complexguy | ★ but I'm going to be okay as long as you're beside me along the way

He nods faintly, sitting down on the couch for now while he waits. He's stiff and sore, not sure how much he can even move again right now. But then he hears Juliet speaking to Horace, and his heart aches all over again for her.

She was ready to leave, she couldn't be here anymore.

He's not sure he could have done the same. If anything happened to her, he wouldn't be able to leave without knowing what happened, or where she was. He'd have to keep looking. But maybe for Juliet, it couldn't go that way. Quiet as he just watches her, he waits until she comes back with a sandwich, but he doesn't eat.

"You were gonna leave?"

She sits beside him, looking almost ashamed of herself, not able to meet his gaze.

"If we didn't find you alive. If you couldn't come home to me."

She only stayed for him. She's on this island, still, because she loves the man beside her.

"Every piece of happiness I have now is because of you. I wouldn't have gone until I knew."

If that helps.

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry you had to worry like that, baby," he breathes out softly, covering her hand tenderly.

He can't imagine what she went through, and he moves to lace his fingers with hers now. Hearing everything she's said just cuts him to the core, and he hates that she had to be afraid at all, even for a moment.

Juliet closes her eyes and squeezes his hand tightly.

"I know that was an extreme reaction," she apologizes, suddenly afraid that he might think she would leave for a reason other than not being able to bear being on the island without him.

"Please--please tell me that you know I wouldn't just leave if I didn't what happened to you."

He looks over at her, squeezing her hand so tightly and kissing her forehead. "I know it, Juliet."

For a moment, he wasn't sure; would she leave if he'd just never come home, if he'd just been out there? If he'd made it home a few weeks from now, would she have already been gone? But he believes her, and he kisses her lips softly now.

Her throat still hurts, and after they kiss, she takes a sip of water, wincing a little.

"Eat, baby, so we can go to bed," she urges, squeezing his hand one more time and then letting him go.

He does feel hungry, but he only gets halfway through his sandwich before he's just exhausted and he can't eat anymore. Setting his plate aside, he yawns and kisses her shoulder before getting up and heading to the bedroom. Stripping down, he curls up close to her pillow, waiting for her to join him.

Juliet takes off everything as well, and almost as soon as she's whispered she loves him, she's asleep, sleeping so hard and deep that she never even moves.

At some point she stumbles out of bed to pee, but then she's back and sprawled on top of him, hair crazily spread across his face and chest as she sleeps deeply again.

James is so damn exhausted, too, and he doesn't move at all. When Juliet crawls back into bed with him, he's still deeply asleep, even snoring softly, but his body curves around hers instinctively.

When Juliet finally wakes up, she takes a deep breath and lets it out slowly, blinking open her eyes.

Waking up to him is the most incredible feeling in the world.

Reaching out, her fingers lightly trace his face, and then her hand presses to his chest, resting over his heart as she closes her eyes and just feels. He's alive and with her, and God she had no idea she could love another person this much.

At some point, he starts to rouse a little, grunting softly at first, but then smiling sleepily when he realizes where he is, and who's laying on top of him. "Hey, sweetheart..."

Juliet smiles softly and opens her mouth to speak, but nothing comes out save for a rasp. No voice, then, and so she nuzzles the side of his nose with her own. She can whisper, so that's what she goes with.

"Spent a long time yelling your name."

It sounds like it hurts, even though it doesn't.

As his eyes open, he reaches out now to stroke her cheek tenderly, worried eyes focused on her. "Never wanted to put you through that, baby."

"I know. But you're home. All that matters."

Her fingers lightly move over his face again, finding a tiny, tiny scratch and dragging her thumb over it slowly.

"I was so worried about you. We got to the valley and it was flooded out," she rasps.

"And you didn't think I'd come back?" he asks softly, reaching out to rake his fingers through her hair tenderly.

"I thought the island did what it's always done best to me," she admits.

"It isn't that I gave up on you. It's just...this place, James," Juliet tries to explain feebly, tears blurring her vision as she glances away.

"Screw this damn place." He pulls her a little closer, swiping his thumb across her cheek to brush away the tears. "What we got, it's stronger than anything else."

She swallows hard, and when she looks at him, her trust in him is palpable. She believes him.

"It's you and me, James. Here. Anywhere else."

Juliet presses her forehead to his. "I love you."

"I love you, too." The words come so freely, so easily, and yet every time he says them, he feels like he's coming home for the first time. It's an incredible feeling he wouldn't know how to even explain.

"I ain't ever goin' anywhere without you, Juliet."

"Good." She seals her word with a kiss, then makes slow, easy love with him before they fall asleep again for a little while. When they finally rejoin the world of the living, Juliet makes them something to eat and the rest of the day is fairly lazily spent.

A few afternoons later, Amy comes over to do the makeover she insisted on, and Juliet's in a dress--very 70s, she wants to die a little--and her hair is smooth and straight with a braid wrapped around the crown of her head. She's wearing lipstick to boot, and when she finally looks in the mirror, she's not sure what to think. It's...her, but a version of her that never really existed. Rachel existed as this exact person, and Juliet mostly stayed in her shadow.

After Amy leaves, Juliet just starts getting dinner ready, not bothering to change or take off the makeup, wanting James to see, first.

When James gets home from work that day, he smiles as he steps through the door, delighted by the aroma hitting him. "Hey, sweetheart," he calls out, moving into the kitchen.

The moment he sees her, he takes a good, long look at her from head to toe, resting his hands on her hips. "Damn. Look at you."

"Hey, baby," she says with a soft smile, then blushes all the way to the tips of her ears.

"I look like I'm gonna be on a float in a parade," she says, rolling her eyes while trying to hide a pleased smile.

"You like the dress, huh?"

"I kinda like what's under the dress a little more, but...yeah. Yeah, I like it," he grins, kissing her softly. "And you look damn beautiful, but you mind if we wipe this off?" He asks, meaning the makeup. She just doesn't look like her.

She laughs softly, hands at his sides.

"I don't know why Amy bothers with it on a tropical island. Ditch the makeup, keep the dress?"

For now anyway.

"Keep the dress, but you ain't gonna be wearin' it for long most days," he promises her with a grin, curving his hand around her ass appreciatively.

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