Alternate Universe/Collected Short Fics II [Miles, Claire; Jack/Juliet; Kate/Sawyer] [PG-R]
Title: Alternate Universe/Collected Short Fics II (Holes, Scars, Physical, Masks)
Characters: Miles, Claire, Jack, Juliet, Kate, Sawyer
Pairings: Jack/Juliet, Kate/Sawyer
Rating: PG to R, as marked
Spoilers: up to season 5
Summary: Four AU scenarios that I wrote for the Lost Day Meme, slightly edited. 1. Miles and Claire meet in Australia; 2. Juliet gets off the island with Jack, Kate, and Sawyer, 3. Jack and Juliet get closer, 4. Kate and Sawyer have a heart-to-heart. I'm planning to write one more freighties short for valhalla37, which I will add here when I have a chance to write it. :)
~~
Holes (Miles, Claire) (PG)
“You do piercings here, right?” When she looks up from behind the counter, her gut reaction is to say no. She isn’t at all in the mood for customers right now-she shouldn’t even be working-and she’s not sure what there is left on this guy that hasn’t already been pierced. But she nods instead, rolling up her sleeves, pulling her long black hair into a ponytail.
“Where do you want it?”
“Eyebrow,” he points to the part of his face in question, and she thinks, Aha.
“You’ve got cash?” She asks because of his accent (Two Americans in one day, and one of them is her father-what are the odds?), then tilts her head toward the chair while she washes her hands. “We don’t take credit.”
“Yeah,” he sits down, “I’ve got cash.”
He’s quiet as she rubs the disinfectant against his skin, and she should like that, she thinks, but instead she finds herself talking to him like she's trying to start a conversation.
“You come all the way to Oz for a piercing?” she asks, setting the forceps on the table. She means it to be a casual question-all she wants is a little buzz in her head to keep the scene in the food court from replaying and replaying, but the guy beneath her hands surprises her when he tenses unexpectedly in response, almost flinches.
“Woah: Easy there,” she drops her hand to pat his shoulder, “I haven’t even gotten out the needle yet.” She’s seen reactions like this before, but never from somebody with so much metal in his face.
His eyes dart up at her for a brief moment as if he wants to roll them, but then he just sighs before leaning back in the chair.
“It’s not the piercing,” he mutters, “It’s just-I’m here in Australia because I was looking for my father.”
Now Claire’s the one who blanches, her hand trembling a little as she reaches for the forceps.
“Your father?” she repeats dumbly, clamping them over his eyebrow to stretch the skin.
“Yeah. I never met him, but I thought he might be living here. I had an address in Sydney-” he trails off, “I didn’t find him though.”
Wholly inappropriate as it would be, she almost laughs at the scenarios that pop into her brain all at once: telling this guy about her own father, offering him a sale or an exchange. He doesn’t know where his father is, and she doesn’t know her father’s name: it seems like a fair enough trade.
“What’s so funny?” he asks suddenly, mildly curious and mildly annoyed, and she realizes that while she may have suppressed the laugh, she hadn’t done as good a job of hiding her amusement as she’d meant to.
“Nothing,” she says, taking the needle in her other hand, positioning it carefully above the hair there, “It’s just-some of us would rather that our fathers were missing.” She narrows her eyes, focusing on pressing the needle carefully through.
“And by ‘some of us,’ I assume you mean you?” he asks acerbically, making liberal use of his eyebrow as soon as she lets it go, and she finally gets the effect he’s aiming for with the ring.
She just nods, feeling a bit awkward all of a sudden, unsure what she was expecting to get out of pursuing such a personal conversation.
“I-” he begins, serious again, “I guess I know what you’re saying-like, I’ve spent years trying to forget mine. He didn’t care about me, so why should I care about him? But then I think-I just want to see him. No matter what the truth is, if he’s the worst person in the world, I want to see him.” The guy shrugs, looking up at her, “Don’t you get that? Like you need to know, if only just to get that sense of-I don’t know, completion?”
She laughs, moving toward the cash resister, turning her back to him just long enough to stop the sudden tears in her eyes. When she recovers, she turns around again, looking down at her chipped black nail polish before pulling open the broken drawer.
“I need my father like I need a hole in my head,” she smiles a little, meeting his eyes, “Well, another one anyway.“
~~
Scars (Jack/Juliet, slight Sawyer/Kate) (PG)
The helicopter’s loud: it shatters the air above them like it’s a solid thing, and sets the whole cabin buzzing, her skull rattling. Her heart skips and jumps with every dip and sway. The view outside the windows is blinding, but somehow she can’t bring herself to look away.
