A/N: Thank you for all the great reviews! They certainly made my day in what was a bad week, work wise. I've tried to fulfil as many requests as I could this chapter. Enjoy.

Chapter 2. A Proposal

The first thing James did when they arrived at Horace's 45th shindig was grab a beer. He needed it badly and was still trying to come to terms with the news Juliet had given him an hour ago. She was going to have a baby, well they were and that thought silently terrified him. Not so much Juliet having a baby but more the thought of him being a father. Hell it's not like he had a great role model of a father right. In light of what had happened to him as a kid fatherhood was the last thing he'd ever considered, but then neither had he planned on falling in love and settling down with a woman, but here he was.

"What's with you tonight?" Miles asked.

James turned and looked at him. "What do you mean?"

"You've been staring at Juliet the whole time here," Miles observed, "and I must admit she's looking particularly hot in that low cut strappy hula neck top."

James frowned. His thoughts had been so taken up with the pregnancy news he hadn't noticed the top. "You wanna stop ogling her," he growled.

"I can still look, it's not as if you're married."

Married. He should marry her! Would she marry him? Her experiences hadn't been all that crash hot in the marriage department. She had told him about her ex-husband. What was the jerks name again? Something pompous like Edmund. She had initially told him, in her cool flippant way as if it was just a regular everyday screw up you're life type of experience. No big deal. But the closer they got the more she had discussed Edmund with him and the angrier he'd feel. Why'd you let him treat you like? It was complex, she'd reply.

Flashback

Juliet must have been feeling guilty about his little outburst the other day when he'd thrown the cards down on the table and stormed off. 'I get it. I'm just some dumb hick with a dodgy past why would you want to tell me anything'. Truth was he had started finding himself curiously attracted to her which was odd, because she wasn't even his type, but then he wasn't even sure if he had a type? Kate was his type. So he'd thought. For months he just couldn't get the thought of Kate out of his head. What had he done? Why the hell did he jump off the chopper? In part it was the heroic thing to do or was it because part of him was afraid of getting into a relationship with her or was it that part of him was convinced she'd always pick the doc over him. Was she still alive? Or was Locke just yanking his chain? Where the hell was Locke? Why hadn't he come back? Would he bring Kate back? He just couldn't ever see her coming back. Hell he wasn't even sure what her feelings for him were? He'd not felt sure about anything with her. Then one day he woke up and suddenly Kate wasn't on his mind so much anymore. Life was kind of good in Dharmaville. He was just a regular person who worked in security. He didn't have to con anymore. He shared a house with Jin and Miles, and Daniel till he left for Ann Harbour. They all got along, even if Miles was a pain in the ass at times. They discovered they all liked playing board games. So did Juliet. She lived just next door with a couple of Dharma girls. He was secretly glad when the sub hadn't returned for four months. They should all stick together now that they were stranded in 1974. He liked Juliet's company, though he wouldn't have admitted it to anyone. He had three words to describe her; cool, calm and collected, but he liked it when she got flustered. Sometimes he'd purposely go out of his way to annoy her just to get a reaction but after a while he gave up. She was just too damn switched on to fool or annoy and he begrudgingly admired her for it.

She listened when he talked and she didn't judge. He liked that about her. That's why he liked playing cards with her. He would talk; she would listen but never discuss herself which only served to make him even more curious about her. As his interest in her began to grow, so did his attraction, but he had no idea what she felt towards him. He only knew what he felt and it was new to him, in a way, which left him feeling unsettled. He had even made a point of brushing his hair and teeth, spraying deodorant under his arms, using Miles men's cologne before seeing her. Did she notice? She didn't seem to. He'd even had his hair trimmed this morning. Would she notice that? He doubted it. Thing is she didn't seem to look at him any differently unlike a number of the female population in Dharmaville. Good looks and charm didn't seem to impress her but that was about all he had going for him. So he was screwed.

They sat in his living room, playing two handed patience and he was thinking about her. Trying to find her motives for coming to his house and asking to play cards with him; it's because she's nice and that's what nice people do and because he'd spat the dummy the other day and she felt sorry for him. She was currently dealing out the cards. Her hair was tied back in a high pony tail that fell down over her shoulders. She looked at him and smiled. "You can start," she spoke.

He picked up the cards and looked at them. There weren't a lot of options from what he could see. After about ten minutes of playing cards, with him doing most of the talking, she suddenly blurted out.

"I was married once."

The cards nearly fell out of his hand. He hadn't expected that.

"You might want to close your mouth before you catch flies," she replied with a wry smile.

