Two years ago:
"You don't want to do this, Juliet."
Edmund leaned to his right so he could see around Rachel into her living room, where Juliet sat quietly.
"Yes, she does." Rachel told him in an icy tone, leaning left to once again block his view.
Juliet remained silent, wondering if she was strong enough to follow through this time.
"I'm talking to my wife." Edmund said, turning an angry gaze toward Rachel. "I'd appreciate it if you acknowledge your insignificant role here and get out of my way."
"You do not control her anymore." Rachel cut in before he could address Juliet again. "And you have never been able to control me so I would appreciate it if you kept your fucking mouth shut and listened for once in your life."
He'd driven right over after the phone call from Juliet, the one that Rachel had clearly coached her through. I want a divorce, she'd said. Plain and simple. Edmund felt no fear or remorse; his only concern was his reputation and how it would suffer if this became public knowledge at the hospital. The thought that Juliet would truly go through with it hadn't crossed his mind.
"Is this about Crystal and Heather?" he called over Rachel's shoulder. He couldn't see Juliet, but he knew she was listening to every word. "I've broken things off with both of them, Jules. I promise."
Rachel's incredulous laugh cut through his words.
"Could you be more of a gaping asshole?" Rachel asked, angry enough for herself and Juliet combined.
"Is it about the announcement?" Edmund guessed, grasping for whatever Juliet needed to hear. The way Rachel looked at him then confirmed his hunch.
"I didn't steal from you, Juliet. I simply grew your idea into something that was actually usable. That's why you married me, isn't it? So I could bring those genius ideas into the spotlight? This can be our success, Jules. A good wife supports her husband and celebrates his victories."
"And a bad husband should get AIDS and die." said Rachel. "But life isn't always fair."
"I'm not going to tell you again-" Edmund began to warn Rachel in his most threatening tone.
"Neither am I." said Rachel, unflinching.
"Jules." Edmund called insistently.
"Don't call me that." Juliet whispered. If he heard her at all, he didn't acknowledge it.
"Come home." he said, issuing another order. "We'll talk this out, just like last time. You don't have to hide behind your sister. She is filling your head with lies. She never liked me, you know that. She'll do anything to come between us."
Thank god. thought Juliet. She looked up at Rachel, and found her sister looking back, asking for permission to send Edmund on his way.
"Shut the door." said Juliet.
"Get off my stoop." Rachel said to Edmund as she shut the door in his face.
Present day:
Juliet's eyes were pressed against a microscope when she felt her phone vibrate in her lab coat pocket. She waited, patiently observing, until she had data to record. After jotting down a few notes, she lifted her head and checked her messages.
Got this in the mail. Want me to open it? said Rachel's text. The attached photo showed an envelope. The return address belonged to Edmund's lawyer.
"Hm." Juliet made a soft sound, more curious than upset. The letters from that law firm had always filled her with dread and anger. She realized now that she hadn't thought about Edmund in quite a while.
Go ahead. Juliet typed back. She placed her phone back in her pocket, content to work while Rachel opened the latest meaningless correspondence. She was annoyed when her phone rang a minute later.
"Rachel, I'll read it later-" Juliet said instead of hello.
"Congratulations," Rachel cut in. "You're divorced."
It took Juliet a few moments to process.
"...What?"
"He signed the papers." Rachel explained. "Finally, the little shit."
"Is there anything else with the settlement?" Juliet asked, not willing to believe it would be so simple in the end. She could hear Rachel flipping the pages, double checking the contents of the packet.
"Just a cover letter, from the lawyer. Nothing from him."
"No, I guess there wouldn't be." Juliet admitted lightly, still distracted.
Somewhere along the way, she'd stopped imagining how it would happen. The fantasies of seeing his face when he finally admitted defeat had faded long ago. Now it was just a signature, the formality completed. Now he'd just be this thing in her past that she could forget about.
Juliet finished her work for the day, gave her notes to her assistant and went back to her office to retrieve her things. As she reached for the light switch, she looked over her desk one more time to make sure she wasn't leaving anything important behind. She happened to glance at the name plate perched on the edge of her desk. The surname suddenly seemed like a glaring mistake.
"Why are you keeping his name?" Rachel asked, her tone full of disdain.
"It's on every certificate I have." Juliet said defensively.
"So what?!"
"I can't just give it up. My whole reputation is built on it."
"I know you feel like you owe him something-"
"I owe him a lot."
"Not as much as you think, Jules."
"He put me through medical school."
