Battle For The Heavens

t h r e e

Five days had gone by since Noelle collapsed on Julia's doorstep, for reasons still unknown to both parties. Noelle had oddly gotten used to how things worked in the Tanner household; Julia going to the hospital to perform her medical duties, Andrew going to college to get his law degree, while Noelle just sat at home and wondered what on earth she was supposed to be doing at a time like this.

Julia had finally told Noelle about the war, the one that took her husband away from them....and didn't bring him back. She said that it was still going on but their city was mostly unaffected other than the number of fathers, husbands, brothers and sons that were enlisted to help fight in the war. She also said that there were many females who enlisted too but even though it was the twenty first century, a lot of them were considered too weak and fragile to actually fight in the war.

When Julia told her this, Noelle couldn't help but express her disgust at the thought that many women weren't allowed to fight just because of their gender. Julia had agreed wholeheartedly with Noelle's statement but said that most of the women who were rejected took to different methods of helping their country. Some became doctors and nurses in the army, some held fundraisers to raise more money to send supplies to their soldiers, etc. Despite the blunt sexism of it all, Noelle was glad that it hadn't broken the spirit of the many women who still tried to help their country.

"Noelle, are you listening to me?" Julia waved her hands in front of Noelle's face, trying to get her attention.

"What? Oh I'm sorry Julia, I was just thinking about something," Noelle replied vaguely with an apologetic expression on her face. She then remembered that Julia had been talking to her before her mind had drifted to their conversation from the day before.

"Well, I was asking whether you wanted to come with me to the hospital today, it'll be good for you to get a change of scenery, you've been cramped up in here for way too long." Julia smiled her usual happy-go-lucky smile at Noelle, in hopes of getting her to agree.

"I wouldn't want to be a burden to you Julia, I'll only get in your way. Please don't worry about me, I'll be fine here," Noelle said, trying to sound confident.

"You could never be a burden to me Noelle, I'd actually love to show you around the hospital!" Julia said warmly.

"Well, I guess i can come...but only if you promise to actually do your own work and not worry about me while I'm there," Noelle said carefully.

"I promise. Now hurry up and get ready, I'll give you an outfit to change into." Julia immediately rushed up the stairs leaving Noelle to wonder what she had just gotten herself into.

Julia had been giving Noelle her old clothes to wear during her stay in their house. Those normally consisted of simple tops and jeans that had long since stopped fitting Julia but hadn't been parted with yet. However, now that Noelle was going out of the house, Julia had to find her something that fit but didn't look old and washed out. She finally came across a beautiful flowery pink top that had been gifted to her by a colleague but had unfortunately ended up being too small. Julia handed the pink top along with a pair of dark blue jeans to Noelle and told her to quickly get ready in fifteen minutes.

For a few minutes, Julia just sat down and thought about how Noelle had come to stay in their house. She knew that Andrew still had his suspicions but was being nice to Noelle for her sake. But despite everything Andrew had said, Julia couldn't bring herself to believe that Noelle had any ulterior purposes for her being there. She just seemed too young and innocent for that, like she knew what was happening in the world but that didn't taint her heart the slightest bit.

***

The hospital wasn't very busy that day, it was actually a comparatively slow day, which was technically good because it meant less people were getting injured and falling sick. So, Julia was able to show Noelle around the hospital without it affecting her work in any way. She showed Noelle every single part of the hospital; when she showed her the part that contained mostly old people who lived in old age homes, Noelle had asked even more questions than what she had already been asking.