Wow, that was awesome!

Readustment, Part 1--


From the beginning, Julia didn't get along with Nancy Riley. Julia thought that Nancy and her husband, Bill, had too many rules; not that the San Marcos didn't have rules, because they did, but Julia felt like she was always having to observe rules that didn't make sense to her. The one that Julia was rebelling against was the strict lights out at 10 pm. Julia liked to read in bed, and on many occasions during the past four months, Nancy Riley came in and took Julia's books away and turned off the light.

"I was reading that," Julia protested one night when Nancy came in to enforce the ten pm lights out rule and took the book she had been reading.

"Julia, it's after ten. It's time for sleep." Nancy said.

"I'm not a baby any more," Julia said.

"You're in my house, Julia, you have to live by my rules," Nancy said, clearly annoyed at Julia. "You had lots of time to read this afternoon."

"I was doing homework this afternoon," Julia said. She was equally annoyed.

"You can read tomorrow, Julia," Nancy said. "Good night." She turned off the light and closed the door to Julia's bedroom.

Julia didn't understand why her brothers got along with the Rileys. She thought they treated her like a baby, and she thought that Bill Riley was a creep.

For the first time since she met her mother, Julia couldn't wait for the alternate weekends when she went to Jordan and David's. While there, Julia complained often about her current living situation.

"Why do you think they treat you like they do, Julia?" David asked her one afternoon.

"Because they hate me. I'm not the perfect little girl they expected."

"Why do you say that?"

"Because," Julia said, "Nancy always talks about how perfect her daughters were, how they never talked back or disobeyed their parents. As far as she's concerned, I'm the devil's spawn."

"I'm sure she doesn't think that, Julia," David said.
"Oh, really, David?" sneered Julia; "Then YOU go live with them for a week!"

David wasn't really sure how to take that. He'd never been around a twelve year old girl who was going through a lot of the stuff Julia was going through.

A few weeks later, when David met with the Riley's, Nancy Riley brought up Julia's willful disobedience.

"She's always doing things that she knows makes me angry. Julia has behavior problems that her therapy isn't helping her with."

"Perhaps," David said, "you could try to understand what she's been through. She's the one who saw the San Marcos being killed. I'm sure that did a number on her psyche. She's not too trustful of authority figures these days."

"Even you?" Bill Riley interjected.

"Yes, Bill, sometimes, even me. Julia seems to think that everyone has an agenda, some reason they want her to behave or act a certain way."

"She's expected to behave herself," Nancy Riley said. "And sometimes she just doesn't."

"You have to remember that she is becoming a young woman, and she's testing her limits," David said. "At least that's what I've been told. I've never been a twelve year old girl, so I don't know what all that entails, though Jordan tries to tell me."

"The boys get along with us fine," Bill Riley said. "It's just Julia we have a problem with."

"I'll mention your concerns to Dr. Corwin," David said. "Perhaps she can get to the root cause of this."

"I hope so, David," Nancy said. "Because Julia is a handful right now."

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GReat! lol

Interesting... I look forward to the next installment.

Readjustment Part 2--

However, Julia liked Dr. Kim Corwin. Dr. Corwin was the first person since Kiera San Marco who Julia thought understood her best. Even more than her own mother did.

And it was Jordan that Dr. Corwin wanted to talk to Julia about during this session. It was a continuation from the session from a couple of days before.

"Last time we talked," Dr. Corwin began, "you had mentioned that you got along with your mother, and even David to some extent. Are there things about either one of them that really bother you?"

Julia thought about it, then said, "No, not really. David tries too hard to be my father sometimes, but he backs off when he realizes that he's taking things too far. Jordan is just trying to make up for those years she was in prison on those bogus charges. I think it's hard for her sometimes, and that she feels bad that she couldn't be there when I was little. I don't blame her for that."

"Who is to blame, then?"

"Those assholes who run the government. The ones who killed my father and put Jordan in prison for something she didn't do!"

"Julia, what have I told you about the language?" Dr. Corwin said gently.

