When he was at the bar, Kriss couldn't put it past him how familiar he and Juliana looked. Of course, the day after all that was on his mind was a bad hangover, but somewhere amidst his jumbled thoughts, headache, nausea and dizziness, he'd remembered the woman. Or, at least, her name, and something about a movie, and... something else. And that he drank a lot.

So, anyway. Curiosity got the better of the big, bad werewolf. He went snooping around in all of the records of all the Julianas in Bayfield, and lo and behold, eventually pulled of the records of Juliana Gabrielle Forstner. Normally he wouldn't be so interested in somehow, but they looked so much alike. It had nagged him for a long time now, and he decided to put the nagging to an end. It was annoying him.

Surprise, surprise. No wonder they'd seemed like, when describing their fathers, they were describing the same person. He looked at the papers for a long while, pondering what he should do. The nagging feeling was gone. It was as if remembering the name of an old friend that you'd been trying to think of for a long time. The nagging feeling had gone away, but it'd been replaced by a more insistint nagging that told him to go inform Juliana of this information.

So, he did. On his break.

He was dressed in his cop uniform. Professional. His black hair was pulled back into a tight ponytail. His green eyes were intense and piercing. Black slacks, white shirt, the usual uniform. He looked sexy. Only Kriss could look sexy in a cop uniform, or those fake cops in the movies...

He sort of sauntered all the way down streets and sidewalks. It, fortunately, wasn't that far from here.

And, eventually, he reached the house he wanted. And he continued his casual stride until he reached the door.

He rapped his knuckles on it rythmically three times, each following once second after the other.

Juliana was also on her lunch break. Luckily for her though, the man who had looked so familiar was not on the top of her nagging list. In fact she had almost forgotten about him, it had been such a long time since that night in the bar; a couple months at least. Christa was at school and she didn’t have money to go eat out anywhere on break so she simply came home and fixed her a plan old peanut butter and jelly with a glass of milk. Who could go wrong with PB & J?

The knock at the door suddenly sent her panic stricken. Yes, Juliana was quite the paranoid person. But who could blame her? She’d run into Chris already since her arrival in this city and she had assumed it was only a matter of time before he found her house. Goosebumps formed on her arms and her green eyes went wide. Slowly she got up from the table and began hesitantly walking to the door. She’d fashioned out a peep hole on the door for this very purpose; to double check who was actually out on the steps.

Hands went against the door and she peaked out through the hole and almost fainted. Kriss had such an uncanny with another Chris she knew that for one split second she really thought he had found her house. But taking a second glance she saw the police uniform.

”Who is it?” She stated before even opening the door of the house. Juli needed to double check. So she waited to see what they would say. Her ear was pressed up against the door.

Kriss rocked forward on his toes. Even though he was tall enough already, he was simply waiting for her to answer the door. When she asked who it was at the door, he could almost hear her fear. He smiled (though it was more of a smirk).

"It's Kriss. Krisstopher."

Krisstopher. Krisstopher. That sounded familiar. Oh! The guy at the bar. Now she remembered. She began to unlock the door and then opened it, but only halfway so she was standing in the doorway.

”Yes?” She asked rather meakly. Juli was dressed in her work clothes as well. Her nice black slacks and blue button down t-shirt. However she didn’t have shoes on at the moment as she took them off as soon as she got in the house. Her short wavy brown hair tied back into a small ponytail.

Kriss just stood at the doorway, smiling prettily.

"Juliana Gabrielle Forstner, hm? May I come in?"

(Bah/short/.)

Her eyes went wide. How did he know her full name? She distinctly remembered only giving her first and last name. Definitely not her middle name. Not many knew that information. Naturally this sent her on edge.

”What if I say no? I don’t even know you. I only spoke with you one night for a couple of hours.” She stated still rather shaken up about all this. And how did he know her address? Was he stalking her?

Kriss knew why she was paranoid. Chris was her father, after all. Kriss didn't even need to guess what was done to her.

"What if you do know me? Then would you say yes?"

”Depends. I know plenty of people that aren’t nice.” She stated warily. Chris was the biggest one, but her boss wasn’t very nice either.

He frowned a little, nodding. He pressed his lips together, then asked, "What if I said we were... related?" Being related to her by Chris was definitely not a reassurance, though, probably.

”I’d say where’s your proof and how would that be any reassurance?” Yes she knew that being related to her might not be the best of things. Depended on what side he came from and she had a very bad feeling it wasn’t from her mother’s.

"Your records. My name's Krisstopher Memphis Maxwell," it was only fair she knew his full name, since he knew hers.

"Mother was Kyla Maxwell. Father was Chris Valentine."

