Fic: Five Ways Juliet Burke Gets a Better Ending

[ozmissage]

Title: Five Ways Juliet Burke Gets a Better Ending
Characters/Pairings: Juliet, James, Jack, Richard, Jacob; (Juliet/James, a smidgeon of Juliet/Jack)
Rating: PG-13
Words: 1,076
Warnings/Spoilers: Through The Incident.
Disclaimer: Not mine.
Summary: She has a choice for the first time in a long time and maybe leaving is a mistake, but it’s her mistake to make.

A/N: I will warn you this is possibly this most self-indulgent thing I’ve ever written. It happened because I read something about next season that wasn’t actually spoilery but still made me fly into a rage because apparently I have some issues to work out where Juliet is concerned, at least with what they did to her. So this fic is basically me saying I am not happy with what Darlton did and I don’t trust them to fix it anymore. Hence this fic.

 

1.

There’s a moment right before she puts her foot on the first rung of the ladder and starts her climb down into the sub that she hesitates. It’s not doubt that holds her back, not a sudden fit of early nostalgia for this hell that Ben calls a home, it’s disbelief pure and simple. She’s spent three years on this island, three years of begging, three years of blood and death, three years in which she lost everything that she thought she knew about herself and the idea that it is finally going to end feels more like a dream than a reality.

Jack places a hand on the small of her back and she winces, the mark still burns hot and fresh.

This isn’t a dream.

“You ready?” he asks.

She is but she can already tell he’s not. He’s looking back over his shoulder down the dock and she knows he’ll have to come back one day that this isn’t over for him---maybe it never will be. But it sure as hell is for her.

“Absolutely,” she says.

She places her foot firmly on the first rung and starts her climb down into the belly of the sub.

2.

Rachel figures it out three months after her little sister disappears behind that gate. The Mittlelos Bio company won’t accept her calls and then their headquarters seems to disappear into thin air and there’s no record of a Richard Alpert having ever existed.

She goes to the police and they humor the crazy pregnant lady until someone makes sure they stop. One day she walks in and they all look at her blankly, dismiss her worries, and wave their hands as if her sister hasn’t been kidnapped by some evil ass corporation for God knows what reason.

She hires investigators, but the funny thing about cancer and pregnancy is that aside from the obvious drawbacks they’re really fucking expensive and investigators as she quickly finds out, like to be paid.

Then Julian’s born and the cancer comes back and a hot guy with blond hair shows up at her door and she suddenly experiences a miraculous recovery.

She knows bullshit when she smells it.

On September 22, 2004 she takes her son to a park where she spots a man with dark hair watching them. It’s been three years, but it’s kind of hard to forget the guy who kidnapped your sister.

“Richard Alpert?”

He looks up from his paper and smiles.

“Hello, Rachel. You have a beautiful son.”

She shakes her head, three years and the son of bitch doesn’t even have the decency to pretend that he doesn’t know her.

“Where the hell is my sister?”

Richard sighs and there’s something defeated in the sound. And when he opens his mouth to speak she can feel that the words are costing him something. His voice is low and conspiratorial.

“That’s exactly what I wanted to talk to you about.”

3.

“I’m sorry James, but I have to leave.”

His brow creases and he shoves his hands in his pockets and he looks so much like a lost, little boy that her resolve almost crumbles. But she gave him his two weeks; it’s not fair for him to ask her for anymore.

“Well, you do what you got to do, Blondie.”

The words sound rough and angry. She wants to say you don’t have the right, or you can come with me, or maybe just suck it up, cowboy, but she doesn’t say any of those things. Instead she kisses him, soft and chaste. She thinks maybe if she stayed she could love this man with all of his hard edges and his puppy-dog eyes.

But she won’t stay, not for a maybe, not for another man in love with another woman. She has a choice for the first time in a long time and maybe leaving is a mistake, but it’s her mistake to make.

“Take care of yourself,” she whispers.

4.

