Notes: Here is a new fic that I started last night. Not much written yet, but I have a general sense of where the story is gonna go. Hope you enjoy.

Collision Course

Rachael glances down at her watch as she unlocks the door to her sister's house.

"Seriously Jules", she thinks to herself. "If you were on time just once it would be amazing"

"Juliet" she calls when she enters the house.

She looks around to find the house still in darkness and heads towards Juliet's room. Finding the bedroom door still closed she pushes it open. She sees her sister still sound asleep in the bed.

"Juliet", she calls again approaching the bed.

"Time to get up, you were supposed to meet me at 8:30 at Julian's pre-school. I knew you were going out to a work thing last night", she continues while throwing open the curtains to let some light in the room.

"But honestly Jules, they've never been that exciting that you've slept in the next morning"

When the light hits her eyes, Juliet flips over onto her stomach and pulls the pillow over her head.

"It's too early James I'm not getting up yet."

"James?" Rachael asks confused.

It is then that Juliet realizes that the voice in the room is that of a female and the bed that she is in is not the one that she had been sharing with James. Her mind is a haze of confusion as conflicting memories fly through it. She tries to sort out what she now assumed was a dream, and what was real.

She flips back over pulling the pillow from over her head, and is face to face with her sister.

"Rachael?" she asks confused.

"The one and only", her sister sarcastically replies.

"Rachael", says Juliet again, only confusing her sister more as she jumps from the bed and throws her arms around her.

"God Jules, I saw you yesterday", she continues very confused.

"Just what did you do last night? You were supposed to meet me at Julian's pre-school this morning. We were suppose to go shopping today"

"I'm sorry", she stumbles, looking for the right words, trying to hide her own confusion over what was playing out in front of her eyes.

Rachael just nods her head. Her sister's odd behaviour this morning had caught her off guard but she pushed it off to having just woken her up.

Juliet rubs her hand over her forehead. "I just had the weirdest dream", she said trying to shake off her odd feelings.

"About someone named James I'm guessing"

Juliet gives her sister another odd look.

"You mentioned his name when I opened the curtain's, I was beginning to wonder if your 'work thing' last night was really some hot date you didn't want to tell me about"

Juliet shakes her head she needed some time to think before she addressed that question.

"Let me grab a shower, and I'll get ready to go"

With that Rachael turns and heads out of the bedroom.

"I'll throw on a pot of coffee I'm thinking you definitely need one before we go", Rachael says in response to Juliet's very odd behaviour this morning.

Juliet flips on the radio and enters her bathroom and looks at herself in the mirror. In the background the music plays on the radio.

"When you're alone
And life is making you lonely,
You can always go downtown
When you've got worries,
All the noise and the hurry
Seems to help, I know, downtown

Just listen to the music of the traffic in the city
Linger on the sidewalk where the neon signs are pretty
How can you lose?

The lights are much brighter there
You can forget all your troubles, forget all your cares and go
Downtown, things'll be great when you're
Downtown, no finer place for sure,
Downtown, everything's waiting for you"

She runs her hands through her hair. In the mirror's reflection she notices the faint blue bruises that were beginning to form on her wrists. She pulls up her t-shirt and glances down at her abdomen. There too, bruising was beginning to become evident.

She turns, leans against the wall and slides down it as the memories come flooding back to her.

The chains, they had dragged her down and then he had grabbed her hand.

"Where do you think your going Blondie? Hold on, hold on"

"I love you"

"No, don't you let go", the look of desperation in his eyes.

"I can't, I can't get it off."

"I've got you, hold on I've got you"

"I love you James, I love you so much"

"No"

"It's okay"

"Don't you leave me"

She heard the sound of his voice screaming her name until she landed at the bottom of the pit. And then for a brief period it was darkness. For those brief moments when she opened her eyes and became aware of her situation she truly wished that death had finally taken her. Part of her had always known that dying on the island was her destiny. Instead of heaven, she landed in her own private hell. And then she saw it, the bomb laying there taunting her. Eight times she had hit it, and then again she was taken by darkness.

She becomes aware of the tears dripping from her eyes. It wasn't a dream, it really had happened.

She pulls herself up off the floor and again looks into the mirror, shower momentarily forgotten she wipes the tears from her eyes and races from the bathroom.

"Rachael", she says running to the kitchen.

"What is the date today?"

Rachael takes in the dishevelled appearance of her sister as she enters the kitchen. Juliet was still in her pj's and now appeared to have been crying. Rachael's annoyance at Juliet quickly turns to worry.

"Jules, you are freaking me out here. First you sleep in then you act like you haven't seen me in six years and now you don't know what day it is? What happened to you last night?"

Ignoring her sister's questions Juliet spy's a calendar on the desk in the living room. Running to it, she starts frantically flipping through it. Rachael follows her, putting her hand over Juliet's.

"Its September 8th", she says softly. She places her other hand on Juliet's cheek, moving her head so they are eye to eye.

"2004", she adds seeing the questioning look on Juliet's face.