Title: We Don't Belong
Summary: Missing scene from 5x14 – What if Daniel told everyone his plan before Juliet gave him the code? James/Juliet
Author's Note: I've been mulling this idea around in my head since the last episode, and I decided it was about time to post it, especially since in two days we'll have a new episode. It's a one-shot, but if people like my writing-style, I will probably consider a WIP at a later date. I welcome reviews/criticism!
Of course, I do not own any of these characters.
Thanks,
Sara
*
Daniel stood before them, wringing his hands anxiously.
"Why do you have to see the Others?" James asked. His gaze never wavered, but bore directly into Dan's thin face. Dan's eyes, however, flickered across the room, seeing all but never meeting anyone's gaze.
"Because my mother is one of them," he said, as if the very words pained him.
The faces of all those in the room changed from confusion to shock. No one spoke; no one knew what to say. "Take me to the Others," Daniel pleaded, "I have to go there. I have to see her."
Jack scooted forward in his seat. "Does this have to do with what you were telling me earlier? We don't belong here." It was as if Jack already accepted Dan's statement. He did that often, James concluded – he trusted people before he had a reason. Sometimes he was right, like with Juliet, but sometimes he was wrong.
"Like hell we don't belong here," James said, gaze flashing to Jack, "We belonged just fine before you all showed up."
"James," Juliet warned. He looked at the others in the room. Kate's head dropped; Hurley looked back at him with guilt. They felt guilty. He'd made them feel guilty. He thought they damn well deserved it, but he also knew that they had no idea what coming here would bring. They did as they were told, to save them.
Dan cleared his throat. "Yes, Jack, that – that's why I have to talk to her. She's the only one that knows – knows where we belong. And – and I have a plan, you see. To stop all this. These people, they die, you know. They all die. Maybe I can stop it. I think, maybe, I think I can stop it all."
James needed to say something. Needed to stand up and shove all of his prophetic crap into his pathetic face, but that was no longer who he was. One look into Juliet's face, and he knew he couldn't attack Daniel. The mad scientist was as innocent as the others; he didn't know what he was doing. He was only trying to help.
"How?" Kate asked, the only person in the whole room brave enough to ask.
Dan launched into explanations as if he was speaking a foreign tongue. Everyone leaned forward, attentive, trying to catch what words they did understand. When Dan finished, James had no problem speaking up.
"You're going to erase this all? Just like that?"
"In theory, yes, just like that. All this we've been through, it'll never happen. All this pain. Your plane will land, as scheduled. I'll never come find you and Charlotte will never…" He trailed off. It was already obvious to James that this was all about Charlotte, but what about the rest of them? One glance around the room and he knew. Everyone wanted this. Everyone wanted to go back. He wondered if he was the only one that didn't.
"So, you, you want to go back to, wherever you were. All of you? Kate, you want to be a prisoner again?" He grasped at straws. He knew almost everyone's story, but he couldn't speak them all.
Kate gave him a steely look. "Then we'd never be here to ruin this all for you," she spat.
"You don't get it," James said, "I'll never been here either. We'll never know each other, none of us."
"Dude." Realization seemed to dawn on Hurley. "Dude, will we remember all this?"
"I don't know," Dan admitted. "It's possible. This is our present, you see. We can still remember everything that happened in our past, so it seems likely that we can remember this as well. But if this truly never happens, in our real present, maybe we won't remember."
"So," Jack said, "It's not whatever happens, happens, anymore, is it?"
Dan shook his head. "No. No, it's not."
Juliet sighed and gave up the code. "Kate knows the way," she said, "She can show you." James noticed that she didn't volunteer him, even though he'd also been with Kate to bring Ben to the others. He couldn't ignore the feeling that ached within him; it wasn't betrayal, it was loss.
*
"What are you doing?" Juliet asked.
James was packing his suitcase with whatever he could get his hands on. Nothing was folded. The shirt he held currently was balled in his fist. He jumped when he spoke.
