Right, so now that my lovely readers all hate me...time to start making you hate me even more before you love me again (which hopefully you will, otherwise I might stop writing this...hehehe...I'm evil). Let me assure you first, that I love Kaia very much, seeing as she's inspired from my cousin, who is more or less like her in every way, which is why she comes out with a lot of funny comments; therefore, I will not be letting any harm come to her, and anyone who does upset her, make her cry, or make her scared, will suffer extremely at the hands of the Lost Men...and Kate.
xxx
Chapter 41: Find My Baby
When Jack put the phone down, he turned his head to face Kate. In a few hours, she had gone from being happy, to being terrified. The look on her face at that moment was one he would never forget, and it would probably haunt his dreams that night, although he doubted that he would sleep with the idea of his little girl out there somewhere, without them. As the tears streamed down Kate's face, Jack enveloped her into his arms, both of them clinging tightly to each other, trying to gather more strength, but finding that they only weakened in spirit.
"Jack..." Kate wept. "Jack, where is she?" She asked fearfully, as her painful sobs racked against him, causing his own chest to heave. But he refused to cry, not now, he needed to be strong for the rest of his family. It was his job to protect them, and he failed, so now he had to pick up the peices again.
"I don't know." He admitted quietly, burying his face in her hair, trying to escape the reality, and hoping that when he looked up again, Kaia would bound into the room, laughing, and apoligizing for making them worried because she was only playing hide and seek. "I don't know."
"Haven't we been through enough?" Kate asked, but Jack didn't have an answer for that. In the past week, their usual lives had been turned completely upside down. He wished that they were back on the island again, back home again, where they were safe, where they knew the dangers, and lived around them. Now, they were back in the real world, with other dangers that he hadn't thought about, and he couldn't protect his children.
They held each other for what seemed like ages until Shannon came over, speaking to Sayid. "What happened?" She asked, but Jack released Kate, and turned to answer her.
"She's not here. That's what happened." He said bitterly. "She's gone." Even though he had turned, he kept his arms around Kate, who was now sobbing into his shoulder. Tears were streaming down his own face now, and was ashamed to hide it.
"Gone?" Shannon repeated, unable to believe it.
"We checked everywhere, she's not in the hotel." Sayid said softly to Shannon.
"What happens now?" Kate asked, still crying.
Jack kissed her forehead. "The police are on their way." He said, although the mention of police probably didn't console her any seeing as she had spent the past three days with them.
"Jack?" Jack turned to see Margo coming towards them. "What's wrong, why aren't any of you in the party?" She asked. "Is Kaia ok?"
"I don't know, Mom!" Jack said, nearly exploding.
"Well, where is she?"
Jack hated all the questions coming at him, and he couldn't provide an answer to them. "I don't know!" He said rather loudly, and he tightened his arms around Kate as Margo realised that both of them were crying. "I don't know where she is, because we can't find her." He said quietly. "She's not in the hotel."
"Well, if she's not here, where else could she be?" She asked.
Jack rolled his eyes, and looked at Margo with his protective glare that only ever arose when one of his chldren were in pain, or scared, or in danger. "Mom, if I knew where she was, do you really think I'd still be here?" He asked hypothetically. "If we knew where she was, I'd be bringing her home right now, but I can't because I don't know!" He hugged Kate again, letting out a sob that to him, signalled giving in, so he tried to hide himself in her as a few sobs came. "I just..don't know."
At that moment, Sawyer and Charlie came in from the other room. Jack and Kate both looked up hopefully, but they shook their heads. "Not a thing." Sawyer muttered, and Kate put her head in her hands.
"Hey, hey," Jack said softly, bringing her hands down to look at him. Even when she was sobbing her heart out, she was beautiful. "Hey, don't worry." He said, but she shook her head.
"Don't worry?" She repeated. "Don't worry? Jack, she's five years old! She's a little girl, our little girl, and she's out there, all alone, or worse." She sobbed. "What if she's hurt, Jack? What if she's out there somewhere, and she's scared, and she's calling for us, and we can't hear her, we can't help her? What if-"
"Stop that," Jack told her, but it came out as more of a beg, and levelled himself with her. "Don't think that way. Listen to me, Kaia's going to be Ok." He said, getting her to nod along with him. "I'm going to bring her home, I promise." He said surely. "But I can't do that unless I know you believe in it."
