"Morning, R."

I opened my eyes to Julie smiling down at me, leaning on the back of the couch. Confused by the sleepy way the world refused to focus, I rubbed my eyes, then sat up to orientate myself. Julie's house. Bright light through the windows. Morning.

"Hey." I croaked, then winced. "Drink?"

She vanished into the kitchen and came back with a glass of milk, which I'd discovered over the past three mornings I was partial to. I wrapped my fingers around it, feeling the cold register, and paused for a moment to thank Julie.

Feeling better after washing the awful taste of sleep from my mouth and throat - what was that about anyway? You just lie there doing nothing and wake up with a tongue like sandpaper and the taste of dirty socks? - I blinked up at Julie. "I fell asleep on the couch?"

She nodded. "Whatever Harry Potter movie we were on wasn't quite enough to keep you awake. I don't think you missed out, I'm pretty sure I'm missing two or three of those movies anyway. How's your chest this morning?"

I felt my cheeks heat up just slightly when she plucked my shirt collar aside to peer at my injury. I lifted my shoulders to shrug and she leved a stern look at me. "Okay." I told her meekly instead.

"It looks better. Do you want breakfast?"

Breakfast was the hardest meal for me to adapt to. I could usually pick at something for lunch, and in the evening I occasionally managed almost half the amount that Julie or Nora might eat. But my body seemed especially slow to catch up with Living schedules in the morning. I'd made myself nauseous choking down even small meals in the morning and Julie opted for a liquid breakfast for me, cheerily informing me she was slipping Carbtien powder or tables into half my meals anyway. I hadn't differentiated between tastes enough yet for it to bother me the way Nora always complained when Carbtien was an ingredient in Julie-prepared meals.

"Can we go for a w-walk?" I pulled out the Look. Julie groaned. "Yes, okay, just put that away. And only a short one." She cautioned, knowing how bored I was being stuck inside. Short walk or not, I jumped out of my chair at her words and she had to laugh. "R, you'll be better soon. We can explore the whole city, and if you want, outside it too - Rosso says it's safer every day, especially now that practically all the zombies are on our side, even those living outside the wall."

"Want some of my things." I thought longingly of the plane we'd gotten to know one another. I wanted that back - not just the familiarly of my home, but having Julie to myself. Here Nora and Marcus dropped by (much as I liked them both) or a solider came by with supplies for the General or Rosso with a question... everybody knew Julie. It made me even less certain of myself, even though Julie was more than patient with me.

It wasn't just the physical changes healing my body and bringing the slightest hint of colour back to my cheeks that I had to comprehend. Emotions were far harder to cope with than the bullet wound or re-learning the cues my body gave for bodily functions or the odd sensation of becoming tired and falling asleep. The way that I felt things now was so much more vivid than anything I'd gone through when I was Dead, with a few exceptions - like the time I'd first seen Julie and when she'd taken my hand in the car park.

"Me too, you had quite the treasure trove. We'll plan a trip to the airport - I wonder if our car is still on the highway." She mused. I felt the happy little blip of my heart. Our. In my haste to get out of the house I misjudged the position of the couch. I yelped when my toes connected with the couch foot, getting jammed underneath. I yanked it out and looked down in horror at a bloody mess. Julie saw it too, but instead of chastising me she guiding me into a sitting position on the couch that maimed me and pulled my foot up to see. "Epic toe stub, R. Hold still, let's stop the bleeding."

I grunted painfully when she wrapped a cloth around my little toe, which seemed the worst. Once Julie cleaned it - the toe was tiny, how could it hold all that blood? - I peered down at the mangled remains of my nail. "Um. Is it sup..posed to be ha- hanging off l-ike that?" I asked, nervously.

"Uh, no, definitely not. That's why it's hurting you. Look, you can't leave the nail like that, it'll catch on everything and it could make it worse by pulling the rest of the nail off."

"Unm. Wh-at di... do.. we do?"

"I can take that broken bit of nail off. It'll hurt for a while, but it'll save it getting worse."

The toe wasn't as bad as the bullet had been. It didn't burn. "...Okay." I agreed. Julie patted my shoulder, then took a pair of tweezers. The tiny little metal arms made me more nervous for some reason, worry layering on worry.