"Packin'," he said.
"Where are you going?"
"The beach, like I said, starting over."
"Dan said that this wouldn't take long. Maybe we should just wait it out."
James threw the shirt into his open suitcase. "Pack, Juliet. You might be ready to be shot by these people, but I ain't. I ain't ready to let you be either. It don't matter how long it takes for him. Could take forever for all I care. But he said it's gonna work or kill us all, right? Well, we already know that all these people are gonna die, so it don't look promising. But if I'm gonna die, it'll be back where I started. If they find out we helped 'em get past the fence, it's over for us right then and there."
"James," Juliet said, her voice a near whisper. "This could change everything. The Others took out all those from the Dharma initiative, we know that. What Dan is doing, it could kill everyone on the island."
He finally turned to look at her, and that pain in his gut flared up again. She was crying. He was still angry at her. Angry she wanted to go back to before the plane crashed. Angry she wanted to leave him. "What?"
She looked back at, not bothering to wipe the tears like she usually did when he caught her crying. She was stronger than this, stronger, even, than he was.
"What, Juliet? You wanna stay here? You wanna go traipsin' back to the land of the Others with them so you can stop this all from happening, too? So we'll never know each other?"
It was obvious that she didn't expect this from him. They'd long gotten past the yelling, the shouting. Her eyes showed that she was hurt, but she wasn't about to let him get by with what he'd said. He knew that, and that's what he wanted – an explanation.
"You think I want to stop all this? You think I want to go back? Maybe you don't remember, but I was a prisoner before you all came. Held against my will until I finished my work! Well, guess what, I was never going to finish. I was never going to save those women or those babies. I was never going to get to see my sister again, or my nephew. I was going to die here. Either way, I'm going to die here!" She choked back a sob, suddenly too stubborn now to let him see her cry.
He was speechless, for the moment, and tossed more clothes into his suitcase. "Then pack," he said, "You're not going to die."
"How do you know? And what does it matter? This life, this happy little lying life that we've made, it's all gone now."
"What did you give them the code?"
This stopped her. Her hands dropped limply to her sides. "They wanted it."
"I understand that," he said evenly. He urged himself not to lose his temper. "But why did you give it to them?"
"To give us time."
"For what?"
"To get on the sub."
He eyed her. "The sub?"
"One is coming tonight. We get on it, we get off this island. I don't know where we'll go, but somewhere. Or maybe we won't get off the island in time. I – I don't know. But maybe if we're living somewhere else, living our present then – then he won't change our past or – or maybe he'll mess up." Tears fell from her cheeks.
"Juliet – "
"I feel horrible because, because I think, we'll be gone, what's it matter. But they – they're all our friends, the people in the Dharma initiative, and – and everyone else," she said. She steeled herself with a deep breath. "Don't go to the beach. Come with me, on the sub."
He caught her arm and pulled her close. "I'm not goin' anywhere." She looked up, eyes wide. "Without you." He kissed her softly.
"What do you think? What if he does it, and we go back?"
"I'll find you."
"You won't know me, James," she said, pulling away from him, "This isn't some romantic movie, we won't meet again and fall in love."
"How do you know?" He tried to joke, but his words came out as more a whine. "What if we remember?"
"If we remember," she reasoned, "it will be worse. I'll be with Ben again and you'll land in Los Angeles and you won't be able to find the island. And I won't be able to get off."
"Dammit, Juliet, don't think of it. This doesn't make sense anyway – we can't just suddenly appear back where we were before the crash."
"We suddenly appeared back in the 1970s."
"We'll do your thing – get on the sub, and we'll get off the island, start over, whatever time period we're end. It'll work. Just pack," he said, "Please, Juliet, just pack and come on."
She turned to the closet without a word and began to fill her suitcase with whatever would fit. He watched her until she looked up. She tried to smile, but he could tell it was a fake. "I love you," she said.
"I love you back."