Gravity Rides Everything
Disclaimer: I own neither 'Grey's Anatomy' nor 'Lost'. Also, I realise Jack's last name in 'Lost' is spelt Shepard but I've changed it's spelling for story telling purposes.
Chapter One: Never Tear Us Apart
-:: I was standing,
You were there.
Two worlds collided,
And they could never tear us apart::-
"Nancy, can you bring Derek in please?" Mary Shepherd had a shrill voice, but still it sounded sweet, like honey. She stood on the back porch at their modest sized house in New Jersey, watching her youngest daughter and only son climb down a knotted rope hanging off the grand oak tree that stood stoically in their modest sized yard.
"Nancy, please it's getting dark!"
"Coming, Mama," came Nancy's voice. She was half way down the rope, watching Derek, her five-year-old brother sitting in a branch, his arms tight around another branch.
"I'm not coming down," he sang, his blue eyes piercing Nancy's brown ones. "Uh-uh. I'm gonna sleep here all night."
"Fine," Nancy agreed. "Stay here all night then. We'll all be inside though, and we sure won't hear your screams when the bogey man comes." She jumped down to the ground, brushing the dirt off her hands and poking her tongue at her brother before turning around and running indoors.
Mary Shepherd turned around at the sound of the door opening. She looked at Nancy, dirt stained jeans and a muddy t-shirt, her hair in good need of a wash.
"Oh Nancy," she sighed. "Get in the bath, and where on earth is your brother? DEREK!" As she called, her son burst through the door, his eyes moist as though threatening tears.
"Mama, Nancy said the bogey man'd get me," the five year old said, finally relenting to his tears with the promise of his mother's warm arms.
"Nancy Marie Shepherd, what have I said about scaring your brother?" Mary said sternly. Nancy's face morphed into an apologetic smile.
"I'm sorry Mama," she said, "Sorry Derek." Mary ruffled Derek's hair, and then tugged his shirt over his head.
"Git in the bath with Nancy tonight," she ordered and Derek, her youngest boy who loved his mother more than anything, complied.
- - -
"Dad, why you always going away?" Christian Shepherd ruffled his son's hair and kissed Lynette, his wife's cheek.
"I'm a doctor, Jack," he said by way of explanation, extending his hand to shake with the six year olds. "Take care of your mother, now." Jack nodded seriously, inadvertently straightening his posture to mimic his father's confident stance.
"I will dad, I'll take real good care of her."
"Really good" amended Christian. "You'll never be a doctor if you speak that way."
Christian passed through the check in counter at LA International, barely glancing back at his wife and son who stood watching him retreat, Lynette absent-mindedly playing with the fine brown hair that sat at the nape of Jack's neck.
"C'mon, big guy," she said when Christian finally disappeared from view. "You got yourself a baseball game now, and what would the Beverly Hills Bears do without their star catcher?"
- - -
Mary was icing a cake. She'd made a choc-vanilla swirl cake, her husband's favourite, and was now piping the words 'Welcome home Daddy!' atop the creamy chocolate frosting.
"Can I lick the bowl?" Derek asked, hovering around his mother as he usually did. Mary passed him the bowl, telling him to offer his sisters' some. He didn't, instead sitting on the swing on the front porch, eating some batter but mainly plastering his face in chocolate.
He saw the taxi pull up shortly after, emitting a squeal of delight. "Daddy's home!" he exclaimed, hearing the sound of his five sisters exit their rooms and join him on the porch.
"Dad!" They waved as he walked up the path, smiling, his arms extended so his six children could embrace him. Derek got there first, embellishing his father's crisp white business shirt with chocolate cake mixture.
"How are my girls?" he asked Molly, Roísín, Kathleen and Nancy whilst picking Derek up and sitting him on his shoulders.
"We missed you daddy," said Molly, speaking on behalf of the girls.
