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Come on, Aurelia. You know it was a mistake, I know it was a mistake. Can't we start over? Come back home.

She sat with her left knee resting against the steering wheel of her Jeep in the parking lot. Her hand gripping her phone as she read the text message. He had been pleading the words the night that he had been caught and she'd wanted nothing more than to throw her keys at his face. Dana had, at least, looked sheepish. Embarrassed, trying to shield herself. Her own best friend, the one person she'd thought she'd been able to count on. Between the two of them, there had been no second thought about throwing her belongings in her vehicle, resigning and leaving without telling anyone.

It had only been when she'd reached the outskirts of Harper Rock had Aurelia even called her own parents, telling them that she was coming home. She could have reached out to Judah, but she'd thought against it at a better note. In the past, she'd always been one to think she'd never return to Harper Rock for good, but as she read another text from Lawrence, the desire to be anywhere else was significantly slim. Turning the device back off, she put it back into the dashboard compartment where she'd been keeping it.

One of those days, she would get a new phone, but for now, her email would work fine. Not many people contacted her, anyhow. If she needed to make a call, she had one that she used for work back home in her office, but she wasn't practicing now. Eventually, that too would have to change. There was still mental debate about what she would do - whether it be open her own practice in the city, or see about working for the city of Harper Rock.

But for now, as she enjoyed the feeling of the sun against her freckled skin, there were other things to do: she needed to reconnect to some of her family members. Pushing her sunglasses up onto the top of her straw colored hair, Aurelia double checked the address of Sweet Escape and knew she had the right place. When it came to reconnecting, why not start with the one who knew her the best when it came to her secrets, anyway? She let out a small exhale, wondering how much had changed last since she'd been in the city, and got out.

Her blue eyes took in the architecture, her mind racing as she felt the usual tension in her stomach disappearing briefly and being replaced with nerves. Smoothing out her palms over her jeans, Aurelia told herself not to worry. "Was he one of the ones who brought Alaric back?" She wondered, again thinking about the fact that it was strange for the man to be brought back to their time. However, isn't that when odd things were supposed to happen? When they're needed the most?

It took her a few moments to find where she had put her keys to lock the door, but as she walked up to the bakery and entered, the smell of baked goods set all nerves aside. Her fingers curled around the door handle to keep it open as an older woman and a young boy passed her, Aurelia stepping out of the way as she took a breath in. When the way was clear, she stepped aside and looked around as she called out, "Hello? Jude?"

Purchasing the bakery had been a personal indulgence. A charitable act, yes, but he couldn't deny that he had selfish reasons for doing so. It was a good business, profitable but without feeling the need to expand or franchise, it was good because it was small, it was a place where regulars became friends, where friends became family. It very much had the same feel about it that he tried to cultivate in his church; a place to come after a hard day, judgment left at the door. The smell of the place was inviting, even from the streets you could smell the delicate pastries and rich aroma of roasted coffee, freshly ground. He didn't have much to do with the day to day running, he left it in the capable hands of the original owner, the older German woman still working there most days, enjoying a steady paycheck without the stress. He still thought of it as hers, still deferring to her judgement on many matters. It was a pleasant working relationship built on mutual respect and a love of community. He'd come by to spend a few hours in the upstairs office to sort through paperwork, and for a change of scenario, though had instead ended up commandeering his favourite table in the back corner of the bakery, with a cup of coffee that seemed ludicrously big and a picked at piece of strudel in front of him.

When the familiar woman entered his nose was in a file and mind on anything but work, having drifted into a daydream mid-page. He was thinking of coffee early that morning, back at his house. His son August was sat on the floor in front of the couch, leaning against his legs as he stared at a morning cartoon and picked at the bowl of fresh berries in his lap. Beside him was Sterling, ruggedly handsome, hair mussed after stumbling out of bed. He occasionally reached down to pick a berry out of the bowl Augustine held, as bemused as the young boy was enthused by the show. Jude had felt a strange sense of peace he hadn't for years, sipping on his morning coffee on that couch, so content that it was great reluctance he shooed the boy off to get ready for the day and dragged himself to do the same.

It took him a moment to register who it was that had called his name, glancing up at her framed in the doorway, the light shining around her in an almost halo-like fashion. As his eyes adjusted the familiar, overwhelming sense of love came over him. Family. It had been a while since they'd caught up, though they spoke fairly often. Aurelia was the kind of person that distance and time didn't seem to touch, to him she was always the same, always radiant. He rose from his seat in an enthusiastic fluster, pushing the glasses he wore up the bridge of his nose as he moved to greet her. "HI! I wasn't sure you'd come by today, you seemed kind of unsure. I'm so glad you made it." While concern touched his tone it didn't dampen his obvious enthusiasm to see her, brown eyes alight with it and lips struggling to fight his trademark grin. His arms opened almost expectantly to his kin, welcoming her not only to the city but into his embrace.

