Author's Note: I know it's been a while. My laptop died, and I therefore lost this wonderful half done chapter here. I finished the rewrite this morning and just finished library typing it. Woo! I hate my life. Seriously. But I love this chapter. I'm really proud of it and we get some major, what's gone on in the past ten years action. So enjoy.

Disclaimer: I own nothing and no one...well actually someone who'll pop up in the middle.

Chapter 5: Time's Up: Portman

I can't believe what she's just told me

I can't believe what she's just told me. I can't stop staring at her.

"Dean, say something," She whispers.

"What exactly do you want me to say Julie?" I snap, she takes a step back. "You don't actually expect me to be happy about this do you?"

"I thought you'd understand," She says back, "Last night,"

"Understand?" I say digesting what she just said. Keep your temper Portman. "And last night? Last night I told you I love you. You said you needed to think about it, and then you come here, tell me that you're engaged. What exactly did you think I would understand?"

"I'm not engaged," She says angrily, "Charlie said he wanted to get married, I said I had to think about it. I'm not going to scrap a ten year relationship because you never got over a crush!" She looks down. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean that."

"You've got a lot to think about huh, babe?" I nod, she doesn't get it. She never did. "I'll make your choice easy."

"Don't," She whispers as I start to walk away, "I just need time Dean," She grabs my elbow to stop me.

"I don't have any more time to give you Julie." I shake my head, "Marry him, it's what you want." I don't know that. How can you? She's projecting. It's freaky when she does this, and you sit, hearing her voice in your head. "Stay out of my head." I say firmly.

"Don't go," She says, "Be angry, yell at me, do something. But don't go." She kisses me. This whole situation is pure Julie Gaffney.

"No," I say pushing her away. "I'm done." I walk away.

"You could congratulate me then," She calls after me angrily.

"Congratulations," I turn around, "You'll kill each other in a year."

"He loves me," She looks right at me, "He's always taken care of me."

"Maybe," I say, "But will that be enough for you for the rest of your life? Being taken care of?" She looks away then. I can't know what she's thinking, but I've got a good idea of it. "You saved my life once, but after ten years of this, I'd say we're square. I've got nothing else to give you Julie. I'm out." I walk away.

"Dean," She practically squeaks it. I don't turn this time, I can't. If I look at her, I'll change my mind. I can't do that, "Are you going to her?" That makes me turn.

"That's a dangerous card to play Catlady," I stare at her. Her head's up in that way she holds it when she's trying too hard to be confident. She's so arrogant sometimes.

"Are you?" She says simply.

"I haven't seen her in two years," I stare at her. "I don't know where she is, and I don't want to!" I walk away. I can feel her eyes burrowing into me and I empty my mind, get her out. I walk into my room and slam the door, releasing all of the frustration I have. I have to let her go. I know I do, I should have let her go years ago, I just couldn't ever do it.

"Temper Dean," She's standing in the corner. She looks different; her hair is straight, and shorter. Always in all black, her leather jacket wrapped around her, and the same confident twisted smile, Izzie.

"What do you want?" I say coldly, she smiles and walks over and kisses me.

"I missed you," She smirks, "What's wrong baby? Don't you want me anymore?"

"Get out," I say, "You can't be here." She laughs.

"I know that look," She sits down on the bed. "Little Miss Julie got to you." She blinks so now she looks like her. "Is this better?"

"Why are you here?" I stare at her.

"I can't just come see you?" She whispers, she still hasn't blinked, she's still Julie.

"You're evil," I say as she walks over and starts nibbling on my ear.

"You love it," She smiles. Her twisted evil smile on Julie's face seems so wrong.

"I'm asking you one more time," I say, "And blink, I can't talk to you when you're like that." She does, "What the hell are you doing here?"

"I have my orders," She shrugs. "I wanted to see you first." She produces a gun from her jacket pocket.

"You're here to shoot me?" I look at her. "I thought after Jackie's failure they nixed the loyalty test."

"Please," She rolls her eyes, "Except as my ex boyfriend you barely register on Rick's radar. You know he only cares about one person."

