Hi everybody! This is my first fanfiction attempt. It's a Jack/Kate romance story, because I love them with all of my Jate shipper heart! So enjoy!
Jack was gone.
Kate thought about it as she sat on the beach, staring solemnly at the waves. She had no idea if he was hurt, or lost, or even alive. He was just…gone. Plain and simple.
Two weeks had passed since she had last seen him.
Island life was going surprisingly smoothly. The polar bears and the mysterious thing that was traipsing around the jungle, picking people off, had seemingly lost interest in the camp. The castaways generally didn't venture into the jungle alone, but the "magic forest," as Sawyer had so lovingly named it, didn't seem quite as scary anymore, and solo trips were becoming more and more frequent.
It was on this day– possibly a Tuesday, but who the hell knew anymore? –that Locke decided to have a hunt. The survivors had gathered on the beach, and Locke made his announcement. They were running out of food, and "After all," he said, using a rock to sharpen one of his many knives, "it's not as if the boar are going to hunt themselves." There was much eye-rolling after this statement, but the hunt had been organized nonetheless. Locke made it clear that this was going to be an all-day hunting trip, being as the boar had moved far away from their camp; they would probably have to venture into new territory in order to find one. Jack, being one of the few people still wary about letting anyone venture into the "heart of darkness" alone, volunteered to accompany Locke, along with Charlie, who was "sick of this sodding beach." Upon their request to join him, Locke sighed, gave one of his creepy I-know-something-you-don't-know half-smiles, and agreed.
Moments later, Jack was kneeling in the sand, tightening the laces of his now worn and dirty sneakers, when Kate wandered up to him with a grin on her face.
"Hey Jack."
Jack looked up from where he was crouched down with a slight grimace, as if he was dreading whatever the hell this sure-to-be-neurotic castaway wanted the doctor to look at now, but his face slide into an easy smile upon seeing that Kate was the person greeting him.
"Hey Kate. What's up?" Jack stood now, and leaned over Locke's suitcase of knives, searching for one that he liked.
"Oh, nothing. It's just, I heard that Locke was having a hunt. And that you were going with him. You. Are going hunting. What's up with that?" Kate's grin had turned into a teasing smirk now as she watched the look on Jack's face turn to mock-annoyance.
"Oh, so now I can't hunt?" Jack stood up straight, having chosen a knife and tucked it into his belt, and looked down at her with the smile that she was sure nobody except her was privileged too. He continued on with his charade, putting a hand over his heart for dramatic effect, and pretended to be emotionally wounded. "Here I am, busting my ass all day long, and I finally find something stress-relieving to go do, and then you come along, laughing at me. A guy can only take so much of this abuse, Kate." He pouted now, and it was all Kate could do to not reach up and ruffle his short hair.
"'Stress-relieving'?" She looked at him incredulously, a hint of a smile still on her face. "Throwing knives at things is stress relieving?"
"Sure. I can take any anger I have out on the boar. That way, when I come back, I'll be slightly more relaxed than I am now, and we'll have food. Kill two birds with one stone." He grinned "It's better than my first stress-relieving idea, anyway."
"And what idea was that, Jack?"
"Throw the knife at Sawyer," he replied, straight-faced and without missing a beat. Kate burst out laughing, and Jack let out a chuckle, enjoying that he had been the one to make her so happy, even if it was only for a moment.
Once Kate had calmed down somewhat, she smiled up at him, squinting slightly in the early-morning sunlight. She knew that he had been kidding about the whole "throw the knife at Sawyer" thing. In fact, Jack and Sawyer weren't enemies anymore...not really, anyway. Jack still got pissed off at Sawyer a lot, and Sawyer still teased Jack any chance he got, but the two of had eased into some strange form of friendship. Which Kate was glad of. She hated being in the middle of them since, after all, Sawyer was her friend and Jack was her...well, Kate didn't really know what Jack was. She wished that she could say 'boyfriend', as immature as that sounded, but she knew he really wasn't. She considered him her best friend, and he often protected her in a fierce, almost older-brotherly way. She'd be lying if she told herself that she didn't feel anything for him, and she was pretty sure that he felt something for her, but he was often difficult to read. There just didn't seem to be a word to describe their relationship.
"Umm, Kate. Hello? Are you still with me?" Jack waved his hand in front of her face, looking at her with concern.
Kate shook herself from her thoughts, and smiled at Jack again. "Yeah, I'm good. I just zoned out for a minute."
"Right, because that never happens!" Jack laughed as she smacked him on the arm for his teasing comment, then looked at her curiously. What had she been thinking about just then? She looked a million miles away, but Jack couldn't help but hope that she had been a bit closer to home and thinking about him. He mentally chastised himself for his sappy thoughts, and then turned his attention back to the girl standing in front of him, planning on asking her what, or who, had put her so deep in thought.