"Sorry," Julia replied. "It just makes me angry that the government can do that to people and not be called out on it."

"That's what the Disturbed Ones are fighting for," Dr. Corwin said. "For our way of life to be restored to the way it was."

"I want to help, but Jordan tells me I'm still too young."

"I agree," Dr. Corwin said. "You are still too young. But someday, you'll be a force to be reckoned with."

Julia wasn't sure how to take that. Was it a compliment or an insult? She asked Dr. Corwin just that question.

"It's a compliment, Julia. It means that when you do something, people are going to take notice. It's a great leadership trait."

"Oh," was all Julia said. Then Dr. Corwin asked about her life with the Rileys, and she got an earful. Julia and the Rileys definitely didn't see eye to eye...on anything.

"If I hear one more story about how perfect the Rileys daughters were, I think I will scream!" Julia exclaimed. "As far as Nancy Riley is concerned, I'm her worst nightmare come true. She thinks she's going to change me. And Bill Riley...well he's a creep!"

"In what way?" Dr. Corwin asked, afraid of the answer that Julia would give.

"He looks at me funny. He's too friendly sometimes. He touched my shoulder the other day and I felt sick."

Oh, no, Dr. Corwin thought. He's up to his old tricks. You'd think after being threatened with jail he'd stop looking at little girls like centerfold models.

"Have you told him to stop? That you don't like it?" Dr. Corwin asked.

"I have and it's like talking to a brick wall," Julia said. "And Nancy won't let me lock the bedroom door."

"He's come into your bedroom?"

"I'm not sure, but," Julia said in a half whisper, "I've awaken from a sound sleep because I thought someone was in my room. I figured I was just having a dream and go back to sleep."

Dr. Corwin stopped the session at that point, and told Julia that they'd pick up there next week.

After Julia left, Dr. Corwin sat at her desk with her head in her hands. Her childhood nightmares are being revisited in the form of a tough as nails twelve year old.

"God Dammit! God Damn you to hell and back! Don't do to this girl what you did to me and Katie when we were her age. Or I will kill you!" she said under her breath.

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Oooh, shades of every psychiatrist's worst nightmare... especially when it happens to them personally-- molestation. It's a touchy subject to me, but I really wanna see how this plays out.

It's a touchy subject for me as well, that's why I incorporated it into the story. Face your greatest fear and don't let it define you. Sometimes it scares me the kind of stuff I come up with.

Readjustment Part 3--

Things at the Rileys didn't improve for Julia, even though she was trying to take all of Dr. Corwin's suggestions and apply them to situations in her own life.

One afternoon, Nancy Riley lost her temper and smacked Julia across the face, telling her, "You stupid little bitch! Don't you ever talk back to me in that tone! Why are you such a pain in the ass?"

Unfortunately for her, Nik happened to witness what really happened; Nancy baited Julia so she would talk back, then Nancy lost her temper and slapped Julia. Nik called her on it.

"You did that on purpose to make Julia mad!" Nik said angrily, taking a paper towel and wiping the blood that was flowing from Julia's nose. "You had no reason to hit her!"

"You keep out of this, Nik-o-lai," Nancy said condescendingly, purposely drawing out Nik's given name. "This is between me and Julia!"

"No, it's not," Nik said. "You are the one who's a pain in the ass, not Julia."

"Oh, sure," Nancy said, acting more like a spoiled child than a grown woman in her sixties, "take her side. You're all scum!"

Nik and Julia were a little put off by that insult, which included Jeremiah and Joe, who were at their own therapy sessions.

"Julia is my sister, and I'll take her side over yours any day," Nik said.

"You're not blood kin, so why do you care?"

"Because though we're not 'blood kin', we were raised together and she's my sister," Nik said. "That's why I care."

Bill Riley came into the room at this time to see his wife put on an Oscar winning performance, Julia's nose still bleeding, and Nik fuming.

Looking at Julia, Bill growled, "What the fuck did you say to her to upset her this time Julia?"

Julia, instead of answering, grabbed her backpack and survival kit and ran out the door. Where she was going, she had no clue.

