A/N: Finally! Juliette has some real progressive interaction with Nick instead of hearsay. I wanted to add more details from the episode "Organ Grinder" but I realized that that scene was Nick and Juliette having dinner...not exactly the most appropriate thing to talk about. heh.
Mine and Theirs
Juliette is a woman of routine.
This was how she always described herself.
She would rise up early every morning; take a shower and dress for work. She would always have a muffin for breakfast, coupled with a cup of coffee before leaving for the hospital where she would treat little animals, revising her medical notes whenever she was free. At the end of the day, she would have a drink or two with her friends or cook herself a nice meal back at home.
This was her unchanging, comfortably monotonous day - and she was fine with that.
Then things became different when Nick entered in her life.
The more Juliette learnt about the man she forgot, the more she became increasingly discontented with the daily schedule she had faithfully stuck by for years as long as she could remember. Gradually but surely, the Nick-shaped intrusion turned into a Nick-shaped hole.
The mundane things she did no longer gave her the satisfaction she used to have. Sometimes she would have flashes of a conversation she didn't recall having, cracking up at a joke she couldn't remember being told. Like a half painted picture, these recollection of a one sided banter was proof that she had built the recent years of her life with someone.
Someone called Nick Burkhardt.
Now, on a normal day, Juliette would visit the couch to kiss Nick good morning. She would go to work with a warm feeling in her chest in spite of the small twinge of guilt that there was once something more.
On some days, she would find her herself waking up next to him and he would shower her with kisses and morning breath. They would lay in bed, head rested against each other like they the lovers they should be.
Juliette thinks that perhaps, this is the way it was between them, that maybe it is alright to be awoken like that.
...
Breakfast everyday was no longer a muffin and a cup of coffee. Sometimes it would be a myriad of freshly baked rustic loaves and eggs. Sometimes it would be butter rolls served with assorted fruit conserves. The million flavours they came in never fail to surprise Juliette as she stared at the array of jars on the dining table in awe.
She found herself looking forward to the days where breakfast was dessert – homemade cherry pie that came in the cutest hand-weaven basket she had ever seen. She often wondered where Nick got them but he just stood there looking unfazed and somewhat embarrassed.
"Bud, the refrigerator guy...
I helped him and his friends get out of a difficult situation a couple of times.
I was just doing my job but they wanted to thank me anyway" Nick said nonchalantly.
Juliette nodded, although it doesn't really explain the persistent acts of adulation all that much.
...
One rainy evening, Nick brought her out to dinner. It was a small shabby fast food restaurant and Juliette wondered if there was something more to this place. Nick smiled sheepishly and revealed that this was where they ate with a pair of homeless siblings. He talked about how brilliant she was at talking to the kids and how they saved them from the clutches of an evil warlord.
"Ha ha, very funny Nick" Juliette deadpanned.
"It's true!" he insisted.
Of course it's true. Despite her sketchy memories, she remembered Hanson and Gracie.
...
That night, Juliette lay in bed with Nick and she realized, Nick Burkhardt wasn't just her hero...he was everyone else's too.
-TBC-
Please Review ;D