Hey thanks for the reviews once again! You guys are awesome. If you have any questions feel free to ask, because I'd love to answer…
Sorry this chapters up late, I totally thought I'd get another snow day but alas no..
Pangs Of GuiltChapter 5
Dangerous Dreams
"How are you doing this morning love?" Charlie asked as he sat down next to Claire. It was early morning, the sun was newly raised and the chill in the air was evident.
"Alright, but this little guy won't stop kick boxing my bladder," she chuckled, "I've been peeing on the hour for the last 6 hours."
"He's just anxious," Charlie exclaimed, placing a hand on Claire's expanded stomach. She smiled and placed her hand on top of his.
"Morning guys," Jack greeted as he walked behind them to the pile of firewood, "You guys are up awful early, is everything okay?"
"Yeah, I was just telling Charlie about my peeing epidemics," Claire joked, then looked at her watch, "Speaking of which, I'd better start walking now, because I'm due for another." Charlie smiled and helped her up, and watched as she waddled away through the trees.
Jack took a seat next to Charlie as he added more wood to the fire, and nonchalantly let out a yawn.
"If you're tired Jack, I can watch the fire, you can take a nap or a break?" Charlie offered.
Jack smiled, "No thanks, I'm waiting for Kate, she's supposed to bring up fish from the beach and bring water back, I figure I'll help her."
"She's really been working hard since that little tiff in the jungle last month," Charlie exclaimed.
"Has she?" Jack asked, Charlie gave him a raised eyebrow, "No really I haven't seen her in a awhile."
"That's because she's gone into overdrive," Charlie answered, "Every time Claire and I trek to the beach, she's always gathering wood, or fruit, or water, or yelling at Sawyer. I don't think I've seen her sit down during the day for the last month."
"I'll ask if she's okay," Jack told Charlie, "I'm sure there's just a lot to be done down there. They don't have a lot of people either, so maybe she's pulling double time."
"Still she should be able to rest," Charlie added, Jack nodded in agreement, "I'm just concerned, she's a nice girl."
The brush around the camp started to rustle, as Kate emerged from the path. Charlie sent Jack an encouraging look, and retreated to his cave to play his guitar.
Jack got up and walked towards Kate, who greeted him with a cheery smile. She placed the fish down on Locke's designated 'food' area and gave Jack a quick kiss.
"I missed you," she divulged, as she laid her head on his chest.
"I missed you too," he explained smoothing her hair content enough just holding her, "I'm sorry I haven't been down to the beach recently. Claire's due date is Tuesday, Jin and Michael had a fight, Walt scraped his knee and Shannon had an asthma attack."
"Sounds like you've been busy," she smiled as she kissed him quickly, and then began filling the water bottles.
"Actually I wanted to talk to you about that," he explained, while taking bottles from the bag. He sat beside her and began to help filling them.
"About being busy?" She asked confusedly.
"Yeah, apparently you've been pretty busy yourself," He explained looking her straight in the eye.
"A little more then usual, with Shannon here, and Sawyer refusing to do any work, it's kinda short handed," she shrugged it off.
"It's okay to do a little extra work, but don't go to an extreme," he told her. She stopped filling the bottles and looked at him, "The last thing I want is you passing out do to exhaustion, especially if you're…"
"Jack I'm fine, really," she exclaimed, taking the water from him and putting it in her bag, she went to get up but he grabbed her hand.
"Is that why you're trembling?" he asked quietly, the others were now starting to wake up.
"Jack…"
"When was the last time you slept Kate?" he asked, still holding to her cold, tremulous hand.
"Two nights ago," she exclaimed silently, desolately letting her head drop.
"Kate," Jack gently lifted her chin to look into her faded eyes, "You need to sleep."
"I can't," she answered shaking her head.
"I know there's lots to be done, but it can wait," he added.
"No, not that," she exclaimed standing pulling on her backpack.
Jack stood and grabbed the other backpack, "Whatever it is, we can talk back on the beach. Because after you get back there, you're going to take a break and explain why you're throwing yourself into physical overdrive," he added.
"I brought the water," Kate called out to Sayid.
"Ah, thank you Kate," he said graciously, "Although I really wish you would've let me get it, you've done so much lately."
"Don't worry about it," she handed her backpacks over to him, "I'm just going for a little walk down the beach with Jack, he wanted to know where all the fish were this morning," she added.
"Take you're time, nothing needs to be done as of now, and if something does come up, I will handle it," he explained.
She smiled thankfully and began to stroll down the beach with Jack. They walked around the bend of the island. Jack looked back, and saw that they were no longer visible to the other inhabitants. He grabbed Kate's hand and led her to a nearby tree.
Kate sat down besides him and wore a weak smile, "Nightmares."
"Pardon me?" Jack asked.
