Chapter Seven: Woman of Judea

"So how much can't you remember?"

"I can barely remember the day it happened and a lot of the month leading up to it was hazy. Aside from that, everything else is fine," Misato said, answering Asuka's question as the four teens sat with the young officer. Shinji and the others were lucky, as they had just arrived at Misato's door only a few minutes after Misato returned home from a late night at the NERV headquarters. She hadn't even gotten a real chance to change out of her work clothes when Shinji had knocked on the door. After a lengthy and warm reunion between the pilots and their former commanding officer, they all took a seat in the living room, which looked remarkably different from the last time they had sat there.

"If you don't mind me asking, why do things seem so…different here? Have you redecorated?" Shinji asked as he glanced around the room.

Misato laughed lightly before taking a sip from her glass, which housed a dark brown liquid. "Me…redecorate? I wish! I couldn't redecorate this place if my life depended on it. The place has just been tidied up. You should see my room now, you can actually see all of the carpet now." Shinji wondered why there seemed to be a lack of any lingering odor in the condominium, especially when he had glanced into the kitchen and saw not one beer can or empty bottle laying around. It seemed to be too good to be true. It might've been four years but Shinji couldn't imagine Misato changing to such extreme lengths in that short period of time.

"I've never seen you pick up after yourself once," Asuka remarked, challenging the validity of Misato's statements.

"Who said I cleaned it? It's all been her," Misato said as she pointed to the young girl that had answered the door earlier. Despite the pressing curiosity over the girl, Shinji was more focused on catching up with his old friend and surrogate mother. Now that the conversation had shifted over to the new girl, who was currently heading over to the kitchen, Shinji figured it was a good time to shed light on the subject.

"So…who is she anyways?" Shinji inquired as everyone glanced over towards the kitchen, though the young girl wasn't visible from where they sat.

"Her name's Judith Adam, she's been staying with me for about a month now," Misato explained. "Hey Judy, could you come in here for a moment?"

"Be there in a second!" Judy shouted back from the kitchen. A few moments later, the teen returned to the living room carrying a tray with a kettle of tea and several cups. After setting the tray down on the coffee table, she took a seat on the couch next to Misato. "It's nice to meet you all. Misato's told me so much about you…um, except you." Kyo was, obviously, a mystery to Misato and Judy.

"I'm Kyo Musashi, I just get dragged along wherever he goes," Kyo answered, pointing to Shinji for a moment before getting himself a cup of tea. Up until this point, the conversations didn't concern Kyo to much extent but Judy seemed to fascinate him for some reason; perhaps it was because she was the only person without any Japanese blood in them at the table.

"I can't believe you would just replace us like that," Asuka remarked, almost sounding insulted that Misato would take in another person after Shinji and Asuka. Of course, their departure was probably the exact reason that Misato took in another. Misato had grown so accustomed to having somebody in the house aside from Pen Pen that she took in the first person she could find. Shinji, however, knew that Misato was not somebody who could just take anybody into her own home…this Judy girl must have made quite an impact to have earned a place at this condo. Judging by the cleanliness, the quality of the tea he was drinking, and the smell of expertly prepared food lingering from the kitchen hinted at the possibility that Judy earned her place mostly by what she could provide Misato.

"I haven't replaced you. I would've loved to have had you come back and stay here…but I figured now that you were all grown up you'd be more interested in finding a place to live on your own," Misato explained, trying to appease the Red Devil. "It's not like I've found somebody exactly like either of you."

"Yeah, for starters it smells like she can cook better than Shinji," Asuka chuckled.

"She's certainly got better manners than Asuka," Shinji quickly retorted.

"And she's definitely cuter than either of you," Kyo ended, which made Judy giggle and blush in embarrassment. She barely knew these people and yet they seemed to be accepting her already. Misato had talked about these children many times in the past, so Judy had been excited about finally meeting them. She could only hope that she would be as good a co-habitant as Shinji or Asuka.

"How'd you wind up living here anyways?" Shinji finally asked the question that had been lingering on his and Asuka's mind ever since the conversation started. Misato looked over to Judy for a moment, apparently making sure that it was okay with Judy to talk about how they met. It struck all of them as unusual…but rather than ask they waited for the story.

"Well it all happened about four weeks ago…"

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Four Weeks Ago

"Dammit…I can't believe this is all they had left. It'll have to do," Misato mentally sighed as she strolled down the sidewalk with a large paper bag cradled close to her body. The sun was only just starting to set in the horizon and Misato was on her way back to her condo from the corner store. Unfortunately, the supplies in her kitchen had been neglected for far too long and were in desperate need of restocking. It had been hard these past few years without Shinji around to share some of the workload with...though it was certainly quieter without Asuka around. She missed them both terribly, of course, and hoped that they would come back some soon even if it did mean having them go back into danger.

