His Return [xlillyx and HR]

[HopelessRomantic]

He continued to sit there, listening and waiting - waiting for Julia to talk to him, waiting for any sign of confirmation that she was okay. But he got nothing. She must have been really angry at him and Reece acknowledged, the feeling of a rock hitting his stomach, that this must have been building for a long time. That Julia wasn't okay with things. That she wasn't happy. And there he'd been thinking that he was the luckiest man in the world to have someone like her. She obviously wasn't feeling as lucky as he felt.

Reece heard some water and stood up. "Julia. Please answer me." He tried opening the door again but nothing.

He didn't want to break the door down. What if she was in there doing nothing and just ignoring him? What if she was doing worse? Reece had a horrible decision to make. Trust that Julia wasn't doing anything, or break the door down just to make sure. In the end, Reece couldn't take it anymore. He was about to break the door down when he heard her screams. That was the decision maker for him. He was breaking the door down and that was final.

It took three attempts for the lock to finally give way to his heavy pounding against it. And what he saw horrified him. Immediately he ran over to the bath and pulled Julia out. He quickly grabbed some towels and wrapped her up in them. He felt physically sick. The red blood mixing with the water. She'd self harmed because of him. He grabbed the first aid box from above the mirror and grabbed the bandages. He sat Julia down and took her hands, trying to assess the damage. He'd never seen the actual damage self-harming did, he'd only seen the scars and Reece was shaking himself, in fear, worry, hurt. In his eyes, like Jamie, he blamed himself because they fought.

"I'm so sorry... Jules I'm so sorry." Reece finally spoke bandaging up her wrists. "Please forgive me. I'll fix my schedule. I'll be home more and I swear I won't bring work home. I won't go in on Saturdays or Sundays. Just please, never do this again. I couldn't bare to lose you." He told her, wrapping her back up in the towels once she was sorted. He was so upset that all he could do was pull her into a hug and hug her tightly, terrified to let her go.

[xLillyliciousx]

Screams were the only thing that Julia could hear, she could feel her body shake, and she started to see stars because her eyes were shut so tightly. She had no idea that Reece was trying to break the door down, not that it mattered to Julia right now. The screaming stopped though, when she felt arms around her, and she was pulled out of the water. Like a child, she wrapped herself around Reece, as her body continued to shake, a mixture between of what just happened and because she was out in the cold now.

Julia opened her eyes when Reece sat her down, she watched as he tried to fix the damage, try to stop the bleeding with the bandages. She knew how to do it, but she couldn't find her voice, so she just sat there, watching him. As he bandaged her up, she listened to him speak, telling her he was sorry, and he would be home more. Numbly, she nodded her head when he told her to never do this again.

Julia wrapped her arms around Reece as they hugged, she laid her forehead against his shoulder, and took a shaky sigh. "I'm tired." She whispered. She wanted to go to bed, sleep this off, and hopefully feel better in the morning. Julia knew she wouldn't feel better though, she knew only one thing would make her feel better; better yet, no person.

[HopelessRomantic]

Reece just knelt there holding Julia quietly feeling guilty over everything. He was glad that he'd booked the next three days off. He could sort out this mess that he didn't even know he had. The last thing he wanted was for Julia to marry him if she was unhappy. He didn't want her unhappy and he'd had no idea that working so much got her down and so worked up.

"I'm tired."

"Let me get your pajamas and we'll get you changed." He told her, moving into the bedroom and grabbing some pajamas for her. He moved the towels and helped Julia get undressed, careful of her bandaged hands before dressing her into the pajamas and making sure she was all dry. He wanted to talk to her, but what was he to say? She never wanted to talk to him. Maybe their relationship was in more trouble than he thought.

He picked Julia up once he'd sorted her out and carried her to the bedroom, placing her carefully in the bed and wrapping her up warm in the blankets. "I love you so much, Jules. We'll work this all out. I promise." Reece told her, kissing her forehead. "Just sleep."

With that, he got himself up and changed, throwing his clothes into the wash with her clothes. He turned on the washing machine and got himself dressed before going to clean up the mess in the bathroom. He didn't want to see any of the blood. He felt sick just at the thought of what the argument had done. He'd never seen her like that and it terrified him. And he couldn't go and talk to Harry about it either. If Jules found out he'd told Harry, it would upset her even more.

An hour later, everything was cleaned in the bathroom and Reece crawled into bed pulling Julia close to him, just wanting the contact to reassure himself that she was okay. It was the afternoon but he didn't care. He would happy lie close to her like this for the rest of his days off if it meant that she was okay. Reece had never felt this upset before maybe he needed to go apologise to Jamie. But he wasn't going to leave Jules alone in this state.