He folded his arms over his chest.

"Your father's Christopher, isn't he?"

"And, you need reassurance it's a good thing? Well, I haven't attacked or raped you or anything."

Yes, that was Kriss' attempt at reassurance. So what if it's not any good. Hmph.

None of the information really concerned her until he said his father was Chris. Once again her eyes grew wide and without warning she shut the door and locked it again. Okay sure it wasn’t the nicest thing to do, but his reassurance wasn’t exactly the best either. Her back against the door she tried to keep herself from having an anxiety attack.

She said nothing but rather walked hastily to the kitchen to grab her medicine before she /did/ have an anxiety attack.

Hey...

HEY!

How rude. Nobody shut doors in the face of Kriss!

Nevermind the fact that she'd probably already forgot him by now, and he just showed up at her doorstep bringing up the name of her father, which... wasn't the smartest thing to do, to say the least.

But anyway.

Knock, knock, knock on the door.

Rawr.

As she downed her second pill he began knocking on the door. She peaked around the corner of the kitchen and down the front hallway to the door.

She walked back to the door. Right now she was a bit upset over several things. One that her home had been discovered by someone who knew Chris and two he brought up the touchiest subject to the woman.

”Why are you here? What do you want from me?” She asked rather irritably now.

"Quite a warm welcome for your half-brother." Yes, Kriss was huffy. She was so... rude.

"Listen. I know I probably don't look like the nicest person alive. But I'm a cop. Do you seriously think I cam all this way just to hurt you or something?"

"We're related. I just thought you'd like to know."

And now he's all pissy.

Eye brows furrowed. He made a few good points, but that didn’t mean they were all buddy buddy because she knew they were related now. She still hardly knew him at all.

Relenting she unlocked and opened the door again. The look on her face probably looked almost as perturbed as he felt. She swung the door open and then walked down the hallway signaling to him he can come in but she wasn’t all that thrilled yet about this whole thing.

Sigh. Women could be so... difficult.

He walked in. After all, after he'd just went through all of that to get her to open the door again, why just walk away? He shut the door behind him.

"Sorry about this."

Frown.

"I was sort of expecting a different reaction."

She had a frown of her own and then a sarcastic laugh.

”What reaction were you expecting?” She doubted he could possibly think she would be all happy about finding out she had yet another half brother she never knew about and that he had the same father.

She sat down on her couch in the living room. Music sheets resided on the small coffee table that belonged to Christa and her ratty lamb lay on a different, smaller couch. School was one of the few places the lamb simply could not go.

"Well... for one, I didn't think you'd go completely nuts on me."

He didn't follow her and sit. He put a hand on the wall and leaned his weight into it.

"And, two... I didn't think you'd shut the door in my face."

Another thoughtful frown.

"And, three, I thought you might be at least a little happy?"

Almost sulk.

"I mean, I wasn't all smiles either when I found out, but I wasn't all... 'ohmiggod' and pissed off."

”Well what did you expect me to do?! You just showed up on my door step and I didn’t even give you that information. Sure you’re a cop but that didn’t mean I expected to find you at my door.” She stated rather hastily to the first comment.

”Sorry about the door, but I was just a bit overwhelmed.” AKA she was about to have a panic attack which would not have been good. If he thought it was going bad then, it surely would have gotten worse if that happened.

”I couldn’t be happy. I was too busy being in shock. I only knew about one half brother until I moved to this city and now I know of three.” She crossed her legs and her head went back along the couch, her hands resting on her face as if trying to figure this out. You could say she was stressed and overwhelmed. Who wouldn’t be?

Her hands came away from her face. ”If you weren’t happy about it either then why’d you come?” Now she was rather curious to know that answer to that one.

Well, she was right, wasn't she? Bah...

"Another half-brother?" Eyebrow. "It shouldn't surprise you that you have more." Shrug.

"Not once did I say not happy, did I? I just said not all smiles."

Shrug. Again.

"I was curious. I wanted to visit. And you are my half-sister."

She couldn’t deny that fact that she shouldn’t be surprised there were more half siblings. But she hadn’t really dwelled upon the possibility. Christa was enough to keep her mind busy.

”Well smiling and being happy are sort of tied together aren’t they?”

Her arms folded across her chest and rested in her lap as he said he wanted to visit his half sister. Eyes darted to the clock momentarily to see what the time was. Still several hours before Christa would get out of school, but she was expected back at work in twenty minutes.

”Shouldn’t you use your cop skills to actually arrest him?” Kriss should know who he was talking about. If he was a cop and most likely had the same things happen to him, minus one really big thing, shouldn’t he have put a stop to him by now?

