Disclaimer: I don't own Lost

Now that the situation of Sayid is settled, will Juliet, Sawyer, and little Ben be able to continue experiencing an unchanged life?

Chapter 07

When Juliet woke the next morning, she was met with the sight of the small boy lying by her side. He was sleeping peacefully and comfortably. Juliet gently ran her hand over his head. She noticed James stirring on his other side. He eventually pulled himself up, then took notice of her attending to Ben.

"You ain't starting this with him," he warned.

"James, he had a bad dream," she reasoned.

"You keep making excuses for him, and he won't learn a thing."

Juliet didn't argue his point. Instead she scooped him up into her arms and let him lay his head on his shoulder.

"We'll take it one step at a time," she told him as she left the room.

Flashback

James made his way into the main security station where Miles sat before the t.v monitors. He noticed Miles was talking to another member of his team, and waited off to the side. When they were done, the man left, giving James a nod.

"What was that all about?" he asked as he approached Miles.

"Nothing to do with us," he assured him. "He just wants to run a systems check later. Told me to run it over with you."

"Could've asked me himself."

"I think you've built up a pretty firm reputation boss," Miles claimed. "You don't tone it down, people will be running from you."

"People won't be running, so long as I'm head of security. They'll listen," he corrected.

"Right," Miles said, as if he didn't buy it. "That what you came to tell me?"

James moved closer and lowered his voice.

"Any report from Jin?" Miles knew it was his way of asking if Jin found any sign of their people. He reached over and picked up a walkie.

"How about asking yourself?" Upon his annoyed glare, Miles shook his head. "He didn't report anything."

"I'll talk to him about it later," James said with a sigh as he started to leave.

"What's the point?" James stopped at the question. "It's almost a year now. If they were gonna be here, they would by now."

"What are you saying?" James growled.

"I'm saying, it's time to face the truth. They're not coming back."

"Locke said he would bring them back," he argued as he confronted Miles. "Until then, you and Jin stay on watch."

"Okay," Miles said simply, after a moment of studying him. James turned and made to leave again, when another comment from the man paused him. "You're really waiting for her to come back, aren't you?"

He felt a strong urge to attack Miles, even if he was partially teasing. The strange thing was, he wasn't sure if it was false. He wondered if part of him was hoping for Kate's return, over the others, but then he thought about Juliet. Regardless of Ben being in their lives, their relationship was getting deeper. If the woman he once loved stayed away long enough, he was sure he would soon forget her completely.

James returned home and tried to get Miles's question out of his mind, and the way to do that was with Juliet.

"Come on, come on Ben. Come to mommy."

James moved further into the room and noticed Juliet sitting in the middle of the living room. Not too far in front of her was a nine month old Ben on all fours, with a pacifer in his mouth. He slightly rocked forward as if he was about to move, but sat back on his haunches. His red onesie was exposed with a bear's head on his chest.

"Come on Ben, you had it," Juliet encouraged.

"What the hell is going on here?" James asked as he stepped beside her.

"James, language," she warned. He sighed and shook his head. "I think it's pretty clear. I'm trying to get him to crawl."

"Crawl? You wanna make it worse on us by getting him mobile?"

"He has to learn sooner or later, and he was doing it, before you walked in."

"Smart baby," he said sarcastically. "Knows I won't put up with it."

He settled in a chair and watched as Juliet tried encouraging him again.

"Come on baby, you can do it. Crawl for mommy."

"Don't call yourself his mommy," he told her. She looked up at him.

"Would you rather I be yours?" He smirked at the idea.

"Maybe."

Ben came forward on all fours again. His big blue eyes were settled curiously on Juliet as he sucked on the pacifer calmly. James thought it made him look as if he were analyzing his ability to trust her.

"When he starts talking, I don't want you making him think we're his parents."

"But we are his parents now James. If I'm going to make any progress with him-"

"I ain't becoming his daddy," he warned.

The light mood Juliet had been feeling, vanished. She stared at James, hurt.

"Well, I hope you change your mind about that. He needs us James, okay. We are right here to make it right, for all of us."

"This was your idea," he said as he leaned back into the chair. "I just came back from talking to Miles. There's still no word of our people. But when they do come back, we can't have this going on. I ain't chosing Ben over them, especially when you know we're not getting anywhere with him."

"I didn't say you had to choose," she said with an air of anger.

Then tension between the two was broken up when Ben recalled how to move forward. One little arm came up and down, followed by the next. His little legs scooted afterwards. Juliet broke into a huge smile as Ben started crawling right towards her. James forgot about his frustrations with the kid as he watched him move.

"That's it, that's it," said Juliet.

James could only see it as a sign. From the begining, Ben was quite helpless. There had even been moments in his future where he found himself in a helpless position. And now, he was gaining some control over his actions.

He stopped just before he reached Juliet's knees, and right away she pulled him up into her arms and congratulated him. Ben giggled behind the pacifer. Juliet looked up at James with a near smug expression.

"Progress," she stated.

Present

James marched across the compound towards three men near the Dharma supply market. Phil, and a red headed man named Chuck were standing guard around Sayid as he swept up the porch. Sayid wasn't looking pleased to do such low tech work, but it was the best James could afford him.

"Phil, Chuck," James greeted. He tossed a glance at Sayid who looked like he wanted to murder him. "How's he doing?"

"Doesn't seem to be used to cleaning, but it's where he belongs as far as a job," Phil said harshly. He moved closer to James and lowered his voice. "But if it were me, he'd be dead."

The last thing he wanted to hear was any dark comments from the man so early in the morning. He wanted to ask Sayid himself, but he knew how it would make him look.

"Chuck?" he asked instead.

"He's doing good. We got our eyes on him."

James nodded, then caught Sayid's gaze when he looked up.

