4:17 p.m. – 3/29/14

Gah Goggle is so much fun to write on. He's a better mixture of crazy and cute. Sorry if I slip up with the third person view, I just have no real experience with it, I usually do first person.

R&R please, flames and praise alike are welcome.

Val was right, the worst hadn't happened yet.

The next thing that happened, Julia met Big Brain.

Now, Julia had seen some horrible things in her life, more things than she would ever care to admit, but this was just a whole nother level of horrible.

He was curled in on himself, arms held tight to his chest, and he was shaking constantly. His eyes were small and beady, even more so compared to his bulbous head that hung off of the back of his wheelchair. The hair that he had was wet with sweat and his skin had a thick sheen of sweat on it though it was rather cool in the house everyone (meaning Val, Lizard, Big Mama and Ruby) claimed was his. His eyes were glued to the young mechanic the moment she walked into the living room and she had never felt so sick.

Julia leaned heavily on Val while she chuckled in her ear, patting the young woman's clammy arm as she brought her to the couch that was across from Big Brain and his wheelchair.

"Human-"he wheezed painfully. "Filth."

"Big Brain be nice," Val threatened.

He chuckled and lifted a shaky finger, pointing it at the two women. "You…you are no –"he wheezed again. "Better than her. Both…disgusting humans."

Big Mama's hand came down hard on his left shoulder, successfully silencing him. "You will be kind to the both of them," she said through clenched teeth. "Papa will be angry if he hears about how you are treating them."

"Then – wheeze – why did you bring them to me?"

"Because we thought it would be nice for her to meet the whole family," Val said simply. "You don't have to be such a prick about it."

"If…if it were up ta me," he paused to choke on something stuck in his throat, his whole body stuck in a spasm for a good ten minutes before he spoke again. "Woulda had ya both fer break…breakfast."

That sent Julia's stomach into a few summersaults, making everything ring. "No," she breathed, her hands shaking.

He laughed the best he could, being cut off by the sounds of his own phlegm coming up on him. "Oh yeah…ya tender, know that much."

Julia jumped to her feet. She had to get out of there, she had to get away from him.

She pushed past Ruby and Lizard rather roughly, hearing the male mutant spit out a few curse words at her touching and handling of him. Julia didn't care. She wanted to get out of this desert, she wanted to get that car sold and she would take a fucking plane home.

She wasn't thinking as she started out towards the desert, towards nothing. Julia didn't even know if she was going in the right direction or not. She didn't care. She just didn't fucking care anymore. After a few more minutes of mental ranting, Julia stopped. She came to a complete, pointless, stop and then looked over her shoulder. The village was far behind her, she had been moving faster than she had previously thought. She was a good three miles from the place. That seemed good enough to catch her bearings.

So Julia wandered around for another moment or two, finding a rock to lean on, and she sat in the desert sand, not bothered by the heat one bit. She pointed her knees up towards the sky and patted her pockets, looking for her cigarettes but she didn't find them. Of course she didn't, they were back in that village, with those mutants. Julia wasn't a judgmental person, but this was just too much.

It only took her a second to realize she was being watched.

She lifted her head and moved only her eyes, looking for who was watching her. No glint from the mountains, but there was a dark lump on the other side of a rock a ways off from her. She rolled her head back raising an eyebrow, and then she cleared her throat.

"Ya know, you're not really good at hiding."

Their shoulders shook a little and then they peaked over the edge of the rock they were behind and Julia instantly recognized the mutated face. Goggle.

She narrowed her eyes at him as he stood, stuffing his hands into his pockets. "S-Sorry."

"It's your fault I'm here," she said gruffly. "Could be back at Jebs, but oh no you just had to bring me home."

"Sai' sorry," she heard him say as he moved closer.

"Not sorry enough," she quipped. "First you almost get me killed and then this? This whole trip was just one big fuck up," she ranted without any response from him. "Well guess what, you're gonna bring me back to the gas station, got me?"

