Title: Flu Season

Summary: Slightly AU, set on island a few years in the future. Everyone is alive.

Jack sometimes wishes he was still working 14 hour shifts in the hospital, under his father's watchful eye and scrutiny instead of being the only doctor to a small community of 40+ crash survivors. Sure, Juliet is there, but she's a "ladies doctor" and sort of on sabbatical, much to Jack's annoyance.

She does help occasionally when things become too much, especially during allergy season, or when the hypochondriac hears of a new disease (he recently was convinced he was going through menopause).

Jack shuffles down the beach checking on the different survivals after a nasty outbreak of flu that had most of them bedridden for the past week. He had miraculously been immune to it (was it a miracle or a curse that he was the only when left healthy and on his feet, he was not so sure).

Charlie sits outside his tent, trying a new technique of signing old Drive Shaft favorites with his new cough ridden voice, and only quiets down when Sawyer calls from across the beach and Jack can't contain his laugh when he hears "SHUT UP, PHOEBE!"

He's glad to see Claire and Aaron have both improved significantly and seem to have over come the bug completely. They sit next to Charlie and Claire is pointing at her notebook, as Aaron mumbles the alphabet between adorably gapped teeth. Ever since they'd learned they were siblings (thanks to Juliet confessing when Claire needed a blood transfusion a while back), they have become very close, getting to know each other and both finally having some form of a loving family.

Aaron launches himself at Jack, and his uncle is more than excited to lift the boy off the ground and into the air, teasingly ignoring Claire's gasp for air as she watches her son thrown a good half meter into the air.

Jack puts down Aaron and the little boy starts blabbing on and on about how he has learned the alphabets up to H, and starts naming things that start with the letter. He starts with Hurley and mentions Sullivan the Hypochondriac and the Hick Sawyer. Jack cracks up laughing and Charlie joins in, whereas Claire's eyes widen with bewilderment and she takes her son to side for a little lecture on what words should and should not be said aloud.

Next on his rounds is Sawyer, and while they have recently become more civil around each other, Jack is not exactly excited about visiting the fussy version of Sawyer. When he is sick, especially with a bug, Sawyer's level of tolerance hits a whole new low. Fortunately, Jack find Juliet already there, and Jack gets a little snicker from Sawyer as he approaches him and is glad that visit is cut short when Sawyer says, "thanks but no thanks, Doc. I got my own physician taking care of me today".

Hurley, his right hand man, and only other person in camp to have been miraculously flu-free, comes back to camp early afternoon, and Jack is grateful the big guy cut his date with Libby short to give him some time to relax and grab some lunch.

Jack makes it to his tent and decides to lie down for a bit before grabbing some lunch, and before he knows it, his moment of rest turns into a long afternoon nap.

The sun had started its dip into the horizon when Kate makes it back to the beach. The recent flu outbreak had given her a good excuse to stray away from camp every day without jack being constantly worried about her being too far. He was really busy all day with everyone else to keep a constant eye on her, and she used the excuse of not wanting to catch the bug as a way to wander out of camp.

"ouff!" Jack grunts as he is woken up by a soft weight falling onto his stomach, and soft giggles coming from next to him in the tent. Before he can open his eyes completely and adjust to the warm light come through the flaps, a pair of chubby hands grab his face, as his daughter changes her position from sitting on his stomach to lying on his chest, and she squeezes his face between her small hands and says, "daddy? are you thleeping?"

Jack lets out a soft chuckle and tries to speak, but his daughter is squeezing his cheeks hard and all that comes out is "nnmmffhmo".

Kate lets out a hearty laugh and lifts her daughter off of Jack to let him pulls himself of the bed. He's finally on his feet and leans in to steal a kiss from Kate and another from their daughter.

"did you eat anything today?" she asks Jack when she realizes he has that "I've been working all day I forgot I was human" tired look on his face.

"hmmm... not yet. I was planning to but it seems I fell asleep," he answers, rubbing the back of his head, giving her an innocent smile, hoping his puppy dog eyes will get him off the hoof of ignoring his own well being.

Kate just shakes his head at him, knowing that if it weren't for her forcing him to take care of himself, he would have overworked himself to death long ago.

"alright, I'm dropping Sammy off at Sun and Jin's for the rest of the afternoon, you mister will march right out to the pantry, get us something to eat and meet me back here in 15 minutes. understood?"

Jack nods and says "yes, ma'am", loving the bossy part of her, and excited about spending a few hours alone with his wife.

Kate meets up with his in he pantry as he is ready to get back to their tent with a nice big bowl of fruits.

"hey," he says when she walks up to him, and he puts the bowl back down on the table and kisses her.

She smiles, "I just saw you ten minutes ago."

"well, I didn't get to greet you properly then," he answers.

"oh, in that case you're gonna have to do better than that?" she replies playfully.

He smiles at her and pulls her into a long lingering kiss, that starts to become slightly more passionate than is appropriate for the pantry. They break the kiss, both slightly breathless and pretend not to notice Rose's slightly disapproving stare.

They giggle and quickly grab the bowl of fruit and hurry to their tent.

She sits in his lap as they share the bowl of fruit between them. She asks him about his day but he prefers to hear about hers instead.

"well, Sammy and I learned new words today," Kate starts, trying to maintain her focus on retelling the day's events with Jack's fingers lazily playing against her skin.

"we learned friend, or fyend as she says it, and we know that Ji Yeon is Sammy's fyend," she says, pausing slightly when Jack's fingers dangerously start finding their way to the space between where her shirt meets her jeans.

"we also learned cousin, or couthin, and that Aayon ith Thammy'th couthin," Kate says, giggling as she mimics her daughter's pronunciation.

Jack chuckles slightly, his lips on her neck, and his vibrating breath send a tickle down her skin. She is slowly losing concentration as Jack's hands continue their exploration, assisted now by his lips, languidly kissing and nibbling at her neck.

"and we also learned sister," she continues, her voice now breaking and cracking between the actual words she is trying to say and the moans that are involuntarily escaping her lips.

"and we know that Claire is daddy's sister," she manages to say before her breath becomes too labored, with Jack's hands finding their destination under her shirt and his lips sucking, not so gently, at the base of her neck.

She is not sure how much he had paid attention to, but his lip travel back up her neck and are at her ear when he whispers, "how about we work on giving our own daughter a sister too?" causing her to gasp and turn into putty in his hands.