"Charlie?" I raise my eyebrows. "He's sending you after Charlie with a gun? He must be trying to kill you, because baby you're good, but no one is that good."

"Not Charlie," She smiles. "The new plan is to break him, hurt him, take away everything that's important to him." Something in me snaps. I see the look on her face. "Will you miss her Dean?" I grab her and shove her against the wall. I feel her squirm. "I forgot you like things rough."

"I know," I whisper in her ear, "That you're tough. You've been slapped around, your step dad, Scooter, Rick," I stare right into her eyes, she scared. She should be. "But you know what I can do. If you hurt her, I'll tear you apart." She swallows. "Get the hell out of here." I shove her towards the window. I think she was crying, which sort of freaks me out. Izzie, I can't even begin to explain how that happened. I met up with her three years ago, in this bar. Obviously I didn't know it was her at the time. One thing lead to another, we kept seeing eachother, and one night, she told me. Everything, who she really was, and then all about her life, finding out about her power, her life with her step dad, how Rick found her, her relationship with Scooter. Everything. I think she was in love with me, or as in love as a girl that screwed up can be. She's evil, but she's still human, twisted for sure. It ended two years ago. I got into this particularly nasty fight with Julie, about one of the kids, Parker Pierce probably. He reminds me so much of her that it drives me crazy. I got really drunk, met up with Izzie, and I asked her to be Julie for me. She said no, that she didn't do that anymore, and I flipped. We got physical, she ran out and I never saw her again. Until now. And now, I know what I need to do. Even if I hate to do it.

"What do you want Portman?" Charlie says when I approach him. We've never really gotten along. It's pretty easy to see why. We put up with each other because we have to.

"Just got a visit from an old friend," I say. He looks at me, he knows what I mean. It's a code for when any of us encounter any of them, the other side.

"What'd she want?" He looks at me.

"Riley's put a hit out on Julie," I say, "He was going to have her do it, I scared her off, but I don't have that kind of control over any one else he might send."

"Right," He says quietly. "Why not just tell her directly?"

"She's not really interested in anything I have to say right now," I shrug, "Congrats," He looks at me. "On the engagement."

"That's what this is about," He nods, as if something just clicked, "You'll be happy to know she said no. She's moving out tomorrow." I suddenly get a memory flash as he walks away. The first time I realized I cared about her as more than a team mate. She told me she thought I could keep her safe. I'm nor sure I can do that anymore. I walk back to my room and there's Julie.

"We have to stop meeting this way," I say softly. She walks over and kisses me.

"I choose you," She says. "I told you it wouldn't take me ten years this time. I lift her up and then we lie down on the bed, kissing madly. I may not be able to keep her safe always, but I can keep her safe tonight.

"Hey you," She whispers, as she wakes up in the morning, I was watching her sleep. She looks like an angel when she sleeps.

"Hey," I smile and brush my hand against her face and kiss her. "What are you thinking about?" She smiles.

"You're gonna laugh at me," She mumbles. I smile.

"I promise I will not laugh at you." I say, "After last night, I take you completely seriously."

"OK," She says, "I was thinking you know, before last night, I'd only done that with one person." I nod, I'm not sure where she's taking this. "And he could literally read my mind, so,"

"Wait," I look at her, "You two read each other's minds during sex?" She blushes.

"It made it easy," She shrugs, "We always knew what the other wanted."

"But it takes all the fun out of it," I say, "There's more to it than just the mechanics."

"I know," She says, "Last night," She closes her eyes, "You knew exactly what I needed, without knowing."

"It's called chemistry," I say, "Also, I've been thinking about what we did last night for the past ten years."

"Me too," She giggles. We kiss again. "I'm really happy."

"Me too," I nod. The door opens, it's Fulton.

"I'm not even going to ask," He shakes his head, "But Guy's home, so team meeting." She groans and buries her head in my chest as he walks out.

"This is going to be complicated," She whimpers.

"Doesn't have to be," I shake my head. "At least not yet. Take time to figure yourself out."

"You're OK with that?" She sits up and looks at me.

"Julie," I laugh, "I waited ten years without touching you. With sex I'd say I have a few more weeks in me."

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