-ups because you don't have kids and salaries and something called mortgages." Julia said expertly.

"Then it's big-kid business," Reyna corrected him. She did that a lot.

"You can come have a look if you'd like," Jason offered.

Julia nodded and ran to the table. She was too short, so Jason put his hands under her arms and lifted her right off her feet like she was flying.

She looked at the table. There was a map on it, and blocks like the ones Julia played with at home in the basement were spread out all over it.

"What's it a map of?"

"The big city and the surrounding area," Reyna said.

"So where's my house?" Julia asked. The two praetors smiled and Jason showed her where New Rome was.

"If you live near the Northern gates…" Reyna mused to herself for a bit before pointing to a spot. "Your house would be around here."

"So this is the school?" Julia asked stretching out of Jason's grip to point.

"Sure would be."

"It doesn't look like the school." Julia said.

"This map isn't for looks," Jason explained. "It's just to show distance and general spaces. Like that pyramid of grey blocks over there? It definitely isn't Mount Othrys in real life, but that's what we're calling it."

"That's where the big battle happened," Julia said trying to sound as smart as the praetors were.

"Indeed," Reyna nodded. "You know a lot of things."

"My mommy told me," she said. Her mommy was the ma-yor of New Rome. It meant she was sort-of in charge and knew stuff that happened in the fort. "But she didn't tell me what a battle is."

"That's big kid business," Jason said lowering her back to the ground. "Hey, do you want to help Reyna and me out?"

"Yes!" Julia said with wide eyes.

"Dakota made a bit of a mess earlier. The supply closet where we keep all the pens tumbled down and now they're all over the floor- do you think you could help sort everything out?"

"Yes!" Julia said.

"I'll call Aurum and Argentum to help you," Reyna said.

"Yes!" Julia said again. It was like getting two scoops of ice cream and sprinkles instead of just one scoop of ice cream with sprinkles. Reyna whistled and the two metal dogs woke up from the towel where they curled up and slept, and skipped over to come to Julia and lick her ankles.

"Can I have a jellybean?" Julia asked shyly. It seemed to be her lucky day after all.

"Of course," Reyna said, dragging the bowl closer to the edge of the table so that Julia could reach. "You can take a few."

"Yeah, she's not that cheap." Jason said. It must be teasing because Reyna got that special smile and tried to smack him in the arm. He ducked. "Here, I'll show you what to do. Reyna, you can start the paperwork without me, I'll catch up." Jason said taking Julia's hand and taking her to where her job waited.

Julia stood in the Prin-ci-pia's doorway and waited for Reyna to look up from her work. She wasn't though.

"Reyna?" Julia asked, cocking her head to the side. Reyna looked up.

"Hi, Julia," Reyna smiled. Her smile didn't look real. When Reyna smiled her smiles were always small, but this one was small and sad.

"Do you have a job for me today?" She asked.

"Oh, Julia…" Reyna said. "Today isn't a good day."

"Really? You don't need my help?" She asked looking around. "Even if Jason isn't here?"

Reyna's shoulders sank. "Julia, that's actually the problem. Jason just isn't here. I'm really busy; I wish I could talk to you longer, but I can't. Maybe soon, okay?"

"Okay," Julia said. "Is Jason okay? Where is he?"

"I don't know, Julia." Reyna sighed.

"What do you think?"

"That information is classified."

"So?" Julia asked confused. "What does classi-classid-"

"Classified," Reyna said.

"What does that mean?"

"It's big kid business, okay?" Reyna said. "Maybe we'll tell you more about it when he's home."

"Okay," Julia nodded enthusiastically. "Is he going to be home before tomorrow? Because if not do I still give you a Friday picture or do I wait?"

"If you like," Reyna said.

"Okay," Julia said. "But… do you think he's okay?"

Reyna sighed, and shuffled her papers around before looking up at Julia again. They were maps and old pictures.

"That's also big kid business," Reyna said. "But I think you could really help Terminus right now, so why don't you go ahead and take some jelly beans if you'd like and go do that?"

Julia nodded and left Reyna alone. That was little kid business that she could do.