"You keep at it," James told him. "You'll earn your place quick enough."

Sayid said nothing. He simply looked back with a blank expression that James couldn't read. Once again, he was met with a guilty feeling, but he supposed it was for the best. He left the men and headed towards another janitor on the team.

Jack was currently cleaning off the tables in the lunch hall now that breakfast was over. James hesitated before walking up to him.

"See you've got the hang of it," he told him.

Jack looked up, appearing startled.

"Yeah. Wiping a wet rag across the table, is as easy as performing surgery," Jack said, causing James to smirk. "By the way, I never did thank you for the opportunity did I?"

"Well get in line doc, cause Sayid ain't thanking me either."

Jack closed the space so no one near would hear them.

"How's he doing?" Jack questioned.

"I was hoping you could tell me."

"He's guarded like a dog James. And it's not like they're letting our paths cross."

James sensed the bitterness in the man's voice. He knew Jack felt he handled Sayid's situation poorly, but he also knew much worse could have been done to the man.

"Path crossings aren't gonna happen any time soon, since they're still making his cell his home." Upon Jack's look, James nodded. "Yeah, I'm trying to work out a real-estate plan for him, but the Dharma folks are hard up on second chances."

"Sayid's not dangerous," Jack argued.

"Yeah but they don't know that. Let me tell you something Jack. It wasn't no easy task getting to the position I'm at now. And changing minds is about the hardest thing a man can do, so cut me some slack. I ain't about to lose this job over Sayid."

James watched as Jack slowly fell back into a submissive role. He gave a nod, then turned back to cleaning his table.

"I think you did better than what I could've done," Jack admitted, though James wasn't sure he meant it. "Cause according to you, I might have gotten him killed."

"Probably," James answered with a mischevious grin. "But, just in case your paths do cross, let me know how he's doing."

"Why?"

"Gotta make sure there's no hard feelings."

After a minute, Jack assured him he would provide his analysis of Sayid. James then left Jack to his work, while he got back to his own. For once, James felt he was lumped in-between the two men who hated their jobs. Still, it had to be done.

Four days later, Jack and even Hurley had managed to fall into the routine of Dharma life. While on a break, Jack settled himself outside on one of the picnic tables and watched his fellow members go about their day. He had expected to find his destiny by now, but he couldn't see it in the 70's. Whenever he found himself in a quiet moment, he asked himself the same question over and over: "What the hell am I doing here?"

It wasn't something that Kate could make sense of, and Sawyer and Juliet were too invested in their new lives to take an interest. There was no discussing it with Jin or Miles. And since he couldn't talk to Sayid, that left Hurley, who was currently approaching him across the compound with a tray of food in his hands.

"Hey dude, you hungry?" Hurley carried a large sandwhich and a side of curly fries. "I can like, get you something."

"No thanks Hurley, I'm good."

Hurley settled himself down while Jack continued to watch. After a moment, Hurley had to question it.

"Dude you alright?"

"To be honest, I don't know."

"I know how you feel," Hurley admitted.

"I came back here, because I thought there was something I needed to do. I had no idea it was cleaning up behind the Initiative."

"Well, if you want, I could talk to Sam about letting you work in the kitchen with us," Hurley offered, as he sensed the bitterness in Jack's voice.

"That's not what I mean Hurley."

Hurley said nothing to this right away, but then curiosity got the better of him.

"Well, what do you mean?" he asked carefully. Jack turned around to face him at last.

"Why I came back."

"Why did you?"

Jack ran a hand through his hair. He could feel himself breaking a bit at the thought of it, but he wasn't ready to fall so deep with Hurley, especially considering their current lifestyle.

"I came back, because I was suppose to."

The way he said it, let Hurley know the discussion was over. Hurley, however, quickly found something else to discuss.

"She's babysitting that kid a lot."

Jack looked around to see what had caught his attention. Near the playground was Juliet, with the same little boy he had first seen her with in the lunch hall, and even on a few other outings. She was standing with another woman as the boy went down the slide. Jack frowned, not understanding why Juliet would try to devote her time to another job, particularly one that required a lot of attention. She was dressed in her motor pool uniform which meant that she was working, but she was using her break to babysit. It was something that was becoming common with her.

"Maybe they need the extra money," Hurley guessed.

"Maybe she just likes babysitting," Jack assumed.

As they watched, Phil passed by and presented a paper to Jack.

"What's this?"

"Change of schedule. Mr. Jarrah will take your shift, on Lafleur's orders."

The way he said it told Jack he was still none too pleased with Sawyer. It was understandable as he was on the verge of getting a house for Sayid. Jack had noticed the rings under James' eyes, which told Jack it had to have been the hardest argument he had to make on Sayid's behalf.

"Thanks. Hey, who's that boy Juliet's always babysitting?"

Though it wasn't an important mystery to solve, Jack thought it was time to find out, especially since Juliet and James kept dodging the answer.

"Oh him?" said Phil. "She's not babysitting him. He's her son."

Both Hurley and Jack looked at Phil, stunned.

"Excuse me?" Jack managed to question.

"He's Juliet's and LaFleur's son," Phil told him clearly. He didn't take notice of Jack's confused expression. "Name's Benjamin Linus."

Jack couldn't respond, so Hurley did it for him.

"Uh, what?"

So now Jack and Hurley are in the loop. Another cliffhanger with the friends finding out about Ben. I made it several days later, so it's not something they learned right after some big event. Now that Sayid is settled, the next issue is how they will handle this news, and if it matters at all.

By the way, I thought it'd be cuter for Ben to have his first crawl as opposed to his first walk. Also, it's covering his early stages. I try to tie in all the flashbacks with what's currently happening: Ben making progess there, while James seems to be doing the same in the present. But will it end? Tune in next time to see how Jack and Hurley deal with the news. Will they confront James about it?