Dear readers, I just wanted to let you know that I posted the last chapter up very shortly after the chapter before it so it was kind of double posted, thus it was fairly easy to miss. If you missed the part where Kate tells the story of her journey that is in chapter 13, right before this one. You may want to pick up the thread there before you read this one.
Jack woke up when the sun was already nearly half way through the sky. He sat up and stretched, the island was already working its magic upon his body and he felt better than he had in many days. He reached down and pulled his shirt half way up and inspected his wound, there was no drainage and it was fully closed and healing already, there would be a nasty scar, but that was nothing new.
"You're up. You slept like the dead, feeling better?" Bernard approached Jack with bandages in his hands.
Jack shook his head and looked around, "Where's Kate?" Jack almost felt as if the previous night had been a dream. He wanted to see Kate as if to verify her reality.
Bernard smiled, "Oh, she took off early this morning, into the jungle, had a bag, I imagine she's getting fruit. She doesn't stay in one place for long."
Jack nodded, he agreed with that, it was true unless of course, she decided to stay still. He remembered times when she could be on the beach for hours, standing like a stone, silent until he came along and broke the spell. He always felt compelled to do so, he guessed that was one trait he shared with Sawyer, the desire to disturb her. Kate seemed so statue like, a living mannequin. He fought the urge poke her just to see if she would move. When he approached her, she would often shake her head and laugh, the spell would be broken, whatever memories or thoughts that had her mesmorized, vanquished.
Jack looked up at Rose and Bernard, he had been here for over a week and he had done nothing but get their help and Kate had been here for two days, was it? And she was already on food gathering duty. He needed to pull his own weight. Jack reminded himself that there had been extenuating circumstances.
"Jack." Bernard knelt by Jack's side and placed his hand on Jack's shoulder. "Let me take a look at that wound, it's still there you know." Bernard waited for Jack to pull his shirt up. "This looks great Jack, it's amazing how fast it's healing." Bernard pulled off the old bandages and brought a bowl of water and a cloth.
"Thank you Bernard, I think I can take it from here." Jack leaned over and tended himself, he found healing on the island fascinating; something about this place hastened the mending process. His own body looked like he had had weeks of recovery rather than two days.
"The island is up to its old tricks, isn't it Jack?" Rose made her way over with a cup of tea and some cut up fruit. "Jack, you look quite a bit better today."
Jack looked up at Rose, how is it that she could almost read his mind? "Yeah, I guess it is Rose." Jack gestured toward his torso. "This isn't really normal."
"No it isn't really normal to get stabbed and left in the jungle, Jack. This place is anything but normal." Rose shook her head, she really didn't want to know what had happened to Jack, it wasn't that she didn't care, she just felt that it reflected a fruitless struggle. She supposed it had something to do with the craziness that Kate and Sawyer and Juliet had talked about those many weeks ago. "I don't know what that is any more, It has been so long since I've seen anything approaching normal, except for maybe tea." Rose placed the cup in his hand and put his plate on the fruit on a log nearby. "Eating and drinking is still something we do around here and since everybody has to do it, I guess that's two normal things. That's a start." Rose laughed lightly and looked at Jack. He was better, his color was good. He wouldn't be content to sit around their fire much longer. Rose wondered what was next for him. She didn't see Jack and Kate doing what she and Bernard had become content to do.
"Hey." Kate had slipped out of the nearby jungle and approached the now nearly extinguished fire. She placed a full bag on the ground beside her and rubbed her shoulder absent mindedly and smiled over at Jack and Rose.
"Hey." Jack let out a breath, one that he had barely realized that he had been holding, there she was, it was real. He laughed lightly to himself. His mind was still having a hard time adjusting to her presence.
"You okay, Jack?" Kate nodded toward Jack's torso and smiled faintly in memory of the previous night. She wondered how that particular part of him had weathered their reunion. The rest of his body looked much stronger, quite strong actually. Kate forced her eyes up to concentrate on Jack's face. She blushed slightly at her thoughts, suddenly aware of Rose's presence.
