The next day, Callie walked into Jules' room with the painting and put it back on the window sill. She had assumed Jules was sleeping so was surprised when she heard Jules' voice.
"Hey..you." Jules smiled at her.
Callie smiled warmly. "Hi Jules. You look so much better. How do you feel?"
"Ok." She pushed the button to move the bed so she was in more of a upright position. "Where…painting?"
Callie handed her the pen and paper and sat in the chair. "May be best to use this for now." Jules was still pale and her shallow breaths didn't help much. "So, the painting." She paused then looked at Jules excitedly. "So my art teacher Ms. Avea told the curator about my painting and showed him a picture. He told her he wanted it to be in a art show featuring local artists.
Then Sam and I made up." At Jules' confused look she explained that, then told her about the dresses, makeup, her speech and the whole night. When Jules took a breath to speak, Callie gave her a look and pointed to the pen and paper.
"Sounds like you had a great night."
"Best of my life." Callie nodded. She looked at the painting then back at Jules. "It's called 'heros'." She repeated what she said in her speech which made Jules choke up and depress her breathing. "Sniper breathing." Callie gave her a serious look. Jules looked at her in surprise but followed her count.
When her breathing was back under control, Jules wrote, "nice."
"Thanks." Callie smiled. It payed to pay attention. She'd used the sniper breathing technique at school when she had to give a presentation and last night when she walked up to the curator. It helped to calm her and keep her from vomiting before she had to speak in front of groups.
Callie told Jules all about spending the day with The Wordsworth's and how much fun they had.
Jules turned the paper. "They are a hoot!"
Callie laughed, "that's for sure. Lily is so cute when she tries to say big words. She asked Sam if he was going to 'da moozeem' with us."
Jules laughed and coughed at the same time.
Callie studied her face. "Are you in a lot of pain?"
Jules looked at her and wrote, "is that what my face says? What about my eyes?'
"Yes you have a pained expression and it's in your eyes although you look amused too."
"Very good. Yes it hurts to breathe, but it's better." Jules smiled at her. The few times they'd talked about trying to read people and had practiced had been beneficial. "I'm amused because that was a good assessment."
"That must be hard to do when someone is in a stressful situation like you guys go to." Callie had asked Jules lots of questions about what they do for work and especially about being a negotiator. She found it to be interesting work. She would always be an artist at heart, but that may be something she could do in the future.
"Yes. Trying to read through their stress can be difficult." Jules nodded, wrote for a minute and turned the paper again, "but that's what a good negotiator does."
"Ok. My turn." Callie stood, crossed her arms, tightened her muscles and thought about her brother, but kept herself from crying.
Jules looked at her and wrote. "Your body says angry, defiant, tense. But your eyes read incredible sadness and loss." She turned the pad and wrote more. "We're you thinking about your brother?"
Callie nodded and sat back down. "I really miss him. The sessions with Mr. Fitzherbert are helping though. Mom told me she was proud of me last night. She said she was always proud of me though. I guess I didn't realize it."
Jules nodded. "You're a great person and will be an amazing woman. I am very proud of you too."
"Thanks Jules." Callie smiled. She could see the sincerity in Jules' face which made it more special.
Jules took a small breath and sighed. Damn I hate being so tired, she thought. She put the pen to paper. "I'm sorry. I'm so tired."
"Oh that's ok." Callie sat back in her chair. she wasn't surprised Jules had gotten tired, her body was still fighting the infection. "I'll just hang in case you need anything."
Jules nodded and let her eyes close.
Callie quietly unzipped her backpack and pulled out her sketch pad. She flipped past a few of her drawings of the team. Those are the ones she'd used for her painting. She went to a blank page and started to sketch Jules' sleeping face.
Sam walked in about 45 minutes later, stopped and looked over Callie's shoulder. "Wow." He whispered. It was a perfect drawing of Jules depicting her peacefully sleeping face, her lashes falling softly on her cheek.
"Thanks." Callie signed it and ripped it out of her notebook. She stood and handed it to Sam. "Now you can still see her even when you're home."
He shook his head and hugged her. How did she know that's what he needed? It'd been a particularly rough day at work today and he hung onto her a little longer.
When he pulled back she saw it in his eyes. She motioned to the chair by the bed and she stayed standing. "Bad day?"
"Yeah. We lost a couple civilians today." He hung his head. If only he'd reacted quicker when the subject pulled the knife. It had been one smooth and quick motion done out of sight that killed the first civilian. The subject had pulled the hostage in front of him, pulled and plunged the knife in the civilian's chest before Greg could call Scorpio.
She looked at him and waited, seeing that he was thinking about it.
The second had died when he got caught up in the subject's attempt to escape. Greg, Ed and Spike were following the subject as he tried to run out the back (where Leah was waiting), but the subject grabbed another person that was there and shoved him into Spike. Spike had been surprised and tried to catch the man but he hit his head hard on a counter and died instantly.
The debrief had been rough. There had been lots of raging emotions. By the end they all had still felt bad about the situation. They knew there'd be an investigation. He pulled himself out of his thoughts and looked at her. "It was pretty tough."
"Looks like it."
He looked up at her, then narrowed his eyes. They'd been practicing reading people. "Stop that." He knew his eyes were a dead give away sometimes so he put his mask up. That contained his emotions and kept his face blank.
"No fair." She crossed her arms over her chest, pouting. He was so used to being able to put his stone face on she was sure she could physically see it happen.
He smiled knowingly. "Was she awake when you got here?"
"Yes. We talked, she wrote, for awhile but she still gets tired really fast." Callie looked at Jules. She wished there was a way she could magically heal her.
"Yeah. Unfortunately it takes awhile for the lungs to heal. I've broken my ribs a several times. It hurts like a-" he looked at her. "Bugger."
Callie stifled a laugh. They tried so hard not to swear around her, but her mom was not so careful. Kids at school swore as often as they could when the teachers or principal weren't around.
"Well, i'm going to head home. They've really been piling on the homework." She rolled her eyes and picked up her bag.
He looked out the window and saw that the sun was setting. "I'll take you home. I don't want you walking in the dark."
Callie looked out the window. Yeah it'd be dark by the time she got home. She knew arguing was probably pointless so she agreed.