"Sometimes. Depends."

He gave her a long glance, but he didn't have to think too hard to answer her next question. He smiled a rather tight smile.

"The whole police force would be after his ass if we knew where he lived, doll. Hell... I'd kill him myself if I knew where he lived, if not for my sake for all our half-siblings' sake." Shouldn't that have been obvious?

”Well he’s somewhere in this city.” At least he was when….her mind turned away from thinking about that night. It wasn’t the most pleasant of memories, like most of her life actually. She didn’t mind forgetting about everything accept for the memories she cherished with her child and the information she needed to keep her job. Everything else was up for grabs if somebody wanted to take them from her.

"He's here?" that was spoken in somewhat surprise and disbelief.

"How.. I..."

Frown. Very much frown. He knew he couldn't ask her. It wouldn't be right. He has a soft spot when it comes to issues like those.

"No, nevermind, mm. Sorry."

Apparently this was news to him. She thought that he would have known at least that much.

She only nodded to restate he was indeed here and then turned her gaze away from him. It was hard to keep the memories from coming back into the front of her mind.

”Don’t apologize. You did nothing wrong.” That was the one word she hated above all the others. When people said they were sorry for something they had no business being sorry for or pitied her because of what happened to her in the past. Of course she hardly said anything about that subject to anyone.

"I did. Poking my nose where it doesn't belong."

He gave a shrug.

"Anyway... I guess we're off to a bad start, but... I've got to get back to work."

Sigh.

"Would you give me a chance to see you again?"

She had no quarrel with what he said he did wrong. So she didn’t attempt to correct him.

She thought about if she should have him come back or not.

”Perhaps tomorrow on my lunch break again. My daughter will be home by the time I get off tonight.” She got up off the couch.

”Noon tomorrow. I should be here.”

"Okay, then. I'll be back then, if that's all right."

He turned and opened the door.

"Thanks for not shutting the door in my face again."

Then he was gone, door closed behind him.

”That’s fine.”

She let him out the door, got her shoes on and then headed back to work as well.

The day after that...

He was back, just as he'd promised, same time, but dressed differently. No work today, so simple cargo pants and a tight red shirt with a black jacket thrown over it were his casual wear. Also, combat boots. And his hair was let down, hanging around his shoulders. His eyes were still sharp and intense, however.

Knock, knock, knock.

Open up, Juli... and try not to freak out again...

Juli had actually been able to get her boss to let her off the rest of the day, so when she came home at 11:45 she was relieved that she would not have to return to work. Quickly she changed out of her work clothes and into her casual wear; her blue jeans with holes in the knees and a simple tight black t-shirt. Her hair was let down to day as well.

When the knock came at the door, she was prepared for it this time. She headed to the door and peaked out and saw Kriss standing there.

She unlocked the door and opened it up.

”Come on in.”

Well, she hadn't flipped out yet. And she was inviting him back into her house... that had to be good, right?

He wiped his boots before walking into her house.

"Thanks. Shoes off?"

”You can keep them on if you want. I don’t care either way.”

There was a reason she hadn’t flipped out yet. She took an extra dosage of her medicine to cope with the situation earlier this morning.

”Would you like anything to drink?” She walked off toward the kitchen after the door was closed.

Kriss took them off and let them by the door anyway. It was polite.

He slipped his hands into his jacket pockets.

"Nah, thanks." She probably didn't keep alcohol in her fridge anyway, what with her daughter...

This situation should be awkward, shouldn't it?

For some reason, Kriss didn't feel awkward at all.

”Alright.”

And he was right. Juli didn’t keep alcoholic beverages around the house with Christa.

She got into the fridge and pulled out a bottle of water. Popping off the cap she took a drink and then went back into the living room. Most of the house was connected, one room leading to another, since it was so small.

”You can sit if you want.” She sat down once again in the same spot she did yesterday.

So Kriss sat down on the couch, a cushion between him and Juli. Just for personal space, y'know? In case Juli wasn't comfortable having Kriss around.

"So... I should know stuff about you. Since you're my sister."

"Or, vice versa, if you want..."

Know stuff about her? That was a touchy subject. Rarely did she speak about her past with anyone, even family.

”Why don’t you go first.” Maybe if he spoke first it will relax her enough to talk about some of her past to him.

"'Kay. I'm twenty-five, first."

He tried to think of something else that would be good to tell her.

He chuckled a little. "And I'll only drink coffee black, if that counts?"

”I’m twenty-three.”

She chuckled slightly. The pieces of information so far weren’t that pressing for her to hide. It was good to have small talk.

”I don’t drink coffee that often. The smell isn’t my favorite.”