I'd Give Up The World For You

Juliet was worried about Rukelion, honestly. And not only because she knew he could kill her at any time. He wasn't taking care of himself. He didn't sleep. She never saw him eat. He was entirely engrossed in her laptop. It didn't even feel like it was her laptop anymore. 

He really ought to get one of those for himself but he wouldn't be able to afford it until he had a job. Nowhere would take him without references. 

She supposed she could function as one but would it be enough to get a job anywhere but a fast food joint? She couldn't imagine him having enough patience to deal with ridiculous customers. What if he set a McDonald's or something on fire? 

Juliet wished there was something she could do for him jobwise but there wasn't. He couldn't come work at her company even if there were openings. He didn't have enough experience. 

Wait a minute. She worked in HR. Hiring was literally her job! She could fudge his paperwork and get him in if anything opened up soon.

It would be better to keep an eye on him herself than let him go free into the world. At least at first. As much as she didn't want to cause problems at work, she didn't want to leave him unsupervised dealing with customers even more. 

She needed to wait for him to get his GED done but he finished studying for it and passed with flying colors less than two weeks later. He didn't even stop to congratulate himself before diving into studying rules of the road and how to operate cars. He moved from one task to another without so much as stopping for breath. 

Juliet got to working on a fake resume for him in case something at work did open up. And it did less than a week later because someone went out on a long, unpaid maternity leave. 

Once in a blue moon she managed to catch a break! The woman in question happened to work at a desk that was within her line of sight. She would be able to keep an eye on him and hope beyond hope that he wouldn't burst into flame. At least his job involved data entry rather than dealing with actual customers. That should help. 

The pay wasn't bad either. By the time the original worker came back he should have enough saved to hire that private investigator. 

There were other things to do first though. She had to get him a bank account and teach him about how finances worked in this world. Or at least tell him where to look so he could teach himself since that seemed to be what he preferred. 

Juliet managed to take Rukelion in to set up a bank account and then checked out books about budgeting and how to use credit from the library for him to read on his own time. That wasn't all she had to do to prepare him to work though.

In addition to helping him do all of the onboarding paperwork she had to take him back to the thrift store to get more work-appropriate clothes. She explained how this was going to go on the drive there.

"It's only temporary. You'll be taking over for twelve weeks and that should be enough time for you to pay a private investigator and get settled wherever you go. You'll need to find another job once you're there because the money won't last forever. You'll need to change your driver's license to an Ohio one as well.

"While you're working you have to act like you're in the military. Don't speak unless you're spoken to and get your work done in the time allotted. I know you pick things up fast so you should be fine but—"

"I don't need the likes of you to worry about me," Rukelion interrupted harshly. "Believe it or not, I do know how to handle myself around others."

"Says the guy who randomly bursts into flame," she muttered. 

"That's because I'm expending all of my effort not to kill you. It won't be a problem at work since I'll actually be doing something bringing me closer to Daisy."

Juliet sighed. She hadn't expected his animosity to dissipate anytime soon—or ever—but it wasn't very pleasant to hear that someone living with her was actively holding himself back from murdering her. She couldn't say anything because she knew it was her fault.

With a man such as him, it was a miracle he hadn't acted on the impulse yet. His love for Daisy was stronger than his hatred for Juliet. 

That was slightly reassuring if not the most romantic thing in the world. She wasn't so sure Daisy would be happy to hear that if she knew. She had been rather exasperated with her husband toward the end of the modified draft. 

Juliet had felt like she was violating both of their privacy by reading all of that personal stuff but it had been necessary. 

She hoped they were able to work things out for both of their sakes and for the sake of this world. She wanted to believe their love was strong enough for that based on what she had read but she had no idea how upset Daisy was right now about the whole thing. 

Now was as good a time as any to apologize since they were on the subject. "Look, I'm really sorry about everything that happened. I read things wrong and—"

"Shut up," Rukelion said so forcefully that she did. "I don't want any meaningless apologies from you."

Juliet knew full well how meaningless it was but she still felt horrible. She had written the most tragic backstory she could think of and then had to go and make things worse by destroying his life a second time in person. 

"...are you really going to kill me once you have what you want?" she asked in a small voice, unable to stop herself. 

He glared at her so menacingly she practically felt burned. "As much as I want to, it would upset Daisy so I'm not planning to right now. But that can change at any time if you get in my way."

"Got it."

Juliet supposed that was as good as she was going to get from him. She couldn't really blame him either. 

Rukelion picked out a week's worth of work clothes as quickly as possible then demanded she let him drive them home. She definitely wasn't about to allow that! He would get them both arrested or worse. 

"Let's practice in an empty parking lot first," she said mildly. 

That was what her mom had her and her sister do when they were learning how to drive. Nobody could get hurt that way. It was their best option since he had never driven before. 

Juliet tried explaining what the gearshifts and various buttons did but Rukelion cut her off, saying her already knew what they were because of his research. He put the car into gear perfectly. The problem was that he did not know how to control the gas or the brakes. 

He would pump one before slamming on another with such force that she was thrown against her seatbelt. Her car's tires screeched in protest every time this happened. The engine didn't seem too happy either. 

"Ease up! You have to apply light pressure!" she snapped. 

"I've got it!" he replied even more angrily. "Don't tell me what to do. I am perfectly capable of figuring this out on my own."

It took another five minutes of horribly choppy driving before he managed to make a smooth lap around the whole parking lot. After that she had to teach him how to park and back out, which made him so furious that his hair caught on fire. 

Juliet was terrified for her life. Both because of his questionable driving skills and the fact that they were trapped together in a small space where she could very easily end up burned. She suddenly understood why her mom had hated teaching her and her sister to drive so much. She probably had a mini heart attack every time, like Juliet was now.

"You have to use your mirrors and check over your shoulder," she reminded him as he was about to back out without looking. 

Rukelion cursed under his breath before doing what she said. She desperately tried to think of what else he would need to know before they hit the road for a real test and quizzed him on a variety of procedures and road rules with mounting desperation. 

Could she really let this fictional character who had illegally cheated his way into having a driver's license hit the road after less than twenty minutes of practice? What if they got into a crash? He wasn't on her insurance!

Unfortunately, Juliet knew that he would never be able to drive on his own without practicing having someone more experienced in the car. A lot. That was the whole point of learner's permits. So people would get sufficient driving practice with someone who knew what they were doing before having to do it on their own. 

When she had her permit she had to fulfill forty-five hours of regular driving, ten hours of nighttime driving, and five hours of bad weather driving before taking her road test to get her license.. She wasn't sure they would even have time for that in the next few months if he drove everywhere they went.