"JACK!"
The scream jolted him as he looked around wildly, trying to locate the voice that he knew was Kate.
"JACK! Jack, I'm over here!"
He ran blindly, not looking where he was going, just focusing on her. He had missed her for so long and now here she was, but what – hurt? Upset? He had to find her.
"Jack!"
He could tell he was almost there, the voice was getting closer. His surroundings were a blur as he searched frantically for Kate. She yelled out again, and he realized she was behind him. He turned around and –
"Good morning L.A.! It's currently 8:52 AM on a bright, sunny Thursday! The forecast looks good for this afternoon, not a cloud in the sk-"
Jack groaned as he reached over and hit the snooze on his alarm clock. Sunlight poured in through the curtains, hitting his eyes like shards of glass. He hadn't been sleeping well lately to begin with, but adding in the nightly dreams about Kate – always her calling to him, always him waking up before he could get to her, see her even – made it more miserable. He was surprised they still let him do surgeries at the hospital, since he averaged about four hours of sleep per night and must look like a zombie wandering around. He didn't even bother looking in the mirror anymore when he was getting ready – what was the point? He knew he looked horrible; he didn't need to be reminded of that. There was no one that he wanted to impress, he just wanted to get his job done and go home to sink into night after night of restless, dream-filled sleep.
Sighing, he slowly sat up in bed, rubbing his temples. He sure could use some extra sleep this morning after that nightmare, but he had a surgery on an 8-year-old boy in an hour. As he got out of bed and started the shower, he mentally reviewed the surgery, hoping that it would help him wake up and focus on his day ahead. But it just made him more tired, thinking about the dangers the boy faced if the surgery went wrong, and how scared he would be if it was his own child, their own child. He shook his head, trying to clear his mind of the thoughts – after all, he hadn't even told Kate how he felt about her, let alone planning out their future with kids!
He got dressed and left the house, driving to the hospital as slowly as he could. Before the crash, he used to have a small case of road rage; no one ever moved fast enough for Jack the doctor, in a hurry for a surgery he would unquestionably succeed in performing. But now he liked to take his time. Maybe it was his time on the island that had changed him, because now he liked to take in the sights on his way to work. The kids running to school, the herds of people crossing at crosswalks when the light was red. He loved just sitting, listening to the music in his car as loud as was appropriate, and watching the people around him in another world with a completely different set of concerns and worries than his own. It fascinated him, yet it made him too aware of the fact that she wasn't sitting next to him, sharing this feeling with him. He took in a deep breath and released it slowly, trying to focus on something else beside the fact that everything in his life since the crash came down to her, always her.