Chapter title and lyrics from "Loop" by Heidi

Chapter 9: we'll surely meet again

Year 2012

"Do you seriously not care about the Wizard Competition anymore?" Justin asked in wonder, sitting at the edge of the bed in her Russo room and watching Nathan sleep, making sure he stayed asleep while Amelia cried.

Alex glared at him, frantically rocking Amelia in her arms to stop her wailing, but to no avail. "Justin just shut her up!" she groaned tiredly.

"What a loving mother!" he retorted, taking over Amelia from her, and swinging her from side to side in his arms, humming a dorky tune that soon soothed her to sleep.

"I'm sorry this semester's a bitch and I still couldn't get a damn thing done thanks to all the drama in my life!" she hissed, keeping her voice low enough so that she didn't wake the kids up.

"Are you really that indifferent to the Wizard Competition?" he asked again, wondering what was going on in her mind. Sure, she never did care as much as he did, but magic was still very important to her. Now…

"Look, Justin" she said, sitting down on the bed and sprawling the papers all over her lap, "Right now, all I care about is my life with you and the kids. So I don't really care if you win. Either way, I get my way." She finished with a shrug, shooting him a mischievous grin. She knew she could manipulate him into doing all the magic she needed. And if Max won…well, if they were being real, the chances of Max winning was life the chances of an egg-shell coming in the shape of a square.

He smiled, nodding his head in understanding. "Okay…"

Justin tucked his hands inside his pocket and walked through Alex's door, unable to keep the happy smile off his face. It had been two weeks since he last saw her, and now he couldn't wait to see her again! His heart pounded against his chest as he came closer to her room- no matter how many years they had spent together, she always gave him this nervous, excited first love, first date feeling. His smile grew wider when he remembered their first date and opened the door to her dorm room-

And he found her sitting in bed, reading. With another boy.

"Umm, hi." Justin mumbled, scratching the back of his neck uneasily.

"Hi!" Alex smiled, throwing her book away, and gesturing for him to come in with her hands. "Justin, this is Dustin, my new friend. And Dustin, this is Justin, my brother."

Dustin smiled, shaking hands with Justin. "Nice to meet you. Even more cause our name rhymes."

Justin nodded, still a bit taken aback about meeting someone Alex never mentioned before, and forced a smile on his face. "Nice to meet you too."

"Are we really going to do this?" Alex yelled, throwing the thing she could find nearest to her- a magazine in this case- on the floor and stomping her feet. When Justin started questioning her about Dustin and why she never told him she had a friend like that, how close they were, why she spent so much time with him, yada yada yada, she had completely lost it. What hurt was seeing that he had no trust in her. There was no way in this world that she would cheat on him- she was cheating on everyone in her life because of him.

"You never even mentioned him to me!" he yelled back in an accusing tone, glaring at her sternly. Something about Dustin was giving him the chills, and with Alex acting non-chalant, he grew even angrier. He felt like he would explode any second, or vaporize and vanish. He was that mad. "And you're always with him now!"

"I thought we were past the jealous, possessive stage!" she gritted through her teeth. "I had two kids with you! Doesn't that prove enough? Or do I have to walk on fire and fly through oceans to prove my love for you? Oh wait, I can't do that anymore! You're the family wizard now!"

"I thought you didn't care about that!" he yelled again, tugging at his hair in frustration, the conversation shifting to another irrelevant topic like it usually did during couple's fights. "Did you mean anything you said, Alex?"

"Believe me, I mean it when I say this!" she said firmly, her eyes fixed directly on his. "I want you out of my room. Now."

He was too angry, too hurt, and too shocked to stay.

"I hate it when we fight", she mumbled against his chest, sighing contently.

"Mmm" he agreed, running a hand through her hair tenderly. "But I love it when we make-up."

She blushed and grinned. She had to agree to that.

Alex hummed a tune happily, picking up her clothes from all across the room, folding them clumsily, and shoving them in a bag. After a long and tiring week, she was going to get together with Justin for the weekend and see the kids too. She was so excited!

