Author's Note: I know I promised this for either Sunday or Monday. But I kind of sort of set my kitchen on fire. Note to self: never cook again. Luckily for you guys, I'm staying with my sister and.. well. Her kids don't know the meaning of 'bed-time'. So I'm getting little to no sleep :( So it's a week late.. a fairly short. But hopefully you guys can get over that. Sorry again!

Anyways. This one is for tia8206. Because I adore her story 'No One Belongs Here More Than You'.

Fate's a Fickle Foe:

"Jesus watches from the wall,

but his face is cold as stone,

and if he loves me as she tells me,

Why do I feel so all alone?"

-Carrie(Stephen King)

Sawyer couldn't deny that bringing Juliet on the raft was probably smarter anyways. He was currently watching her attempt to teach Jin English, and it was definitely entertaining. "Jinbo, there's only three things a woman needs to hear my friend."

"Walt," Michael stated quickly with an eye roll. "Don't listen to this."

Juliet chuckled immediately.

Jin was readily awaiting Sawyer's words of wisdom.

"First, I'm sorry," Sawyer told him. "Now repeat."

Jin furrowed his eyebrows slightly. "I'm... so-rry.."

"Good!" Sawyer stated, nodding his head with approval. "The second is.. you were right. Repeat that. You were right."

"You.. were.. right?" Jin questioned, seeking approval.

Juliet shook her head slightly, a small smile on her face.

"Perfect!" Sawyer nodded. "The last is the MOST important," he assured the man. "Those pants don't make you look fat."

Jin stared at him in silence for a moment.

Juliet's face instantly morphed into amusement as she watched Jin take all this in.

Michael was grinning.

Jin looked at Juliet. "Those.. pants don't.. make you.. fart.."

Walt immediately started laughing, Sawyer looked a little horrified and Juliet covered her mouth to keep herself from laughing.

"I.. say wrong?" Jin questioned immediately.

Juliet smiled. "Actually, I liked your version better," she assured him, causing Sawyer, Walt and Michael all to laugh.

Jin didn't seem to understand but he seemed assured that he did okay anyways.

"Is that a boat?" Juliet questioned, pointing over at a light she saw in the distance.

Sawyer grinned over at the light. "Sure as hell looks like it.." he stated. "You got the flare gun Mike?"

Michael nodded.

"Well whatcha waitin' for Cap'n?" he questioned with a grin.

Juliet watched in silence as Michael shot off the flare gun with some hesitance. She had a bad feeling about this that she just couldn't shake.

"You guys look like you could use some help!" the man shouted as they pulled their boat up towards the raft.

Juliet found herself half-standing behind Sawyer before she could fully comprehend what she was doing. She did notice that he seemed aware of her nervousness and she also noticed the way he placed his arm in front of her ever-so-slightly in response.

"Relax.." he told her in a hushed whisper. "They're just fishermen.."

The man smiled. "Climb aboard!" he told them, helping Walt into the boat first. He glanced over, noticing Juliet as though for the first time. Originally they were just supposed to take the kid. But they had orders to get the woman if they saw her. This was probably a good opportunity to do so. "Come on, I'll help you over!" he told her, holding out his hand.

Juliet hesitated slightly, staring at his hand. She glanced at Sawyer who just smiled a little before she stepped forward and took the man's hand. It wasn't until she was this close that the familiarity set it. She'd seen him at the medical station. Immediately she started to pull her hand back but he'd already had a firm grip on it and he yanked her to him. "Let go!" she yelled. "James! Its those people!! The ones on the island!!" she yelled back immediately.

Sawyer was quick to yank out the gun from the marshal who had been on the plane, but before he even got the chance to fire a shot rang out.

"WALT!!" Michael yelled out.

Almost in unison Walt had called out to his dad and Juliet had screamed 'James' as she watched him fall back off the raft.

Juliet was attempting to free herself from the man's hold as the boat took off and when she did get free she couldn't force herself to jump off the boat and leave Walt alone with these people. Instead she moved towards Walt and the man holding him, just in time to see Walt get away and jump over the side. "WALT!" she screamed, moving to jump after him when a pair of arms grabbed her.

"Keep going!" one man called out quickly.

The other men looked at him.

"No!" Juliet growled out. "He's just a little kid!! You can't leave him out here!" she yelled out, trying to scramble back to the edge of the boat after Walt when another pair of arms grabbed her. "Walt!!"

Tom groaned. "Dammit, we came for the kid," he stated with a shake of his head. "Turn the damn boat around, let's find him before we all get our asses kicked," he ordered. "And someone stop this god damn woman."

Juliet had no idea where the surge of will came from, but she grabbed the hands of both men and flipped them over her shoulders into the water. And when a third man came at her while the last steered the boat to a stop she quickly flipped him over the side as well. The boat stopped moving and she saw the last man coming for her and all of this felt so instinctual to her, as though she'd done it all before today. But she couldn't stop him, instead she felt pain in the back of her head and everything went dark.

"Jesus," Tom muttered, spitting water out and pulling the other two men into the boat. One of whom was pulling in Walt who was kicking and trying to get away. "She's supposed to be fricken' timid, where'd she learn the kung-fu?"

"Who the hell cares right now?" another man questioned in return. "Let's just get the hell back before the bitch wakes up and goes G.I. Jane on us all over again," he growled out, shoving Walt into the corner where Juliet was laying unconscious.

~*~*~*~

Sawyer had barely managed to pull himself onto a piece of the raft that had broken off when he heard the boat heading back towards them. He clenched his teeth from the pain of salt water hitting the wound in his shoulder and watched as it stopped not too far off. That was when he noticed Walt in the water, heard Juliet, saw Juliet flipping men off the boat like she was a pro. That was when he saw her turn to the last man only for one to climb back in a knock her out.

He made his attempts to paddle over to the boat but they weren't close enough as the men got Walt back into the boat and started back off, disappearing into the distance. He had vaguely made out them talking before the boat started up and they left. The pain seemed familiar and he found himself drifting slightly, Michael had clearly been trying to scramble for Walt as well but was now pulling him onto a larger part of the broken raft.

()()TBC()()

So there's no guarantee's on swift updates these days. The only day I get off of work is the day I have dual classes. Not fun. Damned holiday season is busy :( But I'll try and post on friday.