I'd like to thank everyone who reviewed (That goes for both fics). You have no idea how much I appreciate you coming through for me like that. :) I'm not so unrealistic as to think that everyone will have time to comment on every chapter (especially at the rate I write!), but when reviews dropped by almost two thirds, and I found myself getting 3 reviews out of more than 150 hits... You can imagine how insecure that made me, especially when so many of you have expressed concern over how depressing both fics are at times.
I haven't had time to finish another chapter of Hide And Seek, so since most of you appear to be reading both, this should be the next best thing. Don't forget to let me know if you want to see any more Picking Up The Pieces one shots (and in particular, which missing pieces you'd like me to address)... ;)
Chapter 19. Making Up For Lost Time
The last thing Kate remembered was drifting off with J.J. curled into her chest, grasping her shirt, Jack spooned protectively against his other side, so she was surprised to find herself alone when she opened her eyes the next morning.
Throwing on some clean clothes, she hurried down the hall to the living room, stopping, the breath catching in her throat, when she spotted them before they saw her.
They were sitting on the floor, Jack's long legs stretched out on either side of their son; bracing her shoulder against doorframe, she watched J.J. mimic him by adding another block to the wall they were building, laughing and clapping his hands when Jack knocked it down.
It wasn't until he started to gather them up again that Jack noticed her presence, glancing up at her with a sheepish grin. "Hey," he said.
"Hey," she replied, straightening, fighting the tide of emotions she felt on seeing them together after so long. "You're up early."
"Yeah, well, I figured you don't get the chance to sleep in very often," he agreed with a shrug as he swept the blocks back into the centre, ready to start over again, but while he tried to sound like it was no big deal, she knew that his motive wasn't really that selfless.
"You wanna give him breakfast?" she asked as consolation for the fact that she'd woken up sooner than he expected, surprised when he explained that he already had.
He must have caught her stunned look, because he added in a rush, "I hope you don't mind. Granted, I don't have a lot of experience, but I did a paediatrics rotation final year of med school, so I think I have the basics covered."
As far as she could tell, he'd already managed to get J.J. up, fed and dressed for the day, all before eight o'clock, which was more than she was capable of a few months ago.
"Of course I don't mind, Jack – he's your son," she agreed, doing her best to ignore the first stirrings of jealousy as it occurred to her that with Jack around, J.J. didn't need her as much as he once had. He was as much Jack's as he was hers, even if he hadn't been in the picture as long; it wasn't fair for her to resent him for wanting to be more involved.
He relaxed visibly when she forced a smile for his benefit, the tension leaving his shoulders as he returned to laying the foundations of the wall; with nothing left to do except enjoy the rare morning off, Kate drifted into the kitchen to find Sun.
She was cleaning up after breakfast, Ji Yeon swinging her legs under the table and singing to herself in Korean as she nibbled on a slice of toast.
"Jin at work?" Kate asked, running her fingers through one of the little girl's pigtails as she passed, to greet her, plonking herself onto a stool at the bench while her friend put on a pot of coffee.
"He usually leaves around seven," Sun explained, turning back to her while they waited for it to boil.
There was a smile on her face that Kate had never seen before. "What?" she asked, glancing back over her shoulder, until she realised that Sun had a clear view of Jack and J.J. from where she was standing.
"I always knew Jack would make a good father," her friend said, watching him show J.J. where to position the next block. "He's so patient and kind."
"You mean you've thought about him that way?" Kate asked, returning her attention to Sun in time to see her lift one of her thin eyebrows almost imperceptibly.
"You haven't?" she asked in a tone that implied she found that hard to believe. "You're the one who was interested in him."
"When I got pregnant, sure," Kate agreed, averting her eyes to the marble countertop, unwilling to admit that she'd entertained the idea long before that, maybe as far back as when she was grappling with the idea of having Sawyer's baby. "But things were so complicated by then…"
Sun put a hand over hers, smiling when she glanced up at her. "No one's judging you, believe me," she said, and Kate knew that they were both thinking of the day on the beach when she pleaded with her not to tell Jin she was pregnant. "I would have done the same thing.
"He seems to be making up for it now," she continued, returning to their former topic, sneaking another peak into the living room as she poured the coffee into a mug and handed it to Kate. "You should have seen him this morning, when I got up. He was feeding him mashed bananas from one of those jars you brought – he still hasn't mastered getting him to open up, but he was doing better than Jin."
She laughed, taking a sip of her own drink, and imagining Jack sitting with their son in his lap, wiping down his chin after he refused to open his mouth, Kate found that she was strangely turned on. In spite of how territorial she felt over J.J., there was something about seeing Jack play daddy that made her want him even more.
"He is a good father," she said, half to herself, as she watched the wall crumble again, this time after J.J. put his foot through it.
For reasons that would forever remain a mystery to her, he seemed to find this hysterical. Come to think of it, she couldn't remember the last time she'd seen him have so much fun. Either of them.
"Guess I'd better get back out there," she told Sun, sliding off the stool, and filling a second mug for Jack, suddenly wanting nothing more than to join the men she loved.
"So how does this game work?" she asked, dusting her hands off on her jeans, and sinking cross-legged onto the rug once she'd set their drinks on the coffee table.
"It's not really a game," Jack confessed, leaning away from J.J. to take a careful sip. "It's more like a lesson in cause and effect."
He demonstrated by taking J.J.'s hand, and helping him stack a second block on top of the one he'd already put out for him. "See, cause."
He waited until J.J. added a third on his own before sending it crashing down with a flick of his finger. "And effect."
J.J. watched it intently, giggling when it was over.
"I read somewhere that children his age like discovering they can make things happen. It makes them feel like they have some control," Jack explained with a shrug as their son retrieved one of the blocks, bashing it against the rug in his excitement.
He slammed it down in front of Kate, clapping his hands together in anticipation of what he knew by now was coming, and deciding that this was his way of including her, she shot Jack a questioning look.
"Go ahead, Mommy," he told her with a grin, handing her a block, and as she placed it on top of their son's, waiting for Jack to take his turn, she found that she was grinning too.
Next chapter: There're two ways I can go with this, I can write a few more chapters like this one, with Jack, Kate and J.J. working on being a family, or I can move on to the next stage in their plan, which involves another trip to Sydney (and the appearance of another Lostie)... ;)