Work Text:
Luke paced across the studio floor while he waited for Julie to walk through the doors. She insisted on him staying at home today, instead of bothering her during class like he normally did. Apparently she had a huge presentation to do and she didn’t want to get sidetracked. It’s not sidetracked if it’s songwriting, Luke argued when she left the garage earlier in the morning. Julie promised they’d write after school, but she should have been home ten minutes ago. “Dude, calm down,” Reggie said as he played out a new riff. From behind his drums Alex nodded,
“Yeah, maybe she stayed late for a club meeting or something and forgot to tell us.” Luke shook his head and continued his runway walk, as Reggie liked to call it. Something in his gut told him that wasn’t the case. If she had a club, she would have told them before she left in the morning. Ray didn’t seem off during the day, Reggie reported he’d been busy with editing jobs all day. Luke groaned in frustration and ran a hand through his hair. He stopped pacing to turn to his friends, worry etched into his face.
“Something went wrong. I don’t know if it’s Caleb or something else but… I can just feel it.” Luke said, dropping onto his couch next to Reggie. He could feel it, something curdling in the pit of his stomach. Every single cell in his body was boiling , telling him to check on Julie. Alex sighed,
“If this is bothering you that much then just go poof in to check on her,” he said, stopping his drumming. “Once you see she’s okay you can screw your head back on straight.” Luke stood up again and resumed his pacing. As much as he wanted to check in on Julie, she was big on the whole boundary thing. He didn’t want to overstep in fear of losing her trust. To his surprise though, Reggie agreed with Alex.
“Dude, you’re wired tighter than Alex. Just go poof in, poof back. If she asks just tell her you were worried, she’ll understand.” Reggie said after playing a few country riffs, ending with a over-the-top flourish. With his friend’s support at his back, Luke let the tug in his gut pull him towards Los Feliz High School. To his horror three fire trucks were parked in the front lot, and the all students and faculty were out of the building. Julie , Luke thought as realization dawned on him as he started to poof through the crowd, looking for her. He spent ten minutes poofing between lines of students calling her name.
“Julie!” Luke yelled over the sirens, running through crowds of lifers as they watched their school burn to the ground. Students around him were coughing and holding onto each other, fear carved onto their faces like stone. He pushed his way onward, pushing through the crowds until he was nearby the fire trucks. Exhausted from his power exertion, Luke leaned against the side of the truck and slid down it, resting his head against one of the back wheels. He had to make sure Julie was safe, he just had to. He was starting to doubt he’d ever find her though, that maybe, just maybe, she had died in the flames... Then, a flicker of hope sparked in his heart when he heard someone behind him call out his name, sounding slightly confused.
“ Luke?” He turned around and the glimmer of hope he felt faded away. Carrie and Flynn were huddled together near one of the fire trucks. “How can I see you?” Flynn asked, but Luke didn’t really care right now. It looked like they were just rescued, soot was still caked across Flynn’s face. Luke poofed to her side in an instant, and to his surprise, Flynn was able to hug him without falling to the ground. “It’s so bad! The cafeteria - ” she coughed “ - it was a kitchen explosion.” After the initial shock of being able to touch her wore off, Luke wrapped his around her.
“Flynn,” Luke asked, voice just above a whisper. “Where’s Julie?” Flynn pulled away from him to reveal her tear-stained face. Before she could answer Flynn doubled over in a fit of coughs and a paramedic pushed Luke away from her to attach her to an oxygen mask. Luke’s eyes scanned the crowd that was recently pulled from the cafeteria and didn’t see Julie. Luke was hoping, begging for there to be any chance Julie made it out, but one look at Flynn’s face told him all he needed to know.
Julie was still inside.
“I’ll get her,” Luke promised Flynn as she looked at her with pleading eyes. “I promise Flynn, I’ll get her out,” Flynn nodded in response. Luke took one last look at the cloud of smoke building in the sky above the school. Swallowing thickly he prepared himself before the familiar tug of a poof pulled him towards the cafeteria. “Julie!” He called out when his feet hit the pavement.
The cafeteria looked like a battle ground.
Whatever happened in the kitchen turned half the seating area was scorched black. There were still small fires lit all over the place, and if Luke was still alive he’d definitely inhale a dangerous amount of smoke. The crackling of the supports around him made it hard for Luke to focus, but he peeled his eyes over the scene in front of him, trying to find any hint of Julie. Luke poofed to the table he knew Julie usually sat at and frowned when he didn’t see any trace of her there. He focused enough to knock over the fallen down trash cans that were near the table. “Julie!” Luke called out, suddenly a thousand times more worried for her. “Jules come on!” He shouted, voice echoing over the cackling fire.
