Famous Last Words

Chapter Thirteen

Author's Note: You might want to go back and reread the new ending to chapter twelve. Basically, Jack gets his job back. I thought I'd be able to add that into this chapter, but couldn't find the room. Sorry again!

"Any last words?" Kate said softly to Jack, a trace of sadness in her voice.

Jack felt her delicate skin push softer into his shoulder, where her arms were crossed, and she leaned against him. his once injured wrist dangled lackidasily by his side, giving him no more trouble except an ugly red scar and a pain, coincidentally before every rain shower, which, thankfully, didn't occur that often. He looked longily at the sight in front of him.

"No," he repeated dryly.

"I still don't see why they wouldn't let me drive the crane."

Jack and Kate glared at Sawyer. The sun shined around the junk yard that Jack, Kate, and Sawyer stood in. In front of them, Jack's car hung from the claws of a large crane, that would soon drop the SUV into its hellish destiny.

Nearly a month had passed since that night of mishap. Kate had yet to admit who the culprits were, in partial fear that both Jack and Sawyer would do something stupid, when neither were in condition to do so. The aftermath of that night meant Kate playing mother to Jack and Sawyer, who each took it to their advantage, spending most of their time laying on the couch(s) watching Seinfield DVDs, and calling out for pizza last minute before the place closed. Kate had to admit that at first it was weird living with Jack and Sawyer, or rather, it was weird how well the three were able to get along. Most of the time.

"What?" Sawyer wailed innocently. "It's not like I don't have a license. I could operate that thing."

"You don't drive a crane Sawyer," Jack pointed out at Sawyer's stupidity.

"Same difference," Sawyer muttered.

He was just glad it wasn't his car, which was actually parked right outside, that was facing junkyard heaven. With much convincing from Kate, and shrugs from Jack, clearly reading 'I could care less what he does' Sawyer agreed to move to LA, at least for the moment. So he and Kate had traveled back down south to retrieve his car and some savings from a bank, and he was now taking up temporary residence in Jack's living room, which had its advantages and disadvantages.

Kate had proved to be the antidote for Jack's insomnia as their relationship continued to grow, which meant that Sawyer got the rest of Jack's place to himself at nights, though that also meant having to listen to their annoying giggling and banter throughout the night. However, never telling Sawyer this, some morning she woke up to find Sawyer slouched in a plastic lawn chair, sleeping on the balcony as the sun grew hot. She figured that that part of island life never left him.

But all in all, it life wasn't all that bad, and mostly the only conflict who would be the one to wash the dishes that night, and the mad dash to the bathroom the next morning. Kate solved that by buying dozens of packs of plastic plates(bringing on many jokes of Jack's kitchen becoming more of a 'concession stand') and Jack by being the first up every morning, without fail, leaving Sawyer in the cold.

Back in the present, the 'driver' of the crane was yelling at them, but it took Jack a moment to comprehend what he was saying.

"Are you ready?" The man yelled for what must've been the dozenth time.

"Oh!" Jack said, snapping himself out of whatever daze he was currently in. "Yeah. Yeah, whenever you are."

There was a creak and then a bang as Jack's ruined car was dropped amongst others with the same destiny. After a moment the 'driver' began clearing the area, and none of the three said anything, but it wasn't as though Jack's car being crushed was a depressing thing(well, maybe for Jack) it was what happened in the car, and events causing it that got to them. Finally, the tension just got too thick.

"Come on," Kate said suddenly, tugging at Jack.

"Huh?" Jack said, caught off guard.

"I've got a surprise for you guys," Kate said.

"Should we be afraid?" Jack said playfully.

Kate rolled her eyes.

"Just meet me at the park."

She left out the back gate, heading opposite Sawyer's truck, and Jack watched her until Sawyer so kindly interrupted with, "There's a park around here?"

(Space)

Thirty minutes later, Jack and Sawyer were entering the community park, abandon due to the month being December, and the weather freezing cold. As the twelve days of Christmas crept by, the three agreed not to celebrate, though none of them had the heart to turn down Jack's mom's offer on a Christmas dinner. They all knew it would be hard on her, being the first Christmas without her husband, and Jack as well. Make that really hard on Jack. Kate had sensed that Jack had a hard time dealing with loss and letting go, but in the past few days, Jack had become more distant than usual. Even Sawyer had noticed.