"Yes," Kathleen agreed. "A week goes so slowly when you're gone and so quickly when you're home. Do you have to go to Los Angeles each week?"
"Unfortunately," Christian Shepherd said. "There are more patients for me there."
"So why can't we all go to LA? We could live there," suggested Molly. "I've always wanted to live by the stars."
"California's no place to raise a family," said Mary, joining the family out the front. "We like the New Jersey air." Christian hugged Mary, placing a kiss on her cheek. "Don't we?" she added for confirmation, and Christian nodded.
"We certainly do. Now Derek, tell me is that cake mixture you've gotten all over my shirt? Because if it is I'll be happy, but if it isn't, I'll have to spank you."
The Shepherd's all laughed in unison, as Mary ushered them into the house for dinner, cutting the cake as they sat around the coffee table that evening, playing rummy.
Through the window, they really looked like the perfect family.
- - -
Jack lay in bed, watching the luminescent stars his father had stuck on his ceiling the day after he announced his fear of the dark. Unfortunately however, they didn't look like the windows to heaven his mother had told him stars were. They looked like glow in the dark star cut outs.
"Mom?" Jack asked that night when Lynette came to kiss him goodnight.
"Mmm?" she said, kissing his forehead. "You smell delicious, Jacko," she said. "Like apple pie." Jack ignored her, and continued.
"It's dad's birthday tomorrow." She nodded in agreement.
"Why is he never home for his birthday?" Lynette sighed for her son, who barely saw his father due to his demanding cross-continental job.
"Daddy's busy at work, Jack. He's so important he has his own clinic in New York City as well as here. He has to make money so we can pay for you to go to Sunset Prep. You like Sunset prep, hey?" Jack nodded.
"Can't we surprise him? We could go to New York and wait in his hotel room with a cake and give him a birthday surprise." Lynette looked at her son's eager face. It was hard to resist. Jack, like his father, had a certain natural ability at puppy eyes.
"We can't, Jacko. But it's a lovely idea." She leant forward and gave him a hug. "I love you," she added and Jack nodded, whispering 'I love you too' back to his mother.
When he woke up, he noticed his clock was late. 8.15. Usually, he'd be on the school bus. He climbed out of bed, disoriented, thinking they must have had a power outage that night.
"You up, sleepyhead?" Lynette called, hearing the familiar thud of Jack getting out of bed, and then the confirmational flush of the toilet.
"Am I late?" he asked, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes and pouring Coco Pops into a bowl.
"Yes," she said excitedly. "But not today. Because you and I? Are going to New York!" Jack looked delighted, spilling the milk he was pouring.
"Really?" he asked, looking at his mother disbelievingly. She nodded.
"I rang this morning. There are two coach tickets left on the 10.30 flight. We should be there by late this afternoon." Jack threw his arms around his mother, delighted.
- - -
They boarded their flight, Jack armed with a colouring book, Lynette with a selection of trashy magazines. She had in her purse the details Christian left her of his stay in New York. She'd even ordered a cake with 'Happy Birthday Chris' piped on it to be picked up on her way to the Waldorf, where Christian stayed each week.
- - -
They arrived, Lynette clutching Jack's hand as they waited at the concierge desk.
"Christian Shepherd?" Lynette nodded. "Yes," she said, "I'm his wife. Lynette." The woman looked quizzically at Lynette and the small boy by her side. She concluded he resembled Christian enough to believe her.
"Well then you should know he never actually stays here. He always books the room but stays at his house in Emmettsville." She smiled at Lynette and resumed her typing.
"Emmettsville? Where's that?" Lynette was beyond confused.
"New Jersey," said the woman. "He has a property there. I think it's a next to a winery. Hudson's winery maybe?"
"Oh yes," said Lynette slowly. "Of course. Silly me. Thankyou…" she glanced at the woman's name tag. "Diana. Thankyou."
- - -
"Mom? Where we going?" Jack was sitting patiently in the taxi, the cake on his lap, however he still looked confused.
