A moment's contradiction and the bickering's begun, mothers after daughters and father's on their sons... But you never leave a love so rare, you never leave a love so strong. Remember that the life we share is nothing but a song. - Nothing but a Song - Great Big Sea

Nathan:

Eleanor's house had been kept in decent repair. Duke had been over here occasionally cleaning up the yard, clearing the walkways, and doing the general maintenance work on the property for Julia. Actually, he'd probably was really doing it for Eleanor still since she had been his godmother. Julia had claimed she was going to sell the property and must have finally contacted someone because I saw a Tradewinds realty sign swinging in the breeze.

We entered the house, and I shouldered in front of Audrey. If some guy was going to come after her, he was going to have to get through me first. Duke could have told them that I would have been a miserable opponent. Hard to stop someone that can't feel you beating on him.

We weren't jumped. Instead I heard the quiet noise of the door sliding shut deeper in the house. I was guessing they were in Eleanor's old private practice guest room. We moved forward, deeper into the house and through the kitchen. Julia was there washing her hands in the sink.

She looked up as she heard Audrey's crutches hit the floor. "Nathan, you're bleeding!" she paused, and then looked behind me. "Audrey, what happened? When did you break your leg?"

Audrey stopped and rocked back on her crutches, giving Julia a funny look. "I broke my ankle two days ago. You set it."

I stepped in between the two women. Something was nagging at me that this was not right. The very thought of Julia had filled me with unease and I still didn't know why. It had gotten infinitely worse when Audrey had said Julia called her. I would have traded looks with Audrey but it would have required taking my eyes off Julia.

Julia leaned back against the sink. She kept her hands on the counter. I applauded her decision to keep her hands in plain sight.

"Nathan, can I take a look at your head? You bleeding on my floor will not improve the grout." She made steady eye contact with me, deciding to completely avoid the fact that she had forgotten about setting Audrey's ankle.

"Will you remember it two days from now?" I didn't move and neither did she.

"I can't promise anything, but it seems likely." She nodded to the chair that was pulled out from the kitchen table and said in a voice that few men, my father included would dare disobey, "Sit."

I found myself moving before I was even aware of it. It wasn't a trouble. It was more like the instinctual response of a kid to a parent. I was surprised Julia had mastered it. I was even more surprised it worked so well. I sat.

Julia pulled a first aid kit out of a kitchen cabinet. She grabbed some gauze and walked up to the chair. She took a deep breath, and looked worried. I saw Audrey had moved quickly to the kitchen table. I saw that she had her weight on her good ankle and one crutch. Julia didn't seem as oblivious to this as she was pretending to be. Oddly, it reminded me of Eleanor when she pretended she didn't know that the troubles were back, and that people were dying by mysterious means.

She bent my head to the side and moved my hair around until she found the shallow cut. She cleaned out the wound and taped gauze to my head, or so I guessed. It's hard to be sure when you can't feel and couldn't see what she was doing. Audrey didn't look happy, though.

This had bought Julia about five minutes to compose herself and figure out how she was going to explain forgetting about setting Audrey's broken ankle. I heard her take another deep breath and she stunned us all with the question she asked.

"So Nathan, they give you that last MRI? You know the 10th one's free?"

Audrey was the one that broke the silence. Her voice was icy. "That's not funny, Julia. You shouldn't joke about it."

Julia came around and leaned against the counters in the kitchen. It was a familiar motion, but one Julia had never made in my sight. She wasn't comfortable in this house anymore. Suddenly I understood.

"How long have you been in her body, Eleanor?" I asked.

Eleanor/Julia nodded to me. "Oh, I'd say it'd make about 45 minutes now. I figure we have maybe another hour before Noah makes it back to Haven and comes here looking for me."

"The new chief of police?" I asked, wondering why Noah would be coming after Julia, or rather Eleanor.

Audrey growled, "What the hell is going on here?"

Julia/Eleanor looked at her, and there was incredible sadness in her eyes. "Audrey, I told you a long time ago. I can joke about anything. You need a sense of humor to survive a Maine winter. And remember, the first day we met, Nathan had been hit. It was lucky number 9 for the MRI. However he never went."

"How?" Audrey looked broken.

"I don't know, Audrey. I…It's bad, whatever is happening is very, very bad. Noah and Julia, they were caught up in something evil. Julia wasn't Julia. A demon was wearing her skin like a suit. They were trying..." Eleanor's words failed her. I could see the echo of Eleanor in all of Julia's movements. It was surreal. She blinked heavily, and stared at the floor for a moment or two.

