lostproject1081, posts by tag: week five - LiveJournal (original) (raw)

James watches her for a minute as she stands in the rain, head tilted up towards the sky. It’s dark and he can barely see her until lightening flashes. One bolt catches her wrapping her arms around herself, and he finally opens the door and calls out just loud enough to be heard over the rain. "Juliet!"

She turns and glances at him, then looks back out into the darkness for a minute before finally making her way up the porch.

"Wait," he says before disappearing into the house. When he comes back it’s with a towel and he tosses it to her. "You’re always yellin’ at me to not make a mess in the house. Back at ya this time."

Juliet gives him a quick flash of a smile as she squeezes the water out of her hair, and she hasn’t said anything to him at all. Her shirt’s clinging to her in all the right places, and he tries valiantly to distract himself. "You got a thing for rain?"

She shrugs a little. "When you aren’t running through it in fear it can be refreshing."

He’s trying to come up with some witty retort when she bends a little to wring out the hems of her shorts. He remembers the promise he made to himself – to kiss her, really kiss her by the end of the week. He was losing time fast, so it was now or never. Taking a step forward, he doesn’t even give her a chance to realize what’s happening before he reaches out to take her chin in his hand. Her eyes register surprise, and then he’s kissing her softly. Nothing that’s too much, just enough to know that her lips taste like rain and hints of the piece of chocolate cake she’d had before bed. When he pulls back, his thumb moves down her chin as he speaks softly.

"Night, Juliet."

He makes his way back inside to his room, deciding that it’s finally up to her to make the next move.

Juliet’s pulled out of her thoughts about the previous morning by a low rumble of thunder. Walking out from under the overhang of the motor pool she glances up at the sky and watches the dark clouds gather. The smell of rain is heavy in the air and she takes a deep breath. Going back to the jeep she’s servicing she starts wrapping up when she hears James behind her.

"Hey, Juliet. Horace is shuttin’ everything down early. This first storm’s supposed to be a bitch."

She turns and looks at him, pulling off her gloves. "Does that mean you, too?"

He gives her an apologetic look. "Course not. Damn head of security decided he’s leavin’ on the next sub with his kid."

She frowns a little and looks out toward the docks. She knows there’s nothing for her off the island, but it’s still strange; foreign to her that people leave freely. She could leave if she wanted to, and she hasn’t. Another loud clap of thunder pulls her out of her thoughts once again, and she looks up at him. There’s something in her eyes that she's not saying, but he gets it and reaches out to thumb at a random smear of oil on her cheek.

"See you tonight, Blondie." It’s a promise and a confirmation that she’s not going anywhere.

She gives James a little smile before walking away, back to the barracks. She turns once to look back at him, waving a little when she finds him staring.

Juliet is in his bed.

He has no idea how she got there or when she did, but James doesn’t move, not wanting to displace her or wake her up and make her leave. She’s using his left shoulder as a pillow and he can feel her breath falling against his adam’s apple. Her arm is across his stomach, and his arm’s under her, numb from not moving in so long. He doesn’t care and decides he’d rather walk around with a sore arm all damn day than move her.

Moving his head just a little, he looks at the clock and realizes he has to get up soon, but it’s easier to watch her. The longer he watches the better she looks, then he amends that thought. She always looks good, and a part of him wishes he wasn’t too chicken shit to tell her that, but then she’d know how much attention he pays to her. The past couple of times they’ve slept in the same bed, when he knows she’s definitely out of it, he looks at her as much as he wants.

One of his hands moves to her hair, running his fingers through it as he thinks about them, and what this is, and where he wants it to go. He isn’t the guy who gives a shit about date nights or anniversaries. At least he didn’t think he was. But Juliet makes him think about things like that. He knows she’s had shitty luck in the past, though he doesn’t really know the whole story about her ex-husband. Just that he was a dick and James doesn’t want to remind her of that guy in any way. So maybe he can start caring about dates and anniversaries, and cleaning up after himself in the kitchen or folding the laundry once in a while.

