Since We Met
Chapter 2: The Apology
The next morning Jack was awake when everybody were still asleep. He had to go to the hatch to his six hours' shift. He got dressed and took his way to the hatch. 'Wow six hours with Locke... it is going to be really boring down there' he thought, because Locke were his mate on this shift. He also thought about Kate... he was going to be six hours in the hatch probably thinking about their argument... Will they forgive each other easily like last time? Would he give her some guava seeds and they'll forget it all? Well, that didn't matter in that moment because he was going to be six hours without seeing her.
He finally arrived to the hatch's front door and opened it. Locke and Hurley were inside. Locke was with a crossword in front of the computer and Hurley was seated on a chair looking at Locke with an oddly look. When he heard Jack enter he jumped and walked quickly right to him.
"Dude, thank god you're here. I can't stay here anymore" He closed his distance between him and Jack and whispered him. "Dude, he didn't want to play ping-pong, can you believe it? This was the hell bored!".
"I thought he was on my shift" Jack said confused.
"Oh yeah but Kate changed her shift with him so..." Hurley said.
"Then who is going to be with me on my shift?" Jack asked. And by that moment the door opened.
"Hey" Kate said with a smile on her face that faded away when she saw Jack. 'Dammit' she thought.Was she really that luckless? When she changed her shift she didn't know that it was Jack's shift. Last night she didn't feel good for a shift in the hatch, but if she had knew that it was worst to change it she wouldn't have changed it. It was going to be an odd morning.
Jack changed his expression too.
"Hey Kate, and bye. Now that you're here I'm finally free! I'm going to play golf or something, I don't know but I just have to get out of here" Hurley said with a crazy expression on his face and then he left.
"Yep I have to go too. I'm going to hunt and maybe we'll have fresh meat today" Locke said and he left too.
They stood there for about a minute in silent looking at each other like they wanted to say something but any of them didn't want to take the first step. Then the countdown started to sound and Kate broke their eye contact immediately. Even though she took some seconds to react.
"I'll do it" She said approaching to the computer.
Jack nodded and then turned and started walking through a doorway without saying a word. Kate introduced the numbers and followed him with her look wandering where he was going.
Jack opened a closet and caught a towel, then he made his way to the shower. He took a refreshing shower, he put the towel around his waist and was about to catch a razor blade when he slid and he hit his forehead with the sink.
Kate was looking the crossword that Locke filled before when she heard a strong beat followed by an "Ouch!". She got up quickly and followed the way where the sound came. She opened the bathroom's door and found Jack grabbing the sink trying to get up.
"Hey I- I heard a beat and I came. Are you ok?" She asked approaching towards him and grabbing him by his back trying to help him get up.
"Yeah I'm fine, I just slid and..." He said already up turning to face her.
"No you're not fine, you're bleeding Jack" She cut him. "Maybe you need stitches". Jack turned to face the mirror.
"No I don't think so. It's not a deep wound. I fortunately grabbed the sink before I hit my head" He said examining the wound cautiously.
"Ok then let me clean it and disinfect it" She added.
"Kate, really I can do it myself"
" I think I can do it better than you through a mirror you know" She said motioning him to sit on a stool that was near them.
He gave her an 'Ok you win' look and he sat on the stool. Kate exited to search a first-aid kit, when she found it she opened it and caught the disinfectant and a gauze, she also caught a small towel and then she came back to the bathroom where Jack was waiting for her still seated on the stool. Kate soaked the towel and then she knelt down in front of him.
"Ok first I'm going to clean all the blood" She said grabbing his chin with one hand and with the other hand cleaning the blood. She started to clean a trace of blood that began on his forehead and ended on his jaw passing by his left eye. When she was cleaning the blood of his eye their gaze met just for a couple of seconds but it seemed as if their souls entwined and flew together to another place. They broke the gaze at the same time and Kate continued cleaning the blood. When she finished she disinfected the wound with the disinfectant putting the gauze under the wound so the disinfectant didn't fall into his eyes. Their eyes met again and she broke the glance looking down but it was more embarrassing because she realized that he was only wearing a towel.
"I... um... I have finished" She said getting up looking around nervously.
"Yeah I'll... I'll better get dressed" His cheeks were completely red. He got up so abruptly that their foreheads collided. "I'm sorry Kate... I, you know I wanted to equal both parts of my forehead" He tried to joke to make the moment easier.
Kate laughed timidly still embarrassed and added "I leave to the um... living room? Well whatever it is and let you get dressed" She unconsciously looked at him back and forth before leaving the room.
'What have just happened?' He thought 'Do I feel something for her? No it's not that. She's a woman and I'm a man and we were in a compromising situation that's all, it's normal' He tried to convince himself as always. Then he remembered that they were mad at each other, and he was ready to take the first step.
Kate was at the main room trying to focus on something else to not think about what had happened. 'Kate what the hell are you doing? You cannot fall in love, you two are so different. You will ruin his world as always does' She thought but what she didn't know was that it was too late because she was already in love. Then she noticed Jack entering in the room. They stood in silent again for a couple of seconds. Jack was looking for the right words to apologize.
"I'm sorry..." She was quicker then him."I shouldn't have read you letter, it... I know it is personal and... I shouldn't. I'm- I'm sorry, really"
"No Kate I... I reacted exaggeratedly I said things I didn't mean to and I'm sorry" And then he added. "Oh and you were wrong about something. When I think about you I don't think about your criminal life. Thinking that way you're far away from what I think about you"
"W-What?" She said.
Suddenly the front door of the hatch opened and appeared Locke and a big African man with Sawyer on the back.