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Joe Russo ([info]notalongtime) wrote in [info]heureuxlake,
@ 2024-06-02 20:46:00

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Entry tags:Δ complete, Δ text/email/phone/mail, → giulia de sanctis, → joe russo, ∞ 2000: 06

Phone call: Siblings reunited
Who: Joe Russo, Giulia de Sanctis
What: Joe gets in touch
When: 2 June 2000
Where: Phone call
Warnings: None
Completion status: Complete

Joe was off duty but had spent the last few hours exercising with his partner, Dax. It was one of those days where he just needed to spend time with the simplicity of a dog. He and Dax had been working together for a few months now but he would still take any opportunity to build that bond. She didn't ask for much, just her favourite toys as a reward for following his commands and a few fun things to sniff out. The German Shepherd had a high drive to work and he was grateful for the distraction that working with her provided.

By the time he led her back to her kennel, Joe finally felt ready to make the phone call that he had been stewing over for most of the week. He had programmed Giulia's number into his cellphone but hadn't yet been able to press the call button.

His thumb hovered over the button and he grimaced, screwing his eyes shut before he pressed it and bringing the phone up to his ear. It rang a few times before the call was picked up and he felt like a ball of anxiety as he waited.

"Hi. It's me. Uh, it's Joe. Joe Russo. We met the other day." He winced silently. Man, that was a bad start.


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[info]giuliasings
2024-06-02 08:21 pm UTC (link)
Although she wasn't in New York this weekend, Giulia also wasn't at an event at the moment. She had a couple of hours before she was set to go on stage at an outdoor festival outside Phoenix, Arizona. The heat was comfortable to her, but being so landlocked was not. She was sitting in a tent with a fan circulating the warm air, studying her set list and trying to feel out whether she wanted to switch out her second song when her phone rang. It wasn't something that happened often, although these days it was most likely to be Sam if someone was calling, and that thought brought a smile to her lips, her stomach fluttering.

She wished he was here with her, but he wasn't far enough along with his shop to come away with her, and she hadn't even asked because she didn't want him to feel conflicted about it. She had a feeling that, like with everything else in their relationship so far, when the time was right for her to ask him to come, she would know.

The phone number on her screen was not one she recognized, but she answered anyway, and she immediately knew the voice on the other end. Her stomach fluttered again for a completely different reason, and she chuckled softly, shaking her head even though he couldn't see her. "It's okay, Joe. I remember, of course. It's good to hear from you. How have you been?" she asked genuinely.

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[info]notalongtime
2024-06-02 08:57 pm UTC (link)
Joe felt his shoulders relax at the sound of her voice, so welcoming to him when his existence had dropped a bomb on her life. He still didn't even know what sort of life she had but he could imagine that meeting him had disturbed her as much as it had him.

"Uh, good question." Joe rubbed the back of his neck as he thought how to answer that. He had decided that he wanted to call Giulia but still didn't know what he wanted to say to her. "Keeping busy, mostly. Just work stuff." What exactly were you supposed to talk about with your sister that you hadn't seen for over a hundred years but also hadn't technically ever met before a week ago?

"Is this a good time? I don't wanna intrude if you're busy."

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[info]giuliasings
2024-06-02 09:10 pm UTC (link)
The discomfort was easy to hear, though she wasn't sure if that was the right word. Giulia couldn't imagine what he was sorting through, so many lives packed into his brain. Had he always known? Had something triggered the memories of his past lives? She didn't want to bombard him with questions about it, either.

"I have a bit of time right now," she told him, infusing a note of reassurance to the words. "I have a gig in a couple hours, but I don't have far to go." There were festival sounds in the distance, as she was technically on the campgrounds where it was being held, but she was far enough from the stages that she could comfortably have a phone call.

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[info]notalongtime
2024-06-02 10:06 pm UTC (link)
That was good. He hadn't torn her away from anything or anyone - though there was always a chance that she was just being polite. "You know," he said, "you kind of sound like you're the big sister in all this." He paused, his feelings about whether or not they really were siblings something that he still needed to sort out.

"Um, a gig?" Joe asked, choosing to focus on that instead. "Watching or...?" He sighed, disappointed in himself. "I didn't really ask you about yourself the other day." It wasn't quite an apology but he did hope that she could forgive him for that. "If you've got time, could you maybe tell me about yourself?"