As the two made their way down the steps leading to a walkway, they noticed Kate leaning against the fencing of a base field, smiling.

"What do you think she wants?" Sawyer whispered.

"I don't think I want to know," Jack said sincerely and didn't speed up when Kate waved them over.

Pushing herself off the fence, Kate led them to a dug out, where a bag of equipment lay.

"What's all this?" Jack asked, looking around.

"You wanna play catch or somethin'?" Sawyer said, spitting into the ground that lined the fence: a dying grass covered in cigaret buds.

Kate smiled.

"That's exactly what I want to do," she said, and stepped inside the dugout, and just as Sawyer was about to open his mouth, added, "and don't either one of you dare complain about your arm. You both agreed to try and get back in shape and all either one of you has done is sit on the couch and eat."

Opening the equipment bag, she took out an old, rusted glove and threw it to Sawyer, who caught it and looked at it like it was from another planet.

"Recognize it?" She asked him.

"Yeah," Sawyer said, studying it, "it was my grandfathers. We played when I was like five, but I haven't seen it since-"

"Your mom put it up in the attic?" Kate finished for him with a knowing smile.

"Yeah," he said and looked up at her, "how did you know?"

"Not everything was ruined in the fire," she said with some suspense, "you just didn't take the time to look."

She smiled at him for a moment as he stared at the glove and then reached into the back, taking out another and throwing it to Jack.

"Hey!" Jack said as he caught it, looking at it in recognition. "Where'd you get this?"

"Your mom," Kate said with a grin a mile wide, "a long with a few year books."

"That's not fair!" Jack whined.

"Yeah," Sawyer agreed, "why can't we dig anything up on your past? You know find out you used to be head cheerleader or somethin'?"

"Because I think you'd enjoy that a little too much," Kate said, her eyes twinkling.

"So how are you planning on arranging a three person baseball team?" Jack said, tossing the glove in the air and catching it again.

"She's not," a voice said behind him.

Jack and Sawyer turned and were surprised to find Charlie walking up towards them, Claire dragging behind them with her son held tightly in her arms. Jack looked at him, wondering if he was imagining things, or if this were some kind of weird dream.

"What?" Charlie said as he neared them. "You didn't think we'd seriously let you guys spend Christmas alone, did you?"

Jack looked back at Kate, who smiled and shrugged as she continued taking gloves and bats out of the bag, and Jack began to wonder if Kate had called up the entire island. Charlie then turned and looked at Sawyer, someone sympathetically.

"Even you," Charlie added.

"Who are you Dr. Seus?" Sawyer sniggered.

"Yeah," Charlie said, "so I guess that makes you the Grinch?"

"Give me a dog with pointy ears and you've got yourself a story," Sawyer said.

"It's good to see you again," Jack greeted, shaking Charlie's hand as he said 'yeah, you too', "how's the band?"

"Good," Charlie said with a scrunched up face, "all right- well.. in all honesty, we suck."

"Ain't exactly wonder hit wanders any more, huh?" Sawyer said, in an unusually good mood for him.

"Let's just say we won't be around for a while," Charlie said, and then shivered, "God it's freezing out here."

"Yeah, it's cold," Jack pointed out to Kate, "how're you expecting us to play in this?"

"Whatever happened to 'suck it up and deal with it?'" Kate said.

The guys just looked at her. Kate sighed.

"I got some sweatshirts out of the storage room for the football teams when I was down here yesterday," she said, and looked at Sawyer, "they're in the back of your truck."

"Just please tell me that they don't say 'I survived three months on the sodding island and all I got was this bloody shirt'," Charlie said with a groan, and Sawyer smirked.

"Don't think she's that creative," he said, and then offered to go get them.

"What turned him around," Charlie said, looking after Sawyer in surprise.

Jack shrugged.

"We're not complaining.

