Title: Still Not Found
Pairings/Characters: Jack/Kate
Spoilers: Random things all through season one and two, I guess.
Disclaimer: I do not own anything except this plot idea,
characters & all that goodness are not mine sadly.
Announcement: I wrote this a while ago and found it on
my computer yesterday night before I went to sleep. I printed it off and edited
it like mad. So here it is. I don't know where I'm going with this, but yeah.
R&R and let me know if you want me to continue. ALSO, a big plea here: I
need a BETA. I've been giving most of my chapters for my friend to read and
she's fantastic, but I would love to have a BETA. Anyone interested? Please
e-mail me!
Anyways, here it is.
The new hospital smell was becoming a bit too much for Jack. The brand new staff room was new, but hardly improved, and hardly any larger. The coffee maker didn't pour out caffeine goodness, just brown water. Jack could bet all his money that the couches were at least as old as he was, if not older. Or it just him or are the walls moving in closer and closer as he sat there flipping through a three year old Times Magazine?
"That's it," he thought to himself, "I need some air."
Despite the break room's crummy appearance, the Emergency Room's waiting room, operating rooms, offices and reception area was all new and very twenty first century.
Jack started walking through the automatic sliding doors and headed towards the park just across the street. It was a thick park, a lot of trees of all shapes and sizes surround, almost swallow up, the twisting dirt path. After two years, roughly seven hundred and thirty days of surroundings very similar to this, it is hard to go back.
And now, nearly a year and a half after the rescues, Jack still can't feel "normal". It is abnormal to not hear Charlie's guitar strums, to eat anything not picked off a tree or hunted down by John, to not wake up to the smell of ocean water, to not hear her laugh…
As crazy as it may sound, Jack missed the island and everything, everyone associated with it.
Especially Kate.
He sits down on a wooden bench and his mind hits the "replay" button just like it does everyday for the last year and a half…
They
were picking fruit, mangos, as they did every morning after they woke
up. At
first it was a coincidence. Kate was walking from the beach in hunt
of food and Jack was craving anything but boar. Their paths crossed
and they realized they had a common goal.
Then it became a weekly thing. That developed to an every other day thing. And finally a daily meeting. They would meet halfway through the caves and the beach and headed deep into the jungle where the better fruit grew.
On this particular day, they took longer than usual walking towards the trees, picking the mangos, placing them in the backpacks, and taking breaks.
They
talked little at first, testing the waters with neutral questions but
as days turned to weeks, it escalated to no-boundaries conversations. Kate
and Jack must have spent their whole morning climbing the trees in
search for food. After realizing how high the sun actually was, they
decided to head back. The caves were the first stop on the path, so
Jack quickly walked down the path to the left that led to the caves
while Kate stood a snacked on their pickings. Jack
walked down the path and saw emptiness. Nothing. No one. A few
random, empty pieces of luggage, air plane plates filled with
unfinished food from breakfast or lunch, and air plane seats and
blankets was scattered across the cave. No people, just left behinds.
"Kate…?" Jack called. "Kate? Come here…" His voice was filled with confusion.
Kate walked in behind him, carrying the beach's mangos, "What…oh my god. Where is everyone?"
They stood for a few seconds and then quickly turned around, running the two miles back to the beach.
As he was running, Jack didn't know what to think. His mind raced through millions of ideas: stupid prank, they hid in the hatch like we said to do if something bad came along, others… All were wrong though.
Everyone was there as they Jack and Kate stopped in the clearing. They were all dancing around, hugging each other and screaming their lungs out. Jack had a puzzled look on his face, "What the hell…"
"Jack…" a tiny smile was painted on her face, her gaze was set on the ocean, "look…"
And there it was. A huge military ship with four tiny powerboats speeding towards the shore.
Jack turned towards her, "Kate…" He ignored the fact that they were about to be rescued, this was more important to him.
She faced him too, "I'm not going to run, Jack." And she started walking off the path and onto the sandy beach.
He followed her, exactly two steps behind her. Finally, as they were steps behind he called out her name one more time, "Kate."
"All or nothing," he thought to himself.
He took a hold of her hand and spun her around. Jack took a deep breath and kissed her.
