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There was no one left for the task. People were out fishing, hunting, frocking in the wood for all he knew, just the plain fact was staring him in the face - a pair of big blue eyes, like his Mom's.
It was Jack's turn for nanny duty, and there was no one he could bribe off, so he was sitting in the sand, half listening to Claire's running list of instructions, mostly focused on the gurgling mass on the blanket in front of him. Great, he thinks, perfect.
"So, you'll be alright?"
"Yeah, sure."
He gives her a grin, only a few hours, and there was bound to be someone around when the makeshift diaper needed changing. He had done complex operations, but negotiating a diaper on a moving target was another thing entirely. He could almost feel the panic rising.
Aaron seemed to be content to play with his rattle, as long as Jack retrieved it when it fell from his reach. He had become lost in flailing arms and drool issues of Aaron, that he didn't hear her come up to the tent, until a bit of laughter filled his ears.
"Bet you're thinking that you got that MD for nothing?"
Kate, her damp hair and rather clean shirt told him that she was back from the waterfall where Claire had been headed. That damm grin on her face - once a prize - is now quickly becoming very annoying.
"I think I'm doing just fine, thank you."
Aaron launches the rattle, hitting Jack's foot, and then breaks out in his perfect baby laugh. Great, now the baby is mocking me - can this get any worse?
"I'll help you, all you had to do was ask-"
She kneels in the sand, scooping Aaron to her arms; cradling his head now downy with blond hair.
"-but I knew you wouldn't."
Torn inside as Aaron gives one of Kate's curls a tug, he welcomes the time alone with her - well almost -but her mocking tone, although good natured was starting to make him feel rather odd. Something about seeing her with a baby in her arms, her eyes alive again, he wanted to make her feel that way, just him.
Aaron is fascinated with Kate's curls, like his own living toy, his fingers grasping and pulling; but it doesn't faze her, she just smiles, and cokes his fingers from her hair.
"Hold him for a moment."
Jack blindly opens his arms, remembering to support the head and other half remembered rules from a lecture way back when. The weight of a life in his arms, he can feel the steady pulse of a young heart, and a slow smile blooms, when there are no cries.
She's pulling her hair up with the ever present band she keeps around her wrist, her profile in the light washes out the circles around eyes and gives her an otherworldly glow.
"You're staring, Jack."
"Sorry, I-"
A quick flush of his skin, like he was five and caught with one hand in the cookie jar. Can't help it, he thinks; not when she looks like that, real. She just grins and focuses on Aaron, who's eyes are getting heavy in the afternoon light.
"I think you can take it from here, Jack. He's about to nod off."
He wants to say something like: why don't you hold him, since he looks so perfect in your arms, but that wouldn't be a good thing. Her nature is so fragile, every step forward he seems to make just pushes her father away. He's tried to push the questions aside, but it's hard when she's a walking mystery.
"Okay, thanks."
The simple response, the one born out of reason and fear. It isn't like him not to be forward, but when you can't escape the presence of the other person, due to the oh so very lost nature of their plight, the forward action is not so clear.
She leans in, transferring Aaron's sleepy frame to Jack's arms, held out to cradle the youngest survivor. Her face still has that smile on it, the pure smile with no reason or want behind it. He can't help watch her sit back on her heel, and smile back at her with the same openness.
It's not even his child, but he still holds him like he was his own. Maybe in a different life, he could have had the scene that a person might see looking on - a man and woman, both beaming down at their child, who is safe and happy.
While this can't be farther then the truth, it's the day dream that he lets himself get caught up in, while Aaron sleeps in the shade.
(1/1)