Chapter 1
There were no words to describe how much she hated Ben, she thought as she felt the pain in her shoulder slowly ebb away, to a throb. She knew she would feel tender for a few days, as it had the other three times that her arm had dislocated ── she wished she wasn't as frail. Juliet Burke hated Ben for how easily he could somehow force everyone to do what he wanted without seemingly any effort at all. Juliet hated the way he looked at them with those deep blue eyes and that stone face whenever he 'asked', the way his deep eyes penetrated you thoroughly and slowly, as if reminding you of all the power that he had on the islands and in the world they were separated from... even though his mouth didn't mention. She hated Benjamin Linus for how easily he could decide about life or death and for how little the latter really did to him. It was clear that he used people, but, for one's own good, it was best one didn't argue much with him. Juliet suspected that many of the recruited suffered from Stockholm's Syndrome, though.
Of course, she knew from experience that one's actions didn't necessarily speak for what one felt. She knew that it was perfectly possible to do what you had been told to do and still feel so much chaos inside, wanting nothing but to go back to the world you had abandoned and to leave Ben and the others and everything that was related to the islands. She felt like she would have at least recognized something with the others if they felt the same way, though ── not happy or accustomed at all to their 'home'. She would never ever see it as such, though. She didn't want to.
Yet there she was with the one person from the Oceanic 815 plane that she hated the most ── because he had told her to: Kate Austen. How easily the brunette had managed to dislocate her arm was but a subtle reminder of how very unlike each other they were, how frail she was as opposed to Kate, with her versatile strength... and how Kate was all that she wasn't and wouldn't ever be. While her past was not one to envy, her strength and independence were. Juliet had never truly known independence, and least of all on the islands, where Ben decided absolutely everything, however unspoken.
She became acutely aware of how Kate's heart beat raged against her cheek as Kate held her very awkwardly. She knew that the fugitive hated her at least as much as she hated her in return, if only for the fact that she was a part of a community she had never even asked to be a part of. Nonetheless, she felt that the rhythmic, however increased, thrumming against the shell of her ear soothed her somehow.
She briefly wondered why the other woman's heart rate was increased, but she answered her own thought nearly immediately after it struck her. Something had just tried to kill them, and they had only just managed to escape. That would be the cocktail that got most people's hearts to beat faster than normal. She wasn't a part of that particular category, though. While her heart beat was faster, too, just after Kate had forced her arm back in the socket and pain had rushed through her body, it hadn't increased like Kate's had upon the sound of what she herself knew to be death, too ── it only had from exertion of running into the bushes.
Juliet Burke was afraid of a lot of things, but death? It was not one of them. After three years on the hidden-away isle that she had always been told she would be able to leave after six months, many promises... she didn't have hope for being able to leave anymore, and for resuming what was her actual life. Whatever this was right now wasn't it. She was one of Ben's puppets, that was all.
The life she lead with the community was not worth it to her, nor was the 'great work' she was supposed to do on the islands. After all, the task that Ben had set for her had long proven to be impossible. Rachel and her nephew were worth fighting for, but it was so hard to hold onto that shred of hope when she hadn't even seen her beloved sister for so long and had never even been able to just hold little Julian. Juliet suspected they believed that she was gone and had been for a long time.
Kate hated Juliet's serenity most: mindlessly following Ben's and others' orders without questions. However, there was also that something about Juliet Burke she had never been able to see through ── that something that had begun to settle in her mind when she saw the blonde shoot one of their own to help Kate and Sawyer escape with Karl. It wasn't her top priority to know, of course ── for how could it when you had to run for your life? ── but occasionally, it crossed Kate's thoughts again and she wondered what the hell the truth about Juliet was. Juliet's actions didn't all fall in place.
As she felt the blonde's wet, curly strands gently tickle her collar bone, though, it struck her that right then the serenity that the woman had always had was not necessarily unnerving at that moment, but oddly comforting. This was a thought she tried to push past, though. She couldn't rely on Juliet after all that had happened after their captivity, and she refused to let herself be comforted by her, no matter how much she might need it. She pulled her arms back from the blonde and pushed at her, while moving backwards and away from her, just as Juliet grasped onto the expanse of her soaking wet top and held on with an unknown strength.
That suppressed part of Kate that was comforted by the blonde was stronger than the part of her that felt like she couldn't accept that strange kind of comfort, though. The brunette lowered herself on the wet leaves as Juliet still held onto her. They could rest here for a little while, for now, she thought. She just had to keep both of her eyes open, so that if danger threatened, they could get away from there as soon as possible. As she blinked and then opened her eyes wide, danger was the last she saw, though. Although... It depended on how you looked at it. If said danger came in the shape of a small and slender woman whose mysteries couldn't be resolved, with curly blonde hair and blue eyes, danger was really incredibly close.
Juliet herself seemed to be aware of their proximity as well. "I... I appreciate your assistance," she whispered as she tried to push herself up with one hand beside Kate's left side, but failed. They both felt the air surrounding them change into an atmosphere that neither of them was sure that they were very comfortable with. They hated each other a lot, indeed, for who they were and they themselves were not compared to the other, but as well as love and lust, hate was a strong feeling on top of a mixture of already very strong feelings right then. Sound and color slowly faded away with all hate as lips touched each other, chapped and dry but somehow familiar and exactly what they needed.
Despite the fact that consideration and thought described Kate and Juliet, both of their minds were relatively free as they kissed and let their fingertips run over each other, the worries and suspicion in the backs of their minds as they shed their clothes and touched skin, both wet and dirty... but it didn't matter. Unsurprisingly, Kate took charge of all that happened next, sitting astride Juliet's hips, moving against her. It was about a need and an intimate one at well, but it was not at all caused by attraction. Juliet, gasping and panting, let it all wash over her. After all, she was good at being in line. The encounter was rather hard and fast, and needy, however unspoken... because neither Kate nor Juliet would speak of it again, they knew then already.