Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters and settings are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. No money is being made from this work. No copyright infringement is intended.
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They ate, they laughed, they teased and flirted, and they loved every minute of it.
But as time began to tick away for the two, James flagged down a not so yellow taxi cab and held the door open for Kate to climb in, before he settled in the backseat beside her.
The driver turned around, completely ignoring the honking horns of the other cars behind him and greeted the couple in French, nodding his head "Bonjour."
"Bonjour." Kate replied and smiled at the elderly man in return.
James just nodded in greeting and asked, "Do you speak English?"
"Oui." The man nodded.
"O-kay." James drawled and gave Kate a sideways glance and saw her grinning back at him, "We don't have a lot of time. We have to catch a plane." James tried to explain, watching the man's face for any sign of understanding.
The man waved his hand when he spoke, "You have to go airport?"
James shook his head and Kate did too, "No, we don't. Not yet anyway." He cleared his throat as he tried to think of what to say next. "My wife…" He began to explain and put his arm around Kate to emphasize his point as the man smiled back at Kate, "My wife here wants to see something romantic before we have to get on that airplane."
The man nodded in understanding, "La tour Eiffel … romantique. Oui."
"Oui." James replied, and Kate couldn't help but giggle at his attempt to speak French, "But we just came from there. Is there anything else that's romantic?"
The man rubbed his pointy stubbly chin in thought and then said, "Oui. Point des arts."
"Point what?" James replied.
"Point de arts." The man replied as he finally began driving, but seamlessly carried on the conversation with James through his rearview mirror.
"Well, what is it?" James wanted to know, "And how far is it?"
The man shook his hand in the air, and spoke with a heavy French accent, "Fifteen minutes." He answered and then said, "Pont de arts is a …" He paused trying to think of the right word, "Bridge."
"A bridge?" James asked incredulously, "What's so romantic about it?"
The man again seemed to think of the right words, and then said "Cadenas d'amour."
"What does that mean?"
"Cadenas de … love." The man explained again with his hand waving in the air to emphasize every word, but clearly unable to think of the English word to explain further. When he caught James' curious expression in the rearview mirror, he nodded his head enthusiastically, "Very … very romantique."
"Sounds great." Kate chimed in and leaned into James and looked up to meet his eyes, "We'll see what it is when we get there."
She gently leaned in and nudged her nose to his, playfully pretending to kiss him, but then pulling away again at the last second.
As the car stopped at a red light, the driver watched them kiss passionately in the rearview mirror as he smiled to himself and mumbled under his breath. "Amour de jeunesse" and returned his full attention to the road to get the couple in love to the bridge.
XXXXXXXX
A short fifteen minute ride later, James paid the driver his fare including a generous tip when they arrived at their romantic destination.
James and Kate held hands again as they walked towards the bridge, still curious why this particular place was supposedly romantic in the eyes of their taxi driver. However it didn't take them very long to understand what the man had been talking about, when they saw that the bridge was covered in Padlocks, each one adorning two names.
Kate smiled up at him, and he smiled back at her, clearly amused by the cheesiness of it all. As they walked hand in hand across the bridge, they both stopped short as they overheard an English speaking tour guide explain to her group of tourists, "There are two bridges in Paris with the locks, you must be very careful which bridge you put your lock on because this bridge, Pont des Arts is for your committed love, while Pont de l'Archevêché is for your lover."
"Guess we need to find us another cab to get to that other bridge." He said and grinned down at her, but when a sad expression crossed her face, he quickly regretted having joked about it and the smug grin disappeared off of his face. He tugged on her hand, pulling her along with him as he headed for the first little street vendor he spotted.
Kate trotted along, not sure where he was heading, as she looked back over her shoulder towards the locks that seemed to cover every free inch of the bridge. And it dawned on her then that being in love like this wasn't that unusual after all, because all those people must feel about each other the way she felt about James.
Just then James stopped and she focused her attention back to him, "Which one do you like, Freckles?"
