These snippets begin during 3x19 after the scene where Jin, Sawyer, Desmond and Charlie have brought back Naomi and are hiding her in the tent and end when Kate comes to tell Jack about her. Basically they are my versions of 'missing' scenes. The first is a Juliet/Hurley scene with strong Jacket undertones and the second is a Jack/Juliet obviously again with strong Jacket undertones.

Enjoy and please leave feedback!

Interlude I

Two Fifths of a Whole

"I herd she's the one who had Claire kidnapped." Steve remarked as the crowd suspiciously eyed the blonde who innocently washed her shirt in the ocean a few meters away.

Hurley studied her for a moment, she had noticed the crowd that had gathered to pass judgment on her, he could tell by the way she stood awkwardly refusing to face them and he suddenly had the urge to defend the stranger, "No way dude, she like totally saved Claire's life the other day. Why would she want her kidnapped? She told Jack it was all Ethan's idea he went like all rouge."

Sawyer scoffed looking up from his magazine, "Don't cha get it Hugo? They like to experiment on us we're their goddamn science fair projects... all they do is screw around with our heads. She's lying to cover her ass. She'll always be one of them. We can't trust her." His gaze met Sayid's and both grew uncomfortable.

Juliet sighed counting the number of times she had wrung out her waterless shirt, sooner or later she was going to have to make her way back onto shore, past ten pairs of condemning eyes. Although she had to admit they were a lot more open to the idea of her coming into their camp than Ben had anticipated. She was beginning to think that maybe Ben wasn't as accurate with his psychological evaluations of people as he wanted everyone to believe.

She was a good person, a special person, she knew that. Otherwise she wouldn't have been brought here, but some of these castaways who had happened upon this island… well they were just as talented as her and just as good… she cast her gaze over where she had seen Jack earlier. He was with Claire, attending to Aaron. She nervously let her gaze filter towards the crowd and was surprise to find most of it had dispersed and only Sawyer, Sayid and Kate were left watching her with unease.

Still, she could not understand why Jack had not been on Jacob's list, she knew the power and allure that surrounded Jacob, and she had seen evidence herself through her sister's child, Julian. Regardless she couldn't help but feel He was wrong about Jack Sheppard.

From his file and his past she understood the decision not too put him on the list initially, not to let the person from the file in on the secrets of the island but once she got to know Jack she realized that there was so much more to him than his inability to sacrifice, his drivers' license and his bitter divorce. He was special, and she wondered how many other times Jacob and Ben had been wrong in casting seemingly 'flawed' people aside.

Because that's essentially what they did, they picked out the weak, the damaged and the immoral and they got rid of them. Ben would say "only the best people deserve to be on this island" as they buried the bodies of people who had 'flaws'. If she was honest she would admit that as each day past she grew a little wearier of the island and little less faithful in Ben and ultimately Jacob. But she had always been such a great pretender and up until flight 815 had broken across her afternoon sky she'd been playing the part better than anyone.

Now though, she found it much harder to lie, and smile and manipulate. She couldn't decide if it was because the person she was supposed to be manipulating was Jack himself or because she was finally growing a backbone and thinking for herself for a change.

"Ahh Jules?" She jumped at the sound of a nickname she'd herd many times from the mouths of both Ethan and Goodwin, one of which was buried a few feet from her and the other whose body was left to rot in the middle of the island.

Hurley smiled sheepishly, "Oh sorry I just thought Jules was a cool nickname but if you don't like it…"

"No, no" She smiled sincerely, "I just haven't herd anyone call me that for awhile that's all, its fine."

Hurley plopped down next to her, grabbing a singlet he copied her movements and began folding, "Don't you Others have nicknames in Otherville?"

She tried to keep her face expressionless, "No we don't have names for each other. We just have numbers. Like Ben's number one... So we call him number one." She watched as Hurley processed her sarcasm and laughed lightly when he finally decided she was just playing with him. "Of course we had nicknames Hugo."

"Oh that was another joke. You know you're kind of funny." He let out a nervous chuckle, "Well if you Others did have numbers what would you have been?"

"Me?" She asked, frowning slightly faulting to find an answer.

Normally she'd lie, Ben was very cautious of any outsiders having insight into the hierarchy of their people but looking at Hugo's friendly yet curious face she found herself telling the truth. "I suppose I would have been fifth."

"Whoa," He raised his eyebrows in admiration, "that's like gotta be a lieutenant or captain or something." She laughed again, finding she enjoyed Hugo's company the most, apart from Jack's of course.

"What about you Hugo-" He cut her off as he passed her another item of folded clothing, "Hurley, call me Hurley."

"Okay Hurley," she couldn't help but smile even wider when his eyes lit up at the nickname, "what number would you be?"

He considered this for a moment, surveying the various people from his camp on the beach; most sent him small waves or warm nods of hello. He looked back at her grinning widely.

"I think I'd be number five too."

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