Thanks for the reviews. I'm sorry you had to wait so long for a third chapter, but it was a combination of factors: some issues in my personal life, the decline in interest compared to the rise in my other fic (Half of which I'm blaming on Sawyer even though I'm only keeping him around to create conflict), and the fact that my plan isn't as detailed. I wasn't even sure that it would make sense -- it was just an idea I had during a conversation with Sassy where we agreed that in order for the story Jack told the court to be true, Kate would have had to have been eight months pregnant while saving the day... ;)
Chapter 3.
"Absolutely not," Sayid insisted, sliding the knife he'd just finished fashioning into his belt and climbing to his feet.
At these words, Kate let out an exasperated sigh, her hands flying to her hips, her posture only serving to accentuate her rounded belly, which looked like it had grown since the night before.
The sight made Jack smile. She was so obstinate, so determined to prove herself right even when she knew she was wrong. He'd never met anyone like her before: not unless he counted himself. It was one of her most endearing traits – that and her constant need to make herself useful – but at the same time, it was maddening. He'd known her for less than twenty-four hours and already he worried about her.
"He's right, Kate. It's not safe," he agreed, his smile fading when she turned her scowl on him. As much as he would liked to be her ally on the island, he wasn't about to give in to her – not when it was her life, and her baby's, at stake.
They had taken turns stoking the signal fire overnight, keeping watch, but now that the sun had risen without any sign of their would-be rescuers, they had decided that they should do something about provisions. Sayid was going into the jungle to find food, and Kate wanted to go with him, but no one – Jack more so than anyone – thought it was a good idea.
No one accept her. "And sitting here on the beach in the sun is?" she pointed out, her frustration increasing on discovering that she was on her own, prompting Sayid to try a different tactic.
"Someone has to stay and take care of the wounded," he told her, to convince her that she would still be contributing, but it was clear that she thought he was patronising her.
"And that should automatically be me?" she retorted, stalking after him, sliding a hand under her bump for support. "I'm the only one here who knows how to hunt."
"You're also the only one who's eight months pregnant," Jack reminded her when she slowed, out of breath, watching, helpless, as the Iraqi continued up the beach without her. "So why don't you look after yourself and let him handle it?"
Unlike Hurley, who had the good manners to pretend that he was asking the Korean woman about her husband, Sawyer made no secret of the fact that he was listening, but it wasn't until that moment that he decided to weigh in on the argument, standing up from the piece of wreckage he was sitting on.
"Hell, if ya'll are so worried about him, how'bout I go along and keep ol' Abdul company? Seeings as I ain't a cripple," he said with a smirk that made Jack curl his fingers into a fist. Of all of the people in the world to get stranded with, he had to be saddled with him. If Kate wasn't watching, and he could support himself long enough to swing without missing, and he might have driven it into the southerner's face. "It's not like I got anythin' better to do."
He didn't wait for an answer, snatching a sharp piece of metal like Sayid's up out of the sand, and sauntering into the jungle in the same direction as the Iraqi.
As he disappeared from view, Jack glanced down at his leg, still in its splint, wishing that he could prove Sawyer wrong. While he didn't exactly agree with it, he could sympathise with Kate and where she was coming from. He hated feeling useless. He couldn't even stand without someone to lean on.
"You've done enough, Kate," he assured her, turning back to her once Sawyer was gone. He softened when he caught the look she was giving him, wounded that she couldn't count on him to back her up.
"You deserve some down time," he added, trying to get her to crack a smile as he quipped, "In fact, as your doctor, I'm going to recommend it."
She didn't speak at first, and even though he was in the same position, he was sure that she was going to take her anger out on him, until she flashed him a grateful smile.
"I guess I could hang around and help you," she agreed with an impish grin, her gaze flicking down to his injured leg as she added, "How else are you gonna get around?"
He meant for her to take some time to herself, to rest and recover from the shock of the crash, but he felt guilty for siding against her again, so he accepted the arm she was offering, allowing her to pull him to his feet.
"You know, you don't have to do everything, Kate," he told her, realising that he'd struck a nerve when she set her jaw in response, her lips forming a hard line.
"Yeah, I do," she insisted, letting go once he eased himself into the sand between the two men where he could reach both of them without having to move his leg.
