Following, Part 27 [Jack/Juliet] [R] [WIP]
~
It was raining, the thick, fat drops gathering on the dark boards at his feet and running between the cracks along the floor. It was only when he looked up at Claire and the wooden walls behind her that he realized that it didn’t make any sense.
Claire smiled at him slowly, her wet hair pasted to her face, her eyes shifting toward the corner behind him.
“Your turn.”
He looked down at the backgammon board between them. Tentatively, he reached out for a piece, but as soon as he touched it, he realized that he didn’t know which pieces were his, and which were Claire’s: the entire board and all the pieces were grey, like ash.
“It doesn’t matter which one you pick,” Claire offered.
“It doesn’t?”
She sighed and shook her head.
“They’re all on the same side.”
“But if there’s only one side, how- how can you play?” The question seemed an absurd place to begin, when water was falling from the ceiling and he didn’t know at all where they were. And yet, he seemed bound to ask it somehow, and it seemed to carry within it all of the rest of the questions that he had forgotten.
“Just because they’re all on the same side doesn’t mean there isn’t another one.”
All at once, there was a deep low sound, so deep that it seemed to pull at the dark spaces at their sides, disfigure everything around them.
“What was that?” he asked her, but he hadn’t heard anything-had he?
“You hear it too?” She asked, her eyes opening wide.
“I don’t know,” he shook his head in frustration.
“But you know it’s there, don’t you?”
“Yeah. It’s coming from-it’s coming from underneath us,” he decided suddenly.
She nodded.
“I can show you. Do you want to see?”
He nodded, but he wasn’t all sure that he meant it.
“Come on,” she took his hand and pulled him toward the stairs. He wanted to pull back, but there was something in him that needed to know, and so he went down with her, let her take him around the corner.
The stairs wound down, and she was pulling him and pulling him, and eventually it became so dark that he couldn’t see Claire next to him, and then her hand disappeared.
When he reached out for her, he felt something else.
~~
He woke up in a cold sweat, looking up at the white ceiling of Juliet’s bedroom as his heart slammed dully against his ribs. She shifted against him almost immediately, snuggling closer under his arm, and for a second, unable to conceive of anything else, he thought she was having a nightmare too.
Then she rubbed one hand clumsily across his chest, and slurred, “’S’ok.”
He let out a short, sharp breath that he hadn’t known he’d been holding, the closest thing to a laugh that he thought he could manage. The whole other half of his body broke out in goose bumps at the same time, the memory of the rainy staircase still floating on the surface of his mind, and he pressed against Juliet instinctively.
“Hmm?” She murmured, soft and sleepy as she blinked up at him, “Jack?” She seemed to realize all at once where they were and to panic, and she moved almost drunkenly against him, lifting her head in alarm. “Are you okay?”
The sound of her voice, close to his body, made the dream seem pale, suddenly far away.
“Yeah. I’m-uh, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have- ”
"What is it?" she yawned, shifting, rubbing her hand against his ribs.
“I just-” he paused and then swallowed, looking at her hand, “I need to ask you something. It’s about what happened to me in the Temple. I just need to know-” He sighed. “You didn’t- You didn’t know anything about Claire.” He had meant for it to sound like a question, but it came out as if he was trying to reassure himself.
“Claire Littleton?” Juliet blinked back.
“Yeah. You treated her, back when the Others- When they kidnapped her. Didn’t you?”
“I performed some treatments on her, yeah,” she paused, looking at him steadily, “Jack, what’s wrong? What am I supposed to know?”
“She’s my sister,” he couldn’t help sounding a little tortured as he said it, looking back and forth between Juliet’s eyes as they widened.
“Your- What?”
“So you didn’t-”
“Of course not: Don’t you think I’d tell you, if-”
“Yeah. Yeah, but, I just-You read my file, right? It wasn’t in there?”
“No: it didn’t say anything about siblings.”
“What about Claire’s file? The files didn’t say anything about our parents?”
“They did-I mean, yours did, but I-I never had Claire’s file,” Juliet said distractedly, as though she was thinking of something far away.
“Even when you treated her?”
“No,” she shook her head, “Ethan was-” She looked back up at him, her eyes focusing on his, “Ben asked Ethan to oversee Claire’s case. I helped out a little, when Ethan needed it, but he was the one in charge.”
“But that doesn’t make any sense: you said Ethan didn’t specialize in obstetrics. Why would Ben-”
“I always just assumed it was Ben’s way of-” she swallowed, pushing a stray piece of hair behind her ear, “That was right after Goodwin died. I always thought that Ben was just trying to punish me, you know, by taking away the only chance I had of overseeing a successful delivery.” She paused, “But maybe I was wrong. Maybe-”
“Maybe Ben didn’t want you to see her file.”
“Yeah, maybe,” she agreed, and then her brow creased, “But Jack, your sister? You don’t look anything alike; you come from totally different parts of the world: how could she be your sister?”
