Hello Governors, I'm terribly sorry je ne updated pas last night, but I was deadly consumed in the French headlock that is my French class….or was because it's finished now baby! Yeah no more school for a week, a week of straight writing and straight updates! So enjoy my friends!
PS this chapter is so fluffy it makes my other fluff look like rusty metal nails. It was supposed to be a little break between the angst and the drama
Pangs of Guilt
Lucky Chapter 13
Rocking Around the Cribmas Tree
"Where do you think they went?" Charlie asked as he held the squirming one month old in his hands. Trying to steady Alex to keep him from crying.
"They could've gone out to get firewood or fruit," Hurley suggested weakly.
"Or they could be half way round this damn island by now," Sawyer commented, after receiving unpleased glares he added, "What; it'd probably be the most likely."
Claire sat down beside Charlie, smiling as she took her son from him, "I'm sure they just went to the beach or something," she suggested.
"Honey, I just came from the damn beach, and I didn't see them anywhere," he added.
"The island is full of beaches," Sayid added as he took a seat by the everlasting fire.
"Well you can't blame her for wanting to get away with all that's happened, we don't really know how she feels about the whole thing. We might be trying to help, but we could just be crowding her," Claire suggested.
"Yes, we should just let them work through it," Sayid agreed.
"Well I just hope she isn't as depressed as she was last week," Charlie explained, "Just seeing her that way made my heart break, she doesn't deserve this, no one does."
Suddenly they could hear approaching footsteps and laughter. Everyone turned to the direction of the noise and watched, as Kate and Jack appeared ten feet away from the group.
Kate was still on Jack's back, laughing the hardest anyone had ever seen her laugh, while Jack set her down, laughing and panting.
"Well they seem unusually happy," Charlie divulged confusedly.
"Hey, what's so funny?" Hurley asked.
Kate and Jack regained themselves for a brief moment, both sharing the same smile still.
"I need new pants," Kate giggled.
"I don't get it," Charlie replied, "Is that the punch line?"
"Why do you need new pants?" Claire asked, trying to spoon feed Alex mashed banana.
"Because her pants don't fit," Jack answered.
A smile lit Claire's face, handing her son to Charlie; she sprung up and hugged Kate laughing as well.
"What the bloody hell is going on here?" Charlie asked, "You're all off your bloody rockers."
"Walt," Michael called for his son, who walked over to where he stood. Vincent slowing to a stop besides them, "Do you want to help me with some Christmas presents?"
"Christmas presents?" Walt asked, "Where did you get them?"
"I didn't get them from anywhere, I'm going to make them, because they're much needed," Michael explained, "They'll be well appreciated too."
"Okay," Walt agreed, finally his boredom would end for awhile, "What are we going to do?"
"Fist we have to go collect some bamboo, and some vines," Michael explained, "We'll need a knife from Mr. Locke to, a good cutting one. Why don't you go ask him?"
"Okay," Walt nodded.
"What are we going to do about Christmas?" Boone asked. He had walked from the beach with Shannon to see if they had anything special planned.
"I don't really know what to do," Jack explained gloomily, "It would be nice to have a gift exchange, but I'm afraid there would be nothing to give."
"That's what I thought," Boone nodded desolately.
"We could have a supper though, all of us together," Jack suggested, "We could come down to the beach. Have some boar, and fish, and fruit. Maybe sing Christmas carols," Jack suggested. Christmas was only two days away.
He smiled, "That's better then nothing. Just because we're stuck here, doesn't mean we should loose everything from the real world," he agreed.
Shannon scoffed, since she was a baby, she'd been used to receiving literally mounds of presents. This year it would be the exact opposite.
"You might enjoy it Shan, besides you could actually learnt he real meaning of Christmas. It only took the Grinch fifty-three years, you could beat him too it," Boone suggested sarcastically.
Shannon shot him an unimpressed glare and he returned to talking to Jack, "How's Kate?"
Jack smiled, "She's fine."
"Look at you, freaking Mayor of Beachtown," Shannon complained, "Can we just go already?"
"Kate's pregnant, Shannon," Boone exclaimed, "I wanted to see if she was feeling any better."
