And then he realised that if he woke up and someone was staring at him he would probably be quite freaked out, even if it was Jack. So he tried to stop looking at Jack. He picked up his book and started reading but he couldn't concentrate because he knew that Jack was laying next to him, looking all sweet. He put the book down and got out of bed.
He went out onto the balcony and looked over the beach. It reminded him of being on the island. Except, not really, because that general sense of foreboding was missing. Even on the good days on the island, there was no such thing as relaxation. Right now, he couldn't be happier.
"Guess who I ran into last night?"
He turned around to see Jack stood behind him.
"Hi," he said. "I thought you were asleep."
"I was," Jack replied. "I woke up."
Boone smiled at him. Made sense.
"So, guess who I ran into last night?" he asked again.
Boone shrugged. "Who?"
Jack smiled a little. "Kate."
Boone thought about it. "Kate? Kate Kate? Island Kate?" That would be too weird to comprehend.
"The one and only," Jack replied. "Strange, huh?"
"Yeah," Boone replied a little distantly. What were the chances of running into someone who was on the run? Well, he guessed they got around a lot, the key word there was 'run'. Then another thought struck Boone. "Wait, last night?" Jack nodded. "We stayed in last night."
"I went down to the bar for a bit," Jack explained.
"When?"
"When you were asleep."
"Why?" Boone asked. Not exactly what he wanted to hear. He wondered if Jack skipped out a lot while he was sleeping.
"I couldn't sleep so I went for a walk," Jack replied offhandedly.
"You couldn't sleep?" Boone asked, a little concerned. "But you always sleep. Especially after that."
"Nothing to do with you, Boone. Or that," Jack assured him. "Anyway, I told her we'd have dinner with her tonight. That's cool, right?"
"Yeah, sure," Boone replied. "Anyway, I was just heading into the shower."
"What a coincidence, so was I," Jack said with a smile.
"Yeah, well I'm going first," Boone said, heading back inside.
"Didn't your mother ever teach you to share?" Jack asked suggestively, following close behind.
Boone turned to face him and gave him a look.
"Don't look at me like that when I'm offering you sex or I might not bother next time," Jack said as he walked past Boone into the bathroom. "You coming?" he called back as he turned the shower on.
God Jack could be arrogant and self assured. Like Boone was just going to follow him like some little puppy dog. Boone could wait. Boone could make Jack come to him. But then Jack threw his T-shirt out of the room and Boone got images and naked flesh in his head. He smiled to himself and went into the bathroom.
"I get to set the temperature."
oOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO
Kate looked good, if not rather different. Boone wasn't sure the blonde hair entirely suited her, and the girly clothes were quite out of character, but she definitely had the figure for them. But she looked good in herself too. She looked healthy. Which Boone wasn't quite expecting. He knew she wasn't on a vacation and he didn't know what kind of life she'd been living but he didn't think it would be a hugely comfortable existence. But it was probably still more comfortable than living on the island from hell in the south pacific, he reasoned.
"So, I hear you're Mr. DIY now," Kate said, tucking into her starter.
"You could say that," Boone replied. "It's not really a big deal."
"It is a big deal," Jack told Kate. "He lives this stuff. He's got a bunch of books. And he watches the Home and Leisure network on an evening. Personally, when I get done playing with people's spinal cords, the last thing I want to do is watch a surgery programme," Jack went on. "But maybe that's just me."
Kate smiled. "Sounds like the two of you have got a nice little set up there," she observed.
"The house is amazing, you should see it," Jack said.
"Well, if I'm ever in town I might just look you guys up," Kate replied.
"Do you have a plan?" Boone asked her. "Not that you'd tell us if you did but do have some kind of idea where you're heading next? Where you're gonna be next week?"
Kate shrugged. "Not really," she admitted. "I try not to think about it too much. The more spontaneous I am the better. They can't second guess me when I don't know where I'm going myself."
"Yeah, makes sense," Boone replied. "Don't you ever get a little homesick though?"
"Boone," Jack warned, a little too paternal for Boone's liking.
"Jack, it's okay," Kate said. "You guys can ask me anything you want. I might not answer but you can ask away."
Boone wasn't sure if he should pursue this line of questioning though. Kate didn't really have a home to feel homesick for by the sounds of it. She was pretty guarded about her former life when they were on the island but she made it sound as if there was nothing for her to go back to. And not just because she was a fugitive. The way Kate told her vague with gaping holes story, she had nothing to go back to whether that marshal was after her or not. So the question really was could someone feel homesick for something they never had?
