wooow it seems like it's been forever since an update! sorry to leave you guys hanging, especially since all those great reviews!

this one is short and sweet;

enjoy -

N is for Names

"What's in a name? that which we call a rose

By any other name would smell as sweet;"

Sometimes she still feels like the Other among them; on the outside, looking in on them in their new lives. She doesn't feel like a part of them.

Juliet can't bring herself to admit it out loud, but sometimes she thinks part of this is because she has no nickname.

Jin has several from Sawyer, most of them rude, but all of them inclusive.

Miles has a couple as well, the most popular being 'ghostbuster'. She doesn't fully understand why this is funny but is still a little jealous if she's honest with herself.

Daniel has just two, 'the mad scientist' and 'loony tunes'. Neither are flattering and they aren't used often unless Sawyer is mad at him.

But Juliet didn't have one; sure, he'd throw out a 'sweetheart' when he wanted to piss her off or butter her up for something she wasn't going to like. Maybe. She'd gotten 'island barbie' a couple times. Mildly insulting, definitely, but it made her feel part of the group as twisted as that sounded.

Maybe it wasn't the nickname itself that mattered, but the fact that he had one for each of them but her. He knew enough about them, or at least he thought he did, to come up with a nickname that suited them. Even if it was rude.

She knew superficial things about him and he knew next to nothing about her.

She sighed and gave up the pretense of reading her book; there wasn't anyone else in the little house anyway. They were all out learning about the compound with Horace. She'd elected to stay behind and read, saying she was too tired to go running around in the extreme heat.

When they get back and have dinner together, some concoction of pasta and salad and a dessert Miles tries and fails to make, Juliet is quiet and the guys don't seem to notice too much. She's always quiet.

"What's going on in that brain of yours, hm?" Sawyer asks her some time later when he comes out to the small porch with two beers. He hands her one and pops the tab on his, sits next to her and her book.

"Nothing, James, just thinking."

They sit in companionable silence and then Sawyer speaks. "Why do you call me James? Nobody else calls me that,"

Juliet shakes her head a little. "It's your name. What else would I call you?" And then the question that's been on her mind all day comes out before she can censor or filter it.

"Why haven't you given me a nickname?"

Sawyer looks over at her a moment. "I'm afraid for my life," he answers half seriously. But a smirk is tugging at his mouth and she can't help but smile and little and roll her eyes.

"I got tons of nicknames for you, Blondie, I just ain't never used them,"

"Why not?"

"Didn't know you wanted one so bad, Capulet,"

Juliet grins and feels a stupid flutter in her stomach. She feels happy. Included. Not like an Other.

"Thanks Romeo," she says instead, in that low and even voice of hers. There's no need to let him know how absurdly happy this makes her.

"Does that mean you ain't gonna call me James anymore?"

"I'll think about it," she smirks and goes back to her book with him chuckling beside her.

So he calls her Blondie more often because he can catch the little upturn of her lips at the name and she feels more and more like she belongs with them as time goes on. He still throws in Island Barbie and Capulet and Sweetheart and different variations of the three and she gets used to it.

Pretty soon he's calling her 'sweetheart' for a completely different reason.

short and sweet; Juliet didn't really get a nickname for the longest time, but when she did, it meant something :)

reviews are love!

hopefully another update soon!

:D