Long time, no see. I know, okay. But do I really have to explain my absence? I'll sum it up in one word: Life. Real life is my highest priority at the moment. And I have a lot going on. I will not finish this story until it is complete. I will stick to that no matter what. Anyway hopefully it will make you happy to see a new chapter. The plot of this one is more important in the context of the show than my fanfic, which is a nice break from the main storyline. Enjoy :)
Sawyer gaped at the test. He suddenly remembered being in the wreckage of the imploded Swan Hatch, cradling a dying Juliet in his arms.
"I have to tell you something," she had whispered, "it's really, really important…"
So this was what she had tried to communicate to him moments before her death, that she would not be the only victim of the Jughead scheme.
He had a lump in his throat and his eyes were glistening although no actual tears were spilled.
Why had Juliet not told him? He now felt angry, confused and more upset than ever. He guessed that she had not told him she was pregnant for the same reason he had been holding off his proposal… It just didn't seem like the right time. He was waiting until the chaos was over but by the time it was, she had been long gone.
There was a knock at the front door of the house. It was Jack and he was telling LaFleur that Daniel Faraday was back on The Island.
The sound of Jack's voice made Sawyer nervous and guilty about how he had gotten together with Kate after Jack gave his life to save The Island.
At that moment Sawyer realised that Faraday was going to die soon too. His brain continued to whir away as he calculated hundreds of possibilities of what he could do now if he interfered.
Would Faraday want him to do that, if it was to prevent his death?
Mainly due to indecision, Sawyer remained in the bathroom, as after all, it was easier at this point to do nothing until he made a sensible choice about his next move. Jack soon left and Sawyer could once again hear his past self comforting Juliet about their situation.
Hours passed and Sawyers thoughts returned to his unborn child. He stayed quietly in the bathroom even while everyone turned up and had a discussion in the living room about what to do next. He could hear the voices of himself, Juliet, Kate, Jack, Hurley, Jin, Faraday and Miles.
Kate left with Jack and Faraday and soon the house was empty again other than Juliet, Phil tied up in the closet and the two Sawyers.
Finally the moment came when Radzinsky and co arrived and discovered Phil. After a small struggle, LaFleur and Juliet were taken from the house and Phil was released.
Sawyer was finally alone in the house and could come out from his hiding place. He checked his watch, there were four hours before the incident took place.
He was now formulating a plan in his mind. He needed to speak to Juliet, maybe he would get some closure at last. But he had to get her on her own. He just had a bad feeling about crossing a past version of himself on this occasion.
Then, after he spoke to Juliet, he would worry about finding Kate and Desmond, a task that he was not too bothered about just now.
With this he left the house, trying to remain unnoticed. After all, he was being interrogated right now and it may seem strange that he was in two places at once.
Sawyer retraced the steps he took that day in his head and worked out where he and Juliet would be and when his next chance to speak to her would be.
[2011]
Mark heard the loud rush of noise from the chamber behind him but he was too concentrating on his shooting to turn around and see what was going on.
Moments earlier, Sawyer, Kate and Desmond had hurried off, leaving him and one clip of bullets against what turned out to be The Control, who were looking for Hibbs.
There were six of them and he guessed that the gang must have split up and sent smaller search parties out across The Island. They turned up at the fence and a couple of them tried to run through the sonar fence. They barely got a meter past it before hitting the floor, foaming violently at the mouth. This was enough to tell the remaining four to stay back, although they quickly realised that they could still fire their bullets past the fence and directly at Mark himself.
He ducked behind one of the desks and only poked his head back out once the firing ceased. He took aim but his first shot missed and bounced off one of the rocky walls of the cavern.
The next bullet was a success. It pierced the skull of a gang member, leaving a bloody hole in his head.
There were three left and they all had M4's. Mark took cover again as they tore up anything within a couple of foot radius from the desk he was hiding behind.
He fired at them again and managed after a couple of tries to hit one in the chest, killing him, but then noticed he was out of ammo and there were still two men trying to get him. He couldn't risk running out from behind the table, he wouldn't last a second.
Suddenly there were some strange sounds, like punching noises. This lasted a few seconds before there was silence. Mark decided to look and see what had happened.
He saw that the two last guys had been taken care of and that, standing over their bodies were two people. One of them was Miles and the other was a woman he knew to be Desmond's wife, Penny. He came out from cover, laughing.
"Miles, you saved my ass!" he shouted. Miles laughed as well and headed towards Mark.
"WAIT!" he called. He then strode over to the fence and hit the large button on one of the pylons.
"Oh, thanks," said Miles in relief, "that was close," he stepped into Room 108, examining the desks with interest. Penny entered behind him.
"I don't think we've met," she said while extending a hand kindly, "Penelope Widmore."
Mark shook it.
"Yes, of course, you're Desmond's wife, I'm Mark."
"Speaking of Desmond, have you seen him lately?"
"Yes, he's just back here." The three of them went over to the chamber where Sawyer, Kate and Desmond had hid but found that the door was locked. Mark tried a few more times. Then a female voice sounded from speakers.
