Finally There

It was late and Jane sat talking to Kate in the caves. Kate and Jane had become good friends over the last month. It had been a relatively boring month in Jane's opinion. Nothing exciting happened, and nothing bad happened. It was just a very neutral time for them all.

Jane watched as Jack bent over to get water by the pond. Everything just seemed peaceful for a change. Everything was calm, still, tranquil you could say.

"Can't say that I have traveled a lot. I don't think I ever left my town until I flew to Australia with my sister." Kate was telling Jane of her adventures but being careful not to reveal too much about herself.

"You have no idea what you're missing. I don't know. I've always been stir crazy I guess and there is something about being in one particular place that makes me feel…simple. You know what I mean?"

"Yeah, I do." Jane watched everyone around her while still partaking in her conversation. "So where all have you been?"

"Oh, gosh, it's more like where haven't I been? I've been to California, New York, umm…where else?" Kate asked herself.

Jane still wasn't watching her. She was more intent on watching Charlie run up to Jack in a state of utter panic and whisper to him. In return Jack whispered back, using his hands as if he was describing something. They both nodded and Charlie rushed back out of the caves. She turned her head towards Kate who had stopped talking long ago to watch the two men exchange words. Confusion lit her eyes.

"Jane, I want you to stay here. I'm going with Charlie. Kate I want you to watch her." Jack had rushed over to them and keeled before giving his instructions.

"Jack what's wrong? You're being doctorish again. Something's going on?" Jane asked with worried tone.

Jack sighed. "Locke is missing. Charlie said they heard him yelling something to someone and when they went to see if everything was okay he was gone."

"Well, then we have to find him." Concern wrinkled Jane's forehead.

"No. Jane I want you to stay here with Kate. If something were to happen to you I would never forgive myself." Jack put a hand on her cheek.

"But Jack he's my friend and I want help." Jane begged.

"Not with you being so close to your due date. I would rather not have to worry about you. I want to know you're safe here, at the caves, with Kate." Jane was somewhat insulted at Jack's statement but she knew what he meant.

"Okay. I'll stay. I don't want to but will."

"Good. I'll be back by morning at the latest." Jack got up and grabbed a backpack and shoved two water bottles in it. He turned around on last time. "Jane. I love you." He smiled.

"I love you, too." She looked at him lovingly. Then the man of her dreams disappeared into the jungle.

"Well, so much for a quiet evening, huh?" Kate remarked.

000

"What exactly did he say?" Jack asked Charlie.

"We heard him yell 'You can't do that! You have no right! Leave the other survivors and me alone!'" Charlie imitated Locke's voice the best he could. "Then everything went silent and me and Sayid here went to see what happened and he was gone."

"No sign of struggle or anything. Just one set of foot prints leading into the jungle." Sayid added.

"Well, looks like we have another search and rescue mission." Jack sighed. This was the last thing he wanted to be doing.

He and Sayid rounded up a few men and set off into the jungle. He figured with aid of Sayid, Hurly, Charlie, Michael, Sawyer and Jin they would be able to find Locke fairly quickly. But then again Locke had left hardly any trail of where he was, or which way he went and it sickened Jack to even think about another sleepless night.

000

Fatigue influenced Jane to get ready for bed. She was now talking to Kate from her makeshift bed consisting of an airplane blanket and pillow.

"Well, after spilling the coffee all over my white blouse, I went to copy something and the printer got jammed. So, when I tried to fix it papers went flying everywhere. I mean there was no place you could see the carpet of the office. The worst part of it all was when a line started to form behind me. That's when I realized that other people were needing to use the copier!" Kate told tales of first jobs she had had and how every single one of them seemed to be a disaster.

Jane laughed heartily at Kate's experiences but she had a story that could top her last one. "It's not as bad as the time I went to…" Jane trailed off. Her eyes became vacant and a hand unconsciously moved to her round stomach. She held her breath as still as possible and Kate could see the lump in her throat grow. Jane blinked and everything went back to normal pace. Panic now filled her eyes and her breath was short and shallow.

"Jane?"

000

"LOCKE!" A chorus of voices rang out. It had been little over an hour since the search began and the men had made absolutely no progress. Jack carried his torch; his eyes scanned what he could see for signs of the missing man and occasionally calling out his name. A hand on his shoulder startled him. He twirled around thinking it was Locke and to his disappointment it was only Hurly.

"Dude, it's just me." Hurly said recognizing his surprise.

"What do you need?" Jack asked quickly.

"Oh, I don't need anything. I just wanted to know why you didn't let Jane come on the search?"

"I just thought it was a bad idea."

"Why? Because she's, you know, pregnant?"

"Well, yeah. She's two weeks to term and I don't think she needs to be gallivanting all over the jungle looking for some old man!" Jack immediately regretted saying 'old man'. That 'old man' had done more to save their lives than anyone else had. He needed to respect Locke a little bit more.

"I just thought since she is his friend she might, like, know where he is. That's all."