"Charlie!" Claire's voice hissed in coming. "I thought I told you to pack the- hey.."

She hadn't noticed he was talking to Jack and Kate.

"Sorry," Claire said sweetly, embarrassed, "I guess Charlie just doesn't realize how important it is to take care of a baby when it's cold out."

Charlie blushed and muttered under his breath, "Who am I, Mary Poppins?"

"Problems in paradise?" Jack mused as Claire set out a blanket over the cold bleachers and sat down, shivering as she held the baby.

"Paradise?" Charlie snorted. "I think the only people who are in paradise are-"

"Shannon and Sayid?" Kate said suddenly, and Charlie looked at her.

"Yeah," Charlie said, puzzled, "how did you know?"

"Here they come," Kate said, pointing to Sayid and Shannon, who were stepping out of a beat up Hatchback.

"Just don't ask him when the wedding is," Charlie whispered, "he's kind of testy about that."

They had to be the oddest looking couple around, though they both had their share of good looks, though they seemed to have the best luck in any kind of romance any of them had ever seen. Just as Sayid locked his car, a few others pulled up.

"Who all did you call?" Jack asked, looking at Kate incredulous.

"What?" An elder voice said from behind them. "you didn't noticed how your phone bill shot up this month?"

Jack looked at Kate.

"Merry Christmas, "she said, shrugging happily.

"An old man like you can play ball?" Charlie said, smirking as Locke neared him.

"There's something you have to understand about us 'old men'," Locke said as he let a bag that he had on his shoulder fall to the ground, its continents spilling out.

Jack and Charlie jumped back as dozens of baseball bats rolled to the ground.

"If we can remember it, we can do it."

"So no love life then?" Charlie teased.

"There's something you have to understand about insulting old men too," Locke said with a mischievous smile, "but I don't think you want to learn that lesson. It's good to see you again, Charlie."

He grabbed Charlie's hand in a firm handshake that jerked him towards Locke, and Jack chuckled as he noticed that Sayid and Shannon had reached them. None of them were sure what to say, and for some reason, the tension with them was greater than with any of the rivals until, finally, Sayid said something.

"So I heard you had some problems with your car," Sayid said, somewhat seriously.

Jack glanced over to the car Sayid was driving, with its horribly covered, chipped paint, and knew that four months ago, Shannon wouldn't be caught dead three feet away from that thing. Now as she stood in front of him, dressed in well-used jeans and an Old Navy hooded sweat shirt, her makeup light and her hair simply laying on her shoulders, she was almost like an entirely different person. As they all were.

"Heard you were too," Jack said in the same serious tone, and Sayid smiled, and they embraced in a brotherly hug.

"Nice to see you again," Sayid said, and nodded to Kate, who was still in the dugout, "how have you been holding up?"

"All right," Jack shrugged, "well enough to get by. How about you?"

Sayid glanced over towards Shannon, who was reuniting with Claire, and cuddling the baby. He just smiled.

"So when's the wedding?" Jack teased, and Sayid glared at him, causing Jack to laugh.

At that moment, Shannon came skipping back to them.

"You should really see Claire's baby," she said pleasantly, "he's a doll."

"I will," Sayid assured her, and suddenly, Jack remembered something.

"Anyone heard from Boone?" He asked, figuring of anyone, Shannon would.

"He called a few weeks ago," Locke informed them, coming back from helping Kate set up, "we've been keeping in touch."

"And they're coming over to our mom's for Christmas dinner with Sayid," Shannon said, and then turned to Jack, "hey, you guys should come too. Boone's mom is going through this whole 'new outlook on life thing'. I think she's already started cooking. She fired her maid. Of course, that means I have to come over and clean the garage every weekend but-" she looked up at Sayid proudly, "we could use the extra cash."

Shannon seemed like the kind of person who sat around in coffee shops and buffets all over town bragging about her relationship, though Sayid seemed more self-conscious about it, and liked to keep things on the hush-hush, which Locke noticed right off, and didn't push the conversation.

"So how's Boone doing with school?" He asked casually.

