"Just when the hell were you gonna let us in on the fact that your bug-eyed friend was usin' you?"
Juliet turns, meeting Sawyer's face, and shrugs. "I don't know. Maybe never. Maybe not until people stopped treating me like I was a diseased person."
Sawyer sighs. "Well, you don't gotta give me attitude. Just figured I deserved the truth."
"Do you?" She arches an eyebrow and he glares in response.
"Whatever."
They're standing in the sand, listening to the waves crash almost soundlessly on the beach a few yards away while the rest of the camp continues to mill around the fire. When her voice cuts through the silence, it's softer than he expects.
"Can I ask you something, James?"
He flinches at the sound of his rarely used given name, but refuses to let it show. "What, is there somethin' you don't already know?" Juliet regards him evenly.
"I'm just wondering if you're being an asshole to me because I know too much about your past, or because you really don't trust me."
For the first time in his life, Sawyer has no response and before he can think of a way to respond, she's heading back towards the fire, her blonde hair illuminated by the sharp moonlight.
Juliet's trying to scrub a stain out of her tank top, occasionally glancing up to keep watch on activity around the camp. She isn't looking at anything in particular, but during one glance, she notices Kate emerging rather stealthily from Sawyer's tent. Her eyes narrow, though she's not sure why. Maybe it's because she's felt a weird tension with the other girl since she met her, and it's a feeling that she can't seem to shake.
"Need some help?" And suddenly, as if she had been sending telegraphic messages out into the universe, Kate is next to her. She looks a little unsettled and Juliet half wonders if she's seen her staring and has come over to snuff out competition for the con shrugs.
"I got it…thanks, though. I appreciate the offer." She flashes a small smile and continues scrubbing. Kate nods, turning to leave, and Juliet speaks before she knows what she's doing.
"Is that how you always are with him?"
Kate stops, but doesn't turn around.
"What do you mean?" Her voice takes on an edge, but Juliet finds herself unfazed. She simply nods in the direction of the tent.
"With Sawyer, I mean. You just go in there whenever and give him what he wants and it takes away your pain for a bit?"
Kate suddenly rounds on her, eyes dark. "Were you spying on me?"
Juliet laughs in spite of herself. "I was washing my shirt and saw you coming out of his tent. I saw you in the cages, Kate. Seeing you and him together, well, it's not exactly rocket science." She pauses. "Is this because of me and Jack?"
Kate steps up until she's right in front of Juliet's face. "It has NOTHING to do with you and Jack," she says almost angrily. "And you should stay out of what's none of your business. At least Sawyer learned to do that."
Juliet watches Kate walk away and nonchalantly goes back to washing her shirt, a slightly bemused smile sliding over her face.
He's pissed at Jack. Really pissed. A suicide mission without guns? Since when did Jack even care about whether he lived or died? He should've been glad that Sawyer wanted to leave, hell, it was one less person he would have to worry about saving.
"I know where there are some guns. There's a hidden cache a couple of miles from here. I can take us back to the beach on a route past it."
Oh, hell.
It's Juliet's voice. Which just fucking figures, since he can't exactly tell her not to come with him and he can't leave without guns, and she has guns, and he's trapped unless he wants to make this trek to the goddamn radio tower. So he forces himself to say yes, because at least it means he gets to spend time with someone who won't be constantly up his ass.
Besides, he's kind of realizing he likes her a little bit, enough to know he would care if she was in trouble or something.
They walk through the jungle together, the silence between them growing more and more awkward with each step.
He's turned down Kate – that's what surprises her most of all. But maybe she should be more surprised that he actually seemed like he wouldn't mind her company. He probably distrusted her more than anyone in the camp, he never wanted to look twice at her, and now he wants to play Nostradamus to everyone? With her? It was true that she had the upper hand, but she also knows he could've very well chosen differently.
She doesn't understand it, but she has to admit that she likes his company. And so she quickly gets over her surprise when he doesn't make a big deal about going back to get the guns with her.
Juliet wonders how he'll react when she tells him there aren't any guns.
It's not the first time, or even second time that he's killed a man - those honors go to Frank Duckett and Anthony Cooper. Still, Sawyer stares at Tom Friendly's unmoving body realizing he feels more than a little sick.
Not that he'd ever admit it.
He notices Juliet staring at him a few yards away, and meets her gaze. It's easy to do; she doesn't give him those overly annoying looks like Kate does.
"You okay?" Her voice actually sounds concerned, and he's so surprised by that fact he almost forgets to nod.
"Fine. Sorry I had to kill your friend." He feels like it's the least he can offer, even if he's not really sorry. Juliet only shrugs in response.
"Don't be. He was always nice to me…but in the end, he deserved it. He took the kid."
She walks away, and Sawyer feels a weird pit in his stomach. He wonders why he cares that she saw him kill someone, because it ain't like she hadn't already read about his past in her files.
He wonders why he cares at all.