"R, it's be okay." Julie's soft reassurance did calm me down, but though the nerves sank they didn't vanish. Logically I knew this wasn't the worst pain I'd faced or would face, but the way not only my mind stressed out but my body did, tensing, palms sweating, made concentration impossible.

Julie understood that something was more wrong than it should have been. I heard the tweezers plunk down on the coffee table, then her fingers were on my cheeks, bringing my gaze to hers.

Okay. Okay, that was better. No medicine could ever have the effect that Julie did. Just having her hold me, her blue eyes holding mine, was as vital as the corresponding thud of my heartbeat.

"It's getting the better of you, R. I can see you go to panic when it gets too much, all these thoughts in your head, but you can control them. It's just practice, it's time, and it'll get easier."

I couldn't not believe what she told me. For several minutes she just held me, and I leaned forward while my breathing calmed down so that my forehead touched hers.

"Okay." I tried to make my still-shaky voice sound sure, even if I didn't feel it. I lifted my foot, and she held my heel firmly as she picked up the tweezers. I winced when she removed the smashed portion of my nail, but I didn't pull away.

"You did a nice job with that." Julie held up the nail and I felt a little queasy. Lucky I'd only had the milk. She saw my face and picked up the cloth to clear away the fresh blood. "Damaged nails grow back. It might take a little while, but it'll be okay."

She offered me a hand and I took it, feeling the subtle strength in her you wouldn't suspect from her small stature as she pulled me off the couch. "Now, how about that walk? Maybe limp, in your case."

I found that walking slowly, cushioned by a shoe (Julie still had to help me tie my laces, but I practiced daily) caused no more discomfort than resting. We went, and it was sort of worth it when Julie stayed close by me and kept her arm around my waist.

A few soliders nodded at us - as did a few former-Dead who recognized me from the airport. It was strange, seeing our two worlds merging like this. We passed the Rosso's house, which wasn't very far from Julie's, and I was introduced to Mrs Rosso. General Grigio had arranged for me to stay with the Rossos, but Julie and I wanted to stay together and with her father out with a squadron of Boney-fighting and hopefully Corpse-rescuing soldiers, we were free to do so. I thought seeing Mrs Rosso - clearly in on Julie and I's secret since her guest room was conspicuously empty - would be awkward. But she put me at ease right away, assuring me to 'just drop by' if I ever needed the room, and not to worry If the General asked, I was the perfect houseguest. "The kind I like - easy to clean up after!" She laughed. "Not like those boys of mine - between Kevin and his inability to pick a single piece of clothing up and my dear husband who can't so much as rinse a plate, well."

It was funny to think of Kevin, who I pictured capable, competent and wielding a gun with ease, living at home with his mother looking after him. But then I suppose it wasn't so different to Julie's care of me, so I wasn't one to judge Kevin.

I was looking back to wave to Mrs Rosso when I was bumped hard, stumbling me to my knees. Julie knelt to help me up, with an angry shout to the small group of four laughing guys who continued past us. One, a little shorter than me with sandy hair, winked and made a gesture I'd seen Julie make at rude nurses in the hospital. Julie flashed the upright finger right back at him. "Assholes, they did that on purpose. You okay, R?"

"Yeah." I shrugged it off, though it made me uneasy, wondering on the motives of whichever of the four had barged into me. Would they they try that with Julie if she was on her own, or would she only be targeted if I was with her?

"Did you know them?"

"Yeah, Shane and his friends. He was in my class at school, a real jock type, except we don't play as many organized sports now. Good thing you never ran into him as a zombie, you'd have gone hungry - he has an empty space where his brains should be." She snorted. That made my lips twitch in amusement, though I was too concerned to smile properly. "R, don't worry, it didn't mean anything."

I did worry though. I couldn't seem to help it, since worry apparently didn't come with an off switch. Did normal, Living humans do this all the time? Walk around worrying?

"I think that's far enough for today. Let's sit for a while." Julie found us a spot in the sun. We sat, chatting occasionally, but I didn't feel any pressure when it was just me and Julie. If I wanted to sit in silence with my face tilted into the light, Julie let me be. If she wanted my opinion on something - a strange, novel thought in itself - she asked, and phrased different questions to make me think about my answers. It made this world easier to adapt to, having Julie as my guide. My worry subsided, giving way to the sunlight.