At first it was gentle, a "good-bye" kiss, but the longer their lips were planted together, the deeper, more loving and more passionate it became. Finally, they parted after the catcalls and laughs became hard to ignore.
They grinned like fools, and watched their friends – yes, friends. They weren't survivors, they were friends – celebrate. They didn't join in, just stood in a gentle, standing embrace.
By now the tiny speedboats arrived. A man dressed in a suit and his right hand holding onto the gun in his belt walked past the crowd and headed straight towards Kate, while other professionals checked on everyone.
She shot Jack a nervous look. As the others climbed onto the tiny rescue boats, Jack held onto Kate's hand as the man read her her rights.
The energetic beep of Jack's brand new beeper (courtesy of the hospital, a welcome back gift) went off, snapping him back to reality. The hospital paged him, saying a woman needs stitches. He groaned; this is the closest thing he has to her, to the island.
Despite it all, he had to head back to the hospital, head back to his now reality. To stitch up whatever injury. To fix whatever needed to be fixed.
Back across the street and through the automatic sliding doors, Jack headed to the reception desk.
"Hey there, Rosie. You rang?"
The mid-50's women smiled, "Yes. A woman is here; she cut up her arm. From my guess, nothing big, but she insisted on checking it out. She's in room three." With that she handed Jack a folder and went back to her paper work.
The minute the boat hit the dock and the captain stepped out, flashing light bulbs went off and news reporters' pleas for an interview began. Almost everyone ignored the noise, or just gave a quick "Yeah, I'm peachy keen" to some questions. Charlie, along with Claire and toddler Aaron, ignored them all and headed straight for the large limo Oceanic Airlines was so kind to donate. Sawyer quickly said a few quick and unpleasant words on Oceanic, but disappeared within 30 seconds. Michael put on a protective father image and led Walt to the limo. Locke and Hurley also made quick statements, though not as vulgar as Sawyers. Everyone was off the boat and waiting except for Kate and Jack and the kind officer that was to lead her off.
"We've got to get moving, Miss." The officer informed for the fifth time.
"Good-bye, Jack." She said quietly. And with that, in handcuffs, she was lead onto the dock and into a black hummer, where she would be put in custody.
It was Jack's turn to walk into the spotlight. Chest out, head high, Jack walked through the flashing lights and loud, mixed voices giving a cliché statement to the thirsty reporters, "I am happy to be alive. It was a hard two years but we made it. And mom? I love you…"
Jack arrived home, after a cruel flight from Australia to LA, to see that his answering machine was filled with messages.
"You have ninety-nine new messages. Message one: (beep) 'This is a message for Jack Sheppard, you have an appointment at one o'clock this coming Thursday, the eighth…'"
Jack turned the machine off, knowing it is pointless to be listening to two-year-old messages.
He called his mother. Told her again what happened with her husband, his father. He tells her the basic ups and downs off the last two years. When she finally realized that it was two in the morning for Jack she lets him go and he falls into a restless sleep in his old apartment that his mother never sold while he was gone.
He gently pulled open the curtain. Jack set his speech on automatic, "Hi, I'm Dr. Jack Sheppard. What seems to…" and he stopped in the middle of his routine speech when he looked up from his file.
In the flesh, the woman he had been thinking about, dreaming about, missing for the last year and a half was sitting on the chair, smiling. She still had the same beige capris, and same green t-shirt. Her hair was still curly, still brown, just a bit shorter. Freckles were in place and the same smile was grinning. The only thing different would have to be her wearing flip-flops. He had never seen her wear flip-flops.
"Kate…" was all Jack could say.
"Hey, Jack." She's still smiling and she walks over and hugs him.
He hugs her back, tightly, unaware if this is a mirage, "What…how?" Jack still couldn't speak.
"Ssh, it's okay. Look, we'll figure that out later. Right now, I'm just so glad I finally found you." Kate said, still inches away from him. "When's your shift done?"
It took Jack a few seconds to mutter, "About four?"
"Okay. I'll be back around then." She smiled and headed out the shower curtain door.
"Wait, Kate," Jack could finally speak, "What about your cut?"
She grinned, "Oh this thing? It's fine. Not even worth looking at."
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