Based on my previous story, I know there isn't a big audience for Jack and Kate stories, but it's a story that I like to tell so here is yet another foray into that world. This is told a little differently than some of my other works with an almost flashback type of format so I hope I was able to pull it off. The Beach House is the story of the early days of Jack and Kate's relationship and how they progressed from where we left them at the end of season two and into the relationship that was revealed in season three. This is told almost exclusively from Kate's perspective (save an epilogue) and could even fit in with the story line of my other stories but is a complete story on its own. I anticipate 4 - 5 chapters in total.
All the usual disclaimers apply so please don't sue. Feedback is always appreciated and welcomed. Thank you for reading. SS.
The beach house had been a mainstay weekend getaway in her family for years although the most recent years hadn't offered much time for visits. Thankfully her father had still held on to it. Jack had been the one to suggest a weekend away, somewhere up the coast and had emailed her a couple of hotel options, with one being in the same town as the beach house which is what had made her think of it. Otherwise, she might have forgotten. So, she confirmed with her father that it had been kept up and sent a message to the caretaker to get it ready, including a brief shopping list for some essentials for their stay. She and Jack had each arranged to leave work a couple hours early to try to beat the worst of the holiday weekend traffic and with the hopes of arriving in time for dinner in town.
The drive up the coast passed quickly, as was often the case whenever she spent time with him. She had thought that it might change. That their initial connection was only the result of the events of that dreadful day when they had first met and would fade once the reality of their regular lives took over. It had only been six weeks since they had been dating, a little over two months since they had met, so maybe that initial draw was still the main fuel for their fire. The truth of that remained to be seen, but if she had learned anything from that dreadful day, it was to take advantage of the opportunities that life gave you; you never know when your life might completely change and the opportunities might go away.
Initially, she had only wanted to forget all about that day. Forget about Marie and Reza, the hard truths she had learned about her sister and even some about her father. She had even wanted to forget about Jack. She couldn't. For starters, there were all the loose ends that had to be taken care of and seemingly no one else capable of doing so. There were the larger items like Marie's incarceration and the need to secure a lawyer to defend her even if she felt that everything her sister had done had been indefensible. There was the house that Reza had bought (in both of their names) that needed to be sold. Then she had to find a company to repair the damage to her home which had been so widespread (even if minor in each impact) that the simplest solution had been to move back with her father temporarily while the work had been done.
But there were also the smaller items. The wedding planner had notified all of the guests that the wedding would not be occurring as planned on that dreadful day but notes from the family needed to be sent. Gifts needed to be returned. Even the task of finding the least wasteful way to deal with all of the wedding items had turned into a much bigger project. Not that she couldn't handle any of it but it had meant that she couldn't forget that day even if the truth was that she never would.
She smiled slightly as she gazed at the passing coastline. Jack was driving her car and it was nice to sit back and let her thoughts wander for a change. Out of all of the things that had thrust its attention to her from that horrible day, the only thing that had been positive, that she might actually want to remember, had been the undeniable connection with the enigmatic CTU agent who had saved her life. It was the handling of all of the wedding stuff that had given her an excuse to visit him in the hospital for a second time. It had been a pretty weak one at best.
Their first visit had been awkward. He had been exhausted, as had she been, having only napped briefly before heading to the hospital less than eight hours after he had been taken away in an ambulance. Surprisingly, she had found him alone and had later learned that Tony had come to order Kim home to rest as her night had been almost as harrowing as her father's. She had sat too long, long after awkward thank you's and inquiries into health had passed and eventually his eyes had drifted closed. Eventually, she stood to leave, stifling a groan as her own body reminded her of the abuse it had endured over the past twenty-four hours.
"Kate, are you alright?"
She had nearly laughed aloud when he had asked her that question. He obviously had not been sleeping as she had not been loud enough in expressing her discomfort to wake him. The very fact that he was asking after her well-being while laying in a hospital bed with IV's and wires addressing his condition said so much about who he was as a man.
"Yes, I'm fine. Just a little stiff is all." She reached down and laid a hand on the back of his. "Compared to how I'm sure you actually feel, I might as well be ready to run a marathon."
He had smiled then, not a true smile but a brief rise on one side of his mouth that she had come to recognize as a quick acknowledgement of the humour in his own actions.
He turned his hand a little until the hand she had laid upon his was now grasped within his. "I really appreciate you coming to see me, Kate and everything you did for us."