He looked up and realised Kate was looking at him expectantly. "I don't have a question," he said.
Kate smiled at him. "You look like you have a question."
Boone shook his head. "Nope."
Kate shrugged a little. "Okay."
Then Boone wondered if she wanted him to ask her. Probably not, he reasoned. Kate wasn't the kind of person that invited people to analyse her. At all. In fact she'd much rather people let her be a blank slate and do her thing than see her as a person with a past. But now that they were off the island maybe things were a little different. For all they knew they might never see each other again so maybe Kate wasn't so worried about letting people in. No, that didn't really sound like Kate.
"So, your house, how's that going?" Kate asked, sounding suspiciously like she was grasping for conversation.
"It's going okay," Boone replied. "I'm still enjoying which is nice. And it's all starting to come together. Don't get me wrong, it needs a hell of a lot more work, but it's getting there."
"Cool," she replied. "Make a house a home, right?"
"That's the plan," Boone agreed.
"So you guys in touch with anyone else from the island?"
"Shannon and Sayid, obviously," Boone replied. "Other than that, not so much."
"Oh, how are they?" Kate asked, sounding excited. "Shannon must of have the baby by now, right?"
"Yeah, little girl, Zara," Boone replied. "She'll be four weeks on Friday."
"So how are they coping with it all?"
"Shannon's pulling her hair out a little," Boone stated. "But she's loving it really. And Sayid's as calm as ever so together their doing fine."
"Good for them," Kate smiled.
There was a silence. Small talk was hard when it could only go one way. Boone had a million questions he wanted to ask Kate but he had a feeling she wasn't going to answer any of them. He glanced over at Jack who was looking at Kate, apparently considering something. Kate looked back at him and gave him a little smile. Apparently they were communicating in some secret language right in front of Boone. Not that Boone cared.
"So, have you seen the new series of Survivor?" Jack asked her.
Kate laughed a little. "No, that one passed me by," she replied.
"You're missing a treat," Jack told her, mock seriously.
Jack didn't watch Survivor. Jack hated stuff like that. But from the looks they were giving each other it seemed to be some kind of in-joke. Some kind of 'we run the island and we're in charge of everything and get to sleep in real beds in the hatch whenever we want' kind of in-joke. Not that Boone was bitter. Well, he wasn't really. Not all that much. And Jack did let him share his bunk so he didn't really have grounds to complain.
"Have you caught any of the fall line-up?" Jack continued.
"No, haven't had much time for prime time TV, I gotta say," she smiled.
"You wanna hole yourself up somewhere and watch some Fox," he went on. And on and on and on. Boone guessed crap TV was something of a topic for them on the island. Bit of a stupid topic if you asked him. But apparently no one was asking him.
And so they chatted about nothing all night, but that was their only option really. There was only so much Jack and Boone could tell her about their lives and there was nothing Kate felt safe telling them about hers. So they small talked. And it was actually kind of nice. It reminded Boone of the island a little, when they had nothing to talk about so they had to make conversation out of the most mundane of things. No back-stories and no futures, that was the deal on the island. Everything was in the present, and anything else you didn't ask about.
"Well, it's getting late, I think it's probably time I turned in for the night," Kate said, finishing off her drink.
"I know you're not gonna tell me how long you're staying for," Jack began.
"Yeah, cos I don't know," Kate replied.
"But," Jack continued. "If you get lonely we're in room 1412."
Kate smiled an almost smile. "I'll bear that in mind," she said simply. "Goodnight."
When they got back up to the room, Boone sat on the bed and felt a little sad.
"She's not gonna come say 'hi' if she feels lonely, is she?"
Jack looked up from what he was doing. "No. I don't think she will."
Boone nodded a little. Kate was a good person and bad things shouldn't happen to good people. But then Kate did a bad thing so maybe bad things should happen to her. Maybe she brought it upon herself. But Boone knew he couldn't have this discussion with Jack because Jack didn't know about Kate and her dad and that whole chapter of her life. And he didn't want to know. Not from Boone anyway.
"She'll be okay, don't worry about her," Jack said.
"Hey, I know," Boone replied. "If anyone's gonna be okay it's Kate."
Jack smiled a little. "Come on, let's go bed."
"Sounds like a plan."