Buried Treasure
A Kate/Jack fiction by K. Harman
Author's Note: I don't know why I like this 'ship, I just do. Don't flame me about the pairing. This was written post "The Moth" – I'm Australian and we're a little behind the rest of the world - in Lost episodes at least. So I'm not spoiling this for anyone, I shouldn't think.
Disclaimer: Honestly, if I had anything to do with running Lost, would Kate have kissed Sawyer at all? I think… not.
She knew now why it was that she could not leave him to die in the cave-in. Why it was she had bolted as soon as Sawyer had finally told her what Charlie had asked him to. Whit it was that she kept digging, frantic and desperate, while Michael had begged her to take a break and let the others do some of the work. As she washed herself slowly with water from her bottle, removing the dirt caked onto her skin and under her nails, she sighed as she thought of what had happened. At the time, she had been in such a state of terror she thought she would never smile again, but now she was glad, because for the first time in so long she had felt something real, not terror or fear or relief. It overjoyed Kate that finally, she was allowed to be human, to be happy and sad and …in love, like everyone. And even after years of running and surviving she could still feel all those things. And what feelings they were…
She had grown to trust Jack more than anyone she had known since her childhood. She was intensely proud that she had a relationship in which she could trust him and he even seemed to trust her in return. Her first true relationship in years - no wonder she couldn't leave him.
It ran deeper than that though – it wasn't just that he was her first friend. All the other survivors could see it. When the cave-in occurred, one of the first things Charlie had been told was "Someone had better tell Kate." It did have a strange feel to it though, and it was not the first time it had happened. 'If Jack's in trouble, find Kate' she though wryly. It was like being the next of kin, most important to someone, but always the first told when something went wrong. 'How… comforting.' Yet really Kate was pleased and she smiled. She could see what it meant – they all recognized the bond that she and Jack shared. She continued to wonder, though, whether Jack knew how she felt.
From the beginning it had been there – that feeling she had known Jack forever. Since they had met on the edge of the jungle and she had stitched him up they had been… linked really. They told each other where they were going, looked out for one another… They didn't fight until the night Sawyer killed the marshal. Even after that, though, he seemed to have faith in her. He saw that she could be more than a girl with a mug shot and a past she wouldn't talk about. That was the most precious thing to her – the ever-present, living bond they shared, more than a friendship, far more than comradeship, almost love really. It wasn't a familial love, and not yet a romantic love – but she could dream right? How much she wanted to share something like that with Jack. The possibility glittered - the sun on the horizon. Yes, that was what she had been digging for today. The hopes she had for the future – wrapped up in the one man she thought could love her.
She smiled again – this time at him, as he watched her over the campfire, arm wrapped in the sling she had made. He smiled back.