Hutton's Paradox
Hutton’s Paradox
Word count: 1,163
Rating: R
Timeline: Season 3
Characters: Juliet Burke, Jack Shephard
Warning: Sexual imagery; spoilers up to 3.07, “Not In Portland”
Disclaimer: This is a fictional, nonprofit work for entertainment purpose only. The copyright in the TV show LOST and its components is owned by "American Broadcast Companies, Inc.", which reserves all rights therein.
I.
The first night she sees him, they are on a deserted Miami boulevard; she has a white coat on and he wears a black suit, though his five o’clock shadow remains the same.
“Smoke?”, he offers with a smile.
“You don’t smoke, Jack.”
“Not everything is on your files”, and to prove his point he lights a cigarette and puffs with expertise.
She nods. “So you are a repo man.”
He laughs; she can only guess he hasn’t had such a laugh in a long time. “Yep, came to take your sanity with me.” He takes a long drag from the cigarette while making his way to the empty street. “This isn’t real, Juliet.”
She knows he’s right (she knows what happens now) but even then she has to ask, “how do you know?”
“Because that’s how your dreams always end.”
Then comes the bus and once again she’s not ready for it.
II.
The second night he’s there again, but somewhere in the middle of it all he has become a shark with hazel eyes.
“Everything’s going to change, Juliet”, he whispers through porcelain-shard teeth.
She looks at him through the glass wall and pulls at the greenish metal chains around her wrists. The water is rising, reaching her waist; her drenched clothes cling to her body. “You need to press the yellow button”, she tells him.
“Everything changes”, and somehow she knows he’s smiling a shark smile inside the Miami-street aquarium.
“The yellow button, Jack, please”, she insists, the water by her chin, but the bus is already there, leaving only a trail of bubbles behind.
III.
On the third night Colleen died. She mourned; there were no dreams.
IV.
On the fourth night Miami has somehow been transported into the island, or perhaps the cul-de-sac on the main island has been been transported into Miami; in dreams one can never be completely sure. She knows she’s trying to go home and that was why she took the bus (the same line she used to take to go to the Miami Central research labs before she got to know Edmund, before she had a car) and then somehow she ends up at the driver’s seat with Jack by her side saying “if you try to stop it, every single one of us is dead”, so she steps hard and deep on the gas pedal, resisting the urge to close her eyes; it’s just like that movie with Keanu Reeves except she’s no Sandra Bullock and she’s not completely sure that this Jack doesn’t want it all to blow to pieces. And then she runs over Ben and doesn’t even notice it until she wakes up.
V.
On the fifth night the December weather is at its prime. She goes to his cell unguarded and unarmed, touches his chest while he glares at her with feral brown eyes, almost black under the darkness of the aquarium.
“I’m a bad person, Jack”, she whispers while he works his hands into her shirt and up her back. He chuckles, as if it didn’t matter to him whether she’s good or bad as long as she’s fuckable. Her clothes are simply not there anymore when he throws her over the table and sucks her breasts, and she laughs to herself imagining what Ed will think when he knows about it. When she rolls over Jack and sits on him, feeling him hard and deep inside, she sees Ed sneering on the other side of the glass wall.
“Well well, Julie, you never brought me soup.”
Then the bus.
VI.
She thought she wouldn’t be able to sleep on the sixth night, much less dream. In the dreamworld, however, time flows on a different beat, in a way that you might be able to see your whole life during an hour-long nap.
It starts in a morgue, which in a way is also the Hydra Operation Room. She’s sorting Ben’s X-Rays in the way that seems neater, starting with the ones with clearer images. Ben is by her side, lying on his back on a stretcher. He’s naked and he looks dead. He looks like Edmund did.
While Jack puts on his surgical gloves and mask, Ben turns to her and says “give up, Juliet.”
Jack looks at her and shakes his head. “I can’t help you with him talking.”
“Shut up, Ben.” She takes a blood sample off his arm, or perhaps she actually injects something on him.
He keeps staring at her, a small smirk in his chapped lips. “You’re not a leader, Jules. You can’t do this.”
