Disclaimer: I do not own Lost or its characters. I only own the story in my head.

Summary: They changed everything. Flight 815 never crashed, the island is underwater, and the same people are living different lives. So they think, because fate as other plans.

Sideways Stories from the Castaways

James and Juliet

She walks through the hallway with her cell phone resting on her shoulder while trying to pull a file out of her bag with one hand and a cup of coffee in the other. Her sister was complaining about her sleepless nights with her son.

"Remember when mom used to tell us how with you slept through the night and I never wanted to sleep." She says laughing.

"You still don't." Rachel replies in that older sister joking yet serious tone.

"Who needs sleep? There's always someone awake somewhere." Juliet tells her sister. "I know you can read Julian The Sound and the Fury that always puts your students to sleep."

"Ha ha" She hears Rachel's reply.

"I'll have to call you back" she tells Rachel and hangs up the phone she picks her head up at the last possible second so she has no time to react.

"Son of a bitch" he says looking down at his shirt that was now soaked in coffee. He looks up and sees that it was her, the woman he saw earlier.

"Oh my God!" she says dropping the file she was holding. "I'm so sorry" she holding up her hands unsure of what to do. It was him the police officer she saw this morning. She brings her hands to her head. "Are you ok? Is it burning you should take your shirt off"

He smiles at her. "You move quick, usually I would say you gotta buy me coffee first before the shirts come off." He says with a grin. "But seein' how I'm wearing your coffee…"

She smiles. "Take your shirt off I have to see if you have any burns." She tells him pushing him gently into an empty room.

He smiles and pulls his shirt over his head. She grabs the towels from the bathroom and soaks them in cold water when she runs back out he's sitting on the bed. Her heart beat accelerates at the sight of his bare chest and chiseled abs. What was wrong with her? Although she mostly dealt with women, she's seen it all before. So why she having this reaction and why did it seem like she's seen his chest before? She shakes her head and examines him. She presses the cold towels against his skin to take some of the redness away. It didn't break the skin, this was the one time she could thank the hospital cafeteria for having lukewarm coffee. "It looks your shirt soaked up most of it, it doesn't even appear to be a first degree burn." she tells him.

He smiles and nods. "That's good" is all he could manage to say at the moment he wouldn't have felt it if there were burns all he could do was stare into her blue eyes. Suddenly he had a flash of lying in bed with a woman tracing a weird symbol burned into her back. He closes his eyes and sucks in his breath.

"Are you ok?" she asks concerned.

"Yeah, I'm fine" he replies. What was that?

"I'm going to put some Aloe Vera on just in case" she says walking over to a cabinet, she reaches inside to get to the cream and as a vision of picking an leaf off of an Aloe plant. She shakes her head and sees the tube in her hand, she didn't even remember picking it up. Where in the world was she with an Aloe plant? Rachel was right she probably needed some rest. "Here put this on before you put shirt back on…oh my God your shirt." She says looking at it covered in the brown liquid. "I'll pay for you to get a new shirt at the gift shop".

"This old thing." He says. "Don't worry 'bout it." He takes the tube, opens it and rubs it over the red spots. He grabs his now coffee colored shirt and starts to put it back on.

"I can't let you walk around in that" She says and searches through her bag and finds her baggy Miami Central University shirt, she must've grabbed it with the rest of her stuff in her rush this morning. "Here put this on" Why did this feel so familiar?

He smiles. "Why do you carry t-shirts in your bag?" he says taking it and putting it on.

"For the Aliens" she replies with a smirk.

He laughs, witty. But he knew that and didn't know why. He watches her nervously slide her hair behind her ear and look at him. He swallows. He has to stop himself from reaching over and doing that himself. He couldn't stop staring at her, he's never her seen before but he felt like he's known her for years. He had the strongest feeling pulling at him telling him not to let her go. "We could go get more" he says as she starts walking out of the room.

She stops and turns around slowly giving him a strange look.

"Coffee" He clarifies. "I figure you were going to drink it not dump it all over random strangers."

It was a word she heard every day. Coffee but hearing him say it made her heart skip a beat. It was just coffee why was it having this kind of effect on her. She shakes her head to clear it. What was she doing, she was too busy. "It was nice meeting you. You seem like a good guy but I don't have time for dating, so…" She says. "So, I'm going to leave now"

"Come on, it's just coffee, that's all I'm asking. Just coffee" he says smiling shyly.

Seeing the sincerity in his smile she suddenly has a feeling a déjà vu wash over her. "Alright, but not today I have a lot of work to do"

"Ok" He says smiling. "I didn't get your name?"

"Juliet" She replies.

"James" He replies back with his name.

She tilts her head and smiles. "James Ford?" She asks.

He laughs "You're psychic too" he says smiling. "Anythin' else you can tell about me Miss Cleo?"

She brings her hand to her head. "Let me see… you arrested a red headed archeologist…for smuggling" James tilts his head as he looks at her in shock. "I'm a friend of Charlotte's; she's told me about you"

"Oh" he says a little disappointed, this woman would not nothing to do with him if Charlotte told her about him.

Something was telling her to stay, to not leave him. "We can go for coffee sometime, if you're still interested?"

"I'm still interested" he says quickly. "I mean yeah, I'd like that" he says trying to cover for his eagerness.

"We can go dutch" She adds with a smile.

"Fine by me"

She smiles and holds out her hand. "It was nice to meet you."

He smiles and takes her hand in his. Then all of sudden he's over come with such strong emotions, his eyes close and in the back of his mind he hears his voice. "Ok…ok I got'cha, I got'cha…don't worry"

Juliet sucks in her breath when his hand touches hers. She closes her eyes when a myriad of emotions wash over her, she hears her voice. "I have to tell you something…it's really really important"

They both open their eyes at the same time. "It worked" they say in unison.

A/N: Don't worry there will be a part 2.