She launched herself into his arms again. "I just want her back." She said, choked by her sobs. "I want her back."
A few minutes later, the police came into the reception, and Jack and Kate looked up. A man and women wearing suits approached the crying couple, and showed their identification. "Jack Shephard?" They asked, and Jack nodded, and the man continued. "I'm DCI Scott Evans and this is Cheif Inspector Jennifer Colson. You called a minute ago to report a missing child?" He checked.
Jack nodded. "Yes, our daughter."
"I'm sorry to hear that, is there somewhere we can go to talk?"
"Yeah, upstairs."
Jack went over and carefully lifted the sleeping Curtis from the chair, staying still for a moment whilst his son got comfortable against him, and then went over to Kate. Kate smiled sadly at the little boy, softly stroking his back before they headed upstairs. Shannon and Sayid offered to take Curtis for a while, while they were talking to the police, but Kate didn't want to let him out of her sight, which they could understand. Together, they all went upstairs, with the police.
After Kate lay Curtis down on the bed, she returned to sit down beside Jack on the couch, whilst they answered all the inspectors questions. What was her full name? Kaia Sahara Shephard. How old was she? Five years old. When was her birthday? April twenty-third. Could they describe her appearance? Dark brown curly hair, like Kate's, with brown eyes, and lots of freckles. When was the last time they had seen her? Two hours ago, at the party. What was she wearing? The outfit that they had brought on the boat.
Kate sat silently, letting Jack answer the questions. She just didn't know what to say. Her baby, her little girl, her only daughter, was somewhere out in the world, and she couldn't get to her. She couldn't protect her. She just leaned against Jack's shoulder, letting her head fall limp against him, and shut her eyes, willing it all to go away. She could barely hear Jack explaining the preceedings of the evening to Evans and Colson, and tried to block everything out. She wanted to be back on the island. It's dangers were better than ones here.
"Are you there's no chance that she would have run off on her own accord?" Evans asked. "Maybe she was upset about the sudden change of location..."
Kate shook her head. "No." She whispered, not opening her eyes. "No, she wouldn't of." Considering it was the first that the two inspectors had heard of Kate speaking, they listened intently. Jack picked up her hand in his free one, which wasn't draped around her back reassuringly, and rubbed the inside of his palm with his thumb. Kate kept her eyes closed still as she continued on. "Back on the island, she knew that it was dangerous to run off, she knew never to go anywhere on her own. She'd never do something like this." Kate muttered. "She's always with either Curtis, or Aaron, and they knew that the jungle was dangerous. She was never on her own. She knew better." She looked at Jack, and then closed her eyes again, breathing deeply. "She was taken. Someone took her from us."
Evans and Colson looked at each other. "Ms Austen, I am sure that this is a very upsetting time for you, but we have to go through all the options before we reach a conclusion." Colson told her softly.
"Just find her." Kate begged. "Just find my baby. Find my baby."
"That's our job, ma'am." Evans nodded.
Jack re-tightened his hold around Kate's shoulders, rubbing them with his one hand, just to remind her that he was there. "What happens now?" He asked them.
"I need you to fill in a report, and then straight away we get officers and forensics scouting the area, looking for any clues as to where she has gone. In the meantime, we shall check the CCTV footage for the hotel, and see exactly how Kaia left the building, and who, if anyone, she was with. Once we have a lead from that, we'll do a press conference, which will probably be tomorrow morning. There, it's just necessary for one of you to send a message out to your daughter, to let her know that she's being looked for, and to give any information about her, like her interests and habits, that might hint someone as to where they might have seen someone with her description. Also, we're going to need a recent photograph of her." Evans recited, as if he did this everyday.
Jack nodded. "A friend of ours took a few on the boat, and some earlier today. I'll get them printed tomorrow." He said, remembering Shannon running around with a camera as soon as she had brought one. Several had been taken that evening as well, mainly press ones.