She has a very difficult time figuring out how Jack can sleep through all of it, injuries notwithstanding, but here he is, slumped against her in almost the same position in which he was sitting when he was awake, except now his cheek is resting against her shoulder. When she realizes that he’s drooling on her, she has to bite her lip to keep from smiling.
As soon as he sees that Jack is sleeping, Sawyer smirks. Before he can even open his mouth, Kate crosses her arms, and even Juliet blushes a little in anticipation the remark he’s obviously about to make. But then Sawyer looks back and forth between them with a grin, clearly pleased at the reaction he’s already managed to provoke without speaking, and shrugs.
“Hell, I know this isn’t the most interesting part of the rescue operation, but you’d think the doc could’ve managed to stay awake for it.”
“He’s just had major surgery,” Juliet answers automatically, her air half explanatory and half protective, but the words serve to remind her at the same time of the reality of the situation: the bleeding is substantial, and they need to get Jack to a hospital as soon as they reach land. Without jostling him too much, Juliet reaches for the hem of his t-shirt, lifting it to reveal a blood-soaked bandage underneath.
“Not to mention all the stitches he pulled running around the island,” she adds, “I told him this is exactly what would happen-” She sounds grumbling, annoyed, but her heart squeezes shut a little at the same time, secretly belying the words even as she says them. She remembers vividly the swift streak of happiness she felt when he returned, clutching his abdomen and telling her about the helicopter between gasps as she slipped her arm around him for support.
“Holy hell, Dr. Lecter-some of us are still trying to keep our dinners down,” Sawyer looks toward Jack’s torso, aghast, and Juliet actually has trouble deciding how much of the nausea is genuine and how much of it is feigned. As soon as she is satisfied with the way that the adhesive is sticking against Jack’s skin, she drops the edge of his t-shirt, pulling it gently over his hip. Looking at his closed eyes, she has the strongest urge to stroke his cheek, but she refrains, straightening up as well as she can with his arm draped over her, sensing that she’s being watched.
She’s still somehow surprised when Kate catches her eye.
“It looks bad,” the other woman observes, her eyes flicking down toward the wound. She tries hard to sound impassive, but Juliet can hear the worry underneath: she can’t count the number of times she’s used such a tone herself.
“If we get him to the hospital in a couple of hours, they can get some antibiotics into him. He should be fine,” she answers, looking back at Kate, trying to sound calm, possessed, smiling just slightly to reassure her that everything’s going to be ok. “He’ll probably have a pretty horrendous scar, though.”
Kate nods silently in acknowledgement, resting her hands on her knees, as Sawyer crosses his arms and leans back against the wall.
“Won’t we all, Blondie?” he sighs, looking at Kate, “Won’t we all?”
~~
Physical (Jack/Juliet) (R)
“This isn’t-” Jack murmurs between heavy breaths, “I mean, you know I’m not just-”
“Using me for sex?” Juliet suggests, trying to sound deadpan, but then he hits a spot inside her that makes her voice go weak, and then she loses it completely, starting to giggle as she strokes a hand through his hair.
“Uh-yeah,” he flushes, lowering his forehead to touch hers, but she’s got him smiling too, his mouth turning up at the corners along with hers. She wants to keep the smile there for as long as she can, but she finds herself sobering suddenly, something giving inside her as she looks up into his eyes.
“I know, Jack,” she says gently as she moves on him, lifting herself up and then sliding all the way back down, listening to him sigh against her ear. She kisses his jaw, brushes her lips against his throat. “I know."
~~
Masks (Kate/Sawyer) (PG)
Kate slams her hand against the tree trunk, feeling her frustration rise, the inevitable argument brewing like a storm between them.
“I don’t know why you can’t admit that you have feelings,” she paces, “why every conversation that we have has to turn into-” She stops and then sighs in disgust. “Why can’t you just be-”
“What?” Sawyer looks up at her darkly, his hair falling over one eye, giving her that look that always reminds her of a wounded animal, half-fearsome, half-fearful. “More like Jack?”
Her heart slips on the name, falls down and down, because it’s a surprise, even though it shouldn’t be. When she looks up at him, it’s all around him, radiating from him like pain, shaping every uncertain line in his face. Instantly it brings everything, inside of her and out, to a halt. Even Sawyer seems to sense that something has changed, holding his breath in the stillness that follows.
She steps closer to him slowly, carefully, taking advantage of what she knows purely by experience: that if only for the next few seconds, she’s caught him, that he’s not going to move or leave or say something to hurt her unless she breaks the silence herself.
He lifts his eyes to hers, his face tight, so close to cracking that she almost thinks she’s beginning to see what’s underneath.
