A/N: Do we even know their ages? I'm saying Claire is younger than Jack, but not how much younger. Teehee. SPOILERS FOR LATEST EPISODE. Okay.
Disclaimer: Not miiiine.
Jack met his half-sister once. He had been in his room, playing with his plastic stethoscope, when his father had knocked on the door and said, "Hey Son, would you like to go on a little trip with me?"
Jack—the little boy Jack—got to sit in an airplane for the first time. He watched movies and ate the funny, bite-sized meals. He fell asleep beside his father, and they didn't have a single argument the whole time. His father seemed to be in a good mood, and Jack took it as that.
He doesn't remember it now. The older Jack, the adult Jack, doesn't remember getting off the airplane in Sydney. He doesn't remember the scorching, Australian weather, or the woman who waited in a restaurant down the street from the airport. He doesn't remember the little girl, littler than him, who hid behind her mother's legs and sucked her thumb like a baby.
"Jack, this is Claire," his father had told him, nudging him forward encouragingly. "She's my friend, so be nice to her, okay?"
Jack hadn't really understood why they were in Australia, but he willingly went up to the little girl, who stared at him with her big blue eyes and her fair blonde hair tied up in goofy pigtails.
"Hi," he greeted, trying to see her past the lady, who was watching him with a strange expression on her face. "I'm Jack."
"Hello," whispered the little girl back. "I'm… Claire."
"Want to go play?" Jack asked kindly, fondly touching the plastic stethoscope he was still wearing around his neck, which he had enthusiastically refused to take off in the American airport. "I can be a doctor," he told her with a hint of pride.
The shy little girl finally stepped out, her pudgy little hands knotted together nervously. "Okay," she replied softly, and tagged after the boy as they walked quickly out to the taxi waiting for them, where Jack's father stood idly, surveying them all.
Jack doesn't remember this visit anymore, although his father did before he died. Claire's mother did before she died. And Claire remembers this visit very vividly, but has never made the connection between the little boy in the restaurant to the man who leads them now.