Over the course of the following week and a half, a few traumas came in and Julia tended to them. She crossed path occasionally with Conrad and they talked briefly but nothing more.
She was walking toward the pediatric floor where she knew he had a patient and waited for him to come out of the patient's room.
He smiled upon seeing her.
"Working the night shift?" he asked as he joined her at the nurse's station.
She nodded. "Well, it's scorching hot, a full moon and Friday the 13th, I figured they might need a trauma surgeon on hand."
"Three elements that can send people into doing crazy things, love how you think."
"I was wondering if you could spare me a couple of minutes and remove the stitches?"
He laughed internally. She was a surgeon, and he knew she could have removed the stitches on her own.
She must have noticed his slight change in facial expression.
"You made it clear back then that I was your patient and as far as I know, patients don't remove their own stitches."
"Touché," he said as he handed the nurse the tablet. "Come on."
She followed him down the corridor into one of the examining rooms. As he headed for the cabinet to get tweezers and scissors, she removed her pants and sat down, legs out flat on the table.
He removed the dressing and looked at it.
"Nice and clean."
"What did you expect?"
"I'm just kidding."
He undid the sutures and looked at it. "It shouldn't leave a too visible of a scar."
"I'm not worried about a scar."
"How about that contusion?"
She lifted her shirt and he looked at it. It was turning to a green-yellow hue indicating it was almost healed.
"Alright, you're all set."
He went to discard the material as she put her pants back on.
Her beeper went off she looked at it then back at Conrad. "And so, it starts. See you around Hawkins."
"Oh, if your theory is right, I'm sure we'll be seeing each other throughout the night."
"I'll hold you to that," she said as she headed for the door and disappeared.
At four o'clock in the morning, they had indeed crossed paths twice in the ER and had worked together on a burned victim. As Conrad and Devon had been called in to treat another patient, she had spent an hour debriding all the necrotic tissue before sending the patient to the burn unit where he would be tended to by another team.
She walked out on one of the roof terraces and stood at the railing overlooking Atlanta's skyline. It was still hot, but it didn't bother her. Even though she had been raised up North, where every season took it's turn, she had spent a lot of time in the South and had gotten used to the heat and humidity. She hated the cold even though she was never cold and had always thought she would have been happier as a Southern girl.
The door was so quiet she didn't hear it open but nevertheless felt someone's presence. Upon smelling the wood and spice cologne she smiled.
"Thought you might like a coffee," said Al as he reached her side and handed her a paper cup.
She took it and smiled at him. "Thanks."
She took a sip then placed it between her hands and looked out again at the skyline.
"Are you OK?"
"Yeah, just needed a bit of fresh air."
"I heard about your burn victim," he said in a worried tone of voice, but it wasn't the patient he was worried about.
"Third degree burn over 50% of his body. It's not ideal but it could have been way worse."
Al let his soft eyes land on her profile as the wind blew her hair around her cheeks.
She felt his stare on her and she turned to look at him.
"Don't," she said.
"Don't what? Worry about you? I do." He paused for a moment. "Jules, it's OK to not be strong all the time, especially now."
She said nothing but didn't break the eye contact with him. She knew he worried about her, he always had.
"Why won't you let me in, Jules? Why won't you let me be there for you?"
Conrad watched from behind the window as Al put his hand out and caressed the side of Julia's face. The wheels were turning inside his mind. If he had doubts about how Al and Julia knew each other, there was no doubt that they were close.
Julia placed her hand over Al's and gently removed it. There was nothing harsh in her gesture or action and it wasn't as if she was looking around thinking someone would see them, intriguing Conrad even more. For some odd and twisted reason, he would have given anything to know what they were talking about.
Still holding on to Al's hand Julia searched his eyes.
"You know why."
Al sighed and tightened his jaws. He knew why, and he had been a fool to think that it had all been water under the bridge. Julia had suffered many times over the past years and unfortunately, he was on the list of reasons.
She let go of his hand.
Seeing the conversation was coming to an end, Conrad walked away and headed back to the ER before being seen.