Author's Note: Okay, so everyone reading seems to agree that this story became.. unique from the last chapter, ahahaha. Glad I managed to do something a little new!

Chapter 2: Day one, The Survivors

"What if the storm ends, and I don't see you..

As you are now ever again?

A perfect halo of gold hair and lightning,

Sets you off against the planet's last dance."

(The Lightning Strike by Snow Patrol)

Sawyer finally caught up to himself, feeling like he remembered and yet he didn't all at once. When he opened his eyes and found himself on the beach he secretly wondered if Juliet was playing another trick on him. One time she'd gotten a little angry with him and managed to talk Miles and Jin into carting him to the beach in his sleep, and he only woke up when the tide moved in and washed over him.

He sat back up in an instant at all the yelling. Hadn't he just heard that moments ago? And it suddenly occurred to him, that this wasn't 1977.. that Juliet hadn't played a trick on him.

"It's okay.."

Juliet.. she was dead. He covered his face with his hands and sucked in a deep breath. She was dead.. she had let go.

"I love you, James.. I love you so much!!"

He felt his breath hitch slightly, and a few tears escape as it all came back to him. If he'd just believed what he was seeing in those damned blue eyes.. if he'd just believed she would have really let go of his hands, he would have told her. He would have told her that he loved her too.. why didn't he? She'd let go, and all he could do was scream for her.

What bothered him even more is that he hadn't even remembered at first. He hadn't remembered her.. how could he have forgotten a woman who he'd spent three years with?

He nearly jumped when he felt a hand on his shoulder and he looked up to see Kate. From the look in her eyes she appeared to remember it all as clearly as he did.. "This ain't LAX.." he stated, his voice broken with the emotion.

Kate's eyes softened in response, and she wasn't sure what she could possibly say to him at this point. She wasn't sure at first, when she'd be in the jungle, if she was the only one who remembered.. not until she saw Sawyer. Not until she saw his reaction.. "No.." she whispered in response. "No it's not.."

She looked up as she watched Jack come flying out from the jungle, and she threw out the urge to run and wrap her arms around him. He'd been wrong. And look where it had brought them all? Right back to where they had started.

"She's alive.." Sawyer said glumly, a haunted look filled with hope in his eyes. "She died.. but now.. she's alive.." he muttered, looking around at all the people who had died over the years.

Kate looked around as well. He had a point.. everyone that had died was currently running around the beach exactly as they had the first time, as though they had no idea that all of this had already happened. "Do you think we only remember because.." but she halted on the sentence. She could tell that Sawyer was already piecing her sentence together in her head and she instantly felt the dread come over her for starting that statement.

"Juliet.. she won't even remember.." he muttered out, once more covering his face with his hands. "She won't remember any of it.. any of us.. me. Because she died.. because I couldn't protect her.."

Kate felt a few tears sting her eyes. "Maybe that's not how it works.." she told him quietly. "What if she didn't die?" she asked him carefully.

Sawyer eyed her. "You want me to believe she survived fallin' down that damned ditch?" he questioned with disbelief. "You saw her.. I saw her.. no one coulda' survived that.."

"Think about it, Sawyer.." Kate stated. "The bomb never blew up when Jack threw it down there. It didn't blow when millions of things fell on it.. how do you think it went off?"

Sawyer froze.

"She was alive, she had to be.." Kate said quietly. "Which means if we remember.. so will she."

Sawyer wasn't sure why, but the thought of Juliet laying down at the bottom of that hole, alive.. it hurt him even more then thinking she had died. Then an even worse sense of dread filled him. "She's with them.." he said, a groan of frustration. "She's out there, with Ben and his lackeys, being held prisoner all over again.."

Kate frowned in response. "None of this is your fault, Sawyer.." she told him, watching carefully as Jin and Sun came running towards them. "Sawyer.. look."

Sawyer looked up.

"Jim!"

Sawyer looked shocked but he stood, immediately wrapping his arms around the Korean man he'd spent three years getting to know, that he'd spent three years forming a bond of friendship with. "Jin.. man.." he muttered, releasing the man. "You remember.."

Jin nodded, then glanced at Sun. "Sun does too.." he told him. "What happened out there?"

"Juliet.." Sawyer's voice croaked out.

Jin stared at him, unsure until the look on Sawyer's face and Kate's as well made it clear for him.

"What about Juliet?" Sun asked, but she shut her mouth when she saw the look of dread cross all of their faces.

"We can go get her," Jin told him, placing his hand on his friend's shoulder.

Sun caught the look of loss on Sawyer's face and it hit her, that he and Juliet.. "You were.. together?" she asked him, her voice going quiet.

Sawyer dropped back down to the ground gripping roughly at his hair, only to realize how much shorter it was now. "She.. I.." he muttered. He'd never felt so lost before, not since he was just a little kid. He'd never counted on having an individual so much since his parents, and suddenly he felt like that broken little child all over again. "God.. I never said it back.."

Kate covered her mouth with her hand. She knew exactly what he meant, because she'd watched the utter love in Juliet's face as she shouted at Sawyer.

"I love you, James!! I love you so much!!"

She felt the tears slip down her face now as well, because even with all she'd seen before that.. with all that she'd done. Nothing compared to seeing the love between those two get torn apart.. nothing compared to seeing Juliet let her hands slip from Sawyer's so that she could save his life. Nothing would ever be more horrifying then seeing the acceptance in her face, as she accepted death.

"She doesn't.." Sawyer muttered, his voice breaking again. "She wished she never met me.."

Kate, Jin and Sun all stared at him with confusion.

"She said.. that we had to go with Jack's plan," he told them all, his voice hoarse. He shook his head. "Because.. if she never met me she'd never have to lose me.."

Kate was stunned. Juliet had said that to him? It had to be before they'd come back from Sawyer's and Jacks fight out in the jungle. They'd been eerily silent, unspeaking when they'd come back. Now she understood why Juliet looked so completely lost. "She didn't mean it.." she whispered.

Sawyer nodded. "Yes she did.."

Kate only let anger control her now. "Damn it, Sawyer!" she growled out, shoving him slightly. "The only reason she let go of you was to save you, because if she hadn't, if she'd held on you would have fallen down that shaft with her!!"

Sawyer said nothing in response.

"She loved.. loves you," she corrected. "And nothing.. nothing can break apart what you two had, I don't care what that bomb reset," she told him. "You were looking right into her eyes with me.. and it doesn't matter if she does or doesn't remember, because this is our second chance. This is our chance to do it all over again and make the right choices."

Sawyer dared a glance up at Kate.

"You have two choices.." Kate told him. "You can be Sawyer.. or you can be James. Which is it going to be?"

()()End of Ch. 2()()

Hope that was a little insight into Sawyer for you!! Next chapter, again.. within a day or two!!