Disclaimer: "Lost", Jack, and Kate all belong to ABC.
Somebody stop me, please! It's like a sickness! I can't get away from the pointless Jack/Kate fluff! I got halfway through my expense report for work and then felt the overwhelming desire to write this. As the previous one, it's written late and not proofed by anyone.
Tension
"Kate…we should stop here for the night."
She turned around to look at Jack, and then up at the sky. He was right, it would be dark before they could make it back to the camp, she hadn't realized how late it was getting. She didn't like the idea of spending the night in the small clearing they had stumbled upon but nor did she want to be wandering through the jungle in the dark attracting the attention of whatever it was that had killed the pilot, and probably getting more lost than they already were.
Reluctantly, she set down her backpack. Three days of searching for Claire, and nothing. She didn't like to give up, but getting themselves eaten wasn't going to help anyone. She could see by Jack's worried expression that he didn't like stopping any more than she did, but they had to be careful, they had both see what that… thing had done to the pilot.
It took them only a few minutes in the semi-darkness to get a fire started, which lit the small clearing and made the darkening jungle seem less threatening. She knew sleep was not going to come easily for either of them, despite their exhaustion, but it was soothing, for the moment, to simply sit in the heavy silence and let herself be mesmerized by the flickering shadows thrown by the fire.
"You okay?" Jack asked her suddenly, seemingly out of nowhere.
"I'm fine. Why?"
"You keep rubbing your shoulder."
"Oh, just a little stiff, from the backpack." She kept her voice casual, even as she felt a blush creeping into her cheeks and a smile tugging at the corners of her mouth. Had he been watching her? He was giving her a thoughtful look, then-
"Turn around."
"What?"
"Turn around, face the other way, and come over here."
"Jack-"
"Kate, it's only going to get worse if you sleep on it," he said firmly, in what she had come to think of as his "doctor voice". Hesitantly, she twisted her hair up off of her shoulders, and then scooted over so she was sitting in front of him. She hoped he didn't notice the slight tremor that ran through her as his hands came to rest gently on her shoulders. "Most people hold tension in their shoulders," he went on in the doctor voice, "so it's probably worse since you've been under some stress lately."
She turned and gave him a look. "Some stress?"
He chuckled and gave her shoulder a gentle push. "Turn around."
She did, and he began by gently rubbing the muscles at the back of her neck. It was actually quite nice, but-
"Jack, that kind of –OW!- hurts…"
"Sorry, but you're really tense…"
She didn't mention that it wasn't really helping that he was sitting so close she was practically leaning against him, that his hands that were supposed to be helping her to relax felt hot on her skin through the thin fabric of her t-shirt, that his breath on the back of her neck automatically heightened every sense and tensed every muscle.
She loved his hands. She had watched him, when he didn't realize it, tending to injuries, making fires, all sorts of mundane, everyday tasks that became graceful in his hands. Now his hands pressed on her shoulders, down the bare skin of her arms and against the tight muscles in her back, forcing her to relax, the insistent pressure no longer causing pain. Slowly under his touch, all the tension of fighting and surviving slipped away, and she allowed her eyes to fall closed, awareness narrowing to just the warmth radiating from his hands. She had slipped into a wonderful drowsiness when she felt him lean over and gently kiss the back of her neck, then her shoulder. Feather light brushes of his lips, meant to soothe rather than to excite.
"Kate?" His voice was soft and low, speaking only inches from her ear.
"Hm?"
"Is that better?"
"Oh…yeah…thanks."
"No problem. Sleepy?"
She nodded, a little surprised through her state of dreamy relaxation that she could be so drowsy and so content, but she didn't fight it.
"Good," he said quietly, and drew her back so that she was resting against his chest, and she melted into him, his arms still wrapped around her shoulders. "Go to sleep then."