James tried to compose himself. Okay so she was once married, so what.

"What happened?" he asked nonchantly, putting a five of hearts over a black six of spades.

"He was having an affair," Juliet replied placing a four of diamonds down onto the pack.

James glanced at her over the top of the cards. She looked so perfectly composed.

"He had several affairs actually and I figured he wasn't going to change so I filed for divorce."

"What an asshole," he muttered. He could and felt like using a lot more colourful adjectives.

Juliet nodded in agreement. "He was."

"What'd you see in him?"

She looked thoughtful for a moment and he detected a hint of sadness in her eyes. It wasn't the first time he'd seen it and he would wonder about it, wonder what put it there?

"I guess I was just flattered that this hotshot doctor was interested in me, but it turns out that it was only my research he was interested in."

Did he detect a hint of bitterness in her voice? He looked at her. Their gazes connected and for a few moments they just watched each other. How many other skeletons did she have in the closet? It then dawned on him that he really knew very little about her.

"Nice haircut by the way," she continued, glancing at his hair, her smile spreading across her lovely face. She had such a pretty smile. He could feel himself blush and what the hell was with that? He never blushed.

**************

"Hey LaFleur!" Miles said loudly beside him. "I'm talking to you here."

"What?" he frowned, wishing Miles would piss off and leave him alone with his thoughts.

"Did you ask Juliet about Anne?" Miles asked.

"Huh?"

Miles looked at him exasperated.

"Don't worry I'll sort out my own love life," he muttered, giving a dismissive wave with his hand, "thanks for nothing."

James watched Miles storm off. 'I've got problems of my own ya know,' he felt like yelling after him, 'like Juliet's pregnant.'

But Juliet didn't want to tell anyone about it just yet and he was fine with that. He needed time to get his head around the fact that he was going to be a father. He ran a hand through his hair. What if he was like his old man? How fit was he to be a father? He glanced over at Juliet to find her watching him. They shared a secret smile. The sooner they made their escape the better but Horace had just cornered him and was now ranting on about upgrading security out at the new swan station. The drilling there was intensifying. Radinsky was like a man possessed at the moment. What else was new? He was only half listening to what Horace had to say. All he could think about was tracking down Jin and asking him about how he'd proposed to Sun.

Three hours later he was in bed with Juliet and they were finally alone. She was lying in his arms. He was playing with the ends of her hair.

"What are you thinking?" she asked sounding a little anxious.

"Us … the baby," he replied, "whether or not I'll be a good father …"

Juliet sat up and looked at him.

"You'll be great, I know you will."

He saw the truth in her eyes, but he still wasn't convinced.

"My father shot my mother," he stated, feeling the need to point out this shocking fact, even though she knew everything about him.

Her eyes softened. "Do you think you are like your father?"

James shrugged. "I don't know, I was only 8, I don't remember much."

"What do you remember of him?"

"He was always busy," he murmured, "never home that much really. It was always work with him. He made it clear that my mother be the accommodating housewife. He'd bring business people home for dinner, she'd wait on them and I had to stay out of the way," James continued, hating remembering anything from his childhood. "He was always the big man." He couldn't contain the bitterness in his voice. Not when he remembered his mothers tears and her unhappiness.

Juliet took hold of his hand and squeezed it lightly. His eyes met hers. Why did it still hurt?

"My mother was kind though, always trying to make amends for him, she loved me." It cost him a lot to say that, because even though he was 39, those feelings of protecting her at 8 were still strong and real but she had died protecting him and that was something he'd never really got over. Juliet reached over, brushing his hair back from his forehead, her eyes reflecting the compassion she felt.

"I know you James and I know you'd never hurt me. So maybe you're father didn't know how to love but you do."

Bringing his hand up to her mouth she lightly kissed his fingers. "You obviously take after your mother."

He felt touched and soothed by her words. He hadn't thought of that. She was still stroking his hair.

"If we have a girl can we call her Mary?"

James peered at the books lining the shelfs, his glasses planted firmly on his nose, till he came across a book on pregnancy. Reaching out he pulled if off the shelf and began reading the front cover. Did he get it for her? You idiot, she's a fertility doctor, she probably knows everything already. Yeah but he knew nothing.

"What are you reading?" Miles spoke alongside him.

He nearly hit the roof with fright and glared at Miles. Miles unperturbed was already looking at the cover before James had the chance to hide it.

"What to expect when you're expecting," Miles read out loud and James could feel his face redden. Miles looked at him, frowned for a moment before it dawned on him. "Juliet's pregnant!" he exclaimed, loud enough for old Stella to hear. The whole village would know by sunset now.