"Lockdown terminated." A blast door that had been covering the window rose back into the roof of the cave.
They looked through the window in confusion. The chamber was completely empty. They stared through the glass, then at each other.
Mark was lost for words.
"I- I don't know what happened, I saw them go in there…" he put his hands in his pockets and looked at the floor, this was a habit that occurred when he was thinking about something.
His right hand touched some scrunched up paper which was a surprise because he had thought his pockets were empty. He drew out an envelope with his name on it and upon seeing it remembered how he had picked it up from a nearby table a couple of minutes earlier. He opened it curiously. Penny and Miles watched him as his eyes whizzed back and forth across the page that had been inside. Then Mark sighed in disbelief and sat down on a chair behind him. He looked up but his eyes were distant.
"Shit." He uttered.
[1977]
Kate brought herself to her feet. One minute she had been standing in Room 108 with Sawyer and Desmond, the next, she was suddenly in the jungle.
She spent a few hours searching and calling out their names but got no response at all. She sat down on a log and breathed deeply. For some reason she felt dizzy. Then, once her thoughts were working again she realised what had happened though she hoped that she was wrong.
The loud noise and bright light she had experienced earlier had felt familiar. Now she remembered why; it had happened to her twice before in her life. The first time was on Ajira 316 just as she returned to The Island and the other was at the site of the incident in 1977. Both of those light flashes had been due to time travel.
Could she have just been sent to some other time by a DHARMA station?
Without warning, a man stumbled through the bushes. Kate was startled and jumped up. It was Sawyer.
"Sawyer! Where were you? Where's Desmond? What happened? That bright light-"
"Kate, we're back."
"Back? I don't-"
"We're back in 1977."
She sat back down he came over to her.
"Jack, Juliet… are they…"
Sawyer nodded.
"Yes, they're alive. But you, Jack and Faraday just went traipsing off to the hostiles. The incident is gonna happen today!"
Kate looked like she was going to cry.
"What's the matter?" Sawyer asked her tentatively, "I thought this was a good thing. Don't you want to speak to Jack again?" This however, was not the right thing to say.
"What?" she said loudly. "You think I should talk to him?"
Sawyer didn't know what to do, he felt like he had just lit a fuse and that tapping the bomb would not help, so he stayed silent while she got angry.
"JACK IS DEAD." She told him furiously.
Perhaps he could send in some kind of explosive disposal unit…
"I just thought-"
"You think that if you make this about me and Jack, that you can go and get back together with Juliet?"
He opened his mouth. Which wire should he cut? Instead, he closed it straight away. He had been about to say:
"It's not like that," but in truth, it was exactly like that.
"James," he noted her using his name like this, "I… I am with you now." She was on the verge of tears now, "But if you really, really want to be with her… I'm not going to stop you. Just-" she looked for the right words so she didn't sound like she was being the bad guy, "Just remember that if you want to save her, there might be consequences."
"Whatever 'consequences' there are between you and me, we can work them out," said Sawyer.
"No, I mean bigger than you and me. This could change everything."
He knew that she was right but he couldn't stand the thought of being back on this day and not speaking to his dead lover. Surely fate had brought him back to this precise moment for some kind of reason. It was destiny.
With little left to say Sawyer headed off into the jungle and Kate, with no-where else to go, followed silently behind him.
They walked for a couple of hours and she couldn't help wondering exactly where he was actually going. When she asked him he decided to answer truthfully.
"Rose and Bernard. That's where we ended up remember? After we escaped from the submarine. Anyway I know it's in this part of The Island."
Finally they came out of the bushes and greeted Rose and Bernard while Vincent barked at their heels, tail wagging. Kate watched disapprovingly as Sawyer explained that one more of himself and Kate were on their way and that Rose and Bernard had to act like they hadn't been expecting them.
"And then what?" asked Bernard.
"Well…" said Sawyer, "they're going to tell you that Jack wants to nuke The Island and that they're on their way to stop him. The other Kate and I will be hiding until they start leaving, but try to stall Juliet so that I can come out and talk to her."
Bernard nodded but looked confused. Sawyer knew that the time travel was perplexing at times but hoped that he would roll with it.
Sawyer went off to find a good tree behind which to urinate and when he came back found to his dismay that he had missed his chance.
"Damn it!" he shouted. "I told you to stall her!"
"I tried," Bernard told him defensively, "But I couldn't exactly force her."
Sawyer rounded on Kate.
"You." he said, "You should have stopped her."
Kate shrugged.
"I think it would have just frightened her." She told him. He kicked a log in frustration. After he calmed down he thanked Rose and Bernard for their efforts and moved on. He had a new plan…
Juliet sighed and walked away from Kate and the others sitting by the sky blue DHARMA van. She wanted to be alone. However she only managed to achieve being on her own for a minute or so as Sawyer came up behind her.
"Hey," she said, surprised he had finished talking to Jack so quickly, "How did it go? Did you talk him out of it?"
Sawyer remained silent and stared at her with emotion.
"Hang on… where's your jumpsuit?"
"Juliet…" he put a hand gently on the side of her face and leaned in to kiss her. He knew that Kate was watching from her hiding place but hoped she would understand.