There was a long awkward pause in Jack and Hurly's conversation. The two men just walked for minutes, eyes still looking over the jungle.

"So…you really like her?" Hurly asked gingerly, breaking the silence.

"What?" Jack asked, confused.

"Jane. You like her?" Hurly asked again.

"Yeah. I mean what's not to like? She's beautiful, smart, strong; humorous…what more could you want? She just makes me happy. Does that answer your question?"

"Yeah. But what's going to happen when she had the baby? Are you going to be, like, the father or what?"

Jack hadn't thought about it. Would he act as the father figure in Jane's child's life? He had a feeling that with the way things were going in their relationship, he would be. He smiled at the thought of being a father. Indirectly though of coarse.

"I don't know." He made it simple for Hurly.

000

"Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow." Jane closed her eyes painfully. She clutched her stomach. Another labor pain tore through her lower abdomen.

"Was that another one?" Kate asked while stoking the fire. Jane just nodded. She was massaging her stomach where pain lingered.

"You know, strangely enough, this is not how I pictured having this baby." Jane joked. Kate laughed, too.

"You should probably try to get some sleep while the contractions are still pretty far apart." Kate advised. Jane nodded and settled down into her bed.

"Hey, Kate? What if Jack doesn't make it back in time?" Jane asked worriedly.

"I wouldn't worry about it. With how close you guys are I would say he's develop 'Jane senses'. He always seems to know when you need him." Jane smiled, and with her new found comfort she closed her eyes in an attempt to get some sleep.

In reality, Kate was scared. Jack had said he'd be back by morning at the latest. He had already been gone over two hours. She had delivered Claire's baby but she didn't want to do it again. Once was enough for her. Then again, if Jack didn't show up she maybe the only one qualified to help Jane. Kate sighed hard. What was she going to do?

000

Jack and the others intertwined through trees and shrubs, still looking for the missing huntsmen. Sleep wanted to set in but the men wouldn't let it. They trudged on despite their decreasing awareness. Their lights illuminated the jungle. Jack wanted to know how Locke got away so fast. He had had no more than a half an hour head start on them and none of them could even find a trace of him.

Jack called out again for the man and still no reply. He was seriously thinking of going back to the caves for the night when he heard rustling. He couldn't tell where from though. Was it from the front of him? Or was it to the side? It seemed to echo instead of direct him toward the noise. The group had since left and now all her had was the protection of his torch. He spun around trying to figure the location of the sound, but to no avail.

He turned around once more as he began to walk forward. Then out of the corner of his eye he saw Locke's familiar brown shirt. Relief swept over Jack as he ran to the man.

"Locke!" He yelled. No answer. "LOCKE!" He yelled a little louder thinking he didn't hear him the first time. Still no answer. Was he going insane? Locke was standing not ten feet away from him. Was he hallucinating? He ran toward the mirage and set a hand on his shoulder. 'Okay. If he weren't real I wouldn't be able to do that,' Jack decided in the sanctity of his mind. He applied pressure to Locke's shoulder, signaling he should turn around.

Jack observed him. His eyes were closed. Jack shook the old man and called his name softly. Locke's eyes fluttered open and then he looked confused.

"Doctor?" Locke looked at him strangely. "What are you doing?"

Jack smiled a relieved smile. "You were sleep walking." Jack began guiding the man back to the rest of the group. "Charlie heard you yelling something and when he came to check on you, you were gone."

"I had the strangest dream. It was so real." He tried explaining it but fond no words to suite him.

"It's okay. Let's just get back to camp." Jack could see the dim yellow light of torches ahead.

000

"I just don't understand. I've never done this before."

"Well, it's brought on by stress and let's face it who isn't stressed out around here." Jack entered camp at the caves to see everything just how he left it. Except for the worry on Kate's face as she stood waiting for his conversation with Locke to end. "Just try to get some sleep, okay?"

"Thank you, Jack. You too." With that he was gone.

Kate swiftly approached him and whispered her concern. "Jane's in labor." She said simply. Jack looked at her sleeping form over near the fire in response to Kate's warning.

"How long has it been?" He asked.

"Not long after you left. Maybe four hours? I don't really know."

"Do you know how far apart the contractions are?"

Kate shook her head. "I told her to get some sleep while she still could. I didn't want to disturb her."

"That's good. Thanks Kate, for watching her."

"What are friends for?" She smiled modestly at him.

Jack crouched next to Jane. She was asleep. Sweat glittered her forehead and Jack gently laid a hand on it to make sure she wasn't running a fever. Her eyes slowly opened and an immediate smile spread across her face.

"You weren't supposed to be back until tomorrow morning."

"You weren't supposed to go into labor for two weeks."

"I changed my mind." She half jokingly.

Jack had to smile. Jane just brightened anything up. Even when she was scared.

"How are you feeling?" Jack asked while smoothing her hair away from her face.

"I'm tired. These contractions really take a lot out of you." Jack didn't think she realized the redundancy of her statement.

