Chapter Nine

Kate closed her eyes and tried hard to calm down, but she couldn't. All she wanted was Sawyer, Sawyer who liked her. Sawyer whotrusted and took care of her.

She didn't want to be here, in the middle of the jungle giving birth, and she didn't-she couldn't have Jack helping her when it happened.

She had known that Jack would have to help her when she gave birth, that it was stupid and dangerous if he didn't help, but she had ignored such logic. She'd be ok, she'd convinced herself, after all, she'd delivered Claire's baby, she'd cope, somehow. She knew it was stupid, but even in her thoughts she ran from her problems.

Now she couldn't run, she couldn't even walk! Kate had never been so scared, what if something went wrong? What if Sawyer didn't get there in time?

And how was Jack going to react?

Next to her Charlie seemed just as nervous. He'd helped her to get into a more comfortable position, so that she was leaning against a large tree, but it was clear that he had no idea what to do.

"Don't worry Kate," he said quietly, trying to reassure her as well as himself. "Jack will be here in a minute, I'm sure."

"I don't need Jack!" Kate said angrily, but as if on cue, he appeared.

Kate looked away, she felt horribly awkward and embarrassed. Behind Jack stood Ana Lucia, who seemed to be feeling the same way as Jack, she was clutching a bunch of towel's and other things.

"Charlie, how much time between contractions?" Jack asked, instantly going into doctor mood.

"I dunno," Charlie stuttered, "five, maybe three minutes?" Jack nodded, and Kate could tell from the look on his face that he was concerned.

"Kate, Kate I need you to start pushing now." Jack said. Kate shook her head.

No.


Sawyer followed closely behind Sayid as they made their way home, Jin was a fair way behind them, clearly upset that they had given up the search.

They must have been about halfway home when a man came crashing through the trees towards them. At first glance Sawyer thought it was Michael, then he recognized it as one of the tallies, Mr. Eko.

He ran straight towards them, panting hard as if he'd run all the way. "What is it?" Asked Sayid.

Mr. Eko put a hand up to indicate that he was trying to catch his breath, before he said quickly. "Sawyer it is Kate. She has gone into labour."

"What!" Sawyer yelled, "when? And where the hell is she? Is she ok?" He'd never felt so frightened all his life.

"I think she is going to be ok." Mr. Eko said, "but she is asking for you."

"Where the hell is she?" Sawyer yelled. "Tell me where she is!"

Mr. Eko pointed behind him. "A little off the path to the hatch." Sawyer went to run to her, But Mr. Eko grabbed hold of him, pulling him back.

"Get the hell off me boy!" Sawyer yelled furiously, pushing him away.

"You will not find it on your own." Mr. Eko yelled at him, before calmly, "I will take you."

Mr. Eko began to run again, though it was clear he was tired, Sawyer followed him, his heart racing-Freckle's was gonna have his kid!


Jack was desperate. "Kate I need you to push!" he pleaded, but she just shook her head, sobbing with the fear pain she managed to whisper. "Not without Sawyer."

Jack could feel the panic rising in him. He delivered plenty of Babies before, and all had been healthy, but he was worried now for Kate and the baby.

He realised how confused and frightened Kate must be, and it hurt him to see her like that. He wished he could make it better, he wished he could make it go away, but he couldn't do either of those things.

And deep inside he wished he and Kate and never fought, that's something had happened between them. He'd always found it hard to let go, and he'd gone completely the wrong way about it. He wasn't Kate's choice, but inside he loved her, and he cared for her, if only he could tell her that.

"Kate," he said quietly, forcing himself to look into her frightened eyes. He was aware of his voice trembling as he spoke, of Ana and Charlie watching from a little way off, but he didn't care.

"Kate, I know you want Sawyer, and I promise he's gonna be here soon-okay I promise, but you can't stop this baby coming, ok? It's coming now, and I need you to push, I need you to push for the baby Kate."

"I can't," Kate sobbed, she seemed so defenceless, and it was awful. "I can't." she sobbed again.