“No: not more like Jack,” she says quietly, reaching out gently to brush his hair away from his eyes, “More like yourself.”
~~
Characters: Miles, Claire, Jack, Juliet, Kate, Sawyer
Pairings: Jack/Juliet, Kate/Sawyer
Rating: PG to R, as marked
Spoilers: up to season 5
Summary: Four AU scenarios that I wrote for the Lost Day Meme, slightly edited. 1. Miles and Claire meet in Australia; 2. Juliet gets off the island with Jack, Kate, and Sawyer, 3. Jack and Juliet get closer, 4. Kate and Sawyer have a heart-to-heart. I'm planning to write one more freighties short for valhalla37, which I will add here when I have a chance to write it. :)
~~
Holes (Miles, Claire) (PG)
“You do piercings here, right?” When she looks up from behind the counter, her gut reaction is to say no. She isn’t at all in the mood for customers right now-she shouldn’t even be working-and she’s not sure what there is left on this guy that hasn’t already been pierced. But she nods instead, rolling up her sleeves, pulling her long black hair into a ponytail.
“Where do you want it?”
“Eyebrow,” he points to the part of his face in question, and she thinks, Aha.
“You’ve got cash?” She asks because of his accent (Two Americans in one day, and one of them is her father-what are the odds?), then tilts her head toward the chair while she washes her hands. “We don’t take credit.”
“Yeah,” he sits down, “I’ve got cash.”
He’s quiet as she rubs the disinfectant against his skin, and she should like that, she thinks, but instead she finds herself talking to him like she's trying to start a conversation.
“You come all the way to Oz for a piercing?” she asks, setting the forceps on the table. She means it to be a casual question-all she wants is a little buzz in her head to keep the scene in the food court from replaying and replaying, but the guy beneath her hands surprises her when he tenses unexpectedly in response, almost flinches.
“Woah: Easy there,” she drops her hand to pat his shoulder, “I haven’t even gotten out the needle yet.” She’s seen reactions like this before, but never from somebody with so much metal in his face.
His eyes dart up at her for a brief moment as if he wants to roll them, but then he just sighs before leaning back in the chair.
“It’s not the piercing,” he mutters, “It’s just-I’m here in Australia because I was looking for my father.”
Now Claire’s the one who blanches, her hand trembling a little as she reaches for the forceps.
“Your father?” she repeats dumbly, clamping them over his eyebrow to stretch the skin.
“Yeah. I never met him, but I thought he might be living here. I had an address in Sydney-” he trails off, “I didn’t find him though.”
Wholly inappropriate as it would be, she almost laughs at the scenarios that pop into her brain all at once: telling this guy about her own father, offering him a sale or an exchange. He doesn’t know where his father is, and she doesn’t know her father’s name: it seems like a fair enough trade.
“What’s so funny?” he asks suddenly, mildly curious and mildly annoyed, and she realizes that while she may have suppressed the laugh, she hadn’t done as good a job of hiding her amusement as she’d meant to.
“Nothing,” she says, taking the needle in her other hand, positioning it carefully above the hair there, “It’s just-some of us would rather that our fathers were missing.” She narrows her eyes, focusing on pressing the needle carefully through.
“And by ‘some of us,’ I assume you mean you?” he asks acerbically, making liberal use of his eyebrow as soon as she lets it go, and she finally gets the effect he’s aiming for with the ring.
She just nods, feeling a bit awkward all of a sudden, unsure what she was expecting to get out of pursuing such a personal conversation.
“I-” he begins, serious again, “I guess I know what you’re saying-like, I’ve spent years trying to forget mine. He didn’t care about me, so why should I care about him? But then I think-I just want to see him. No matter what the truth is, if he’s the worst person in the world, I want to see him.” The guy shrugs, looking up at her, “Don’t you get that? Like you need to know, if only just to get that sense of-I don’t know, completion?”
She laughs, moving toward the cash resister, turning her back to him just long enough to stop the sudden tears in her eyes. When she recovers, she turns around again, looking down at her chipped black nail polish before pulling open the broken drawer.
“I need my father like I need a hole in my head,” she smiles a little, meeting his eyes, “Well, another one anyway.“
~~
Scars (Jack/Juliet, slight Sawyer/Kate) (PG)
The helicopter’s loud: it shatters the air above them like it’s a solid thing, and sets the whole cabin buzzing, her skull rattling. Her heart skips and jumps with every dip and sway. The view outside the windows is blinding, but somehow she can’t bring herself to look away.
She has a very difficult time figuring out how Jack can sleep through all of it, injuries notwithstanding, but here he is, slumped against her in almost the same position in which he was sitting when he was awake, except now his cheek is resting against her shoulder. When she realizes that he’s drooling on her, she has to bite her lip to keep from smiling.
