Request
Chapter Eight
NOTE: This chapter takes place at night, despite what was in the "Deus Ex Machina" promos last night. I'm aware they took place during the day.
Jack felt himself wake up once more, but his eyes refused to open, or at least right away. Pain shot up his back, and his head was on fire as he failed in trying to move. At the pain, he knew he was truly awake this time, but still..
"Dad?" Jack moaned in hope.
"No, Jack," came a soft voice, "it's me."
"Kate?"
"Yeah, it's me," Kate assured.
The world came to him in blurry pieces of black and gray, until his vision cleared the best it could, and he saw a form of Kate, smiling in relief, as she sat back. Jack saw that he was in the caves, and looking around, saw that everyone had finally trailed off to sleep, except for Charlie, who was watching over Claire, and Sayid, who was leaning against the cave wall, and looked exhausted. Kate nodded over to him, telling Sayid that she had it under control, and Sayid nodded, and walked out of the caves.
"What happened?" Jack muttered as Kate helped him sit up.
"You were out for nearly an hour," Kate explained, "we were afraid to move you. No one knew what to do."
"No doctor for the doctor, huh?" Jack joked.
"Think you can stand?" Kate asked after a few moments of awkward silence.
"I can try."
Jack let Kate take him by him by the arms, and worked with her as together, he was finally able to stand.
"Want to try walking?" She asked him, and immediately felt bad for it after seeing Jack wince from the pain, because he knew he wouldn't admit it.
"Yeah," Jack said, feeling helpless.
He hated being treated like a kid, especially when he couldn't help it. Slowly but eventually, with help from Kate, Jack made it into his cave, where he nearly collapsed on an airline chair he had placed there for the case of wounded survivors. Little did he know he would be one of those people.
"You don't think anything's broken, do you?" Kate asked, unsure of what to do.
Jack laughed a little at Kate's attempt.
"I think the point was for Sawyer to talk to me without me being able to fight back, "Jack said, "guess it worked."
"Jack, don't-" Kate began.
"Don't what?" Jack said, looking at her. "Don't be mad at Sawyer? That's not going to work this time-"
"Just let me help you," Kate pleaded, cutting in.
She looked Jack in the eyes, and Jack saw how exhausted she looked, exhausted from waiting for him, worrying about him. Jack knew the least he can do was give Kate a chance.
"All right," he agreed.
"So what do I do?" Kate said, looking at Jack.
From the looked they shared, they both knew that end the end, no matter how much Kate wanted to or tried, it would end up being Jack helping himself in the end. They both knew it, and were both able to laugh over it.
(Space)
Boone woke with a groan as he lifted his head off of something hard. Wearily, he forced his eyes open to find himself staring at the ground, a mixture of dirt and weeds. He sat up, and held his head in his hands, trying to block out the pain before he realized where he was. He was back at the hatch, and a fire was glowing not to far from him, with Locke controlling it.
"What happened?" Boone groaned, looking up at Locke.
"You're awake," Locke observed, and handed Boone a bottle of water.
Glancing at his watch as he took the water, Boone was surprised to find that it was nearly one-thirty.
"One-thirty?" Boone said in disbelief. "How long was I out?"
"A few hours, give or take," Locke said, staring back into the fire, "I think you were out longer than Sayid expected you'd be."
"Sayid?" Boone said in confusion, trying to remember the nights events.
He remembered Locke being missing, finding Shannon and Sayid, leading them away from the hatch, and then the rustling in the leaves.. Boone groaned. Of course. Shannon always told him he was the worst liar ever.
"I set myself up," Boone muttered, and grabbed his head as pain shot through it.
When Locke made no move to help, or not even to say anything, Boone looked at him, and to the fire.
"Isn't it dangerous to build a fire on top of that?" Boone said. "I mean, we don't know what's under there-"
"Maybe you're right," Locke said abruptly, standing up.
Boone wasn't sure if he had irked Locke or not, but he didn't say a word as Locke put out the fire, and offered a hand to help Boone up. He took it, and Locke bent down, picking up his pack, and the two started off down the trail. Or tried. After only a few steps, Locke felt his legs lock, and suddenly not feeling anything, he lost his balance, falling against a nearby tree.