She felt a blush come up over her cheeks and was reminded of all the times the night before when she had been so thankful for his presence at her side.
"I'm glad to see that you're alright," she had said finally. "I should let you get your rest."
They had departed awkwardly, the breaking of the hand hold, the indecisiveness on whether she would return to see him again and if it was even appropriate or necessary. As she had walked away from his room after fifteen minutes of uncomfortable departure, she had told herself that it had been a mistake to come and see him in the first place. It likely might have been the last time she had seen him if the idea of how to best dispose of the wedding issue hadn't come to her.
Rather than forfeiting the deposits, purchases and tossing the decorations, she had decided to throw together a quick fundraising event, using her father's home as a venue as had been the original plan for Marie's wedding. The wedding had essentially been paid for with the exception of a few contractors who had only billed a portion up front (some as much as eighty-five per cent) with little, if any, of those upfront expenses being refundable. She had negotiated and pled on their charitable sensibilities while managing to keep hidden the truth of the circumstances behind the reason for the wedding cancellation (both the death of the groom as well as the incarceration of the bride).
Once agreements were in place, Kate contacted the head of Finding the Light – a charitable organization that offered grief counselling for all while specializing in children who had lost their parents. They were so gracious when she had reached out to them that she had been able to secure priority placement for any of the children whose parents had died during the CTU bombing.
The plan had been put into motion less than a week after the original wedding date with the event itself to occur on a Thursday evening just three weeks after the contracts were secured. That weekend, just one week after that fated day, with a firm date secured, Kate had found herself driving back up to see Jack in the hospital. Upon arrival, she realized that she wasn't even sure if he would still be there, but had been relieved when she was given a room number after offering his name. Maybe relieved wasn't the correct description given that it meant that he was still in the hospital, but his room had changed which likely meant he had been faring better and she would have been lying if she didn't admit that she was looking forward to seeing him once again.
"Kate," had been his simple greeting when she had walked through his door after tapping on it lightly but his eyes had lit up with her entrance and a genuine, albeit brief smile had graced his features.
"Hi Jack," she said as she pulled a chair closer to his bedside. She looked at the man sitting partially upright in the bed, noting the colour that had returned to his skin and that a few less wires seemed to monitoring his condition. "How are you feeling? You look much better."
"I am," he said while placing a marker in the book he had been reading and placing it on the table next to his bed.
"That's good. I have to confess that when I first came into the hospital, I thought that maybe you might already have checked out."
"Another day and you would have been right. They're releasing me tomorrow."
"Oh," she said simply, thankful that she hadn't decided to wait until her drive home from work to come and visit. It would have been a better use of her time if she had since her route home brought her close to the hospital, but for some reason she had found herself compelled to visit him sooner.
"You know," she said after a few more minutes of silence had passed between them. "You don't strike me as the kind of person to follow doctor's orders and wait for permission to leave. You must have been more injured than you let on the last time I visited."
"Yeah, well," his eyes dropped to the hands clasped on his lap. "I just might have been. Although I do have a very determined daughter who might have a part in keeping me here as well."
He looked up with a hint of amusement in his eyes and she smiled in return.
"Well, I'm glad you listened. I might not have been able to find you otherwise. I'm fairly certain I can't just look up Jack Bauer in the phone book to find your address."
She smiled more widely and he chuckled softly as she had hoped he would and she was already glad that she had listened to her instincts and had come to see him. Casting about for something further to talk about her eyes landed on the novel resting on his bedside table.
"What are you reading?" she asked as the cover was face down and the binding was turned away from her.
She detected a slight hint of pink staining his cheekbones. "The DaVinci Code," he answered after a brief hesitation. "Kim bought it for me," he added in hasty explanation.
"Are you embarrassed?" she asked, surprised that he might be. "I've heard it's very popular and has been on the New York Times' best seller list for quite a few weeks now."
"Yes, that's true and I'm pretty sure that's why Kim picked it out for me. But, having a degree in English Literature probably means that I shouldn't enjoy reading a book like this even though I am."
She smiled as she caught the half smirk that she had noted from her previous visit, smiling because of the joke but also because she was happy that she felt more sure of her earlier interpretation of the frequent expression's meaning.
"So, it's worth reading?"
"It keeps you interested and engaged although it probably has a little too much action and suspense for someone in the hospital recovering from the day I had. At least, there aren't any nuclear bombs to worry about."
