I was intrigued by the episode, "The Other Woman." I can't be the only one that wanted to see Ben have a romance, can I? What if it had been Ben instead of Goodwin who'd come to the lab looking for gauze? This will probably get naughty in later chapters. ~Coffee
...
She'd been with them for a month, a whole month, and despite weeks upon weeks of sleepless nights, endless tests, and the weight of the entire community watching her, waiting for her to find the piece that would solve the puzzle of their fertility issues, with their hopeful glances and hushed, reverent conversations when her back was turned…she'd failed. Miserably.
For a month, a whole month, she'd spent almost every day with Henrietta, holding her hand, and telling her not to be afraid; she was a fertility specialist. She was going to make it all right. Henrietta had believed her, trusted her. Henrietta had good hands, strong hands that looked more than capable of raising a child: motherly hands.
Not anymore.
A fresh wave of grief hit Juliet. She'd been sitting on the floor and crying for nearly an hour now, unable to get up and go about her work. They'd lost Henrietta that morning, and Juliet hadn't shed a single tear in front of the friends and family she's had to inform of her death. They'd all looked at her differently that day. Harper had been right. She was no longer their "celebrity."
Of course, no one had come right out and said it, but she could feel the shift in their gazes. This magical woman who'd somehow managed to impregnate a male rodent was apparently incapable of figuring out how to get a perfectly healthy woman through her second trimester on this godforsaken island. She was a hack, and Henrietta had paid the price of her incompetence. It was only a matter of time before they came after her with pitchforks.
And no one understood the worst part, which was that Juliet actually HAD thought she could do this. She'd been so confident, so sure. Henrietta became more of a friend than her patient. Juliet had let her walls down, let the poor scared pregnant woman into her heart, because deep down she had been sure that Henrietta would be fine, that she, Juliet, would MAKE her be fine.
Obviously, she'd been wrong.
She brushed her tears away with the back of her hand and choked out another sob. She should be getting back to work, reviewing the data, figuring out what went wrong, and doing everything she could to prevent it from happening again, but her heart was too heavy with sorrow. She hadn't even been able to perform the autopsy. In fact, when Ethan had suggested it, she'd had to swallow back a mouthful of sour bile at the thought of cutting open the woman she'd allowed to die. She requested that he do the procedure, citing the point that she was a fertility doctor, and not a surgeon. Even so, she'd been forced to observe and assist in order to compile more data...data that would supposedly prevent this from all reoccurring. Even now, the autopsy report was sitting on her desk, and she couldn't bring herself to look at it.
It was all so hopeless. She curled her knees up to her chest and buried her face in her hands. Maybe she could resign, leave early and get back to the one success she had to cling to. Rachel…
There was a crashing sound in the pharmacy.
Juliet quickly brushed the tears off her face and pulled herself together. It wouldn't do for anyone to see her like this. She stood on shaking legs and went to investigate.
Coming through the door, she called out to the figure wedged between the shelves of medical supplies.
"You okay?" Her tone was a bit more acidic than she'd intended it to be.
The figure turned, and to Juliet's surprise and horror, it was none other than Ben Linus.
"Uh, I was just looking for the gauze," he muttered a little sheepishly. "I didn't know anybody was here." His eyes, always blue, always piercing, took in her appearance, no doubt noting her puffy red eyes and swollen nose.
Dammit, she thought. Of all the people to show up right now, the last one she wanted to see was Benjamin Linus. He was the one who'd made the biggest effort to bring her here, to make her feel comfortable, and to encourage her. She met his gaze tiredly, bracing herself to read disappointment there. Instead, he just looked bewildered.
She strode towards him, wondering what the gauze was for, and noted his apprehension at her approach. Her gaze moved down over his forearm to see the nasty burn that had taken up residence there.
"How'd you manage that?" she asked coolly, pretending not to notice how intently Ben was studying her.
"I was over at the power station and accidentally pressed it up against a transformer," he replied evenly, his eyes never leaving her face.
"Take a seat, let me take a look at it," she sighed, motioning to a nearby stool. Ben quickly complied, holding out his arm for her perusal. She held his wrist and gently examined the wound, lightly palpating its edges. Ben said nothing, but he was watching her intently. She moved to find a bandage and some antiseptic. Ben didn't flinch as she moved back in front of him and began cleaning the burn.