----------

Julia ran for what seemed like miles, until she got as far away from the Riley's house as she could. Then she started walking.

She knew where she was. She was near the San Marcos house, which still sat empty nearly six months after their deaths. Julia went straight to the house and found the doors unlocked. She slipped inside, the stench of blood still in the air from that awful day she had to shoot the New Army soldiers who were going to arrest her and her brothers.

Except for the layer of dust on the furniture it remained unchanged. Julia found the school books she and her brothers were using the day the San Marcos were murdered. She remembered Peter's saying "this is not a drill! Move!" and heard his voice like it was yesterday.

Memories of living there came back to her, and they caught her off guard. She remembered playing catch with Morbus on the back porch; the first really pretty dress she wore to celebrate her third birthday; the day that Jeremiah and Joe came to live with them; Nik splitting lip open trying to do some high flying move over the back of the couch...

"Does it hurt, Nikky?" Julia asked.

"Yes..." Nik had said as Kiera drove them both to the hospital.

"Nikolai, you know better than that!" Kiera had said. "You're the big brother, you have to set a good example for Julia." It wasn't an accusation, but a statement of fact.

"Yes, Ms. Kiera."


So many happy things happened here, Julia thought. Why did the New Army have to come and mess it all up?

Julia was feeling tired, so she went upstairs to her old bedroom. It was virtually unchanged from the last time she slept in that bed. The bed was still made, and the music box Jordan had given to her for her eleventh birthday still sat on the nightstand.

She sat on the edge of the bed after turning back the covers and opened the music box. A little ballerina danced while "Clair de Lune" played.

Then Julia laid down on the bed and cried herself to sleep.

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Nice... I'm still rivited.

Readustment, Part 4--

The Rileys were arguing over who was most at fault over Julia's running away.

By this time, Julia had been gone a little more than two hours. Nik, along with Jeremiah and Joe, offered to go look for her, but Bill Riley said no, that Julia would come back on her own. Jeremiah seriously doubted that, because after hearing about what had transpired that afternoon, he decided that both Rileys were at fault.

He wondered whatever made David want to place the four of them with the Rileys. Jeremiah had noticed that Bill Riley looking at Julia in a peculiar way. This happened all the time. Julia had even asked Bill to stop touching her. But he kept doing it. Nancy Riley either didn't see what was happening, or didn't care.

Nancy Riley wasn't blameless, either. Jeremiah had told his therapist that Nancy seemed to enjoy picking on Julia. He'd heard the "perfect daughter" stories, too, and half the time, Jeremiah thought Nancy made most of those up. He always wondered why he, Julia and the others hadn't met either of the now long since grown Riley sisters. Maybe, Jeremiah thought, their parents had always been like he'd noticed them. I wouldn't want to acknowledge they were my parents, either, he thought.

However, when Julia didn't return by breakfast the next morning, Jeremiah and his brothers grew alarmed. They became even more so when they overheard the Rileys talking in the kitchen about her.

"Maybe the New Army found her and she's never coming back," Nancy Riley said. "At least they can deal with her sullen moods and insolent attitude."

"I've thought about handing the little whore over to them myself," Bill said. "Where does she get off treating us like shit?"

"Remember, Bill," Nancy said, "we convinced David that we could handle all four of them. Maybe we should have just taken the boys and let Julia's mother deal with her. Apples don't fall too far from the tree, you know."

Bill only sighed at his wife's comment.

The boys then entered the kitchen and got out plates for breakfast. The Rileys never made breakfast for them, like the San Marcos did. They made their own. The four of them took turns cooking whatever the meal of the day was. It was Julia's turn that day, but since she was still missing, Joe said he'd do it.

After they'd finished their breakfast and washed their dishes and silverware, Jeremiah asked if the Riley's were going to call David and tell him that Julia was missing. Bill said that he would do it, because he and Nancy were worried about her being gone so long.

I'll bet, Jeremiah thought. He made a note to contact David himself, just in case.