As soon as he sees that Jack is sleeping, Sawyer smirks. Before he can even open his mouth, Kate crosses her arms, and even Juliet blushes a little in anticipation the remark he’s obviously about to make. But then Sawyer looks back and forth between them with a grin, clearly pleased at the reaction he’s already managed to provoke without speaking, and shrugs.
“Hell, I know this isn’t the most interesting part of the rescue operation, but you’d think the doc could’ve managed to stay awake for it.”
“He’s just had major surgery,” Juliet answers automatically, her air half explanatory and half protective, but the words serve to remind her at the same time of the reality of the situation: the bleeding is substantial, and they need to get Jack to a hospital as soon as they reach land. Without jostling him too much, Juliet reaches for the hem of his t-shirt, lifting it to reveal a blood-soaked bandage underneath.
“Not to mention all the stitches he pulled running around the island,” she adds, “I told him this is exactly what would happen-” She sounds grumbling, annoyed, but her heart squeezes shut a little at the same time, secretly belying the words even as she says them. She remembers vividly the swift streak of happiness she felt when he returned, clutching his abdomen and telling her about the helicopter between gasps as she slipped her arm around him for support.
“Holy hell, Dr. Lecter-some of us are still trying to keep our dinners down,” Sawyer looks toward Jack’s torso, aghast, and Juliet actually has trouble deciding how much of the nausea is genuine and how much of it is feigned. As soon as she is satisfied with the way that the adhesive is sticking against Jack’s skin, she drops the edge of his t-shirt, pulling it gently over his hip. Looking at his closed eyes, she has the strongest urge to stroke his cheek, but she refrains, straightening up as well as she can with his arm draped over her, sensing that she’s being watched.
She’s still somehow surprised when Kate catches her eye.
“It looks bad,” the other woman observes, her eyes flicking down toward the wound. She tries hard to sound impassive, but Juliet can hear the worry underneath: she can’t count the number of times she’s used such a tone herself.
“If we get him to the hospital in a couple of hours, they can get some antibiotics into him. He should be fine,” she answers, looking back at Kate, trying to sound calm, possessed, smiling just slightly to reassure her that everything’s going to be ok. “He’ll probably have a pretty horrendous scar, though.”
Kate nods silently in acknowledgement, resting her hands on her knees, as Sawyer crosses his arms and leans back against the wall.
“Won’t we all, Blondie?” he sighs, looking at Kate, “Won’t we all?”
~~
Physical (Jack/Juliet) (R)
“This isn’t-” Jack murmurs between heavy breaths, “I mean, you know I’m not just-”
“Using me for sex?” Juliet suggests, trying to sound deadpan, but then he hits a spot inside her that makes her voice go weak, and then she loses it completely, starting to giggle as she strokes a hand through his hair.
“Uh-yeah,” he flushes, lowering his forehead to touch hers, but she’s got him smiling too, his mouth turning up at the corners along with hers. She wants to keep the smile there for as long as she can, but she finds herself sobering suddenly, something giving inside her as she looks up into his eyes.
“I know, Jack,” she says gently as she moves on him, lifting herself up and then sliding all the way back down, listening to him sigh against her ear. She kisses his jaw, brushes her lips against his throat. “I know."
~~
Masks (Kate/Sawyer) (PG)
Kate slams her hand against the tree trunk, feeling her frustration rise, the inevitable argument brewing like a storm between them.
“I don’t know why you can’t admit that you have feelings,” she paces, “why every conversation that we have has to turn into-” She stops and then sighs in disgust. “Why can’t you just be-”
“What?” Sawyer looks up at her darkly, his hair falling over one eye, giving her that look that always reminds her of a wounded animal, half-fearsome, half-fearful. “More like Jack?”
Her heart slips on the name, falls down and down, because it’s a surprise, even though it shouldn’t be. When she looks up at him, it’s all around him, radiating from him like pain, shaping every uncertain line in his face. Instantly it brings everything, inside of her and out, to a halt. Even Sawyer seems to sense that something has changed, holding his breath in the stillness that follows.
She steps closer to him slowly, carefully, taking advantage of what she knows purely by experience: that if only for the next few seconds, she’s caught him, that he’s not going to move or leave or say something to hurt her unless she breaks the silence herself.
He lifts his eyes to hers, his face tight, so close to cracking that she almost thinks she’s beginning to see what’s underneath.
“No: not more like Jack,” she says quietly, reaching out gently to brush his hair away from his eyes, “More like yourself.”
~~