(A/N: Hey all, sorry about the Sunday thing. I seriously thought I was going to, but some other things came up. Anyway, here's an update now. Thanks to all my reviewers, I love you all:) Also, I am aware that my internet has indeed gone down, and I will continue to write a chapter a da, even though I can not upload it. Believe me, I was so desperate to upload that I actually went to my neighbor's house to try to upload it, but the laptop wasn't compatible with ff-dot-net and my floppy disk. So, I tried. ((shrugs)) I'm in the dark as much as you guys are. I have no e-mail, no internet, no ff-dot-net. It's driving me up the wall. At least Microsoft Word still works, so all is not lost!)
Disclaimer: How many times do I have to say this? I do not own Lost.
-Conversation-
-Chapter 8-
-Sand-
"Hard to believe that in just a blink of a second, things can change the world for you." –A friend
Just as Sayid turned away, Kate darted past him, running down the well-worn path, the soles of her feet beating upon the slick mud. Screw the rules, she thought, she didn't need them anyway. What was one more thing broken to her? It wasn't like she hadn't bent enough of them.
"Kate!" Sayid called after her. "Kate, you're not supposed to go down there yet!"
No response came from the woman, only a speed in her pace. The backpack slammed against her body with each stride she took, and Kate knew she'd be sore tonight, but it was all worth it. She had to get back to the beach. Her home.
Eventually her shape disappeared around the foliage, the sounds fading in and out as the small ocean breeze blew through the trees. Sayid sighed, he knew Jack was going to go after her, and then they'd really turn it up when they got back to the caves. He knew she wanted to be alone, that she just needed some time to herself. But with 41 other survivors, he doubted Kate ever would get any.
He turned back and started to head back to the caves, wishing that sometimes he could be just as free as Kate. But he knew he had a responsibility too, when Kate just thought she was another one of the survivors, looking, hoping, for a way off the Island.
Kate smiled her first real smile in days as her toes caressed the small grains of the sand and her ears heard the waves collapse against the shore. The wind blew the fronds of the palm trees in mid-air, the greens and browns clashing with the desolate blue of the cloudless sky. The sun hadn't really quite gotten to warm up just yet so the beach on which Kate stood was still cool.
As she strode down the beach, her happiness was short-lived.
"Kate!" Jack made his way to her, cringing as he hit the more heated patches.
Kate let out a breath of despair. "Yes?" She boldly stated, her voice holding neither pity nor sympathy.
"What the hell are you doing here? Sayid told you that you had to head back to the caves, but you disobeyed him."
"I am no child." Kate said in the same harsh voice. "I'll do what I please, whether it makes you happy or not is not my fault."
"But no one's down here!" He protested. "If you break a bone, or a scratch of yours gets infected, I won't be here."
"That's right. You won't be here." She echoed him. "Don't even bother with me, Jack, it'll be useless. I'm not out in the open there, not like I want to be."
"But the caves are out in the wilderness about as much as you can get!" Jack spoke up. He wanted her to move back, wanted to say he was sorry, wanted to go back in time so none of this could of ever happened. But as much as he begged and pleaded with her, Kate wouldn't budge.
"Not like the beach. All the caves do for me is spell death. It's dark, people are crammed, and we don't get to see the ocean when we wake up, don't get to smell the fresh ocean air as we take our first breath of the day. I just don't want to be there." She nodded with herself, and sat down right down on one of the many abandoned logs, staring at a fire-pit burnt with age and time.
"Kate… It'll be okay. The caves, you'll get used to them, and they won't seem as bad then." The words poured out of him as they hit his mind.
"You just don't get it, do you?" She stood up, her voice thick with fury.
"Get what, Kate? There's nothing to "get"."
"I don't even want to talk to you right now. I might say something I regret." She spat at him.
"You already regret what you said! Don't think that I don't have ears, Kate. I heard the whole thing a couple nights ago." He knew he shouldn't have said that, but he just wanted to get this over with.
"Because you caused it, you ass! Don't think that I don't have feelings too. That's what everyone assumes, fugitives have no heart, they already tore it out when they first went on the most wanted list. You think you're the only one going through pain?"
Jack was speechless. He had no idea what to say to that subject, and frankly he didn't want to either. "I-I… um. You see…" He stuttered.
"See what, Jack? There's absolutely nothing I see in you." Her eyes started to fill with tears again, but she bit down on her lip hard, and they went back. Kate saw his amber brown eyes fill with pain and hurt, and she knew he could see the same thing in hers.
Jack knew he had lost the battle, but the war still could go either way. He gave everyone a weak smile as he entered the caves once more that day, and he felt certain that the whispers would start back up as soon the survivors thought he was out of hearing distance.
And he was right.
As the days flew by, the people of the Island began to lose faith, and many gave up on the idea of Jack and Kate ever getting back together. They figured that the boat had sailed, and this time, it wasn't coming back. But Jack wouldn't give up hope. Every morning, he'd sneak down to the beach to check that she was okay, and he made sure that at least one person talked to her.
Sometimes, he saw her come up to the caves for some water, or to talk to someone about some oddity, but she never even looked in his direction once. It was evident Kate was still hurting, and Jack knew this because he was too. People noticed the same look in his eyes as she had in hers, and the same hollow sound in her voice. But never once did they bring up the subject to their faces.
-LOST-
(A/N: Next chapter, it's going to be awesome. I just can't wait to post it! Soon, many worries will come out of the woodwork, and many will go missing too. So turn in tomorrow for that lovely chapter!)