Kate stared at the various shapes and sizes of padlocks. There were big ones, little ones, heart shaped ones, copper ones, silver ones, black ones … a vast amount of sizes and styles.
She curiously eyed the selection before her for a long moment, but then her eyes fell onto a used one and she couldn't help but reach for it.
"That one?" James asked surprised as she held the banged up lock in her hand. "It's old."
She turned it around in her hand, ignoring the vendor as he tried to get her interested in a new and more expensive lock instead. On the other side of the lock was a red heart, which had been haphazardly drawn on with a marker.
She smiled big and held it up for James to see, her eyes connected with his and he smiled back at her.
Her eyes were shinning and he could see it then, she loved that lock.
James' eyes met Kate's once again and, unable to refuse her, he dug his wallet out of his back pocket sighing and paid for a black waterproof marker and the used, banged up piece of medal.
XXXXXX
Kate smiled up at him as she took in every aspect of this very moment. Vowing to never ever forget how he looked and how she felt right now as she watched him.
The wind had picked up a bit, and his hair was disheveled, making him look every bit the rebel he'd like to portrait himself as, and Kate would be lying if she'd said her heartbeat didn't quicken when he looked like this.
James leaned with his back against the railing of the bridge, the lid of the marker held between his teeth and kissable lips as his left hand began to mark this old worn out lock as their own.
She leaned into him and tried to sneak a peek at what he was actually writing on there, but he quickly yanked his arms up so she couldn't see, but due to the lid caught between his teeth, he couldn't verbally protest as much as he normally would, just managed to get an "Nuh-huh" out and shook his head at her smiling.
He finally reached for the lid of the marker and closed it.
"What did you write?" Kate asked, unable to wait another moment longer.
"Pebbles and Bam Bam." He replied and grinned, "What else?!"
Kate finally had enough as she snatched the lock out of his hand, careful not to smudge what he'd written.
She got lost in the moment as she eyed his neat handwriting on the lock, before his southern drawl brought her back to reality, "Passed inspection, Sweetheart?"
"Yeah." she nodded, "Thank you." She leaned up, bracing one hand on his chest as she placed a gentle kiss on his lips.
"You're welcome." He replied smiling at her.
They fastened the lock on the first empty and suitable place they could find, and Kate watched on as James drew back and let the key to their lock fly and disappear into the Seine River. She felt a strange pang in her heart at the sight of him doing that, and a sudden sense of déjà vu overcame her when images of him throwing that ring into the ocean flickered before her eyes.
Back then she had thought it was tragic, because he would've married Juliet and now thought he was meant to be alone. But knowing what she knew now it made the moment twice as tragic, because he thought he'd lost her even though she was sitting right next to him … but in his eyes she was unattainable.
"Hey." He caught her attention once again, "Everything alright?"
"Yeah." She tried her best to form a smile to reassure him, "I guess … I just hate having to go home without you."
"Come here." He drawled when he'd already enveloped her in his arms, kissing her hair on top of her head, "A couple weeks, Richard said, two months tops and I'll be back home with you. And we start over, clean slate, sound good to you, Freckles?"
She wiped at her eyes, swimming in tears again as she nodded her agreement, but it didn't sound good to her at all. Two months without him now suddenly seemed like a lifetime to her. A lot can happen in two months, for one she'd definitely be showing by the time he got back to her. She'd have a real baby bump instead of the invisible one that James kept referring to. And she hated this. She hated that every aspect of her life was always somehow based on a lie. She hated that she could never just have something normal.
She wanted a normal life, without any of this drama. No wigs, fake tattoos, and weird clothing and being careful not to be recognized. Not having to spend two more months pretending to be the grieving pregnant widow until her husband came back.
All in all, she was just tired, emotionally drained and exhausted from it all. She just wanted to take him home with her and pack up their things and run. Run to a place where nobody knew them, nobody cared about the O-6, or what they were now called, the O-9 and they could just blissfully and uneventfully live happily ever after.
