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It was an uneventful day, when fate had it that Julie was left alone with Jacob. Mike and Chuck were doing deliveries, Dutch had gone to see Tennie (she assumed,) and Texas was doing god knows what. She'd decided to stay longer than usual, which is how she found herself in this situation: only her and Jacob in the empty headquarters. A rare occurrence. Ideally, this would look like a coincidence, but in reality, Julie did this deliberately. The reason? She wanted to talk to Jacob. One on one. No interference. Just her and him, him and her.
This was a chance she didn't get often. She couldn't blow it.
"So... Jacob. You, um, you worked with Kane way back in the day, right?" she began. Of course, she knew all about it. Everyone did. She felt dumb for asking.
"Yes," he replied, obviously. Julie gave herself a mental facepalm.
"Right! Well, I was just wondering... Did you ever meet Mrs Kane? You know, before-"
"Before she died," he guessed. The death of her mother was public information, but the casual mention of it still made Julie a little uneasy. In Deluxe, it's an unspoken rule that no one is allowed to mention her late mom in her dad's presence unless he brings her up himself. Which is never. So they never talk about her.
"Yes, that," she confirmed. Jacob looked at her with an undecipherable expression and stroked his chin.
"I always wondered when you'd ask me about your mother," he said.
Julie froze.
"What? Hah, my what? That's- where'd you get that idea? Mrs Kane? My mom? That's so-"
"You look just like her, kid" Jacob interrupted. Julie looked at him, blinked, looked away, then blinked again. She needed time to process this.
"So... you knew? All this time?" she asked, quietly. Surely, that couldn't have been the case, right? If Jacob had known, why didn't he tell anyone else?
"...'Fraid so," he answered, shrugging.
Julie stayed silent for a short moment.
"And you haven't told anyone?"
"Course not! Why would I do that?!"
Julie sighed with relief. Okay, so her secret was relatively safe.
"I dunno, just seems like something you'd wanna tell the guys, maybe" she shrugged.
"We've all got our secrets. Not my place to go around and tell them to the whole world" Jacob said. Maybe he was right, Julie thought. It's not like she was doing anything wrong, right? She wasn't double crossing the guys, or anything like that, so maybe her keeping this a secret wasn't that big of a deal? At least Jacob seemed to think so... So it was probably all fine. Yeah.
She went quiet again.
"So... Did you know my mom?"
" 'Course I knew her! Truth be told, I've always thought Kat was too good for Abraham."
"Kat?" Julie inquired.
"Yup. That's what we called 'er. She always said Katherine sounded too serious," Jacob clarified.
"Kane- my dad always calls her by her full name" Julie whispered, more to herself than to Jacob.
"Of course he does! That controlling, power hungry, good for nothin'-"
"Woah! Jacob, take it easy!" she tried to calm the older man down. It was scary, just a little, to see him explode so suddenly. She'd never seen him act that way when talking about Kane, which was saying something, considering how much disdain he'd had for the man.
"Ah, I'm sorry. Shouldn't have shouted. But, you see, Kat was my friend. And even though her death wasn't Kane's fault, she hadn't been herself for a long time before that. And THAT'S what makes me so..."
"Furious?" Julie suggested. Jacob smiled at her.
"Sad," he instead said.
"How do you mean?"
Jacob sighed, leaning against a wall, obviously ready to start telling a story. Julie propped herself against the counter, ready to listen.
"Me and your mom were friends before I even knew Abraham. That was long before Deluxe was even an idea, back when I only worked on cars, you know, before my first robot. Kat was just some girl I knew from round my parts... When she heard I did tune-ups, she brought her car to me... It was a complete piece of junk, and she wanted a full-on race car. I told her that I didn't know if I can do much for her, and she just told me to 'make it work' and left," Jacob began.
"And?"
"And what?"
"What did you do?"
"I made it work!" Jacob shouted in a tone that made it sound like the most obvious thing ever. "It was a work of art. We became partners after that, she'd come up with some... impossible idea, and I'd make it work. I'd teach her sometimes, you know, so that she didn't need me for repairs and stuff, and she was a darn fast learner," he reminisced with a distant look in his eyes. His breath hitched at the last sentence, alarming Julie.