“My dad, uh-” he looked down at himself, “He-he went to a couple of medical conferences in Melbourne when I was-he had an affair. Claire’s my half sister.”
“Oh,” Juliet said softly. She paused for a moment and then blinked at him, her brow creasing. “How did you find out? Ben didn’t say her name- When he told us who left on the helicopter, he- Is she still here? Did Ben-did he have her in the Temple? Is that where you-?”
“I saw her there,” he nodded slowly and sighed, “but she’s not-Ben’s not holding her prisoner, or, at least, she told me he wasn’t. She said she wanted to stay. She thinks- She thinks our father’s still alive, that he wants her to stay with the Others, to do something for him. She said she saw him on the island.”
“What? Ben must have done something to her, to make her think that-”
He closed his eyes and opened his mouth reluctantly.
“I saw him too, Juliet.”
“What?”
“After we flashed: He was in the jungle. He spoke to me. We had-” he laughed bitterly, looking up at her, “We had a fucking conversation.”
“Jack-”
“He told me he didn’t care if I believed he was real or not: he said he just wanted me to protect her. How am I supposed to do that, if she doesn’t want to be protected? What does that even mean? What am I supposed to be protecting her from? Ben? Herself?”
“Hey,” Juliet reached out, smoothed her hand along his collarbone.
“I’m sorry,” he said abruptly, his eyes focusing suddenly on hers, “I didn’t mean to-I didn’t mean to dump all of this on you, to act like you-”
“I don’t know why you didn’t tell me earlier,” she looked back into his eyes, and he swallowed, shifting closer to her, his fingers curling carefully against her hip.
“I guess I’m just not used to having someone to tell-you know-about things that I might or might not have hallucinated.” He exhaled like he was trying to laugh, but she looked back at him seriously.
“This has happened before?”
“Yeah,” he admitted, “Yeah. When we first crashed, everyone needed a doctor, and I wasn’t getting enough sleep. I thought I saw my father then in the jungle a couple of times, but I- When I got a chance to rest, it stopped: I didn’t see him again. He had just died: I just figured that my mind was playing tricks on me. I didn’t believe what I saw.”
“And now you do?”
“I don’t know.” He looked at her as if he she could tell him the answer. “He-it seemed so real, like I could reach out and-” he shook his head, “I don’t know.”
“Jack, you know what we have to do.” The words made him turn to look at her suddenly.
“What?”
“We have to get Claire’s file.”
“Do you- You know where it is?”
She nodded at him slowly.
“Yeah. I’m pretty sure that I do.”
~~
(TBC)
It was raining, the thick, fat drops gathering on the dark boards at his feet and running between the cracks along the floor. It was only when he looked up at Claire and the wooden walls behind her that he realized that it didn’t make any sense.
Claire smiled at him slowly, her wet hair pasted to her face, her eyes shifting toward the corner behind him.
“Your turn.”
He looked down at the backgammon board between them. Tentatively, he reached out for a piece, but as soon as he touched it, he realized that he didn’t know which pieces were his, and which were Claire’s: the entire board and all the pieces were grey, like ash.
“It doesn’t matter which one you pick,” Claire offered.
“It doesn’t?”
She sighed and shook her head.
“They’re all on the same side.”
“But if there’s only one side, how- how can you play?” The question seemed an absurd place to begin, when water was falling from the ceiling and he didn’t know at all where they were. And yet, he seemed bound to ask it somehow, and it seemed to carry within it all of the rest of the questions that he had forgotten.
“Just because they’re all on the same side doesn’t mean there isn’t another one.”
All at once, there was a deep low sound, so deep that it seemed to pull at the dark spaces at their sides, disfigure everything around them.
“What was that?” he asked her, but he hadn’t heard anything-had he?
“You hear it too?” She asked, her eyes opening wide.
“I don’t know,” he shook his head in frustration.
“But you know it’s there, don’t you?”
“Yeah. It’s coming from-it’s coming from underneath us,” he decided suddenly.
She nodded.
“I can show you. Do you want to see?”
He nodded, but he wasn’t all sure that he meant it.
“Come on,” she took his hand and pulled him toward the stairs. He wanted to pull back, but there was something in him that needed to know, and so he went down with her, let her take him around the corner.
The stairs wound down, and she was pulling him and pulling him, and eventually it became so dark that he couldn’t see Claire next to him, and then her hand disappeared.
When he reached out for her, he felt something else.
~~
He woke up in a cold sweat, looking up at the white ceiling of Juliet’s bedroom as his heart slammed dully against his ribs. She shifted against him almost immediately, snuggling closer under his arm, and for a second, unable to conceive of anything else, he thought she was having a nightmare too.
Then she rubbed one hand clumsily across his chest, and slurred, “’S’ok.”
He let out a short, sharp breath that he hadn’t known he’d been holding, the closest thing to a laugh that he thought he could manage. The whole other half of his body broke out in goose bumps at the same time, the memory of the rainy staircase still floating on the surface of his mind, and he pressed against Juliet instinctively.
