I miss Jarbie so much! This is my version of what could have happened after Barbie returns from Zenith. For once I'd like them to be not interrupted in their reunion. I also changed the "I want you in my life" talk from the diner to the bedroom just because I could. :) Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoy my Jarbie ramblings.
Julia kept playing the scene over and over in her mind but no matter how many times she dissected that unthinkable incident, it ended in exactly the same way. It ended with Barbie cutting the rope and her frantic scream as she watched him fall. She sobbed in despair and pain and loss, Rebecca doing her best to provide a bit of comfort. The man she loved was gone, dead and her heart felt like it had been ripped into shards, cutting into her very core. There was no way he survived that fall and all she could see was his broken body lying somewhere, his heart stilled, his breath gone forever.
Then Joe rigged up that robot device and sent it over the cliff, into the darkness below. The camera picture was grainy and imprecise but it did not show a body. It showed...a playground. Julia felt her heart skip a bit at this revelation but refused to allow herself to hope. She would only fall apart all the harder when the truth became self evident.
Not knowing what else to do, Julia went home and once there, the peace that she so desperately sought, was missing. It was Barbie who gave her the peace and warmth she needed. Without him the house was an impersonal shell, empty, echoing. She wandered from room to room, picking up his mug, hanging up the jacket he had draped over the sofa. She worried that he'd be cold without it. Chiding herself for that thought, since he surely had to be dead, she looked at the stairs leading to the second floor.
She began to trudge up the risers, each step making it harder to breathe, harder to make herself keep going. When she passed through the portal, all she saw was emptiness, an empty room, an empty bed, silence...and Barbie's pack laying on the floor where he tossed it only a few hours ago. An anguished sob broke from her as she collapsed onto the bed, clinging to his pillow, breathing in his scent. Hot tears burned a trail down her cheeks as she was overcome with grief.
Her thoughts were out of control – he was dead, he was alive but the end result was the same...he was gone. But if he was alive...then what? He had escaped from the dome. He was back...somewhere...no longer under the dome. Maybe he wouldn't come back. Her despair deepened and doubt began to twine it's ugly tendrils into her mind. Circumstances had thrown them together, bound them in an alliance against the dome, against the wiles of Big Jim and their unmistakable connection to each other. And yet, even though his last words were of his love for her, that insidious doubt made itself known. What if he never came back? There had been no spoken commitment between them and honestly, she wouldn't blame Barbie if he didn't come back to this madness. The more she thought about this and she could think of little else, the more that doubt ingrained itself into her mind. She clutched the pillow closer, eyes wide open, sleep an escape not to be reached that night. All she could do was cry until there were no more tears, only the dull, crushing pain in her heart.
XXXXXX
"Julia, please, you have to eat." Melanie voiced her concern as she watched her friend move around the food on her plate.
"I can't. I keep thinking about Barbie..."
Julia was keeping the turmoil that raged in her mind to herself, not wanting to hear anyone's arguments to the contrary. Only Barbie could erase that and the longer he was gone, the tighter she seemed to be holding onto that doubt. She did so unconsciously – as if she had no control – the doubt digging in painfully.
She's startled as Joe and Norrie burst into the diner and hurry to sit at the table. Their excitement is palpable as their words tumble out uncontrollably, each wanting to be the first to give Julia the news. Barbie sent her an email. Looking at them with skepticism, she reads the message, her expression unchanging. Nothing in those few words proves that it was indeed Barbie who wrote them. Her ever present doubt refuses to allow her to hope.
For the next few hours, they argue about the email, the elusive wi-fi signal and the fact that Barbie apparently wants her to bring the egg. But why? Deciding that the best way to try and communicate with him would be to send a note over the cliff, asking a question that only he would know the answer to. They stand at the edge of the precipice, Julia ready to drop the note wrapped in the paperweight Joe provided. Just as her fingers were beginning to loosen, to send the object on it's way, Joe's phone chimed, signaling that another email has been received. Julia's heart skipped a beat as she read the words of this message, hope trickling back into her heart. He signed it "your stray" and asked her to meet him at the dome...with instructions only she would recognize.
That night she did meet him, separated by the wall of the damn dome, not allowing them to touch but she could see his eyes. She could see the desperate longing to be with her reflected there as he frantically wrote on the wall not to jump, just before he was dragged away by the men dressed in black. Once again she screamed his name, railed against the men, against the dome...powerless...