"When did that happen?" Shannon asked angrily.
"Maybe if you didn't live under a rock…" he suggested.
Thankfully on the date of December 25th it did not rain on the island, it also didn't snow but no one expected it to snow.
Jack had spent most of the morning walking back and forth between the beach and the caves making sure that everything would go as planned that night. Kate smiled at this; she could just see him yelling at their kids to wait their turn as he photographed each one of them opening their presents.
She sat in an airplane seat her head leaned against her fist, as she watched him frantically search the whole camp for his second boot, which he had taken off on his arrival back.
She laughed to herself and placed her chin on her arms, which were crossed on a nearby boulder. His boot was right beside her, but that didn't mean she was going to tell him…
"Dad, look I finished," Walt jumped up and handed his dad the bamboo he had strategically tied together.
"That's great, Walt," Michael congratulated, "We'll be done just in time," he explained taking Walt's bamboo and attaching it to the contraption he had made.
"Do you think they'll like them?" Walt asked as he leaned down closer to the homemade Christmas presents.
"I think they'll be very grateful, and that they'll love them. Especially since you made them," Michael smiled.
"I just helped, you did most of it," he explained gloomily.
"Yeah, but without your help, I wouldn't have been able to finish them on time," he answered, "Did you like helping?"
"Yeah it was like a puzzle kinda," Walt compared.
"You can help me finish the showers then," Michael suggested, "Only if you want to."
"That's be awesome, it gets so boring here," Walt smiled and hugged his dad, "Thanks." Michael smiled as he let go of him.
"Hey guys," Jack yelled from across the caves, "have you seen my boot?" He stood exactly in front of Kate with his back to her, she was muffling her giggles.
"I haven't," Michael smiled and shook his head.
"Neither have I," Walt barely added without cracking up.
"What? What is it?" Jack asked wanting to know what they were laughing at.
Kate was now waving the boot in clear view of Walt and Michael, but Jack was still oblivious to the situation. Walt rolled back laughing and as Jack turned around, Kate quickly replaced the boot.
"What's with Walt?" he asked as he walked by her and continued on his quest for finding the shoe.
"I have no idea," Kate answered.
Jack sighed angrily, "Maybe my boot is at the beach. I never took it off, but I've looked everywhere up here and I haven't found it yet."
"Alright, I'll keep my eye open for it," Kate promised. After Jack had left Michael shook his head disapprovingly and Walt continued to laugh. Kate just shrugged.
"Good morning Jack," Charlie greeted, "How are you today."
"I'm okay, except that…" He began.
"Jack, you've lost a boot," Claire exclaimed as she adjusted the two-month-old Alex in her arms.
"Yeah that's the problem, I've looked all over the caves and I haven't found it yet," he enlightened, "So I figure I must have left it at the beach, except I don't remember taking my shoes off there."
"Mind-boggler of the century," Charlie said sarcastically.
Claire giggled a little, "Well I can tell you this, it isn't on any of the paths we've walked today."
"You guys are a lot of help," Jack explained, and continued to walk down to the beach, where he met Sayid.
"Jack, you are missing a shoe my friend," He explained puzzlingly looking at his feet.
"Yeah I know, I lost it somewhere between here and the caves, and I'm not quite sure where," he answered.
"Well I will keep an eye open for it," he agreed, "You might want to ask Locke as well, he seems to be the only other person on the beach as of now."
"Thanks Sayid, and I will," he said as he ran over to look who was beginning to skin boars. Hurley was down a ways in the surf, and Jack didn't want to interrupt his fishing. He even contemplated turning away and back to the camp, but Locke called him over.
"Jack," he called and waved for him, Jack reluctantly walked over, "Is something wrong?"
"Yeah," Jack replied, "I lost my shoe."
"Once I lost my shoe," he began, "And I was pretty upset, but then I met a man with no feet…"
Jack sighed, "Have you seen my shoe or not?"
"When did you last have it?" Locke asked back, as he turned over the boar and began to cut the underbelly of it.
"At the caves, by Kate," He answered.
"Well there, you have your culprit," Locke smiled.
