Chapter Fourteen is finally done! Chapters 15&16 are going to be fluffy chapters, so enjoy them! This all goes downhill soon.
Chapter Fourteen
Awaking in Jack's arms the next morning, Kate lay still for several minutes, not wanting to move and risk waking him. She only shifted slightly, turning just enough so that she could watch him sleep in the dimly lit room. His chest rose and fell in even breaths and a smile spread across her face as the corner of his mouth began to twitch every several seconds. She wondered what he was dreaming about.
After a few moments of twitching Jack let out a sigh, and Kate knew he was waking up. She diverted her eyes just before his fluttered open. "Morning," he whispered, and Kate felt herself involuntarily melt. How was it just his voice could do that to her?
"Morning," she returned, turning on her side to face him. They both smiled a little awkwardly, not quite sure what to say in light of what had gone on the previous night.
"Come here," Jack whispered, hooking his arm around her waist and pulling her against him. He kept his face in her hair for several moments before bringing his lips to hers.
He pulled away, but kept their foreheads touching. "I love you," Jack told her before kissing her again, quickly.
She let him kiss her, and when he pulled back she glanced away quickly before finally bringing her gaze back to him. She rolled her eyes slightly and smiled impishly, "morning breath."
A hurt look crossed his face, but left as quickly as it had appeared. "Sorry," he murmured, grinning and covering his mouth. "No more morning kisses then."
Kate rolled her eyes again, and smiled playfully as she got out of bed and stretched. "You want the shower first?"
Jack shook his head quickly and watched as Kate made her way to the bathroom door, colliding with the side of his dresser on the way. He muffled his laughter as she turned back and shot him a glare. Just before she closed the bathroom door behind her, he called out her name.
Glancing over her shoulder, she cast him an inquisitive look. "Yeah?"
He grinned slyly, sitting up. "Can I come?"
She smirked and continued on forward without responding, leaving the bathroom door open behind her. He heard the water start, and a few seconds later Kate's voice called, "Jack, I'm giving you ten seconds! One, two. . ."
Their clothes were on the floor by six.
After their shower Jack stood in front of the mirror shaving while Kate towel-dried her hair. Jack placed razor in the sink and watched her as she dropped the towel from around her body and began to dress.
Smirking at him, she asked, "Do you notice that we always apologize with sex?"
Jack rolled his eyes and went back to shaving. "That's not true."
"Yes, it is!" Kate laughed, pulling Jack's sweatshirt over her head. "I'm beginning to think you just fight with me for the sex."
Laughing, Jack winked at Kate. "You've figured me out! I guess I'm just going to have to get a new plan now. . ."
Stepping towards him, Kate kissed his neck softly. "So I think I'd better just cut off the sex completely, and that way I can ensure that you won't be fighting with me anymore!"
Rolling his eyes, Jack picked his razor back up working his way across his jaw line. Kate sidled up next to him, making a sour face at herself in the mirror. "Your clothes are too big for me."
"If you want to wear yours," Jack said softly, turning his razor off and putting it away, "they're still laying on the floor downstairs."
Kate let his comment roll of her shoulders, choosing to believe that he was not taking a jab at her previous night's actions, but instead just informing her where more comfortable clothing was. Leaving Jack to finish up in the bathroom, she went downstairs, collected her clothes and moved into the laundry room to change.
As she wriggled into her jeans, she heard the phone ring. Naturally, she assumed Jack would get it, but by the fifth ring he still hadn't picked it. Figuring that it must be Margo, Kate dashed into the living room and grabbed the receiver. "Hello?"
The line was silent for several minutes, and then a scratchy voice spoke. "Is this the Shephard residence?"
Great, a telemarketer. She rolled her eyes, "Yes, this is."
There was a pause. "Are you the lady of the house?"
Kate smiled to herself. "Yes, I suppose I am."
Another pause followed. "Thank you." With that, the caller hung up.
Puzzled, Kate stared at the phone in her hand for several seconds before she heard Jack's voice behind her. "Who was on the phone?"
"Just a wrong number," Kate said with a shrug, setting the phone on it's hook. She smiled at Jack, trying to shrug off the creepy feeling the call had left her with. "Didn't you tell Hurley you were going to call him this morning?"
"Yeah," Jack said with a nod. "I was actually planning on doing that now. I was just coming down to check with you to make sure it was alright." He finally seemed to notice Kate's pants were unbuttoned.
"I knew you wouldn't be able to make good your no sex threat."
