Chp 14

"You have your seatbelt on?" Jack asked Kate.

"Yup," she nodded.

"Then prepare for take off," he said as the small plane he rented sped up the runway.

"I can't believe this that we're going back to the island" Kate said looking out at the fluffy white clouds as they made their way back.

"You didn't have to come," Jack said as he flew them closer to the place they endured so much pain.

"I know, but I wanted to," she said looking over at him. When Jack met her stare her eyes fell low, "For Sawyer," she added before looking back out her window.

"Sawyer," Jack said, "You didn't seem worried when I first went to the house."

Kate bit her lip, avoiding him, saying nothing. Jack chuckled inwardly.

"You know for someone whose suppose to be a great communicator you sure don't say much."

Kate laughed, "Yeah well, that stuff, I mean you don't believe in it do you?" she asked him.

"I don't know," Jack said seriously.

"Come on; look at your sister, Claire. They say she have the gene for addiction, Claire for god's sake," Kate said and rolled her eyes.

"She told me after her mother had her accident that she spent 60 days in a rehab facility for alcoholics," Jack said as Kate's eyes widened in shock.

"It's genetic," he shrugged.

"Really?" Kate asked wondering if Jack too was a drunk.

"Oh no not me," Jack told her realizing what she was thinking; "My Dad was an alcoholic, our Dad, mine and Claire's."

The concept of him having a sister was still so fresh to him it was strange discussing Claire as family, as sharing a father and family traits.

"Oh," Kate said and grew quiet again.

"So do you love him?" Jack asked cutting to the chase, "Do you love Sawyer?"

….

Juliet groaned her head was spinning as she tried to focus on what had happened. She was lying down on a cot of some sort. Her hand flew to her aching forehead.

"Where am I?" she mouthed but her mouth was dry and the words came out in a rasp of a whisper.

"Shh," someone said.

The warm scent of much and spice flooded her nostrils.

"Jack," she said.

"Shh, you're not ready to wake up yet."

"Jack," she repeated before her eyelids fluttered and then closed again.

….

"When I grow up I'm going to marry a man just like you Daddy," Kate said holding on to the large hand of the army general.

He smiled a broad grin at his step daughter.

"You will, will you?" he said as they hiked through the woods tracking deer.

"I'll love only someone good and strong and brave like you," she said laughing and running ahead of him.

"Not so fast Katherine or you'll scare the deer away."

"I'm sorry Jack," Kate said her face softening as her eyes misted.

Jack looked at her and waited for more.

"I'm sorry you saw us that night in the cages," she told him.

Jack let out a deep breath he had been holding in, he thinks since the day he met Kate.

"It's okay Kate," he said and turning the plane on autopilot he shifted to face her completely.

"You and I," he said searching for the right words, "I wanted to fix you and you, I think you wanted me too."

Kate nodded through her tears, "I do, I mean I did."

Jack smiled softly at her, touching her hand gently and taking it in his own.

"But that's not love Kate."

"I know," she said, "But you're a good man, the best man I know and I thought," she said before he interrupted her.

"I can't be your hero, not now, not anymore."

"Because now there's Juliet," her voice choked out.

Jack let go of her hand, "Yes, Juliet."

"Do you really love her?" Kate asked.

"With her I feel free. There are no expectations. She doesn't want be to be anyone other than who I am," Jack said, "That's love."

Kate nodded sadly realizing she really never had that with anyone, maybe Sawyer accepted her but freedom was not something he gave her either. She didn't give it to him either. Sawyer's words came back to her, "We both know now what we don't want. We learned that together." She grew forlorn as she looked into Jack's eyes.

"Yes, I love her. More than anything or anyone."

"I'm happy for you Jack," Kate said and forced a smile onto her lips.

….

Sawyer pounded angrily on the concrete wall before a panel opened up behind him and a tall, graying man stepped inside.

"You'll only make your fist bloody doing that," the man calmly said strolling closer to the blonde man.

Sawyer's eyes grew large and his head titled to the side.

"I thought," he said confused, "Aren't you suppose to be dead?"

The man laughed the comment away, "You remember me then?"

"Yeah Dr. Pops," Sawyer answered, "I remember you."

"Dr. Pops, that's a good one James," he said before extending his hand out, "Let me introduce myself formally. I'm Dr. Christian Sheppard."

Sawyer gave him a cold glare until finally Christian dropped his hand.

"Where's Juliet?" he demanded to know.

"She's fine. She's in the other room," Christian responded.

"I want to see her," Sawyer said.

"Of course you do," he said, "Follow me."

The two of them stepped into a short corridor and walked to the next door.