Jack shook his head. "No you can Kate; I know you and you can. You have to. Sawyer's going to be here soon, but you can't stop this baby coming." He paused, but Kate said nothing. "Please Kate," he whispered, "Please, I know you, I know you Kate and your strong-you can do this! And your not alone," he pointed out, "we're all here for you….I'm here for you."

Kate continued to sob, and Jack thought she was going to continue to refuse, but then she gave the tiniest nod of her head.

"Okay," Jack breathed a sigh of relief. "Alright Kate, I need you to push when I say, ok?" she nodded. "Alright Kate, push!"

Kate screamed as she pushed, struggling to cope with the pain.

"Alright" said Jack, giving her a moment to rest. "Try again, ok Push!"

Kate pushed harder, screaming and sobbing with the effort. Jack could just see the baby now, but realised with a feeling of dread that it was in breech position.

He felt himself beginning to panic, Kate was exhausted already and a breech birth where the baby came outfeetfirst was much harder than a normal birth, and without medication or medical instruments it was going to be particularly hard for a first time mum like Kate.

Trying to calm himself, Jack counted to five, he'd handled breech births before, he'd get Kate through this, he just had to keep her calm.

"Kate," he said, forcing his voice to be a steady calm. "Listen to me carefully. The baby is in breech position, So your going to have to push extra hard, ok?"

"What?" Kate asked, "What's wrong? Is my baby ok?" she was beginning to Panic.

"Your baby's fine Kate, it's just coming out the wrong way, that happens sometimes." Jack said quickly. "But its going to be harder to push out, so you need to listen ok?" Kate managed to nod, but it was clear that she was terrified.

"I need you to push when I say, and only when I say." Jack continued. "Are you ready?"

Kate took a moment, before she nodded trying hard to compose herself she managed to give a determined. "Yes."

"Ok Kate, push! Push!" Kate screamed as she struggled to push the baby out. Exhausted she flopped back on the tree trunk she'd be leaning against, breathing hard.

"Ok, ok that's good Kate." Jack said enthusiastically, "It's almost out! Just one more push Kate, one more!"

Kate was now more determined than ever, pushing as hard as she could, she screamed with pain as the baby finely came out, before collapsing onto the tree trunk, eyes closed as she panted heavily.

Jack instantly went to work, clearing the baby's nose and mouth, he waited for the baby to start crying.

Nothing.

"Oh God!" a voice screamed inside of him. Kate was leaning forward now, trying to look at her child.

"Oh God-It's dead!" The word echoed through Jack's head and nothing could stop his panic, not even counting to five. Kate sensed something was wrong.

"Is it ok?" she asked with a trembling voice. "Jack, Jack why isn't it crying? Jack!"

Jack was trying to revive the baby frantically, "c'mon! c'mon!" he whispered.

"Jack!" Kate was shouting now, her voice hoarse with exhaustion. "Jack! Jack why isn't it crying? Jack!" she began to sob as the horrible truth set in.

"C'mon!" Jack shouted, tears now rolling down his face, and then suddenly, as if by magicthe baby burst into life, squirming in his arms and crying loudly.

Kate who'd be sobbing into her hands suddenly looked over in amazement. Jack was crying freely now, but with joy.

"It's a beautiful baby girl," he said, gently handing Kate her daughter.

Kate looked at her daughter in amazement, and burst intomuch loudertears, hugging her close. The baby continued to cry loudly, but after a few minutes its crying died down as Kate rocked it slowly in her arms.

Jack was aware of Charlie and Ana coming towards them curiously. "It's a girl," he said happily as the two of them stared at Kate.

Charlie didn't say anything, he just stared with a smile on his face, beside him Ana said quietly. "She's beautiful, Kate."

Kate smiled at them, bursting into laughter as she looked back at her daughter. "She's so beautiful," she whispered in amazement, taking in ever detail of her beautiful Baby girl. She had a small patch of dark brown hair, that looked as if it might grow out into curls and waves like Kate's, but her eyes were blue like Sawyer's.