"He put you through hell! And he still has you brainwashed."
Juliet looked at her sister, her cheeks burning red. There was still a part of her that hoped. She still needed him, or at least his approval...
"Oh my god," Rachel said, shocked by the realization. "You want to take him back? Is that why you're keeping his name?"
"No, I..." Juliet's voice cracked and she bowed her head, ashamed of herself and of the tears that sprang to her eyes.
"Juliet!" Rachel said, pleading with her sister to see the reality of the situation. She hated seeing her sister abused, and even worse abusing herself.
Juliet burst into tears, hating herself.
"What can I say to convince you?" Rachel asked, on her knees in front of her sister, trying to make Juliet look her in the eye. "He doesn't deserve you."
Juliet shook her head. "I don't know who I am without him." she confessed, sobbing. It was a relief to finally admit it, but it didn't make the pain and uncertainty go away. She still felt like half a person, questioning every decision that Edmund didn't make for her.
"I know who you are." Rachel told her, embracing Juliet so she could cry it out in a safe place. And if it took the rest of her life, Rachel knew she would convince Juliet of what she already knew.
Juliet took a deep breath and sighed as she picked up the name plate. She remembered the way it felt, and why she thought she needed to stay with him for so long. Those memories, the conversations with Edmund and Rachel she thought would never end, were growing more and more distant every day. There was no longer any doubt about who she was. She felt like a whole person now, a person that was lucky to have a sister that could be stronger than her when she needed it most, and a significant other that supported her even from thousands of miles away.
Juliet Burke, the name plate said. But she didn't feel like a Burke anymore.
Rhymes with jerk. she thought, chuckling to herself at one of Rachel's go-to zingers from back in the day. With name plate in hand, Juliet turned, switched off the lights and left the room.
"Richard? Do you have a minute?"
The director of research looked up from his desk and smiled when he saw Juliet standing in the doorway.
"Of course." he said. "Come on in."
Richard noticed the name plate she held, and looked at her with a curious expression.
"Something wrong with it?" he asked.
"It just needs an update. Something I should have done a long time ago. It's Juliet Carlson now."
"Staple me." Miles said, holding a freshly printed, twelve page report out over his desk.
"Use the big one on Jenkins' desk." James told him without looking up.
"Someone broke it."
"You mean you broke it."
"That distinction changes nothing about my current situation." Miles continued to hold the papers out.
"Where's your stapler?" James asked him, not giving in.
"Someone broke it."
"Straume, you gotta quit shoving things up your ass."
"If I was coughing up staples, I'd put this report in my mouth and chew. But I'm not. Now staple me."
James sighed harshly and picked up his tiny manual stapler. "Hold still." he told Miles. But he couldn't get the two halves around Miles's thick stack of paperwork.
"This happens to me all the time..." Miles muttered, moving the report around to make it more difficult on purpose.
"What the fuck am I supposed to do with this thing?" James said of the tiny plastic tool, as if he was seeing his shitty mini-stapler for the first time. He gave up on Miles, tossed the stapler in the garbage can and went back to what he was doing.
"No help." Miles said, shaking his head as he stood up.
"Help. Yourself." James said slowly, glaring as Miles walked toward Jenkins' desk. With a perfect click, Miles' pages were fastened in an instant, making the entire exchange even more frustrating.
"Why so cranky, Gramps?" Miles asked as he sat back down. "Your girlfriend's only on the other side of the nation, it's not like you'd be frustrated."
"Yeah, well at least my clearance rate is up." said James, countering Miles' attack with some good news for a change.
"If that's a euphemism for masturbation, I'm not biting."
"That's cause I knocked your teeth out for talkin' about Juliet."
James got a text, and Miles kept talking. Tuning out the sounds of sarcasm, James reached for his phone and looked at the photo Juliet sent over.
Look at me, all divorced and no one to celebrate with. That was the caption under the photo of Juliet's divorce papers.
He hadn't realized how much her marital status bothered him until he felt the relief of seeing that photo and her flippant comment about it. He knew she had to be ecstatic over it herself. It was something that deserved celebrating, and he wanted to be the one to be there with her and pop every champagne bottle on the peninsula.
"Ford." said Miles, having realized he was being completely ignored.
James looked up.
"What's that?" Miles asked, gesturing toward James' phone. "What could possibly be more important than what I'm saying?"
It took James a moment to process the decision he'd just made. He looked blankly at Miles until the words came to him.
"I'm moving to Miami." said James, sounding as surprised as Miles looked. "Wanna come with?"