"Jack."
"Oh, hey Kate." Jack grinned at her and slipped on his pack. Just a few hours ago, he had practically saved a woman's life and as he was a strong believer in karma, he intended on spending an hour or two hiking and exploring the wild.
"Where're you going?" She stood there with her own backpack and writings scribbled across her face, writings unbeknownst to him. She was very fond of him herself, more so than she was of Sawyer. Sawyer was just a roll in the hay, a one night stand, not that it had happened, but the way she viewed the two was completely different.
"I'm about to go hiking. You free for an hour or two?"
"Why, are you asking me on a date?"
He hesitated a moment before the ghost of a smile floated across his features. "That depends, does it mean a yes?"
"Depends? Depends on what?" She already knew the answer; it was, of course, a yes. There was no doubt about it; Kate just liked to drag it out. Come on Jack, take the bait. Take it …
"Well, as a general rule, guys don't like to be shot down when asking a girl out. So yes, it depends." It took all of his will power to suppress grinning like a dolt so he settled for a laugh.
"What makes you think I'll say no?"
"What makes me think you'll say yes?"
"Are we really going into this?"
"I don't know, are we?" Hesitating for a mere second, the doctor grinned and responded, "Yeah, no. Come on you'll love it." Walking over a couple of rocks, he led the way to their supposed 'date'.
(x)
Jack had led them to an apple field; it was a couple of minutes away from the caves and as far as she could tell, no one had discovered it yet. It was between the two, their secret apple patch. "Jack? You ready? Here it comes!"
Thump.
A cry of pain rose from below and Kate peered over the branch to get a glance at Jack. His back was facing her and the apple lay beside his foot obviously from bouncing off his shoulder. A surprised laugh escaped her lips as she stared down at him. "You okay?"
"Ow. Next time a heads up would be nice." His arm came around and rubbed at the reddening spot just to the left of his clavicle. Jack bent down and picked the round apple up, inspecting it. "Did you use to work on a farm as well? These are great." Hungry, he scrubbed the apple against his shirt and took a large bite, savoring the sweet juice leaking down his throat. After taking another bite, his arm arched under and chucked the bitten fruit to Kate.
"Actually ye – Hey! We were supposed to bring them back, not eat them all." She caught the apple against her chest, took a bite from it and noticed the stem still intact. "You forgot the stem!"
"What?"
"You forgot the stem!" As she did when she was young, Kate liked to twist the apple stem over and over, counting the alphabet as she went, waiting until it broke off; signifying the beginning of your next love's name. It was an old game and she knew it was silly but the tradition brought a smile to her face as she began to twist. A … B … C … D … E … F … G … H … She held her breath as it approached closer and closer to J. I … J…
Disclaimer -- I do not own anything, blah blah blah. I dislike the ending but ... yeah. (: