CHAPTER
The next morning, Jack awoke without the sunlight shining onto his face, as he was used to. Instead, looking around him groggily, he saw that the curtains were closed over the window, and that only a small amount of light was escaping through the bottom. There was no sounds around him that showed him that he was home, and in all truth, he was simply drifting further away from home. Turning on his side, he reached blindly for Kate, wanting to pull her closer to bring back the island warmth.
However, his arm fell down further than it should.
Opening his eyes fully and waking up a little more, he saw that his arm was now hanging off the edge of a double bed, his fingertips almost brushing the floor. He turned on his other side, seeing Kaia and Curtis still asleep on the other side of the bed. No Kate. Then it started to come back to him. Kate...arrested...Kate...gone...Kate...ill...Kate pregnant. He ran his hands over his face, willing himself to be strong, and found that the sight of his sleeping, peaceful children, gave him hope.
It was strange, alien, to see them in pyjamas. Both of them were in the full length pyjamas with the buttom up shirts, Kaia's in pink, and Curtis's in blue. Kaia had about five teddies providing pillows whichever way she chose to lay, which at the moment was with her arm hanging off the bed exactly how Jack's had been a moment ago, and Curtis was just curled in a ball around the rabbit he had chosen between where Jack was lying and Kaia was lying, seeing as he was most likely to roll off the edge. Jack got out of bed, and then went over to the other side, carefully moving Kaia so that she wouldn't fall off the edge of the bed. He guessed that this was one thing he'd have to get used to.
He caught the sight of a clock that read 6.30. He sighed to himself, even though he was off the island he was still up at dawn. Usually, by his guess, the children woke up at about 7, so he took the chance for a quick shower, with real shower gel and not the hatch brand, before they woke up.
Before he left the bathroom, he had hoped that by some miracle, he would walk through the door to see Kate lying in the bed, all three of them curled up snuggly, warm and comfortable. Yet he knew that this wouldn't happen. He was a miracle worker, but he knew how rare they were. The granter never gets granted. All he wanted was for his family to be together again.
He hated that he had to leave Kate in that awful room yesterday, seeing how uncomfortable she was on the rickety old bed and the painfully thin pillow. It was better than nothing, but his Kate deserved to be treated like a queen, and more importantly, she deserved to be with her family.
Family...Jack looked on his children, wondering how they would react to another one. He had always known that with the non-existant contraception on the island, that Curtis would not have been their last child. He was more worried about Kate and the baby's health this time around, however. Kate's pregnancy with Kaia had been...extraordinary in the least words, but as soon as she was back in her own body, it was a healthy pregnancy. When she was expecting Curtis, he had become worried, but there was always that reassurance that the first pregnancy had gone smoothly, so he didn't feel like there was always a danger around her. This time, however, he knew that he wouldn't be able to take care of her, which, if possible, made him even more determined to get her out of there. The last thing he wanted was to have lost a child due to the precautions that were taken before Kate's trial.
Now that he was wearing some new clothes, just a simple navy t-shirt with jeans, not much more elaborate than what he wore on the island, he sat back down on the edge of the bed, sighing into his hands for a moment, and resisting the temptation to scream into a pillow. No, he couldn't do that, he'd wake the kids. As if on cue, a pair of small arms wrapped themselves around his neck, and he put his hands over them softly, placing a gentle kiss on the skin around the tiny wrist.
"Morning, Daddy." Kaia said quietly, not wanting to wake Curtis up.
"Hey, angel." He replied softly. "Did you like sleeping in a real bed?" He asked, trying to keep the mood light.
She nodded. "It's really soft and bouncy."
Jack let out a small laugh. "Yeah, it is."
"Can I have one?" She asked. "When we get a house? Can I have a bed like this one?"
Jack had to smile at her innocence, and wished that he was so young again. "We'll get you the very best one, all for yourself." He promised her.
"Thanks, Daddy." She said, giving him a kiss on the cheek. Then she frowned a bit. "Will Curtis have one too?" She asked.
Jack nodded. "Yeah."
"And you and Mommy?"
There it was, the talk that Jack had been avoiding all morning. When they asked about Kate. What did he tell them? How did he tell them? Did he say anything about the baby? No, it was still early days, that was something they would do together.
So he did the only thing he could do.
