A/N: written for my friend Kim over at LJ in celebration of the anniversary of the episode 'La Fleur'.
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She knew everything about him.
Everything.
When and how his parents had died.
When he had dropped out of school.
The make of his first car.
When and why he had been to jail.
He had no damned secrets from her, and it was just unnerving.
It was one thing that another human being knew absolutely every detail, from the mundane to the downright sordid, of your life, it was ten times worse when you didn't know a damn thing about them.
They had just 'celebrated' their four months in Dharmaville and he still knew squat about her. Okay, so he had found out that she had been on the island for three years when Oceanic 815 had crashed, and that originally she was from Florida.
What the hell kind of info was that?
Florida. Where in Florida? Miami? Tampa? Orlando? The swamps? Florida, that was hardly a precise location.
What was up with him?
He used to do this kind of shit for a living. He used to be able to get people to spill their souls out to him, all the more easy to con him. But with her? It was mission impossible, he had tried all the damn tricks in the book, she wasn't biting.
It was so aggravating.
Enough was enough.
.
.
"Miles," he hissed.
They were on night shift at the security station, and Miles had dosed off in front of the monitors displaying nothing but the monotonous tranquillity of Dharmaville.
"Miles," he said a little louder this time.
"Huh … What?" He almost fell out of his seat.
He blinked sleep out of his eyes, took a deep breath, once he was almost fully woken up, he looked over at Sawyer expectantly.
"You people, on the Freighter, you all had files on us, right?"
Miles nodded, cautiously.
"You ever read them?"
Miles thought for a moment, "Yeah. Some. Not yours. I only knew the basics about you, mostly the chicks' ones. I had to check out and see what kind of odds I was working with, y'know," he said winking.
"Yeah, whatever," Sawyer rolled his eyes. "So … What does Juliet's file say?"
"Not a clue."
"What? I thought you said you read all the women's files."
"Not hers."
"Why the hell not? She not your type?"
"Trust me, pal. If I had had access to Juliet's file, I would have read it carefully, cover to cover, word to word, and I might even have snagged the picture and kept it in my bed stand. Baby's got front, if you know what I mean," he said, cupping fake breasts in front of him.
"I'm starting to think Jules is right when she says your a pig," Sawyer commented, disgusted.
"You say that as if it never crosses your mind."
Sawyer thought back to the other day, when she had came home, after being caught in the rain, with her soaking wet clothes sticking to her (in all the right places). His heart skipped a beat.
"I see the way you look at her man," Miles continued, arching an eyebrow.
"That's all in your deranged imagination."
"Whatever, Romeo. You ain't got a chance anyway."
Sawyer shot him a dirty look, and waited a couple of minutes before he asked, "What do you mean 'if you'd had access'? Was her file classified or something?"
"You still stuck on that? Then you deny that you have a 'thing' for her."
"Just answer the damn question."
Miles sighed with exasperation, "No, James Bond, it wasn't classified. We just didn't have a file on her, or on any of the people you lot referred to as 'others' apart from Linus, actually. We didn't even know they were on the island until we got here."
.
.
"Hey, Jin. How's it hangin'? The fish biting today?"
"No good day fishing," Jin said in broken English. "Weather bad."
"I hear you've been spending quite a lot of time with Juliet lately."
"She teach me English."
"She tried to kill you with her icy glare yet?"
Jin looked at him confused.
"How's that going for ya'?" Sawyer clarified.
"Good. She's a good teacher. Very patient. Calm. We talk."
"Oh really?" Sawyer said, interested. "What do you guys talk about?"
"Anything. Easy things, for vocabulary. Sun."
"Does she talk about herself?"
Jin shrugged.
"What have you found out about her so far?"
"Why do you want to know?"
"We're all stuck in this together, we might as well know each other better."
Jin nodded his approval.
Sensing he wasn't going to get much more out of the quiet Jin, he started turning away.
"She's a good person."
"Huh?" he turned back around.
"Juliet. She's a good person. You have questions, you should ask her."
Sawyer smiled. Gee, thanks for the tip, it hadn't even crossed my mind.
.
.
He strolled passed the motor pool on his way to the security head quarters. He spotted Juliet tidying up the tools meticulously in the back.
"Hey there, grease monkey," he called over. "Didn't hear you leave this morning."
"I had the early shift," she replied as she approached him.
"I see, things seem pretty slow," he commented.
She nodded before adding, "Give it an hour or so, people will be flooding in with oil to change, motors to check. Good times."
"I bet," he paused. "So, anyway, how are things going with you?"
She raised an eyebrow suspiciously, "Fine."
"Anything new?"
"I don't follow," she narrowed her eyes.
"In your life? Any potential loooove interests in the motor pool?"
"Nope."
"Really? You seem different?"
"Maybe it's the grease stain on my forehead."
"You don't have a grease stain on your forehead."
