Chapter Text
Obviously Alister Graham McAndrews was surprised when he and Saint found Jules hanging out in the forest in Walla Walla, Washington. Who wouldn't be surprised to find a shotgun wielding, bigfoot loving lesbian hiding out in the trees in the woods while looking for monsters?
What surprised him was not that they found Jules in the woods.
What surprised Alister was the fact that his old partner Genie had actually listened to the last piece of advice that he gave her - Just stay alive.
----
The day that Jules left the Agency was not the day that she saw hard proof of the things that truly existed in this world. It wasn't the first time she had seen someone die at the horrors the Agency spent all their time covering up, and it wasn't because the stress of filing the paperwork finally got to her. It was the day she realized she herself had just become another one of the boogeymen.
She and Alister were taking care of a case in Iowa, a classic children of the corn style case. Children disappearing in the night, strange noises, uneasy feelings and someone who wasn't willing to admit the whole truth about where they got their fertilizer that year until it was a life or death situation. Alister and Jules' lives were also on the line, and there were a few hours that night where both thought the other had died, so when they finally found each other again back at the motel, they were relieved to see one another.
Alister looked shaken, but largely fine.
Jules looked like a large portion of her soul had been left out in that cornfield.
"Genie, you look awful." He hair was in disarray, her usual ponytail not even an idea in her hair's mind. She had dirt all over her, lacerations from the cornstalks and a bleeding gash in her shin that looked like it had taken the sharp end of a broken off stalk.
Jules dug around in the glovebox of her vehicle, pulling out a pack of cigarettes. There's only one other light missing from the pack, and it tells Alister that she must've seen something truly horrifying out there. "You don't look too great yourself there, Gramps." To be fair, Alister did look similarly messed up and worse for wear.
Alister sighed heavily. "You know you can call me by my first name."
Jules lights the cigarette. "And you insist on using mine even though I told you not to, funny how that works. I'm goin inside."
Alister looked at the "No Smoking" sign on the doors to their rooms and just shrugged. No one was ever going to stop Jules from doing whatever she wanted, and no matter how many times Agent Grey told Alister to see if he could rein her in at all, now was certainly not the time to try.
Jules went into her room quickly, slamming the door. Alister had the adjoining room, so they could each have a degree of privacy and room for all their stuff. Once he got inside he locked the door, turning to look at himself in the mirror to see just how bad he looked. He hadn't been sleeping much during this job, and it was clear as day under his eyes. Dirt clung to his skin and there were a few assorted leaves that had found their way into his hair. He turned on the water in the shower to get hot when Jules knocked on the door joining their rooms. He quickly turned the water back off, glad he hadn't started undressing yet, and went to the door.
He opened it to find Jules sitting on the floor by the door with tears cutting through the grime on her own face. A bottle of something sits by her feet that she must've bought earlier. She looks up at him and just bursts into tears again, putting her head in her hands. Alister doesn't know what to say, so he sits down in the doorway as well, scooting up to her as close as he can, knees touching hers. He rubs her knee with one of his hands, picking up the bottle of apparently cheap whiskey that she had next to her and taking a swig. "Do you wanna talk about it?" She shook her head. "Alright."
They sat like that, knees to knees, for probably twenty minutes. Jules crying and muttering absolute nonsense that Alister paid no attention to. Jules didn't want to share, and he respected that. He swigged on the whiskey and tried to comfort her as much as he could without overstepping any boundaries.
Eventually, after her sobs had faded out and she seemed to be largely done with crying, she wiped her eyes on the collar of her shirt and sat up a little straighter, holding a hand out for the bottle Alister was holding.
"Are you gonna be okay?" Alister asked.
Jules sighed, not looking at him or anything, just sort of looking down with her eyes somewhat glazed over. "Alister.... I think I have to leave the Agency."
He looked up, waiting for her to make eye contact so he could tell how serious she was being. She was the kind of agent who joked about leaving constantly, but when she finally did meet his gaze, he knew. This time was not a joke. He sighed, running a hand through his hair. "You know what I'm gonna say, Gene."
She glared at him, her jaw set. "Yes, I'm sure about this. I.... I can't tell you what I saw tonight. What I saw tonight is going to give me nightmares for the rest of my life, however long that might be." Alister raised an eyebrow at that phrasing. "Every agent meets their threshhold, we were told that day one of training."
"What do you mean 'however long that might be,' Jules? What are you planning?" Concern colored his voice and his eyes were open wide, scanning Jules and looking for any body language clues that might help him help her.
"Well.... It's not like the Agency is really going to just let me leave."
"As if you haven't escaped the purview of the Agency before."
Jules chuckles dryly. "Yeah.... Miami was a fun assignment."
Alister stands up, pacing around his room. Jules watches from where she's seated. He walks the full length of his room and for a brief second catches his reflection in the mirror, reminding him how disgusting he looked at that moment. He paused his pacing, turning towards Jules, seeing that she also looked an absolute wreck still. "Can we talk about this after we take some showers? If you're about to run away from the Agency forever, you might as well take one last shower on their dime."
She looks up at him and just starts laughing. Real belly laughter, falling flat on her back on the floor. He chuckles, but ultimately doesn't get what's so funny to her. When she finally collects herself, she nods to him, wiping away what seem to be happy tears this time. "Yeah I can work with that."
