When they got back upstairs in silence and saw how Eddie was drinking his tea calmly, all they had to keep under control in Station Officer Jones' office was now free and could get out. And seeing their former friend drinking his tea in peace, right after he betrayed his friends to their own boss, only made the emotions boiling inside of them only more and more.
"Hey!" Chris said confidently. "You're not ashamed that you cable us to our station officer and now you're sitting here like nothing?"
"Stop it, Chris" Tony tried to interrupted, but it was already too late. "He's not worth it" he added, trying in vain to get his friend away from the idea of making an arguement.
"I am not worth what?" Eddie asked suspiciously, looking up at his colleagues for the first time they walked into the kitchen.
"Of our friendship" Chris couldn't help it, he just needed to say it out loud. "Betray us like that? Straight to our station officer? Have you thought beforehand what consequences it could have on us all?"
"I don't see your point, Chris" Eddie stood up and walked up to Chris confidently. "I just did what needed to be done" he simply replied and walked downstairs, slumming the door after himself.
"It was quicker than I thought" Tony said as he laid his hand on Chris' shoulder encouragingly. "Now we can focus on figuring out how to continue our work, right, Julia?" He added turning around, but to his surprise he found that only he, Chris and Liam were in the kitchen now.
"Actually, where is Julia?" Chris asked as he looked worriedly around and his two colleague followed suit.
"She was here just a moment ago" Tony replied.
They began searching, splitting up and looking everywhere on their own.
After another turn they heard a quiet sob coming from behind Venus. The old vehicle was standing parked in the garage, but somehow there was so little space between its door from driver side and the wall that neither of them thought about looking there. But when they did they found their friend, sitting on the floor with her back against the vehicle and her knees pulled up to her chin. One by one the three of them came closer through the small space Venus' rear view mirror left with the wall.
"We've been searching for you everywhere" Chris tried to teased Julia, but she didn't look up at them, only buring her face more in her arms.
"What is going on, Julia?" Liam chimmed in, obviously stopping Chris from telling another enlightened comment.
"Nothing" she replied, her voice barely a whisper. "Leave me alone" she demanded when the boys just kept staring at her.
"It only means trouble when she say so" Chris whispered behind his hand to Liam who tried hard not to laugh.
"Because?" Tony kneelt down a little, ignoring his friends' childish demeanor, to give Julia a brief hug.
"I messed up" she said through clenched teeth. "There is no reason to try anymore".
"Why?" Liam asked confused as he also found a place to sit on the floor as he leaned on the wall.
"Penny doesn't wamt to talk with me at all. It seems like looked right through our plan" Julia explained, sounding defeated. "After you approached me on the last lesson with that photo album you found from Academies meeting".
"But it was just an mistake, not a sentance. We can still turn it around" Tony tried to cheer her up. "We can still make up for it".
"How?" Julia looked up at his helplessly. "We wanted to make them happy, to help them, and now there are even more grumpy as before we even came here" Julia complained. "How you want to fix it? You want to turn back time?"
"Come on, I thought it was all about turning back time" Chris teased.
"Not very funny, Chris" Julia snapped. "We all have to pay the price now for what we were trying to achieve".
"Don't tell me it was all for nothing" Chris mumbled beggingly. "We've come so far. We can still make it" he tried to convince.
"Just tell me how. We're lucky we only got an oral warning" she reminded. "But haven't you notice how much we had laid on the line already? Not only our jobs, but also our friendship".
"Eddie was a coward and you knew about it" Chris hissed annoyedly. "He chose his side, but that doesn't define us. We can still end what we've started" he underlined more calmy.
"But it is meaningless without you, Julia" Tony added as he laid his hand on Julia's shoulder. "You were the first one to see something more in this whole situation. You united us to do it and it was your plan that kept us going. Without you..." Tony tried to continue, but Julia interrupted him.
"Forget it, I'm out" Julia rejected. "I don't want to be the one who destroy someone else's happiness, never again".
"Don't you think you can make a lot more people sad if you just give up like that?" Chris objected. "Fine, we lost" he corrected himself when Julia looked at him angrily. "But we can still change the ending" he tried one more time.
"It is too risky. We can lose our jobs, if we get caught again" Julia still was hesitating.
"I feel like we can all get the promotion if it works out in the end. I bet I saw something like a smile on Station Officer Jones' face when he tried to do his best to yell at us" Liam chuckled.
"So did I" Tony jumped in. "He tried his best to hide it, but he couldn't fully make it fade".
"It doesn't matter now, guys" Chris stopped them. "Listen" he said softler as he kneelt down and turned to Julia to gently grabbed her hand. "You can't leave me alone with this two scatterbrains in that" he diplomatically ignored when both Liam and Tony stuck out their tongues at him. "You are our friend and we wouldn't turn away from you no matter what could await for us if" he underlined "Station Officer Jones find out we still continue. Liam already had a problem with him and somehow managed to explain it. We're keep it a secret and keep to working more on our time off. That way you could still convince Penny again and maybe something possitive will go out from it" he encouraged. "Like with Liam and Sarah" he chuckled.
"Are you jealous all of sudden?" Liam asked cheekily.
"Stop it, guys" Julia shouted to them, thanking with a nod to Tony for helping her get up. "If you want to make it work you have to try much more harder" she smiled playfully at Chris. "Let's start from confronting Penny" Julia invented. "At least she wouldn't have a power to fire us" she shrugged her shoulders as she grabbed her bag to pack her climbing equipment.
"Aren't you afraid she can write you out of the climbing classes?" Chris asked teadingly, gently nudging Julia with his elbow.
"Those are just classes" Julia smiled innocently. "Besides we're fighting from something more important and we have to do it despite everything".
"Our old Julia is back" Tony cheered as he hugged Julia briefly, before Liam and Chris also joined, laughing happily.