Warm Bodies: Awakening

Not a Betrayal

"R? Oh my god, R..." Julie cried softly, stroking his forehead as his eyes closed and his hand relaxed in hers.

Fresh tears welled up as she thought of how scared he'd been, how terrified he'd looked as he'd struggled against the ventilator. She'd felt horrible holding him back from it, but she had to, Stephen said it was important. The look on his face though, the confusion and his disbelief as she had, broke her heart. It felt as if she'd betrayed him in some way, and that hurt.

And yet again, he'd come to her rescue! Come out of everything they'd thrown into his system, just to bring her back from the brink. And he'd just ended up hurt. Again.

Why was he always getting hurt because of her? It wasn't fair.

"I need you," Stephen said tersely, catching her eye as he pulled a syringe out of the line running to R's neck, "to go over there." He gestured with a tilt of his head to the bed beyond R's.

Julie sighed heavily. "I'm fine." Truthfully though, she didn't feel fine at all, she just didn't want to leave R's side. He needed her, and she needed to be with him.

"Now," he answered, and his tone left no room for arguing.

Reluctantly, Julie released R's hand, stroking his hair once more, flashing back to the time he'd done that just after he'd taken her 'home'. She'd been horrified then, but now, it just seemed endearing. With great care, determined not to faint again, she turned and walked over to the other bed. The room wobbled a little as she moved, but finally she stretched out on the cool mattress. A heavy exhaustion swamped her almost immediately and she yawned widely despite herself.

Stephen shifted around R, working to replace the line in his arm that he'd ripped out, and reattached some kind of monitor to his finger. He stared over at her for a moment, frowning.

"When's the last time you ate something?" he asked. "Because it might have been good to take care of yourself before coming in here to collapse on my patient."

Julie winced, "I'm sorry. I never meant to do that."

"You don't say?" Stephen answered, clearly irritated. He stepped away from R's bed and strode quickly over to the desk he'd appeared from before. When he returned he was carrying a jug of water and a protein bar.

"Here," he said, offering both to her.

Julie made a face at the bar, but took it and devoured it with a speed that surprised her. Then she realized, with just a little shock, that it had been a whole day since she last ate. She'd had no idea just how hungry she was, hadn't even thought about food. How could she? Everything had just been so... crazy. Following the dry bar with a couple of big draughts of water, she gave a satisfied sigh and dropped her head back on the bed.

"God, thank you," she said and held the jug out to him.

"Keep it, I think you're pretty dehydrated."

She nodded, and yawned as weariness swamped her again. God, she was tired. Blinking slowly, she stared past Stephen at R.

"He going to be okay?" she asked, her voice slurring.

"I hope so."

Julie nodded softly, "Me too." Closing her eyes, she finally let herself relax, and drifted quickly to sleep.

—-

There's one thing that struck me about Julie as she's portrayed in the movie. Something that I was always impressed by. Julie always said 'thank you' any time R helped her in any way. The two times that come to mind are when he makes her 'safe' under the airplane after she's run from him the first time, and when he knocks the boney off her near the end. I always thought that was wonderful. She's a strong character in her own right, regardless, but it just added something special to who she was as a person. How she was able to treat R as a human, even after only just meeting him.