A/N: This fic is for sweetbelle07 over at LJ. Jate, Jate, and more Jate. Spoilers through "I Do." Mild language and one brief mention of Skate together-ness, in an acusatory way. A very cautious T.
Disclaimer: Jack, Kate, and Lost aren't mine. Almost every word of the dialogue was taken directly from "I Do." I don't own that either."Jack? Jack?"
Her voice comes through the speaker slightly strangled, but all Kate. Strong and sure and ready. He takes one very deep breath.
"Kate? You have about an hour head start before they come after you."
An hour. An hour that is ticking by now. An hour to get them free. An hour to save Ben's life. An hour to decide his own fate.
"Wait, where are you, where are you?"
Typical Kate. Ignoring the point. He takes another breath because he is going to miss hearing typical Kate. He takes another breath and ignores her point in return.
"You remember what I told you on the beach? The day of the crash, you remember the story I told you when you were stitching me up?"
The first day he met her and he saw only a woman who could sew him up, not a woman who he would fall in love with. And now he relives that moment, just for an instant, reveling in her touch on his bare arm that meant nothing then. Not like it would now.
There is a pause and he can't afford any pauses now. He might fill them with four letter words, words that start with "l" and end with "e", and that have an "o" and a "v" in between.
"Do you remember?!"
Shouting now. He can practically hear her flinching over the walkie-talkie and he hates himself for the barest of moments. Just for that.
"Yes! Yes, yes I remember!"
He stops and he swallows because she sounds so defeated, and inside he is writhing. He never thought he would be the one to make her sound like that.
"When you get safe, you radio me and tell me that story --"
Radio him so that his heart can stop pounding against his rib cage and his head can stop throbbing so uncomfortably and his muscles can relax, even if only by a fraction.
"Jack please --"
She sounds like she's in some overdone soap opera. Like she's about to declare some kind of undying love for him. That would be just like them -- to profess love via walkie-talkie. They are like that. Distant.
"If I don't get a call from you in the next hour, I'm gonna know something went wrong and he dies!"
He shouts the last two words. He can't always sound like a doctor. Especially not with her on the other end of the walkie-talkie.
"I can't leave without you."
He needs her to shut up before he does declare his love via walkie-talkie.
"Yes you are. Go."
No "can." "Are." She needs to go. She needs to because he can't leave until he knows she's safe. And he needs to leave.
"Jack I can't."
It's getting to the point where he can't ignore the sobs coming out of the walkie-talkie. It makes him want to throw it across the room. Cover his ears. Bash the speaker in.
"Go! Go now!"
"Jack I can't!"
"Kate damn it, run!"
There is a pause. A long pause, and he can hear her ragged breathing, and his own. The pause is full of hesitation. Hesitation. From Kate. She never shows him her hesitation. His breath catches, just for an instant. But this is not the time.
"Okay Jack." She says very quietly. "Okay."
But he can always tell when she is lying.
A/N: I hope you all enjoyed it! Please let me know what you thought.