Home. That was the feeling she always got when she stepped into an area where Judah’s presence was. It was a feeling she knew was one that came with certain members of the von der Marck family, their personalities always seeming to resonate the feeling. It was something she had always missed when she was away from home, living with her ex in Toronto. It was a feeling that always made her regret leaving, even with that lingering misery that faded the further she got away from Harper Rock. Home, though, whether in regards to her little ranch outside of town, far from the Quarantine zone where the screams of the dead could make Aurelia ill enough and feel a tightening in her chest as if someone had put her heart in a vice grip, or the familiar smile of a loved one, was always something that won out.

"Well, I was out this way - looking at vacant office buildings for sale. I figured why not.” She said as she embraced the man and pressed a kiss to his cheek. After a few moments, she stepped back and set her hands on his shoulders, a grin across her lips, "Look at you, haven’t changed a bit. If August is half as handsome as his father is, everyone’s gonna have their eyes on him in school when he’s older.” Aurelia teased. Out of her cousins, she was closest to Judah - she would admit it, even to her parents if they asked. He knew about the spirits, about her need to help them occasionally or to attempt to flat out ignore them.

"I hope it is alright, I didn’t want to catch you if you were busy.” The frown across her lips was light as her grin weakened. She didn’t know the time schedules, or his own schedule. For herself, she knew when she was working that if she got distracted she got a little less than pleasant. Then again, she spent a majority of preparing for her case by filling out paperwork and working with witnesses. Women and men, children. "I would have called but I prefer to keep my phone off these days.”

Judah knew he was beaming as he hugged his cousin, returning the kiss to her cheek without hesitation. He was so glad to see her. It had been a tumultuous year and so much had changed, it would be difficult to catch her up on it all if she even wanted to hear about it. She would, he knew she would, but they had time. Her comment about his son made him laugh, leaning back to trace her features with his gaze in return. It was the kind of look you gave someone when you were doing a mental checklist, ensuring they were well and that nothing drastic had changed. "You'll make me blush, geez! He, for better or worse, is looking a whole lot like me those days. He has his mother's blue eyes, lucky boy." The smile softened but the grief that had made his features tense for so long was absent. Of course, there were still moments where it caught up to him and made it just that little bit harder to breathe, but it no longer had the ability to tarnish the good memories of his wife.

Jude gave her another small hug before releasing her, leading her back towards the table he'd vacated enthusiastically upon her arrival. "Alright? Aurelia, for sure it's alright. I'm always happy to see you! Besides, you know what I'm like if I wasn't busy I'd go stir crazy..." He pulled out a chair for her before dropping into his own, piling up his work and pushing it aside, "But I'm never too busy for family. The pastor put his elbows on the table in a manner that he had no doubt he'd have been told off for by his parents, chin dropping into his hands so that he could focus his entire attention on the woman who'd come by to visit. "So... How are you?" It was spoken earnestly and without expectation, he understood that she might not have an answer to the question and was ready to go with the flow.

”There is nothing wrong with blushing. It simply enhances things.” She laughed, teasing the man as she gave a shake of her head. Despite the rude awakening on her relationship not being monogamous, she hadn’t changed. She would dye her hair before cutting it in a drastic measure, but she had wigs for anything unusual. For fun. If there was much of a change, she was leaner from becoming more active and lifting boxes and bags, throwing everything in Toronto that she could carry. It was good, though, to see that Judah hadn’t changed much either. Though, she noticed he was lighter - dare she say happier, after everything he had gone through?

A chuckle escaped from Aurelia as she hugged him again, following with ease. She thanked him for the seat, taking it and crossing her leg underneath herself. Her back away from the door, giving her a better view of the room - a habit she picked up from her sister and the police that she’d spent enough time with. The question on how she was doing was a loaded one. She knew there was several things going on in her head, but it could be taken to many different ways. Instead of frowning, she lifted her lips to remain in its usual smile.