"Nightmares are the reason I can't sleep," she sighed sadly, "Every time I close my eyes, I toss and turn until I finally fall asleep, then I end up waking up five minutes later in a cold sweat."
"What are your nightmares about?" Jack asked.
"The island, actually getting rescued. It's hard to explain," she shook her head, dismissing the subject.
"When did they start?" he asked.
"About a week after that night on the beach, I just can't seem to relax. I always have to be doing something," she sighed again.
"A number of things could be making you feel like this," he clarified, "But you're going to start feeling very weak, very soon if you don't start doing certain things," he draped an arm around Kate's shoulder, "You only eat fruit, which in this scenario is not healthy, you have no source of protein, you need to be less active, after you body burns out it's fats and sugars, it starts burning protein and you'll die from that."
"What should I do?" she quietly asked.
"You need to rest," he told her once again.
"Jack I can't, I…"
"Right now, for an hour, you and I are going to just relax," he informed her.
"We can't Jack," she stood from her spot in the warm sand, "The other's will be wondering where we are."
"So let them wonder," he exclaimed.
Kate replied with a smirk, but before she could walk away, Jack shot out his hand, and grabbed her pant leg, holding it tightly.
"Jack, let go," she asked, Jack didn't utter a word, or loosen his grip. "Jack, let go!" this time she told him, he merely looked up at her and smiled. "Jack," she giggled a bit and reached down to force his closed hand open.
He waited until she was in an unbalanced position and gave a hard tug. She immediately wobbled and fell back into her spot beside him once again.
She gave him an unimpressed glare, "Jack, I don't have time for this," she added moving to stand up again.
Jack grabbed her by the shoulders and pulled her towards him. She tried to resist, but was not at full strength. His lips covered hers in a passionate kiss, Kate closed her eyes, and Jack used this time to his advantage.
He pulled her into his lap, wrapping one arm around her thighs, and one around her stomach. Then he abruptly broke the kiss. She looked up at him, confusion plastered on her face.
"As I was saying, we're going to sit here for an hour. Maybe you'll fall asleep," he shrugged.
"Jack," Kate rolled her eyes and tried to stand up. But the position she was in made it a hard thing to do.
"Resistance is futile," he added.
"Okay, okay," she rested her head against his chest, "I doubt I'll fall asleep."
"When I was in residency, I had to sleep at awkward hours. The thing that helped me fall asleep was rhythmic sounds."
"Rhythmic sounds?" she gave him a skeptical look.
"Recurring noises, like the waves," he suggested as he smoothed her hair.
"I hate the waves so much," she divulged laughing.
"I don't blame, you, you live on the beach," he laughed back.
"Wait I think I got one," she exclaimed, adjusting herself against his chest.
"Good," he replied kissing the top of her head.
She smiled and closed her eyes, listening to the steady gentle beat of his heart, sleep swept over her.
"Kate?" she looked up, from her expanded stomach and smiled at her questioner; his face was that of concern.
"The baby kicked again," she said simply but happily.
He smiled back and placed his hand on her large stomach, "Here?" he asked.
"No, here," she replied placing his hand in the area the movement had occurred. There was a few seconds of frozen movements, but then booting continued.
"Pretty strong kicker," she explained when she saw the slightly surprised look pass his face.
"A trait passed down from the mother," Jack explained, helping her up from the log she was sitting on, "Other than the kicks how are you doing?"
"Good," she said nodding her head, "Just like I was five minutes ago."
"It's better to be informed about the situations, then be unaware of it," he explained wrapping his arm around her waist, "Especially if you're the doctor and the father."
Kate smiled and sighed, once again placing a hand on her stomach. The walking around tired her out, she wasn't as active as she used to be, but there was a valid excuse for that. Not everybody on the island had the equivalent of a twenty-pound weight strapped around their stomach.
"What's the matter," Jack asked, he stopped his slow walking, once again apprehensive about Kate.
"I was just remembering what it was like to have a stomach," she smiled, "And to walk at a decent rate, and to climb trees, and go on hikes, and just generally not having to sit on this beach and be useless."
"You're not useless Kate," Jack shook his head.
"It's okay if I am, because in a couple months, it'll all be worth it," she replied rubbing her stomach.
They continued to slowly make their way down the path to the caves. They'd been on the island almost a year now. After six months had pasted, the castaways decided it would be best to try and civilize and socialize the island the best they could.
The pathways around the island had been weeded and groomed; certain groups were designated to do certain things. Some groups collected water, some fished, some hunted, others collected firewood, others watched over the fire, and some washed clothes. That left Kate, who was in no condition to do any of these, and Claire with her five-month-old son, to collect fruit, which didn't take long at all. Which left Kate with too much extra time on her hands.
