Author's Note: So.. if you're sitting there, reading this author's note and thinking 'GOOD GOD HOLMES! It hasn't even been 24 hours!!' then you can have a cookie. And maybe a glass of milk. And then you can read this next chapter.

My plot bunny is defectively shooting out stories.. and he has no shame!

All Over Again: Two Weeks, Sawyer (With minor Kate/Jack scene from the previous chapter)

Such pain as this,

Shouldn't have to be experienced,

I'm still reeling from the loss,

Still a little bit delirious.

(Near To You by A Fine Frenzy)

"Jack.." Kate shot out quietly towards him as they stopped behind another grouping of bushes. "We can't just leave her hanging there, we need to get her down.."

Jack nodded. "I know.. what the hell do we say to her though?" he questioned in return. "Hey we know you, but you don't know us, still.. we're going to cut you down even though you'll try to capture us later?"

Kate narrowed her eyes. "Sarcasm doesn't suite you.." she stated. "Let's just go.." she muttered, getting ready to stand when they both heard another voice.

"Juliet!"

Kate and Jack both stared at each other in surprise. "Ethan.." they both whispered at once.

"Jack.. it's getting close to the point where he kidnapped Claire.." Kate warned him, watching as Ethan caught Juliet after she cut herself loose just a minute later.

Jack closed his eyes and nodded. "It's tomorrow night that he screws up.." he replied quietly.

Kate frowned. How did he remember that so clearly? "We have to tell Sawyer about Juliet.." she finally stated as they watched Ethan and Juliet. She flinched when she heard Juliet's cry of pain as her shoulder was popped back into place. She remembered that cry more then she would have liked. "It doesn't matter if she doesn't remember, Jack.."

Jack nearly winced himself at Juliet's screech. It was mind-blowing to say the least because in all the time he knew her, he'd never really known her to show pain in such a way. Sure.. he'd seen her in tears when she'd come out of the tempest, when she'd told him about Ben thinking she was 'his'. But that was nothing compared to the cry of pain. "She's one of us.." he answered mechanically.

"Exactly.." Kate said with a defeated sigh. "Do you think there's a way to make the people who forgot, remember?" she questioned as Jack led her away and back towards the beach.

"I don't know.." Jack answered honestly.

Kate nodded her head. "If not.. do you think she'll love him again?"

Jack was silent in response. And suddenly he stopped, his feet glued to his place on the ground and his eyes widened in shock.

"What is it?" Kate asked immediately. "What's wrong?"

Jack couldn't believe he hadn't remembered before now. "It's Juliet.. she's.."

"She's what?" Kate dug, waiting for him to explain.

"She's seeing someone else.."

~*~*~*~

Sawyer sat with his back against a tree. Two weeks ago Kate had told him he needed to choose who he was going to be this time around. He needed to choose to be Sawyer or James. And when he'd told her Sawyer, she had barely spoken another word to him since. Neither did anyone else. But Juliet had wanted this, hadn't she? She had told him that if she never met him then she would never have to lose him.

Juliet didn't want to meet James. And she definitely didn't want to meet Sawyer. And truthfully it was taking all the self-control he could muster to remain on the beach and not go storming into the barracks and whisking Juliet away. He'd hurt her, broken her.. he had made her cry. And to top it all off.. he had killed her.

And he wished that he didn't want to remember her. He wished he wanted to forget.. but.. he didn't want to forget her. Because she had been one of the few people in his life to stay by his side for so long and never judge him for his past. She had never given up on him until he'd looked at Kate. Why did he do it? He'd brought her heartache and his own upon himself by doing so. He could hardly blame her for what she thought, because if it had been reversed and he'd seen her look at Jack after Rose and Bernard's speech about love..

He would have reacted worse.

"Are you alright?"

Sawyer glanced up and stared at the water bottle offered in front of his face. He was surprised to see Rose taking a seat next to him and he accepted the water bottle.

"Like I said the last time.." Rose mumbled. "It's always something with you people.. Jack has a bomb, and kablooey, we're all blown back to where we started.."

Sawyer looked over at her in shock. "If you remember, then why haven't you gone for Bernard?" he questioned.

"Because I don't know exactly where he is," Rose answered honestly. "But he knows exactly where I'll be. So if I just sit still.. I know he'll find me."

Sawyer nodded his head in appreciation of the plan.

"Now.. I'm curious, are you sulking because Kate's running around the jungle with the bomb blasting doctor, or for a different reason?" Rose asked him.

