Thanks for the reviews. I thought it was time I updated again... ;)
Chapter 11. Planes, Trains and Automobiles
On Friday, less than two days after Kate last saw Jack in the hospital, her father drove her to LAX, where she was catching an Oceanic flight to Paris. It felt a little ominous to be using the same airline, but Jack had insisted that it would look less suspicious if they were both using the passes they'd been given. And it was safe, he'd assured her; too safe, considering his futile hope of landing back on the island. Not that either of them wanted to go back there anymore, at least not without each other and J.J.
"Maybe I should take him with me," she told her father as she kissed him for what she realised must have been the hundredth time that morning, hugging him so tight that he squirmed in protest. "Wouldn't that make Daddy happy?" she asked him, though she wasn't entirely sure that it would under the circumstances.
"You wanna find out what happens when you force a fussy six month old to sit still for twenty hours straight, you go right ahead," her father agreed with an affectionate laugh as he pried J.J. out of her grip. "But he'll be fine, Katie. He'll miss you like crazy -- we both will -- but he'll be fine."
"Promise me you'll take really good care of him," she said, wiping her eyes with the back of her hand, as he slipped out of her arms, regretting her decision to leave him now that the moment of separation had arrived. She hadn't spent more than six hours without him in the entire fifteen months of his existence, and now, he would be on a whole other continent, where she couldn't even drop by during lunch.
"The best," her father assured her, drawing her in for a one-armed hug of his own, before giving her a gentle push in the direction of the boarding gate. "Now you just worry about putting your family back together, and leave everything else to me."
After one last kiss, and one final cuddle, she forced herself to turn her back on them, and start down the long, windowless corridor to the plane.
As she buckled herself into her seat; on the aisle, where her view of the world below was limited; she wished that Jack were there to hold her hand during take off, but if he were, she wouldn't be travelling to Europe in the first place. She would be at home, with him and their son, where she belonged.
She tried to get comfortable, to sleep, so that the trip would go faster, but there was a baby three rows behind who wouldn't stop crying, and all she could think about was J.J. When all this was over, she decided, she was going to suggest to Jack that they take him on a real vacation, somewhere far away, where they could all spend time alone as a family.
She wasn't sure if it was because she was anxious, not just about being on a plane again, but about what would happen when she arrived, or because it spanned the better part of the day, but the flight seemed to drag on forever. She'd brought her notes for a paper that was due at the end of the week on in her carry on luggage, but by the time the plane touched down at the Charles de Gaulle International Airport in Paris, she hadn't managed to draft more than a few disjointed paragraphs.
She'd exceeded her tolerance level for travel by then, but she still had to make the eleven-hour journey to meet Jack, so she took a cab to the Gare du Nord, where she used the cash he'd given her to book a sleeper cabin to Berlin.
It was so different to the stations back home, older, and full of ornate statues representing the various places the lines ran to, that she wished she'd had more time to explore it; it seemed like a shame to come all the way to France just to see the inside of the airport and the train station, but at the same time, she knew that she wouldn't be able to enjoy until she'd heard what Sayid had to say.
Maybe they could come back for their honeymoon, she found herself thinking, forcing herself to shake the idea off before she got too attached, determined not to start making plans while they still had such an uncertain road ahead of them. She'd been disappointed before; she didn't think she could take it again, not now with so much riding on their success.
It was much easier to sleep now that she was back on solid ground, so after boarding the train, and calling home to check on J.J. for the umpteenth time since setting out, she locked the door, and crawled into the bottom bunk still in everything but her shoes. She missed him more than she'd ever believed she could someone who'd only been in her life for the better part of a year, but the thought of seeing Jack kept her from jumping on the next flight home, giving her something to look forward to once she reached her destination.
She was so tired and jet lagged by then that she drifted off as soon as her head hit the pillow; the next thing she knew, a voice was announcing Berlin Hauptbahnhof, the station where she was due to disembark.
The plan was to catch another cab to the airport, which they'd chosen as a meeting point because they knew it wouldn't be too hard to find, but when she stepped of the train, she was surprised to spot Jack waiting for her on the platform.
Her first thought was that they'd been discovered, and that he'd come to intercept her, or that his information about Sayid was wrong, but she forgot all this when he took the suitcase from her hand and swept her into a fierce embrace.
"I couldn't wait another hour to see you," he confessed, keeping her wrapped in his arms as he greeted her with an enthusiastic kiss.
"That's good, because I'm not sure I could've waited much longer to see you either," she told him, bowing her forehead against his, reflecting on how torturous the past few days had been. It was nice not to have to hide for once, to be with him in public without having to worry about who saw them. To everyone here, they weren't Jack and Kate; they weren't survivors, or witnesses; they were just another young couple in love.
She kissed him a few more times, then let go, allowing him to take her suitcase for her. "So do we know where to go to look for Sayid?" she checked as he led her out to the car park, where he'd left his rental.
"Better – I have an address," he told her, showing her the scrap of paper he'd tucked into his pocket. "I drove past, and as far as I can tell, it's a normal apartment building, so we shouldn't have any trouble getting in to see him."
"Is that where we're going now?" she asked him once he'd loaded her luggage into the trunk and joined her in the front seat. It was still early evening, not too late for a social call; even if he worked Saturdays, he should be at home.
"You just got here, Kate – wouldn't you rather go back to the hotel and rest first, and worry about all that tomorrow?" he prompted her with an impish grin, and she couldn't help grinning back.
"You planned this, didn't you?" she said, levelling an accusing stare at him, but she was laughing, and so was he, as he put the car into gear. "That's why you came to pick me up. No wonder you couldn't wait for my train to get in."
Next chapter: Sayid... ;)