“ Luke, ” Julie’s voice said back. She sounded hoarse, her throat dry from all the smoke gaining in the air. Luke was pulled to the opposite side of the cafetera, to where a few tables must have gotten flipped over during the initial explosion. Using as much strength as he could summon, Luke pulled the top table off the pile, to reveal a very dazed and a very hurt Julie Molina. Luke’s heart tightened at the sight of her, she was stuck, wedged sideways between a support beam and one of the circular tables that seemed to be the only thing keeping the support beam stable. Get Julie out , Luke thought, not letting himself get distracted by the gash of blood in her forehead, or the fact that she was hardly breathing at all. “It’s you,” Julie said, eyes trying to find him in the smoky haze. Luke choked out a sob as he knelt at her side and knitted their fingers together.
“I’m here,” Luke promised, brushing sticky hair out of her face. “I’m here Jules, I promise. You and me right?” Luke asked, though it wasn’t really a question. Julie tried to say something else, but instead answered by a fit of coughs. “Jules, stay awake!” Luke cried out as Julie’s eyes rolled to the back of her head. She blinked, and managed to meet his gaze. “We have to get you out of here!” He said, trying to shift the table so Julie could pull herself out. The stone pillar started crumbling more, so he stopped his efforts. Luke’s face contorted in pain as Julie cried out when the table’s weight crushed her even more.
“Luke, Luke, ” Julie sobbed, losing her grip on his hand. Luke tightened his fingers around hers, interlocking their fingers together, refusing to let her go. “I’m so sorry, I don’t -” she coughed, this time spitting up some grey sludge from the smoke. Luke’s eyes filled with tears, overflowing onto his cheeks.
“I have an idea,” Luke said as he suddenly realized they were still able to touch each other. His hands swallowed her tiny one as he curled his around it. Julie looked slightly confused, but didn’t say anything. “You have to trust me,” Luke said, kneeling on the ground next to her. “Do you trust me?” He asked, pleading for her to say yes. Julie nodded then managed to tighten her grip a little bit.
“Always,” she promised, voice croaking. Luke wrapped his arms around the half of Julie that he could have access too. He ignored the fact that her hand went lax as he pulled her to a sitting up position. Holding himself together, he pulled Julie close to his chest and thought of the fire trucks waiting for them outside. He thought of the fresh air and the sunlight, the blue skies and the sunlight hitting his face. Luke’s body shook with waves of tears as he felt himself get pulled into the familiar storm of color, this time taking Julie with him.
Luckily the firemen who noticed Julie suddenly appearing on the ground near the firetrucks didn’t seem to question how she managed to escape the fires. “I’m here Jules,” Luke promised as he followed the firemen to the truck. One of the women pulled an oxygen mask over Julie’s head while the others buzzed around her, taking one sort of test or another. He stayed by Julie’s side the whole time, ignoring the weird feeling he got whenever someone walked through him. Luke held Julie’s hand in his, and brushed a hand through her hair, trying his best to pretend it wasn’t matted down by blood, sweat, and soot. Two bursts of wind behind him told Luke Reggie and Alex must have gotten impatient, waiting for him back at the studio.
“Holy shit ,” Reggie said when he walked through the crowd of firemen. They were both at his side in an instant, Reggie to his left while Alex stood at his right. Luke didn’t take his eyes off of Julie, afraid her fingers would pass right through his if he looked away.
“Luke are you okay?” Alex asked, and Luke nodded his head saying,
“I’m fine. It’s Julie I’m worried about. She has to be okay guys, she just has to.” Reggie reached for Julie’s hand first, then Alex followed his lead.
“We’re here Julie,” Luke promised. “We’re here, and we aren’t going to let you go that easy.” He shook as his body caught up with the shock he buried when he first saw Julie trapped in the rubble of the cafeteria. Reggie nodded as both he and Alex started to cry.
“Come on Jules, you’re stronger than this,” Reggie said, voice breaking. “Who’s gonna help me prank Carlos if you’re gone?” Alex’s silence was loud enough in itself. Luke remembered when Alex’s aunt died. The drummer had completely shut down, it took Luke and Reggie a full week to convince him to talk to them again, much less start practicing again. There was no telling what would happen to Alex if Julie died. If Luke was being honest with himself, there was no telling what would happen to him, Reggie, and Alex if Julie died. Would they still be ghosts? Would they disappear? Would they crossover? Would they ever see her again? Luke cleared his thoughts out of anything aside from Julie. Flynn somehow managed to push her way through the team of paramedics working around Julie. She let out the most heart wrenching sob Luke had ever heard in his life.
“ Julie!” Flynn cried out, throwing herself over her unconscious body. Julie didn’t stir, she didn’t blink awake, her fingers didn’t shift in Luke’s hand… she didn’t breathe . “Julie no, please !” Flynn said, tears rolling down her cheeks. “Please no, you can’t. Julie…” Flynn begged. The world around Luke crumpled to pieces as the fire woman tending to Julie shook her head sadly and too off her oxygen mask. The sounds around him muted to silence as Ray and Carlos pushed through the sudden crowd of students who hovered nearby Julie’s emergency set up. He stumbled backwards, flickering when he fell to the pavement in the middle of the crowd. Alex and Luke’s worried faces settled in front of him, but he couldn’t focus. Not on his brothers, not on the world, not on anything… Not even the pain of seeing his parents light a birthday candle for him hurt as much as this did. Not even the jolts from Caleb’s stamp hurt as much as this did.