"Where are we?" Sawyer asked.

"We are in the foot," Jack's father told him.

"We're in a foot?" Sawyer inquired.

"Not a foot, the foot."

"Explains the smell," Sawyer remarked.

Christian looked at him quizzically. "It's a sort of hatch," he told him, stepping outside of Juliet's door, "One that isn't mapped. One even she doesn't know about."

"Whose she?" Sawyer asked.

"James, is that you?" Juliet called out meekly, sitting up and rubbing at her sore throat.

Sawyer forgot his question and ran up to his friend.

"Yeah, it's me. You okay?"

"I think so, what happened?"

"He happened," Sawyer said motioning in Christian's direction.

Juliet focused on her father in law as he gave her a reassuring smile.

"So it was you all along," she said.

"You knew he was alive?' Sawyer asked.

"No," Juliet answered and took the glass of water Christian held out for her. She drank it slowly, "But I suspected he was the one that helped me in Switzerland and back at the L.A. airport, he was the one who warned me and told me I should come back to the island."

"If that's true, if you wanted us to come back here, then why'd you drug us and drag us to this foot?" Sawyer asked him.

"Foot? Foot of what?" Juliet questioned.

"You know it as a part of the Temple Juliet, the four toed statue," Christian explained, "We're inside it. And I brought you both here because Margo knows you're on the island and she's looking for you."

"Why?" Sawyer probed more confused than ever.

"Because she wants to kill you, or more importantly the baby you're carrying."

"Why would she want to do that?" Sawyer continued to press.

"Because James, Juliet is not her choice for my son."

"Well, I've heard of mother in laws from hell before, but this is a bit extreme," Sawyer quipped.

"It's no joke," Christian remarked, "Juliet does not have the genetic marker Margo is looking for."

"Leadership," Juliet said and Christian nodded.

"I was always someone who was better at following order," Juliet said softly.

"So she's a follower, that's still your grandchild inside her," Sawyer said.

"I'm telling you James you don't know what my wife is capable of, she's killed children before."

Juliet's eyes widened with fear.

"She made sure Ana Lucia's pregnancy was terminated, and," Christian said pausing for effect, "She's killed yours," he dramatically revealed to Sawyer.

"I ain't got any kids," James spat but swallowed down a gulp of fear.

"You did," Christian said.

They all knew who he was referring to, the little girl Clementine he had with Cassidy.

"They ruled it a SIDs death but the truth is Margo and her people didn't want a child of yours out there to distract you from breeding with Shannon so Infinity had her killed."

Sawyer could feel the bile rising in his throat. He thought he was going to be sick so he bit his lip until the blood filled his mouth. Juliet looked horrified, her hand protectively going to her stomach while her other one reached for Sawyer's. She squeezed his hand in part to reassure him, in part to rely on his strength.

"We have to get you out of here Juliet, off this island and somewhere safe," Christian said, "Before it's too late."

….

"I'm tired Daddy," Kate whined and shivering in the cool damp air of the night.

"Be quiet Katherine or we'll never catch what we're looking for," her step father said.

"We've been out her all day and all night tracking the deer, they're not coming, they're not here," she said

"Katie, you'll never get what you want if you give up so easily," he said.

Kate looked at him, a scowl on her face, "I think you're stubborn, I think you just don't know when to give up."

"We looked everywhere," Kate said as they walked the shoreline of the beach, "Maybe they left already."

"No," Jack said, "They're still here, I can sense her presence."

Kate stood her hands on her hips, in frustration.

"Jack," she said, "Stop being stubborn and learn to give up. We even checked the other island where they kept us prisoners. They're not here. I say we go back home, maybe they're there or they left us a message with Claire."

"I said no," Jack cried, "We'll look again. We obviously missed something."

"Jack," Kate said as he marched off ahead of her.

"Jack," she called after him trying to catch up. As she picked up her pace she tripped, sprawling across the sand as she fell.

"Ouch," she cried as Jack stopped and turned around. Annoyed at having to stop he stomped back to help her when he realized what Kate had tripped over. The cable Sayid had discovered long ago starred up at him, a black cobra in the grains of sand. Jack scrunched his brow up as he thought, leaving Kate to pick herself up and dust the sand off her clothes.

"Thanks for the help," she said.

"It's the cable," Jack said.

"The one Sayid followed to Rousseau's?"

"Yeah but he never followed it in the other direction," he said, the cord in his hand as he walked to the water's edge.

"You're not seriously going into the ocean are you?" Kate asked.

Jack turned around, "It's the only place we haven't looked."

Kate stared in disbelief at him.

"Well?" Jack said, "You coming or not?"