1x8 - Confidence Man

Tell him to let go, Freckles. We already made out; what else I got to live for?

Jack finishes wrapping up the knife wound on the Southerner's upper arm, his words still ringing in his ears. Had she really kissed him? Sure, he knows Sawyer flirts with her - he flirted with practically every woman on the island. But the doctor thought that she had been interested in him; after all, she had seemed so happy to see him and given him a hug after the cave in just a couple days ago.

Sayid helps him carry the wounded man back to his tent, and as he turns away, he finds Kate approaching. "He going to be okay?"

Jack nods, "Yeah, for now at least."

"Good."

The doctor scans the shoreline, "So was he telling the truth?"

She shrugs, "He said he didn't have the inhaler. Why would he go through all of that just to keep the medicine from us?"

"I wasn't talking about the inhalers."

"Then I don't know what you mean," she frowns in confusion.

He rubs the back of his head and looks down at the sand, "You made out with him?"

"He said he'd tell me where the inhalers were if I kissed him, but it was just another con."

"And you really believed him?"

"I hoped he would do the right thing for once instead of being a jerk."

"Because forcing you to kiss him is doing the right thing," Jack shakes his head in disgust.

"He was still tied to a tree thanks to you and Sayid so I don't think he was forcing me to do anything," she retorts. "Besides, torturing him doesn't really make you any better."

Hurt by her words, he can't keep the accusatory tone out of his voice as he asks, "Did you want to kiss him?"

"What?"

"You're the only person who will put up with him, Kate, and he clearly has a thing for you. So do you like him? Is that why you kissed him?"

She glares at the doctor, "I was trying to get the inhaler back so that Shannon doesn't die. I thought being nice to him might work better than torture."

"Right, because you're such a nice person that you have a mugshot." As soon as the words leave his mouth, he regrets them.

"You said you didn't want to know, Jack," she closes her eyes. He reaches out for her arm, but she pulls back out of his reach. "It was just a kiss. Maybe it meant something to him, but to me it was nothing."

Before he can respond, she takes off, jogging into the jungle to get away from him.

~Lost~

"Accidents happen when you torture people, Jack," Kate replies, still looking down the beach to where Sayid had disappeared a couple days ago. They hadn't spoken since before the Iraqi man left.

"Sayid's a trained soldier, Kate. He can take of himself," he states, but when she starts to walk away, he grabs her arm.

"Let go of me," she tries to pull away, but he keeps a firm grip on her.

"I'm sorry for what I said, Kate," Jack tells her.

She stops trying to tug her arm free, and he lets go, his hand falling back to his side. "That's it? You just expect me to forgive you?"

"I shouldn't have asked you about kissing Sawyer. Whatever the two of you are is none of my business."

"You really think that's what I'm upset about?" Both of her hands come up to his chest, and she shoves him. Not expecting this, he stumbles backwards and, unable to catch himself, falls onto his back in the waves.

He sits up, clenching his fists to keep himself from reaching out to pull her into the water with him. After what he had said, he probably deserved this anyway.

They stare at each other for several moments, him still sitting in the water and her standing a few feet away with her arms crossed over her chest. Finally she sighs, "Are you okay?"

He smiles up at her, "I thought you were supposed to be the nice one that was against violence, Kate."

"Guess I'm not so nice after all," she offers him a hand to help him up.

He takes her hand but doesn't move to stand, "You know, I could pull you down here into the water too."

She raises an eyebrow in challenge. After another moment, he stands and lets go of her hand. "I didn't think so."

Jack briefly meets her eyes before looking down at the waves crashing to shore at their feet, "It was unfair of me to judge you based on whatever it is that you did, and I'm sorry for doing so, Kate."

"And now you want to know what I did."

He lifts his head to meet her eyes and shakes his head, "No. Whatever it is, you're not a bad person, Kate. After what Sayid and I did, maybe you should be in charge."

She studies his face, debating whether or not to tell him. Knowing there is only so far she can run on an island, she finally gives in, "I don't think the others would be too happy if a murderer was in charge."

The doctor blinks but otherwise his face remains stoic. Since seeing her mugshot, he had come to the conclusion that she had to have done something pretty bad for the marshal to be chasing her across an ocean; however, given her behavior since the crash, he had also convinced himself that she must have had a pretty good reason for doing it. Though he had anticipated something like this, he still doesn't know how to respond.

She holds her wrists out to him, "Go ahead, Jack. I know you have to do it."

He shakes his head as he repeats, "You're not a bad person."

"Doesn't mean I'm a good one."

"You might be the most selfless person on this island, Kate - sewing me up after the crash, trying to get the plane's transceiver to work, boar hunting, digging me out during the cave in, kissing Sawyer to get the medicine."

"Says the doctor who is constantly taking care of everyone else."

"The doctor who thought torturing someone was okay," he gives her a self-deprecating smile.

"You did what you had to do."

"And I'm sure you did too."

Her hands fall back to her side, "We've barely known each other for a week, Jack. How can you be so sure about me?"

"Because you seem to be trying to make up for what you did and keep risking your own life to help everyone else out."

"I guess kissing Sawyer is pretty risky," one corner of her mouth lifts up as she watches him.

"Besides, we don't have the handcuffs anymore so even if I wanted to I couldn't keep you a prisoner."

