[ The physical contact is back and she uses it as a grounding point to stop beating herself up. Lowering her hands from her face, she sighs and listens. She'd literally told Kady she'd basically planned to do something similar to what Waverly had done, digging into the history of this place and trying to find answers and... It could have been her.

Maybe that's what has her so shaken up over this.

She'd watched people die before. Friends-- but this was somehow different. She'd been mostly helpless in those situations, too - quick to throw herself into the line of fire if it meant saving even just one person.

Julia barely manages to contain the what-ifs. Only one managing to escape before she locks them down, knowing that staying in that kind of mental space wasn't good for anyone. ]

I should've been with her. I could have--

[ Shaking her head, she knows where that goes. She could have intervened, but she also more likely would have died with her. Facing her mortality once again in a sea of white and red where it'd be easy enough to freeze up in a flashback for even half a second.

Finally looking at him, she moves to interlace her fingers with his. ]

Thank you for coming to get me. For-- for all of this. [ The offer of being able to crash here, his willingness to basically drop everything with almost zero notice. ] Being around people dressed in white just brings up a lot. Just made this hit a little harder than anything else that's happened here. [ She knows she doesn't need to justify her emotions, but it felt important to at least offer a little context without digging into it too much. ]