"I heard we lost Henrietta this morning," he said quietly, watching for her reaction. Juliet tried to hold on to her composure, but the wave of grief hit her again, and she could feel her face squeeze up in an effort not to cry. She could not cry in front of Ben. He was always calm and controlled. The others watched him and whispered about him in the same reverent tones they'd used to use about her, but Juliet had a sneaking suspicion that in Ben's case, those whispers were justified. He was their leader, and they followed him with a sense of awe that Juliet with her brief celebrity status had never managed to achieve. She sniffled pathetically as she methodically placed a pad of gauze onto the clean wound and began taping the edges to his skin with surgical tape, hating her weakness.
"Hey, it's okay," he said soothingly, trying to catch her gaze with a sympathetic expression. "It's not your fault."
"Pregnant women are dying on this island," she said, looking only at his arm and nowhere else. "I was brought here to help fix that…" she looked up into his face, her eyes starting to tear up again. "So whose fault is it?"
Ben's face was sad.
"Believe me," he murmured. "No one expects you to fix it overnight."
Juliet managed not to scoff. I should have been able to. There was a brief pause.
"Do you have anyone to talk to?" he queried gently. "Any friends here?" She shook her head just enough to indicate the negative and said nothing. His burn was almost completely dressed. "Maybe Harper?" he suggested.
This time she did scoff, openly.
"Harper hates me," she said matter-of-factly. "We only talk because we have to. I get the feeling that she's a mean and spiteful person."
She looked up in time to catch the ghost of a smile on Ben's lips, as though he couldn't say it, but he agreed with her. She felt a small sense of relief, realizing that it probably wasn't smart to trash a fellow employee in front of the boss. "I'm sorry," she added, chagrined.
"No, please, don't apologize," he responded quickly. "Your frankness is refreshing." Again, he gave her that soft, coaxing smile. She returned it with a small one of her own as she taped the last edge of gauze.
"Okay, well, you're all set," she said, moving to return the remaining supplies to their proper locations.
"Thank you," he replied while observing her handiwork. She heard him stand up behind her as she rearranged the cabinet in front of her, but she didn't realize he had moved closer until he spoke again.
"Juliet," he cleared his throat, and she turned around in surprise. He was only a few feet away, and she was struck again by the intensity of his expression. "If you need to talk, I'm around, and I'm an excellent listener," he smiled at her again, the same earnest, sweet smile he'd given her the day he'd presented her with her house, and Juliet found herself grinning back at him.
"Thank you," she replied.
He nodded courteously and turned to leave, making his way to the door. Unbidden, Juliet's eyes followed him. He paused with his hand on the door handle and looked up at her.
"I'll see you tomorrow," he said, trying to make it sound like a statement, but the result was more of a request. He looked at her hopefully, and Juliet smiled and nodded at him. Ben grinned one of his rare, full smiles and then he left.
Juliet went back to her lab no longer feeling alone.
...
It was the beginning of a strange sort of friendship.
True to his word, Ben did come to see her in the lab the next day, and he brought her a chocolate bar along with a few words of encouragement, both of which she appreciated greatly.
The day after, he caught up to her in the cafeteria line and asked her to sit with him for lunch, and she quickly said 'yes,' which seemed to please him immeasurably. She hated having her lunch at the cafeteria. She always sat alone while the other residents sat together and pointed her out to each other when they thought she wasn't looking. Usually she simply brought a sandwich to the lab and ate there, but she'd forgotten to make one that morning, and frankly, she was getting tired of eating sandwiches. Alone.
Lunch with Ben was different. As the two of them sat and ate, people actually approached their table to say hello. Ben was quick to introduce Juliet to anyone she hadn't met yet, and he kept the conversation between them light and witty. She couldn't help but notice, however, that they were being observed with sidelong glances that were curious and speculative.
"Do they always watch you like that?" she asked, scooping the last of her stew into her mouth. It was rich and delicious.
"Yes," he replied, without looking around to see what she was talking about.
"You're like the most popular boy in school," she'd teased, earning herself a chuckle from across the table.
But the analogy wasn't far off. The more time she spent with Ben in the following week, the more comfortable the others seemed with her. People began approaching her whenever they saw her, saying hello, or asking for a small bit of medical advice. They started to wave instead of whisper.
For the first time on the island, she began to feel at home.