[xLillyliciousx]

Julia watched as Reece got up, left the bathroom, and went to the bedroom. She looked up at the ceiling, her eyes were dry now, she felt like she couldn't cry anymore. Once Reece come back, she felt like a little child, needing someone to help her to get ready for bed. At least her old scars didn't burn now, she looked down at her bandaged wrists, she thought she was so strong, that she would never let herself go down that path again.

She was wrong. Once Reece picked her up, she wrapped her arms around his neck, and closed her eyes. She was disappointed with herself, for two reasons, for letting herself down, and for letting Reece and Jamie down. What was Jamie going to say? Was she even going to be able to go see Jamie again? Reece will be down her throat, trying to fix their relationship. Plus, would she be able to face Jamie, since she was getting after him to stop being so hard on himself, and to let go. Julia wasn't even able to stop herself from letting her past drag her back.

Julia closed her eyes right when her head landed on the pillow. Without saying anything back to Reece, she moved the blankets over her head, and tucked herself in a ball. She closed her eyes tightly, until the only thing she could see was stars. She wanted to sleep, she didn't want to hear the clock ticking or Reece walking around in the bathroom. Sleep wouldn't come to her though, her wrists were throbbing, all she was able to think about was the razor cutting her skin.

An hour later, Julia was light sleeping, she had stretched herself out on the bed, but once she felt something move in the bed. Her eyes fluttered open, she seen it was Reece. Julia pulled the blankets off of her head, and moved closer to Reece. She leaned her head against his chest so she was able to hear his heartbeat.

"I'm sorry."

[HopelessRomantic]

Reece felt lost. He'd never felt like this with Julia, and he didn't want to feel like this ever again. They'd never fought like that and it scared him. And it had driven her to start self harming again, and that just out right terrified him. He never wanted her to do anything like that because of him. Tomorrow he'd phone the office and start reworking his hours. If he went in early, he could get away by four, hopefully. That would mean he would be home by five and would have the whole of the evening with Julia. He wouldn't look at his phone or emails. He wouldn't bring work home, and he wouldn't go in for a couple of hours on a Saturday anymore. That was that.

He felt Julia cuddle up to him and whisper that she was sorry. He wrapped his arms tighter around her and shook his head. "You have nothing to be sorry for, Jules." He said quietly. "I'm sorry. Things will change though. I'll be a better fiance, be here more for you so you're not alone all the time. I'm sorry that I've been working so much." He sighed. "I promise though, tomorrow I'll call the office and get things changed for next week."

Reece lay there holding Julia and hoping that she'd manage to fall asleep. He couldn't. Every time he closed his eyes he saw the blood and sent shivers down his spine. He stayed in bed holding Julia though until the early hours of the morning. After that, and only once he was sure Julia was a sleeping did he carefully get himself out of bed trying not to wake her. He moved into the living room and turned on the tv quietly. He flicked through a hundred channels but finally settled on some wedding one instead of the usual sports channel.

Grabbing some paper and a pen, Reece started writing down a list of everything that was involved in a wedding. Julia had said the cake was ordered. He wrote down done next to the cake, then wrote down what he needed to do concerning the best man, speeches, suits, and everything like that. He needed to ask Julia things. He wrote down everything that he wanted to ask her about the wedding. At some point though Reece drifted to sleep on the sofa, his hand hanging with the pen and his papers resting on his chest.

[xLillyliciousx]

Julia closed her eyes as she listened to Reece tell her that he was going to change and be a better fiance. Of course, he would blame himself. It seems everyone Julia knew was blaming themselves, when it was Julia, who needed help. She kept quiet though and tried to sleep; she was emotionally and physically tired so it didn't take long for her to drift back into sleep.

Julia was having another dream, she was walking down the wedding aisle, once again, everything was perfect, and all of their friends and family were there. Like before, Reece's back was to her, not looking at her. Once she gets to the alter, Julia reached her hand out, before she touches Reece though, he disappears. Julia turns around, everyone is gone, and she's left alone in her wedding dress.

Julia sat up in bed, her eyes flew open, and she was breathing heavy. She glanced towards her side, and seen Reece was gone. She rubbed her face, taking a deep breath, calming herself down. Once she was breathing normal, and her heart had calmed down, Julia got out of bed, and left the bedroom.

