Wow, I think this is actually the longest I've gone without updating! At least I think it's also the longest chapter I've ever done. So here are a bunch of "missing pieces" that I know several of you have been asking for -- and one that sorta comes out of nowhere but I'd been imagining. FYI, Ch. 40 is nearly done, but I have to come with with a pesky Ch. 39 first, now don't I?"
This is dedicated to makealist, who just finished writing the incredible "Deja Vu All Over Again." Thank you for giving us all this AMAZING story!
"Each day I wondered what would happen next. What happens when you stop wanting, when you are happy. I supposed I would go on being happy forever."
-- Miranda July, "No One Belongs Here More Than You: Stories"
Thursday, July 18, 2013
Juliet storms into the backyard, slamming the door behind her. "James!" she barks. He snaps his head up, still hanging onto the kid on the bike. "Will you PLEASE tell my sister that I'm not freaking insane and there really IS an island?" she yells, holding the phone out to him.
Oh shit, he thinks.
"Just do your best," she mutters.
He takes the phone reluctantly. "Uh, hello?"
"James?" Her voice is lower than Juliet's and a bit on the nasal side. Strange that he could have spent three years hearing all about her, and this is the first time he's talking to her. And she sounds... well, kinda pissy.
"Yeah, this is James."
"And what's your last name, James?"
"Ford. Ya want my social security number, too?"
"That won't be necessary. Not yet, anyway. So, you wanna tell me how you two met?" she challenges him.
"Yeah, we met on the island."
"And were you recruited by weird corporate secrecy eyeliner pirates, too?"
"Me? My plane crashed there."
"Well, isn't that convenient. And then, what? You were having trouble getting pregnant and Juliet showed up to cure all your fertility woes?"
He's beginning to see that Juliet's sarcastic streak must run in the family, but where he'd found Juliet merely scary at first, this Rachel is fucking terrifying. He wonders if the Others had recruited the wrong sister. He reminds himself to be patient and polite. Kill 'em with kindness. "No, she'd already been there three years."
"OK, pop quiz, buddy. What was the name of the company she'd been told she was working for?"
"Mittelos."
"But you were part of some other faction."
"Yeah."
"And she joined up with you all."
"Yeah."
"And what were you doing as part of your happy little island faction?"
The shorter he makes his answers, the less likely he is to slip up. At least, he's hoping. "Head of security."
"Head of security, and you couldn't help her get away? When exactly did you get to leave?"
She's too emotional; he'll have to let that barb go. Has to let them all go. Juliet needs this. He grits his teeth. "Six years ago."
"And what do you do now, mystery man?"
"I'm a librarian." How sweet, a man who just loves books, he can't sound too bad, right?
"A librarian," she purrs. "Well, isn't that just so freakin' adorable. OK. Gainfully employed, that's a start. And you're really sure she's not just imagining there was an island?"
"No, definitely not."
Rachel pauses a long moment, and he knows she's trying to decide. Finally she says, "Take care of her, OK? I'm worried about her. She's a goddamn mess right now, in case you haven't noticed."
He has, but he's not going to talk about that with Juliet standing right in front of him. "OK" is all he can manage. He looks up at Juliet, who's still shaking with anger. He extends the phone to her. "Here."
Friday, July 19, 2013
Her ringing phone wakes her early on the second morning at James' house. An unfamiliar number lights up the display; it's really ridiculously early for anyone to call. She rolls over in the cold empty bed -- except for the one warm spot that's Cat, that sneaky little bitch -- and reaches for the device on the end table. Her voice is hoarse. "Hello?"
"Juliet?"
She squinches her eyes shut. The voice is familiar. Too familiar. "Who is this?" she asks, although she already has her suspicions.
"It's Jack. Jack Shepherd." (She rolls her eyes behind her closed eyelids.) "I'm sorry to be calling so early." Jack sounds terrible, his voice low and gravelly, and she idly wonders if he's even slept yet.
A buzzing sound threatens to drown out her hearing. "How did you get this number?"
"Hurley. He told me you were back." Not Kate? But she realizes that other than the fact that Kate's on a girls-only cruise with Cassidy right now, she knows absolutely nothing about their lives now, and it's probably better that way. And somehow she's thinking that Jack coerced Hugo into giving up her number. She can read between the lines.
"Richard Alpert told us you were dead -- I'm so sorry, Juliet, and I ... I know you probably don't want to talk to me, but -- "
"Well, Jack," she says, "you always did have to be right about everything." She turns off her phone and rolls over into a nest of cat hair. Fuck.
She gets up and is pitching the cat out into the hall just as James pokes his head out the door of the den.