"Pastrami…it'll have to do," Misato groaned as she fished the saran-wrapped sandwich out of the paper bag. She had picked up a couple of sandwiches for dinner that night, along with a bunch of others things that would be good for dinner on a night when Misato had more energy to spare. "I just hope Pen Pen doesn't mind a few nights with canned fish…"

Due to a rather slow-adjusting human resource department, the paychecks with Misato's new and improved pay was still absent. Misato was grateful that the UN was willing to handle Misato's finances while she was still in a coma but now she had to repay them in one way or another. Misato opted for the paying back with plain, old cash…though that was now leaving a bit of a hole in her pocketbook, at least until she could get hold of her new paychecks.

A ringing from her coat pocket snapped Misato out of her finance-related thoughts. It took some careful juggling with her grocery bag and fishing through her coat pockets before she could finally find her cell phone and answer the call. "Katsuragi speaking."

"Hope I'm not disturbing anything Katsuragi," the Colonel's voice spoke from the other end of the line.

"Not at all sir," Misato lied flatly. She really didn't like having to talk on a cell phone while in the middle of a sidewalk. "What can I do you for?"

"At the moment not a great deal but I'm afraid I'm going to have to ask you to come into the office early tomorrow. Lieutenant Ibuki and Washington want to discuss some of the plans they've drawn up for the Eva reconstructions and they'll only be able to do it in the morning."

"And why can't they do it in the afternoon when I'm more available?"

"Cause they're still here at the geofront and they'll probably be here all night so I'm sending them home tomorrow afternoon - that's why. Be at your office at 0800 and that's an order."

Misato mentally sighed at the prospect of an early morning workday. As much as she hated it, she was warned when she took the job that being Deputy Commander would require a lot more of her time than being Chief of Operations ever could. It wasn't the first time that the Colonel had asked Misato to come in early and while it bothered her to come in at ungodly hours of the morning, Misato had never once come in early and saw the Colonel's office empty. Sometimes it seemed like the Colonel lived in his office. She had seen the couch in his office with turned pillows and sprawled blankets before, suggesting that it had been used the night before. "Yes sir," Misato finally answered and ended the call.

It would seem that finding time to sleep and regain her energy was out of the question now, which meant that tomorrow evening would wind up being much like this one. Another night of instant noodles wasn't going to kill her, though she personally wished that, after nearly ten years, she could get off the college-student diet. After pocketing her phone, Misato figured she might as well start eating now cause she wouldn't have much time in her condo to have a few minutes to herself. Tearing open the wrappings with her teeth, Misato took a bite out of the cold sandwich, though was met with a rather bland taste. "Ugh, can't believe I wasted my money on this," Misato said after spitting out the mouthful of the single-handedly worst sandwich she had ever tasted. It didn't take very long to conclude that she'd rather sacrifice some of her already valuable time and make boil up some noodles when she got home.

"What a horrible day," Misato scoffed and tossed the pitiful excuse for a sandwich aside, which bounced off a large, discarded pile of blankets and rags.

"Hey, watch it!" A voice called out suddenly.

Misato looked around to try and figure out what the source of the voice was but couldn't find anybody else on the empty sidewalk. It wasn't until the piles of rags and blankets began to move did she realize that there was more to the pile than she had originally thought. Out from under it, a young girl uncovered herself and right away Misato realized that she had just hit a homeless child with her discarded sandwich. Her clothes were old and slightly tattered, her hair obviously not looked after in many months, and the lingering smell of a person who had been outdoors and had not bathed since the last time it rained. "You shouldn't litter," the young girl said, oddly not bothered about being hit by a sandwich.

"Um…sorry about that," Misato apologized, feeling a bit awkward at this point.

"That's a perfectly good sandwich, you shouldn't throw away something so carelessly," the girl continued as she picked up the sandwich and handed it back to Misato, who was too surprised by the girl's behavior to say anything at first. The girl standing before was tall and very thin…probably hadn't eaten in a long time, or is like almost every other teenager on the planet. "You should probably get going now, I'm sure you've got a lot to do."

Now there had been a lot of people left homeless with all the chaos going on in the world around them but this girl was arguably one of the most well-mannered homeless children Misato had ever come across. "Oh…right, of course. It's just that…I'm not really interested in eating this anymore so…would…you be interested in it? I mean, the half I hadn't taken a bit out of."

The girl looked at the sandwich for a moment, then at Misato for a bit longer. "I can't eat this."

"I know it's not a great sandwich but it's better than nothing." Misato didn't want to sound insistent or judgmental about the girl and her predicament. However, she didn't want to just leave this girl alone…something about her struck Misato as out of place. Aside from looking like a mess, the girl had all the mannerisms of a more refined child rather than one on the streets.

"I mean…I can't eat this for other reasons," the girl politely declined once again.

