This will be the last post up before Xmas. Hopefully I'll get another chapter up before New Years, but if not, then it's back to fighting updates with college work :( Damn college. So Happy Xmas everyone!
A week later, and Kate still hadn't woken up. Doctors waltzed in and out of the room, checking the machines were running Ok, and noting down some of the signals it was giving off that Jack couldn't even begin to understand in his present state, but still, he didn't move from her side. When he was desperate for sleep, and found his eyelids drooping, he would lean forwards onto the edge of the bed, supporting his head with one arm, and would sleep at her side, still holding her hand. Even though he only got a few hours sleep at the most, he still refused to leave her side unless it was only for a few minutes at a time, and even then he would race back to her side, incase she had woken up while he was gone. Jack had winced when he was told that she could remain in her coma for weeks, possibly months. No, he told himself, she will wake up. She won't want to miss her baby growing.
Jack talked to her a lot, just as the doctor told him to. He told her anything - the weather that day, how he envisioned the future. Sometimes, he half expected her to wake up and correct him. When she didn't though, it broke his heart. "I love you so much, Kate." He said, knowing that she could hear him now. "We've been through quite a lot together, haven't we? You're not just my girlfriend anymore, now. You're so much more special, more precious to me. You're the mother of my child. Our child, we can do this together, no matter what. Even if you don't want to wake up for me, wake up for your baby, Kate."
When Sawyer entered the room on the eighth morning, he brought with him a colourful bunch of flowers, that was contained in a clear glass vase filled with water. Jack managed to come out of his trance to give Sawyer a strange look, but the look faded as he watched his friend set the vase on the empty table beside Kate's bed.
"Thought she might want to see somethin' other than machines, and smell something other than that hospital corridor smell when she woke up." He explained. "'Specially as she'll be here a while when she does."
Jack nodded. "Good idea." He knew that after what had happened when she lost her last baby, that she hated being around hospitals, so she wasn't going to be overly thrilled to have to stay in for weeks. "Besides, she loved spending time in Sun's garden on the island."
Kate's accident had even brought out the devestation in Sawyer. He was spending just as much time as Jack up the hospital, waiting in the corridor for news. They all knew that Sawyer still cared for her, but he had given up, knowing that Jack made her happy.
"Any change?" He asked solemly.
Jack shook his head, the same notion repeated every morning. "Doctor's been in, said she won't be waking up today." He said sadly. He wanted her to be awake again, he wanted to see her smiling, to hold her in his arms and tell her that she was going to be all right.
Sawyer took the chair on the other side of Kate, which through half of the night, while Jack slept for an hour or so, had been occupied by Sayid. He took a look at Jack. He had barely left this room in days, and he had certainly not left the hospital. His hair was messed, where he kept on running his fingers through it in frustration, and he had not showered in ages. The bags under his eyes looked fit to stay; and Sawyer was starting to think that he looked worse off than Kate did. The only thing that hadn't changed about his appearance recently, was the look of hope in his eyes as he looked down on Kate's body as she lay in her coma.
"Jack, go home." Sawyer said. Jack looked up at him, and then back at Kate. "You're exhausted."
"I'm not going anywhere." Jack said quietly but stubbornly, stroking Kate's hand with his thumb.
"Something to eat then?" Sawyer tried.
"I'm not hungry." Was the reply. Sawyer knew that he was hungry though. Jack hadn't eaten for days now, and he knew that he hadn't eaten much on the day of accident because he was meant to be going for a meal with Kate that evening, which, of course, they never turned up to.
The way he was going, Jack was going to be in no state to help Kate when she woke up. Sawyer tried a different approach. "What if, in a worse case scenario, she doesn't wake up for a month, maybe two?" Sawyer asked him. "You gonna sit here, not eating, not sleeping, until then?"
"If I have to." Came Jack's distraced, yet stubborn, reply. Sawyer sighed - this sounded a lot easier when Claire had suggested it.
"It's impossible Jack." He told him. "Go home, just for a while, have a sleep, have a shower, whatever, just rest up a bit."
"I'm not leaving her." He said, his voice full of emotion. I can't leave her, not like this. I want her back, I need her back.
"Jack-"
"You don't understand, Sawyer. I have to be here when she wakes up. She has to know that I'm sorry." He said. Why could no one understand why he had to be there? He wanted to be the first thing she saw when she woke up, the first person she spoke to.