Jack peered over at Kate, "I feel good," Jack stood up and stretched, "really good." He grinned, he loved to see her face flush like that, he became almost gleeful at her disequilibrium. He wondered exactly what she was thinking right now and he wished that they were alone so that he could ask her. He would ask her later and he would request details.
"Kate, what did you find out there this morning? An orchard?" I must be blind in my old age, I've never had a run that good." Bernard was peering into Kate's bag.
"I got pretty high, Bernard, those parts of the trees are very full right now, the sun gets to them up there, there's plenty left even after the birds get to them. It looks like no one is going to starve, for a little while any way." Kate, glad for the distraction, pulled her hair up and off of her neck and wiped her hand over it. She reached for a mango and pulled a knife out of her pocket, and peeled it deftly. She ate neatly, after swallowing the fruit and licking her lips she happened to look over at Jack. He was following her movements just a touch too closely. Kate caught his eyes and allowed herself a tiny, almost wicked grin; two could play at this game.
Kate wiped her hands on her jeans and stood up. "You think you're ready for a little walk, Jack?"
"Believe it or not, Kate, I think I am. How far is that plane?" Jack responded eagerly.
"Not that far, actually," Kate turned to Bernard and Rose, "You two picked a good spot here, it's not far from the beach, but it is far enough in to be protected from the winds, close to fresh water and fruit, pretty perfect. You've even got a clearing out back, you could cultivate something if you wanted." Kate had an increasing admiration for what they had built for themselves on the remote island.
"Thanks Kate, it was actually a careful choice." Rose looked at Bernard and they nodded at one another. They remembered those days they had shared alone when the island was so unstable. They hadn't been able to quite figure out the island's strange journey through different years and sometimes decades. They had not had a lot to compare those shifts in time to, they did the best they could and concentrated on survival. Their first attempts had been somewhat rocky and it took a lot of time and effort for them to build what they had. It had been a baptism by fire and they appreciated the peace and quiet that their present situation brought.
Jack stood at the edge of Bernard's path to the sea, he was anxious to get moving, he had been still for many days and it felt good to get away, even if only for a little while.
"So Kate are you thinking of settling down and moving in with Rose and Bernard?" Jack joked easily with Kate as he settled into an easy pace beside her on the path.
"I don't know Jack, it's not so bad what they have." A part of Kate longed for the simplicity of their lives. "I'm a pretty simple person, it seems homey, it seems to be enough."
"Kate, this place has been my entire focus for years, it has had me coming and going, it's controlled my ability to reason. I know only a tiny portion of what this place is, what it means. It is so far beyond me that I can't begin to explain it. This island is a lot of things, Kate, but it has never been described as homey." Jack put his head back and laughed, for some reason the absurdity of the idea that the island was homey released a lot of tension for him. Jack glanced up at Kate, "Since when have you been a big fan of homey?"
"I don't know Jack, the island isn't entirely what it appears to be." Kate ducked her head and shook it. "I might not be entirely what I appear to be."
"Kate, I have never heard two more accurate statements in my life." Jack shook his head and as his laughter died down he turned to Kate on the path and placed his hand on her shoulder. "Kate, how is it?"
Kate looked up, startled at the change of subject. "What, how is what?"
Jack pushed Kate's shirt off of her shoulder gently and looked closely at it. "Your shoulder, I noticed you favoring it, is it healing? Did you get it looked at when you..?"
"When I got back." Kate finished Jack's sentence, she knew that they would have to talk about these things, now was as good a time as any. "Jack, its fine." Kate pulled away slightly, she hadn't thought much about her shoulder, it bothered her slightly but it was getting better, especially since she had been on the island.