She could hear the TV lightly, she guessed Reece was downstairs, watching some sports. She walked down the stairs, went to the living room, but raised an eyebrow when she seen on the TV instead of sports was some wedding show. Julia went over to Reece on the couch, he was sleeping, but was holding a pen, and paper was everywhere. She grabbed the paper, her eyes flashed across the words. Reece was writing down wedding details. Julia collected all of the paper, placed them neatly on the coffee table, and kissed Reece's check.

Julia went to the kitchen, she opened the fridge, grabbed the eggs, bread, and pancake mix. She decided she would make herself and Reece a breakfast, since she hasn't done that for a while, because Reece would all ready be gone for work. She started to hum quietly to herself as she worked on cooking.

[HopelessRomantic]

Reece started to stir to the smell of food. It smelt nice. It had been too long since he'd woken to food. He also had cramp in his neck. What had he being doing? Becoming fully awake he remembered the events of last night and looked at the time. He'd been asleep for a good couple of hours. He was exhausted and soon realised he was on the couch. He'd given up on sleep, moved to the couch and obviously fallen asleep there.

Sitting up and rubbing his eyes, he glanced at the tv and then at the papers, remembering what he'd been writing. The smell meant that Julia was cooking. God, she was a great cook. He loved her cooking. Hopefully today she was feeling a lot better and he could try and work things out without upsetting her. He was going to tread very carefully. Grabbing the papers, he rubbed his eyes again to wake himself up before standing and stretching out. He then moved into the kitchen and smiled lightly at Julia.

"Morning." He came and kissed her cheek, something out of habit that he always did when she was asleep before he left for work. "The cooking smells great. I look forward to trying it." He told her. "Today I thought maybe we could go over the wedding list and get me up to date with what needs to be done. All I know right now is that the cake is done." He told her. "And I need to know the colour/theme for the wedding so I can sort out the suits." He added. "I better get my ass in gear and get my side planned, plus, I thought it would be a nice thing we could do together today once I've phoned the office and got them to reschedule my hours so I can be home by five every day." He told her.

Hopefully putting in this effort to change and not be such a bad fiance would show her that he was trying, for her. He wanted to be with Julia and nothing else. She was the most important thing. She was his world and he'd give up everything just to keep it that way. Because he loved her.

[xLillyliciousx]

Julia glanced up when she heard movement in the living room, she guessed that Reece was slowly waking up. She was almost done with breakfast, she had to finish some pancakes, than pour the orange juice. She was still in her pajamas, not caring to change into normal clothes. "Morning." She smiled lightly when he kissed her cheek.

Julia listened to Reece talk about the wedding, as she continued to cook. Her emotions were still mix, but one thing was for sure, she loved the idea to have Reece home more. Maybe, he will be able to keep her mind off of Jamie. She frowned lightly, as she remembered their kiss. Julia shook her head, getting the picture out of her head, and smiled up at Reece. "Good. This house won't seem as big now." She commented. Of course, she loved their house, it was everything she had dreamed about, she even got her own studio for her work.

The house was to big for one person though, whenever Reece was gone, Julia would always feel out of place. Once the pancakes were done, she slid them on the two plates that already had the eggs, and toast on them. "Babe, can you get me two glasses?" She asked. Julia went over to the fridge, opened it, and grabbed the bottle of juice.

Julia went back to the island, placed the bottle on the counter, and took two forks out of the drawer. "About the wedding, I know I didn't keep you so updated, but you were always busy with work. I didn't want to get to much on your plate. I'm sorry. I should have talked to you about it." She explained. "While, you work on being here more. I'll work on talking to you more." Julia smiled up at her fiance.

[HopelessRomantic]

Reece turned and got two glasses out of the cabinet before returning to the island. "They say the truth hurts, Jules. And I know our fight last night was awful, and we've never fought like that, and I hope to God we never fight like that again, I'm kinda glad too. I was coasting along thinking things were perfect. I'm away so much I didn't even know you were unhappy. The truth comes out in fights and I realise that it is my fault I know nothing about the wedding. I've never even asked." He sighed.

"And just so you know, if anything is ever bothering you, I'd rather know. Good or bad. You can come to me at any time work or home." He added, wanting her to know he was serious. "I love you, and you're more important than work."

With that off of his chest, Reece sat down and started to dig into his breakfast. It was amazing and he realised that the early starts he'd been doing meant that he missed out on Julia's awesome cooking. Maybe he could alternate late nights and early starts somehow. He'd have to see what his schedule would allow, he was already pushing it by wanting to be home by a certain hour. He had a lot of important cases and everything was going to be cramped.

