He parted his lips and pressed his front teeth down…what was left of them anyway! James ran his tongue over the chipped edge and leaned in closer to the mirror. He gave a frustrated growl and looked at from any other angle he possibly could.

'You know it's not bad, I can barely see it,' Juliet told him, entering the bathroom.

James abruptly shut his mouth and grabbed his crutches from where he'd left them against the wall. He gave her an incredulous look. A mutely incredulous look.

'I was wondering what it would take to shut you up,' she laughed following him back to the infirmary room where she had waited for him to wake up for the past four hours.

James just threw her a frustrated look, mumbling something without opening his mouth.

Juliet smiled lightly. 'Okay…sure, what are you going to do with Phil?'

James looked as though he was running out of oxygen with his mouth shut. 'Son of a bitch!'

'I win,' she laughed. 'I can't see it, it's not even a real chip…more like a graze.'

James rolled his eyes and leaned back pulling his leg up and wincing at the pain that shot through it. Juliet winced too, but by the time she came to help him he had completed the petty task on his own. 'Sweetheart, I'm done with women ya realize?'

Juliet raised her eyebrows. 'What do I look like to you?'

'No,' he shot at her, a little too quickly and eagerly. 'Nah…just not that type of woman…ya know?'

'You mean dumb?' she asked.

'Kind of.'

'Easy?'

'More like it…'

'Bella?'

James raised his eyebrows. How the hell does she know? 'Bingo.'

Juliet gave a frustrated growl. 'Don't worry, she probably lost a tooth too, you two will match perfectly.'

She began to walk away out of the room. No, she was not jealous for a man that shallow! She refused to be used again! Was it always this hard to be a fucking woman?

She heard him scarpering, James trying to reach for his crutched. She bit her lip and forbid herself to turn back around for him.

But there went the cutest pile of bricks there ever was, smack bang on the ground of the infirmary. She heard a small yell of surprise cut short by his pride.

Finally she turned and went to him, pulling his arm over her shoulder and helping him onto the bed.

'Guess I still got somethin' that ya can't walk away from,' he laughed, masking the pain that was etched in his brow.

She hummed in answer, still cross with him. Pfft, puh-leeez, as if she could walk away now.

'Okay…why did Bella lose a tooth?' he asked, frowning in confusion.

She squirmed under the spotlight. 'I…sort of made her lose a tooth.'

James neck jerked back, raising both eyebrows as high as they would go. 'What?'

Juliet let out a deep breath. 'I had a blood test today…and she did it for me, and…I took your offer and told her we're together…then she started bitching about you…so I just…you know…punched her.'

James stared at her for a moment, and then smiled (without teeth). 'W-hell! I didn't know she was a Doctor.'

Juliet sagged a visible meter, 'She is not a Doctor!' Was he listening? It was like trying to tell a ten year old he was grounded. Except James was grounded to her instead of the ground now…so he was sort of "Julieted".

Which is probably worse than being grounded, Juliet added frowning.

'You deserve that tooth!' she snapped at him and James immediately stopped smiling and arched an eyebrow.

'C'mon, good, ya took the offer.'

She felt her forehead beginning to ache…they had to find some other means of showing surprise, this shit was getting old on the island. Maybe from now on anyone who came on the island should carry around posters with feelings names on him or her.

"SURPRISED"

"UPSET"

"DESPERATE"

"ANGRY"

"VERY ANGRY"

"I AM ABOUT TO PUNCH YOU"

'Juliet? Hello?'

'Yeah?' she contacted him, shaking of the thought.

'I made the offer…and it stands 'cause I'm helping ya out whether you like it or not,' he told her seriously, his eyebrows where they belonged "thank you very much!"

She blushed, or thought she did, she had never quite figured how it felt to blush. She only could concentrate on her stupid flash cards.

"AWKWARD, VERY AWKWARD."

'Thank you James…This means a lot,' she answered, moving a little closer, she kissed him on the cheek…

But she didn't, he turned at precisely the wrong moment and his lips met her's.

They were caught for a moment, in surprise, but they needed an excuse. Okay, so maybe her dreams weren't that far off and he was kissing her back.

Wait, what?

She pulled back suddenly. No, no kissing! Kissing would risk emotional attachment. NO, emotional attachment.

'I'm gonna goodnight now because its getting great…late…its getting late!' Juliet defended walking backward slowly and frowning and nodding to herself. 'Lot's of work…cooking, you know, that damn kitchen never stops moving.'

James thought back to the kitchen he'd seen that morning, cups literally drowning in plates. Ah, yeah Jules, it does, he thought, but was happy to let her excuse pass, as much as he'd like her to stay for more talking.

Yeah, more talking. No kissing. He could risk complicating it with her.

'Yeah, g'nigh',' he called after her when he found his tongue. Speaking of which, he immediately began to roll it over his tooth.

He was going to murder Phil.

There was no post in Dharmaville, but they had a post-office, which was just a little of the rec room where they kept all the fun things they couldn't afford for everyone to have. Juliet left the house and began toward the rec room, her palms sweaty and her heart beating heavily. This was it; this was the moment where the next eighteen years of her life were chosen.

Unless her kid decided to stay for longer than that…

She hadn't seen James since their encounter the previous night, but the strange thing was she was not thinking about that night. It was the past she was thinking about, James from the past. That was weird if anything, because as far as she knew James was never really in her past. He was the freshest news.

He was her now.

