I'm With You

A porcelain pair of eyelids yawn themselves open, revealing gloriously sapphire eyes. The fan of ebony eyelashes, which surrounds this complex organ, flicker a couple of times and briefly caress its neighbour. A pair of crimson lips lightly smack together before quickly opening to allow a sharp burst of air to gust out. A light figure, curved in all the right places, pushes herself off the carpet of sand below and gazes around in wonder.

Juliet, a fertility doctor, a sister, a lover, wakes up to an array of light. Everywhere is blanketed with vividness and clarity and she feels so…alive. Everything comes into sharp, clear focus as she rotates her gaze, yet there's a distant panging in the bottom of her heart. Someone's voice, faint yet full of agony, echoes across the lonely mountains of her mind.

The tide is somehow neglected as she examines her tender but clean body, but it nevertheless rushes forwards to greet her and with it her memory returns. She shivers in pain as she remembers the crushing fall into oblivion that marked the end of her life. The darkness that claimed her, the taut grip of the chain around her waist, the thud as flesh met the concrete ground below are all that fill her mind for a moment The intense pain of the fall isn't why her body starts to shake with agony. She remembers her hand gripping someone else's and remembers the agonising decision to let go, to let fate win and to detach herself from the only person she'd ever truly loved.

"James…" A shadow of a whisper escapes her lips, which have turned waxen in shock and agony. Her fingers, like mini crabs, scuttle along the sand and dig themselves in as she tries to protect her body from the spasms of pain it's suffering from. Each spasm brings a new memory to the surface of her mind and she fears she's opened up the floodgate into her own personal hell, where she can see everything that she's ever wanted right before her but will never be able to reach for it.

"James, James," she moans. "James, James, James." Each time she says his name, it's like someone's flinging arrows or darts into her heart. What breaks her heart the most is that as she fell towards her inevitable death she'd heard him cry for the first time ever. His sobs had followed her down the long, dark shaft and she'd sobbed too.

Juliet stops moaning and weeping for a second, so she can deal with the practical issues rather than the emotional issues. Where is she? Is this heaven? Why is so alone if this is heaven? More to the point, why is she still hurting when everyone describes it as a peaceful, pain free realm of beauty and freedom? She stumbles to her feet as she tries to search for the answers to these questions.

Her sapphire eyes saw the same island she loathes and loves at the same time. The beach, a stretch of pale sand as far as the eye could see, remains the same and the jungle, a cluster of exotic and vibrant foliage, is still the same jungle she remembers running through. The ocean is calmer than she's ever known it to be and a tinge of pink to reflect the sunset smoothes the rough edges of the sea. It's a serene, beautiful image yet she can't enjoy it. Can you ever enjoy the ocean again if you watched someone you love drown in it? Can you ever love again if the person you trusted the most broke your heart again and again. The answer is a firm no, and that's the same principle behind her lack of enjoyment at the serenity of the island. It had made her and broke her and now she is too bitter, too hurt to relax here.

The sounds she hears are too serene as well. There's no roar of the smoke monster to signify that it's on its rounds, nor is there the cacophony of laughter, arguments and activity that she became so accustomed to as she joined Jack's camp. Somehow, the image of Jack's face doesn't make her heart flutter at all, though she'd once had a passing crush on him. His stubbornness to reset the clocks had cost her dearly – had cost them all dearly. Because of him, she is here, alone, by herself. Nice going there, she thinks to herself sarcastically. Did you ever account for MY feelings when you decided to destroy the ruddy island? You had a great time off the island playing happy families with Kate and you should've stayed there. When we needed you most, you weren't there and when we didn't, when we were playing happy families, you showed up.

Suddenly, a sound that isn't natural causes her body to stiffen in intrigue. A melody that hasn't derived from any nature's products drifts across the vast beach like a lone hitchhiker along a motorway. Juliet's mind, still muddled with thoughts of James and Jack, takes a few seconds to process the sound and associate it with its source. A synchronization of chords, strums and low key singing make it quite a pleasant melody to listen to.

Her bare feet, soothed by the blanket of sand they are buried in, start to move of their own accord and it's like she's being guided by the music to some unknown fate. She figures that whether she's in heaven or in hell, nothing can ever cause her more pain than the pain of being ripped away from those she loves.

