A/N: This was the first Jack/Kate fic I wrote, in November of 2006. Based on/inspired by the following quote.
"You could put Jack and Kate on a NYC street, and have them pass each other at rush hour on a Wednesday morning, and they would stop and turn, slowing to watch each other go by. They know each other within the context of a universal recognition. They have met before in this life and they will meet again in another. -- JJ Abrams
--
Jack looked down at his watch as he, along with about a hundred other people, bustled along down the streets of New York City. His meeting was in twenty minutes and he was definitely going to be late. Christian Shepherd had jumped through some major hoops to ensure that Jack had been able to come to this surgeon's conference of sorts, and now he was going to be late? The image of his father's lined, disappointed face was already clear in Jack's head.
--
Kate didn't like the city. It was claustrophobic and impersonal and lacked morality. Men and women with their pagers constantly beeping and their cell phones ringing hurried down the streets, all on their way to some important place, all of the belief that wherever they were going took superiority over the destination of anyone else. The streets smelled of garbage, metal, and heavy perfume and it seemed as if there was always a cloud of smoke that hung overhead.
She missed the farm. Missed tracking deer and climbing trees and milking cows. She missed the pancakes and eggs at breakfast, now replaced with some greasy fast food from McDonalds. She missed the animals and swimming in the rivers fully clothed.
But despite the city's flaws, it was a good place to hide.
--
"Oh my God, sir, I'm so sorry!" the woman's voice cried.
Jack nodded defeatedly, trying to reassure, to tell her it was nothing. That he didn't mind when complete strangers bumped into him, spilling coffee all over him.
"No, really, are you okay?" she said shrilly, taking out a napkin from her purse and attempting to mop him up.
"I'm fine," he finally snapped, closing his fingers around her wrist and moving her hand away. "Really, all you're doing is making it worse."
The woman looked affronted, but then her face softened and she reached toward him again.
"No, seriously, I can take it from here," he said, taking a step back. "I got it. I can do it myself."
His brown eyes bore into hers, with no less than a "Fuck off" look in them, and the woman straightened and walked away huffily.
Apparently he didn't have good bedside manner when outside of the hospital, either.
--
There had been some kind of accident. A four car pile-up right in the middle of rush hour. Wonderful.
Kate walked past as quickly as she could, her heart starting to beat faster when she saw the cop cars, the red and blue lights flashing as the blue suited men stood around talking on their walkie talkies. One of them gave her a small smile as she passed and she ran away, utter fear taking over.
When she was a safe distance away, she started walking again, breathing heavily. She felt herself shaking and clumsily pulled her sunglasses out of her purse, putting them on to hide the tears that had started to spring in her eyes.
--
Jack's phone was going off. Cursing, he answered it, ready to apologize to his father for being late.
"Jack, it's me."
"Hey," he said, knowing by the tone of her voice that his wife was upset about something.
"Did you talk to your father?"
"No, Sarah, I haven't," trying not to sound irritated, "I'm not even there yet."
"Well, don't forget," she said, hanging up the phone.
Jack sighed. How could he forget when she was reminding him every five minutes? Sarah wanted him to take some time off, to truly be there for her, to spend time with her. She never understood that taking some time off wasn't that simple for him. He was a doctor. He saved people. Fixed them. He felt incomplete when he wasn't.
Jack had already decided not to ask his dad for time off. He'd simply tell Sarah that he'd said no. She was bound to get angry at him anyway; she'd bought his blue suit a couple of days ago, and now it was stained with coffee.
--
Of course, there just had to be a couple fighting.
A man, considerably larger than the woman yelling up at him. A woman, yelling at him, but trembling all the while, clearly a little bit afraid.
Kate didn't want to watch the exchange, knew it would get to her, but she watched anyway.
Kate could see the woman's tears even from far off, and cringed when the man called her a whore. The woman opened her mouth and said something that Kate couldn't understand and the man slapped her. She stumbled back and touched her cheek gingerly. The man extended his hand and she took it, and they walked down the street together.
Anger boiled in the pit of Kate's stomach as she remembered the abuse her own mother had endured. She remembered blowing her dad up. She didn't feel sorry.
She took her sunglasses off, because she was done crying. At least for today.
--
No one could tell you exactly when or why it happened.
But when they passed each other, time seemed to stop.
They felt like something was pulling on them, tugging them, forcing them to look at the other.
Jack was late for his meeting, but he stopped to look at this woman, dark haired, freckled, and full of pain. She was rugged, wearing dirty jeans and a dark green jacket that was torn at the elbow, in stark contrast to his business suit. She was raw, cheeks stained with red, eyes looking everywhere at once. She was dangerous and forbidden, but she was real. He slowed his pace, only focusing on her.
Kate felt someone looking at her and she looked up. She didn't know who he was, but she felt like she knew him, like she had seen him before in another life. He was normal and stable and upstanding on first glance, but Kate could see something deeper. She could see that he hurt like she did, that he was flawed, that he wasn't perfect. His suit was stained and his eyes looked defeated, showcasing his fear. Fear of what, she didn't know. Failure? Love? Life? But he was like her.
They simply stared at each other, walking as if they were floating, mutually sensing a connection deeper than anything they could ever understand.
And then suddenly, with the sound of a siren and a pager beeping, they snapped out of it. Giving each other a small smile, as if to apologize for not being able to explore what had just passed between them, they walked on.