He’s surprised by his thoughts until they wander to thinking about kissing her; covering every inch of her face until the mask she tends to hide behind dissolves. But it’s too soon for that. He doesn’t want to scare her off; his first move has to be subtle. Something she won’t reject.

James freezes as Juliet shifts, then sighs in relief when he realizes that she’s just changing positions. She turns over onto her left side, her head still on his arm. Slowly, he turns his body to align himself to her new position. His hand curves around her hip, his knees find her shins, and she shifts again, bringing her feet toward him and against his legs.

Being sentimental isn’t really his thing, but as he looks at her, he decides that he has to figure out a way to make sure she knows that it’s not all about her having his back. She doesn’t treat him like a criminal, isn’t looking to make him feel like he was just a conman. And that was the problem with Kate. She only expected him to be the man he was, never gave him a chance to be something better. Juliet’s never held any of that against him.

When she shifts again, he moves his hand from her hip to her stomach, trying to keep her from going if she tries to. He feels her laugh a little and one of her hands moves over his, twining their fingers together.

"I’m not going anywhere," she whispers.

He’s at a loss for words; he’s ready for her to say they have to get ready for work and go to her room but she doesn’t, so he tugs her closer. Before he can talk himself out of it, he leans in to nuzzle against the back of her neck, then, deciding to be bold, he presses soft kisses there – not too many, not too few. He can feel her shiver softly and he swallows his doubt.

Without a word, Juliet pulls both of his arms tightly around her, then turns her head ever so slightly to expose more of her pale neck. With more care than he’s ever shown any woman in his adult life, he brushes his nose tentatively against her skin. When she sighs he goes on and gently kisses her pulse point, trailing all the way to her ear. He kisses that too and is rewarded with another subtle sound.

He has no idea what to do now. He didn’t even plan this much. He just wants to hold her, kiss her this way. He knows he should want more, but he thinks that maybe that isn’t for them right now.

So he just keeps holding her.

Juliet walks into the house after working on a DHARMA van until well past one in the morning. She has no idea what the hell happened to it, but she’s exhausted and ready for a shower and bed immediately. Walking into the house, she’s quiet as she toes off her work boots, but is startled by a snoring form on her couch. Frowning, she tiptoes closer, and the smell of liquor hits her immediately as she takes in Horace, passed out cold.

Shaking her head, she makes her way to her room, only to find the door halfway closed. Pushing it open reveals a passed out Jin sprawled across her bed. "Son of a bitch," she mutters, walking in to shake his shoulder. "Get up. Jin, you’re in the wrong room." The man doesn’t even move, just snores.

Rubbing her forehead, she goes to Jin’s room, guessing that’s where she’ll be sleeping when she sees Miles passed out there. She goes to his room and finds someone she doesn’t know in his bed. Juliet’s almost afraid to peek in on James. She decides to take a shower first, washing away the day and putting on a pair of shorts and a tank top before taking a deep breath and making her way to James’ room.

Opening the door, she finds him asleep with his glasses on, propped up against the headboard. His light is still on and she smiles a little, walking to his side of the bed. Carefully so as not to wake him, she pulls the glasses off of his face and folds them, resting them on top of his book. Then, she walks back around, turning off the light as she goes. Slipping into his bed, she curls onto her side, her back to him. They’ve slept in the same bed together twice this week, but they’d both been awake at the start of it. This was something different and she wasn’t sure why she wasn’t just shoving Jin onto her bedroom floor.

Just as she’s nodding off, she feels him shift, slipping down from his propped up state. She doesn’t move, but she feels him turn onto his side, and before she realizes it, he’s pulling her back against him. Breath catching in her throat, she relaxes against his chest when she realizes he’s still very much asleep. Her last thought before drifting off is that she could get used to this.

James has a lot of time to think, seeing as how he’s alone for the night in the security station. He’s putting in more hours, letting Phil head home because hell, if something happens they got walkies. He’s not worried. And he doesn’t want the guy talking to him the entire time. Not when he has his issues with Juliet to figure out. They aren’t really issues so much as he doesn’t know what he’s doing. With Kate there wasn’t any thinking about it first, none of it really mattered in the end because she had a thing for the Doc. He hadn’t minded being her quickie, but that isn’t what he wants with Juliet.