"What's up?" Dustin asked, knocking twice at her door and peeking his head in to see what she was doing. "Need a hand?" he offered sweetly.

"Sure." Alex mumbled happily, ignoring Justin's warnings and pleadings and orders to stay away from this 'stupid creepy guy', and lazily lying back on her bed, letting him do her work, while she smiled to herself and thought about Justin.

Dustin worked quietly, folding her clothes more clumsily than she did, but hey, she didn't have to do any work, so why complain? Suddenly, he paused when he found something lying on the floor. He picked up the wrist watch, observing it. "This looks like a boy's way… Who's this?"

Alex glanced at it for a second, recognized it instantly and shrugged. "It's Justin. He must have lost it here yesterday."

Dustin raised an eyebrow curiously. "But he wasn't here yesterday. At least not during day time…" His eyes widened dramatically at that aspect.

Her heart skipped beats, beating to a rhythm of terror now. She laughed out uneasily, holding her stomach in her hands. "You know, it's creepy and disgusting, but it's so ridiculous that… I can't stop laughing!"

Dustin hung his head low, looking down at the ground guiltily. "I'm sorry…"

This was the best weekend ever. With Jonathan calling her name, talking to her, playing with her, with Justin paying all his attention to Amelia. Everything was perfect. Too perfect.

And they decided to preserve the moments. In the form of photographs.

"I'll take the one with me and Nathan." Alex declared, snatching it from his hand without even asking for his consent. "And you can keep that stupid photo of you and me."

"Actually, I got you a copy of that too if you wanted it…" Justin smiled, handing it over to her.

She nodded gratefully, but rolled her eyes. "Great! Now I can turn my room into dorkvilla!"

"Were you and your brother always this close?" Dustin wondered, staring at the picture on the table beside her bed.

She shrugged non-chalantly. "Well, Max can be pretty weird sometimes, so yeah, Justin and I get each other really well…"

Dustin nodded, but his eyebrows narrowed together in suspicion. Something wasn't right. He could just see and feel it. From the way the two siblings acted, something was fishy...

One week later, Abby walked in on her and Justin kissing in her room. She gasped out in shock, unable to react anyway, while Alex broke away from him quickly and looked away. Justin reached for his wand immediately, erasing everyone's memory. Which left Abby trying to remember what shocking thing she felt she knew, and Justin and Alex wondering what was going on.

When Justin restored their memories with the jog your memory spell, they both knew this had been too close… way too close. If it wasn't for Justin and magic, who knows what would have happened today?

"I'm listening!" she whined, yawning and tying at her laptop at the same time. "You buy any apartment you want… Will do. As long as I can have my own art studio."

"Yeah, well, you can't have your studio", he stated bluntly. "Not now at least. This house is really small Alex. We barely have room for us and the kids."

"We barely have rooms for us and the kids." She mimicked, rolling her eyes. "I don't see the big problem, Justin! Buy another apartment!"

"But we don't have enough money to-"

"-I am not moving in with you till I have my art studio." She repeated firmly, though she knew in her mind that she was being playful and would give in anyway. Just moving in with her family and starting her life was enough for her. They could work the rest out, slowly, eventually. Well, Justin could work the rest out. She would just sit back and relax, and maybe paint some pictures now and then. She smiled happily at all her lazy thoughts. "Bye Justin. Love you."

She heard a snicker from across the room. "Every sister moves in with her brother and says I love you." Dustin snorted, inviting himself into her room.

She sat straight up in her bed. "Have you been spying on me?" she shrieked, "You know what I can do about that?"

"Nothing." Dustin snickered again. "You are the one in trouble, now that I've figured out about your little affair with your brother… Interesting. It's really fascinating. I wonder whether your parents will find it fascinating too…"

"What do you want?" Alex asked fearfully, her voice almost cracking. She could have denied, because she was sure he didn't have anything at all, but she needed to hear his terms, and figure out if he had any evidence in hand.