"Are you okay?" Boone asked as he gave Locke room to push himself up.
"Yeah," Locke lied, "I'm fine."
Convincing himself that it was nothing, Locke walked on, knowing Boone was eyeing him, wondering what was going on, because everyone knew Locke wasn't the one to ever trip, or lose his balance; and the pang in his right calf didn't help anything. They managed to get nearly a quarter of a mile out of the way, before pain shot up Locke's leg, and he fell, completely losing balance, and collapsed onto the ground, rolling onto his back. After giving him a moment to catch his breath, Boone reached down, and helped him up. Of course, Locke was a good deal stronger than Boone, so Locke nearly tumbled over Boone as he tried to regain his balance, which was hard for him. He had to take a tight grip on the nearest tree, while Boone held onto his shoulder, trying to balance him.
"I've got it, I've got it," Locke said, nodding, trying to get a hold of himself.
Taking a swallow from his water bottle, Locke tried to catch his breath.
"What is wrong with you?" Boone asked, staring at him. "You've been losing your balance off and on for the last twenty minutes."
Locke didn't answered him, but had begun to break out in a nervous sweat, almost hypervinelating.
"Locke?" He asked, now growing more worried than angry.
The last thing Boone wanted to deal with was an old man's panic attack at two in the morning, in the middle of some jungle nearly two hours from camp. Especially not from the man who had been set out to kill him for eight years. And he was worried for Locke too.
"The island changed me," Locke said, shaking his head, "and now it wants to take it back and I don't know why."
"What?" Boone said, looking at him, thinking that if anyone had the symptoms of being on meds, it was the man standing in from of him.
Locke had spoken like a kid, whining, but in all, seemed really worried. He looked up towards the sky, as if looking for the answer up there, but he found something else. A buzzing noise rang through the air as Locke searched for what he swore he caught glimpse of. A plane.
"What was that?" Boone asked, indicating the noise.
Searching the skies, Locke found it: sure enough, a small, four passenger plane was circling the island.
"Did you see that?" Locke said as he tried to move to get a better look.
His legs failed him and Boone followed his gaze, trying to see what Locke was seeing.
"See what?" Boone asked, searching the dark night sky.
And then he, too, spotted it. From what it looked like, the plane was lowering, as if landing but.. just then, Locke fell, beside him, and grunted in pain. Boone looked down at him, and then his head jerked back to the sky at the sound of something loud heading towards him, and looked just in time to see a patch of smoke forming in trees only a few miles away.
"Was that..a plane?" Boone said, trying to take in all that had happened in just a few minutes.
"Go-" Locke groaned, "-go see what happened.
Boone turned back to him, remembering Locke's sudden injury.
"No, the others," he began, "they can-"
"They're probably all asleep," Locke said, moaning as he tried to move, "go- try and find a transceiver. It might still be in tact."
Boone looked at him, then back toward the crash.
"Transceiver," he muttered, "right."
"Go!" Locke said from the ground, before breaking out in a series of coughs.
Taking one last look at Locke, Boone moved a few limbs, making a new path towards the recent crash.
(Space)
At three-thirty Kate found herself taking up Jack's insomnia habits, and as she predicted, hadn't been able to fall to sleep, so she went to the caves to get some water. Secretly though, she was looking for Jack, and wasn't surprised when he wasn't here. Turning, Kate took the path that Jack had taken every night, and she knew that tonight wouldn't be any different. Sure enough, just as she turned Kate could make out Jack's figure sitting by his own fire, staring so deeply into it, that he didn't notice the sound of Kate coming towards him.
"How did I know I'd find you here?" Kate said, mimicking Jack.
Looking up, Jack actually smiled a little, the first sign to Kate since she heard him laugh that got her thinking that maybe he would be all right.
"I think I stole your spot," Jack said as Kate sat down.
"Call it our spot," Kate said, and the two met eyes before sharing their second laugh of the night.
"So-" Jack started but couldn't find an ending.
"So-" Kate said, picking fun at mocking him.
"So I guess I'm going to look like 'ole eight eyes son for a while," Jack said, nodding towards the jungle where the monster lay still.