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[info]giuliasings
2024-06-02 10:15 pm UTC (link)
Giulia chuckled softly, lifting her free hand to scoop her ponytail over her shoulder. "Well, it's entirely possible I am actually older than you now," she pointed out. She wasn't actually sure how his reincarnations worked. What was the total age of all his lives? Did he even know?

"Performing," she supplied softly, a hint of a smile in her voice. She hadn't necessarily wanted to get into everything about herself over the phone, but she didn't begrudge him his curiosity. "That's perfectly all right, Joe. I think we both were a bit blindsided by the circumstances. I'm not always the best at talking about myself, but I don't mind the idea sharing with you. Is there anything in particular you'd like to know?"

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[info]notalongtime
2024-06-03 05:14 pm UTC (link)
"I'm twenty-five," Joe offered because he didn't think he'd said that when they'd met. "Twenty-six in a few weeks." While he felt every one of those nearly twenty-six years, he didn't feel any older than that. All those lives piled one on top of each other in his mind were still the lives of young men. Joe didn't know what it was like to feel older than this.

"Performing? That's great." He remembered Giulia's childhood piano lessons and it was nice to think that she still enjoyed that. Joe scoffed, though, as she described their meeting as being blindsided. "It's alright for you to say that, you're not the one who lost your breakfast." There still a certain queasiness that came over him when he replayed that moment in his head. "Uh, I guess maybe the obvious question? How you're here now? Or... what?" His brow furrowed. "That's rude, isn't it? Forget I said that."

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[info]giuliasings
2024-06-03 11:03 pm UTC (link)
That he offered the age of his current human life spoke volumes, she thought. Did he really feel that young? It hadn't been difficult to sort out that none of his lives had been long, but Giulia hadn't considered how that might affect his self-perception as far as age and wisdom went. "Well, if you truly feel mid-twenties, then I think it's safe to say I've become the big sister," she said lightly. She might have been twenty-four when she died, but she certainly didn't feel twenty-four.

Her smile softened at his reaction, touched by the implication that he remembered what music had meant to her even as a child. Perhaps she'd always been meant to become what she was, though she wasn't sure she believed in fate quite on that level. At the reminder that he'd vomited upon learning she was at that barbeque had her cringing, still feeling mildly guilty for it, but she pushed the feeling away, knowing it wouldn't do either of them any good. "It isn't rude," she reassured him first. "I did ask you the same, after all."

Even with that said, Giulia hesitated briefly, not because she didn't want to tell him, but because she knew it was a painful story that was not likely to give him any comfort. "I'm a Siren," she said simply after a moment. "I'm not certain if you know, well, anything about Sirens, but it's always been said that you'll never meet a Siren with a positive origins story. So, if now isn't the time for that story, we can save it for another time," she offered, wanting him to have the choice.

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[info]notalongtime
2024-06-04 07:31 pm UTC (link)
"Yeah, looks that way." Joe smiled wryly though she couldn't see it. "Actually, that would be a first for me. I've always been the oldest."

A Siren. That wasn't what Jack had been expecting, though the truth was he hadn't known what to expect. He had met a couple of vampires in the past and she hadn't reminded him of them, so he had tentatively ruled that out as a possibility. "No, I don't think I know much about them. I had a bit of a Greek mythology phase as a kid, but I doubt that's in any way accurate." That had been several years before he became aware of his own cosmic entanglement with a Greek god.

He'd heard her hesitation about telling him and that gave him pause. "It's OK. We can save it for another time. I, uh, I never even considered that someone from one of my past lives could still be around like this." Joe knew there was a chance that people from his most recent life could still be alive, but he had no intention of seeking them out. That hadn't been a happy life.

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[info]giuliasings
2024-06-04 09:03 pm UTC (link)
That was an interesting little tidbit, and she couldn't help but wonder if that was intentionally manipulated into happening by whatever or whoever had set his fate to reincarnate over and over.

"No," she agreed gently, "the common mythology is more miss than hit." She always wondered if it was because her species was so rare or because they were among the least likely to live as and among humans. "And I've never really talked to anyone about most of it, but I don't think I'll mind answering any questions you might have. I guess the important bit is that, barring specific circumstances, I won't die. Well, again, anyway."