----------

David was angry. He'd just gotten a phone call from Jeremiah saying that Julia and the Rileys got into an altercation and Julia ran off.

"Bill Riley said he'd call you," David recalled Jeremiah telling him. "But I guess he didn't. Julia's been missing, according to Nik, since about three yesterday."

"I'll contact the security force to start looking for her," David had told the now 16 year old Jeremiah.

Dammit! I trusted those people to keep their word and be guardians to those kids, David thought angrily. They're doing the same things to Julia that they did to their own daughters. One daughter, David knew, still lived in the local area. The other daughter moved far away to attend college, and was, sadly, one of the mulitudes who swore allegence to the illegitimate government.

The hardest phone call David had to make was to Jordan. Her daughter was missing. Jordan didn't take to that news well. Then she said that she'd be damned that she would lose her daughter a second time and started organizing a search party to help look for her, as she had done for so many others who went missing.

Then, she called Morbus. If anyone could find Julia, it would be Morbus.

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aww! I want more! man I am loving this story!

This is really getting good!! I like the multiple posts at a time, you get more out of the reading:)

Readjustment, Part 5--

Julia woke up the next morning and realized where she was. At first, she panicked that the Rileys would be even more angry at her than they already were. Then she thought, fuck the Rileys! All she cared about was getting word to her brothers that she was okay.

She stuffed the musicbox in her backpack and headed downstairs. She wanted to go to the hideout deep in the woods, because she knew there was a cache of weapons still stored there...if someone hadn't discovered them first and stolen them.

Julia then heard a commotion outside the front of the house. Not knowing if they were friend or foe, she made her way outside the house through the closet she sat in and watched her guardians savagely murdered for no real reason.

Then, she headed to the woods, being careful to make sure she was not seen. The noises she had heard while in the house had died down some, but that didn't mean there was no one around. Julia was unarmed until she got to the hideout, which was still several hundred feet away.

She arrived at the hideout and noticed it looked pretty much the same way it did the last time she was there. She didn't know if there were people down there already, so she grabbed a large fallen branch and prepared to use it as a weapon.

She carefully opened the hidden door, and with branch in hand, cautiously walked inside.

Empty.

Good, Julia thought.

She knew that to the right of the entrance was a dug out space in the earth where the weapons and ammunition was stored. She dropped her backpack and survival kit on the floor and opened the lid.

Except for a few spiders, the weapons contained therein were still there and still serviceable.

Julia withdrew a silver pistol and pellet gun. They were small enough to conceal in her backpack or survival kit, along with a fair amount of ammo. Since she killed those five New Army soldiers, Julia didn't want to be unarmed. She was forced to give up her weapons before she went to the Rileys, and there were times she wished she had at least one pistol.

Above the weapons cache, there were several boxes of food that required only water to prepare. Julia decided to stay put in the hideout for a while. Let the Rileys freak out a while when I don't come back.

In the back of her mind though, she knew that someone would be looking for her, and she hoped it wasn't Bill Riley.

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Dude! I love it! More! More! More!!

yes pleeeeeease more! Im grabbing enough popcorn for everybody! lol

Thanks. Who wants a drink? Put in your orders now, before the next installment hits the thread.

Readjustment, Part 6--

No, it wasn't Bill Riley who was looking for Julia, but about a dozen New Army soldiers. They had heard that Julia Terranova was in the area and decided to poke around the San Marco residence some to see if she had been there.

Someone had been there, the soldiers discovered, but didn't know if it was Julia or not. The house was in total disarray, like it had been robbed. Books were pulled off shelves, cushions from the couch and chairs were strewn about the room, and Peter's office appeared to have been ransacked.

"Well, shit," one of the soldiers muttered; "looks like this place was robbed. Julia Terranova couldn't have been here. And why are we looking for a 12 year old girl again?"

"Because she's a pawn in the quest to bring down the Disturbed Ones' leader," the leader of the team said, annoyed. "We'd gotten a call that she might be headed this way because this is where her guardians lived."

"She obviously didn't come here, because people intent on stealing anything valuable had been here first."

