A/N: Thank you for all your patience! Here's a fluff-filled chapter that hopefully makes up for the delay

Julie Molina

"Mom?" I ask, staring at her as if she's a hologram. For all I know, she actually could be, and this is just some cruel joke Flynn and Willie are playing on me.

"Julie," My mom (or the hologram) smiles warmly at me, just like she always used to.

I take this as my chance to see if my theory is true. I run up to her and throw my arms around her, expecting to fall to the floor.

But I didn't. Here she was, hugging me back in a warm embrace, nothing like a hologram.

That's when I feel the tears starting to form in my eyes. They aren't exactly sad tears, but they're not happy tears. More like.. relieved tears? Relieved that my mother wasn't in the state I thought that she had been in for a year, relieved that I'm hugging her right now.

Then, I feel happy tears. I didn't realize I had started crying until now, or how hard I'm crying. My mom started to rub my back, which caused me to hug her tighter, never wanting to let go again.

"How are your dad and Carlos?" My mom asks me in a whisper.

"They're good, they're good," I answer, and we finally pull out of the hug. I ignore that there are eyes on us, a lot of them, but that doesn't matter because I'm with my mom again.

My mom looks at me before glancing around, "Let's go talk somewhere else. Mia? Show Alex and Angelica around. Flynn and Willie, you two go rest," My mother commands in her motherly tone.

Alex and Angelica walk off behind Mia, and Flynn and Willie walk upstairs. I watched as they all left before turning to my mom, who had started walking as well. I quickly caught up to her and investigated the differences in my house from how it was a year ago.

There are more people. I figure out quickly that I'm jealous of all of them, jealous that they got to spend so much time with my mom and I didn't. The other difference was that there seemed to be less furniture. I guess most of it had to be thrown out to make more room for all the people.

My mom leads me into her and my dad's- I guess just her bedroom now and shuts the door.

"I hope Willie and Flynn didn't give you too much trouble," Was all she said.

"Oh, they didn't. It was the leader in the bunker and his guards that did," I state and sit on the bed. My mother sits next to me, frowning a little.

"How was it down there? I'm sorry I couldn't be there with you."

"Not great. Do you know of Caleb Covington's brother?" I ask and watch her face to see what reaction she makes.

"I know he has a brother. I don't know what his name is."

"Malachi," I answered miserably. "He leads the bunker. Thinking about it now, it was a dictatorship, like Caleb, but worse."

"I guess it's something that runs in the family," My mother answers seriously but I couldn't help but chuckle a little.

We sat in silence for a bit. There are a million things I want to say to her. I decide on asking the question I've been dying to ask..

"How did you survive?" I ask hesitantly. I know this is my mother, but I can't help feeling like I'm asking too much of a personal question. It's been a year, and we both lived completely different lives.

My mother didn't seem bothered by the question at all. It's like she had been expecting it, which she probably had. "I'm not sure. That's one thing none of us have been able to figure out, but we have a couple of theories."

"What are the theories?"

"Something to do with blood, luck, stuff like that.. nothing solid."

I nod a little. We both fall into that silence again.

"So, what all do you-" I never got to finish asking my question as there was a knock on the door. My mother yelled for them to open it, and a boy peeked his head inside. "Um, Mrs. Molina? Carrie hasn't come back yet."

Who's Carrie?

"When did she leave?"

"Two days ago," The boy answers.

"Surely it wouldn't take her that long.." My mother whispers and then looks over at me. "I'm sorry, Julie. I have to go tend to this situation. We'll talk again tonight."

And then she left the room with that boy. I sigh a little and fall back onto the bed. How is this Carrie girl more important than me?

Does my mom lead all these people? She seems to be one of the only adults here. I get up and walk into the living room, hoping to find Flynn and talk to her about everything. I look around the room, spotting Angelica laughing with that Mia girl. Alex isn't in this room.

But then I see familiar blonde hair..

Oh my god?

"Nick?" I call out and start walking towards him. The person whipped their head around, Nick's face revealed, which caused a smile to plaster onto my face. He was someone I hadn't been expecting to see, but I'm not complaining. It's nice to see someone else I know.

Nick smiles at me as well. "Julie!"

Nick stands up from the couch he was sitting on and hugs me. "I had no idea you survived!"

I hug him back instantly. "I could say the same for you!"

We pulled out of the hug after a while, as I started to feel weird hugging my old crush. I didn't like him like that anymore. I suppressed those feelings considering I thought he was dead, but those feelings started flooding back immediately.

I push those feelings back to where they were. I'm not going to like him like that again. I have Flynn now as well, and I know I feel some sort of way about her. I shouldn't because it's not the best time to be dating anyone, but I do.