"You wanna say it any louder."

Miles just grinned.

"You tell anyone and I'll kill ya," he threatened glancing in Stella's direction. The old biddy had heard everything. He could tell by the expression on her face.

"No need to get your boxers in a knot," Miles said, "let's go celebrate, we'll have a couple of beers and go find Jin." He couldn't say no to that but Juliet wasn't going to be happy. Typical Miles and his big mouth.

"Are you going to get that book?"

James looked down at the book in his hand. Might as well now that the whole damn village was going to know.

"I guess," he muttered walking over to the counter and putting it down there for Stella to see.

"You want me to gift wrap that for you?" she smiled, her eyes twinkling.

"Alright," he grumbled.

James and Miles found Jin down in the monitor room. Miles had grabbed a six pack of beer from the store. Jin was over the moon about the news, patted him on the back and lit up a cigar. Half an hour later, Miles went out to get another six pack of beer.

James and Jin were sitting back on the leather chairs in front of the TV screens.

"I should marry her," James spoke, thoughtfully, "shouldn't I."

He glanced at Jin.

Jin nodded. "Of course, the proper thing to do, don't want her to feel ashamed."

James couldn't see Juliet feeling ashamed but he knew in Jin's culture it was an important thing.

"It's small village people talk," Jin continued.

James didn't need Jin to tell him that. He'd picked up quite a reputation as a ladies man when he was going out with a number of different Dharma girls.

Flashback

Five months later and he was onto girl number seven. Laura was her name. Young, pretty, giggled way too much and spent at least an hour on her appearance just to go for a walk with him. He picked her because she shared a house with Juliet. And up until now Juliet had seemed completely unphased by all of his different girlfriends, if anything she seemed to find it amusing. They still continued to play cards ever couple of days. He was about to give up on the whole trying to make her jealous thing. It didn't appear to be working.

Juliet looked frazzled this particular day. Her cheeks were flushed. He pointed out the spot of grease on her face. She rubbed it off with her sleeve and asked for a scotch on the rocks.

"It's only two in the afternoon …" he began.

She just glared daggers at him.

"Okay," he continued raising a hand in surrender. "I get you're pissed off about something and need a drink."

He poured a generous amount of scotch into a glass. She was watching him, or more like glaring and he frowned at her.

"What's wrong?" he asked, putting iceblocks in the glass and handing it to her.

She took the glass from him. "She's a bit young for you don't you think?"

"Who Laura?"

"Of course Laura," she snapped sipping the scotch.

James reached into the fridge and grabbed a beer. He had the feeling he was going to need one.

"She's only 25 and you must be pushing 40 …"

"37," he corrected.

"You look 40."

Yep, she was definitely pissed off with him. He opened the can.

"Did you have to pick someone I share house with?" she continued, her eyes narrowing.

In hindsight it was probably a bad idea.

"All I hear about is how wonderful you are."

"And what's wrong with that," he smirked glancing at her.

She wasn't smiling.

"Sure nothing as long as I don'tidn't mind being called a jealous old hag!"

James was shocked for a moment. She took a longer sip of the scotch and glared back at him.

"Now I've had to find somewhere else to live …"

"Whoa hold up, why did she call ya a jealous old hag?"

Juliet bit down on her lip. "Because I told her, and this is only pointing out the obvious, that she would just be another notch on you're belt and you went through women like flour through a sieve."

"Nice analogy," he added dryly.

"Come on James, how long is this one going to last?"

He took a swig of his beer, feeling uncomfortable.

"Are all these girls part of a rebound from Kate?"

He nearly choked on the beer. They had been here 15 months. He was over Kate. And what the hell did he say? I haven't found one I really like yet because of you. Not only that but her opinion of him mattered and at the moment that opinion looked pretty low. And it bothered him.

"When are you going to get it out of your system?"

Her eyes were questioning.

"You know those girls do have feelings?"

She had an uncanny knack of making him feel bad.

"Just because you're going through some mid life crisis …"

"I'm not," he protested.

"Then what are you doing?"

He just shrugged and couldn't bring himself to look at her. "I dunno."

She sighed, sculled the rest of the contents on her scotch and put the glass on the bench. "I'm not in the mood for cards today," she said giving him a quick glance. "I'll let myself out."

He spent the rest of week feeling depressed. Drank far too much beer, smoked too many cigarettes and ate a lot of crap food. Miles just shook his head in disgust.

"What? Dating a drop dead gorgeous blonde isn't enough for you?"