"Jack-" Kate began, but was cut off by Jack.
"I'm fine, Kate," Jack said, once again while convincing himself, "I promise."
As much as Kate wanted to find that true, she just didn't see how it was. She couldn't see it in his eyes, as much as Jack tried, and definitely not in his face, which was a pastel of blue and black around his left eye, with a jagged cut running beside his left eye. She didn't know what it was going to take to get the truth out of him, but she would find out, no matter what it took. He had let her help before, and it was a start, and something told her that she would get him to trust her again. Trust Sawyer to ruin it all with God knows what he said.
"So I guess you couldn't sleep," Kate assumed as Jack turned back towards the fire.
"I'm just trying to remember what all happened," Jack admitted, "what all Sawyer said."
Jack shook his head.
"But maybe it's better that I didn't."
The words stung Kate so hard that she swore to herself next time she saw Sawyer, she'd kill him, or at least give him a good kick in the-
"It's almost four in the morning," Jack said, "what are you doing out here?"
"Maybe I'm making sure you didn't go off and do something stupid," Kate said, trying to make herself sound serious.
"Oh yeah," Jack said, "that's me, the stupid doctor."
"I didn't mean it like that," Kate said, shaking her head.
"I know," Jack said, looking at her, "I know."
They sat in silence for a moment before Jack suddenly remembered something.
"Oh, I've got something for you," Jack said, reaching behind him.
Kate looked at him, wondered what could he possibly have gotten her sitting out here alone. He brought his hand forward, letting the fire catch glimpses of the object in his hand. Kate nearly gasps as she saw what it was: her toy plane, pieced together with a strand of medicine tapped under the broken wing. It was messy worked, Jack was obviously no artist, but that didn't matter to her.
"It was with my stuff," Jack told Kate as he handed the plane to her, and smiled at the way her face lit up as she took it, giving Jack a sad smile, "rehab got boring."
"I'm no Sayid," Jack continued, "but I figured this would be just as good and without the questions."
Jack watched her as she slowly flew the plane throw the thick morning air like he had seen her done so many times, but this time was different. Though the same, longing look was in her eyes, Jack began to understand it, and remembered what his dad said about walls coming down.
"Because it's more than just a toy plane, isn't it?"
He held his breath as he waited for Kate's answer, feeling nothing but the throbbing pain in the left side of his face and the stinging in his right. For a moment, he was sure that she was going to stand up, storm off, was sure that she was going to break out in tears, and was sure that he was acting no more like a con-man, hoaxing people for what he wanted. And for a moment, each of these thoughts ran through Kate's head, but she shook them off along with the tears that were threatening to form in her eyes.
"I told you that my dad was in the army," Kate began, staring into the plane as though she could see little minuscular passengers through the planes small windows, "he would go off to work for weeks, even sometimes months, and it would tare me apart. I was only eight." Kate paused, and Jack just watched, waiting for her to continued. "I'd find myself missing the oddest of things that I'd see other kids do with their dads- going to the park, getting rides to the movies, dads giving their kids ice cream after holding out the battle of 'dinner's in an hour' for only so long, but yet, somehow, they still gave it to them in smiles."
Jack could've smiled at the irony of their relationships with their fathers.
"My dad was never the ice cream giving type," Jack said, chuckling to himself.
Kate looked at him, and Jack knew she was asking him to let her go on, and he did, finding himself feeling guilty for never interrupting.
"We were supposed to go on this camping trip one weekend," Kate went on, "but he got called in early, and had to go help land this plane. He gave me the toy in the middle of the night, and I was barely have awake. He didn't think I heard what he said, but I did."
Jack watched her as Kate held the plane up to eye level, and for a split second, it seemed like she had forgotten Jack was there, forgotten that she was even talking. But then she remembered.
"He told me to look at this-" Kate swallowed as she tried to fight back tears as well as she could, and all Jack wanted to do was reach out to her as he saw the pang of sadness in her deep, brown eyes, "-to look at this, and know that he would always be thinking of me. I told him I would- and he left."
When Kate never finished, Jack spoke for her.