James doesn't know what possessed him to do it, but he'd seen Juliet's phone on the table and flicked it on, copied Rachel's number onto a slip of paper and stuffed it into his pocket. After he drops Clementine off at camp, he digs his Bluetooth out of the center console and dials.
"Hello, who's this?"
"Uh... This is James. You know, Juliet's, um..." What the hell is he, anyway?
"What? What's the matter? Is she all right?" Rachel sounds panicked.
"No -- no, she's fine."
"What's wrong, then?"
"Nothin's wrong, I just thought maybe we could get a little better acquainted while she's not, ya know... right there."
She hesitates, but after a long moment she says, "That probably makes sense," and James is relieved to hear there's much less animosity in her voice than yesterday. At least until the next thing she says, all sarcastic-sounding again. "Say, tell me about that explosion."
Oh crap. "It was at a construction site. A few of us had gone out there to -- well, we went out there. They were drillin' this big hole and they hit some sorta pocket of energy. Electromagnetic, y'know." Right. He's sure she totally knows. "A bunch of us got knocked out, and they ended up evacuating. By -- by the time I woke up we were already on the way back. I couldn't -- I couldn't get back to her. I didn't know what happened to her."
"Why didn't you ever try to contact me? I would have liked to know."
"No, you wouldn't have. Trust me, I wanted to call you, go visit, maybe -- but what was I supposed to do, anyway? Tell you some horrible story and finish it off by saying I didn't know whether she was alive or dead, but if she was alive, she was all alone on some crazy mystery island?"
"Crazy mystery island. You know, that's what Brian and I have been calling it."
He grins. "We actually always called it Craphole Island."
A delighted laugh comes to him over the phone in return, and he relaxes somewhat. "That's a good one. We might have to start using that. But I guess I understand why you wouldn't have wanted to call me. You're right. It probably would have made it worse. But at least I could have had something to give to the police."
"Yeah, about that -- "
"Oh, not you too."
"All's I'm sayin' is, it probably would do more harm than good. Upset her more, and if there are people after her -- "
"If there are really people after her, shouldn't we definitely get the police involved?" she says in a tone of voice that implies she thinks he's about three years old. Now that tone, he definitely recognizes. Juliet and Miles in Dharma all over again.
"I can't tell ya what to do, it's not like I can stop you from here, but I'm just gonna put it out there that I think callin' the cops is a really, really bad idea. They'll never believe anything she has to tell 'em."
"I think Juliet has Stockholm Syndrome. You too, maybe."
"It's... a little more complicated than that. The people who took her, she hated them. She did what they wanted her to, but she didn't like it and she didn't like them. When my group showed up, she sorta played both sides, all sneaky-like. Goddamn, I was scared of her." Rachel laughs again. "Eventually she ditched them and came over with us."
"You said your plane crashed there?"
Shit. Oceanic 815 never crashed after all. He has a really hard time believing that, though, even after all this time. "Yeah. It was a small private plane. We took off from Fiji. Few hours in, lost radio contact."
"What about that other group she was with after you left?"
"I don't know much about 'em. She don't really like to talk about it. She had this friend there, Alice? Just about lost it when I asked her about it."
"So what are we supposed to do about her? You know, the person she was before she left -- I never would have that she could handle all this, go through what she did, and still be basically functioning. Sure she's a mess right now, but something about her did change for the better on that island."
"Yeah. That's what she told me too. 'Course, that was before. I think we just need to give it time. Let it all come out at its own pace."
"You sending her back to me at some point?"
"That's up to her."
"I freaked her out, huh? I know I should have just shut the hell up, I kept telling myself to just shut up, shut up, shut up, but she just up and left Miami and wasn't returning my calls, and I got scared. I didn't know what she was doing, couldn't figure out if she was having some sort of mental breakdown -- or already had when she was missing all those years -- and then Jonah. I was so worried about him. Is he OK?"
"He's fine. It's been good gettin' to know him. Teachin' him how to ride a bike, all that dad stuff, you know? Just -- just go easy on her, all right? If she just wants to just talk about her day, just let her."
"Yeah. I will. If she ever calls me back."
"I'll get her to call you. I can be real subtle about it."
"Thank you."
"Yeah." There's a pause. Might as well just come out with it. "I don't want to take her away from you but... I think I ought to tell you that I'm gonna tell her -- you know, when the time's right -- she's welcome to stay here if she wants."
"Really." He can't tell from Rachel's tone exactly what she thinks of this.
"I... things ain't been the same without her. All this time without her, I never forgot about her, not for one day. I think she feels the same way, but it could just be wishful thinkin' on my part."
"Shit. All right, I guess I should try to be happy for her but. But twelve years apart and I only had six days."
"If she stays -- you know she'll come visit. A lot. I'll make sure of it. And you'll come here."
