I'm sorry to say that this will be the last chapter before Xmas. Hopefully I'll get another one up before New Years, but if not, I hope everyone has a wonderful Xmas and New Years! I don't own Hushabye Mountain. I do own Kaia and Curtis. :D. I've been updating this randomly, but when I did this one, I heard a song that gave me a good idea for what comes next. The song is a very sad one, but don't worry, this is a Jate fic. I wouldn't let anything come between them !
When Kate lay the children down to sleep an hour later, she paused for a moment over them, watching them sleep side by side under their individual blankets. Kaia had hers balled in her fist, and curled tightly underneath her, lying on her side as she always did, with her dark curls spread on the pillow beneath her. Curtis lay on his side with the blanket having fallen down past his shoulders. He was looking so much like Jack now. Kate sighed, a small smile passing over her lips as she pulled his blanket up to his shoulders, and stroked a hand over his curls before kissing his forehead.
She heard footsteps behind her, and knew that Jack had come into the caves. Neither of them would sleep yet, Kate knew that she probably wouldn't sleep at all that night, but she would stay with her sleeping kids all the same.
"Kate?" He asked as he came to sit beside her.
Kate smiled falsely at him, but Jack saw through it, and gave her that look. "I don't want to leave." She muttered, as his arm went around her shoulder.
"Kate..." He began, but she cut him off.
"They'll take them away from me." She said, and a tear fell down onto her cheek. Even in the darkness, Jack could see it hit her skin and trickle down her face. He wiped it away with her thumb. "They'll take you all away from me and I'll never see you again."
"Kate, even if the worst happened..."
"I don't want to see my kids growing up through a sheet of glass, Jack." She said defiantly. "I don't want to have something between us and know that I can't hold them, kiss them. I don't want to know that all three of you are going to be on the other side of that glass, and that I'm not going to be able to get through it."
"Kate, please, look at me." Jack said, but instead she dipped her head away from him, looking at the ground. Sighing softly, Jack put a finger beneath her chin and lifted it to look at her. He then cupped her cheek with his hand, and kissed her gently. When he pulled back her eyes were closed still, but when he started speaking, they opened into that shining sea that was full of emotion.
"Jack-"
"Kate, it's true. Our time here on the island might be over, but our time together isn't going to stop here. Everything you've done has made life so much better for me, for us, and nothing's going to make me leave this behind if we go home. I'm addicted to you, Kate. I've seen you cry, I've seen you smile, I've seen you sleep. We've got Kaia and Curtis. Know that my life began, and is going to end, with you, and no one else. I know that you're scared about leaving, and I don't want to go either, but we'll be fine. We'll make it, the four of us, together. Me, you, and our beautiful kids. I'm not going to let them take you way from me, Kate. I can't live without you."
Kate still had tears on her face, and she interrupted from what she was about to say by a small hand on her arm. She looked to see Curtis, who had crawled out of his bed, and over to his parents.
"Hey, sweetie, you're meant to be asleep." She told him with a smile as he crawled into her lap and sat down, just like Kate had done to Jack when she was turned into a child.
"Mommy sad?" He said, and looked around. He then pulled up the corner of his t-shirt, and stood so that he was level with Kate. Then he wiped her cheeks with the peice of his shirt. "Don't be sad, Mommy." He told her.
Kate managed a sad smile for him, and gave him a cuddle, holding him closely. "Thanks, baby." She whispered to him.
Curtis's compassion was exactly like Jack's. That was clear in how her two-year-old son had woken up to dry her tears. Jack smiled at the scene before him,and put a hand on Curtis's back, rubbing it to show that he had done the right thing. When Kate pulled away from the hug, the pushed his curls out of his eyes. "We'll have to give you a haircut soon, sweetie." She said and he frowned. He didn't like sitting still for that long, especially when scissors were involved. "Come on, little man, back to sleep for you."
"Can't sleep. No song." He told her.