"What happened after? Did she ever build a car from scratch? Or a robot?!" she was eager to know more, but Jacob looked... sad. Just sad. He sighed heavily and picked up an oil can to clean.
"And then... she met Abraham" Jacob almost whispered. For some reason, that sentence filled Julie with dread. Obviously, she knew that her dad had to come in at some point, but the way Jacob said it... She didn't like this one bit.
"Um. Did she... love him?" Julie asked, unsure.
"Oh, yes, Kat loved your father very much. Maybe too much, if you ask me. She only wanted to see the good parts, and, you know... ignore everything else. And there was a LOT to ignore. She changed a lot for him. When I left, I could barely recognize her... Abraham didn't like her drivin', or even working on cars. With time, she'd spend less and less time with us, in the garage, and focused more on... I don't even know what. I wanted to be happy for them when they got engaged, but... I was just worried. I'd ask myself, 'After they get married, will she even be the same person?', cause, you know, nearing the end she'd only talk about wedding venues, and dresses, and decorating the house, and that's all fine and all, but... That wasn't the Kat I knew. Kat Kapulsky was gone, and in her place, there was Mrs Katherine Kane."
Julie felt a shiver go down her spine. That sounded... believable. She knew damn well that her father loved things going his way. The thought of him controlling his soon-to-be wife and changing her personality so that it suited him wasn't uncharacteristic at all. It was a sad truth that she'd come to accept; Abraham Kane was just not a good person, and she happened to be his daughter.
"How... did she die?" Julie asked sheepishly. Jacob looked at her with pity in his eyes. She didn't want pity. She didn't want people to feel sorry for her; life is life. It wasn't like she missed her mom. How could she? Julie didn't even know her. No point being sad about someone that was never in your life. She had no right to be angry that no one ever told her about Kat, she told herself. After all, the woman was practically a stranger.
"It was an accident. I don't know the details, but apparently she died during trials for a hovering transportation device, at least that's what I've heard. We weren't talking by then, but I like to think she died going fast, with wind in her hair, the way she always liked... Anyway. I didn't know Kat had a daughter, but when Mike first brought you here, it was as if I'd seen a ghost! It's uncanny," he changed the subject. Julie was grateful. Sure, she wanted to know more about her mom, but she wasn't feeling like a sob story. She wanted facts. Cold, hard, facts. If Jacob couldn't tell her anything more, too bad. No need to cry about it.
"But," he added, surprising Julie, "when it comes to your personality, you're a perfect mix. Half your father, half your mother. You got the best parts of the both of them, in my opinion," Jacob smiled. Julie tried to return the gesture, but felt as though her attempt at a pleasant expression had failed, judging from Jacob's reaction. She cursed in her head.
"Um. Thanks," she offered. It seemed to be the wrong move, because Jacob's eyes became sad again.
"Seriously, though. You're not only like your father, Julie, I see a lot of her in you, too. The Kane name doesn't define you. You don't need to be like him. You have a choice," he added, deadly serious. Julie swallowed.
"I know. I won't be, I mean, I'm not. I'm my own person," she said, unsure. It's not like she hadn't worried about becoming like her dad before, but having someone recognize that fear... it made her uneasy.
Jacob stared for a few seconds with an undecipherable expression. For a moment, Julie worried she'd maybe said something wrong, but then a weak smile appeared on Jacob's face.
"Atta girl," he said, ruffling her hair. She felt that something was off, undoubtedly, but decided not to pry.
"Er, you won't tell anyone, will you...?"
"No, kid. Like I said, it's your secret to reveal. You've got yours, I got mine," he once again reassured. Julie felt relief, as if a weight has been lifted off her shoulders. Course, she wouldn't suspect Jacob would snitch, but making sure was nice.
"Thanks, Jacob."
"No problem. And, Julie," he added, conspirationally, "she really was amazing. She would've loved you."
To that, Julie didn't say anything, just smiled and nodded. Jacob had nothing to add, either. Everything that needed to be said, was. And that was that. No fanfare. Just a man telling a young woman aboht her mother.
They stayed in silence for a while after that, then Julie went home. Once in her room, she cried into her pillow, not sure why. It was probably nothing. She decided not to dwell on it.
That night, after going to sleep, Julie dreamt of a woman who looked just like her. It was a nice dream.