Let's see if we can get a little closer to wrapping this thing up.
Jack held his chin tight, the bleeding had slowed and he hoped that further pressure would stop it completely.
He stood and looked at the two opposing figures at his feet.
On the one hand there was Ben, bound and gagged. Jack wished that he could bind more than Ben's hands, feet and mouth. He would like to be able to tie his mind up and disable his vast repertoire of plans within plans, each backing up or preceding the next. Transpositioning was Ben's unique specialty
On the other hand, there was Kate, the almost perfect antonym for Ben. Where he planned and repositioned, she moved. Her unique ploy was the blitzkrieg, it often failed, actually quite frequently, but she had had at least two triumphs. She knew her weakness; she did not attempt to play the positioning game. Jack wondered where that left him, somewhere in between? More to the point, what would be the winning game? Jack rubbed his hand on the back of his head and worked the problem.
Jack was tired of being a pawn; he knew what Ben wanted of him. For some reason Ben wanted him dead. That flick of his knife had been carefully aimed and serious. It was an assassin's move, not one that he would have expected of Ben. Jack really wondered just what it was that Jacob wanted with them and why Ben was so intensely opposed to it.
Why had Kate been forced to come back to now from when. Here Jack chose to put a fine point upon it; when, with its utter lack of definition was a perfect word choice for the place they had come from. Jack shook his head; he wished he had Daniel's notebook with him so that he could keep track of all this. If Kate had been pulled back here, then what would they experience later or earlier?
God only knew, knows or will know.
Jack smiled inwardly at this ridiculous tangle of tenses.
Anything that might happen in their own time would not necessarily be the same. Jack wondered. Were they even going to be able to get back there? To be there? What was a rabbit hole, anyway?
Jack suddenly realized that he wasn't just tired of the island's manipulations. He was just plain tired
The twins could sleep, he knew, for up to ten hours, It was that first post-birth sleep marathon that infants experience. It should be the time for Kate to rest and recover, but Jack knew that it wouldn't happen. They would have to move sometime very soon. He could not watch Ben forever, it was too dangerous and he was far too fatigued himself. The kind of weariness that he was experiencing led to mistakes.
Jack stood up and walked in a small tight circle, he suddenly knew his solution; he knew the pion coiffé, the way for pawns like Kate and himself to win. Jack would give Kate one more hour, then they would have to move.
Through the god-damned rabbit hole.
About three hours later, Jack nudged Ben with his foot. Kate was standing, wobbly on her feet but vertical. Jack noticed that in addition to holding them tightly in her arms, she had the twins secured to her chest with some extra folds of her ridiculous garment. He shook his head and glanced at Ben, bound and gagged with the fabric of the thing; perhaps it was not so ridiculous after all. Jack hoped fervently that Ben's flying phone booth or whatever the hell it was, wasn't far, Kate couldn't walk for long.
Kate moved in close to Jack and leaned in, she spoke in a low voice, not wanting Ben to overhear, "Jack, no matter what happens next, you need to know something."
Jack looked at her, dread was written on his features. "Is it something Ben did earlier Kate?"
"No Jack, it has nothing to do with him." Kate shook her head vehemently. "I just want you to know that I did not mean to come here, I am not sure exactly what happened, but I was picking fruit and well, Jacob showed up. Yeah, the old one." Kate smiled with a weary shrug, "He asked me to give him that little plane so I did and here I am."
"I saw your prints, Kate. Did you go in the water?" Jack wasn't sure exactly why he asked, he regretted it the minute he had. The last thing she needed to be feeling was defensive.
"Yeah, I did Jack, I heard a cry from the ocean, I had to look, I had to at least try." Kate chose not to divulge all of the details, she was safe, that was all that needed to be known. She began rocking on her feet, soothing the stirring babies strapped to her chest.
Jack reached down and placed his hand upon Kate's tangled hair and smoothed it with his fingers. When would they finally be able to rest, to stop this? Something about the cry in the ocean was niggling at his mind, there was a connection there that needed to be made, but he couldn't quite make the leap. Jack shook his head and dismissed it for now.
"We'll have to move Kate, lean against me whenever you can. I wish I could carry the babies but I may need to deal with Ben and I do not want them or you in harm's way. Jack leaned in and placed his forehead upon Kate's and whispered low. It was time to place their move, a pragmatic rush. "The only way that we are going to get Ben to cooperate is if we work together. As soon as I unbind his feet, he is going to try something. We can't predict what that will be but I need you and I to have a signal of some kind that he can't interpret, in case either of us sees that the other is in some kind of jeopardy. A word would be best."
Jack looked down at the two nestled heads below his chin, safe for now. He dipped his head and kissed each one gently; he breathed in their newborn scent and closed his eyes. Never had he felt such urgency, such a clear mandate for action. At all costs these children must be preserved and protected. He looked up and into Kate's eyes, she felt the same, they were in perfect accord.
