When Emily is in France, she ceases to be Emily. She is Pascale, the painter and the recluse. It is only by chance that she nearly misses the phone call. It is the one day she has chosen to go out, to enjoy the weather…
When she returns, the phone is ringing. It sounds urgent. Pascale picks up the call in French, stunned at the voice and the language that greets her in return.
"Em?" It's JJ, she knows this in a second. "It's over. Come home."
It takes her a few moments to register that she is still speaking French, that she hasn't made the switch to her native tongue, and is telling JJ that there is no way she can leave. She has a life here. Friends here. A job she loves.
But…she pauses, thinking.
The only place she has ever had family is in the States.
"Okay," she says, breathing a sigh of relief she had not known she'd been holding. "Okay, I'll be there. I'll catch the next flight."