They both took one last look at their love lock before James intertwined his fingers with Kate's and they slowly walked away.
XXXXX
Kate stood there fidgeting with her passport and airline ticket in hand, moving just one foot at a time as the long line to her check in counter slowly yet surely moved along. She peeked at her passport once again, the new one she'd gotten the morning of their departure from Tunisia that showed off her new red hairdo.
Her goodbye from James had been short and sweet, because she needed it to be that way. She could see it in his eyes and the way his fingertips dug into her hips when he pulled her to him for the last time that he wanted to make it last. He wanted to draw it out, prolong the moment, his eyes flickering back to the car and she knew just what he was thinking too. And it wasn't like she didn't want to climb into that backseat with him again for another round, but she just couldn't.
Then he wanted to walk her in, to stand here in line with her, wait with her, and spend every possible second with her until that moment when she had to go through security and they would have no choice but to finally part ways.
However Kate had refused him on all that too.
"I'm not good with goodbyes." She'd said.
"Ain't goodbye, Freckles, it's more like 'Laters, baby'!" he presented his dimples then in an attempt to win her over while he brushed her red hair out of her face when she shook her head again. The longer they were dragging on about this the harder it became, and she just knew that she'd end up in a hysterical crying fit.
And that's why she was here now, in this endless line, by herself and the memory of how they'd parted broke her heart.
She could feel her eyes water up just then, and she frantically wiped at her face with her fingertips to keep the tears from rolling and destroying her make-up.
She wasn't a vain girl, never had been, but the goal here was to not stand out. She wasn't supposed to draw unwanted attention to herself, but that was hard to do now that the tears started to roll down her cheeks.
She quickly looked around and spotted the sign for the nearest bathroom as she tucked her papers away and grabbed the handle on her suitcase to pull it along behind her when she stepped out of the line.
XXXXXX
She dabbed at her eyes with a few paper-towels, trying to undo the damage already done to her mascara. The woman that stepped up beside her gave her a sympathetic smile and Kate suddenly felt the urge to explain herself, but refrained from doing so.
Her mind went back to James and their goodbyes. Two months without him seemed like nothing compared to the three years they'd been separated before, but things were different now. Everything was different now, she declared to the reflection in the mirror. The woman with brown eyes and red hair that was staring back at her clearly disagreed with the logic of why she had to go home now.
'We're a team, I break the rocks, you haul them.'
No. She shook her head to herself, disagreeing with that little voice inside her head.
Just touch up your make-up and straighten up your act. This is what has to happen. You have to go home. Two months, ha, that's nothing!
XXXXXX
James gripped the steering-wheel with both hands as he merged onto the main highway that would take him across the border and into Germany in a little bit over three hours.
He set the cruise control to 130 km, the allowed speed, and leaned back into his seat, trying desperately to relax a bit, but found it increasingly harder every time his mind went back to Kate.
Two months separation was truly nothing compared to all the things they'd already encountered and endured since they met on that fateful day in September five years ago.
Wow! Five years ago … had it really been that long already?
He began to reminisce about their first couple encounters … he would've sworn she hated him back then. And that first kiss. That had been quiet something, there was no denying that, and even though neither of them was willing to admit it, they had both felt something, he was sure of that now! She and that kiss had been something different, that's for sure, and like she'd said to him before, she wasn't like other girls he'd been with. No doubt about that! His Freckles was one of a kind!
He smiled wide, and his eyes sparkled with mischief at the memory of her elbow connecting with his jaw right after. Her defense mechanism … one he himself had used on countless occasions when the feelings got too real and threaten to overwhelm you , you have to shoot them down, make it impossible for them to nourish and take root and what better way to do that then hurt the person you have the feelings for. Whether an elbow to the face or some hurtful words spoken, both gave instant results.
His eyes flickered to the now empty seat beside him and frowned, and he couldn't help but recognize that pang in his heart as anything other than his physical reaction to genuinely missing her. Just then his cell phone rang loudly and interrupted his thought process as he fumbled to attach the hands free device to his ear in order to answer the call.