"That's the conclusion that I've come to," the team leader said. "Let's go. She might be in the immediate area still. We'll find her."

And with that proclamation, the soldiers left to continue their search.

Had they gone upstairs, they would have noticed Julia's bed slept in and the music box missing.

Once again, Julia outsmarted trained military troops.

She ransacked the house, and hid all the valuables that had been "stolen" in the same closet she escaped the house from.

Peter and Kiera would be proud.

----------

The search party that Jordan organized had specific instructions: find Julia, but don't try to make her go with them. Jordan had a feeling that Julia was fine, but still, she was sure that her daughter was thoroughly pissed off. When Julia was located, Morbus would go in and get her. Julia trusted Morbus, and Jordan knew that. But before he could be effective in this particular search mission, he had to have his anger diffused.

"What do you mean Julia is missing, Jordan!" Morbus had practically bellowed at Jordan when she told him what happened at the Rileys. "If anything happens to Julia because of this, the Rileys will wish they were never born!"

"I have a feeling I know where she went, so half our battle in finding her is already won, Morbus!" Jordan told him.

"Where do you think she went?" Morbus thought about it for a moment, then he said,

"The San Marcos? To the house she grew up in?"

"Yes," Jordan said. "It was a source of comfort and peace for her... before it became a killing ground. Where would you go if you were her in her situation?"

"I had hoped she'd come to one of us," Morbus said.

"You're thinking like a father, not like Julia," Jordan said. "Don't you think she'd go somewhere she knew she was safe?"

"I suppose."

"I'd start there, then," Jordan said. Then she thought, I hope I'm right about this.

"I'll head out that way, Jordan."

As Morbus began to leave the room, Jordan asked, "Are you going to be okay? Forget she's your daughter for a second and just go look for her."

"I'll be fine, Jordan," Morbus said, hoping Jordan didn't notice he was still quite pissed off. The Rileys will pay dearly if something happened to that girl, he vowed. I will see to it personally.

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Oooh, I got chills reading that one. It was great!

Readjustment, Part 7--

Even though it was the last of winter before the spring thaw, Julia was warm in the hideout. She really just needed a thick sweatshirt to keep herself comfortable during the day; and at night, a thick camper's sleeping bag rated for temperatures below -30*F.

Julia was determined to stay where she was until it was safe to leave. She knew that the New Army had been out to look for her. She had heard them in the woods crunching around where the hideout was, calling after her. She hadn't recognized any of the voices, so she remained hidden. She had weapons, so if someone stormed the hideout, she could defend herself if necessary.

After five days, and many searches later, Julia noticed that the New Army seemed to have given up looking for her. She had heard the same voices everyday, and knew that they weren't friendlies. Some of the men called her terrible names, like "bitch" and "whore", and worse. If they had been Disturbed Ones volunteers, there would have been women in the search party. Julia knew that from watching Jordan organize other search parties who would most likely be involved in looking for her, now that she was "missing". Maybe even David, Morbus, or her brothers would be out looking for her.

At least, she hoped so.

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"She's been missing now for five days," David told the Rileys. "If you couldn't handle having Julia, knowing what she'd been through, why in the hell did you offer to take her?"

"We wanted her to be around people she was familiar with," Nancy Riley said, her eyes red from crying and worry. David knew that the crying on her part was an act. Nancy Riley only cared about one person, and that was herself.

"We're sorry that Julia thought we were too harsh," Bill Riley said. "We thought if we gave her and her brothers structure, then their readjustment would be easier. Instead, it seems that we've made it worse, at least for Julia."

David had to fight the urge to roll his eyes at Riley's words. He was, as Julia put it, a creep.

David had seen the reports on both Nancy and Bill Riley, and what it told him wasn't a pretty picture. Nancy had been accused in the past of verbally abusing her own daughters to the point that the youngest ran away at 16 and never returned. The older daughter had moved to another part of the country, went to college, got married, and disappeared from sight. Both daughters cut off all contact with their parents from that point on.