He looks at Kate and something inside of her breaks. She’s given him three years, she’s given him more of herself than she’s given anyone else and still it wasn’t enough. She’s not enough.

But that doesn’t change the fact that they’ve got a job to do. She finds him in the jungle pummeling Jack and she watches.

For a moment she thinks about stopping him. Maybe Jack’s right, maybe they can change everything, maybe they can start over and she can live a life where she never meets James, where she never has to face the idea of letting him go.

But that would mean losing everything in between, every kiss, every touch, every conversation at four in the morning, every lazy Sunday afternoon, every argument, every I love you, every I hate you, every damn thing they had ever had together all just to spare herself a little pain.

It’s not worth that.

She closes her eyes and turns away from them, lets James do what he has to do, cocks her gun in case she has to finish the job.

No one’s detonating any bombs today.

5.

She wakes up at the bottom of a crater and there’s no part of her that doesn’t ache. She’s broken and bloody and she can’t help but cry because she should have known better than to believe the island would give her the luxury of a quick death.

“Hello, Juliet.”

She turns her head and the effort makes her cry out. She feels a cool hand against her forehead.

“Shh…it’s okay. You did good work today.”

She blinks up at the man, his eyes are so blue.

“Who are you?” she whispers.

“My name’s Jacob. You saved my life; you saved a lot of lives.”

He smoothes back her hair and Juliet wonders if it’s normal for the pain to disappear right before you die.

Jacob stands up, and brushes the dirt off his knees. He offers her a hand.

“You can get up now Juliet.”

“I can’t…”

But even as she says it she knows that she can. She takes his hand, lets him pull her to her feet.

“James…is he…”

Jacob smiles. “No. He’s fine. He still has work to do, as do we. He’ll be back here soon enough, they all will.”

Juliet nods as if she knows what he means.

“I never thought you were real,” she confesses.

Jacob winks. “Perhaps you’ll be a believer now.”

 

Comments

[coffeecrisp7.livejournal.com]

Stalking your comment and popping in to say THANK YOU for saying what's been on my mind for the past year or so... Juliet has been my favourite character since Season 3, and although most people started loving her in Season 5, I was quite disappointed. I run a forum for Juliet fans, and they all go NUTS over her this season, but I don't understand how Juliet fans can overlook the fact that her ORIGINAL plotlines, the ones they introduced her onto the show with in Season 3, were completely dropped! A mini Ben Linus, the guy who Juliet spent 2 seasons fighting with and against, shows up on the island, and we get a bit of a weird look from her when he's hyperventilating in bed. THAT'S IT?! I know she would have seen him before that, but for the audience's sake, they could have given her some lines about it. The Oceanic 6 arrive back on the island, minus Sun, the woman who she spent 2 seasons helping survive, and there's not a peep out of her about where she is? And I would have liked a little more resolution with Jack as well, but I can't tell whether that's because of my strong bias or not =P. As for Rachel, I really would have liked to see a bit more backstory about why she decided to stay... Because I can't see her staying for a guy she's known (and liked) for what... 3 weeks? And we're certainly led to believe she stayed for Sawyer... I still loved her this season, and she still managed to be pretty darn awesome at times, but I felt like the writers could have tied in Season 5 Juliet and Season 3 Juliet a bit more... Also, although I was never the biggest Sawyer/Juliet shipper, I am scared that in Season 6 she's going to be completely overlooked for the sake of the triangle, and that scares me.

@ozmissage: This is a really wonderful story. And I would have loved to see any of these 5 endings on the show =D

[elliotsmelliot.livejournal.com]

I was really surprised about how many people went nuts for Juliet this season. I suspect she gained some love from Sawyer fans who preferred her over Kate. But really - why now? While I've always thought her story had big gaps deserving more attention, Juliet was barely a presence in S5 for me. She was much more active and interesting in S3 and S4.

Thanks to authors like ozmissage for recognizing her potential depth.