"You're a vegetarian?" Misato asked, taking a look at the sandwich again. It was just a simple pastrami sandwich.

"No, it's not that. I…don't like those kind of sandwiches."

"You don't even know what it is."

"Its um…meat with mayo on white bread. I just…I don't like those kind of sandwiches."

Misato was a little puzzled by this sudden change in behavior, going from her usual polite demeanor and now being withdrawn by this subject. "Meat and mayo? What's your name?"

"It's…Judith. Judith Adam ma'am."

"You're Jewish, aren't you?"

The girl fell oddly silent at this point. Every passing moment that Misato spent around this homeless young girl the girl became more and more peculiar. She didn't answer verbally…simply nodding her head sheepishly. "Not a lot of people in the world…even less Jewish folks." Second Impact devastated a lot of the world. People from all races and religions died because of it…the minorities of the world became even smaller. "You should go ma'am, I'm sure you've got better things to do than hang around a homeless kid." Judith was on her way back to the pile of blankets that she called 'home' to settle in for the evening the small alcove along the street when Misato stopped her.

"Wait a second," Misato blurted out, catching the girl's attention. "It's uh…going to be really cold tonight. I've got…a spare bedroom if you're interested." Misato wasn't sure what the hell was going through her mind when she brought up the offer. To suggest such a thing to a complete stranger was complete madness and yet…something seemed very right about it. It felt a bit like fate. Judy stared at Misato like a deer stares at a set of headlights, likely trying to determine if Misato was being sincere or attempting to build up false hopes. After a long and thought-filled stare, Judy's eyes lit up brightly.

"I would be honoured!" Judy exclaimed.

"Come on then, it's only a few blocks to my place." Misato motioned for Judy to follow along, which she did without hesitation. As they strolled along the sidewalk, Judy began to share her own life story with Misato, who was curious as to how such a refined young lady wound up on the streets like this. As it turned out, Judy's family first moved to Tokyo-3 several years ago with her father being a big-shot military man. However, Judy lost both her parents during an Angel attack four years ago and she been living on her own ever since. She was able to stay afloat in her own home for a little while but her father had left behind many debts and soon Judy had lost everything and was living on the streets. It was only through resourcefulness and a whole damn lot of faith was Judy able to survive those harsh years on the streets of this massive city.

By the time that the pair reached Misato's condo, Judy had given pretty much all the information that Misato needed to understand where Judy came from. "I hope you don't mind a bit of a mess. I really need to clean the place up," Misato apologized in advance before she opened the door for Judy.

"It's um…not that bad," Judy said, sugar-coating the truth as she glanced around the condo. Judy wasn't too picky really. It was infinitely better than the streets of course and it had temperature control and privacy. For Judy, it was far more than she ever expected to have. "So can I just sleep on the couch or something?"

"I told you I have a spare bedroom. I insist that you use that."

"Not to sound ungrateful, but you are certainly putting a lot of trust into a person you still barely know. How do you know I'm not going to rob you or something?"

"I have my reasons but I'll put it very simply. If you were going to rob me, I've got friends in very high places that would like to have a word with you and they can find pretty much anybody. Besides, you're living on the streets and you're still abiding by your dietary laws, I'm pretty sure you're not going to break one of the Ten Commandments either."

"Good point," Judy laughed softly as Misato showed her the empty bedroom that once belonged to Asuka. "Wow…I'm getting a whole bedroom to myself?"

"I said it was a spare. Now you can make yourself at home, there's a shower over there and I'll see about scrounging up some better clothes for you."

"Oh, I couldn't ask to take some of your things…"

"It'll be some old stuff from my college days. I haven't worn them in years…it's best somebody uses them cause I'm never going to fit into them anymore."

While Misato returned to her room to start searching through old boxes of clothes, Judy made liberal use of the shower offer. It had been far too long since Judy had last enjoyed a hot shower and she made good use of it. In fact, even once Misato had dropped off some old clothes for Judy to use, she was still using the shower. Thank goodness Misato was already used to having a teenaged girl sucking up all the hot water in the house.

While Judy continued to absorb all the hot water in the building, Misato figured she'd go work on making some dinner by putting on a kettle for some noodles. "Hm…I wonder where Pen Pen is…" Misato muttered to herself as she waited for the kettle to come to a boil.

"Oh my god!" Judy's voice shouted through the entire condo.

"That answers my question…"

"You are so cute!" Seconds later Judy came bursting into the kitchen, still a bit wet and wrapped cozily in a towel, carrying the small penguin in her arms. "You have a pet penguin?" Judy rhetorically gasped in delight, which just made Misato laugh softly to herself. Judy was at least having a far better reaction to the penguin than Shinji did when they first met.

"I've had him for a while now. His name's Pen Pen."