Bill had been accused of incest and phyiscal abuse, but the accusations couldn't be proven because his daughters refused to have anything to do with him. He later made a seemingly miraculous transition to upstanding citizen.

David was angry that he had been so deceived by both Riley and his wife. When David ran the background check on them, it came up clean. The information that he got about the Rileys came from a most surprising source.

Their youngest daughter. The one who ran away from home at sixteen.

Then, she was known as Kathy Riley.

But for the last 30 years, she had been known by another name. One that David was familiar with.

Dr. Kim Corwin.

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Whoa! Plot twist! Watch out! That's bad ass!

Woot!

aww shit's about to hit the fan! yay!!!!

Readjustment, Part 8--

Morbus, ever vigilant, headed in the direction of the former San Marco residence. He had to concede that Jordan might be right, that if Julia went anywhere in the Disturbed Ones' sector, it would be to somewhere familiar that held special meaning to her.

He checked other places on the way, because he knew that Julia was a target of the illegitimate government. Madame President and her handlers wanted to use Julia to get to David. Morbus had seen the intel, and he would be damned if that bitch ever got a hold of his little girl.

Except, she wasn't a little girl anymore. She was growing and changing before his eyes. She was becoming a young woman. She had killed five New Army soldiers in cold blood, and wouldn't hesitate to do it again if she felt her life was threatened.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the New Army truck and knew that they had been ordered to find Julia as well. Morbus took cover to avoid being seen, but he knew the New Army also had orders to shoot to kill him if they ever saw him. Morbus knew he could take out several soldiers at once with the firepower he always had with him. He could not afford to become emotional because it was Julia who was missing this time.

When Morbus arrived at the San Marco safe house, he did a full perimeter search of the property, and satisfied he saw no one about, cautiously entered the house, where he saw that it had been ransacked.

He checked the closet in the living room where Julia had hidden when she watched the San Marcos being executed. Julia wasn't in the closet, but a lot of the valuables the family had were. Morbus had to smile at himself. He knew that this was Julia's doing to throw the New Army off her trail.

He went upstairs and saw that the bed in Julia's bedroom had been slept in. She had been here! Morbus thought. Then he noticed the missing music box that had sat on the nightstand next to the bed. Julia took it with her. Morbus remembered the music box. Jordan had showed it to him before she wrapped it in colorful birthday paper. It had been a gift for Julia's birthday a couple years ago.

On the way down the stairs, Morbus was careful not to touch anything he could leave his unique fingerprints on. Every agency run by the illegitimate government had them on file. They were unique in the fact that after he had been tortured, he had none to speak of.

Morbus went outside behind the house. He knew that Peter San Marco had constructed a subterrainean hideout fort somewhere in the woods beyond the house. Where exactly he didn't really know. If Julia was still on the property, she might be there. It would be the one place in her world that she would feel safe.

Who wouldn't feel safe with a cache of weapons they knew they could use? Morbus thought.

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*tosses a bite of popcorn in my mouth* So what happens next?!

Readjustment, Part 9--

Julia had spent nearly a week in the hideout, and Disturbed Ones search teams had yet to look for her here. She was a little worried, but not overly so. Julia had plenty of food, water, and other supplies, in addition to the weapons, to last several weeks.

The New Army had been back to look for her, and she could tell from their chatter that they were getting frustrated with the search. Julia overheard two soldiers talking, one asking the other, "How could one twelve year old girl fall off the face of the earth like this girl has done?"

"Damned if I know, dude," the other replied. "She might be right under our nose and we'd never know."

Julia was, in fact, right under their feet. The roof of the hideout was made of logs, sealed with pitch to keep out the elements, and covered in three feet of earth. Julia was literally nearly ten feet below them. The hideout itself was about 12 feet square by nine feet deep. It held all six people in her family comfortably, so for just her, it was roomy enough.

But now, as darkness fell at the end of the seventh day of her escape from the Rileys, she wondered about her brothers. She knew they were probably worried about her. Julia wished she had a way to contact them to let them know she was safe and not in the hands of the illegitimate government.

She had no idea, however, that Morbus was close.