"You just had to live clear on the other side of the country, didn't you, mystery island librarian?"
"Yeah, well, anything that's worth doin' is worth doin' difficult."
"I don't think that's how the saying goes."
"Yeah, probably not."
Sunday, July 21, 2013
Juliet flips the phone open, and before she can say a word, a voice drawls, "Hey idiot, you forget how a fuckin' phone works?"
She bites back a laugh, but the grin on her face is threatening to split her face apart. "Hey Miles. It's Juliet."
His roar is so loud she has to hold the phone away from her ear. After a moment she tentatively brings it back. Miles is already ranting and raving. "Jesus Christ, no one ever tells me anything! Shit! I can't believe you're alive! Thank God! You OK? All in one piece?"
"More or less."
"How long you been back? You were on the island, right? Hey, if you were living it up in Rio this entire time..."
"That would have probably been a better idea. But, two and a half weeks, to answer your question."
Miles is still spazzing. "Holy crap. Wow, thank Christ. I'm so glad you're -- hey, you seen Jim yet?"
"Seriously? Whose phone did you just call?"
"Oh thank Christ," he mutters again. "The guy's been a fucking wreck without you."
She glances around the neat, homey kitchen, the blue-and-white tiles over the sink. Shoes lined up at the back door, Clementine's most recent report card (nearly all A's) held onto the fridge by a green magnet shaped like the state of Oregon. "What?"
"Oh come on, he beat the shit out of a tree in his yard with an axe. An axe! And that was before he fully remembered."
"I don't know. He seems like he has his act together."
"Guy's a conman, remember? Hey, you guys getting back together?"
She considers this carefully. "I think so." She roots through the fridge, finds an apple. Marvels, once more, at just how much she'd ended up missing completely normal things, like apples.
Miles heaves a gigantic sigh. "Thank God, I can't stand his bitching anymore. So, you guys screwing yet?"
"Well, Miles," she says, "it's been great speaking to you. Good-bye." She makes absolutely no move to actually hang up the phone.
"Fine, fine, fine. You can't kill me for being curious. I mean, shit, six years? So, what happened to you? You woke up in 2004 again with our good buddy Ben?"
"Nope, I woke up in 1919 with our good buddy Ben."
"You're shitting me!"
"Wish I was." She walks out to the back deck, sits on the chaise. Turns her face to the sunlight struggling to break though the clouds. "You know, your pilot called me a native, but he really had no idea."
He whistles. "That must have sucked. You didn't even have plumbing, did you?"
"No plumbing, no electricity, no Thai restaurants that delivered. So tell me what's going on with you." She bites into the apple. Perfection.
Miles launches into the story of how he met his girlfriend, Brenna, whose friend had hired him to check up on a dead father's wayward valuables. Brenna had scowled at him and kept her arms crossed during the entire session. "Man, did she ever have a stick up her ass, but she was like totally hot."
"Of course."
"So anyways, she didn't believe me, she was actually there because she thought her friend was nuts, wanted to keep me from scamming her. Yeah, like she coulda managed that," he scoffs. "But then I told her friend the combo to the dad's safe and it was a whole new ballgame. Whole. New. Ballgame. Chick couldn't keep her hands off me." He discusses about Brenna's virtues, physical and otherwise, for the next couple minutes.
At a lull in conversation, she asks, "You all right about your dad?"
"What? Oh. Yeah, I guess so. I mean, it helps just knowing that he didn't ditch me and my mom, you know?"
"What happened after I fell?"
"Uhh, I didn't really see that happen, but my dad's arm was crushed and I was pulling him away. He was in" -- here Miles' voice breaks, just for a second -- "a lot of pain. There was a ton of blood. We got, I dunno, maybe half a mile away and then this was this big white flash and I was back in Encino. In 2007."
"Hmm. Did James tell you what happened to your father?"
"What?? No."
"I don't know if he knows, but I saw plenty of those Dharma orientation films before I joined the Oceanic survivors. He survived, he was OK. He had a prosthetic hand after."
"But then there was the Purge."
They're both silent for a long moment. Finally she says, "What was it like getting to know your dad that way?"
"Weird. I dunno. I mean, at least I know he gave a shit about us, but he was still sort of a douche about most things. And why the hell did he like country? That I never got."
"But -- time traveling and seeing your dad only a little bit older than you. Wouldn't that just feel sort of, I don't know, warped?"
"Yeah, that's why I avoided them almost the entire time I was there. Remember that party in the rec room that my parents showed up to?"
"You got really quite wasted."
"Exactly. Hey, so why are you asking me about this now?"
She pauses. Jin was her friend in Dharma, James her lover, and Miles more like the obnoxious little brother who drove her nuts. But for all his bluster, they could always, always trust each other. "Don't tell James what I'm about to tell you, all right? I haven't figured out yet how to tell him about this."
