- On the beach. Sunny, warm, a light breeze. Cloudless sky. Jack and Juliet.-
He watched her as she walked up the beach toward him. Her head was cocked low, eyes a little timid, hair windblown, free. He watched her posture, how she walked, noticing how every step seemed perfectly balanced with the next, even on the warm sand. Her feet were bare.
Jack stared easily at her as she neared him. So many questions rattled at his brain, biting at him to jump at her and make her speak. Still, he held his tongue and stayed cool.
"Hey, Jack," she said softly, throwing him a small smile.
She did it again. There, as she always did it to him. Made him crawl with impatience and irritability. Something in the way she said it so easily, so calmly, as if nothing had happened before. She spoke like she forgot everything they had been through, everything she had put him through.
He breathed in deeply. "Hey."
She must have noticed the short greeting, how uncomfortably he said it. Juliet dropped her gaze and looked out at the ocean.
A moment of awkward silence passed before she spoke again. "Look, Jack, I was thinking… I was thinking about how you stood up for me here, when you brought me here, to the beach… I just wanted to say thanks. I know it wasn't easy to do."
Jack nodded slowly and looked at her. "You're welcome."
Still, his answer was short. It left her feeling unsatisfied, maybe a little disappointed. But she did not look away this time. She saw his eyes, how he seemed to contemplate with himself over something.
He spoke again, a dry smile playing at his lips. "You know, it wasn't actually hard to stand up for you." He paused briefly, then nodded and continued. "You think that I was afraid I'd lose something here if I protected you. But I had nothing here to lose."
She nodded. "Oh."
Jack chuckled as he went on. "I wanted to trust you because I thought I could. And I wanted them to know that, that the fact that I trust you should be enough."
She stared at him, not understanding what he meant. "You can trust me, Jack. I… thought that you knew that."
It was like a patch of fire exploded in his eyes. A piece of flame that had been concealed for too long, and was finally erupting from behind the cool curtain. It startled Juliet. He was so calm, so easy as he stared at her, and yet the fire was burning. She could see it clearly now.
"Look, Jack, if there's anything I've said-"
"Would you hurt me, Juliet?" he asked her sharply, coldly. Only pain. So much pain. He was not concealing it anymore.
And she looked at him, a sudden pain boring through her own eyes. "I came to you, Jack," she said quietly, honestly.
"But did you come because you're free now?" he continued, moving closer to her, staring deeper, harder into her eyes. "You have nowhere left to go, no one left to turn to. Would you have come to me back in the Hydra?… Would you have done it on your own?"
"Jack," she said softly, "please…"
"No!" he shouted at her, raising his hand to his head. "You never cared about me! You wouldn't have done anything if we were still there. You would have left me."
Her breathing came heavier. The air was thick, moist. It was beginning to hurt to breathe. "You know that's not true."
"Isn't it?" he said, nodding his head to convince himself. "There never was anything, was there? It was all just a lie, a lie to get what you wanted. A lie so you could go home." He started pacing before her, the anger spilling out. "And now look! You're not home. You're still here, on this God-forsaken island, with no one to be with but the other prisoners of this place."
"Jack, stop!" she cried out again.
He turned on her lividly. "No, no, Juliet. I won't stop. I want it to hurt. I want it to hurt you like it hurt me. I want to see you hurt, because I believe that you can and you've chosen to ignore it… You've ignored it too long. And you've hurt me."
She shook her head, staring at him desperately, her tears falling openly now. "I never wanted to hurt you…"
"Didn't you? You wanted to break me! You… you wanted to break me."
Jack tore away his eyes from hers, turned away from her, moved away slowly. He stood facing the ocean, staring out emptily at it.
Juliet, who was breaking, could not hide her feelings any longer. She trembled with fear of him, shook with love for him. There was a time when she had wanted to break him. She had wanted to hurt him.
But all that had somehow shifted. There was nothing she wanted to do more than hold him. He had changed her, completely turned her mind from wanting to hurt people to wanting to help them. And all she longed to do was hold him.
Juliet sniffed, trying to wipe tears from her face. Wanting to say everything and not being able to find words, she did all she could think to do.
"Jack," she spoke softly, her voice trembling. She went to him, stood behind him. Raising a shaking hand, she let it fall easily upon his back, his skin sending what felt like electricity through her veins.
He did not move.
Her other hand went to his arm. Her fingers curled around his arm gently. "Please."
She slid her hand down his arm, until it reached his hand. His hand was clenched into a fist. Her fingers fought their way into his palm, releasing his grip on the air. They interlaced with his own fingers.
Her tears still fell. "I… I know I hurt you, Jack… And nothing I say will fix you, will it?" She stared at him, but he would not look at her. She sniffed again. "How can I show you…? How can I prove to you that I care?"
Something in her words, something she said reached him. He let his gaze drop to meet hers.
Juliet felt his hand release hers, release hers and move to her face. His hand went to her face, followed by his other one. Both hands on her face, holding her there.
His eyes were so green.
He leaned forward to press his forehead to hers. She did not pull away from him.
Jack said nothing, only held her there for a long time. His eyes closed as he held her, listening to his own heartbeat pulsing in his ears. Juliet never closed her eyes.
After the moment passed, Jack opened his eyes to find hers. She still cried silently as she looked at him. He brought her face closer to his and slowly met her lips.
He held her there. As he kissed her, Juliet fell numb to the rest of the world. All she felt was him, all she could see was him. She let her eyes close, for the first time. And when her eyes slipped shut, he was still there. She still felt him, with her, beside her, against her. She did not lose him.
He remained with her, holding her, because he wanted to. She realized this as he kissed her. Juliet let her arms slide around his waist, pulling him even closer to her. She let her head fall down against his chest, pressing her cheek to his heart.
Jack wrapped his arms around her tightly and buried his face in her hair.
It was an embrace.
Juliet listened to the waves crash against the rocks down the beach. She heard people down the beach, heard their voices. Probably gawking and snooping at her, at who she was holding.
She tried to calm her breathing, to catch her breath. The air was so thick, so moist. Her lungs felt so heavy.
She felt Jack's hands move to her head, to her face. He gently pushed her back to see her, to look into her eyes. Still holding her, he whispered. His whisper was raspy, was cut and torn. "You have broken me…"
The sound of the waves no longer reached Juliet's ears, nor the feeling that she was being watched. All she saw was him, was Jack, and how pained, how longing his gaze was. He looked so hard, so deeply into her eyes that she felt he could see into the depths of her mind, of her soul. It didn't only frighten her, it made her long for him stronger.
"And now, all I want is you… Juliet."
Scars.
She felt her pains of the past melting away, withering away into nothing.
There was no more. There wasn't a reason to be chained any longer. No binds would hold her heart any longer. Jack Shepherd had broken them.
"I'm sorry."
Who had said it? The words had left Juliet's mouth, and Jack had echoed them honestly.
How long did they stand together on the beach? There was no time. They had all the time in the world, and yet, it didn't matter.
"It doesn't matter who we were," he said to her, taking her hands in his. "It only matters who we are."
Juliet Burke. Broken, and then revived. Broken twice.
"And I want to be with you, Jack," she told him. "I want to stay with you. I don't want you to leave me." Her last words seemed so powerful.
Jack pulled Juliet close again and kissed her forehead. A shaky laugh left his throat. "I've finally found you… I will never leave you, Juliet."
I will never leave you, Juliet.
I will never leave you, Juliet.
I will never leave you.
I.
"I will always love you, Jack."