"Yeah, me and Mommy will have one too." He told her. Then he rubbed the top of her hand with his thumb. "Come on, let's get you dressed, then when Curtis wakes up we'll go get some breakfast." He told her. He stood up and crossed the room, going over to where last night he had folded up all their new clothes and put them in piles to seperate them. He was about to ask Kaia what new clothes she wanted to wear, when the door knocked.
Kaia was intrigued by this, and seeing as she was only used to the doors being knocked in the hatch, she jumped up to open it herself, thinking that it was Aaron or Charlie. She stood there for a moment, and then spoke out to Jack.
"Daddy, there's some men here." She said in a strange voice.
Jack crossed the room again, and was met with the sight of two of the US Marshals that had been stationed outside of Kate's room yesterday. "Dr Jack Shephard?" One of them asked.
Jack nodded, wondering if they always travelled in pairs. "Is everything alright?", checking over his shoulder to see if Curtis had been awakened by the sudden amount of noise.
"It's about your proposal to stop Ms. Austen making such a goddamn noise." He continued. "We don't think that she got much sleep last night with the amount of crying and complaining that came through the door, and even though it's not allowed, we'd like to grant you the proposal."
Jack stared for a moment, and then looked down at Kaia, who was standing obediently beside his leg. "Wait...we can see her?" He checked, making sure that he hadn't heard them incorrectly.
"If we take her back for questioning in the state she is in now, we will probably lose our jobs. We are solely interested in the temporary welfare of Ms Austen, not her family." He defended. So that was it, nothing to do with the kids, it was so they could get some peace on the graveyard shift.
But they could still see her.
"Daddy, are we going to see Mommy?" Kaia asked hopefully, and Jack looked down at the little girl tugging on his jeans, her head resting against his hip.
Jack nodded slowly, and then laughed. "Yeah, we're going to see Mommy." He told her, as the two Marshals went back down the corridor from where they came. "We're going to see Kate."
Kaia insisted that she wore her new favourite outfit that she had fallen in love with yesterday, and before she put it on, Jack bathed her and then dried her hair so that for the first time, her soft curls hadn't taken four hours to dry fully under the heat of the sun. Instead, they had dried in ten minutes under the hair dryer that he found in the top drawer, and even more amazingly, she had sat still long enough for him to dry and brush her now silky curls. He let them hang loose, knowing that he was already pushing his luck with her sitting still for this long - trying to get her to let him put them up in any way, shape, or form was just pushing the marker.
Next, seeing as the sound of the hairdryer had woken Curtis up, Jack went about bathing him, whilst placing a mesmorised Kaia infront of the television. While Kaia sat immobilized with amazement on the floor, watching a children's television show with the typical bright colours and sing-along-songs, Jack bathed and dressed Curtis in a red long sleeved t-shirt and tiny jeans with his new sneakers on. Kaia was wearing the little boots that she had got with the outfit.
He had practically needed to pry Kaia away from the television and up to the dining room where some of the other survivors were having breakfast. Jack sat down near to Sawyer and Claire with Curtis, while Kaia ran around to the other side of the long table so that she could sit opposite them beside Aaron. Jack smiled at the pair, no wonder Kate and Claire were always planning their wedding. They were always spending their time together, even with the three year age gap. Growing up on the island had fed their friendship seeing as when one got into trouble, the other usually got them out of it.
Getting the children to eat toast and eggs was somewhat of a task. Kaia and Aaron finally gave in curiously, especially when the aroma of the cooked breakfast became too much for them to resist. However, Curtis, who was intent on eating boar, ended up settling on some fruit that Jack got for him. While Kaia and Aaron were soon deciding to steal bits from Sawyer's fried breakfast of sausages, bacon, baked beans, toast, tomatoes and chips, it seemed that it would be easier to gradually ease Curtis into the new food idea.
"What's the plan for our first fully free day then?" Sawyer asked after the children were sitting on a knee each taking their pick of his breakfast.
"Me and Charlie are just going to relax until we get to shore." Claire said, something that she was waiting for for nine years now.
"What time will we get back?" Jack asked, passing Curtis another peice of sliced watermelon.
"We're meant to be back tomorrow night." Claire informed him, and Jack nodded.
"Sawyer, guess where we're going." Kaia said playfully, stuffing another of her newly found chips into her mouth. Jack watched, noticing how well she had paid attention to his and Kate's constant attempts to teach her and Curtis table manners. The lack of a table usually complicated this, but she still never talked with her mouth full of food.
