AJ squeezed Julie tightly as they arrived back in twenty-thirty. She returned his hug, patting him gently on the back. Now that they were under good lighting, Julie could see the extent of his injuries. His right cheek was swollen and he had a cut right below his eye. His lips were dry and cracked with several red spots where they cracked enough to bleed. A few of the wounds he received during the fight in Rome were still healing. They were clean and stitched leaving Julie to believe that just because Nick wanted him stuck in time, he didn't want him dead.

“Thank you,” AJ whispered in her ear and pulled back. “If you ever need anything...”

Julie nodded and smiled at him.

“AJ?” a female voice startled them both. Julie looked over AJ's shoulder to see Erika coming down the hall towards them. She smiled partly from the look on the other woman's face, partly out of relief that it was not Howie or Kevin.

AJ turned to face the woman. “Erika,” he sighed her name and walked towards her, his walk had a slight limp to it that Julie had not noticed as they were escaping the camp.

“You are a sight for sore eyes,” Erika wrapped AJ in a hug. Julie could see the tenderness that Erika was taking with him. She knew there was a story there and she was sad she would never get to know these two volunteers.

“AJ,” Julie called out. He turned to look at her. She was going to tell him that it was nice knowing him, but he might tip off Kevin and Howie before she was able to fully escape and she still had to say good-bye to her mother one last time before she returned to work with Edith. Instead, she smiled and said, “Welcome home.”

He grinned at her and she watched the reunion as it turned to move down the hall. Something in her head was nagging at her and she called out to him. “There is something you can do for me. When you are healed I need you to make a little trip into the past.” She continued to tell him about the first time she met him, about the answers he provided her that gave her enough fire to continue and kept her from leaving The Library and missing Kevin.

AJ nodded at Julie. “I will definitely do that for you.” He hugged her one last time before Erika helped him walk towards the medical wing to have his wounds taken care of.

Julie smiled as she dialed her device, Brian's device, to return her to twenty-twelve. She needed to get some things together before she left for good. Hopefully she could accomplish it before Brian woke up and noticed his device was missing. She would leave him a note explaining it, he shouldn't be stranded long, Howie was overdue for a visit.

It didn't really look as if she had jumped since she moved to the exact same spot from twenty-thirty to twenty-twelve but when she reached the room she'd been staying in she knew she jumped. Her stuff was scattered around the room just the way she left it.

She threw some of her items that she wanted to keep with her in a bag, deciding she would buy new clothes when she got back to the sixties. She pulled her wallet out of the dresser and looked at her money and credit cards. None of that would work in the past to buy anything. “Damn,” she cursed herself, she should have gone into the jump room, she knew they had currency for different times and places in there. Maybe Edith would give her some cash to tide her over.

“Julie!” she could hear Howie's voice calling to her.

She meekly came out of her room and was soon facing Howie and much to her surprised disappointment, Kevin. Brian groggily came out of his room to join them.

“What's going on?” Brian asked through his yawn.

“AJ's been returned.” Howie said the words to Brian but his eyes remained locked on Julie.

“Well that's great isn't it? Where was he?” Brian asked, now seemingly fully awake.

“China,” was Howie's only reply. Everyone remained silent as Brian looked at Kevin and Howie and then looked at Julie. Julie was still wearing the han fu she had donned in order to make the rescue, she hadn't thought about changing.

“How did you find out it was me?” She knew they would know AJ was returned, but she didn't think they'd assume it was her that rescued him. Her eyes flitted briefly to Kevin; he was just standing there, his face betraying no emotions. This from the man who a few weeks ago crawled into her hospital bed holding her like he was afraid she'd disappear if he let go.

“AJ told us,” Kevin answered for Howie. Julie nodded, she hadn't asked AJ not to tell them who it was that returned him, she didn't even tell him that she wasn't supposed to be on any missions.

Howie ran his hands through his hair, “Julie, Charles is demanding that you be disciplined. This is twice you've gone against an order and done things on your own. This kind of behavior cannot be tolerated.” He grabbed Julie's arm and tried to remove her device, but she had left it in her room inside her bag when she heard him calling her name. “You'll come with me to see what Charles wants to do, and so I can check that wound to make sure you haven't torn anything.” He groped her arm and when he couldn't find the device he dropped her arm. “Where is it?”

Julie looked at him, she wasn't going to give it up, it was her chance to get away from here. She hoped she would be able to get away and jump, she wanted to keep her memories. She did not want to lose five years of her life just because she was trying to get results.

“We'll worry about it later; you will come with me now.” He grabbed hold of her wrist again and started to dial his device.

“Wait,” Brian called out before Howie could press the button. “It's not her fault.”

All three sets of eyes turned their attention to Brian waiting for him to explain.

“She was following orders,” He looked at Howie and half smiled. “She was following my orders.”

“Since when...” Howie started but Kevin interrupted him.

“What happened?” He asked.

Brian motioned to Julie and then to himself. “We were here, researching, when we came across some information that we thought could prove beneficial.”

Julie jumped in when she saw Brian struggling to come up with what information they had come across. “I remembered what Nick told me right before he stabbed me. He was telling me about Zoe and how much she loved the children she was helping in China.”

“Right, and since she'd been returned,” Julie looked at Kevin when Brian said 'returned' watching his face, Kevin cringed at the mention. “We figured that maybe they were still using that area as a base of operations thinking that we wouldn't look there again.”

Julie nodded. “We were going to tell you the next time Brian checked in,” She started.

“But, I decided that it could be too late by then. We needed to act fast and I told Julie to take my device and get the proper attire and go check it out. If it was nothing then we wouldn't have bothered you with another false lead and if he was there then Julie would have a chance to get him before the other side could suspect we knew.”

“So even though she obviously had to come and get a change of clothes you thought it better to have her check it out despite her injury than to just tell us what you discovered while she was there?” Howie asked. Julie could sense that he didn't believe the story and she bit her lip waiting to see what Brian would say in return.

“Howie, I know you,” Brian put his hand on the other man's shoulder. “you would have wanted to get a group together, you would have wanted more information before sending the team and you would have delayed the jump to ensure things went smoothly. If Julie checked it out and it was nothing, then none of the extra time or resources would have been used.”

The minutes before Howie said anything seemed to take forever, but finally he responded. “Well if it was your decision I guess we should go explain that to Charles.”

Julie could feel the breath she was holding released relieved that Howie let go of her arm and moved to Brian. She looked at Brian trying to ask him through her eyes why he did that. He was already punished enough, why did he take the blame for her? She waved to him as he and Howie disappeared from sight.

“Well,” Kevin spoke startling Julie, she was so wrapped up in Brian defending her that she had forgotten he was here.

Julie raised her eyebrows at him and turned her back walking back towards her room. She had more to pack and she really needed to get out of these clothes. She hardly noticed that Kevin had followed her into the room.

“Yes?” She asked him coolly. She stood with her arms crossed in front of her and waited for his response. She really didn't want to know what he had to say, for all she knew he was going to zap her with the device right this instant and take her home.

“What is with you?” Kevin asked.

Julie shrugged and moved back to her packing.

“You are infuriating,” Kevin thew up his hands and headed for the door.

“So you have said,” Julie collapsed on her bed and put her head in her hands. It would be better this way, right?