"Why would Kate take my boot?" he asked questioningly.
"Who knows why we do any of the stuff we do?" He answered back.
Jack smiled and headed back to the caves. It seems that Charlie and Claire had taken Alex to the beach, Michael and Walt had gone back into the jungle to find more bamboo, and Kate still lie in the spot she had previously been sitting in. Except now she seemed to be asleep.
He walked over to her and caressed her shoulder gently, she slowly opened her eyes, "Hey," She said quietly, "Find your boot yet?"
"You mean this one?" he asked grabbing the boot that was shoved into a small crack between the airplane chair and the boulder.
She smiled sweetly, "You found it!"
"Yes," he answered kissing her, "You had me going on quiet a goose chase."
"I just wanted to see you sweat," She replied kissing him back.
"Kate, it's Christmas and it's about 35 degrees out," he replied, "Anytime I move I sweat."
"Maybe that's why you look so hot right now," She replied pulling him down to her and kissing him.
He broke the kiss, "As much as I'd like to continue this, we'd better get to the beach, Locke's probably already started with the boar."
"But I'm a vegetarian," She smiled deviously.
"But if we don't show up everyone will know what we're doing," he explained as she kissed him again.
"Then they'll leave us alone," She whispered truthfully in between butterfly kisses.
"Or it could be the over surge of hormones coursing through your body," he explained kissing her back.
"Just be glad I chose you," She suggested, as Jack agreed to kiss her, she tilted her neck up at the onslaught of kisses.
Suddenly someone cleared his throat, "I hope I'm not interrupting anything," Charlie asked.
Jack and Kate both moved and inch away from each other and looked back at him, "What do you need Charlie?" Jack asked politely.
"I just came to get some more bananas for little Alex," Charlie explained, "And apparently, there's a present waiting for you two at the beach, I mean if you're done here."
Kate got out of the chair, and adjusted her shirt, "Oh sure act all sweet," she told Charlie, "Don't think I haven't heard the sounds coming from your cave," She smiled and Charlie blushed slightly.
At the beach everyone was gathered around, happily chewing on the boar Locke had managed to catch. A large bonfire sat in the middle of the survivors and glowed brightly as the sun reached its last dying rays of sun across the island before the stars started to appear and banish it.
Kate leaned on her hand and held a banana up with the other as she eyed it ungratefully.
"Too excited for your present?" Jack asked as he munched on the piece of boar meat he'd been given.
"I hate bananas," She divulged as she looked over at him.
He chuckled, "Now is not the time to be a picky eater," he explained.
"I'm not the one being picky now am I?" she asked.
"Can I have your attention!" Michael called as he stood in front of all the islanders, "Walt and I have spent some time making two very important gifts for some very important people," he explained, then lifted up a large object from behind a rock and walked it over to Charlie and Claire, then walked on over to Kate and Jack.
"Michael," Claire teared up, "It's beautiful!"
The two objects were homemade cribs made from bamboo and tied with various vines and rope. Inside was filled with two airplane cushions.
After all four of them thanked Michael repeatedly, Jack wrapped his arm around Kate as she stared at the crib. She leaned her head on his shoulder and shivered involuntarily when his hand came to rest on her stomach, "You're warm," she complained.
Jack chuckled and kissed her temple, "Any important epiphanies going on up here?" he asked
"I was just thinking how this was probably, the best Christmas present I've ever gotten," She replied.
There you have it, a fluffy cotton candy cloud route away from all the angst.
Alright all you reviewers you, since I'm positively made of time (psssh that's a lie I'm made of cells (or so I've been told to believe shifty eyes)) I'm going to answer the millions of reviews I received! So here we go
CrAzYhOrSeGiRl88 Sadly I do not give one shred about Sawyer, why, because the dude pisses me off. So there's no initial response though he and Kate have some, umm unusual conversations. It is a very good thing that she didn't loose the baby, or else this story would be finished lol.
FanOfLOST LMAO I totally have a Jack tanktop (I'm wearing it right now (seriously)) I went into my French Oral interview and I started to talk about Lost in French to my French teacher and convinced him to watch it on Wednesday, because I'm conniving. Lol I told him that I did a better job at translating then Shannon ever will!