That made a fair bit of sense, she thought. "Well, this is your first life with the Supernatural out, isn't it?" she asked rhetorically. "So I'm not surprised you hadn't considered it. Did you ever encounter Supernaturals in any of your previous lives?" she asked curiously.

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[info]notalongtime
2024-06-05 03:13 pm UTC (link)
She had been alive all these years and she hadn’t talked to anyone about it all? That seemed very lonely, even to a man who had never anyone about his past lives. Giulia was the first to know and that had never been planned. Joe was reticent to tell her the exact details of his curse because he didn’t want her to pity him; he wondered whether it might be the same for Giulia and her life story. She had died to become a Siren and, reading between the lines, it had been under difficult circumstances.

“I’ll probably have questions eventually,” he said, treading carefully with his response.

Her question was one that Joe had been considering a lot this week, the idea that someone else from one of his previous lives might pop up unexpectedly now a very real possibility. “Aside from the ones that made me what I am? Not that I know of for sure. But knowing what I do now… I guess I have some suspicions.” Joe couldn’t remember every person he had ever met in his lives but there were a few people who had seemed a lot odd or eccentric at the time which could be explained by them not being human. “I guess there’s a good chance I have and didn’t know it.”

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[info]giuliasings
2024-06-05 11:19 pm UTC (link)
Giulia appreciated that he was giving her the space to get to those questions in time rather than bombarding them both with all of the depressing things right from the start.

"Oh. What, wait," she said, her eyebrows furrowing. "You've met whoever made you whatever it is you are?" she asked. She so wanted to know how and why, but she also wasn't going to be any more pushy about it than he had been about her story. They could get there in time, she hoped. "That seems likely. Many of us hid in plain sight through the years. Well, those of us who could blend in, anyway. I'm fairly sure the fae mostly kept to their hidden communities until the Coming Out." And she was so relieved that wasn't the case anymore, otherwise would she have ever found Sam?

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[info]notalongtime
2024-06-06 07:08 pm UTC (link)
Joe pulled his phone away from his ear, pulling a frustrated face at it. He shouldn't have told her that. Now she was going to have questions and worry about him; he still didn't know how much he wanted to tell her about the fact that he was going to die within the next couple of years.

"Yeah, sort of. That's... uh, that's gonna be one of those long stories for another time, I think." If Greek myths were wrong about Sirens, she was probably going to be surprised about how right they were about punishments from gods. "I've never told anyone about this stuff before. A few lifetimes ago I probably would have been committed to an asylum." Never mind that fate would work to make his way to the front lines.

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[info]giuliasings
2024-06-07 05:22 am UTC (link)
There was something in his voice that told Giulia that his wasn't a very pleasant story either. It would be hypocritical of her to push him on it, so she simply said, "Okay," and left it at that. Whether he ever felt comfortable telling her was entirely up to him, and she knew she wouldn't try to push him into it.

She scoffed softly at the mention of an asylum. "You're probably right. Even today, I think the average person would have trouble believing it."

For a moment, Giulia fell quiet, not quite sure what to say. She had plenty of questions, but they all seemed like they would cycle back to things related to his supernatural circumstances. Finally, she landed on something that felt safe, and she hoped he wouldn't mind. "Tell me something wonderful about Joe Russo's life," she requested softly, wondering how his life as Joe had differed from Dom's life, aside from the obvious differences in time and culture.

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[info]notalongtime
2024-06-07 05:37 pm UTC (link)
"Yeah." That was something Joe had to agree with. "And I don't really think I'm going to be telling anyone else anytime soon." More than anything, he didn't want anyone's pity. And, for all he knew, there were other children of Ares out there, and the god himself was just waiting for him to fuck up something with one of them to inflict another punishment.

"Uh, something wonderful about my life? I'm an army brat, moved around a lot as a kid. Now I'm serving and I'm a dog handler in the Military Police, promoted to sergeant last year." He smiled to himself as he thought about how he'd spent the last few hours. "I'm working with a new dog, Dax. She's the most beautiful German Shepherd and she has this tennis ball that she thinks is the best thing in the world." Joe could feel the weight of it in his pocket. "But it's the most disgusting, smelly thing you've ever seen. She's the best. So clever. Smarter than me, I think."