----
Do every stupid thing that makes you feel alive
Do every stupid thing to try to drive the dark away
Let people call you crazy for the choices that you make
Climb limits past the limits
Jump in front of trains all day
Play with matches if you think you need to play with matches
Seek out the hidden places where the fire burns hot and bright
Find where the heat's unbearable and stay there if you have to
Don't hurt anybody on your way up to the light
----
Once Alister and Jules both finished taking showers in their respective rooms, Alister sat on the second bed in Jules' room, shoving some of the various weapons and clothes out of the way so that he could actually take a seat. Jules was digging around in her other duffel bag, holding up various items to analyze them before either folding them tight and putting them back in in the bag or tossing them towards the bed that Alister was sat on.
It was after about twenty minutes of Jules doing this in silence that Alister finally caught something Jules threw at him and threw it back at her head. She pulled the shirt off of her face and look at Alister, who was staring at her with a concerned look on his face. "Genie we gotta talk at some point."
She broke eye contact, focusing on what she was doing in her bag. "I mean I don't know what we gotta talk about, Gramps. I'm leavin, you're gonna tell Agent Grey something happened to me out in the field and call it good."
He sat up straighter, gesturing wildly around with one of his hands. "And do what? How are you going to escape the purview of the Agency? You know they've got eyes everywhere!"
"They're not gonna waste time lookin for someone who ain't there, Gramps." She zips up her bag and moves around the bed, sitting cross legged on it facing Alister. "You're like what, two years older than me? Three? You're gonna give me all your great wisdom for living out in the real world." She grinned wide at him while he just stared blankly back at her.
"Eugenia this isn't funny."
Her expression fell, annoyance creeping in. "It's not supposed to be funny, Al."
"Don't call me Al."
"And don't call me Eugenia. Especially not after I'm gone."
"You make it sound like you're dying."
"I might as well be! I'm leaving behind everything, Eugenia Ortiz is going to be a dead agent as far as anyone goes except for you! And if I ever hear that the Agency knows I'm alive, there will be one person to blame, and if that happens." She stands up. She isn't taller than Alister even when he's sitting on the bed, but it feels like she's towering over him and he physically leans back from her as she leans in. "Let's just say that as much as I'll want to forget all of my training, I will never be able to, and I *will* use it on you myself."
Alister stuck a hand out shakily, pinky extended. "I wouldn't dream of it, Jules."
She hooks her pinky around his, shaking their hands. "So. What's your big life advice, Gramps?"
"I.... Well.... No, I can't do this fully sober, not right now. Where'd that whiskey go?" Jules digs underneath the pillow of the bed Alistair is sitting on and pulls out a different bottle of whiskey from before, this one unopened. He cocks his head to the side and she shrugs. "You still got those little coffee cups in here?" Jules walks over to where the mini coffee maker is, grabs the cups and brings them over to Alister, climbing on top of the mess on the other part of the bed he's sitting on, holding out the cups still in their little plastic bag sleeves.
Alister pours them both some whiskey and they talk, reminiscing on some of the various missions they've been on together, starting with the more positive memories and delving slowly into the stories that are less fun as the alcohol begins to take on their systems.
After a while they fall silent, sitting together and recognizing that this is probably the last night they'll ever talk to each other for the rest of their lives.
"Gramps I still want to know." Jules looked at the black tv on its stand.
He turned toward her. "Wanna know what?"
Alister noticed tears begin to well up in her eyes, but she continued to stare straight ahead, pointedly not looking at him. "I wanna know what I should do. If I'm going to go take back my life.... What should I do?"
He sighs, finishing the drink in his cup and then setting it on the nightstand between the beds.
"Just. Do it."
"Do what?"
Alister stood up from the bed and began pacing around. "Anything. Everything. It doesn't matter if it's stupid, just fuckin do it. If it doesn't work out, either live with the consequences or just go somewhere else and restart again. Who cares if you seem crazy because frankly, you are, Genie."
She scoffed, looking through the tops of her eyes towards him. "Wow, thank you for the epic vote of confidence, Gramps."
He wheels around to face her. "I'm serious! You just gotta do stupid shit and act crazy and that's just living life! I don't know, burn something down! Go find some freezing mountain town and follow the warmth to wherever makes you happy!"
Jules leans her head back, skeptical of Alister's motivations. "And what if I'm tired of living life on the edge? Is this job not doing the crazy shit and risking my life every day?"
Alister smiles, shaking his head. "You're so close yet so far off. It's not about risking your life every day, Gene. It's.... It's about actually living it. Finding fulfillment in something and really just sticking to it. It's not about being as risky as you can, seeing how close to death you can be. Sure, sometimes that's the shit that can make you feel alive. But being an adrenaline junkie isn't the only way to live your life. Find somewhere to settle down, find a place you don't mind looking at for a little while, and just. Embrace calamity every once in a while."
There's no immediate quippy response, and Alister looks over to see Jules sitting with her arms crossed, looking down. He doesn't know what she might be thinking until he sees a tear drop out of her eye and onto her forearm. He climbs onto the bed in front of her and she lifts her head up, allowing the tears to roll down her cheeks.
"You want advice on how to really live your life, Jules? Find the thing that makes you happy, and when that stops making you happy, move to something else."
"Does this job make you happy, Alister?"
He closes his eyes as he hangs his head. Slowly, he shakes it back and forth.
"Then what should make me listen to anything you gotta say?"
He sighs heavily and looks up. "Because you trust me, right?"
"I.... With my life, Gramps."
"Then do me a favor." He walks over to the cup he placed on the side table, grabbing the bottle and filling the cup again. He moves to put the bottle down, but holds onto it as he walks back to the door between their rooms. "Get out of here before morning. I'll make up a story convincing enough to get Agent Grey, and the rest of the department, to think you're MIA. Pick somewhere inconspicuous and just. Be happy for me. And Genie?" She looks up at him. "Just stay alive. For me."
And then he closed the door on his partnership with Eugenia "Jules" Ortiz.