A/N:
italics represent flashbacks
Read/Review :)
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Linc sighed heavily, turning his head to the backseat where Julie was sitting next to Pete. His arm was around her shoulder. She hadn't looked up at him once for the past hour they'd been sitting in the car. She was just staring down at her hands. This situation with her sister had really hit her hard. Pete and Linc exchanged worried glances. "We don't have to say anything about your sister." Linc tells Julie.
Julie shoots him a look, "She's a witness, Linc. You and I both know we have to tell the Captain. There's no way around it. Not without completely blowing the case to hell. I'm not gonna do that. Those other girls need to get out of there as much as she does."
Linc turned back around in his seat, trying to come up with a solution. He wasn't about to push Julie about why her sister was there to begin with. That was nobody's business but her own. But this affected the case and the careers of all three of them. They had to deal with it in some way. "Okay, how about this. You talk to her face to face. See if you can get her to go on the record anonymously, if at all. If she's too scared to do it then we'll just talk to some of the other girls. No one has to know who she is. She has a different last name anyway, right?"
Julie nods. "Yeah, she changed it a while back."
"Okay, then there's no way Rodriguez or anyone else could ever find out. It stays here between us. Agreed?" Linc says, motioning to Pete.
"You won't get any trouble from me. It stays here." Pete answers softly, gripping his arm around Julie tighter.
She leans into Pete, wishing at that moment that she could ask him to hold her again like she had that night at the motel. But Linc was there, and she knew this wasn't the time or place for that. Julie slowly put her hand on top of his, and he took it without reservations. She needed him, and he was going to be there for her. He didn't care that Linc kept looking back in the rear view mirror while they drove to Julie's apartment.
The car stopped at the apartment building and Pete got out first. Julie looked at him one last time before letting go of his hand, and starting up the stairs. After the doors closed behind her, Pete wanted to go with her so bad it hurt. The pain was enough to rip his heart out. But he knew he couldn't. He turns back around and slides into the front seat, staring ahead.
Linc sits there for a few seconds without starting the engine. He looks over at Pete. "What the hell are you doing?"
"Huh?" Pete asks, looking over at him.
"You want to go, go man. You know you want to." Pete stares at Linc in bewilderment. Had he known about Julie and him all this time? "How did you.."
Linc starts laughing harder now, unable to contain himself. "Wow-- Pete. How long have we all been working together? Three, four years? You're not the only one with eyes in the back of their head, man. I see everything. What, did you guys think I was gonna tell somebody?"
Pete shakes his head. "No, no. Well, I mean maybe. She thought. I wanted to tell you."
Linc wasn't surprised or offended really. He knew this job was the only thing that kept Julie going. She'd go crazy without it. Maybe even go back to her old life. "Look, I'm not gonna say anything. Just don't advertise at work and y'all should be cool. She makes you happy?"
Pete looks down, smiling and shaking his head embarrassed. "What do you think?"
"Oh, now you want to know what I think?" Linc asks, sarcastically.
Pete shrugs his shoulders. "Maybe. Yeah."
"I think.. ever since I met up with both of you at the beach before the thing with Tricky went down, I'd never seen you look at anyone the way you were looking at her. You looked at her the same way earlier when you climbed in the backseat with her. That's how I knew. It's not that hard to put together. You almost look like you're in.. You um-- you in love her or what?"
"I don't know. Maybe. I know that I care about her and that I want to see good things happen for her. I know that. I go nuts when I see her with other guys. I almost flipped out tonight at the club. I felt like my head was gonna explode. This fucking asshole had his hands all over her. I don't usually do that over just anyone.. or anyone really. I've never cared enough to be jealous like that."
Linc runs a hand through his hair. "Well, that can't happen again. You losing it on the job. That'll get your ass killed. I'm not playin' either."
"She already reemed me about it." Pete laughs, covering his face. "She pulled me into the unisex bathroom and yelled at me for five minutes."
Linc lightly slaps his back. "Well, Pete. Sounds like you've got yourself a girlfriend. Even if she is our partner, and if anyone but me finds out one or both of you could get canned. But a girlfriend all the same."
Pete rolls his eyes. "Thanks, man. I feel alot better."
"Not a problem," Linc starts the engine. "Now get out of my car and go see your girl."
Pete thanked him again and went up the stairs. Linc rolls the window closed. "I've got a little business to attend to myself."
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Pete stops when he reaches Julie's front door. It was halfway open. He pushes it open all the way and walks inside. Pieces of glass were all over the middle of the floor. He sees a small trail of blood and his heart almost stops. He quickly shuffles to the bathroom. Julie is sitting against the wall, adjacent to the tub, knees pulled to her chest. "What are you doing here, Pete?" she asks, emotionlessly.
He's almost startled when she speaks. He didn't know what to make of this. This wasn't the strong Julie that he knew. She was like a completely different person. He kneels down to her level, his eyes immidiately scanning her body for injuries. He couldn't see anything visibily wrong with her. Where had the blood on the floor come from? He sat indian style across from her, and noticed a red dot on the white tile next to her foot. "Did you cut yourself on the glass out there?"