Juliet doesn't have to walk very far before she spots the source of the melody. A lone figure sits with his back towards her, yet she can spot the neck of a guitar from where she stands. Again, the pain barriers prevent her from reaching the conclusion she's striving to reach but eventually she realises that out of all the files she's read, all the people she saw as she stumbled into Jack's camp like a wolf in sheep's clothing, there's only one possible person who a) has skills in playing the guitar and b) who revolves their life around music. Yet this isn't a person she ever became friendly with. She bites her lip – a habit she hasn't taken up since her school years – and plays with her hair out of anxiety. James is the antidote to the bursts of fear she used to experience but now he isn't here, she has to find something else to redirect the fear.

"I can see you there, you know," the man calls, startling her out of her momentary day dream.

Juliet feels a bit like a deer caught in headlights – she can either flee or stay and let whatever might happen, happen. She doesn't know this man well and she fears he will still resent her for what she did to Claire what feels like a long time ago. She's afraid of confrontations, yet she never used to be. James, perhaps subconsciously, had weakened her defences so that now she's always afraid. Perhaps the old Juliet wouldn't have given up so easily and would've fought until the bitter end but she can never be sure.

"I don't bite," the man continued, oblivious to her silent torment. "You don't have to be afraid, Juliet."

It's the mention of her name which causes a ripple of alarm to spread throughout her body. She can't move, can't think, can't breathe – how does he know it's me? is the question that haunts her mind. He hasn't turned round once…

All of a sudden, he turns round, stands up and grins at her in an almost brotherly way. She stands in a defensive position, prepared to run if necessary. The juxtaposition between her emotions and this calm, serene atmosphere isn't lost on her but it doesn't matter.

"Charlie," she states, almost trembling with a sudden burst of sorrow. This is the man who died trying to rescue them. This is a man who loved and hated in equal measures, sometimes hating the wrong thing for the wrong reasons. This is a man who shot Ethan in cold blood, though for admirable reasons. This is a man who she thought despised her and yet is grinning at her as if she is a sister to him.

"That's my name," he says, the grin slowly leaving his face as he scrutinises her expression. "Welcome home."

"This isn't my home," she suddenly explodes. "It has taken away everything I ever loved and is the place I tried to get away from for three years before your plane crashed here! I hate it!"

"No you don't," he corrects her. "You're mad because you believe it took away Sawyer from you." In response to her surprised look, he adds, "Just because I am dead, it doesn't mean I don't keep an eye on you lot every now and again. I've got news for you, love – this is an island. No matter what Locke might say, this is not a magical place. It's sand, sea, trees and earth. What you see is what you get."

"So how come I'm here?" she challenges, a glint of the old Juliet resurfacing at last. "Am I alive, am I dead? What's the deal here?"

He frowns and scratches his head. "It's a little complicated," he admits. "I'm afraid you wouldn't be able to keep up."

"Well, Charlie," she returns, "maybe if you talk real slow, I'll be able to follow."

He meets her fiery gaze with an abashed look, as if he is ashamed of something he has done or said.

"We're in between time at the moment," he explains. "Think of this as a pocket of time. We're neither in the present nor the future…we're simply here. I know you're wondering why we're alone and why I'm here." His expression turns to one of sadness. "For so long, Desmond harped on about fate and it being my destiny to die, which you know is always a real mood booster. I guess I'm here because the one person I wanted to get rescued more than anyone else didn't. Until she does, I'm stuck between time. I occasionally get a glimpse of the past or the future but I can't change what's already been done."

"You're talking about Claire," Juliet replies slowly, secretly marvelling that she could keep up with all this time business. "Right?"

"Right," Charlie agrees. "Anyway, I've not been able to communicate with anyone so, as you can imagine, I've been leading a pretty lonely life here – that is, until you came."

"Why am I here, then?" she asks. "Unlike you, I never intended to die for any particular cause. I take it I am actually dead, then?"

"Well…" Charlie hedges. "I don't think you actually are. When you actually set the bomb off, I'm guessing you got trapped here too either because it didn't work and you're stuck here until it does…or, like me, you have something you were meant to do and have to wait here until it happens."

Juliet looks around crossly, as if expecting the great riddle of her life (or rather death) to have an answer fall from the sky. She doesn't buy that whole unfinished business which people seem to associate with the dead. It would be nice to believe that her love for James kept her tied to the island until he returned to her but she can't keep clinging to false hope all the time.

Their gazes suddenly fixates on a pocket of light which splits the sky in two. An array of light, from every degree of intensity, shatters the serenity of the twilight scene and they stagger back, awed into silence by the sheer beauty of what they are seeing. It condenses into a single, spherical shape which loosely resembles a portal, like you see on science fiction shows.

"What happens now?" Juliet breaks the silence, her voice barely above the volume of an average whisper. "D-Do we enter it, or what?"

