Author's Note: This story will be pretty much.. back and forth. One chapter will mostly concentrate on Juliet, while the next one will most likely concentrate on Sawyer. At least until a little later on.
Again, my apologies for this being so long. I spent quite a while in the hospital due to an accident. I've been home for a few weeks now, but only a few days ago did I get back into writing.
For GencoOliveOil. Thank you for getting my back on track.
All Over Again: Day one, Juliet
Juliet eyed Ben when he told her he needed her to come with him. She sighed, and nodded. And felt a strange sensation come over her.
Rachel and her son playing on a playground on a monitor. Ben took her to Mikhail.
She shook her head and frowned, then stopped walking. "Where are we going Ben?" she asked suddenly.
Ben looked at her and tilted his head. "Yesterday you called me a liar, Juliet.." he told her. "I.."
"You're taking me to see Mikhail.."
Ben stared at her, suddenly confused, although he hid it well. "Are you alright, Juliet?" he questioned. "You look pale.."
Juliet frowned, the dream coming back to her that she woke up from this morning. She dropped the copy of Carrie that she had in her arms and put her hand to her head, trying to shake it off.
"Don't you leave me!"
Juliet felt dizzy now, and she took a couple breaths as Ben helped her sit down in the grass.
"Juliet?" Ben questioned carefully, ignoring the looks of people coming towards them.
"JULIET!! JULIET NO!"
Juliet sucked in a breath, trying to shake it all off.. trying to get the dream out of her head again. But instead she just felt stuck within it, as though it were really happening, or had really happened. "I'm fine.." she muttered.
Ben studied her, unsure.
Juliet was trying to clear her mind of it still. She wasn't seeing Ben, the barracks, and though she knew she was really looking up at Ben, all she could see was a man she didn't recognize, a man about to let himself die with her.. "No..." she whispered.
Ben arched an eyebrow up at her in response.
"She talking to herself?" Tom asked in confusion. "Maybe you shoulda' let her go home. I think Julie's losing her marbles.."
Ben glared at him. Perhaps that was what she was trying to to. Force him into sending her home. He shook his head grabbing her hand. "I'm not letting you go, Juliet.."
Harper came over now, as Tom asked her to and she stared at the woman she wasn't at all fond of. But there was something in Juliet's eyes the showed her, whatever was going on, whatever she was seeing, was real. She thought it was really happening.
Ben glanced at Harper. "Is she faking this?"
Harper shook her head, kneeling down in front of her. "No.." she stated carefully. "No.. whatever she thinks she sees.. she thinks its really happening.. maybe its something that has happened. I won't know until its over and I can talk to her.."
"When will that happen?" Ben questioned now, suddenly very cautious about what was going on.
Harper sighed. "It could be over in a minute.. or.. a day. I can't tell you for certain."
Ben frowned, but even more so as Juliet let out a screech of pain that was so horrifying he nearly jumped back. And when he glanced at her hands, they were bleeding. "What the.."
Everyone froze and stared at Juliet now. She appeared to simply be looking straight through all of them, as if none of them existed.
"Where is Richard?!" Ben called out immediately.
"Right here," Richard answered, coming towards them. He frowned, staring at Juliet. He couldn't say he forgot her, that what happened to her was simply erased from his mind because it wasn't. He remembered it all clearly. By all accounts, if Jacob hadn't explained this to him, it never would have made sense to him.
Ben eyed him. "What's happening to her Richard?" he questioned the man immediately.
Richard sighed, studying Juliet with curiosity that he did.. and in a sense, did not have. There were some things Ben did and did not need to know. He supposed vaguely explaining this would be the only appropriate thing to do at the moment though. "She's dying," he stated.
Ben, Harper and Tom all shot him looks of disbelief.
Richard sighed. "Not really dying," he told them all. "But she thinks she is.."
"What in the world would make her think she was dying?" Ben questioned, noticing Juliet let go of his arm with one of hers, and she was painfully clenching her waist with it.
"It's okay.." she whispered suddenly.
Ben stared at her in confusion. She was looking past him, so he glanced back but saw nobody. Who did she think she was talking to? "Yes Juliet, it's all okay."
Richard frowned. He thought they had all died during the explosion of the hydrogen bomb.. but apparently he was wrong. Apparently.. it brought them back to, in Jacob's words.. the beginning. "She thinks that.. Ben," he told him. "Because it already happened. She's not telling you she's okay, she's telling you it's okay to let her go.. to drop her."
Ben stared at him incredulously. "Drop her?!"
Richard hoped Juliet didn't continue outwardly expressing the memory of her death. If she did, Ben wasn't going to be happy about what she would say next. He would have to snap her out of it before she spoke too much. "Juliet," he stated loudly.
Nothing. Only tears.
"Juliet, snap out of it," he told her, before smacking her lightly across the face.
Juliet froze, coughed, and spit blood onto the ground in front of them before she wrenched her hand away from Ben's to stare at the bleeding.
"My God.." Harper stated, staring at the look of shock on Juliet's face, then down at her hands covered in blood.
Juliet ignored everyone, before lifting her shirt slightly and looking down at the chain marks around her waist. Her breath hitched and she dropped her shirt, it was the same as this morning.. only she had no idea what the hell had even just happened.
Harper and Tom looked slightly horrified at the ghastly marks.
Ben seemed to have virtually no reaction to it.
Richard took her hand in his and helped her to her feet. "Relax, Juliet.." he told her. "It'll all go away in a moment.."
Juliet stared at Richard with uncertainty.
"Take a deep breath, close yours eyes and relax, Juliet.." he told her carefully.
Juliet listened. She closed her eyes, evened out her breathing and let it all fade.
"What we had, it was just for a little while. And just because we love each other doesn't mean that we're meant to be together.. in fact, maybe we were never supposed to be together.."
Juliet's eyes shot open and she looked around to see everything was gone. She frowned. No blood, no wounds.. nothing. That was her own voice she'd just heard, preaching her mother's words to somebody. But she hated her mother for telling her those words as a child, she swore to never repeat them. Why in the world what she ever do it?
She was beginning to believe she was losing her mind now. She was beginning to fear this island was finally driving her to the brink of insanity. And suddenly when she closed her eyes, took another breath, everything faded.
"Juliet?" Tom questioned, staring at her with uncertainty.
Juliet opened her eyes and glanced around at everyone with slight confusion. "What are all of you staring at?" she asked curiously, watching as their faces were mixed with something between shock and confusion.
Richard hesitated for a moment. When Jacob explained Juliet would vividly recount the memories of her death, he excluded to mention she would forget them not soon afterwards. "You have no idea what just happened?" he asked her.
Juliet thought back. "A plane crashed?" she asked, the confusion evident.
All four, Ben, Richard, Tom and Harper all shared a glance between each other.
"What am I missing?" she asked out of frustration.
Richard simply shook his head at them all.
"Nothing," Ben answered at Richard's shake of the head. "I need you to come with me Juliet, there's something I need to show you."
Juliet eyed him curiously. "Where are we going?" she asked him. She glanced down at her book on the ground and leaned over, picking it up.
Ben could only be frustrated. Had she forgotten already? She had known before that they were going to see Mikhail.
"Ben.." Harper stated. "I think it would be best if I talked with Juliet first.."
Ben eyed her angrily. "Not now," he warned her. "Come with me, Juliet."
Juliet's eyebrows arched in response, but she said nothing to him. She simply followed him as he began walking.
~*~*~*~
Never fear. This story will be up-to-date with updates from now on. Expect the next chapter within the next day or two.