While he recognised that it wasn't the time or the place – and that it was none of his business – as he watched her dig through the suitcases she and Hurley had collected for anything that he could use, he wanted to ask her why.
All he knew was that, for some reason, she seemed to resent being pregnant, and not just because of the limitations it put on her. When he thought back, the only times he could remembering hearing her mention the baby was when someone else brought it up.
It could just be denial, or her bitterness over whatever had happened with the father to leave him on her own, but he sensed that there was more to it than that. She cared about he child – loved it even – but she didn't want it. Not like she should. Not like he would have expected. It was just another one of the many things about her that intrigued him.
"Do you think he's gonna make it? Cause he looks kinda… yellow. Yellow-er," Hurley said, clapping his palm over his eyes as Jack tore his gaze from her and started peeling back the dressings on the Korean man, examining the wound on his throat.
His condition hadn't improved since the last time he'd checked him; in his professional opinion, he doubted that either of them would last another night outside of a hospital, but he wasn't sure how much the man's wife could understand, so he fixed her with a grim smile, keeping his eyes trained on hers as he told him, "I'm doing everything I can."
He had no way of knowing if his words had gotten through with her, but she gave him a slight nod, tears spilling over onto her cheeks as stepped back to let him do his job.
Coming back, Kate gave her shoulder a reassuring squeeze as she moved past her to give Jack the pile of t-shirts she'd gathered. "They should work as bandages," she told him, "at least until we get rescued."
She watched in silence as he tried to stem the bleeding, crouching to hand him things without sitting down, and he could tell that her mind wasn't on the task.
"Would you mind finishing up?" she said after a few moments, wiping her hands on her jeans and glancing into the jungle for what he was sure must be the tenth time. Something about it was diverting her attention, preventing her from focusing. "I have to go."
"Go where?" he asked her, confused by the change in her behaviour. She said she wanted to help, but she seemed desperate to get away: Was she lying when she implied that she wasn't holding a grudge? Or could it be that she was just concerned Sayid?
She stared down at the sand, shooting him a bashful look out of the corner of her eye. "I'm almost eight months pregnant – do you really have to ask?" she said with a smile, rubbing her belly for emphasis, and he felt a blush creep into his own cheeks, glad that she couldn't see what was going on inside his head. He didn't want her to know that he'd overreacted, or that what she did mattered so much to him when he hardly knew her.
"Oh right. You should go," he agreed with an awkward laugh, relaxing as he watched her retreat. Part of him was tempted to send the Korean woman after her, to make sure that she didn't get into trouble, but she was a big girl, as she'd spent the last hour or so reminding him. If she caught him, that would be the end of her trust.
The Korean man's wound was infected from the metal that he still hadn't been able to remove; he cleaned it out as best as he could with salt water, and changed the dressings, before turning his attention on his other patient.
The bleeding in his chest had stopped, and his pulse was slowing even as Jack took it. Another few hours and their numbers would have dwindled to seven.
By tomorrow, it would be six.
He was so caught up in what he was doing – in being useful in the only way that he could until his break healed – that he didn't noticed when Sayid and Sawyer returned without catching anything.
Or that they were the only ones.
"Where's Kate?" the Iraqi asked, a hint of irritation in his tone, "She was supposed to be helping you," and it was only then that it occurred to Jack that it was getting dark and she still wasn't back.
"She went to the bathroom – hours ago," he told him, cursing himself for losing track of time – and her. There was no way that it should be taking this long, even if she was pregnant: What if she'd gotten into pre-term labour alone in the jungle and wasn't able to move? Or tripped and fallen and endangered herself and her baby?
"I'm going after her," he insisted, struggling to his feet with a steel pipe from the plane for support, ignoring the burning pain that shot up his leg, but before Sayid could argue, a third figure emerged.
It was Kate, dishevelled and dirty, her flushed cheeks skin glistening with sweat, looking wild and fierce and yet somehow still feminine and maternal as she headed towards them with a branch slung over one shoulder. She dropped it at their feet when she reached their circle, and Jack saw that hanging from a noose of vines, at the end that had been hidden behind her back, was a rabbit, its neck broken judging by the angle of its head.
"If you'd let me finish," she said once she caught her breath enough to speak, directing her words mostly at Sayid, "I would have told you that I don't just know how to hunt – I also know how to trap."
Next chapter: Jack is unhappy with Kate... ;)