Cpt 2

Juliet woke to the buzzing sound of her alarm. She could barely get out of bed, another sleepless night thinking of Jack. Thinking of what she was doing to him. Juliet stepped into her bathroom and ran the cold water. Splashing it across her face she shivered slightly as she looked up from the sink to the mirror that hung on the wall. She stared at herself, at who she had become. Juliet was slipping, the tears coming more frequently these days. She felt like a circus act without a safety net. Falling into the abyss.
"Now don't cry girl," she chastised her own reflection, "After all you raised your hand for the assignment."
….

Juliet went about her day in a haze, performing her tasks in a trance. Only Sawyer's smirk and "Barbie with a gun," comment penetrated her coma like state. She almost liked him, his resilience.

It was evening now, as she headed to the Hydra. Her heart beat fast in anticipation of seeing Jack.
"Julie," Ben stopped her, just outside the entrance.
"Yes Ben?" she said curtly. She wanted to spit in his face but she was afraid of what that might bring, so she smiled passively instead.
"You'll have to watch the cameras tonight," he told her.
"Why?" she asked.
"There's something I have to do. Something I have to take care of," Ben explained.
"Fine," she answered her hand on the entrance door.
"Aren't you going to ask me what it is I have to do?" Ben asked with a half curious look on his face.
"Would you tell me if I did?" Juliet asked but Ben just smirked and walked away.

Juliet took a deep breath and walked in. She went first to the room with the cameras. Sawyer and Kate were talking and eating fish biscuits, but she wasn't interested in their conversation so she turned the microphone off. Jack was doing push ups in the centre of the room. She watched as his muscles flexed, the veins in his arms strained as he lifted his body weight up and down. A bead of sweat slid from his forehead and hung at the tip of his nose before falling to the floor. Juliet traced the lines of his face on the screen as she smiled to herself.

"Hey," Juliet said twenty minutes later after she composed herself.
Jack stood up and wiped his brow with the back of his arm. He nodded at her through the glass.
"I brought you some food," she told him opening the door and walking inside, "I see you've been working up an appetite."
"Not much else to do around here," he said going straight to the water bottle and gulping its contents down.
"I'll bring you a book next time," she said and slid onto the table. Jack sat beside her. She could smell his musty scent and she inhaled deeply.
"What are you going to bring me? Dostoevsky?"
"Why? Do you like him?" Juliet asked.
Jack laughed, "Did you know Hemingway was jealous of Dostoevsky?"
Juliet looked at him, her eyebrow raised in quizzical thought, "No, I didn't know that."
Jack laughed as he shook his head, "Neither did I. someone told me that recently."
"Ahh," Juliet said, "I prefer Stephen King myself."
"John Grisham," Jack said and they both chuckled in unison before falling into an uncomfortable silence.

"Juliet," Jack spoke. It was the first time he used her name and she closed her eyes, savouring the sound of his voice as he formed the word.
"Yes Jack?"
"Can I ask you something?"
"Of course Jack. You can ask me anything," she said and he starred long and hard into her eyes before continuing. He looked up at the camera pointed at them and hesitated.
"It's okay. He's not there. It's just you and me tonight," she reassured him.
"Why are you doing this?" he asked. He asked it softly, searching her face for answers, not like the other times when he demanded to know in anger.

Juliet's heart broke, "I can't tell you that Jack."
"I meant why you? Why are you here? Why are you doing what He wants you too? Did you grow up on this island too?"
"Wow," Juliet said and slid off the table. She began to pace the floor in front of him, "That's more than one question Jack."
"So tell me what you can. What you want to," he said standing up and placing his hand on her arm to still her.
She looked up at him. She didn't want to deny him and she felt herself giving in to him. The emotions welling up inside her, threatening to spill out.
"He said I wasn't quite what He wanted, not quite perfect but He liked the way I fought," she began.

Jack scrunched his brow up trying to understand her, trying to encourage her to go on but she was shaking. Her body trembled with her own anger at Him, at herself.
"So I thanked him, can you believe that?" she said, choking on the words and rubbing her eyes furiously trying to keep the tears from coming.

"So you weren't born here?" Jack asked her. She shook her head.
"Do you think you're the only one with a "this is your life" file sitting on His desk?" she spat.
Juliet resented Jack at that moment. Resented his ability to dig deep into her where she buried her feelings so long ago. Yet she finally felt her true self again or at least glimmers of it.
"Juliet," Jack said walking up to her, his shadow falling over her body, wrapping her in his warmth. She looked up at him and ached for his touch, willing him closer. Jack's hand came up and pushed a strand of her hair from her face.
"Juliet!" Ben's voice came and she and Jack jumped at the sound. She slowly turned to face him on the other side.
"Come here Juliet," Ben said calmly but sternly. Juliet did as she was told.