"You said it yourself, Jack-O." Sawyer pointed out. "She won't be waking up today. Tomorrow's another day as Freckles says." Jack sighed heavily, dipping his head a little. He knew that Sawyer was right, but admitting that he was right was hard for him. "Listen, she won't be on her own. We'll be here. I'm not goin' anywhere until you get back. I'll ring you if anything happens." He promised.
"Thanks." Jack said, standing up but not releasing her hand.
"Now if I see you in here before you're wide awake, or if you've still got that ridiculous stubble, I'll chase you back out again. It's too long to be stubble and too short to be a beard - get rid of it." Sawyer warned him playfully.
"Alright I'll shave." Jack said, taking the hint with a little smile. He looked down at Kate, and then leaned down and kissed her forehead softly. "I'll be back later, baby." He said quietly, hoping that, just like in fairytales, that was all it took to wake her up. Giving her hand one more squeeze he stood up and made the leave the room.
"Hold up, Doc." Sawyer intervened, making Jack turn around. "You own me 20 bucks."
He looked confused. "What?"
"You heard me, 20 bucks."
"How come?" Jack asked. He definately didn't remember making a bet with Sawyer. That was like jumping into a shark pool covered in raw meat - it just wasn't something that you did in your right mind. You either ended up humiliated, broke, or in hospital.
"When we were in the hotel, down in the bar-" Ok, they were in the bar, that automatically meant that Jack didn't remember. "-I bet you 20 that you would call Freckles 'Baby' in front of someone else within six months of going out, you bet the other way."
"Oh come on!" Jack said aloud. "That doesn't count. I was drunk."
"A drunk man's words are a sober man's thoughts." He encouraged wiseles and holding out his hand. "Pay up."
Jack fished around in his pockets and pulled out a twenty dollar bill. "Fine." He said, handing it over. "But you're buying the next round of coffee."
"Haha." Sawyer replied sarcastically, with a small laugh.
"What now?" Jack asked, wondering how twenty bucks could make him so happy.
"By handing over the money so easily, you've proved that you enjoyed saying that particular four letter word, and are likely to say it again in the near future." Sawyer said professionally, even though it was something he had read in a magazine ten minutes before.
"Shut up." Jack said with a grin as he left the room.
When he got home, Jack managed to get six hours sleep before having a shave and a shower. He looked, and felt much better afterwards, but there was something in him that still felt wrong, and he realised that it was because Kate was in the hospital still. At 4pm, he had driven back to the hospital, and although his hopes were up, he felt quite disappointed when he went back into the room and Kate was still comatose. He set the bag down on the floor beside the bed, and then took up his seat once again.
"See, miles better." Sawyer observed coming back from where he had pulled the shades up and was looking out of the window. He sat back down again on the opposite side of the bed.
"No change?" Jack asked, running a hand down her cheek before clasping her hand again.
"Nothing." Sawyer said.
"Doctor been around yet?" Jack asked to get over the disappointment that she had not made any change at all.
"Not yet." Sawyer said, checking his watch to see if the time had gone past. It hadn't. There was still another twenty minutes before the doctor was due back. "You look better off now."
"Yeah. It was hard to get to sleep, but I managed to get a good few hours in." Jack told him.
"What's in the bag?" He asked, pointing to the bag by Jack's feet.
"I stopped by Kate's. Picked up a few of her things." Inside the bag were a pair of pyjamas and her bath robe, as he knew that she wouldn't want to spend a few weeks in a hospital gown, as well as some magazines for her when she woke up, along with a few books. She liked reading, it was her escape from reality.
"Well, I'm off for a sleep myself." Sawyer said, getting up and stretching his legs. "Is Charlie still hanging about?"
Jack nodded, still unable to believe that Sawyer had been at the hospital nearly as much as he had. "He's out there with Claire talking about one of his tours. I think she's buying it."
Sawyer grinned cheekily. "Time to go embarass the VH1 Has been."He said.
"Leave him to it, Sawyer. Let him score for once." Jack said.
Sawyer looked defeated, "All right, I'll go find a game to score on myself."
"Beth?" Jack asked, referring to one of the survivors that Sawyer had gone quite friendly with.
Sawyer looked shifty. "Maybe."
"I'm not stupid, Sawyer. I've seen the two of you together." It was true, The infamous James "Sawyer" Ford had finally found a girl he could spend more than two consecutive nights will, and he was too manly to admit that he was falling for her.
"Not a word to the others." He said, pointing at Jack. "Or Freckles won't be the only one in a coma."
Jack laughed a little as Sawyer left the room, and as the door closed, it was silent once again save for the beeping of the machines.