Kate let out a smile which was true. Jack gave a little laugh. "Go on, Mommy," Jack teased lightly. "Give him a song."
She looked at Jack, knowing that he only did it because he liked her to sing as well. "Which song do you want tonight?" She asked. "Bright eyes or Hushabye Mountain?"
"Mountain." He told her, and snuggled into her lap.
Kate looked at Jack before she started. She liked these moments, the normal moments were nothing bad happened to them.
"A
gentle breeze from Hushabye Mountain,
Softly blows, over lullabye
bay.
It fills the sails, of boats that are waiting,
Waiting to
sail your worries away."
Kate's soft singing filled the cave, and drifted outside, to where Claire, Charlie, Shannon and Sayid, who they had been sitting with before going inside, could hear her song over the crackling of the fire. It stopped the silence between them. Aaron, who sat between Claire and Shannon, looked in the direction of the cave, and then leaned against his mother tiredly. Kate's singing had the same strange effect on children that Sawyer's voice had.
"It
isn't far to Hushabye Mountain,
And your boat waits down by the
key.
The winds of night so softly are sighing,
Soon they will
fly, your troubles to sea."
"So
close your eyes on Hushabye Mountain,
Wave goodbye to cares of the
day.
And watch your boat, from Hushabye Mountain,
Sail far
away, from lullabye bay."
As she expected, Curtis had fallen asleep by the time she had finished singing. Smiling, she stood up, laying him back beside his sister, and kissing them both goodnight again. "Goodnight Angels." She whispered to them. Looking up, she saw that peaceful, thoughtful look on Jack's face as he looked upon her. "What are you thinking about?" She asked him, with one last look on her sleeping children before she went back over to Jack.
"You should really listen to what you say when you sing, Kate." He told her as she sat down, leaning against him.
"I should?" She said with a soft smile.
" 'Wave goodbye to cares of the day'? You should completely listen to that." He told her, leading her over to their bed. She didn't complain, she welcomed the rest, but knew that she wouldn't sleep. Infact she was determined not to. If Jack was wrong and she wasn't allowed to see them, she wanted to savour this night. What could be one of their last together. Sighing heavily, she lay down beside Jack, leaning on his chest. His heartbeat sounded through him and she paid attention to the rythmic beats.
"Jack?" She asked, fingering the bottom of his shirt that he wore, just to give her hands something to do other than making her look nervous.
He looked down at her lovingly. "Yeah, hon?"
"Whatever happens..." She began slowly. "Make sure that they know how much I love them." She said, her gaze falling over on the children once again. "Curtis is only a baby still. Dont let him forget me."
Again, Jack lifted her head to look at him. "He won't be able to forget you when he's going to see you everyday." He held her as close as he could, suddenly sharing her fears. "But if anything happens, I promise that they'll always know you."
They lay in silence, Jack staring into the darkness, and Kate at her children. Kate's crime's weren't an issue here on the island, and after nine years, there was always a chance that they wouldn't be back home.
Home.
That was a strange concept.
To Jack, home was a cave in the middle of the jungle, an hours walk from a hatch, where the dinner consisted of boar meat, fruit and fish.
To Kate, home was being able to watch her children grow up in an environment that was familiar to them, not like she did when she moved around a lot.
To Kaia and Curtis, home was an island with a gorgeous beach and trees that provided endless fun for them.
Home was an island. Home wasn't Sydney, or Los Angeles, or a farm in Iowa, like it used to be. It wasn't a car, or an abandoned shed, or a hospital. It was an undiscovered island. It didn't have terrorists, or burgleries, or the stresses of bills, money management and buying new apartments. It had survivors, kidnappings, and stresses of safety, food and water. Simple things that moved them on from day to day. They were able to live with the things they had, and they didn't need anything else except each other.
Jack turned on his side, keeping Kate held against him and fell asleep with troubled thoughts. They weren't going home - they already were home.
