Juliet couldn’t sleep again.
Perhaps she was too spoiled by having had a bed to sleep on and she couldn’t get used to the sand. Or maybe it was that she couldn’t get Ben’s voice echoing through her head to just shut up, already - or that she couldn’t stop seeing the image of the sub blasting to smithereens, and any hope she had of escaping from the island sinking with it to the bottom of the sea. Maybe it was all those things at once, or something else entirely.
Whatever the reason, she grew sick of tossing and turning and decided to go for a walk. The moon was bright and there were a few campfires smoldering, enough for her to see the shoreline. She wrapped her blanket around her shoulders and set out, hoping the salty air would clear her head enough to allow her at least a few hours of sleep. It usually worked, when she did it back at the barracks. There had been plenty of nights over the last three years where sleep was tough for her to come by. Of course, back then she’d had a flashlight and a cozy bed to return to.
She passed by other beach-dweller’s tents, and it dawned on her again just how alone she truly was. Sure Jack was here, and he was doing what he could to help, but she understood why his people didn’t trust her. In their place, she wouldn’t trust her, either. She longed for someone to confide in. Jack was great, but there were certain things he couldn’t understand, earnestly as he may have tried.
Lost in her thoughts, Juliet had at first failed to notice the figure sitting on the beach a bit further down. The closer she drew, the clearer it became - it was Kate. She was staring out at the ocean, her dark hair blown around her by the breeze. In the moonlight, she looked almost ethereal, like a mermaid who had washed ashore. Juliet noticed her shoes were off, and she was massaging one of her ankles. If Kate had noticed Juliet’s approach, she didn’t acknowledge it.
“Nice night for a midnight stroll,” Juliet commented as she drew near enough for Kate to hear her over the crashing waves. “Are you okay?” she asked, nodding to indicate Kate’s ankle. Now that she was closer, she could tell it was a bit swollen.
“I took a bad step and twisted it. I’ll be fine,” Kate assured her.
Juliet nodded. Kate was hard for her to read sometimes; mostly she seemed to hold nothing back and was unafraid to speak her mind, but when she played things close to the chest, like right then, she could be indecipherable. Juliet wasn’t sure if Kate’s tone was saying ‘thanks for the concern,’ or ‘leave me the hell alone,’ or nothing at all. “Do you mind if I take a look?”
“It’s not that bad, I’ve had worse.”
“That doesn’t answer my question,” Juliet said softly, offering a half smile to indicate her sincerity.
“Sure,” Kate relented. “But I’m okay, it’s not broken or anything.”
Juliet sat beside her and delicately examined Kate’s ankle. “Have you broken it before?”
“No, but I broke my leg when I was a kid. It doesn’t feel like that, it’s just tender.”
“I bet,” she agreed as she felt the affected area. It was swollen but no alarm bells went off in her head as she examined it.
“Mostly it hurts right here,” said Kate. She took Juliet’s hand and guided it to a spot on the outer part of her ankle. Kate’s hands were warm and soft, and Juliet could have sworn they lingered just a second longer than necessary, but she was probably imagining that part.
“Well, you’re right, it doesn’t seem broken. Can you rotate it? Not too much, just show me your range of motion.” Kate complied, albeit with a wince. Juliet held her ankle lightly as she did so; afterward she gently brushed the sand from the top of her foot and set her leg back down. “Good. You’ll need to rest it tomorrow, and maybe the day after, but it’s not too bad. Maybe Sawyer has some ice in that stash of his,” she joked. To her surprise, Kate laughed.
“That might be the one and only thing he doesn’t have in there. Although I think most of his stuff became communal while we were–”
“Playing Ben’s little game?” Juliet offered.
“Yeah.” Kate stared out at the ocean. “You really hate him?”
“Ben? Yes.”
“You sound sure of yourself.”
“I am.”
“Why?” Kate asked. It wasn’t hard for Juliet to read that one; she was genuinely curious, and it occurred to her that Kate still had no idea the depths of what Ben had done, the lengths he’d gone to.
“So many reasons,” she said quietly. She’d wished for someone to confide in, maybe this was Kate offering an olive branch for just that. So, she laid it all bare - how Ben had lured her to the island, how he’d kept her there, his manipulations regarding her sister, his interference with Goodwin, everything. She kept it as brief as possible, but honest. “If it weren’t for him, I’d have been home with my sister and nephew a long time ago. Maybe I’d never have come here at all.”
“So that’s why Jack trusted you so easily,” Kate commented. “Because you both wanted the same thing.”
“And we both hate Ben.”
“I hate him, too,” Kate agreed. “What he did to you is sick.”
“I guess you and I have something in common, too,” Juliet mused, “We’ve both been targeted by sick men.”
Kate paused. “I forgot you read my file, too.”
“It’s just a collection of information, Kate, it’s not the whole story.”
“You know I killed him, right? I did it on purpose and I’m not sorry about it. Maybe that makes me as sick as Ben.”
“No it doesn’t,” Juliet countered immediately, as confident as she’d sounded when she’d stated her detestation of Ben. “You survived so much. It takes a lot of strength, and even more to decide to do something about it. I don’t think I would have survived any of that.”
“You would have survived it. Apart from Sayid, you might be stronger than anyone I’ve ever met. Literally and figuratively,” Kate said, a twinkle in her eye at the last bit.
Juliet laughed a bit sheepishly as she recalled flipping Kate over at the barracks, and their fight in the jungle. “Sorry about all that.”
“Don’t be. I paid you back, remember?” Kate joked, gently but playfully nudging Juliet’s shoulder with her own. “Is your shoulder okay now?”
“Yes," Juliet assured her. "I made a full recovery, just like you and your ankle will.”
“Thanks for the free check-up.”
“Oh it’s not free, I’ll leave the bill in your tent tomorrow,” Juliet joked. Kate laughed, and Juliet thought it was the prettiest sound she’d ever heard. “Why were you out here alone, anyway?”
“Same reason as you, I’m guessing. Couldn’t sleep,” Kate admitted.
“Walks usually help me with that, but I don’t usually run into damsels in distress along the way.”
“Guess it’s a good thing you were around to be my knight in shining armor,” Kate said.
Juliet smiled and stared at her for a moment, trying to gauge whether the comment was sarcastic or genuine. She guessed (or maybe just hoped) it was genuine. “We all need a little rescuing now and then. Maybe next time you can rescue me.”
“From the Big Bad Ben?” Kate suggested.
Juliet laughed. “We can ride off into the sunset together if you can find a way to do that.”
“I’m good with horses.”
At some point, Kate’s hand had wound up on Juliet’s knee, and now it felt like her leg was on fire. “Let’s go, then,” Juliet said, almost in a whisper because she wasn’t imagining it, Kate was leaning in.
Their lips met a moment later, and as their kiss became more passionate, Juliet let herself get lost in it. She used one hand to hold Kate’s hair out of her face, and the other to pull Kate’s body closer to her. She felt Kate’s hands move upward from her waist, until her arms wrapped around Juliet’s neck and drew them even closer together. They spent the next several minutes this way, lips and tongues and hands exploring, until they had to stop for the sake of regaining their breath.
As their breathing slowed back down, they remained close, still holding onto one another. Finally, Kate broke the silence. “I can’t believe I just made out with an Other.” They both laughed, and when their heart rates returned to normal, they resumed kissing one another as though it were the most natural thing they’d ever done. Perhaps it was.