“Don’t tell me what I can’t do”, she tells him, and Ben goes back to his anaesthetized-deadlike state. She then proceeds to move his stretcher through a door that opens directly to a wide sidewalk. Jack helps her, though he doesn’t know exactly why he’s following her directions.
“How are we going to leave after the operation?”
“That will be easy”, she answers him, “once the bus comes it will stop on the next corner, then we get on it and we get out just three blocks away from my place. From there you can take the subway to LA, it’s a special line with a red symbol, you can’t miss it.”
“Ford and Austen have to get out of this island”, he shouts suddenly and points his scalpel at her.
She goes back to the building they had just left, knowing it’s connected to the beach through a net of underground corridors. On the way she sees Rachel. She’s fifteen and her hair has those shiny waves Juliet has always envied when she was a young girl. Rachel’s crying. “You have to hurry up before he wakes up”, she whispers, but somehow Juliet understands it as “before you wake up”. She keeps pacing forward.
When she arrives on the beach, Pickett is already dead, blood oozing from the neat three holes on his chest.
“You’re not a killer”, Austen manages to say between sobs. “Hurry, hurry, he’ll kill Jack, he’ll kill you. He said I won’t see him again, so hurry.” Then she throws her walkie-talkie at Juliet, who promptly turns it on.
“Hello, Jack.” She’s by his side again. “You need to pass the yellow button.”
“No. I cut his kidney. I’m gonna kill him.” She thinks he said “I’m gonna kill you”, but it doesn’t bother her much. She starts to push Ben’s stretcher to the street.
“Forget it, Jack, it’s not gonna work.”
He looks angered. She feels nervous. “But you told me to do it. She told me to do it.” He’s telling it to everyone in the cul-de-sac turned into Miami street. “She told me to do it.” Rachel is there with a baby in her arms. She’s crying.
Then Ben is on his feet. “We are the causes of our own suffering, Juliet. Thank you, namaste, and good luck.”
She sees the brightness of the bus headlights coming in her direction. She doesn’t scream.
Word count: 1,163
Rating: R
Timeline: Season 3
Characters: Juliet Burke, Jack Shephard
Warning: Sexual imagery; spoilers up to 3.07, “Not In Portland”
Disclaimer: This is a fictional, nonprofit work for entertainment purpose only. The copyright in the TV show LOST and its components is owned by "American Broadcast Companies, Inc.", which reserves all rights therein.
I.
The first night she sees him, they are on a deserted Miami boulevard; she has a white coat on and he wears a black suit, though his five o’clock shadow remains the same.
“Smoke?”, he offers with a smile.
“You don’t smoke, Jack.”
“Not everything is on your files”, and to prove his point he lights a cigarette and puffs with expertise.
She nods. “So you are a repo man.”
He laughs; she can only guess he hasn’t had such a laugh in a long time. “Yep, came to take your sanity with me.” He takes a long drag from the cigarette while making his way to the empty street. “This isn’t real, Juliet.”
She knows he’s right (she knows what happens now) but even then she has to ask, “how do you know?”
“Because that’s how your dreams always end.”
Then comes the bus and once again she’s not ready for it.
II.
The second night he’s there again, but somewhere in the middle of it all he has become a shark with hazel eyes.
“Everything’s going to change, Juliet”, he whispers through porcelain-shard teeth.
She looks at him through the glass wall and pulls at the greenish metal chains around her wrists. The water is rising, reaching her waist; her drenched clothes cling to her body. “You need to press the yellow button”, she tells him.
“Everything changes”, and somehow she knows he’s smiling a shark smile inside the Miami-street aquarium.
“The yellow button, Jack, please”, she insists, the water by her chin, but the bus is already there, leaving only a trail of bubbles behind.
III.
On the third night Colleen died. She mourned; there were no dreams.
IV.
