In the morning, Cathy woke up to the smell of hot soup. She opened her eyes to find Julie with a tray holding a bowl of some chicken broth. "Hey," Julie whispered.
            "Hey..." Cathy replied weakly.
            "Here, drink this," Julie said as Cathy sat up, making room for Julie to sit on the bed.
            "You trying to suck up, eh?" Cathy laughed as Julie began to feed her.
            "I AM sorry..."
            "As long as you're gonna fix this, I'm fine."
            "We are going to, don't worry."
            "Good. So my little explosion helped I guess?"
            "Yeah..."
            "Sorry for yelling though."
            "You didn't really yell...Don't worry, we needed that reality check..."
            "So what do you plan to do?"
            "Hannah and I don't want to talk to them on the phone...yet. So we're gonna try ICQ."
            "Why not IM?"
            "Cuz there's no limit for typing on the chat on ICQ...on IM you run out of steam, and we don't want that," Julie smiled.
            "Do they have ICQ?"
            "Chin found out that Joey has it on his laptop...so Lance will be able to talk to Hannah..."
            "But what about Nick?"
            "We dunno yet...but Sarah's gonna ask Kevin about it today."

            Cathy got over her mild cold by staying in bed till dinnertime. Later that evening, Joey called on the phone, saying Lance was online under Joey's screen name. We all rushed Hannah to the den (we were downstairs eating dinner at the time) and turned on the computer. Hannah logged on and added Joey's name to her contact list. It popped up "online". She looked at us. We took the hint and left the room. We went back to eating and heard her typing. We finished dinner and peeked in the den...she was still talking to him. We went to watch some TV in the family room. The dogs came and sat by us, they could tell we were waiting for something.  Jenny cuddled Roky, muttering something about still having to get a hold of Nick--the phone had been busy when I had called. Two hours later, Hannah emerged from the den.  The pained look, that had seemed to always be somewhat apparent on her face since that day at the airport, was gone.
            "He doesn't hate me...after I tried to ignore him for so long..." Hannah mumbled.
            "He cares for you, Hannah, he could never hate you," Jenny softly said.
            "He said we could start over if I wanted...He typed ‘Hi my name is Lance! And you are?'...He's so sweet..." Hannah giggled.
            "And what did you say?" Cathy asked.
            " 'Hi, I'm Hannah' of course," she smiled.
            "So everything's okay?" Chin asked.
            "Well, it'll be awkward for awhile...but it's better than the past few weeks have been," Hannah sighed happily.

            The next day, I got a hold of Kevin. He said that Howie had ICQ on his laptop. It was arranged for Julie to talk to Nick later in the evening. Basically the same thing happened; we left her alone in the den to talk to him on the computer. This was the basic conversation:
J: hi nick...
N: JULIE!
N:.........i don't know what to say
J: don't say you're sorry nick :-)
N: very funny
J: if anyone should be sorry, it should be me...i haven't been fair to your feelings...
N: i understand why you broke it off.
N: but I can't respect your decision...!
J: oh really...?
J: ~waits for reason~
N: it's just that...
J: yes...? ~grins at you~
N: aww how sweet.
J: thank u. now you were saying? ~waits~
N: julie...i REALLY do care about you............a lot
J: i care about you too.........
N: but not a lot...
J: NI-ICK...! YES a lot!
J: why do you think i'm even talking to you right now? do you know what i've put myself through?
N: yes...if it's what i went through.
J: yeah...
N: so are we okay about this then?
J: i guess
N: i really miss you...
J: i'll admit i miss you too nick...a lot ;-)
N: I miss you MORE
J: do NOT
N: DO TOO
J: we're not starting this, are we?
N: you're the one who started it, not me
J: hmph
(there was a few moments of "silence" and  nothing was typed)
N: so we are okay?
J: yes
N: i assume 'yes' is MUCH better than 'i guess' hmm?
J: yeah ~laughs~
N: i wish i could see you laughing.
J: awww...
N: i have to go now...i'm sorry...time zones suck...
J: it's okay...yeah they do...i guess i'll talk to you later then?
N: yeah...oh julie?
J: yeah?
N: what do i tell the guys?
J: what do you mean?
N: are we together again?
J: nick....i dunno...
N: okay...
J: i'm sorry...
N: no, don't be...we can take it slow this time, k?
J: okay...friends?
N: yes of COURSE friends!...bye julie...
J: bye nick...
            When she came out of the den, we noticed that she was happier.

            Later in the week, Chin started talking to us about Julie's birthday. Nick hadn't called since he talked to Julie over the net...but he talked to her on ICQ; it must have been easier. So when he did call, I was surprised...And he didn't want to talk to Julie. He told us that the he and the guys had thought of something for her birthday. We made the necessary arrangements, but didn't tell Julie. Nick told us, and the guys, that he wanted it to be a surprise.
 

*Chapter 29 ~ Blind Morning*
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