With Juliet, he’s convinced that he’s way out of his league. She went after guys named Goodwin who probably had twenty years worth of school under their belts. Then again, he can protect her, and he wonders if Goodwin had ever saved her from flaming arrows. It was a safe bet that he hadn’t. He knows it’s pretty irrational to compare himself to a dead guy, but it’s all he has to go by. As far as he can tell, Edmund had been a huge fucking mistake to begin with, but she didn’t talk about him, at least not yet.

The longer his shift goes on, the closer he’s coming to a plan. And by the time he’s walking home he’s decided to set himself a goal.

Kiss her by the end of the week. He has no idea why the idea worries him – it’s a kiss, not a marriage proposal – but he’s been putting it off in case all of the sleeping together in the same bed, and the glances, and the touches means something else completely to her. He’d had free and easy in the past. It was time for something real.

Miles is staring at Jim over his playing cards. "So. Saw you coming out of Juliet’s room this morning."

James doesn’t even flinch. "And?"

"Oh, come on LaFleur. You’re not even gonna tell me what happened?"

"Ain’t nothin’ to tell, Sally."

Jin, meanwhile, is looking back and forth between them, picking up on a few things. "You? Juliet?" He gives his friend a thumbs up.

James rolls his eyes and tosses down his cards. "Look, it ain’t anything like that, okay? She was upset, I talked to her." He gets up to grab a beer from the fridge.

Miles snorts. "Yeah, except that you spent the night in her room, what, you two just talked the entire time? Bullshit."

"Believe it. Nothin’ happened."

"He’s right," comes a voice from behind them all, and Juliet’s standing there in her jumpsuit, having walked in on the tail end of their conversation. She stares hard at Miles. "Nothing happened."

Standing up and putting his hands out in self defense, Miles shakes his head. "Okay, okay. Nothing happened." He’s making his way past Juliet to the front door. Just when he’s finally out, he turns back to yell. "Try to keep it down when it does happen. I’m a light sleeper."

He narrowly avoids a work boot being thrown at his back.

As soon as he hangs up the phone, Juliet moves back into his side, liking the way she fits against him. The day before was spent like this too, only she slept most of that away after having a couple of restless nights. Now she was awake and could enjoy it, and her fingers moved across his chest. They were both silent, content to simply be in each other’s presence.

Her fingers eventually dragged up his arm and paused at his shoulder. Stroking the scar she found there, she finally spoke curiously. "How did you get this?"

James shifts uncomfortably, sighing a little before answering her question. "Sayid. Decided to pass one of the lonely days after the crash torturin’ me."

Her eyebrows narrow, because she knows about Sayid’s past, what he did, and her fingers keep moving over the scar. "Why?"

"’Cause he thought I had something he needed." He’s not getting into the whole story; he’s not bringing up Kate right now. "I didn’t, but he’s a little trigger happy."

In a move that Juliet’s surprised she’s making, her lips come into contact with the scar for a few seconds before resting her head on his shoulder. Her eyes search his, sharing a soft smile with him before she gives in to the pull of sleep once more.

Day Twenty Nine
Juliet calls in sick at work. So does James.

Day Thirty
Miles is staring at Jim over his playing cards. "So. Saw you coming out of Juliet’s room this morning..."

Day Thirty One
He's feeling a little chicken shit about the whole situation, but they've spent two full days in bed together, and he still hasn't kissed her.

Day Thirty Two
She's worked in the motor pool almost all night, and when she finally makes her way home, she finds Horace on the couch and Jin in her bed. Fantastic.

Day Thirty Three
He wakes up to the feel of something on his chest, and when he realizes it's Juliet's head, he doesn’t move.

Day Thirty Four
It starts thundering early in the afternoon, dark clouds gathering. It’s the start of rainy season.

Day Thirty Five
James wakes up to the sound of the front door opening and closing, and he gets up to investigate. He watches in confusion as Juliet stands outside in the rain.

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