Just as Jack opened his mouth, Charlie's booming voice came from across the beach, cutting him off.
"Come on, Jack! Locke says if we don't come now, he's gonna leave us behind, and lounging on this bloody beach is getting really old! I need some adventure in my life, mate! Stop flirting with your girlfriend and let's go!" He then looked to Claire, who smacked him lightly on the back of the head for embarrassing their friends. Charlie gave an exaggerated yelp of pain, which woke a sleeping Aaron. The baby started wailing in Claire's arms, earning Charlie another cuff about the head.
Jack smiled slightly and shook his head at Charlie's antics, then turned back to Kate, noticing that she was blushing faintly. He found that this made him much happier than it probably should have.
"Guess I'd better go, before Charlie has a heart attack. Being the doctor and all, I'd be kind of responsible for taking care of that. And I'd rather not. So I'll see you later, okay? We should be back later tonight, most likely after dark."
At this statement, Kate's smile faded away. "Alright, yeah. I'll see you later." Kate was subdued now, with a pensive look on her face, and Jack noticed the sudden change in her behavior. It was like she wanted to say something, but couldn't find the words.
"Kate? You okay?" He looked at her, concerned.
"Yeah, I'm fine. Just...promise you'll be careful, and that you'll come back in one piece, okay?"
"What? I mean, yeah. Sure. I'll be fine, Kate. We're just going hunting." Jack was really confused now. "Kate, what's wrong?" he asked softly. "We've gone into the jungle hundreds of times. I'll be back later tonight."
Kate didn't know what the matter with her was. She had gotten this irrational fear, all of a sudden, that something bad was going to happen. "I know. I just...worry about you, I guess. I don't want you to get hurt. So...promise?"
He looked at her, and realized that when she was looking at him, like that, he would never be able to say no. "I promise," he said firmly. He had never meant any two words more in his life.
"Okay," she whispered. "Okay." Then, after a moment of internal struggle, she stood on her tiptoes and kissed him softly on the cheek.
Jack, to his credit, handled his shock over this move quite well, looking both surprised and pleased. Very pleased.
Kate barely managed to back away without throwing her arms around him and begging him not to leave. She didn't know what the hell was going on with her today. It was just a hunt, right? Why was she acting like she would never see him again?
Jack, for his part, was tempted to pull Kate close, tell her 'screw it all, let somebody else go hunting,' and bury his face in her hair, but he could tell from the look on her face that she was just as confused as he was. So instead, he smiled at her reassuringly and grabbed her hand, squeezing it once with his, then let it drop. "I'll see you later," he whispered. "I promise." He walked a few steps backwards, smiling. "After all, what could possibly go wrong, right?" She smiled slightly in return, and then he turned and walked across the beach towards Charlie and Locke.
Kate watched as Jack reached the other two, and heard him apologize for keeping them waiting. She smiled as Charlie said something to Jack with a smirk on his face, and then laughed at how Jack playfully shoved him in response to what had most likely been a comment about Kate and Jack's public display of affection. If it could even be called that.
Then, the three of them started into the jungle, with Jack throwing one more glance in her direction, a bright and reassuring smile on his face.
Kate spent the rest of the day worrying about Jack. Every time she found something to distract herself with, it was mere moments until his voice drifted back through her head.
'What could possibly go wrong?'
The truth was, a lot of things. But Kate told herself that she was being silly, that Jack was right, he would be fine. And then she moved on to find something else to do to pass the time that was dragging by so slowly.
Finally, evening came, and Kate found herself watching the sunset with Claire, who was holding a sleeping Aaron.
"They should be back soon, right? I mean, Charlie said they would be back by dark. Shouldn't they be back?" Claire's voice was laced with worry. She was battling the same irrational fears that Kate was- What if something had happened to them?
Kate didn't have it in her to worry Claire with the knowledge that the guys...their guys might not be back till the middle of the night, so she remained silent. Every other minute, she looked up and scanned the beach, hoping for a glimpse of Jack's tall figure striding towards them.
Finally, Claire gave a shout, pointing towards the edge of the jungle, and sure enough, there were Locke and Charlie. Kate smiled and stared at the spot where they had emerged from the trees, waiting for Jack to come into view. He didn't. Two minutes passed, and still he didn't show up.
"Wait, where's Jack?" Claire voiced Kate's inner thoughts as the smile slid off of her face. She got up and headed towards Charlie and Locke. As she got closer to them, she realized that something was wrong. They had no boar, and both looked dirty and excessively tired. But what Kate noticed most was their faces...both men's expressions were solemn...even Charlie's. And he was always happy.
Kate broke into a run, sprinting towards them in a panic. A million questions flew through her mind, a million different things to ask them, but when Kate reached the two men, she found that she was only capable of asking one thing.
"Where is he?"
From the look on Charlie's face, Kate knew that she wasn't going to like the answer.