”I’m better than I was yesterday, and the day before that.” She answered honestly. Even now, Aurelia could still make out the pale band where her engagement ring had been, standing out on her tan, freckled skin. ”It’s mostly just been me getting settled back in Harper Rock. Between Arielle and my parents, meeting Alaric, looking for an office building, I’ve been keeping distracted when not being bothered by,” She paused to make a motion around them, a way to indicate spirits without having to say it out loud due to the potential chance someone was listening, ”and healing. And yourself? How have you been?” What had she done to the ring? It was a question Aurelia wondered as she looked at her hand. She didn’t remember taking it off. Maybe she’d thrown it at them. Maybe she’d subconsciously lost it.

The healing was important, and not always easy, Jude understood that well. He'd had his fair share of heartbreaks and disappointments. Come to think of it, he'd also done the moving away and moving home thing. It was one of the many things they could talk about together, because they could talk about anything together really and one would always show empathy to the other. She'd been there for him in the harder times, let him cry on her shoulder after his wife's funeral and fret over how he was going to do it, be a single dad and in turn she'd come to him with problems, had told him her secret. He wondered how it would be to live as she did, with spirits try to seek you out, to gain your assistance. Exhausting, probably. Like being a relied upon Pastor but ten times worse.

"I know the circumstances aren't ideal, but, I'm glad to have you back, and glad to hear you're keeping busy. If you ever need..." He gestured a bit, shrugging, "Well, anything, then i'm around for you." When the questions turned to him he began to blush a little, the colour rising softly in his cheeks and the man fidgeting in his seat. "Good actually. Most things haven't changed all the much,
work is still good and this business venture has been pretty successful, August is great and, uh, well... I've been dating someone. Seriously." There, he'd said it out loud, he was telling her about it. He'd told her he was open to casually tiptoeing back into the dating pool, told her he'd accidentally hit on someone while tipsy and they'd ended up going on a date, or two but he hadn't been ready yet to tell people that it was serious. That he was serious.

”I know, I can always depend on my cousin, Jude." Aurelia said, the soft smile on her lips was appreciative as she knew the truth within her words. When in doubt, she was always able to turn to him. To cry on his shoulder if needed. If anything had been missed during her time away from Harper Rock, it was always the fact that she knew she could count on her family. Especially her sister and Judah, and now, Alaric. She knew had Judah asked, she would have moved home in a heartbeat for them - especially after the passing of Judah's beloved. It would have been more important to her than her career, knowing her cousins needed her. Home was where the heart is, and her heart had always been in Harper Rock even when she was working as hard as she was to become the woman she was that day.

At the mention of Judah dating, Aurelia wasn't surprised - she figured it would happen at some point. However, it was when he mentioned that he was serious about someone, the blonde reached out and lightly smacked his shoulder. ”Why didn't you tell me?" She asked, exasperatedly despite the smile that remained. It was great news, really. Fantastic news, actually. ”Tell me all about them." Aurelia straightened up, leaning forward afterwards as she settled into the chair and folded her hands on the table in front of her. It was clear that her attention had been shifted, she wanted details about the individual that had swept the formerly heartbroken man off his feet.

”Cross my heart that I will not throttle you for not telling me sooner if I get to meet this mysterious stranger once you two are more involved." She said, teasingly.

"Well, it's... Kind of complicated." He admitted, rubbing at the smacked shoulder bashfully, playing it up as if she'd wounded him but the shy grin he wore said otherwise. He wanted to tell her everything, right from the start, all the details that had lead him to where he was now but that meant telling her things he wasn't sure she could fathom. How much DID she know? Of course, he'd told her quite a lot, alluded to it when he wasn't convinced he could flat out announce the facts. Did he bring up vampires, wendigos and paladins? That felt like too much, even with her own forays into the supernatural world he just knew it might be too much. Things were fragile enough as it was, Aurelia was getting to know Alaric and all the finer details would become clear soon enough. Instead, he chose to focus on the other big factor that he'd failed to mention.

"You can meet..." He paused for a heartbeat, barely a hiccup in the conversation but to him it felt like an eternity, "Him." Those warm brown eyes darted away, guarded for the briefest of moments. Of course she'd been told about Austin, the best friend who he'd cared for, the first man he'd realised he could love in the same way he loved his wife, but that was different. Wasn't it? No, Jude had finally admitted to himself that it hadn't been a once off, that he was fully capable of falling head over heels in love with men and women equally. "Sterling, his name is Sterling... August loves him, which is great, he's so cool with it. The rest of the family, not so much... He and Alaric butted heads in a major way, both trying to uh,
protect me and Leonie wasn't super impressed. Then again, I honestly don't think Leonie approves of most things I do right now so... We're working on it." He had rambled, letting his words bump into each other as he spilled them. "But i'm happy, Aurelia, he makes me HAPPY."