Chapter 10

Love You Forever

James was feeling encouraged after his meeting with the social worker and his lawyer. Yes he wasn't an ideal candidate for a parent, but he was Clementine's father and the judge was now leaning towards giving him custody. Granted the custody agreement meant he was still going to be under the scrutiny of Children's Aid, for awhile anyways. All he needed now to make it official was a job and a plan for caring for Clementine while he was at that job. Leaving the meeting he checks in on Clementine and finds her asleep. Finding her content, he heads off to check on his other favourite lady. He has to laugh at himself, two weeks ago when those officers knocked on his door he never could have dreamt how much his life would change in such a short period of time.

He finds Juliet sitting in the waiting room, flipping through a magazine. "Hey", he says sitting beside her. "Reading anything interesting there?"

"Hi", she smiles and sets the magazine aside. "Nothing, I think it's a leftover from the 1970's"

He laughs, "The 70's eh?" He slides his hand over hers and squeezes it, "You hangin' in there?"

She nods, and intertwines her fingers with his, "Yeah, but I'm driving myself crazy thinking about what is going on in there"

"That's understandable. Have you heard any news?"

"The nurse came out and said that things were going well so far"

"Well at least that's something"

She looks down at their hands and then shifts her body so she is facing him. "How'd your meeting go?"

He smiles, "Pretty good. If I can get myself a job before Clementine is released and come up with some meaningful plan to care for her, they are gonna let me keep her. Of course the Children's Aid people will be butting there heads in for awhile, but we'll handle it"

"I'll look into what's available here at the hospital", she says. "If we can find you a job here, Clem can get into the onsite daycare."

"You'd do that for me?"

"Of course I would", she finally breaks out into a full smile. "And as an added bonus we'd both then be working in the same building"

"That would be a added bonus" he agrees.

They both look up when they are approached by a nurse.

Juliet looks up at the woman anxiously, "How are things going?" she asks.

"Things are going as well as can be expected"

'As well as can be expected' Juliet thinks to herself, 'what the hell kind of answer is that?' "Umm, and what exactly does that mean?" she asks.

"Dr. Shephard has reached the tumour and he's starting to remove it. It's slow going"

James looks at the woman standing before him it was the same woman who'd been in the elevator with him a couple of hours ago. At the same moment she seems to recognize him, "You look better than you did earlier", she says to him. "Headache better?"

"Umm, yeah" he says not sure how else to respond. He notices the look Juliet was giving him.

"I'll be back when I can", the nurse says turning and heading back to the operating room.

Juliet turns to look at James, "What was that about?" she asks.

"Nothing" he says unsure how to explain the episode to Juliet.

"Didn't sound like nothing" she throws back at him.

"Something strange happened to me when I left you at the elevator"

"What kind of something strange James?"

"I got on the elevator, hit the button and then blanked out. I had the worst headache I've ever had but it only lasted a few seconds. There were these strange flashes of white light, and in the flashes I saw you", he shrugs his shoulders, "the flashes stopped, the pain went away and I was standing in the elevator looking like a fool with that woman asking me if I was alright"

"I know that it sounds totally crazy." He notices the colour drain from Juliet's face. "Jules?"

She shakes her head, "not so crazy"

"Why not?"

"Because the same thing happened to me after I left you this morning."

He looks at her surprised.

"I was talking with Jack about the surgery, blacked out, complete with headache, flashes of white light, and a vision of you. And then it was gone. I think I freaked Jack out a bit. Told him it was probably all the stress I was under, and to be honest I figured that's all it was"

"And now?"

"It makes absolutely no sense"

"Agreed! But what do ya think it means?"

"I have no idea", she replies honestly baffled by why they would each have such a similar experience at almost the exact same moment.

He shrugs his shoulders, "Guess we'll chalk it up to a weird coincidence, as long as it doesn't happen again I'd say we aren't losing our minds" he gives her a dimpled grin.

"I'm good with that" she smiles back, "Because I have to admit that during the past couple months there have been moments when I've questioned my sanity"

He laughs, thinking to himself that if she was questioning her sanity, there was no hope for him.

"So", he finally says. "We've been hanging out in this hospital for quite some time now and not that I haven't enjoyed it but I'm sure there is lots of Miami that is just waiting to be seen. Seein' as I'm planning on moving to this fine city, I think I need someone to show me all the hot spots"

"Why James Ford", she smiles, "is that your subtle way of asking me out?"

He laughs, "or not so subtle depending on how you look at it"

"I would love to show you the city James. Think you'll miss L.A.? Miami is pretty boring in comparison"

He flashes the dimples at her, "Hasn't been boring so far"

She blushes, she was a sucker for those dimples. He loves that it takes nothing for him to cause her to blush.