Rolling her eyes, Kate sucked in her stomach. "This is why I haven't been wearing them. It's hard to button them. I must have left them in the dryer for too long last time I washed them. . ." She let out an aggravated sigh as the button slipped out of her hand before she could work it through the hole.
Jack watched, amused. He tried to hide his smile as she tried unsuccessfully several more times to button her pants. Finally, a small laugh danced it's way out of his throat, "Come on, Kate. You look good. Really healthy. You were too skinny before."
"I have not gained this much weight, Jack!" Kate said, shaking her head. "They have just shrunk." With one last tug, she sucked in her stomach and buttoned the pants. "See, they fit."
"Yes, they do," Jack agreed, still smirking. He leaned over and kissed her quickly, "And you look beautiful in them."
As Jack picked up the phone to call Hurley, Kate laid down on the couch, giving Jack an explicit list of things they needed to start doing in order to stay in shape. Being in the best shape possible had always been a priority of hers, and just because she was settled in with Jack didn't mean that she was going to let her body turn into whatever it wanted. Pushing a nagging thought that possibly what was happening in her body wasn't quite up to her out of her mind, Kate continued her list. "And running. We'll have to start jogging immediately!"
Tuning her out, Jack dialed Hurley's number. After he answered the two talked for a few minutes, before making plans. After ending their conversation, he turned back to Kate. Before he could speak, she announced, "Jenny Craig!"
"You are not going on a diet," Jack told her, slightly annoyed. He knelt on the ground next to the couch, nuzzling his face into her neck. He kept it there for several seconds before he began to kiss slowly down her body. "You're beautiful. I love you. I love every inch of you."
"There's a lot of inches to love," Kate grumbled as Jack's lips traced lightly across her stomach. She let out a content sigh as he continued on his way. After a few moments, she shifted, stopping his lips in their tracks. "No, you can't undo my pants. I'll never get them buttoned again."
Jack let out a frustrated sigh, and before Kate knew what was happening, he was on top of her, finding all her most ticklish spots. Shrieks of laughter exploded from her as she wriggled beneath him. He continued on, his happy laughter mixing with hers until she couldn't take it anymore. "Ja - Jack! You have to stop. I ca- I can't. . . breathe!"
Jack relented, a content smile on his face, and he sunk down in the couch with her. She shifted to make him comfortable and rested her head against his shoulder. He wrapped his arms around her, and they laid together in comfortable silence until they heard the doorbell ring.
Moving so Jack could get up to answer the door, Kate gave him a sweet smile. "You're my favorite pillow."
Something about the words and the open, almost innocent, expression on Kate's face struck something within Jack. He had known he loved her for quite sometime, and he had been doing a good job of denying the possibility of ever losing her. But at that moment, he knew without a doubt that no matter what lay ahead in the future, he wasn't going to let himself lose her.
Finally, tearing his gaze off of her, Jack moved towards the front door. He met Hurley with a hug and then escorted him back into the living room, where Kate was now sitting in an upright position. She moved off the couch to hug Hurley.
After they had gotten settled and had been talking for awhile, Kate moved to the kitchen to get them something to drink. Returning to the living room, Kate noticed Hurley's shoes. She bent over to get a closer look.
"Hurley, your shoes have your name on them."
"Yeah," Hurley said with a shrug, looking a little embarrassed. "My girlfriend bought them for me. You can get them custom-made to say anything you want, I think."
Momentarily distracted from his shoes, Kate asked in unison with Jack, "You have a girlfriend?"
Hurley smiled. "Don't look so surprised! We've been dating for a couple weeks. I asked her to come with me, but she couldn't get off work. I'm taking her to Graceland as a late Christmas present in a couple weeks. She's a huge Elvis fan."
"Speaking of Christmas," Kate said slyly with a wink towards Jack, gesturing towards Hurley's shoes. "Were you planning on getting me anything?"
Jack rolled his eyes, taking a sip of his lemonade. "Why do you need tennis shoes, Kate?"
She pouted. "Because it's almost Christmas."
Smirking, Jack sat his glass on a coaster, and leaned over so that his face was less than an inch away from Kate's. He smiled, and spoke, his tone a mix between matter-of-fact and semi-sarcastic, "I already bought your presents, darling."
A hot blush crept up Kate's face, and she wasn't sure if it was because of the out-of-character pet name Jack had just called her, or the fact that he had actually planned on celebrating Christmas with her. "Why did you -- you didn't . . . you didn't have to do that, Jack."
He smiled and kissed her softly before leaning back into his chair and turning his attention towards Hurley. "So, do you know where she found those shoes?"
