CHAPTER 18:

Julia had been in the hospital for less than a day, but she felt locked up. It had been dark for a while. She had thought that when she got out of this nightmare, she would be free. But no. She had to stay in the hospital. And what is more, the hospital in which she worked. That meant she knew everyone. All the employees walked past her door curiously and it was driving her crazy.

She was quickly redirected to her room after her little interview with William. It had been too little for her. She had seen him barely five minutes. She did not know what was worse. To be locked up here, or to be locked up next to William without being able to see him. She knew that he too was going to be imprisoned in this hospital for a while.

She had learned from the policeman with the bright red hair – she could not remember his name – that the three killers had cowardly killed themselves after killing everyone.

At this announcement, she had felt a great emptiness deep inside her. She had this feeling that all those people had died in vain. There had been no purpose in this story. Apart from killing as many people as possible. Why had they done this? Because they themselves were unhappy? Because they wanted to have fun? Did they have family or relatives to ask?

Julia sighed bitterly. Friends of hers had died that night. People she had always known. People her father introduced her to when she was only five years old. People who had known her mother…

The young doctor sighed again feeling the tears welling up in her eyes. She should not have gone through all this… No one should have gone through this nightmare.

"Julia."

The young woman looked up at her door, which opened slowly to reveal William in the crack. Julia was amazed.

"William! But what are you doing. You should not get up after your operation."

"Yes, but I can't stand being alone there anymore and I miss you."

Julia smiles, softens. Of course, she missed him too. But what could they do? In the end, they barely knew each other… Where was all this leading?

"What do you think?"

The young doctor raised her eyebrows in surprise. How had he guessed that she was bothered by something?

"I see the furrows spinning." he teased her.

He walked over and sat quietly on her bed, grimacing at his aching side.

"I was only thinking about… the two of us. I can't believe it could be real. We do not know each other…"

William shook his head almost in panic. Did she realize he was not that good?

"Don't say that please… What I told you there… It was the truth. It wasn't about fear or stress."

Detective Murdoch grabbed Julia's hands as she started to have tears in her eyes.

"If... If all these things hadn't happened to us, I would surely have come to see you and, perhaps, we would have courted each other slowly and gently. But now, I feel like, you never know what life is made of. Or death… We don't know what will happen tomorrow. I don't want to waste time..."

Julia nodded, reassured.

"Me neither... I'm in the same mindset about the two of us."

"But that doesn't mean we shouldn't court each other…" William gave him a small smile which Julia returned.

There was a short silence between them during which they gazed quietly into each other's eyes.

"We're going to get through this Julia... We're going to get over what happened to us..."

Julia nodded as she thought the exact same thing. The process was going to be very long, and they were aware of that.

Note: A little Jilliam moment! Thanks for the last review! It's really very nice and it makes me happy. In addition it makes me a little more confident to know that I write well since it's not even my language haha !