Sawyer frowned.

Rose nodded her head. "I thought so.." she stated. "This is about Juliet."

Sawyer found himself looking at Rose once again in surprise. "How did.."

"Because I saw her face when you guys were leaving to go to the barracks," Rose answered honestly. "There's no sugar-coating the sadness I saw in those eyes," she pointed out. "How long were you two together?"

Sawyer sighed. It was one thing to have heard the statement that he'd looked at Kate from Juliet. It was another to know that Rose had noticed how it made Juliet feel when he hadn't. "Year and a half.." he finally answered.

Rose smiled wistfully. "And you threw away a year and a half to look at someone you only knew a couple of months?"

Sawyer froze. "I didn't do it on purpose.." she stated with a sigh. "I didn't even realize I did it.."

Rose's eyes softened slightly. From the way he spoke, it seemed like the truth to her. "What happened after that?"

Sawyer leaned his head back against the tree and closed his eyes. "She.. decided to help Jack blow up the island.."

Rose was silent in response.

"So.. we helped Jack blow up the bomb," Sawyer stated.

Rose arched an eyebrow up at him in response.

Sawyer opened his eyes and stared at her questioning look. "After Jack threw that damned bomb down the hole.. it never blew up. It set off a crazed magnetic force.. pulled everything metal down the hatch."

Rose frowned. She didn't like the sound of how this was going.

"A chain.. got wrapped around her.." Sawyer stated, his voice breaking slightly. "Pulled her down into it.."

Rose pursed her lips. He couldn't possibly be telling her what she thought he was going to tell her.

"Me and Kate.. we tried to save her.. I had a grip on her hand, Kate was tryin' to reach and pull the chains off but she couldn't.. and.."

Rose felt her heart drop. Juliet had become one of them over a period of time, any person here on this beach would have agreed if they'd remembered. But so far as she could tell, the only people who had any memory of the events were Sawyer, Kate, Jack, Hurley, Sun, Jin, Jack.. and Sayid. And herself, and she assumed Bernard. Were these all just the people who had been alive during the blast of the bomb?

She wondered if the only reason all of them remembered would be because they had been alive.

"The damned scaffold was breaking," he muttered out. "The scaffold I was on to hold onto her.. and she saw it breaking.."

Rose felt her heart sink even deeper.

"She let go.." Sawyer finally managed to say out loud. "She let go.."

Rose looked at the utter defeat in his eyes and she could hear it in his voice as well.

"Even after everything fell in after her.. that god damned bomb never blew.." he told Rose. "Kate thinks.. that Juliet lived.. survived a damned 50foot drop at least.."

Rose felt grief at the thought of the poor blonde lying at the bottom of some pit. "Why did she think that?"

"Because the bomb was set to detonate on impact.." he stated quietly. "After all that it wasn't just gonna blow for no damned reason.."

Rose looked off towards the water now. "She blew it up.."

"She blew it up.." Sawyer repeated.

"Look around," Rose stated carefully. "Everyone who, I assume, was alive when that bomb went off, is sitting here with the old memories in tact."

Sawyer nodded.

"If she did blow up that bomb, then she'll remember you."

"If she remembered, she still wouldn't want to come back here to me," Sawyer stated. "She told me that just because we love each other doesn't me we're meant to be together, that maybe we were never supposed to be together.."

Rose felt her breath hitch in response.

"That if Jack could make it so that none of it ever happened.. then he should.." Sawyer forced out.

"Did you love her?" Rose asked him.

Sawyer stared at her as though she had two heads. "What the hell kinda question is that?"

Rose smiled sadly. "Answer it."

"No, I didn't love her," Sawyer answered after a minute.

Rose arched an eyebrow up.

"I loved Kate.. I was in love with Juliet.."

Rose felt the edges of her lips curl up into a smile. "Then you need to stop sulking here on this beach, because this is your second chance to make everything right with her," she told him with confidence. "Hardly anyone gets to say they get to start over and make things right.. and if she doesn't remember, it's not the end of the world. If you're in love with her.. you can find a way to prove it."

"SAWYER!!"

Sawyer jumped to his feet and watched as Jack and Kate came running towards him and Rose. "What the hell are you guys doin'?" he questioned.

"It's Juliet," Kate answered quickly. "We saw Juliet."

()()END()()

Was that mean? I think it might have been mean.. but the good news. I'm going to work on the next chapter too. So I bet I can shoot that chapter up before another 24hours passes.