"James?" Richard's voice echoed in his ear.
"How's it hangin'?" James replied smiling before he carried on, "Listen, man, I meant to call you back to thank ya'. She loved it and –."
"We have a problem." Richard interrupted him, seemingly urgent to get to the actual nature of his call.
"What kind of problem?" James inquired, suddenly being brought back to reality that this assignment wasn't a sightseeing vacation after all.
Richard cleared his throat before he spoke, deliberately choosing his words the way he did, "For one, Mrs. Dorf did not board her flight back to the states."
"What?" James screamed out loud and the passengers in the car that was passing him gave him a curious look but he returned it with an evil glare of his own. "What do you mean she didn't board? God damn it, I knew I should've stayed with her." His eyes were already scanning the approaching sign that was signaling the next exit to turn around and before Richard could even answer him he carried on, "Who do you think took her? I swear to god Richard, if anything happens to her, I don't give a shit what Hurley wants, someone's gonna have to die and –."
"Nobody took her." Richard interrupted him again.
"What do you mean?" A twinge of relief yet confusion could be heard in his voice.
"I mean that there's just been a charge for a rental car made to her credit card and I'm looking at security camera footage of her signing for the car and taking the key right now. She seems perfectly fine to me."
James was speechless.
"James?"
"So lemme get this straight, Sherlock Holmes. You're sayin' she didn't board the fucking flight on purpose? She went and got a god damn rental car?"
"Yes, I'm afraid so." Richard said.
"She's still at the rental car place?" James angrily inquired, he couldn't believe it.
"Hold on." Richard answered him, then James overheard Richards's conversation with someone, only making out bits and pieces before Richard got back to him, "No, she just pulled out but according to her GPS, she's heading for your hotel in Germany."
"Fuck!" was all James could reply to that, he was completely blindsided by Kate's latest actions, he honestly didn't know what to do or say, but thankfully Richard did.
"There should be a Rest stop coming up, I want you to pull into there, but make sure you have cell phone reception. Then wait for further instructions."
"Further instructions? What the hell's that suppose to mean? What are you goin' to do?" James scoffed back, his patience suddenly running thin.
Richard sighed in annoyance at being questioned and finding himself the sudden target of James' anger, but answered none the less, "We're tracking her."
"Tracking her how?"
"The rental car company has tracking devices installed on all their vehicles, and at the same time I have someone trying to further hack into her GPS as we speak. We'll reroute her, so she'll pull into the same Rest stop where you'll be at, and you can take it from there. Like I said, stay by the phone, I'll call you soon and keep you posted."
"You got it, boss." James replied, then hung up and sighed in resignation as he merged right onto the exit lane of the Rest stop ahead of him.
XXXXXX
Kate gripped the steering wheel of her rental car with both hands. Her heartbeat picked up every time she let herself think of how he would react.
Ohhhhh, he's going to be so freaking mad.
Surely, he'd be mad at first. No doubt this would incinerate a verbal fight of epic proportions, but before the night was over she'd probably find a way to get back into his good graces. At least she hoped so.
She wasn't quite sure yet what she was going to say to him. How do you explain something that you can't fully understand yourself? All she knew was that every fiber in her body told her to go after him and to not get on that plane. And yes, in the past, while on the run, her intuition had often gotten her in more trouble then she'd like to admit out loud, but this time was different. For the first time this wasn't just about herself anymore. James, this baby and her were a family now. She was doing this because she couldn't just leave him to fend for himself … after all, they were a team!
She took in a deep breath, trying to calm her own nerves and forced herself to smile. At least she'd have well over three more hours of travel time before she'd reach his hotel in Germany. That ought to be more than enough time for her to think of something to say.
Just then the voice from her GPS spoke up and surprised her when it announced for her to take the next exit at 2.0 kilometers.
She furrowed her brows at that and stared at the GPS for a moment before she returned her attention back to the road ahead. She could've sworn she was supposed to stay on this Highway for at least 300 more kilometers.
