Hello there! What's up?

So, just a quick update; the next chapter for this is written but not typed, and the chapter after that is in the works. This story is nearing it's end though. However, I'm planning a two to five chapter Interlude and a sequel. Sound good?

I hope you like it!

Chapter 12

When they got back to the room, Julie immediately called out an "I'll be right back," and made her way out via the hole in the ceiling.

~o0O0o~

She returned half an hour later, dropping onto the bed and walking straight over to the desk in the corner. Pulling out some sheets of paper, she began to draw on one, using the spine of the one book they had (a battered copy of the Holy Bible) to draw straight lines. After a while she grabbed another page, jotted down some notes, and then stuck the end of her pen in her mouth, deep in thought.

"Where did you get all this stuff?" Kaoru blurted. He really couldn't help it; the curiosity was killing him (he had never noticed any of this stuff before—had she stolen it?) as was the endless silence.

"I was here for nearly two weeks before you got here." Her voice was distant, distracted. "After they found out about my laser pointer on day three and confiscated it, I was on my best behavior. The guards liked that. They gave me paper and pens so that I could write because I told them I was an aspiring author. The Bible was so that I could hold my own mini church services."

She turned away, still deep in thought, and remained there for the rest of the evening, picking at her dinner while scribbling on a sheet of paper.

When Kaoru lay down for the night, she was still sitting there, gaze distant, muttering softly to herself, pen stuck firmly between her teeth.

~o0O0o~

She was still there when he woke up the next morning, in almost the exact same position that she had been in the night before.

~o0O0o~

"Julie," Kaoru's voice was pleading, "you have to sleep."

It was three days later, and he hadn't seen the military girl stop her work even once, save for when they had to leave on shower days.

When she didn't reply, only continuing to write, he tried, "You're exhausted. You're going to work yourself to death."

Still no response from his roommate.

He was getting desperate. He only had one more thing up his sleeve to try to get her to take a nap.

"Please," he said, voice breaking, touching her gently on the arm, "do it for me. I'm really worried about you."

She finally looked up, blue eyes tired and filled with desperation, and nodded slightly. Kaoru smiled.

~o0O0o~

Days continued to pass. The only change was that Julie adopted a much more normal sleeping schedule, which Kaoru was very grateful for.

~o0O0o~

"Two months," she said one day from her post at the desk, "we've been here for two whole months."

"You've been here for longer," Kaoru replied.

She shrugged her shoulders, giving him a sideways glance and a small, bitter smile. She didn't say a word.

~o0O0o~

Two days later, she triumphantly declared, "Finished!"

Kaoru looked up at her from his place on the bed and raised his eyebrows quizzically. "Finished what?"

"The plan."

"Wha- Oh. The plan. Right."

There was a brief silence.

Kaoru spoke again. "Umm… what plan?"

She rolled her eyes in exasperation and slight distaste. "Our escape plan! Duh…."

` "Oh! Oh, of course. My bad."

Julie nodded, grinning broadly. Evidently, she was very pleased with herself.

Rising from her place, she walked over to the bed, saying, "I just need to check a few things," before vanishing through the ceiling.

~o0O0o~

This process of coming and going periodically continued for the next few days. They had some very close calls, all of which nearly gave Kaoru a heart attack, but they never actually got caught, so he supposed that it was all still alright.

~o0O0o~

A few more days of this, then Julie announced one night over dinner, "We're ready to leave any day now. There's just one last thing I need to see if I can manage…"

~o0O0o~

She came back from her outing that night with a laser pointer clutched in her palm. She hid it under the mattress, smiling slightly to herself.

"We leave tomorrow," she told Kaoru before turning in for the night.

~o0O0o~

They were taken for their second appointment with Dr. Peterson the very next day.

"Well," Julie said when the guards arrived, "so much for that then."

~o0O0o~

The pain this time was just as bad, if not even worse than the first time that they had been brought in.

~o0O0o~

Julie stayed with him.

Kaoru was immobile, stuck on the bed trying his very hardest not to move lest he open the scabs and make the pain worse than it already was.

He pleaded with her just to leave, to go on and escape this place without him, and she adamantly refused every time he brought up the subject.

"I am not leaving you!" she yelled when he mentioned it this time.

"I thought you weren't supposed to let your emotions get in the way of your work?" Kaoru shot back at her.

They stared at each other for a long moment before Julie dropped down onto the end of the bed by Kaoru's feet and rested her face in her hands.

"I know I'm not supposed to." she said, words muffled by her hands. However, the flesh couldn't hide the fact that her voice was shaking. "I do. How could I not after it's been drilled into my head for so long? But…. God Kaoru, I don't even know what I'm trying to say here! My plan was made to accommodate two people, and even though it would work just as well, if not better with only one, I just… I won't leave you. I can't."

She finally looked up at him, cerulean eyes filled to the brim with tears that were threatening to overflow at any given moment.

"I love you, damn it!" She was sobbing by this point, voice thick and choked up with emotion.

"I love you."

Haha, I'm so evil... Review, my lovelies!