"They were trying to kill Nathan. When I tried to stop them, I startled the demon. It took flight and ended up in Noah. We were able to get away but it's only a matter of time until he finds us. And I can't let that happen." She paused, and I saw the steel that was so familiar in Eleanor's demeanor show itself. "I won't let it happen."

Audrey looked at Julia, sorrow and misery written like a tragic novel all over her face. "Julia's dead?"

Eleanor met Audrey's stare without flinching. "Audrey, you never met my Julia. Whatever pretended to be Julia was a good actor, but it was never her. I can tell you honestly, it can't live with a human soul. It destroyed Noah when it attacked him."

I interjected, "Eleanor, how are you here?"

She turned to me. "Well Nathan, we can continue to play 20 questions until Noah gets here and you can get first hand answers, or you two can help me and we can get out of here and find out the theoretical answers. For now, will it suffice to say I don't know? And can I borrow your truck?"

I ground my teeth together. "I don't know where my truck is."

Eleanor closed her eyes and sighed deeply. "Where did you leave it?"

"If I knew, I would be able to tell you."

Eleanor took up the Olympic sport of teeth grinding. "Fine. Let me see if my truck is still in the garage." She got up and headed out to door.

Audrey cleared her throat. "Julia sold the truck. She thought it was too expensive to maintain. It's been a couple of months since it's been here."

"We'll need a truck. I'm not sure if the roads up to Cloverfield are plowed. We'll need something that can handle the snow and the ice that could be up there. I don't think Audrey's sedan is up to it." It was almost comical how Audrey's car had suddenly been pressed into service without her consent. Even Audrey seemed surprised and faintly annoyed at the presumption.

"You want to head up to Cloverfield?"

"You want to see a monster movie?"

Audrey and I spoke over each other. Eleanor's lips reluctantly turned up before she looked at Audrey. "Cloverfield is an estate Duke inherited from his uncles just before you came. It's far enough away from Haven it'll be safe, and most folks don't know that Duke inherited it. It wasn't like he had a close relationship with his uncles at the end."

I added, "It's about 200 miles into the back of nowhere. You have to go northwest out of Haven and keep going. You think that it'll be safe?"

Eleanor nodded. "Yes, I don't think anyone will think to find us there. And it's far away, so there should be less effect from the binding."

"Wait, what binding. What is going on?" Audrey looked really concerned at this point.

Eleanor walked out of the kitchen and down to the guest room. "If were just me, I probably wouldn't care. I mean, I've been dead once, I think I can handle that again if it comes up. But he deserves better."

"Now we come to the tall, thin junkie that was holding you hostage?" Audrey asked, trying to crack a smile.

Rueful laughter was Eleanor's only response. She slid the door back as though afraid it would break, or disturb whoever was on the other side of it. We could see as the door opened wider that the small bed was obviously occupied by a body. A rather rank one, at that. Only the dark tips of figure's hair was visible underneath the thermal blankets. The patient was propped up on their side, with their face away from the door. I could hear the hiss of an oxygen tank. Eleanor paused as she checked the IV containing some clear fluid that was running down a tube, presumably connected to the patient's arm. She was frowning.

I put out my arm to stop Audrey. We didn't know who the figure on the bed was, or what condition they were in other than smelly. Audrey punched me in the arm, and I held her back. As I struggled with her, Eleanor gently removed the pillows propping up the figure, then rolled the body so that the patient was flat on their back. It took until she pulled down the thermal blanket and turned the patient's face to us, that I understood completely. My gut clenched, or would have if I could feel anything. I couldn't figure out if the sudden adrenaline rush was caused by pain or hope.

A week's growth of patchy beard eloquently testified why Duke had gone with the goatee and mustache look. It sort of looked like his face had come off the worse for wear in a Nair fight. Duke never could grow in a proper beard. Underneath the hair his skin was pale. There were deep bruises under his eyes, which could be seen even through the dirt on his face.

Audrey took the moment of my shock to make a break for it. She ran up to Duke and firmly planted fingers at his throat to check his pulse. She started crying. I went over to her, intending to comfort her, confused only by why Eleanor would have tried to provide medical attention to a corpse. Someone must have taken some care that his body hadn't decayed, or perhaps they had embalmed it or something. I stood beside Duke's body, awash in conflicting emotions I thought I had dealt with a week ago. I wondered what Eleanor was doing with the medical equipment scattered around his body.

Audrey reached out to me and pulled my head down to Duke's chest. She kept it there until I heard it. It was quiet, but determined: Duke's heartbeat.

A/N: So by now many of you know the reason why future updates to this may continue to be slow. Neoxphile though has done most of the work on Mortal Coil to this point.