Hazel and her new friend Frank were coming into New Rome and Terminus was yelling at them so Julia thought it was safe to ask a question because nobody listened to Terminus when he yelled.

"Hi Hazel," Julia said smiling.

"Hi sweetie," Hazel smiled back. Her hair was loose and she wasn't wearing her armour. She was very pretty that way.

"Is Jason back yet?" She asked tipping her head to one side.

"Oh…" Hazel said. She winced, scrunching up her face like she was hurt. "No sweetie. Not yet."

"Is he going to be back soon?" Julia said. "I have a lot of Friday pictures to give him."

"You can keep them for him, I'm sure he'll love each one when he sees them." Hazel said.

"Are you just not telling me things because it's big kid business?" Julia asked.

"Yes and no," Hazel said. Julia blinked, and the older girl sighed. "Julia, the truth is I don't know where Jason is at all, okay? Nobody does."

"Still?" She asked. This was scary.

"Still, but I'm sure he's okay. I mean, Jason's strong. That's why he's the praetor." Hazel said. "He'll be okay."

"Yeah," Julia nodded. "Maybe I'll draw a Friday picture of him fighting monsters."

"Yeah, he'd love that!" Hazel smiled.

"You're holding up traffic, can't you see?" Terminus yapped. That was weird because nobody else was there.

"We're the only ones here, everyone came through ages earlier," Frank frowned.

"No excuse! I'd slap you for your impertinence! Julia, please dispose of their weapons."

"How old are you, Julia?" Frank asked her, frowning.

"Six years old," she said. "But I'm a pro-fessio- a profeso- a profenal… a…"

She couldn't say that word.

"Keep practising sweetie, I'll see you later," Hazel said kissing her hair before going into New Rome.

The senators were all coming out of New Rome and they were all talking because they were mad about water cannons and Frank and stuff like that- although water was fun and legionnaires usually liked cannons and Frank was nice. He sneaked Julia a candy bar once when her parents had grounded her for colouring on the walls.

Reyna was way behind everybody else.

"Hi Reyna!" Julia called.

Reyna stopped mid step and turned around to smile. She had lines in her forehead and blue circles under her eyes which was weird because usually her face didn't have that. Maybe she was putting make up on. Mom said that make up made people's faces look weird.

"Hello Julia. How are you?"

"Okay. What happened in there?" She asked.

"I can't tell you," Reyna said. "That's a military secret for now." She looked very tired and very hurried, but she winked to Julia. "Big kid stuff."

"Oh," Julia said. "Okay. I see. Also you look really pretty without make up on so you don't need it."

Reyna frowned for a second before smiling. "Thank you Julia, that's sweet of you."

"Sweet as jelly beans?" She said to make Reyna feel better since she liked those. Jason never touched the jelly beans.

"Sweeter," Reyna promised.

Julia knocked on the door of the prin-ci-pia before walking in.

Reyna was folding up maps.

"Reyna?" Julia asked. She looked up.

"Hey Jules, I can't really talk right now. I'm about to go on a trip."

"Where? I've always wanted to go on a trip to Disneyland."

"I wish, sweet pea. This is for business." Reyna said.

"Can you bring my picture with you?" Julia asked.

"Of course I can," Reyna said. "Come here."

Julia hurried over and gave Reyna her Friday picture. Her face fell.

"Where were you when the ship..?"

"I was with Terminus," Julia said.

"Did you get hurt?"

"No, Terminus told me what to do and I listened."

"Good girl," Reyna smiled. "This picture's very pretty."

"See, that's Jason on the ship and that's you with him too because my Mom says that the praetors are overworked unless there are two of them and I don't know what that means but it sounds bad, so here there are two of you."

"Wow," Reyna smiled though she looked tired. Maybe that was what 'overworked' meant. "Thank you Julia."

"Did the grey-grae-grec-"

"The Greeks," Reyna said.

"Yeah, did they really want to hurt us? And even Jason? And Frank and Hazel?" Julia asked. This was concerning to her, but her Mom was too busy to say anything to her about it and her Dad didn't know.

"It's complicated," Reyna said. "Big kid business, okay? Forget about it and enjoy your last summer before school starts. Like right now; I need to keep packing up some maps, so why don't you walk back home and go to the park? The dogs will take you home."