The kiss was worth a happy lifetime that among many other things had been lost. Juliet seemed to notice this and frowned. When he finally finished the kiss he looked more serious.
"Juliet, I'm uh… I'm still talking to Jack in that clearing right now."
"What do you-?"
"The me that you're seeing now is me from the future."
"The future?"
"Juliet, you mustn't help Jack with his plan." As she was still reeling from the previous statement he had made she was finding it all hard to take in.
"Why would I want to help him?" she asked simply.
"I don't know, you changed your mind for some reason."
"James, don't worry I haven't changed my mind about any of it."
"I thought you said that even though two people loved each other it didn't mean they were meant to be together."
Juliet was shocked and wondered how on Earth he had managed to recite the exact words her parents had used to explain their divorce. All of it was coming back to her now.
"Well I was under the impression we were meant to be together, but obviously you don't so maybe-"
"Why didn't you tell me?" he interrupted, "Why didn't you tell me about the pregnancy?"
"How did you-?"
"I found the test in the trash." He explained.
"I've been wanting to but-"
"-But it never seemed like the right time." He finished for her.
"Yeah," she replied. He had known the feeling because it was exactly how he had felt about proposing. He had been about to do it but then Jack came back and then he attacked Phil and then Faraday came back and he could not find the appropriate moment.
"I don't really understand…" said Juliet, "Are you saying you don't want to be together any more?" his eyes widened in fear.
"No!" he exclaimed, "I want to be with you."
"Really, because you've been acting strangely around Kate." Sawyer was stunned.
"No, but-"
"Can you look me in the eye and tell me you don't have any feelings for her?" she asked fiercely. Sawyer knew that she now had him cornered. If he said no Kate would probably barely talk to him ever again but if he said yes Juliet would be mad at him and he didn't want to leave her like that before she went off to her own death.
"This isn't about Kate. Juliet, I'm here to warn you. If you go with Jack, you'll die. And so will the baby."
She shook her head disbelievingly.
"I didn't want to go with Jack-" she said.
"Good." Replied Sawyer.
"-But I do now." She concluded softly. Sawyer was speechless. Juliet walked away from him and he knew now that it was too late to save her. He was stupid to consider it in the first place. He was definitely with Kate and he had to let Juliet go. She had made her choice. After all he had changed so much since leaving The Island and coming back that it didn't even feel like it was him who had loved Juliet but perhaps some distant friend of his whom he had lost touch with. He left feeling oddly satisfied though he wasn't a hundred percent sure. Though something in his heart was whispering one word to him;
"Closure."
He returned to Kate and registered the red cheeks and the wet patches across her freckles. She sniffled when she saw him and wiped her arm on her shirt.
"Thank-you." she said.
"What for?"
"For not saying no."
He knew now that she had noticed the avoidance he had made of Juliet's question about Kate and smiled.
"She's gone." He said, gesturing to where Juliet had stood. "You are all that matters to me now." They hugged tightly. "Now let's get out of here."
Desmond awoke. He was lying in some green bushes and he felt like he had just travelled in time.
A man came into the clearing, carrying an unconscious blonde woman on his back. He spotted Desmond and put her down.
"You don't look like DHARMA." Said Richard Alpert curiously.
"That's cos I'm not, brotha. Or at least… not anymore."
Richard nodded and the woman stirred.
"Try not to move." He said to her. She groaned in response to this.
"What happened?" she asked in a strong British accent.
"I had to knock you out," Richard told her, "I couldn't let you go with those people, they were going to detonate a bomb and you're pregnant."
She sat up and pulled out some water from a rucksack by her legs. It hung open and Desmond glanced inside. To his surprise he saw something in there that he recognised. Before he could stop himself he reached in and pulled it out. It was a brown journal and inside were thousands of mathematical science equations and diagrams.
"This belonged to Daniel Faraday." He said.
"I know," replied the woman, "I'm his mother." At this, Desmond was mildly surprised. He had already guessed he was in the past but this was a huge coincidence.
"You're Eloise Hawking?" he asked.
"Yes." She confirmed proudly.
"But, I know you…" he said slowly. Suddenly the ground shook and a loud rumbling could be heard somewhere near.
Richard jumped up and ran through the trees. Desmond got to his feet and followed. He came out to a high up ridge, a perfect vantage point from which he and Richard could watch the white mushroom cloud rise from the incident site.
"They really did it," Richard stammered. The two men were suddenly forced backwards by the shock wave as the air was filled with ash and a chemical stench.
So, my aim with this chapter was to really make it fit in with the events in the season 5 finale, which I always thought had something going on just out of sight. The evidence for Juliet being pregnant in the episode is really only the way she acts and how she said she wanted to tell Sawyer something important. Then we have the reason for Bernard awkwardly asking for her to stay which was a small detail. The biggest thing explained here is Juliet's sudden change of heart. We're not done in 77, I see this and the next chapter as one but had to split them firstly to give you guys something to read right now and also because putting them together would not make them flow very well.
Thanks for reading! Review if you like :)