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[info]giuliasings
2024-06-08 01:06 am UTC (link)
Giulia resisted the urge to point out that moving around a lot as an Army brat was hardly something wonderful, because it really wasn't for her to say, was it? Instead, she listened, and she found herself smiling at the obvious affection he had for his dog. It was fascinating that he was an MP, and she wondered if he'd been drawn to that discipline before.

"Oh, that's wonderful! Does she live with you, then? I'm not really sure how it works with police dogs. Or, rather, military police dogs?" she admitted. "Did you get to name her?"

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[info]notalongtime
2024-06-08 12:01 pm UTC (link)
"No, she lives in kennels with the other dogs." Joe loved his job and if that was an option he might have taken it, though he did like that it meant his living quarters didn't end up smelling like dog.

"She already had her name when we met," he admitted, hand dipping into his pocket to fish out the damp tennis ball. Joe tossed it into the air and caught it. "I think the breeder gave it to her. Someone told me it was from Star Trek? I don't know, not my sort of thing. But I'm her first handler. We've been together a few months and so far, so good." Joe was proud of the way they worked together and he hoped that they would get some good assignments so that she could really show off her skills. He would be sad to leave her behind one day.

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[info]giuliasings
2024-06-08 04:24 pm UTC (link)
Feeling a mild disappointment for him that, though he clearly adored Dax, she wasn't allowed to stay with him. She wondered how long the dogs were kept as working dogs and if their handlers were allowed to adopt them once they retired, but then she remembered Joe's history of short lives, and some instinct held her back from asking, not wanting to know just yet if her suspicions were accurate.

"Ooh, I never did watch Star Trek; it's not really my sort of thing either. But that's lovely. I'm glad it seems like it will work out with her. Are you just training her, or will she be your working dog?" She wasn't sure where the question came from, but she was curious, and it did seem to be a topic he was comfortable with.

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[info]notalongtime
2024-06-08 05:15 pm UTC (link)
"We're all trained up and working together." It had been a remarkably smooth handling course and for once Joe had almost felt as though he was in the right place at the right time, a rarity for him over his many lives. "We'll be together until I move on to my next duty station. Then she'll get a new handler."

Joe realized that might sound a bit cruel that he would have to leave his dog behind, but that was just the way things operated in his line of work. "I had a different dog when I was in Kosovo. Dogs are pretty resilient. They probably find it easier to move on than us humans do."

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[info]giuliasings
2024-06-08 06:02 pm UTC (link)
That was a rather sad thought, but he was probably right; it probably did hit the humans harder than it hit the dogs, though she was well aware that animals could be highly intuitive and remember humans who'd had a large impact on them even years later.

"Ahh, I see," she said lightly. "Do you know when you'll move on to your next duty station?" she asked, hating the thought of it. After over one hundred thirty years, she'd finally found him, and she didn't want her brother to move on anytime soon. Even though she did know that he wasn't exactly her brother, she couldn't seem to separate Joe from Dom entirely in her head.

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[info]notalongtime
2024-06-08 07:35 pm UTC (link)
"I haven't been here long, so probably not for a little while." Joe knew he'd end up somewhere dangerous and deadly sometime before he turned twenty-eight. He'd never celebrated a twenty-eighth birthday in any of his reincarnations. "I'm not really thinking about it," he lied. "Just going to enjoy my time here stateside. Spend time with my grandparents. That's why I was at the picnic on Monday. They live in Sleepy Hollow." That part, at least, was true.

"You don't have to worry about me going anywhere for a while. If you still want to get to know me, that is." He found himself wanting to know that this woman who wasn't quite his sister was OK and happy in her life.

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[info]giuliasings
2024-06-08 08:20 pm UTC (link)
She breathed a soft sigh of relief at his answer, thankful that it didn't seem that he would be moving out of the area anytime soon. "Oh, that's lovely. Have you always been close with your grandparents?" she asked, unable to relate to that concept at all but finding that she hoped that he had that in this life, at least.

Even though he couldn't see here, Giulia found herself nodding. "I would still like to get to know you, very much," she admitted, embracing the vulnerability of the moment rather than shying away from it. "I can't say that I understand what it's like to have memories of several lives lived, and I have no idea how you... relate to each of those past lives, but a part of you is my brother, and I hope you won't think me terribly selfish for wanting to connect because of that."