Pulling her eyes away from her daughter Kate turned to look at Jack. "Thank you." She said quietly.

Jack smiled at her. "You're welcome, she's, she's beautiful Kate."


Sawyer ran without stopping, even when he was gasping for breath and his legs screamed stop! He'd never been so worried in all his life, he just had to get to Freckle's! Hell, he knew he shouldn't have left her.

"Stop!" Sawyer skidded to a halt, to see Mr. Eko behind him, panting heavily and covered in sweat. "Rest a minute."He commanded

"What!" Sawyer cried in amazement. "I can't rest! I gotta get to Freckles!"

"We both need the rest." Mr. Eko said in his booming voice. "I am only asking for one minute. You need to rest too."

Sawyer glared at him, but was secretly glad to catch his breath.

After about 45 seconds Sawyer spoke up. "Ok, lets go, we wasted enough time." For a second her thought Mr. Eko was going to refuse and ask for the whole minute rest, but he just nodded, sensing Sawyer's urgency, and began to lead the way.

After about three minutes of frantic running Sawyer burst into the clearing-but there was no one there.

"Where the hell are they?" he turned around to face a confused Mr. Eko, "you said they were here? Where the hell is freckles?"

"They must have gone to the hatch." Mr. Eko said quietly.

Without waiting Sawyer forced himself to run towards the hatch. But the time he got there all he could do was gasp for breath.

"Where…is…she?" he managed to ask Locke.

"In there." He pointed to the other room

Sawyer forced himself walk though he felt like throwing himself into a bed and going to sleep. He was almost afraid of what he'd see, was Freckles ok? Had she had the kid yet? Was the kid even ok?

In front of him Kate was lying on the lower bunk, she seemed to be almost sitting, popped up by two Pillows.

She looked exhausted, her hair was everywhere, and her face was sweating. She was holding something in her arms that Sawyer couldn't see, and there was a huge smile on her face.

"Freckle's?" Sawyer asked quietly.

Kate's head snapped in his direction, and her smile turned into a large grin. "We have a daughter Sawyer." She said quietly.

Sawyer walked over to her, hugging her tightly. "Hell, I knew I Shouldn't of gone!" he said, making Kate laugh. He turned to look at his daughter for the first time.

"Hell, Freckles," he muttered, lost for words, "she's….she's beautiful." Kate smiled at him.

"Here, hold her."

Sawyer looked at Kate in amazement, before holding his daughter in his arms. He was so afraid he might hurt her, drop her, and he held her so carefully. "Gez Freckles," he whispered quietly. "I reckon we done alright."

Kate laughed, "yeah, But we still don't have a name for her."

Sawyer looked at his beautiful daughter, sleeping peacefully in his arms. He was so overwhelmed by everything that had just happened. He was now suddenly a father, something he'd been secretly terrified of, and yet also eagerly awaiting. "I can't think of any freckles, hell, I was sure it was gonna be a boy."

Kate laughed, "Well I've been thinking," She said quietly, "what do you think of Lilly?"

"Lilly?" Sawyer asked, "Lilly," he repeated. "Heck, Freckle's, I actually like it!" Kate laughed again as Sawyer broke into a huge grin. "Lilly, Lilly suits this little lady better than anything else."

He carefully handed her back into Kate's arms. Everything was going to change now.

But somehow, he didn't mind.


OMG Longest chapter ever! Lol, I hope you enjoyed it. It was really, really hard to write, and I'm not sure if I got it right. I haven't really had any birthing experience, what, with being 16 (or 17 as of the 27th :D) and all. The polls are now closed and Name decided, hope you liked it :D

So yeah final results were

Lilly at 46

Emily at 26

Paige at 6

And Rachel and Charlotte both on 0

And the results for boys were:

Tom at 45

Noah at 36

Ryan at 18

And Brad and Cody on 0

A big thanks to those who voted.