Juno MacGuff

New Year's Eve had started well. A couple hours out and then back to the Apartment with Daphne. They'd had a few drinks, watched a movie and kissed maybe more than a little. Then the reports started rolling in on television. The animals were attacking.

Juno had sat up, a baseball bat clutched in her hands, watching the cats and Milo. She was waiting for Captain Jack or Eve to go crazy.

Hours passed, and nothing happened. Eve had abandoned the living room to sleep on Eleanor's bed, and the Captain lay on the couch, curled into a fluffy ball. Milo was asleep in her room, on the floor near to Daphne. At 3am, after being cajoled be her sleepy girlfriend, Juno gives up, deciding that whatever happened to the animals in Darrow had passed their pets by. She puts down the bat (and why is there a baseball bat in their apartment anyway? It isn't even like either of them play the game) and goes to bed.

Sirens wake her the next morning. Groggy, Juno rolls over, reaching for her phone to see what time it is. Barely 7, and Daphne was still asleep. Milo has his head up, listening to the sounds, but other than that looks like he usually does. Alert, attentive, and waiting to alert Daphne if there is a problem.

She slips out of bed, thinking she'll go to the bathroom and get some water and go back to bed. Only her feet don't hit floor. Instead they land on a pile of cds and books, scattered everywhere. Carefully, she picks her way across the room to open her door, thinking that she must have knocked over the shelves while sleepwalking or something. However, that doesn't explain why there's a tipped over coffee table in front of her door, why the couch has moved, or why the kitchen chairs are pushed in front of Eleanor's room.

The hissing makes her freeze. Eve is sitting atop the kitchen counter, watching Juno. She has no idea where the Captain is, and honestly, she's a bit scared to find out.

"Um, Eleanor," she calls out across the apartment, her voice trembling. She hears Milo move and hopes that he's not gone rogue too. Juno wishes she still had the bat. "Eleanor, I think we have a problem."

The letter still sits on Juno's kitchen table, taunting her. She has the words memorised, she doesn't need to look at it to know exactly what it says. She knows that it tells her the deadline for submitting her acceptance to Darrow U has passed, but because of whatever reason they've given her until the end of the month to submit her intention.

She's ignoring it because she has no idea what to do. Her father would tell her what she should do, she's sure of that, but when she tries to imagine him all she can hear is him saying 'June-bug' before he fades away into nothing. The same when she thinks of Bren, which leaves her sad and confused and back to square one.

What she wants to do is start a band, maybe keep working at the record store while she does. But she's gotten into the department of music, and a part of her thinks that it could be awesome too. What she needs is a parent and that's something she doesn't have here.

How she ends up at Al's door isn't something that she can actually say. All she knows is that she has the letter clutched in one hand and is knocking, hoping that he's home. Maybe he can help? Juno doesn't even know anymore.

Jamie (Juno really had to stop thinking of him as 'the kid') is seven months old now, just by a couple of day.. It's hard for Juno to believe that she's given birth seven months before, and that she's been in Darrow for pretty close to a year. It is surreal, and she wishes that so many things could be different. Mostly she wishes that she could have the chance to work things out with Bleeker.

One thing she doesn't regret is Katie adopting Jamie. From everything she's seen, Katie's a great mom, and that's what the kid deserves. Okay, so maybe she has been avoiding Katie just a little, but it's weird being stuck in this town so close to her. She'd always imagined she'd go back to high school and likely never see the baby again. Here that's less of an option, especially because she likes Katie.

She's trying to fix at least part of that today, knocking on Katie's door with a wrapped present for Jamie that was similar to one she'd had once. She'd loved that thing, even way past the suggested play with date.

"Are you home?" She knocks again and calls out, thinking later than Jamie might be napping. "Shit. Sorry. I mean..."

Juno@dmail.com