"Yeah," Hurley nodded. "I can show you the web-site if you want me to. They're not really any more expensive than any other tennis shoes you'd buy. Well, not like you have to worry about money after the Oceanic settlement anyway."
Kate glanced to Jack, a confused look on her face. "Oceanic settlement?"
"Oh, that's right," Hurley said. "You probably wouldn't have heard about it. About a month after we got rescued there was a huge settlement. Every survivor who was threatening to sue got close to a million dollars."
Shocked, Kate glanced back and forth from the two, her gaze resting on Jack. "You got close to a million?"
Jack looked uncomfortable. "I, um. . . I didn't sue."
Kate's jaw dropped open, and Hurley looked surprised. "You didn't sue, Jack? Why not?"
"Because," Jack said with a shrug, shifting in his seat. He gave her an embarrassed smile. "I didn't regret the crash. I wasn't angry about it. It gave me you."
Glancing away, Kate felt a blush creep up her neck. He had felt that way about her, even before she had come to him. She wasn't sure whether to let it warm her, or scare her even more than she already was. This was becoming so much.
Deciding it was best to change the subject, Kate moved from the floor to the computer chair. She turned on the monitor and grinned at Hurley, "Okay, show me this website."
Jack pretended to be mad. "Did I say you could get the shoes, Katherine?"
Cocking her head to the side, Kate grinned playfully. "Don't call me Katherine. You sound like your mother."
Jack rolled his eyes and leaned into the couch, watching TV as Hurley showed Kate step by step what to do. Kate happily clicked away, designing herself a pair of shoes, while Jack and Hurley caught up. Finally, she announced triumphantly that she was finished.
"Hmm," Jack said, after pretending to study them closely. "I guess they're okay."
Kate feigned shocked. "You guess they're okay? Jack, these are a masterpiece. One should be so lucky to be as talented as I am."
Jack smirked. "I'll agree with that." He reached into his back pocket and took out his wallet. After thumbing through it for a second, he placed a credit card down next to her. "There you go, go ahead and buy them."
Kate glanced from Jack to the credit card, shaking her head. "No, this was just for fun. I'm not buying stuff with your money." She picked it up and tried to hand it back to him, moving the mouse to close the website.
"Buy them," Jack told her, taking a step back. "Actually, why don't you just order whatever you want. Get yourself some new clothes. Whatever you need, just buy."
She moved to argue again, but thought better of it. Laying the card back on the desk, she asked, "How much am I allowed to spend?"
Jack cocked his head, amusement dancing in his eyes. "Just get what you need, alright? Whatever it takes."
Before Kate could respond, he turned to Hurley. "I need to run to the grocery. You can stay here with Kate, or come with me if you want."
Hurley glanced to Kate who was now merrily typing numbers into the computer. Smiling, he told Jack, "I think I'd better come with you. I know better than to try to deal with a woman while she's shopping."
Kate pretended to shoot them both a glare. "You can both leave. I don't need any company." Giving Jack a sweet smile, she requested, "Could you please get me the latest edition of InTouch. Shannon's giving them an exclusive and I want to see what she has to say about everyone."
Jack rolled his eyes, but nodded his agreement. Hurley laughed and asked, "Did you hear that ABC bought the rights to do a movie about her experiences on the island? The main focus is going to be Boone's death."
A shadow fell over Jack's face and Kate sent him a sympathetic look before addressing Hurley, "I can't believe she'd sell out like that. I thought there was a change in her after Boone's death, but I guess some people just can't change who they are."
As soon as the words left her mouth, a cold chill fell over Kate. Who was she to talk about changing your ways? Even though she was still for now, she knew that deep inside her there was still a churning urge to run. It was a feeling that she doubted she would ever be able to completely shake.
Jack gave Kate a knowing look, and nodded toward Hurley, just wanting to get out of the house. "You ready?"
Hurley nodded, and the both headed towards the door. Kate sighed, hating how he could read her mind. She heard the door open and yelled for him, knowing he would pause. After a few moments of silence she called out, "Be careful. I love you."
There was another pause, and she thought he would leave without saying it back. She turned back to the computer, feeling deflated. When he entered the room, making it to her in two long steps and pressing his lips against hers, Kate was more than surprised. He pulled away, a soft smile on his face. "I love you too."
She turned back to the computer, a smile on her face, as Jack left with Hurley.
As they were walking down the aisles of the grocery, Hurly brought up the subject of Kate. "So, how long have you two been, you know. . . together."
Jack smiled. "Awhile now, I guess. It's weird. The time has gone by really fast. She was here for about a month before anything happened with us."