"Boone's back in school?" Jack said, wondering when this came up, and why everyone but him seemed to know everything.

"Yeah," Shannon said, "I think he's taking some kind of business class or something. He started this fall, and has exams and all that, so he couldn't come."

"Actually-"

They all turned to Boone, who was approaching them.

"I'm starting school next semester, " Boone said, correcting Shannon, "and I'm majoring in engineering."

"No medical school then?" Jack smirked.

"You gonna come over and do my homework?" Boone joked.

"So it didn't work out with um.."

"Heather," Boone reminded him, "and no. But don't worry- no hard feelings there."

An hour later, almost twenty-eight of the castaways had showed up. A lot of people Kate hadn't even known, a few she couldn't reach, and a few couldn't make it because of work, Christmas, and the most popular excuse, fear of flying.

"Come on old man!" Charlie yelled from home plate to Locke who was in pitching stance on the mound.

He had failed to tell anyone that he, too, had played some ball as a kid, for a short period of time. Locke smiled evilly and as Charlie continued to fail at distracting him, the ball whizzed by Charlie twice more, and he was out, bringing Sawyer up to bat, with Jack one first and Claire(another survivor volunteered to watch the baby) on third.

Locke threw a curve ball, throwing Sawyer off guard as it whizzed by, and some guy named Artz caught it without fail. Another pitch, and Sawyer swung and missed. A third pitch, and the ball connected with the bat, sailing out to right field, going, going- and as a gust of wind blew just at the right moment, it blew to the side, hitting the fence.

"Strike three!" Hurley shouted gleefully behind him. "Your out!"

"What?" Sawyer shouted, spinning around. "You call that foul?"

"Hey," said Artz, throwing off the catcher's mask, revealing his aging face, "I know a foul when I see one. And that was as foul as foul can get."

"Oh what do you know?" Sawyer said, his good mood faltering.

"We don't have all day!" Michael called from first.

He and Walt had flown in to spend Christmas with one of Michael's cousins. Apparently, Walt hadn't been that bothered about never saying goodbye to his step dad, who had tried and failed at reclaiming Walt as his son.

Jin was in right field behind Walt, and though he didn't have that much of an idea of what was going on, he seemed to be enjoying himself. He and Sun were working on their relationship in their new home in Korea. Having survived being nearly butchered by his 'coworkers' when he quit his job, they now lived in an apartment nearly two hours away. Jin still visited his father on the coast, and Sun hers, though Jin hadn't had the hurt to tell her the truth about her father's 'company' and had explained his injuries as a simple gang fight.

Boone in left center had admitted to still being on the meds, something both Jack and Locke could understand, but he did assure them that he was in some strict therapy, and had admitted to his mom the truth about why Shannon's father left. That called for a night of angst and a week of cold shoulders, but in the end, his mother forgave him, and cried for the next hour, saying how sorry she was, and how she should've been there for him.

Shannon and Sayid, who currently resigned in an apartment took up left and third base(Sayid on third, Shannon in left) and were taking a trip to the Middle East the next summer. After reassuring her mom that he would keep an eye out for her, and keep Shannon away from any place dangerous, and that he would make sure they flew another airline, Shannon's mom agreed to let her go, admitting that it would be a 'cultural' experience. After much teasing about how they were really going to Europe to elope, they had offered Boone a plane ticket to go with him, but Boone replied that there was no way in hell he was spending a month with there giggles along with their bantering, and at hearing this, Sawyer shot 'try living with it'.

Hurley had successfully refurnished his house, and his mother was now watching from the stands, helping take care of Claire's baby. He had told everyone not to worry about paying him back, and sulking, Boone had said the same to Jack.

Everyone found themselves on unusually good terms with Sawyer, who had told at least five different stories, ranging from him saving Jack's skin in an all out gang fight to a car chase that Stephen King couldn't write, but Jack didn't say anything, figuring it was a miracle that he had gotten the basics right.

What Sawyer had kept quiet was the parts about his house burning down, and the fact that he had quit smoking. Actually, it was more like Kate had thrown out all his cigarets after hearing the doctors(and Jack) complaining on the issue one time too many.