"Where have you been?" Nick snaps me out of my thoughts.

"Oh, a bunker. Did my mom not tell you?"

"She might've, but my memory isn't the best. Side effect from the heat."

I nod a little. I wonder if Flynn and Willie had side effects from their experience.

"Was that Alex I saw walk in as well?" Nick continues.

"Yup! He was in the bunker with me. Angelica as well."

"Yeah, I talked to her a little bit. She seemed pretty shaken up, though. Are the three of you alright?"

No, we got shot at the whole way here and I just barely talked with my mother who I thought was dead for a year. I'm not alright."

"Yeah, I'm fine. Can't speak for Angelica and Alex," I lie and look over at the tv that was playing. I instantly recognized the show. It's the vampire diaries.

I grin at the tv and look at Nick. "Didn't realize you guys had working TVs."

"Oh, yeah. Flynn connected all of them to solar panels. It's pretty cool," Nick explains and sits down on the couch. I sit on the arm of it, watching the show.

"Kai looks an awful lot like Malachi," I mumble to myself, but Nick replied anyway.

"Malachi..?"

"Covington."

"Oh! Caleb's brother, right?"

I shake my head yes. "Kind of ironic that his name is Malachi, too."

When the episode finishes, I get up, wanting to find Alex immediately as my mom was nowhere in sight. "I'm gonna go look for Alex, I'll see you around, Nick," I say and speed upstairs before Nick even has a chance to respond.

Flynn

I'm finally about to take a well-deserved shower. A while ago, we were able to connect the showers to a running stream near the house. It's not the cleanest water, but it's better than no water at all. We also connected the electricity to solar panels. We have no one to pay those bills so we had to manage.

When I finish my shower, I head to the room I've been staying in, but there's someone in there who I'm surprised to see. It's Julie.

"Hey, " I say quietly and throw the dirty clothes I had been wearing previously into the laundry bin.

"Hey," Julie says and sits down on the bed.

I sit down next to her. "Is this your room?"

"Yeah, or was."

"It still is your room, " I corrected her. "This is still your house- even if there's a ton of unknown people staying in it."

"Yeah, I suppose."

I'm not sure how to respond to what she said, so I get up and walk over to the desk, preparing to tend to my hair that is still wet from my shower.

As I fix my hair, I can hear Julie shifting on the bed. "Are those my clothes?" She asks and I turn around to look at her.

"I don't know," I answer honestly. "I got them from your closet, so yes?"

I look at Julie's face to see if she shows any signs of annoyance or discomfort about me wearing her clothes, but she ends up just smiling.

"It's fine," She reassures, probably being able to see the panic that I could feel on my face. "You look good in that shade of red anyway."

I snap my head away from her, not wanting to show her that my cheeks are most definitely turning the same shade as the shirt.

"Are those scars on your arm from the radiation?" Julie asks randomly and I realize that she can see my scars. Stupid short sleeves.

"Uh, yeah. They used to look worse, but they faded. They're still ugly though."

"I think they're beautiful," Julie shrugs and I'm sure I'm blushing even more now.

"Let's not talk about it. There are so many better things we could be talking about than doomsday," I say as I don't want to become even more flustered, though I don't think that's possible anyway.

"Oh really? Like what?" Julie inquires and lays down on the bed. I climb into the bed next to her, careful not to overstep my boundaries.

I thought about my answer for a moment, trying to figure out what would be the best question that lets me know more about her life before the bunker. "What school did you go to?" I decide.

"Berkely," Julie answers, and I grin at her.

"I went to Richardson."

Julie gasps. "No way! Are we sure we didn't see each other at football games?"

I lean on my elbow, my head resting in my hand. "Considering our schools were rivals, probably not. Football also isn't my thing."

"Understandable," Julie agrees. "I only went because my brother loves football and I could get cheaper tickets with my student pass. Angelica was the cheer caption so I would go for her halftime shows."

"So I take it you and Angelica are close as well?"

"Kind of? I mean, we never really hang out without Alex around. She has her friends, I have mine."

I nod a little. I want to know more about this girl's school life. "Were you dating anyone?"

Julie shakes her head. "Nah, I did run into my old crush downstairs though."

My jaw drops. "Who?"

"Nick."

"Well that's ironic, isn't it?"

Julie chuckles a little. "Seems so, yeah. What about you?"

"I dated this girl for three weeks. Wasn't serious. We went on date, never were official, and then she met someone she wanted to be serious with. It hurt a little because I liked her, but I got over it."

Julie frowns. "I'm sorry that happened to you."