"Apparently Daddy has a house in New Jersey," Lynette said through gritted teeth. "Let's check it out."
"Lady," the Hispanic cab driver said as they finally passed the "Welcome to Emmettsville, Population 20, 000" sign. "Where we going now?"
"Hudson's winery?" she said, hoping it rang a bell. Apparently it did, and presently they pulled up outside the winery. Lynette noticed a house to the left with a sign proclaiming 'Shepherd's Den'. She paid the seventy dollars sodding five and ushered Jack out the car. She couldn't help but notice the bikes on the porch, the swing and the golden retriever dog barking at she and Jack, standing dumbfounded outside the house.
It was a nice house, double storey with steel blue awnings and a slate roof. Very different from their L.A. home. Okay, she thought. Here we go. They walked past the dog who settled on the ground, satisfied they were honest people.
"Mom, this is some other family's house. Dad won't be here." Lynette ignored her son, and stepped up the porch, hesitantly ringing the wrought iron bell that hung precariously from a hook on the roof. She could hear voices inside.
- - -
The doorbell was ringing insistently while the Shepherd's were having dinner. Mary had made a lasagne that night, Christian's birthday favourite, and her husband and children were complimenting her cooking skills endlessly.
"I'll get it," said Roísín, pulling back her chair and setting her knife and fork down. "I'm done." Mary nodded her assent, and she walked down to the front door, the bell still ringing.
"Coming!" she called, a slight Irish twang emerging in her rushed state, inherited of course from her mother who'd been born and grown up there.
She pulled back the latch, surprised to see a woman and child about Derek's age, but deciding it was probably a cub scout selling key chains.
"Hello," said the woman. "Is there a…Christian Shepherd home?"
"Yes there is," said Roísín, quite surprised. "Umm…daddy, it's for you!" she called down the hallway, the scraping of a chair indicating her summon had been answered.
"Daddy?" Lynette quizzed quickly. "You're his…daughter?"
"Yes," Roísín replied. "One of them."
"One of them? How many are there?"
Roísín looked confused by the drilling of questions. "Four daughters, one son. But…"
Roísín felt her father's footsteps in the corridor behind her, and waved goodbye to the lady. "Ask him yourself," she said smiling, retreating back to finish her meal.
- - -
"Lynette?" Christian looked utterly horrified to see her. He ushered her onto the porch shutting the door behind him. "What are you doing here?"
Lynette looked at him with raised eyebrows. "You're not going seriously ask me that are you? It's your birthday. You're son wanted to surprise you!" At that Christian noticed Jack standing quietly behind his mother.
"Hey, Jacko," said Christian extending his arms, Jack coming forth and hugging him. "He can't be here when we do this," Christian whispered over his shoulder. "Give me one second."
He entered the house and came back with a five-year-old boy. He had curly dark brown hair, piercing blue eyes and was, for a child Lynette thought, exceptionally handsome.
"Jack, this is Derek." The two boys waved and then proceeded to play, Derek teaching Jack how to climb the knotted rope into the extravagant tree house that sat in the apple tree in the front yard.
"You just put your foot on 'em," Derek called down, watching as Jack finally pulled himself up.
"That is so cool," Jack exclaimed. "Did your dad make it?"
"Uh-huh," Derek said proudly. "And me, Nancy and my friend Mark."
- - -
Look, Christian? You need to tell me what the hell is going on! I get to the Waldorf and they tell me you're in Emmettsville, New Jersey. Where the fricken hell is Emmettsville anyway! And I'm guessing Mrs Obviously Catholic in there has no idea your two sons are playing cubby houses out here either!"
"Don't talk about Mary that way!" Christian said immediately, defending the woman he'd been married to 14 years.
"Oh yes, you definitely have the moral high ground here, don't you!? You mean to tell me when you come to New Jersey you live here, and build cubby houses and do jack all and when you're in LA you're legitimately working? Does that mean you love them more?"
