Chapter Text
She wonders if it’s the liquor playing tricks on her when she sees him come strolling out of the surf. As if he’s mirage, like she’s seeing things, although she’s not sure why her mind would conjure him -Sawyer – out of everyone to join her here on the beach. It’s not like she’s every looked at him like that before. Yes, she’s not blind, she’s registered the fact that he’s an attractive man , but his type of charm isn’t for her. He’s not exactly her type, is he? Her type is more Jack. Sensible, scientific, the top of the class.
So, she barely blinks as he saunters towards her. It does cross her mind how casual he looks, like he’s just been for a gentle swim, when presumably he hasn’t, because the last time she saw him he was headed away from here never to return, like everyone else. The thought of this consumes her – she’s not ready face her new reality yet, her dreams of leaving the island up in smoke like the freighter in front of her – and if she wasn’t frozen in place, she would have taken another swig of the rum in her hand.
“Nice day for a swim”
His nonchalance irritates her, and she sounds peevish as she asks, “what are you doing here?” and his answer doesn’t improve her mood any further, as he starts to tease her about the half empty rum bottle. Her tongue feels thick from the rum, so she just gestures coldly towards the smoking vessel on the horizon.
She feels a pang of guilt as his face falls and answers him simply: “it was”. He continues staring out at the smoking vessel and she notices he looks pale under his 100-day-island-tan.
“I…” He’s uncharacteristically wordless and continues to sit by her for a moment before getting up again and darting towards the surf. He doesn’t get very far before he thinks better of it, swears, and jogs slowly back towards her.
A few moments pass, before she sighs and hands over the remainder of the rum bottle to him. He’s all folded in on himself and it surprises her how quickly she misses the wise ass Sawyer.
“You look like you could do with some of this.”
He takes it from her, thanking her absentmindedly, before knocking back almost the rest of the bottle. “Kate… everyone, they are on a damn chopper out there somewhere.”
“Oh,” Juliet nods, showing she’s listening, but things don’t make sense to her and she’s not sure if it’s just the rum haze. “But then, where were you?”
“I was on the same chopper, but I ditched and swam back here.” He scowls, but she’s curious now, trying to piece it all together.
“Why?”
He continues glowering at her. “Why what?”
“Why did you decide to jump?”
“Hell, I…” But then he regains his composure and fixes her one of his smiles. “Guess I missed this place too much.”
It doesn’t fool her, and she notices his hand wobble a little as he drops the bottle down at her feet. “You got any more of these?”
She shakes her head, and he stomps off to look for another one. He returns a few minutes later with another one foraged from somewhere and sits back at her feet, slouching down to prop himself up on his elbows.
“We were losing fuel, so I jumped to make it lighter, so the whole damn thing wouldn’t go down.”
“Oh,” Juliet mulls this over.
He takes a gulp of the run and then hands it over to her, noticing that the other bottle is now empty. “Hell, it might as well have been me.”
“Right.” She sneaks the chance to look at him because he’s turned away from her again. he’s said all he wanted to say and is staring back out across the ocean. His story makes her re-evaluate him a little. From what she can deduce he’d just jumped from a helicopter into the ocean, without knowing if he’d survive, to save those onboard. And she knows just how desperate he was to get out of here.It sounds kind of… heroic. She hadn’t really pinned him as heroic, previously. Unless that’s just what he wants her to think. He is the master of the con after all.
After a few more hours and a hell of a lot more rum, Juliet decides she’s kind of glad that it’s Sawyer, or James as she decides to think of him, that washed up here. It could be worse. He’s smart, strong resourceful and they’ve “worked” together before. Plus, she’s read his file, and after their previous run-in at the beach over Claire’s medical supplies she thinks he’s unlikely to judge her too harshly for being an Other anymore. Besides, she reminds herself again, she’s read his files. She knows everything he’s done…
She gives him a sly side eye in the blazing sunshine. She hopes it sly, but chances are the rum has had the same effect on him now and he won’t notice anyway. She wonders if he’s doing the same kind of calculations in his head. Wondering if it’s worth his while to stick by her. He doesn’t look in any rush to go anywhere, and it’s with comfort for once that she reminds herself that being an ex-Other on this island does have its benefits.
It crosses her mind that there are other survivors on the island still, and maybe they should do something about that, but then the sky lights up, the world spins and shrieks, and any practical thought she might have had is long forgotten.
After the noise stops and the light fades, she looks over at James. His face mirrors her feelings of panic now and it unsettles her that he isn’t even bothering to find a smart ass comment for the situation. When he notices the freighter has disappeared, she realizes she feels sober now. Sober and cold, despite the fact it’s him not wearing a shirt and they are on a tropical island. Is this the first time she's realized he's not wearing a shirt? She tries to keep her eyes on his face.
“What about the helicopter?”
“It was headed for that boat.”
Later, once they’ve found Rose and Bernard and the rest, and Dan has enlightened them with his theories of time travel, she decides she wants proper answers. She wants to try and make sense of at least something in her head. Plus, she can tell James is drawing inwards, and his simmering mood is liable to spill over in a way that wouldn’t be helpful for anyone, if his past history is anything to go by. She figures getting him to talk can’t help.
“Why did you jump off the helicopter?”
“I told you, we were out of gas, and I wanted to make sure she… wanted to make sure they got back to the boat.”
He catches himself, but she still hears it. The accidental “she”. Of course. Kate.
That’s the thing about having read his file and having observed him as the Others’ prisoner. She knows his strengths and his weaknesses. And she’s pretty sure other than his temper, his main weakness is an approximately five-foot five brunette with a face of freckles and ocean green eyes.
Dead or alive; she’s an important factor in all this.
Hours earlier:
It all happens so fast that Jack barely has time to register it. In fact, he’ll drive himself mad in the next weeks and months trying to puzzle out the whys and hows of what happened in the brief time that the chopper was landed on the freighter. One minute Kate was in the helicopter holding Aaron. The next she was bundling him into Sun’s arms, reaching over to place her arms around his neck and her face momentarily, blissfully, against his and then she was gone.
“I need to find…”
But he didn’t hear the rest as the helicopter ticks up into the air. She needs to find who? Him? Sawyer? That would make the most sense, although the thought of it nearly tears him apart.
After they go over it again and again in the aftermath, Sun thinks she heard her say “her”, but they can’t agree who the “her” would be. And then Sun refuses to go over it anymore, because she'd just lost her husband and she cares more about that than whatever Kate may or may not have said.
Anyway, she’d jumped out and darted across the freighter with some kind of crazy plan, but then they were up and up in the air, and he’d lost sight of her, and that was it until the freighter exploded beneath them.
What happened to her next – if she even survived – he has no idea.