My comp is named Conky after Pee Wee's playhouse's robot Conky, lol him and his secret word.
For jumping in upcoming chapters feel free to borrow my trampoline…
Leigh You are totally right, take this chapter for example, the rush of hormones here, a little hanky-panky honkey-tonkey there. And you can bet that there's going to be soo many protective Jack moments, oh so many
Tatiana Yes Kate as learned her lesson about the dangerous trees of the world, but that doesn't mean she can't go mountain climbing, or boogie boarding or…gets a very evil glare from Jack Alright looks like that's solved, Kate now only gets to sit on her budinski and wait 6 more months
MusicMonkey88 LMAO drinks all around except for Kate, because apparently getting impact hits to the pelvis ain't bad enough
Whirlwind-2005 I may be a lot of things, but I'm not a baby killer, aww picture the moments coming up with the cute lil' Sheppard family
Oreata No Kleenix then? Alright borrow the trampoline for jumping
JasmineHR Awww thanks for the plugs, I'll definitely check out the forums between writers block and drawers cramp (yeah the hands get cramped). Here was a nice be long old fluffy chapter for you, and the other will be up tomorrow I promise and it will be interesting I guarantee it.
Freckles-101 Yep another island miracle to make this story continue like 40 more chapters because it is not ending anytime soon (seriously I'm at 99 pages) and I still have to write soooo much more (like 200 more pages worth of story so you guys are going to keep getting it for awhile).
Bucky Aww Bucky you are the best! I'm glad I have so many of you obsessed, like a certain bass player who was addicted to a certain substance… he, well keep checking everyday 'cause I'll be updating everyday this week.
Rain1657 Damn one of you remembered the dreams, well maybe they'll come true, and maybe some other sad stuff will happen and then they'll come true. No one can really say right now. But hey enjoy the fluffy while it lasts before it blows into the wind.
Kiki I'm very sorry about your rough weekend, but hey it's not the weekend anymore and there's some more JK fluff for ya.
MizSniz Yep baby here to stay, for now… But what else could really happen (Oh you wouldn't believe…) no problem for not updating, I understand everyone is not on the computer 23/7 like me (that extra hour is used for food and bathroom breaks).
Evermore Exactly, I mean why should we only get presents one day a year?
Pink Pinker I KNOW! I MISS HIM! A HOLE! A MOLE IN MY HEART! I miss his face and the way he used to smack everyone around, and that diabolical weasely laugh and doing Pilates with him. I miss it all! But right now he's practicing for the next big dance routine, what's that? Back Streets back! Alright…
Lara Chubb of Deep Hollow Yep your hopes came true. Yeah Christmas was used so I could give them cribs because they really needed cribs, plus it called for bonus Michael and Walt bonding. Around Christmas is when I started to draw the intro to my Lost cartoon, and I just finished it last week! It's pretty funny it you ignore the bad sounds. Claire get's chased by a dingo and Sawyer gets hit with 'Watership Down'.
MegaWriter I'm glad I could make ya smile, and everyone knew that Shiggity WASN'T GOING TO KILL THE BABY, because let's face it, though he is my hugging buddy, I'm not Ethan.
Litgal I do not have the heart to kill fiction unborn children lol, besides there would be no story if I did… Plus everyone would hate me…
Woooweee longest review ever! Hey Shiggity? Type much! Ha anyways like I said, I'm off all this week and by God you guys have a lot to catch up too, you'd love what I'm writing about now, but sadly I cannot divulge any of that info to you until you've been though the turmoil of the rest of the story (believe me it's never going to end because I'm never going to stop writing it).
Next Chapter is a Doosie- hmm did someone say Sawyer? Oh that was me, yeah well, Sawyer plus pregnant Kate equals fun fun fun! And something else maybe divulged, perhaps something important about the baby? Hmmm...
The Next Next Chapter- Hmm add one cup of fluff, with one cup of angst, stir in some shock, then let sit for half an hour. (You didn't think it'd all be happy, because in the words of the Verve (the band not Boone), "it's a bitter sweet symphony.")