As Jack's team filed into the dugout, Sawyer threw himself down onto the bench, and it was obvious to anyone who watched him that something more than the game was bothering him.

"Jack, can I talk to you?" Sayid asked, pulling him to the side just as Jack was about to enter.

"Yeah, sure," Jack said, and he could feel Kate's eyes on him from across the field, "what's the problem?"

"I was just about to ask you that," Sayid said, leading Jack out of earshot from the dugout.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Jack asked, stopping.

"It just seems a little odd," Sayid commented, "one minute you and Sawyer can't stand the sight of each other, the next, your roommates."

"That was four months ago," Jack said in his defense, "and he's moving out, and Kate talked him into staying. What was I supposed to do, throw them out?"

"I'm not saying what you did was wrong," Sayid said quickly, "I just want to know the true story. What really happened last night?"

Jack studied Sayid for a moment, and then told him the real story, from start to finish, of what happened over a month ago, and by the end, left Sayid speechless until he finally smiled.

"Some things never change," Sayid said, shaking his head, "you three just can't stay out of trouble, can you? So what's life like living with Sawyer?"

"You take it day by day," Jack said and Sayid laughed, thankful he wasn't in Jack's shoes.

"Charlie stop!" Claire screeched from the field, causing Sayid and Jack's heads to whip around.

On the field, Charlie was chasing Claire at full speed around the field, and Claire was having a hard time keeping ahead of him. At last, Charlie had her cornered, and let the entire group watched as he attacked her in kisses.

"They're disgusting," Sayid commented simply, and Jack chuckled, having heard the exact same thing said to him before.

At the same time, Jack was sure that this was not the moment where Hurley's mom was saying to the baby, "and that's your mommy, and mommy's..friend". Claire pushed Charlie away as if offended, and they could've all sworn that they heard Charlie gasp as the push caused him to loose his balance, falling straight down into the sand. He was quickly up on his feet again, and chasing Claire around.

Jack watched amused as Kate joined him, trying to grab Charlie's arm to keep him away. A few others raced to join them, and Jack soon found himself feeling a little left out until he felt Sayid nearly push him into the field, and he grinned as he snuck up on Kate, grabbing her from behind.

"Jack!" She screamed, beating him on the back as he threw her over his shoulders.

"I've got her Charlie!" He shouted, and Charlie grinned at him as he too had Claire trapped, on the ground, though a pile soon formed as Michael was trying to pull him back(with many shouts of 'hey! I thought you were on my side!' and even Shannon had joined in. Before he could stop it, Jack felt himself fall hard on his knees and Kate rolled off of him, running for Claire. Recovering himself, Jack ran after Kate, and joined in on the pile of fallen survivors. A few minutes later as it finally broke up with many laughs and comments of 'we should've done this months ago', Jack wiped some sand from his face and looked up to find Kate smiling at him, and he returned it.

"Party at Jack's!" Hurley shouted out of nowhere, and Kate burst out laughing.

"What?" Jack said shooting up, but was unable to stop the crowd heading towards the parking lot. "What? No- not my place..somewhere else-"

"They've got you trapped," Kate said as she helped him up.

"Little do they know, I have no food," Jack said, and shook his head, looking up to the sky, "my landlord's going to kill me."

"Nah," Kate said, doing a good impression of Sawyer, "he hasn't thrown you out yet."

"True," Jack said, and noticed Kate watching the park's entrance, as if waiting for something, "what?"

Kate just smiled.

"What?" Jack said, anxious. "Tell me!"

"It's a surprise," she said teasingly, and leaned up, kissing him.

A few seconds later, Jack broke off.

"I hope it's better than that," he joked, and Kate hit him in the shoulder.

"Come on."

Charlie's interruption brought the end to the game, as everyone was too worn out to play anymore, and since it was nearing five-thirty with a graying sky above, most were growing hungry and restless. The survivors were now gathered in the parking lot, crowded around a silver SUV.

"What's this?" Jack asked, approaching Sayid, eyeing the car that everyone seemed so interested in.