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[info]notalongtime
2024-06-08 09:39 pm UTC (link)
"Sort of? I moved around so much that we spent years not even being in the same country. But there were always phone calls and care packages." Years ago, Joe had gotten a tattoo of the words memento mori over his heart, a reminder of his inevitable death but also that he should live his life while he could. Now that his grandparents were retired and he was stationed so close, Joe wanted to leave them with happy memories of time with him.

Joe felt his chest tighten a little at Giulia's words, though he couldn't say for sure whether it was for positive or negative reasons. "I can't say I understand what it's like to live continuously for over a hundred years," he countered lightly. "But I get it and I remember being your brother. And I remember doing some horrible things as him."

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[info]giuliasings
2024-06-08 11:11 pm UTC (link)
That sort of warmth wasn't the experience she'd had with grandparents, though she wondered how much Joe remembered of her and Dom's grandparents. "It sounds like they're probably thrilled to have you nearby enough for semi-regular visits," she commented lightly, not wanting to assume that his schedule allowed for very regular visits.

At the reminder that Domenico hadn't been the best sort of man, Giulia felt a truth of her own bubbling up and couldn't seem to stop it from blurting right now. "I killed our parents," she said, feeling her chest tighten with the admission, words she had never said out loud in any of the hundred and thirty years since she'd done so. "After I was turned," she continued a moment later, her voice softer. "I was so angry, and I couldn't control it, and I punished them for every awful thing they'd done. I've never told anyone that. I'm sorry, you didn't need the burden of that knowledge on you," she hurried to say, her tone deeply embarrassed and apologetic.

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[info]notalongtime
2024-06-09 09:33 am UTC (link)
At the other end of the phone, Joe froze, not sure he'd heard her correctly. He tried to think about Cristofolo and Vicenza de Sanctis as much as he did Domenico, namely as little as possible. They weren't the worst set of parents he'd ever had - that dubious honor went to Neil's parents - but they were the people who'd enabled Domenico to grow into the man he'd become. Giulia, sweet little Giulia, had ended them.

He was horrified for her that she'd had to go through that and he was relieved that they hadn't had the opportunity to die peacefully of old age.

"Good," he said simply and it was like a weight he didn't know he was carrying was gone. "They deserved that."

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[info]giuliasings
2024-06-09 03:25 pm UTC (link)
The silence on the other end of the line felt heavy for that long moment, but when he spoke, that simple word reverberated through her, validating her, easing the burden she'd carried for far too long. And at his next words, tears burned in her eyes, but she blinked them back, not wanting to cry when he was going to be performing shortly.

"Thank you," she whispered, emotion thick in her tone.

She fell quiet for a long moment, trying to push the emotions back down. The last thing she needed to do was lose control and unleash all the emotion on the festival attendees. "I should probably go soon. I'm really glad you called, though."

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[info]notalongtime
2024-06-09 03:45 pm UTC (link)
Joe closed his eyes, trying not to let the emotion in her voice get to him. That she had thanked him made him feel like he had said the right thing. He had already come to terms that they were long dead and this new information didn’t change his feelings about them. They didn’t get to have his sympathy, not after mistreating Giulia.

"Uh, yeah, of course." He’d forgotten that she’d said that she was going to be performing today. There were probably things she needed to do before that, even if he didn’t know what they were. "I’m… I’m glad I called too. Maybe let me know next time you’re in town? If you want. I’ll see if I’m free."

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[info]giuliasings
2024-06-09 07:49 pm UTC (link)
"I tend to travel on the weekends more during the summer, but I'm usually back in the city during the week. And my... And Sam lives in Sleepy Hollow, so I'm sure I'll be there quite a bit. We can do dinner or something sometime soon," she said, pleased at the implication that he'd be amenable to visiting with her in person. She wondered if Sam would be open to participating in that sort of visit, and she was thankful that she'd told him about Dom and Cris after meeting Joe.

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[info]notalongtime
2024-06-09 08:37 pm UTC (link)
That sounded like something siblings would actually do and Joe realized that was something he sort of missed in this lifetime. "Yeah, we can do dinner." Maybe by then he would have decided how much more he was willing to share about his curse. "I hope you have a good show tonight. Break a leg." He knew that was a theater thing but did it apply to all performing. "And, uh, I guess I'll talk to you soon."

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