"I just want you to promise me one thing, Jules. Never cut because of me, no matter how much of an ass I'm being. I'm not worth it. You want to see Jamie, I wouldn't dream of stopping you unless I thought he was hurting you and if you ever feel like doing that because you're upset, even if its me that's caused it, come to me or heck, even go to Jamie if it stops you doing it. Just... last night scared me half to death." He told her quietly.

---

Jamie had had yet again another awful night sleep. Harry hadn't shown up at all, which he didn't know whether to take that as a good or bad thing as he was actually dreading the confrontation. His lips were still burning from kissing Julia and he now had to wonder whether she'd show her face here again after he'd kicked her out with no explanation. The physiotherapist was here and all he wanted to do was kick her out again and refuse to do anything, but he remembered Jules' words and remembered promising that he'd try.

So here he was stuck doing physio and working on gaining the strength in his legs again. It was a hard and frustrating process, more frustrating than painful, but he was holding his tongue and not snapping at his therapist as much, which she was incredibly grateful for. He sighed, taking a rest.

"You're doing good, Jamie." She told him. "You're stronger than you think if you just put your mind to it. I know you're not fully with this mentally."

"It doesn't matter, I'm doing this for Jules. I can't break a promise to her."

"You can't do this for anyone but yourself, Jamie. Otherwise you'll only end up failing." She sighed.

Jamie didn't respond. He didn't want to respond. He didn't know how to respond. Everything was so raw and still tearing him apart. And Julia had made things confusing because the kiss had being electrifying. He couldn't keep his hands off her for one day - an engaged woman of all things. His first real love. Course, he'd had girlfriends in the past before Julia. But no one had stole his heart like Julia did. And he'd paid the ultimate price with the way he'd dealt with and handled that love and leaving her and his best friend in the lurch.

And when Harry finally dragged his ass over, he was going to be a dead man.

[xLillyliciousx]

Julia took one of the glasses, she poured the juice in it, and placed it by Reece's plate. She looked towards Reece, she was able to see that he was taking all of this serious, than he wasn't going to shove lies down her throat, pretend things will change, and after a few days, everything goes back to normal. Reece kept his word. That was one of the many reasons why she fell in love with him. "I love you too." She smiled.

Julia grabbed the other glass, poured herself some juice, than went to the fridge to put the juice back. She sat down on the empty stool beside Reece, though she looked over at him when he started to talk about her cutting. A soft sigh escaped her lips, Julia was still disappointed in herself, she had wished she hadn't went down her old dark path; it was the only way she was able to cope though. That's what her therapist had told her, when her parents made her go through therapy for a while. Julia always bottled in her sad emotions, because she didn't want to bother people, she didn't want them to worry over her; she only wanted to make people happy.

She looked down at her plate of food with a sad smirk on her face. "My therapist said it would be hard for me, to get past the cutting. She had told me that I liked to bottle up my feelings, which I already knew that. She also said, that I probably would have started to cut on my own, maybe a little later but when Jamie left, that was my trigger." Julia closed her eyes. "I'm sorry for making you go through that. I shouldn't have done that, I guess I still don't have my own emotions in my control like I thought I did." She shrugged her shoulders.

Julia would only cut if she was in a deep depressed mood. If she was only in an upset mood, that was when she would bake. But when she would be in her deepest of depression, that was in the razor would come out. She opened her eyes, looked at Reece, she reached out, and placed her hand on the other side of his face so she was able to turn his head so he looked at her. Julia leaned over and gave him a kiss on the lips. "I'm sorry again. I promise I'll come to you instead of the razor." She smiled lightly.

"I need to go call Harry. Jamie wanted to talk to him and explain everything. I'll be right back." Julia gave Reece another kiss before she stood up, went to the hall, and grabbed the house phone.

"Hello?"
"Hey, Harry." Julia leaned against the wall, holding the phone up to her ear.
"Hey, little sis. What's up?" Harry asked.
Julia knew this wasn't going to go well, at least she would try, and get Harry to go. She just hoped that if Harry does go talk to Jamie; Jamie won't end up worse than he is now.
"I know you're mad at Jamie, but he had asked me to tell you that he wants you to come to his dad's house, and let him explain everything."
"Hell no." Harry snapped.
"Come on, Harry. Please." She begged.
"No! Jules, he left us in the dust."
"I know, I know. But please, at least go talk to him. I don't care if you just yell at him, just please go see him."
Julia sighed when there was silence on the other side.
"Fine. But I'm not promising that he won't get a punch in the face." Harry grumbled.
Julia smiled. "Thanks, brother. I'll talk to you later. Love you!"
"Yeah, yeah. Love you too."
The siblings hanged up, Julia placed the phone back, before she went to the kitchen, and sat down.