AN:I know it's been a long while since I've updated, so I would like to say A big sorry, I am hoping this is worth the wait, and I will try and update asap...
Chapter twenty
Odd at a funeral
Lloyd kept watching the streets passing by, for the first time he was driving away from Maybelle on his own, well he was too nervous to look over to Ray who was driving the car. Lloyd knew that they were heading to Julianne's house. He wasn't much in on the planning of the events that were going to unfold over the next few days. All he knew was that he was they were going to be driving to the funeral a day before, they would be staying in a motel, and then the next day he'll face his family that he'd not seen since his trial.
The sound of the car was silent, Ray didn't seem like a radio listener, and so as Lloyd kept thinking of the events, he kept thinking of Julianne. She was going to be there with him, but it filled him with both nerves and excitement to be seeing her out of work. Would she be okay with travelling so far from her comfort zone? Would he be spending the time being there for her? Will she be there for him?
So many questions filling up Lloyd's brain that he didn't even notice that Ray was pulling into a driveway, he had no clue they'd be going to a house, was this Julianne's home?
"Before we go in I want to make a few rules Lowery!" Ray's words were not as harsh, but it still had the sting of authority. "First don't think of running, you make an attempt to run, I will find you." His eyes narrowed, "This is Jules home, we're only here to pick the girls up…"
"Girls?" Lloyd cut him off, then his face recoiled from the fact he cut off Ray, who was now glaring at him.
"Yes, Liz is coming also," He tried to keep some kind of calm, but he knew that if Julianne didn't agree to coming, he wouldn't be able to spend that long alone with Lloyd, without the notion of killing the man who annoyed the hell out of him.
Lloyd listened in complete silence as Ray went through the rules, took most of them in, but it took all his strength not to keep staring at the house, the feeling kept bubbling in his chest, he wanted so badly to finally get inside and have an insight to how Julianne lived.
Julianne pushed a photo frame making it straight, but it wasn't really crooked to begin with, so she kept scanning the living room feeling the uncomfortable knot in her stomach getting tighter. Elizabeth hasn't even been downstairs, but only a few moments ago she heard the door to her bedroom open, and then the bathroom, followed by running water.
Seeing the clock, Julianne knew that it wouldn't be long until Ray would arrive with Lloyd, the thought made Julianne unsure of how this was going to work out. She'd picked out clothes for Lloyd to wear today, but the suit for the funeral hanging on the arm of the sofa made Julianne's heart sink. She'd not really been to a funeral before now, so she didn't know how to act at one, or how to be there for Lloyd.
Hearing the doorbell ring, Julianne quickly ran a hand down her stomach, checking over her reflection in the hallways mirror, she exhaled before opening the door seeing Ray, and also Lloyd looking nervously around the neighbourhood. He did look out of place in his Maybelle uniform, so the neighbours weren't used to the sight of a prisoner standing on her doorstep.
"Come in," Julianne quickly stepped aside, her hand still holding onto the door watching Lloyd cautiously stepping into the house, Julianne for a moment focused on Lloyd watching him follow Ray into the living room. "Make yourselves at home," exhaling through her mouth she closed the door carefully after looking around the front yard.
The first thing Lloyd notice about the living room, apart from the overly clean appearance was the photo frames, his mother wasn't the one to cover walls in pictures of children, being he was her only one. No, she kept photo albums, but he didn't even know if she would still look at them. He followed the wall looking at pictures of two blonde girls, he knew one was Julianne, but as the age gap between Julianne and Elizabeth was the only thing to separate the two girls.
"Don't touch anything," Ray snapped to Lloyd who was staring intently at what could only be Julianne's prom picture.
Only inches away from the frame, Lloyd could see how Julianne wore her hair, her date was more focused on Julianne's dress, but still Julianne smiled nervously for the camera. "My Senior prom." Julianne spoke softly to Lloyd making him jump before turning to face her, his eyes focused on hers.
