Title: Cages
Rating: R
Summary: Ben watches Kate and Sawyer during the Season 3 episode "I Do." Perhaps a missing scene.
The surgeon slept very little, though he did spend most of his time huddled in a corner of the grimy, glass-encased prison. Ben didn't sleep much himself, not since Juliet brought him the x-rays that detailed how he was going to die.
He would have expected her to deliver the news with her usual smirk, or at least something to indicate that she was glad her jailor was sick. Juliet did not take Goodwin's death very well, and his own unexpected outburst hadn't helped matters. Instead, she'd nearly embraced him, and he was too surprised to return the oddly warm gesture.
Ben still regretted this, and especially what he'd said to her on that hillside, regretted behaving like a child. But he couldn't help himself. He wanted her, wanted to possess her, and now he didn't even have the time to wait for her to give in.
But fortune and fate went hand in hand. Fate brought Jack to him, it was only fortunate that he hadn't died before then. He'd had plenty of opportunities: Sayid could have killed him, he might have been trapped in Rousseau's net for weeks, or the tumor could have consumed him completely. Jack was giving him time.
The screens hummed, showing Shepherd huddled on the floor, visuals of the various buildings, clicking through images of the cages. Kate's cage was empty. Ben put on his glasses and peered closer. Yes, definitely empty. He flicked a switch, immediately bringing up Ford's cage. She was there; his plan wasn't completely ruined. Though she would not have been able to get far, her escape might have held things up, and he didn't have a day to spare.
What he didn't expect was seeing her share an intimate kiss with Ford, seeing him fling her lithe body passionately against the bars, peeling his daughter's shirt away, revealing Kate's deliciously modest, pert…
"Watching something interesting?"
Blood rushed to his face.
"Interesting yes. Something I hadn't accounted for."
Ben didn't turn to look back at Juliet, but he could almost envision her stance: arms crossed, chin up, condescending in that way that never failed to turn him on. He struggled against the arousal threatening to give itself away should she come any closer.
Juliet came closer. She stood just behind him, gazing at the offending screen over his shoulder.
"I should have mentioned something. The way he looked at her…it was bound to happen eventually."
He looked up over the frames of his round glasses, "I was under the impression that it didn't quite work that way."
"Ben," Juliet leaned down to him, challenging. She placed her hands on the arm rests to either side, eyes level with his and revealing more than a little cleavage, "There are a lot of things that you don't understand."
He swallowed, maintaining perfect stillness, his only defense in situations that he didn't know how to handle. The image of Ford bucking against Kate remained locked on the screen.
"Now what are you going to do?" She stood upright again, crossing her arms over her chest, removing herself from his view. The woman knew about control. Maybe he'd taught her.
"We're not going to let Shepherd see this. I don't think he would be too happy to know that the object of his desires is sleeping with another man."
Her eyes darkened, and she blinked slowly, "You're still planning to go through with this? What makes you think Austen will cooperate?"
"Because, Juliet," he couldn't contain his arousal, "We'll kill Ford if she doesn't."
She flinched, "You never gave me that courtesy, Ben."
So there it was. He stood, not caring that he was harder than ever, "You had the choice, Juliet. I always gave you a choice."
She narrowed her eyes, stepping forward to match him, "You kept me here, you're keeping me here. How does that give me a choice? Do you think I fucked Goodwin to get back at you?"
They were so close he could feel her body heat. Her sweet, warm breath hit his face. He yearned to pull her forward, to crash against her, show this woman just how much he'd wanted her. The years he had suffered, thinking of only her. He could throw her up against the wall like Ford. That seemed to excite Juliet.
He'd already had her every way imaginable in his fantasies. In his bed crying out his name, in the grass under the stars, bent over her desk. Ben's hand twitched.
The sound of the entrance door clanging open thrust him back into reality. Someone was in the compound, someone who didn't buzz in first, and who probably didn't want them to know they were there. Juliet arched a brow.
"You should go see who it is," she said. He nodded, licked his lips, and made a break for it. Juliet turned back to the screen, smiling.