"Do y-ou want t-to go back to work tomorrow?"

Julie glanced sideways at me. "Yes and no. Yes because I miss my class kids and teaching. No because... well, it's been nice. This time with you."

Smile. "Nice f-for me, too."

We didn't get back until after lunch. I picked at my food again until Julie lectured me into a few last bites. I couldn't figure out why the world seemed so fuzzy and unfocused until Julie noticed my head nodding. "You're tired. The sun makes me sleepy, too."

I tried to remember the warning signs of 'tired' so I'd recognize them next time. The clink of dishes woke me, my head resting on my arms, in turn resting on the kitchen table.

"You were tired. You were out all afternoon." Julie commented. I yawned and stretched, feeling the odd sensation of my shoulder joints creaking and popping into place - for some reason that made Julie's expression soften, and she came over to hug me, sitting mostly in my lap. It was hard to protest that. I woke up fully then. "Sorry. S-slept through half our last day together." I was disgruntled, looking at the setting sun through the window. Julie waved off my apology, planting a kiss on my lips that made every thought I'd had that day fall out of my head. The taste of Julie's lips beat milk, crisps, or any of her home-cooked meals, and I was powerless to do anything except hope that she'd never stop. "Your body still hasn't settled into proper cycles yet. Besides, nothing wrong with an afternoon nap. You should pick a more comfortable place than the table next time, though." She got up, leaving me strangely disappointed and unsure of what to do about it.

We watched two more DVDs - I thoroughly enjoyed them both, with plots that were easy to understand and lots of racing cars, explosions, and gunfights. Maybe enjoyable as well because Julie liked to tuck herself against my side when we were watching movies. She laughed at my look when the second set of credits rolled. "You liked them? Typical, they're such guy movies."

"You didn't li..like them?"

"I like the first one better than the second one because I like the big bald guy, and his sister is an awesome character. Drives great cars, stands up for herself, looks after her brother."

"He had a nice car." She laughed. "Even as a zombie, you had an eye for cars. You'll be happy to know this series has like ten more movies in it."

I felt myself grin. "Tonight?"

"One more, not all of us spent four hours asleep this afternoon, and I've got to get up earlier tomorrow. Plus I don't have the third DVD, so we have to go to number four. Are, here it is."

She tossed me the DVD case. I'd watched her put the last two on so I knew which button to press to make the machine eject. The old disc was easy but it took me a moment to figure out how to unclip the new disk from the case, but I was pleased with myself when it was in and loaded. Julie - watching all of this with a secretive sort of smile - handed me the remote when I sat back down. "You earned this. Start it up, I'm going to see if we have any passable snacks."

While Julie was in the kitchen I spent a fun few minutes clicking buttons and finding out which did what. It went okay until I managed to bring up a weird screen overtop of the DVD that I couldn't get rid of. Oops.

"Um, R? Is there a reason you're changing the TV controls into one of the lesser-known dialects of Russian?"

Sheepishly, I handed the the remote to Julie to fix the TV. Julie gave it back to me when I was done though. The next movie was even better, but I was tired again when it finished. I didn't protest as Julie led me up to her room. Half asleep, I didn't even worry when I stripped off my top layer of clothes and tumbled into bed in just my boxer shorts. Julie joined me, snuggling into my chest and fitting easily into my arms.

"Like this bed." I murmured into her hair, and I felt, more than heard, her laugh. "The bed, or the company?"

Easy. "Both."

My eyes closed, and for a few minutes longer I enjoyed the unfamiliar sensation of a soft matteress and Julie curled up against me.

I had no nightmares.

A/N - Woah, sorry for the lack of updates, I ought to have gotten at least two chapters done by now! Had a crazy work week last week which included only one day off, I just haven't had as much spare writing time as I'd like. My hours for the next month are still all over the place, and so I may have a few slow updates. Please keep reviewing, I will be working on this fanfic, even with longer pauses between chapters. Again, not much action happening in this chapter, so enjoy a nice bit of R & Julie fluff?

Yes, Brig, the movie they watched last chapter was the latest version of the Italian Job, you win the cookie!

Anyone know the series they were watching this chap? It's an easy one this time!