Alone, Together - A Julian Casablancas fanfic

Chapter 24 - 15 Minutes

(A/N: To keep the rest of this story from getting stale or taking too long, I'm going to start skipping around to the more interesting parts. That may also mean that there will be four parts instead of the originally planned five. Thank you for your patience in me updating.)

A whole week had passed, and finally Clem and Julian reached the border of Michigan. The pair had been on the trip for two weeks, and were still a week away from Summerfest in Milwaukee. In the last week, they had met many people who helped them along their way through the tiny towns on their path.

Luckily for Clem, the idea of homesickness was a thing of the past. She hadn't really missed her family or friends since her nightmare about losing Morgan. She had even bought a photo book at a stop in Ohio to keep all of her pictures together. So far, she had almost 50 pictures to show, and that wasn't the end of them.

Julian had just left a pit stop in a tiny town in Ohio called Sylvania, and had just crossed the border. Clem was asleep, having not slept much the night before.

"Clem," he whispered, poking her cheek. "Clemmie. Are you asleep?"

He heard her mumble something in her sleep along the lines of "are we there yet?".

"We're in Michigan, if that's what you mean," he laughed.

Clem opened her eyes and stretched a few minutes later, looking outside the window. "Where are we now?"

"I already told you, Michigan," Julian answered with a smile.

"I was too busy sleeping to hear the first time."

"Yeah, I heard you mumbling something."

Clem looked out the window, then she remembered something. Aleks was originally from Michigan, a town called Waterford. He moved to New York when he was 7, then his dad and sister died a year later. They were brought back home to be buried by a lake in town. Waterford was still over an hour away, but she wanted to pay her respects to Aleks' family.

"Hey Jules, can we make a special stop?" she asked.

"Sure, Clem. Where to?"

"Waterford. I want to make a special visit."

Julian knew exactly what she meant. "Can do." The trip to Waterford was mostly quiet, with the exception of the radio. A familiar song, one they hadn't heard in months, came on and filled the silence, bringing a smile to both their faces.

Look into my eyes – you will see
What you mean to me.
Search your heart, search your soul
And when you find me there you'll search no more.

Don't tell me it's not worth tryin' for.
You can't tell me it's not worth dyin' for.
You know it's true:
Everything I do, I do it for you.

Look into your heart – you will find
There's nothin' there to hide.
Take me as I am, take my life.
I would give it all, I would sacrifice.

Don't tell me it's not worth fightin' for
I can't help it, there's nothin' I want more
You know it's true:
Everything I do, I do it for you, oh, yeah.

There's no love like your love
And no other could give more love.
There's nowhere unless you're there
All the time, all the way, yeah.

Look into your heart, baby...

"Remember this, Clem?" Julian asked with a smile, intertwining his fingers in hers over the middle console.

"How can I forget? It was playing the night you asked me to be your girlfriend. I'd be a pretty bad girlfriend if I forgot that."

"Who knows, maybe I'll learn how to play it someday, just for you."

Julian had played his guitar every other night for the last few weeks since they'd been on the road, and he was really great at it. He had a notebook full of song lyrics he'd written down when he had an inspiration. He was still holding onto his hopes of making it big in the music industry, and Clem was behind him 100%.

Over an hour later, they reached the sign that said "Welcome to Waterford". Clem couldn't believe that it had been ten years since Andrew and Natalya's death. Ten years since she saw them every time she and Morgan played at his house. Ten years since they played with him to distract him from his loss at home.

They arrived at the gravesite, where two stone markers stuck out of the ground. With a bouquet of flowers in one hand and Julian's hand in the other, Clem walked up to the burial ground with teary eyes. She was remembering the look on Aleks' face and how he reacted to the news. This was a lot harder to handle than what she was expecting.

She divided the bouquet evenly and placed half the flowers on each marker. Julian saw a tear roll down her cheek and wiped it away with the back of his free thumb.

"Do you... do you need a moment, Clem?" he asked.

She nodded. "I may need more than that."

"Okay, take all the time you need." Julian released his hand from hers and kissed her on the cheek before heading back to the van. Clem sat down in her long flowing daisy skirt between the markers.

"Hey, guys," she started, almost as if they could hear her. "Remember me, Clementine? The little blonde-haired girl who used to go over to your house? Well, I'm not so little anymore. I'm 17 now, and on a roadtrip with this awesome guy named Julian Casablancas. Aleks and Clem are back in New York waiting patiently for us, and so is Claudia. Don't worry about her, or Aleks. He's so tall now, and as handsome and outspoken as ever. And Claudia, she's married again, and having a baby with her husband too. Can you believe it?"

Clem had to remind herself that there was no way they could hear her, but she wanted to believe. She spent almost fifteen minutes there, talking about how life had been for both her and her friends, especially Aleks. Suddenly she didn't feel a thousand miles from home. She thought she could feel their presence there, knowing that they had been watching over their son and brother.

Finally, after fifteen minutes, after the sun had already gone down, Clem exhausted the life stories and rejoined Julian. 

"Hey," he greeted as he cranked up the van. "How are you feeling?"

"I didn't realize how much I missed them. I miss seeing them every time I go over to their house."

Clem and Julian camped out beside that same lake in a different spot that night and slept under the stars. Next stop, Chicago.

Merry Christmas, everyone!