Her finger dapped at the touch screen and quickly tried to reset it again but nothing happened, the screen was frozen and wouldn't let her change anything. She sighed frustrated as the voice spoke up once more urging her to merge right and exit onto none other than a Rest stop of all places, but she obliged with the thought in mind that she would be able to reset the darn thing without causing an accident.
It was close to seven thirty by now and had already gotten dark when she pulled her car over onto one of the parking spots. She immediately went to work on the GPS, but it still didn't respond. And just as she leaned over onto the passenger side to look for a manual in the clove department the drivers- side door was pulled open violently fast and she found herself staring at none other than her husband.
"James?" She stared at him like a deer caught in the headlights.
"Get out." He gruffly replied and grabbed her forearm to pull her out of her seat, a stony expression on his face.
She knew better than to argue, quickly gathered her purse and got out of the car. He let go of her arm just then, his hand moving to her lower back as he wordlessly ushered her over to his car, opened his passenger door and then angrily demanded, "Get in!."
She tried to meet his eyes but he avoided her gaze like the plague as she quietly got into his car and he harshly closed the door before he walked back over to her car. Kate watched in awe as he grabbed the rest of her belongings from her rental car, before he opened up a pocket knife and quickly deflated the rear tire.
She followed his every movement, glancing back over her own shoulder to watch him pop the trunk, stowing her suitcase away, then the trunk was shut with a loud angry bang and within seconds he was in the seat beside her.
She looked at him, but he still wouldn't look at her. "James, I –." Her plea for forgiveness was cut short by his angry voice.
"Don't." Was all he said, but the tone and the look he'd given her was enough for her to realize she would better remain quiet for a while, so she did.
XXXXXX
The silence in the car was deafening. She hadn't tried to explain any further after they'd gotten back on the road, just watched him out of the corner of her eye while he tried his best to ignore her. Kate wondered when it would be a good time to try again, but if the way his jaw was still clenched was any indication that time hadn't come just yet.
So she sat and waited until he merged into the exit lane towards a gas station. He pulled up to the pump, got out and began to fill the tank when Kate opened her door and got out.
"What the hell you think you're doing?" He scolded her before she could speak.
"I have to use the restroom." She said, and his attitude was beginning to get on her nerves which caused her to snap back at him, "Do you mind?"
"Yeah, actually I fucking do mind." He retorted then, right when the pump shut off, signaling the tank was full.
Kate now stepped to the back of the car and crossed her arms in front of herself, "If you would just let me explain why–."
"Ain't nothin' to explain, Kate." He huffed as he placed the nozzle back and closed the tank, "You gotta pee, you'll have to wait a fuckin' second because apparently you can't be fuckin' trusted to do anything on your own."
She didn't wait for him to say another word, just turned on her heel and walked towards the gas station. Yeah, he might have a right to be pissed off at her but she'd not let him talk to her like that.
"Hey. Heeeeyyyyyy. Stop!" He yelled after her then, as he reached into the car to get the key out, but she had already disappeared through the double sliding doors of the building.
XXXXXX
Kate washed her hand and stared at her own reflection in the mirror again. Last time she'd done that she'd come to the decision to go after him, but now she began to question her decision making skills while staring at herself crying.
Damn it, she was in fact crying again … how on earth was she going to stand all those freaking hormones for the next seven or eight months.
And the nerve of him? Who the hell did he think he was? If he thought for one minute that he could keep on treating her that way, then he would just have to wait and see. After all, she had her ID, her own credit card, her own cash. She could very easily sneak out of here, hitch a ride with someone and then he would feel like the biggest asshole for talking to her like he had.
She shook her head just then, realizing that this was exactly what he'd said to her after all. That she couldn't be trusted.
Damn it, did he have to be right about everything?
She straightened herself up then and stepped out of the bathroom door and found James standing there waiting. "Thought you fell in and drowned." He joked, but she just glanced around, realizing that the men's room was on the other end of this hallway, so he was literally standing guard for her … that son of a bitch.
