Title: The shower
Author: Polly
Characters: Jate
Timeline: Season 2, Missing-scene ep. 2x04
Chapters: one-shot
Rating: T
Status: Complete
Summary: Kate finds out a shower in the hatch and decides to take a shower. Jack arrives at the place.
PS: English is not my first language, please forgive my mistakes.
The hatch is definitely a strange place. Its corridors are dark, there's a sinister computer at which we have to type those stupid numbers, but also there are bed comfortable enough and pantry, with foods inside the cans; it doesn't matter if they are damaging, at least they are food. And it has candies. Besides the wild boar meats hunted by Locke (which I didn't eat because I'm vegetarian), fishes taken by Jin and the same fruits as usual, a chocolate is a refined table delicacy.
And today I found one of the most important things for a civilized human being: a shower. Maybe it sounds foolishness, but when I took a shower, I felt a human being again, not a wild. I would say more, I felt like a woman, like I had taken back my dignity. A real shower with shampoo, soap and hot water.
I was alone when I saw a door. Taken by curiosity, I opened it and then I faced this marvelous thing. Immediately I opened the meter and a beam of water dripped down. I put my hands on it and smiled like a child at the sensation of the water bumping into my palm. In a hurry, I found one clean towel in the closet; probably it belonged to that man who had lived here, the Desmond guy. I got the shampoo with Hurley. He and Rose were doing the inventory in the food storage room when I took fast the bottle. I know he didn't like what I did, but I really needed the shampoo, which was almost over. I also took the soap and there I was just me and the shower.
I whispered as I felt the water running through my curls which were hard and mistreated due to the cold water from the fountain near the caverns. Finally I was taking shower with hot water! It was thin water, a weak leak, but I didn't care.
I put some shampoo on my hand and spread it along the hair. It looks like I was taking away some grease; the entire oily thing was gone. A sensation of freshness took me. It was a pleasure so amazing to feel the lathered water sliding through my body!
I soaped myself, scrubbed each inch of skin and I tried to rinse my body under the water, sometimes it was hot, sometimes it was cold.
After being unwilling, I finished the shower; I wouldn't like to spend the scarce water but at the same time, I had cravings of spending hours there.
I took the towel, became dry and passed my fingers through my hair, trying to disentangle them. I barely wrapped my body with the towel when the door opened. I was scared; I almost had been watched by Jack. If he arrived seconds before, he would see me completely naked.
-Hey.
-Hey.
-You, um, you took a shower.
I shivered. Neither flushed I was, I became purple, overwhelmed by shame. And he was as embarrassed as I was at the situation.
-I had to see if it worked.
-How was it?
Jack was watching me, but this time his look wasn't a look of compassion, friendship, caress, comprehension or anger. It was a look of greed; I could notice that his eyes burned in desire. And this made me so nervous that when I got down picking up my clothes on the floor, I dropped my bra. Totally clumsy, I grabbed the stubborn underwear back and answered:
-Uh, pressure sucked, it kind of went cold at one point, and it smelled a little bit like sulfur but – it was a shower.
-I know what you mean.
-You could use one.
I don't know why I was acting like that but when I realized, my lips had already said those words, and I was smiling and flirting with him.
-Maybe a little later.
Jack gave me a shy smile.
-I'll leave the shampoo for you.
It was funny because Jack has always been reasonable and serious but at this time his eyes seemed not to obey his mind and they were delighted by the vision of my wet and almost naked body. Although I was in a towel, Jack undressed me with his eyes.
I left the bathroom and I left him lost with his thoughts. Even I turned my back to him, I felt that he was still watching me from head to toe; he had bent his neck to watch me better. I could imagine his smile a little naughty and I confess that my wicked side loved to do this, to provoke, to let him out of control.
It wasn't the first time that I noticed him looking at me. One day, when we were in the jungle and we stopped for a while to rest, I just asked him if he was checking me out and he answered that if he had been checking me out, I would have noticed. As a matter of fact, I noticed.
Actually, the today's look is not like the other ones he has given to me since the beginning. It's a different look. It's a look of a man watching a woman.
THE END