"And he never came back?" He guessed, then immediately regretted it when she looked at him, the same, sad, helpless look that he had received from her oh so many times.
"I killed him," Kate said in a small voice that Jack strained to hear.
"What?" Jack said, sure that he had heard wrong.
"We were eating dinner," Kate recalled, looking back into the fire and ignoring Jack's question, and found herself unable to look at him, "and this man broke into our house. He was saying, 'give me the money' 'give me the money."
"What money?" Jack wondered out loud.
"I never found out," Kate said, then: "he and my dad got into a fight, and the man dropped his gun. He choking my father and I don't think he meant for me to pull the trigger, but- I did."
Jack drew in a deep breath as he tried to take this in, but found that he was unable to, no matter how hard he tried. He couldn't accept it, and the world came crashing down on him. He had always told himself that no matter what Kate had done, he would accept it with no guilt, because he felt that he knew Kate. But now, now he wasn't so sure.
"I killed him," Kate managed to croak out, "and as he took the bullet he fell, onto my father, suffocating him. I killed him Jack, I killed my father."
She turned to Jack, and Jack knew that she wanted nothing more than for him to hold her. He knew because it was the same look that Jack had given her that day below the cliff. But Jack was frozen. He couldn't move, he couldn't think, and for a moment, he was sure he stopped breathing. Jack couldn't do himself to do anything but stand, which brought only more tears to Kate. He hated it, and didn't know why he felt this way, didn't understand what he was doing even as he did it, and didn't want to. He felt like there was something controlling him as he said:
"I'm going to go check on the others."
Turning, Jack made to move in any direction except forward, but was stopped by a tug of the arm, and Jack looked down as Kate pulled on his arm, drawing him towards her. Next thing he knew, he felt himself leaning forward, the last of the fire sparks burning against his neck as he felt the warmth of Kate's lips brush against his, and Jack moved closer as he put his arms around her, surprised to find that she was shaking as she drew him into what would becoming so much more than either of them knew.
All through this, Kate didn't know where her mind was. She had felt the dire need to confess everything to Jack, knowing it was only what he deserved, and was heart broken at his reaction, which was the least expected and most feared from him. And she found herself wanting to find it. Suddenly she had felt the tension that the other survivors had seen between them since the beginning, the tension that she had heard giggles and late night conversations about, the tension that Sawyer had teased her about, and all she wanted to do was grasp it, knowing that the only way for either of them to get help was to help each other. So she got it the only way she knew how. As Kate let her hands run down Jack's clearly sore and stiff neck, she felt the slightest of selfish guilt, but it seemed almost necessary.
The night did funny things to you, Kate thought as she felt Jack's hand run through her hair in a soothing motion. It brought out the best and worst of people, she observed, as well as the truth in them. She didn't know what it was going to take to get the truth out of him, but she thought that maybe, just maybe, she could find it in a kiss.
Author's note: THE END! Yes, I know, just mean. Once again, I hope the ending made sense. Basically I tried to get out that Kate wanted Jack's help, and for Jack to let her help him, and she did it in the best way she knew how. Or something like that. Lol. So next story should be up soon. Tonight at the soonest, some time next week at the latest. But I still get two long nights of computer work ahead of me and a few hours tonight. I know exactly how I want to start it, and a pretty good idea of how I want to end it. Well, I promised you a good, Jate ending, and I hope that suit you. I enjoyed writing it, love it more like, and I hope you understand that the few times I write romance, I don't focus on action as much as I do emotion and feeling, which I feel is far more important in any good love stories. Not that I'm calling Lost a love story, lol! Thank you so much to all my reviewers! I don't want to name you all for fear of naming someone twice or misspelling a name, because I love you all! Yall rock! I wrote this story over spring break while I've been sick, and you guys just made my day! THANK YOU!
Working summary for my next fic
Wish You Were Here: The survivors work together to try to learn more about the mysterious new castaway, who has a few secrets of her own, while Boone searches the new crash site, which welcomes another new survivor. Alex-centric.
THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU! You have no idea how much I appreciate you guys! I hope you enjoyed it and come back for the next fic, no pressure though, (wink).
October Sky