"That didn't stop you from tying Sawyer up," she points out.

"Well he also seems to have done some questionable things in his previous life. And he doesn't seem to want to make any effort to atone for those mistakes."

"Or you could just say that he's a jerk."

He shrugs, "That's true too I guess."

A moment of silence passes between them before she reaches out to brush some sand off of his still wet shirt, "Sorry I pushed you."

"I was being a jerk too. And no harm done."

"I don't know, Jack. Might be some wounded pride after being knocked over by a girl," she smiles shyly.

He returns the smile, "Well, I'll just have to get the girl back when she least expects it."

"Is that a threat?"

"Not at all," he fails at trying to look innocent.

~Lost~

On his way back from chopping wood, Jack walks past the garden and spots Kate sitting there. "Hey."

She looks up and smiles, "Hey."

"Sawyer says he made a deal with you," he shows her the gun that the Southerner had finally returned after the Claire rescue mission and then tucks it back into his jeans.

"You can relax, Jack. There was no kissing involved this time," she stands, having finished planting more seeds, before brushing her hands off and grabbing her backpack.

They start walking back towards camp, and he reluctantly asks, "So what do you owe him now?"

"I thought you said that my relationship with Sawyer was none of your business."

"So it's a relationship now?" he asks, hurt. He had gotten angry at her when they had found the marshal's case of guns and the airplane that brought her past up yet again. But he thought that they had moved past their issues once more.

She steps in front of him and stops, blocking his path, "He needed my help tracking a boar that wrecked his tent. So I helped him in exchange for complete access to his stash. There is no more of a relationship between us than there was before, and I don't owe him anything."

Jack takes a moment to process this and then smiles, "You beat him at his own game. I guess I shouldn't have doubted you."

She shrugs, "Now it just means you're going to wonder if I'm trying to con you too."

He frowns, perplexed by the woman in front of him and her ability to turn his own words against him. When he doesn't respond, she turns and starts walking again, him slowly trailing after her.

"Wait, do you hear that?" he asks, stopping again after a minute. She pauses too and looks around, then cuts over through the trees on their left. He follows and finds her standing before a pond with a waterfall.

"This is where Sawyer and I found the marshal's case."

He starts to toe off his shoes, "You want to go for a swim?"

She makes a face at that suggestion, "There are dead people down there."

"Weren't you the one who pulled the marshal's maggot infested wallet off of his dead body?"

"That's my point - we've seen enough dead bodies recently; we don't need to hang around any more of them."

He steps closer to her and places a hand on her arm, "If I recall correctly, I think you pushed me into the water not that long ago."

She rolls her eyes, "After all of the opportunities you've had on the beach, you really want to do this now."

"Hey, I'm giving you a warning, which is a lot more than you gave me."

She sighs, sets her backpack down, and pulls her shoes off. When she turns back around and finds him pulling his shirt over his head, she asks, "What are you doing?"

"Somehow I don't think this is going to go well for me so I thought I'd be prepared this time. Plus I'm the one who asked you to go for a swim."

She steps up to the edge of the pond, her jeans and blue tank top still on, and looks back at him in question. As he moves towards her, she smiles at him before turning and jumping into the water.

When she surfaces several yards out, she finds him watching her, arms crossed over his chest. "Not cool, Kate."

"You've been hanging out with Hurley too much, Jack."

"And you've been hanging around Sawyer too much."

She drifts a little further out, "So are you coming for a swim or not?"

The doctor eases himself into the chilly water and swims over to her, "I was expecting you to make a run for it, not jump in."

She grins and shrugs, "I thought about running - I'm faster than you and your tracking skills are almost as bad as Sawyer's."

"Never going to trust you again," he teases. She splashes him. He blindly reaches out for her with one hand as he tries to wipe the water out of his eyes with the other. She tries to swim away, but his fingers snag her shirt, anchoring her to him.

They stare at each other for a long minute. "Go ahead," she finally breaks the silence, then closes her eyes and holds her breath, expecting him to dunk her under the water.

But Jack finds that he is no longer interested in payback. Even though they are stuck on an island and despite their constant arguments, these moments with her are some of the best of his life. Not wanting to give himself time to convince himself to stop, he leans forward and kisses her.

The shock is clear on her face when he pulls back, "Jack…?"

He smiles, deciding that he had made the right choice. And it was worth it since she wasn't running from him… yet. "Just practicing my con skills."

Her gaze moves to the waterfall behind him as she bites her lip; then she turns her green eyes back to his face, a slight smile on her face. "If you wanted to kiss me, Jack, all you had to do was ask. Probably kiss better if I was expecting it too."

"I'll keep that in mind next time," he laughs.

"What makes you think there will be a next time?" she teases.

"Well, you didn't punch me or try to drown me or inflict bodily harm in some other manner…"

Turning serious, she rests a hand on his chest, looking down at where she can feel his heartbeat. "Why… Did you mean…?"

"Yes, Kate," he answers her unspoken question. Then he nudges her chin up with his hand, "And I'm going to do it again."

Their eyes lock for a few brief seconds before they both lean in, their lips meeting for much longer this time.

"You were right," he says when they part. She gives him a questioning look, and he explains. "That was much better than the first time."