"I, I see there is a lot of photos…" He tried to sound comfortable, but even Julianne knew he was nervous.
Giving a quick shrug Julianne played a hand behind her neck, "Yeah, my mom tends to be nostalgic over photos of me and Liz," her hand moved slowly back to her side, her attention to Ray sitting on an armchair.
"Well, I don't see a father in many of these…" Lloyd double-checked; just in case, but Julianne's face already confirmed the answer.
Julianne shrugged again, "My dad left my mom when I was twelve, so she kinda took him out most the photos."
Lloyd didn't speak, the fact that when he spoke of how he didn't know he's own father, she didn't share much of her own, maybe the fact he didn't know anything about her family, even if he knew Elizabeth it didn't help any more with the puzzle, "So, do you still, you know…" Lloyd hesitated for a second, "See him?"
"I see him, once in a while," Julianne tried to smile, but knew Ray just wanted to get this over with, the way he sat on the sofa, "Clothes!" Julianne quickly changed the subject, "Here," she passed him a plastic bag, "You can change in the spare room, it's upstairs first left, no right," Julianne paused, "No left." She finished with an awkward smile. "Anyone want a drink? Something to eat?"
"I better just," Lloyd lifted the bag he had carefully taken off of Julianne, he gave a simple smile, "But a coffee would be nice," He headed out of the door.
Julianne finally fell on the sofa feeling relief wash over her, "So, just need to wait for Elizabeth to." Julianne stop speaking hearing a sudden scream from upstairs, soon to be followed by yelling and the sound of Lloyd repeating sorry over and over again. "I guess it was first right." She bit her lip feeling awful.
Closing the bedroom door after herself, Elizabeth picked up her ipod putting it on the dock. The room suddenly filled with the sound of her music, leaning forward Elizabeth twisted the volume up, not too loud, but loud enough for her to remember what was going to be happening.
The feeling of the base of her favourite song of the moment started to fill the room up, running the towel through her long hair, she quickly placed it over a desk chair.
Elizabeth has already laid out her outfit for the day on her bed, she still danced around to the lyrics of the song while taking the towel off, she kept singing, but froze looking up, "Lloyd!" she screamed picking the towel back up covering herself, "Get out!"
"I'm sorry, first left, spare room," Lloyd quickly turned to face the door, but his hand had gotten sweaty fast, he kept turning the handle.
Elizabeth picked up a stress ball throwing it at the back of his head. "Get out! Get out! Get out!" She screamed picking more things to throw at the back of Lloyd's head.
"I'm sorry," He turned to look at her, her face red, her eyes narrowed, "Sorry," He finally got the handle to work opening the door rushing out.
Julianne sat up front with Ray, her hands kept in her lap while glancing over Lloyd in the review mirror. "I've got a route set up on the GPS, so we're going to get to Thompsonville with enough time to have something to eat." Julianne now turning her head to see Elizabeth, "Are you alright?"
Lloyd side glancing over to Elizabeth, her arms firmly crossed, her eyes avoiding his face, "Fine," her one word answer was sharp, "But then I've been better."
"Again, I am sorry," Lloyd twisted his body, "I really am." He kept watching as her face slowly turned to look at him.
"Still, I," Her face slightly flushed pink.
"Can we just forget it, okay?" Julianne snapped from the front seat.
"Already forgotten," Lloyd replied quickly.
Ray rolled his eyes, "Can we all forget it please?"
"Yes, I think it's a good idea," Julianne exhaled while looking to the highway, she wasn't completely at ease with the fact this was going to be the furthest she'd been from home in a long while, her fingers playing with her shirt.
"So I need to use the bathroom…" Elizabeth spoke up, her arms unfolded, and her eyes looking forward to Julianne and Ray.
Ray tried hard not to roll his eyes, "Next stop is another fifteen minutes, so you're going to have to hold it."
"I can hold it," Elizabeth relaxing back into the chair, the feel of the car moving down the highway, reaching for her bag taking her ipod and a book out.
