If Juliet didn't survive the fall, the bomb never detonated, and our remaining losties are left to hang out on the island.
disclaimer: i do not claim to own any part of Lost.
It was not his name but the voice, laced with panic, that got his attention. Everything froze. He didn't register his movements, scrambling across the debris. Only her hand. Her crying as the chain tightened. Her. Each sickening shudder of the scaffolding as it threatened to come down. Her blood in his hand.
This was not an option. He was not going to lose her.
"It's okay…" Oh God, no. No.
In mere seconds the balance had tipped. Questions he would agonise over later; why hadn't the damn bomb blown? Shit they were on a suicide mission anyway… all for one. Not this. It wasn't supposed to be like this.
Someone is crying next to him, pulling on him. Begging. "Jack, help me get …"
"Sawyer, come on… please…"
Pulling him away, colours swim and voices float past and all he can see is a woman telling him she loves him. So much. Terrified. Beautiful. Gone.
* * *
Breathing is pain for him. Kate sees it. There is guilt, shock. There is emptiness. There is nowhere to go from here.
They buried Sayid where he died. Took the bus and fled, taking no chance of being ambushed again. It took both Hurley and Jack to get Sawyer into the van. Miles turned up just before they drove away, just strolled out from the trees. He is Miles, but frayed, scattered. Hurley sees all this. Sees Sawyer's pain, Jack's bewilderment… Juliet's absence. He drowns in it as he drives.
They drove as far as the road went. It took a few hours, part of it unfinished, rough track until walking was the only option. No one tried to remember their path, tried to work out their position. It didn't matter. Only here, or there. Being away from there. An instinctual seeking of quiet, of refuge. It was found a little way up from the river, a scar in the hill side, framed by enough foliage and rock to remain unseen.
* * *
Miles was the first to ask, as the shadow of dusk settled. "What the hell… happened?" searching Kate's face, then Jack's. Jin watched quietly.
Jack's eyes burned – he was both desperate and terrified to know. Sawyer was slumped in a corner – it was unclear if he was even conscious. Kate paled, drew a breath. Whispered an answer "…she fell." Not now, please. I can't do this now. She didn't dare look at him.
Miles left it there.
Jin built a small fire, and the sound of snapping twigs settled over the group, stretching across the silence and seeping through skin like grief.
Miles didn't sleep that night.
* * *
"I knew what happened."
Hurley just looks at him.
"Then why'd you ask, Miles? How'd you… this has never happened… damn… and Juliet, she hurt. You know, she was hurting. And then she's gone. And Sayid… I'm losing it man, I can't…." Hurley watches him fall apart.
"You mean, you felt them, like, die."
Miles is shaking now.
"Well, it's like you were with them then."
"You were with them, dude. That matters"
It's early morning. They sit across from the ashes of the fire. Jin and Kate had walked towards the creek. Jack had wandered in the other direction. Sawyer must have slipped away before dawn. No one had mentioned a plan of any kind.
"Was your dad there?"
"Yeah."
"Where is... he now?" Uncertain.
"That my friend..." Hysterical. "That is a... that's a question, alright, you know because he is... right where he always was. And we're the ones that are fucked. We are... not supposed to be here, we were never... why the fuck did you all come here? Why did you come back?!"
"Because it wasn't right... there"
Miles is cold again. Freezing. And he's still laughing, why the fuck am i laughing?
"Well you sure made things right, now, didn't you..."
* * *