Author's Note: Just another quick update for everyone reading. Just cause I feel bad for not being able to update for a few days last time!

Heartland:

Chapter 3: The Mark

Crudelius est quam mori semper timere mortem

(It is more cruel to always fear death than to die.)

-Seneca

Sawyer was surprised to wake up and realize that Juliet wasn't beside him, or even inside of the cave. He walked out, glancing around. Where the hell could she have run off to? "Juliet?" he called out, wandering a little further into the woods.

Juliet glanced up from where she was, she was currently half-stripped and ready to dive over the waterfall into the small lake area beneath it. It was when she heard her name the she stopped. It was obvious by now Richard didn't mind them living in their territory, even though she did occasionally notice one of 'them' watching them to see what they were doing. She wasn't entirely sure which direction Sawyer's voice had come from, but when she turned her head she did notice one of Richard's lackies eyeing her from the brush.

She was silent, trying to figure out what exactly it was he was staring so intently at. But she realized after a moment his eyes had been on her lower back, where Ben had given the order to have her 'marked'. She knew already, from a past experience with Charles Widmore that the mark had existed even now, in the 70's. So now she had to wonder, if they knew she bore the mark, why did they seem to be ignoring it so much?

Juliet remembered clearly how Widmore had seen her mark, and she hated the experience.

()FLASHBACK()

"Juliet."

Juliet glanced up at Horace as she pulled her head out of the hood of the Dharma Van. She smiled warmly and closed the hood, pulling her gloves off. "Hello, Horace."

Horace smiled in return. "I was hoping I could ask you for a favor."

Juliet nodded. "Of course, what is it?" she questioned curiously.

"Well, you've become one of our better mechanics in the past 3 months, and one of the new recruits must have screwed up on the van he fixed," Horace admitted. "It's broken down, over by the fence."

Juliet held back the chuckle.

"I was hoping you and, I believe his name is Mike, could head over there and check it out, you could show him what he messed up," Horace suggested.

Juliet smiled again and nodded her head. "Sure, that's no problem," she told him. "This van's ready to go."

Horace smiled and held out his hand, which she took and shook. "You're doing a great job in the motor pool, Juliet. Thank you."

"Happy I can help," Juliet admitted, letting his hand go. She watched as Horace wandered off and then flagged the new recruit, Mike, over to her. "Mike, come on. We gotta go fix your van."

Mike only looked slightly flustered. Obviously he knew he messed up.

-*-*-*-

Juliet pulled over at the fence that marked the territory between Dharma and the Hostiles. She had parked right beside the other van and laughed when she noticed it was Miles looking more then a little flustered with the broken down van.

"This isn't funny. I'm supposed to be on patrol," Miles stated, slightly annoyed.

Juliet smirked and threw him the keys to her van. "Just let me get my equipment and you can go finish your patrol."

Miles rolled his eyes. "Yeah. Thanks."

Juliet helped Mike pull out some of the equipment and went over to the other van with it as she watched Miles pull away with the van. She popped the hood of the 'hippie bus' as Sawyer had deemed it when they were alone, and smiled a little at Mike. "Don't worry, no one's mad you messed up. I did that a lot at first."

"Really?"

"Yes," Juliet admitted with a shrug. "It happens."

Mike smiled and glanced under the hood with her.

Juliet frowned and glanced it it before getting down on the ground and glancing under the van. "Well.. that's weird."

"What is?" Mike questioned.

Juliet said nothing at first as she reached her gloved hand out to the leak and let it drip onto her finger before she pulled it back and took a whiff. There was only a vague smell of oil, and it hardly looked like oil. "Where it should be leaking oil, its leaking watered down oil.." she stated in confusion. How did someone screw that up? The fact was, she was almost positive no one could be stupid enough to put water in with the oil. "Did you put water in with the oil?"

She frowned, realizing he wasn't answering her. "Mike?" she quesioned, crawling out from under the van, she glanced up only to see Mike and multiple other Hostiles standing above her. Mike was a hostile.

"Hello there."

Juliet glanced at the man that had spoken, she honestly had no idea who he was, but she knew he was obviously an Other. "What the hell is going on?"

Widmore smiled and pulled the woman up by her hair. "I have a question for you."

Juliet flinched as he pulled her up roughly by her hair. She stared at him in slight annoyance, and a fear she hadn't felt for a while now.

"That scar on your back."

Juliet frowned.

"Who gave it to you?" Widmore questioned.

Juliet remained silent. When had they seen her scar? It took her a moment to realize Mike had seen it a few days before, when he had spilt oil all over her and she'd been forced to put on a spare jumpsuit in front of him. Her lower back had probably showed if her t-shirt had lifted up.

Widmore just rolled his eyes, slightly annoyed with her now. He gripped his hand around her neck and squeezed. "I want you to tell me now, how you got that, because you've never been one of us."