He looked at her with wide eyes and then he nodded, looking as though he were going to protest or say something else but he just clamped his mouth shut. Julia nodded sternly and then she scrambled to her feet, pulling the zipper of her jumpsuit down to her navel and she shrugged her arms out of it. Why was she getting so hot all of the sudden? The heat never usually bothered her. Thank god she had the foresight to put on a sports bra under the damn thing.

"Lead the way buddy," she griped.

He finally grumbled them, doing as she instructed and leading her forward towards open desert.

Julia wasn't really all too happy with seeing the gas station. Of course, it was better than a village of mutants.

The lights were on inside and Julia could see Jeb's shadow moving through the fog on the windows, probably made from the cool night air and the heater he had going inside. Julia had pulled up her jumpsuit by then, the sun setting behind her and Goggle. He was off to her right, keeping as much distance between them as possible.

He was smarter than he looked.

She wasn't surprised when the door swung open to the gas station, but Jeb charger out with a buckshot ready did surprise her.

But what really surprised Julia, what surprised all of them, was that she threw herself in front of Goggle, shielding him from the end of Jeb's rifle.

"The hell is wrong with you," she growled, feeling the heat rolling off of Goggle against her back.

"This why I told ya ta leave yesterday," Jeb shook his head, waving the barrel of his gun around in the air. "Now get outta ma way."

Julia's temper flared impossibly higher and she took a step back towards Goggle. "Why? So you can shoot him?"

He nodded, jaw set sternly. "Ain't gonna let them take ma daughter, no matter how much ya hate me."

Julia's face slackened and she lowered her arms a little. "Hate you?"

He nodded again, slowly lowering his gun. "Know ya don't like me, don't have to say anything," the fire sparked through his eyes again. "But I ain't gonna let them get to ya, done with 'em."

Julia raised her arms again. "Goggle was walking me home, Lizards' the one you should be shooting. He tried to kill me. Goggle was just saying hi, he was curious. Stop pointing that thing at us."

"Ya met Lizard?"

Julia noted the shocked look on his stubble covered face. "Y-Yeah…he's not as bad as I thought but he was still pretty scary."

Jeb looked her over. "Don't tell me ya like any of em."

Julia's cheeks flared red for some reason. "I-I…whatever I do or feel is none of your business…I just want to go to bed," she turned around to Goggle, smiling in an apologetic way. She opened her mouth to speak and then she narrowed her eyes, looking over at Jeb. "Do you mind?"

He stared at her in disbelief for a moment before he shook his head, throwing the shotgun over his shoulder and turning towards the gas station. "Stubborn ass kid," he muttered, walking towards his home.

Julia rolled her eyes and then looked back to Goggle. "I guess I should say I'm sorry."

He looked at her quizzically from under the edge of his bowler hat. "W-Why?"

"For tackling you, chasing after you, being so mean when you were just curious…so I'm sorry."

He stared at her for a long time, obviously confused and still a little curious. "Ish ok," he mumbled. "Don' blame ya. Ain't exactly th' friendliest folk…"

Julia grinned. "Oh, some of you are plenty friendly. Look," she bent at the waist a little, trying to see under the rim of his hat better. "I don't hold anything against you, Big Brain and Lizard were the ones that scared the fuck out of me. But one word of advice," he finally met her eyes. "Don't drop a girl from a cliff, bad ice breaker."

He raised his head fully, allowing Julia to stand straight again. "Ice breaka? Why we tryin' ta break ice?"

Julia actually laughed at that, feeling the tension from the day uncoiling from her shoulders. "It doesn't mean breaking ice literally, like…it means it's not a good way to start a conversation or an encounter with someone else. Understand?"

It took him a moment but he finally nodded and then Julia jumped, hearing Jeb's voice cursing inside the gas station. He sure knew how to break a mood. Wait, what mood was he breaking?

Julia thought on it for a moment and realized something. Her cheeks heated up and her hands reached up, covering her mouth. Holy shit, Julia thought, I was flirting with him. Oh God, she started to freak out mentally, waving her hands around as she took two steps back, pacing for a moment as she tried to calm herself down. She got so worked up so easily she hadn't even noticed it.