I shrug a little. "It is what it is. What's your brother's name again? Rose told me once, but I forgot."

I could see her start to tense a little. Did it not go well with Rose? I debated asking but figured it wasn't a good idea.

"Carlos. Do you have any siblings?" I'm glad Julie was just as interested in the conversation as I was.

"Nah, I was an only child. That's why my parents wanted me to go in the bunker so badly. Either way, I'm still alive so their sacrifice wasn't for nothing."

I could see how Julie started debating what she wanted to say next.

"You don't have to say anything," I interrupt her thoughts. "I don't want pity. Let's change the subject, yeah?" When Julie nods, I continue. "Your mom once mentioned college. What were you going for?"

"Music production," Julie smiles sadly. "Alex and I had both gotten into the same college. He was going to go into Audio Production."

"What college?"

"Los Angeles Recording School."

"You two would've been unstoppable. I applied there but I got waitlisted."

"What were you going to go into?"

"Jazz Arts at Manhattan School of Music."

Julie's face suddenly lit up. "I want to show you something," she says and rolls off the bed, onto her feet. I raise an eyebrow at her but follow her anyway.

We walk out of the room and down the stairway. I notice how Julie is glancing at the pictures that run along the walls. I stop noticing Julie when Willie appears next to me. He startled me, when did he get there?

"Have you seen Carrie?" He asks quietly. I see how Julie's head perked up from in front of me when Willie asked this.

"I haven't, no. Is something wrong?"

"We don't know. I'm asking around."

I nod a little. "I can help you search for her later if you need?"

"Yeah. I think Rose might send out a search party later."

"Update me later," I say and continue following Julie.

"So, who's Carrie? I keep hearing her name," Julie says.

"Trevor Wilson's daughter," I said cooly, and Julie stops us.

"Seriously?"

"Yeah. That's what I thought too, but she's really not that bad."

Julie looks at me, skeptical. "I'll take your word for it, then."

Julie proceeds to lead me outside of the house, over to the garage door, that is locked shut.

"We're not allowed out here," I comment, dumbfounded.

"I'm sure it'll be fine if I bend the rules," Julie shrugs and grabs a key that was behind an outdoor light fixture. "Ah-ha, it's still here," She beams.

Julie unlocks the doors and swings them open. I look to see what is inside the forbidden room, expecting it to look very different than it actually is.

The room is a studio- a piano right in the center, a couch on the left, more instruments on the right. I gasp and just look around while Julie smiles at me.

"My mom and I used to write music here all the time. I've really missed it," Julie explains and sits behind the piano. I pull a chair up next to it and sit down, watching her as she lifts up the lid, revealing the keys. I watch as Julie runs her fingers over them, wanting to play, but it seems as if something is holding her back.

"Do you play?" Julie speaks up and looks over at me. I shake my head slightly. "Just a little."

"I haven't played since... My skills might be a bit rusty," Julie then proceeds to start elegantly playing the piano. My skills might be a bit rusty? She's a master, I thought.

I continue to watch and listen to her play. I can see how she's getting lost in the music. I know that feeling well, it's amazing, but I haven't felt it since my parents died. I'm just glad Julie is able to.

And then, Julie starts to sing. My eyes started to tear up, and I couldn't figure out if it was because of the song she's singing, or because of her beautiful singing voice.

When Julie finishes her song, she looks over at me, waiting for me to speak. I wipe my tears away and look at her.

"Your singing voice is amazing. It made me cry."

Julie giggles a little. "Thank you. It seems as if I haven't lost my touch."

"You definitely haven't," I say as the lights start flickering. Julie immediately looks over at me, a panicked look being all over her face.

"Don't worry," I say reassuringly. "Our solar panels only work on sunlight, so the lights go out when the sun goes down."

Julie's face relaxes. "If you want to go to bed, you can. I'm going to stay down here for a bit."

I nod a little and get up, realizing sleep is a good idea. I haven't slept in three days.

"Goodnight, Julie," I say and start walking out of the garage.

"Goodnight, Flynn," She replies and I turn my head to look back at her, smiling a little before departing out of the garage and back into the house, many thoughts taking over my mind.

Where's Carrie? That was my main thought.. and little did I know that she was in the last place I would've ever expected..

A/N: This chapter was originally going to be longer but I decided to let it be calm before the storm! There wasn't really bonding time with Rose and Julie, I'm aware, but they'll have time to bond again eventually!

I'm also starting to write one-shots! If anyone has any requests for a certain jatp ship, character, prompt, etc let me know and I'll add it to a list (though there are certain things might not write) I'd also add the ocs from this book so if you guys want any stories about Angelica, Mia, etc let me know as well