Chapter 3:
Kate and Jack sat together on Kate's bed. She was determined to stay awake, even hours after the others had left. Every time she closed her eyes, even to blink, she was haunted by images of Chris's tiny face, greyish blue from death. Jack understood this, but assured her that if she wanted to sleep, he was going to be there, but even knowing that Jack was holding her didn't make her feel at ease enough to sleep. So she just stayed there, resting in his arms without sleeping, as even this gave her a security that she longed for.
Now, at just past midnight according to Jack's watch, she was starting to feel the embarrassment settle in. How many people now knew about Chris? Libby, Hurley, Michael, Charlie, Claire...Jack...She resisted the tempation to bury herself in the sand, but knew that this would solve nothing. They knew now, and that was it.
Maybe the dreams were trying to tell her something? She was with Jack now, in more ways than one, and she was pregnant. Did this dream depict the future? Was she going to have a daughter this time? What about the blood though? Did that mean that her baby was going to get hurt? In the dream, Jack had said that they got hurt because she ran. Where they going to get rescued? Was she going to run, and get them hurt in the process?
The thoughts that piled up started to give her a headache, and she took one of her hands out of Jack's as she placed it to her head, kneading her temple with her palm with a soft groan.
"Kate?" Jack asked in a whisper, his voice coming in close to ear where he was sat back behind her again.
"It's all right." She said in a throaty whisper. "Just a headache."
Of course, the term 'just a headache' doesn't really work with a doctor. He reached over into the sand for his water bottle, the cool sand keeping it from getting warm, and handed it to her. "Here, have some water." He said, uncapping it.
She drank some, and then handed it back to him. "Thank you."
She settled back against him, her back against his chest whilst her head nestled just below his chin in a perfect fit. He released her hand, and wrapped his arms around her, and she placed her hands over them, holding him in position.
"Kate, you should sleep." He tempted yet again, but was met with another shake of her head.
She was silent for a while, and all they could hear was the distant crashing of the waves on the shore, then Kate spoke up again. "Jack, what do you think they mean?" She asked quietly.
"What?" He asked, almost having not heard her.
"The dreams." She told him. "What do you think they mean?"
He bit his lip, not really sure what to tell her. "I don't know." He said honestly. "Maybe they don't mean anything, maybe they're just happening because you're worried."
She shook her head. "They have to mean something. The only dreams I've ever had more than one night in a row have meant something." She revealed, and he knew that she was talking about the ones that showed Tom and Chris dying.
"We'll find out." Jack promised her. "We're going to make them stop."
"Maybe they're trying to tell me that I'm going to be a terrible mother." She shrugged. "I couldn't help Chris, mabye I won't be able to help this one either."
"Kate, thats not true." Jack said, lifting her face to look at him. "What happened with Chris was not your fault." He said. "It was a freak death that is very uncommon, there's no cause for it." Kate went silent, clearly absorbed in her own thoughts, and then Jack shook his head. "Oh god." He muttered.
"What?" She asked, startled out of her thoughts.
"I can't believe I made you deliver Claire's baby." He admitted. "That was so...stupid!" He grimaced. She had said to Charlie that she couldn't deliver it, and he thought that she was just scared, and instead, it was because of Chris...
"It was hard." Kate nodded. "When Aaron got sick, and we went to find the cure, I thought that I'd jinxed him."
"Kate, there's no such things as jinxes." Jack brushed off. "Babies get sick, it's what happens."
"Still." Kate shrugged. "I was scared. I didn't want Claire to go through what I did."
This was partly why Jack loved her. She was so compassionate. Always thinking of other people. Even now, when she was scared to the point of trembling all night, she was thinking of the baby, of Claire and her baby. Always giving and never taking. He pulled his arms tighter around her.
"Don't worry, you're not going to go through it again." He assured her.
"You can't promise me that." She muttered weakly.
"Yes I can." He said stubbornly. "I'm going to take care of you, Kate." He said to her. "I'm going to look after you, and nothing bad is going to happen to either of you. I promise."
She held his arms closer around her again, and lay against him. "I'm tired." She said simply, her eyes drooping.
"Go to sleep." He said, but she shook her head. "Kate, you have to sleep sometime."
"I can't." She said painfully.
"Kate, I'm not going anywhere. I'm going to sit here and watch over you until you wake up. The minute I see you having a nightmare, I'll wake you up and stop it." He said, and she looked at him with a pleading look on her face. "Come on now, lay down honey."
Giving in to him, she lay back against the airline seat, and he lay behind her, keeping his secure hold on her.
"Jack?" She asked him quietly after a few minutes.
"Yeah?"
"Thank you for looking after me." She said as she started to drift off to sleep. "No ones ever looked after me before."
"Don't worry, sweetie, I'm going to look after you for as long as I live." He said, and kissed her hair as she fell into a deep sleep almost immediately.
Kate opened her eyes to see a little girl standing before her, leaning over her sleeping body curiously. When she saw that Kate was awake, she leaned back triumphantly. "Hello." She said in that loud, child-like whisper.
Kate sat up, removing Jack's arm from around her. "Wha-?" She whispered tiredly, rubbing the sleep from her eyes. It was morning, and the sunlight was filtering in through the gaps in the tarp, lighting the tent so that Kate could clearly see the child before her.
"Can we go play?" The girl asked.
She looked closely at the girl before her. She had green eyes, filled with a playful sparkle; dark hair that curled weakly like her own; slightly tanned skin with a scattering of freckles over the bridge of her nose and her cheeks. In fact, Kate thought that she was looking at a moving photograph of herself when she was a child.
"Come on!" The girl demanded, and took hold of Kate's hand. "Come with me!"
She pulled on it, and Kate stood with her, walking out of the tent.
Kate rose with her eyes closed, and left the tent, still asleep, one hand stretched before her as if it were being pulled on, leading her away. Beside where she had previously lay, Jack was sleeping soundly, not even realising that she was gone.