She finally reached their hidey-hole post office and tried her best to sound fine as she asked for her mail…and the daily coconut as a side. Mike, as his name badge indicated, handed her a relatively swollen envelope and wished her good day. She didn't really listen to him though, she snatched the paper out of his hand and turned for the door at a partial sprint.

'Juliet?'

Why, oh why must James be so damn amazing even on crutches? Not to mention incredibly sweet.

'Yeah James, I haven't changed my name.'

He nodded quietly, his eyes locked on the envelope in her hand. 'Is that-?'

'Yes.'

'Can I come i-.'

'No.'

He nodded again. 'I'll jus wait 'ere,' he finalized and began to take a seat on the porch seats.

Juliet however stopped in her mad rush to open the door and lay a hand on his shoulder. 'Thank you.'

James smiled lightly and nodded. 'Take your time, I got a month off work.'

She nodded back at him and entered the house without further ado. She leaned against the door and ripped open the envelope, plowing through all the unnecessary clutter that blood tests came with.

Positive. Positive and very pregnant, well there went her next eighteen years.

Or more.

She dropped everything and buried her face in her hands, her tears coming fast. There was no defying a blood test.

Nothing. Defied. A. Blood. Test. If there was one thing that stuck in medical school easily, it was that.

Her shoulders shook badly and she gulped in air, but the world was spinning. Yes, she wanted damn children, but the right man to raise them with had never come along…so now she was stuck, but as a person who helped women have kids and saw how difficult it was sometimes, this was an awful thing to say.

She opened the door again and she found James nearly toe to toe with her. 'It happened,' she told him shrugging, but she smiled through the tears looking away and covering her mouth with a hand.

James pushed inside and closed the door behind her on one crutch, having discarded the other on the porch. He leaned against the door slightly and pulled her into a tight one-armed embrace, his cheek against her ear.

He could hear her cracking slowly and he felt as though she would fall through, like a layer of thin ice early on in winter. He refused to let her drown though.

So he was jumping into it with her.

'Sshh, its 'kay, we got this, we got this,' he assured her the best he could.

What the hell was he doing though? Wasn't all this coming out a few months too late? Why hadn't this happened when he was in prison, but it wasn't that past he was feeling. It was some other time before…this, felt familiar. Some other time with a girl he'd loved. The comfort he had tried to offer.

Come to think of it, it was his first time in love, ever. Before Kate, he'd loved her more than Kate. He'd loved her more than Cassidy… But why was it that he could not recall her face? That familiarity.

Instead, he just saw Juliet standing in front of him and that was another lifetime he was thinking of…

She kept her chin on his shoulder and James could slowly feel her tears soaking through the back of his shirt. 'We can get through this, I'll be here for as long as it takes.'

Juliet however was shaking her head. 'No, you won't. No one has, no one does…no one ever will.'

James frowned at this and held her closer. 'Yeah, well, there's a first for everythin' sunshine.'

No you did not just say that!…eighteen damn years man! That' how long your sticking around…but who said James had to keep the promise? No one said he had stick out through the course of the kid's home life…

He couldn't afford to become emotionally invested, but he felt her breathing against him, her chest steadily rising and falling and her arms wrapped tightly around his neck. He could feel what she felt almost.

Finally they pulled away and James wiped her tears. 'No crying, I don't do crying. We stick it out…together,' he whispered, but he was in pain just making these promises, because he knew he could never do anything to hurt her. He could never break them. It was like engraving his words in stone.

At the same time, however, it felt nice to be bound to something. To be bound to her. Who said a good thing couldn't come out of a bad one.

She nodded and buried her face in his chest. What the hell did they think they were doing?

Well, he'd kept his promise for a week so far, but she seriously doubted it would last any longer. She hoped it would and she wanted it to, but really…this was Sawyer Ford she was dealing with. She thought as she attempted to watch him walk without his crutches. He would probably walk of as soon as the dentist fixed his tooth in the following week, or whenever he could score some one like Bella and leave Juliet embarrassed as all the men before him had.

The dream would end sooner or later, when ever Kate decided to rolly-polly back onto stage.

'Okay, ready? Watch,' James told her, wobbling toward her, trying to put his leg to work.

'James, you don't need to prove anything, it was just a week ago…does it hurt?' she asked watching him wince slightly. It looked very painful.

'No,' he lied, his voice a couple of note higher than usual.

She laughed a little. 'Well, obviously it doesn't, judging from your calm.'

James rolled his eyes and fell back on the couch beside her. 'Don't wanna get on my bad side grease monkey.'

She just shook her head and grinned. 'What bad side?'

'Ya know I still got one.'

Suddenly she felt as if she was hit by an on coming wave of stuff. She was dazed, memories pulsating through her. Memories that James was brining back. His smile…and his smell, his voice.

'James?'

He looked back at her, the similar things circulating his train of thought. 'Where were you in nineteen-eighty-six,' he told her staring deep into her eyes.

'Summer of?' she asked, moving back slightly.

'I think so…'

'Shit.'

'Yeah, shit,' he answered nodding. 'Juliet? I think I…'

'-know you,' she finished for him, her heart racing in her throat.

This must be some twist of fate.

Alright, thank you for your input and yes, I took it into consideration all your lovely reviews and decided that I will use my original plan of action...anyway, this is lost, so anything can happen and it still can change... ;)

Okay, review, tell me how you felt about it...and if you want you can leave ideas, even though I got some good stuff planned for the next few chapters...

Thanks for reading,

R.F.A