The next eight hours pass agonizingly slow for Juliet. James spends the hours back and forth between Clementine and Juliet. Each time he returned to the waiting room he'd find Juliet pacing back and forth. He'd found that while he was able to calm her down, each time he left and came back it was progressively more difficult to calm her down. It had been almost five hours since the last update had come from inside the OR, which only intensified her anxiety.

James had just returned to the waiting room when the nurse finally emerged from the OR with an update. He'd been unable to get her to stop pacing this time, and when he saw the nurse emerge from the room he'd moved over behind Juliet, placing a hand on her hip. He couldn't tell from the look on the woman's face whether the news was good or bad. But he could tell from Juliet's demeanour she was preparing herself for the worst.

"Juliet" she says approaching her, apologizing for the fact that it had been so long since the last update. The woman doesn't beat around the bush, "there have been some complications Juliet"

James feels Juliet stiffen under his touch. "What kind of complications?" he asks, when Juliet falls silent.

"The tumour was much more vascular than Dr. Shephard expected which has resulted in significant blood loss. We've been transfusing Rachael, but we are having problems maintaining her blood pressure. Dr. Shephard has removed about eighty percent of the tumour but if he is unable to control the bleeding he's going to have to stop"

Juliet absorbs what she was hearing, "if he has to stop, it's okay" she says barely above a whisper. "Rachael and I both knew that this was a long shot and eighty percent is more than we'd dreamed was even possible", she takes a deep breath and it takes all of her strength to continue, "if you think that she's not going to make it, you need to get me. I promised her that if anything happened I would be with her."

The nurse nods her head, "I promise I will". She turns and leaves them alone.

Juliet watches as the nurse heads back to the operating room, she wanted desperately to follow her, to know exactly what was going on in there. She also knew it wasn't in either her or Rachael's best interest for that to happen, not yet anyways.

She feels herself being turned, and looks eye to eye with James. "Come sit" he says leading her towards the chairs.

"I can't sit James"

"I need to tell you something" he says. He could see she was hovering on the edge of tears. He hadn't originally intended to tell her this until later, but now seemed like the right time. She looks at him expectantly, "It's about Rachael" he tells her.

"What about Rachael?" She allows herself to be led over to the couch.

"I met Rachael last night after I got off the phone with you. She called down to the unit and asked me to come to her room"

"Why would she do that?"

"She said she wanted to meet your 'Mystery Guy'", he notices Juliet relax slightly.

"I should have known she'd figure out someway to meet you. I think she thought I was hiding you from her, but I was only waiting till the surgery was over"

"I wasn't worried Blondie, I knew you'd introduce us in your own time. But it seems your sister is somewhat stubborn"

"Understatement if there ever was one"

He smiles, "I would have to say there are some fairly strong similarities between you and her"

"I'm not stubborn"

"Oh definitely not" he teases.

"So she just wanted to meet you?" she asks, now curious to know what else they talked about.

"I think that's the main reason that she asked me to come"

"There's more isn't there?" she asks, sensing he was holding back.

"She said she hasn't ever seen you like she has in the past two weeks that something was different, and despite everything that was going on with her you are happier. She said the only thing that was different was that you had met me"

"Seems my sister has also gotten a little bit bold" Juliet says surprised that Rachael would have had this conversation with James.

"Yeah, well", he says, "She's just looking out for her little sister." He takes her hand and strokes his fingers over it, "Blondie, she wanted to make sure that if anything happened to her today that you were going to be okay that you had someone to support you. I was going to wait to tell you all of this but I think you need to hear it now."

Juliet shakes her head, "No", she whispers. She didn't want to hear this.

"Jules, she wanted you to know how much you mean to her. . . ."

"Why didn't she tell me all of this herself? Why did she tell you?" tears were now brimming over her eyes.

"She said she's tried so many times to tell you how she feels. To thank you for all the happiness you have brought to her, for Julian, but she couldn't ever find the right words. She knew going into this surgery that she might not make it off the table and she had made peace with the fact that she might not survive this time"

Juliet is openly crying now, "Don't you dare try to tell me that she wanted you to tell me goodbye for her"

He gathers Juliet in his arms, and she buries her head in his neck. "Not goodbye" he whispers in her ear, "just that she'd love you forever."

Jack had come out of the operating room he clears his throat to get their attention.

Juliet jumps up off the couch wiping away her tears. James stands behind her.

Juliet tries desperately to read the look on Jack's face. "Jack?"