Sayid took an object which turned out to be car keys, and dropped them into Jack's hand, and smiled.

"It's yours."

Jack just stared at him.

"What?" Jack said, thinking that maybe he should look into this hearing things problem.

"Yeah," Charlie said, "I mean come on, is there anyone here who's life you didn't say? You have more fans than I do."

Sun smiled as she brushed up against Jack and gave him a peck on the cheek which turned him rose red, and Kate gave a mock glare of jealousy towards Sun's way.

"Thank you," she whispered as she stepped back into the crowd.

Jack just stared at the vehicle.

"You got me a car?" Jack said blankly, finding no other words.

"Come on Jack," Boone chimed, "you must've saved my life what- six, seven times? I figured the least I could do would be to get you a car."

"Hey!" Charlie whined. "My money's in that thing too!"

"And mine!" Walt added and Michael held onto his shoulders.

"A few bucks maybe," he added quietly to Jack, "but he wanted to help out."

"And I've got your insurance covered," Hurley said from nearby, "just please- no more car chases."

Jack let out a dry laugh and said, "I don't think you'll have to worry about that anymore."

"And we had some help from someone else as well," Sayid said, and the crowd grew silent as they stepped aside on cue, revealing Jack's mom standing there, looking a little unsure of herself.

Jack stared at her for a moment, as if trying to decide if she were real or a mirage, but knew reality when he felt himself walking forward through the survivor's tension and embrace her in a tight hug, closing his eyes, fearing both the tears in them and the stares from the others.

"I'm sorry," he heard his mother whisper as a tear fell onto his shoulder, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry-"

"Don't be," Jack said quietly.

"I'm proud of you," his mother said suddenly.

Though it had sounded like something that she had been rehearsing for days, weeks, and quite possibly, months and years, Jack took no note from it, only broke from the hug and stared at her, forgetting the others. He had been waiting to hear those four words for as long as he could remember, and it didn't even matter that it had come from the wrong person. The crowd around him slowly began to break up, and goodbyes filled the air as well as the soft crying of Claire's son as Jack and his mom remained frozen, knowing that maybe after this, there was a chance of moving on, but they'd have to work on it. Together.

(Space)

Having complained that his arm hurt him, Sawyer and Kate left early, and had gotten the apartment ready for guest, who were really only Sayid, Shannon, Hurley, and Boone. Kate had ordered pizza and they ate and chatted about nothing for hours while Sawyer snoozed on the balcony. Now Jack took his place, and as Kate threw away the last of the paper plates, she opened the balcony's door and the sounds of Sawyer's tv program faded away as she walked up behind Jack, and leaned against the railing next to him. She waited for him to say something, but like most nights, he never did, leaving her to start.

"So what did you and your mom talk about?" She asked quietly.

"Huh?"

"In the car," Kate said, studying him, "you dropped her off."

"Oh," Jack said simply, "yeah. We talked mostly about my dad, it being Christmas and all. Not like I'm really missing anything, he'd always be the first to work Christmas Eve and he'd still be gone when I'd wake up the next morning. When I was a kid I used to wonder how Santa would go to both of my neighbor's house and then skip mine."

"I never had much of a Christmas either," Kate admitted softly after one of Jack's usual pauses, "it was mostly me and my mom, I'd get a present or two but we never had much money. And you know what? I never really minded either. As long as I was there, with her."

Jack was quiet for a few moments and then looked at Kate, and when he did, she noticed that his eyes were rimmed a light reddish color, and were filled with a sad emptiness.

"So are you going to help me through this?" Jack asked, his voice breaking a little, leading him to clear his throat as he continued to stare at her.

Kate could've smiled. It was the first time Jack had ever came out straightforward and had asked for help. As she thought of this, his look on her held, and her eyes stared into his desperate, helpless soul, and she nodded.

"Because you asked."

Jack smiled at her the best he could, and then looked back down to the street below, where a cat chased a mouse into a hole carved inside some bricks built into the ice cream shop that sat across the street. Kate could've sworn she heard Jack chuckle.

"So we had a pretty good crowd today, huh?" Jack said out of nowhere, startling her. "You did a good job."