Hurley nodded as Jack continued to pile things into his cart. "So how long is she going to stay?"
"I don't really know," Jack said quickly, furrowing his brow. He didn't like the subject being brought out into the open. It was something he and Kate could easily shelve away from their conversations, if not from their thoughts. It wasn't a matter he enjoyed thinking about, let alone discussing. "For as long as she can."
"Well, how long do you think that will be?" Hurley asked. "I'm not trying to be rude, dude, but isn't it kind of dangerous for her to stay with you?"
Jack didn't respond for several seconds, trying to process the words. "No. No, I don't think it's dangerous. Why would you say that?"
"I was just thinking that if anyone got tipped off that Kate was still alive, the first place the Feds would come knocking is at your door, Jack," Hurley shrugged as though this were completely obvious. "Your house is probably the place she's least safe."
This was something Jack had never let himself process. Deep down he had known that he could never truly keep Kate safe from what she was running from, but he had let himself fall under the false pretense that he could protect her. But when it came down to it . . . what could he do if the Feds came knocking?
Sensing that he had brought up a sore subject, Hurley apologized. "I didn't mean to make you feel bad, dude. I just don't want to see either of you get hurt. I know you care about her a lot. . ."
Jack sighed, inwardly struggling with himself. "Sometimes I think it would be better if she had never come."
Hurley didn't respond, just gave Jack an encouraging look. Jack continued on. "She seems so happy now. I'm sure she used to be really good at running on her own. She didn't have any reason to want to stop, or to look back. Now, if she leaves," Jack paused and sighed, "when she leaves, I don't know how she's going to be able to do it. Or how I'm going to be able to let her."
They were both fairly silent for the rest of the shopping trip, and even more-so on the ride home. When they pulled into the driveway Hurley felt as though he had to apologize, "I'm sorry, dude. I didn't mean to upset you. But if you think that the thought of her leaving is this hard for you, then imagine what it's like for her. You can move on, Jack, she can't."
Jack opened his mouth to argue, but Hurley continued on. "It's true. As much as you refuse to admit it right now, it's true. You can fall in love again, and most likely you would. You can get married, and you can have a family. Kate's going to spend the rest of her life moving around from place to place. No matter where she goes, do you think she'll ever meet someone she trusts as much as you?"
Jack shook his head quickly, and the two got out of the car and headed into the house. Hurley told them both goodbye, and then went on his way. After a few moments of silence, Kate glanced to Jack, "What?"
"What what?" he returned softly, kicking off his shoes, and moving to sit on the couch.
"Why are you looking at me that way?" Kate asked. She looked nervous, "Did something happen when you were at the grocery?"
Jack shook his head, and cleared his throat. The last thing he wanted to do was upset her. "No. I'm fine. Did you buy yourself anything while I was gone?"
Kate smirked, "A few things!" She gestured toward the legal pad next to her. "I made a list of sites that I thought I would visit. Maybe get a few things off of each of them. . ."
A smile finally broke across Jack's face, and he reached for the pencil, writing down something at the bottom of her list. He kissed her cheek, and set the pencil back down, stepping away so she could see.
"Victoria's Secret, hmm?" Kate giggled. "I guess I could get a thing or two off there. They have really cute pajamas, you know."
Jack rolled his eyes. "Yeah. Pajamas. That's what I was talking about."
Kate giggled again and went back to typing. "Are you sure I can't get you anything for Christmas?"
"You just order as much as you can off that website, Kate, and that'll be a good enough present for me," Jack smiled. "Might even get me through the New Year."
Rolling her eyes, Kate nodded. "Whatever you say, Jack."
They both fell silent, and Jack's intent gaze fell on her again. Finally, she turned to him exasperated. "Why are you looking at me like that?"
Without speaking, Jack grabbed her hand and pulled her up, hugging her tightly. She was surprised at first, but then returned the hug. When he finally found his words, his throat was tight, "Promise me that no matter what happens you'll always remember this moment right here? And that you'll always know how much I love you, and how I can never love anyone like I love you."
"Jack," Kate said quietly. "What's wrong? You're scaring me."
He pulled away and she saw tears shining in his eyes. "Just promise."
She nodded, and pulled him back in for another hug. "I promise."
They both lost track of time as they held each other silently, each lost in thought. Jack knew he couldn't, wouldn't, ever let her go without a fight. No matter what he knew he would never be able to convince himself that Kate wasn't meant to be his forever. And it was that thought that scared him even more than the possibility of Kate someday leaving.