"Don't start this, Lynette. You know I think…"
"Don't start this?! Maybe I wouldn't have if when you met me seven years ago you'd told me you were married with children!" Lynette was absolutely fuming. "Where's your wife in all this anyway? Do you think you ought to tell her?"
"I can't let her find out this way," he said calmly as if they were talking about a picnic being cancelled due to rain. "Please. Take Jack to the Waldorf. I'll come and see you tomorrow, we'll talk it through."
"You can't let her find out this way? What about me and Jack?" Lynette was sobbing hysterically. "What about me and Jack?" Christian pulled Lynette into his arms, stroking her blonde hair gently.
"Shhh," he whispered into her ear. "I'll be okay."
"But Chris…if it was them or us? Who would you pick?"
- - -
Christian had been outside with the Cub Scout for an inordinately long time. Mary scraped the dishes, and them asked Molly and Kathleen to finish washing them whilst she investigated.
She opened the front door and the first thing she saw was Christian, hugging a pretty blonde woman, stroking her hair. Derek was in the tree house with another brown haired boy.
"Christian?" she called, confused. He immediately withdraw from the blonde. Mary could tell she'd been crying.
"Are you all right, love?" Mary ventured, to which the blonde nodded hurriedly. "Chris, what on earth?" Lynette extended her hand, and Mary accepted.
"Lynette Shepherd," she said, "Christian's other wife."
- - - - - - - -
Author's Note: Well, this idea came to me after a LOST and GREYS marathon, my two favourite TV shows. (Favourite of the variety to which I'm addicted). It's always been in my mind, but I've never trusted my own knowledge of LOST enough to venture into it. But I took a deep breath and started. So, Christian Shepherd. Do you like him? He has a nerve to talk to Lynette the way he does during 'the confrontation', but it's quite clear he really loves both her and Mary, and his children to death. (Though it is clear Jack has a lot more fatherly pressure than the other Shepherd children). I guess why he decided to marry Lynette despite being married will arise later in the story, but for now all we know is this: he's a doctor, with two lives. He works in Los Angeles, so technically he has never lied to Mary about his weekly travel; he doesn't work in New Jersey- he stays at home with Derek (who by the way hasn't started school yet) and Mary and the girls. So Lynette is rightfully upset and right in thinking that he has less regard for his LA family because there is a marked difference in how interacts with both. However, he wouldn't have married Lynette if he didn't love her so it's just another complex situation. And (obviously) he never wanted to be discovered. Anyway obviously he earns enough to comfortably care for six children and two wives, that's not a problem, and he's definitely tried covering tracks, by booking his room at the Waldorf even though he never stays there. (And I'm sure his phone line there is diverted to his cell).
But…little Jack and little Derek. I think in LOST and GREYS there is more than a one-year age gap between the two, but seriously, this is quite evidently alternate universe and so people can just deal with it. I couldn't have managed much more than that. Anyway it's clear that little Jack is quite the serious child, Derek quite the handsome one (shock! Horror!) And Christian, we will soon realise, has high hopes for both of them.
How will events unfold though? We know that in the show, Derek hasn't had a father for a while for whatever reason, and that Jack grew up with his (despite the whole Claire affair). And I want to stick as closely as I can to what has happened in both shows. But I don't want to give anything away (or ramble any more) so please, review if you've read this far. Any ideas you think should be incorporated?
By the way, this is possibly going to be a long story. Years may be skipped but it will definitely end up around the time of Derek's divorce to Addison and subsequent relationship with Meredith, and Jack on the island. And while it is about Derek and Jack, the first few chapters will be fairly Christian oriented for obvious reasons.
Finally, just so you know – I'm a Derek/Meredith shipper in Grey's (Alex and Addison too, but that's an entirely new can of worms) and an interchangeable Kate/Sawyer/Jack shipper in LOST.
Thanks for reading! – Mystical Faeries