"I changed to colour of my bandana," she suggested.
"No, it's something more."
"Shouldn't you be at work?"
"I'm on my way there right now."
.
.
He was home alone, getting through the last twenty pages of 'Catch-22', the next one on his list was 'Carrie' -Juliet had insisted that it was simply unacceptable that he had never read it before, when he heard someone knock on the front door.
It was Amy, with a huge basket in her arms, "Hi, Jim. Is Juliet around?"
"I'm afraid not, she's still working."
"Oh."
"What's that for?" he asked pointing at the basket.
"You forgot, didn't you? She told me you wouldn't remember, she said it wasn't a big deal, but how is it that men never remember birthdays? She was with you on that boat. You survived a crash together, yet you can't even remember her birthday. So typical of men ..."
"Hold your horses sister," he ended Amy's tirade about men and their inability to remember dates, maybe if he had known the dates in the first place, he would have had a fair chance at remembering it. "I know that it's Jules' birthday today."
"Oh really," she said disbelievingly, peering inside the house. "Sure doesn't look like you've prepared anything for it."
"Prepared anything yet," Sawyer corrected her. "I'm waiting for Miles and Jin to come home, they made me promise I wouldn't do a thing without them. I'm so sorry Amy, I didn't know you knew about Juliet's birthday, otherwise I would have invited you along."
"That's fine. I wouldn't have been able to make it tonight anyway, I have a meeting with Pierre Chang to review the files of possible new recruits," she said. "I'm just glad you guys remembered, she's going to be so happy. Tell her I wish her the happiest birthday ever."
"Sure thing."
And with that she shoved the basket into Sawyer's arms and walked away with a massive grin plastered on her face.
Sawyer closed the door behind her, it was a good thing he hadn't forgot how to lie.
.
.
When Miles and Jin got home an hour later, they found Sawyer busying himself in the kitchen.
"What'cha doing, La Fleur?" Miles asked cautiously.
"It's Juliet's birthday today."
"And so you're pretending to be Martha Stewart?"
"No, Numbskull. I'm baking a cake."
"Seriously? You're not worried that you're going to set the whole of Dharmaville on flames."
"Haha, very funny. Why don't you make yourself useful, set the table or something, light some candles ..."
"Candles? What is this a candlelight dinner à la Beauty and the Tramp?"
"Just do it," he said before turning his attention to Jin. "Can you get us some wine over from the Dharmastore?"
Jin nodded silently and left straight away.
Sawyer was putting the final touches on his cake, it was a bit lopsided, but it wasn't half bad for a first try, when Miles spoke again, "So what did you get her as a present? You gonna wrap yourself in ribbon and lie naked on her bed and tell her she can do whatever she wants to you?"
"You're sick, man."
"Yeah, you're right, that would be a present for you, not for her."
"Shut up, Miles and keep decorating. I need quiet to concentrate so I don't ruin the spaghetti."
.
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The house was still and silent when Juliet finally got home later that evening. She was drained, she just wanted to go and soak her ageing bones in a hot bath. She opened the door and stepped into the bungalow, not a sound, maybe they went out to have a beer at Phil's, she thought. Perfect.
She unzipped the top half or her jumpsuit and walked into the living room.
"SURPRISE!!" Miles, Jin and James yelled out simultaneously.
She couldn't stop a smile from taking over her face, "How did you even know?"
"It was Jim," Miles said pointing towards the other man.
She looked at him questioningly.
"I used to con people out of their life savings, darling. I have my techniques for getting info on people."
"Oh really? Who told you?"
"My sources will remain confidential."
"Quit flirting guys and let's eat, I'm starving," Miles interrupted.
"You cooked?"
"You surprised?"
"More scared than surprised."
He nudged her forward towards the table, "Appreciate it, I've never cooked for a woman or anyone else, as a matter of fact, before."
.
.
Jin had retired to his room, Miles was somewhere passed out -man couldn't handle his liquor, Juliet was in the kitchen doing dishes.
"Hey, you don't have to do that, I will," Sawyer said.
"It's okay, you did all the cooking, and I don't mind doing it."
"I'll dry the dishes then," he stated grabbing the towel.
Once all the plates were away, and the place was impeccably clean again, she leaned back against the counter, "Thank you, James."
"It was nothing," he shrug. "Just some mediocre cake."
"It was the best birthday I have had in years," she said genuinely. "Thank you for everything."
She hugged him, they both held on a little longer than casual friends would have, and Sawyer couldn't help but think about just how perfectly she fitted in his arms, and how nice her hair smelled, and how good this felt.
When they broke apart, he cleared his throat a little uncomfortably, she smiled at him, biting her bottom lip a little bit.
"I should think about getting to bed, I have the early shift tomorrow."
"Yeah, me too," he said.
"Goodnight, James," she said softly as she padded to her room.
"Goodnight, Juliet," he whispered.
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THE END.