"I don't know." Sawyer said, giving up easily.
"It's somewhere special." She said, giving him a clue.
He still shook his head. "You're too clever for me." He surrendered falsely.
"Gonna see Mommy!" Curtis said excitedly. Kaia gave Curtis a grumpy look for giving the answer away, but she grinned when she saw that Sawyer's attention was now turned away from the last few fries.
Sawyer looked up at Jack. "They're letting the kids in?" He asked, unable to hide the look of amazement in his face.
Jack nodded. "Yeah, they said it was the only way to get her to stop crying." Claire put a hand on his shoulder, noticing the sad look that had overcome his face at the idea of Kate crying all night on her own.
"When are you going down?" She asked.
"When they're finished eating." Jack said with a nod. "I don't know how long we'll have, but I'd rather go early incase they're feeling generous."
He was hoping that they'd at least have a few hours, rather than the measly and too short half an hour he'd had the previous afternoon. He had wanted to hold Kate and comfort her, to assure her that he would get her out of there, but they hadn't given him the time to. And damned if he was going to waste time for medical science this time around.
"Tell her we said hi." Sawyer said simply. He wasn't letting it on much, but Jack could tell that he was more annoyed than upset at Kate not being around. Even if they didn't care for each other the way Jack and Kate did, Sawyer and Kate were still friends, and no amount of law enforcement would change that. If fact, the only reason that Sawyer wasn't plotting escape plans for her was because he knew that she'd never run because she was a mother first and foremost now.
"Daddy, can we go now?" Kaia asked brighty, having satisfied herself with Sawyer's breakfast and her own. Aaron was now moving onto the rest of Claire's which had been abandoned because she was talking to Jack.
"Wait until your brother's finished." Jack told her, and she bounced on the heels of her feet, urging her brother to eat faster. "Kaia." Jack warned lightly, then his tone softened. "Don't worry, we're definately going." He assured her, and she smiled. "I promise." That got her, and she stopped bouncing up and down, and joined Aaron in fighting with Sawyer for the last scraps of bacon, which he was eating as well as Claire's.
"Sorry, Sawyer." Claire said with a grimace. "I thought that he'd eat his own."
"So did I." Sawyer said, staring at the now empty plate. "No worries. I'll have another courtesy of Oceanic."
"Is everything being charged on Oceanic?" Jack asked with a laugh.
"Sure is, Doc." Sawyer said cheerfully. "And we're making the most of it."
"Sounds like a good idea." Claire agreed. When they had ordered another round of breakfasts, Sawyer laughed at Claire.
"You're going to get of this boat looking the same as when you boarded the flight in the first place." Yet he teased no further when Claire threatened to hurl a spoonful of baked beans in his direction.
Sounded like a fair deal after everything that Oceanic had put them through. But then he remembered what he had gained from them. If the plane hadn't crashed, Sayid and Shannon would never have met. Claire would have given up her baby for adoption and not met Charlie. Charlie would still be on drugs most likely. Locke would still be in a wheelchair. Sun and Jin wouldn't have improved their marriage so much. Sawyer wouldn't have learned to get along with people as well as he did now. Hurley would still think he was cursed. Jack and Kate wouldn't have met, and had two, soon to be three, lovely children.
"I think that Oceanic's given me the compensation already." Jack said, ruffling Kaia's hair gently.
"That's just corny." Sawyer brushed off with a wave of his hand. "Remember what they've taken as well as given, Jack."
Of course, without the crash, Boone, Artz, Scott, and all the others along their drawn out adventures would still be alive. Yet they had their own share of revelations before they were forever lost to the world.
Jack still insisted that he didn't need any compensation because he had his family.
"Whatever Doc, just remember that when you want to buy a house when we get back home." Sawyer pointed out. "I don't know about you, but I haven't got a large interest bank account that's quadrupled it's value recently."
Jack laughed a little. "Just becuase I don't need it doesn't mean I won't be accepting it." He told them.
"That's more like it."
Curtis tugged in Jack's t-shirt. "Finished, Daddy. Go see Mommy now." He announced proudly. Kaia heard this and bounced back over to Jack, jumping excitedly.
Jack smiled at them, wondering how he would be coping through this without them. "Come on then, let's go."