"You know, Juliet, relationships should be based on honesty and trust," he says in a mocking tone. She knows he's making fun of her attempts to offer him relationship advice back in Dharma.
"Miles?"
"Shut up?"
"Thank you. All right, here it is. I ended up spending quite a bit of time with my son when he was 34."
"On the island? Wait a... You have a kid?!"
"Yes. He's five and a half. You know, when he's not 34."
"Shit. Wait a sec. It's not -- Jim's, is it?"
"Don't call him an 'it,' Miles. He's a kid, not an order of fries. And -- yes. James is his father."
"Holy -- wait a sec, how's that work, anyway? You didn't get a reset like the rest of us."
"Hence that whole 1919 thing. I don't know, maybe I didn't get a reset because I was the one who set off the bomb."
"What?!"
"You think I was just down there throwing a party for the mole people?"
"We didn't think -- um, we didn't think you woulda lived. Well, now that's kinda awkward. Did you know, before? That you were having a kid?"
"Yes."
"And you were willing to erase that kid to erase the past."
"Unfortunately, yes."
"Jesus Christ! You're the worst mother EVER! You're worse than Dan's mom!"
"Miles?"
"Shut up?"
"Exactly. Look, it was a stupid plan, but in the end it got almost everyone back to where they were supposed to be, right? We saved how many lives?"
"Yeah, like 250 or something. Try not to get a big head about it, Dr. I Save Everyone. Oh man, Jack is gonna shit himself when he hears this!" Miles sounds gleeful.
"Miles," she says warningly.
Miles coughs back his next laugh. "Right. Sorry. And that must have really sucked for you, anyway."
She laughs. "You have no idea."
"So you just, like, popped out a baby in the middle of the jungle?"
"Well, there was a time-traveling midwife there, too. And you of all people know what it's like to have a weird life."
"Yeah, but at least mine's been consistently weird. I don't think you were born into this insanity like I was. Hey, but your kid was! Oh, now that's weird..."
"What?"
"You're gonna have to raise your kid to grow up and get back to the island."
"I'm not doing that."
"Seems like you already did."
"Well, 'what happened, happened' isn't working the same way anymore. Because of the bomb. Sometimes things change. Maybe he won't end up going."
"Well, maybe," Miles says doubtfully. "But yeah, I see what you mean. 'Cause, L.A. has how many people who are basically the walking dead? It's really cutting into business."
She smirks at the phone. "Here's something weird. I know you and James and the rest of you have two sets of memories. I don't, not really, but sometimes my memories change. Just little things, but I keep wondering if big things can change too. They were changing things on purpose back then, fighting battles over again. I mean, what happened could really, really change."
"Hey, what if something happens to you back there and you just disappear from here? Like Marty McFly's hand in Back to the Future?"
She tries to keep her tone light, but the truth is, that thought's occurred to her, too. "Didn't you already debunk that with Hugo?"
"Hey, I'm just sayin'."
"I've been thinking about this. I think there just needs to be some sort of defined endpoint. The bomb opened a loophole -- a time loop, I guess, or an undefined number of time loops -- and it needs to be closed. I might need to talk to Daniel."
"LaFleur know any of this?"
"Some. Not about Jonah time-traveling when he's grown. Not about -- what could happen if there's never any endpoint. I don't want to scare him."
"Yeah, I guess he sorta would freak out if you could just disappear at any time," he says sarcastically. "Well, good luck getting in touch with Twitchy. He's hardly working, spends half his time wrapped around Charlotte. Never answers the fucking phone."
"He deserves to be happy. He'll get back to his work when he's ready. That, I'm sure of."
"Yeah, what makes you so sure?"
"Because my son will grow up to work for him."
Dead silence. Juliet is a bit impressed with herself -- after all, it takes a hell of a lot to render Miles speechless. In the brief bit before he can start up his manic patter again, James slides the glass door open. "Hang on," she tells Miles, and cranes her neck to see James.
"Glad to see you're finally willin' to use chairs again," he said. "Told ya they ain't so bad." He walks out onto the deck and stands next to her, watching her eat her apple. "Who you talkin' to on my phone?"
She arches an eyebrow. "Fuckhead."
He leans over to the phone in her hand. "Hey!!" he yells into it. "You stay away from my girl, ya hear me?!"
Though the phone's several inches away, they can both hear Miles screaming, "Up yours, LaFleur!" She grins and takes another bite of her apple.
When James has set off again for the slope of the hill, she brings the phone back to her ear. "Hey."
"Oh yeah," Miles says. "You guys are definitely back together. He might as well pee a circle around you."