After getting three reviews in two days, I didn't see the point of updating "Going Back", especially when I'm already having one of the crappiest weekends of my life, so I decided to post this instead. I love Juliet, so I wanted to try my hand at writing Jacket, but I can never bring myself to turn my back on Jate, so what we we're left with is Juliet angst based on the quote from D.O.C. about good news. It's set some time after season three, when Jack and Kate are together... ;)
GOOD NEWS
Chapter 1.
"Once upon a time, I told women that they were pregnant and their faces, it was the best news they ever got in their entire life. Then I came here. I've lost, nine, patients in the last three years. I'm helping you because I want to tell you that you and your husband got pregnant before you came here. I'm helping you because I wanna give good news again."
Something had changed between them. Juliet wasn't sure what, or how she knew, but it was different; they were different.
For one thing, they were always together now.
She'd see them walking along the beach of a morning, close enough that their shoulders bumped, their hands brushed, their legs travelling in perfect sync.
When evening came they would settle by the glow of the same fire, sometimes laughing, sometimes silent, but always together.
She never stayed long enough to find out what happened next.
Watching Kate emerge from the jungle alone, Juliet wasn't surprised when Jack cut his conversation with Claire short and jogged up to meet her. If one of the other survivors wandered off, it could take him hours to notice, but somehow with Kate, he always knew where she was… or at least, where she wasn't.
She looked nervous, shifting her weight and fidgeting as she spoke. He grew concerned, his brow furrowing as he touched her arm, and she dropped her hands, flashing him a guarded smile. Juliet wasn't sure what they were talking about, but when they both shot furtive glances in her direction, she realised that it whatever it was, she was somehow involved. Or would be; Jack started towards her, but Kate pulled him back, and seconds later, they traded places.
Once it became apparent that Kate was on her way over to her, Juliet pretended not to notice, staring out at the horizon even when she dropped into the sand beside her, drawing her knees up to her chest. She wasn't interested in hearing what she was going to accuse her of this time; she thought that if she waited, maybe Kate would take the hint and go back to Jack, but she didn't, sitting in silence for so long that Juliet began to wonder if there wasn't another reason for her visit.
"Nice day, isn't it?" Kate said after a long moment, forcing a smile, "Kinda makes you wish you'd packed your bathing suit," and it was then that Juliet realised she had no intention of confronting her.
She wanted something.
She was working her way up to asking, but Juliet wasn't in the mood for games. "You and I both know you didn't come here to talk about the weather, Kate," she told her. "So how about we just cut to the chase? What are you really doing here?"
As much as she disliked her, Juliet's respect for the younger woman increased when she dropped the pretence and turned to meet her eyes. "I want you to do some tests, like you did for Sun," she confessed, and Juliet lost her sense of superiority when it occurred to her why Kate was asking her and not Jack.
"You're pregnant," she guessed, doing her best to keep the hurt from her tone. Right now Kate thought Juliet was the one who had something she wanted; Juliet wasn't about to give her a reason to question that.
Seeing her troubled look as she stared back out to sea, Juliet felt a glimmer of hope. "Does he know – Sawyer?"
"Sawyer has nothing to do with this," Kate assured her, causing Juliet's heart to sink even further this time. So she was right, there was something going on between them; more than something, everything. "And I'm not sure – that's why I need you to do the tests."
"So what you're saying is, you want me to help you?" Juliet repeated, an ironic grin spreading over her face. She might have laughed, if she didn't feel like someone had just sucker punched her in the stomach, forcing all of the air from her lungs.
"If it makes a difference, Jack was going to ask you, but I told him I thought it would mean more coming from me," Kate continued, and Juliet wondered if she was trying to rub it in. Not that she needed to; her just being there was enough.
She wanted to say no now that she'd learned how, but she'd taken an oath, not just to her patients, but to herself, not to let any more women die on this island. "We're going to need to go to the medical station," she told her with a sigh. "That's where all my equipment is."
The sun was low in the sky by the time Juliet pushed open the heavy doors, poking her head inside and listening to make sure that it was still abandoned.
She would have preferred that it was just the two of them – Kate on her own she could handle – but Jack had insisted on coming; once she was sure that the coast was clear, she waved them through into the tunnel.
She had to wait for them to pass before she could seal the entrance again, her vantage point behind them allowing her to note the way Jack picked up Kate's hand, squeezing it. Watching their fingers twine together, she tried to imagine what it would be like to be loved by someone like him, to have his strong arms comfort her, and be at the heart of his protective urges. She wondered if Kate knew how lucky she was.
Not for the first time, she wished she wasn't so busy fighting for her life back in the real world that she'd missed her chance at one in this one.
"I just wanna thank you again for doing this for us, Juliet," Jack told her, turning back to her with a warm smile, almost as if sensing her thoughts.
"Sure. No problem," she heard herself say before she could formulate a more honest answer, feeling like the same shy, mousy woman who'd watched her ex husband traipse around with girls half his age. "Right this way."
She led them into the examination room, gesturing for Kate to climb up onto the bed, relaxing when Jack was forced to let go of her hand. Knowing was bad enough; she didn't need to see proof.
"I'm going to need some blood, for a blood test," she told Kate as she washed her hands and took out a syringe, and to her credit, she didn't argue, sticking out her arm, biting down on her bottom lip and turning away, towards Jack, as the needle went in.
He put a hand on Kate's shoulder, but as she moved over to the bench, Juliet saw him shift it to her waist, crouching down to speak to her in a low voice.
She couldn't hear what he was saying, but whatever it was, it seemed to reassure her; she found their reflections in a surgical tray in time to see Kate smile, resting her forehead against his as they snuck in a couple of short kisses. They didn't seem to realise that she could still see them, or if they did, they didn't care.
So it was with something bordering on retribution that she announced, "You're definitely pregnant," taking a strange kind of pleasure in the way their expressions changed, becoming grave, Kate's eyes filling with tears.
"What happens now?" she asked her, and seeing how small and frightened she looked, Juliet found herself softening towards her. She didn't want her to die; far from it; but their happiness made her unhappy, especially when she wasn't convinced that after everything she'd put him through, it was what Kate deserved.
"I'm going to do a sonogram so we can see what we're dealing with," she explained, motioning for Kate to lie back as she pulled the monitor closer, and with Jack's help, she did, bunching up her tank top to expose the taut skin beneath her navel.
"This is going to be cold," Juliet told her as she squirted out thin line of gel, rolling the wand back and forth until she heard the steady thrum that was all too familiar to her.
"There it is – there's your baby," she said, half to them, and half to herself, circling the grainy mass with her fingertip. But for the first time in her career, she didn't share their excitement; she felt left out as she watched Kate grip Jack's hand, beaming at him even as she began to lose her composure.
"Hey, it's gonna be okay," he murmured, choking back a sob of his own as he smoothed the bangs from her temples. "I'm gonna get you out of here. I won't let anything happen to you – you or our baby – you know that right?"
Kate nodded, bursting into fresh tears as he leant in to seal his promise with a tender kiss. "We're having a baby," she whispered with a laugh when he pulled back, wrapping her arms around him and burying her face in his neck.
They seemed to have forgotten that she was there, so propping the wand up so that the picture remained on the screen, Juliet slipped out into the locker room, closing the door and letting her back fall against it.
She'd given them good news, just like she'd wanted, but good for who?