XXXX
Two days later Julia is standing in front of her house. Rebecca is examining the leaves on an oak tree, trying to engage her in conversation but at best, her monosyllabic answers are distant. She had met Don Barbara yesterday...at least he introduced himself via video link. He seemed sincere in only wanting the egg to free Barbie but she didn't trust him. If she knew for a fact that her actions would free him, she'd already be in Zenith, turning the egg over to anyone who could make that happen.
As Rebecca yet again tried to engage her in conversation, Julia sighed, looking at her friend apologetically. "I'm sorry, Rebecca...I just can't concentrate on anything you're saying. Do you mind if I meet you later at the diner?"
"I don't mind at all." They hugged each other warmly, Julia promising to talk later. She watched Rebecca walk away chiding herself for being distant but unable to stop her mind from it's endless cycle of worry and indecision.
As she turned to walk back to the house, her steps faltered and she froze in place. Unless she was hallucinating, Barbie was striding toward her, his steps swift and determined. Without a moment's hesitation, she was running to meet him, her heart pounding with elation. And then they were together - every agonizing moment apart erased by their embrace. Julia threw her arms around powerful shoulders, tears of relief streaming down her face. Barbie pulled her against his body, his touch gentle yet possessive. One arm encircled her waist while he buried his face in her hair, fingers reaching out to tangle in her curls.
"You came back." Julia murmured against his neck, his presence crushing any lingering doubt from her mind. Slowly, as she breathed him in, her grief was replaced with relief and elation. The doubt she had been feeling was washing away from her heart in waves as she clung to him. She pulled him closer as if to assure herself that he was really here in her arms and not an apparition.
"Yeah, I did." Barbie smiled as he pressed his lips to her neck, her jaw, beneath her ear. He moved his hands to cup her face gently, his thumbs wiping away her tears. He felt her sob of relief just before she
kissed him, her lips soft and yielding, his seeking to own her with his touch. When she moved her hands to caress his back, he couldn't hide the involuntary wince as she touched a bruise, the one caused by the fist that pounded the same spot over and over.
"You're hurt." Concern marred her face even as he sought to make light of it. "No, it's nothing...nothing broken, just a little bruised." He tried for a reassuring grin that did not quite make it to his eyes and Julia noticed.
"Let's go inside. I want to see for myself." Grasping his hand she pulled him toward the front door and knowing he had no choice with the stubborn Julia he knew, he went along but not without a few comments, insisting that his injuries were minimal. All to no avail, of course. Once inside, he tugged her to a stop at the foot of the stairs.
"Wait...before you go Florence Nightingale on me, there's something I have to do." He gently pulled her into his arms, his hands moving to caress her body, his lips moving to whisper in her ear... "I missed you so much. You have no idea how much I wanted to do this"...he kissed her temple... "and this"... he moved his lips to the corner of her mouth... "and this." ….. he captured her parted lips all but stilling her cry of pleasure. Julia melted into him, his lips a delicious torture and she only wanted more...more of him... all of him. Sensing her need, Barbie scooped her into his arms, moving swiftly up the stairs, his lips never leaving her's, the depth of his kisses creating a heat she felt to her core.
Even as he laid her on the bed, she was throwing off her clothes, desperately wanting to feel him, all of him against her bare skin. Watching as he slipped his shirt off, she gasped at the sight of a huge, angry-looking bruise on his lower back. But then Barbie was distracting her with his hands, his fingers, his lips and she was touching him everywhere there wasn't a bruise, her caresses whisper light. She felt the rumble in his chest as he welcomed her touch and then they were lost in each other, consumed by love, contentment and an all encompassing peace.
"I'm sorry." Julia was laying across his chest, her lips against his neck. Their legs were entangled with the sheets and each other as they both tried to catch their breaths. "What are you sorry for, babe?" Barbie continued to trace random patterns along her back, never seeming to tire of touching her.
"When you were gone...I first thought you were dead and felt like my life was over. I felt such an unbearable loss not having you here. Then Joe sent this robot over the cliff and we saw a playground and I began to think maybe, just maybe you weren't dead. That night I started feeling doubt...doubt that you'd come back at all. Why would you come back to be under this damn thing when you were free in Zenith...free to go anywhere, to do anything. So I'm sorry for doubting you, for doubting your love, for doubting that you'd come back."
"Julia...I love you...more than I ever thought I could love someone. I think I may have found a chance for us to get out of here but we'll talk about that possibility later. What I want you to know right now is that I want you in my life, whether we end up in Zenith or wherever. That's a promise I make to you and a promise I can and will keep."
She looked up at him, biting her lower lip shyly. "Good." She murmured...then looking into his eyes with more confidence, her own shining with deep feeling. "I love you too."