Request
Chapter Four
"Are you sure I look twenty-eight?" Kate, who had chosen her new name based on a character she had recently seen in a movie, asked.
"Don't worry about it," Kirstie, a girl a year old then her said as she placed a pearl necklace around Kate's neck. "You look great."
Kate watched in the mirror as Kirstie fastened the necklace and Kate let her hair back down. She was wearing long, black, spegetti string dressed striped with white across the chest, and was getting ready to step into some new black heals, higher than what she was used to, which didn't help her nerves.
"But do I look twenty-eight?" Kate said, worried, as she studied her makeup in the mirror, pondering rather or not to add more blush.
"Trust me, it's not a bad thing to look younger," Kirstie said as she began to throw some of the makeup she had let Kate borrow into a bag.
"But Ted's thirty-two," Kate said, her voice high-strung.
Ted Davis was thirty-two and that was just about all Kate knew about him, or wanted to. She had met him at a bar, where she had waited anxiously while he discussed something with the bartender, whose face never left the shadows, to ask him out, right out of the blue.
"You'll do fine, just don't give yourself away."
As Kate heard Kirstie zip up a final bag, Kate did a last overlook of herself, and was satisfied, sure she was going to get away with it, when:
"So when were you planning on telling me?" Kirstie's voice said from behind her with a drastic tone change.
"Telling you what?" Kate said innocently, trying to swallow her nerves.
She wasn't going to give herself away. Not yet. Now now.
"Why the marshall is after you."
Kate froze in the mirror from adjusting the necklace.
Caught.
The sun beat down hard on Kate's neck as she mentally debated on which was worse: letting her sweating hair get in the way and soak her neck, or burn up. She decided that sweat was better than heat, and was about to untie her hair when she noticed Jack walking her way, looking down towards the ground, walking away, she soon saw, from a group huddled around some plane wreckage. From where she could see, the group consisted of most of the same people as the night before, including, Charlie, Hurley, a few survivors of who Kate didn't know, and Sawyer. Nothing good could come from Sawyer being apart of that group, she knew, but on the positive side, at least he wasn't hiding himself away.
"Hey," she said as she approached Jack, catching him off guard.
"Hey," he returned, giving her a small, fake, smile.
"So what are they saying?" Kate asked as she began walking further away from the group, in equal paranoia.
"They're discussing what they'd do if they ever find the person who crashed the plane," Jack paused, "assuming it was a person."
"They seriously think that just because they found a toy plane proves that someone hijacked ours?" Kate asked in disbelief.
"Well, Sawyer does," Jack said, laughing a little.
Kate didn't find it as amusing.
"So what are they saying?" Kate asked, biting her lip.
"About what?"
"About what they'd do to the person who crashed the plane," Kate said as the first pang of sickness came from the nerves.
"Let's just say I wouldn't want to take a walk in that guy's shoes," Jack said seriously.
"We've got to do something," Kate said, looking up at Jack with a desperate plea in her eyes.
She watched as Jack glanced over towards the groups, and in bad timing, met eyes with Sawyer, and in one horrific moment, it seemed as though he could see right through their conversation.
"We're not going to be able to change their minds, Kate," Jack said.
"No," Kate said, shaking her head, "the toy plane- we've got to get it back."
"We?"
"Jack-"
Kate couldn't finish whatever she was about to say, and her pleaful look was enough for Jack.
"All right," Jack sighed, "if it really means something to you- I'll help you."
He looked down to her, and offered her a small smile, and she returned it, relieved, that she had at least gained someone's trust, and she was sure she had, in knowing that Jack was willing to help, even while having no clue at what was going on. With that, Kate broke the stare, quickly taking her eyes to the ground.
"Well, I've got to go," she lied, and looked back up to Jack, who, after a moment of admiring her gaze, caught on.
"Oh, yeah- me too," he lied, and started off towards the path to the caves.
Sure that Jack had his back turned, Kate turned not towards another path, but back out into the ocean, once again, biting her lip, wondering how things could've turned around so quickly, cursing herself for being so careless before.
"Kate?"
Kate spun around, surprised at being caught. She stiffened as Jack walked towards her, but loosened when all he did was resume his previous look.
"You got the chance to start over," Jack began, "and I'm not going to take that away from you."
They locked eyes once more, Jack trying to show her how earnest he was, and Kate trying to show him that she understood his trying to help.
"I'll help you get through this, okay?"
Kate nodded, fighting back tears that were forcing their way through her eyes. Why was she about to cry? She couldn't help but to wonder about it. She had never felt this way before, and even with the sickness pitted in her throat, she still felt that she had some kind of hope, and she knew where it was coming from.
Author's Note: Okay, so I wanted an all Jate chapter and I was so thrilled that I got as many reviews as I did for the last, so a short, quick, fluffy chapter for you.
October Sky
