Chapter 14

It's not the falling that hurts, it's the landing!

-Juliet-

Leaving James and Clem, Juliet headed back to the hospital to pick up Julian and spend some time with Rachael. She was distracted through her entire visit with Rachael and it didn't go unnoticed.

"Jules, what's up with you tonight?" Rachael asks.

She shakes her head, "I don't know Rach, I just have this", she shrugs her shoulders she couldn't explain it. She'd done the same thing with James when she'd left his apartment earlier, shrugging off the uneasy feeling that was bugging her.

It had been over a week since either of them had the strange memory flashes, and she'd tried to convince herself that they had meant nothing. Surely if they'd meant something they would have happened again, or they'd have been able to figure it out by now. "It's nothing Rach, I'm fine"

Rachael rolls her eyes at Juliet, "You aren't fine Juliet you've been fidgeting and pacing around the room since you got here. Is everything alright with you and James? "

"We're fine", she replies quickly. "James and Clem are great"

"Then what is it, and don't tell me it's nothing. I know you better than anyone Juliet and you don't pace around nervously. It's not your style. . . "

She flops down in the chair beside Rachael's bed, "Honestly, I just don't know"

Rachael rolls her eyes and shakes her head at her sister, "Sometimes I wonder about you little sister" and she'd left it at that.

Leaving the hospital and getting home did nothing to help Juliet to shake the uneasy feeling that had been plaguing her all day. When she thought back over the day it had started that morning and only intensified throughout her afternoon with James and Clem. For the life of her she honestly couldn't explain it.

She'd gotten Julian tucked into his bed and sleeping not that she'd expected him to stay there. He'd only slept that one night by himself in the entire time she'd been caring for him. Once she had him tucked into bed she filled up the bathtub with hot water and bubbles and poured herself a glass of wine. It was only nine thirty she'd call James after relaxing in the tub.

-James-

James had fed Clem and successfully gotten her into bed and he was pretty damn proud of him self. He glances at the clock, it was after ten and Juliet hadn't called yet.

"That's strange" he thinks.

He thinks back to when she'd left earlier and it hadn't dawned on him then but something had been off with her. It wasn't like her to push that hard to stay with him. Other than that one night in her office they hadn't spent any nights together. It wasn't that they both hadn't wanted too, but she had Julian and he had Clem, responsibilities that took precedence over what they both wanted.

He'd been so preoccupied with having to prove to himself that he could look after Clem alone that he hadn't really seen it. He picks up the phone and dials her number, after six rings the machine picks up, "Jules it's me, call me back."

It was strange that she didn't answer and he wonders if something had happened with Rachael. He tries her cell and gets the answering machine there too. He leaves a similar message and hangs up the phone. He flips on the television, he'd give her a bit to call back then he'd try her again.

-Juliet-

The bubble bath and wine had done nothing to calm whatever it was that was bothering her. At some point in the past few hours her head had started to ache. She couldn't exactly pinpoint when it started. She rarely got headaches and this one was different from any regular headache but also different from the intense headache she'd had which accompanied the strange flashes.

She glances at the clock and it was just after ten. She goes to the living room and curls up in the corner of the couch. She hadn't heard the phone when she was in the bath and didn't realize the machine was flashing with a message. "I should call James" she thinks to herself, it had become part of her nightly routine to talk to him before bed. She presses her fingers against her temples trying to push away the headache. "Ten minutes" she thinks to herself, "then I'll get up and call." She closes her eyes.

She wakes with a gasp, having the sensation that she was falling and grasps the edge of the couch to steady her self. She knew she'd been dreaming but for the life of her other than the sensation of falling couldn't figure out what else the dream had been about. She pushes her hand through her hair, the headache was still there but just a dull ache now.

The sound of her pager draws her out of her thoughts. Disoriented she glances at the clock seeing that it's almost eleven. She'd been asleep less than an hour but it felt like she'd slept the entire night. She pulls the beeping pager from her purse and glances down at the number, "James", she'd fallen asleep and not called him.

Going to the kitchen to get the phone she realizes the machine has two messages. She hits play and both are from James. She wonders how she had missed the phone not once but twice.

-James-

He'd tried Juliet again at ten thirty and still got no answer. There had to be a reasonable explanation for why he couldn't get a hold of her. He'd called the hospital to check on Rachael and the nurse assured him that she was fine and Juliet had left hours ago.

He didn't want to seem too obsessive, but as the evening wore on he'd gotten his own uneasy feeling that something wasn't right. Finally after she hadn't answered the phone for the second time he gives in and pages her. At this point he wasn't sleeping tonight till he heard her voice and knew that she was okay.

Ten minutes after he'd paged her his phone rang. He picks it up on the first ring, "Juliet?"

"Hey", her voice was off and he was glad he went the obsessed boyfriend route and persisted till he got a hold of her.

"Jules, what's wrong?"

"I don't know" she sinks back down on her couch.

This only worried him more, "Blondie you are gonna have to be a little more specific than that."

She pushes the palm of her hand into her forehead trying desperately to remember whatever it was she'd been dreaming about before she'd woken with the sensation of falling. "How did the evening go?" she asks, going for a subject change versus trying to sort out whatever the hell it was that was going on with her tonight.

"Everything's good here", why was she trying to change the subject? "Julie, what's going on?"

She sighs, "I've just got a headache James, I'm sorry that I worried you. I fell asleep and didn't hear the phone."

He felt like an ass for waking her up, but her telling him not to worry only stresses him more, she just sounded so off tonight "A regular headache or another flash headache?"

She hesitates, "A regular headache, I think"

"You don't sound so sure" he prods her further.

