Title: It's Always Better on the Other Side
Character(s): Jack/Kate, with a splash of Desmond focus for the hell of it.
Rating: PG
Summery: Desmond's capable of seeing into the future and what he sees surprises him.
A/N: So, I'm playing up the idea that Desmond suddenly has precognition after being blown naked. No idea how that makes sense but hey, it's fun to write about. Some Skate references. Don't beat me though, it goes Jate. I swear.
He just wishes that he knew what was going on with him. After the hatch exploded and when he came to, naked in the jungle, he knew something had changed within him. Something he couldn't name or explain but it was there, he knew it was.
It started with little things, the sense of déjà vu whenever he spoke with someone, almost like he knew what they were going to say. Then it moved bigger; he spoke Locke's words an hour before Locke thought them.
And then it became overwhelming. He blinked and suddenly the world changed. It was raining and he was soaked and then disaster struck. A freak bolt of lightning struck Claire's tent and caught it on fire. Not even the pouring rain could stop the flames from scorching her pretty white skin and her baby's too. Without the doctor, the best they had was aloe from Sun and even that didn't help much. Her baby died. She was left badly—and irreversibly—scarred.
He blinked again and it was all gone, all the pain and tears and terror and rain and fire. All of it, like it had never happened. He didn't question it; he just made sure it never did.
It's only grown from there. He knows when someone will trip and he sticks out an arm for them to grab moments before they need it. He can tell when it's going to rain long before Locke. He isn't surprised to see Eko die.
He is the only one not worried about the return of Jack, Kate, and Sawyer. Everyone else can run around like chickens with their heads cut off, suggesting this and that to bring them home but he knows that they will come back through no help of those in the camp. It's a waiting game, one he watches and can't participate in.
He is the only one that doesn't run to greet the returning heroes when they do stumble into camp, a day short of two weeks after their abduction. There'll be time to speak with them later, particularly Jack, who is the only one Desmond feels he can talk to. The doctor's dealing with something he never wanted and it isn't just being in charge of the survivors.
"Hello, brother."
Jack looks up from his dinner—soup of some sort—and smiles, the first he's had in days even if it is a little sad. "Hello, Desmond."
Desmond sits next to the doctor and they stay like that in silence for a while. Since the day they met back in Los Angeles the two men have had a strange unspoken bond. They're fools when it comes to love and they'll be brothers in fooldom together. "Sorry about the girl," he says.
Jack lets his silence carry on just a little bit longer. Desmond's the first to notice his anger and resentment but he won't be the last. Not after the other two start to flaunt their new found sexual relationship. "Yeah, me too," he says in return.
"If it helps, brother, my girl left me for another bloke," Desmond states. It's partly his fault that Penny did but not much, no where near enough to force her hand. "I know how you're feelin' right now."
Jack stares at the fire, listening to the logs crack and shower off sparks whenever they pop. "It really doesn't," he answers in a dead voice.
Desmond laughs—it's a bitter laugh, there is no joy here. "Yeah, I said that to the first bloke who told me that line too."
Jack echoes the laugh. It isn't at all comforting that Desmond's been through what he's going through now. It is however slightly amusing that they're both so bitter about it. "No offense taken then."
"Yeah, no offense, brother," Desmond agrees. He produces a bottle from his pocket and without taking a drink first, offers it to Jack. "I think you need this more then me."
Jack takes the bottle and two long swigs from it before handing it back. "I need a lot of things right now," he states and he isn't just talking about liquor. "I need the fuck off this island."
"As do we all," Desmond agrees, taking a drink in toast to the idea. He has no idea if they'll ever be rescued, his ability doesn't reach that far into the future. It's going to be a long time that much he knows—-if it happens at all.
Jack nods in agreement and silence falls over them again. They don't need to talk; there isn't much to say anyway. All they need is the fire in front of them and the bottle passed between them.
It can't last forever unfortunately. People are still awake and moving around the camp and they just happen to be two of them. Jack's expression, hell his entire being, shift from impassively staring at the fire to being angered and bitter and clearly not at all dealing with what the island's thrown at him this time. He's sinking in denial, into a place where his anger can feed on his bitterness and not have to answer to anyone.
Neither Kate nor Sawyer notice Jack, or they at least pretend they don't. They go on giggling over something and holding hands without any care to what they're doing to the doctor that's sacrificed everything for them multiple times. It's tasteless, Desmond decides, and then laughs sardonically. What is he thinking? Of course it's tasteless, it's them.
"What's so funny?" Jack asks, raising an eyebrow.
Desmond would answer and has opened his mouth to do so but then his head's killing him. It's so blinding and excruciating that he winces and clenches his eyes closed. When he dares open them again, everything's changed.
It's the middle of the day. The fire is gone. As are Jack and Kate and Sawyer. Wait, no. There's two of them—and it's the doctor and the girl off a ways, actually having a conversation and what's more, smiling at each other that special lovers' smile.
He is clearly just an observer. He isn't really there. He's just watching, seeing what's going to be. Kate says something that sets Jack off laughing, in a good way. She laughs with him as she tries to insist on the point she mentioned to begin with.
They're enjoying each other that much he can see. Whatever's going on with them now is gone and forgotten about—something of the past and nothing more. They grew as people and as a couple because of it. It's a blessing in disguise, all the pain and bitterness they're experiencing at the moment. It's brought them closer and to a place where it's good for the both of them to be in a relationship.
It's brought them to the point where coincidence leaves off and fate takes over because they're soul mates, the doctor and the fugitive.
Desmond blinks and it's all gone, just like his vision of Claire and the tent fire. Time corrects itself and brings him back to where it picked him up from. The fire's still going. The sun is still down. Jack's still the embodiment of pain and bitterness and Kate's still giggling with Sawyer.
Only Jack's added a touch of concern to his expression now. "Are you alright?" he asks. He noticed the wince from his new found drinking partner and his doctor senses kick in automatically. He can't help that. He's made to care about others and their well-being.
"I'm fine, brother," Desmond answers automatically when in reality, his mind's racing. He has no idea when what he saw will take place. Obviously not tomorrow when it's daylight again, but soon; a few weeks, maybe a little more. That's the farthest he's seen before now but it could be that his ability to see things is expanding, seeing even further then a month.
In any case, the doctor isn't going to be so bitter for much longer.
Jack doesn't believe that for one second. He can almost taste lies from people. "Let me check you out," he says, reaching for his bag.
"I'm fine," Desmond repeats. He is now. His own relationship with Penny'll never work out, not with him stuck on this island and even if he does get off, she's had to have moved on by now. It's been three years since he last saw her. He doesn't expect her to wait for him forever. The doctor's relationship with Kate is going somewhere and that cheers him a little.
One of them at least deserves to have some happiness.
Jack reconsiders how badly he wants to push the issue. He decides against it after a moment, letting go of his bag and slumping back against the log he'd spent the evening leaning against so far. It's not worth it. Not much is. "Okay."
"Word of advice, brother?" Desmond asks. "Don't give up on her just yet. There could still be hope for you two yet."
Jack raises an eyebrow and snorts in disbelief. "Whatever you say," he answers dismissively. He can't see things ever being okay with him and Kate again. He's too stubborn for that. She's too stubborn. It's just not going to work with them.
Desmond is the only one not surprised when the doctor and the fugitive make up three and a half weeks later.
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