In Shallow Seas We Sail

Author's Note: I'm back from vacation, and ready to give you all a much awaited update. I had a great time, and I even got to see my favorite band, Emery, in concert! It was amazing! Thanks for being so patient. This is way too short, and I'm ashamed to call it a chapter, but I promised to get you all something as soon as I got back.

The winner of the one-shot contest for this week is CC Chels. Since you have disabled the messaging feature, feel free to give me a prompt, short plot summary, or anything really via review. Lost related, please. I'm willing to go with anything you give me, so if you want to include a song, quote, or hypothetical situation, that'd be fine too. I know Jaclyn Parker is still waiting on hers, but it'll be up this week as well. :)

Enjoy,
Sara

*

Your foot, it's anchored deep
Your face tells me you won't be freed
After the Devil Beats His Wife

[10]

Sawyer shot a warning glance at Jack, trying to tell him in one look that he had to pick his jaw up off the floor. Jack obviously caught his drift, swallowed, and nodded toward Sawyer. Sawyer looked back at the nurse, smiling. "Thank you," he said with a wink. The nurse flushed. "You remember Mr. Bentham, don't ya, Jack?"

Jack nodded.

"Yeah, I'd love to see him, too. It's been a while." He looked pointedly at the nurse. "Can you make that happen?"

She whipped up her clip board and exited the nurse's station. With a smile in Sawyer's direction, she said, "Right this way, gentlemen."

Sawyer began to follow her but slowed to let Jack catch up to him. "What's the problem?" he asked gruffly.

Jack glanced at him. "Jeremy Bentham. I do know him, and so do you."

"Be a little more cryptic, Doc," Sawyer growled. He was trying to get somewhere with this, but all Jack had to offer were Locke-like riddles. "Out with it."

"Here we are," the nurse said; her eyes were still fixed on Sawyer.

"Thank you, kind lady," he said. He turned up the charm and patted her gently on the arm. She ripped the corner of a piece of paper off her clip board and pressed it into his palm. He raised his eyebrows and watched her turn down the hallway. As soon as she disappeared, the smile dropped from his face and he turned toward the open room where Hurley sat, looking intently into the face of John Locke.

"Son of a bitch," he said, and the nurse's number dropped from his hand. He stepped away from the doorway, pulling Jack with him. "He remembers?" Sawyer asked, eyes fixed on Jack's face.

"It seems that way," Jack said. "I don't know any more than you do."

"He's Jeremy Bentham?"

"Yes, but Sawyer, now is not the time for me to explain it."

"I didn't ask you to explain a damn thing," Sawyer replied.

Jack dropped his head and pinched the bridge of his nose between his thumb and index finger. He looked back up at Sawyer. "Cool it, Sawyer. We're not accomplishing anything with your temper."

Anger surged through Sawyer. Jack was a poor substitute for Juliet in easing his temper. Everything Jack wanted to do seemed to slow down the process, and now the damn Doc was preaching about how they weren't accomplishing anything because of him?

Before he could say anything in response, a searing pain struck him behind the eyes: his fist connected with Jack's face, but they were on the jungle floor and he was screaming, Will you stop? and he knew Jack wouldn't stop, he wouldn't stop at anything for Kate.

When the present burst back into his vision and he felt a bit of moisture above his upper lip, the thought still lingered in his mind. Wiping away the blood without a second glance, he directed his gaze at Jack's shocked face. Sawyer pressed his hands to the floor, and only then did he realize he was sitting on the cool tile floor.

"You have to be quiet," Jack warned, "Or I'll have to break you out, too."

"What'd I say?" Sawyer asked.

"'Will you stop?'," Jack replied.

"Are you doin' this for Kate?" Sawyer asked quickly.

Jack looked at him closely. "Sawyer, do you know where you are?"

"Yes, I know where I am. You're doin' this to save her, too, aren't you?"

Jack stood and offered Sawyer his hand, but Sawyer stood up without it. He met the other man's gaze. "Of course I am. I'm doing this for everyone." Without another word, Jack turned toward the room where Hurley and Locke were seated. "Are you coming or not?"

"Do you have a plan?" Sawyer asked smartly.

"Do you?"

"No." Regardless, Sawyer felt better knowing that Jack had Kate in his mind. He no longer felt he was the only one fighting for someone else.

Jack's mouth tugged up slightly on the corners. "Well, that will have to do."

*

"You'll stay here for now," Ben said, "I expect you'll find yourself quite at home."

He stood in the doorway of her home, the one she'd lived in for years before Oceanic 815 had crashed and given her any semblance of hope that she'd escape, but even though none of that had even happened, the house's gaping doorway still seemed to bear the words, Abandon hope, all ye who enter here. And as she crossed the threshold behind Ben, she felt all hope fading away.

Ben sat on the couch in her living room. "You'll find everything you need here. I didn't give you much time to pack, I'm afraid," he said with a chuckle.

Juliet forced a smile back at him. "What do you need me to do, Ben?"

"Ah, don't rush. Have a seat. Let's talk a while."

Although her mind screamed for her to run, she knew there was no reason to do so. After all, there was nowhere to run. She closed the door softly and took a seat in the armchair that was sitting opposite the couch.

"Don't look so put out about it, Juliet. We have a lot to catch up on, don't we?"

Juliet didn't respond. She wasn't going to offer Ben any information that he didn't already know. The Others had claimed that young Ben would lose his innocence and all memory of the occurrence, but what did he remember, and how far back did his memory go?

"Oh, we do," he said. "Have you enjoyed your time off the island?"

Juliet nodded mutely.

"Speak up."

"Yes, I have," she responded in a slow monotone.

"And with a conman, no less."

"He's not a conman anymore," she argued, but let the subject drop. She needed to avoid the subject of James as much as possible, not only for his sake but for her own. She swallowed back the lump that had formed in her throat.

"Oh, he changed in those three years, didn't he?"

Juliet watched Ben's face closely, trying to judge what he meant by his statement. "A lot of things happened in three years," she replied.

He smiled. "But some things don't change."

She wasn't sure what he meant by this statement, whether he was referring to himself or James. She shook her head. "What do you want from me?"

"We'll get to that," he said. "I came back for you earlier, you know. I got a little side-tracked, and we weren't exactly in the same place, now were we?"

"I guess we weren't," Juliet responded.

"You don't have to play games, Juliet," he said.

"I'm not the one playing games," she snapped.

Ben chuckled. "You've developed quite the spunk, haven't you?"

Juliet stared back at him.

"Well, I'll leave you to get comfortable. I guess we'll finish our conversation later."

"We can finish now," Juliet insisted.

"No, I'm afraid we can't," Ben said, glancing at his watch. "I'll come by later. Be expecting me." With that, he stood and offered Juliet his hand to shake. She saw that there was no other choice and lightly took his hand. He squeezed hers gently. "You'll get used to it here once again. It will be as you never left."

He left without waiting for her to respond, even if she'd wanted to. She watched him walk across the lawn from the front window, trying to see where he was headed. He disappeared from her sight and left the quad deserted.

She made her way back to her room, tracing familiar pathways that had been etched into her mind. It was just as she found it the first day of her arrival, and the closet was stocked with her clothing. Not her clothing, but clothes that had been picked for her. She gave them a glance but didn't take the time to look closely. It didn't matter what she'd be wearing.

She climbed into bed, pulling her legs close to her chest. She couldn't just stay there and do nothing, but there was nothing she could do. By responded so coldly to Ben, she had probably already endangered Julian and James. Ben would give her no information about how long he expected to keep her here, what he wanted her to do. Thus, he continued to make her play his game, and it became the waiting game.