"I don't know" she finally admits after a long pause, "Something has felt off all day and I just couldn't put my finger on what it was. My head was aching by the time I got home tonight. I put Julian to bed, relaxed in the tub then fell asleep on the couch. I feel like I was dreaming about something that I need to remember, but I just can't seem to remember what it is"

He wishes that he'd let her stay tonight. He couldn't help but feel that there was something else she wasn't telling him. She had a way of hiding things from him over the phone that she couldn't in person, or so he'd thought because obviously she'd hid her uneasy feelings from him all day. "Juliet, you've been under an incredible amount of stress for the past few weeks." Forget weeks he thinks to himself, he'd only known her for weeks. "Strike the weeks", he tells her "You've been stressed for months. Now that things have calmed down I'm sure it's all just caught up with you"

Again she pushes her free hand through her hair and squishes her eyes tightly shut, it was right there, she knew it was. If only she could remember. "It could be, that's a perfectly logical explanation", she admits to him. Yet when you combined that with everything that had happened between them in the past few weeks it didn't really seem all that perfectly logical anymore.

He hears her yawn and glances at the clock seeing that it is now near midnight. "You're tired Blondie and it's late. Are you going to be okay for the rest of the night?"

She hears Julian cry out for her. "Yeah" she says whether or not it was true. There was nothing that she could solve tonight. She was either going to remember or she wasn't. "Julian's crying James, I've got to go"

He can hear the little boy in the background. "Okay. I'll see you in the morning. I love you Jules"

"I love you back"

After a quick exchange of goodnights they hang up.

James checks on Clem and goes back to the couch. He mindlessly flips through on channels on the television again, thinking over the conversation he'd just had with Juliet.

-Juliet-

Juliet goes to Julian's room. After a drink of water and another story she's thankfully able to resettle him.

Finally she climbs into her bed. It doesn't take long for her long to fall into a restless sleep. Hours later she again wakes with a gasp clutching the blankets on the bed. The sensation of falling had been so real. When her eyes fly open she feels nothing but intense pain throughout her entire body. There wasn't one specific thing that hurt it was everything.

"Oh God" she gasps, tears springing to her eyes as she tries to catch her breath. "What's happening to me?" She was on the verge of panicking. She couldn't call out to Julian, she'd just frighten him. She's afraid to move because even breathing hurt at the moment.

She closes her eyes and tries to slow her breathing. Panicking wasn't going to do her any good at the moment. She does this for five minutes, then ten. She was a doctor for pity sake this didn't make any reasonable sense. She systematically goes through different things that could be happening too her and not one of them fit with what she was feeling. One doesn't go to sleep, dream that they are falling and wake up feeling like they'd landed. It just doesn't happen, not in any medical textbooks that she'd ever read.

What seemed like hours later the intensity of the pain she was feeling decreased and by the time the sun came up she'd felt like she'd run some kind of marathon during the night. Her whole body ached.

It's a bit later when Julian comes bouncing into her room, "I up Auntie Juwiet" he says jumping up onto her bed.

"Yes you are" she says putting a smile on her face for the sake of the little boy. He'd been through so much in the past few months she wasn't going to let on to him that something wasn't alright with her right now.

She pulls herself to a sitting position, her muscles all protesting while she did so. 'It's the flu' she thinks to herself. That's a perfectly reasonable explanation for the muscles aches and pains she tries to convince herself. "Honey, do you think you can get Auntie Juliet the phone? It's in the living room"

The little boy nods and bounces back off the bed, causing her to wince. She carefully moves herself to the side of the bed and using the furniture to support herself she makes her way to the bathroom. "Sheesh Burke" she thinks, looking at herself in the mirror. She pulls her hair back into a ponytail and splashes water on her face. Her protesting muscles had loosened up a little bit as she moved around but all she wanted to do was curl back up in the bed and sleep the day away.

Julian comes bouncing back into the bedroom with the phone. She's about to dial James number when she hears the doorbell. She reaches to the bathroom door and pulls down her robe from the hook and puts it on.

"I get it, I get it", Julian runs from the room.

"Wait honey", she calls after him, "Don't open the door till I get out there." She arrives in the living room as Julian is opening the door. On the other side of the door is James, Clem in one arm and coffee in the other.

"Hey Julian" he says coming into the house. His eyes fall on Juliet. She was white as a ghost and looked like she was about ready to fall over.

"Jules?"

He sets the coffee down on the coffee table and Clem down on the floor. "Hey" he says kissing her forehead when he reaches her. He leads her to the couch and watches as she winces as she sits down. He's glad he'd followed his instincts not to call this morning but just to come over. "What's going on?" he asks.

"I think I have the flu" wondering if she was still trying to convince herself or him.

Taking in her appearance he'd say that was a real possibility. "No fever" he says reaching up and placing a hand across her forehead. "Could explain why you felt off yesterday and had a headache last night though"

She rubs her fingers across her forehead, "I don't think it's the flu" she blurts out. Before he can respond she tells him about everything that happened during the previous evening before they'd talked on the phone up to and including what happened when she'd woken up during the night.

When she's finished he pulls her into his arms, "think your friend Kate would come over and watch the kids for a bit?" he asks.

"Probably, why?"

"Cause I'm taking you to the hospital, we are goin' to see Jack"

******

Again thanks to everyone who is reading and reviewing.

This chapter didn't exactly come together as I'd wanted it too and I almost scrapped it, but I think you'll be able to get what I was going for (hopefully :)). I think I'm looking at about twenty chapters in total but I suck at guessing. . LOL my last story was gonna be 12 chapters and ended up being 45 so we'll see!

I love that you all jumped to conclusions about Kate (but is it the Kate you are thinking it is?) You'll find out soon ;))...