Work Text:
The first thing he thinks is that it didn’t work, he’s standing on a wreckage not a plane or LAX and worst case scenario, there should be a hatch, or another kind of wreckage not that mess of chains and metal and a well. So he acts without thinking and starts climbing down, ignoring the sounds that tells him whatever is holding whatever this is, is about to be swallowed down this hole with him in it. But he ain’t really thinking straight about his life when the person giving sense to it for the past three years is somehow, somewhere down there.
She opens her eyes and is confused about where she is, she doesn’t see a bomb but she doesn’t know the place. She thinks she listens to him but that’s impossible, she couldn’t have survived that. She fades away again. He’s fighting with someone and a voice she doesn’t know answers ‘The island is not done with her’ She really wishes it was possible to punch an island.
He sees Jack checking her vitals, suturing a nasty cut on her left side, and another one on her shoulder, and he has never felt this useless.
His tracing patterns on the back of her hand when she hears her asking where she is, he looks at her blinking once, twice, before explaining and asking her how she feels. ‘Just peachy’ He smiles to that. ‘Only someone as stubborn as you survives what you have and describes it as just peachy’ the comment dies on his tongue before he leaves her to look for Jack. Hers does too, ‘don’t go’. The next time she wakes up, he’s sleeping on a chair next to her, his hand glued to hers. They’re ok. She’s ok.
He leaves to go to the barracks to see if the ring is there and realizes Kate is following him. ‘Why are you running away’ He doesn’t have the energy to discuss how wrong she’s is about that, but for a moment he thinks maybe Juliet might think the same, but he has to do this. He lets Kate tag along. Realizes she’s the one running away, they’re not alike anymore, if someday they were, that is.
They see each other again and everything is frantic and they have to leave this place they were in, and back to the beach, and it’s a never ending story he’s tired of. He stays behind to see her walking slowly carrying a bag pack, he rushes to her side to take it, and her thankful smile doesn’t quite reach her eyes. The ring is heavy in his front pocket but this isn’t the time.
They find themselves going back to the barracks before even reaching the beach and running into Locke, Sun and Ben, and the space she puts between them hurts. He thought I was his; nothing makes me think he’s changed. He stays put, sitting on a rock while he listens to Jack’s plan and Hurley and prays his willpower won’t leave him to not get up and hit the hell out of the man standing a little outside their little group staring at her with those big eyes of him. Before he loses it, Hurley is by his side saying he needs to talk to them when everyone goes to sleep.
The island wasn’t done with them, in fact to such a point is expecting them to stay, and get rid of Locke, that really isn’t him. ‘Fuck this island, mind games, Jacob, and what they want, what about what WE want. I’m going home, and I’m bringing her with me’ ‘you do that James’ He hears Ben says and he loses the last drop of will power he had. Only that he had meant it this time. And he’s sick of this game of guilt and redemption.
When he’s on the plane he can’t really believe it. She grabs his hand and he squeezes it before kissing her lightly. They’re actually leaving this place, he thinks, and can see she’s thinking the same thing but they don’t say it out loud.
They land on Tahiti, a plane from Oceanic airlines is waiting for them, and after a shower and a change of clothes he finds her sitting on the bed in the room they’re sharing. Juliet Burke has been missing for 6 years, and how the hell are they going to explain she’s going back to The States with the Oceanic survivors, and how about the Ajira ones.
‘We can get married’ she looks at him like he had grown another head ‘This wasn’t what I was thinking to start this new life but if we have to lie, is not like we hadn’t done that before. You escaped from wherever Mitelos something something was, when they didn’t let you go, and the boat you were on wrecked on the island where we were, something about air streams and water courses, we met there, we survived together we got married as soon as we were in civilization’
‘And why do we have to get married?’
‘Because I’m asking?’
‘As part of a con’
‘Is not that far away from what really happened ‘Liet, but explaining time traveling would be a pain in the ass don’t you think? We don’t have to get married, but I thought… never mind’ she can’t say why she sees a flash of hurt on his face before going back to lying. Jin, Claire and him got stranded on another part of the island, reason why they hadn’t met the rest of the Oceanic 6, Miles had to take care of other things before going back and Richard is disappearing on his own. Not that he really cares.
They repeat the lie for reporters as soon as they’re back in the mainland, neat as it can be, and making it clear that neither of them wants to be bothered again. They go through a back door, family is waiting for most of them, and they pause for a minute when they see Sun hugging Ji Yeon, while the little girl looks at Jin and touches his faces, looking at her mom for permission and throwing her arms at him to be picked up. They’ve never seen him smile this wide.
They keep walking when someone calls for her, she turns around and she’s crying and Rachel is touching her face, making sure she’s alive, and they’re hugging and crying. ‘I never thought I’d see you again, me either, Mr Alpert called, he what?, They’ve told you’ve died and yesterday another phone call and I couldn’t- I can’t ...you’re here’. When they stop hugging she looks at him smiling glued to the place she left him, Rachel doesn’t let go of her sister’s hand while he walks over there. ‘This is James’
They go to Miami and Julian eyes him suspiciously first before they start talking about football, baseball and cars, and the kid is surprised that his aunt knows more about cars that this boyfriend of her, but he shows him his collection of antiques eitherway and asks him to play. He’s surprised how natural everything is, the kid making engine sounds, and the laughs coming from the kitchen and for the first time in a long time he’s not scared of their lives.
He passes out in bed alone because he left her talking to Rachel, and when she joins him he wakes up and looks for something hidden under his pillow, and she sits on her side looking at him, he takes out a ring and leaves it on the palm of his hand showing it to her. It wasn’t because of a con, I asked because no more running, no more misunderstandings, I want this, I don’t know if you want it too, I didn’t know when I picked it up from a catalogue and the sub brought it’ He’s rambling and she finds it adorable, but won’t say anything about it, she’s kissing him before he has time to finish the messy thoughts he’s trying to put into words, and her hands are playing with his hair, and he can feel her smiling through the kiss ‘Is that a yes?’ ‘What do you think James?’ Her voice is rough and sultry (he can hear a bit of amusement in it too) and he doesn’t have enough self control to think they’re staying in her sister’s guest room.
After some time they decide to invest some of the money Oceanic left him and some of the one she has on a mysterious bank account. With the rest they’ll buy a house. You want to stay in Miami? No, nowhere near the sea. Rachel will understand.