"It looks like a pretty bad scar, Kate, did you have someone look at it when you got to the mainland? It certainly wasn't restitched." Jack brushed his hand over her wound and allowed his hand to drift upward and onto Kate's neck, he traced his fingers along her jaw and turned her face to his own. "Kate, a lot has happened to you since I saw you on the cliff, there is a lot that I haven't asked you yet." Jack searched Kate's eyes, "Can I ask you a few things?" Jack hated to do this to her, he would have preferred to glean information from her slowly, waiting for it to drop like ripe fruit from trees. But for fruit to ripen it needs to be hit by the sun, and the sun didn't shine where Kate kept her thoughts hidden in her heart. His curiosity would have to be appeased by the force of his questions.
Kate nodded slowly. She knew that Jack had within him the need to know. It was a driving force in his character, she wondered how he ever put up with her lack of openness, perhaps her secretive nature was as hard for him to deal with as his inquisitive nature was for her. She smiled at the irony.
"It doesn't have to be so hard, Kate." Jack let himself feel a little sorry for her, just a little though, he needed her to let him in, he had to push her. "How is Claire," Jack didn't want to say the name that would come next, he knew how hard it would be for her to hear. "and Aaron?"
Kate planted her legs far apart as if to balance herself, she felt like she was facing a strong wind. Her habit of compartmentalizing her thoughts had been built over the years, years of wanting to forget things. Kate placed her hands on her hips and looked bravely into Jack's eyes. Claire was his sister after all, he deserved to know everything she could tell him.
"She is getting better every day Jack. I am not going to lie to you and tell you that everything is great, it is not. Claire has a long way to go to heal. We found Carole and Aaron, now they are all in our, I mean, my house." Jack heard the slight slip of the tongue and felt bad, that sorrow was still acute, how he wished that he could go back and change the past. He had tried that, it had been a bust. Jack put his head down and stared at the ground, this would be hard to hear.
Kate went on, "I tried to stay for a few days, it wouldn't work, we all knew it right away, Aaron was so confused, he wanted to have things the way they were." Kate looked at Jack and blinked her eyes, forcing herself not to cry, she urged herself to choose the right words, words that would convey the truth but would not hurt Jack. He had known all along, it was the last thing that he had wanted to be right about, but he knew the fallout that might take place as a result of their lie. "Jack, Aaron couldn't have that wish, Carole and Claire have to make their life now and it couldn't be done with me there." Kate looked at Jack, she was worried about how he might feel, she was worried that he might be smitten with guilt at his inability to fix things. She was especially concerned that he might be deeply saddened at his sister's condition. She continued to search for the right words, she had never been good at this, at explaining things. .
Kate put her arms around Jack's waist and pulled him close, she rested her head upon his chest and held him for a long moment and tried to communicate what her inadequate words could not say. She pulled her head back and peered into his eyes to convey her concern, her love. Jack surprised her. Jack was looking back at her with deep sympathy, he was not concerned for himself or his worries, he was concerned for her. The enormity of that fact hit Kate. She swallowed hard, she should have known, he had asked her about Claire not only out of concern for his sister, but he had also been worried about her. Kate was overwhelmed by Jack's tender care, she never expected it, it came around corners and snuck up on her, his kindness was almost a foreign thing to her, beautiful and strange.
"I'm so sorry, Kate, I am so sorry for everything that you have had to go through. I wish that I could have been there with you. I wish I could have been there for all of you." Jack continued to hold Kate. He knew her feelings for Aaron, he could not imagine the kind of strength it must have taken for her to leave him. That kind of sacrifice was beyond reckoning. Most people would not have been able to do it, they would have stayed and wondered why things were not working. They would have tried to appease everyone, including themselves. Kate had a severe way of looking at the world, she cut herself no slack. She knew what was best for Aaron and she did it, severe and simple.
"You were there for me, you were there for all of us, maybe not in the same place, but what you did, Jack was for all of us. I may not understand it but I know this much, without you nothing would have ever worked out right again." Kate tightened her hug momentarily and released him, she could say no more, there were no more words to be found.
Kate and Jack continued on their journey down the path, hand in hand, each consumed with thoughts of each other's welfare, each caring for the other's pain.