Claire had told her to enjoy this time as much as she could, that Kate would soon be too busy to sit down, mind you Claire had told her this while trying to relax the fidgeting baby in her arms.
Kate smiled at this thought; she'd gotten to know Alex fairly well. She'd watch him whenever Claire needed a break. Kate didn't mind, he was after all an adorable baby.
"JACK!" Kate came back to reality when they saw Charlie scrambling towards them.
Kate first thought of little Alex and Claire, she'd hoped they were all right. But as Charlie quickly came closer she could see this was a happy panic.
"Jack, they came," he replied stopping and huffing.
"Who came?" Jack asked curious about Charlie, but not leaving Kate's side.
Charlie grabbed Jack by the shoulders, "They came, Jack. THEY came."
"Charlie you have to slow down buddy, I can't understand…"
Kate understood, Kate understood perfectly. This was déjà vu; this was the exact same dream she'd been having for over six months now. This was bad, she knew what would happen, and she had to warn them.
"Jack, the rescuers are here," she exclaimed, the color draining from her face.
"Spot on," Charlie shouted as he pointed to Kate.
"Jack, this isn't good, it's not safe, we can't go with them," She told him clutching his arm, like if she let go, she'd fall forever.
Charlie looked on, a confused look on his face, "Charlie, go get the other's and tell them to start packing, and to go down to the beach." He nodded at what Jack said, and ran up to the caves to get everyone.
"Kate, what's going on?" he asked moving his hands to her elbows, she was shaking.
"Jack, it's my dream, they're here for us, they don't want to take us home they want to hurt us," She cried, tears of terror streaming down her face.
"Kate," he pulled her in to comfort her, "That was just a dream," he explained smoothing her hair.
"No, it was a warning, Jack, I swear, if we go down there, we're never going to see each other again," she explained, holding onto him tighter.
"Kate, come on, it's going to be fine, we're going to go on a plane, and go to New York, and we'll get to see an ultrasound of the baby, and find out the sex, and you can eat whatever your heart desires," he told her his plans, while moving slowly back and forth.
"No," she replied shaking her head and pulling away to meet his eyes, "Jack if we do this, we're not going to live long," tears were in her eyes again.
"Okay, okay, lets just go down to the beach, and if it looks suspicious, we'll wait a little okay," he suggested, "We'll just wait in the foliage."
She nodded her head, and he took her trembling hand. Slowly they made their way down to the beach.
"They should be dressed in military uniforms," Kate explained, "With a red patch on either arm."
Stopping at the end of the path, Jack strained his eyes, there was a giant vessel pulled up to the beach. He gazed around until he saw what he was looking for.
"Oh God, Kate, you're right," he whispered.
The men who had arrived on the island had already rounded up some of the passengers, who naively ran to greet them. They sat on hands and knees in the sand, while soldiers paced in front of them with weapons.
"This is their island Jack," Kate whispered, her voice almost mute, "They think we trespassed, they want us as prisoners, to do horrible stuff with."
"Kate, I think they killed someone," he murmured his voice shaken.
"No," She covered her mouth, trying to be as quiet as possible.
"I can't see who it is," Jack whispered.
"It's Sayid," she explained. Jack whirled around to face Kate, who was on the verge of passing out, he steadied her with one hand on her shoulder, and placed another one on her face, "In the dream he tried to explain what happened," she gasped, "They just shot him, point blank."
"Kate, they have Claire," Jack had turned back for a moment, "They have Claire and Alex."
"Jack, what are we going to do," she asked, "as soon as we go out there, they separate women from men. I don't know what happens to you, but all I know is I never see you again."
Jack turned around and hugged her, "You're going to turn around and run Kate, run as fast as you can, and as far as you can. I'll meet you at the clearing in the forest by the tree you fell out of."
"Jack, I'm not leaving you, you have to come with me, we can figure out a plan," she told him.
"Kate I have to help them," he explained.
"Jack please, come with me," she pleaded.
He placed his hand on her stomach once again and felt a kick; her hand was soon on top of his. He looked into her eyes, glassed over. One look in them, and he could tell she was terrified.
He placed his other hand on her chin and drew her in, kissing her passionately for what seemed like hours.
"I'll see you soon Kate," he explained and began to run towards the beach.
"Jack, No!" she begged, trying to reach him.
The last thing she saw was the man draw the gun, the shots fired killed so many things. When those bullets pierced through his heart, the castaways lost all remaining hope. They lost their leader.
For Kate when those bullets, went into Jack's body on one side and out the other, she lost, her love, her one true love. Their child had lost its father, and both of them, would soon loose their lives.
Spooky I know, whoda thunk I could write scarily. Anyways anything in italics from now on (save the Authors Notes) is a dream. Just to clarify.
Next chapter, Kate learns that relaxing can sometimes be like jail, and Walt gets a lesson in fun.