Lloyd kept watching everyone, it seemed it was going to be a long drive to Thompsonville.
Lloyd kept watching Julianne from across the table, Ray was getting something for everyone to eat, and Elizabeth was using the restroom. Lloyd smiled looking over to Julianne, "I'm happy you decided to come."
"I know you needed me," Her voice so soft, her hands kept playing on the table, her eyes fixed on the patterned her fingertips were making on the surface.
Hesitating before reaching his hands over to take hold of hers, Lloyd gave them a reassuring squeeze. "Julianne, are you okay?"
"I'm okay," Julianne tried to give off the impression she was fine, but wasn't doing so well watching Ray ordering food.
Lloyd raised his eyebrow, "Really?"
"Really," Julianne smiled a little more at ease feeling Lloyd's hands holding onto hers, "It's just this is the first time," she paused, "I've never been this far from home since we drove to that house for the case."
"When was the time before that?" Lloyd asked watching her, he felt happy to finally start having a conversation with Julianne. They hadn't really spoken since the last case, since they kissed. Since what happened to Elizabeth, the thought made Lloyd shudder.
Julianne inhaled, "I think aside from that, I remember helping Liz move into her apartment at college," She laughed thinking about it, "I think the fact she moved in with a lot of friends who seem," she tried to think of the right word, "Colourful."
"Colourful," Lloyd tried to not laugh, but let Julianne's hand go, he used his now free hand to rub the back of his neck, "I guess you hear a lot of Liz's college adventures."
"Not really, when she's at college she tends to just call now and then to see how I am," Julianne nodded.
"Oh, I thought you were close," Lloyd kept watching her face; he could tell he needed to change the subject. "So what do you like to do when not working?"
Julianne finally relaxed, "I like to," for a second she didn't know what to say, "I like to create web pages, and I've been running a forum group for people who have social phobia and anxiety," her eyes lightened up, but felt herself nervous to his response, "We're having a meet up sometime next month where we'll all hang out."
Smiling, Lloyd laughed, "I mean, as much as I'm not a hundred percent of social interaction online, but then if you're all going to meet up, it can't be that bad."
"Can't be that bad!" Julianne laughed, "I am going to be travelling all the way to Chicago." Her voice soothing, her eyes finally focused on Lloyd. "I'm really looking forward to going."
Lloyd nodded, "Well at least you're moving forward," He noticed how Julianne's fingers were entwined with his, he looked back to eyes smiling, "I can't believe how far you've come."
"Hey, Ray said food won't be ready for another ten minutes." Elizabeth sat down, she looked from Lloyd to Julianne, "I think I might have interrupted something…"
Lloyd felt Julianne's hand letting go of his, for a second her attention on her sister, "Well, guys we'll be waiting then." Her voice a low whisper.
"Well, anyone fancy a game of air hockey while we wait?" Elizabeth tapped the table, her eyes going to the counter where Ray was, it seemed like he really wasn't a social person. "Lloyd, feeling lucky…" Her eyebrow wiggled.
Lloyd exhaled, "Well, I guess I do," He stood up looking to Julianne, "Maybe you can play the winner…" He gave her a knowing smile, for a second hoping to relax a little, "Who knows, we can make a little wager…"
"I don't think so Lloyd," Elizabeth placed a hand on his shoulder, "Last thing you wanna do is give cake to a fat person."
"Cake to a fat person?" Julianne looked confused.
Elizabeth laughed, "I'm not letting Lloyd deal with his distress by gambling," Her eyes looking over to Lloyd, "And I am a good friend at keeping promises." Her fingers lightly rubbed over his shoulders, she now started to make her way to the small arcade.
Julianne exhaled, "Well, I guess it won't kill to try and have a little fun." She followed behind Elizabeth and Lloyd. Part of Julianne wonder if this day was going to hurry up, she just wanted to get home feeling her nerves fraying.