"Your art assignment." He announced quickly, shooting her a dirty smirk. "Did you think I was after you for no reason? You paint better than I do. You're one of the best I've ever seen. With your assignment, I can start an awesome life... so…." He faked a sigh that angered her even more, and titled his head to look at her. "What's it gonna be? Your brother-slash-boyfriend or your assignment?"

The thought of getting caught and separating from Justin was terrifying. She didn't want to take any chances. She still couldn't believe Dustin was doing this! She trusted him as a friend! Maybe it was because his name sounded like Justin…. Justin. Gosh! She knew he'd be mad if he found out; he didn't even want her to hang out with Dustin. There was no way Justin could hear a word about it. "Fine, I'll do it", she crossed her arms over her chest and began her negotiation. "But Justin will not know about this. Okay?"

He shrugged. "Fair enough. I get what I want. So deal."

"Justin…" she mumbled into his chest, hugging him tightly. "You know I love you right?"

His heart leapt to his throat in panic. From the way she said those words, he knew something wasn't right. "What's wrong Alex?" he asked urgently, tucking her hair behind her ears so that he could get a proper look at her eyes.

She shook her head, tangling her hand with his. "Nothing. I… I just wanted to say I love you. Is that so bad?"

He shook his head skeptically. "No… I love you too."

Year 2013

This time Max was the one who caught them in action in their house. He stood wordlessly, staring at his two siblings.

Justin took out his wand immediately, but Alex slapped his hand away- they were not going to do this with their sibling. Not without hearing out what he had to say at least.

"Max….?" Alex asked uncertainly, unable to bear the silence in the room anymore. "Say something!"

"You guys are…" Max gulped, trying to put all the pieces together, and his eyes widening when he realized that they may have been dating for a long time now. "I don't think I want to… Justin, please, just…. Erase my memory. I can't live knowing what you guys are doing…"

Alex looked down at the ground in shame, blinking back the tears in her eyes. Justin nodded.

She wondered what was going on. Was she being too careless? Were they that obvious? Why was everything working against them? Why did it feel like the universe was trying to pull them apart?

Dustin barged into her room angrily. "How did you get a better grade than me?"

Alex shrugged, "I don't know. I guess they liked my new assignment better. So, thank you."

He glared at her angrily. "Oh no, you don't get away with this so easily! I'm going to destroy your life", he grabbed her roughly by her arm, his face close to her ears. "Listen to me carefully. You are not going to be with Justin. If you try to be with him, I guess I'll just have to post this…"

He pulled back, took out his cell phone from his pocket, and showed her the pictures he had taken of her and Justin kissing.

She trembled in fear and gasped in shock, placing a hand on her chest and another to cover her mouth. Now what was she going to do?

"And you are telling me this now? Why?" Justin yelled, not even looking at her in fury. He couldn't believe she had kept it from him for such a long time, he thought they had promised to tell each other everything.

She sniffled, her eyes already red from all the crying. "Justin, I'm sorry…I just didn't want to get you worried… I'm messing up all the time and you have to fix the messed for me. I don't like being such a pain in the ass all the time…"

His eyes softened and he shook his head. "No. I like cleaning up your messes, you know that…so what do you want me to do about this mess?"

She bit her lip, trembling as she thought. She swallowed hard, wondering if she could get any words out of her throat. "I don't fucking care about what he does to us. But the kids…Justin, I don't want a bad future for them."

Justin sighed, sitting down on the bed beside her, and patting her knee comfortingly. "You don't want me to try and see if I can stop him?"

"Sure. Stop him. Stop Max. Stop Abby. Stop X. stop Y. stop the whole damn world!" she ranted angrily. "But if anything happens to my kids, I swear, Justin…"

He sighed again, this time, in anxious disappointment. "You're the right. I don't want the kids to suffer either. So… I'm offering you an out."

She looked up at him in surprise. "What?"

"You don't need to move in with me." he explained. "You have your own life, I have mine."