"How far apart are they? Do you know?" Jack took her hand for easiness.

"Umm…I want to say ten maybe twelve minutes apart. Let's just say they're far enough apart that I can get some sleep in between them."

"Okay, well, I'm going to go get some things ready. I'll be back soon, I promise and while I'm gone I want you to get as much sleep as you can. Do you hear me?" Jack took to stern voice.

"Loud and clear." Jane blinked lazily. Jack got up to leave her and just as he started to walk he heard Jane. "Jack." She had a dreamy look to her eyes and her smile grew larger. "I'm going to be a mom."

He softened at her excitement. "I know."

000

Jack was now sitting next to Jane again. She could no longer sleep due to her contractions being so close together.

"God it hurts Jack!" Jane proclaimed through clenched teeth.

"Shh. I know. Just squeeze my hand. That's all you can do." He soothed. He had been with her for some time now. And he didn't know how to make her more comfortable.

Her water had broken about an hour prior to his sitting with her. And after that things seemed to be moving pretty quickly. That was good news on Jane's part. It was now late at night and people were trying to sleep with all of the commotion going on. Jack glanced at his watch. Jane had been in labor for roughly ten hours and her labor pains were now about two minutes apart. Jack was pleased with how things were going. As a doctor, he couldn't have asked for things to go better.

Jane leaned her head back against the cave wall. Peace at last, or at least for the moment. "I really hate this Jack." She said in a whisper.

"Now do you know why I told you, you could wait when you complaining about…oh…about three months ago?" He thought reminiscing would help get her mind off of what was going on.

"Jack, don't make me laugh please. It hurts to much." Jane giggled and pleaded at the same time. "But thank you for trying to help." She smiled at him.

Suddenly, she gasped as another contraction hit her like a ton of bricks. One hand flew out, wildly searching for Jack's hand and the other at the base of her stomach. The pain rocketed through her body, paralyzing her temporarily in pain.

Jack glanced at his watch again. He thought now was as good a time as ever to have Jane start pushing. He told Jane what he was doing before motioning to Kate for help.

"Do you understand what you're supposed to do, Jane?" Jack asked. Jane nodded. Kate took hold of Jane's hand and tucked some of her stray hair behind her ear. "Are you ready to do this?" He asked almost excited.

"Yeah." She said. Sweat trickled down the side of her face.

"Okay. Go ahead and push." Jack coached.

Jane did as she was told with a tremendous amount of effort. 'This is awkward,' she thought. 'But then again when something traumatic like this is happening, who had the time or the energy to be modest'.

"You're doing great Jane. This is perfect, now do it again." Once again she did as told and smile slid onto Jack's face. "I can see the baby's head, Janie. Just a little more."

Jane wanted to cry but it hurt too much and she was too tired. The ripping pain was too much for her. Pushing was all she could focus on and even that took too much physical exertion. She finally had enough.

She threw her head back and cried out. "I can't do…I can't do it." She cried.

"Yes. Yes you can. Janie I know you and you can take more than this." Jack reassured her.

"No, Jack. I really think this is about all I can do." She explained in between breaths.

"Jane…one more. Can you give me one more push? That's all it takes and this will all be over and you'll have a son or daughter. Can you do one more?" Jane thought a minute before agreeing. "That's my girl."

Jane bared down as hard as she could. The pain was absolutely unendurable. But she wanted it to be over more than life itself at that particular moment. She just closed her eyes and pushed harder. That was when she felt something release and instantaneously the pain lessened all while in the same second she heard a baby cry.

Without opening her eyes she took a shaky breath and her body relaxed. She could here the baby squawk and a new feeling overwhelmed her. She didn't know whether it was knowing she was a mother or something mental and physically different about her but there was a sudden fullness to her state of mind.

The crying got louder as the baby neared her. Jack's presence was also made known. "Jane, you can open your eyes." Jack said with laughter to his voice.

Jane opened her eyes and she met an infant. She pink and scrawny looking but to Jane she was the most beautiful thing she'd ever seen. She took the baby from Jack and carefully cradled her in her arms. The baby's cry's calmed and she opened her eyes. Tears stung Jane's eyes. She was so tired she couldn't see straight and in the same instant she was more alert than she had ever been in her life.

"Hey they little one. I'm your mom." Jane introduced herself.

"Jane this is Penny." Jack finished the introduction. Jane found it increasingly difficult to keep the tears back. She began to laugh. Jack rapped his are around her and she leaned into his embrace. "I'm so proud of you." He told her before kissing the top of her head.

Jane felt complete. For the first time in her life she felt complete. She had a family who loved her. Sure they weren't picture perfect like every girl dreams about and they were completely unconventional but to Jane it was better than she could have dreamed.

A/N: Okay guys…I lied. There is going to be one more chapter after this because I don't want to leave it here. So…YEAH! Jump up and down and shout hooray! I'll have it posted for you soon. Read and review guys!