Jack and Kate both filled in and signed the report, and Kate went into the bedroom to find the leather baby bracelets they had made that told them the weight Kaia was at birth as best they could estimate. When the form was filled in, Kate felt so drained, that she began to feel dizzy, and she leaned against Jack again, dropping heavily into his shoulder as he caught her. She took deep breaths trying to calm herself, forcing herself to focus on the inspectors comments, asking Jack a few last questions, and telling them their next moves.
"For now, I suggest that the two of you get some sleep, and spend time with your son, as not to alarm him." Evans suggested. "We will check the CCTV, and come get you when we find something that gives us a lead." He nodded, and they both stood up to leave. Jack also, stood up, with Kate leaning back against the sofa, not wanting to rise, to tired to stand. Together, the three went to the door, and then the inspectors left, leaving the hotel room in a strange silence that killed them both.
Jack went back over to where Kate was sitting, and frowned down at her. He could now see how pale she was, her face turning an odd colour as she sat, determindly focusing her own breathing. Jack sat sideways beside her, put his hands either side of her face, one then checking her temperature. Instead of burning up, as he had feared, her skin felt cold and clammy.
"Kate?" He asked softly. She let out a small groan in responce. "Kate, baby, look at me." He instructed, and wearily she opened her eyes. "What's the matter?" He asked her. "Do you feel faint?" She nodded weakly, and rested her head backwards again, but Jack put his hand under her neck, and eased her up into a sitting position. "No, no, not backwards, thats it, lean forwards, put your head between your legs."
She leaned forwards, taking in deep breaths, and then sat up alarmingly. "I think I'm going to be sick." She stated, and Jack quickly took her to the bathroom, seeing as she didn't know where it was yet.
Once there, Kate knelt infront of the toilet, and began to throw up over and over again. Jack sat behind her, pulling the remainder of her hair back, which wasn't already pulled up, and rubbing her back. The mixture of the new stress and the pregnancy was clearly taking its toll on her. Once she was done, she leaned back against Jack, and sighed heavily.
"That better?" Jack asked her, releasing her hair and wrapping his arms around her.
"Yeah." She croaked, her voice hoarse from the retching.
"You should get some sleep." Jack suggested. "Or at least lay down for a while." He added on, highly doubting that Kate would sleep easily tonight, neither of them would, not while Kaia wasn't with them.
Kate shook her head. "Not yet. Can't move." She said weakly, collapsing further against him.
"I think I can solve that problem." He whispered, and lifted her into his arms, proceeding to carry her into the bedroom as she put up no arguement to surrendering to him.
He lay her down on the edge of the bed, and then retrieved one of his sweatshirts and sweatpants he had brought the other day. He helped her to get out of the dress and into the more comfortable clothes, releasing her thick curly hair from the hair ties it was in so that it hung over her shoulders, and then covered her with the thick duvet as she lay down. She closed her eyes, feeling weak and sickly, and at the same time, scared and lonely, wanting her daughter back. Jack pressed a kiss to her forehead, and smoothed her hair down. When she let out a sigh, he moved the hang the dress up, just needing to do something with his hands, something to occupy him. As he stood on the other side of the room, hanging the dress against the door of the cupboard, he heard Kate weakly call out to him.
"Jack..." She said, and he turned. She opened her eyes and looked at him pleadingly. He could tell from the way she was laying that she had one hand on her stomach protectively. "...Can you bring Curtis in here?" She asked him.
He nodded, realising that it was probably not a good idea for Curtis to wake up in a room on his own and get scared. He left the bedroom, and went into the next room, lifting the sleeping Curtis from his bed carefully, and taking him back into Kate. He placed him in the centre of the bed, and Jack started to change into sweatpants and a t-shirt to sleep in. Curtis was now wearing the blue pyjamas that had been brought the other day.
When he got into the other side of the bed, Curtis cuddled up between the two of them. "Mommy? Daddy?" He asked, still practically asleep, and Kate pressed a kiss to his forehead.
"Yes, baby, Mommy and Daddy are here." She told him, and Curtis fell back asleep.
Jack reached across Curtis, and put his hand on Kate's back, and the three of them fell asleep, holding each other, even though that the newly engaged couple fought against sleep. Neither of them wanted to be there that few seconds in the morning where they wondered where Kaia was, and then remembered that she was missing, that she had been taken. The last thing Jack remembered before he fell asleep, was vowing that he would never give up until Kaia was back home.