"Julia ok?"

She stopped then, remembering Goggle was right there. "Oh! I am so sorry," she apologized, placing both hands on either side of her face and shaking her head enough for her hair tie to loosen. "I just…I just had a little revelation and it freaked me out a little bit."

"Revelation?"

She didn't stop shaking her head. "I just realized what I was doing…Oh my God how can I be so stupid?"

Stupid? Well, that wasn't exactly the right word. Julia had to have seen something in him to make her flirt, even if it was a miniscule moment of flirting at that. She raised her eyes back to him, seeing him eyeing her curiously, head half cocked to the right and reminding her strongly of an owl. Julia swallowed and lowered her hands, her curiosity getting the better of her and she looked back towards the gas station. Jeb was watching through the windows. She swallowed thickly and looked back to Goggle, smiling a little.

"Y-You think you can come over in the morning?"

He was as caught off guard as she was. "What?"

She chuckled nervously. "I mean, if you don't want to that's ok. I just don't know my way back to the village is all…"

"Why ya wanna go back there?"

She smiled at him honestly. "Cus…I guess I want to get to know you guys or something before I leave. Well, we can exclude Big Brain and Lizard."

Goggle stared at her for a long time, making her nervous with his alien eyes, and then he nodded, turning his back on her. Was that a yes? He would come by in the morning to take her back to the village? Julia stared after him for a moment longer and then she turned towards the gas station, hurrying inside before the night time chill tried to get to her. As she shut the door she pressed her forehead against the door jam, her fingers still curled around the knob and her other hand pressed flat against the glass.

"What took ya so long?"

She jumped away from the door, holding both of her hands over her chest. Jeb was staring at her in a slightly angered way, but more nosey curiosity. She swallowed thickly and shook her head, walking towards the back of the store. "Just talked to Goggle is all," she stepped around the counter, pulling a pack of cigarettes from the rack and stuffing it into her back pocket. "Don't worry about it. I'm gonna go take a shower."

He didn't say anything else so she took that as him leaving her alone for the night and she stepped into the back room. She grabbed her duffle of clothes and walked into the small bathroom they were sharing for the moment. She sat the duffle on the counter and shrugged out of her jumpsuit, turning on the water. She looked herself over in the mirror, seeing a few cuts and bruises across her cheeks and shoulder, some on her legs, but they weren't much. She could wear what she wanted this time and not look like a total grease monkey. Julia sighed and stepped into the shower, wetting her hair and then sliding down into the bottom of the tub.

She doubted she was going to make it to California.

Val sighed and lay back in the dusty bed, propping her feet up on Lizards chest as he laid at the bottom of the bed, his head and legs hanging off either end of the bed. He grunted and looked up at her when the weight hit his chest, his eyes narrowing into an icy glare but she just ignored it, staring at him blankly. He sighed himself after a moment and let his head lay back again, eyes closing.

"Think she'll come back," Val questioned.

"Don't care."

She pursed her lips. "Oh come on, you gotta care a little," she nudged his chin with her toe, grinned when he swatted away the appendage. "Goggle likes her, Goggle never likes anyone."

"Don't care."

"He's your brother."

"Still don' care."

Val rolled her eyes. She still hated that stubborn, ignorant, attitude Lizard had. "You are just such a prick," she muttered.

"I try," he muttered.

Val was thinking about Julia, trying to picture her with Goggle. It was a weird fit, but they did fit. Maybe. Val didn't know Julia, didn't know anything about her or where she came from. Val didn't even know if she was staying or not. Goggle knew more about her, Val had known he was watching her since she arrived the other day, he had walked her back to the gas station. If Julia stayed, Val would have to help her get used to the others. She had to tell her what not to do, how to handle Goggle. But Val didn't want to ruin the image Julia most likely had of quiet Goggle.

Boom, there it is. Longest chapter yet I think and they will just keep getting longer.