“Hmm?” She murmured, soft and sleepy as she blinked up at him, “Jack?” She seemed to realize all at once where they were and to panic, and she moved almost drunkenly against him, lifting her head in alarm. “Are you okay?”
The sound of her voice, close to his body, made the dream seem pale, suddenly far away.
“Yeah. I’m-uh, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have- ”
"What is it?" she yawned, shifting, rubbing her hand against his ribs.
“I just-” he paused and then swallowed, looking at her hand, “I need to ask you something. It’s about what happened to me in the Temple. I just need to know-” He sighed. “You didn’t- You didn’t know anything about Claire.” He had meant for it to sound like a question, but it came out as if he was trying to reassure himself.
“Claire Littleton?” Juliet blinked back.
“Yeah. You treated her, back when the Others- When they kidnapped her. Didn’t you?”
“I performed some treatments on her, yeah,” she paused, looking at him steadily, “Jack, what’s wrong? What am I supposed to know?”
“She’s my sister,” he couldn’t help sounding a little tortured as he said it, looking back and forth between Juliet’s eyes as they widened.
“Your- What?”
“So you didn’t-”
“Of course not: Don’t you think I’d tell you, if-”
“Yeah. Yeah, but, I just-You read my file, right? It wasn’t in there?”
“No: it didn’t say anything about siblings.”
“What about Claire’s file? The files didn’t say anything about our parents?”
“They did-I mean, yours did, but I-I never had Claire’s file,” Juliet said distractedly, as though she was thinking of something far away.
“Even when you treated her?”
“No,” she shook her head, “Ethan was-” She looked back up at him, her eyes focusing on his, “Ben asked Ethan to oversee Claire’s case. I helped out a little, when Ethan needed it, but he was the one in charge.”
“But that doesn’t make any sense: you said Ethan didn’t specialize in obstetrics. Why would Ben-”
“I always just assumed it was Ben’s way of-” she swallowed, pushing a stray piece of hair behind her ear, “That was right after Goodwin died. I always thought that Ben was just trying to punish me, you know, by taking away the only chance I had of overseeing a successful delivery.” She paused, “But maybe I was wrong. Maybe-”
“Maybe Ben didn’t want you to see her file.”
“Yeah, maybe,” she agreed, and then her brow creased, “But Jack, your sister? You don’t look anything alike; you come from totally different parts of the world: how could she be your sister?”
“My dad, uh-” he looked down at himself, “He-he went to a couple of medical conferences in Melbourne when I was-he had an affair. Claire’s my half sister.”
“Oh,” Juliet said softly. She paused for a moment and then blinked at him, her brow creasing. “How did you find out? Ben didn’t say her name- When he told us who left on the helicopter, he- Is she still here? Did Ben-did he have her in the Temple? Is that where you-?”
“I saw her there,” he nodded slowly and sighed, “but she’s not-Ben’s not holding her prisoner, or, at least, she told me he wasn’t. She said she wanted to stay. She thinks- She thinks our father’s still alive, that he wants her to stay with the Others, to do something for him. She said she saw him on the island.”
“What? Ben must have done something to her, to make her think that-”
He closed his eyes and opened his mouth reluctantly.
“I saw him too, Juliet.”
“What?”
“After we flashed: He was in the jungle. He spoke to me. We had-” he laughed bitterly, looking up at her, “We had a fucking conversation.”
“Jack-”
“He told me he didn’t care if I believed he was real or not: he said he just wanted me to protect her. How am I supposed to do that, if she doesn’t want to be protected? What does that even mean? What am I supposed to be protecting her from? Ben? Herself?”
“Hey,” Juliet reached out, smoothed her hand along his collarbone.
“I’m sorry,” he said abruptly, his eyes focusing suddenly on hers, “I didn’t mean to-I didn’t mean to dump all of this on you, to act like you-”
“I don’t know why you didn’t tell me earlier,” she looked back into his eyes, and he swallowed, shifting closer to her, his fingers curling carefully against her hip.
“I guess I’m just not used to having someone to tell-you know-about things that I might or might not have hallucinated.” He exhaled like he was trying to laugh, but she looked back at him seriously.
“This has happened before?”
“Yeah,” he admitted, “Yeah. When we first crashed, everyone needed a doctor, and I wasn’t getting enough sleep. I thought I saw my father then in the jungle a couple of times, but I- When I got a chance to rest, it stopped: I didn’t see him again. He had just died: I just figured that my mind was playing tricks on me. I didn’t believe what I saw.”
“And now you do?”
“I don’t know.” He looked at her as if he she could tell him the answer. “He-it seemed so real, like I could reach out and-” he shook his head, “I don’t know.”
“Jack, you know what we have to do.” The words made him turn to look at her suddenly.
“What?”
“We have to get Claire’s file.”
“Do you- You know where it is?”
She nodded at him slowly.
“Yeah. I’m pretty sure that I do.”
~~
(TBC)