Luke spent the next five hours at Julie’s side, refusing to let her go. Alex and Reggie said something about going home to the studio, but was it really home anymore? Luke wondered, staring at Julie’s lifeless body in front of him. “Julie I’m -” Luke started before he stopped himself. There was nothing he could say, nothing he could do to make this right. He was too late to save her, too late to say the thing he wanted to tell her since the first time they performed Finally Free. “Julie,” Luke said, his tears dripping off his chin, landing on the sheets covering everything but her head. “Julie I loved you,” he said, choking on the word. He reached forward and rested his hand on her forehead. It was cold, inhumanly cold compared to the usual warmth that ran through her bones.
“ I know . I loved you too.”
Luke startled in surprise, then looked up to see Julie(?) hovering nearby her head. “Julie?” he asked, very conscious of the fact this could be Caleb playing a trick on him. He looked back down at Julie’s body, which was still well… still and unmoving. Luke looked to the ghost-Julie, who had a bittersweet smile on her face.
“Trust me?” Julie asked him, reaching out her hand. Luke hesitated for a split second, then wrapped his hand around hers, letting her pull them to wherever she needed to go.
They ended up standing on the Orpheum’s stage and Luke couldn’t help but let out a little laugh. The last time they were here, they had all performed together… now though, when it was just him and Julie, he could appreciate the silence of the empty performance venue. It wasn’t haunting, or eerie. Instead it was just… calm. Luke reached his hand up and softly cupped Julie’s face. She leaned into it, not at all surprised by the fact that they could easily touch each other now that she was a ghost. “Not that I’m uh… disappointed you’re a ghost, but why are we back here?” Luke asked as a song started playing on the speaker system. Julie smiled softly as she explained her unfinished business.
“I had this dream of the two of us dancing. No one but us and I just…” She trailed off and blushed. Luke knew what she meant though. No worries, no manager calls, no next gig, just the two of them spending time together. He suddenly felt more relaxed, here on the Orpheum stage, than he ever had before in his life. As though he knew the words all along, Luke started to sing along to the song playing over the speakers.
“Step into my world,” Luke sang, walking closer to Julie. “A bittersweet love story about a girl,” slowly, uncertainly, they both reached out and held each other’s hands. Luke focused on Julie, like she was the only important thing in the world to him. “Shook me to the core, voice like an angel I’ve never heard before.” Julie smiled at him as she circled their arms around themselves, taking the next verse.
“Here in front of me,” she dipped her head back, and Luke swung her back up. “Shining so much brighter than I have ever seen,” They danced like they had rehearsed the number to perfection, Luke lifting Julie to spin her around. “Life can be so mean, but when he goes I know he doesn’t leave, ” Julie spun around Luke, weaving in and out of his arms. Luke smiled at her when they looked at each other, both joining in for the chous.
“The truth is finally breaking through,” Luke spun on the floor back towards Julie, spinning his arms around him as he went. “Two worlds collide when I’m with you,” Julie smiled down at Luke while she grabbed his hands, twisting her legs. Luke picked her up again and circled to center stage. “Our voices rise and so so high we come to light when we're in perfect harmony.” Luke never felt more in love, or more alive than he did while dancing with Julie. Synchronized to the same song, written for only them to hear.
“We play pretend,” Julie sang as she leaned into Luke’s chest. Luke wrapped his arms around her and spun her so they were facing each other.
“We play pretend, ” he sang, harmonizing perfectly. Their voices were made to sing together.
“We say we’re friends,” Julie sang, as Luke mirrored her vocals in his echoed part. She turned to face him with a sad, bittersweet smile on her face as she sung, “you mean more to me. ” Luke just smiled at her, happy to have this one last moment with the woman he loved.
“We create,” he sang, wrapping her up in his arms, begging for her to stay for just one more second. Julie relaxed in his warmth, resting her head in his chest.
“In perfect harmony, ” Julie sang, finishing the song, words settling in Luke’s mind. The magic faded and suddenly they were back in the ambulance, pulling up to the hospital. Julie reached up and pulled Luke down to give him a soft kiss on his forehead. Tears started to roll down Luke’s cheeks again as he pulled her close, as though he could shield her from what the fates set in motion long before they met. Julie hugged him, her fingers tightening around his sleeveless t-shirt. “I’m so sorry Luke. I love you ,” Julie whispered, disappearing from his arms. Luke let out a throat-clenched sob as he took one last look to the woman he loved, before poofing away, never able to hear her voice again.