Thanks for the reviews. I saw "The Brig" last night, and I tell you, I'm about ready to convert! It wasn't easy writing this chapter after that -- I just wanna smack Jack across the back of the head and tell him what an idiot he's being!
By the way, in the world of my fic, Kate's story about Kevin is mostly true, because that's how I picture it, her flirting to cover up how uncomfortable she is, and how much she wants to get away, before realising that she actually likes him... ;)
Chapter 9. Proving A Point
When Kate woke the next morning, Jack was already packed, bent over the compass as he examined its face. The fire had died down during the night, the last embers spluttering feeble wisps of smoke as it smouldered out in front of him.
"Still not working?" she asked when he shook it gently and checked it again, the sound of her voice causing him to jump and almost fall off the log.
"Nope," he agreed when he recovered from the shock of realising that he was no longer alone. He flashed her a weak smile across the campsite. "The crash must've damaged it."
"Must have," she echoed as she rolled up her blanket and shoved it back into her pack; it didn't seem likely, but there was no other explanation. "Guess we're just gonna have to do it the old fashioned way."
The sun was still rising in the sky; using it as a guide, they guessed that they were headed due north, altering their course by about forty-five degrees. Jack was quieter than he had been the day before as they continued to clear a path through the jungle; she figured he was still mad at her for treating him like some kind of deviant, but since she couldn't apologise without owning to her attraction, she walked beside him in silence until he relaxed.
They made steady progress until lunchtime, but the deeper they wandered into the jungle, the harder it was to tell if they were still on course. With each step they took, it seemed to be getting darker and darker, until it felt as if they were walking through a tree-lined tunnel.
Glancing over at Jack, she could see that he was getting frustrated, so she said, "I could climb one of those trees – see if I can make anything out."
It was just a suggestion, but the idea seemed to faze him when he gave her a hard look, his eyes firm. "No," he said, scanning the closest tree, making calculations, his tone more forbidding than any she'd ever heard from Kevin, as if he thought he had some kind of authority over her. "You'd need to make it up at least thirty feet to break cover. It's too dangerous."
She wasn't sure if he was being chauvinistic, or just protective or her, but either way, she didn't like being told what to do, or what not to. She didn't like being considered weak, or incapable, either. "You don't think I can do it?" she checked, her hands coming up to her hips as anger washed over her, her eyes daring him to agree.
"I think you think you can do it," he answered carefully, as if he were afraid of both encouraging and discouraging her, "but I just don't want you taking that risk, not without a harness. If you fall…"
He trailed off helplessly when, with a defiant look, she dropped her pack at his feet and started for the trunk of the nearest tree. "I won't."
She didn't look back to see his expression as she pulled herself up into the branches, but she could tell that he was holding his breath as he watched her ascent. Instead, she shut everything out, concentrating on finding the next handhold, the next foothold, until she was almost at the canopy. It felt like hours, but finally she was standing at the top, breathing hard as she pushed through the leaves.
"What do you see?" she heard Jack call up as she braced herself against the trunk; looking down, she could hardly make out his face.
"More trees," she called back, scanning the miles of unbroken jungle; she thought she spotted some sort of manmade structure further off, but it was hard to tell from her angle. "Looks like rain, though," she added when she noticed the dark clouds gathering overhead; they were going to lose the sun soon, very soon if the feint rumble of thunder in the distance was any indication. Great.
"You should come down then," Jack yelled, disappointment evident in his tone, along with a hint of fear. He was worried about her, she noted with satisfaction; he wasn't a chauvinist pig after all.
Figuring she'd made her point, she ducked her head under the canopy, easing her way back down to Jack. Her limbs were so heavy and weak from scaling the tree in the first place that her foot slipped fifteen feet from the ground; she heard Jack gasp below her, but catching hold of one of the branches, she managed to right herself, waiting for her heart to slow before descending the rest of the way, and slithering to the hard packed earth at the bottom.
"Good job," he said when she was standing beside him, offering his water bottle to her while they waited for her to catch her breath.
"Thanks." Grinning, she took a sip and handed it back to him, wiping the sweat from her brow with her wrist. "My guess is we've got about an hour of decent light before the storm hits. We should probably make the most of it."
"Lead the way then," Jack agreed, helping her back into her backpack, and they set off again, keeping an eye out for places to take cover when the rain started.
They'd made it about another half a mile into the jungle before she noticed that he was sneaking sidelong glances at her, a tiny smile playing at the corners of his lips. "What?" she asked, suddenly self-conscious when she realised that he was paying more attention to her than the path ahead. "Have I got bark in my hair or something?" She ran her fingers over her head, through her ponytail, feeling sheepish when they came away empty.
"I'm just impressed, that's all," he said, admiration, maybe even affection, clear in his smile. "You don't seem to have any trouble taking care of yourself."
It was turning into one of those moments where she could almost feel the heat in his gaze; overcome by the need for contact, she turned away, her cheeks burning as she stared into the trees ahead. She shouldn't want to kiss him, but glancing over at him, she couldn't help wondering how he would respond if she did, how his lips would taste, what his hands would feel like in her hair, on her skin…
"You should see me hunt," she said to distract herself from these thoughts, afraid that he would be able to tell.
"You hunt too?" he repeated with a laugh, seemingly oblivious, to her relief. "Now my delicate male ego is bruised."
"My dad used to take me out game shooting when I was a kid," she explained, not wanting to elaborate any further. It still hurt every time she thought about Sam and the fact that he wasn't really her father, so she tried to make it into a joke, gesturing to the knife in her belt as she added, "I've never tried it without a gun, so if it comes to that, we might have to improvise…"
Jack laughed again, making her stomach do a little flip-flop. "I'll keep that in mind."
"You do that," she agreed with a grin, halting in her tracks when, with one final rumble, the sky opened, and the rain began to fall.
"Crap," she muttered when it went from a light drizzle to a downpour in the space of about thirty seconds. "I thought we had at least another hour."
"Guess we're gonna have to find somewhere to wait it out," Jack yelled back over the rain, bringing his hands up to shield his eyes as he scanned the jungle for a place to take cover.
She wasn't sure if she liked how much she liked the idea of squeezing into a small, compact space with him, but it was either that or risk pneumonia, so she followed him through the undergrowth, keeping her eyes peeled for a cave or a hollowed out tree.
"Maybe we should split up," she suggested when it seemed like they would never find anything big enough to shelter them both, but she never got an answer, because at that moment, the trees around them began to shake as an inhuman howl pierced the jungle.
I know, I'm cruel, with the cliffhanger and all, but I'll make up for it next chapter, I promise... (Without being too cryptic, just think: fear, cold and an almost uncontrollable physical attraction, all in a confined space... ;)