The only blonde he wanted though was totally uninterested in him and if anything saw him as nothing more than some lowlife womaniser who was only after one thing. He'd avoided Laura all week. Felt even worse about Juliet having to move to another house. What the hell had he been thinking? But what was really hilarious is that he'd only ever slept with two of the seven girls he'd seen over that five month period and that was the first two and one time he'd been really drunk; so much for the so called notches on his belt.

James returned his attention to Jin

"What if she says no?"

Jin just shook his head. "She loves you."

He still wasn't reassured. Jin didn't know about her hell of a marriage to ol' creep head.

Jin proceeded to talk about exactly how he had proposed to Sun before Miles returned with another six pack of beer. They were all happily cruisy by the time they finally stumbled out of the monitor room.

"Monopoly tonight, 7.00pm at our house, don't forget," he called out after Jin and Miles.

Juliet looked at all three suspiciously. Miles and Jin were acting strange and she hadn't missed the exchange of looks between them. She directed her attention towards James. He pretended to be totally absorbed with counting how much money he had.

"You told them," she stated.

His face reddened slightly. He glanced at her.

"You can't even keep a secret from them for a day!"

"Hey but we are like family Juliet," Miles protested. "Anyway it wasn't even LaFleur's fault. I happened to catch him reading this book all about pregnancy and put two and two together," he grinned. "Then we found Jin and had some celebratory drinks."

"Any excuse to have a drink right," Juliet said lightly, "least you guys can have one."

Jin leaned over and kissed her on the cheek. "Congratulations."

A smile curved her lips.

"Yeah and I think if you've got to go nine months without a drink then so should James," Miles added. James glared at him. "After all he is half responsible."

"Shut up Miles," James snapped. "You go nine months without a drink."

******

James waved goodbye to Miles and Jin before closing the front door. Juliet was clearing the table. She handed him the monopoly game. "You're not really made are ya?"

Shaking her head she smiled. "No."

He put the game in the cupboard.

"But what was with Jin winking at you?"

He turned to look at her. She never missed a thing. Figuring that there was never a right time for marriage proposals he decided to just bite the bullet.

"I was asking how he proposed to Sun," he admitted.

Juliet froze in the middle of wiping down the table.

"Why?" she asked slowly, straightening up, her questioning gaze meeting his.

His mouth suddenly felt dry. "I was thinking about it," he returned, nerves getting the better of him. He ran a hand through his hair.

"Oh."

She looked surprised.

"So what do you think?"

She raised an eyebrow. "Is that a proposal?"

"I know," he sighed, "I suck at this."

"You want to get married?"

"I'm asking."

She blinked. "Because I'm pregnant? T-That's so old fashioned, I never took you for being like that?" A slow smile crossed her face and she shook her head. "It's kind of sweet though."

"Is that a yes or no?"

He noted the thoughtful look on her face. Stuff this. Crossing the floor, he stopped when they stood face to face. She glanced up at him, looking kind up vulnerable. He swallowed the lump in his throat.

"Would we be discussing this if I weren't pregnant?"

He didn't know how to answer that, shook his head and figured changing tack was better.

"Yeah well Jin said I needed to make an honest woman of ya," he grinned grabbing her hand in his.

Juliet looked startled by this before a smile spread across her face and she started laughing.

"C'mon Jules what could it hurt?" he continued, raising a hand, caressing her smooth cheek. He could see her resolve weakening. "I love you. You love me, even when I'm an ass."

"I'm stubborn," she stated.

"No shit, hadn't noticed," he murmured with a smile, bringing his other hand up to her face, running his thumb gently across her bottom lip.

"You think your charm is going to work?" she asked in a husky voice.

"You know you can't resist me," he grinned lowering his mouth to hers, his hand catching in her hair as his tongue teased and coaxed and he felt smugly satisfied when he heard the low moan in her throat.

"I hate you," she mumbled as he pushed her hair back and began kissing the side of her neck.

"Is that a yes?" he asked, his breath tickling her ear.

"Alright …" she sighed. "That's a yes."

He smiled down at her. "Now that wasn't so hard was it?"

Her cheeks were flushed and she'd never looked more adorable. Taking the cloth out of her hand he threw it on the table. "We should consummate that decision," he continued, taking her hand and leading her to the bedroom. Juliet didn't protest.

A/N: That chapter went longer than I had thought it would. I still hope you enjoyed it, even though it had some more serious moments. I tried to inject some humour when and where I could. It was lots of fun to write. Let me know what you thought of it and anything you would like to see happen.