The two metal dogs barked and panted. Sometimes it looked like they were smiling when they saw Julia.

"Okay," Julia nodded. She scooped up some jelly beans from the bowl. "Have fun on your trip Reyna."

She smiled a bit. Her smiles were always small, but now they were always smaller.

"Sure," Reyna said.

Frank was sitting in one of the big prin-ci-pia chairs with his face in his hands. He looked sad, so Julia wanted to go see him to give him a hug. Or give him jelly beans. Jason caught her hand.

"Leave him alone," he said softly. He winked, like he always did. "Trust me."

His wink was weird because one of his eyes was black.

"Maybe Hazel should hug him," Julia said softly. She thought Frank would probably like that better.

They all winced, like it hurt.

"Jules, that's our problem." Jason said softly, kneeling in front of her. "Hazel's what we call 'a prisoner of war' now."

"But the war's over," Julia said. "That's why there were fireworks."

"War never really leaves," Reyna said playing with a bit of Julia's hair.

"But is Hazel going to be okay?"

"No," Jason said. "Probably not."

"But she's just a prisoner."

Reyna's knuckled became white. She was holding on to a chair very tightly. She drifted off to go see Frank even though Jason said he probably wanted to be alone.

"That's not supposed to mean as much as it does," Jason said. "It's big kid business, okay? Very ugly big kid business, at that."

"If it took Hazel away I don't want to know." Julia said shaking her head.

"One day, Jules." Jason said patting her back. "Now what's that in your hands?"

Julia handed him all of the papers tied together with string.

"You missed a lot of Friday drawings. My mom put them all in a box so I wouldn't lose them, and then she tied them up with string because they didn't fit anymore. Now you can hang them up if you have the blue sticky stuff."

"I think I want to look at them first," Jason said. He looked up and smiled a real smile. "Thanks Jules. Can I get a hug?"

"Uh-hun," Julia said before hugging him.

Ten years later

She rubbed her eyes and picked up another document that was to be read and signed by yesterday. The principia was one giant mess of paperwork and lollipop wrappers and letters that had to be answered or sent about veterans and casualties.

"Coffee, Ju?" He asked her.

"No, I'm fine." She grumbled under her breath.

"If you want to make it until that IM conference call with the Greeks about the casualties, you're going to need it." Matthew said again.

She looked at the papers in front of her. Death toll: 48 and counting because a legionnaire had gone into open heart surgery on the battlefield and may not make it again- the healers were drifting in and out of the principia with new numbers constantly. Injured: 121, but most of those legionnaires were fine by now, or at least walking. They didn't know how many of their people were stranded in New York, thus the conversation she and Matthew were about to have with Penny and Sophie. 56 were still missing. All these very big numbers meant very big things and none of them were good.

She groaned.

"Okay, okay. I'm sorry. I am backing off. Watch how backed off I am. Very." Matthew said.

She turned towards her partner. "I'm sorry I snarled, Matt. I'm just… Exhausted and sick of hearing about the casualties. We really didn't need another war so soon after the Gaian War."

"No," Matthew said. "But at least it skipped all the veterans, right? I mean, nobody here had PTSD or anything."

"I suppose," she grumbled.

"Hey, put those papers down. You're upsetting yourself." He said. "You'll tear the principia apart in pure frustration in a few minutes if you keep going."

She got up from her spot, stretching her legs and tapping some life back into her feet.

Matthew put an arm around her and held her close. "You may be the first legacy praetor, but that doesn't mean you need to endure five times the pressure and do twelve times the job."

"I suppose not." She said. Matthew put the coffee in her hands and kissed her on the cheek to make her feel better.

It was at times like these that Julia could really appreciate what Jason and Reyna had been and what they'd done for her. In the midst of wars and body counts and abductions, apocalypses and mysteries and the world crumbling- they'd sat down and chatted and answered silly questions and taught her how to enunciate or speak Latin and hung pictures that looked like potatoes dressed up and socialising. It was at times like these where she was glad that they'd also had the common sense to not tell her some things; mostly all of the ones previously noted.

After all; big kid business wasn't all fun and games and cool swishy purple capes.