Jack looked up from clearing away the breakfast dishes. "Don't I think what's a little weird?" he asked.
"Y'know," Boone continued. "The fact that she wants to sell us her baby."
Jack tried not to get annoyed and start a lecture. It wouldn't have any affect anyway. Boone would just look all glazed over while he waited for Jack to finish and then he'd start talking about how he needed to sand down the banister.
"She's not selling us her baby," he replied, trying to sound level. "She's offering to have a baby for us."
"Yeah, and sell it to us," Boone repeated.
"Look, we don't have to do this," Jack told him. "Even if we meet her, we still don't have to do it."
"I'm not saying that," Boone explained. "I just think it's a little weird that she sells babies."
"It's not like it's her profession." It was really far too early in the morning for this.
"You don't think it's even a little bit strange?" Boone asked him.
"I think it's very thoughtful of her," Jack replied.
"Yeah," Boone commented. "She sure gets paid a lot for being thoughtful."
oOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO
They pulled up outside the rather stereotypical suburban house and Jack killed the engine.
Boone looked around. "Well, this place is thoroughly middle of the road."
"Stop being such a snob," Jack told him.
Boone turned to face him. "I wasn't being a snob," Boone pointed out. "I'm not talking about money. I just mean this whole area looks so bland. The houses all look the same. I like a little character is all."
"Well, our place certainly has plenty of that," Jack remarked. "So, you ready?"
"Sure," Boone replied, sounding rather noncommittal.
They both climbed out of the car and headed up to the front door. Jack rang the doorbell and seconds later a woman of around thirty answered the door.
"You must be Jack and Boone, right?" she asked. Jack nodded. "I'm Tayla, come on in." She ushered them into a bright room full of toys. "Excuse the mess, the kids rule this place."
"You've got two, right?" Jack asked.
"Yep, Gracie and Luke," she gestured towards the window which looked out over the backyard.
Jack saw two children playing on the swing set. "They look great."
"They're a handful but they're worth it," she commented. "Anyway, sit down, can I get you guys something to drink?"
"Sure, I'll have a soda," Boone replied.
"Yeah, same, thanks," Jack requested.
"Coming up," Tayla said as she headed out of the room.
Jack and Boone sat down on the sofa and looked around the room. Boone leaned into Jack and said quietly, "Do we have to have toys everywhere like this?"
Jack looked at him. "What?"
"There's toys everywhere. Do we have to do that?" he asked. "It's just that, y'know, I worked really hard on that house, I don't want to have toys everywhere. So we could put them away, right? We could do that?"
God, Boone was adorable. And a little bit insane. And also slightly grating. But adorable usually won over. "Yes, we can put the toys away, Boone."
This seemed to make Boone happy as he nodded a little and leaned back on the sofa. Tayla re-entered with the sodas and handed them over. She sat down across from them. "So, which one of you's the doctor?" she asked.
"That's me," Jack replied. "I'm Jack. This is my partner, Boone."
"And by partner he means boyfriend," Boone added. "Partner makes it sound like we sell double glazing together."
"How long have you guys been together?"
"Just passed the three year mark," Jack replied. "We figured this might be what we wanted to do to mark the occasion, so to speak."
Tayla nodded a little. "Sounds good."
"You said you'd done this before, right?" Boone cut in.
"I've acted as a surrogate once before, yes," Tayla replied.
"So, erm..." Boone seemed to be choosing his words carefully. "But, don't you have a husband?"
"Yes," she replied, not quite sure where this was going. And neither was Jack which was starting to worry him. He willed Boone not to ask anything stupid. But Boone rarely picked up on these things.
"Doesn't he mind?"
"Why would he mind?" she asked simply.
"Well, you're having someone else's baby," Boone stated.
"Yes, but it's not like infidelity. The thing is, I love my children more than anything in the world and I couldn't imagine my life without them. But for now, two's enough for me. And in the meantime, I have all these eggs that are just going to waste. And I really hate the thought of that, especially when there are so many couples out there that, for whatever reason, can't have children of their own. So I want to help them. And my husband understands that," she explained.
Jack was a little envious of her. She had this power to bear children, and to Jack that had always been a huge deal. Ever since Sarah had gotten pregnant after those five months of trying he'd really seen women in a new light. And not as baby machines as Sarah had once claimed in a post-miscarriage fight, but as something special. And Jack was fairly sure that not many women were willing to share this gift with people other than their husbands.
"My sister had a baby," Boone said, apparently out of nowhere. Or maybe Jack had zoned out.
"How old?" Tayla asked.
"She's nearly four months," Boone replied. "She's really cute. And so well behaved it's unreal. They've got this whole routine that they stick to and this baby goes along with it. Well, most of the time. Her dad used to be in the army, though. And her mom's, well... No, I think it's mainly her dad."
Sayid and Shannon had managed to settle Zara into a routine fairly early on. She was by no means a perfect kid, and she definitely cried when she wanted something, but for a four month old baby they didn't know how lucky they were. And Boone and Zara had gotten on great. And Jack was fairly sure that was a rather huge factor in Boone's decision that maybe he did want to be a daddy after all. Boone didn't really understand kids all that much but he could see the attraction.
"She sounds great," Tayla commented.
"Yeah," Boone nodded.
"So now you guys want to start your own family, right?" she asked.
"We've been thinking about it, yeah," Boone replied. "We moved into this new house six months ago and we've been doing a lot of work on it but we're nearing the end and we figured the only thing missing in this family home is a family."
Not exactly the way they'd talked about it, Jack thought. Boone had never mentioned that anything was missing from their home. Well, except various fixtures and fittings. And Boone had never referred to the house as a 'family home' before. It did have a nice ring to it though.
"Well, hopefully that's something I can help you out with," Tayla said with a smile.
They met Tayla's husband and children, who all seemed amazingly understanding about the whole thing, and talked about some of the details of what might happen if they decided to go ahead with this. They all waved Jack and Boone off as they headed back to the car. Jack thought it went well. He just hoped Boone was feeling as positive as he was. When they were in the car he turned to look at him.
"So," Jack began. "What are you thinking?"
"She seems nice," Boone replied simply.
Jack wasn't entirely sure what that meant, but he figured it was a start. He started up the engine.