"Oh he's just adorable!" Judy gushed as she gave the penguin a loving hug, which he seemed to enjoy a fair bit. Judy then rushed off to get changed, still carrying Pen Pen with her. It was nice having somebody around the house that adored that little lazy sack of feathers as much as she did. After a brief change, Judy finally returned to the kitchen wearing the new clothes provided to her, which was a simple t-shirt and old jeans that were still a bit big on her body, but were far better than her old clothes. "Thanks for the new clothes…they fit pretty well."

"Like I said, I'd rather see them get put to good use by somebody than just gathering dust in my closet. Now, I wish I could keep you entertained for longer but I've got to eat dinner and then tend to some stupid paperwork in my room, after which I'm likely just going to pass out in my bed. I have to go into work early tomorrow as well so I'll probably be gone before you wake up…just, feel free to make use of the condo until I get back."

"What time will you be getting back tomorrow?"

"Five-ish," Misato answered as she poured the now boiling water into a cup of noodles. "Try not to make a mess of the place."

"That I can do!"

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As Misato had said the day before, she was returning home from work at a little after five o'clock in the evening. She felt completely bushed after such an exhaustingly long day at the office. Higher pay or not, Misato was beginning to question whether or not she was going to be able to keep up with this schedule as Deputy Commander. Misato just had to keep reminding herself that this was the only way she was going to see Shinji and Asuka again with no other viable positions in NERV for her.

"I hope Judy wasn't too bored without me," Misato remarked, though highly doubting it, as she finally reached her condo…her fortress of solitude. "Hey Judy I'm ho-" Misato's words ended abruptly when she saw the interior of the condo. It was…pristine. Everything had been neatly arranged and cleaned up: the carpets vacuumed, the kitchen mopped and swept, the walls scrubbed, the shower washed, the toilet cleaned, the counters dusted…everything. What more there was the smell of something absolutely delicious now lingering in the air. Trying to figure out if she had just stepped through some sort of gateway to an alternate reality or not, Misato raced to the kitchen to find Judy standing over the stove wearing nothing but a pair of shorts and an apron. On the stove was a large frying pan with a huge mixture of vegetables and meats inside it, sizzling to prefecture.

"Oh! Hello Misato," Judy greeted, a little embarrassed that Misato caught her in the kitchen like this.

"What's going on? What happened to my condo?"

"I cleaned up. Like you said, you really needed to give the place a thoroughly cleaning," Judy explained as she tended to the cooking food.

"And…what's that in the pan?"

"A simple stir fry – completely kosher might I add. I thought a freshly-made dinner would be a good way to pay you back after letting me spend the night."

"Wow, I haven't had somebody make a stir fry like that in years," Misato commented as she gazed at the food in awe.

"I also cleaned up your room a bit. I hope you don't mind…it was such a mess I couldn't help myself. I'm a bit of a neat-freak…"

"I…I don't know what to say," Misato said as she gazed around the kitchen. All the cupboards had been organized and the countertops cleared of clutter. A recycling bin also sat next to the garbage where all the old beer cans and liquor bottles now resided. In less than twenty-four hours this girl had done more to the condo than Misato had in the past four years.

"A 'thank you' would suffice."

"You know…this place could really use somebody like you around."

"Excuse me?"

"I've been so busy lately that I'm barely able to keep this place in order…and Pen Pen has been dying of boredom lately. I used to have a bunch of roommates years ago but when they all left I've been sort of burdening a load that I haven't had to in a while. My new job has been sucking up all my time and…"

"So you want me to stay around and do those little things around the house for you?"

"Heh, it sounds kind of selfish now that you put it that way."

"I'd be glad to."

"You would?"

"If a little cleaning and cooking is all I need to do to have a place to sleep and a roof over my head, I'll be more than willing to stay. Heck, I'll do you laundry too if you want."

"So you'll be interested in staying here?"

"I'd love to. You seem like a really nice person…and I have a good eye for judging a person's character."

"You're a really sweet girl too. It's been such a long time since I've had somebody to come home to…"

"So it's not just the cooking and cleaning you miss, is it?"

"I guess not…"

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"I told you Misato replaced us," Asuka commented once the story had concluded.

"I did not replace you. Judy needed a place to live and I had more than enough room to help. Besides…I like having somebody to live with, being with you two had sort of made me fond of the company."

"Well I'm glad you found somebody good to live with," Shinji added. Unlike Asuka a new person living with Misato didn't bother him. In fact, Shinji thought it was nice for Misato to be helping out another person as she was, even if it was partly because Misato was too lazy to take care of herself.

"I've got a good feeling about Judy," Misato said as she patted the young girl on the back. "You should come by for breakfast tomorrow…I guarantee it'll be a meal you never forget."

"I don't know…I'm pretty forgetful," Kyo remarked with a smirk.

"Stop by tomorrow," Judy invited once more. "Please."

Well…no college student was going to bother turning down a free meal.