"Thanks," Kate said, "I couldn't get some of them to come though. But I did get to talk to Rose."

"How's she doing?"

"As well as you could expect," Kate looked up at Jack, "I bet she could use some advise though."

"No," Jack said, "I think she has her own way of dealing with things. What about Alex? I didn't see her there, did you get to talk to her?"

"Yeah," said Kate, "wow, that one was hard. She's still living in New York with her uncle, and Danielle's moved in with them. She dropped back in school-"

"I thought she's only sixteen," Jack said, thinking of Boone's story.

"Apparently we had ourselves dealing with a high school dropout," Kate shrugged, "though I would've never guessed."

"So is she going into solo work?" Jack asked, remembering their conversations about music.

"A little solo work, I think," said Kate, "and I think that she's pitching a few song ideas to people, but now her main focus is school, and getting her life back on track- as well as keeping herself sane."

Jack chuckled.

"I guess I won't be giving any advice on that one."

"I dunno," Kate said, "I think you're doing a pretty good job. Which reminds me- about a month ago Sawyer told you to read some kind of letter. What was in it?"

"A check," Jack said, smiling, "from my dad. Ten thousand dollars from a will."

"You mean all this time we've been eating fast food for nothing?" Kate said, trying to make herself sound angry.

Jack only laughed.

"Do you want to go out to eat with Sawyer?"

Kate thought about it.

"Good point."

A roar of can laughter startled Jack, and Kate remembered the tv that was on.

"Oh yeah," she said, "and Sawyer turned your cable back on."

"My cable was never on to begin with," Jack said, groaning, "he's paying for that."

"Well when he moves out, you can go back to your old boring life," Kate teased, "speaking of which, I believe that there was something you were about to say to me before that rescue plane so rudely interrupted us?"

Jack smiled, his eyes twinkling.

"You know," he said, "I don't think I remember."

Kate hit him playfully on the shoulder for the second time that day.

"Oh, that!" Jack said innocently. "Right-"

Jack grew serious, and took Kate's hands in his, and just as he was doing so, thunder rumbled above and small sprinkles of rain dropped around them.

"The rain's going to beat ya to it," Kate said, smiling.

"Kate," Jack said finally, holding her close to him, "I want to think you for everything you've ever done for me..helping me help others, helping me help myself."

"Oh get to it!" Kate said, now smiling uncontrollably.

"And Kate," Jack continued, "I love you."

Kate's grin faltered for a split moment, only to widen.

"I knew it," she said, and caught his lips in a kiss as he slid forward, wrapping his arms around her waist as the rain pattered against the railing around them, though it was only soothing to them, though on a broken record, Sawyer just had to ruin everything.

"Hey guys!" Sawyer yelled from inside the apartment. "The power just wen out!"

Jack and Kate both laughed lightly and Kate was the first to say it:

"And he's going to have to get used to living in the city."

Jack just shook his head, chuckling, and pulled her back towards him, picking up right where they left off.

Author's Note: THE END! Tears, I know. I hope yall liked that- I tried to sum it up the best I could with the castaways and all, and of course- Jack and Kate. Thanks to everyone and anyone who reviewed(and those of you who are reading without reviewing- the shame!- lol- j/k!). You guys are awesome!

My next fic, "Happy Medium":

A lovesick Jack leads Kate on a secret jungle trek while Alex worries about herself as she starts having weird dreams again, and the rift between her and Danielle doesn't help.

Okay, worse case, the Jate plot might be held back, but I'm definitely using it at some point!

Thinking about the title? Consider this:

1. What's a medium? What are their powers?

2. What was the role of the character 'Happy Medium' in A Wrinkle In Time(I'm trying to add this one in)

3. What is a happy medium?

Crazy title, I know, but it's all I got right now. Thanks again and I hope you guys come back! Aren't yall glad I didn't apply myself to these lyrics and stop here, like I planned?

And these are the last words I have to say

It's always hard to say goodbye

But now it's time to put this book away

Ain't that the story of my life

Famous Last Words, Billy Joel

October Sky