"No idea," Charlie responds cheerfully. "We'll run into it and see what happens. At best, we end up where we're meant to be. At worst, we suffer a horrible, fiery death."

"How can you be so bloody cheerful at a time like this? You're mad!" Juliet grumbles. She can't understand how he can still be grinning at a time like this, or how he could play down his true emotions. She sees the fear behind his eyes and knows that underneath the optimistic façade he's currently presenting, there is a frightened young man. That vulnerability speaks to her heart and she can almost see James in him, if she squints hard enough and allows her brain to hallucinate for long enough.

"Take my hand," he commands, extending his hand out to her.

"Why?" she asks quietly. "Why are you being so nice to me? You hated me before."

"I never hated you," he argues. "I just didn't trust you and can you blame me? Anyway, the past is the past. Look, whatever's waiting on the other side of that thing can't be much worse than sitting around here for eternity can it?"

She nods, understanding his point of view.

"Look, Juliet," he says softly. "I know I'm probably the last guy you can trust right now, what with my habit of slaughtering your people and all that. We've both loved and lost and if there's even a chance we can see them again, even if it's just a mere glimpse from afar, our best shot of doing that is going through that portal thingamajig."

"I don't know," she replies in a broken voice. "If it turns out Jack's plan worked, I won't remember James and he won't remember me."

"But you'll be relieved of this constant heartache," Charlie points out. "If you don't remember him – God forbid – at least you can start over again. I don't think we'll completely forget," he adds, looking thoughtful. "You might be able to turn back time, but how on Earth do you wipe out human memory? I think we'll remember everything. We have to remember everything."

She doesn't know who he's trying to reassure the most- her or himself. He doesn't want to forget the man he became and the friends he created and she understood.

It's a damp, cold night

Trying to figure out this life

Silent tears trickle down her face as she pictures James beautiful face. Maybe we were never supposed to be together. Of course they were. How could she have said that to him? She sincerely believes he still loves Kate – or at the very least, a part of him does. That's what kills her inside. When Bernard and Rose talked about dying together, she had looked to him for that same reassurance and he hadn't delivered. If I never meet you, then I never have to lose you. This is kind of the point Charlie had iterated. If – and this is a big if – she does forget about their relationship, she can forget about the heartache, the misery and the way they'd departed each other's sides. If they both remember, there will always be a lot of unspoken words between them. They'd forever try and make up for time and lose themselves in trying to mend the past.

"Juliet?"

She glances at the outstretched hand. She barely knows Charlie, barely trusts him but she knows he's good. She doesn't want to accept the inevitable, she doesn't want to succumb to fate the way Charlie did but how can you fight against something you can't control?

Won't you take me by the hand,

Take me somewhere new?

I don't know who you are but I,

I'm with you

After a long, aching silence, she slips her slender hand into his and sighs deeply. Their hands sweat profusely, signalling they both have their doubts and fears that this will work.

"After three," Charlie whispers. "One…"

She pictures their first kiss, a shy but passionate entanglement of the lips. She can still feel his hand grip the back of her hair and remembers how their arms wrapped around each other's in a blink of an eye, with absolutely no hesitation and no regards for the consequences.

"Two…"

She imagines his hand in hers as they took their evening stroll across the barracks. Her head casually rests against his shoulder and his free arm snakes its way around her waist.

"THREE!"

She can hear her passionate declarations of his love and his pleads for her to hold on and not to let go as she slips away from his sight. She has no time to dwell on it because suddenly she's running. She's running and running and plunges head first into the bright light. A rush of memories, both audio and visual, flood her mind and suddenly she can no longer feel Charlie's hand in hers anymore. It doesn't matter though because she's always been on her own.

"James!" she screams.

The light disappears and darkness takes over. Whether this insane, spur-of-the-moment plan has worked or not, she'll soon find out. Cold scratches at her hands and face and she shudders as a kaleidoscope of faces, some familiar and some not so familiar, fans out in front of her.

Her porcelain eyelids prise themselves apart carefully and she can feel someone's arm around her. Goodwin's or James' she silently wonders. Or could it be, dare I say, Edward's? In the space of thirty seconds, she receives her answer.

"Morning, Blondie. Where ya been?"

T.H.E E.N.D

A/n: - Ok, this is very AU but I think some of it makes sense in terms of fitting in with the plot of the show. Juliet and Charlie are my new fave AU pairing at the moment, don't ask why. Anyway this has a nice, satisfying ending. It focuses in on Juliet because that's what it has done throughout the one-shot. If anyone wants me to make Charlie's p.o.v. of this one-shot, just holler. I am more of a Skate fan than a James/Juliet fan but I do enjoy writing them