The newly named James LaFleur was tired of tossing and turning. He was not sure what was keeping him up. Lately, he seemed to be losing his knack for being able to nod off without a care. Sure the whole time on the island had been fraught with events that make a man sleep with one eye open, but he noticed for whatever reason he was stressed like never before. He stared at the ceiling from his top bunk, listening to Miles heavy mouth breathing below. "Like a damn bulldog," he whispered.
As he rolled over again, he tried to figure out what the source of the stress might be. Glancing at the irritating noise below he mumbled "Maybe, cause I'm the one whose gotta take care of all these namby-pambies..."
As he lay there longer, his thoughts wondered to the last kiss he shared with Kate on the helicopter. He snickered, thinking about the bittersweet memory. Then he remembered the last image in his head of Kate, in the jungle with Claire. Why hadn't he stepped out to talk to her? Deep down he felt maybe it just wasn't meant to be. Even the island seemed to be shoving that in his face.
"Damn island." He wondered, and not for the first time, whether it really was some sort of punishment for everything wrong he'd ever done. "I guess it ain't all bad." He smiled in the dark as he pictured a certain blonde and the smirk that seemed to be becoming cuter every time he saw it. Suddenly he thought, "How the hell am I supposed to convince her to stay...or more importantly why am I trying to get her to stay?"
It'd been a week since their conversation on the dock. He wasn't sure why he felt so free to ask her to stay for his sake. His male brain came up with "she's hot."
"Nah." Even he knew it was more than that. He didn't know how it happened (considering that their first meeting involved a taser), but their friendship had grown into something he'd never really experienced; not even with Kate. "Hell, I can even trust her enough to spill my guts about Kate." Whatever it was, he wasn't ready for her to get on a sub and leave him.
"I could stare at her eyes for...Oh damn-it! Stop acting like a little girl." He suddenly had enough and jumped down from his bunk, stubbing his toe as he headed for the bathroom. "Son-of-a-bitch." Jin and Miles continued to slumber, oblivious to the world around them.
After splashing some water on his face he came out of the bathroom and noticed a light down the hall in their pseudo-living room/dining room. The Dharma folks had given their "boat crew" a small guest house. While it did have 2 bedrooms it did not have any kitchen or dining area and they all had to share one bathroom. It wasn't so bad, but he knew Juliette must feel like she was living in a frat house.
He tip-toed down the hall; as he suspected he found her there awake, just like him. She was curled up on the end of the couch. At first he thought she was reading; on further examination he noticed she was staring into space and not at the book in her hand. She didn't seem to notice his presence so he stood their studying her for a short time. She looked sad and reminded him of a little girl, as she sat all folded up. He had a sudden impulse to go over and hold her, but smiled to himself because he knew she'd probably kick his ass.
He wondered what it was that made her so sad. Sure she'd been through a lot on the island. "Who knows what the others did to her," he thought.
More curious was the mysterious thing that she seemed to be pining for at home. "A man?" Probably not, considering the thing he saw between her and Jack. "Maybe she's got a kid she ain't told anyone about? Nah. Doubt she would have left to begin with."
Puzzled, he continued to take her in. It didn't hurt that she was wearing some skimpy 70's shorts someone loaned her, but his eyes eventually made their way back to her pensive visage. It irritated him that he could not read her. As an ex-con he prided himself on being able to read people, especially women. Juliet Burke was quickly becoming a closed book he couldn't resist taking off the shelf.