On the fourth night Miami has somehow been transported into the island, or perhaps the cul-de-sac on the main island has been been transported into Miami; in dreams one can never be completely sure. She knows she’s trying to go home and that was why she took the bus (the same line she used to take to go to the Miami Central research labs before she got to know Edmund, before she had a car) and then somehow she ends up at the driver’s seat with Jack by her side saying “if you try to stop it, every single one of us is dead”, so she steps hard and deep on the gas pedal, resisting the urge to close her eyes; it’s just like that movie with Keanu Reeves except she’s no Sandra Bullock and she’s not completely sure that this Jack doesn’t want it all to blow to pieces. And then she runs over Ben and doesn’t even notice it until she wakes up.
V.
On the fifth night the December weather is at its prime. She goes to his cell unguarded and unarmed, touches his chest while he glares at her with feral brown eyes, almost black under the darkness of the aquarium.
“I’m a bad person, Jack”, she whispers while he works his hands into her shirt and up her back. He chuckles, as if it didn’t matter to him whether she’s good or bad as long as she’s fuckable. Her clothes are simply not there anymore when he throws her over the table and sucks her breasts, and she laughs to herself imagining what Ed will think when he knows about it. When she rolls over Jack and sits on him, feeling him hard and deep inside, she sees Ed sneering on the other side of the glass wall.
“Well well, Julie, you never brought me soup.”
Then the bus.
VI.
She thought she wouldn’t be able to sleep on the sixth night, much less dream. In the dreamworld, however, time flows on a different beat, in a way that you might be able to see your whole life during an hour-long nap.
It starts in a morgue, which in a way is also the Hydra Operation Room. She’s sorting Ben’s X-Rays in the way that seems neater, starting with the ones with clearer images. Ben is by her side, lying on his back on a stretcher. He’s naked and he looks dead. He looks like Edmund did.
While Jack puts on his surgical gloves and mask, Ben turns to her and says “give up, Juliet.”
Jack looks at her and shakes his head. “I can’t help you with him talking.”
“Shut up, Ben.” She takes a blood sample off his arm, or perhaps she actually injects something on him.
He keeps staring at her, a small smirk in his chapped lips. “You’re not a leader, Jules. You can’t do this.”
“Don’t tell me what I can’t do”, she tells him, and Ben goes back to his anaesthetized-deadlike state. She then proceeds to move his stretcher through a door that opens directly to a wide sidewalk. Jack helps her, though he doesn’t know exactly why he’s following her directions.
“How are we going to leave after the operation?”
“That will be easy”, she answers him, “once the bus comes it will stop on the next corner, then we get on it and we get out just three blocks away from my place. From there you can take the subway to LA, it’s a special line with a red symbol, you can’t miss it.”
“Ford and Austen have to get out of this island”, he shouts suddenly and points his scalpel at her.
She goes back to the building they had just left, knowing it’s connected to the beach through a net of underground corridors. On the way she sees Rachel. She’s fifteen and her hair has those shiny waves Juliet has always envied when she was a young girl. Rachel’s crying. “You have to hurry up before he wakes up”, she whispers, but somehow Juliet understands it as “before you wake up”. She keeps pacing forward.
When she arrives on the beach, Pickett is already dead, blood oozing from the neat three holes on his chest.
“You’re not a killer”, Austen manages to say between sobs. “Hurry, hurry, he’ll kill Jack, he’ll kill you. He said I won’t see him again, so hurry.” Then she throws her walkie-talkie at Juliet, who promptly turns it on.
“Hello, Jack.” She’s by his side again. “You need to pass the yellow button.”
“No. I cut his kidney. I’m gonna kill him.” She thinks he said “I’m gonna kill you”, but it doesn’t bother her much. She starts to push Ben’s stretcher to the street.
“Forget it, Jack, it’s not gonna work.”
He looks angered. She feels nervous. “But you told me to do it. She told me to do it.” He’s telling it to everyone in the cul-de-sac turned into Miami street. “She told me to do it.” Rachel is there with a baby in her arms. She’s crying.
Then Ben is on his feet. “We are the causes of our own suffering, Juliet. Thank you, namaste, and good luck.”
She sees the brightness of the bus headlights coming in her direction. She doesn’t scream.