They had experienced danger together before. This was a new path for both of them though, they had always been on two roads, going in two different directions. They met at times, those crossroads had been the sustenance they needed to carry on, each with their respective journeys. But now things were different, now they were on the same road. Now they wanted and needed the same thing. Jack looked up and caught Kate's eyes once again, she nodded once, a long, slow bob and she mouthed a single word, "five." Jack nodded, turned and unbound Ben's feet, they were ready to go.
Ben rose slowly, he had been in tight spots before but at this moment he felt pinned. He needed to get rid of these two; he could not oppose them successfully if they worked in tandem. He had always had success in the past at keeping them parted. Ben recalled his past efforts at separation.
At first their divergent places in the world had been enough to distance them. Jack, a well respected doctor, Kate with a shady criminal past, Ben really hadn't thought that there would be anything to worry about. Who would have ever imagined that Jack would be able to look over such a gulf and see Kate's intrinsic value? Ben hadn't counted on that. Then there was Kate's fervent desire to stay on the beach and Jack's stubborn insistence on moving to the caves. At that point Ben had sincerely hoped that the survivors would create two opposing camps, but it hadn't played out that way. His next hope had been Sawyer, and his connection with Kate and the jealousy it caused. The departure of the raft had foiled that plan. Ben stopped that raft, ostensibly to collect Walt, but that had hidden the true agenda. Ben wanted Sawyer back, it had almost worked, but not quite. The connection between Jack and Kate was too strong. He had needed to personally intercede, thus his own arrival in the person of Henry Gale. Jack's distraction and Sawyer's presence had almost worked, but there Ben almost overplayed his hand. The increasing danger to the survivors brought consort to Jack and Kate's actions.
They were like two magnets, it was intensely frustrating.
Their internment with his own people had been his greatest attempt at tearing them assunder, he thought that he had achieved success with Kate's departure and Jack's impending release. He had been sadly mistaken. His greatest attempt had backfired and it had been the catalyst for the couple's most triumphant moment of connection.
It had been a long game with an elusive pattern and this final act of birth was what Ben had been attempting to avoid all along. Ben felt almost hopeless at this point. He could always play against them separately but the two of them in consort put him in an untenable position.
There was only one way to prevent his king from going down, he would have to end the game in a stalemate.
Ben was cashed in, he would not be able to kill them, not with both of them on the defense now, he also knew that he would not be able to dissuade them. Jack was determined to find the answer to Kate's question and he would find a way. There was only one thing that Ben could possibly do, it meant his own demise but perhaps a small portion of his vision for the island could be saved. He could prevent Jack and Kate from finding the way back, he had kept his knowledge of the rabbit hole a secret, even from Hurley. Perhaps Jack and Kate would meet an untimely death and the twin's lives would fall in line with their predestined pattern. Ben would have to let go and let fate decide.
As soon Ben's feet were unbound, he ran.
Jack looked up, shocked at this turn of events. He shot a glance in Kate's direction, nodded and took off after him. Ben was going uphill, straight for the tops of the cliffs that lined the island's coast just to the north. Jack followed fast and hard, damn, he didn't know that Ben could run like that and he had the jump on him.
As quickly as Ben had started, he stopped; at the edge of a ninety foot cliff.
Ben looked at him, hopeless desperation and fierce determination mingled on his features.
"Goodbye Jack." Ben folded his arms across his chest, released his foothold upon the edge of the cliff and fell.
Jack walked forward and peered over the edge, he saw Ben's broken body resting below. Jack rested his hands upon his knees and closed his eyes once again adjusting himself to this dizzying pattern of events.
He turned around and headed back to Kate.
What he saw in the clearing was confusing and heartening at the same time.
Kate was still standing in the same spot, swaying subtly in a gentle rhythm, chin down, whispering words of quiet comfort to the twins. Behind her stood the massive figure of Hurley, beaming with pride and joy.
Upon hearing his footfall, Kate looked up at Jack and like a sunrise, relief spread across her features. It felt to Kate like she had been holding her breath since he had gone. Whatever in her mind that had been at a swift tilt since Jack's departure, stopped, clicked and found its place of rest.
Hurley waved his right hand, clasped within it and dwarfed by his broad fingers, was the tiny plane, the talisman. He looked up at Jack, "Hey dude we've been waiting for you, I think everything is finally ready. Come on, let's go back."
As Jack approached and took Kate's hand, Hurley placed his arm over Jack's shoulder and then pulled Kate and the boys under his other arm. The three of them stood in the small clearing, surrounding the twin boys in the loving circle of their embrace…and vanished.
Authors Note: This chapter is not what you might think, it is not a dish of revenge served up cold for Darlton for their constant separations of or protagonists. No, it is a playful tweak. I have always loved their writing of and amazing use of Ben as (I think) the stand in for themselves, I'm just spinning it a little for my own, and I hope the story's, advantage.