Title: Baby Steps
Characters: Sawyer, Kate, Charlie, Claire, Jack, Ana, and several other assorted Losties and my own created characters – Ally, possibly Johanna.
Rated: PG-13
Beta-Reader: Sarah
Genre: Drama, Romance, Humor?
Slight Warning: Some sexual moments. If you aren't mature enough to handle it, don't read this story then.
Summary: Kate and Sawyer must deal with the new pregnancy obstacles, among other things. Some very sweet moments to be shared as well.
Quickie:
Welcome one and all to the fourth, yes, FOURTH installment of Skate stories I have written and posted here on (among other sites). I am very sorry about the delay in posting this. It seems there was a problem with adding a new chapter/story.
If you have been reading from "Drawn Together", to "Like a Boomerang", to "Once Upon a Second Chance" to here, then spofulous! I love you dearly and am glad you're sticking it through to read the fourth part.
If you have not read any or all of the aforementioned stories, then please proceed to do so before continuing to read this one. Chances are, if you don't, you might get lost and wonder about some of the things in this story.
So without further adieu, I bid you all a fond reading experience and hope that you enjoy this story. I also hope you don't mind jumping right into it. But please, enjoy!
Chapter 1
A week after the resolution of the biggest argument they'd ever share, Kate's first appointment with her doctor rolled around, sooner than she and Sawyer thought it would. Before they knew it, they were heading into the truck to drive into the town. Sawyer wouldn't wait in the truck this time, like he had before. If this was really going to happen, he'd said, he wasn't going to do it "half-assed". Kate was unusually quiet for the whole ride, staring down at her feet. They pulled into the parking lot, and he turned the truck off. They didn't move.
"You ready?" he asked.
He watched as she suddenly seemed to snap out of a trance. She looked over at him bewildered.
"What?"
"I asked if you were ready," he reiterated.
"Oh. Yeah," she said, reaching for the handle of the door.
"Hey," he grabbed her free hand. She looked up at him, nervously. "No worries, right?"
She smiled weakly. "Right."
They got out and rounded the truck, meeting at the front. Surprising Kate, Sawyer grabbed a hold of her hand as they walked into the office. That simple gesture had already comforted her some.
"Hi," said a nurse who sat behind the front desk. "What's your name?"
Kate swallowed. "Katherine Austen."
The nurse's expression changed for a moment, as she realized who Kate was, but then she was smiling again.
"First time visitor, I take it?"
"Yes," she said, even though she had been there before. But she wasn't playing the part of "Lindsay Sheppard" this time. And the nurse hadn't seen her there before anyway, thankfully.
"Okay. Then you'll need to fill these out, and have a seat. Dr. Park will be with you shortly."
Sawyer stopped before they went to sit down. "This Dr. Park…he good?"
The nurse smiled uncertainly. "That's what I've heard…"
Sawyer stared at her a moment longer, then sat down next to Kate. She was filling out the forms, her head hanging down lower than it probably needed to.
"You all right there, Freckles?"
"Yeah," she said, quietly.
"You need any help with – "
"No."
"You sure?"
"No," she repeated, firmly.
Sawyer sat back, backing off, and grabbed a magazine. A few minutes later, Kate finished filling out the forms and got up to return them to the desk. She sat back down next to Sawyer, stiffly. He noticed it, and put the magazine down, suddenly concerned.
"What's wrong?" he murmured.
She shook her head in response. "I'm fine."
"You look about as stiff as a cardboard box," he joked. "What gives?"
She looked at him, and saw the concern in his eyes. She couldn't deny him. She opened her mouth to speak, but someone else spoke.
"Katherine Austen?" a woman in scrubs called from the door.
Kate stood, quickly, and Sawyer joined her.
"Right this way," the woman gestured.
They followed her into a hallway of different examination rooms. Kate glanced nervously at the contents of each room as they passed them. Huge machines were in one, beds in another, a sad looking couple in the next. She led them to an empty room with one chair and one table/bed. They followed the woman into the room.
"I'm just going to take your height and weight," she said, as she gestured for Kate to go over to the scale.
While Kate was getting measured, Sawyer took a seat on the single chair in the room. The nurse also took Kate's blood pressure, then let her sit down on the table. She left after that, promising Dr. Park would meet them in there momentarily. The door closed and they were in there alone, waiting. Kate folded her hands in her lap, gazing at the floor, frowning. Sawyer found a stethoscope on the counter beside him. He put it on and walked over to Kate.
"Who am I?" he teased.
She smiled. "Put that back."
Instead, he slid his hand under the back of her shirt, pressing the icy stethoscope on her back. She arched from the cold and forced his hand out from her shirt.
"Sawyer, stop."
"Fine," he said, reluctantly, putting the stethoscope back.
Now, he picked up the shoehorn reflex hammer and examined it.
"Lookit this," he said. "They gotta use this to test your reflexes, when there's billions of other ways to do it."
She smiled. "Okay, Doctor Ford."
He grinned. "How 'bout I test your reflexes?" he said cunningly.
"You're going to get us in trouble," she said, the smile starting to fade.
"Not if we don't get caught."
The doorknob turned and the door started to open. Just in time, Sawyer sat back down, putting the hammer back on the counter. An Asian woman walked in with a manila folder. Her dark black hair was tied back in a bun, and she wore a white lab coat.
"Katherine Austen," she turned to Kate with a smile. "I'm Dr. Marcy Park. I'll be your doctor throughout this whole process."
"Kate," Kate smiled weakly.
"Okay, Kate." She looked up.
"Marcy Park, is it?" Sawyer asked.
"Yes…"
"Hm," he shook his head at himself. "Failed to mention that you're female."
"Right," she said uncertainly, then turned back to Kate. "You look familiar. Have I treated you before?"
"No," Kate said quickly, reddening.
"Hm. Okay. Well, first things first."
She handed Kate a small plastic cup. Her stomach churned as she was eerily reminded of memories from when Jack had given her the test on the ship. Kate stared at the cup in a trance, seeming to forget where she was and who she was with.
"I'll need to get a urine sample to make sure everything's definite." Dr. Park paused. "Kate?"
She snapped out of it again. "Sorry. What?"
"Urine sample. Bathroom's right across the way."
"Oh. Right," she said, taking the cup with a trembling hand. She looked back at Sawyer uncertainly.
He watched her leave, wanting desperately to know what was the matter, and wishing he could comfort her.