She covers the side of her foot with one hand. "Not on purpose. I stepped on it after I knocked it over. It doesn't even hurt. I don't feel anything."
He scoots closer to her, trying to move her hand. She pushes it away, defensively. "I just said it doesn't hurt."
"Hey," Pete's eyes burn into hers, "You trust me? Let me look at it. It'll take a minute to take out if there's even anything in there."
She rolled her eyes, uncovering her foot. She turns away when the blood is in plain view. She hated the sight of blood. She'd never even seen someone dying before she watched Greer bleed to death from the gunshot wounds in that tunnell. The images still plagued her. She felt a small prick and quickly looks back at Pete. "What are you doing?" asked him, alarmed.
He had taken the tweezers out of her makeup bag on the counter, and was halfway done getting the piece of glass out of her foot only in a matter seconds. "Almost done. It looks fine. It's just a small piece. Don't look. It's easier that way." She looks away and squeezes his free hand.
"Presto. See? Not so bad." He wets a wash cloth and cleans her foot. She hands him a band-aid from under the sink. "Why'd you come?"
"Linc." Pete answers, almost inaudibly. She looks at him strangely. "Why would Linc ask you to come up here?"
Pete looks back at her, staying silent. She lets out a deep breath. "He knows?"
"He figured it out. I didn't tell him anything."
She was about to say something, but stops herself. He would have found out anyway. "It doesn't even matter." Julie leans her back against the wall, and realizes she hasn't let go of Pete's hand. She slowly takes her hand back, tucking it underneathe her lower arm. "You know I saw her-- my sister, Amy. I saw her last month and I never knew. How could I not know? Why wouldn't she tell me something like that?"
Pete shrugs. "Maybe she didn't want to disappoint you."
Julie laughs, "No, trust me. She's disappoint me before, and visaversa. We're over the disappointment stage. I just thought she was over all that. She was doing really good."
"She's been in this line of work before?" Pete asks, curiously.
She nods, "Yeah. A few years back. She was in trouble with this guy Mike. He was a drug dealer and she'd been with him for awhile. He beat her up constantly. She tried to leave a bunch of times, but he'd just find her and reel her back in. She'd always go back to him. Then he beat her up so bad that she landed in the hospital. After I threatened to kill him, she promised she'd leave him for good. So, I helped her disappear. She changed her name and moved out of Compton to L.A. She knew he wouldn't care enough to look for her there and even if he did, she made sure that he'd never find her. She started working as a dancer at this club. I found out about it and completely flipped out on her. I was so mad. I remember walking into that club this one night and pulling her off the stage. We were yelling at eachother on the street. We said some things we didn't mean. Long story short, nothing changed. She kept dancing. Said it was because he'd never find her there. Somehow she thought it was a safe place. Whatever that means."
Julie continues, "About a month ago she called me and said she wanted to meet up. We had lunch at this place over on Sunset. She seemed fine. Said she was doing great, and that she wanted to start seeing me again. How stupid am I?"
Pete pushes her chin up with his hand, forcing her to look at him. "You're not stupid. You care about her. You wanted to believe she was getting her life together. You hadn't seen her in what, a couple of years? There's no way you 'couda known."
"I know. I just never wanted her to end up like me. Mean and hard. The world's done that to me. Amy was always a really sweet as a kid. Everyone loved her." Julie looks down, "Then I started getting into trouble and left home. I was sixteen. That's when it all started. Our Mother broke her down until she was nothing. She did it to me and passed it on to the next generation. Fucking bitch." she mumbles, running her hands through her hair.
Pete moves next to Julie and puts an arm around her shoulder. "You're a good person, Julie. Mean and hard. Broken down. I don't see you that way."
She looked up at him, tears filling her eyes. "How do you see me?"
"Hearing you talk about your sister-- I can tell you really love her. That means something to her. I don't care what she says. It means something. No one loved me like that growing up. I tried to find it in other things, but it didn't work. There was always an empty space. That's why I did all the things that I did. I don't--" He stops for a moment. "When I look at you-- when I feel you next to me, the space isn't there. Jules.."
She puts her finger on his lips. "Don't. You don't mean it yet. You don't have to tell me so I won't leave you. I won't. Pete, I can't even put into words how safe you make me feel. How I want to be with you when I'm not, and how I want to touch you when you're standing across a room from me." She takes a deep breath, putting her hand on his cheek. "When you say it, I want you to be sure. And I know right now you're not. All I know right now is that I need you, and I don't want you to leave."
Pete tries to speak, but his mind is suddenly blank. She was right. He wasn't sure if he loved her, and he didn't want to say it if he wasn't sure. How could she read him so well? He pulls her against him and kisses her forehead. "I need you too. And I'm not leaving you. I'm here."
Julie's eyes begin to flicker open and shut. She was so tired. Her head lowered to Pete's lap and she fell asleep.
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Coming Up: Linc fights with Captain Rodriguez.Julie confronts Amy and questions her about her job.