"But I don't want to lose you" she said, her voice cracking, as she hugged him tightly, "I don't want this to tear us apart. I love you."

He inhaled sharply, hugging her back just as tightly. "Neither do I. I love you too… if you had told me about this earlier, maybe we could have done something, but right now… This is the only option Alex."

"I don't want to break off." She mumbled stubbornly, clinging onto his shirt and bunching it up in her fist.

"Neither do I." he chuckled sadly. "Let's try long-distance."

"This is it then." Alex asked, hugging her arms around herself to calm herself down. "I'm on my own. You're on your own. No more visits, no love talks, or anything couply…. Justin do we really have to do this?"

"Yes", he repeated firmly for the tenth time that day, "At least for the time being. We can figure something out in a few years."

She hesitated, staring down at her feet. Right now, she felt like she wanted to go back and think again. There had to be some other way… "A few years is a really long time, Justin. I don't want to lose you for even a second…"

His resolve was crumbling every second she was with him for the very last time. "Look, Alex, it's your choice." He began, speaking softly, "We can be together and I'm ready to take all the chances. What the hell can he possibly do?... but since he's such a crazy psychotic loser… it's your choice."

And the world stood still as she thought. Pictures of her with Justin. Pictures of her with Nathan and Amelia. Pictures of a picture perfect home. And then the canvas was painted with blood and smoke as she saw her parents looking at them with scorn and disgust in their eyes, and their children being ripped away from her arms. She shuddered at the image. But with a heavy heart, she made up her mind.

She sniffled again, running into his arms and kissing him madly. "Good bye Justin."

And she cried bitterly, for the first time in her life. For his part, he wasn't feeling anything anymore at all. Just Alex in his arms, her scent, her smell, her texture, her feel… He was memorizing everything for all eternity.

"Everything that is reflected in those eyes, isn't it all an illusion?
I wonder how you feel continuing in this tangled melting love?
Looking
Anywhere
For the reason why we're connected...
Even if we were to part one day
We'd surely meet again...
You and I overlapping..."

Year 2025

"Alex?" he asked worriedly, waving a palm in front of her to wake her up from her reverie.

She blinked, shaking awake from her flashback trance with a start, and holding her head in her hands. Her hands were still trembling from all the memories, and her bangs were sticking to her sweaty forehead. Looking back, she wondered why exactly she didn't make Justin use magic to get rid of the evidence- or the blackmailing guy for the matter. She wondered why she let a crazy competitive jerk and loser destroy her whole life. Well, when she looked up and saw Amelia and Jonathan staring at her, she got her answer.

And now that she had another chance, now that she was old enough to realize that nothing would go wrong, since she hadn't seen Dustin in years, and was sure that he wasn't stalking her, Abby was out of the picture for a long time, and Max didn't remember anything at all. She wondered if she should move in with him like she wanted…. would it be the right thing to do? Would it be the wise, safe thing to do?

She scoffed. Enough of being the mature, responsible mother. For once in twelve years she wanted to be just Alex, impulsive reckless Alex.

"Mom?" Amelia asked nervously, not liking the way her mother was acting. "Are you alright?"

Alex shook her head at herself. No, she just couldn't do something that could go wrong and hurt her daughter….

Justin rubbed her back softly. "Talk to me, Alex."

She groaned. She really did want to be with him again. She wanted him back in her life so bad.

"I'm okay." She mumbled, reassuring them and hearing all of them sigh in relief, as she wondered what exactly she should do. "Help me out here, Amy! What do you wanna do?"

A/N: what? Like you didn't want to know what exactly tore them apart :P yes I know the cliffhanger is still hanging but you know it as well as I do that I don't write sad jalex ;) anyways, hope you liked this chapter. This was really long, and I worked really hard. Please review! Reviews have not gone up yet, but you know what? All the reviews I get are special to me, so thank you, I'm grateful for all of them. I'm not just gonna let my last jalex flicker out just because I'm not getting the response I expect!