Two can play that game she thought quickly as she walked right past him without a look or a word and headed for the refrigerated drinks.
James obviously picked up on her demeanor because he couldn't help himself but mock her, "Oh, so you ain't talkin' to me now, like I'm the fucking bad guy here?"
She reached for a chilled bottle of coke then and gave him a smug grin, "If the shoe fits."
He snatched the bottle out of her hand and put it back, leaving her stunt and looking at him as if he'd lost his mind, "What the –."
He cut her off, "Caffeine's bad for the squirt." Then reached in and retrieved a bottle of strawberry milk and handed it to her. "It's in the book."
"Oh." She answered, her cheeks flushing with shame at the fact that she was utterly unaware of that as she took the bottle of milk from him.
Kate browsed the little store pilling several candy bars into her arms while James tried to figure out the coffee machine to get him a cup, until they both got in line at the register.
Kate's eyes traveled over the vast display of Paris memorabilia. After readjusting the candy bars on one arm, she picked several items up for further inspection while James watched her curiously. She held the miniature Eiffel tower in her hand for the longest time before eventually setting it back down with a sad expression on her face.
It was his turn and he stepped up, placing his little cup of coffee on the counter, he told the lady the number of the gas pump, but when he realized Kate hadn't stepped up to get her things rung up he turned and looked at her, "What'cha waiting on, Freckles?"
"I got my own money." She quipped back smugly as if she was buying a diamond ring or something of equal value, instead of a drink and a few pieces of candy.
James sighed and rolled his eyes at her in a dramatic gesture before he pulled all of her things from her grasp and placed them in front of the cashier with a clank. The lady eyed them both curiously but then began to scan everything, when James stepped to the side and grabbed the miniature tower, adding it to the tab before the final tally had been done.
His face was a stone wall once again while Kate fought with herself not to smile at the gesture.
They walked back out to the car side by side and got in wordlessly.
But just when she thought this had been some sort of truce, he finally lost his cool and snapped at her. "What would you have done if it hadn't been me?"
"What?" she looked at him bewildered.
"At the rest stop!" He stared at her, "You didn't even notice my car there when you pulled up. Didn't even bother to look around. What if it hadn't been me, Kate?" He scolded her.
She looked away now, not entirely sure of what to say since he had indeed completely caught her off guard back at the Rest stop and now again with this question.
But he berated on, "What would'cha have done? Shoot me with the gun you don't have, stab me with the knife you don't have?"
"I have my ways." She retorted.
"Well, Sweet cheeks, a head butt or a kick to the balls can only stall a guy for so long before he throws you in his trunk and takes you out to the middle of fucking nowhere to have his way with you." He scolded as he took in the shocked expression on her face. "Don't give me that look, honey; you know I'm fucking right. You should've been more careful or even better." He paused to start the car, "You should've been on that god damn plane back to the states, safe and sound."
Silence filled the car once again when he pulled back onto the highway towards Germany.
Kate sat there, staring out her window trying her best to ignore him now as she was trying to think of an adequate comeback for everything he'd said.
Yeah he was probably right about what he'd said. She had in fact let down her guard, but then again she'd just simply been overcome by this false sense of normality. The thing she had wanted – to just be normal for a while – she had felt that, as strange as it sounded, when she got that rental car with her fake ID and fake credit card to get on the road to meet her husband – Mr. Dorf – at a hotel in Germany. It all seemed like something normal people would do.
So yes, she'd gotten caught up in the moment, caught up in just wanting to see him, caught up in the fact that for once nobody was after her, that she'd forgotten that above all else she was still a woman in a man's world! But hell would freeze over before she'd admit that to James.
So instead she finally retorted, "You're overreacting. I'm not the only woman traveling alone. We're in the twenty-first century, Women travel alone all the time, James."
He sighed exasperatedly, but when he spoke his voice was suddenly sounding a lot calmer than before, "But they ain't you, Freckles and I ain't in love with any of them!"