She laughed slightly, wanting to ask about his injuries, but feeling that it wasn't her place. She was still having trouble fitting this hospital bed bound man with the man who had almost single-handedly saved the city of Los Angeles and had averted World War Three while taking down some sort of extensive terrorist organization. And, that was just what she knew of the situation.
"How are things with you?" he asked, drawing her thoughts and attention back to the present.
'How were things with her? What a loaded question?' she thought. How should she answer that question? How could she begin to when she wasn't certain of the answer herself?
He reached out and held his hand out to her and she found herself entwining her fingers in his, looking up and meeting his clear blue eyes.
"I'm not really sure," she finally answered, truthfully. "In some ways I just want to forget that that day ever happened, but in other ways..." she let her words trail off while still meeting his eyes, finding understanding and encouragement. "I mean, I should want to forget it, but here I am, sitting with you and I want to be here. It doesn't make sense, but I do."
He squeezed her hand and she looked down, contemplating how the roughened creases of his fingers played against the smooth lines of her own.
Emboldened suddenly, she spoke again: "I don't want to forget. How can I ever forget? That my own family almost brought destruction to this city, to the world."
"Kate, you can't think that way," he interrupted, squeezing her hand more tightly, tugging on it until she looked up to meet his gaze once again. "If it hadn't been Marie, then they would have found someone else."
"I know, Jack. I know. I'm not that naïve, but if it had been someone else, maybe it would have been somewhere else. Maybe you wouldn't have been hurt." She pulled her hand out of his grasp and stood, agitated, turning away from him. "Maybe the people at CTU wouldn't have died. Maybe…"
"Maybe there wouldn't have been a sister brave enough to help and things would have been much worse for us all."
She turned back to him then and dropped back into the chair.
"Kate, you can't play the maybe game. Believe me, I've been there and done it so many times over, it might have been the end of me. There are a thousand maybes, a million more and no way you can conceive of them all. You just have to move forward. You're right. Don't forget, but don't second guess."
She reached out and retook his hand in hers. "I think I know that, Jack, but thank you. I don't know what came over me. I shouldn't have unloaded on you like that. I'm supposed to be here to make sure you feel better not the other way around."
The half-smirk showed its presence again. "Kate, if that is you unloading on me, then I'm afraid to hear how you would describe some of the moments when I've unloaded."
She answered with a half-smirk of her own. She didn't want to give time to the thoughts of the other side of him that she knew about. Those circumstances had been different and she wasn't entirely sure if those were the times he was referring to. He had been intense and passionate in his pursuit of the safety of the city and had had to make impossible decisions. She wouldn't hold that against him and in many ways, it was one of the things that drew her to him. His ability to make those impossible choices. To do what many would simply be unable or unwilling to do. To put the good of all above the good of the few or the one, even when that one might be himself or his family. No, she wouldn't hold any of that against him.
She thought of the reason for her visit, the excuse she had given herself although clearly she hadn't needed to justify her visit to him. Still, she wanted to tell him about the event. To prove that she hadn't forgotten and had found some way to do a little good with all of the bad from that day.
"I'm planning a fundraiser in a couple of weeks," she began. "I've convinced the caterers and the band to let me reschedule what we had planned for Marie's wedding and use it for the fundraiser instead."
"That's great, Kate." He said, squeezing her hand at the same time.
"I just couldn't imagine throwing everything away. The food for the wedding had already been purchased, but not prepared so I agreed to pay for the raw food cost and the caterer agreed to not charge anything beyond that extra since it was going to a charity. Our planner had already arranged to donate the raw food from that day to a soup kitchen."
"The charity is called Finding the Light," she continued. "It helps people by offering free grief counselling and especially focuses on children who have lost a parent. Maybe if we had thought to get Marie counselling then she wouldn't be where she is today."
"That's so amazing," he said, squeezing her hand again, this time a little more tightly. "Not many people would have been so generous. Not just with the money, but also your time. Most people would have rather walked away from it all."
"I just wanted to find something good out of all of that bad," she shrugged, feeling slightly embarrassed by the flattery. "Will you come?" she blurted out before she could rethink the invitation.
"Sure, I'd like that," he smiled and it reminded her of the smile he had given her when she had first entered his room.
She filled him in on more of the details and they spent a little more time talking before the announcement for the end of visiting hours came. Her departure had been much less awkward than the first time she had visited and as she had walked down the hall, she not only was sure that she would see Jack at the fundraiser, but felt confident that she might see him even sooner.