Hey all, only one more exam to go, French (but I am le tired!) sigh here's a nice soothing chapter and I can't wait for all the reviews saying OMG OMG OMG!
Pangs of Guilt
Chapter 12
Another Island Mystery
"Feeling okay?" Jack asked her. She looked over at him, and smiled weakly as she sat cross-legged in the sand.
"As well as can be expected, I guess," It wasn't a strong answer; it had been more then a month since the 'incident' had happened. Kate was fine physically, but destroyed emotionally. She wouldn't let anyone talk to her about loosing the baby and went as far to avoid the matter as possible. It didn't help either, that she would've been three and a half months pregnant, yesterday.
"You still can't sleep?" Jack asked her, he was still overly concerned for her.
"Can you?" she asked back, drawing circles in the sand with her finger. She'd pinned him there, sure he got more sleep then her, but he never slept more then three hours.
He returned her weak smile, "Nightmares?" he asked her, which was the reason he'd lost sleep. It seems every time he closed his eyes, he relived that god-forsaken day. That's why they were out on the beach at this hour in the morning; the sun had just begun to rise.
"Yeah, that and guilt," she replied quietly, he looked over at her as she reverted her eyes to the ground.
"Kate, you have to realize that it wasn't your fault," he explained, she shook her head.
"It was my fault, Jack. I could've said no to Sawyer, not to climb the tree, or said no to Sayid, not to come on the trip, or gone somewhere else that day…" Her words wandered.
"Maybe it's better that it happened this way, maybe the child wouldn't have been strong enough to grow up on this island," he explained, Kate stared at him blankly, trying to understand, "Maybe," he continued, "We'd always promise them, that one day we'd get back home. It would be an empty promise"
"But it'd be a nice dream," a warm smile crossed her face, "We could take them to New York to meet your family," Kate mentioned, "Take them to Central Park," she continued smiling.
Jack nodded, "Yeah take them skating, trying to hold them still because they were excited, as we tried to tie up their little skates."
"Take them to the Bronx zoo, to the petting zoo," she added still smiling.
"To Disneyland, and video recording the look on their face when they got to meet Mickey Mouse," he smiled.
Kate now had tears in her eyes, "Jack," her voice trembled, "How can we love and miss someone so much, when we didn't even recognize that they existed for most their life?"
He pulled her closer to him, sliding one of his arms around her shoulders, and one around her waist. She winced Jack took notice of this.
"You still don't have that bruise do you?" he asked, concerned for her health.
"Thankfully it's gone, every time I looked down at it I get nauseous," she explained
Jack was quiet for a moment, remembering the ugly, hideous bruise the followed her around, reminding her of what she'd lost. Kate didn't deserve that; she didn't deserve any of this. He regained himself, "What's hurting then?" he asked.
"I need new pants again," she explained, undoing the top button of her cargo pants.
"Didn't you just change your pants?" he questioned this because he remembered Kate exchanging her blue jeans for cargo pants, do to the swelling of the bruise a couple of weeks ago.
"Yeah, but bruise must still be swelling, because these are tight now," she exclaimed trying to stretch them.
"The bruise still shouldn't be swelling if it's gone," Jack looked her in the eyes with alarm, "Does it hurt to touch?"
"No, just the pants get to tight too quickly," she explained, he looked at her questioningly, "Here," she exclaimed, "Look," she suggested as she showed the bottom of her stomach.
He placed one of his hands one her abdomen, trying to determine if anything was wrong. Even though the situation was serious, Kate couldn't help but smile at the size of his hand compared to her stomach, they were almost the same length.
Jack could tell Kate's stomach had expanded, but it wasn't do to swelling because her stomach was hard, it had to be something else…
"Kate?" Jack asked suspiciously, "did you have your period this month?"
"What?" Kate asked surprised, "Why?"
"Kate, just answer the question," he asked sternly.
"No, I thought…" Jack leaned up and kissed her passionately, she was surprised and fell backwards, when he broke the kiss he was laughing joyfully.
"Jack?" Kate asked confused, "What's going on?"
He continued to laugh cheerfully, and kissed her once again, she giggled a little bit. Kate hadn't seen Jack this in high spirits in a long time; actually she didn't think she'd ever seen him this happy.
"Jack, what's gotten into you?" she asked giving him a playful smack when he rested besides her
"I know why your pants don't fit," he exclaimed almost in a mocking tone, as he continued to beam.
"Why?" she asked arching an eyebrow.
Instead of answering her, he pulled her top up once again to reveal her abdomen. He slid down and gently placed a kiss on her stomach, "Welcome back," he greeted with a smile.
Kate's eyes teared once again, this time for a completely different reason. All she could manage to mutter was, "Are you serious?"
"Kate, I'm a doctor, I think I should know," he answered. She immediately shared the same proud, thunderstruck grin that he had. She wrapped her arms around his neck, and pulled him close, laughing whole-heartedly.
"How did this happen?" Kate whispered, her head rested on his shoulder.
"If you don't know that by now…"
"I mean, how did it survive?" she asked.
Jack pulled her back, and replied sincerely, "Honestly, I have no idea. The percentage is very small."
"I guess it another island miracle," she replied smiling,
He leaned in and kissed her gently, "We should watch the sunrise more often," he suggested. She smiled once again; her life had once again taken a one-eighty on her, though this time it was a welcome surprise.
"We should get back now," she advised, "Maybe we can finally get some sleep."
"Okay," he agreed and helped her up, "I'll piggyback you two back to the caves."
Well there you have it (don't I say that like every time?) Anyways I absolutely love it when you guys review, so keep up the good work and I'll keep up mine
Oreata Didn't mean to getcha crying, have a tissue
MusicMonkey88 Oh man I need to go grocery shopping and stock up on the Kleenex
GQSecondAct Don't worry, reviewing is not mandatory, just welcomed, and I didn't even reply last time, so you're definitely excused. Thank you very much for the kind words, I will continue to try and do my best.
Tatiana I'll try to be nicer to them
LOSTinFisboy Thank you very much for the compliments, I'm glad I wrote a good chapter, believe me it took come keen cracking skills to get it set up just so. But there's more tearjerkers along the way, plus more fun.
Evermore I think I said once before that this is totally AU, so I get the names like Alex and Liam (which will come up later for more then one person, because this stories going to continue forever)
And congrates you guessed what was gonna happen, I tip my hat to you
Skater Thanks
FanOfLost nah I didn't get my compy back it's still in the shop (POOR CONKY!! (yes I named my computer)) but I got a CD of my files.
What about Kate too? She's the one who had to deal with all the pain (physically…but then again she never had to dance to thriller)
Next Chapter The others (not Ethan he doesn't exist in this story) find out the good news, and WHAT! Have a Merry Christmas on the island (okay so I wrote this story a really long time ago)