Juliet groaned as he spun her around and shoved her against the Dharma Van.

He had now unzipped the Dharma jumpsuit and pulled it down enough to lift up her t-shirt and look at the scar. "That's our mark," he told her. "I demand to know how you got this."

Once again Juliet said nothing in return. Even if she answered him, he would never believe her. He'd likely just get even more pissed off then he was now just looking at it.

"It's the mark of a killer, but one who is spared from death, instead marked for the crime," Widmore stated, wrenching her arm back behind her.

Juliet bit down on her lip as the all familiar pain began to shoot through her shoulder.

"HEY!"

Juliet had to feel relieved at the voice. It was Sawyer's voice. And quite a few guns with his.

Widmore rolled his eyes and pulled Juliet up, using her as a shield as he walked toward the fence.

"This is a violation of our truce," Horace stated, stepping forward. "Let her go."

Widmore just smirked. "Sure. I'll let her go."

Sawyer, along with the rest of the security men simply eyed him with uncertainty.

Widmore simply walked through the fence.

Juliet felt the pain hit her head almost immediately as she screamed out, her hands going to her head as she let her drop to the ground between the fence.

"Son of a bitch!" Sawyer yelled out, running to her and pulling her back to their side and into his arms. He looked up at Widmore who was just smiling.

Horace watched LaFleur stand up with Juliet in his arms. He already felt partially responsible for having asked her to go and fix the van in the first place. Now he felt worse as she looked at the now unconscious blonde. "I'm sorry Jim, I had no idea this would happen.."

Sawyer glanced at Horace. He already knew this wasn't Horace's fault, but he still couldn't help but be pissed. As soon as he saw The Others show up on the monitor, he and Phil had called most of the security and Horace to head out there. The thing was, he couldn't understand why he had been so damn worried about her. He'd never worried about any woman like that before until that moment, and nothing had even happened yet.

Horace sighed as he watched LaFleur head to Miles' van who had just pulled up, and jumped into the front seat, still holding onto Juliet. When would LaFluer realize he had a crush on the Juliet? He figured it would only be a matter of time.

()END FB()

Juliet sighed and shook her head. She watched as Sawyer suddenly walked out from the brush to the side from her.

"Hey, how come ya didn't answer?" he questioned as he stepped up to her.

Juliet had a blank stare. "I'm sorry?"

Sawyer frowned. "When I called out your name," he stated. "You okay?"

Juliet nodded her head towards one of The Others watching her.

Sawyer looked over at him. "Nothin' better to do?" he shouted to him, and watched him simply walk away.

Juliet smiled a little.

Sawyer grinned, noticing she had no shirt on. "Takin' a dip?"

"That was the plan," she admitted with a shrug.

Sawyer smirked, pulling his shirt and pants off.

Juliet grinned, shaking her head slightly in amusement. She eyed him curiously when she saw the devious look in his eyes. "Don't look at me like that."

"Like what?" Sawyer asked innocently.

"That look," she said, motioning to his face. "You always get this mischievious little gleam when you're going to do something," she explained. "What are you plotting?"

Sawyer just shrugged. "Well.. I wasn't gonna, but now that you said something," he stated, right before picking her up in his arms.

Juliet laughed a little, but she let out a screech when he threw her over the side into the water below, and she land with a huge splash.

Sawyer grinned down at her and dove in after coming to the surface beside her.

"You ass," she said with a laugh, splashing him in the face with the water.

Sawyer laughed and pulled her over to him. "Well, I just wanted to get you in there faster," he told her. "You looked a little reluctant to jump in yourself."

Juliet smirked as she wrapped her arms around his neck. "So you thought throwing me in would be better?"

"Yep," Sawyer admitted with a grin.

Juliet rolled her eyes and grinned back before putting her hands on top of his head and dunking him under the water.

()()()

Richard Alpert watched the two for a moment. It was hard to ignore the fact that the woman bore the mark of a murderer of one of their own, but from what he had seen of her, she wouldn't have done it without a good reason. And obviously whoever had set her to be marked had decided that same as well. This woman, Juliet, hadn't deserved to die for what she had done. Which meant whoever she killed, obviously was dead for a reason.

He sighed, shaking his head. He already knew now that she was also from the 'future' along with the other man, James.

"What do we do about her?" Widmore asked, walking up beside him.

Richard glanced at Widmore. "We ask him."

Widmore frowned. "Is that a good idea? Maybe we should just deal with her on our own."

"He won't like it if we make this decision on our own," Richard explained cautiously. "We ask."

Widmore nodded. "Alright. Next time he calls, we ask."

Richard nodded as well. He hated to know what Jacob would say. But he knew it was only a matter of time.

()()END()()

Okay. There's the end of chapter 3! Not quite as long as the others, but the question now is. What will Jacob say about Juliet? Uh-oh.